Jade Benz

Jade thought back over the battle, while she healed the battered ogres. It had started off ordinary enough, hundreds of giant rats and a few dozen, really giant, rats rushing her with murderous intent. She moved over to the wall and put up her force shield, while her boys got ready to make rat jelly.

The shield was a lot easier to control, now that she had solved the puzzle. She wasn’t able to use it, and heal her boys simultaneously, yet. Though it might be possible with practice. She made it further than any time before, her stronger shield keeping her protected while Tik and Tok smashed the hoard. Then the normal pattern changed.

A tall, muscular guy ran around the corner of the tunnel. Jade thought he looked a lot like the horny dude, just without the horns. He was wearing furs and armor and had pointed teeth and long claws. Other than that, she thought he looked mostly human. She watched as two new figures joined him, and stood to either side.

They were the little green goblin dudes, looked like a male and a female. Both armored up just like the tall guy, except they only came up to his elbow. She almost wanted to laugh; her boys had torn an entire town of these little shits to shreds, in less than an hour. What were a few stragglers and the horny dude look alike gunna do against all these giant rats? She wasn’t helping the ogres fight, so she didn’t have anything better to do then watch the show.

She figured out pretty quick that the muscle-bound tall man was like her. He did something she could sense if not quite see, and two football sized black bugs popped out of nothingness to stand next to the green girl. It was really similar to how she called Tik and Tok, so she figured that guy was from earth too. Still, why bugs and goblins. They were tiny, barely bigger than the damned rats.

She was actually pumping herself up to watch them all get killed. Mean, maybe but it would be nice to not be the only one butchered by rodents today. So, when the horny dude looking guy and the goblin Viking just walked into the swarm, she was ready for some blood.

Jade got what she wanted, there was plenty of blood. It just didn’t belong to the right people. At first, she was shocked, then she started getting scared, finally she just got mad. The muscular dude was big for a human but looked like a child next to her boys. Yet, he ripped into the rat swarm like some kind of raging tornado or something.

They couldn’t hurt him. Every time he got bit; he would kill the biter, and the wounds would heal. She just stared at him; he was a killing machine. Finally, she had to look at something else. She checked out the Viking, he was doing in nearly as many rats as the big guy. Swinging that axe around like a whirlwind.

The girl wasn’t quite as flashy at least. She held a bow and was slowly firing into the crowd. Jade thought she finally found a weak link, but no, with every arrow fired one of the great big rats died. Hell, even the bugs were wiping the floor with the rats and they were a quarter of their size.

As she watched the rats being butchered, Jade looked at her own formation. She had been really proud of it just a little bit ago. Now though, she wasn’t doing anything at all. Her boys were swinging and smashing wildly, but they missed almost as often as they hit something.

When she started getting embarrassed, old habits kicked in and she got angry. When the big guy caught her eye for a second, she glared at him. He didn’t look at her for long, before he went back to killing. Who the hell did this guy think he was, coming up into her fight and trying to make her look bad?

When the killing was finally over, she started healing the ogres right away. She needed them fit before she went to talk to mister big shot. They were really messed up too. She looked over to the new guy’s people, He had already healed them and was napping against the wall. He hadn’t even bothered to say hello, the nerve of that guy.

Her anger bled across the link to the ogres, they growled and bared their big teeth. That’s right, he was going to regret making a fool out of her. Finished with her healing, she turned around to confront the jerk. He was getting a rub down by the female goblin, what a womanizer.

She headed in his direction, Tik and Tok looming behind her with their teeth bared and their fists clenched. As she came on, she saw the Viking move out in front of his master. She would have laughed at the absurdity of it, he was only four feet tall, squaring off to the pair of eight-foot-tall ogres. She couldn’t laugh though; she had watched while this shrimp butchered a hundred rats, each almost as big as he was.

Her pace faltered slightly, when she looked up from the Viking to see the other goblin had her bow in hand and an arrow nocked. The big guy, at least was still sitting with his back to the wall. He looked exhausted. He had another bug on his shoulder. Unlike the first two, this one was silver.

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“Well, who the fuck are you?” she asked, coming to a halt some ten feet from the axe wielding goblin. She might be angry, mostly at herself, but she wasn’t angry enough to just walk right into axe range.

The two goblins raised their weapons at her tone, and the silver bug waved its front limbs around. The big guy just sat there looking at her tiredly.

“My name is Benjamin Vryce. I’m from earth, like I assume you are. We heard the fighting and thought to help.” He answered.

