First Draw

by Tim Moon

  The ground beneath their feet shifted forward and they ran into a wall of dirt that had suddenly appeared before them. The impact knocked both of them backwards but instead of landing on the ground as they likely expected, they continued falling into a hole. Then part of the wall fell with them. The two goblins landed with a sickening crunch and sharp cries. Falling dirt quickly filled their mouths.

  Jaron ran to peek over the edge. Nearly half the dirt had fallen back in on itself, burying the goblins. He grinned at his handiwork.

  Glancing towards the others, Jaron realized the copper dragon had seen him eliminate the goblins. The orkkan were aware of him too. Magdud turned and ordered the remaining goblins to attack him while he and the other orkkan continued to harass the dragon. The battle was on!

  Two goblins had broken off from the main group in a poor attempt at flanking him. Jaron scampered away and the pair gave chase, closing in on him with shocking speed. Venkurza still lay on the ground screaming like a bitch. His cries were really starting to irritate Jaron.

  Using the pit to maintain a safe distance from the goblins charging him, Jaron ran towards Venkurza and yanked the spear from his leg with one hand.

  Another shrill “Aaaaaggghhh!” was the response.

  “Silence, worm,” Jaron said in the goblin’s language and whipped the cutlass across the goblin’s throat.

  Whether it was terrible luck, an unintentional dual-wield penalty, rolling a 1 on his attack, or simply poor skill, Jaron wasn’t sure, but that was when things went horribly wrong. He slipped forward, tripping on the goblin’s injured leg and lost his footing in the blood pooled on the ground. Venkurza’s other leg was bent and his bony knee caught Jaron right in the solar plexus, violently expelling air from his lungs. To make matters worse, his spear snapped.

  Jaron rolled away to catch his breath and felt a clawed hand grab his ankle. He looked down and frowned. The slash across Venkurza’s neck had been too shallow and the little shit was still alive. Damn penalties!

  Jaron kicked with his other foot but it didn’t dislodge Venkurza’s grip. Dirty, jagged nails dug into Jaron’s flesh as the goblin basically climbed his body. He tried not to think about the diseases he might catch from the filthy creature’s claws.

  The other goblins appeared right behind him and growled at Jaron. One raised his sword to cut his leg off, but Jaron kicked it in the knee, hyperextending the joint and sending his foe tumbling backwards.

  Wheezing like a smoker after going up four stairs, Jaron slashed at Venkurza. It nicked the goblin’s ear, shaving an inch of the pointy tip off and felled a tiny sapling. Jaron growled and fought to stand. If he didn’t get to his feet, he would be overwhelmed and die.

  Only n00bs and NPCs were killed by goblins.

  Jaron yanked the sword free of bramble and held it perpendicular to his body. With the sharp side facing Venkurza, he used both hands to force the goblin back. The blade would either cut Venkurza’s throat or force him off Jaron so he could get to his feet.

  Unfortunately, the stupid goblin wasn’t so stupid after all. He grabbed Jaron’s wrists and pushed down hard. Venkurza was half the size of Jaron at best. He had the benefit of gravity though and could bear down on Jaron with all his weight. Jaron grunted as his arms began to tremble and he worried that he might actually be in trouble.

  Then he heard a mighty roar and felt something burning his arm and part of his leg. The stinging pain made his eyes clench shut and a howl of pain tore from his throat. When he opened his eyes, Jaron had to move his head immediately as a glob of Venkurza’s face slid into a malformed liquid droplet and fell off his skull.

  Jaron shoved the body away and rolled to the side, fighting for a breath of fresh air. A blackish substance covered the ground and burned terribly when Jaron accidentally touched it. Burning flesh filled his nostrils and choked his airways. Coughing and gagging at the same time, he stood and staggered away.

  Jaron grasped a tree for support and glanced over his shoulder. One of the goblins that had been running to aid Venkurza was nothing more than a pair of steaming metal boots with bone protruding from the top of them. The rest of the goblin formed a murky puddle on the ground.

  Vayvnu hit you with acid for 17 points of damage.

  Acid? That must have been her breath attack, Jaron realized. He was extremely grateful that he only suffered minor damage from the breath attack. He marveled at the level of control and precision she demonstrated.

