I know that orcs and goblins are different creatures, but is this what awaits us in Carolton? Are the untrained townspeople no match for the goblin horde?
A wizard joins with the workers and shoots out blue streams of magic. They hit the orc rider for more damage than the entirety of the workers with each hit. After three attacks, a yellow stream erupts from the wizard’s staff and the orc rider shrinks by half his size. Now the same size as a human, the orc is overwhelmed by the remaining workers.
To my left, I notice that our battle lines have fallen. Only a fraction of our army remains, even one of the wizards has died. Meanwhile, the orc army seems never-ending.
We are so screwed.
A powerful blast rips through the orc army, sending several of the peons flying.
Ha! We’re in range of one of the towers. It continues to shoot a blast every few seconds, damaging the army far better than our warriors have.
“Keep them in range of the towers and fight,” I order, and Buzz and Grayson reorganize our army within range of the tower. “If we can lure them a little farther to the right, they’ll be in range of both towers.”
I see now how I could have won the game. If I had made a funnel of towers and forced the orcs to travel down it in order to reach the town, then likely they could have been defeated much more easily, but in real life, the goblins won’t be so stupid. They’ll attack under cover of darkness, or from our blindside. We will have to be ready for anything.
We eventually lure the orcs into range of the second tower, but with a great loss of life on our own part. The towers continue to decimate the orc army, but their sheer numbers keep them moving. They overtake what’s left of our army until all that remain are the defensive structures.
Dead orc bodies pile around the wall, but they continue to push. The health bars on the towers deplete little by little until they crumble to dust. When the towers are gone, the walls stand no chance. Even with the upgrades, the orcs tear through them easy enough.
Second by second, every building we constructed falls to our enemies. When the church crumbles down, everything goes dark and in bloody red lettering, ‘DEFEAT’ flashes across my vision.
“We need more towers and we need more warriors,” says Grayson, crossing his arms. “More knights or mages. They are the difference-makers.”
“Yeah, there are just too many orcs to defeat with what you gave us,” says Buzz.
They are right, but what’s the point of winning the game if it doesn’t help with the reason I actually came here?
“There has to be a way. Run it again.”
We run the game again. This time focusing more on warrior production and moving all four towers to the front side. We last longer, but are eventually overrun by the orcs again.
Next, we build more towers, but have less warriors. They defeat us again.
Ten more games come and go with various setups and incarnations. We never take down more than three quarters of their army.
“Dammit,” Grayson yells. Even though he doesn’t know the scope of the situation, the constant losses are frustrating him none the less.
“Let’s call it a day.” I finally resign. “Thanks for all your help.” I grasp them both around the forearm in turn.
“Whatever it is you’re working on, you’ll figure it out,” says Buzz.
I sure hope so.
Chapter Twenty-Five
With my spirit dampened and no way of knowing if my ideas to save Carolton will be enough, I settle down on the sofa and pour through the resources I downloaded earlier.
Medieval warfare is so simple and primitive compared to modern technology. A hole in the ground with spikes or a movable partition to prevent a cavalry charge would have such little effect against a robotic soldier, chemical warfare, or a large nuclear arsenal. Back then, though, that was how kingdoms were built, on a battlefield where the price was paid with the lives of common people who simply wanted to protect their way of life.
Not much has really changed, I guess. The common people are still the ones who pay the steepest prices.
Buzz and Grayson are out exploring the Pangea headquarters. It’s a lovely place and the sky lights up like a painting at sunset. I’m sure they are awestruck like I was when I first got here. I’d love to spend the evening with my friends and show them around, but I have a town that is depending on me. They’ll understand one day.
Think, Esil. Think.
In Craftwar, it was the mages and the turrets that made the biggest impact on the battle. Kindra, Carter, and I will be doing our fair share of work when the time comes, but we can’t let the villagers be slaughtered the same way the workers were in the game. Every villager that dies is a life lost. A life the town will have to go on without.
If only we knew where Priscilla was. She has more magical power than the three of us combined. But, of course, she disappears at the moment we need her most.
I’m looking over whether or not ballistae can be used as a defensive measure when a woman’s voice greets me through my intercom.
“Esil, are you there?” asks the voice.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Benjamin would like to see you in his office. Please report there as soon as possible.” There is a quick click letting me know she ended the call.
What could he possibly want with me? Maybe to check in on Buzz and Grayson. If it was about the game, then he would have been there when I logged out.
I throw on a hoodie and read my tablet as I walk to Benjamin’s office.
When I arrive, Benjamin has his back turned, facing out the window. The collar of his shirt is askew, showing the tie beneath it.
“You wanted to see me?”
He turns around and I can immediately see bags under his eyes. He sports a salt and pepper beard, his manicured looks all but gone. What is he dealing with that has him so out of sorts?
“Have a seat.” He motions lazily to the chair in front of his desk.
I take a seat and watch him as his icy blue eyes lose focus.
“Thank you for moving Buzz, Maria, and Grayson out of The Boxes.” I say it more to break the awkward silence than anything else.
