Looking each of the gamers in the eye, I let them know what I said was meant for all of them.
Crying at the top of his lungs, Treetop marched out to the front of the group, jostled his belt and began relieving himself while taunting the goblins.
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked, cringing. Moving to block Victoria’s view, I realized she wasn’t with me. When I spotted her, she was already turned away, trying to unsee the unseeable.
“Oh yeah,” Drool replied, joining Vector’s side. “This is normal for him.”
“He’ll be able to fight?”
“I don’t know how he does it, but yeah.”
All I could do was shake my head. Weird dude.
Stepping forward, Drool surprised me by leaning up and kissing me on the cheek. The seriousness behind her eyes rebuked my body’s response to her touch.
“You’re a good guy, Lucius. Take care of Victoria.”
“I will,” I said, shocked at her genuineness. I knew then I had been unfair with my judgment of her. Everything I knew about her was based on her reputation. Even Vector was still with her, perhaps finding out she was more than he thought as well.
I took my leave, afraid that if I didn’t leave now, I’d find it impossible to do so. I couldn’t say for sure if it was even wise to do so.
Rejoining Victoria, she asked, “Treetop?”
“They said this is normal for him.” I shrugged. “Be sure to stay at my rear. I’ll be your shield. You poke them from behind. Oh, and if I yell to run, turn and do it, no questions asked.”
“Got it.”
“Time to save some newbs.”
Victoria started shifting from foot to foot, her shoulder circling back. Did she know Marabella or something? Perhaps it was because she was a dancer too.
At that moment, over fifty players splurged out of the forest just south of us. Instead of snipers firing, the best-armored goblins I had ever seen, twice as many as the players, swarmed after them.
Before Harrison could give the word, all three groups ran toward them as one.
Unwilling to stay at the rear, I took a slot that opened up to join the frontline. In seconds their titles became visible, as did their beacons that towered over their heads, but didn’t light up the goblin itself to make things easier to see, unfortunately. Well, unfortunate for those without nightvision at least. They were the first Goblin Soldiers we had faced.
No more militia, I guess. These creatures were something else, still shorter than the average human, but thicker chested. Many had bronze armor, both chain and scale, but their biggest advantage was their shields. What was rare among the other goblins was now common.
Aware that I felt no sign of the hesitation-inducing fear, I charged forward happy to meet their advance.
Victoria kept up just fine but gave me room for the coming collision.
Lowering my shoulder behind my new bronze shield, I dipped low to meet an opposing shield. Our momentum came to a head; the ugly little toad weighed more than I thought, jarring my shoulder.
-4 Damage
Even though I won the contest of strength, my left arm became difficult to lift.
A spear from behind slid up under the rear-ended goblin, gutting him where he lay.
My own spear missed its mark, another goblin nudging it away with its shield. Night vision’s bold motion streaks took a few moments to get used to, but in comparison to fighting in the limited moonlight, this was cake. It also looked amazing. From this close, the black streaks moved as one with the enemy. There wasn’t the delay that I saw from a distance. I had to jump back to avoid a blade to the side of my head.
My next thrust caught chainmail, severing a few rings, but causing little more than a scratch. The player to my right downed one that fell into my spear, pinning it to the ground.
I raised my shield to block a new opponent, gritting my teeth as it impacted my sensitive shoulder. I concluded it was officially jammed.
We had surprised them enough by intercepting them. They started to retreat. The men retreating from the forest had turned and joined us, helping to push them back.
More groups were running toward us from the main defensive line. If the goblins had stayed they would have soon been outnumbered.
Feeling Victoria pat my shoulder, I looted the two goblins she had killed for her. I didn’t have the same luck. These were much harder to kill because they had the right equipment for the job.
The fifty or so players that had joined us from the forest were not in good shape. They didn’t join the main camp, deciding to stay even when the goblins fled. Vector and the gamers made the point to spread out before them to form a protective wall. With the majority of the wounded being athletes, I knew there was more to the action than just compassion.
Another tap on my shoulder brought me face to face with Victoria.
“I’m going to help.” She waved toward the wounded.
The more I was around her the more I could see that she did have the heart of a nurse or healer of some kind.
I followed her to the back of the pack. The most badly injured had already been gathered together.
Fishing a wad of clean rags from her inventory, Victoria went to work bandaging any wound that looked like it was still bleeding. I wasn’t able to confirm if they were suffering bleeding damage because I could still not see any other players’ health bars.
Handed a jug, I offered swigs of what I guessed was the same substance that had burned my throat last night. Just smelling it cleared my sinuses.
The state of these wounds sent chills up my neck. One man’s arm was almost severed at the wrist. Another somehow managed to retreat with a knife still sticking in his side. Three players had head wounds, two of whom didn’t even know where they were.
“What’s your name?” Victoria asked a man with a vicious cut from cheek to chin. She thought twice when seeing his injury. “Never mind. Can you escort these players to the gate and give them as much to drink as they will take?”
I handed her back the now half-full jug.
The confused men were taken by the arm and led away by other wounded men that were better off.
“Thank you,” said one of the men. “The goblins that chased us were only a fraction of them. Half our group fell in seconds. So many rocks…”
We departed and shared the news with Harrison.
“Figures. Hopefully, we can kill some more tonight. Their armor would go a long way to blunting their bullets. Wilson!” Harrison paused and asked, “What’s the other leader’s name?”
“Vector.” I grinned.
Vector joined us with Drool at his side. Her being there was more than just for looks. Besides her reputation, she was well known for using interesting strategies, not all having to do with seduction.
“Alright. I think we need to move south. Most of the players in the north have either died or returned, but almost no one down there has come back.”
Everyone turned to spy out the southern tree line. No one had their pets visible, besides Harrison.
“Cornelius is down there with his group. If anyone has it covered, he does,” Wilson replied.
No one asked who Cornelius was. No other Combat Arts legends had agreed to enter Freedom, except for him.
Vector sighed. We both knew that was a goal neither of us could reach. Some athletes were just untouchable.
My ribcage rattled from a bellow of something huge coming our way.
As one we turned to see a hobgoblin lowered in a sprint firing out of the woods.
My stomach wrenched tight and I was suddenly covered in a clammy sweat. A twitch in the middle of my back caused me to act. Before I realized what I was doing, I grabbed Victoria’s hand and ran.
Well, at least I hadn’t frozen.
Reaching the barricade I leaped up with enough awareness to turn and grab Victoria’s hand. Players made way as we landed among them. There were no complaints as we took a place overlooking a cart.