I Am Gamer III

by Gabriel Rathweg

  Even as the cannon and mortar boomed, it was the constant firing of the long rifles that I noticed the most. It was nonstop, the continuous shooting dropped MOB after MOB, sounding almost like a machine gun so many rifles fired in staggered staccato burst. Frigg had come up by me and exclaimed something about gods and destruction, but I wasn’t sure, it had been loud. The truth was we blew them apart. By the end not a monster showed red on my screen. It was a massacre.

  The Fallen Tribesmen had never joined the fight. They had maintained their position the entire time, but now they slowly left the battlefield.

  The big man, I assumed he was their Chief, left last and stared hard at our fortress and at me. I could tell he hadn’t given up, his smoldering eyes and countenance just screamed, I’ll be back. We looked at each other until finally he spit and turned, walking after his fellow evil tribesmen. The firing tapered off as the last of the MOBs fell to our bullets and cannon fire. The battlefield was a blood and gore filled mess. Bodies were everywhere, they were right up to the base of the walls and even choked the river that ran to Thrudheim from that direction. There was a lot of cleaning up to do.

  My periphery was blinking but I ignored it for the moment.

  “I’ll be a monkey’s motherfucking uncle. That went better than I expected.” Patty said.

  “A damn sight better I’d say.” Billy chimed in.

  “By the gods and goddesses War Shaman, this, this is…” Sage said, gesturing at the carnage. “I never imagined…”

  “Yeah, it’s freaking insane. Get used to it though, this is just the beginning. Set up some work details. We need to get these bodies cleaned up before disease and such starts. Tell everyone to be careful, make sure those fuckers are dead down there. Don’t hesitate to stab or put another bullet in any of them.” I said, turning and starting to stride off.

  “Where are you going while we are cleaning up all the shite?” Billy asked.

  “Someone has to make more ammunition. We do have another army of monsters coming and I highly doubt it will go this easy, plus there are still those evil looking guys out there.” I replied.

  “Yes, the Fallen will return, they do not give up lightly according to legend, once they are spotted things never end well.” Sage said.

  “Yeah, well those ugly fucks have never met me.” I said, with a grin.

  I waved and headed out, grabbing my three apprentice Mage Builders on my way. We wouldn’t be cleaning up dead MOBs, but we had our own tasks to handle. No rest for the weary and all that. The four of us grabbed some leftover stew from the dining area and headed to the forge. The rest of the day flew by as we churned out round after round for all the new weapons. Every once in a while, someone would stop by, usually Sage or Frigg but sometimes Billy or Patty, and give updates on the state of the work going on.

  Things were progressing well. The majority of the dead MOB’s had been taken care of and there were three large oily smoke clouds floating into the sky from around the battlefield. The river had been unclogged and those dead bodies had been added to the pyres. This was the first time a battle had taken place where none of our own had died, there were some injuries, but they were user error, and we didn’t have to mourn anyone’s death. That in and of itself was a huge morale booster.

  By the end of the day we had refilled everyone’s ammunition and created a nice stockpile for future use. We’d need it for the next incoming army of monsters. I left the forge and headed to the main lodge to powwow and plan our next course of action. Most of the leadership were already there, making me the last to arrive. I nodded to the room and sat down at the head of the long wooden table, in between to Sage and Cunning Wolf.

  “Ok, sorry I’m late to the debriefing but this is going to be a regular thing. I think daily meetings and planning sessions will help all of us digest what has happened, as well as compare notes and keep each other updated. Anyway, let’s start this off with a brief explanation of how everyone is doing with their current tasks.” I said, nodding at Sage to start.

  “Debriefing, I like the sound of that. Here is the state of things in Thrudheim; all the monsters have been dealt with, all of our workers are currently occupied with their tasks, with the exception for ten which were injured during the battle. That leaves us with a full contingent of builders to proceed with the fort’s upgrades.” He said.

  “Good, we need to continue with the building of the main citadel now that the walls and artillery batteries are setup and good to go. How about the warrior training?” I asked, looking directly at the two Irishmen.

