Tyters

Part 3

Beaches

Chapter 1

The Surprise Visitor

It took two weeks for the Regulators to cross the northern part of Nevada in the sweltering heat. Water was scarce, but they each had several gallons in their magic duffle bags. Once a day they would get a partial message with a lot of static from the tyter extraction team asking for any hunters to respond. The signal was slowly becoming clearer and they could expect their arrival by space ship in two and a half months.

The sun was high overhead and sweat poured down their bodies. Every sage brush looked the same for the past hundred miles, but they were finally coming into a hilly area with a few trees. The idea of shade made them hurry more. The weather had started to become erratic during the summer. Sometimes hot winds would blow, sometimes freezing winds, and rarely was there no wind. Rome had come up with a theory that when the tyters would terra form Nuva they could only control the weather for a couple of years. Nuva probably sat on a different axis and had a different distance from the sun than does Earth, and may not be the same size or have the same ocean to land proportions. Nuva was naturally reverting back to its original state, and that’s why the tyters hunted once every three years. The prey would freeze or bake to death depending on where they were from. But it was just a theory.

As they trudged along, they heard a distant rumbling. They were out in the open with nowhere to run and hide. Torger said “Let’s keep going. If it gets closer, we’ll be ready.”

The sound got closer every minute, and their fear rose, but they kept walking. Eventually they couldn’t ignore it and hope for the best anymore. Torger yelled “Battle positions!”

They formed a circle with Graul and Torger on one side and Arden and Antic on the other. Arden held his huge dragon scale tower shield and Jex aimed an arrow over the top of it. Brun and Rome held their staffs at the ready in the middle of the circle. This time they weren’t caught off guard like the last time. The sand erupted in front of Graul and grains rained down on them as a giant sand snake came up from underground. Rome immediately cast Analyze 2. He called out the stats.

Giant Sand Snake Level 61

Health 600/600 Stamina 62/80 Strength 40 Mana 0 Elemental weakness: Water

The last time they were attacked by one it had got Graul’s shield stuck in its mouth then fled. His steel round shield was twenty two inch diameter, so the mouth could easily open wide enough to swallow a human whole. Graul held his shield up over his head just like he had the first time, hoping it would bite and get it lodged then scurry away. This time he wasn’t so lucky. The snake was faster than anything he had ever seen as it lowered its head and slammed it into Graul’s side. He went sprawling across the hot sand, a huge dent in his steel chest plate.

Jex immediately spun on her heel and shot an arrow into its body just below the head. It reared back as Fire 2, Ice 2, and Lighting 2 entered its body, all three spells amplified by the silver arrowhead by one and a half. The magic alone caused 72 damage points. Arden rushed around and repositioned the shield in front of his wife.

Torger quickly and lightly stepped to the side and swung Red Fury into its body. The Fire 3 spell infused into the mithril blade added extra damage, but the snake still had plenty of health. He yelled “Poison!”

Brun raised his diamond encrusted staff and pointed at the snake and said “Poison three!”

A greenish black flash came out of the staff and struck the snake. The spell gave it an instant case of severe dysentery and removed 2/3 of its max health. Between Jex’s arrow, Torger’s slash, and Brun’s spell, the snake was teetering on death. As Torger raised his sword to make the killing blow, and the snake was whipping its spiked tail at Jex, a booming voice which seemed to come from the clouds yelled “Halt!”

Everything froze. No one could move, including the snake. Torger still had his thoughts, but his muscles wouldn’t budge. He didn’t know a spell could be so powerful. He couldn’t move his eyes, but an ancient looking dwarf walked up to them, directly towards Brun. He was carrying a diamond staff also, and with a wave of his hand the snake was released from its paralysis and slithered underground and far away.

The dwarf spoke to Brun. “Have you returned to now be my apprentice? I see you are all now qualified, even you.” He said that looking at Arden.

