I arrived back on Earth with six new friends and some valuable information on our foes.

  We had to wait for a carriage. I didn’t think parading six other elves through the streets of Solacetown would make for a quick trip. Once the carriage showed up, we headed for the docks. Kat and Donovan were organizing the first couple airships there. Hopefully they’d be ready to take off when we arrived.

  The six elves were a mix of Paths. All just at Level One Hundred, so the invaders didn’t get to have any extra over Level One Hundred raiders. I had profusely thanked Jeriyan for that. The six all had a lot of combat experience, another thing I’d thanked Jeriyan for. Four men and two women. Two healing specialists, two ranged scouts and two specializing in large scale battles.

  That was a new one. I don’t think anyone on Earth had thought about molding Essence Abilities for that. Those two weren’t Adventurers, so they didn’t enter the Infinite Tower. Jeriyan had explained they were part of the army that the Sunrise Formation used to claim planets or as guards in areas where arcanebeast swarms were common.

  Geralio and Terilas were the two Area Of Effect masters. I had all their last names, and I hadn’t forgotten, but it was just easier to go with the first. They would be assigned to Maria’s command and I wouldn’t have much to do with them. The two healers were named Larissa and Micklin. The last two, the scouts, were Dondido and Heris.

  Dondido was Sunie’s cousin. They were like twice removed, maybe three times. Both part of the greater Teralei Clan, but were only indirectly related. Each had the last name, which meant they were part of the main branch of the Clan, but when people lived to be hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, there were a lot of offspring. And those offspring lived a long time and produced more offspring and on and on it went. Basically it meant there were a lot of people in the families.

  Someday Earth would be like that. Another reason that we’d eventually have to expand outside of the planet. It was hard to adjust to. For years, before the System, Earth had tried to reach for the stars. We’d walked on the moon. There had been a shuttle that went to Mars. Talk of building stations on both. Even then, we knew we would have to expand beyond Earth. Just never imagined it would be like this.

  Or as easy as it basically ended up being.

  Instead of spaceships, we had portals.

  The ride through the city didn’t take long. We still got some looks, mostly from me being in the carriage. Folks just weren’t used to that. I don’t think anyone realized I had six elves with me. We passed by the Town Hall, and about ten minutes later, got to the docks. We had to wait for the crowd of onlookers gathering around the docks to open up a space so we could get through.

  “Thanks Tim,” I said, clapping the driver on the shoulder.

  “No problem Nick,” he said.

  There were a lot of people on the docks. Two of the largest airships were tied up, floating in the waters of the lake. People were a constant stream up and down the gangplanks. Carrying crates, barrels, bags. No soldiers yet. Those would be coming.

  It took time to assemble them, grab their equipment and other gear, then come down to the docks. They’d be coming along. The supplies would be loaded first.

  A third airship, smaller but still good sized, was in between the two big ones. More supplies were being loaded on that one, but some soldiers too. That was the advanced crew, of which I was part. Donovan was talking with Maria, Kat with a young man. He was a couple inches shorter and thin. I recognized Derek Armstead, one of Kat’s staff. I was kind of surprised she had chosen him to come with us. Derek wasn’t a combatant. He could barely hold his own in Dungeons. But he was an excellent administrator.

  Maybe Kat wanted him to get some experience?

  Not my call to make. She knew her people and who would be the best.

  Sunie was Nathan and the others. A couple of Guard unit commanders, a Captain and two Sargeants, stood near the line of soldiers going onto the smaller ship. The Captain had a list and he was checking names and items off.

  All the eyes turned toward us as I led my six new friends to join the rest. Sunie disengaged from the team, walking over. He spread his arms, talking rapidly in what I figured was their native language. Surprised the translator didn’t let me know what they were saying. I needed to figure out how to do that. Could come in handy. He and Dondido hugged, Sunie’s cousin introducing him to the others.

  “New friends?” Kat asked.

