The gods gifts

Duals' plan worked well for them and due to not needing food, water, or sleep they were able to build better barricades and more secure buildings. They set up plans to make sure people who weren't fighting could still be helpful. They made it through about another hundred goblins while getting things fully set up, when they got finished with setting up secure areas for them Dual began to help train people with their weapons though he admitted he wasn't very knowledgeable with most weapons and harped more on working out. While getting people more in-shape Dual realized something, they had no way of knowing how much time had passed. He decided they should still rest here and there, while resting he would go around making sure everyone was doing well and securing what they could do. The tallest building was being secured as well as they could, outfitting it to be used as an early warning for incoming attacks. Nora enjoyed being on the roof and found that as one of the jobs she could do as her eyesight as fairly good, others were setting up traps though they weren't thinking they'd do much as they weren't skilled trappers. Dual informed them even stalling for time could mean the difference between life and death in some situations and that helped motivate them. Before they realized it the town center had become a well fortified base, their happiness for finishing it was short lived as they heard the whistle from Nora which meant enemies coming after the first whistle they all listened as the second signal was one whistle for small group, two for a medium size group and three for a large group. To their dismay she whistled 3 times. Dual sighed as this was what he didn't want to happen, they set up on the main road with the main fighters coming out front in a line across the road. The plan was while the front line fought a second line behind them wielding spears would step forward and stab one good time before backing off at the command stab, he ensured the front line knew not to move after the command stab had been yelled. While they fought on the ground the ones with bows and crossbows would fire down on the ones approaching but still a distance away from them to avoid friendly fire. The traps did there job allowing them to only be able to funnel the goblins through one area the archers began to shoot their arrows as they came through as the surviving goblins saw the human before them they charged. The people stuck to their own plan and even though they started off unconfident and a few minor injuries happened they were holding their own. The more goblins they killed the more they began to work more fluidly as well as gaining more confidence. What seemed like an eternity passed and they looked up to see the counter at zero, they all had thought it was impossible but they had done it they beat the first round with no deaths. They all let out cheers and yells of victory, as they were celebrating the face appeared in the clouds. They all looked and the face spoke, "congratulations humans you have passed the first round there will be a rest period then when a siren goes off the next round will start." The face faded and again they cheered after a bit they noticed the monster corpses faded away the same way the weapons appeared, some people started to go back to work fixing broken spots and resetting the traps. Others talked about all that had happened and how crazy this all was, Dual knew the relaxed feeling was due to them being able to win this round. After fixing things he began to workout, others saw this and a good bit of them joined in too. Time passed and they all realized a few more things, first they really didn't need food, water, or sleep. Next thing they noticed as the sky hadn't changed at all just sun and clouds, the last thing they noticed was that they're bodies were all recovering at a much faster rate. Scratches were recovered in about an hour while larger wounds healed fast too but still took longer. This brought an amazing idea to Duals head and he gathered everyone to share his guess, when they were gathered he had a big smile on his face. He cleared his throat, "ok so with these discoveries I came to the realization that all of us can reach heights most people can't even imagine. If we push our bodies to the point of exhaustion then rest a bit until we're recovered then do it again we could quickly reach strengths that will definitely help us survive." The idea was simple but the truth of it was undeniable, Dual and a few others put their minds together and created a workout routine that covered all the bases. While they were still together Dual brought up another topic he felt was important, "besides working out there is another big thing we should do as well, we need to work on making these weapons feel like a part of us. I personally think the best way to do this is by sparring." This was less accepted as everyone here was basically an newbie at wielding weapons, Dual chimed in, "even without sparring swinging it around to get used to it can help too." They agreed seeing as he seemed to know what he was talking about, after setting a plan they got to work keeping themselves busy with either working out or repairing the town. To their surprise they had gotten a lot done but as they were resting a siren was heard from the sky this time showing a counter saying ,603. During their break time people had also gone through the town to find anything useful, the people with Nora watching now had binoculars to help them see further and be able to give more accurate information. Everyone geared up and prepared, it wasn't until everyone had fully