Goblin Horde

The group of thirty arrived before dawn with the sky still black and distant, luckily the giant moon cast its glow below. Without it, the survivors would find it incredibly difficult to maneuver at night – even under the red sheen of the pyramid's crystal.

Thankfully, the giant moon radiated light. Albeit much softer and dimmer than any star, but light nonetheless.

As the large group of people trekked up a steep hill, anticipation and doubt pooled in their guts. Of all the people present, less than a handful of them possessed even a thought towards the thirteenth summoning.

How could they, after all? Today marks the start of the pyramid raid. A day many have been looking forward to, but now that it's here, hesitancy struck at the survivors' rising hopes.

And the thirteenth summoning, well, that marked the start of it all. The start of undeniable change, one way or another.

The plan was simple, well, there wasn't actually much of a plan at all. Turns out it's incredibly difficult to plan for something you can't study beforehand as, due to the pyramid's Gate requiring a key. . . they could never open it until they were confident they could conquer it. So with a plan largely falling out of the equation, a small escort team was put together to welcome the newly summoned men of the thirteenth.

Their objective was this: once the escort team makes contact, and explains everything of course, they will immediately return to the pyramid with the newbies. Upon return, they get one night's rest and then it's show time.

That's it. That's the whole plan, for the escort group at least. The Admiral has tried to devise a much more in depth attack strategy for the vanguard, but the vanguard remains at the pyramid while the thirteenth summoning is taken care of.

The vanguard, by the way, consists of the Admiral's militia and Isaac's cohort – the two strongest forces within the camp. Of course, over the past few months more and more people have been summoned who possess powerful and unique Classes, but the sheer experience and practice that all the earlier survivors possess makes all the difference.

Take Olive, for example, who is known to be an Awakened and yet has never used her Ability. Despite that handicap, she is undefeated in the women's bracket for sparring and in the top ten for the mens.

Obviously, the vast majority of camp doesn't know why Olive hasn't used her Ability, but regardless everyone has agreed that she simply doesn't have to. She is ruthless in battle, even the pretend ones.

She is adamant, fearless, and nimble. Olive never hesitates to aim for a weak point. She takes advantage of every blind spot and opportunity presented to her, but most importantly, she understands the flow of battle.

The ridiculous dance that it is! When to push and when to retreat, when to strike and when to evade. Olive flows on the battlefield like water – seamlessly. And the only reason she's able to do so, able to be above those who utilize the extraordinary, is due to her experience.

Her experience in fighting Cain, the Goblins, the Blue Devils, the weirdly enhanced Goblins, everything she has faced has made her stronger, quicker, and more prepared. In fact, out of everyone in the camp, she probably spends the least amount of time actually in it.

Yes. She's there to sleep, eat, and fuck. The typical trifecta, but other than that, Olive lives in the brush.

In the sticks and twigs, the tall grasses and oddly colored mushrooms. Olive is always on the hunt, always in the pursuit of being faster and stronger!

Olive doesn't want to lose next time. She is sick and tired of losing. She lost her whole life. From the day she was born her brother was always better than her. That was something Olive learned fast.

But out of everyone who's best her in some capacity, the one that sticks out the most beside her brother is that demon man Cain! She'll never forget it, after all, the look in his eyes when they sparred.

How apathetic he looked. Entirely uninterested in the battle, like he wasn't even paying attention and yet he always won! He always managed to be faster, always managed to be stronger!

He struck with a fierceness that seemed bestial – like he was made to devour prey!

That was all she was to him, prey. A weak and insignificant human, utterly powerless without the aid of an otherworldly monster! Olive despised being a Summoner! It didn't suit her, in her opinion.

Olive fought alone. She always had because she always had to. And to be quite honest, she grew to like it that way.

Due to her shitty situation, however, she's become everything she once despised – a dependent. Dependent on the help of others! Dependent on the Abilities of others!

