The Goblin and the Empire

by JD Cole

  ~

  Lagraen smashed one of his hatchets into the dead face of a vyzen, ripping the weapon free and swinging it through the neck of a goblin pashryk while stomping down on the elf goblin’s knee and destroying the leg. The number of goblins had suddenly increased without warning, and for every monster the depleted battleprok destroyed, three more seemed to rise up in their place. A huge spear arced over the goblins, headed right for Maxillion’s back. Lagraen grabbed the elf's collar and pulled him aside just moments before the spear pierced the earth.

  There was no time to trade thanks, and Maxillion immediately resumed his attack on the pair of goblins before him, a vampyre and a vyzen who both wielded swords. His own blade was a dazzling blur of silver as he desperately fended off their attacks while lopping off chunks of flesh at every opportunity. He wished for his sident to help defend from the attacks coming from so many directions, but he’d lost the parrying rod somewhere between here and the refineries. Lagraen was pushed into him from the side, but quickly launched himself back at his opponent. Maxillion’s arm was slick with warm blood where Lagraen’s wound —a new one or an old one?— had brushed against him. The tall elf had a large wound of his own on his neck and down the top of his chest, but it had crusted over days ago.

  Somewhere behind him, Maxillion heard Denn call out. “West, move us west! We must reach the Queen!” The battleprok responded, ferociously focusing their attacks on the goblins between them and the Sprite Queen. The threat of the Goblin behind them loomed large, as he slowly muscled his way through the Queen’s long-distance attacks, trying to get close enough to drink their lives and strengthen himself. The wolf who’d joined their party was making all the difference, carving and smashing enough goblins and irenaks on his own to keep them from being overwhelmed and bogged down.

  “Where are you going, food!” Ercianodhon taunted, raising more goblins around him and sending them screeching at the soldiers. Lagraen, covering their flanks, noticed a dark blur in the sky that quickly grew in size then curled itself into a ball.

  The Hood hugged his knees and tilted himself backwards, then spread his limbs wide to brake just moments before colliding with Ercianodhon. At the moment of impact he commanded his uniform to shift into his default Hood guise and kicked out with his right leg, striking the Goblin King in the armor at the base of his neck between his huge wings. Ercianodhon pitched forward as the Hood somersaulted backward like a shotgun blast. Lady Mae materialized from behind Derek, mirroring his somersault perfectly in her white hooded uniform. The Hoods landed beside each other in the mud simultaneously, and launched into a flurry of close-quarters attacks against the goblins in front of them. Mae punched and kicked, occasionally manifesting her fluid wakizashi blades for quick strikes before evaporating them again. She paused every few moments to focus on the goblins attacking Kelli’s soldiers, freezing their arms and faces to make them less dangerous and more vulnerable.

  Derek also relied mainly on punches and kicks, occasionally blasting compressed air at close range into the faces of these zombies and opening holes in their heads. After the fifth time failing to disable them that way, he drew his rifle and began firing into distant enemies to slow them even as he kicked and elbowed at the goblins within reach of him. He was thankful that if there were any wards around, they had little if any effect on his topafinez power cell.

  Kelli watched in awe as he and his elemental partner carved their way through the goblins like butter, a real-life comic book action scene playing out before her. Composing herself, she refocused her attention on Ercianodhon as he pushed himself to his feet. The Goblin King was obviously enraged at the Hood’s sneak attack and wanted vengeance. Kelli could feel Ercianodhon’s emotions, so raw, powerful and conflicted. He was in unspeakable anguish and desperately wanted to escape; Kelli realized he was practically having a panic attack. But he fully believed that every living thing needed to pay for his suffering, and no one was going to make that happen if he didn’t do it himself… and Derek was currently at the top of his list.

  “Hey! I’m your opponent!” Kelli shouted, grabbing telekinetic hold of Ercianodhon’s jaw and forcing him to face her. The King easily shattered her hold on him and gazed at her with hate, but it was clear that he had no intention of leaving threats like Undine or the Hood at his back. Kelli didn’t see the vampyre goblin that launched a spear at her, and it clanged loudly off of her midsection. She looked down at the goblin and made a cutting motion with her hand, and having no magic of its own to defend with, the goblin slammed sideways into the ground, its skeleton crushed. She turned back to Ercianodhon and found him striding toward Derek, ignoring whatever injury was forcing him to limp on his left leg.

