by Phoenix Grey
Azure didn't have the seconds needed to count. He drew his cutlass just in time to match blades with an incoming goblin carrying a short sword. Evenly matched, the sound of metal clanging against metal rang out over the forest as the goblin met him blow for blow. Azure's awe faded quickly as he realized that he was about to be overwhelmed. None of the goblins that they were fighting were below his level, and one of the three that had been occupying Uden broke off to come after weaker prey. Weaker prey being him.
Lonnell had his hands full with two goblins of his own. Azure had no idea how to fight against multiple foes that he was evenly matched with. He backed up as he saw the other goblin approaching, trying his best not to let it get behind him. What was worse is that it was swinging a mace, and Azure had no shield to defend with.
The two goblins shared a quick glance and then moved to surround Azure. If he let them get on opposite sides of him, there was no doubt he'd be done for. Desperation driving him, Azure let out a war cry as he charged the goblin with the short sword. Not about to let him get the advantage, the goblin parried. Azure spun to the side, putting all of his weight into a slash that landed across the goblin's left arm. The creature hissed, but he wasn't dumb enough to drop his weapon. He turned to defend against Azure's next attack, which ended up fumbled when something hitting his back knocked the wind out of him, causing him to lose his balance and fall forward.
“Fuck,” he cursed, quickly pulling himself to his feet. It felt like he'd just been charged by a rhino. His back ached, and his health bar had dropped quite a bit.
Sensing another incoming attack, Azure jumped and rolled, stopping a few feet short of his assailants, who were now both in front of him.
Not good, he thought, realizing that they were winning. Walking hurt. Hell, just moving hurt. The only thing keeping him standing was his fear of death. Taking a deep breath, Azure clutched his cutlass in front of him. The goblin with the mace was grinning, spinning it around almost mockingly. The other goblin just looked pissed off, a trail of blood leaking down its arm.
Azure braced himself as they both lunged forward to attack. Holding his cutlass vertically, the mace's chain wrapped around the blade. The force of it about threw Azure off balance again, but he knew that he had to pull from the depths of his strength if he hoped to survive. Using everything he had left, he turned to wrench the mace for his attacker's grasp, successfully flinging it away. His blade hit the swordsman's just as it was grazing his shoulder, but a cut was still made.
Ignoring the pain, Azure knew that this was the moment to make his attack. The goblin with the mace scrambled for its weapon, and Azure gave chase. Raising his cutlass above his head, he drove it hard into the creature's spine just as its hand had landed on the handle of its weapon. The goblin let out a cry of agony, its fingers outstretching and trembling before falling limply on the weapon. Weakly, it turned its head to look at him. Fear was replaced by a strange smile. It was at that moment that Azure realized what was going on. A moment too late.
The knot in his stomach shot up to his throat to choke him as he spun around to see the other goblin standing there, his blade thrust forward. This was it. The killing blow. Azure didn't have time to pull his cutlass from the other goblin's back, so he let go of the grip to jump to the side and dodge. A momentary distraction turned what would have undoubtedly been a direct hit into a glancing blow slicing across Azure's ribs seconds before the goblin collided with him, a look of shock on its face.
Azure hissed from the pain, the weight of the small creature pushing him back. He tripped over the goblin behind him and ended up sandwiched between the falling goblin and the dirt. Just before he fell, he saw Uden several yards away, his arm outstretched in Azure's direction from having just thrown the dagger that had lodged itself in the swordsman's back. Despite all of his pain, Azure quickly seized the weapon from the stunned goblin, using it to finish him off with a few uncalculated stabs to the chest. It was a messy death. A brutal death. A frantic kill or be killed kind of death. Azure's health bar was lower than it had ever been before. He wasn't taking any chances.
Defeated Level 3 Goblin. 24XP rewarded.
Congratulations! The skill: One-Handed Weapons has reached Level 3. This skill enables you to use all manner of one-handed weapons to defeat enemies. What you do with your other hand is up to you.
