When we arrived in the forest I saw that the intended trees were marked with ribbons. Shrya wandered off to hunt, Abe wanted to hit some trees so I gave him my axe and got out my saw. We went in the other direction as the other loggers, I wanted to show Abe how to pick what direction to make the tree fall so he didn’t crush anyone. We got to work on a pair of trees, and I quickly realized these were tougher than anticipated and would take more work to cut down, and then there was a whoosh and smash that made both us jump.

The older giant was slowly bringing his axe back up to rest on his shoulder again. The tree he had just destroyed was teetering over, the stump pulped where he had hit it.

“Did he just knock that down with a single hit?” I looked over at Abe who was staring without blinking in open awe.

The younger giant was chopping another tree, bringing it down in four hits. I turned back to my tree, which would take probably another two dozen hits for me to bring down even with my steel tools. I was feeling slightly inadequate.

“Bloody showoffs. Come on, Abe, kill these trees.”

We both activated [Beastial Rage] and made the wood chips fly. By the time we ran out of mana, we had each downed a handful of trees. I offered to teach him meditating, but Abe kept going until his stamina was nearly depleted. I started breaking the trees down into logs, showing Abe how it was done. What he lacked in skill he made up for in enthusiasm and unbridled jealousy. He was smashing my axe into the trees so hard I was worried it might break soon.

The giants left the processing work to us smaller folks, they instead continued on, smashing trees down with their dull bone axes.

In all, by the end Abe and I had accounted for seventy three trees between us, impressing the others, and beating the giants by a few. They may be tremendously strong, but they moved slow and didn’t seem to regain stamina as fast as us.

We were loading the last of the logs into the wagons when Shrya came running into the clearing at full speed.

“They are here!” She screamed, diving under a wagon. We all stopped, momentarily shocked, and then the drums started, echoing through the night. Closer than any of us had thought possible.

“How many?” I grabbed my bow and nocked an arrow, Abe tossed my axe into the wagon and got his spear.

“Warband. Hundreds.” She panted, getting out a stamina potion and drinking it.

“Let’s go!” The foreman shouted. We all scrambled for the wagons, which were slow to start moving fully loaded. A few of the humans got out lanterns.

“No lights! They’ll be able to see us from kilometers away.” The foreman said as he got his crossbow ready.

“We’ll break an axel if we hit a hole.” The other driver called back.

“We can see fine, let us watch the road.” I offered, and when the foreman nodded I waved. “Shrya, Abe, ride with a different wagon, I’ll take the lead. Warn the drivers if you see a hole or rock on the road.”

I sprinted to the lead wagon, Abe took the mammoth sized one, and we both jumped up to the seats.

We were all moving now, but slowly. The drumbeat was deceptive in the way it echoed and the rhythm rising and falling. Guessing how close they were, or even how many, was difficult. Thankfully the wind was at our backs now so they wouldn’t be smelling us, but we had been in the same place for hours, their scouts could have found us long ago.

Why were they coming now? They had a huge forest, surely they hadn’t run out of food yet. I’d never imagined them being disciplined enough for a forced march through rough terrain. The only thing over here was hundreds of kilometers of hills and mountains and primitive giant towns.

Then the wind reached me. Demon scent, mingled with goblin and human, a whiff of it similar to whoever had summoned that imp and sent it to track the warlock. The imp we had killed when it tried to keep the rift open to summon a greater demon.

I ignored the road for now, jumping onto the seat to turn around and look. I scanned the horizon, and then I saw it. A figure on a hilltop too far away to see clearly, on a mount. The disturbing feeling of being watched washed over me, the bastard was using [Open Mind] to watch us.

“Light the lanterns! We need to go faster. They already know where we are.”

“Are you sure?” The foreman called back.

“They have a demon summoner!”

The lanterns sparked to life and the animals were spurred to run faster, and the drums stopped. Then the howling began. Several dozen goblins mounted on massive dogs, or maybe wolves, rushed over the hilltop as the drums started again at a frenzied pace.