  “Filthy human!” Ercianodhon roared, mustering his strength and summoning nearly fifty more goblins. He didn’t bother with any fine battle skills, but simply sent the horde at speed crashing into Derek and overwhelming him, tearing the rifle out of his hands and throwing it out of reach. Kelli barely managed to create a buffering telekinetic shield over him as dozens of swords and spears began trying to stab into him. Mae frantically began freezing and cutting the goblins down to free her master, but there were too many.

  Kelli zoomed about frantically, unable to focus. As she poured magic into defending the Hood, arrows and spears were slamming against her from all directions. Even protected as she was, the withering attacks on her armor were freaking her out. “Derek! I-I can’t hold them!”

  “Pull me into the air!” he shouted into her mind.

  With no small amount of effort, Kelli lifted the Hood through the mass of goblins, many of them grabbing tight hold of him to drag him back down as the King rushed over to end him. The Hood struggled to free at least one of his arms. Mae blasted a frosting spell at Ercianodhon similar to the one Khun Rhee had used, but the Goblin King had been preparing against any kind of water spell from her. Using most of his remaining energy, he overpowered her spell with flame magic, which he then used to consume Mae, forcing her to her knees.

  Kelli’s telekinesis faltered, but the sudden jerking motion from the goblins pulling him down allowed the Hood to finally yank his wrist free. Derek pointed his fist at the Goblin King and rattled off a blast of explosive needles from his gauntlet. His unexpected attack took Ercianodhon full in the face, and the Goblin King screamed, releasing control of his goblins as he fell backwards.

  “Master!” Mae cried out, crawling forward in her watery sprite form with steam pouring from every inch of her. Veylsa was stabbed into the ground behind her. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine,” he reached out to take her hand, helping her up. “Are you okay?”

  “I have no more magic,” she groaned. “I am sorry.”

  The goblins all around them fell over lifeless, and the surviving soldiers quickly rushed to guard the ground beneath their queen. Derek watched them for a moment, catching his breath. “You did good,” he told the elemental. “Get some rest.” He walked over to the sprite sword, which without Mae’s influence was in its true form. It was almost six feet long and he had to reach up to grab the hilt. Working it free of the burned, bloodstained earth, Derek held it up and inspected it anew; the mythrill no longer gleamed with magic, though the tiny gems embedded in the metal appeared to twinkle faintly.

  “It’s yours,” Mae said softly. “Uther named it Excalibur. Arthur kept the name, but you can call it whatever you wish.”

  The Hood nodded and rested the enormous blade over his shoulder. He walked forward, his eyes shining a bright red under his hood as he stared at the writhing Goblin King. His armored fingers tightened around Veylsa’s thick hilt, and he used his free hand to fire his tractor beam at Ercianodhon, reconfiguring the projector to repel the monster, forcing him into the dirt.

  “Derek!” Kelli shouted, using her armor’s volume enhancement while she kept a safe distance. When he turned, she slowly shook her head. “No.”

  The Hood regarded the King, then looked up at Kelli again, point
ing Veylsa at their beaten foe. “Why?” his auto-tuned voice asked. “He deserves it.”

  Kelli shivered as she recalled this very way of thinking during her first conversations with Derek. Why did he hunt and assault criminals? They deserve it. Why was he about to do something unspeakably violent to Ercianodhon, who was clearly beaten? Because he deserves it… yes, maybe he does, but…

  She was suddenly very aware of the soldiers nearby, as well as her surviving guards, all of them watching this exchange and waiting to see what she’d do. “Derek, no,” she reiterated. “It’s over.” She floated to the ground, immediately surrounded by her troops as her cloak vanished.

  Derek turned to stare at the mewling Goblin King for several moments, watching him fight the tractor beam’s force as he endured the Hood’s needles and their stinging chemicals, aggravating the burns caused by the weak explosives set just behind the needle tips. The Hood let out a heavy breath, his shoulders drooping with fatigue. “If he makes one wrong move,” Derek backed away towards Kelli, keeping Ercianodhon pinned with the beam, “I’m taking his head off.” He clicked his radio on. “Flashback, this is the Hood. Did I get you where you needed to be?”

