The Copper Rose

by David Lingard

  Ushuk slowed down to almost a crawling pace as he hid his body behind my own. I noticed that he’d drawn his small knife and held it in front of him, to which I followed suit. I thanked my forethought in picking up one of the small hunting knives when they’d been made available to me. It wasn’t exactly a steel broadsword, but just having something in my hands beside sweat gave me a certain amount of comfort.

  Still no noise. We walked further and further into the thickening smoke. It filled my lungs, making me cough and splutter but thankfully it didn’t seem to be having any effect on my health bar, and no new status notifications were telling me that I was being poisoned or was otherwise under some kind of environmental attack.

  “What was that?” I asked aloud as I heard something in front of us. It was like a gurgling, moaning noise.

  Ushuk blinked at me but didn’t respond.

  We took a few careful steps forward to reveal the remains of the Sawblades’ campsite. It had been completely and utterly burned to the ground.

  I heard the noise again and this time I focussed on where it had come from. In the centre of the camp was the huge goblin, Grish. He was sat on the ground, his legs in front of him, sobbing. When he heard our footsteps, he raised his gaze towards us and I could see that his face was soaked with his own tears and his entire body had been stripped of his clothes and covered in dirt.

  Ushuk and I spared no time and ran to either side of him to lift him up to his feet. He gave no resistance, but no help either. We struggled to lift his weight but eventually got the goblin to his feet where he stood slouching, seemingly uninterested in his new stature.

  “Grish?” I asked softly as I looked into his eyes. They looked right through me and he didn’t reply.

  “Grish?” I said louder now and pulled his chin so that his gaze met mine. His eyelids fell and closed and welled tears trickled down his cheeks.

  I turned to Ushuk and shrugged. I didn’t really know how to console an upset goblin, but I hoped that he did.

  Grish stepped in front of me and slapped Grish hard around the face with his open palm.

  “Are you goblin or not?” he growled sharply in a bitter tone.

  Grish’s senses seemed to return to him somewhat with Ushuk’s contact and he looked at us both in turn.

  “Ushuk? Tandy?” he asked, as though it was the first time he’d seen us.

  “It’s OK, we are here to help,” I said in my most calming voice. “What happened here?”

  “Men come. They burn all camp to the ground. They take females and make us watch when they do things. Then they take children and…” I could see the pain in his eyes as he spoke, and with his last words he pointed to a pile of small, goblin children sized bones by the fire, which still billowed smoke but wasn’t alight any more.

  I had a bad feeling that these ‘men’ were the same ones that I’d encountered before judging by the scenes surrounding us, and if they were able to remove Grish and his entire clan from the field of play with minimal effort then they must’ve been levelling up, and fast. Upon a closer examination I could see that Grish himself had levelled from level eight to level ten.

  From what I could remember, Theodore was level twenty-three when I’d last seen him, but I didn’t know what kind of magnitude of difference that would mean. For example, could two level tens beat a level twenty? Or was a level twenty as good as ten level tens? There wasn’t any time to speculate on that right now so I filed it in the mental to-do list I had going on.

  “Is there anyone else here? Survivors I mean,” I dreaded the answer to my question, but even though I wasn’t surprised when Grish shook his head, my heart still sank and a lump formed in my throat.

  Suddenly I heard a shrill goblin scream from just outside of the former campsite. I broke into an instant run with Ushuk just behind me, but when turning back I could see that Grish hadn’t bothered to move. I didn’t have the time to try to convince him to join us, even though I was sure that he would have been the most effective of the three of us in any given combat scenario.

  When we breached the clearing where the scream had come from, I saw the source of the commotion. A single female goblin was flat on her back, kicking her feet at three hooded figures, who were keeping a safe distance from her attempts at self-defence.

  I didn’t give the attackers any opportunity to pre-empt my arrival and rugby tacked the closest figure at waist height as hard and as fast as I could. He fell to the ground with an ‘oomph’ and I saw that Ushuk had copied my movements, taking a second figure to the ground. By the time the third figure came to his senses and was ready to strike back, I was already back on my feet.

