Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

  He'd had the cream separated from the milk and now loaded it into the churn. It was basically a barrel on its side that rested on a stand. A hand crank protruded from one side, attached to a shaft with paddles attached on the inside. Once he closed the churn back up he took hold of the crank and started turning.

  He stayed in the barn since it was cooler and what he'd read about making butter said the temperature should stay cool while it was being done. He cranked and cranked, estimating that it was fifteen minutes before he felt the resistance that told him the butter was forming. He was well aware that the game had sped this process up also, since his reading told him it could take as long as forty-five minutes.

  After draining the buttermilk into a bucket, Liv had a biscuit recipe she said would use it, he scraped the butter out of the barrel and wrapped it up to take back to the inn. He couldn't resist tasting it himself, but the taste of the sweet butter wasn't quite right to him. Then he realized that he hadn't salted it yet. Both salted and unsalted were valid types, but he preferred salted and since that was the closest to what he was used to he decided that was probably the problem.

  I really hope that's the problem anyhow, it'd suck if I discovered that I actually preferred that imitation crap I used to use. I'll take care of salting it once I'm back at the inn. Then try it again, he thought.

  After cleaning the churn out with clean well water that he heated to boiling over a fire, he put it back together and chuckled as he dropped it into his inventory.

  I swear it's just like having magic pockets. I'm glad the churn is small enough to go in because it would've been a pain to handle otherwise.

  He waved a farewell to the herdsmen. He was pretty sure they were proficient and had been mainly hanging around to increase his own skills. With a called farewell to Brandr and Osmond as he passed them working in the fields, he headed back down the road to the inn.

  ~ ~ ~

  The butter was a hit at lunch. It was also gone within a few minutes. Eddie had dropped off the churn with Liv to decide where it went and promised her milk delivered each morning. He'd arranged with the herdsmen to make that one of their duties. Delgar had made containers with a lid that would fasten on for that delivery.

  Eddie had also dropped off the bucket of buttermilk and Liv promised the buttermilk biscuits she'd mentioned as part of dinner for that evening.

  With that taken care of Eddie, Tiana, and Jern headed out to the castle building site to work on the wall more. They had the first side up to ten feet high and had started work on a second side while stairs and the wall walk were put in by the carpenters on the wall they had mostly completed. Once the wall walk was completed, they'd put small steps up in the gap between each merlon to allow for unimpeded missile fire from the wall if needed. A five foot wall in front of you meant that you weren't going to be firing a bow into any attacking crowd near the base of the walls, so the steps were a necessity.

  Eddie had just finished raising another ten foot wide section of wall to ten feet high when his vision was completely obscured by a panel with flashing red letters.

  “What the hell is that?” he asked.

  “What's what?” Tiana replied.

  “Isn't anyone else seeing this? I can't see a damned thing, my entire vision is obscured. There's a panel with flashing leaders. It reads 'Wave 1' with the number, not the word.”

  The letters continued flashing for a few more seconds before disappearing, along with the panel they'd been superimposed on.

  “There, it's gone now. What the hell was that though? I've never heard of anything like it.”

  “I don't know, I've never seen anything like it. Never heard anyone else talk about anything like that except for when they first log on before they adjust their own screens either.”

  “It didn't show anywhere I could adjust it,” Eddie said. “The only interaction I could do with it was to read it. Then it went away on its own after a few seconds.”

  Tiana shook her head.

  “No idea, sorry.”

  “Well, wave one doesn't mean anything to me and it's not like I can do anything about it, so I guess I'll get back to work,” Eddie said.

  They went back to work, slowly raising the wall. They worked for about an hour and Eddie's mind wandered some as he worked. The masonry didn't require his total attention so his thoughts took off on their own.

  He was just contemplating how he enjoyed carpentry, but how there was something fundamentally more satisfying to him at hearing the 'chunk' of seating a finished stone into place over and over when Lucky came racing up and started pawing at him.

  “What is it, girl?” Eddie asked.

  She chuffed and reared up with her front legs on the portion of wall he was working on, staring at something out in the distance. When Eddie followed her gaze, he saw a blur in the distance. It was clear meadow for a long ways at this point, one of the reasons Eddie had decided to build the castle here. As he watched, the blur grew closer and slowly became more distinguishable.

  “Trouble,” he called out as he made out five figures moving at a fast trot. Five human-sized, green figures wearing armor and carrying weapons if he wasn't mistaken.

  He quickly accessed his inventory and put on his armor, pulling out his bow, arrows, and shortsword as well.

  A glance over showed Tiana sliding her chainmail on, then producing her mace. Jern was getting his armor on as well, although it was taking longer than it had for Eddie or Tiana. It looked like he'd manage before their visitors arrived though, so Eddie nocked and arrow, but didn't draw yet.

  “Jern, when you're armored up, you tank? I'll do DPS, and Tiana heals?” Eddie asked.

  “Sounds like a plan lad, you're better at damage per second than me, but if someone would give me a hand I'd be armored up a lot more quickly.”

  “Sorry,” Eddie said. “It looked like you had it under control.”

