by Wright, A L
Dartein started his group forward after counting out the time. The remaining two groups followed behind and off to each side. Like a slow moving spear, the Nobles crept forward in the direction Dartein remembered having seen the cave before.
About fifteen minutes later the groups caught up to Clyd, where he and his scouts were huddled up behind a large rock face. Just beyond it was the opening into the cave. Dartein listened before moving forward, to ensure nothing was moving near them. The forest was still silent, but as far as he could tell no enemies were close by. The only goblin smell was coming from the opening of that cave.
Clyd handed him a blood cask and Dartein realized he had forgotten to bring any with him from the horses. Shaking his head no, he handed it back to Clyd. The ranger would need it before he would.
Dartein turned his full attention to the cave and opened his sight up for traces of heat. Not spotting any, he focused back to normal then began to move forward towards the opening. The rest of the Nobles followed him silently into the cave, creeping slowly along the wall until they came to the cavern he had found once before.
This time there were no goblins present, it was dark and quiet. They all moved into the cavern and searched around. What they found were markings all over the walls, appearing to be crude letters, but not put together to form sentences. They were more like markings for names, as if the goblins had signed the walls.
Moving further into the cavern they found another opening in the back that took them deeper. There were more markings all down this hallway, as well. Dartein took them in absentmindedly, keeping his mind focused on moving ahead and keeping his senses open for Goblins.
Coming to yet another cavern with more of the same markings on the walls, they finally heard noises. Guttural voices, grunting to each other, growing louder and louder. Dartein spun around and realized that the voices were coming from behind them, and they were about to be trapped in the cavern.
Looking over to his father, he saw a grim delight in the man's eyes. His father nodded his head and moved to the middle of the cavern. Dartein watched as his father held his hands out before him and a blackness grew forth, spilling over and down onto the floor, spreading out quickly across the room. The blackness moved up the walls and across the ceiling, plunging the whole cavern into complete and utter darkness.
Dartein could no longer see anything, but could still hear the goblins coming towards them. Torchlight approached from the hallway, the voices following it. The oddest thing happened as the light came closer, however. No matter how close it came, it never penetrated the darkness clinging to the cavern walls and entrance.
On and on the goblins came, oblivious to their uninvited guests. They marched down the hallway quickly, almost trotting, and a half dozen of them were inside the cavern before they realized they could no longer see.
A bright blue light pierced the darkness and quickly grew to fill the cavern. Dartein closed his eyes just as the blue light pulsed and died out. Upon reopening them, saw that the darkness had completely gone. In its stead there were now a couple dozen dead goblins on both the cavern floor and in the hallway.
The rest of the goblins still in the hallway were stunned, temporarily blinded by the blue flash. Dartein spied Clyd popping the cork on the cask and throwing back a long drink of the stored blood, then handing it to the ranger next to him. He looked back to the hall just as the goblins spotted them, their vision beginning to clear.
Piercing screams came from the creatures’ mouths as they launched themselves at the group of intruders in their cavern. They poured into the room, waving clubs and handmade obsidian axes, and the occasional hammer made from lashing a stone to a large branch. Dartein's group had already drawn their weapons under the cover of the darkness, and were ready for the onslaught.
Just before the first goblin crashed into them, he looked to make sure that Nikka was safely in the middle of their group.
Chapter 29
The clinging darkness almost scared her senseless, but she kept her wits about her and remained quiet and still. They had all known there was a possibility of the goblins finding them when they entered this cave, but nothing had prepared her for the brutal force with which they rushed their group after the blue light pulsed and the darkness dropped.
In the fight back at the Keep, she entered the fray after most of the goblins were dead. But here they were deep inside the enemy's home, where untold numbers of them could be dwelling. And on the goblins rushed, screaming furiously at the intruders.
Nikka had both of her short swords pulled free before the blue light had finished its heart stopping assault on the first wave of goblins. She attempted to press forward to meet the assault, but fighters and rangers both pressed in front of her, cutting her off. She didn't have long to wait before engaging the enemy, however, as the group of Nobles had to spread out to give themselves room to swing their weapons without fear of taking out one of their own.
She took down the first goblin easily, then the second. They both had underestimated her strength because she was female. Having quickly proved them wrong, she turned as another two came at her more cautiously. Nikka crouched low and held her swords out to either side, giving them what looked like an opening. The first one charged and almost made it to her, but not before Nikka’s alternating slashes took it across the throat and then the belly.
The second charged in right behind the first and kept coming. With total disregard for his kin, it stepped on the dead goblin's body to give him more height to slash at her with his large rock-hammer. The swing came towards her quickly and she was a split second too late bringing her first sword back around. Victor suddenly appeared behind the creature, knocking the hilt of his sword into the back of the goblin’s neck, causing it to jerk backwards and shorten its slash.
Nikka's furious swing finished and nearly lopped off its head.
Victor moved to her side and they both assessed the fighting happening around the room. They witnessed her father being mobbed by several goblins, outnumbered, and Victor rushed away to his aid before she could say anything.
Whilst trying to defend herself, she had backed up almost to the back of the cavern. No goblins were currently getting through the lines of fighters and rangers, but there were many more pressing their way down the hallway in their direction.
“Yosan!” Nikka yelled to the warlock as he dispatched the goblin in front of him, and pointed towards the hallway. Yosan shook his head, indicating that he couldn't get there. He must not be able to project his powers, or may fear hurting the others if he did so. Still, something needed to be done. If the enemy kept pouring in at their current rate, the Nobles wouldn't last long.
As she watched, two of their fighters went down under mobs of goblins, and the small victory seemed to bolster the rest of the enemy. With heightened cheers and yells, the mob of goblins pressed in even harder from the hallway, threatening to smother them if nothing else.