  Before I moved away from the man that I’d left on the ground – I could see his face now that his hood had fallen back, I stamped as hard as I could on his uncovered nose.

  You hit Scout for 4 damage

  Your target is Unconscious for 1 minute

  ‘Well that’s good news,’ I thought as the unexpected message popped into my field of vision, ‘just two more to deal with.’

  Ushuk wasn’t as kind to his target as I was, stabbing with his tiny knife over and over into the face and neck of the man who tried desperately to cover his face with his hands, but in truth all it did was prolong his death and cause additional unnecessary pain.

  I took our new advantage as an opportunity to analyse the last man standing.

  Name: Scout

  Level: 3

  Race: Human/Male

  Attributes:HP: 8/8MP: 0/0

  Strength:3

  Wisdom:0

  Social:0

  Skills: ScavengeLevel 1

  Equipment:-Unavailable-

  I interrogated the ‘Scavenge’ skill to learn that it meant that the bearer of the skill would be able to remove weapons and armour from an unwilling target with a very limited percentage chance of success. I assumed that the chance rose depending on the level of the skill.

  These guys were thieves, on a mission to ensure that the Sawblades’ clan left nothing of value behind, not even the boots from a little goblin’s feet.

  The scout snarled at me menacingly as he retrieved a long needle point from inside his cloak. ‘What? I thought he didn’t have any equipment?’ I thought as I re-examined his information page. How could I have been so stupid – unavailable had clearly meant that I just couldn’t tell if he had anything, not that he didn’t. I had to remember not to rely on my analyse skill if it was going to give me half-truths like this.

  The scout’s blade looked very dangerous indeed, but at least there were two of us to split his attention. Ushuk and I each took steps forward and back alternately to keep the scout on his back foot, until he saw an opening in our tactics. With a mighty lunge, the scout plunged his sword into Ushuk’s shoulder and I watched in horror as his blade, covered in black goblin blood protruded from the back of Ushuks shoulder blade. The scout kicked Ushuk to the ground and retrieved his weapon. My little goblin friend wasn’t moving.

  “You bastard!” I cried as I took two steps forward. I could feel the emotion causing me to become reckless, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t die anyway, I’d just end up back where I started, but Ushuk…well I wasn’t sure what would happen to him, but I needed my revenge right now. Watching friends fall in front of me was something that I knew would never be high on my wish list.

  My sudden movement caused the scout to flail his sword in a horizontal strike at head level, which I’d hoped for. If Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu had taught me anything – and I was pretty confident that it had (I’d managed to obtain my blue belt in my three years of training) – it was to lower your head when shooting in for a double-leg take-down. In this body, the strain on my knees was lessened and the effort it took to lift my target from his feet and dump him to the ground was significantly reduced.

  As soon as I landed on top of the scout I smashed his hand into the ground as hard as I could, forcing him to drop his weapon. I balled my fists together and struck into his face now
as hard as I could, as I’d done to the beetle a few days previous. I repeated this action again and again until I could no longer distinguish any of his features in the bloody mess.

  You hit Scout for 3 damage

  You hit Scout for 4 damage

  You hit Scout for 3 damage

  You have killed Scout

  You have gained 8xp

  Congratulations, you have reached Level 4

  You now have 1 unspent attribute point

  Note: If you do not spend this attribute point within 3 days it will be lost.

  Although it’d only taken three hits to kill the scout, I’d lost count how many times I’d hit him after that. I must admit that it made me feel kind of bad for the overkill, that was until I looked over to Ushuk’s unmoving body.

  Before my very eyes, his body started to glow bright white and I let out a deep sigh of relief when I watched him rise to his feet and dust himself off. He seemed as shocked as I was that the wound on his shoulder had disappeared almost entirely, fading to a slim black cut.