  “You saw the battle yourself, they crushed them. The Norse Ojibwe have taken to the training like a fish to water. Also, the SEAL training that was put on hold will continue again in the morning, now that the immediate threat has been dealt with, the whole tribe is taking part, workers and warriors.” Billy said.

  “That’s great to hear. What about the status of resource gathering? I know metals were getting low.” I asked the twins.

  “We had to pause for the battle but now things are back to a good pace. With Frigg’s help we’ve been able to restock and keep our larders full. The mining is back on track now that the workers aren’t needed to fight, we should have plenty of ore for smithing.” Dawn said, nodding at her brother and then Frigg.

  “That all sounds pretty damn good. What about news from Arun or the runners we sent north, and how about the Fallen Tribe? Silent Mouse have you sent scouts out to check on those things? Any news?” I asked, the diminutive scout coughed once, cleared his throat, then stood up.

  “Yes, War Shaman Law, scouts are already out, they are ranging north following the river for any sign of Arun and the others. I have also tasked my three best to follow after the retreating Fallen Tribe. They were told to use the utmost caution and to minimize any risk of detection. Also, to return as soon as possible with any news. Me and Freak will be heading out after this meeting is over as well. We will split up and I’ll head after the Fallen Tribe and Freak will go north after the other scouts. On top of that, I have scouts searching out and locating more mining and resource areas.” The small man said, giving me a nod then sitting back down.

  “Well, that just about covers it so…” I started to say.

  Frigg cleared her throat and I gave her a raised eyebrow and a then a go-ahead motion.

  “It is time to give an offering to the gods and goddesses. We must thank them for the help and good fortune we’ve received, not to mention our glorious victory in battle. I know one thing for certain, the powers that be are fickle and if they are not appeased and properly thanked things could take a turn for the worst.” She said.

  I thought back to all my limited interactions with said deities and nodded to myself, whether she was right or wrong, it couldn’t hurt to show a little love to the pantheons for our success.

  “I agree with everything you just said, can you take care of it?” I asked.

  She nodded and I gave a look around the table.

  “If that’s it, we all have a lot of work to do, let’s get back to it.” I said, standing up along with the rest of the table.

  The meeting broke up, each person heading out to handle their business.

  “Good luck today buddy.” I told Freak, patting him on the head.

  “Rawr!” He replied excitedly, then went to Silent Mouse and the two went off on their scouting missions.

  I watched them and the rest of the group leave and took a deep breath. Things were moving so fast it was like they’d taken on a life of their own. If things were this crazy here, I just hoped Moon Flower was doing ok with things on her front, she had a huge task as well, bringing all the plains tribes together. I shook my head clearing it, there was plenty of stuff for me to worry about without picking things I couldn’t fix at the moment. My periphery was still blinking, that was something I could take care of, I accessed the first message.

  EXPERIENCE GAINED 87641 FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS IN BATTLE. ALL EXPERIENCE IS TO BE GIVEN OUT EQUAL
LY UNLESS YOU WOULD LIKE TO REDISTRIBUTE… WOULD YOU LIKE TO REDISTRIBUTE? Y/N?

  I selected no and let the experience divide evenly. Everyone had worked really hard in that battle and I personally thought each fighter deserved every bit of experience they had earned. Not to mention, this was the first time I’d received this prompt, so I figured to just run with it. Besides, the fact that my companions could level themselves and now the regular warriors were getting exp meant I could focus on other things. This all ran through my mind as I accessed the next window.

  THRUDHEIMS DEFENDERS UPGRADED…

  MINUTEMEN (LEVEL – 1)

  The residents of Thrudheim have shown their ability to defend their home with extreme resolve. Minutemen receives double attack bonuses when in Thrudheim. They also receive bonuses to defense and luck when defending their homes. These fighters are able to retrieve their weapons and get to their preassigned defensive positions in less than one minute.

  That was freaking awesome! The residents of Thrudheim were now upgraded to Minutemen. That would help immensely in the fort towns defense. I grinned then pulled up the next message.

