You shall not pass.

  Candrel was returning from a successful expedition. She had been out for three days and gained another level. She was also bringing back lots of loot. Her storage contained weapons and armor, raw materials, and a natural treasure. Not to mention the credits. The system was always generous on these newly integrated planets. The forest they had integrated into provided excellent resources for their woodshapers. This was Candrel’s first integration, but she had overheard her parents and her sisters discussing how perfect this integration was going.

  Coming back into the familiar terrain surrounding their municipality, Candrel was shocked to see guardsmen leading citizens into the deeper woods. Two guardsmen she didn’t recognize spotted her and approached.

  “The high lord is looking for you, Candrel. The army is forming.”

  “What is happening?”

  “Orcs.” One said. “Dragons.” The other said. They looked at each other before the first continued. “We spotted an orc horde moving through the large valley and began to evacuate. Not long after, Dragons began circling. Hurry Candrel. They might already be moving.”

  Candrel burst into movement weaving her way around the crowd towards the municipality's rear gate. As she approached, the guards cleared a path for her to enter. Turning right inside the gate she moved to a secondary path. She heard a guard shout, “Front Gate Courtyard.” As her smaller path crossed one of the larger paths feeding to the main trail, Candrel jumped and sprang off the side of one of the great trees, grabbing a vine to swing herself over the people heading for the back gate.

  When she reached the open courtyard, she spotted her father and the last of the army heading for the gate. He turned as she approached. “Scouts. Commander Bostel.” he said as he sent her a map update. Pulling up her map in her interface, she took off for her assigned unit. She cursed as she saw her older sisters were already moving with their scout units nearing the forest’s edge. Her mother cast The Blessing of the Forest on her as she sped passed.

  As she ran, she collected vines and leaves and used her family's bloodline to adhere the foliage to her leather armor, breaking up her outline. When she neared her unit’s position she dropped and slowly crawled the last 100 meters. Stopping next to a clump of bushes in a small low spot offset between the last of the large trees at the forest edge, she slowly raised up to see down into the valley.

  “Left the gates without your guards again, Candrel?” the bush said.

  “I didn’t go through the gates.” Candrel smiled as Bostel turned towards her. “So what’s…” Lightning lit the sky and Candrel saw a human in brown robes carrying a staff walking towards the front of the Orc’s main body. A dragon flew overhead and roared as it paralleled the mass of orcs. Other Dragons circled the horde in the distance. The man continued casting and walking forward.

  Small dragons dove in from the sides of the formation to quickly release their breaths before turning away and avoiding arrows shot from the assembling orc archers. The charging orcs reached the lone caster and he exploded in lightning. As Candrel’s eyes readjusted she saw the man encased in chain mail armor wielding a double bladed glaive. He dove in and out of the orcs narrowly avoiding swords, axes, and spears. When the orcs closed in on him, he would release a blast of lightning before going back to work.

  Bostrel tapped her and pointed deeper into the horde where a mass of shiny green flesh and metallic blades was tearing through the orc archers before disappearing and reappearing in another group seconds later. The small dragons also returned cutting jagged lines with lightning and fire through the outer edges of the front of the maneuvering orcs.

  Glancing back to the lone man, she saw hundreds of dead orcs, but there were thousands still alive and the man was surrounded. An enormous orc in heavy armor led a group of high level heavily armed orcs through the surrounding orcs. He stopped and used a skill to throw his spear faster than an arrow flies at the man who batted it to the side as his armor shifted to full plate and his glaive became two war hammers. The orcs spear returned to him and he used a different skill as his spear split into many copies. The man couldn’t avoid them all and he fell as he turned to dust.

  The two small dragons roared and dove to join the orcs in melee. The red one burst into flames and tore into the orcs as blood flew. The blue one encased his body in lightning wove his way through the orcs sending head, arms, and unidentifiable body parts flying. But eventually they were overwhelmed by orc spearmen and also turned to dust.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  *****

  Mufasa was furious. They had been able to make it past the orc horde and had a clear shot to the principal when suddenly his interface showed his protectee right in front of the orc horde and lightning flashed in the sky behind him. He was sending a message to update his father when an alert showed in his interface from the side of the formation. He saw the light of a portal not far from his left edge.

  Mufasa led his detachment to the flank where he saw a glowing ball floating and a human archer dungeon creature wearing a black mask standing in front of the portal. The dungeon creature held his open hands out and waved for Mufasa to approach. Mufasa looked to Boris who shrugged before Mufasa stepped forward.

  “What is your purpose?” a voice asked from the glowing ball.

  “We have a system contract to protect John Drake. We are trying to reach him.” Mufasa replied.

