At my signal the goblin shaman cast his spell. It knocked almost everyone off their feet, only one of the hunters and the last deputy managed to stand on their feet. I charged the men. The deputy turned and realized what was happening a bit too late. His gun came up and fired three shots at me. Amazingly the necklace stopped all three of them.

It gave me just enough time to close and swing my warhammer. It smashed into the side of the deputy and he flew into the wall of the cave. From the sound of the impact I suspected that he died instantly.

Another bullet slammed into the necklace shield. The hunter with a bolt action rifle had finally got his gun up. I roared and leaped towards him swinging my warhammer in a downwards arc. It smashed into his chest and I heard his ribs shattering. Blood went everywhere as his chest caved in.

Just as I turned towards the three men laying on the ground bullets slammed into my necklace enchantment. By the fourth one the enchantment failed. Half a dozen more slammed into my body before I heard the clicking of an empty gun. I looked at the three men in shock and saw Sheriff Joe pointing his still smoking gun at me, then I fell backwards onto the ground.

The park ranger finally managed to roll over and went to check on the last hunter. The hunter was one of the ones that had set off a spore shroom and it had begun to take effect. The park ranger himself looked worse for wear. During the fall he had managed to hit his head and there was quite a bit of blood dripping down his face.

The park ranger made his way to where my orc had fallen. Then he raised his gun and shot my avatar in the head. I grimaced as that half of my consciousness flooded back into my mind. I had been using blood magic to try to heal my avatar. Another minute and he would have been able to get up and keep on fighting.

Then the ranger bent down and picked up the warhammer. With a quick swing he demolished a nearby tree. “Joe, this thing is amazing.” He said to the sheriff.

“I’m more interested in whatever that thing was wearing that stopped our bullets.” The sheriff replied.

The park ranger quickly examined my body and found the necklace. “I think it was this necklace. Only problem is that I’m seeing something that says that it needs to be recharged.” I guess that confirmed that the men that had invaded my dungeon had access to the system. It looked like most people had selected human though.

All the fighting had given my remaining goblins the time they needed to arrive though. But now that I didn’t have orc adrenaline pumping through my veins I was kind of starting to regret fighting and killing humans. The fact that I had killed three people with my avatar made me feel sick.

It didn’t matter that they were the ones that started the fight and were trying to kill my goblins. I also couldn’t stop dreading the idea of having to deal with the army. As the sheriff had said it was likely that at some point the government would regain control. At that point I didn’t want the town to be considering me an enemy that had to be destroyed.

It was unlikely that the sheriff and other men were going to forgive me after I killed all their men. Letting the three men go may deescalate the situation a bit. But only if they knew I was letting them go. Even better would be if I could figure out a way to show that I wasn’t a threat to the town. It only took a couple seconds before I came up with a plan.

As the men were gathering themselves to leave I had my shaman walk out of the bushes a couple a dozen feet away. They turned and raised their guns. “No shoot.” My shaman said and held up his hands.

The men hesitated. “You shoot, they kill.” The shaman said as I directed him. At the same time over a dozen goblins peaked out from behind various bushes and trees before moving behind cover again.

The three men seemed terrified but the sheriff recovered first. “Okay hold your fire men. What do you want?” he finally said nervously.

“You invade goblin cave. Kill many goblins. Kill orc. Orcs be mad when find out. You leave stuff for orcs they not mad. Well maybe still mad, but not much.” The shaman said proudly in broken English. Shaman Skullshaker may be smart but he hadn’t had time to improve his speaking ability yet.

The sheriff considered what the goblin was saying. “You’re saying there are more of those big goblins here?”

The shaman nodded and continued my bluff. “Yes. Many orc, deep in cave. You leave stuff we give stuff to orcs for you.” The shaman said.

“Sir, I think he’s just trying to trick us into giving him our weapons. Then they will kill us.” The park ranger said.

“No. Orc no need weapon. They have better weapon.” I told the shaman to say when I heard the ranger.

“What do you want then?” The sheriff said.

“Orc want new things. Goblins see you leave many things at entrance of cave. You bring into cave for goblin, then you leave. You also leave orc stuff.” The shaman said and pointed at the warhammer and necklace.

The sheriff considered the offer for a moment and then shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

The park ranger whispered to the sheriff. “Sir, that’s the professor’s stuff. Plus we shouldn’t just give up the weapon and necklace.” It was too quiet for the shaman to hear but I could easily hear it.

“In our condition do you think we can take on all those goblins? Who knows how many more there are. Not to mention that they said there are more of those orcs. Just put the weapon and necklace down and let’s see if we can get out of this alive.” The sheriff said in the same low voice.

The ranger relented and put down the weapon and necklace. “Good. You come with goblins now.” The shaman said and then walked forward. The men tensed up especially when the other goblins walked out of the brush. None of them fired though.

Half the goblins and the shaman walked in front as the other half walked behind the men. When they finally reached the entrance the goblins stopped the three men. The shaman pointed to the ranger who seemed to be the healthiest of the three. “You go. Bring all inside cave. Then all three leave. You run we kill.” He said while pointing to the sheriff and last hunter.

The ranger nodded and left the cave. He walked over to the equipment then looked back at the cave. He turned back to the cave and saw the shaman standing at the entrance. “Sorry but I’m not going back in there so you can kill me.” He said and ran off into the forest.

“Stupid human. He run. We kill now.” The Shaman said to the sheriff.