His Royal Majesty Jonah: Get fast travel turned back on, and I’ll send the hobgoblins over to you.
Poppy: Remember our deal. You send the hobgoblins, but then you go to Kosil. That’s our new meeting place. Kosil. If you come back here, I’m just going to kick you out again. I swear to god, this is not negotiable. I’ll do a dishonorable discharge this time, which will teleport you away to a random place.
Kosil was the game’s version of Seoul, and it was the home of the grand moon gardens. It was there Popper wanted us to find a berth on a traveling moon auric city.
But doing so would require abandoning Harmony. I sighed. The stench of fires filled the city.
Maybe it was time to leave. My main reason for staying was to keep my curse at bay and because of my access to Waldo. My access was lost, and the moon aurics would keep me safe. What other reason was there to stay?
I thought of all the civilians dead. That impossible number, 750,000. These were sentient beings, terrified and in pain, cut down for nothing. I’d been put in charge of them. It was my responsibility to keep them safe. They would all regenerate. It would be my duty to make sure it didn’t happen again.
But then again, I thought of Keta. She’d done it in a treacherous way, but there was no denying she was better at this than I was. At least she had been before my book broke her.
I didn’t know what to do.
His Royal Majesty Jonah: Fuck you very much, Popper. Seriously though, you guys be safe, too.
I looked back to Major Slog. “Okay, the plan has changed. I need most of you to go straight to the eastern wall, find the breaches, and guard them. I want all the mounted infantry to the center of town. They need to take control of and to guard the obelisk park. If anything gets into the city, that will be our last stand.
Jonah Note 26
“I do not like this,” Larissa said. “We do not know what we face.”
“I agree,” Keta said. “I sense a spell being prepared from that ship.”
We stood atop the shattered remnants of the western sea wall, overlooking Duwamish Bay. The remnants of the burning fleet clogged the waters. When the primordial fell, the magic that kept the burning ships from being consumed ceased to work. A heavy, black smoke filled the air. A dirty rain started to fall. Larissa called for the tarps to be erected. The bowmen atop the wall needed to keep their weapons dry.
Only one ship remained afloat. The giant ship sat still in the midst of the bay. It still burned blue. Only two primordials stood upon the deck now. The gray giants stood both motionless and emotionless, like statues. The humanoid figures had an odd, boxy shape to them.
About five minutes prior, I’d ordered the airships and drakes to stop wasting their energy to bomb and attack the ship. I watched the Yeowang Bam drop a boulder from the sky on the ship, and in the low light, I caught the yellow shimmer of the protection shell around the boat. Invulnerability. The game wouldn’t let it be that easy. First we had to deal with the viper fish.
Yi had been forced to dock her ship with the rising sun. She landed it on the airship platform of Castle Harmony, though she didn’t join us on the wall. A pair of white jacket dirigibles floated directly above us, ready to jump to our defense should something unexpected happen.
A few hundred meters to the north, the wall glowed, and I watched as the rocks slowly reformed, repairing that section of the wall. We had the rock singers repairing as quickly as they could, but they would not fix the wall in time. Instead we had them focusing on the outlier breaches, making it so the invaders would funnel into the city from one area.
Below, a line of hobgoblins stood, chanting and singing. It was a disconcerting sound, and it was clear the arrowed Dominion defenders were terrified of their new allies. In the real world I knew this alliance would be impossible, not after the slaughter of the past few days. But I didn’t have the luxury of easing them into it.
The timer ticked down to zero, and the destruction began.
At first nothing happened. Then I noticed it. The water of the bay started to recede.
“Oh, fuck,” I said.
His Royal Majesty Jonah: Major Slog. Order a retreat. Right now. Run. Go, go, go! Deeper into the city, toward the castle and higher ground!
To his credit, he didn’t question the order. Still, the order took a maddeningly long time to percolate through the mass of troops. They started to surge away.
I looked nervously at the stone beneath my feet. I hope this wall holds.
