The Trials of a Modern Paladin 2

by Kevin Culp

  Zeus was beat up and bloody. I had healed him twice already, but I only had one use of Healing Hands remaining. I had a few other basic healing spells I had prepared, but honestly, they would do so little against this creature's attacks that it didn’t feel like there was much of a point in using them.

  Zeus let out a howl and fell to the ground.

  I stepped over to him and used a Cure I. Truthfully, it was my hope that it wouldn’t be enough to wake him up but would stop the bleeding. He was a great ally, but I felt that if he continued to fight here, he’d be dead. I cast the spell on the defensive and was able to finish casting even when the blade stabbed into my armpit. The second hit the back of my breastplate and bounced off harmlessly, but the pain made my arm go limp.

  I began wondering what would happen if I died here. I took a pretty bad hit against the Orc Dread Knight, but even then I didn’t feel like I might die. This fight, however, could definitely end in death. In a lot of isekai genre anime, the hero had been reincarnated or transported in such a way that they knew when they died, they were just dead. In others, they had a reset point like a video game. I still had no idea why I was here, but I had accepted it was all real and there was no reason for me to assume that death meant anything other than death.

  I expended my last use of Healing Hands. I was just shy of full HP. I had glanced at my health a few times throughout the fight and that hit didn’t feel much worse than the others, so I assumed I was somewhere just over 200 HP at this point. I had to find a way to win this fight. If I didn’t win, then I could only imagine what would happen to Christina, Korana, Phillip, and Zeus. At this point, I wasn’t sure the King would spare Christina’s life with how much she had hurt him, though I was certain that not being spared would be a good thing here. I steeled my resolve and tried to focus on everything around me.

  I felt a blade stab into my side. Rather than swinging my sword I reached down as quickly as I could and attempted to grab the creature that had stabbed me. I felt a small arm that my hand easily wrapped around and squeezed. I pulled it from my side and lifted the creature. Repeatedly, I slammed it down into the ground hearing repeated thuds and cries of pain. A spout of blood burst forth from the side of my hand, and using the blood as a lubricant, the creature pulled its arm free, though the dagger it had been holding dropped to the ground and became visible.

  I picked up the weapon before it could be recovered. A small glob of blood and spit shot from the middle of nowhere onto the ground. After grabbing its arm, I now believed that this was a goblin as well or at least something similar. Its center of mass did feel strange though and a few times that it hit the ground there were sounds of something thick and padded striking the marble path.

  A few moments later, a knife hit me in the back of the knee. I didn’t feel I had time to grab it again, but I swung my sword and managed to hit it. Just after I struck it, I felt a pain in my hip and blood started running down my leg. Another then hit the front of my thigh.

  This goblin was fast. It was pretty terrible to think of a level 20 Paladin being killed by a goblin, but I guess I knew nothing about my enemy. Somehow it could stay invisible even while attacking. I couldn’t begin to guess what level it was.

  I looked at Christina. She was winning her fight. The Goblin King was unarmed and lying with his back on the steps as Christina pointed a sword at him. It didn’t look like she planned to kill him. Even after all of this, she wasn’t the kind of person to take a life unnecessarily. The King was groveling though, so it was obvious he couldn’t imagine not killing an enemy. I just wanted Christina to make it back home safely.

  I had spells I could have prepared to be ready for an invisible enemy, but I didn’t expect it. This was my fault. Had we taken more time to research what we were up against before attacking, we may have succeeded. I instead prepared all these healing spells, which I still didn’t think was a bad idea, but I could have spared a few for utility abilities.

  A dagger hit me in the stomach. I swung my sword and hit nothing. The back of my right knee was cut. I swung my sword and hit nothing. A deep gash appeared in the front of my left thigh. I swung my sword and hit nothing. Pain erupted from the back of my left knee.

  When I swung my sword this time, I felt it connect, but I fell to my knees at the same time. The pain was brutal, and I was losing a lot of blood. I had an ability that could keep me conscious even when my hit points went below 0, but my actions were limited, and I think the enemy was specifically targeting points to cripple me.