  “That you did, luv. Much obliged.”

  “I think we’re about wrapped up inside the city. How are things out there?”

  “Not quite wrapped up I’d say,” came the feralman’s reply, “but we’ve got it under control. All of the zombie things seem to have finally realized they’re dead, now it’s just the alligators, mad cows, some wolves and trolls… but most of them are in full retreat.”

  He heard shuffling behind him and turned to see Kelli walking over to a fallen soldier in bronze and gold armor, kneeling to put her hand on his chest. Her soldiers continued to surround her, wary of danger from every direction. Kelli looked up at the wolf, obviously the largest and strongest of her group. “Um… I don’t really know what to do… but can you bring him, please? We can’t leave him here.”

  “Of course, Your Majesty,” the wolf rumbled. With obvious reverence and care, he lifted the General.

  Kelli stood and got as close as she dared to Ercianodhon, hoping that she wasn’t making a huge mistake. She made a gesture to Derek, and he disengaged the beam. Ercianodhon weakly got to his knees, carefully trying to pull the needles from his face. Reaching out with the Birthright, Kelli familiarized herself with Ercianodhon’s blood and identified the chemicals from the Hood’s weapon. It took her several nervous minutes of concentration, but no one dared disturb her. Using every bit of skill and experience she possessed, she gently pulled the needles free, dropping them to the dirt. Next she lifted away the irritants nearest the surface of his wounds, and finally healed his burns. Her act did not completely erase the Goblin King’s immense pain, but he noticed the effect and looked at her, puzzled. Enacting her voice enhancement once more, Kelli opened her hands disarmingly. “Do you remember anything from the shi’un you hijacked?”

  Ercianodhon knelt, staring at her through squinted eyes and breathing hard. “I remember… you saw me. You saw what they did. What everyone did.”

  “I will never forget it,” she promised. “I do not want war, King of the Shadowlands. I don’t enjoy seeing you suffer, I certainly don’t enjoy seeing our armies kill each other. You may believe your cause is righteous, but I hope someday you’ll at least consider talking with us and ending this feud, for both our sakes.”

  Kelli immediately felt the discomfort and confusion among her soldiers, hoping again that she wasn’t making a mistake. But they didn’t know about Ercianodhon’s origin and, more importantly: they didn’t know about the Chek’than. “But until that day,” she added, “I will use every drop of my power to stop you from hurting my family and my people.” She summoned her cloak and floated into the air, lighting impressive red flames in both of her hands. “Don’t you ever doubt that.” She then broke her ether warding on the courtyard, and watched as the Goblin King immediately hobbled through an ethergate to his castle.

  When his ethergate closed, her soldiers stood in disbelief for just a moment, then cheered with relief and joy.

  The war was over.

  « CHAPTER 32 »

  Catching Up

  “Who was he?” Derek looked back at the unfortunate soldier in the wolf’s arms, still impressive even in death.

  Kelli floated along beside him, leading her troops from Matari’s front gate back to the sprite camps. “General Khun Rhee. He was the head of the army… my army. He’s the one who started this war, and from what I understand he used the excuse of creating a smokescreen to protect me from the Goblin King, but his main goal was always to liberate the slaves. I wish I could have saved him.” Kelli spared a look back at him, full of regret. “I don’t think I would have stood a chance against the Goblin King if Khun hadn’t given his life to wear him down first. And Khun Rhee was even more important than you know. I’ll have to tell you later why he’s called Dragonheart. There’s gonna have to be like a state-funeral or something… I have a lot of history to read up on, I owe it to him to get to know him.” She forced herself not to look back at Khun’s body; that horrific wound was burned into her memory, no matter how much she wished otherwise.

  In the distance she could see the long train of freed slaves heading into the camps. She lifted her chin at them for Derek to look. “Did you know most of those slaves were born here? The Goblin King forced them to breed to keep his supply of slaves fresh, like they were livestock or something.”

