by E. M. Hardy
My main concern was that her armor was a little heavy and loud. Even the slightest rustling could alert the enemy.
As I neared the edge, I took an arrow from my quiver and nocked it. I continued to move in but, now, with my fingers tense on the bowstring in case I’d need to fire. My eyes darted to and fro as I observed the lone guard and Elia.
Why was there just one goblin here? I could only assume that the guard was merely reassurance. The false wall was more than enough to fool most people who would happen to pass by here. Despite that, I couldn’t shake the heavy knot in my belly.
I gazed at Elia one last time. She looked in my direction as well and indicated with a slight wave that she was ready. I then turned to the goblin and quickly cast my Marked Prey spell. Immediately, the goblin was surrounded by a very faint, dark green outline. I feared that the enemy would notice the spell but, after another moment of observation, it became obvious that even Elia could not see the glowing light. Only I could discern the mark. In fact, I could even feel its presence in the back of my head.
There was no need to waste my Fire Shot on this lone enemy, so I quickly stood tall, barely revealing myself, and then fired a single arrow.
With a whoosh, the arrow flew and struck home, burying its pointed head deep into the goblin’s chest. The creature flashed, and I saw I had dealt a total of 10 points of damage. That was so satisfying after having dished out nothing but 1’s against those Jellies.
As soon as the goblin was struck, Elia wasted no time and ran up to him from behind. She buried her mace into his face, dealing a total of 8 points. He flashed again, and his head burst into a gory display of flesh, bone and blood. When she lowered her mace, the goblin’s body dropped to the ground with a lifeless thud.
“Whew,” I sighed in relief when I saw how quickly it had died. That meant we could take on the whole band of goblins inside the cave if we were careful and as long as we weren’t ganged up on.
Elia waved over at me. I was walking out of the tree line and making my way towards her when we both heard a sudden, loud crack.
Elia looked down to see if she had stepped on something. Just as soon, the ground shifted. A hidden net swooped up and caught her in its grip. The net was tied to one of the tallest trees next to the boulder.
Right when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, a bell close to the knot tying the net to the tree began ringing. The bell was connected to the branch holding the net, and Elia’s constant struggling was causing the thing to sound off.
Before I could rush in and save her, the hidden door opened and out rushed four goblins. All of them were armed with heavy clubs. One of them even had a spear.
“That’s just perfect,” I whispered to myself.
Quickly, I transferred my mark from the dead goblin to the nearest living enemy. I then fired an arrow, hoping I could at least immobilize one of these things before they’d come rushing to attack me. The arrow hit the target in the center of its head, dealing 12 points of damage. To my surprise, the arrow dug right into the goblin’s skull and the creature crashed onto the ground, dead.
That could only mean each goblin had roughly 11 to 12 HP, based on the amount of damage Elia and I had dealt earlier and how this one had died with just 12 points of damage. If I could keep this up, then I could take them all down by myself.
I transferred the mark to a third goblin but, just as the dark green light moved over, it dissipated. Thirty seconds had likely passed and the spell had ended.
“I’m in trouble,” I said, as I quickly dashed out of the way. Two of the remaining goblins charged towards me, their clubs at the ready to strike, while the one with the spear remained in the back. When I looked over, it appeared like he was preparing to throw his weapon right at me.
Smack!
Even with my quickest dodge roll, one of the goblins still managed to hit me in the back. I lost 4 HP and, in that moment, I felt a rush of dread. If each hit could deal a minimum of 4 HP, then I wouldn’t last long here. I was completely surrounded, and one of them was about to strike at me with a freaking spear.
I did my best to get out of the way, but there was a goblin no matter where I turned to. I took another hit, this one crunching the bones in my chest, and I suffered 5 points of damage. The impact of the strike was so strong that I got knocked back down and I panted as I struggled to keep my eyes open.
