Jackson ate and rinsed his mouth. Toothpaste definitely topped his list of things that they needed to bring to Eloria, but he could manage for now. A certain nervous energy was running through him.

  He and Sir Schinhofen, both captains, Master Meyer, and one archer were going to be the entire team. The plan had eventually come down to not including any more soldiers. Max had insisted that they would just be a liability. It might be customary Elorian tactics to sacrifice your lower-level fighters so that the champions could get a shot to do what they needed to do, but from what Jackson remembered, Max had a real problem with losing troops under his command.

  The six of them headed out while the rest of the soldiers headed for the town but aimed more to the east than Jackson’s team. They had split it up and made another of the knights into the raid leader for the 110-man raid while their squad was just a single team. That was another thing that Max had insisted on, given how difficult it was to find good sources of XP at Tier 3. Three of the original guards and the villagers all stayed back a mile from town with the priest.

  The tension in Jackson made him want to run faster. Essentially if all went to plan, they would be engaging the froglok, his two remaining apprentices, the remaining ghost, and the two golems. It was six on six, but no one had any illusions about it being a fair fight. The hope was that they could hold long enough to get the pirates driven away.

  Once in sight, Jackson felt a shiver go down his spine. The froglok was sitting right in the middle of town. Simply meditating with his legs crossed. His apprentices and the ghost were not in sight, but Jackson’s esoteric sense told him the apprentices were only a short distance away just behind the first line of houses. The golems were on either side of the froglok.

  “Do we attack?” Jackson asked.

  “No, if he will talk, then all the better. That will give the rest of the raid time to push the pirates out of town,” Max answered.

  The group stopped about thirty feet from the froglok. Silence reigned for another minute before the frog’s eyes finally popped open. They were truly frog eyes and much larger in proportion to his face than a human’s or elf’s eyes. “Greetings, so you have arrived.”

  “Yes, we are here to throw your corpse into the sea. This land is the sovereign land of Albia, and by the order of King Harold Bornstein, you may either leave and agree to pay reparations for the damages you have caused, or you may pay with your life,” Sir Schinhofen said.

  “Shush, human. This land no more belongs to any of you than the walls of a home belong to the termites infesting it. As for Harold being the king of anything, it is such arrogance for children to claim such lofty positions. Either way, he is not long for this world. He will be food for worms soon.”

  Swords were drawn at that point, but the frog man didn’t make a move but just sat there with a short walking stick laid across his lap. Max said, “Apparently we have to do this the hard way.”

  “Not at all. There is an easy way, at least for some of you. If you will listen, I shall present an offer that I have been instructed to make.”

  The party looked at each other, and after a couple of shrugs, Max replied, “Very well, what is this offer, and who has instructed you to make it?”

  “My master has instructed me to make it, or rather should I say the master of all things that draw breath. Some simply don’t know who it is that they serve. As for the offer, it is only for the children of Earth. I’m not sure what that means, but I was told that some of you would know what that means, and he is never wrong,” the frog said.

  Max and Jackson looked at each other, but with a gesture from Max, Jackson did his best not to give anything away. Aremay clearly noticed, but the others were too caught up in staring at the frog. Max tried to take control again. “I’ve never seen your kind before. Perhaps you could tell us your name or the name of your people.”

  “Stalling won’t accomplish anything. I will make my offer, and those of you for whom it is made will answer me. Then the rest of this will play out. I will, however, humor you. My kind are not native to Talos. We come from what you would call the old world, the seat of all true civilization on Eloria. My race is very small, only controlling one city, but we are known as Sebians.”

  Sir Schinhofen said, “Then what is this offer, and who is it for? I don’t know anything about Earth, or whatever you called it.”

  The froglok stood now, using his staff to help him up. He smiled a large toothless grin. “The ones for whom the message is sent already know. I have seen that much. You would have too if you were more observant. The offer is simple. The children of Earth have one chance. You may agree to travel and meet my master, bow your knee to him. He will teach you powers that you can only dream of, and raise you up to be his generals and governors when he returns to claim his rightful place.”

  “You are speaking in riddles,” Master Meyer said angrily as he stepped forward with his sword drawn.

  The frog held out his right arm. The black robe fell down from that arm and revealed a bracer on his right wrist. It glowed with a pink light and pulsed. He pronounced a single word. “Soothe.”

  Then a flash of pink light rushed over them. Jackson suddenly felt much calmer. He saw the tension in Master Meyer’s shoulders visibly relax. Those who held swords dropped the tips of their weapons into the ground. None of them released the weapon entirely, but their entire posture was more relaxed.

  “Now, I think I need to have an answer to the offer that has been made. He will welcome you with open arms. You only need to bow your knee to him, and no others will be above you.”

  All the anger that Jackson felt about the offer that had been made faded with the magical effect. It wasn’t that he suddenly was okay with it. Rather it just felt difficult to feel too strongly about any of it. Max stepped forward though. “You can drop the magic. We will not be joining you.”

  “Then you will die,” the froglok said as he dropped his right hand again, and the two golems stepped forward. The left hand raised the walking stick. A green swirling storm left the staff and engulfed the group.