As soon as the notification popped up and disappeared, Azure moved over to the other goblin, finishing it off as well and earning another 24XP and the chiming sound that told him he'd leveled up. There was no time to be excited about that now, though. Looking around for other threats and seeing none, he fell to his knees, quickly digging into his pouch for healing potions. Azure could not remember a time when he had ever hurt so much. His stamina was nearly depleted, and he felt as weak as a kitten.
“Are you all right?” Lonnell rushed to his side.
“I am almost dead.” His health bar blinked in warning in the bottom right corner of his vision.
“You should rest.” Lonnell took the vials from Azure's trembling hands and quickly uncorked them, handing them to his friend one at a time.
“Well, that was fun.” Uden sauntered up, putting a foot on the swordsman's back as he pulled his dagger from it.
“That was not fun!” Lonnell barked at him. “What in the hell were you thinking?”
“Probably the same thing he was thinking.” Uden pointed his blade at Azure before wiping the blood off onto the goblin's side, unapologetic. “You knew we could take them, didn't you?”
“I had thought so until we were actually in the heat of things,” Azure confessed. Now that his wounds were healing and the intense fear of death was finally subsiding, anger began to take over. “Could you at least warn us before you do something like that?”
“No,” Uden replied, ignoring his shift in mood to go loot the bodies. “Had I warned you, you would have stopped me.”
“Had you warned us, we would have been better prepared. Now we're all injured.” Lonnell uncorked a vial for himself, gulping the contents down.
Azure had been too busy worrying about himself to notice that both Lonnell and Uden had lost some health during the battle.
“We lived. That's all that matters.” Uden shrugged his brother's complaint off. Oddly, he didn't seem in any hurry to heal himself, not that he had sustained any significant damage.
Normally, Azure would have been excited to see what all new weapons and armor he could find amongst the goblins' corpses, but he was too busy just being happy to have survived the ordeal. The sky had never been a more beautiful shade of black-blue. Coppery blood and defecation had never smelled less unpleasant.
“We have a live one here,” Uden announced before speaking down to the goblin. “I thought I killed you. I guess I should finish the job.” He pulled the dagger out that he'd just cleaned off.
“Wait!” Lonnell called back to him, leaving Azure to rush to the goblin's side.
“For what?” Uden snorted. “No survivors, brother.” He cast a sinister glance in Bronna's direction that caused her to shy away. This entire time, she'd still been strapped to the tree, small sobs coming from her chest. Azure wondered if she'd ever witnessed such violence before.
“I want to know where they were taking her. We need to put an end to this Dark One, whoever he is,” Lonnell said with distaste as he crouched next to the injured goblin. It had slashes all over its stomach and part of its intestines were hanging out like spilled spaghetti. Azure had no idea how it was still clinging to life, but it was definitely on borrowed time.
He sat up, feeling like an under-performer next to his comrades. They seemed to recover from the battle almost instantly. Azure had to remind himself that it was because they were more accustomed to it, not that he was a wuss. Besides, he had been the only one who had almost died. Surely it was natural to mull over your mortality whenever you saw your health bar blinking ominously. They could afford him a bit of time to reflect and be thankful.
�
��Is anyone goin' ta cut meh loose?” Bronna asked in a voice laced with annoyance.
Lonnell held a hand out to shush her, and Uden shot a glare in her direction. “We'll be with you in a moment, my love. There's no need to worry. The threat is over.”
“Yer not the one still tied ta a tree,” she grumbled.
Azure pulled himself to his feet and joined his companions, curious about what the goblin had to say.
“Where were you taking her?” Lonnell interrogated the creature. “Tell us, and we'll make sure that your death is swift and you suffer no longer.”
The goblin's eyelids were heavy, flitting open erratically as if straining for life. Its eyes were everywhere, looking but not seeming to see. They had gotten to it too late.
“Altar,” it gurgled out in a forced word that obviously caused it pain.