Another goblin rushed in to attack. I still wasn’t done for, though. With a roar, I leaped out of the way and quickly fired an arrow. The arrow dug into the goblin’s upper stomach. Unfortunately, this time I had only managed to deal 6 points of damage and my foe continued his charge towards me. He swung with his club, and the best I could do was block, using the length of my bow to hopefully push his strike away.
Once I had parried his blow, I leaned in and beat his face with my fist, dealing a paltry 1 point of damage. It wasn’t much, but it did send him back a bit, giving me enough room to dodge roll out of the way as the other goblin swung his club and hit nothing but dirt.
I then turned around and fired another arrow, again at the enemy I had already struck. This one went right through the goblin’s chest and dealt 4 points of damage. Blood gushed out and the creature fell lifeless to the ground.
“Hey!”
Everyone looked over, just in time to see Elia cutting her way out of the net using a small dagger she had hidden in her boots. As soon as she was free, the ringing stopped. She crashed on the ground and I noticed she had taken 2 points of damage from the fall. Fortunately, she managed to get up with both shield and mace in hand.
The goblin with the spear took advantage of this moment to fire away. The spear came darting towards me and I did my best to evade it, but I wasn’t fast enough. The tip of the projectile grazed the side of my torso and I took 4 points of damage. I could only imagine how much it would have dealt if I had received its full punishment.
Elia seemed intent on never finding out. She charged at the goblin with the spear. Just as he turned around to face her, she bashed him with her shield and then buried her mace into his gut, dealing a total of 8 points of damage. The goblin retaliated and tried to strike back at her, but she raised her shield and blocked. Both of them were stunned for a second; luckily, she recovered first. Elia took the opportunity and swung her mace again, this time killing the enemy with a blow to the neck.
Now with just one goblin left, I grabbed an arrow and fired as the bastard attempted to rush in and finish me off with a club swing. The arrow dug deep into his leg and the enemy fell prone. Even on the ground, he tried to come at me, crawling and swinging simultaneously, but I finished him off with a shot to the temple.
“Hey, how’s your health?” Elia asked, as she came up to me.
I showed her my status screen:
“Wow, that was a close one,” she remarked. “I’m sorry. This was my fault. I should have seen that trap before I rushed in like an idiot.”
I shook my head and waved it off. “We both should have. There was just one guard. That alone was suspicious enough.”
Elia reached out and held me with both hands. A symbol of a dove emblazoned on her armor and shield glowed white and she began to cast a spell on me. “Let me heal you. I just gained a few abilities when I hit Level 2. I saw you’ve earned some as well.”
With her healing magic, I felt the life return to me. The cracking bones and bloody wounds on my body slowly started to mend and I felt reinvigorated after such an exhausting ordeal. When I accessed my status screen again, I saw I had recovered 12 points of HP, just 1 HP shy of my maximum.
“Thanks.”
Elia smiled and patted my back. “Just don’t get used to it. I can only cast it one more time. After that, we’ll need to take a long rest so I can recover my MP.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “By the way, what’s the other abilities you received?”
She showed me her ability and spell screen:
“Let�
�s head in and be a little more careful this time,” I then told her.
I had just glimpsed at her abilities, and the Shield Sentinel bit had made me feel much more confident about what we were about to do. Using a shield to block attacks wasn’t going to stun her for too long anymore. So, we could use her ability to stand and take in attacks to our advantage, and I could flank the distracted enemies to unleash a few arrows at them.
She nodded back and, together, we headed through the now open doorway and into the goblins’ den.
Chapter Nine
The light from the entrance was quickly fading as we descended down several stone steps deeper into the cave. I didn’t have a torch and Elia didn’t know any spell that could illuminate our way. She did have a flint and a tinderbox, but they were useless without something to burn. A little distraught, we resorted to holding onto the walls as we pressed on.
Fortunately for us, the stairway eventually led us into a wider cave room from which emanated a bright glow. As we got closer, I realized the next room had several lit torches placed on scones on the wall. Once we were at the entrance to this area, I held Elia back and gestured with a finger pressed to my lips for us to proceed in silence.
