Deserts Of Naroosh

by Bradford Bates

  That seemed unfair. “Not everyone is a morning person.”

  “It’s ten a.m.” ShadowLily had a stern look on her face that was probably a pretty good imitation of Joe’s when she tried to wiggle out of something. “Morning ended four hours ago.” She shook her finger to emphasize the point.

  Tim imagined when your dad ran a breakfast joint, mornings probably started around four. He’d worked on the grounds crew at a local golf course during the summer and experienced something similar. All his friends weren’t even off work yet when he was eating dinner and getting ready to call it a night. Now he hated early mornings with a passion no matter what time of the day they occurred.

  “Just let me get the coffee finished, and I’ll meet you there.” He was going to call on a skill he hadn’t used in a while, but it felt like something he had to do alone.

  ShadowLily was no pushover. She knew he was acting a little weird, but to her credit, she let it go because she knew sometimes people needed a moment to themselves. “I’m going to check on Cassie and JaKobi. Don’t be late.”

  “I’ll be right behind you.” Tim turned and started making his way to the bathroom.

  After ShadowLily left, he took care of the morning business and washed his hands and face before equipping his robe. His first couple of sips of coffee took the edge off nicely, then Tim set the cup aside. There was no way to know if he used this skill whether the goddess would come, but the rain outside almost felt like a hint to pick up the phone.

  Tim knelt.

  He wasn’t sure if the kneeling was mandatory for the spell to work, but it felt right. When one was about to call on the all-powerful, it probably paid to recognize their ability to smite you with a thought. His hands moved through the spell Appeal to the Goddess, and he thought about what he wanted to ask.

  “Eternia, I don’t know what’s coming our way next, but I know we’ll need your help. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.” Tim bowed his head and waited.

  Beautiful white light filled the space, and the Goddess Eternia stepped out of it. The light formed around her in a dress as she reached down and lifted Tim to his feet. “It is good to see you adventurer, but I have dire news. My sister is already aligning her forces against you, and one of her most fearsome creations is heading to Jabari’s palace.”

  Tim didn’t like the sound of that. “What is coming for us?”

  “The Juggernaut.” Eternia frowned. “The battle against such a creature will not be easy, but it must be dealt with, or the rest of the fight will go poorly for Khalid’s people.”

  Quest Received: Breaking the Juggernaut

  The Goddess Vitaria has many vile creations. One of the most monstrous is the unstoppable Juggernaut. The Juggernaut cannot be reasoned with, he cannot be bargained with, he is an immovable force of evil, and he is coming for you. Your job in the next battle is to stop the Juggernaut before he destroys the resistance.

  Quest Reward: Ten gold coins

  Tim bowed his head and accepted the quest. “We’ll take care of it.”

  “I never had a doubt.” Eternia placed a single finger against Tim’s forehead. “Go forth with my blessing, and bring Jabari’s grip on his people to an end.”

  Eternia’s dress of light pulled apart, creating a portal. She floated into it, and the light winked out of existence.

  The goddess was gone.

  “I wonder what level I have to be to learn that?” Tim watched the place where Eternia had been for a moment in absolute wonder.

  Being able to portal back to town from anywhere would be super helpful. It would cut their travel time in half. Next time he had a chance to speak with the goddess, he would have to ask her if she’d be willing to share the details of that particular spell with him. If it wasn’t something she could divulge herself maybe she could point him in the right direction to figure it out himself.

  Better yet, he could put JaKobi on it.

  The fire mage loved research, and if he figured out the spell, he could share it with Tim. That was a win-win in his book. He filed the thought away in his never-ending to-do list, powered down another cup of coffee, and ran out into the rain.

  It was a comfort to see the fire in Khalid’s tent. A few hours ago, Tim would have called it absurd. Why would anyone need one in the desert? All they had to do was step outside, and their skin would instantly be dry. With the monsoon, the temperature had also dropped. Now he was thankful for the fire as it dried the chill from his bones. The older warrior was the only one in the tent so far. Tim had finished his business before ShadowLily could wrangle Cassie and JaKobi out of bed.

