POV Fred Williams

  “I’m telling you…y’all didn’t see the look in his eyes. They were the eyes of a killer Grandpa. A damn killer.

  “And to add on, the way he didn’t show any signs of exhaustion, or being tired, or weak in any way is only the start. We have much bigger problems. We all heard the results of that meeting. Those people didn’t just run away from one dude who killed everyone around.

  “They ran away from an entire army. Hundreds, if not thousands, of them pulled up down south and took over the city in not even a couple of days. They barely held out for one day before most of them were burned to ashes, drowned in lava. Lava, Grandpa. They drowned in lava.”

  “I saw the smile he gave me. None of you saw it. I saw it. That wasn’t a smile of kindness. Obviously, they’re coming. We’re next. They are coming for us. We can’t stay here, Grandpa. We can’t stay here. We don’t have the strength or the power to fight back against such strength. We can’t stay here.”

  “Then what would you have us do, Freddy? I understand what you have to say. I understand what the refugees came and said. But if what they said is one hundred percent true, and what you feel, mind you I agree with you, but if what you feel is true and they are coming for us next, then you know what that means, right, Freddy?

  “They aren’t going to stop at us.

  “There is nowhere to run, Freddy. There is nowhere to run. Because It means they’re going to keep going. They’re here to reclaim what they believe is theirs.

  “Those first couple of troops they sent, the ones who couldn’t throw lava around, the ones we realized weren’t using any skills, the ones that only fought with medieval weapons, regular swords and spears and whatnot, even the ones that had black armor, once we gained a couple of levels all around, they weren’t all that strong anymore. They lost the initial battles, so they sent backup. Real, official backup.

  “I highly doubt they are going to leave us alone if we were to run away, which is why I disagree. I don’t think that’s the right option. We need to stand our ground and fight back. We talked about this before.

  “There’s no use in trying to fight while running. Here we have our faction. We have our territory. We have a means to get stronger in two dungeons. We don’t know when they will come. We don’t know how much time we have left. It could be tonight. It could be tomorrow. It could be next week. All we know is that they’re coming. So we need to make use of the little time we have left, if we have any at all, and get as strong as we possibly can before they get here.

  “You, Freddy, as the person who reached the highest in the dungeon, you’re the only one with an Unbound skill at the moment. I suggest you go back in there and get some more. Do whatever it is you can. Climb as high in the dungeon as you can. Get as strong as you can, because you and everyone else is going to need it.

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  “Maye not just this family, but all of damn Earth might need it. Of course, you won’t be alone in this. We’re all going to try and get as strong as we possibly can, but someone has to stay and hold down the fort, and I will do that. That’s my role. That’s my responsibility as the leader of this family. You go get strong. I trust that you will, Freddy. And not just you, Rakeon, Mack, Lance, all of you.

  “This is it. We won a couple of battles. We gained some strength, and I’d say we’ve adjusted to this new reality well enough. But life doesn’t care about what we’ve done. Life doesn’t care about what we’ve gone through. Life doesn’t care about our wellbeing.

  “And today, life has proved that the enemy at our door is unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and it’s not something we are prepared to face as it stands. So we need to take some risks, because we have no choice but to take them. You understand, Freddy? You understand, Rakeon? For this family, for your own lives, go into the dungeon and don’t come out until you can fight the lava people.”

  …

  I walked away after that to go organize my thoughts. This is not the first time we’ve had this conversation in the last couple of days after the refugees arrived. There were a lot of conversations to be had with and about them. People were being chased by a man who could raise literal walls of lava.

  Of course, we had to ask them what was going on, and it wasn’t just us. Others in the community soon caught wind of the commotion, and eventually a town hall like meeting was held. They explained to us what happened to them. They explained that it would likely happen here as well.

  A good number of them didn’t even bother staying in the city. They just kept running, resting for a bit, and then left again, not believing this was a safe place even after seeing all of us gathered here.

  And I’ve been thinking about it. If everything they said is true, then I have no idea how we are going to survive. If it took all that I had to stop one skill of theirs, then what if ten of them come? What if fifty of them come? A hundred of them? What the hell are we going to do?

  That’s why I thought it was best to run. We need time, time to get stronger so we can fight back properly. We are not strong enough to fight against fifty of those people, let alone a thousand of them.

  Which is why I don’t fully understand what Grandpa is saying. Well, I do. On one hand, I do. The Gauntlet Dungeon is here. If we were to leave, we’d lose access to it. Yes, we got levels from killing the red people, but Skills, Traits, armor, and nice weapons are from the Gauntlet Dungeon. Plus, our faction was also here. I don’t know if it’s possible to move the Faction Node, but we cannot lose access to that shop and the books within it.

  But to tell me to go in the Gauntlet Dungeon and not come out until I am strong enough to fight back against this force? I don’t know, Grandpa. I don’t know. I’d rather the entire family go in, but we can’t do that. Not when a bunch of kids were involved, so if they were to attack tomorrow, then someone needs to be here to fight back, even if it’s fruitless.

  Damn it.

  It wasn’t that I was scared of the pressure. It wasn’t that I was nervous about staying in the Gauntlet Dungeon that long, fighting with my life on the line. No, I was worried, and I was scared of being in there for too long. When I came out of the dungeon, that there wouldn’t be anything left for me to protect or even save. It would be too late, and my family would be dead. That is what I was worried about.

  Sigh.