“Altar. Where? In which direction? Can you point?” Lonnell looked out into the forest, then his gaze fell to the goblin's hand, hoping it would make a weak attempt.
It opened its mouth to speak again, but only a strained breath came out before its body seemed to deflate and its eyes stopped moving. The smell of its bowels releasing filled the air, causing Azure to take a step back, not that the stench wasn't already surrounding him. Death was a smelly business.
With a sigh of defeat, Lonnell stood to go tend to Bronna. Meanwhile, Azure set to work helping Uden finish looting the bodies. By the time they were done, there was a small pile of weapons and armor. Azure felt like a kid in a candy store, ready to upgrade. Among the items were the following:
Crude Goblin Sword
Attack: +2-9
Type: One-Handed Weapon
Durability: 4/15
Item Class: Common
Quality: Poor
Weight: 1.7 kg
Rusty Mace
Attack: +2-6
Type: One-Handed Weapon
Durability: 5/13
Item Class: Common
Quality: Poor
Weight: 1.6 kg
Bronze Halberd
Attack: +3-8
Type: Two-Handed Weapon
Durability: 6/15
Item Class: Common
Quality: Poor
Weight: 2.9 kg
Leather Cap
Defense: +4
Type: Light Armor
Durability: 4/10
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.3 kg
Leather Shield
Defense: +7
Durability: 1/20
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 2.0 kg
Leather Boots
Defense: +1
Type: Light Armor
Durability: 12/15
Item Class: Common
Quality: Poor
Weight: 0.5 kg
Bronze Chainmail Shirt
Defense: +15
Type: Light Armor
Durability: 25/50
Item Class: Common
Quality: Good
Weight: 6.9 kg
The first thing that caught Azure's eye was the halberd that Bronna's guard had been carrying. While he didn't have much interest in pole weapons, the halberd was the first two-handed weapon he'd come across, and that was a skill he didn't yet possess. The question was, what were the odds he'd actually use it frequently in the future. Was it worth trying to level up now if he didn't plan on carrying a two-handed weapon regularly? Deciding that it wasn't particularly important at the moment, he set the weapon aside so that Lonnell could hold it for him for later.
Considering that his cutlass had better stats than any of the other weapons in the lot, the next item of interest was the leather shield. That would have definitely come in handy during his last melee against the mace-wielding goblin. Too bad it only had one point of durability left. Maybe it wasn't worth taking after all, but Azure decided to strap it to his back anyway after putting on the chainmail. He also equipped the boots and cap, though the cap quickly got removed when he thought about how stupid it made him look. Vanity shouldn't be important to him right now, but it still was. He was also lucky enough to find a quiver with more arrows, which he helped himself to.
“If you guys are done, we have a problem,” Lonnell said, disturbing them from their greed.
“Tha problum is were out in da middle of nowhere,” Bronna said, obviously wanting to go home immediately. She stood by Lonnell's side, rubbing a spot on her arm where the rope had chaffed her skin.
“Should I take off after him?” Uden asked, reading his brother's mind.
“Will you be all right? I wouldn't want to risk you getting captured again.”
Azure couldn't tell if that was a statement of concern or if Lonnell was teasing Uden, but he doubted it was the latter of the two considering how serious Lonnell usually was.
“Fool me once,” the half-imp said, already walking backward toward the forest.
“Does that mean we're heading back to Cragbell now?” Azure asked, a bit disappointed that he hadn't been assigned the task of tracking down the escaped goblin. As if wearing permanent proof that it was a lesser goblin, there had been a ring of bite marks on its collarbone. It was the cook who had Analyzed as blue—an easy kill for him.
“Not yet,” Lonnell replied.
“We most certainly are!” Bronna crossed her arms over her chest.
He gave her a side-look, though his demeanor was incredibly patient. “We need to find that altar and kill whoever The Dark One is. And to do that, we need to use you as bait.”
“What?!” Her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
Azure was amused by the exchange between them but tried his best not to smirk. To be honest, he was a bit surprised that Lonnell was willing to put Bronna in danger.