He waved his hand and they could all move again. Torger had been in mid swing toward the snake that was no longer there and he stumbled forward toward the dwarf, his sword in front of him. The dwarf lazily said “Shield one.” A magical shield appeared before him and Torger crashed into it. Most shields shocked an enemy with Lightning 1, but dwarves and elves had spells that would allow them to improve the strength and magic spells in their shields with Ice 1 and Fire 1. Torger was not so lucky. This dwarf’s shield had Lighting 4, Ice 4, and Fire 4. The shield shot out the three spells and Torger, Graul, Jex, Arden, and Brun all got hit with the three spells, removing 96 health from each of them. Only Antic and Rome were unscathed because they were the furthest away and those spells hit five enemies.

The five who got hit were knocked to the ground but they quickly got up again. Torger didn’t know what happened, but Brun understood perfectly. “Ristopan, I honestly thought I would never see you again. Well, I guess I never saw you the first time, since we were prisoners and you appeared in a holograph.”

“Brun, when we spoke I invited you to be my apprentice, once you got as far as you could on your own. I see instead you helped your friends to grow stronger. That was a kind and selfless course of action. You are very near your maximum ability now. It seems most of you are. Have you all come to be apprentices?”

“Actually sir, we were-“

Brun cut off Torger. Torger didn’t seem to get that as far as Ristopan was concerned, Brun was in charge. “I would guess you are aware we are tyter prey, and they will be here soon. We were welcomed and respected in a dwarf village for two years, and to pay that debt we will damage a threat to them, a goblin stronghold. Then we will have to fight the tyters and die. We are becoming accepting of that, but we will fight as hard as we can before they kill us.”

Ristopan looked at each of them and saw that Graul and Torger were resolute in fighting to the death, the others were fearfully accepting of it, except Antic who looked terrified at the thought. He tsked and shook his head. “Those damn war hungry beasts.” He pointed at Jex “And this one with child too.”

Everyone gasped, including Jex. She asked “What do you mean?”

“I mean you are pregnant dear girl. It’s very early, about a month now, but if you live you will have a daughter.”

She looked at Arden. “Where were we a month ago?”

“Maybe our last night in Home before we got kicked out on the road?”

Jex nodded. She looked at Ristopan. “This changes everything. I must live for my daughter.” She grabbed Arden’s hand. “We must live for her.”

Ristopan had genuine compassion in his eyes. “Had I known, I would have kept Besty away from you.”

“Besty?”

“The sand snake. She’s a beast, but Beasty doesn’t sound as affectionate as Besty. She lets me know when anything over level thirty-five is in the area.” Ristopan shook his head. “That’s a very different conversation. Now we have a few issues to discuss.” He waved his hand and sand rose out of the ground in the form of a long straight bench behind the Regulators. He motioned and they sat down, Graul finally loosening his grip on Inferno.

Ristopan sat on his own sand pile that was in the form of a throne and he looked at each of them. “I am not allowed to interfere in the tyter’s hunt. I leave them alone and they leave me and my dwarves alone. We have… an understanding. But first things first. You cannot attack the goblins in the Great Salt Flats.”

Torger asked “Why not?”

“Because that isn’t in my territory.”

When they all looked confused he asked them to look at their Maps. They each opened them up and saw they were near the edge of what would be Nevada on Earth. The maps were topographical and had no state lines, but showed mountains, valleys, forests, deserts, and the larger rivers. It was roughly the area of California, Arizona, and Nevada.

“It seems you have all looked at your maps before and are familiar with them. Rome, you seem to be the most familiar with science. You have realized you can’t zoom out any more, but you can zoom in, and when you zoom out to the furthest it shows your location, but it doesn’t center on your location.”

Rome nodded.

“I see you don’t understand. My point is your map will never show you what’s another fifteen miles to the east of here. You know what’s there from dwarf travelers and your own home world, but the map will never show it. That’s because you can’t go that far. There is a barrier that keeps prey confined to the district they’re from.”