  The goblin he had kicked in the knee—analyze revealed that his name was Colx—made eye contact with Jaron and clambered to his feet to scramble away. A well-placed stone spike put Colx back on the ground. Jaron followed up by stabbing him under the ribs with his cutlass before turning his attention to Vayvnu and the three orkkan.

  Several small darts whizzed by in quick succession, pelting each of the orkkan. They flinched but didn’t stop their assault on the dragon. Jaron turned to see where they originated but nothing appeared out of place. Once again, the shooter was hidden.

  Now that he saw the darts in action, he doubted they were darts. They flew too fast and looked more like tiny arrows.

  Jaron couldn’t help but wonder if this was his secret arrow guy?

  “Nice shooting but that didn’t do much damage,” Jaron shouted into the forest. If the person wouldn’t step forward voluntarily, he would try antagonizing them into making an appearance.

  “Guard the rear, you fools,” Magdud roared as he dodged a tail strike from Vayvnu.

  Once again, Jaron turned his focus to the orkkan that hacked and slashed at Vayvnu. They stood just under Jaron’s height of 6’4” but were heavily muscled and handled their weapons with the practiced ease of experienced warriors. With pug-like faces and short curved tusks jutting up from their lower jaw, the orkkan lived up to the fierce evil warrior vibe they gave off. Fighting trained warriors was going to be quite the challenge.

  “We will defeat them,” a voice said in a soothing tone inside Jaron’s head. Then with more force it said, “We must defeat them.”

  Jaron flinched at the intrusion and looked at the dragon with narrowed eyes. It had to be her, right? Instinctually, he objected to the mental voice. It felt like a violation.

  The dragon’s head bobbed at him as if saying, “Yeah, that was me,” and then looked down at the orkkan. They had closed in while she was distracted. One swung a sword at her leg, but she lifted it and tried to stomp on him. The orkkan leaped out of the way and came up just as her tail slapped him aside.

  Magdud roared and charged. Vayvnu’s jaws opened and a gout of black fluid shot out in a powerful stream forcing him to turn away or be turned into a puddle like the goblins. The third orkkan shot an arrow at Vayvnu’s head which bounced off her heavy brow. The archer received a spit of acid from the dragon and a stone from Jaron who managed to strike his leg. Unfortunately, the stone knocked him out of the way of the acid.

  Vayvnu shot him a look of annoyance that Jaron shrugged off.

  Then he grinned. He was fighting with a dragon — an honest to goodness dragon. This was amazing!

  Unleashing a war cry, Jaron sprinted towards the archer. His spear was gone so he had to close the distance before the enemy could nock another arrow and fire. Jaron ran as if the dread wolves were nipping at his heels. Blue hair streamed behind him, green arms and legs pumped. The orkkan nocked an arrow.

  Then a rush of tiny arrows whizzed past Jaron. He lost his balance as he flinched. Then he slipped and tumbled to the ground. The orkkan got off a hasty shot but it went wide and buried itself in a tree trunk two feet from Jaron’s head. He looked at the arrow quivering in the tree. That could have been him. Letting out a sigh, he thought, secret arrow guy for the win.

  Jaron climbed to his feet and used the interruption to close the remaining distance. Not only was he going to kill the archer, Jaron intended to claim the bow and kill the other orkkan with it. That seemed like fair repayment for his broken spear.

  The archer, named Gn
orm, released another hasty shot. This time the arrow glowed yellow and hummed with energy. Jaron yelped and dove to the ground. The arrow zipped inches overhead, heat and a sense of power emanated from it. The arrow struck a tree and burst with a loud sizzle and crack of electric energy.

  “Too close,” Jaron muttered with wide eyes. He hefted the nearest rock he could find and hurled it ahead of him to avoid having to dodge another shot.

  More tiny arrows whizzed by and struck Gnorm. This time Jaron maintained his composure and his balance. The tiny projectiles joined the others sticking out of Gnorm like porcupine quills. The distraction worked beautifully.

  Gnorm dropped his bow and drew a nasty curved blade. They met with a clash of steel that almost rattled Jaron’s sword out of his hand. He pivoted and elbowed Gnorm in his pug face. The orkkan staggered back a step and slashed at Jaron who spun out of the way and lunged with his longer blade. It missed Gnorm’s arm and in return, Jaron barely avoided a short swipe at his neck.