I took a quick peep and felt instantly glad that I did. The next room was so large because it had been carved out into a common room and kitchen. Far in the corner were a fire pit, some emptied crates and a lone goblin busy cooking a pot of stew. Beside him was an open archway to a dark tunnel leading deeper into the cave. Beside this were three doorways, all of them utilizing tattered cloth as doors, and I could hear the voices of several goblins gambling or arguing in the rooms.
“How many targets?” Elia asked.
“About five,” I answered, after I did my best to listen and single out every voice I could hear. I then pointed to the creature brewing up a meal by the pot. “The cook’s the big problem – he’ll spot us immediately and the rest will follow.”
Elia patted me on the shoulder. “We could use my Blessing ability. That would let me grant 2-4 additional points of damage to your attacks. I can only do it once per long rest, but then it doesn’t cost me any MP.”
“How long does that spell last?” If I was going to barge in, guns blazing, I had to know how much time I had to keep firing.
“Thirty seconds,” she told me. “After that, I’m afraid we’ll have to brawl it out with those left.”
I calculated how I could maximize her ability’s function. If I were to use this added damage to snipe the cook, then we’d still have to contend with the goblins in the room afterward. As soon as the fighting began, we’d be surrounded.
That was when a daring plan popped in my mind. I turned to her and said, “Bang on your shield as loudly as you can.”
“What?” She looked at me like I had just asked her to get butt-naked. “We can’t deal with five of those things all at once. They’ll massacre us and we’ll have to repeat this whole thing after we re-spawn at Strovport.”
I pulled an arrow from my quiver and told her, “Look, if you bang loudly enough, they’ll all come out of their rooms and into the hallway. Activate your ‘Blessing’ ability and I’ll activate my ‘Marked Prey’, so I can max out my attack damage to around 14-20 points per hit. If I fire fast enough, I can kill them all. And if I don’t, there’ll only be one or two left. I’m sure you can bash their heads in at that point.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she told me. Elia gripped her mace a little tighter and I could read the determination in her eyes. “I hope this goes better than how things unfolded upstairs.”
That earned me a grin, and I counted the arrows in my quiver. Damn it, I thought I had more than just nine. This meant I couldn’t afford to miss a single shot. And if we somehow managed to survive, I’d have to pick up every piece I could.
“Let’s do this,” I told her. “Let’s go kill some freaking goblins.”
Elia moved to stand in the middle of the open doorway. She took a deep breath and then banged on her shield as loudly as she could. She hollered out to the goblins too, screaming, “Hey, you green bastards! Come on out and get a piece of me!”
It was slightly amusing to see her so irate and foul-mouthed.
Out popped a goblin from the rooms, followed by a second and a third. A fourth came running out and then a fifth. To my disappointment, a sixth soon joined in. With the goblin cook, that meant we would have to face seven of these things.
“Ah, come on!” I said to myself, as I took an arrow and summoned my “Marked Prey” ability. Elia stopped banging on the shield and held on to my shoulder to activate her “Blessing.” As soon as she did it, I felt a sudden surge course through my body, like a jolt of raw energy.
“Screw you all, you ugly little rats!” I cursed at the goblins as I began to unleash my fury. My first arrow struck true, taking out the closest goblin with a single hit. My next shot killed another as the arrow pierced through his heart. My third shot missed, but I quickly remedied that by firing again, killing a third goblin with a head-shot.
At that point, they were coming in too fast. I had to roll out of the way as a fourth goblin swung at me with his club and I had to smack another with my fist to knock it down momentarily. Elia didn’t wait and swung her mace at these two enemies, exchanging blows as best she could while also blocking their attacks with her shield.