Samyl, the older giant, pulled something out from his wagon, raising it to his mouth. The horn gave a call that made my lungs shake. After he had made another call a distant one echoed it, and then another even further. The very air seemed to vibrate with the sound.

It incentivized the mammoth to move faster, but also whipped the goblins into a fury. They rushed us. It was a far shot for me from the lead wagon, but I took it anyways. My arrow arced high, and then down into chest of one of the hounds, who stumbled and fell. The others with crossbows let loose a volley, but with less success as the horde split to flank us.

All the wagons had weapons of some kind, and when the goblins came too close they’d be fended off with spears or clubs. It was only a matter of time, as the horses were being slowly worn down as the hounds darted in to snap at them.

In short order, all the horses were bleeding from minor wounds. The mammoth was large enough that when a hound strayed within reach it would knock it flat with a swipe of tusks.

“Dump the logs!” The foreman called, as he pulled the pins on the side of his wagon and the logs went rolling out, crushing several goblins.

I did the same on the opposite side of the wagon I rode, trying to catch some more of the attackers.

I was down to my last handful of arrows, and it didn’t look like the other wagons were any better off. We weren’t equipped for fighting like this. Slinging my bow for now, I grabbed my wand and started casting [Schism] on the hounds who came within range. Mostly they’d just veer off in confusion, but occasionally they’d stumble and fall or run into a rock. It was just a stalling tactic, and a not very effective one. Within a few casts I was out of mana, and while they had gotten a bit more wary, they would notice if I stopped casting for several minutes. Stowing the wand, I got my bow back out, took two shots, only one of which killed its target, and then started meditating.

The shaking wagon wasn’t making it easy to concentrate, but I could literally see the Focused Meditator skill challenge ticking up in the corner of my vision. I sucked up as much mana as I could, giving myself a headache and causing my sputtering green aura to flicker into sight again.

As I did, I looked back. Shrya was doing the best of us all, the hounds were staying far away from her wagon. Those darts didn’t need to do a lot of damage to poison the target. Even a minor wound and the poison would take effect. Checking my belt, I realized I had four darts, though the poison on two had expired already. They didn’t know that though, and I was hoping they’d scramble out of the way if I threw one. I interrupted my meditation long enough to whip a poisoned dart at a hound, which made the others retreat a bit when it started foaming and collapsed.

The town was in sight now, but the crossroads guard was gone. Had that asshole abandoned us?

An inhuman shriek of rage burst behind us, and with a bare moment’s notice I looked back to see that the demonologist had approached. It raised a hand and even at this distance I could feel the obscene amount of mana it was channeling, and I whipped out my wand, using most of my mana to cast [Shield] a fraction of a second before a torrent of fire erupted towards me. The shield redirected the worst of it, but right towards the horse, which screamed and stumbled.

The momentum of the wagon pitched us forwards, crushing the horse and barely slowing. I screamed as I was catapulted out of the seat and smashed into the ground to tumble in the dirt. One of the hounds ran right over me, claws gouging my leg.

The other wagons had to veer to the sides, now that the road was blocked, quickly getting bogged down and stuck in the soft ground. The remaining eight or nine goblin riders began circling us.

When I could breathe again I stumbled to my feet, nocking an arrow. My head was ringing, and everything seemed muffled as I squinted through my tunnelvision. Pivoting, I shot a goblin in the eye purely by luck as he charged at me. The hound turned and ran off when its rider collapsed. Fumbling for another arrow I only felt two.

Whirling around I looked for the bastard. The demonologist had stopped, both hands raised to the sky, a smoking orb shining red was forming over his head. My arrow streaked towards him, and he abandoned his casting in a fizzle to knock it out of the air with a blindingly fast burst of fire. I sent my last arrow at him, and he incinerated it as well. Dropping the bow I grabbed a dart and flicked it at him. He dodged it. Was he running low on mana? He raised his hand again, I recognized this gesture, and I didn’t have enough mana for shield. Remembering now, as the burst of fire erupted towards me I cast [Shadow Step], only having enough energy to move 1 meter to the side, but it was enough. I dropped the wand and whipped another dart at him, this one caught him in the arm, but it had been the expired poison.

