by Kumo Kagyu
The gigantic ogre.
The upraised arm.
The swirling magic—conflagration.
And him, standing with his back to her.
Before, she had used up everything, hadn’t been able to move.
But now.
Now…
“Goblin Slayer, sir!”
“Orcbolg!!”
A sufficiently advanced skill is indistinguishable from magic.
Like High Elf Archer’s archery.
She lifted one leg up to support her bow, off to the left, drawing the string with her teeth. It was bizarre, and yet, beautiful. And as for the arrow she had readied…
“O sickle wings of velociraptor, rip and tear, fly and hunt!” Lizard Priest used the modicum of strength he had regained to invoke Swordclaw. “What is this great destruction of yours? If you wish to make corpses of us, bring forth the fiery stone fallen from heaven, and do it that way!”
The flame of his life force, once guttering, had begun to burn a bit more brightly. The help for this last vestige of his consciousness, which he could not otherwise have maintained, did not come from his ancestors.
Because, of course, he was not alone.
“Dancing flame, salamander’s fame. Grant us a share of the very same!”
It was thanks to Dwarf Shaman, who had used some coal as a catalyst to cast Kindle.
With the renowned hardiness of his people, Dwarf Shaman had gotten them to just in front of the elevator. Now he grinned knowingly and took a sip of fire wine.
“Do it, Long-Ears!”
“Hhhh—rahhh!!”
A very un-elf-like bellow filled the room, and there was a flash of light.
Dragon fangs, her companion’s fangs, slammed into the greater demon’s hand.
“—?!”
It was not, of course, enough to cause serious pain. They were just the shots of a dying elf (no matter how superb an archer she might be) against a high-level greater demon (be it only its palm). It would be enough if they even pierced the skin. And yes, it was enough.
The fangs of the fearsome nagas were powerful enough to stop the hand from summoning its magic. It reeled from the impact, the vortex of magical energy disappearing like water sloshed over the edge of a cup. The twisting air snapped back into place and, at that moment:
“Yaaah…!”
Goblin Slayer would not miss this opportunity. The grappling hook, which he had pulled out by sheer force, along with the oil on the ground, sent the greater demon’s hand sliding.
“—!”
Now.
With the threat sliding directly toward her, Priestess didn’t hesitate for a moment: she began tapping the elevator’s keyboard.
The doors opened without a sound. The greater demon’s hand slipped inside, literally.
“—!”
Beyond the doors was nothing but a hole leading to a very long drop. No creature alive could survive the fall—but the greater demon’s hand would not take the plunge so easily.
Even as it slipped and slid on the gasoline, it spread its fingers, trying to catch itself on a wall or crawl along. It looked like some kind of bizarre spider, a creature otherworldly and fearsome. It might not escape the fall, but it was bent on at least taking this girl with it.
If the greater demon had any personal awareness left, such was most likely its thought.
All the more reason to…
“O Earth Mother, abounding in mercy, by the power of the land grant safety to we who are weak!!”
All the more reason to play her part, here and now.
Her prayer, a prayer that shaved away part of her very soul, reached up to heaven and earned her a miracle from the all-merciful Earth Mother.
The invisible barrier of Protection spread out to either side, like a lid, to shield her devout follower.
“Hrgh…!”
The greater demon’s hand, rebuffed, pounded angrily against the barrier, causing Priestess to wince each time as if she herself were receiving the blows.
But that was all.
Not long after, the hand began to slip away, and even though it dug its nails into the walls, loath to give up the fight, it was drawn inexorably back toward the pit, until it fell into the dark.
There was a long, silent moment. Finally, High Elf Archer’s ears twitched, and she let out a breath. “Did we…do it?”
She didn’t sound sure herself.
Priestess, though, didn’t answer. Indeed, she couldn’t answer. The tingling in her neck still wasn’t gone.
This isn’t over…!
“—!”
There was a deep thud, and a hairline fracture ran along the barrier of Protection like glass about to shatter.
“Ah, ahhh…?!”
The greater demon’s hand had flexed every muscle it had to leap upward and launch its fist against the barrier. Priestess yelped with pain as if she herself had been struck and dropped to her knees.
Thud! A second hit.
“Ugh… Hrgh…?!”
Priestess’s vision clouded as a shock wave went through her solar plexus. She couldn’t breathe. She fell prostrate and groaned.
“Hrrr… Ahh…”
A third blow. It felt like it was tearing out her insides; she was flung back up to her knees.
But…I can’t…!
She forced back down the bitter fluids that threatened to come up, staring fixedly straight ahead.
I can’t give in… This isn’t over… It isn’t…over!
It wasn’t that she had some special assurance. She simply believed.
Believed she must not be defeated here.
The goblins. The stolen mail. The rescued girl. Her rescued self. Sword Maiden. Her friends.
The thoughts swirled in her mind. Was this what it meant for one’s life to flash before one’s eyes? No, no. This was no time to be getting lost in memories.
Goblin…Slayer…sir…!
“It’s coming!”
His words sounded to her like a benediction. She clung to them, supported herself with them, stood with them.