Torger grasped an idea. “Baybil told us the tyters hunt once every three years, and there are thirty-three prey they import to hunt, so humans get hunted once every ninety-nine years. When their teleportation machine broke it should have brought in thirty-two other types of prey, but we have only seen seven other types of prey. Are these districts the reason we’re not all bumping into each other, even though we respawn far from where we kill each other?”

“Yes! Wonderful! You have a good head Torger. There are five districts. Indigenous beings to Nuva can travel between districts without realizing it. Prey get a wide area to roam to level up to make the hunt more fun, but once the hunters arrive, during the hunt the district gets reduced to less than a hundred square miles. I am the keeper of the west district. My brothers have the North, South, East and Central districts.”

Jex caught on before the others. “You’re one of the sons! One of the sons of Muldwil!”

Ristopan looked a little embarrassed. “I guess I said too much. No one knows we’re here. Apart from the five of us, you humans are easily the most intelligent creatures on this planet.”

Torger thought about the advice he’d given to the dwarves. Building houses, an aqueduct, helping elves fight a forest fire, even telling the dwarf auctioneer to stand on a box to be seen. Torger had humility and didn’t think of himself as too smart, but looking back no wonder the dwarves were stuck in the dark ages after being here for thousands of years. They were a little on the dumb and unimaginative side. “My guess is you fought the tyters with your dad and won your freedom, and you did that before the elves did the same thing.”

Ristopan slowly nodded. “I never thought anyone would ever figure that out. I won the freedom for my kind nearly four thousand years ago. The tyters called us worthy warriors and gave us immunity from hunts, as long as we don’t interfere in their hunts. I stopped talking with my followers over a thousand years ago. I want them to choose for themselves to get involved with prey or not. I’m supposed to discourage them from talking with other species, but if they didn’t trade with the elves for better magic, their mortality rate would double. They live longer and happier lives because of the trading.” He shook his thoughts away. “Anyway, you are honorable friends of dwarves to go kill some nasty goblins for dwarves who will now reject you. Because you are being so kind to my… grandchildren, I will give you a gift.”

He pulled out a scroll rolled up with a wax seal holding it together. “This is a powerful spell, far too powerful for you to ever learn, but it’s your ticket home, back to Earth.”

They all looked thrilled and with longing in their eyes they each held out a tentative hand hoping against the odds that they might actually live. Ristopan shook his head. “I see you don’t understand. I wouldn’t expect you to. No one has seen magic like this for a couple millennia. What do you know about the tyter method of teleporting you here?”

They all looked at each other blankly. Rome ventured a guess. “We were on Earth and saw an electronic device. It sent us here, but scattered us away from each other. The tyters enter through a machine that’s in a building on Catalina island. I don’t understand the technology, but the machine is broken and the extraction team is coming to fix it and take away stranded hunters. They don’t seem to realize there are no hunters here.”

“That is somewhat good Rome. I don’t have the first clue as to how they use machines to do magic, but it is different from magic no question. Skipping all the unnecessary guesswork, I’ll tell you what I do know. They think you seven are their hunters. They’re coming to rescue you, and re-establish this hunting ground. Once they realize you’re not tyters, they’ll kill you and they won’t be fair about it. Somehow your genetics got mixed with tyter genetics. Do you know how this happened?”

Graul answered and told him the story of finding the thing that was kind of a bed or stasis chamber under the sand in Yuma, and they used it and got the ability to use magic and respawn. Ristopan was fascinated by the story and kept asking for more details. When he learned enough he said it now made sense.

“That contraption physically changed each of you. When the tyters get closer, they will be able to tell you’re not actually tyters, but have some of their technology and DNA in you. That is why when Torger put his hand on the box of potions under the river, it responded, and the same is true when Rome put his hand on the door of the building in Catalina. So, back to the scroll. Go into the round tube on Catalina and then open this scroll. The spell will override their machine and teleport you back to Earth. I’m sorry I can’t help you fight the tyters directly, but if I did they would kill every dwarf on this planet. This has been a wonderful conversation, but I have stayed here too long. I do hope one or two of you will stay and become my apprentice, if you survive. It is so rare I get an opportunity to talk about intelligent things with anyone other than my brothers. And by the way, as a thank you to helping my dwarves fight goblins, I brought the goblins to you. Good luck with the tyters and either living or escaping.”