  No surprise there.

  He might as well drop the bad news on Khalid while everyone else was otherwise occupied. The desert warrior might need to change his current plans based on the new information. “Khalid, I have news.”

  The warrior sat back in his chair as if bracing for a blow. “Tell me.”

  Tim hoped the news didn’t shake the man further. Khalid didn’t have too much to worry about since Eternia asked the Blue Dagger Society to handle the problem for him. All he had to do was help them get there and get out of the way. “The Juggernaut is coming.”

  A low whistle escaped through Khalid’s lips as he processed the information. “That changes things.” He stood and looked at the map on the wall. “Are you sure?”

  “From Eternia’s lips to your ears.” Tim moved forward so he could see what Khalid was studying. “She also tasked my group with dealing with the new threat.”

  After tapping the map in a few places, the warrior smiled. “This could work in our favor.” Khalid pondered his strategy. “As long as you can handle the task.”

  He turned away from the map and looked at Tim. “I hope you're up for it.”

  “We never run away from a challenge.” Tim grinned at the warrior. “And we never lose.”

  “I’m counting on that.” Khalid looked at Tim and back to the map. “Jabari isn’t going to know what hit him.”

  The tent flap rustled and the rest of the guild came in along with Neema. The Desert Wolf pointed at the leader of the resistance. “I thought it was too early for our brains to be moving that fast.”

  ShadowLily laughed as she wrapped her arms around Tim. “You get this one working on a problem, and he never stops. It’s like his brain won’t turn off until he’s figured it out.”

  Cassie snorted. “Must be a guy thing.” She looked at JaKobi. “Although his focus seems to be limited to things no one else would find interesting, and sex.”

  “Hey, knowing the airspeed of an unladen swallow is important if you want to vaporize it from the air.” JaKobi made a little gun out of his finger and shot a small ball of fire into the air, where it blew up in a shower of tiny sparkles.

  Tim made sure nothing was going to catch on fire and grinned back at his buddy. “The real question is, was it an African swallow or a European swallow?”

  “Not this again.” Cassie groaned.

  Suppressing a chuckle, Tim turned his attention back to Khalid. “As always, our better halves have the right of it. Tell us about your plan and what we can do to make it work.”

  Khalid looked at their group and back at the map. He took a moment to reorient himself after they broke his concentration, then flipped the map over to reveal a second map with a more in-depth look at the city of Nar’ha. “Jabari has enough men to hold the city, but now thanks to our new friends he doesn’t have the generals to lead them.”

  He stabbed a small knife into the largest building on the map. “He will fall back to the palace and make it his last stronghold, but first, he will try to hold us off. Especially if what Tim tells us is true.”

  “Exactly what did Tim tell you?” ShadowLily shot him a withering glare, clearly not liking being the second person to hear the information.

  Before Tim could respond, Neema put her hands on her hips while staring daggers at the map. “That bastard is going to try and use the people as a h
uman shield.”

  “Yes, once we make it to the city, he’s counting on us to be slowed greatly by our inability to attack it directly.” Khalid looked at the map and back at the band of adventurers. “The problems for us only seem to be mounting. We can’t use the catapults or any of the siege weaponry we secured for the battle without risking harm to the people we’ve sworn to save.

  “If we can break their initial defense, we can bring in the big guns.” Khalid looked pained as he said it. “Even then it might do more harm than good.”

  Tim understood what he meant. What good was freeing the desert people if it destroyed half of the city and the people were all slaughtered? Trying to protect people in a war was a messy business. It was always easier to burn things down than to build them or save them from destruction. They were supposed to be the saviors so they had to hamstring their efforts to save as many people as possible.

  “I thought we’d surround the city on these three sides, forcing Jabari back to the Palace.” Khalid drew a small half-circle around the city to illustrate his point. “He won’t be able to put up a significant defense across that much space.”