  WAR SHAMAN

  TRIBES – THE PEOPLE, THE JICARILLA, TUATHA DE DANAAN, NORSE OJIBWE

  ELITE WARRIORS – Moon Flower, William O’ Conghaile, Patrick O’ Conghaile, Arun Thorson, Chieftess Shining Eagle, Thunder Foot, Ice Blossom, Lightning Fist, Night Star, Silent Mouse, Shadow Bear, Dancing Lion, Stone Fox, Dusk, Dawn

  SHAMAN – Cunning Wolf (Element-Earth/God-Wolf), Sage Lokison (Element-Water/God-Ojibwe/Nanabohozo, Norse/Baldur)

  NORMAL MEMBERS – (N/A) THE PEOPLE WORKER/WARRIORS, (N/A) JICARILLA BUILDER/WARRIORS, (N/A) CROW WORKER WARRIORS, (156/156) NORSE WORKER/WARRIORS

  BASES – The Springs, Fortress of Earth, Thrudheim

  RESOURCES COLLECTED – Wood-1800lbs, Metals – Iron-450lbs/Gold-150lbs/Silver-255lbs/Tin-410lbs, Food-Abundant, Enough for 130 days, Animals Horses x N/A, Sheep-65, Cows x 45

  VEHICLES – N/A

  SPECIAL FORCES – SEAL TEAM 1 (LEVEL – 3), MINUTEMEN (LEVEL – 2)

  I closed the last window and went back to meet up with the other Shamans. We had the next part of the citadel to work on.

  TRACK 18 – NEIGHBORHOOD #3 (POWER OUT) – ARCADE FIRE

  The work went smoothly since the four of us had gotten our teamwork down and streamlined our processes. It also helped that there was a plethora of easily accessible rock for the building. Sage would use his Water Magic to get access to the rock, then either Shadow Bear or Cunning Wolf would raise the stone to me with Earth Magic, and I’d place it using a combination of Water and Earth Magic. When the stone was in place, I’d seal it there with Fire Magic.

  The large limestone and sandstone rocks were perfect building material, they were lighter than other types of stone and easier to move and manipulate. We extracted the stone from the waterways and lake we had made inside Thrudheim, making the water deeper in strategic parts of the fort town. In this way, we created nice long channels throughout the interior and a deep harbor area for my future projects.

  We also deliberately kept the water a certain depth, ten feet, in each river entrance, to protect the river gates. I had continued it out a long ways in each river. This way we could also see into the waterways all the way to the bottom for five hundred yards out along each riverway. No monster or amphibious anything was going to sneak up on us. All three rivers and the interior waterways of the fort were manicured for our personal use and defense. They looked more like man made canals now then natural terrain.

  We made ten-foot wide stone bridges from each river fort to the center of Thrudheim, connecting them to our center citadel. The rest of the day was spent finishing up the first floor of the citadel. By the time we were done it was dark out and all of us were exhausted, but the first floor was finished and ready for artillery placement. I looked over our work in the fading light. The bridges stretched one hundred feet long each and curved in an arch that was fifty high as they connected with the top of the first floor of the main citadel.

  The structure was shaped like a pentagon with battlements and annexes for cannon and mortar. These weapons were over fifty feet higher than the ones on the river forts and outer walls, giving them a further range of fire than the others due to the added height. As I was thinking about the next stage of building, I received a mental call from Freak. I closed my eyes and saw through his. He was looking down from a small hillock on a river and on the river were dozens upon dozens of craft. There were mostly long canoes but interspersed with them were regular canoes and other small fishing type canoes. Each of the watercraft was full to bursting with people. Freak’s enhanced eyesight picked out details from even his position a few hundred yards away.

  When my familiar focused on the rear most vessels I recognized Arun standing on the stern. Freak kept looking that way and then I noticed the smoke in the sky. The town of Asgard was ablaze, but its people had escaped. That’s what I was seeing, a refugee armada. I sent my cat a mental good job and told him to head back. Then, I refocused on the now. A quick check on my mini map showed Freak was over twenty miles to the north so he would be back some time during the evening. Judging by the pace the boats were moving they would be arriving sometime after that, probably a few hours. Freaks stamina was humongous, and he would be able to eat the twenty miles up with his long tiger stride.

