Champion of the Goddess Pt. 02

Mother chuckled, "You have a storm of activity ahead of you on this stretch of road. She cannot change it once you are on it."

He sighed, "I will advise Blossom we should go back and spend the night at the inn again. You can reset the road. Mother shook her head, "That cannot happen until all of you and the other group is off the road.

He shrugged, "Then we will press forward if that is what Blossom wishes to do. I will talk to the group. I do not have specifics. Just that we will be level twelve or thirteen when we arrive if we continue. The danger is higher. She can decide if we pick up any stragglers. Best if I go back as it does not look like I am going to get any answers here."

He walked over to Blossom, "We make it down this road we may be level twelve or thirteen by the time we get to the next inn. It is set for a party twice our size."

She looked at him, "Was that what the momentary stare was about?"

He nodded, "Arguing with the goddess because I did not do exactly what she was hoping for in regards to the fucked in the head Paladin. She set it up that we would end up on the road together. Forcing me to work with him. To deal with him. I refused. Your call."

She walked over and talked with the others. An hour later she came back over, "We will press forward."

He heard in his mind "Damn it."

He thought, "Might turn out continuing moving forward."

An hour later and they packed up and got on the road. He looked at Mary, "Scout with me. You and Jewels."

They nodded. "Raven scout road." They rode out at a steady clip. An hour later and they found the dead horse of the Paladin. Meant they were all in the wagon now. He looked at Mary and shook his head, "We should skin it. Jewels you want to ride back and let them know what we found. She nodded. He looked around and found a half dozen wolf carcass. "Ravan scout camp."

They finish skinning the horse when the Raven returns. Six wolves left side of the road. He looked at her, "Mount up. They want that horse."

She nodded, They rode back toward the group and the wolves emerged and started ripping at the horse. He thought, "Fed the problem."

They caught up with the others, "The wolves returned, we backed off the dead horse. They may get possessive when we go by. If so, we start dropping them. Ranged weapons. Bows up."

Blossom nodded, "They are down to a wagon?"

He nodded, "Just like I told him. With half a wagon team that will be dead in days."

She sighed, "So we will pass them at some point."

He nodded, "Them, there corpses, there busted wagon. Or the survivors of whatever major encounter she has up the road. The wolves are designed to burn resources."

She nodded and they continued forward and the wolves had done a number on the skinned horse and drag sections of it into the woods. "Raven came back, "Six wolves left side moving away."

They continue down the road. They found a place and made camp. The roasts came out good. Cutting them in half did help as they were cooked through and through and they were not tough.

They had a good meal. He set up his sleeping bag with just the head under the wagon and he had a few eyes staring at him. He smiled, "Enough to cover my face if it starts to rain but not enough to impede my movement to get to my feet. I will not bang my head."

They nodded and bedrolls got moved. Everyone slept in their own bedroll, the guards took their shifts.

"Raved watch camp." He laid down. He was back with Mother and Myssara. All of them were naked. He willed his cock down, "Might as well dress me unless my energy levels need to be adjusted."

Mother looked at him, "They are steady."

He nodded, "Anything else?"

Mother looked at him, "I do not like what you 2 are doing."

He looked at her, "Tell me what can be done to fix it? Do not say catch up to them. We will catch up to whatever is left of them. If anything. I told her not to force that brick at me and she refused to listen to me."

Myssara remained quiet with her arms crossed. He walked over to her, "I told you I would never hate you. You did not make that promise to me. Be mad at me or hate me. I advised them. They should not have been there and their level of preparedness bore that out."

He kissed her cheek, "I still love you. This was just not something to force. Now my getting to level 20 quickly is in jeopardy. You need to be more fluid with me as I may not pick up the brick you hand me. I will teach someone willing to learn and then pass on someone who won't."

He looked at Mother, "Ready to go back."

Mother looked at him, "Not yet. I want you to reconsider bringing your daughters to your world."

He sighed, "You are hoping I will mate with them."

She looked at him, "That is my desire."

He looked at her, "That is against my free will please stop pushing it. I will not mate with them and you have another Gaming Grandmaster to train them with. You are going to pair them off on other worlds to mate. I will do it with other champions' daughters. Not my own. You picked a really bad time to ask that."