He lunged forwards in a burst of fire that propelled him off the ground like a rocket. Grabbing my spear I met his charge, and got flattened. The force of his hit shattered the spear, and sent me tumbling.

Someone was screaming, it might have been me but I couldn’t breathe anymore. I fumbled for the last dart, but he caught my hand with superhuman strength, then wrestled it from my grip and slammed it into my shoulder, Almost immediately agony spread through me. The poison! I had thrown the wrong dart at him.

Up close I could see his face under the cloak. He wasn’t human, with a strange bone structure and dark red skin. Not that the information did me any good as the hallucinations and seizure started as the poison burned through me.

Abruptly he fell back, Shrya had leaped onto him from behind, trying to bite into his neck but being stopped by something, and as the demonologist hurled her away she ripped off his cloak. His horns had stopped her, curling down and around like a ram. Or what this part of the hallucinations? All the shadows were moving and twisting, shapes darted in the corners of my eyes.

My chest was cold now, and I couldn’t breathe. Shrya lunged again, caught in mid air this time and struck right in the forehead with some technique that made a starburst of light. She crumpled, eyes going blank, landing in a tangle of limbs and not moving. Not breathing.

I tried to talk, to tell her I was sorry. I never should have come here, we could have stayed in the town but I had needed something, anything, to distract me from how scared I had been.

The seizure stopped. The pain lessened. The poison was gone, the debuff icon vanishing. I could see the town in the distance, figures on the rooftops, raising giant bows. Arrows the size of tree trunks arced up impossibly fast, and started slamming down around me. One caught the demonologist in the side, spinning him around and tearing off an arm. A moment later the sound arrived, like distant cannon fire.

The pain in my chest lessened, I let out a breath, relaxing.

[YOU HAVE DIED]

The world starting fading, the big bold words getting larger in the center of my vision. I didn’t hurt anymore, I wasn’t afraid anymore. Now that I had a moment, I saw one of the icons that had been flashing at me was a phone.

A voice burst into existence, Teefies.

“Hey, Karl, I was starting to think you’d never answer. Is this a bad time? I just got back, and I talked to your buddy Ryan. Turns out he already had an account, so he’s online now as well. I’ll start a group chat with him.”

Another voice joined hers, deeper, rougher than I remember.

“Holy shit, I see his name. Are you really there? Hello?”

I was fading, where had I been? Had I fallen asleep?

“Karl? Are you there? Is something wrong?” Teefies sounded worried, though I couldn’t remember why, everything was fine now.

“Is this your idea of a prank? Are you streaming this for some publicity stunt?” Ryan asked

“Publicity stunt!? You’re the asshole who cashed in on his death with a fucking book deal. He’s here. I talked to him. Karl? What the hell is going on?”

“Young lady, I do not appreciate this waste of time. Do not contact me again.” Ryan’s icon disappeared from the chat, and his voice was gone.

“Karl, what the hell? Wait, what the hell is all that noise out there? Oh shit it’s an invasion. Are you out there? Are you hurt?”

The voices faded away. I faded away.

DAY UNKNOWN

The white noise increased to a high pitched whine that drilled through my head, forcing me awake. Shapes coalesced amid blinding light. Muffled noises barely made sense.

“What’s that? Did he move?” I couldn’t move my eyes to see who was talking.

“Just random connections as his brain dies. You saw the report, he wasn’t breathing when he was found, and hasn’t shown any normal brain activity since then.” Something flashed again, blindingly bright. “See, no pupil reaction to light. Some of the lights are on, but nobody’s home.”

“Alright. I’ll call it. Time of death 16:04, April 14th, 2027. Doctor Kizani, you may begin organ removal."