Greenways Goblins (Resurrection Quest Book 1)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  Barrier surrounded Dick, keeping the hoblin from injuring him and leaving it off balance. Dick pulled the axe from his belt and hacked at it in return, but it jumped back, causing him to miss.

  John let out a stifled scream when the hoblin stabbed him, instinctively returning the attack. Marie’s eyes blazed and her staff shot past John’s head, catching the hoblin in the throat. Gurgling, it fell to the ground, clutching its broken windpipe.

  The remaining hoblin on Dick took another bolt in the back and an arrow to the chest. “Thanks. Michael, watch the hall to the main room,” he said quickly. “Marie, we need another ice burst on the hoblins in the middle, quickly!”

  The hoblins on the ground started to scream the same few words over and over— sounding like a plea for help— scrambling to get out of the slippery area.

  Another chunk of ice shot into the group, this one crushing a skull, then exploding and killing the others. “I did it…” Marie’s words were half victory and half horror.

  “Bandages, please,” John asked her with a pained grimace.

  “Oh, right,” Marie said, pulling her bag around.

  “Dick, we have company,” Michael called out, turning the lantern to face down the hall. The lantern illuminated a dozen hoblins coming their way.

  “Fuck,” Dick said, starting to cast slip. “Harry, we need to retreat. Marie, bind him once we’re back up top. Michael, get a fire arrow ready.”

  The light threw the hoblins off balance and they stopped in confusion. That ended when Dick spoke; the leading hoblin snarled something in goblin and charged down the hall.

  Dick cast slip a few feet past Michael as everyone else ran out of the room. “Retreat and cast as you go. Use area spells. Michael, forget the arrow— grab my liquid fire vial.”

  The hoblins hit the slippery area and fell heavily, sliding toward them. Michael grabbed the lantern and backed away, the fire arrow forgotten as he retreated with the others. “Right.”

  The boom of John’s cacophony erupted over the downed hoblins, followed by an ice burst that silenced a few of the attackers. A vial arced out a moment later, erupting into flame and setting the spell effect and the hoblins within it on fire.

  A volley of arrows came flying through the fire, hitting or grazing Harry, Dick, and Marie, as more hoblins responded to the attack.

  “Go, go, go!” Dick shouted, pushing the others in front of him. “I can slow them again. Get the oil out; we’ll need it.” More arrows flew into their group, one hitting Michael in the back and another piercing Dick’s buttcheek. “Motherfucking-bitch-ass-whores!”

  Three clay flasks shattered behind Dick as Harry, John, and Marie threw some of the oil they had behind him. Opening one of his own, he left a trail from the puddle behind him as he hobbled after them.

  More arrows flew after them, but missed as the group made it into the main tunnel. The fire behind them was dying out when Dick turned the corner. A roar of voices filled the corridor as the horde of hoblins charged after them.

  Dick peeked out long enough to cast his last spell, slip, on the ground where they’d poured the oil. The front hoblins went sliding, and those behind them stopped when their allies fell. Harry chucked his liquid fire vial around the corner. The shattering of glass was lost in the whoomph of flames and the screams of the burning hoblins.

  “We need to retreat farther. I’m out of spells,” Dick hissed as he limped along. “Tom was fighting to secure our escape.” Black smoke followed them as the oil burned the corpses behind them.

  ~*~*~

  Tom rushed down the hallway, the sound of hoblin screaming telling him something had gone horribly wrong. He was surprised to see his friends, all injured but alive, heading toward him. “It’s clear.”

  “Good. We need to trap this tunnel and rest. We’re in serious need of help,” Dick hissed.

  “We can slick the floor with oil. They won’t want to come up it,” Michael suggested. “Especially after what you just did.”

  “I’ve only used one of my clotting blood charges,” Tom said. “I’m good. You all go, but give me your flasks.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” Dick said as he handed the oil he had.

  “I’m not the pincushion,” Tom retorted, accepting their flasks and ushering them past him, the sickening smoke thickening as he worked.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  The screams died down in the tunnel, but Tom continued coating the floor with oil as he backed after his friends. Once he got to the room, he grabbed the closest corpse and tossed it down the slope.

  “Why?” Dick asked Tom while Harry extracted the arrow from his butt.

  “Hoping that more burning corpses will slow them down even more. Keep doing what you need to,” Tom said, grabbing the next dead body and coughing as some of the smoke started to funnel into the room.

  “Are we going to try resting here?” Marie asked.

  “Probably for the best,” Dick gasped as the arrow came free. “Fuck... that hurt.”

  “Everyone free of arrows?” Michael asked after John finished pulling his out.

  “Looks like,” Dick nodded.

  “How does one rest like Charlie talked about?” John asked.

  Michael looked at them, “I don’t know for certain.”