Dependent on power the likes of which she cannot wield!

But Olive doesn't quit, she wouldn't dare. So she trained and she hunted. She memorized Cain's fighting style and mirrored it. Deciding she won't be weak, Olive pushed herself greater than any other, but she also stole whatever she could from whoever she could.

Strategies, stances, trainings, styles, techniques, anything Olive could use to her advantage she desperately seeked. And through that, she's become the undisputed strongest woman and stood amongst the strongest men.

She had proved herself in their eyes, she can see it, but she hasn't seen his eyes yet. She hasn't seen Cain's eyes. Olive fantasizes over it, his look of shock and wonder.

His face will scream 'how did she get so strong so fast?' and Olive will relish in the downpour of epiphany that gnaws at him. It's what she loves doing the most – proving people wrong. Especially the loud and obnoxious ones.

Olive loves seeing a loud mouth go quiet!

Speaking of loud mouths, the man in charge of the escort team, one of the Admiral's prized Awakened, is an inescapable chatter-box.

Oh and yes, Olive is part of the escort team.

Why?

Because attending the summonings became a bit of a thing for her and Summer. It wasn't exactly a date, but it was something they liked doing together and if today might be the last one, well, Olive would be damned if she missed it.

And over the past several months Olive has made it abundantly clear that she doesn't take orders from the Admiral so he couldn't stop her from going. Although, Isaac and Church strongly suggested Olive not to go, but unfortunately, they're not her boss either.

So hand in hand, Olive and Summer trekked up the hill along with the rest of the escort team. Hovering above her, the leader of the escort team rained questions down like thunder.

Moreover, not only does he block the sun like a cloud, but twice now dribbles of sweat have dripped off his brow and onto the mud in front of her. That's rain, thunder, and dark skies.

And the stupidly bright glow from Leon's |Fairy Dust| was almost the exact same as the moon's glow at night. Leon is truly his own atmosphere!

Why is he hovering above Olive and Summer?

Well, Olive's reputation isn't exactly unknown – her strength especially. Olive is known to be strong without the extraordinary, a feat viewed as incredible to many, Leon included.

As a man with a utility focused Ability, Leon had been struggling at his attempts to make his Ability useful in battle. For example, the |Fairy Dust| takes too long to absorb into an enemy. Most of the Goblins are quick enough to evade his Ability all together, let alone relish in it.

In addition to its absorption time, it costs too much mana to use as crowd control. Leon could barely sustain flying the three other people to the sky island and that only lasted a couple of minutes at most. He also can't blow his dust onto weapons and then manipulate them as flying swords – well, maybe he could, but he is nowhere near that level of mana output and control.

He can't move anything faster than your average walking pace. If it weren't for his Class's unique disposition cutting his mana cost in half when applied to himself, he wouldn't even be able to float around lazily like he so often does!

And nobody could blame him! Who doesn't want to float a meter or two off the ground and just hover around the world all day like you're riding on a cloud?

And so, after hitting a wall and failing to actively utilize his Ability in combat, he sought the strongest person who fights without their Ability – Olive Flinn.

Thankfully, after talking for hours straight, they finally arrived at the grounds of the famous summonings, the dojo. Unfortunately, when the members of the escort team laid their eyes upon the dojo's current state their faces went white.

Most of the people in the escort team were part of the newly trained batch, the more casual camp dwellers, of which none witnessed the events of the last summoning including the devastation caused by Skyler.

And to be entirely honest, even though they were present, Olive and Leon had totally forgotten. The last month had been incredibly busy, you know – with the imminent pyramid raid and all? Believe it or not, but a lot of logistics are being put forth this time around and even Isaac has the craftsmen working on war machines and more curated weapons.

Instantly awakening from their stupor, however, the thirty members of the escort team hurriedly got to work clearing the rubble that littered the grounds of the dojo. The people present weren't entirely sure if the wooden boards plaguing the ground would be a problem, but they'd rather play it safe than sorry.