“Don’t mention it. You’re a good kid and your heart’s in the right place. I can’t move them all out…maybe one day, but not now. It’s the least I could do to help bring you some happiness.”
Why is he talking to me like I’m on my deathbed?
“Is everything okay, Benjamin?”
He shakes his head as if clearing his mind and looks at me like he just now realized I’m here.
“Uhm, yes, everything is fine. I called you here to talk to you about your time in-game. Sorry I wasn’t there when you logged out, but I had some personal issues to deal with. I talked to the doctors earlier and looked over your report. The IV seemed to help a lot, but I was wondering, have you been feeling any different outside of the game? Just between you and I.” He stares at me intently. Like he’s expecting something.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Do you feel more aware? Like your brain is functioning differently? Anything like that?”
What the hell is he getting at? Am I some kind of special brain experiment?
“No, everything is norm—” Then I remember what I told Aleesia earlier.
“What is it?” he looks at me with greed in his eyes. Like what I’m about to say might just be the most important thing he has ever heard.
“When I learned magic in the cave, it was like the information was fed to my brain. Not like in Pangea, where you learn a spell and you learn the movement and the ability to cast it. Or like reading a book and then knowing what you read. No, this was different. It was a massive influx of knowledge there in an instant. It’s all still in my head right now. I can remember the exact formulas for calculating how powerful a spell will be versus how long it will last.”
Benjamin presses his fingers together ominously.
“Excellent. That’s all I needed to
know. Get a good night’s sleep and be in the lab first thing in the morning. You’ll be going on a deep dive.”
After I leave Benjamin’s office, I make plans for dinner with Aleesia, Buzz, Maria, and Grayson.
I order food from the cafeteria and have it delivered as soon as everyone shows up. For the next hour, I try to put my thoughts of Carolton aside and focus on my friends.
“So, Aleesia,” says Buzz with a mouth full of potatoes, “we haven’t seen you in Pangea in quite a while. What gives?”
“I’ve been busy with school and my internship. This is my last semester so I’m really going hard to try and be prepared for what’s next.”
“And what’s that?” asks Grayson. He’s a very meticulous eater, cutting his chicken into tiny cubes and keeping his potatoes and peas separated from each other.
“If I’m lucky, they’ll let me stay on with my current project. I’m an intern, but I’m basically an unpaid developer at this point.”
“What are you working on exactly?” asks Buzz.
“It’s top secret.” She winks.
“Dammit, I thought you might let it slip. Esil’s mouth is as tight as a clam on the subject.”
Aleesia reaches over and takes my hand.
“It’s good to know he can be trusted,” she teases.
For the rest of the meal, we talk about The Boxes, Buzz’s childhood, and what everyone hopes to do now that they are here. It feels good to just sit around and talk. All too soon, the dinner is over and it’s time for everyone to leave.
After Buzz, Maria, and Grayson leave, I pull Aleesia aside.
“Hey, did you mention anything to Benjamin earlier? About my dream or how I felt after learning magic?” I ask.
Aleesia looks confused for a moment.
“No, I haven’t seen him since you left. What’s up?”
“He was asking me how I felt. Not physically, but mentally. Like he was expecting something.”
“That’s very strange…” Her voice trails off.
“Yeah, and he said I’m going on a deep dive tomorrow. Do you know anything about what that might mean?”
Concern radiates from her face. “It means he’s putting you in extended play. It looks like you’ll get to see the battle through till the end.”
Sleep comes hard. I toss and turn, echoes of our defeat in Craftwar replaying in my mind, only this time, the warriors and the workers are all people from Carolton. They are guards and townspeople I passed in the streets. The mages are Carter and Kindra. As much as we try, the goblins are too much. They attack with blunted knives and brute force, pulling the life from anything in their way.
Running into the fray, my enchantments do damage, but it’s never enough. A great goblin warrior steps in my path, brandishing a two-handed axe. I raise my sword in defense, but he knocks it aside, the icy blade ripping into my flesh.
I wake up in a cold sweat. How is it that a game is having this kind of effect on me? Raising my heartbeat even when I’m not there, controlling my thoughts, making me care…
For the rest of the night, I continue to study and run through enchantment possibilities in my mind. My mana is too low to make a difference on a grand scale. I can’t enchant the entire wall with the density of steel or make every blade unbreakable, but maybe I can do just enough. That’s all we need. Just enough to succeed.
When my alarm goes off, I’m already dressed. I eat a breakfast of sliced berries and oatmeal, then head to the lab for my first deep dive.
Everyone is already at work, scurrying around the lab like bees in a hive.
Sensors and monitors are set up over the two new immersion capsules.
“Let’s get you ready,” says Marty. He waits for me at the top of the immersion capsule I’ve been using. A smile stretches across his freckled face.
I strip down and let him attach the sensors. It no longer bothers me that I’m naked in front of a room full of people. They are all focused on doing their jobs. Well, maybe except for one person.
Aleesia makes eye contact with me and gives me a thumbs-up.
“I’m not going to lie,” says Marty. “I can’t wait to see this battle go down. It’s going to be epic.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Just wait and see. Carter and Kindra have been busy while you were gone.”