Mother sighed, "This current dilemma is what is holding you back?"

He looked at her, "She needs to stop sending me to an inn, saying there are a lot of people looking to complete multiple quests, then fixating on who she wants to go on this one quest. She should wait until I have the party formed before deciding anything.

Stop giving overlapping quests at this level. It is tantamount to, 'you will work with this person.' With no free will to counteract it. Mother, you are trying the same damned thing up here with my daughters. Trying to bend my will. You need to remember to accept me for who I am, Stop trying to stick me into this iconic box."

Ravanna showed and he looked at her, "This has anything to do with sex with you or any of my daughters do not even open your mouth."

She looked at Raven, "Hello father. I am sorry you are arguing with both Mother and Myssara."

He looked at her, "You have that backward. They are trying to force me to change into what they want. It is them that are banging away on my resolve. My resolve is unyielding on this. I love you but we are done here unless there is something else that needs to be discussed."

He awoke and Mary was looking at him, "She is concerned about you."

He looked at her, "You visited with her?"

She nodded, "Often to talk about you. To fool around."

He looked at her, "We will talk later but I want you to think about what you just said. Then think open and honest."

He got up and grabbed something to eat and she knew he was upset with her. She looked at him, "You sound jealous."

He leaned down and whispered, "I am not jealous. I am disappointed that I tell you about my visits but you keep yours a secret. Open and honest. You have the camp watch and I want you to ponder that while I go and scout. Jewels you ready?"

She nodded. Mary came up, "She is worried that you are fighting her."

He sighed, "She had a problem and I addressed it. She tells me to build the 'best party' available to get to level 20 quickly then I do that. I did not choose the brick she wanted me to pick up and she tried to saddle me with 'IT' again. Now I have a good group and she has doubled the difficulty.

Who is being punished? Myself and anyone who groups with me. I told her I did not need her fighting me on putting together a group to get to level 20. To stop pushing bricks at me.

She wanted and needed my help with That Assshat fighter and I gave her that help and told her I needed her help. Instead, she continued with this Paladin and his group. She refused to listen to a damned thing I told her. She is fighting me."

She looked down and he got on his horse, "Ask to talk with her about that because she did not even say a single word to me last night. I am the one worried about her. Raven scout road. I warned her when I sent him away.

I warned her a second time, and a third time and she still sent him down this fucking road. She is fighting me. I figure out who can be trained; I dismiss those who cannot be trained by me as it is wasted breath."

He went riding ahead with Jewels. They got about two hours out and halted. He went back away and drew a line on the road.

"Something just killed my raven."

He moved forward and got into the woods and then dismounted. He snuck further up. There were three giants. A couple had some deep wounds from a recent fight. He saw gear from four bodies including the paladin and barbarian. He looked at her and they snuck away. "At least four are likely dead from that pile of gear. Ride back. Get everyone to that line they may hear the wagon. But we will draw them out or they will wait for us to get closer to them. Think I saw one using one of their leg bones as a toothpick."

She got on her horse and rode back. He saw the head of someone across the way and it looked like the mage. He made his way back to the horse and went down the other side to find a small camp with a wounded Mage sleeping.

He looked around and spotted the halfling rogue up in a tree. He looked to have fallen asleep up there. He made his way to the mage and her alarm spell went off.

She sat bolt upright and he stared at her. She ended her spell. He looked at her, "Hide. You just alerted three fucking giants using that fucking spell."

She was pretty banged up. He helped her to her feet and then carried her off between a group of downed trees. He moved away and cast a mirror image. The giants move into her camp and the idiot rogue starts throwing a returning dagger.

He had no choice as they started to throw rocks at the rogue. Raven hit them with a fireball and one dropped. The other two had now turned their attention toward him. The first rock bounced off the downed tree, the second took out an image. He hit them with a second one. It dropped one and the other was badly injured and started to run after he got smacked by a large rock breaking a few of his ribs in the process. He pulled up his bow and shot him with it in the ass on the way out of the woods.