Ristopan muttered to his staff and a swirling mist briefly surrounded him before he disappeared. Torger looked to the horizon and saw thousands of goblins running at them from a mile away. It seemed Ristopan was slipping in his old age. The conversation was wild and sporadic then he unleashed enemies on them. Torger called everyone’s attention to the upcoming battle.

Chapter 2

The Slap

Quest (Mandatory)From Ristopan

Goblins have been multiplying for years and are on the way to attack the Cucamonga dwarves en masse. Protect the dwarves. The Regulators group must kill 1000 goblins.

Reward: The scroll you have been given will activate and allow you to override the Tyter teleport device on Catalina.

Failure: The scroll you have been given will remain a useless parchment.

Torger finished reading the quest then a counter appeared in the corner of his vision.

Remaining goblins: 1612

Goblins killed 0/1000

Everyone finished reading this and fell into despair. That is, everyone except Jex. She never read the prompt but was instead screaming hysterically. “No! Not my baby! I can’t fight while I’m pregnant! If I die, will she die permanently?”

She kept screaming this mantra over and over and had collapsed to her knees on the sand. Torger looked up and saw the goblins marching forward. They had about one to two minutes before they would be in the range of archers.

“Jex, you gotta stand up. You gotta help us fight. We need to win in order to go home!”

Torger’s voice kept getting louder and more frantic as she kept screaming and crying and she was ignoring him. Jex had always been an emotionally stable woman, but this seemed to finally push her past her breaking point. Torger looked to Arden for help. Arden sighed then gave Torger a slight nod. They had been friends for many years and Torger knew what that nod meant. The other five men started yelling about getting into battle positions and were becoming frantic as the goblins got closer. Torger looked around at everyone trying to do their best, but without clear leadership. Torger hated being led by others, but he hated being the leader even more. They were now less than a minute from battle and Jex needed to engage the enemy. The head nod from Arden had given permission to Torger. He pulled back his hand and slapped Jex across the face.

Unfortunately, in his adrenaline induced panic, he had put too much power into the slap trying to pull her out of her hysteria. In fact he put in way too much power. Torger was wearing a steel gauntlet, and Jex’s head turned almost a full quarter turn and she landed on her shoulder on the sand. Torger’s face dropped in horror. He reached down to help her up but Jex shook him off. She didn’t say anything at all, just glared at him. That was bad. He knew her well enough to know that she didn’t keep barbed taunts away from people who upset her. She was beyond ticked off that he hit her so hard and the look on her face made that very clear.

“Jex I’m so sorry-“

That was all Torger got out before she cast Teleport 1 and went to either the cave in Indio, Palm Springs, or the tunnels under Kellogg Hill. The group had just lost their archer for the fight. Torger looked to Arden to apologize to him, but he glared at Torger for a second before he cast Teleport 1 on himself to go look for and comfort his wife.

“Damn it!” Torger screamed in frustration, both with himself and the goblin situation that put them into this mess. He collected himself and pushed his emotions as deep down as he could. Then he resumed his leadership of the group. “Everyone set your respawn point to Indio… we’re not going to survive this. But we can finish this quest! Let’s kill some goblins and get into position to kill the tyters then go home!”

The other four men cheered at the hope of going home, but Antic cheered louder and longer.

Torger looked around and saw a steep hill a half mile away. He pointed and gave commands. “We need that high ground! We won’t be able to protect our backs. Brun, Rome, forget offensive magic, just cure us!”