  Tim looked over the map. Coming in from three sides would create a lot of confusion. It would also leave an individual side vulnerable to being completely overrun if Jabari committed all his forces in a single direction. Being so spread out made them vulnerable to a concentrated assault, and it also would expose the palace. Would Jabari risk it, or was protecting himself more important? That was the gamble they faced now. Then there was the surprise Tim dropped on Khalid.

  The Juggernaut.

  “And that thing we talked about earlier?” Tim looked at the map with a hopeless expression on his face. “Where do you think the Juggernaut will strike first?”

  Khalid looked at the map while tapping a thoughtful finger against his chin. “No way to know for certain. Our best bet might be to hold your party in reserve until Jabari commits the Juggernaut to an attack. When Vitaria’s monster strikes, it will be your job to stop it.”

  “Juggernaut?” Cassie sounded disappointed. “Some fucking clown in a shiny hat? That’s nothing. Let’s go get this guy.”

  Tim sipped his coffee. “Somehow I don’t think we’ll be facing that Juggernaut, Cassie, just one of some kind.”

  JaKobi was grinning like Thomas Edison when that first lightbulb finally lit the night. “We’ve got our Juggie. Let’s see if we can find her a shiny hat.”

  “Are you saying I’m fat?” Cassie rounded on JaKobi faster than a mongoose on a cobra.

  Tim couldn’t stop the coffee from spraying out his nose as he laughed. The look of pure horror on JaKobi’s face was that priceless. Every man had been there before, said something totally innocent, and been hit with the whammy. He wanted to grab Cassie and shout, yes Juggernaut is fat, but that isn’t what he was saying. The stupid bastard was trying to imply she was tough as nails.

  Tim did the inventory trick on his robes, but Khalid’s rugs weren’t so lucky. Maybe there was a way he could bail his buddy out. “So what I heard is their Juggernaut versus our very slim and sexy tank. Is that what you heard, JaKobi?” Hopefully, he’d thrown him a large enough lifeline.

  “Exactly what I heard.” The fire mage started to inch back.

  Khalid looked at their group again, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe they were able to beat the generals. “You’ll wait in the back with the rear guard. When the Juggernaut attacks, you’ll stop it.” He turned to Neema. “Then you’ll lead the assault from the other side.”

  Neema looked worried. “You’ll lead the assault from the middle?”

  “Someone has to draw their attention. Jabari won’t commit the Juggernaut to the battle until he knows I’m there.”

  Pulling Khalid into a fierce hug, Neema whispered, “Just be careful.”

  “Always.” The desert warrior returned her hug with a fatherly expression on his face.

  ShadowLily moved to get a closer look at the map of the city. “Once we’ve secured the city, what then?”

  “Then we move to the palace.” Khalid gave Neema one last squeeze and moved to the map. He circled a small area in red chalk. “After the Juggernaut is defeated, meet us here.”

  Khalid looked at the secondary staging area. “Jabari will have many surprises waiting for us when we assault the palace. Hopefully, I’ll be able to give you more intelligence before we head inside and continue the battle.”

  Tim felt pretty good about their plan so far. Their job was to hang back and take on the big nasty when he showed up. After they kicked the Juggernaut’s ass, they would move to the staging area and find out the next steps. It was easy enough to remember and gave a lot of flexibility for when things fell apart. In the end, it wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all they needed.

  Khalid turned from the map and met the eyes of each member of their party. “I’ve waited for this moment for so long, to pull our people back into Eternia’s light. Now that the final battles are upon us we must wait a little longer. We will leave tonight and attack with the sun.”

  He reached under his desk and pulled out a small jug of wine. “I will see you this evening. Make the most of the time you have left before the fight for our future. Once the battle starts your options for resting will be limited until its completion.” He walked out of the tent with the jug in his hand.

