The monitor showed five people walking out in front of the lines. A person with a microphone followed them. It looked like Vaneski. Airmann was probably filming, since the camera tracked them so smoothly and looked down at them from above.

  Three of them I instantly recognized. The fifth one made me blink in surprise. Leading the way, and moving with practiced confidence, was Father Stoddard. The Catholic priest who’d blessed us before the Battle of Eddington. “If his blessing scaled with his level…please let it be stronger this time.”

  Beside him walked someone I’d only spoken with a handful of times but remembered clearly…Rabbi Daniel Razavi. He was one of those people who stick in your memory.

  Blaze identified the other two: Pastor Ralph Moran…she didn’t mention denomination…and Imam Badawi from the local mosque. The last was Ingrid. Technically, she was a Priestess of Odin, but I didn’t know she had any Blessings. Maybe she’d used a saved leveling point.

  “Will,” Blaze said. Try going outside of the WARD and see what happens.”

  “OK. Why?”

  “We want to test something,” was all she’d give me.

  “I told the room that we were testing something for Blaze and to make sure everyone could hear the audio. Then I stepped out of the circle. “Nothing so far. It was that way earlier for three, four minutes at a time.”

  The JOIN RAID message flashed before my eyes. Out of habit, I accepted. Blaze, Ingrid, Bhaarrt, and Shadow filled the other four slots. At that moment Father Stoddard began his prayer. I felt it. Even at this distance, I felt it.

  “Will! What’s going on?” Dr. Peters shouted from the academic tables.

  “Father Stoddard’s blessing the troops. Blaze brought me into her PARTY and I felt it. If any of you know someone out there you can join a party with, do it now! I didn’t think it would work unless you were physically present.”

  The room didn’t quite erupt, but the echoing space filled with chatter…boots scraping tile, chairs shifting, voices overlapping. I caught snatches: “I’ve got it! It’s working!”

  The camera followed Vaneski down the line as each leader gave blessings in turn. Different words, different faiths, but the effect was the same. Last was Ingrid.

  She stood tall in a long white dress under a chainmail hauberk, winged helmet gleaming under the overhead fluorescents, spear in hand. A heavy Thor’s hammer pendant rested against her chest. Someone in town must’ve made that chainmail…unless it was STORE bought.

  “Warriors of Eddington. Warriors of Chalmsford County. Warriors of our country’s military,” she said, her voice carrying through the feed. “I am Ingrid Calansdottir, Valkyrie, and priestess of Odin. Today, you fight for glory. You fight for fame and renown. You fight for your sword brothers and sisters. You fight for whatever god you believe in or whatever higher power you serve. And for the first time in almost a millennium, you fight for the All Father. He blesses your weapons. He blesses your armor. He blesses your courage. And should you fall, tonight you’ll dine in Valhalla with him. The BLESSINGS OF THE WARRIOR be upon you.”

  For a moment, white wings shimmered faintly behind her. I knew Valkyrie wings came at Level 10. She’d only been 8 the last time I checked.

  She jabbed her spear skyward and shouted, “Blóe fyrir óeinn! Shout it with me, Blood for Odin! Blood for Odin! Blood for Odin!”

  The line roared it back. Even in the convention center, the chant rose. My own voice joined before I realized it. The energy rolled through me, so strong I almost staggered.

  Notifications filled my vision: +5 ATTACK, +5 DAMAGE, +5 DEFENSE, +10 MORALE. And BLOODLUST. “I didn’t even know MORALE was a stat.”

  The broadcast anchors stared, wide-eyed and silent. On the feed, Ingrid strode back to the line, the soldiers parting around her as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She took her place behind Bhaarrt.

  By the time the last of the blessings settled, we were stacked with over thirty points of buffs. Attack. Defense. Damage. Healing. BLOODLUST. Even +2% Hit Points. That was Level 1 Blessing power. No wonder the soldiers looked ready to storm hell itself.

  BLOODLUST gave a +10 to MORALE, +5 to Attack and Defense, +2 to all Healing Spells used on them, +2% Hit points, minimum 1. Lasts for the duration of combat. Can not retreat from combat.