They ran to the hill and found a large rock in the side of it. Brun and Rome climbed on top of the rock and Torger instructed them to keep a shield up in front of themselves. Then they took the last remaining half minute to regain as much stamina and mana as they could.

Predictably the goblin archers shot arrows long before the melee fighters arrived. All five Regulators cast a magic shield over their heads. After the volley of arrows struck the shields they were still all unharmed but the magic shields were all cracked. They each cast another shield above the cracked ones. The next volley of arrows landed just a couple of seconds before the fastest of the goblins arrived.

Torger and Graul each swung big and beheaded the first two goblins, and Antic, being pumped up with adrenaline, fear and a desire to go home shoved his halberd into the first goblin so hard the axe and hook went into its body. That was very bad because he couldn’t pull it back again. The next goblin swung wildly at him, and it was clear the goblin had very little experience using a sword in combat. Antic blocked with his steel bracer against the copper sword. The sword shattered and he kicked the goblin. He tried to free Power Cord again but it was stuck deep in the goblin corpse. “I need some help here!”

Torger was in the middle with Graul to his right and Antic to his left. Graul yelled “I got you” to Torger. Torger turned to the side and in two perfectly executed swings of Red Fury left just a six inch piece of the goblin stuck to the halberd. Antic nodded his thanks and pulled the flesh off with his bare hand. As he was doing that Torger killed the next two goblins that tried to attack the occupied human with the big fancy spear.

Torger turned to face the charge again just as another volley of arrows cracked the magic shield above his head. He was about to yell for Brun and Rome to help, but after nearly three years of life and death battles they all fought as a fully functioning machine. Three more shields were added on top of the two layers of cracked shields before Torger could ask for it. Torger swung hard and decapitated another goblin, then drew his sword back in a way that allowed him to elbow a goblin in the face that had made it between himself and Graul. Torger picked up his boot high and stomped down hard on its knee, breaking its leg.

He saw Graul and Antic swinging quickly at the dozens of goblins that had surrounded them. The bodies had began to pile up and Torger ordered them to retreat back up the hill twenty feet. He hated wasting the shields from where they were at, but the new goblins were climbing over the dead goblins and they no longer had the high ground advantage.

Two shields were cast just before the next volley of arrows came in. Wisely Rome and Brun had protected Graul and Torger, but the mages and Antic all got hit with arrows. Antic’s armor protected him, but Rome and Brun had to each pull two arrows out of their shoulders then cast cure on themselves. They got up two more shields just before the next volley came in. They protected themselves, but Antic was unlucky enough to take an arrow to the chin. The downward trajectory made it go all the way through his chin and a little into his neck.

Brun and Rome each cast Cure 1 on him, but Torger called them off after that. “Sorry Antic, but until you get that arrow out you’ll just keep bleeding.”

Torger and Graul turned back to back to fight the horde while Antic turned and scrambled up to Rome to break the arrowhead and slide the shaft out. Antic of course screamed in pain then was given a mid level potion by Brun. The problem was that most of it spilled out the hole in his chin. A couple more Cure 1’s later he rejoined the fight.

Just as Antic turned to get back into the thick of it, Torger called for them to scramble further up the hill. More shields were cast and more arrows found the mages. Rome pulled out an arrow from Brun’s back and saw there was heavy bleeding. Looking around, he saw that everyone was going to die from a thousand paper cuts. The three front fighters were bleeding profusely from minor cuts on their arms and legs. Rome cast Cure 3, giving each of them an extra 60 health (20 for the base spell x3 for using a diamond staff) which just meant most of the bleeding stopped but no real repairs to flesh were made. He called out to Torger “I’m out of mana!”

“Drink a potion!”

“We were saving those for the tyters.”

“If we don’t get this scroll activated it won’t matter. We have to finish this quest! We’ll get more later. Use all the potions if we have to!”

For the past six months Rome had been in charge of inventory and knew exactly how many potions they bought from the dwarves and elves. They had six high level mana and health potions and had started with six low level mana and health potions. Antic had tried to drink and wasted their only mid level health potion. Rome really wished at that point that they had bought more, but all their money had gone to the silver arrows for Jex.

