Chapter 19: A Time for Battle

When she woke up, she was greeted with a new notification. People were selecting their starting points for the raid. Someone in Jennifer’s team had chosen one for them. They were near the town center. Jennifer moved her marker from the town center to outside the town gate on the path to Bishop’s University.

She was not going to take part in this.

When she went downstairs to begin her day, the mayor was knocking on her door. She waved at the mayor to come in.

The mayor walked with a stiffness and small jerky movements. “You're not joining the raid?” Jennifer could tell the mayor was under stress. He normally said more.

“Nope, I will have the healing potions you need, but I will not fight.” She raised a finger to signal Blue. He took the hint, stopped flipping his set of coins, and went into the kitchen.

Jim’s face was red, his eyes glaring at Jennifer.

“I know you are going to ask why, but I do not like fighting. I want to be a Sociologist, someone who studies societies, peoples, and what they do. I want to change the world but not by using my mop to smash people.” Jennifer took a seat at the closest empty table, extending her hand to the chair across from her and inviting the mayor to sit down. He took the seat but looked like he wanted to smash the table.

Blue came out of the kitchen with cups of cold tea. He placed the mugs on the table, before returning to the kitchen.

Jennifer took her drink and took her first morning sip. She closed her eyes, half savoring the cool beverage and half waiting for the mayor to speak.

She was daydreaming of what it would be like to get her first class's books at the campus bookstore when the mayor broke the silence. “Stay at the café. It’s protected, and you will still be able to make the healing tea. I can have goblins running to get the tea and deliver it to those who could use the help.”

Jennifer weighed her options. Staying in town and not being in the fight was good enough for her. “Okay, I would like experience for each of the teas being used rather than money.”

“Fine.” The mayor may as well have spat the word.

There were stress lines on his face, his hair was not as well kept as normal, and there were specks of debris on his top hat. There were signs of stress. She knew he was on the line, fighting more worry than anything and getting ready for a danger that was coming to his town.

He downed the tea before he left the café, saying no more.

Goblins and townspeople formed a line outside of the undead café. All of them brought healing moss. They handed her the moss, and she crafted them. Half the moss was used for the one who brought it in. The other half went to the town’s supply.

The day went by so quickly she lost track of how many she made before closing the doors. The timer for the raid was below ten hours when she went to bed. After six hours of trying to sleep, she gave up. “Hey, Woozle, want to go for a walk?”

He was scratching at the door before Jennifer left the bed.

In the first few days when she arrived here, he was overprotective and overcompensating. Now he acted more like a pet and a friend. He could tear off people’s limbs if they threatened her in any way, but would rather get head scratches.

The town square was filled with more tents. A goblin sat on a chair playing an accordion with a slow melancholy tone. A goblin came riding up on the back of an armored spider. The arachnid was not as large as Rover’s grandmother, and it was too small for Jennifer to ride. But it was a good size for the goblin.

The goblin rider waved a greeting in Jennifer’s direction, adding, “Soary.”

Jennifer waved back, a smile touching her lips.

Woozle was hunting rabbits, and she promised herself that hunting rabbits would be the next quest she went on. But she had stopped questing. Instead, she opened a café and waited for her acceptance letter.

A rabbit darted out from some nearby bushes, Woozle following after. She felt a pleasant, cold breeze on that night. The sky was clear with the two moons showing. If not for the impending raid, it would have been a good night for a stroll.

“You can’t sleep either?” The voice came from behind, causing her to have a little jump.

“Why does everyone use stealth? Jim.” Jennifer did not bother turning around.

“Most people do not have force-fields,” the mayor’s words came out slowly, and were not accompanied with his normal upbeat demeanor.

Jim walked beside Jennifer in silence for some time. She was fine with the lack of conversation. The goblin played his music. The night air helped to improve her mood.

The two moved through the night, each on their own journey, but together through timing. Eventually, the mayor said, “Have you heard of Lord Dexx’s theory?”

“I knew that was going to be on a test. Yes, Woozle told me about it when I first got here.” She had forgotten most of it but remembered the name.

“I heard it years ago. It didn’t make sense to me. It was just backstory for some game. I wanted to be a mayor and build a town. Now, I’m going to be defending it with goblins.”

“Why do you hate the goblins so much?”

The mayor took off his top hat and looked down.“The part that always bothered me about Dexx’s theory was, what happens when this world’s timeline and my world’s timeline are merged? When one timeline overwrites another, and you get lost in the cracks. The world after two timelines gets merged, and you no longer exist.”

Jennifer shrugged. “This place is supposed to exist outside of the normal flow of time. So if you were here before you were deleted, I guess you get to stay here. Sure, it’s a bit odd. Raids kinda suck, but you always have more to do.”

