New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



They started walking forward in unison, slowly closing the gaps between each other as they approached the camp. Godrick was already fidgeting with his grip on his gun nervously.

As they crossed over the ridge where Godrick and his friends had been not even twenty-four hours earlier, his face paled. The bodies of his three friends were not there anymore.

'Where are the bodies? Did the monsters eat them or something?'

But just as he froze in place to wonder, a sharp whistle brought his attention to his left. David was staring at him with daggers in his eyes.

This was enough to make Godrick snap out of his daze and start walking again. He didn't want to test the man's patience.

Even with the rifle in his hands, he had a feeling the man wouldn't go down easy.

Seeing him keep walking, David shook his head slightly.

'I know how you feel, Godrick.'

David already knew this was bound to happen. The moment he grasped the Goblin shaman's presence, he knew the American's friends' bodies wouldn't be there anymore.

Best-case scenario, the Goblins had torched them in vengeance. But he doubted that was the case.

His worst-case scenario, and the one he thought was most likely, was that his three friends were now amongst the enemies they would have to fight.

As they crossed the last trees covering their approach, the Goblin sentries at the edges of the camp started screaming in warning. In mere moments, the entire camp was already getting ready to fight.

And just as David had expected, three human forms started stumbling in their direction, their clothes covered in half-dried blood, stemming from the deep cut in their throats.

Keeping Godrick in the corner of his eye, David could see his expression change to horror. But before he could say anything to make him focus, Alexander beat him to it.

"Godrick, focus! These aren't your friends anymore! If you aren't careful, they will try to tear you to pieces!"

Godrick's head turned to Alex, and the air he had about him made the man understand this was a warning for his safety. When Godrick looked forward again, his eyes were now resolute.

David's lips stretched at the corner, forming a smirk.

'At least he listens to him.'

The Goblins started rushing at them, with the Hob currently staying back, standing in front of the cave's entrance. When the Goblins reached the encirclement, the battle started in full.

The first wave of enemies was quickly felled, the Goblins in the back already stumbling to a stop. It was like the frontline had stepped in front of an execution squadron, and in seconds, they dropped to the ground, dead.

Some of them were cut up, others mangled, and some even had smouldering holes in their heads. But the troubles were not over for the invading party.

As soon as the dead Goblins hit the ground, they were already shaking eerily. When they rose back to their feet, David gave his first instruction.

Jack had given every one of them an inner-ear comms device, so they could stay in touch during combat.

"The shaman will bring them back up every time they die. Use the time they are down to push them back. This way, we can keep closing the net on them."

As the Goblins rose again, the ones in the back regained their lost courage, and the second wave of Goblins was larger than the first.

Claws struck, swords slashed, bidents jabbed, bullets flew, and fire blazed, quickly sending the enemies down again, with a fresh wave of still-alive Goblins.

But the same scene repeated as the first time, as they shook eerily on the ground. But this time, the invading party pushed, kicked, and threw the Goblins back, allowing them to keep advancing.

They didn't know how long they could do this, since they would eventually reach the camp's first structures. But for now, this method allowed them to tighten their cordon around it.

Wave after wave of alive and undead Goblin threw themselves at the humans and skeletons marching into their territory, only getting killed again and again.

When the human invaders reached the first structures, a roar resounded. David grinned.

But something washed his grin away. The Hob, which he wanted Alex to fight, was heading in his direction!

'Fuck!'

With the goliath-sized enemy thundering toward him, David had no time to think about readjusting their positions. But he couldn't fight that enemy with his split focus.

The Hobgoblin swung his gigantic arm upward, a massive wooden club in his hand, and swung back down. But as David was about to dodge sideways, his vision swam for a second.

When his focus came back, he was no longer standing in his position, but was now standing in between Kary and Godrick. Snapping his head to where he should be standing, Alexander was there, his swords crossed over his head, the massive club motionless.

'He teleported me! This is advanced magic. How does he even have enough mana for it?'

Another thing caught his attention. Further, inside the camp, a large white form was blurring around, dodging attacks left and right as it made its way to the hole in the cliff.

"Better clear this camp as fast as possible, because I won't last long with this kind of mana drain!" Alex shouted into the comms.

David grinned from ear to ear.

"You madman! If you fall unconscious here, you'll die!"

"You say that with a huge grin, bastard. Do you want me dead?"

"Hahaha! Not yet. Let's make sure you live to see another day, then."

David felt pressured mentally, to perform at least as well as Alex. So he focused his mind, reaching into the deepest part of his soul.

He knew that was where the power from inside New Eden was stored, since that was what both planes shared in common. Feeling around, he tried his best to unlock a facet of his power he used often in the game.

After a few seconds of rummaging around in his soul, David found what he was looking for. Opening his eyes with a mad grin, he raised his left hand.

"Rise, Ratma, Commander of the western legions of the underworld!"