Rome and Brun each drank a high level mana potion giving them each an extra 49 mana. They each cast another Shield 1 above their heads then each cast a Cure 3. That brought the mages back to full health, but the fighters were getting thumped on. Rome and Torger realized the problem at the same time.

Torger called out “We’re getting tired. My stamina is down to twenty-three! Report!”

Graul called out “Nineteen!”

“Sixty-one!” was called out from a smug Antic.

Rome called out “Some health and mana potions.”

Graul muttered “Bastard with the starting stamina of ninety.” Graul and Torger had a max stamina of one hundred which accounted for a little of the difference between them and Antic, but a quick glance showed Graul that Antic was doing more defending than attacking.

“Torger we can’t keep this up. We’re running out of stamina.”

Torger looked at his counter.

1371 goblins remaining. 241/1000 goblins killed.

The bodies were again piling too high to maintain the high ground. “Back up further! Rome and Brun drink mana potions and get new shields up! Rome look and see if we have any stamina potions. Graul we’ll need to use a little less force on our swings and stabs.”

Graul used his steel shield to bash another goblin in the face and figured that was taking a lot of his energy. They backed up to higher ground and again got pelted with arrows. As the fighters bent forward to have the arrows bounce off their protected backs, Graul took a sword thrust to the face. He grunted through the pain and killed the goblin with his own sword to its face and silently cursed Jex for leaving them. She could have picked off the archers by then. He decapitated another goblin and kicked a different one then saw a hobgoblin spirit rise from the pile of dead bodies.

Torger called out “Brun you do you!”

Brun drank a low level mana potion and cast Beserk 2 at it. The spell caused the target to go into a rage and attack using only its bare hands. It floated towards Torger who used all his might with a two handed swing and cut it in half at the stomach. The hobgoblin spirit didn’t die but clawed at Torger’s face. Torger cried out and tried to push it away, but since it was a spirit only magic could damage it. It dug its fingers further into his cheeks and Torger fell backwards. Antic spun and stabbed it with Power Cord right through the neck. The spirit let out a cry and dissipated into the air. Antic smiled and nodded at Torger but then he got stabbed on the back of a leg with goblin spear. Antic fell down hard. He rolled over and from his back chopped off the goblin’s hand then felt a familiar warmth as a golden light surrounded him. He scrambled back to his feet but still was off balance from the pain in his calf. Rome’s Cure 3 spell gave all of them the extra health needed to keep fighting.

Torger was exhausted. He stabbed another goblin through the chest and checked his Stats to find that his stamina was at 18/80. “Rome, seriously, any stamina potion at all man.”

Rome dug into his duffle bag while Brun drank the last three low level mana potions and quickly cast more shields. While they were busy, Graul called out “That spirit came up when we killed two hundred and fifty goblins. Be prepared for when we hit five hundred.”

Torger was wrestling a spear away from a goblin as he thought about it and realized his brother was right. The counter showed they were at 321/1000 goblins. “You’re right. If we make it that far, be ready. Rome, stamina, seriously, now.”

“I got two! We only have two high level stamina potions, no mid or low level ones. These are it Torger.”

Torger called “Let’s finish this wave of goblins and on the next retreat further up hand one to me and one to Graul.”

Antic wanted to argue that he needed on but he saw that the others were getting sloppy with their sword swings and thrusts. Most of the time one swing from them would still equal one death, but more often they were starting to land glancing blows that gave the enemy a chance to counter. Fortunately the goblins were stupid and the ones in back were pushing the ones in front with no discipline for battle formations.

A few kills later Torger called for the retreat and as they fought while backing up Torger realized he had made a mistake. They had made it to the top of the hill. The archers had to go all the way to the bottom of the hill to be in range, and they seemed content to shoot their comrades in the backs. Rome handed Graul and Torger each a high level stamina potion and they gained forty-nine stamina points and another one max to their stamina when they drank them. Torger verified his Stats.