  “Meddling gods.” the voice said. “I am Destiny, John’s Dungeon. May I see the contract?”

  Mufasa pulled up the contract summary in his interface, made it visible to others, then spun it to face the glowing ball. After a second the ball spoke up, “I only see a couple thousand, where are the rest?”

  “When the gods meddled, we were left split up all around the planet. I have 4,000 and the rest are trying to get here.”

  “Are you in communication with them?”

  “Yes.”

  “And map updates?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Tell them to hold up in a secure spot for a week or two. I’ll pick them up.”

  “You’ll pick them up?” Mufasa asked incredulously.

  “Yes, I’ve nearly secured the planet’s core and will be following the main essence veins out. I can send thin advanced threads to meet them more quickly if I slow my absorption a bit.”

  Mufasa nodded and sent an update to his father who replied with the expected…”What?!?” Mufasa told him to wait, more to follow.

  “I can provide a portal to the keep or your men can stay here for now.”

  “Where is John?” Mufasa asked.

  “Killing orcs.”

  “We should help. Can you take us to him?” Mufasa asked as he felt the contract give a slight pull on his soul before releasing. Why hasn’t the system been warning me he is in danger this entire time if he’s fighting orcs? I know he’s fifth on the leaderboard, but even Simba and I couldn’t handle an orc horde.

  “Are you immortal?” Destiny asked.

  “No. Why?” Mufasa asked while thinking, What the hells have I got myself into?

  “Then it’s best you stay safe until John’s done. He’s a bit angry and might strike first and ask questions later. Tell you what…I can show you if you’d like?” Destiny offered as she opened a portal. Mufasa shook his head and stepped through the portal onto the wall of a small keep. Looking into the valley, he saw a man, two baby dragons, and something shiny and green tearing through the elite units of the Red Hand Horde while larger dragons circled using their breath to drive the orcs attempting to flee back into the valley. Thousands of orcs lay dead behind them. T who had evaded Boris and jumped through the portal behind him whimpered.

  *****

  Candrel was disappointed to see such a skilled fighter and the two young dragons throw their lives away when the shiny green thing reappeared, killing the Orc King's guard as the king spun to face it. The man followed by the dragons appeared behind the giant orc. The dragons turned and released their breath to drive off the surrounding orcs as the man leapt and slammed a giant hammer of lightning into the orc king’s head and proceeded to pound him into dust. A green tentacle reached out and tossed the human into the surrounding orcs and he exploded into lightning and began working his way back to his allies.

  A stone keep rose in front of Candrel blocking her vision. Dungeon creatures appeared to man ballistas in the keeps towers and walls began spreading left and right. In the distance she saw other keeps rising. Bostel called for retreat and they began slowly moving back when a voice called out.

  “I can’t see you sneaky elves, but Destiny says you’re here. Keep your people safe and you can reach out to us when you’re ready to talk. We’ll remove the defenses once John is done and we’ve wrangled up the orcs he left alive.” A goblin shaman was standing a few steps outside the keep and turned to step back inside.

  Bostel cursed then said a brief prayer as Candrel stood and walked out to the keep. Three bushes rose to follow her. The shaman turned and smiled, waving for Candrel to join her. As she approached, the goblin said, “My gods, you’re a pretty one. I’m Sharilla. Would you like to watch the show with us?”

  Candrel nodded and the four elves followed her into the keep and up the far wall. “Why is he doing this?”

  The goblin looked sad and after a deep breath said, “They killed my Binxie. John liked him.”

  *****

  Faith looked at Destiny as they felt a polite knock on her domain. Destiny checked her interface and a green skinned wood nymph goddess avatar appeared. Sylvia, the Old God of Nature was surprised to see the avatars of three dwarven gods sitting on couches with Faith and Destiny eating popcorn while they watched a projection of the battle. Legion himself was sitting at a table in the corner also watching the projection.

  “I received a prayer for safety from one of my blessed and felt your touch and decided I had better investigate in case we needed to intervene.” Sylvia said.

  Destiny waved her over and said, “Take a seat. John’s upset right now, but he’s working it out. I’m sure everything will be okay for your clan.”

  *****

  Simba called a halt and sent orders pulling his scouts back in and assigning sectors for them to clear. They hadn’t seen any natives or their annoying flying vehicles for a couple weeks as they made steady progress towards a land bridge they were going to use to cross onto Mufasa’’s continent. Then Mufasa sent him the crazy request to find a secure spot and wait for a dungeon to retrieve them.

  Mufasa quickly sent messages to several of Mufasa’s sub-commanders asking if Mufasa had been captured or drugged and they all said the same thing. All clear. Best to wait for clarification from Simba. So Simba waited for his scouts to finish their patrols while he cursed the meddling gods.