Watcher's Test

by Sean Oswald

  They parted ways, and Dave ran out past the edge of town after picking up and cleaning his dagger. He tried to stand in the open so that hopefully none of the goblins could perform a sneak attack on him. From what he had seen so far, that was the only thing he really had to fear from them. Given that he was 10-plus levels higher than any he had encountered, it seemed appropriate. Judging by the placement of the blips he now believed to be goblins from his earlier scan, he assumed that the goblins could be anywhere around him now. His mana was up to 150 again so he spent the 5 mana for the shorter-range pulse, but he didn’t detect anything that he could be sure was a goblin within 100 feet of his position. The beings in the houses were moving, but they had a certain frantic sense to their movement coming through his Esoteric Sense that made him pretty sure they were the people that Aloysia was waking up or maybe who had been woken by the fighting. Dying goblins weren’t exactly quiet after all.

  Now he had a choice to make. Should he stay here and try to find any goblins who might be hiding, or should he go out further from town and try to intercept any more goblins coming in. Tactically it didn’t make sense to leave enemies behind him, but since they apparently could hide from his new sixth sense, he wasn’t sure of the right decision. What finally decided things for him was his strong protective instinct. He couldn’t leave the women and children of the village to fend off goblins who might be hiding in any shadow.

  Dave started stalking through the village, weaving between the houses while looking for signs of any more of the goblins. For the next few minutes, he didn’t catch any enemies despite feeling like he was being watched a few times. What he did do was scare more than one villager as they would round a building and run into him with his sword drawn. It was always short-lived, but each time they would jump in fear. The only good thing to come of this time was that his mana pool was now full. The first casualty came just as Dave had given up on finding any of the goblin’s hiding spots.

  A logger along with his wife and small son had just been startled by him. After laughing off the shock, the man had said, “Thanks sheriff for looking out for us.”

  The words made Dave proud but then later made him feel shame as the three villagers only made it fifty more feet before a goblin lunged out of the shadows and buried its short sword into the belly of the mother. Dave heard himself screaming, “NO!” Even as he saw the logger swinging his ax in a wide upward curved arm almost like he was trying to golf the goblin away from his wife. While the man might have been good at cutting down trees, he had no combat ability. The goblin effortlessly evaded the swing of his ax and stepped to the side while taking time to cruelly twist his blade before pulling it free and drawing it along the thigh of the man, dropping him to the ground. Not content with his attacks so far, the goblin laughed maniacally while preparing to chop his sword down on the sobbing toddler who was clinging to his mother’s lifeless form.

  The blow never fell though as Dave had closed the distance enough to launch what he was thinking of as his Binding Dagger attack. He watched the dagger sink into the shoulder of his enemy’s sword arm. Still, he never stopped charging forward and drove his sword horizontally so hard that it took the oval-shaped head off of the little monster’s shoulders. It didn’t make Dave feel any better. Looking down, it was clear that the woman was dead. Her husband, on the other hand, was bleeding badly but wasn’t dead yet. Dave knew what he was about to do was a bad idea, but he couldn’t risk that the crying toddler would end up a complete orphan. So, before reason could win out, Dave pulled forth another of his healing potions and gave it to the logger. It had an almost instantaneous effect as it started healing the man’s low health total. The wound across his thigh was closing before his eyes. Dave still had to figure out the relationship between health points and the severity of an injury for individuals with vastly different health levels, but now wasn’t the time to worry about it. He only waited long enough for the man to be able to regain his feet and carry his son.

  “Don’t worry. I will bring her body later, but right now you need to worry about your son. Protect the living, and then we will mourn the dead.” He knew his words were harsh even if necessary, but he needed the man to keep moving to the south side of town where everyone was being told to evacuate to. Once the two of them were limping off, Dave resumed his search for hidden goblins. This time though, his attention was drawn to the town square where there where he heard sounds of combat. Mira was supposed to be there, and that was all the motivation that he needed to run full steam.