  A plus to Hit Points? Even at 2%, that makes a difference. That’s just the Level 1 Blessing. No wonder we had a lot of buffs.

  The talking heads were trying to make sense of what Vaneski was telling them just happened. I saw it was getting darker. The sun was down and the shadows in the quarry were growing. The chamber was ominously dark.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [I didn’t know she could do that. I wasn’t sure they’d all stack, but they did. We’ve got them here too if we’re in a party.]

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [I didn’t know she took the Blessing. Or that it would do that.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [That BLOODLUST buff could be a problem for melee fighters. Keep them back unless I say go. Warchief outranks Captain for this battle, apparently. I’ll stay outside the WARD as long as I can.]

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Roger that. Gaylord’s next. Tell the soldiers to march in place. That’s what we’ll be doing.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Roger that!]

  I swiveled to face the rest of the room and motioned for quiet. It took a moment, but the murmur faded. “Calm down. We’re not the front line. Our job is support. Next comes the Bard buffs. Tell every soldier out there to join in. Sing along, but only step in place. Don’t leave cover.”

  The room buzzed again as orders relayed. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead. The computer screens flickered with the two live drone feeds…color and grainy green-and-white IR images side by side. The cavern mouth looked like a smear of shadow against stone, darker by the minute as the last light drained from the sky.

  The remaining light in the sky only illuminated the front two, maybe three feet of it.

  “When’s that darkness going to solidify?” I muttered. “How long before it hits the fan?”

  Shouting drifted faintly from outside the glass doors, garbled by distance and echo. A couple soldiers moved to check. I forced myself back to the screens. The waiting stretched, every second heavier.

  Shouting drifted faintly from outside the glass doors, garbled by distance and echo. A couple soldiers moved to check. I forced myself back to the screens. The waiting stretched, every second heavier. My problem was how to make the damn thing appear so we could kill it.

  “Better to fight than to wait.”

  “Blaze. Let everyone know I’m going to have someone take a shot into the darkness. See if it provokes something. Unless a soldier is a sniper and has over five levels in Marksman, I'm going to have PokerRun take the shot. Knowing him, he brought his big guns. He told me he’s shot competitions at a mile.” I saw people looking around at each other and no one said anything.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Are you ready to take the opening shot?]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [You want me to shoot the cave where it’s supposed to be? Yeah. Can do. Easy.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Let everyone know you’re taking a shot to see if it’s there and we can hurt it. Let me know when you’re ready. Damage over range. Tell everyone you’re the only one taking a shot.]

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Words gone around you’re in overall charge. Warchief over the grunts, too. Movin’ up in the world.]

  After telling the room what was happening, we waited. And waited. “What the hell’s taking him so long?” I was worried. PokerRun probably had three or four rifles set up and ready and he just needed to choose one of them.

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Sorry it took so long. When I told the raid, SandB messaged me asking if someone had enchanted the bullets. Said I ain’t that fancy. She ran up here. I got 4 with extra damage. Ready when you are.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [It figures. She’s going to be one hell of an Enchanter and Mana Mage at this rate.]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Yeah. Take it, you know her?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Yep. I do. 30 seconds and shoot. I’m passing it on.]

  “He’s ready.” I told the room. “Tell everyone one shot will be fired in about 20 seconds. Do not move or shoot. Make sure the drone videos are on the cave. Visual and IR. Audio too if possible. If anything comes out, go back to wide view.”

  Hearing several “yes, sirs” and two “roger that’s” followed by laughter, made it feel like we were corrupting the US Army and the GRA now.

  The screen was ready, and they had audio. It may have been from one of the Strykers. I don't know where. It wasn’t loud, but we heard the shot, then the impact. I wasn’t the only one who held their breath, waiting for something to happen.

  Nothing happened.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Did you see, hear or feel anything?]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Heard it hit stone. That’s it.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Give it a minute, then fire a second round. Regular this time, not magic.]

