Benjamin Vryce

The first thing Benjamin saw when he arrived on this new world, were the white spiral towers. They were huge, skyscraper sized structures. Made up of two separate pillars twisting around each other, with cross paths joining them as they rose. Each was topped with two sharp spires, where the towers ended. Benjamin thought they looked a bit like white marble DNA strands, reaching for the sky.

The second thing he saw upon looking back down, was Jade Benz. She still had her blonde pixie cut with pink highlights, but everything else was new. He just stared for a moment, not quite able to believe what she was wearing. Was the Erlking a closet freak or something?

She had on a skintight suit of black leather armor. Leather straps crossed the outfit at odd locations, held in place by silver buckles. Black leather boots and gloves went all the way up to her knees and elbows and if that wasn’t bad enough, she had a blood red half cape on that went down to about hip level. As she turned around to face him, he saw what looked like a silver pistol holstered at her waist. Again, made of black leather.

When she turned around and caught him looking, she gave him a devilish smile. Cocking her hip and resting a hand on it. She struck a pose before asking,

“What do you think?” batting her eyelashes at him a few times.

Benjamin honestly didn’t know what to say to that. If they were going to a cosplay convention, she looked fantastic, but they were going to go into real battle. Could she even move in that thing?

“Looks…impractical, are you going to be able to fight in that?” he asked at last. Not knowing what else to say.

“As if yours is any better” She huffed and crossed her arms. Giving him the once over as she spoke.

Benjamin looked down at the armor he was wearing. His new armor from the Erlking was more practical than Jades, but he supposed it was just as flashy. He wore a cuirass, tasset, bracers, and greaves just like before. His upper arms, feet and head were bare. The difference was that the armor was made from ice blue/white carapace. Very similar to what the ant soldier had sported.

He even had a new carapace case to keep his unabsorbed goblin patterns and creation cores in. It was white/blue as well, and attached at the small of his back. He didn’t get a weapon, but he didn’t fight with one so that was fine.

“I suppose you have a point,” he said, calling out Grace and Stomper. Grace was wearing her new, also skintight, brown leather armor and her hunter’s cloak. Stomper’s outfit was a near perfect match for Benjamins, except he had a skullcap helmet on and held a shield. Both made of ice white/blue carapace.

Jade looked the goblins up and down; Benjamin saw her eyes linger a bit on Grace’s chest. Not that he had been looking, but Benjamin suspected that the four-foot-tall goblin was better endowed in that department than the five foot something human woman.

“Not bad, but wait until you get a look at my boys” and with that Benjamin felt a, pull, just out of sight. before the two eight-foot-tall ogres popped into existence. “We didn’t get the chance to introduce ourselves last time. I’m Jade, these fine fellas are Tik…” she pointed to the ogre on her left. He wore a full plate suit of metal armor. A full-face helmet covered his head and he carried a massive slab of steel in one hand that He supposed was a shield and an axe longer than Benjamin was tall in the other. “And this is Tok,” she finished pointing to the ogre on her right. This one was wearing leather armor that looked like it had come off some giant scaled reptile. There was a huge quiver slung diagonally across his back that looked like it held two dozen throwing javelins and a wide mouthed metal mesh bag on each hip that looked to be full of round stones. For close range, this ogre had leather gloves on. Short metal spikes jutted out from each knuckle.

Benjamin looked them over cautiously. During the rat fight he hadn’t had much attention to spare for the ogres but he could tell at least that they were ridiculously strong and resistant to damage. They hadn’t been very fast, however, nor did they have any ability to attack at range. Forced to just soak up damage as they pulverized the rats.

“Impressive,” Benjamin said at last. “This is Grace,” he indicated the goblin ranger. “That is Stomper,” he then pointed over to the goblin fighter. “And these…” at this point he paused and pulled again using his essence. As he did a huge chunk of his gathered essence rushed out of his core. He regretted the loss, but thought that he would need every advantage right now. Besides, with his core spinning like it was he should recover quickly.

“Are Ice and Honor.” He said as he brought first one than the other into being. “These two, don’t have names yet.” He finished as he brought the final two wolves into view. The wolves were all armored and saddled. Ice’s armor was the same ice white/blue as Benjamin’s. covering her vitals and attached with leather belts. The other three had black carapace armor attached similarly.

“Ok, now this is bullshit.” Jade all but screamed. “How the hell did you get goblins and bugs AND giant fucking wolves?” She actually looked pretty upset.

“The wolves attacked me and Grace, we managed to kill them all. I was able to collect their patterns and can summon them now.” Benjamin replied, not wanting to start an argument again. he looked around; they were on the outskirts of the white tower city.

“We should really get moving. The Erlking told me a little of what to expect here, this place isn’t a training ground. Everything here will try and kill us, and we can’t afford to die out here. I think you should dismiss the ogres, and you can pick one of the two unnamed wolves to ride. Then we need to go.”