  I couldn’t really fight anymore. I spared a last glance at Christina as I was waiting for the final blow to come. She was beautiful. Maybe it was strange to think of someone smeared in blood and holding a sword to someone’s throat beautiful, but I knew that wasn’t who she was. She didn’t do this because she enjoyed the conflict. She was a kind person who wanted what was best for everyone. She turned and looked in my direction.

  There was shock on her face. I wished it wasn’t there. It was a look that told me she hadn’t even considered the possibility of me losing a fight. Zeus was a bloody heap, and Phillip and Korana were on the ground unconscious.

  She had been speechless for a moment but found her voice. “Archaeus!!!”

  Christina screamed with tears streaming down her face. She began to run towards me, and I saw the King smile. He knew he had won. I didn’t want Christina to come to me. This wasn’t how I wanted her to see me for the last time.

  She reached me and threw her body over the top of mine. “Please don’t hurt him anymore. We will do whatever you want!”

  I didn’t think they would leave the two of us alive and felt it would be better if they didn’t in the long run. Still, I sat there holding her as I waited for death to come for what felt like far too long. I opened my eyes.

  “What are you waiting for? Kill them!!!” The King screamed.

  Another few moments passed. I wasn’t going to risk casting a heal spell, but at this rate, I felt I might die to blood loss.

  “Did you say Archaeus?” A shrill dismembered voice asked.

  It seemed confused, but I decided to respond. “Yes, she did.”

  “Archaeus Velnir?” The voice questioned.

  “Yes.”

  Suddenly, the owner of the voice was visible. It was a goblin about three feet tall with leather armor. He had deep cuts all over him and one eye was swollen shut. He looked like he was on his last leg as well. He had a dagger in his hand and I could see that he had three entangled backpacks strapped to him. His mouth was bloody, but I felt I saw hints of gold as he spit out another glob of blood.

  “Kreego?”

  Chapter 15

  “Oh gods, it you, Archaeus!” Kreego shouted.

  “Kreego hurt you,” He said. He was speaking in common, so Christina understood.

  “Yeah, yeah, you hurt me,” I responded with a smile, then cast Cure III on myself.

  Kreego pointed at Korana and Phillip. “Kreego not kill them. Kreego do nonlethal. They no need healing now.”

  “So, Kreego. Are you, Kreego, or are you, Kreego?” As I asked him, I tried to say John the second time, but when I checked my notepad, it had been changed to Kreego.

  “Uhhh… Yes, both Kreego think. Kreego think you, Archaeus, and Archaeus?”

  “Yes, do you have any idea how we got here?” I asked him.

  The King cut in. “Kreego, kill them you imbecile!”

  Kreego looked back at him. “Shut up! This Kreego friend.”

  The King was awe-struck. Clearly, the idea of one of his subjects talking back to him was foreign.

  “Kreego!!!” The King screamed.

  Kreego took a knife and threw it. It was an impressive distance, but it flew across the room and the base of the hilt struck the king on the forehead, and he fell over. I was kind of glad Kreego didn’t kill him, but he did need to be silenced for now.

  Kreego looked at Zeus. “Poor Zeus. Kreego understand why we no recognize the other. Surprised Zeus
no recognize smell.”

  “I guess I am as well, but there is a lot of weird going on, so I will not question it. Out of curiosity, do you realize how you’re talking?”

  He sighed. “Kreego realize.”

  “Ummm… Archaeus. This is the goblin you told me about?” Christina asked.

  I chuckled. “Yes, this is Kreego. He’s one of my best friends, and we have traveled together for many years.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Sir Kreego.” Christina extended a hand to him.

  Kreego shook it. “Kreego like you too, girly.” He winked at her.