The last ten years on earth had been a swarm of earthquakes, volcanoes, and most of all, tsunamis. Everyone knew the signs.
I looked up at the dirigible directly above us. I waved my hand, and the ladder dropped down. In just a matter of moments, the water had receded several hundred meters, leaving a rocky, junk-strewn beach and thousands of flapping fish and creatures.
On the primordial ship, one of them lifted his hands to the air.
“Up,” I said to Keta and Larissa. “That’s an order.”
Keta went first. Larissa stood by my side. “I am the royal guard,” she said. “You go first.”
The tidal wall formed, rising between us and the primordial ship. The primordials disappeared behind the wall of water. The wave rose fifty feet in the air, towering over our position. It did not move. It hovered there, a quarter of a mile away. As the sun started to rise over Harmony, I saw the city’s destruction pulsating within that wave. Like an overstocked fish tank, they wriggled and moved, thousands upon thousands of them, an army of death.
I grasped the ladder and started to climb as the wave moved in, roaring toward my position.
“Get on!” I yelled to Larissa, but the dirigible jumped into the air, out of reach of the captain.
Larissa turned to face the oncoming wave. All around her, arrowed citizens cowered on the top of the wall.
It was too late for them.
The wave crashed over the city, smashing into it with the might of an angry god. It rushed over the top of the wall, sweeping all the defenders away. War event notifications flowed by. I clutched onto the ladder, unable to look away. I watched in horror as a wall of water streamed through the streets, uprooting everything in its path. The back line of retreating hobgoblins were caught up in the tumult, and they were soon buried. Thankfully, most seemed to reach the high hill leading to the castle.
The wave had been broken somewhat by the seawall, but it had still devastated the first four blocks into the city. The marketplace, The Piglet’s Delight, half the guild halls, all just… gone. They were swept away like pieces off a chessboard.
The water receded as quickly as it came, a claw raking across the city, turning beautiful, ancient buildings into rubble. I couldn’t believe how quickly it happened. I thought of Los Angeles, of my friends who’d been caught unaware that day. My entire—albeit small—social circle had been swept away. Everyone I had worked with every day for years was just gone. I had pretended like it hadn’t happened. So much horror in the world, and when it finally came for me, I pretended it wasn’t real. I’d turned and run.
I watched now, the water getting sucked back into the bay, leaving wreckage, mud, and something else.
The viper fish.
There had to be 100,000 of them, maybe more, and they’d been deposited deep into the downtown area of the muddy and devastated city. They swarmed toward the castle and deeper into the city.
As the water receded past the seawall and back into Duwamish Bay, I saw with horror that even more viper fish gathered themselves west of the remains of the seawall. They’d been deposited there during the wave attack, smashed against the wall, and now they were pouring into the city, bringing the total number of invaders into some unfathomable number.
I pulled myself up the last few rungs into the waiting arms of the white jackets. Keta hung over the side of the airship, firing bolts from her hands at the invaders.
His Royal Majesty Jonah: Millicent! Backup the hobgoblins with the rock sylphs. Find any who survive
d the devastation and heal them.
Millicent: We are already at work.
Even as I sent the message, a pair of small fairies flew right by my head. They were bigger than the hand-sized Millicent, but not by much. They zipped about, doing a quick circle around me. One waved her hand, and the entire airship glowed. They zipped away.
You have been blessed with Rock Skin!
Achievement Unlocked! Get blessed by a fairy!
The skull curse notification flashed, surprising me. What the hell? It was seven in the morning! My curse wasn’t supposed to activate into 9:58 P.M.
The blessing has been removed.
Oh yeah, I thought. One of the effects of my curse was that I couldn’t be blessed. The difference between charms, spells, and blessings was still confusing to me, and I guessed this was the first time I’d received a magic blessing.
Below, the remaining hobgoblins started to clash with the viper fish. They seemed evenly matched. The bulky hobgoblins were somewhat larger, but the viper fish moved quickly. They reminded me of aurics, they way they danced about the battlefield.