Health 341/500 Stamina 59/101 Strength 12/20 Mana 100/100

Hell, he forgot about his own mana! “Graul and Antic, Cure 3!”

All three fighters had full mana and easily cast the spell. Since none of them had a staff they didn’t get a multiplier, so all five Regulators gained a total of 60 health. “That was stupid of me! If we get another break in the action take a diamond staff before casting that spell! How are you guys doing on mana back there?”

Rome called out “We’re both less than ten. We have three high level mana potions left.”

“We’re not gonna make it.” Torger regretted the words as soon as he said them. He saw Antic dip his shoulders and heard the mages sigh. Graul kept right on fighting bashing one goblin with his shield and simultaneously decapitating another. Torger knew his brother was emotionally stout and was prepared to fight to the inevitable death before the battle started.

A few more goblins killed brought them to the five hundred mark. When that happened another spirit arose from the bodies. This one was huge, nearly five feet tall and dressed in iron chain mail. Torger had never seen a goblin use iron, and the axe in its hands was also iron. He used analyze.

Karruk, the spirit of a legendary captain. Level 24 Health 320/350 Stamina 45/45 Strength 12/12 Mana 0/0

It surveyed the scene as Brun cast Poison 2 at it. Its health dropped to 175 and began losing one health point every four seconds, along with two other goblins near it. It barked orders. “Fools! Go around and attack them from the back!”

Torger’s fear had come true. These goblins were leaderless, or rather the leaders were safely in the back. The nearest twenty goblins ran around the hill to their left. Torger knew they only had about twenty seconds before the mages would be in combat, and they would lose quickly. “Graul, rear guard!”

Antic looked across at Torger, but they both kept fighting. Torger saw the question in his friend’s eyes but the words didn’t need to be spoken. Graul and Torger were nearly unstoppable when fighting back to back. They had an unexplainable way of predicting each other’s moves and anticipating dangers to each other. Breaking that team meant Torger didn’t trust Antic to handle twenty goblins alone or Torger had great confidence that Antic could protect Torger’s back. Antic would never know, but the truth was Torger didn’t trust Antic’s skills being outnumbered twenty to one. Until the mages were completely drained of mana they were still needed for the fight. That gave Torger another concern to worry about, teleporting their spare equipment. He decided to use that to boost Antic’s confidence.

“Rome and Brun, keep up the cures as long as you can. Give us everything you’ve got. Every potion and trick up your sleeve. Antic if they fall, cure me and Graul then use the last of your mana to teleport with all our equipment. We will have to save our gear.”

Antic used the axe part of the halberd to chop off a goblin’s arm then nodded at Torger. He understood they would all die, but Torger had an extra set of armor for each of them in their duffle bags, along with tents, water, food and weaker weapons. Teleporting while carrying five duffle bags would take considerable strength, but Antic knew Torger saw him as the only one capable of doing it. The battle was wearing everyone down.

Torger was still easily decapitating the small, weak, and stupid goblins, but there were minor cuts all over his elbows, arms, and legs where his bracers and greaves didn’t protect him. Since they had been fighting from the high ground the entire battle, the short goblins standing beneath him had easy strikes at his shins. His mithril boots that gave his feet Haste 2 allowed him to dodge most of the time, but Graul and Antic were bleeding heavily from their legs and were moving much more slowly. That made Torger certain it would be up to him alone to finish off the spirit captain that was pushing his way through the ranks towards Antic. It seemed the captain saw Antic as the easiest target, since Torger and Graul were doing a great job of protecting the healers.

Torger called out “One of you, Cure three!”