  “We have to relax for an hour, doing nothing strenuous for our spells. Hopefully, it’ll be the same for healing,” Dick said.

  “You have to want it to happen, I think,” Michael said. “You need to consciously think about getting better while relaxing.”

  “I’ll watch the tunnel,” Tom said as he threw the fourth body down the hall.

  “I should. They might not see me if I do it,” Harry said. “Just have a torch ready to throw when I call for it.”

  “A torch lasts an hour normally, so that’s our time scale,” Dick said, pulling one off his bag.

  “I’ll light it,” Michael said, pulling out his flint striker.

  Harry took a seat next to the archway, using the bit of shadow there to help him hide. “Move the lantern to face away from me, please.” Marie did as he asked, deepening the shadows by the tunnel. “Thank you.”

  Tom sat against the other side of the archway, the torch propped up and burning at the edge of his reach, his body casting a long shadow over Harry. “Extra shadows to go with the smoke.”

  “They will be looking your way,” Harry said, looking up at the smoke.

  “Fine by me,” Tom shrugged. “Sorry I missed the fun.”

  “Glad you cleared our escape,” Dick said from where he was leaning against a table, not wanting to sit on his injured rump.

  “It would have been bad if they had slowed us down in there,” Marie agreed.

  “What happened?”

  “More hoblins, and they all started screaming,” John said.

  “I thought I heard something about an attack,” Tom sighed. “I guess that’s what they were screaming.”

  “The main room came for us at that point.”

  “Used our two liquid fires and some oil,” Dick said.

  “I used my acid,” Tom said, motioning to the ceiling. “It was super effective.”

  Harry chuckled, “A wild hoblin appeared, did it?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to capture them all,” Tom chuckled along.

  “Really glad we didn’t play that style of game like Kattie wanted us to,” Dick grimaced. “Can you imagine?”

  “Depends. If it was based off the books from that one author, I’d have been down for it,” Tom grinned, his eyes looking into the distance.

  “You mean Footch?” Harry laughed. “Marie would not be happy if it was like that.”

  “Why?” Marie asked.

  “The beasts caught there were anthropomorphic women. You had to engage with them sexually to keep them happy and to build up their abilities,” Tom snickered.

  “Carl would never have done that,” Marie sniffed.

  “Kattie wouldn’t have let him,” John mur
mured.

  “Ah well. Instead, we get life and death struggles with hoblins,” Tom sighed.

  “Wasn’t his series about life and death, though?” Dick asked. “If you failed to conquer them the first time, didn’t they eat you? And not in the fun way?”

  “Supposedly, but the MC never failed, and it was never shown… so it’s up in the air.”

  “I’m glad we’re here instead,” Marie said, staring at the men in turn.

  “I am, too,” John was quick to assure her.

  Tom looked away, but he was softly laughing the whole time. Dick just shrugged when she looked at him. Harry gave her a sheepish smile before looking back down the tunnel.

  Time crawled by and nothing happened. The friends felt the knot of anxiety begin to ease. Tight muscles slowly relaxed in the hope that the hour would pass without incident. Unfortunately for them, that wasn’t going to happen. Another few minutes had gone by before Dick’s head jerked toward the tunnel.

  “I hear movement,” Dick said.

  Harry squinted down the tunnel, but he could only see about sixty feet even with the ambient light behind him. Holding the crossbow on his lap, he waited for anything to move. The soft scrape of foot against hard packed earth let him know he had that someone stealthy close to him.

  “Now,” Harry said, rolling out of the way immediately afterward.

  Tom grabbed the torch and chucked it around the corner. As it flew, a hoblin appeared in the light, its eyes following the torch with fear. That fear was reflected in the eyes of the other half dozen hoblins following a few feet behind it.

  The torch bounced, spun, and finally hit burning end down. The oil-soaked ground went up like a tinderbox. The hoblins screamed and ran, trying to get out of the fire as it spread along the tunnel.

  Tom stepped into the opening, hunkered behind his shield. “Do not pass go,” he shouted, slamming it into the lead hoblin and pushing it back onto the oil slicked floor. “Die in a fire,” he laughed as the hoblin sprawled on its back, panicking as flames coated it.

  “I got you,” John said, moving to help.

  “Stay back. You all need to relax,” Tom said. “I can hold this.”

  “John, fall back,” Dick said from where he leaned against the table. “This is why we set this plan up.”

  John went back to Marie, clearly unhappy but doing as he was told. Marie took his hand and shook her head, easing his anger.

  “None shall pass,” Tom laughed as he bashed his shield into the next hoblin.

  “Dude, really?” Harry asked with a sigh.

  “I don’t even have a flesh wound yet,” Tom cackled, taking a step forward to hit another hoblin, shoving it back into the one behind it. “These guys aren’t strong enough to oppose me.”