recovered and had still been waiting for a while that the goblins attacked however none of them understood the difficulty spike that the next round held. In the first round they split up and it wasn't until the end that the goblins grouped up and attacked, in this round in the time that they had been waiting for an attack all the goblins gathered together and were attacking at once. They yelled out the amount and everyone felt fear again the same as the first round, Dual feeling their fear shouted, "what have we prepared for, our goal is to fight and survive. We're stronger than we were before and we will continue to get stronger, these monsters won't stop us from getting back to our loved ones." He turned to them with the goblins coming in from behind him, "All of you SURVIVE AND KILL!" He turned back to the goblins and marched forward. The ensuing fight was at best a shit show, the traps only lasted for the first 200 goblins. Not only that but these goblins seemed smarter, they noticed the archers and began trying to climb the walls to reach them. The line crumbled after four people had died, people were fighting all on their own in different parts of the towns. Others who lost themselves to fear had ran to seek shelter, Dual stayed his ground killing all the goblins that got near him. Those who saw him fighting could definitely see why he had received the name the juggernaut. Out of breath and surrounded by goblins Dual continued his fight, he took a deep breath and yelled out, "come on you monsters I'll kill you all." As he went to charge at them a pillar of light surrounded him. The light stopped everything in their tracks, both monsters and humans were unable to look away. Inside the light Dual stood on the ground looking up to four figures which he couldn't make out. One voice sounding similar to the face in the clouds but more feminine spoke, "we greet you Dual the human," three other voices chimes in only slightly different sounding, the second voice spoke up, "as we are short on time we will get to the point we are goddess that have come to you as we feel you would represent us well." The third voice started after she finished, "usually only one god or goddess can make a deal with a living being but as we aren't very powerful the four of us can bless one person at once making our deal a powerful one." The last voice spoke up, "if you are willing to make a deal with us we will grant you powers to help you in your life, all we ask of you is to just listen if we make a request of you." Dual could feel the power from them and smiled, "thank you for coming to make a deal with me, I only have two questions if that's fine?" The first voice spoke, "ask away." Dual nodded, "if I could I'd like to know your names as well as what abilities I would be getting?" The figures seemed to smile understanding that he has basically already accepted the deal just wants to have more information. The first voice spoke up, "I'm called the goddess of protection, my blessing will be magic armor as well as it will make you more durable." The second voice began, "I'm called the goddess of judgement my blessing will grant you a magic mace as well as an increase to your strength." The third voice spoke up, "I am the goddess of the shield of the weak, my blessing will grant you a magic shield and will increase your durability as well." The fourth goddess spoke up, "I am the goddess of adaptation my blessing will grant you an increase in growth speed as well as adaptability." Dual smiled and put one knee on the ground, "I will gladly make this deal, and promise to become the strongest warrior for you four." As he was kneeling in front of them he felt there hands touch him, the goddess of protection spoke again, "we all accept this deal but warn you to steel yourself as the process of taking our blessings will undoubtedly be painful but you are still in a battle field and need to survive to serve us." The goddess of judgement smiled, "you will need to stay awake but once the process is over these trifling monsters will be easy to kill." The goddess of the shield of the weak asked, "are you prepared?" Dual head still down answered, "yes." The four of them began to give him their blessings, Dual felt as if his body was breaking apart. All over painfully ripping itself apart he focused his thoughts on his wife Kira and how he would get back to her no matter what. The goddess of adaptation spoke up as the light began to fade, "when you have the time pray to us with any questions you may have we will answer what we can, for now though fight and survive." The pillar of light surrounding him disappear and standing there for the monsters and humans alike to see was Dual, however it was easy to see the huge difference between now and then Dual looked as if he had gained another two feet in height and was overall bigger and more muscular than before. They couldn't tell that though as he was covered head to toe in the magic armor, to the humans it looked to be slightly glowing heavy plate armor. In his left hand standing at about five feet tall and four feet across was a giant shield which was glowing as well, in his right hand was a spiked glowing mace that stood about four feet tall and looked to easily weigh 200 pounds. Dual took a deep breath in then let out a war cry that felt as though it shook them all to their core, he turned to the goblins and in one swing the fifteen goblins before him were shredded and in pieces. He charged into the main group using his shield to ram to plow through them crushing some as he went, after a couple seconds he was deep in the group of 400 or so remaining