Dorrose in danger, preparations for the blood moon.

Most of the summer had passed since the visit at Hubert's house. Since then Jack had been coming over at night fall every other day to practice controling the maga inside of his body, under Hubert's watch.

Thanks to this he was now able to reap the benefits, of being a maga bearer, in form of greater strength and speed, longer endurance and faster reflexes.

However he seldom used them, the uncoscious strengthening was enough to get him through the day just fine so there was no point. Untill... One day when he was hauling the first baskets of fish into the village.

The whole village was in an uproar, noone was stoping even to say, hello. It was clear that something was up.

Before he could stop someone and ask what's going on, Hubert came out of nowhere grabbed him by the shoulder and led him to his house. When they were inside, Hubert finaly let out a sigh and said. "Its good you're here, we have a problem."

"Whats going on, whats the problem." Asks Jack.

"Village's hunting party spied at least 3 dozen forest goblins, 5 orcs and a troll." Says Hubert and looks uneasy.

"Alright that is pretty bad." Says Jack, having met a forest goblin before. Squished, fast and murderous little bastards they are, Jack met the thing about a week into being a fisherman and almost got killed, before one of the village guards noticed the commotion and intervened.

"Just wait, it gets worse. Normaly the guards would be able to deal with the goblins and even the orcs, where as I would fight the troll... But tonight is... a blood moon." Says Hubert and goes pale from just thinking about the prospect.

"What is this blood moon, what does it mean." Asks Jack, having a pretty good image in his mind of how the blood moon would look.

"Night of the blood moon comes once every half a year, its a night cursed by the old god of darkness. When the moon turns crimson, his monsters become stronger and more vicious. Combined with the fact that the monsters are approaching, we are in the deepest end of trouble imaginable!" Says Hubert.

"If that is the case, what's the plan and what can I do to help." Asks Jack.

"We plan to reinforce the village gate as well as the eastern palisades, this will slow them down a little. The villagers who cant or dont want to fight are leaving through the back of the village, the rest is working on the fortifications and preparing to defend. If you really want to help, we need more people to haul wood, since you know how to use maga for strengthening you are perfectly suited for that." Says Hubert.

"Alright. But wont the villagers find it strange that I'm hauling large ammounts of wood without any help?" Asks Jack.

"You wont need to worry about that, they'll just be glad that they have someone strong to help them. Now go there is no time to spare." Says Hubert.

Once Jack leaves Hubert's house he wastes no time and looks for men hauling whole tree trunks to the east side of the village. When they start returning Jack follows them to the forest north-west of the village.

...

When they see him there they first try to send him away, saying that he'll just get in the way. But when he doesnt leave, they try to deter him by having him lift a tree trunk which they would need four people to carry.

Jack approaches it, lays his hands on it and concentrates, having the maga flow within his body to his muscles and bones strengthening them both.

Once he's ready, he burries his right arm into the ground underneath the trunk and with a slight grunt, as he initially didnt use enough maga to effortlessly lift it, which he quickly fixes, lifts the trunk, sets it on his shoulder and stomps away with it, sinking slightly into the ground with each step. Leaving the baffled village men to pick up their jaws off the forest floor.

The same type of situation ensues when he approaches the eastern palisades and asks: "Where should I put this one?"

Once the leader of the operation rubs his eyes to make sure he isnt dreaming he just points at a neaby pile. So Jack sets it down, turns around and says: "I'll be back with more soon."

"Umm... thank you for your help?" Says the leader of the operation, also baffled.

When Jack is far enough away he lets out a sigh of relief and releases his hold on the maga which strengthens his body.

Beacause while he did learn how to use it, he's still limited by how long he can actually sustain this state, espetially when carrying objects of this size and weight. So he uses any time he doesnt have to use maga strengthening, to recuperate and rest his mind and body.

...

When he returns to the forest, to his surprise the men there had already snapped out of the shock and got to work. They tied four smaller trunks together by a rope and waited for Jack to return.

When he saw this he just smiled and without a word lifted the stack using maga strengthening and carried it to the palisades again.

This is what he was doing for most of the day.

By late afternoon the work on palisades was done, any left over wood was being used to make pikes and spiked barricades. With those who stayed to fight making spears out of shovel helves and knives or taking the pitchfork.

As for Jack, he had nowhere to go, and if he tried to holehimself up in his shack he would most likely not survive. So when he went there, it was only to get the small axe he bought from the trade caravan a few weeks prior and a knife he used to gut the fish he caught.

When he returned, he found a long enough stick around the place where people were working on the palisades and got to work making his own makeshift spear.

....