Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One, Vol. 2

by Kumo Kagyu

  But it is still better than the fight in the village, he concluded, thinking back to a defensive battle he had once fought, single-handedly covering an entire settlement.

  This was nothing. Compared to that fight, here he had only to worry about what was in front of him. And it wasn’t raining.

  Just one person to protect. Fresh weapons being brought to him by his own enemies. The only issues were strength and focus.

  “Difficult! Now, there’s a word!” Arc Mage let up a howl of her own.

  Difficult? Difficult, you say? Do you know who you’re talking to? She glared at the shade of the higher dimension with the look of a general surveying a battlefield then put her cards to work.

  “Just you look at this! A hundred and twenty? I could bring that together with one hand tied behind my back!”

  The thin air bubbled up, blossomed, and flowered into a key. The key turned in the lock. The door split silently in two. Arc Mage gave a triumphant chuckle. “The way has been opened! Let’s go—we’ve no time to dally with goblins!”

  Goblin Slayer didn’t answer but only said, “One hundred and five,” as he stabbed a goblin in the neck.

  “GOOBGGRGRG?!”

  The monster screamed and fell back; Goblin Slayer let the sword go, picking up a club at his feet.

  “It is not easy to annihilate them all.”

  “I told you, they’ll keep on spawning forever! But we have limited resources!”

  Goblin Slayer gave a click of his tongue and turned quickly. Arc Mage appeared to have learned from experience; she was already heading through the door.

  “I don’t ever want you lugging me around again!” she exclaimed as Goblin Slayer followed after her.

  “GOOBGRG!”

  “GB! GBOOR!”

  The goblins jabbered behind them, but then the door shut tight, locking them out.

  They were once again at the bottom of a massive spiral staircase. Goblin Slayer let out a deep breath.

  “I don’t like it.”

  “What don’t you like?” Arc Mage asked, looking puzzled as she made to start climbing the stairs. She took a small, reluctant sip of her remaining cider, the bottle now mostly empty.

  “The thought of what would happen if these goblins got out of this tower.”

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. And here I thought you were worrying about how to get home.”

  Goblin Slayer shook his head. The only directions to go were up and down; the job at hand would not change.

  “Well, don’t sweat it. They only exist inside the shade of the tower.”

  “So they can’t leave it?”

  “And when the sun goes down, shadows disappear. They’re only here when the tower is. Most likely…” She looked up the stairs with a dreamy expression. “…when I arrive, that’ll be the end of it.”

  “I see,” he said curtly.

  Arc Mage looked at him in exasperation then laughed aloud. She put her hands on her stomach, almost rolling around, reminding him of the first time they’d met.

  “You really are a special one! Aren’t you curious at all about what’s in here or what I’m trying to do?”

  “That doesn’t interest me,” he said, shaking his head. “Or…”

  Arc Mage had settled herself on the stairs and rested her chin in her hands, eagerly awaiting what he would say next.

  Goblin Slayer gave one of those quiet grunts of his then went on softly, “…My teacher told me that all things come down to do or do not.”

  “A rhea teacher,” Arc Mage said, squinting. “He didn’t say success or failure?”

  “Success and failure both come about because of doing. If you do not, they never occur.”

  This was the first time he had said this to anybody. He didn’t understand why he had chosen to say it now.

  I believe it, he whispered. I didn’t do it. Didn’t attempt it. That’s why.

  “I don’t question what other people decide to do.”

  “As long as it doesn’t get in the way of killing goblins, you mean?”

  “That’s right.”

  Arc Mage nodded. She looked genuinely, profoundly happy. “Now I know getting you for my quests was the right choice, Goblin Slayer.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Heh!” She gave a nasal chuckle then got lightly to her feet. “All right, let’s go! Your quest giver’s destination is just up ahead, dear adventurer!”

  Do you really know that? To Goblin Slayer’s inquiry, Arc Mage replied that of course she did.