  Their blades met again and Jaron pressed his weight into his sword. They locked up again but this time Jaron cast stone spike. The stone pierced Gnorm’s ankle with a loud crunch. Then Jaron’s nose seemed to explode with a crunch of its own.

  “Aah!” Jaron growled and covered his broken nose. Hot, sticky blood filled his palm and he was forced to breath out of his mouth.

  Gnorm was pinned in place, his face contorted in a pain-fueled rage. Jaron wasn’t going to win a sword fight. His arm already felt like lead from the few swings they went through and it was only a matter of time before Gnorm found an opening and ended him.

  Jaron backed out of sword range, flicked the blood out of his hand and began to cast.

  Gnorm’s eyes widened when a hole suddenly opened beneath his feet. He barely had time to reach out for the edge. His clawed hands gripped the edge for just a moment before Jaron ran forward and slashed his fingers. He watched Gnorm fall. His arms windmilled once and then he landed with a dull thump.

  “Rest in peace, motherfucker,” Jaron said, flipping the bird.

  He circled the hole and found where the bow and a quiver of arrows had been ditched. Jaron stabbed his sword into the ground and picked up the bow. He remembered bowhunting for food with his dad in the early days of the war. Food rations had been tight so they had supplemented it with whatever they could grow or hunt. They had bagged two deer their first time out. Dad had called him the luckiest bow hunter alive. Getting them out of the bush and then butchering them had made him feel a lot less lucky.

  Fingers crossed the archery skills are still muscle memory, Jaron thought.

  The arrow settled onto the string as he nocked it. Jaron raised the bow at Magdud who was off to the side. If he missed, his shot would go wide and miss Vayvnu. He drew back the string.

  Or tried to.

  You lack both the skill and the requisite ability level to use this item. Find an archery trainer and improve your ability stats in order to use Unknown Bow.

  “Come on,” Jaron groaned.

  He dropped the weapon and made a mental note of its location so he could find it later and then began to cast. The first pit of putrid mud had dissipated a while ago, so he began to recast it. This time he centered it on Magdud as a small but deep mud pit. Its radius would be double Magdud’s arm length and the depth would take up the remainder of the space he could affect. The hope was to keep him out of the fight while they finished off the others.

  As he finished casting the spell, the orkkan named Karkash shoved Magdud aside. The spell took effect and mired Karkash in its sticky, damaging mud. His arms flailed in slow motion as he slowly sank, unable to reach the edge.

  Magdud glanced back at Jaron and hurled something that flashed in the sunlight. Jaron dove aside and heard a knife stick into a tree behind him. He glanced back and saw the blade quivering in the tree. Jaron scowled. He was getting tired of having stuff hurled at him.

  Then Magdud hurled a blade at Vayvnu that caught her in the side of the neck as she tried to snap at Wurmza, the third orkkan. Karkash continued to sink into the mud so it was now two-on-two. Fair odds.

  Jaron cast stone buckler in case Magdud wanted to throw more knives and then tried to send a stone spike into Wurmza’s leg. Pressure built in his head like he was caught in a vice. The high mana usage and long battle was taking its toll.

  A silver glow surrounded Vayvnu. The light made the two orkkan raise their arm or shield in preparation for a magical assault. Instead, silver tendrils giving off small glittering motes lashed out towards Jaron. When they struck Jaron, a soothing rush of energy filled him.

  You have been healed by Vayvnu the Guardian for 100 hit points. The spell also doubles your health regeneration rate and gives you a +1 bonus to attack and damage.

  Jaron grinned at being fully healed, and especially liked the small buff.

  “Thanks!” he shouted, jumping to his feet to charge into the fray.

  Wurmza turned to face Jaron while Magdud pressed the attack against Vayvnu. Jaron could tell she was tiring. Her movements were slower and analyze showed that her mana was down to just 10 points. There would be no more magical help from her.

  Wurmza came in fast and angry, slashing and hacking. Jaron dodged several slashes and cuts, parried a couple strikes that seemed obvious to him, and blocked an overhead chop with his buckler. Jaron felt woefully outmatched. He could barely keep up with the assault and each time their blades met, a painful vibration temporarily numbed his hand.

  It became immediately clear that the Wurmza could overpower him. Jaron began to circle away, he had to find a way to turn things in his favor. Doing his best not to be too obvious, Jaron began to walk them towards the mud pit where Karkash only had his head and one arm above the mud.