  I saw movement from the corner of my vision, the female goblin had dropped her hands which had been outstretched towards Ushuk, and I knew a healing spell when I saw it.

  Name: Songa

  Level: 3

  Race: Goblin/Female

  Attributes:HP: 6/6MP: 12/12

  Strength:1

  Wisdom:2

  Social:0

  Skills: Minor HealingLevel 3

  Equipment:None

  The minor healing spell told me that it would instantly replenish the target’s health to the tune of ten points, as long as the target still had above one, which I knew was more than enough for Ushuk. I was so glad that he simply hadn’t been killed outright, and I was even more glad that this stranger, Songa had chosen that moment to act.

  “Songa you’re amazing!” I couldn’t help but shout my appreciation to the female healer after she’d saved my best friend, but she didn’t reply. She just seemed to goblin-blush with darkened cheeks and avert her gaze.

  “You saved Ushuk!” I continued my admiration for her work aloud, but she still didn’t reply.

  My praise was interrupted by a deep, gruff voice emanating from the dense treeline. “She not talk,” It was Grish, who seemed to have snapped himself out of his dazed stupor, great timing, mate. “Songa mute.”

  “What?” I couldn’t stop myself, for some reason it didn’t click inside of me that a goblin could be mute. “What happened?” I asked as I came to my senses.

  “Nothing happen,” Grish explained. “Never talk.”

  I’d only ever really heard about traumatic experiences causing people’s voices to leave them, but to be mute from birth was something new to me. I retrained my attention onto Songa.

  “Songa, thankyou for saving my friend, you did a great thing.” I said softly, as though addressing a child and fished around inside my inventory. I produced a crocodile’s tooth and gave it to her as a sign of my appreciation. After a fleeting look at Grish, she accepted my gift, immediately put it around her neck and positively beamed.

  A new member would like to join your clan

  The goblin Songa would like to join your clan, do you want to accept?

  Accept Songa into your clan? Yes/No

  ‘Hang on, wasn’t Songa a member of Grish’s Sawblades clan?’ I thought as I quickly checked both of their information panels again. I’d missed it before but neither Songa nor Grish were listed as the members of any clan. I accepted Songa’s questioning stare by accepting her into the clan before I turned to talk to Grish again.

  “What happened to your clan?” I asked.

  “Clan all gone. Stop them finding all us.” Grish said as he dropped his shaking head.

  “So you were trying to save the lives of the survivors by disbanding the clan? That’s a pretty good idea actually,” I said thoughtfully.

  “Didn’t work. Didn’t know Songa still here but no one else. All gone.” I could see that he had started spiralling again so I moved to quickly change the subject.

  “Would you like to join our clan?” I asked. “I can’t promise you wealth and riches, but you’d have company, friends even. A warm bed and shelter. All we ask is that you join in with the daily workload and pull your weight, how does that sound?” I didn’t think that my invitation had much weight to it, but while I pondered my own offer, Grish sidled up to me and spoke in a whisper.

  “Will they like me?” he asked.

  “Of course!” I announced loudly. “We’re all one big happy family in the Crocodile’s Teeth clan!” I puffed my chest out to punctuate my statement, and as I did I received a new notification.

  A new member would like to join your clan

  The goblin Grish would like to join your clan, do you want to accept?

  Accept Grish into your clan? Yes/No

  Grish, who had earlier been listed as a ‘Goblin Chieftain’ was now simply a ‘Goblin Warrior’ and was indeed level ten. His skills and equipment were still hidden to me, either by his own choice or through some level differential calculations that I hadn’t figured out yet – either way, I didn’t really care, I’d just recruited my clan’s first warrior – and he was level ten!