  “One minute to next shot. Same rules. Do not move or shoot.” I told the room. They passed it on. We waited. Looking over at the door, I saw several people through the glass. It looked like there was an argument going on. Unless they came inside, they weren’t my business.

  “This waiting is worse than fighting. At least that’s over faster.”

  “Warchief. Second round satellite images coming up now,” A female voice said. An unused screen showed low light and infra-red images. I didn’t remember her name. We heard PokerRun’s shot.

  “Will!” came from my phone. “Ingrid feels it. So does Father Stoddard.”

  “That’s great. It’s finally showing up!” I rotated until I was facing most of the people in the room. “Everyone get ready. Tell them not to shield until you see the red of its eyes.”

  “It has red eyes? How do you know that?” I heard Blaze ask.

  “I don’t, I told her, “I’m guessing that because it’s evil, and since the game takes tropes from our fiction it has red eyes. Pass it on and cue Gaylord when it appears. I hope the Holy buffs are still in place.”

  “Oh. They are. Makes sense. Passin’ it on.”

  Looking back over the room, I said. “We have contact. Our Holy types are feeling something evil. They’re getting the Bard buffs ready. Once those and the shields are up, we’re in combat.” The room got noisy again.

  Staring at the satellite visual and infra-red images, I could easily see the adventurers on the quarry floor near the gates. The soldiers and their Strykers were on the quarry floor and around the quarry. It even showed me the sheep in the meadow on the other side of the quarry. The flock showed up on visual and IR. The cavern area looked darker than the surrounding area.

  “That means it’s colder.”

  “Can anyone give me a temperature of the air, the ground, and the edge of the cavern? Or better yet, inside it. It should be cooler than the surrounding area, but how much?”

  “I heard a “Give me one,” from someone. I also heard more shouting outside. It was getting louder, if that was possible.

  “Will someone find out what’s going on outside? Get them to quiet down. We’ve got a battle to fight in here, not out there.” That got me some laughter, and I saw Denton swing around to look at what was happening.

  “Warchief. It’s five degrees Celsius colder than the quarry floor and getting colder. Now it’s down to six lower. Dropping about a degree every ten seconds and speeding up.”

  “Thank you. Our World Boss is forming. It’s not just blinking into existence.”

  That’s when I stopped, and my mind went into overdrive. The other time, it just appeared. Had it already spent the time getting ready, like now, or did it just show up?

  “Too bad we weren’t measuring temperature when we were there earlier.”

  A soldier came from the doorway and told me, “Sir. It’s a guy who claims those dozen sheep are his. He doesn’t want us scaring or hurting them. Says he’s got permission from the quarry owners to graze them there."

  “Says his Merino sheep are expensive and he’s going to sue everyone involved if any of them get hurt.”

  “OK…thanks. Tell him nobody wants to hurt them. There’ll be enough noise to scare them. They should run away from the quarry, not to it when things happen. They’ll be safe.”

  “I don’t think he’ll believe anyone. He’s demanding ‘everyone leave them sheep alone’.”

  “Will,” Blaze said over the phone. “Something’s coming out. Gaylord’s starting.”

  “Roger that. When he stops, shields up. Get me stats on it. Stat!”

  “OK. Old bad joke. But I’m an old joke and I can get away with it.”

  I heard a groan from Blaze. And a few from people nearby who’d heard it.

  Then I turned up the volume on the phone. “Everyone. Go along with the song. Queen's “We Will Rock You”, just the chorus and clap, clap, stomp. Stay in place. We may get the buff here too.” I followed along with them, and others followed me until they stopped.

  It worked. +5 Attack and Defense. That meant a debuff on the Boss as well.

  “How much satellite time left?”

  “Twenty-two seconds, sir.” Came from one of the soldiers.

  Watching whatever it was getting increasingly bigger as it left the confined space under the ledge, only compounded how bad I felt with every size increase.

  “How are the sheep doing? Maybe we can reassure the guy outside that they're OK. Check for anything out of the ordinary as well. If they run away from the area, they’ll come back.”

  I wanted so much to be down there, it hurt. I should be there to protect everyone else. I saw our shields going up.