  By the time he reached the town square, the combat was over. Aloysia was nowhere to be seen, but Mira was perched at the very top of the town hall building standing upon the central roof beam without an apparent care in the world. Her master level balance likely made it as safe as standing on flat ground. On the ground, he saw two dead goblins. It appeared that she had caught them in a web and then ignited the web, but also must have used her Ice Daggers spell judging by the mixture of burns and cuts on the two bodies.

  “There is one more down there, dad. Aloysia is looking for him.”

  Dave immediately began looking over the area, but he still didn’t see another goblin or Aloysia. He started to walk into the town hall to make sure the goblin wasn’t trying to hide in there, when Mira cried out, “There are a bunch of them behind you.”

  Hearing that, Dave whirled around prepared to dodge any sudden stab attacks which he had come to associate as the basic tactic of the goblin rogues. Instead, what he saw was approximately twelve goblins. Most of them were larger than any of the others he had seen so far and were wearing crude leather armor and carrying either an ax or a mace. The weapons were all rather large for the goblins and needed to be wielded two-handed. One of the goblins was not like the others. He was wearing robes and a bone necklace. In his hands was a slender bone staff with an onyx colored stone on the top and a set of colored feathers and beads hanging from strings.

  Instead of immediately charging him has Dave had expected, the goblins seemed to be having some sort of discussion. He wasn’t close enough to hear everything being said, but they were speaking loudly enough that he heard some of it. While trying to listen in, he also took the opportunity to cast Assess Enemy. Eleven of them came back as: Goblin Skirmisher- Level 7, Health: 130. The robed one as: Goblin Shaman- Level 11, Health: 100, Mana: 110.

  So, while none of them individually posed him much of a threat, twelve of them might be difficult. He would have to try to get them to fight him close enough to the town square for Mira to be able to target them from the top of the building. Even still, if this was the worst of it then he felt confident that they could handle it all. What the goblins were talking about took a turn though. What he had gleaned so far was that their scouts had told them previously that there were no warriors in the town. They seemed irate that anyone was resisting them. As he listened more, it sounded mostly that they were mad with someone they called the bone man. It was a bit confusing to follow. While he understood goblinese, he didn’t understand their thought process, what there was of it. One minute they were talking about this “bone man” betraying them and another as though he were their leader. The only thing that came through was that they were all afraid of the bone man, other than perhaps the shaman. He seemed to be afraid too but had a hatred that outweighed that fear. All of the listening came to an end, though, as the shaman instructed the skirmishers to rush the human warrior and burn the village. Apparently, vengeance on the bone man was going to wait until they had killed him.

  That was all the hint that he needed. Since he didn’t see any ranged weapons amongst them, he turned and ran toward the town square, stopping once he arrived so that he could turn to have his back to the building. At least this way they wouldn’t be able to surround him. Aloysia then stepped out from the door of the town hall.

  “Did you find the other one?” Dave asked quickly even as he started casting his Minor Enlarge spell.

  “No, but it looks like you need help r
ight now.”

  Chuckling as he grew to nine feet, Dave said, “You’re probably right.”

  Three of the skirmishers had run into houses, presumably to set them on fire. Which left just eight charging at him. The distance was closed and when they were a mere fifteen feet away ten translucent spinning blades of ice came from the roof and slammed into the closest four. Dave thought that Mira must have stored a copy of Ice Dagger in the open spell storage crystal so that she could cast two copies of it. He hoped that she wasn’t using all her juice for this fight in case they had to deal with this “bone man” at some point. The daggers were impressive, and while they knocked down two of the charging goblins, they didn’t do enough damage split four ways to kill any of the goblins. Fortunately, the ice daggers were quickly followed by three throwing knives in a single flick of Aloysia’s wrist. It must be a new skill that she had because he had never seen it before. The three blades succeeded in knocking a third goblin onto its butt. Even with the ice damage, they still weren’t enough to kill them.