  “Courtesy of the Sunrise Formation,” I said. “There’s some politics involved but they need to keep their distance. They did send us those six.” I turned to Donovan and Maria, pointing out Geralio and Terilas. “Those two are experienced at large scale battles. Their Abilities are mostly Area Of Effects.”

  “That’ll come in handy,” Donovan said. “Might need to have them train up some of our people.”

  “I was thinking that. Especially where we’ll need to deal with claiming and defending planets someday in the future.”

  “Still trying to wrap my head around that one,” Maria said.

  “They also gave us this,” I said, pulling the information crystal out of my inventory. I handed it to Kat. “All the information they had on who is invading us. They call themselves the Grimdar Sect. Big Gnoll looking guys.”

  “Gnolls?” Derek asked, not recognizing the name.

  Surprised he hadn’t known it. I had pegged him as an old school D&D player.

  “Derek,” Kat said. “Head back to the office and make multiple copies of this. We’ll need at least three here.”

  “How many total?” he asked, taking the crystal from her.

  “As many as you can make in an hour,” she replied.

  “Take the carriage,” I said, loud enough that Tim the driver could hear.

  He’d been smart enough to stay, just in case he was needed. Derek rushed off. I heard him climb into the carriage, Tim already urging the highlanders to turn. I motioned to the three in front of me to come a little closer. Being Awakened, we all had good hearing and I didn’t want this next part getting out. If there wasn’t for the crowd of curious onlookers, I wouldn’t have bothered. But definitely didn’t want anyone blabbing. If I could have erected a cone of silence, I would have.

  Maybe that was something I could learn to do with the Sonic Essence. I could create a Force bubble and use the Sonic Essence to block sound? There’d be time to experiment on the airship.

  “I learned something else,” I said. “For your ears only.” I turned to Kat. “Is Trevor or Ben here?”

  “Not yet. Ben said he’d stop by before we left. He’ll have a couple folks to add to the group.”

  I nodded, understanding.

  “We’ll tell him and his people when they get here. So, apparently an early incursion like this has occurred one hundred and twenty-seven times before.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “That seems like a lot,” Maria said.

  “It’s like .01% of the total incursions since the System appeared,” I said.

  “Oh, nevermind then,” she said.

  “I had the same reaction.” That got a smile from her. “In all of those times, the reason it happened early was because the invading force was invited.”

  Donovan cursed, very loudly, which drew a lot of eyes.

  “Sorry,” he muttered.

  “I had that same reaction,” I said, earning a grim smile from Donovan. “It had to be someone in charge of a Faction and that Faction had to be on the World Council.”

  “That narrows it down some,” Kat said.

  “Which ever Faction it was, they’ll probably have people in the Gray Wolf territory,” Donovan said.

  He’d been a field General, but that had no doubt involved him dealing with spies, both for and against him. He’d have some experience. He turned to Maria, making a motion with his hand. She pulled a notebook out.

  “That’ll be the first, and only, assignment for Ben’s people that come with us. They’ll be tasked with finding those observers. We’ll need to tell Ben to send more with the next airship out to the front.”

  “Understood,” Maria said.

  “Two of the elves that came with me are scouts,” I said. “But they’d probably be too noticeable for spy work.”

  “I’m sure we can still use them in that capacity,” Maria said.

  “The other two are Healers,” I added.

  She made a note in her book.

  “Excellent. There’s never enough healers,” she said. “Our problem is that it’s been a while since the Fellowship has been engaged in large scale battles. Not since we solidified our borders. We’re not used to this kind of fighting. Most of our Healers are Adventurers, part of a party and not Specced toward battlefield healing.”

  “I have a feeling that all six of those guys are experienced at it,” I said.

  “I’ll sit down with them and get their full capabilities on the flight over,” Maria said, returning her notebook to her inventory.

  “How much longer until we’re ready to take off?”

  “Two hours,” Kat answered.

  “Okay,” I said. “I need to see Jack before we leave.”

  “He’s coming with Ben,” Kat answered.

  “Thanks,” I said, squeezing her shoulder.