  I rolled my eyes. John had actually made Kreego a wanna be a ladies’ man. He wasn’t ever really successful given that he was often hitting on humans, elves, and other races that tended to be in more civilized areas. Dan gave him a passive penalty basically stating that most common races do not find goblins physically appealing. John was fine with that. He was gay in real life and just wanted to do it for the irony of a pervy little goblin hoarder. That being said, I didn’t imagine he was behaving that way on his own, so it must be frustrating to be stuck in a body that forces you to hit on people you weren’t attracted to.

  “Easy, Kreego. Christina is my girlfriend.”

  “How bout that one?” Kreego asked pointing at Korana.

  Christina cut off that conversation before it could start. “Heh… heh… Sooo, why didn’t you recognize each other?”

  I thought about that. “Do you remember how confused I was when we first met?”

  “Of course I do. You seemed completely lost.”

  “I imagine it has something to do with that.”

  I thought about that for a few moments remembering when we first arrived. It took me a while to accept I was Archaeus, and I still really had to focus on it to access his thoughts. Kreego was invisible, so it was understandable that I hadn’t hesitated to attack him. He was able to attack me though, and I felt that he should have recognized me. Something else bothered me a bit.

  “Hey, Kreego.”

  He looked at me.

  “When I arrived, I didn’t have any of the gear that Archaeus normally wore. I did have his backpack and everything in it. Didn’t you wear your ring of invisibility?”

  “Same for Kreego. Kreego had spare in bag. Kreego have lots of good stuff.”

  “Was there anything telling you to not attack me as we fought? Maybe a sign that you recognized me?”

  “Male human-like people mostly all look same to Kreego. Not sure why. Kreego have image of Archaeus in mind. He have more armor.”

  I laughed at that. It actually made sense. Unfortunately, we really needed to get more serious. I had been reunited with John which was a huge step, but I still had a mission to complete, and we were all critically injured.

  “Kreego, why have you allied yourself with these goblins? What’s going on? Why is this place so under defended? Where are all the slaves?”

  “Well, it long story.”

  “I know you wouldn’t have helped them without good cause. I don’t know if we have the time for a long story, but if we do, I’ll listen.”

  He began telling me everything that had happened since he arrived.

  When he first got here, he was just outside the town to the south I had seen on the map called Bornur. He tried to venture into the town, and the guards attacked him and were able to chase him off since he still didn’t really know what was going on. He traveled around and every time he saw any humans and attempted to approach them, they acted like he was a monster and ran him off. Eventually, he ended up heading towards this mountain and came across a group of scouts. They led him here and let him join their ranks.

  At first, everything seemed normal. There were a few human slaves doing work around the town, but it was mostly menial labor. He didn’t like the idea of slaves but felt he needed to accept it given that he couldn’t fit into human society and had no other options. He worked with the scouts and hunting parties. Apparently, there was a pretty big fight against an invasion of Dark Gnomes that they had fought off. He was honored for his successes and brought before the king. His first interaction with King Leonard gave him a glimpse into the corruption here. There were human men being beaten in the room for the king’s amusement, and a young, distressed looking elf girl feeding him cherries. Apparently, he had ordered her executed for feeding him a cherry with a seed still in it.

  He said he had wanted to try to help the slaves but didn’t see how he could. The people wouldn’t trust him, and he would no longer be accepted here if the goblins learned of his opinions. This was the only place so far that he had found that he could live in peace. He then filled out the story by telling me of all his conquests of cute goblin females. I definitely felt sympathy for him at that because while Kreego said it proudly, I’m sure it was killing John on the inside.

  A being that he couldn’t identify showed up at the encampment about a month and a half ago. It showed them ways to navigate the Under Realms that they didn’t have access to before. There was an entrance not far to the east of here. The King ordered them to use these new means to organize an attack to gain more slaves. Kreego said he couldn’t be a part of it and convinced the King that he needed a powerful guard to remain since all their best soldiers were going. That is also why the place wasn’t well defended. They had limited weapons that the scouts shared and all the real weapons went out with the attacking parties leaving the goblins here to use some makeshift weapons to defend the place. This new being had also ensured the King however that the Largon Empire would not attack, so the King felt this was safe since he had already begun to trust the entity.

