New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Alexander could see what David was trying to warn him about. But ?he was already aware of the massive drain fusing with the demons gave.

He guessed that anyone who found the ring in David’s timeline probably insisted they were strong enough, and Solomon felt urgency enough from the outside situation that he didn’t test them properly.

He could tell some demons in the ring didn’t entirely respect him, even though he defeated them in combat. Or course, Solomon had leveled the playing field, with the demons never having more mana than him, he still defeated all of them.

He surmised from this that anyone that hadn’t shown the demons what they were made of would have little to no respect from the more prideful of them. This could cause them to turn on the user of the legacy.

But it wasn’t his case.

“I don’t want to sound arrogant while saying this, but it won’t be my case. The demons inside the ring are all under control, and they know they shouldn’t try any funny business.”

David looked at Alex, trying to figure out where he got the confidence to say such a statement. But seeing the absolute confidence in his eyes, he shelved his questions for later.

They still had a Goblin camp to raid, and arguing between them here would only make the risk of a Goblin fleeing higher.

“Whatever you say, man. In that case, Kary, Jack, do you think we can make this work?”

Jack said nothing, his mind still calculating the repercussions if Alexander messed up his claims. But Kary had unwavering confidence in him, and she nodded.

“If Alex says he can do it, then I trust he can. He has never shown overconfidence, yet. If he says he can control the demons in his ring, then I trust his words.”

David gave a curt nod before looking at Mr. Boudreau.

Jack still looked in thought, but he eventually gave a silent nod.

“Good. Then it’s settled. With this information, Kary, can you make a viable plan? One that guarantees no Goblin flees into the woods, where we couldn’t find them?”

“I already have one,” she replied.

David gave her the stick he had in his hands.

Kary started explaining her thoughts, drawing some small circles in the dirt that represented them, as she drew lines that enclosed onto the sketch David had drawn of the camp.

Her plan comprised using David’s undead, as well as each of them, to form a cordon, and slowly enclose the camp, shrinking the cordon more and more. It was like they were herding sheep.

Only, the sheep would fight back, and were much smarter than usual. She kept her explanations as short as she could, making her points concise and easy to understand.

Once she was done, she looked at Mr. Boudreau to see if he had anything to add. The old man looked at her sketch intermittently, trying to keep his eye glued to his scope as much as possible.

He didn’t look like he was going to add anything, and Kary smiled.

“Then let’s do it this way,” she said, getting up.

David looked at Alex.

“You better not mess up. Even if we can chase the goblins that escape if there aren’t too many, the shaman can make this task quasi-impossible. He needs to die.”

“Worry about your own job, David. Your attention will be a lot more split up than mine.”

David grinned at his response. He was right.

David would have his biggest challenge yet. He would need to split his focus seven ways, to fight and control his undead minions.

A single slip of the mind could cause him to let a Goblin slip through, making their job harder. But he couldn’t wait to take on this challenge.

“We grow through adversity, don’t we, little butterfly?”

Alex grimaced at being called like that again. But he knew David was only trying to get under his skin, to reduce his own stress of the upcoming battle. .

David might be cold and calculating in New Eden when he was Khalor, but Alex knew it was a facade. David seemed a lot more wary outside of the game.

The weight of his knowledge was glaringly pressing on his mind. Combined with that, the very real trauma his mind struggled with every time he thought of the future, it was surprising David wasn’t a drooling mess in a psych ward.

Since the plan was set, all of them got ready to move. Since they were splitting up, David covered an entire side with his undead.

It would be easier for him to keep track of them and the Goblins if they were all grouped up on the same side. He had already set his positioning for them while they discussed the plan.

David sent one of his human skeletons to the far end, almost up against the cliff. Next to that, he put his skeletal bear, followed by the eagle undead, before positioning himself in the center of them.

To his right, he positioned the lynx, the grey wolf, followed by his last human skeleton. Next to the last skeleton, they positioned the redneck.

After some convincing, which was a lot easier than David had expected, Godrick had accepted to go back to the camp, to help rescue his sister, or at least help bring back her body.

Putting him next to his skeletons at least assuaged David’s paranoia. If the man tried fleeing, he could at least cover his spot by widening his position.

This alone covered two-thirds of the area they had to cordon, leaving the rest to Alex, Kary, Guo, and Jack. Jack had asked to be in the center of the formation, so he could see most of the combat zone, but David refused.

He wanted to keep his eye on the American. Even when Jack offered to keep his eye on him, David still held his end.

Jack was learning over time that he quite disliked David’s controlling attitude. To him, the young man was still wet behind the ears, and getting argued at by him time and time again, was making him regret associating with him.

But it was too late to regret the decision now. He would have to use Alexander as an intermediate as much as he could, going forward.

As they split up and walked into position, half a kilometre away from the Goblin colony, David had his eagle squawk the signal to advance.

And the march began.