  Wurmza charged. Jaron spun away. He swept his blade over the mud pit, removing Karkash’s fingers. The howl of pain drew Wurmza’s eyes. Karkash instinctively drew his arm in to his chest, dooming him to drown in the mud.

  Jaron tripped lost his balance on a rock that tweaked his ankle and cost him the advantage of the distraction. He tucked into the best roll he could and ended up in a crouch, shaken by the mistake. Wurmza chuckled at him.

  “I meant to do that,” Jaron said.

  Wurmza’s head shook slowly. “No, forest rat. You weak.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Jaron spotted Magdud with his back to him. The orkkan leader stood less than fifteen feet away, fighting Vayvnu. Launching forward like a sprinter leaving the blocks, Jaron ignored Wurmza and went straight for Magdud. With a roar of anger, Wurmza followed.

  The big bastard spun at the last second and lashed out with a backhand. Jaron leaned away from Magdud’s swing, but he was a millisecond too slow and the gauntleted hand struck his shoulder. The heavy fist nearly knocked him over with a burst of numbing pain that left the arm he struck useless. Shots of burning pain radiated from his shoulder into his neck.

  Jaron splayed on the ground, trying to recover. His sword skittered a few feet away. He had to move before one of the orkkan killed him.

  His failure provided enough distraction for Vayvnu to strike. She whipped her tail, striking both Wurmza and Magdud. They tumbled across the ground like rag dolls. Vayvnu’s head struck like a viper, grabbing Magdud in her powerful jaws and flinging him away like trash. He flew twenty feet through the air, clipped a tree which sent him spinning into another one that he hit with a sickening crunch. His body disappeared into the bushes.

  Back on his feet with sensation creeping back into his arm like a thousand needles stabbing him, Jaron took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and rushed Wurmza. With uncommon grace, the orkkan leaped to his feet and came at Jaron with two daggers that suddenly appeared in his hands. He hadn’t even seen the blades a moment before and wondered what happened to the sword. Deflecting the short, quick slashes at close range took all of Jaron’s speed and agility. He blocked a slash with the buckler but was forced backwards. Jaron backpedaled and slammed into a boulder near t
he canyon wall that he had not even noticed.

  Move, Vayvnu’s feminine yet commanding voice said in his head.

  Jaron glanced at the dragon and nearly paid the ultimate price. He leaned back, painfully arching his back as a slash came at him. Wurmza was fast and Jaron only moved far enough to avoid a mortal wound. He staggered back with a long, shallow cut across his chest.

  Jaron sucked in a breath and cursed. The edges of the split skin curled back to reveal a raw, red canyon. A trickle of blood ran down his body.

  Jaron shuffled to the side, then dropped down and tucked into a backwards roll, creating space for Vayvnu to do whatever she planned. As Jaron hopped back to his feet, a spray of black fluid shot out of Vayvnu’s gaping mouth like a hose.

  Wurmza dashed forward, trying to press his attack on Jaron but the breath attack splashed onto his legs. He threw his head back and howled. Jaron found himself wincing in sympathetic pain, a reminder of his own accident with the liquid. Foam bubbled on the wounds and smoke curled into the air from where it touched Wurmza’s mottled green and brown skin. Tiny rivulets of blood and melted flesh drizzled onto the dirt. The stench of burning flesh filled the air with a harsh chemical tinge to it that stung the back of Jaron’s throat.

  A commotion in the forest made Jaron turn. Growls and snarls of fighting rattled the bushes. Twigs, dirt and pieces of leaves began to rise into the air. With a flash of light, Magdud ran from the forest. Four short, black creatures followed him. Jaron recognized them as badgers when they reached the clearing. Magdud pulled a something from his necklace and threw it at the four badgers. They froze in midair and the orkkan stopped running.

  Magdud pulled a round object from a pouch and began to chant.

  Stop him, Vayvnu’s voice pleaded in a weak voice.

  Tiny arrows struck Magdud from behind, but it didn’t interrupt his spell casting. Jaron picked up a rock, knowing he couldn’t reach Magdud before the spell was complete, and then ran at him. He hurled the stone and kept running. Magdud dropped the object he held just as the stone clipped his shoulder, spinning him around.