  As I was inwardly celebrating my new acquisitions, a very slight rustling noise along the nearby treeline caused my attention to shift, looking for whatever had caused it. Before I could find the source though, the sound as though someone had blown through a straw preceded Ushuk, Songa and myself falling flat to the ground and unable to move

  Sano hits you for 1 damage

  Paralyzed – 1 minute

  ‘Shit, Sano?’ Were my main thoughts, followed by ‘how could he have found us’ and ‘why hadn’t he killed us?’ And then ‘I reeeeealy need to change my respawn point.’

  “Looks like I found you dunnit?” Sano asked deviously as he breached the treeline into our field of view. I could see that he was carrying a hollow tube that he must’ve been fashioned into a blowpipe to deliver some kind of paralyzing toxin to us all. Thankfully it seemed to only inflict minimal damage, favouring the status change instead.

  Sano hadn’t bothered to paralyse Grish, which I found particularly interesting, the goblin warrior being the highest level of all of us but I couldn’t voice any concerns as my body remained completely immobilised. I could see and hear still, but was unable to change the focus of my gaze.

  “Looks like lady luck’s wiv me today then!” Sano announced triumphantly, “don’t worry, I know you can’t talk, so just you listen right? I come back to see if these little green fuckers left anything good behind when who should I see but your sorry face, makin’ all nice with these other goblin shits.” He gestured towards Ushuk and Songa, who like me were unable to move a muscle.

  As Sano continued to puke all over the English language, I watched the paralysis timer that had appeared in the corner of my vision tick away -*just twenty seconds...nineteen...* I thought, not that I had any plans to act when I was free to do so.

  What was more interesting was that Grish was just standing there like an obedient Labrador, if only he could have heard the profanities that I was mentally screaming at him.

  Sano took a moment to stab each of us with a small dart, which renewed the paralysis timer to one minute.

  “Don’t want you lot gettin’ any ideas,” he announced. “Now I see you met my pet Grish ‘ere?” He’d taken a second to analyse Grish as I guessed he’d forgotten my new clan mate’s name. “‘E watched while I did wot I did to all his little clan ‘ere. Now ‘e won’t say a word, but does just wot ‘e’s told.” Sano smiled menacingly as he spoke and I felt my blood boiling. ‘How could I have been so foolish?’

  “So wot’s goin’ to ‘appen now is you’re all comin’ back wiv me to the city, we gots a lot of work for shits like you to be gettin’ on wiv. Just like some of ‘is old girls,” he nodded towards Grish with a glint in his eyes.

  When Sano turned his attention back to me, I saw Grish’s eyes flick
er between me and Sano’s back before he took two steps forward and planted a brick sized rock right on the back of Sano’s head.

  Sano fell to the ground and Grish instantly mounted him, smashing the rock into Sano’s undefended face over and over.

  Even through the blood that covered his shit-eating grin I could see Sano hadn’t been expecting his ‘pet’ Grish to turn on him in such gruesome defiance.

  “I’ll be back,” Sano taunted through mouthfuls of his own red blood, spitting broken teeth out as he spoke. “Just you wait.”

  His words weren’t said with anger or venom, rather quiet, sincere promise. I realised what he’d meant right away.

  The paralysis wore off and I jumped to my feet, screaming “GRISH, NO!” But I was a second too late, Sano closed his eyes and his body evaporated underneath my goblin warrior.

  Grish didn’t move from his new kneeling position and I didn’t want to make any sudden moves, now unsure of Grish’s alliances.

  “Revenge not feel good yet,” Grish said quietly.

  I didn’t respond, rather I waited for the goblin to raise his gaze of his own volition.

  When our eyes locked, I could see new tears welling in his, and fresh watery tears streaming down his cheeks.

  “Grish? Why didn’t you stop him earlier, and what did he mean by ‘pet’?” I asked slowly.

  I could see the shame in Grish’s face in response to my question, but I waited for him to respond.

  “When his men come to camp, they hold me back and make me watch. They keep make me watch until I no struggle, I make think they own me.” Grish replied. “I want to take to city to free clan...what left of clan...but I decide you help. New clan and new leader will be strong to defeat man, even if he man.” He explained.