The goblin cook dropped his ladle and picked up a large butcher’s knife. The goblin in front of him had a spear which he chucked towards us. Instead of rolling to the side, I dove forward and merely slid underneath the incoming spear to evade it, and then I fired. My arrow struck right through the goblin’s neck, and the creature fell with a surprised look on its face before the light faded out of its eyes.
When I turned to glimpse at Elia, I discovered she had smashed one of her opponents down with her mace and was currently trading with the other. She had the upper hand, however, due to the added efficiency of her shield.
Certain that she could handle herself, I focused on the cook. He was already charging at me with his knife and I didn’t back down. With my battle cry, I rushed towards him and evaded his stabs. As soon as I viewed an opening, I knocked him back with a right to the jaw and then pushed him to the side.
Before he could turn around and retaliate, I grabbed the goblin by the neck and drove his head down into the pot of boiling food. The creature screamed and kicked but I held on tight, pushing him deeper into the stew. The heat did the rest.
“Wot is diz noise? Mikel, is dat yoo?” a booming voice echoed from the dark tunnel beyond the cooking area.
I turned around to check what was coming, just as Elia shoved her remaining foe with her shield and shattered his skull with a well-timed swing of her mace. Blood spattered in every direction and she walked over to me, bathed in crimson.
“What the hell is this?” I asked as I stood ready for combat, an arrow raised on my bow. “Why would any of those degenerates call out for Mikel?”
The ground started to shake and a thud echoed through the hall. It was quickly followed by another shake and thud, then another and then another. It soon dawned on me that something big was on its way towards us.
“Holy crap, get out of the way!” I screamed at Elia. But right as I warned her, a gigantic creature barreled out of the dark tunnel and smacked her down with a heavy backhand swing, dealing 9 points of damage despite her armor.
Elia’s body flashed for a moment and I feared she got killed. Fortunately, she immediately stood up and gripped tightly on her shield and mace.
I looked up at the behemoth before us. The damn thing was at least nine feet high and looked eerily similar to the goblins, except that it had this disgustingly big body rippling with layers of fat and muscle. It had vomit-green skin, with bits of hair here and there, and warts all over.
“It’s an ogre!” Elia exclaimed. “We can’t beat that thing! It could wipe out a party of Level 3 players and we’re just Level 2!”
> We were low on health, low on MP and this thing could kill either of us with a single hit. Things were indeed looking grim, but I didn’t want to give up just yet. Instead of hollering out for us to retreat, I sprinted towards the raging ogre and ducked under its sledgehammer of a fist. As soon as I could, I ran behind it and pulled Elia along with me. We headed down the dark tunnel from whence the monster came.
“Where are you going? We can’t see a thing down there,” Elia said, as we raced down the tunnel. Before we could get very far, we heard the ogre’s screams as it turned around and chased after us.
I honestly had no idea where we were going, but we were going. There could be another trap similar to the net – a trip wire, some poisoned darts or some other thing just as deadly – or there could be more goblins waiting for us. I just knew we had to get away for a moment and pick a better fighting ground. The common area was big but not large enough to deal with such a threat. That ogre could swing his arms blindly in there and still hit us.
Then we saw the light. Torches were ablaze in a room ahead of us. The ogre was getting closer with his wide, heavy strides and we hurried forward as quickly as we could. Soon enough, we reached what appeared to be an underground lake with a ceiling that was at least fifteen feet high. There were a few cracks up top as well and light from the outside was peering through the small holes.
Everywhere we looked, there was a hoard of opened crates. There were some fine coats, boxes of cured meat and racks of standard spears and swords. This looked like the room where the goblins had dumped all their prizes from robbing people, and there was a big fur carpet in one corner which I assumed was where the ogre slept.
“I have an idea,” Elia said as we waited for the ogre to arrive and smash us into smithereens.
“You better spit it out fast,” I told her. It was utterly frustrating, being so alert and ready in the real world, yet so limited here in Vatenkeist. It was in moments like these that I wished I could just be good ole Corbin.