He fell onto the ground. He thought, "I did not go full bore. They were already injured. Now I am fucking injured badly, thank you very much!"

He heard her sigh, "I know but the others did not participate."

He thought, "Oh yes they will. Not in this fucked up fight but tending to the wounded, searching bodies and camps, healing the fucking wounded, and dealing with any dead. The giants are dead but the encounter is not over by a long shot."

He heard her sigh, "Alright we will see how this goes."

He yelled over, "Get over here you fucking idiot halfling. You have a fucking rock for a brain. Using a throwing dagger on three giants when you should have hidden."

He went over and picked up the wizard and took her to the edge of the road as Jewels rode in with Rhonda and Rose. Rose looked at him, "What happened?"

He looked at them, "Found her but she had her camp alarmed. The alarm works great when you do not know if any enemy is around and want to be alerted. For a PARTY to be alerted; else you are hanging a 'come kill me sign' on yourself.

It sucks if you are trying to keep giants away from your position and something wanders in that sets off your spell. It went off and I got her to a new hiding spot before they arrived. The spot she should have camped in, not out in the open sleeping solo. I moved away from her and hid. The giants went to the alarm.

The rogue hiding in the tree started with a throwing dagger. To keep him from getting stoned to death I hit them with two fireballs and shot the last one in the ass as it tried to flee. Not before the last one caught me in the chest with one of those fucking rocks. No count on the dead yet. The bodies and their camp are scattered. Bodies might be as well. I know two are alive and injured. The idiot rogue is injured now, both bodily and in the head!"

Rhonda came down as he set the mage down. Ronda went to work setting his broken ribs and her broken arm. Then moved on to healing the rogue's leg that got smashed by a rock while in that tree.

The mage looked at him, "They should have listened to you. It was a fucking massacre. They obliterated the driver of the wagon. The battle cleric with rocks with the first salvo. All 4 of them hit him. There was a fourth but it died during the melee it appears. The wagon lurched.

I got out the back and the barbarian made it out with his giant sword and charged into them as did the paladin after he picked his ass off the ground from falling out of the wagon. I could not cast a fireball. I used a scorching ray, I got smacked by a rock. It broke my arm and fucked me up pretty bad.

The other two rogues tried to get into a flanking position to attack. They got smashed by clubs. I went invisible and moved off before the next rock came in. I was bleeding badly. I came across the halfling in the tree back there. He ran right away. I told him I was setting an alarm spell. Not to get near me else he would set it off. He just nodded and stayed in that tree."

The rogue looked at Raven, "Yes I ran, the only ranged weapon is my returning throwing dagger. Cleric was dead and the wagon went down the road."

He looked at the mage, "You were wrong; you could have set off a fireball. You just had to cast it above them so the area of the ball did not include your party members. It is a sphere. You are outdoors fighting GIANTS. Think in 3 dimensions and not in 2."

Mary came riding in with Blossom. He looked at her, "Two fireballs and an arrow in the ass of the last one. They were pretty beaten up. The barbarian and paladin did some damage. They killed the fourth one in the melee that occurred. A rogue might have hit one of them from behind. Hard to say.

I reacted to the situation. Was not ideal. I hate throwing fireballs inside wooded areas but I had little choice if I had any hope of saving the suicidal halfling. The field is yours. I am going to take a break in the back of the wagon while you deal with this fucking mess."

Blossom sighed, "Burden of command?"

He nodded, "Assign tasks. We are not going to get too far today with this mess."

He went to the wagon Bella looked at him, "You look dejected."

He nodded, "I hate to see people dying because they refused to listen. I am going to commune with the Goddess."

Bella healed him up some more from the damage he took. He tied off his horse and laid down behind the driver seat and went to sleep.

He was back in the sanctum with just Myssara who was sitting in the grass. They were both clothed. He looked at her, "They were already dead when I came up?!"

She nodded, "You got the only two survivors. Thank you for saving them both. You taking them?"

He shrugged, "Not my call. They both assessed the losing battle and got into the woods. Attacking with a throwing dagger and that stupid alarm was another matter. Making excuses on why she did not use an area of effect spell on giants was stupid. If it was my call, I'd kill the halfling now! No scouts, no tactics, no range, and no healer."

