New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Tracing his stick on the ground, David drew a basic layout of the colony they would attack. Luckily for them, a part of it was back up to a cliff-side, making one direction entirely impossible to flee from.

The West part of the camp was the one with the cliff, and it extended a good distance, meaning that as long as they cordoned off the rest of the escape routes, they should be able to contain the Goblins inside their little village.

But David knew Goblins were shrewd. They would probably have a hidden escape route somewhere.

David drew up the small cabins and huts the Goblins most likely slept in, or kept their prisoners. There were around a dozen of them, and all of them seemed to have guards at their entrance.

He was drawing all this with one eye, as the other was still linked to the eagle’s senses, circling the sky to make sure he missed nothing. Once he had everything from an overhead view, he commanded the bird to land in the forest facing the camp.

From there, he could see something that made him frown. He turned his head toward Godrick.

“You, Garrick. You said you killed a large green monster, right?”

“It’s Godrick. And yes. I blew a hole through his head with my rifle. Why?”

“Tsk. Then we have an even bigger problem than I thought.”

David was focusing on something in the goblin colony. Something that shouldn’t be there if what the American said was true.

At the back, near a hole in the cliff, was the Hobgoblin of the colony, standing still in the sun. The fact he wasn’t moving was uncharacteristic of the monster, and David quickly understood why.

In the Hob’s left eye socket, instead of an eye, was a crudely painted eye, on what seemed to be a pebble, or something of the sort. The Hob wasn’t moving, his gaze completely unfocused, as it just looked forward.

Looking at Godrick again, David asked a question to confirm his fears.

“Did you shoot him in his left eye?”

It confused the American how he knew, but he nodded his head.

“How do you know?”

“I’m looking at him right now. Our problems just went from bad to worse.”

Godrick pivoted around, trying to see the enormous monster, but couldn’t see him. He wondered how he was looking at something that wasn’t there.

Alex stepped next to David.

“How much worse are we talking about?”

David looked up before drawing something on the ground. ｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖

“There seems to be a cave in the back of the camp, inside the cliff-side. From what I see, if I am to believe the redneck over there really blew up the Hob’s head, and that the Hob is standing outside the cave, we have an additional issue.”

“And what is that?” Alex asked.

David finished his drawing, taking a step back.

On the ground, he had drawn a Goblin with a kind of feathered headdress, holding a long cane in his hand.

“I think they have a shaman with necromantic powers.”

Alexander frowned, not understanding the gravity of his revelation.

Seeing his confused face, David clicked his tongue.

“This means killing the Goblins, which should have been easy, as long as we could cage them inside their camp, just became next to impossible.”

Still frowning, Alex opened his mouth.

“You mean the shaman can raise them from the dead? But then, shouldn’t we just kill him first?”

David looked at him like he was an idiot.

“Do you see how many we are? Keeping them from fleeing is already going to be hard as it is. If we send even one person to go after the shaman, we will have a gap in our encirclement.”

Kary looked at his drawing while they argued. Her mind was already cooking up different strategies to siege the camp, limiting the flight of enemies as much as possible.

But no matter the plan she cooked up in her head, she couldn’t compensate for a missing person. Sending someone to kill the shaman wasn’t a workable option, even if they took Godrick with them as extra firepower.

Jack was busy eyeing around, and couldn’t look at the map David drew, but his mind was still working on solutions for their short-handedness.

He factored in giving the American his rifle back, and forcing him to accompany them, but even then, he couldn’t figure out a way to send a person further into the camp without breaking their siege.

Alex had an idea, but he wasn’t sure it was a good one. But he spoke up anyway.

“I think I have a solution. I touched on a deeper facet of my power last time I fought, and I think I can send in White Death to fight the shaman.”

David shook his head.

“That would be good if I didn’t need you at full power to fight the Hob. But with it being undead now, it won’t die as easily. I will need you fused and primed to fight it back.”

Alex nodded, but wasn’t done.

“I still think I can do it. I’ll just have to meld with another one of my soul companions. Or better yet, with one of the lesser demons in Solomon’s seal.”

David looked at him deadpan.

They hadn’t asked him about the ring yet, and Alex just revealed it to them like it was nothing.

“What do you know of the legacy you found?” he asked Alex.

Alex pondered for a moment before responding.

“I know it contains seventy-two demons, ranging from lesser demons to kings of hell. Why?”

David didn’t even know how to react to his nonchalantness. It was like Alexander was clueless about the potential threat he posed to himself, and the others, by melding with those demons.

“Did you know this legacy was found last time, too?”

“You never told me, so no. But I’m surprised such a powerful legacy didn’t help more than that.”

“Care to know why I never brought it up? Or better yet, why I didn’t go for that one? Regardless of its potential power?”

Alex looked at him with a frown.

“You prefer skeletons?”

With a deep sigh, David answered his own question.

“Because every user of that legacy died after using it. Not a single one survived long enough to know it was killing them.”

“Oh,” Alex replied, getting the point David was driving at him.