  “Just get those latches on my side, would you? Kind of hard to reach them. Once the armor is on, it binds. I can do it myself, but it takes a while.”

  Eddie reached over and fastened the three fasteners Jern had been talking about. Once the armor was secure, Jern's shield appeared in one hand and his hammer in the other.

  “Now, what's the trouble?” he asked.

  “It looks like Orcs, five or so of them. Probably here in a minute or two,” Eddie said.

  “It's a shame they didn't finish the wall walk yet, we could've tested it,” Jern said.

  Eddie shook his head.

  “I'm more worried about why five Orcs are showing up out of the blue to attack us,” he said.

  “Um, Eddie. Could it be related to that wave one thing you saw earlier?” Tiana asked. “That's the only odd thing to happen recently.”

  “Sure, maybe, but that was what, an hour ago?” Eddie replied.

  “Doesn't matter, they'll be here soon, and they certainly don't look like they've come to have an ale with us,” Jern said.

  As soon as they were in range, Eddie started firing. He managed to drop one before they got close enough for Jern to take a defensive stance. The dwarf was standing a couple of feet from the end of a partially finished section of wall, so they couldn't get around him on that side. As the Orcs started to swarm around his other side, Eddie release an Arcing Arrow at the lead one. Tiana had shifted to that side and was prepared to fight as well.

  Eddie had forgotten about Lucky after she'd sounded the alarm, but now she came down in a mighty leap off the top of the ten foot high section of wall, bowling over one of the Orcs as she latched her jaws in its neck.

  Eddie released two more arrows at the Orc that he'd fired the Arcing Arrow at, dropping it. Meanwhile Tiana had taken the opportunity to strike the Orc closest to her with her mace, slamming it in the side of the head while it stared at the giant bobcat that had appeared out of nowhere to drop one of its comrades.

  It's attention turned back to Tiana and it drew its sword back to strike just as Jern let loose with a string of ta
unts.

  “Green snot blobs, that's what you are. Did you see how your buddy went down under the teeth and claws of that little kitty? Pathetic, the lot of you. Even if all five of you were still here, you wouldn't be able to take me down five on one.”

  The Orc that had been about to strike at Tiana turned and raced the three steps to Jern, who was expecting it. The dwarf interposed his shield between his body and the Orc's strike. Meanwhile the other Orc was fending off Jern's hammer. The third one, down and bleeding beneath Lucky, looked like it wanted to attack Jern also, but was unable to escape the cat's claws, which were raking over and over as Lucky chewed on the Orc's neck.

  Eddie sent his next arrow into the Orc Lucky had down, not wanting his cat to get injured, but then turned his attention back to the two on Jern. The dwarf wasn't hard pressed or anything and seemed to be playing with them as much as fighting. Even so Eddie started firing at them.

  A golden glow caught his eye as Tiana healed Lucky. A few moments later another golden glow encased Jern after he missed one of his blocks. After that the dwarf got serious. Between Eddie's arrows and Jern's hammer the first Orc dropped in a few seconds. The second one took longer, but not a lot.

  When Eddie turned back to check on Lucky, he saw Tiana pulling back her mace from where she'd struck the top of that Orc's head while Lucky had it pinned. The bobcat looked up and whined, almost as though she were upset that a favorite toy had been taken away. The Orc was motionless beneath her and Eddie just shook his head.

  I've got a pet cat that thinks Orc warriors are cat toys. Man, have I come up in life, he thought.

  As the last Orc gave a gurgling sigh and finished dying, Eddie's vision was obscured again. This time the letters read 'Wave 2'.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Um, I think Tiana may have been right,” Eddie said. “Just as that last Orc died, I got another message. This one read 'Wave 2'.

  “Eh, that's fine,” Jern said. “If it's like wave one, we could handle it in our sleep.”

  “Yeah, about that. You know we aren't from here right?” Eddie said.

  Jern nodded.

  “In our world there are waves like that in some things we do. The only thing is that each wave normally gets progressively harder. Larger, or more powerful, or something like that. I'm guessing it wasn't about an hour since I saw the first message, I'm guessing they came into sight exactly an hour after I saw it. If this works the same, then we've got an hour to prepare. I think we ought to see if we can find Karl and Allie, Dominic also. Get the whole group together to face this?” Eddie said.

  Tiana nodded, signifying her agreement. Jern simply sighed.

  “If you think we need to do that, then we can. If you're right then we might need it. If it ends up we don't, then we can just pay attention at the right time and clear these things out whenever they show up. I'm wondering what causes it though. You get warned and then attacked, are the gods testing your skills or something?” Jern said.

  Freyja wouldn't do that, Eddie thought. But maybe a developer? Aaron wouldn't, but I'm sure he isn't the only one that could do something like that, assuming he could. I wonder if it's strife in his company? Is someone jealous of his project, position, or something like that and trying to sabotage his research? The only thing I can think of that this might tie into is the long term pod testing I'm doing. If that's the case, then we'd better find Karl soon since he might be affected also.

  “You know, I'm worried about Karl. The only reason I can think of for someone to do this to me would also leave him qualified for an attack like this. Whether we need the whole group to fight these things or not doesn't matter to me as much as making sure he didn't just experience the same thing,” Eddie said.