“To answer your question, I don’t hate the goblins. The world and its system hates them. Sometimes it is hard to fight the system. It gets in your head, pushing the way you think, or making you do things. It is not just playing a role in a game. The system changes you to fit into what it wants you to be. Sometimes you forget the system is even there. The only thing that reminds me of what this place is, is the logout button. With the rules of coming in and total respawns for true parallels which can login.”

The last three words hurt Jennifer’s ears, but she knew what they meant. That was their way of coming and going from this world into their own. “So, you’re scared that there’s no other world for you, and you’re just a fragment?”

A soft chuckle came from the mayor. “Dexx’s theory was for functionaries, fragments, and parallels. Then he met me and coined the term echo. Someone who was once a parallel but is unable to log out. An echo of a parallel. I am walking around as someone who is unsure where they will be tomorrow. I am following a tradition of, if one expects a loss, one should inspect the place they command. Between that and the tune the goblin is playing, I’m in far too sober of a mood tonight. Try and get some rest. Tomorrow is always the first day of the rest of your time.”

The mayor turned away, continuing his walkabout. Jennifer did the same. She would inspect the place she commanded. Her café was much smaller than the town.

Chapter 20: Along Came A Raid

The noise bothered Jennifer the most: the yelling, the screaming, and the sound of combat. When it started, it never seemed to end.

She had runners coming in and out, getting more potions and returning the empty bottles. The worst thing was how easy it was to tell a fragment from a parallel. Fragments had grim expressions, parallels had smiles.

Stolen novel; please report.

Minutes turned into hours. Although the runners stopped coming for her potions, she still saw them. Goblins would return to the town square, after gathering some throwing spears, and taking those weapons back to the sounds of combat. They were attacking fast, but they were coming back to the town square faster.

The battle was getting closer.

Through the front glass of the shop, Jennifer saw the monster’s head above the roofs of the nearby buildings. The big bad’s skin was the color of fresh blood. Its sharp teeth looked like they were meant to shred the meat off its victims. The monster had no eyes, only metal rods that came out where the eye sockets would be. The noise that came from the creature’s throat was not that of roars or growls but of laughter.

The laughter chilled Jennifer to her soul. She had a flicker of hope that between the goblins, townspeople, and dinosaur people that they would bring an end to the laughing one.

The tail of the beast smashed through the side of the town hall. When the beast came into full view. Spears stuck out of the brute like the quills of a porcupine. The dinosaur raid boss was one that stood on two legs with short front arms. It was a tyrannosaurus rex, king of the dinosaurs.

The town force was attacking with all the strength they had. They used range attacks, like Jennifer’s dark pulse, and all the colors of the rainbow hit the creature from all directions. She knew there were those that used much less flashy attacks.

The melee people were attacking with swords, maces, and laser sticks. Kevin tried to bite into a massive leg, but nothing fit into his mouth.

A line of roses crossed the tail of being. It was the attack of one of her hand-fed chickens that was out there fighting. The black rooster with the domino mask used his wing to shield the white chicken as the monster’s tail came down on the pair. After the dust settled, they were no more. They had fought and died, as she was only a spectator.

Jennifer watched in silence from a chair in her café. Woozle laying on the floor beside her. The idea of fighting again scared her. She was no hero. Now many of those who went out to save the town lay still. She felt ashamed, but she did not move from her spot. In her mind, she repeated, “if he gets any closer. I will run.” With every step he took, she remained in place.

The large, brown rooster came into the café, making frantic noises. Jennifer let her head sink, unsure what to do. Was it too late to join the fight? Even if she did, what more could she do? That thing out there was an unstoppable force.

Duncan McCluken of the clan McCluken, has sent a group invite.

The words on the screen made her turn to the irate roster. “You too? I’m sorry. What more can I do? I just have a mop. I am scared.”

“Mops are used to clean up messes. That looks like a mess out there. I gave you a quest to save the town, and you’re just going to sit there?” A small man in a white lab coat and a hair line that had given up holding the line a long time ago stood in the doorway to the kitchen.

Tears began to form in her eyes. “I’m just a girl.”

“You’re a half giant. Someone who came from a long line of strong people. Are you really going to let the world tell you that you’re not enough? Or are you going to dive into the deep end and see if you can swim?”

“But-” She was trying to hold his gaze. Its eyes were warm and inviting.

“I want you to be in one of my classes at Bishops. Don’t tell anyone about this but take this and save the town.” He put something cold and hard into her hand, smiled, waved, and walked out the front door.

Woozle was smelling the thing in her hand. “Is it another egg?”

She looked at the object in her hand. “Lightning in a bottle, just like the one in the first room.” The memory of that place filtering through her mind. The bottle had the label, Limit Breaker.

“It’s a power up. Maybe we can use it to power up the school. If we run, maybe some of the survivors will—"

“Woozle, Destroyer of Worlds, Bringer of Doom, The One Who Is The Storm, Defeater of The Moon, Slayer of All Before Him.”