Victor's aid to her father had helped at first but they were now badly outnumbered. Nikka grew suddenly cold, becoming utterly emotionless and detached. She quickly analyzed the room and made a decision. The power she felt growing in the pit of her stomach churned, begging for some sort of release. She held her hand out in front of her and a white light grew in her palm. She threw the ball of light at a goblin near Victor and struck it dead with the one hit.
Victor had obviously seen what happened, but had no time to acknowledge it. Nikka fired off several other missiles of light and picked off a few clear targets here and there, but grew frustrated as most of the goblins were in front of the group of Nobles and she could no longer see them clearly enough to target them. And even with picking off the few that she had, there were still more pressing in from the hallway.
Deciding the masses were more important to attempt to take out, she grew a larger ball of light in both of her hands, concentrating on increasing it in both size and power for several seconds. Finally when she was satisfied with it, she lobbe
d it up and over the heads of her fellow Nobles. With a shriek like a banshee it broke over the goblins in the entrance of the cavern and exploded their bodies into bits.
This sudden amount of carnage and destruction caused the goblins to hesitate, even the ones currently fighting. Quickly the Nobles dispatched them, using the confusion to their advantage. The goblins in the hallway shrunk back, hovering, grunting to themselves and trying to decide what to do next.
Her grandfather came over to her as the rest of the Nobles regrouped into a tighter formation in front of her.
“That was unexpected, my dear.”
“For you and me both.”
“I have never been able to project power forces before, I am impressed.”
“It wasn't really a force. I held it in my hands, it was like an object full of raw energy.” Nikka tried to explain, but it was still as much of a shock to her that she wasn't sure she explained in correctly.
Her grandfather didn't have time to further his queries, though, as the goblins outside had made up their minds to approach them as a large group, but more slowly this time. The two warlocks moved to the front of the Nobles, waiting for the enemy to engage. They both held steady, still as stones, fearless in the eyes of all around them.
Finally the goblins made their charge. Yosan and Mortul charged up their blue lights quickly and Yosan released his first, taking down a couple dozen, and Mortul taking down another couple dozen after that. This time the goblins didn't lose heart or become distracted. They continued to pour in through the opening, wave after wave.
The warlocks got off another few charges, before stepping behind the soldiers to rest and recharge. Nikka felt the power rebuilding in the pit of her stomach once again and summoned another ball of white light in her hands, lobbing it into the caverns entryway. The explosion had the same devastating effects as before, but this time the goblins still came on.
Every now and then one warlock or the other would step back to the front and release a charge of light, and the fighters and rangers continued to swing wildly. Even with magic at their disposal, the sheer number of goblins coming at them threatened to overwhelm them all.
One goblin had managed to slip past the main group and was headed straight towards her. She watched it come and made another decision, one that she hoped wouldn't backfire on her.
As the goblin came on, she deftly sidestepped at the last second, barely missing the swing of his axe, and brought the hilt of her sword down on its head. The sword bounced off the creature’s thick skull and the impact vibrated up through her arm. The goblin didn't fall, but it was dazed and she didn't waste time.
Grabbing it by the back of the neck, Nikka sliced open the goblin’s throat and she clamped her jaw over the spurting wound. Quickly she drank, with the thought that goblin blood was much more bitter than the deer blood she was used to, flitting through her mind. Once done, she flung the creature’s limp form to the ground, and swung back around to face the enemy once more.
The motion made her head swim, and she nearly lost her balance, but she could feel the power churning in her gut, screaming for release. She quickly built another ball of power and tossed it, followed by another and then another. Even after the three, the power was still there, still screaming at her to do more.
Nikka concentrated on her entire body, building a bright white glow around it like she had seen her grandfather and Yosan do. It built up quickly and with it came an intense heat, and it was so bright that she could barely see beyond it.
Her eyes watering from the intensity, she made her way forward. The Nobles stepped aside at her burning touch on their shoulders, letting her pass to the front. She vaguely heard her father and Victor call her name as she kept moving forward into the press of the goblins. The enemy was blinded completely by her glowing form and anything that contacted the light around her was immediately burned to a crisp. Weapons burned to ash, skin melted, and on in to the enemy she moved.
Once she was fully into the hallway she stopped, one thought on her mind; complete destruction. Concentrating, she built more force and heat into the shield she wore until it pulsed and begged to be released. Finally she let go of the hold she had on it, and outwards the light rolled. Onwards it screamed down the hallway into the cavern they passed through earlier, and down all the other hallways that were connected to it. Everything the light touched burned away, leaving piles of ashes and bone in its wake.
Nikka stood still for just a moment, listening to see if any other goblins were running down the hall towards them. Hearing nothing coming and smelling nothing but burnt flesh, she turned back to the other Nobles, who were finishing off the last of the goblins in the cavern.
Victor ran quickly over to her, her father and the Warlocks right behind him. Victor reached up and wiped a smear of blood off her chin, but her attention was not on him. She could hear her father berating her and her grandfather trying to ask how she felt and Yosan telling her father to calm down so they could all discuss this later.
Nikka heard them all distantly, but she still was not paying them any attention. Slowly she moved forward, back into the cavern, looking up at the ceiling all the while. The white light she had sent out had brightened the entire cavern network and had caused the goblins’ scratching’s on the walls to almost glow.
But now, on the ceiling of the cavern, was a new drawing. A very large and very well drawn picture of an eye, snake-like in the iris, with lashes that sprang forth like a sweeping wing. The eye bore down on them, piercing like an actual gaze, and held Nikka almost in thrall. Finally the group around her looked up where she was gazing so intently, and a hush fell over them all.
For many moments no one spoke, just stared at the symbol as it stared right back at them.
“What does it mean, grandfather?” Nikka finally whispered.
“It means that unfortunately we were right; the Deep Dweller is still alive, and we have woken him.”
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