A warmth enveloped him and his bleeding arms and legs felt better. Then Torger gave a huge battle cry and quickly and precisely cut through the ranks of stunned goblins. Five of them fell before his steel sword cut the axe head off leaving the captain with a stick. It swung it and hit Torger in the kidney on his left side, partially protected from chain mail, but Torger used both hands to bring the sword down on the spirit’s head. The magic of Fire 3 flared and split the helmet and kept going through the skull. As with every swing of his sword, four fireballs each hit the nearest goblin. The spirit dissipated, then Torger found himself surrounded by dozens of goblins. He was separated from the group and left the mages unprotected.

He called out “Antic, protect them!” as soon as he saw Antic trying to make it to him. Antic used the halberd to keep goblins at bay away from the mages.

Torger got pummeled with a dozen weak and poorly aimed sword strikes, but it still hurt like hell even through the steel armor. He heard Brun call out “We’re giving you the last we’ve got! Good luck!”

Torger was hit with two Cure 3’s then two Shield 2’s surrounded him. The shields immediately hit all surrounding goblins with Lighting 1. Torger took a knee, thankful for the rest. He looked up and saw Graul and Antic playing a wicked game of king of the hill, with goblins all around them. Rome and Brun were ready to hand their staffs to their friends, then die a horrible death.

Torger’s counter showed 671/1000 goblins killed. He ignored the pounding of the two magic shields around him. The goblins were striking the outer shield which was heavily cracked, and each time one of them struck it, Torger knew that goblin would take 10 points of health damage. He took in deep breaths and focused on slowing his heart rate.

The outer shield fell and the banging started on the inner spherical shield. He looked up to the top of the hill. A dozen goblins were jumping on and stabbing the prone bodies of Rome and Brun. A few seconds later their bodies disappeared. Torger saw Antic gathering all five duffle bags then a pale green light surrounded him and he disappeared with all of their equipment. Antic had been bleeding heavily from both arms and legs, but he managed to save their gear!

The shield fell and Torger sprang to his feet swinging his double edged two handed straight sword at every goblin near him. Six of them died easily before he was able to start hacking at the backs of the goblins circling Graul. Torger killed five more before the brothers were back to back again.

Graul was completely spent. He didn’t get the fourteen seconds of rest that Torger just had. Without saying anything, Torger cast Shield 2 around Graul. The fifteen foot radius was plenty for them to both fit in comfortably. They killed the goblins in the sphere then looked around.

Torger said “Two more to kill until the next spirit. We’ve done well. Let’s get as close as we can to our goal.”

Graul shook his head and took a deep calming breath. “We’re not going to make it. We need to charge down the hill and take out the archers. Right before we die, we teleport and save our swords and armor.”

Torger agreed to the plan, but he couldn’t help but wonder if there was a time limit on completing the quest. They were nearly three weeks of hard marching away from their nearest “safe house” in Indio. Torger had no more time to think. The shield fell and they both ran into the goblins nimbly dispatching them as they jogged downhill over hundreds of bodies.

They reached the archers who were left undefended except for the few captains leading the campaign. All four captains glared at them but made no move to intervene. Torger killed the first archer and kept running unclear as to why the captains began smiling. A loud feminine shriek erupted from behind them and he spun to see a goblin queen spirit rise from the bodies. He didn’t bother to use analyze 1 or 2 since they wouldn’t be fighting her.

Torger and Graul fought back to back at the bottom of the hill as the captains stupidly ordered the archers to attack. Some used their bows to shoot arrows, but most picked up knives from their dead comrades and ran forward. A couple dozen archers fell easily before the melee goblins made their way back from the top of the hill, trailing the queen spirit.

She was about ten feet tall and encased in steel plate mail. She held a steel spear in one hand and a gold staff in the other. Suddenly, as Torger was shoving Red Fury at the chest of a goblin archer, he was paralyzed. A second later Graul was paralyzed, then a magic sphere surrounded them and they were lifted off the ground. It was eerily similar to how they were captured in the slave mines.

Correctly guessing each other’s thoughts, Torger and Graul both used Teleport 1 and found themselves in Jex and Arden’s cave in Indio.