“Keta,” I said. “I’m dropping you off at the castle. You’re in charge of the castle’s defense.”
“Where are you going?” she called. She didn’t bother to look up as she fired another bolt into the city.
A dirigible floating twenty meters aft of us began to plummet out of the sky, its balloon having been pierced with an ice lance. A similar lance arced toward us but dissipated as it crashed against Keta’s magic protection shell.
“I need to go to the obelisk park. We need to defend it.”
“If you need to jump away, I can cast a Portal,” she said.
“I need something with a little more oomph,” I said. I needed something to quickly transport tens of thousands of troops at once. Apparently the hobgoblin shamans had been able to do it on their own, but it seemed my army was bereft of such magic users. So instead I had to rely on Popper and Gretchen getting to the missing polecat in time.
We moved to the relative safety of the airspace above the castle. From my vantage, I watched the viper fish sweep over the devastated city. Harmony would fall in a matter of hours. The only holding defenses were the masses of hobgoblin troops around the castle and those at the obelisk park. Most of the arrowed Dominion citizens were dead, with the exception of those we had garrisoned in the northern and southern parts of the city. Because we’d destroyed the bridges, the fleeing survivors were trapped, unable to get away from the invading fish monsters.
Larissa was dead. Larus seemed to be rallying a small group of troops near the coliseum. It wouldn’t be enough.
“Hold the castle as long as you can. If you can hold out to nightfall, I want you to flee with Yi,” I said. We hovered over the landing pavilion high above the castle.
Keta put her hand on my cheek. It felt surprisingly warm.
“I am sorry,” she said. “I know you are a good man.”
“I’m sorry, too,” I said. “Look, Keta. I have a plan. You’re not going to like it, but…”
“Do it,” she said, before I could explain what I was proposing.
“Okay,” I said. “But listen.” I explained to her what I was intending to do. “That doesn’t mean you have to stay. Go with Yi. Go to Grandeur with her. But do not tell her the plan. She can’t be trusted. She’s not a bad person, but I don’t believe the man she works for is good. Do you understand?”
“I do,” Keta said. She turned to jump down, but paused and turned back.
“Do not die, your majesty. This is not where our story ends.”
I nodded, and Keta jumped to the deck of Castle Harmony.
The airship immediately rose back into the air. We flew, flanked by two drakes as we approached the obelisk pavilion, which was surrounded by a huge contingent of mostly-mounted hobgoblins. The soldiers held a tight formation around the dormant and abandoned park. The mass of viper fish hadn’t yet confronted this group, but they would soon be upon them.
I ordered the airships to remain above as I slid down the rope, landing in the center of the park.
Okay Popper and Gretchen, I thought. It’s up to you guys now.
Raj Note 2
Poppy: Raj, do you still have your spear? Is it in your hands right now?
Raj: Raj has it, but Raj does not like it. I am a protector.
Poppy: Listen to me very, very carefully. You have to kill her. You have to do it right now, and you have to do it fast.
Raj: Kill who?
Poppy: Sandy. Sandra. I’m so sorry. I don’t have time to explain. Kill her now.
Raj: What do you mean? This is not a funny joke.
Gretchen: Raj, honey. It’s not a joke. We’re serious. You have to do it. You have to do it now.
Raj: But Raj is a protector.
Poppy: Raj, please. I will explain it all to you. I promise. This is how you can be a protector. You have to do this now. It is the only way to save King Jonah.
Raj: You make a mistake. She is a nice lady. Raj does not understand.
Gretchen: Raj, listen to us.
Raj: No!
I did not want to listen any more. The magic words in my mind continued to chatter, but I chose not to listen. I could do that. I was good at ignoring talking. The ghost would say horrible things, and I learned not to listen. Hasim had listened to the ghost, and he’d cut his own tongue out. Raj learned not to listen. This did not make sense to me. King Jonah once told me that good people didn’t do bad things. Miss Sandy was a nice lady. She brushed my hair and told me I was doing a good job at protecting her and the others. She looked at my shells and even told me the name of some of them. One was called a scallop and another a mussel shell. She even said one wasn’t really a shell but a tooth of a sea monster.