Her words hung in the air, she smiled, she was sure what her next actions would be. She filled her inventory.

“Let's fight.”

At first, Woozle titled his head. After a heartbeat, his engine began to spin and glow.

Jennifer accepted the invite from the rooster. Rover appeared from his usual trap door, appearing on her shoulder.

Her legs carried her straight into the thick of battle.

She could not stand to look at the monitor in the raid boss’s chest. It was a last century, curved monitor, not as old as the dinosaur body, but it was an old monitor that was curved, with inputs on the front. He was part machine, part dinosaur. A green smiley face displayed on the screen.

“Force field.” She let the words flow out from her and used the ability on everyone she could. With her mop, she smashed the side of the cybernetic dinosaur as hard as she could. She let her anger and frustration out as she wailed on the beast with her mop.

The beast’s every movement struck a defender or a building. Whatever it hit would not be getting up any time soon.

“Why are you doing this,” she screamed at the top of her lungs at the beast.

At Jennifer’s question, it stopped laughing for a moment. “Because it is fun.”

A powerful shout came from behind the invader. “Token of Cowthulhu.” A black and white monster the size of the raid boss smashed into the red scaled dinosaur. The black and white newcomer looked like it was made out of rubber with many tentacles coming from where its mouth should have been. Bat-like wings clapped into the side of the head of the invader. It let out a terrifying moo so deep the ground rumbled.

You have resisted Mad Cow. Sanity is wasted on the sane.

The jaws of the cybernetic dinosaur clamped onto Cowthulu’s shoulder. Tearing the flesh out, bloody bits hanging from the commodore’s jaw.

The resulting scream forming from her monstrous ally caused Jennifer to fall to her knees.

The black and white monster turned into Sarah.

The screen on its chest spoke. “That did not taste like chicken,” as its rampage resumed.

Jennifer rushed to her friend’s side with a potion. She saw her friend’s eyes for the first time. The large black orbs carried both kindness and pain.

“The cows are watching,” were her last words. The body of her friend slowly vanished.

Tears clouded Jennifer’s eyes. She smashed the lightning in a bottle against her chest, unleashing the potential. “You want fun? Fun comes with friends, and I can make friends. Summon Undead!”

The mammoth skeleton she had been keeping in her inventory rose out of the ground beneath her. The bones were covered in shiny metal. The protective coating covers each bone. The four tusks were replaced with chain saws that whirred to life.

The skeleton could not roar, so it stomped its feet. As the feet of her mount met the ground, the sound was like thunder. The shock wave that reverberated through the ground made the remaining defenders stumble and fall.

The red beast took a step backwards. The green smile on the monitor flickered into a yellow frown for a moment before the laughter returned.

Jennifer urged the mammoth forward in a charge.

The dinosaur returned the charge.

The mammoth was half the height of the invader. But where the invader was tall with tech and flesh, the mammoth was thick with metal and bones.

At that moment, they were both the unstoppable force. When two unstoppable forces meet. They stop and everything around them moves.

When they collided, buildings shook and fell. The town’s defenders had, at best, slowed the destroyer, but the mammoth stopped it in its tracks. Each of them strained and grunted to push the other back.

It used its mass and legs to push against the chain saw tusks of the mammoth. It was hurting itself trying to hurt the metal bound defender.

As her mount was pushed back an inch, she used the only power she could think of that might help. “Mend.” It was the only card she had left. She had used the limit break on her summon undead. The rest of her powers remained the same. She could not think of a way that the spider’s webbing could help.

A great axe smashed the dinosaur’s monitor followed by a flash of lightning then another and a third. All of the strikes hit the destroyer before Jennifer heard the thunder.

The mayor appeared next to Jennifer. He wore black and gold armor, the armor of a legionary a thousand years out of date. His breath was heavy and sweat covered him.

Her mammoth was pushed backward. The monster was taking huge damage for every inch it was pushed.

An unseen choir singing in an ancient language serenaded the town. She had heard the music once before, and she hoped it was signaling the same thing.

The great green gray forest wolf and a jet-powered lynx-shark each attacked an arm of the menace with their teeth.

A cannonball met the head of the one they were all trying to stop.

Jennifer smiled. She was not alone.

The smoke cleared as he roared. “I am Comadorous Sixtyfourous. I will not be stopped by the likes of you.”

It wasn’t enough. The machine king of the dinosaurs kept pushing forward.

The mayor took Jennifer’s hand, transferring something from his inventory to hers. She looked up from her hand to his face. His mouth was moving, but she could not hear what he was saying. The noise of the battle field was too much.

The mayor transformed into a being of living lightning, leaped onto the dinosaur’s jaws, and called down more lightning strikes than she could count. Each strike louder, thicker, and brighter than the last.

Cannon balls rained down on the beast.

Everyone still on the battlefield attacked with everything they had.

The commodore fell.

They won.

Jennifer won.

The town was saved.