  “Ten seconds.” It was the same female soldier’s voice.

  “I should find out her name again so I can thank her.”

  “Everyone. When you hear PokerRun shoot, ranged attacks only.”

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Ready? Magic round. When your gun goes off, ranged attacks from everyone.]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Roger that.]

  “Soldiers, start firing after you hear the rifle shot. Open shooting on the boss when the casters fire. Kill the damn thing.”

  PokerRun’s shot came through the phone and an open mic from someone. I heard something deep and hollow sounding through the phone. On the screen, the World Boss reared up on its hind legs. They were right. It walked on all four but could stand up.

  “Artillery fire one round on it. Fire when ready.”

  “Blaze!” I yelled through the phone. “Artillery round firing. Shields overhead and get down.”

  Then I heard her yelling and behind me a voice saying, “Round one fired, sir.”

  “Shit. Tell Marmari incoming!”

  That’s when someone smashed through the parking lot door. A quick glance said it was the sheep owner. He was wearing well used tan Carhart overalls and jacket and a green feed store ball cap. He was running at me. Looking through the door, I saw a few people getting up off the ground.

  “Shit!” I threw up a MANA SHIELD around me and added a PSYCHIC SHIELD as well. Evil with a Capital E was back in a big way, and it was coming from him.

  I ducked behind the WARD’s circle. He shifted to his right to go around it. DISPLAY STATS showed he had a Warrior class and was Level 2. And he had a MINION Tag.

  “My Sheep! You hurt my sheep! You die!”

  It looked like Half the soldiers in the room got up and ran at him. Just the few working with communications and satellites stayed in their seats. Even Captain Park jumped into the fray.

  The reporter jumped out of the way.

  They finally pilled enough people on him. They drug him to the floor a few feet from me.

  “We didn’t hurt your sheep. I pointed at the screen that showed them. A bunch of white ones and one black one were still grazing in the meadow.

  “Will! We barely hurt it.” Blaze shouted through the phone. We’re only scratching it. Even the army’s not doing much. What do we do?”

  That was when I heard a voice that sounded like the Dungeon’s Avatar.

  THIRTEEN

  That was all it said. Looking again, I counted twelve white sheep and one black one.

  The farmer had said a dozen. My head was spinning, I started feeling weak. DETECT MANA showed my MANA flowing into the farmer in fat black tubes.

  He started throwing the soldiers on him aside. I stepped inside the WARD. The MANA drain stopped.

  Taking a deep breath, I recounted. There were thirteen sheep. I was looking at them on the screen. And something big and black that could have been a sheep made from a black hole.

  Turning towards the computers, I said. “New artillery target. Fire one round and reload. Target the black sheep in the meadow. No. Cancel that. Two rounds. Ignore the thing in the quarry.”

  I looked back at the farmer on the floor. “Drag him into the WARD with me. You can sit on him there, but you may not need to.” I didn’t watch them do it. I watched the screens. “Blaze. Artillery incoming. Everyone down and cover! Shields! We’ve got ourselves a Fenton.”

  “A what?” came through the phone.

  A few seconds later her question was followed by the sound of two artillery rounds exploding. Either I cut that warning too short, or they aimed and fired faster than I expected. It didn't matter at that point.

  The thing in the quarry screamed a deep base bleat. The kind that was low, resonant, and worked its way into your spine and rattled your thoughts loose.

  It dissipated into wisps of black smoke. I left the WARD

  Then the golden glows hit as words flashed in front of our eyes.

  [WORLD BOSS: DEATH SHEEP DEFEATED]

  [EXPERIENCE GAINED]

  [LEVEL GAINED]

  “A death sheep from hell,” I said to the silent room. People were staring at the screens. The drones showed two, almost overlapping, craters where the flock of sheep had been. There was no sign of any of them.

  Most of the people in the room were glowing gold from leveling up. I did the same. I was now a Level 12 Mana Mage.

  Someone shouted about gaining three levels. Several others went up 4 levels. I think everyone in the room who managed to join the raid was now at least level three or four. A World Boss is worth that much.

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