Marty must have been watching the feed while I’ve been resting. You would think he’d have seen enough of the game watching me run around for hours on end.
I open my eyes slouched against a chair in Priscilla’s study. The cottage is empty but for a cat that crawls across the table, tail swishing back and forth. Several of the vials and potions that adorned the room are missing. As I walk through the house, I notice that most of the plants are gone as well.
Stepping out into the street, Carolton is once again booming with activity. It reminds me of the city on the day I first showed up, only everyone talks of work. There’s no laughter, only hard work.
Men carry wooden planks on their shoulders. The blacksmith’s forge rings throughout the streets. Boxes filled with farm tools wait outside its doors. Hammers rise and fall in a hypnotic rhythm outside the town walls.
I call to a man carrying a handful of wooden planks. “Excuse me, have you seen Carter or Kindra about?”
He nods. “Carter is outside the wall, prepping the defenses. The last I saw of Kindra, she was training with the archers.”
“Thank you.”
Archers? We have archers? I’ll give it to them, they’ve made a lot of progress in the time I’ve been gone.
A group of villagers sits at a table eating in the town’s center. Gertle and a group of women have a buffet set up for people to eat. Bread and stew waft through the streets, making my mouth water.
The gate that leads into town is open, allowing villagers to come and go as they desire. I pass an area where all of the village children are being kept together. From the looks of it, an elderly woman is teaching them about basket weaving.
Put everyone to use, I suppose.
Several men work on the construction of a guard tower at the corner of the wall. We’ll need one of those at all four corners and we’ll have to have someone posted at all hours once they are completed.
I freeze in place when I step through the gate.
How is this even possible?
The outside wall is covered in thorny vines. From the ground up to the top of the wall, thick, green vines blot out the wood underneath. I rub my finger against one of the thorns and it pricks me, drawing blood. No one is climbing over the wall without enduring a lot of pain. But that’s not even the best of it.
Every five feet or so, large plants with brilliantly colored flowers stand sentry. Each one is three to four feet high. If I know Carter, I bet they have some sort of projectile ability. In front of them, monstrous plants that look like hungry mouths snap their jaws.
Giant Flytrap. These carnivorous plants snatch birds from the air and decompose their flesh for nutrients.
I bet birds aren’t the only thing they will eat if it gets close enough. The villagers give the plants a wide berth as they walk past, careful to stay out of reach of their hungry mouths.
It’s crazy. I was so focused on the practical defense of a town that I didn’t take into account that magic might be the one thing that saves us.
Carter stands by a large tree, casting a spell on a seed after he plants it in the ground. The seed grows faster than any plant I have ever seen, blossoming into a fully-grown flower in under a minute.
“Esil!” Carter notices me. “Boy, am I glad to see you!” He runs up to me and squeezes me firmly on the shoulder.
“I can’t believe you’ve done all of this while I’ve been gone.”
Carter’s eyes are sunken with large bags forming underneath, but his spirits are high.
“I haven’t slept in two days. It takes a lot of mana to grow this many plants, but as soon as it replenishes, I’m on to the next one.”
I’m completely blown away by his dedication.
The tree that Carter stood next to suddenly moves and I notice two holes where eyes would be staring down at me. Roots rip from the ground with each step the tree takes until it bends down and offers a massive branchy hand to me.
“Is that—”
“This is Florian’s final form. I’d like to see goblins try and mess with him now.” Carter beams with pride at Florian’s new figure.
No longer the walking bush, Florian is a fully-formed tree. He stands over twenty feet tall, moss running down the bark that makes up his skin. His body now formed of massive tree trunks. Small branches shoot off in various directions. Florian is a natural tank, capable of taking a massive beating and dishing out pain. I feel a lot better knowing he is on our side.
“Where’s Kindra? And did you ever find Priscilla?” I ask.
“No one has seen or heard from Priscilla since she left.” He shakes his head in frustration. “And Kindra, she’s out in the field practicing with the archers.”
“Okay, I’m going to go pay her a visit. I think you should get some rest for a few hours at least.”
He nods. “Now that you’re here, I feel a little better about taking a breather. Tarence has been working on weapons nonstop since you left. If you need men, talk to Jacob and I’m sure he will send them your way.”
Kindra stands among a group of people in a field to the side of the town. There are about a dozen people, organized in three rows of four each. They all hold longbows and have a satchel of arrows slung over their shoulders. A dozen archers is not a lot, but it’s better than nothing.
Several hundred yards away, a small army of scarecrows has been assembled. A small boy runs back from the scarecrows with a bag full of arrows. He drops them at Kindra’s feet when he returns, and she raises her hand.
At this signal, the archers nock their arrows and take aim at the far-off targets. I’m extremely nervous to see how accurate the aim of these untrained archers will be.
Kindra drops her hand and the bowstrings thrum as they release their arrows. The arrows shoot off in varying directions, but it’s clear that none of them are going to hit their targets.
Pangea Online: The Complete Trilogy Page 44