  “So why did you stop me from ending him? I know he’s supposedly immortal but taking off his head would have guaranteed you some more breathing room, not to mention sent him a message not to mess with us again.”

  “It’s not that simple. There’s a lot you don’t know —heck, I’ve only recently learned some of it and I don’t even have the whole picture yet— but what I said back there, I really meant it. I don’t want conflict with the Goblin King, and even if he refuses to stop hating us, I won’t feed into it by antagonizing him or lashing out in revenge. Later on when we have time for an infodump, I’ll explain it and you’ll understand. I promise.”

  “That’s… well-reasoned and mature. You’re getting better at this queen thing.”

  “The on-the-job training really sucks,” she admitted.

  “From what I’ve seen, you’re gonna do just fine. Highness.”

  Kelli noted that he added the title without any irony or sarcasm. “Thanks. That means everything coming from you. I’m glad you’re doing okay, with that elemental taking you over and everything. You were unconscious the last time I saw you.” Kelli looked over at the tall water sprite, walking a respectful distance from her and Derek.

  “I’m glad you’re okay, too,” Derek replied, “you were the one unconscious by the time I woke up. As for The Lady, she and I are… working things out.”

  “The Lady, huh?” Kelli didn’t open her helmet, but he could hear the raised eyebrow in her voice.

  “Yeah, long story. And, we got your dad back, but there’s something you should know-”

  “He’s in a coma, I know. He’ll be that way for a long time.”

  “Yeah. How’d you know?”

  “Kirama told me what she did to him. It was the only way to save him… but,” she glanced at the faeries around her and switched to mindspeak. “Humans are allergic to blood magic. Krin warned me when I tried to heal in you in his castle. Too much of it too fast and… well, you end up like my dad. But he’s alive, thanks to all of you.” Aloud, she finished, “I owe you big time.”

  Derek nodded. “No biggie. That’s some cool armor, by the way. Looks good on you.”

  “Thanks. Devon made it for me.”

  “Kinda’ resembles a small BWRS from Nine Lives.”

  “That’s what I said! By the way,” she looked at the rifle on his back, “when did you start using guns?”

  The Hood shrugged. “We were outnumbered a hundred to one at the castle. I wasn’t gonna turn down the fi
repower when it was offered to me.”

  The two teens continued quietly catching each other up as they marched to camp. Petriz was carrying the fallen Crown Guard killed by Ercianodhon, as the wolf carried General Rhee and several of the elves and dwarves carried their own fallen. To the east, the sounds of battle were few and far between as the faery/human alliance aided the slaves across Matari’s rolling hills back to the camps. The Goblin King’s forces, much less intimidating without the thousands of goblins bolstering their ranks, were retreating back into the city.

  As Kelli led the way through the barracks area on their way to Khun’s command camp, she felt a wave of sorrow rushing over her. She looked up at the hill where the military leaders waited, and saw Dufangen standing out in front of everyone. The mystic waited patiently, and the armies’ command staff formed up behind her, standing at attention for almost ten minutes waiting for Kelli’s group to reach them. General Sean Vox and his support staff stood rigidly at attention with them, as did Bartley and Second-Mark Ennis. In the distance, the large groups of slaves and soldiers were filtering into the camps, the kitchens and hospital support people rushing to take care of everyone.

  Finally, the Sprite Queen and her small group made it to the command camp, pausing to let the wolf carry Khun Rhee’s body ahead of them. Kelli made to walk with him, but Sorvir stepped up and gently held his hand out to stop her. He subtly shook his head, and Kelli instead moved to the side with him. Derek took his cue from them and stood nearby, folding his hands in front of him and bowing his head.

  No one moved except for Dufangen, who followed as the wolf laid the General down on a cot that someone had brought from the tents. Bowing and saluting to the General’s body, the wolf took his leave as Dufangen stepped up to the cot. She waved her staff, forming a small incline from the grassy dirt next to Khun’s resting place. She walked up the new mound and stared down at Khun, trying to ignore the ghastly wound in his neck. His once gleaming armor was covered in dents and scratches painted over with blood. The mystic leaned on her staff with both hands as she allowed a single tear to roll down her cheek.