  Jackson saw a notification:

  You have resisted magical resistance debuff.

  You have resisted swamp poison.

  As the cloud cleared, Jackson noticed that each of the others looked slightly green around the gills, so to speak, and their archer was even retching his guts out. This was not a promising start to the fight. He had to figure out what he could do to stop the effect, but at the moment he just had to stop the golems.

  The one on the left was swinging a magical sword that was surrounded by what appeared to be swirling hot coals spinning around the blade. The one on the left had a weapon in one hand that Jackson equated to brass knuckles except that it had a blade that was maybe a foot long on the top and a blade on the other side that was half as long.

  Jackson pushed the others out of the way as he leapt with all his strength to land a kick against the head of the sword-wielding golem. It stumbled but was too big to be entirely thrown off balance by his much lighter mass. That was as Jackson had planned though, for he ricocheted off it and landed right next to the froglok. The creature was apparently caught off guard by the surprise attack and was unable to dodge when Jackson drove his fist into the oval head.

  He tried to trigger a stunning blow, but it didn’t go off, so the creature must have resisted. That didn’t stop the amphibian’s skin from splitting under the force of his blow. Unfortunately though, before Jackson could follow up, the second golem swung its knuckle weapon in an attempt to dust him off of its master. Jackson at least had the presence of mind to activate Dodge. The measly cost of one stamina was certainly worth not feeling whatever that impact would have been like.

  From what Jackson could see once he refocused after the narrow miss, Schinhofen was engaging the sword-wielding golem and Max the other. Aremay and Meyer were focused on the froglok, who had dropped the walking stick and was full-on casting. A small shield around him was absorbing the attacks from his teammates.

  Part of Jackson knew it would be bad if that spell got cast, but before he could intervene, the lizardman ghost flanked by the two apprentices walked into his sight. The ghost was something that he was the best equipped to deal with, but he also needed to make sure his team wasn’t sniped down by the spells of these two casters.

  With that in mind, he ignored the ghost and sprinted past him faster than a speeding car. The momentum put a tremendous amount of force behind the slash he delivered with his wind axe. The shearing force was so great that it severed one arm, and the speed of this weapon was such that he was already turning it into a second attack. He took the leg of the creature at the knee and then delivered three rapid slashes down onto the monster’s face and chest.

  The attacks killed the first apprentice but not before a set of spinning ice blades came flying off his hand. Two struck the archer and two struck Schinhofen. The archer was knocked backwards and then attacked by the ghost. Jackson had to ignore the man’s screams of pain. The five of them had to handle themselves while he did his job.

  The other caster turned towards him, but Jackson was simply too fast. First, he hurled his axe through the air. The blade never even hit the creature, but the other half did a good enough job of distracting it long enough. He crossed the gap between them in a single leap. His hands landed heavily on the frog caster’s shoulders. The odd thought of how squishy its body was under the robes hit his mind, but not enough to delay him.

  He pulled down hard on the creature’s shoulders. It clearly hadn’t put any points into Strength because it was completely unable to resist him. He pulled it down and slammed his knee into its gut as its shoulders came down. What seemed like a gallon of sputum along with whatever passed for the creature’s breakfast landed on Jackson’s boots.

  As disgusting as that was, he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted. So he pivoted his hips and drove his elbow into the creature’s temple as hard as he could while spending a stamina point. This frog caster didn’t resist like his master had. Instead he was stunned and unable to react.

  Jackson dropped an axe kick between its shoulders as it was leaning forward helplessly. The creature’s body flopped onto the ground hard, and he followed with another kick to the back of its neck before taking a moment to pick up his axe. Helpless before him, Jackson beheaded it. A moment of doubt crossed his mind since it couldn’t fight back, but its inhuman form made the decision much easier for Jackson.

  After finishing these two, Jackson looked for the ghost. He hadn’t taken any damage yet, so he couldn’t activate his aura, but he could still hurt it with his gloves or axe. He flicked his axe and sent the green blood along its edge onto the ground with a splatter. Then he put the axe back onto his back again and charged the ghost.

  It was a bit counterintuitive, but for this to be effective, he realized that he needed to take some damage. That was the only way he could kill the ghost for sure. His aura would only kick in after a minimum of 25% damage. Jackson ran and attacked, a series of punches to the back of the ghost as it was killing the archer.

  Each blow made it flinch till it turned from its victim and focused on Jackson with a screech. Of course, each also caused him harm. Jackson took a risk and glanced at the damage notifications he was getting.

  You have taken 16 necrotic damage.

  You have taken 14 necrotic damage.

  You have taken 13 necrotic damage.

  His damage resistance didn’t seem to have any effect on this type of damage. That matched what he and his dad had talked about. They expected it was only good against physical damage and that elemental damages would require their own type of resistance. Even once the creature started attacking him, its attacks didn’t add up very fast. He would take thirteen to seventeen damage each time that he attacked but about double that from the claw attacks of the ghost creature.