  “Four, six, eight, twelve, twenty. These five are the basis for the shapes of things as we know them.”

  They climbed the stairs, going into a hallway out of which goblins poured. They silenced their footsteps, silenced their breathing, and, finally, silenced the goblins, proceeding ever deeper.

  It was a different level, and the details varied subtly, but the layout was basically the same as all the others. They were obviously aiming for a chamber in the center of the tower, and quest giver and adventurer alike proceeded without hesitation.

  In fact, so long as Spark shined on her finger, there would be no hesitation.

  “So far, the shadows cast into this tower have been five, eight, sixteen, twenty-four, and one hundred and twenty.”

  “Five of them.” Goblin Slayer brought his hand around at a goblin behind him, slashing the monster’s throat. There was a whistling sound and a geyser of blood. He waited until the creature was dead then cast the corpse away.

  “That’s why I think we’ve hit the end here. I think five should work again.”

  “Is that so?”

  “To be fair, we won’t know for sure until we try…”

  In any event, it was just as she said.

  There was the ebony door in what was presumably the final room—and before it, again, a shadow. Arc Mage frowned. “I hate to admit it, but I’ve miscalculated,” she said. “But anyway, the principle’s the same. We’ll manage.”

  “Is that so?” Goblin Slayer nodded. “Then I will keep doing my job.”

  “GOOBOGR! GOOROG!”

  “GGOBOGOB!!”

  Even the voices of the goblins coming up from behind were the same. Goblin Slayer forced his body, growing ever heavier, to move, taking up a position to defend the door. He produced another stamina potion from his bag. Not many left now. He gulped it down.

  “GOROOGB!”

  “…I’ve lost track of the numbers.” He clicked his tongue and pitched the bottle away. It smashed open along with the skull of the goblin it hit, and the battle began. “That’s one.”

  “Add one hundred five and twelve to that,” Arc Mage said without turning around. Goblin Slayer harrumphed softly.

  “One hundred eighteen.”

  Then he swung the club in his hand, slamming it into the next goblin.

  “GOOBOG?!”

  “That’s one hundred nineteen!”

  §

  Slice the goblins, stab them, hit them, strike them, fling things at them, and, finally, kill them.

  “GGOBOGR?!”

  “GOOGRB! GBOG!!”

  In a word, Goblin Slayer went about producing a mountain of corpses.

  No matter how many he murdered in that narrow entranceway, no matter how many bodies piled up, their aggression never waned. Was it because they were shades, or simply because they were goblins? The attackers merely used the corpses of their fellows as shields, flinging stones from behind them.

  “………Hrm.”

  The rocks bounced off his shield and his helmet with a dull popping sound. His arm was numb. He had to fight to hold his head up. A hit to his shoulder had gone through the armor to his flesh, and now he was slower to move his shield.

  “Ohh, ah!!”

  “GOROOBG!!”

  One goblin saw his chance and came rushing out from behind the barrier. Goblin Slayer tossed his sword, which had nearly slipped out of his hand, at the monster, keeping him at bay. He staggered backward with the sword lodged in hi
s throat, coughing up blood until he tumbled to the ground.

  Happily for Goblin Slayer, he had an armory’s worth of weapons there at his feet. He kicked a club up into his hand, almost groaning as he tried to even out his breath. The goblins understood well how to use their numbers to their advantage; whether this was instinctive or deliberate, he didn’t know. They would try to rush forward and take all the glory, or use their foolish compatriots as decoys.

  It was not that the goblins didn’t fear death. Each was simply, albeit baselessly, certain that he alone among the horde would not die.

  As the onslaught continued, Goblin Slayer’s strength began to ebb. The battle to get here had been nothing compared to the war he was waging now. It was his experience defending that village which allowed him to make the jump to this battle.

  In that case, he’d had plenty of time to establish defenses. If only he could have built some kind of barricade right now.

  I don’t have enough hands.

  They were only goblins. The weakest of all monsters. No matter how hard they fought, that fact remained.