The greater demon’s hand stiffened. It was pushed up from below, shoved against the holy wall.
Why—how?
Somehow, Priestess felt she could understand the hand’s confusion. It brought a smile to her pain-racked face.
“This is…an elevator,” she said. “And you’re going up…!”
It was the “box,” rising up from below, that had the critical effect. The greater demon’s hand was caught between the metal structure rising rapidly toward the surface and the Protection barrier…
“—! —…! ! !! !!!! !”
It survived for several long seconds before, with a disgusting squish, it was reduced to hunks of meat.
With the cursed connection gone, the body of the goblin the greater demon had been using virtually melted. It ran down past the elevator in hideous, reeking black rivulets.
A moment later, Protection disappeared, its job done, and the elevator’s incongruously cheerful ding! sounded in the burial chamber. The doors slid open without a sound. They were the entrance to a bottomless pit, to the very abyss.
Everyone was breathing in hard, ragged gasps, and for a time, nobody spoke.
“…A hammer and…an anvil…” Priestess managed at last. She almost stumbled, using her staff to support herself. She put her free hand against her throbbing stomach.
This was the absolute limit. They were out of prayers after fighting all this way from the moment they entered the fortified city.
As Priestess’s slim, elegant body pitched forward, she felt herself supported by a rough, gloved hand that casually clasped her and drew her close.
“That’s right,” Goblin Slayer said. “You did well to remember.”
“Because you…” Priestess smiled, her face sweaty. “Because you…taught it to me.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Goblin Slayer fell silent then, supporting her shoul
der as they walked. One step, then another. They worked their way along a floor covered with oil and ice and blood and flesh, one step at a time, ever forward.
In front of the elevator—so close, yet so far off—she found her companions supporting one another as they waited for her, as she had known she would.
Just the opposite of another time I can think of, Priestess thought suddenly and smiled.
Nobody acted like they were taking pity on her, yet she appreciated the gentle walking pace they took. And then suddenly, she noticed something. Something that might have been minor, trivial.
He’s never…supported me as we walked before.
Priestess thought she could feel heat rising in her cheeks and looked down. She saw his boots and her own feet side by side.
So not all firsts were bad.
That was her little insight, here in the heart of this dungeon.
§
Of course, none of that meant it was all over.
“He’s…going that way!”
“Oh, for—!!”
More goblins were waiting for them when the elevator arrived at the first floor.
“GROORB! GBOOROGB!!”
“GBBOROOROB!!”
There were fewer than before, to be sure. These must have been the remainder of whatever they hadn’t destroyed earlier, or else monsters come up from lower floors.
“GOOBOGB!!”
“Why…you…!” Priestess swung her staff as hard as she could, keeping the goblins with their hideous expressions at bay.
High Elf Archer loosed arrows nonstop—but compared with her normal shooting, her movements looked as dull and slow as a Porcelain’s. She had run out of bud-tipped arrows, too; now she relied on the rusty metal ones she stole from the goblins.
“It…hurts…!”
“GOOBOG?!”
And yet, it was enough. The goblin stumbled backward with an arrow through his eye and collapsed.
“Five!”
Almost instantly, Goblin Slayer jumped on another enemy.
“GBBOOGB?!”
He used his shield to stall the upraised club, deflecting the impact and pushing his foe over before closing in. Restraining the creature’s futile resistance with the shield, Goblin Slayer stabbed out with his sword at the monster’s throat before twisting violently.
“GOO?! GROGB…?!” The goblin died choking on his own blood.
“That’s six,” Goblin Slayer muttered. Priestess and High Elf Archer, both breathing hard, looked at each other.
The room was full of goblin corpses, including those from the earlier battle that hadn’t been cleared away. Goblin Slayer stepped on the bodies as his metal helmet turned. “How’s this area?”
“All good,” High Elf Archer said with a weak flip of her ears. “I think. I’m not as sure as I’d like to be.”
Her voice was thick with fatigue. She leaned her left shoulder against the wall to compensate for her right arm hanging limply at her side.
“…I’ll call the others, then.” Priestess spoke bravely, but although she was uninjured, she looked much like High Elf Archer. She was so tired she was dragging her feet, tottering as she approached the door; she gave a little shout as she summoned the strength to open it. “It’s okay now,” she said.
“Ah, sorry ’bout that…”
From beyond the door Priestess held open emerged Dwarf Shaman, his face slack. He had Lizard Priest’s massive body across his shoulders, along with the much smaller form of the princess.
“Many…apologies… If I could only make my body…work a little more…” Lizard Priest’s voice was muddled as he tried to apologize. He had gotten a little of his strength back—but just a little. His movements were obviously impaired after surviving the blast of freezing magic. Not to say someone other than a lizardman would have done any better…
“No… I’m sorry I don’t have more power,” Priestess said, shaking her head. She meant both physical strength and the power of her faith. If only the goddess would grant her a more effective healing miracle…
If only she’d still had the focus and vitality left to maintain a deep prayer connecting her soul to heaven.
Perhaps Dwarf Shaman understood what she was thinking, for a tired smile came over his bearded face. “I wonder if you could carry these two no matter how much strength you had.”