“I'm certain that whoever they are calling The Dark One is responsible for the curse on Crescent Island. If we can take care of him, then all of our problems will be resolved,” he explained to her.
“We don't have any clues as to where the altar is though,” Azure reminded him.
Lonnell gazed into the flickering fire in thought. “They camped early. That probably means that the altar isn't far from here. Whatever the case, we need to wait for Uden to return. Hopefully, that goblin won't get too far in the dark.”
“It won't be safe to stay here. If there are other goblins around, or if the escaped goblin reaches the others, they'll be coming back here.”
The thought of having to relocate in the dead of night wasn't optimal, but it was safer than leaving themselves exposed and at risk.
“It is a conundrum,” Lonnell agreed, rubbing his chin.
“Ye can find someun else ta sacrifice. I want no part a this.” Bronna hugged herself stubbornly.
“You're more than welcome to find your way back on your own.” Azure gestured to the forest, annoyed with her whining.
Lonnell scowled at Azure before turning to Bronna, rubbing her shoulders soothingly. “It's not safe for you out there on your own. We need to stick together so I can protect you.”
“Ye want to offer me as a human sacrifice! How is that protectin' meh?” She rolled her eyes at him.
“I promise, we won't let any harm come to you. This is important. I know you've been through a lot already, but I promise I won't ask anymore of you beyond this.”
With surrender in her expression, she sighed. “Fine. I guess all be yer stinkin' bait.”
“Thank you.” Lonnell pulled her into an embrace.
Watching them made Azure feel uncomfortable, so he turned his attention back to the pile of loot by the fire. “I've got an idea,” he said, not sure if it was a good one or not but suddenly feeling the need for his own space.
“What's that?” Lonnell pivoted to face him.
“You take Bronna somewhere safe. I'll wait on the outskirts of the camp for Uden to return. When he does, we'll track you and find you. I'm sure she could use some rest after her harrowing ordeal.”
>
“We could all use some rest,” he muttered before agreeing to the plan.
Lonnell gathered up what loot they planned to take with them in his bag of holding. Then he made a torch, and he and Bronna set off into the forest. There was an odd sense of peace once they were gone. A chance for Azure to reflect on the carnage that they had just created without the worry of having his thoughts disturbed. The night sounded oddly peaceful now that he was alone. Well...alone with a bunch of dead bodies. He hadn't had time to reflect on how surreal the situation was until now. Blood and gore laid all around him. The smell of death was like a uniquely putrid butcher's shop. Briefly, Azure thought about burning the bodies, but he just didn't have any energy left.
Now attuned to the sounds of the forest, and doubting that anymore goblins would be coming by anytime soon, Azure sat by the fire, staring into its flickering flames and listening to the wood crackle and pop. Without anyone tending to it, the fire was beginning to die, so he took the time to throw another log on before sitting down again. It felt like just the actions of sitting and standing took so much energy. His stamina was still low. Resting would replenish it slowly, but he knew it wouldn't fully restore until he slept. That battle had taken so much out of him. Though they had initially not seemed as fierce a foe as the silver nether, those two goblins had been the most dangerous thing he'd faced yet, and he felt it had mostly been due to his lack of skill. He needed to get better at fighting. This wasn't like other virtual reality MMOs where the skill just came naturally. Sure, instinct had kicked in to help, but he was bumbling around for the most part. He needed some actual training. More than likely, the foes would only get harder from here on out, and he needed to be prepared.
After about ten minutes, Azure forced himself back up, relocating to the outskirts of the camp to sit against a tree and wait for Uden to return. He would have stayed by the fire if the thought hadn't crossed his mind that goblins could probably use Stealth, too. Staying there would have made him a sitting duck if a foe had decided to approach from behind. While Azure knew how to decipher the sounds of the forest, he doubted he would be able to detect someone with a high Stealth skill. That was partially what the skill was for, after all—to sneak up on your enemies and dispatch of them without a sound.