  The hoblins tried to rush him, but the tunnel was narrow at the top, allowing only one to attack him at a time. Tom kept shoving them back into the burning corridor, where they screamed in pain as the flames took them.

  “Anyone have any more oil?” Tom asked. The hoblins had stopped rushing him, and smoke was getting thick in the room.

  “I’m out,” Dick said.

  “Tapped,” Harry agreed.

  “I don’t have any more,” Marie added, John nodding with her.

  “I have one more, but I was saving it for the lantern,” Michael said.

  “We have torches,” Dick said. “Pass it over to him. If he can use it to keep the tunnel clear longer, it’ll be better for us.”

  “Anyone smell that?” Harry’s nose wrinkled. “Ugh, that smoke is foul.”

  “Burning meat,” Marie blanched, “but worse.”

  “Fall back,” Tom said as pungent smoke made him cough. “Head for the entrance, just go slow. I’ll follow in a bit.”

  “Don’t let too much of that shit into your lungs,” Dick coughed as he began to limp out the other tunnel.

  “I’ll get out before that happens,” Tom said. “Get moving.”

  Once the others were headed up the tunnel, Tom knelt by the tunnel entrance. The smoke roiled above his head, smelling of burnt roast with an odd, metallic tang as well as other, less savory hints. He watched the fire burn with the flask of oil in his hand, unwilling to go until the smoke got worse or the flames started to die.

  The others made the trek up, seeing the scorch marks left by Michael’s trap. “Good work,” Dick said, seeing the evidence that the trap had gone off.

  “Harry, why didn’t the gas trap go off?” Marie asked.

  “It was closer to the door than where we stopped them,” Harry replied. “They would have set it off after we retreated.”

  “Might explain the rogue types that came for us,” Dick nodded. “I hope it killed some more of them.”

  “We probably have twenty or so left in there, plus the greater vargr,” John said, “assuming the information Tom got from the hoblin he tortured was anything close to correct.”

  After almost fifteen minutes, Harry started back toward the tunnel. “I think I should go check on him.”

  “He let you do your job,” Marie said softly. “Trust him like he trusted you, Harry.”

  Stopping just outside the tunnel, Harry looked annoyed. “I don’t like it.”

  A deep cough announced Tom before he came into view. Exiting the tunnel, he gave Harry a grin, “As if a little smoke is going to hurt me.” Another bout of coughing ruined his attempt at being tough, and a billow of thick smoke followed him out.

  “Why did you stay so long?” Dick asked.

  “Wanted to keep the fire going longer,” Tom replied when he stopped coughing. “That’ll give them a bit more pause. We have maybe another ten minutes. Can you clean the smell off me, please?”

  “That should be enough time,” Marie said. “As soon as we recover our spells.”

  “I hope,” Dick said. “We don’t know that this will work at all.”

  “Maybe we should retreat into the brush,” Harry suggested. “Just in case.”

  “A good idea,” Michael nodded.

  “Okay,” Dick said with a wince as he headed for the brush. “Let’s go.”

  The group settled in to wait for the time to pass, with Harry and Tom keeping watch on the cave. They shared the hope that they would heal when Dick and Marie got their spells back.

  Marie and Dick grew anxious. Neither was sure how much time had passed, and had lost track. They knew it should be about now, but they still had not felt their energy return to them.

  “Anything?” John asked with trepidation.

  “Fuck, maybe moving as far as we did screwed it up,” Dick hissed.

  As if to taunt him, before anyone else could speak, a rush of energy filled him. Marie blinked and stood up straighter when she felt it, too.

  “We’re replenished,” Marie said, looking down at the wound she had taken to see it was now gone. “And healed. Let me get the stink out of our clothes.”

  “Not entirely for me,” Dick said, his ass no longer a cluster of pain, but still tender. “Looks like there’s a limit to how much a rest can do for you.”

  “My back feels better. Not completely healed, but better,” Michael added. “I can draw my bow again, I think.” He tested it, “Yeah, I’m good enough.”

  “I’m healed,” Harry chimed in.

  “Me, too,” John added. “Harry, Marie, and I all had minor wounds, so it might be a matter of severity.”

  “We’ll need to ask Charlie next time we see him,” Dick said.

  “Now that you’re all healed and have spells back,” Tom said, staring at the cave, “are we going in after them? Or are we going to set up to ambush them here?”

  “Good question,” Dick said. “We need to think this through. I notice the smoke is thinning out.”

  “We killed fifty or so before we left,” Harry said, doing a quick count in his head. “If that hoblin Tom talked to was right, we have about twenty left, like John said earlier.”

  “Can we handle twenty, the boss, and the greater v
argr all at once?” Marie asked.

  “If we try to ambush them, that’s likely what we’ll end up with,” Dick said, nodding.