  His story ended, but he had more to say. “Kreego think you need know, Archaeus. This being is very powerful. Kreego no fight it but he tell.”

  “How could you tell?”

  “He use Eighth Tier magic. Murder.”

  Murder was a powerful spell. Kreego wasn’t a spell caster, but he was kind of a knowledge monger and was able to recognize spells. Lyra had learned the spell more as something to do against targets that were immune to fire, but it also didn’t work well against targets with a high Fortitude and Will, which is why she hadn’t even tried it against that high-level dragon we fought. It allowed the target to make a Will check and Fortitude check. If they passed both, nothing happened, if they failed one, they took 20D6’s of damage, and if they failed both, they just died.

  “Was it human?” I asked.

  “Kreego say he not good with men. It look human shape.”

  “Do you know how much time we have before the attack group comes back?”

  “Six days Kreego think.”

  I looked at Christina. She was injured. I cast a Cure II on her, and it seemed to bring her to full health. I then moved over to Zeus and used the rest of my heal spells on him.

  “At least that gives us plenty of time to heal. Regular heal spells will not do much for me and you Kreego, but I’ll take care of us tomorrow. Is it safe to assume you will help us, Kreego?”

  “Of course, Kreego help, Archaeus. If Kreego travel with, Archaeus, you think he be okay?”

  “I can’t promise that people of the Varnelion Kingdom will be more accepting, but if you are with me, I will make sure it is known that you are an ally.”

  Christina spoke up. “Archaeus is an amazing person. People know him. If they know you are his ally, they will not only accept but admire you.”

  Kreego smiled. “Kreego get lots of pretty ladies?”

  Christina’s expression turned to confusion. “Ummm… maybe.”

  I shook my head. “Kreego, can you tie up the King there?”

  “Can do, boss.”

  He pulled the rope out of his bag and moved to tie up the king. Zeus was up now, and once he saw Kreego and realized I no longer saw him as a threat, he seemed to recognize him. He hopped over to the tiny goblin and licked his face.

  “Ah. Stop, Zeus. Kreego love you too.”

  Zeus kept licking him.
>
  “I think this is payback.” I chuckled.

  After a few minutes, Korana and Phillip came to.

  Phillip sat up first. “Ugh. What happened?”

  Kreego had just finished tying up the king. Given the normal damage he had taken in addition to the nonlethal it would probably be a while before he woke up. “Kreego knock you out and kick Archaeus’ butt. That what happened.”

  Kreego laughed, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Why are we still alive then?” Korana asked.

  “Kreego is one of my best friends.”

  “But he’s a goblin?” Phillip said in a questioning tone.

  Kreego scowled at him.

  “Okay, sorry. I guess you’re a good goblin. Why did you kick Archaeus’ butt if you are one of his best friends?”

  He scratched his head for a moment. “Bad stuff happen. We not recognize other.”

  “Sooo… Not to be rude but how did a goblin beat Archaeus.”

  “Kreego strong goblin. He sneaky and good fight against not sneaky Archaeus.”

  “It’s pretty hard to hit an invisible target, and Kreego hits hard. He and Lyra were always the damage dealers of our party.”

  “You have always hit hard too. I’ve seen you take down hardened warriors with a blunt sword in one swing.”

  “I wouldn’t call most of those people hardened warriors by mine and Kreego’s standards. Also, I’m mostly about strength and do better when my enemy is evil. There is a lot more to hurting someone than hitting them with brute force. Something to remember is that different people have their strengths and bringing together people who fight in different ways will lead to a stronger group.”

  “Archaeus right. There things Kreego can’t kill that Archaeus fight with ease.”

  It was actually a bit of a relief to hear him say that to them. He was joking about beating me up, but he really had. Yes, I could be better at fighting Kreego if I had been aware he was here, but even then I might not have won. I didn’t want my allies to lose faith in my abilities either though, and that was a real possibility here.