goblins. He proceeded to use his shield and mace to one sidedly slaughter the goblins, the few goblins the managed to hit him couldn't even scratch his armor. Within a short time he had reduced them to about 50 left they were coming at him and he was beginning to slow feeling his strength fading he jumped back a good distance and one of his legs buckled and he fell on a knee. As he looked at the charging goblins he tries to muster strength but heard a few voices, "there's not many left….we need to help him….we can't let Dual die." He looked to the side to see about 40 people charging weapons ready, they collided with the goblins and even though there was a little bit of fighting as they took them by surprise they killed the rest rather easily. The armor and weapons Dual had faded and he rolled over looking at the sky breathing hard he quickly had people running over to him. The first person there was Stella he'd met her a few times she worked as a traveling nurse and helped keeping people alive here. She quickly looked at him and the first thing she noticed was he had grown so much that most of his clothes were in tatters showing most of his new and massive body. After a quick check she sighed, "well I don't see any wounds so most likely you just over did it and are exhausted." Dual laughed, "yeah I think I'll just lay here for a bit." Others came over making sure he was ok but unable to hold back their questions. He heard, "holy shit what was that light…god damn did you get even bigger than you were….what the hell was with that strength." Before anyone else could say anything the face in the clouds appeared, "congratulations humans for surviving the second round, it seems a contract with a god or goddess has been made this round. I'll be looking forward to what you all can do now." As he faded everyone looked to Dual and he chuckled, "yeah seems I've been granted power from my deal." He sighed not able to move, "well I'll tell everyone all about it but I think I need to rest a bit." They agreed and Stella laughed, "while you're resting I'll see if we can find some clothes that'll fit you." They left him to rest and Dual closed his eyes in prayer, "are you all there?" He heard the four of them and smiled, "well seems I'll need to work harder to be the strongest for you all but I'm still alive so thank you for your blessings." The goddess of the shield of the weak spoke softly, "you've already exceeded what we thought you'd be able to handle so no need to worry." The goddess of judgement laughed, "usually when a human gets abilities it puts them into a coma for a few hours at least but I guess with you all being blessed to not need sleep it worked in your favor." Dual smiled, "yeah I'd have died for sure if I passed out there, so just to make sure you didn't want me to keep anything about our contract a secret did you?" The goddesses laughed and the goddess of adaptation spoke up, "no on the contrary we'd love for you to spread our names to as many people as you can, the more we're known the more power we will receive and depending on how strong we can get we can make other deals to help others." Dual felt relieved, "that's good I'm not very good at lying." The goddess of judgement added in, "that was one of the reasons I wanted you so don't feel bad about that." Dual felt he had gotten very lucky with the goddesses that had chosen him, for the rest of the time that he was resting they told him more about their blessings and how they worked, by the time he was able to stand up and take off his tattered clothes he felt he completely understood his blessings. Looking at his body he saw the tattoo like marks that represented the goddess and their blessings though they didn't do much besides look cool. He walked back to the more populated area of the town and was greeted by a lot of surprised faces and looks, he smiled and waved feeling slightly embarrassed as he got to the center of town everyone started to gather around when they all gathered he saw that they had lost people. More than he had guessed about 63 people stood before him, he sighed, "sadly we've lost people members of our current family, we will remember them and make sure to get out of here. Not only for us but for them as well to carry on their memories." After a bit of silence Dual spoke again, "now I'm sure a lot of you have questions but first allow me to just go over all I know then I'll answer what I can." He went over all that happened as well as his goddesses and abilities after he finished they had a lot of questions and he couldn't answer all of them but once it settled down he talked again, "with all that happened I plan to find out what all I can do and strengthen myself more you all should stay on with your workouts and plans." After talking a bit more they followed his directions and continued pushing themselves now though they had an idea as to what they were working towards. Dual went to talk with a few more people, finishing with Stella, he came in to find her organizing her office that she had set up. Dual ducked into the room and she turned around surprised, "oh hi." She looked at him seeming to being stuck on his body she then sighed, "right clothes, well I asked around and some of the ladies said they could try to make some but it'll take a bit." Dual laughed, "well I'm a lot larger than people in general now so that's fine but I was also stopping by just to see how things were and if you needed any help." She smiled, "thanks but no I'm fine, I was about to get started with my workout anyway." Dual nodded and said his goodbyes as he left. He went outside the walls and began to test himself.