Maxwell

I felt like I wanted to vomit. So many good people had been lost during the battle. I had interacted with many of them during meals or while working on projects around the village. I couldn’t say I knew them well, but I could say I knew them. And now they were just gone.

Telmu rushed over to my side as I laid rather un-lord like on the ground. If the battle was still taking place, I would be a sitting duck. “My lord!” He grabbed my arm when I didn’t respond and lifted me from the ground. “Are you unhurt?”

I finally came back to the moment. The fight might be over, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t still things to do. I slapped my cheeks and turned to him. “I’m fine. Tend to the others.” He looked like he wanted to argue but my gaze must have convinced him to keep his mouth shut. I glanced around to see if there was anyone that I could help. A hundred-meter section of the wall had just collapsed. It wouldn’t be a surprise if someone got trapped underneath.

Spotting a section that was being worked on by a few of the militia, I went to make my way towards it only to collapse to a knee. The fatigue of the battle hit me all at once. I had to fight to keep conscious as my vision faded in and out.

“Rest, Maxwell. You might not like it but you won this fight.” I turned my narrowed eyes on Razz that dropped to the ground next to me. “You’re new to this world, so I understand how you feel, but you’re only going to cause people trouble if you try to help in your condition.”

“I thought you did the conquering?” I asked with a glare but couldn’t resist anymore. I dropped to the ground laying flat. I glanced at my status and sure enough my mana was in the single digits.

The goblin player gave a sinister grin with all his fangs on full display. “Sure did, but that didn’t mean I won them all.”

“This is messed up,” I sighed as a cool breeze from the mountain washed away the smell of burning flesh and charred metal and stone. I never knew that the smell of burning stone could be so rough. “I only have three more weeks of protection. We barely held off this wave.”

“It was close. We’ll have to get you a real army asap.”

“Do you have any more players in your employ?” I asked with a chuckle. The players had been a big help. Sadly, each one that he brought had been worth about ten or twenty of the militia under my command.

Razz glanced at me with a curious expression. I couldn’t tell if it was suspicion or anger. The goblin features really threw off my ability to read his body language. “A few.” He pointed to the east almost perpendicular with the mountain. “About a thousand kilometers that way lies the human empire of Atral. They are major assholes that think humans are the best race. Probably the lack of gods. Either way, a few of my friends in my guild are scouting that way to see just how big a threat they might be with the world being changed.”

“Before that we have the goblin kingdom to worry about, right?” I asked with a wave of my hand in the air. I was more worried about that since it was closer. I wasn’t about to make an enemy with someone that far away.

“I called it that, didn’t I?” Razz laughed before clearing his throat as I glared at him. “I wasn’t lying. IT is a nation… of sorts. The Eblos Kingdom ruled by the goblin king Feodo. They have one large city and about a thousand smaller towns and villages all throughout the forest. Each with a chieftain with designs to be king.”

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“A rabble then. Is the subjugation really that big of deal then?”

Razz shrugged. “Well, with the nation being like it is, King Feodo likes to keep everyone in line. If you fail, especially as a player, you get dealt with.”

“At least you weren’t lying. We’ll handle this together. As neighbors, I’d rather see us flourish together.” I held out my fist and Razz bumped it with a grin.

“Sure thing. I’d rather leave all the management shit to you anyways.”

“To our future empire.” I was done being naïve. I hadn’t meant to hurt Aurora and hers, but it had been done. Now I had to protect my slice of this messed up world. I climbed to my feet. The clean up of the battle was mostly over. It was time to mourn the dead. I vowed that their deaths would not be in vain.

~~~

Thirty-seven. That was how many people lost their lives during the battle. I had to take several deep breaths to calm myself. I might want to lash out, but that wouldn’t do anyone any good. I buried my feelings but made sure to remember them.

A funeral was conducted for the dead. Undead were a real thing in this world, thus all the bodies were cremated. The saddest part of all this was that no one had any true families. With people being randomly summoned, they were all more or less strangers. They took my family name after arriving here, but it was hard to say that made us a family.

The commander had given a speech, but when he finished and nodded to me, I knew it was my words that my people were looking toward. I had to be strong. For them. I thanked the commander then moved onto the log. “The dead will be missed. There is no changing this fact. We most stay strong for them. Their bodies might not be here anymore, but their souls will be with us until we stop fighting.” I looked at everyone individually. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan to stop! I will fight, claw, crawl, and do whatever I have to do to crave a place for myself in this world. And Hell has no fury equal to my rage for anyone that tries to take anymore of my family from me!” I threw my hands up and sent several fireballs into the air to explode. “Let us not mourn them! Let us celebrate them!”

A cheer went up among the crowd. As I stepped down, I didn’t fail to notice a few people crying though they had smiles. Maybe not quite complete strangers after all. I asked the cook to make several extra servings for everyone tonight and called off all work. It might mimic real life, but the workers would go back to work if I didn’t tell them not to do so.

“Nice speech,” Rowena said as she joined me as I made my way away from the small festival. “I’m actually impressed.”

“You don’t know how hard it was not to use something from a movie or show I’d seen. A certain group of heroes came to mind more than once.”

She laughed then slapped my back hard. “You did good, boss.” Her face dropped as the mood took a serious tone. “Do you think we can trust Razz?”

I came to a stop and looked at the stars. Without much light they were quite bright. I couldn’t remember seeing stars this bright on Earth. I turned back to her clearing the idle thoughts. “No. He said it himself. He was in for the conquering. He might be safe for the moment, but as soon as things start picking up, it might be hard to keep him in check. For the moment, I plan to keep him busy by giving him targets to deal with.”

“He lost most of his army. Any thing you order him to do will be using our resources. War based lords were said to be terrible resource sinks on the forums.”

“I figured as much. Don’t worry. I have a few plans that I want to test out.” The manor came into sight and I was honestly relieved to see it. I was dead tried. After the battle then teleporting the newest batch of arrivals, I was pretty much at my limit. Not to mention, the lack of sleep from the night before. “Our biggest issue is our player situation. There are only two of us. If a way to deal with or incapacitate a player becomes widely known, then we’re out numbered. We needed to increase our allies.”

“That’s not going to be easy in the middle of the damn forest.”

“Tell me about it.” I cracked my neck and gestured to the manor. “I’m dead on my feet. We’ll talk more in the morning.”

“Have a good rest.”