  For his part, Dave focused very hard on trying to split his binding spell. He wanted to try to target two separate creatures, aiming to bind together the ax of one goblin with the face of another. He felt the tension building inside of him as both targets were living beings or in the influence of a living being. Then, with a sudden flashing notification that he ignored, he was thrilled to see the spell take hold although for triple the normal amount of mana. The last of the goblins who had been hit by Mira’s spell fell forward propelled by his own momentum and the sudden force seeking to connect his face with his prone tribemate’s ax blade. He shrieked when the spell forced the two surfaces to become one. The dull blade sunk deep into his face, taking his eye and dealing a critical strike that sent his health plummeting to almost zero.

  At the same time, the goblin skirmishers who had been unaffected by Mira’s spell came charging forward, three of them focused on Dave and one on the smaller rogue. At least both of the weapons swung at his head were traveling along the same plane, so he was able to dunk underneath both, turning the motion into a front roll which ended up in ax kick coming down on the back of the goblin struggling to pull its face from the blade it was attached to. The result being that his head was split like a ripe melon, and the ax blade sunk into the back of its skull under the force of Dave’s kick.

  Even at this size, Dave found it to be a simple thing to spring back to his feet. The few points that he had put into Agility were absolutely worth it. After standing, he thrust his sword down into the throat of the wounded goblin on its back. Dave stepped back after making that thrust but not quickly enough to avoid being sliced by the two goblins he had previously dodged. They weren’t super strong, but they were agile creatures and had both turned to attack him again. The first slash hit his thigh (8) and an instant later in his side (9). Neither slash was powerful enough to penetrate his conjured armor, but they still hurt.

  Dave tried to use his long legs to create a little more space for himself. Claws and fangs were scary, but honestly, none of it seemed nearly as fatal as the crude axes that the goblins were wielding. Worse because now he was slowly being surrounded by five of them. A quick glance told him that he couldn’t expect any help from Aloysia as she seemed to be struggling with just the one goblin. With these numbers, Dave had to content himself with trying to block or deflect the incoming slashes. The goblins were quick and agile, so it was hard. His saving grace was the advantage that he had in reach, but he was already starting to sweat with the exertion of keeping his blade constantly moving. He wove a net of steel around himself, using the techniques that had been downloaded into his brain mixed with his practical knowledge of sparring. He was never gladder than now for the Saturday morning classes he had taught where he would spar with multiple students at a time. That alone might be keeping him alive.

  Amidst the trading of blows, Dave was completely caught off guard when one of the less injured goblins suddenly turned and swung its ax straight into the neck of its unsuspecting comrade. Blood spurted out in a greenish spray as an artery was severed. While the blow wasn’t instantly fatal, the goblin who had been struck fell to the ground clutching at its wound in a vain attempt to staunch the bleeding. One less goblin for Dave to worry about. The other three goblins, however, were not injured and they stood in shock for a moment before recovering to attack the traitor. From up on the roof, Mira called out, “Defend yourself and kill all the other goblins.”

  Suddenly it made much more sense. He was surprised that he hadn’t realized it immediately but cut himself a little slack since he had been busy dodging ax blades. While the other goblins recovered after a second, Dave was just a half-second faster and lashed out simultaneously with a binding spell on the left-most goblin’s foot, anchoring it to the ground and a heavy horizontal slash (244) at the neck of the closest goblin to him. The blade went all the way through the goblin’s head sending up a fountain of bright green blood. Again, he had gotten his sneak attack bonus. It must count since the goblin had turned away from him to look at its charmed kin and had not seen the attack coming.

  Mira’s pet took advantage when the goblin to his left tried to move but found his foot bound to the ground. It turned a planned overhead attack into a fumble and fall forward and exposed the back of its neck. The charmed skirmisher didn’t hesitate but obeyed his Mistress and brought the dull blade down in a chopping motion. Again, while it wasn’t fatal, that didn’t stop him from pulling back and chopping down again, time after time.

