Over the next few days, I continued to practice with the club. I found that I could control the fire around the ball and create rather large, rather explosive balls of fire out of the golf balls. Doing this took a massive toll on my mental state, and I could summon a few giant fireballs before I felt as if I was going to pass out. Creating the small flaming golf balls, however, was no problem, and it seemed as if I could do that forever.

My accommodations in the small village turned out to be a lot better than I had first thought. There was a rather large communal dining area where everyone gathered three times a day for meals. The rebellion comprised approximately thirty people of various ages and backgrounds; not all were human. Not everyone here could fight should a conflict arise, but everyone had a job and contributed in their own way. I tried to keep to myself as much as possible at meals; I wasn’t even sure if I intended to help Duncan with whatever he planned to do. I knew I needed a place to stay in this unbelievable world, and right now, this seemed to be the safest place for me to be.

Duncan would talk to me almost daily, asking how my progress was going with the club, fantasizing about the day he overthrew Aqua Marine, and telling me about his latest drink creation. As it turned out Duncan had more than just his crack adjacent coffee up his sleeve. In fact, he had an entire recipe book of drinks he had been working on during his time in the Caddyverse. Everyone used different ingredients from this world to give the person who drank them various benefits. These benefits were temporary, but I could see how they would be helpful if his idea of overthrowing Aqua Marine ever became a reality.

“We will storm the clubhouse and take this realm back one day,” Ducan told me during one of our daily conversations.

“How exactly do you plan to do that? There's only a handful of us here, and from what you’ve told me, Aqua Marine has legions of guards and monsters at her disposal.” I replied.

“Yes, but you see, I know something about Aqua that most people don’t. She isn’t a true Golfer, not in the traditional sense anyway.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tee asked, lowering his sunglasses and taking a long sip from his martini.

“Aqua Marine only has her powers because of her catalyst, Chud.” Duncan glanced at Tee

“What do you mean catalyst?” I questioned

“Some Golfers do not have any inherent power, but if they have the means to pay a catalyst, then the catalyst will transfer their power to the Golfer in exchange for the money.”

“Why would someone not want to be a Golfer and rule one of the eighteen realms, though? Being in charge seems like a sweet gig.”

“Probably too lazy to rule, or just not a people person.” Tee interjected before Duncan could reply. Tee was well on his way to drunk at this point.

“ Being a catalyst is a sweet deal; you get to live a life a luxury with all the protection offered of the Golfer youre helping without any of the annoying hang ups of ruling over an empire.” Duncan ignored Tee as he responded to my inquiry

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“So Aqua Marine only has her power as long as she has. What did you say his name was? Chud”

“Yes, Chud is the high priest of the temple of Yoganoth; she visits him weekly to offer her pay and worship at his altar. She continues to hold power over this realm as long as she does this.”

“So if we find a way to stop Chud from giving his power to Aqua, then she will be powerless?”

“Exactly, and since most of her followers only follow her because of her power and their desire for power, without it, her followers will rise up in an effort to take control of the realm.”

“How do you propose we convince Chud to stop acting as Aqua’s catalyst?”

“We train,” Duncan said, pulling two knives from their sheaths. I could swear they looked like bagel knives as he twirled them in his hands.

Duncan turned and walked away from me, still twirling his knives in his hands as he walked. I shrugged and headed off to the walkway I had been knocking golf balls off of for the last week or so. I guess the best I could do was keep working on my fireballs and find a way to make them explosive without causing my head to turn into mush.

It was a few days after our conversation that the attack came. It was early morning, and I was eating pancakes and drinking one of Duncan's Zoombean drinks when it happened. The walls around me began shaking, and what sounded like muffled explosions could be heard outside. Then the screaming started.

The door to the dining area burst open, and an overweight woman ran into the room, her hands covering her face as she screamed and sobbed. I could see the skin behind her fingers turning black and slowly sliding to the floor as she stumbled towards me. She never made it to me as she slumped to the ground. Her hands fell away as she fell, revealing nothing but a skull where her face once was.

I jumped to my feet and grabbed my club. As soon as I saw the woman, I knew what was happening—Aqua Marine’s followers were here. I didn’t know how they found me, but I could almost guarantee they were here because of me. In all the years Duncan had been here, she had never attacked him. This was almost certainly my fault. Running past the corpse of the woman, I kicked the door open, club in hand, ready to greet whatever was on the other side with violence.

Outside was chaos; Aqua Marines Hags had already made their way up into the village and were attacking members of the rebellion. I summoned a ball and sent it flying towards the nearest Hag with the club. The ball hit her in the kneecap, causing it to snap backward, almost wholly reversing the direction that her foot was facing. I had used one of the small fireballs I had been training with, and the Hag immediately burst into flames and started screaming. Confused and ablaze, the woman stumbled around until she fell from the walkway, landing on the forest ground below.

More explosions sounded in the distance as a second small group of Hags approached me. I figured it was as good a time as any to try one of these giant fireballs I had been working on. I concentrated and sent a ball flying towards the group of Hags advancing at me. As the golf ball soared through the air, it grew in size, and the trail of fire behind it grew as well. The closest Hag reached into her bag to toss a Mimosa at me. She never had a chance to release the flesh-decaying liquid as the fireball hit her chest.

A massive wall of flame enveloped the group of Hags as the fireball exploded on her chest. The Hags let loose a brief scream as they were turned to ash and bone dust from my fireball. A wave of nausea coursed through my body. I steadied myself, giving my vision a moment to clear as the effects from casting such a giant fireball faded. In the distance, I could see the source of the explosions. What looked like giant hermit crabs with a ballista on their back were slowly advancing toward the tree village, at least a hundred Hags were marching with the crabs. This was going to be a lot worse than I thought.