You are Summoned

Chapter 245. Etvart’s Boys.

“You didn’t do too bad out there folks, only one idiot got killed. We lost the team on car 6, so the rest of you near that car will have to take up the slack. Everyone can stand down for a bit but keep an eye out. If I had to bet on it, I’d say them flappies was sent by Etvart’s Boys, so this isn’t going to be the only attack,” the goblin said over the loudspeaker.

With a break in the action, I checked on Khurr. My Health Bloom had kept him out of the danger zone, but he was still looking a bit crispy around the edges after being hit by the harpy’s lightning blast. Casting a second Health Bloom, I watched his wounds start to close over.

By the time the second cast had wound down, he was back on his feet and ready to fight again. He wasn’t fully healed, but I didn’t want to deplete my mana any further. Once my mana was topped off, I’d hit him with the spell one more time which should do the trick and bring him up to full health.

For as much as the system functioned like a video game, it didn’t give us any kind of a health bar or percentage which would have been nice. Maybe it was too far-fetched to have that since we didn’t just have a huge health pool that ran out. The system seemed to make some things realistic while others were a bit bizarre.

The train kept up its pace, and I kept an eye on the mana crystal that was recharging. In the few minutes since the battle, it had gone from being completely dark, to having a slight reddish glow which told me it was still going to take a while to finish up. The fully charged ones had a bright red glow.

I tried to remember how many shots the first crystal had given me, and I kicked myself for not checking it after I’d done some test firing earlier. There was a fully charged crystal in the weapon, two fully charged crystals waiting to load, and the one slowly recharging. Whoever the Etvart’s Boys were, I was about as ready for them as I could be.

As far as my minions, everyone was still in the fight, but Blieek was down to using just his dagger. The train rolled on, and when my mana returned to full, I hit Khurr with a final Health Bloom, bringing him back to normal. I didn’t get a chance to see how much damage he and Glurk had done with their bows, but having seen them in action before, I was pretty sure that they had landed some good hits.

It was too bad the train cars next to me only had a single defender. It was far too much area to keep track of, even if they seemed to be powerful fighters like the orc on the car behind me. I tried to look forward to car six where we had taken a casualty, but the train was heading straight, and I couldn’t see past the next two or three cars.

“Heads up, Etvart’s making a move, they’re jumping from the cliffs, so watch out, especially you guys defending the rear cars,” the goblin announced. I could feel the train shudder as it tried to pick up speed. The acceleration wasn’t neck snapping, but I was able to tell that we were moving a bit faster than we had been.

Looking up, I could see the walls of the canyon stretched a couple hundred yards above us and the tracks had been laid only fifty or so yards from the wall of the canyon. Small figures began to jump off the cliffs above. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but one by one, crude parachutes began to deploy above each of the jumpers.

Well, it looked like they deployed above most of the jumpers as four or five fell screaming into the canyon floor after their parachutes failed. I cranked the MPL up and started scanning for targets. As the goblin announcer had said, the jumpers were overshooting the front cars, and after a few seconds, I could see that they were going to miss the train entirely.

As they drifted down, several of the goblins tried to throw spears or daggers at us but nothing even landed near the train which had sped safely past the attack. I had nothing to shoot at, and other than a few bursts from the car at the end of the train, the entire airborne assault seemed to be a complete non-event.

“I’d say nice work again everyone, but you chumps didn’t have to do anything that time. That was all me and my slick driving skills. Since Etvart’s Boys aren’t going to be a problem for a bit, maybe I should introduce myself. I’m Gorma, and I’ll be your train engineer and defensive coordinator for this here journey.

“Don’t bother shouting your names back to me, I won’t hear you, and I won’t care. Now that the introductions are over, our next stop will be coming up shortly. We’re heading to Skarboz where we’ll stop for a bit to pick up some more cargo. Let me make myself clear, you will stay on the train and will stand ready to defend us during the loading process.