  But the sheer quantity of them could be enough to bring low a party of adventurers. Let alone a single adventurer all by himself.

  Goblin Slayer had learned that lesson by now. Whether he would live to make use of it was another question.

  “Damn… What the hell is wrong here?!”

  The situation wasn’t lost on Arc Mage. She was smart enough. She had to understand. And that only made her the more panicked. Sweat dripped down her brow.

  Desperately wracking her brain to deal with her own foe, the shadow floating in the air, she was faced with one cruel fact.

  “…It’s going to take too much time!”

  She knew.

  She understood.

  She knew what this meant—and she knew all too well.

  “This goes beyond the hundred and twenty earlier. This… This is six hundred!”

  A six-hundred polychoron—an entity that easily surpassed anything Arc Mage had imagined.

  She could fathom it. She could imagine it.

  And yet, even yet, how much time would it take to calculate it?

  How much time had she spent getting here?

  How much time offering her life to the game board, meeting her master, honing her knowledge, running this way and that—

  “Still not enough time…?!”

  Her vision blurred. She knew. It wasn’t that she was bitter or sad. It was just the natural byproduct of heightened emotions, or so she kept telling herself. And thus, she didn’t even give herself the time to wipe the tears from her eyes but continued her challenge to divine providence.

  For the same reason, Goblin Slayer had to buy them every minute, every second he could.

  “GOROBBG?!”

  “Oh-hh—!!”

  How many now? He had forgotten the number she’d told him earlier.

  His breath came in ragged gasps. The oxygen wasn’t reaching his brain.

  Was it his master who had guffawed and informed him that his brain was only useful for making snot?

  And no one ever died from a lack of snot…

  “GBB! GOROBG!”

  “…Feh!”

  Something struck his foot. A goblin had crawled through the mountain of corpses and brought a dagger down on it.

  Try as he might to count the number of kills, but in the midst of this battle, he could hardly make sure it actually tallied up with the number of corpses.

  Of course, Goblin Slayer was ready for this; he made sure to protect his feet. The blade didn’t touch his body.

  He did, however, feel his footing grow unsteady: goblin blood. He shifted his hip to catch himself, and that was when the goblins pressed in.

  “GOBB!”

  “GROGGB! GROB!!”

  “Ahh!!”

  He gritted his teeth and rolled sideways, lashing out with his club. A couple of goblins he caught in the shin yelped and fell down. A third goblin went tumbling over them.

  Goblin Slayer felt a shock of fear. He couldn’t allow them past him. Must not let them get to her.

  One goblin made a beeline for the defenseless woman behind the adventurer, probably making some hideous face. Goblin Slayer slapped the floor tiles, stretching himself out.

  An impact at his back. Other goblins in the way. He ignored them.

  Then he let go of his club and grabbed the goblin’s foot with his right hand. He had hold of it. He pulled.

  “Hrr—ahhh!”

  “GBBBOR?!”

  The shield in his left hand flashed up toward the back of the head. The edge of the shield split the head, and blood came gushing out.

  He didn’t have even a second to spare. The goblins were pressing in. A weapon. He needed a weapon…

  “I’ve…got one…!”

  He lifted up the still-twitching goblin corpse. Then, using it like a shield, he slammed it into the horde of enemies.

  “GOOBOGR?!”

  “GOOB?!”

  Quantity would always have certain advantages, but so would quality.

  The armor-clad adventurer added his own weight to that of the corpse as he shoved. He slammed into several goblins at once, pushing them back outside the chamber.

  “Hrr, uh…!”

  Goblin Slayer let out a great breath, noticing the fresh pool of blood forming beneath him. The dull ache in his back was not, it seemed, from a club or other blunt weapon. He reached around behind himself to find an ax had shattered his armor and wounded him in the back. Perfect. This was a weapon.

  He pulled it out, ignoring the flow of blood. A stunning pain lanced through him, but he held his breath and bore it.