How sucky would it be to have your foot phased into a piece of wood? The escort team didn't want to imagine.

So they cleared all of the debris and stacked it into one neat little pile which turned into a mound of splintered wood and jagged boards to the side of the dojo. Some of them even decided to go the extra mile and collected a handful of various shrubs and brush, using it like a broom and sweeping the uneven floor that remained.

From then on, time persisted.

The sun kissed the sky soon after the escort team arrived and by this time, it's been in the sky for a while now. Looking at the angle of the sun, Olive tried to guess the time and since it seemed about halfway between the horizon and directly above her, she figured it was around ten.

What time are the people summoned? Olive didn't know, but soon an hour passed and then two.

Olive could see the sun directly above her and as the day continued, she watched the sun slowly slide down away from her.

The members of the escort team looked around in confusion. Doubt could be seen on their faces.

Uncertainty once again suffocated them.

Leon looked at Olive.

"Did we get the date wrong?" He asked.

"That's not possible." Olive shook her head. "Something else must be wrong."

"What do you mean it's not possible? What if this month just has more days?"

Olive furrowed her brows.

"What?" Leon asked.

"Do you really think we've been keeping track of it using Earth's calendar?" Olive scoffed.

"The summons happen every thirty days. On the first, or the thirty-first thereafter, however you want to look at it, but that rule hasn't changed once. And although the times might vary, it's hard to track since we don't have the precise measurements – but again, it's always been in the morning. Before noon at the very least and I can promise you that."

Leon looked back at the ruins of the dojo. "So then what's the problem?"

"What if they stop coming?" Summer's question immediately drew her weird looks.

"Like in general?" Leon asked with bated breath.

"Yeah. What if a year's all we get?" Summer replied.

"Stop scaring him Summer –" Olive butt in, "but that shouldn't be right either, by the way. Why use Earth's measurements for anything? It just doesn't make sense."

"But what else could it be?" Leon asked, concern now clear in his demeanor.

"Why can't it be the opposite?" Olive looked into Leon's eyes, "What if, after a year, the summonings double or triple? What if it's summoning so many people at once that it's just taking longer?"

Amidst their conversation, a slight rumble began to shake the jungle floor. Over a matter of minutes, the rumbling grew stronger and more pronounced.

Ba-dum! Ba-dum! In rhythm, the ground shook back and forth as if it were repeatedly struck by something with incredible force.

At this point, Olive and Leon's conversation ceased to be relevant. All members of the escort team, in fact, stopped speaking and stood up off the jungle floor. They simultaneously drew their weapons while their eyes scattered across the jungle trees that surrounded them.

The rumbling only grew more ravenous!

Until the trees shook and an overbearing pounding traveled through the jungle and assaulted the escort team's ears!

They backed up, each of them slowly walking towards the center of the dojo until their backs met.

Something was coming!

They could figure out that much! But where was it coming from?! Which direction?!

What even was it?!

With the sun finally fading beyond the trees and shadow subtly encasing the members of the escort, the source of the rumbling explosively revealed itself!

Crashing through the thicket of the jungle, squeezing, pushing, and clawing! An astronomically sized wave of green flesh poured out of the jungle and razed towards the terrified people in their wake!

Olive, along with the rest of them, felt her eyes go wide in disbelief! Her grip around her rapier instinctively loosened and for a split second, Olive wanted to turn and run!

What is she supposed to do?! Stand against a few thousand Goblins?! There's not a chance in hell!!

She's not even a drop of water in the sea of feral beasts charging towards her!

Her absence wouldn't be noticed! In fact, her presence won't be noticed either!

Olive has to flee! She has to run away!

Then she felt Summer's hand squeeze hers. Her girlfriend was shaking. Her palms were ice cold and clammier than ever before.

'I can't leave. . .' Olive dreaded in her mind.

'Then what?' Olive thought.