New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The ground at David’s feet started rumbling slightly, until it cracked open, a hand piercing through the compacted dirt. A purple haze covered the hand, with steel armour covering every finger.

While David was focused on summoning Ratma, his Death Knight, a few live Goblins slipped through the encirclement, because his undead stopped moving.

“David! What the fuck are you doing, dude?!” Alex shouted.

From the corner of his eye, he could see a hand pierce through the ground, but it took him a moment to figure out who this hand belonged to.

David could see what he was doing was causing them problems. But if he summoned Ratma, their troubles would lessen to such a degree they could clear this camp in a jiffy.

As the Death Knight crawled his way out of the ground, a heavy aura of death permeated the surrounding space. The air was almost difficult to breathe for Godrick, who was a normal human.

While this was happening, White Death, who had been zigzagging through the Goblin camp, finally made it into the cave at the back. From that moment onward, it was just a matter of time before this whole thing was resolved.

Four Goblins slipped through the cordon while all this happened, and they needed to be caught fast before they disappeared into the wind.

As soon as Ratma was fully out of the ground, David smiled.

“Alex, go after the Goblins that escaped. I got the Hob.” 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘭．𝑜𝘳𝘨

Alex wanted nothing more than to catch the fleeing Goblins. But he wondered if he could catch all of them.

But an idea popped into his mind. He jumped back from combat, letting David deal with the Hobgoblin.

The latter used the newly emerged Death Knight to deal with the oversized Hob, focusing his mind back on the regular goblins. Ratma had more of a soul, so he needed no conscious control from David, only a command.

Alexander closed his eyes, using his mana sense to the maximum, letting it spread as far as he could, rapidly finding the four escapees. Locking onto their rapidly moving souls wasn’t a minor task.

It took Alex almost a minute to manage a lock. As he locked his mind on them, he also locked his mind on four of the undead under David’s command.

“You’re gonna lose four of your minions, David!”

“What?” the man responded.

But as he asked, four of his skeletons suddenly vanished from their position, rapidly replaced by four extremely confused Goblins. David silently cursed.

This put a dent in their strategy, since a part of their line was now awol. But he rapidly understood the benefits far outweighed the cost.

The four escaping Goblins were now back inside the cordon. The amount of live Goblins was also reduced to these four, as the rest of the goblins had already been picked off as they tried fleeing or fighting.

Taking care of them as fast as possible fixed the possibility of the Goblins reestablishing elsewhere. Now, their only issue left was the shaman.

But Alex’s promise came to fruition, as a howl emanated from inside the cavern. Simultaneously, all the undead, be they Goblin, Human, or Hobgoblin, dropped to the ground, inanimate.

Their victory came at a price, though.

David could already feel the last of his mana leaving his body, as he sent Ratma back to the underworld. Feeling his consciousness slip, he laughed.

“Hahaha… Now I get why you were out for so long…”

Dropping to the ground, David still had a smile on his lips. His vision went black, and his mind shut down.

Not far from him, Alexander was having a similar whiplash. As soon as he un-melded from the demon he was fused with, and unsummoned White, his body suddenly felt like it was made of lead.

Dropping to his ass, he was able to mutter a few last words before slipping out of consciousness himself.

“I overdid it again. Sorry, guys. Please take care of the rest…”

Kary watched the two of them, sleeping on the ground, pale as sheets, and chuckled to herself.

“For someone who complained that Alex was an idiot for overdoing it, he sure was quick to copy him…”

Jack walked next to her, chuckling to himself.

“It seems Mr. Magnus did not want to be overshadowed by Mr. Leduc’s progress. Competitiveness can lead to great advancements. Even if done only from a shallow intention, it might lead them to become more powerful in the long run.”

Kary agreed with his words, nodding her head. But that didn’t keep from the fact that both of them were currently out cold, meaning they would need to drag their sleeping bodies back out of the forest.

And since Godrick’s rifle didn’t have a silencer on it, his gunshots must have alerted half the county’s state troopers and police officers by now. They needed to get out of here ASAP.

Jack walked over to Alex, grabbing him under the arm and leg, and flinging him over his shoulder. Guo did the same with David.

Looking at Godrick and Kary, Jack nodded.

“Let’s go. We aren’t too far from the entrance of the trail. Let’s make it to the truck and get out of here before it’s swarming with law enforcement.”

Kary once again agreed.

Going on a jog, the four of them, carrying the two unconscious allies, made a brisk pace out of the woods. Back at the vehicles, Jack and Guo loaded the two sleepers in the back of it, before sitting in their seats and bolting away with Kary.

Godrick did not want to be left behind, so instead of going home, he followed them. He at first had wanted to find his sister, but the old man was right.

Staying there wasn’t the best idea right now. If she was still alive, the police would find her when looking into the gunshots.

So he followed them back out of the woods and drove after them when they left. He followed them all the way to the small town airport, and even to the hangar where they parked.

Seeing the pickup truck parked next to them, Guo clicked his tongue.

He trotted over to the young American, wanting to tell him to leave. But a police SUV suddenly pulled up behind the pickup.

‘Damn it,’ the assistant silently cursed.