“Etvart’s going to feel the sting of two failed attacks, and trust me, he won’t just let things go after only two attempts. As every goblin knows, if you fail in an attack, double down and hit ‘em again. About 50% of the time, it works all the time. At least that’s what the goblin warlords claim. For now, sit back and enjoy the smooth ride of this beauty,” Gorma announced.

He was feeling chatty, but I didn’t mind. The train ride wasn’t all that bad. We were in some desolate looking country, about what you see in the American Southwest. It wasn’t quite that hot, though, but I did position one of the shields protecting the MPL so the sun wouldn’t beat directly down on me. There was no equipment slot for sunscreen in my armory loadout.

After the failed airborne attack, the train resumed its slower pace. I had no way to gauge how fast we were really going, but with the wind whipping past you on top of the train, even a rather sedate pace feels like you’re flying. While we rode, I kept scanning the skies, ground, and top of the canyon for more attacks.

About an hour later, we left the canyon and started to travel out on flat ground. The skies remained clear of attackers, and nobody laid an ambush across the tracks. I had been summoned by an artifact, and I had no idea how long this summoning would last. Considering that the summoning artifact was built into the magic train, the artifacts were probably powerful, or it wouldn’t be worth it to haul them up here to install.

In the distance, I could see a dark cloud, but as we got closer it turned out to be smoke coming up from the smokestacks in a walled settlement. The settlement was large enough to probably house ten thousand people. Whatever industry they were doing here, the fumes sure stunk. Thankfully, the system would rebuild my body after the summoning, and I wouldn’t have to worry about lung cancer from whatever crud was billowing out of the goblin settlement.

Out train tracks ran right through the middle of the place, and we began to slow as we drew closer to town. Other than our train, the tracks were clear, but I could see that the platform we were pulling up to would easily handle two trains of our size, or one massive one. Maybe the goblin trains were all a standard length, and they always had the same number of cars attached.

We slowed to a stop as soon as the last car was inside the station area. Goblins in overalls swarmed the place and several wooden crates were wheeled out on dollies. There were some rickety looking cranes and rope pulleys near each car, but whatever was on those crates wasn’t too heavy for the slew of goblins to haul them inside.

The door to the side of my car squealed as it slid open. Curious, I leaned over the side of the car to get a better look at what was going on. To my surprise a pair of goblins armed with spears and wearing leather armor stepped from the train as the workers began to load a half dozen crates onto my car.

It looked like the summoned beings on top of the train were only the first line of defense for whatever was being stored inside. In the distance, near the first car, and at the rear car, a full squad of a dozen spear wielding goblins formed up and marched inside. It looked like we were taking on some extra reinforcements.

Looking down, I could see a number painted on the side of the car. It looked like we were car eleven, and with four cars behind us, it confirmed the train had a total of fifteen cars. Watching the goblin guards for our train, I took a run at talking with them.

“Hey, sorry to bother you, but do you happen to have an extra spear that my minion could use? He broke his skewering a harpy earlier,” I asked.

One of the guards below looked up at me with an angry scowl plastered on his face. After a moment, he ignored me and walked into the train car. I figured we were out of luck for finding a replacement spear for Blieek, but then the goblin emerged carrying three spears, just like the ones the other guards were wielding. He passed them up one at a time, saying nothing until I had received the last spear.

“You’ll get a chance to skewer more than just harpies on the next leg of our trip. Tap the roof with something heavy three times if you need any more. Now, don’t bother me, I gotta keep an eye on these creeps, probably some of them have been bought by Etvart.”

“Have any crossbow bolts stored down there? Show them Khurr,” I said, having Khurr hold his hand crossbow over the edge of the car for the goblin guard to see.

“No, we don’t got any gnoll weapon reloads, what do you take us for, gnomes? Leave us alone, we got guardin’ to do,” the goblin snapped back, clearly at the end of his helpful mood.

The loading continued for a good fifteen minutes. As surly as they were, I had to admit the goblins worked fast, and after the last crate was aboard, the guards entered the train and sealed the doors.

With a slight studder and slowly increasing speed, the train pulled from the station. I had a feeling that this summoning, and the attacks on the train, were far from over.