  For his part, Dave was laughing. Fifteen seconds ago, he had been surrounded by five ax-wielding goblins. Now one of them was fighting on his side, and there was only one enemy left. He had no fear of any single goblin. Of course, he wasn’t thinking about the goblin shaman because at that moment a purplish-black bolt of energy blasted out from the little caster’s bone staff and struck Dave in the back. The energy danced all around him but instead of causing him any pain, it made him start to feel sick. Much like a very severe case of seasickness, it started slowly but then hit him with a vengeance. He dropped to his knees and emptied out anything of last night’s dinner that was still there. Not just once but repeatedly, he couldn’t help but vomit. Dave had felt the spell hit him and saw the notification: You have failed to resist the Goblin Shaman’s spell. You now are under the debuff- Sickened: Must resist each tick or be forced to use entire action to vomit. Suffer from -75% to movement, -75% to concentration checks, Defense and Attack both reduced by 20%.

  Dave wanted to care about the notification. He wanted to care about the ax that was even at that moment being aimed at his head. The truth though was that all he could think about was trying not to vomit again. His entire body shook with the spasm of his violent retching. At this moment he didn’t care, but one of the uncharmed goblins had noticed his plight and was swinging for him only to be interrupted by a trio of throwing daggers that flew into his chest. Aloysia had finally managed to deal with her opponent and jumped in just in time to save Dave.

  Seeing all of this unfold before him, the shaman was furious. There were not supposed to be any warriors in this town. Certainly, none of that stature and most definitely no casters. He recognized that Dave as the biggest threat but lacked a sense of humor to see the comedy in that, and Mira as the next threat. As soon as his Lesser Sickening spell had been released from the staff, he immediately began casting his only other tier 2 spell, Lesser Firebolt. He aimed his crooked, green finger at the roof beam that Mira was perched upon. He cackled as a grapefruit-sized ball of fire coalesced in front of his extended finger. Then he willed the flame to flash forward at Mira.

  Seeing what the goblin caster was doing, Mira assumed she would be the target, and in the few seconds it took for his spell to form, she was prepared. When the ball streaked toward her, she was able to effortlessly cartwheel back on the beam and away from the firebolt. Unfortunately, while she had the Intelligence to deduce that she was the target as well as the Agility and Balance t
o avoid it, she lacked the tactical understanding of the situation. She didn’t take any direct damage from the firebolt, but since it impacted upon the heavy wooden beam and the thatched roof, the explosion spread in a 10’ radius and set a large section of the roof on fire. The magical fire being even hotter than a natural flame, it spread very quickly and within seconds there was too much smoke for her to see the battleground.

  The shaman had, of course, hoped to hit and kill the elf girl, but he had known that either way he would destroy her ability to engage in battle from the rooftop. In his mind, this meant that she would have to descend to the ground and so he was even now yelling for the other goblin skirmishers to stop lighting the houses on fire and to circle around the building. She didn’t look like much of a fighter, and the shaman imagined that as most casters, she wouldn’t be able to stand up in a toe to toe fight. As the smoke billowed up from the roof, he kept watch and was waiting for one of his subordinates to report that she had climbed down. Perhaps the female elf was so scared of the goblins that she wasn’t willing to risk climbing down. That would be a true shame. She was a caster, so her tongue and hands would have to be cut off, but if they could capture her, she could still provide him with a lot of entertainment.

  There was, of course, no way for the shaman to have predicted that Mira would trigger her ring of flight and instead of going down would go up. At least there wasn’t until she leveled her staff at him and released a stored Minor Shock spell. Not even waiting to see how he fared against the spell, she burnt through more mana and quick cast her favorite spell. The goblin shaman wasn’t at all prepared when his right arm was hit by an electrical shock (23) that went up and down his body causing the muscles to convulse. He had no resistance to electricity and wasn’t able to even hold onto the staff in his hands. Fortunately for him, he was able to stand up better against the icy blades since his class gave him an innate resistance but still took (73) damage. Even with his partial resistance, he was still down to 10% of his health and while none of the goblins were truly brave, he alone of the raiding party had enough intelligence and self-preservation to want to flee.