Jade obviously wasn’t happy at hearing that. She argued with him for nearly ten minutes. Finally, Benjamin just tuned her out and turned to his team.

“Hello, Ice. I’m sorry we had to meet the way we did, but I look forward to going in to battle with you by my side.” He patted the shaggy furred she wolf on the shoulder; she was huge, even compared to his height.

The she wolf didn’t respond verbally or mentally. She just nodded her head once before looking over to the two ogres. Benjamin thought she was sizing them up. he then turned and greeted the other three wolves. Before finally turning to Stomper and Grace.

“Hello again,” he said once he was standing in front of the pair. “It’s been a while, since we talked. How did the time pass for you?” he was curious how time passed for them when they weren’t summoned.

“It felt like I took a nap and woke up here, ready to fight.” Stomper said, he looked between Benjamin and Grace then walked over to the mottled brown and tan wolf. He patted it on the shoulder and said “I’ll ride you into battle, ok? Fight well so the chief gives you a name. then in a thousand years it will be our legends they sing about at campfires eh.” Before climbing onto the beast.

It was clear to Benjamin that he was giving the two of them space. Though, he didn’t understand why. The pair didn’t have to worry about his feelings, he had just been surprised that was all. besides, he had only just arrived here and Grace was the first girl he met so it was only natural that…

“Grace slept ok, but she wanted to talk to Benjamin. She wanted to tell him about before, that she was sorry and that what you saw was…” she stopped talking as Benjamin interrupted her with a raised hand.

“Its ok Grace, you don’t have to explain yourself to me.” He said, with a wry smile. “It isn’t any of my business anyway, besides we really do need to get moving it isn’t safe here.” He continued

“But Benjamin, Grace didn’t mean…” she tried again. this time it was Jade that interrupted her.

“Hello, are you even listening to me? I said if it’s that dangerous here, then I want them with me.” The black leather clad woman said, hands on her hips.

With a roll of his eyes, Benjamin lifted his hand as if to touch the back of his knuckles to Grace’s cheek, before pausing. Thinking better of it he turning away to mount Ice, letting his hand fall away.

“We’ll talk later,” he told her as he moved. Once seated he waited for Grace to mount Honor, he felt most comfortable having her ride him. That wolf was loyal to the bone, even more so now, since Benjamin had reshaped his pattern a little.

“You can ride the white and grey one. If the ogres can keep up than keep them out, otherwise put them away until there is something that needs killing, will you? The sun is already setting, and from what the Erlking told me, we don’t want to be in the open after the sun goes down.”

He then turned and, flanked by Grace and Stomper on their somewhat smaller wolf mounts headed deeper into the city. He could hear Jade cursing at him over his shoulder but he didn’t stop. He wasn’t going very fast, the blonde woman had plenty of time to catch up.

* * *

Grace

The goblin girl rode on Honor’s back. Following behind Benjamin, who rode the legendary elemental wolf he had named Ice. In many ways this was the ideal goblin dream. To be a wolf rider, like the mighty heroes in goblin children’s tales. To follow a mighty warrior into battle, on behalf of their Creator.

Grace was excited by that, it was true, but she was also out of sorts. She looked up to Benjamin leading the way into the strange white stone town. He was upset with her; she knew he was. She also knew she was upset with herself. What she was having trouble figuring out was why.

Benjamin was strong and fearless, he was also the chosen champion of the Creator, Lord Erlking. She had to admit that she liked him, but was it only because he was strong and a champion? She Looked over to where the other champion, Jade, was riding the unnamed white and grey wolf. Her gut twisted with dislike at the strange woman, with her too tight leather armor and her strange hair. She could rule out it just being because he was a champion then.

Grace thought about Benjamin kissing that woman and her heart clenched up in her chest. She wanted to yell and hit something. Was that what Benjamin had felt when she had kissed her clan brother? If so then Grace understood why he was mad much better now. Did that mean he liked her too? Her mind wondered around the normal thoughts of every young adult ever born, regardless of species.

They hadn’t seen anything so far, so she wasn’t paying as close attention to her surroundings as she should have. The sun had nearly set, the tall spiral towers casting strange twisted shadows over the ground. It was already getting harder to see. Goblins had good night vision but as the sun was rising and setting the light shift messed with their vision.

“I think that one looks good,” Benjamin called out from up front. Pointing to a white stone tower not much bigger than a house. There were large openings, like windows and doors, around the building. “I think we can all fit inside this one, and it looks like we can defend the entrances if we have too.” He dismounted, and gave Ice a scratch, before walking toward the building.

Stomper was already off his wolf and at his Chiefs side, axe and shield at the ready. Grace cursed herself for not paying better attention. She lifted her new bow, a gift from the Creator, in preparation to climb down after them when she heard a clicking sound.

The others stopped too, looking around. the clicking was coming from the building and grew louder and louder. Once the creature that caused the noise came into view Grace didn’t hesitate. Still mounted on Honor, she raised her bow and fired on the beast.

No sooner did her shot land; all hell broke loose.