“What makes you think I needed your help? I was doing just fine before you came along and stole all my kills.” She said, knowing full well she was in the wrong here. Yet not caring in the slightest.

“I’m pretty sure I can take em chief, just give the word.” This came from the goblin holding the axe. The seated man looked over at the goblin, with what Jade thought looked like shock. Perhaps he thought the boast was insane. She sure did.

“You think so, you little shit,” she snapped. Her ogres getting ready behind her, as she raised her force shield. The other goblin raised her bow at the same time.

“Alright you two, settle down.” Came a new voice from behind Jade. She turned to look, the stairs were over there. She hadn’t been able to reach them yet. When she saw who it was, she gave a little groan. It was the horny dude.

* * *

Erlking

The Erlking had no sooner decided the souls weren’t ready when he found a new spread of corruption. It was in one of his core worlds, one he wouldn’t sacrifice. Checking in on his chosen champions he found Benjamin just leaving the bathhouse with two goblins.

Perfect, he thought as he dropped the floor out from under them. They would go right to Benz location this way. He then doubled the size of the rat swarm, before moving on to other preparations. Sending the souls that far wasn’t going to be cheap, he needed to make sure they could do the job.

Once he gathered everything he thought they would need, he pulled up their screens again. He wondered how many of them had died, to his shock they were all still alive. Scanning the replay, he was pleased with his choice of Vryce. He needed to hurry though or Benz was going to start a fight he couldn’t afford. Taking a shortcut through reality he appeared on the stairs, and walked up in time to stop the fight.

“Alright you two, settle down.” he said as he reached the top step, looked like he was just in time too. Stomper was as ready to fight as Jade was. At least Vryce had one good battle creation here. He didn’t give either of them a chance to speak.

“Play time is over I’m afraid, corruption has appeared on one of my core worlds. I need you two to go and handle it for me.” He said, without preamble.

Jade spoke first, she was already standing and Benjamin looked like he was ready to pass out.

“Oh, hell no horny dude. Last time we spoke you promised me another ogre. I don’t know how long ago that was now but I still don’t have another ogre.” She said, hands on her hips.

The Erlking thought for a moment on how he wanted to answer that statement. He decided to test her, to see if she had made any progress.

“Jade, we agreed that I would give you an ogre when you fulfilled your end of an arrangement. You failed to do so. Now, I suppose I would be willing to give you another ogre… if that is what you still want. Think back on the battle that just took place here. Would having another ogre have made a difference for you?” he asked, glossing over the town destroying part entirely.

To her credit, Jade thought about what he had asked for a bit. It looked like the battle had affected her after all, she had been shown up by creature’s half her ogres’ size and she didn’t like it.

“You have a point. Ok then, I want a few of those,” she said pointing to the goblins. “They fought really well with those weapons of theirs.”

That was actually a good response, she was learning after all.

“Unfortunately, Jade. I only made one hundred odd goblins and all but seven of them were recently destroyed. Benjamin here has all that remain, unless he would be willing to share” the Erlking looked at Benjamin who shook his head wordlessly. “Then, I am afraid there aren’t any more goblins.” He finished and watched her think on that. She couldn’t have any because she had killed them all.

“Alright fine, then I want weapons and armor for me and my boys. It’s got to be better then what he’s got though, one fight and it’s ruined.” She gestured to Vryce who was in fact, wearing the tattered remains of his armor.

“Deal.” He said, pulling a handful of egg-shaped patterns from his pocket and handing them to her. “Absorb these into your soul, then add them onto the patterns of the ogres. There are a few things in there for you too. I will send you along now if you have no objections? You will be working with Benjamin here when you arrive.” He finished

“Yea ok,” she said sullenly as she started absorbing the patterns. He hadn’t seen her do it before, this was her first time yet she picked up on it right away. These human souls were so adaptable.

“Oh, and Jade, try not to die. I won’t be able to provide the essence a revival costs on that world. So, if you die you might be stuck in your void space for a while.” With that final warning he opened another short cut in reality and sent her through, before she had a chance to reply.

She was learning, but she wasn’t ready for anything more complicated than; Go here and kill that. Not yet anyway. With her gone he turned around to Vryce, who was climbing to his feet. His poor goblins didn’t know what to do with themselves. They stood awkwardly, fingering their weapons.

He was the Erlking, their Creator. Benjamin was their master though; so they didn’t know how to react to the situation. The ogres had been easier, he had created them too, but they were too dumb to realize it.

“Alright, Mr. Vryce. We have a few things to discuss and then I will send you on your way as well.”