Hurting Miss Sandy would be a bad thing.
Still… General Gretchen and Regent Popper continued to cry in my head, begging for Raj’s help. Raj did not know what to do!
I looked at the others. Be brave! You are a protector! Maybe they could help. Some, like Lil Stink and Renaldo were just babies, but they didn’t cry so much anymore. Sandy and the old goblin lady rocked them to sleep.
Chef Depardieu, the grumpy old Pollywog chef turned his head toward the stairs that led back into the hotel. The old froggy was blind. Raj did not know how a blind man could cook. “I hear more down there,” he whispered. “Get ready with that sticker, kid.”
Miss Sandy held Lil Stink in her arms. She cooed at the baby polecat. We did not know the baby’s real name. His mommy had died. Miss Sandy called him Lil Stink because he pooped a lot. Miss Sandy looked very tired.
“Miss Sandy are you a good person?” I asked.
The old woman’s eyes got big as a donut, but just for a moment. Then they got very narrow.
“Why do you ask this, Raj?” She cocked her head, the same way Raj’s mother would do. “Have you been talking to your pink friends?”
She meant humans. Miss Sandy didn’t seem to like anybody but other polecats. A lot of polecats were like this. I did not understand. Raj likes all people! Even goblins!
“Yes,” I said. “They are not bad. They are nice like you are nice.”
Miss Sandy sighed, standing up. She handed Lil Stink to the old lady goblin who didn’t talk. The woman already held Renaldo, and the rodder toddler squeaked but then went back to sleep next to Lil Stink.
“Well, I guess it was inevitable,” Miss Sandy said. “Your friends have been annoyingly persistent in their efforts. Filthy humans. I worked for years for that disgusting, hairless King Bartholomew. When they took me, did he care? It wasn’t until I removed their ability to use their maps, until I placed the block in my fast travel system did he even take notice that I was gone.”
I started to feel scared. Miss Sandy was not being very nice all of a sudden.
“They come up the stairs,” Chef Depardieu hissed. “There are two of them!”
Oh no, not again!
I grasped
my spear, hiding behind the door like I did last time. I would wait until the monsters came up the stairs, and I would stab them both. My hands shook. Why was I so scared? King Jonah wasn’t scared when he fought. Neither were General Gretchen or Regent Popper. Alice liked fighting. But I had to do it. Raj was a protector.
The heavy footsteps came up the stairs, and the others all moved behind the stairwell like last time, hiding. But Miss Sandy did not hide.
“Miss Sandy,” I squeaked. “They will see you!”
But it was too late. Two demons came up the stairs. These were different than last time. The last one had been the big, mean red demon. I had stabbed it in the leg and it had died. It had screamed and tried to hit me as it was dying, but then it fell over dead. Miss Sandy investigated the wound, and her hands had been glowing, and she said I had killed it good. She said she had some healing skills. The monster had gurgled, but when Sandy touched him he stopped. She said her skills were not so good. And then she waved her hand and the body disappeared.
These new attackers were two of the turtle monsters with the water bowls on their heads. I stabbed with my spear, and I missed! The monster looked at me and laughed. It did not have a weapon but sharp fingers, and it reached for me.
But then it dropped down to the ground. The next one did too! When they fell, the water spilled from their heads. They stopped moving, but they were still alive. They growled and thrashed on the ground, like fish pulled from the water. But they couldn’t move so good.
“You tripped them,” Miss Sandy said. “If they lose their water, they can’t move. You tripped them and saved us again.”
“I did?” I said looking at the two monsters. I didn’t feel like I had tripped them.
“You will have to finish them off,” Miss Sandy said. “Stab them in the neck. You can do it.”
The beasts thrashed and hissed and spit. They were very angry monsters!
The Hobgoblin Riot: Dominion of Blades Book 2: A LitRPG Adventure Page 48