“But…”
“Human muscles and dwarf muscles just aren’t the same, lass, no matter how many of them you’ve got.”
In other words, this was his moment to shine.
Even in light of his advice, Priestess couldn’t help but be stung by her own weakness. Still puckering her lips, she checked over Lizard Priest and the princess. It was the most she could do at that moment.
Lizard Priest had always had plenty of life force, but the much weaker and more drained princess was in danger. Priestess touched the girl’s cheek gently, and the princess seemed to whisper something in response.
“Thank you” and “I’m sorry.”
She murmured the words over and over, as if she were talking to herself, and sometimes Priestess could make out Big Brother, Father, and Mother as well.
Priestess looked at the princess. They were almost the same age, or perhaps the princess was even a little younger than her. Priestess, about to turn sixteen, closed her eyes as if to suppress something.
A year and a half ago, she had been just like this. Ignorant, innocent, powerless, and above all, stupid.
She’s…me…!
Priestess hugged the princess’s battered body to herself.
What had she been able to do since then?
Was there anything she could do for the girl now?
Could she be any use to him at all…?
“Nothing is useless.” The low voice caught her by surprise, and she looked up. Goblin Slayer was looking around vigilantly, but he was standing near the wall. It was unusual, for him. “You must simply work with what you have.”
“…I think what he means is, don’t worry about it. Though he could stand to learn to express himself a little more clearly.” High Elf Archer, despite her pale, sweaty face, had her usual reproof for Goblin Slayer. She would stiffen from time to time, press a hand to her side. Hopefully it was just bruised. Because if it was broken…
“You two,” Priestess said, struggling to steady her shaking voice. “Are you both okay?”
“Yes,” Goblin Slayer answered with a nod. “I can go on.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” High Elf Archer added, but then she closed her eyes and looked down.
Fine was not a word that appeared to describe either of them.
So Priestess simply said, “Okay,” and was quiet.
After a few minutes’ rest, with no signal from anybody, the adventurers got to work once more. They couldn’t afford to stay here very long.
Nobody spoke. But all of them knew what was waiting for them next.
They turned a corner of the corridor, heading up the stairs one step at a time, as if filling in spaces on a grid, heading for the surface. They fought as they went; the charge only took them twenty or thirty seconds. Despite their rest, though, it felt like it took an hour or two.
And then finally, at last, they reached the top of that long, long staircase, where…
“GOOROGB…!”
“GOOBOGR! GBOG!”
“GRROOR!”
“GBBG! GROORGB!!”
Goblins. Priestess shrugged, her face a mixture of fear, resignation, and readiness.
The courtyard in front of the dungeon was filled with greenskins. They smirked at Priestess and High Elf Archer, obviously imagining how they were going to bring low the women and the other adventurers. They held weapons of every kind— How many were there? Twenty, thirty? Forty, fifty?
“…Welp, that’s par for the course,” Dwarf Shaman said without much enthusiasm. “We weren’t very subtle about how we dealt with that greater demon’s hand. Otherwise, we might’ve gotten out of here unnoticed.”
“…It’s the opposite of normal,” High Elf Archer said with a dry laugh. She had the same expression on her face as when they had been swarmed by goblins in the sewers. “It looks like we’re the ones who are going to get slain…”
“Dungeons for a dragon, tunnels for a troll, and an abyss for adventurers! Heh-heh-heh!”
“This makes good sense,” Lizard Priest said and got up from Dwarf Shaman’s back unsteadily.
“You in one piece, Scaly?”
“When I meet my death, it shall certainly be on my feet,” Lizard Priest replied. He made a wild gesture with his jaws, baring his fangs. It must have meant he was ready for anything—indeed, lizardmen were always ready for anything. His people always saw it as a good day to die. “So, have we any plan, milord Goblin Slayer?” He sounded downright pleased; his eyes spun in his head.
During all this, the goblins were advancing on them step by step. It was clear they had no intention of launching a sudden charge. They were enjoying the sight of the adventurers drawing back toward the dungeon entrance. It was an absolute pleasure seeing them in the goblins’ accustomed place, looking this way and that. It was a balm to the heart, seeing those who normally hunted them reduced to such pitiful circumstances.
All the more reason this was the perfect chance to teach them a lesson, to hurt them, impregnate them, eat them.
Those women didn’t look very meaty. They would die quickly. That or enjoy them while they lasted.
No, they could be enjoyed dead as well as alive. Just wring their necks and have fun with them after that.
Wait, bury them up to their necks and see who can send their heads flying the farthest with the swipe of an ax—that would be fun.
“GOOBGBOG!”
“GRROOR! GRBB!”
“GGGROORGB!!”
The goblins drew closer, the hideous smiles still on their faces.
Goblin Slayer didn’t say anything.
“Goblin Slayer, sir…?” Priestess slid closer to him, looking up at his helmet.
She felt she should say something at this moment. But she didn’t know what. There were too many thoughts, too many things she wanted to say; it was all she could do to push back the feeling that it was all going to overflow.
So finally, she just looked up at that helmet with wavering eyes.
It was a cheap-looking thing of metal.