  Frigg’s ceremony was starting soon so I went there and relayed the information to everyone.

  “This is great news. By the sounds of it, the amount of canoes you saw means most if not all the tribe is coming. This makes this ceremony even more important.” Frigg said.

  A chorus of agreements sounded out from the gathered tribe’s folk, and I nodded along.

  “This is true, we also must prepare for the coming battle, don’t forget the sky full of smoke in the background.” I reiterated.

  “You speak sound advice.” Sage said. “We will begin preparations as soon as we are finished here, we have to welcome all our fellows and get ready for the monsters that are surely following behind them.”

  Frigg began the ceremony and there was chanting and praising all the deities on the Ojibwe and Norse pantheons, followed by a lighting of a huge fire built on a pair of long canoes filled with offerings of thanks to the gods. The chanting increased and the whole the Norse Ojibwe and us all chanted along. I began to chant along with the rest of my elites when we got the hang of it. A few more minutes of chanting and then the fire flared out larger than should have been possible. It became a huge monolithic thing, a giant burning obelisk so hot and bright it caused us all to stop chanting and rear back from the heat.

  When the light and heat died down, I opened my eyes and looked back at the fire. It was still as large as before, but the temperature had returned to normal and the light was no longer blinding. Inside the fire though, were two giant beings that commanded attention. I recognized one, Coyote dressed in his traditional hide garb, he saw me and winked. The other was also a man and he could have been Coyotes spitting image, except he was bone white, had jet black hair, and light almost clear blue eyes. He wore garb much like the Norse Ojibwe’s but much finer. He looked around the gathering with an amused expression so much like Coyotes I swore they could have been brothers. He nodded in what looked like satisfaction then cleared his throat and waved.

  “My god Loki what are you doing here, with Coyote no less?” Sage gasped, dropping to his knees and bowing his head, the reset of the tribe doing the same.

  My elites followed suit and I raised an eyebrow in their direction but held my tongue. I wasn’t a bow down kind of guy but hey to each his own. The god began speaking and I focused all my attention on him.

  “My children I have come to congratulate you on the job you have done so far. Know though, that your task is far from done. The army you defeated was nothing compared to the one that comes, but know this, if you destroy the horde of monsters coming your way, you will have broken the power of the evil gods and
goddesses on this land for years to come. You must be victorious, and you must destroy them. For after this battle, the war will have just begun. The bringers of The Great Suffering are gathering their power and it is you all who must fight them. Exact our vengeance!” Loki finished, and the tribe rose and cheered his speech. When they quieted down, he continued. “You have my support and my blessing!”

  My periphery dinged and I quickly accessed the message.

  YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE BLESSING OF LOKI…

  5 EXTRA POINTS ADDED TO LUCK FOR AS LONG AS THE GOD’S BLESSING IS ACTIVE…

  Holy shit, that was awesome, I’d have to thank him when I had the chance.

  “Goodbye my children.” Loki said, then waved and the fire flared brightly again but not before I saw Coyote give me another meaningful wink, then the light became to blinding and I squeezed my eyes shut involuntarily.

  When the fire died down Frigg thanked the gods again and then nodded once and clapped. a group of young folk appeared and began serving food and laying platters of roasted meats and vegetables on all the tables.

  There was good natured cheer around the dining area as everyone talked about the visit of the gods, the blessing, and their incoming friends and family. It helped the food was also good. I outlined what needed to be done to my elites and they handled giving out the tasks the tribe. The Mage Builders went back to the forge and the Irishmen went back to training. Everyone was moving with a renewed sense of purpose and vigor after Loki and Coyotes visit. I headed to the forge as well, with the influx of people we were going to need more weapons and ammunition.

  We worked tirelessly throughout the night and just as dawn was coming, I received a mental call from Freak, he was almost back, with the flotilla not far behind. I stood up and admired the work the four of us had done. Enough artillery had been made to equip the first floor of the citadel and I had made over a hundred long rifles. We also churned out ammunition for them all as well. I told the others and they headed off spreading the word of the Asgardians impending arrival.