  “How much…longer?” There was the slightest quaver in his voice as he asked the question.

  “I don’t… I don’t know…!” The strangled response sounded to Goblin Slayer like the speaker might burst into tears at any moment. “I can solve it. I can tease it out. I will. But—but I just don’t have enough…time!!”

  Goblin Slayer took a breath in, let it out.

  “You don’t?”

  “No…! Damn! To come this far, all for… Arrgh, damn it all…”

  Arc Mage stopped talking for a moment. She took a few hesitant, shallow breaths, as if unsure whether to say anything further.

  Then she spoke.

  “This was supposed to be my scenario, my adventure. I’m…sorry for dragging you into it.”

  “It’s a goblin-hunting scenario,” Goblin Slayer replied evenly. “There is no problem.”

  It was nothing but problems. Under his steel helmet, Goblin Slayer’s lips tugged upward.

  In front of his eyes was a goblin horde. Behind him was the quest giver. He was injured and exhausted. He would soon reach his limit. The effect of a stamina potion was essentially an advance on your own vitality. Beyond that limit, there was no more strength.

  By hook or by crook, if he could kill goblins, then it was no chore for him.

  Ah yes, but…

  What have I got in my pocket?

  It was one of the riddles his master had asked him.

  He never had figured out the answer. Perhaps it had been a ring of some sort.

  But he did know what he had in his pocket at that moment.

  “My hands.”

  It was ever thus.

  It was not a question of able or unable, nor of whether things would go well or poorly.

  It was only do or do not.

  First, Goblin Slayer took the ax in his hand and threw it. It spun through the air, struck a goblin in the head handle first, then bounced off him and lodged its blade in the head of the goblin next to him.

  “GOROOOOBB!”

  “GGGB! GOOBG!”

  The goblins howled and yammered. Goblin Slayer reached into his bag and drew out a certain item.

  “I will buy us time.”

  And then, weaponless, he walked forward, into the maelstrom of goblins.

  “GOOBOG!”

/>   “GBBB! GBGO!”

  Empty-handed fighting. The goblins laughed out loud to see him walk toward them, looking pathetic with his panoply of injuries. Arc Mage looked up with the distinct sense that the laughter was mocking her.

  “Buy us time?”

  The shapeless mist was in front of her.

  Under her feet ran the blood of goblins, or of Goblin Slayer—she didn’t know which.

  If she turned around, she assumed she would find a sea of blood. But she didn’t turn around.

  “I…am such…an idiot!”

  If you have no time, just buy some.

  It was so simple! Why hadn’t she considered that fact sooner?

  Arc Mage gave the crimson pool under her foot a powerful tap.

  She gave herself over to the flow of red magic that came welling up, putting her hand to her deck of cards, to the spell book she had compiled.

  “You, lightning, follow after me—!”

  One card torn in half. An incantation shouted.

  The red bolt of lightning emerging beneath her feet flashed as if to bless what she willed. And on her finger, the spark shimmered.

  “Expedite!”

  Arc Mage accelerated, leaving the world behind. Her flesh, her thinking, her very mind. As a result, she didn’t fully register what had happened until it was all over.

  Goblins poured in from the entryway of the chamber. Pressing forward, coming close.

  Goblin Slayer moved toward them, something grasped in his hand.

  He thought he could hear the sound of dice rolling somewhere far away. He didn’t like it at all.

  He had no intention of trusting his quest giver’s life to any such thing.

  “GOBBGR!”

  “GOR! GROOOBG!!”

  The goblins crashed in like a surging wave— No. Goblin Slayer knew what a true wave was. He had never seen one, but he had learned about them.

  “Take this, you fiends!”

  An instant later, the scroll he had untied exploded stupendously.

  No, it only appeared to explode.

  It was in fact a geyser of water that blocked out vision. An overpowering stench of salt.

  Goblin Slayer had never seen the ocean, but he had learned that this was how it smelled.