  ***

  I left Kat, Donovan and Maria to finish up their logistics talks. It was more of the same stuff we’d spent the other night in hours of planning going over. But folks like that liked repeating things over and over to make sure they all got it.

  And it was the right thing to do. Just didn’t mean I had to listen to it.

  I went over to Nathan, Tracy and the others. They had a new person with them.

  “Hey guys,” I said, shaking hands with Gary and Harry.

  Nathan pulled me into a bro-hug, and I got a quick hug from Tracy who returned to her position next to the new guy. They were standing a little close. I smiled and held in my sarcastic side. I could tell what was going on between them, or maybe would be going on, hard to tell how far it had gone, but it wouldn’t do for me to tease Tracy. I’d wait to do that later.

  “Nick, I don’t know if you’ve ever met Grant Hollins,” Tracy said, pointing to him.

  He was taller than me, but about four inches. Not as broad, but not skinny. Long black hair and beard, bright blue eyes. He wore leather armor, and a cloak, carrying a long white staff. A sword was belted at his waist.

  Even with personal spatial inventories, people still found it easier to carry weapons on themselves. We’d found that pulling stuff from the inventory took a couple of valuable seconds and with a weapon, it might not pop out in a position to be used. Most of us kept extra weapons and armor in the inventory, wearing and carrying our main gear. Those that used weapons. I didn’t, so I kept it all in the inventory.

  Nathan had three or four different great swords, all with varying imbuements that would be used in special occasions. But he’d only exchange them when there was time to prepare.

  I held out my hand, shaking Grants.

  “You’re the new healer?”

  “Yes sir, Lord Howell,” he said.

  “Just Nick. If you’re going to be hanging with this crew, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. No need for the formalities.”

  “I’ll try to remember that,” he said.

  I looked at Grant. He seemed like he’d be a good guy. I wasn’t sure of the fit yet though.

  “You like beer?” I asked.

  “Of course.”

  Tracy rolled her eyes.

  “What kind?”

  “I prefer the stouts from Heron’s Bill over.”

  “They make a pretty good beer,” I said. “I’m not much of a stout fan, but I won’t hold that against you.”

  Grant laughed.

  I took a step back, so they could all look at me without crowding in. Sunie and the other elves walked over. I shifted so they could all see me and me them.

  “I got some more info on what we’ll be facing,” I addressed the group. I trusted Nathan and the others, but didn’t know Grant, and the info wouldn’t really mean anything to the elves, so I wasn’t going to tell them about the invaders being invited. “They’re called the Grimdar Sect.” One of the elves muttered something. Guess he’d heard of them. “For the most part they’re Gnolls.”

  Everyone there knew what a Gnoll was.

  I turned to address the six new elves and pointed at Maria.

  “That lovely lady over there is going to figure out the best way to make use of you all.” They all nodded. I turned to the rest of the folks around me. “The rest of us? We’re going to be the mobile strikeforce. We go where they tell us, kill all the invaders, come back to base and then go and do it again.”

  “We’re like the Avengers,” Gary said, earning some laughs and confused looks from the elves.

  ***

  This was always the boring part, waiting to take off. Waiting for the last of the supplies to be loaded. Waiting for the last of the passengers to show up.

  Just waiting.

  Course the waiting was made harder because I knew what was coming as the crowd parted, revealing the carriage. Ben got out with two other people, a man and a woman. I didn’t recognize them, but that was partly by design. Ben’s spy troops were supposed to be hidden, no one knew exactly who was on his payroll. I nodded to Ben as I walked to the carriage. He nodded back, leading his folks over to Kat, Donovan and Maria.

  Jack climbed out, looking at the three airships. He caught sight of the six elves that were still hanging with Tracy, Nathan and that crew. His eyes widened a bit.

  “Are those elves?” He asked.

  I’d forgotten that he hadn’t gotten a chance to meet Sunie yet.

  “Yeah, they are. That one is Sunie,” I pointed my partymate out. “Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

  Jack looked at the airships again, then up at me.

  “What’s going on Nick?”