We rushed outside and saw everyone else doing the same thing.

Marcus nervously chuckled, "I guess everyone got the message."

The rod guys were already heading up onto the walls, and most of the other refugees were looking nervous and talking quietly. I could almost feel the fear coming off of them. Not that I really could blame them. Here I was telling people they'd be safer here than where they were, and now we were under attack. I really wanted to help these people, but their lives were on the line, and I was responsible. I kind of felt like I'd led them into some kind of trap. I know that wasn't my plan, but the game was treating this like, a game. It created an invasion, and they had to fight for their lives. If they were normal players this would have been a cool event. You get the castle, build some defenses, claim a room and fight enemies to defend the castle. If you die, oh well. You can respawn. Either way you get some rewards that make your character stronger, and it doesn't cost you anything but time. But how could I ask these people I was supposed to protect to fight in a game of life and death. Death for them was really death... then I realized, death for me was really death.

I probably froze for a bit when I realized that. This game was just supposed to be something to pass the time. I wasn't even a hardcore gamer. This wasn't a game anymore. I was kind of aware of that, ever since what happened in Brogan's world, but it had just sunk in. This was a crazy new world, where I had to fight for my life, and the lives of 72,000 other people. I didn't feel like I could be responsible for everyone, how was I supposed to lead them against an invasion? Yeah, I was a dragon, kind of, but I was basically a nobody. I finished high school, got a job, and just kind of existed. I didn't even go to college. Though, I don't think college prepares anyone to lead an army of interdimensional travelers in the defense of a magical castle. But the point is, I was just a girl, in way over my head.

Even though I was frozen with indecision, there was someone else who was not. Bjorn stood on top of the outer wall and slammed his shield down. The sound echoed out over the courtyard, and everyone quieted down.

"Listen up." He easily projected his voice with his powerful lungs. "You don't know me, but I have heard about the struggles you've been through. I have heard of your bravery, and courage, I have heard of your tenacity, and I have heard of your sacrifice. I admire you. I don't know if I could have done as well as you have. So what I am about to ask, is intended with the greatest respect. The soldiers who came with you are not enough to man the walls. There are weapons that will go to waste unless some of you join us in the defense. You will be in danger if you volunteer. But, if you do not, we may not be able to win." He paused for a moment while thousands of people started talking. He slammed his shield again. "If you do not want to fight, go to the housing area. All volunteers, stay here."

He had an authoritative tone to his voice that the refugees seemed to react to. Most of them started going into the housing area, but there were a few who stayed behind. I was going to try to count them when I got a notification.

Alert

You have been invited to an army by Bjorn

Accept Y/N?

I obviously accepted, and then realized I didn't need to count anymore. There were ten squads of ten rod guys (their class was apparently soldiers), then there was another thousand unassigned, classless people. Then there was me, Marcus, Lily, and Bjorn. Bjorn was listed as the general, and it looked like he was putting everyone else into large groups. In less then a minute, all the classless people were in groups of 100, and I was put in a squad with Marcus, Lily, and Bjorn.

"I have assigned each of you to a group, and if you look at your map you will see your zone assignments. Get there as quickly as possible. I will give you further instructions when you are in position."

Bjorn used a form of telepathy that came as part of the system for raids and armies. Basically, he could send a message to everyone, but everyone else was limited to sending messages to other people in their squad. Unless they were the squad leader, then they could send messages to the next up the chain of command. Once everyone was in position, Bjorn gave a quick explanation of how the balista (which were inside the walls) worked, and assigned some people to man the balista, and some to man the javelins. He did ask if anyone knew how to use a bow, but they didn't have bows where they came from, so he didn't worry about using the bows.

As they were all getting in their places and learning the basics of firing a balista he sent me a message, "Bwyd, if you're just going to stand around, at least come up here and activate the cannons."

I was going to say something about how I wasn't just standing around, but I was just kind of standing around. So instead I looked at my castle interface and found the cannons. At their current level, I could fire them manually, or assign a gunner to each one. I teleported up to Bjorn and told him, so he picked out one volunteer for each cannon, and I made them all gunners. I kind of wanted to fire a cannon, but Bjorn wanted me using my skills to fight.

Once we were mostly ready, there were still a couple things Bjorn was explaining, we started waiting. And waiting. We had a notification telling us about an invasion, but nothing attacked. It was quiet. We were all expecting something to come running out of the woods any second, but nothing happened.

Until it did.