She nodded, "I tried to talk him back toward you and he rebuffed my suggestions. I brought them all in together and sent them all back to level one except the battle cleric. He got a raw deal because of the lack of scouts. Rebuild characters. They all had to pick new classes.

They all voted to continue except for the mage. She abstained from voting. She was there for a rogue who died. She knew they would die after listening to your exchange with the paladin. The halfling with you, Sticks, wanted the paladin to push back to get you to stay together. The rest voted to move on. Why do I feel like I am the one failing?"

He smiled, "Because you are! You failed to listen to your champion. Just like them. I have asked you to let me choose the party. The party members and not to force the unwilling onto me. I may train the person they will eventually listen to. You need to spread the bricks out to different starting points. Maybe they will get to a group that will get them to listen."

She looked at him, "I ripped into that paladin. I barred him from that class as long as he is in my world. I made him come back as a fighter. I will stop trying to give you every problem child I have, but you will still encounter some."

He nodded, "Like this brick of a rogue. I know he is the one I revealed too."

She nodded. "Time for you to return."

He was shaken awake by Mary, "Blossom wants to see you."

He got up and exited the wagon.

He whispered to Marry, "They were all dead when I visited her last time. She even tried to whisper to that paladin that he was making a mistake. He refused to listen to her even. He is a level one fighter now. All of them went back to level one except the battle cleric because he was instantly killed by the first attack. Lack of scouts."

She nodded, "I am sorry for keeping that from you. I was afraid it would upset you."

He looked at her, "Two people talking about my welfare; that is no different than if you and Rhonda or Blossom have the discussion. Hiding the fact that you are doing it or that you have that level of contact going on. That I tell you about mine. Not every detail but you know the scary shit."

She nodded, "I will try to be more forthcoming in that."

He sighed, "I spoke with her. She spoke back this time. She felt like she was failing. I told her she was failing to listen to me. Let me find those I can train. They may not take training from me. Instead, they may take it from someone I do train down the line."

She nodded. They made their way over to Blossom. She looked at him, "What do I do with these two?"

He looked at her, "List your options."

Blossom looked at me, "Bring them on. Leave them."

He looked at her, "There are more options. Give them a horse and send the two of them back. Bring them with us as working passengers until the next inn. Knowing they have to find another group after that. If they survive to the next inn.

The rogue and I have bumped heads before when he tried to be a highway bandit. I am ready to tie his ass to a tree and leave him in the woods naked after his last boneheaded move.

He tried to rob the local inn and attack me and my group. While his barbarian friend was working to get his leg sliced open. Ask Orchid and Rose about him as they spent more time with him. Also, question them. Mary, get us the Arcane."

She nodded and rode off. She came back with the human woman, "What life you on?"

She looked at Raven, "Sixth."

He looked at Blossom. Blossom sighed, "Why did you go on?"

She looked down, "I knew they would likely die but I was hoping to get this rouge I was fucking to remove his infertility item and get me pregnant at the very least. He refused. He died. He was a decent fuck. I did not vote for going forward."

He looked at her, "You did not vote at all. You did not voice an objection to being stupid."

She nodded, "They had enough votes to continue including the rogue I was with. The one who lived was trying to have the paladin get you to reconsider. The paladin was completely frustrated in the failings you threw at him. He said 'fuck you we can succeed without your guidance.' His words."

He looked at her, "I was not about to reconsider because of the paladin, barbarian, and the halfling. The last two I had imprisoned. They tried breaking into my room and robbing the inn. The last two were killing people to rob them. Weren't you rogue?"

He nodded, "The guy you killed led our group. He was not happy with us getting caught or with you getting ahead of us, he wanted to kill you. He bribed a guard to get us out. Then killed the other halfling to make a point. He was constantly pounding the barbarian in the ass."

He looked at him, "The goddess turned him into energy. No new life. No going back to another inn. She had me kill him to wipe him off of this world and scattered his energy across the universe. Where do you think you sit right now? You get out of line like that again, you can expect her to send me after you, and the next time you die you will cease to exist! Did you retrieve your gear? Your spellbook?"