  Neema watched him go, but her eyes were full of purpose. It was easy to see the Desert Wolf was concerned for Khalid but knew she had a million things to do before the final fight. Turning to Lorelei, she gave her a quick kiss. “I’ll meet you back at the tent in a few hours.”

  Lorelei pulled her back for a much longer kiss, let her lips linger for a moment, and whispered, “See you then.”

  Tim tried not to grin. There was something about seeing two hot women kiss that was sexy as hell. Although the more it happened around him, the more the novelty of the situation wore off. Kind of like how he felt watching other straight people kiss. There might as well have been a sign over their heads that read, nothing to see here. As time went on it became a normal occurrence, and he was okay with that.

  Addressing the rest of the group as Neema left the tent, Tim couldn’t keep the excitement from his voice. “You heard the man. The day is yours to do whatever you want. Tonight we ride. Tomorrow we take back a city and return it to the light.”

  “I feel like there should have been cheering.” ShadowLily giggled. “It was a damn fine speech.”

  “Guess I need better soldiers.” Tim wrapped an arm around his girlfriend and led her from the tent. “But every great leader makes do with what he’s given.”

  “Tell me about it.” ShadowLily slapped his ass and took off at a run.

  Tim stopped chasing her at the tent flap and turned to look at the others. “Don’t be late.” Then ran out of the tent and into the rain.

  He had a sexy lady to catch.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  With the dawn came the call to arms.

  Tim had never been part of anything so large in his entire life, and he’d done forty-man raids. The host of warriors assembled dwarfed his largest raid group by a mile although he went through a Lineage 2 phase and some of those siege battles with multiple guilds on each side were epic. What they needed to do now was evolve their combat, more like a certain canceled science fiction MMO.

  Technically, gaming had evolved past the standard MMO years ago, but he was a sucker for the classics. Standing back and watching the mass of armed soldiers moving ahead of him made Tim feel more like he joined the army than was living in a game. The last time he’d been around this many people was back when they were fighting to save Tristholm. There was a certain amount of organized chaos to a force this big.

  It was amazing that one man could command all this.

  Khalid didn’t seem to be having any issues controlling the force as he shouted a never-ending stream of orders at his men. Riders came and left from the command tent almost by the
minute. Throughout it all, the warrior had a smile on his face and kept the mood light for the others around him. They were going to lose a lot of men today, but it would be worth it for their people.

  The old warrior let everyone he came in contact with know how much they meant to him. This was his life's ambition coming to fruition, and he wouldn’t have been able to do it without their help. Although he might die, Khalid didn’t look worried. He didn’t care about his life as long as they carried the day.

  ShadowLily watched the resistance moving to surround the city. “It is something, isn’t it?”

  “Like ants swarming over a crust of bread.” Cassie watched, fascinated.

  JaKobi bounced a ball of flames between his hands. “Like people fleeing the stadium after a bad loss.”

  Everyone looked at the fire mage. “What? I don’t just read books and nerd out over magic.”

  “Whatever you say.” Lorelei grinned.

  Tim knew what JaKobi meant. He might be a total nerd himself, but he still had other interests outside of gaming. It wasn’t as if he was devoid of culture. He enjoyed music and movies as much as the next person. Just not the stuff that won awards. Seeing the films that always won kind of showed him how out of touch Hollywood was with the rest of the world.

  Here in The Etheric Coast, they didn’t have to impress people or win awards. All they had to do right now was deal with the Juggernaut when it showed up. Thankfully they had the skills and the magic that would have made the best of the best back in the real world totally jealous. Sending in the Blue Dagger Society was like dropping a tactical nuke.

  They always got the job done.

  “I hate all this waiting.” Cassie gripped her staff and willed the Juggernaut to make an appearance.

  A moment later, Neema pointed at a disturbance along the left side of their battle formation. Something down there was wreaking havoc on their men, and they were falling back.

  Tim couldn’t make out what was waiting for them through the giant clouds of dust, but he knew it must be the boss. Whatever was attacking the men down there was huge, and it needed to be stopped. This was their time to shine.