  Even after several seconds, Jackson had only hit 25% total damage. He almost became sloppy, checking his sheet while in the middle of being attacked. He instinctively blocked anything headed for his face, but let the body blows through. They each hurt, and some of them were bad enough to make him want to cry, but he would never do that. He couldn’t in front of others whom he admired.

  He did notice that his class ability was in effect. His damage resistance increased by 2% for each % of health loss that he had suffered. If this creature was inflicting physical damage, it would have to deal more than thirty-six damage just to get through his defense. Still Jackson continued, but when he saw Schinhofen get hit by the golem and sent flying twenty feet through the air, he had no choice but to intervene.

  Jackson cast Acid Gel and used his hands as the target. Fortunately it appeared that the gloves were considered to be part of his hand and thus protected from the acid. That was the only thing he had worried about but had felt he had to take the risk.

  Now he charged the golem and left his back exposed to the ghost. Still, while it could cause him injury, it just wasn’t that powerful. Besides, he had little choice unless he wanted to write the knight off. All the others were busy. Master Meyer was bound to the ground by thorns that had wrapped up around his legs. Aremay was fighting the froglok with his lightning spear but looked worse for wear.

  He took all of this in as he landed a series of punches against the golem’s right arm, near its wrist. The acid damage would hopefully stack up, and eventually the creature would lose the burning sword. Till then, Jackson needed to be careful. That sword looked like it could cut him in two with the strength of the massive golem behind it.

  However, in the battle of speed versus strength, Jackson was easily outclassing the golem. He didn’t want to get hit; the creature never got within six inches of him with an attack. All the while he launched attack after attack against the golem’s right forearm, each leaving a residue of acid on it.

  Slowly, Jackson felt the wounds adding up. His body hurt all over, and it was becoming harder to dodge the golem even with its clumsy swings. Finally in apparent frustration the golem held the sword up over its head. Jackson didn’t know if it had been programmed to do this or how exactly that worked, but it seemed to be a response to its inability to hit him.

  There was a powerful concussive force that exploded out from the sword. It wasn’t enough to pierce Jackson’s damage resistance, but a moment later, the burning coals that had been circling the sword came raining down in an attack that hit not only Jackson but everything around him. All his allies were hit, both golems were hit, the ghost was hit, and even the froglok was hurt.

  The burning coals delivered a tremendous amount of damage in an instant. Jackson was well below 25% remaining health. He instantly triggered his aura, and all the party glowed with the brilliant light of the shared spell. Sadly they would only be protected from the ghost, but that would have to be enough.

  Jackson’s first action was to down a healing potion. His own Minor Healing wouldn’t restore enough, and even then the health potion only took him to a little over 600 total health. Still, it had accomplished what he wanted, and Jackson lunged forward at the ghost. A quick series of attacks turned it into the same smoky wisps that the other two had broken down into.

  After dealing with the one threat that he was uniquely equipped to deal with, he looked up to take in the rest of the situation. The golem with the sword had taken the worst of it, as huge chunks were melted out of it by the burning rain. Sir Schinhofen was spared the worst of it because of how he had been thrown by the golem. Max and Aremay were clearly injured, with small cuts and burns all over any exposed skin. Even their armor had small dents and scorch marks. Master Meyer was unmoving. Jackson saw his chest rising and falling with labored breaths, so at least he was still alive.

  The froglok likewise bore a number of wounds all over his person. His robes had not held up nearly as well as the others’ armor. He was rubbing the palm of his hand against the spot on his forehead between his two eyes. “Enough, my patience is at an end. This is not nearly as simple as I thought it would be.”

  Jackson couldn’t help himself. The smart alec that resides within every fourteen-year-old boy burst forth in that moment. “What do you mean? You’re the idiot who gave a fire sword to a clay golem.”

  The froglok stared at him. His massive lips quivered before he spat out, “Insolent cur, you will all die now.”

  With that, he appeared to quick-cast some type of shield that appeared as a sparkling barrier around him, and then started chanting another spell.

  Max yelled, “Jackson, hold off your golem. Aremay, switch with me.”

  Smoothly the two captains switched targets, but Jackson couldn’t focus on that because as soon as the caster’s short tirade was over, the golems were on the attack again. The brief respite had given Jackson time to catch his breath, and he pulled out his axe to go to work on the golem.

  For as powerful a monster as it was, Jackson found it pitifully easy to deal with. Likely it was his speed that made it so easy. Even still, punches and kicks were not going to do much to the creature. Rather, he needed to shave off portions of its body to weaken it. This task was made easier by the gaping wounds it had suffered from being near the center of the fiery rain.

  Jackson switched his aura to Minor Pliable Body. The extra damage reduction and flexibility only served to make him bolder. One slash finally took off the golem’s left leg at the knee. From there the creature’s mobility was greatly reduced, and Jackson abandoned it to help Max with their main enemy. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sir Schinhofen dragging his instructor to safety.

  Max’s hand was raised, and a red, diamond-shaped bundle of coruscating energy formed in front of his hand. Jackson hoped that whatever special attack this was, it would be enough to penetrate the shimmering shield around the froglok, because his axe had simply bounced off it.