  “Pods?” Tiana asked.

  Eddie hadn't really considered that she knew why he and Karl were in the game constantly, but now he was reminded.

  “It's the only thing I can think of,” he said.

  “We'd better go check on them then,” Tiana replied.

  “Alright, where are they today?” Jern asked.

  “As far as I know, he was staying home working on maps,” Jern said.

  “Let's go then.”

  When they made it back, Karl and Allie were in his house across from the inn. They were also surprised when Eddie told them what had happened.

  So it didn't happen to Karl also. It's just me. Who did I piss off? Eddie wondered.

  “Alright then, let's get Dominic and maybe ride the next wave out in the wooden fort here?” Eddie said. “If it is just an hour between the message and the attack then we've got another thirty-five minutes or so.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Seven

  Aaron woke up and for the second time in his recent past it took him a few moments to place where he was. Once he did a broad grin spread across his face though.

  Dinner and drinks had gone well with Lydia, as had the following negotiations. He'd been relieved when they decided where to go for drinks. He'd worried that she'd want to go to a nightclub, but he passed her test by choosing the bar she offered as opposed to the nightclub. As she'd said:

  “If I want drinks, I want a bar. If I want to dance, then I want a nightclub.”

  She'd proven to be just as hyper, energetic, and forward out of work as she had appeared at work. As an added bonus she also seemed significantly less prone to taking offense outside of office hours. Either that or he simply hadn't crossed any of her other boundaries.

  Now he was waking up in her bed after a night that he was pretty sure he'd remember for a long time. His phone chirped again and he realized that was what had woken him. Lydia wasn't in bed, but he heard the shower running so he was pretty sure he knew where she was.

  He picked up his phone and it alerted him to a message from in-game. This notification was one that he'd set to only go off for Eddie or Karl, so he wanted to get to it as soon as he was at his workstation since it might bear directly on the pod research he and his team were doing.

  The shower turned off and a minute later Lydia appeared in the bedroom door, stark naked and totally unselfconscious about it. As she started gathering her clothes, she gestured towards the door.

  “There's still hot water if you want the shower,” she said, as she started sliding on her clothes.

  Aaron was a bit more self-conscious than her as he slipped out from under the covers and made his way to the shower. Before he started the water he heard her call out.

  “Coffee? That's normally my breakfast.”

  “Yes, please,” he replied. “Mine too, unless I decide to stop for doughnuts on the way in to work.”

  “Mmm, doughnuts,” she replied. “Coffee will be ready in five to ten minutes.”

  He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face again as the warm water pounded down on his body.

  I wonder if this is a one time thing or if she might be interested in more. I could see it going either way. Do I ask, do I let her bring it up? God, I'm so much better interacting with others now, but not about things like this, he thought.

  When he was out of the shower and dressed he found her in the kitchen, nursing her own cup of coffee.

  “Milk, sugar?” she asked.

  “Both please,” he replied.

  “Oh well, no-one's perfect,” she said, dosing his coffee and handing him his cup.

  One corner of Aaron's mouth turned up in a half-smile.

  “So, I'm perfect except for how I like my coffee?” he asked.

  He was dumbfounded when he saw Lydia blush.

  “Crap, I said that out loud?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “At least I'm not the only one who does that,” he replied.

  “Um, sorry?” she said.

  His phone chirped again and he looked down to see another message from Eddie had arrived.

  “Nothing to be sorry about. Excuse me for a moment? I've got a work-related message that I really ought to check out. Seems urgent, to the player at least. That'
s the third message he's sent and he isn't the type to overinflate things.”

  “Not a problem. I get a few work messages at home too. They also usually claim it's an emergency, but I normally don't even look at my messages until I get to work. Unless it's from my boss.”

  “Perils of R&D, I really have to look at things if the subjects think something is urgent.”

  He scanned the message quickly.

  Waves? Waves of Orcs? What is he talking about?

  He typed out a quick reply, asking Eddie to clarify what waves he was talking about and telling him he'd look into it more once he got to the office. Aaron wasn't aware of any events that would be taking place in the game, and this was just off enough to catch his attention.

  Why does the term 'waves' ring a bell in relation to Eddie? he wondered.

  “It's not all that urgent,” he said. “I don't have to rush off to investigate it right now, it can wait for work hours. So, want to go get doughnuts?”

  Lydia had been looking at her own phone, but now she put it down.

  “Yeah, let's do that. I know a place with awesome Boston Cream doughnuts. It's only about a five minute walk.”

  They left and as they walked Aaron couldn't help comparing her apartment to his own. Hers was much smaller, but it was only a five minute walk from work. From what he could tell it was only a five minute walk from just about anything. There were numerous restaurants, stores, and entertainment venues nearby.

  His apartment was much larger, but also required transportation to get to most things. Especially work. He couldn't decide which was the better setup any more though. He'd gotten his place when he preferred not to interact with other people as much, but now he wasn't sure it was his best option.

  His phone chimed one more time and he glanced down at it, opening the message Eddie had just sent.