by Kyle Vauss
I didn’t know what to say. This was nearly goodbye. When I first met Gabber, I hadn’t wanted anything to do with him. Now that the end of our journey grew close, I didn’t want to leave.
As I thought about what to say in reply, I heard something. It was coming from above us, outside the vault. It was the sound of dozens of little goblins screeching.
We heard feet patter on the staircase leading to the vault. A second later, two of Gabber’s goblins appeared. One of them held the body of his dead kin in his arms.
“It’s the ones I sent to scout out the areas around the village,” said Gabber, his face full of panic. “It’s just about the only command they’ll actually listen to.”
He walked over and started to talking to the goblins. The goblins answered in reply to him, and their conversation seemed urgent. After thirty seconds of talk, Gabber looked at me. His face was full of fear.
“Crawford’s coming,” he said.
Chapter Thirty-Six
We left the vault by the winding staircase and went out of the chief’s hut and into the village. The little goblins were no longer playing. Instead, they stood in a straight line and stared into the distance.
“How far away is Crawford?” I said.
Gabber shrugged. “A few hours away, at most.”
I stared beyond the village and to the horizon. I couldn’t see any sign of the man who had quickly, and with persistence, become my nemesis. I was beginning to think that there was no way to get rid of him. Then something occurred to me. I turned to Loria.
“Crawford should think that Gabber’s dead. If that’s the case, why is he still coming?”
Loria moved away from Gabber. It seemed like she didn’t want to talk about it in front of the goblin. “He thinks Gabber is the key to his achievement, from what you said,” she answered. “If that’s true, then he’ll be under the impression that when Gabber dies, he’ll just respawn.”
This didn’t seem right. Crawford’s achievement was such a rare one that only two or three people had ever gotten it. That meant that as an NPC, Gabber only rarely respawned. If ever. For all I knew, once Gabber died, a different creature would take his place and become part of the ‘Kill Every Creature’ achievement.
Crawford was too smart to think Gabber would come back. That could only mean that he knew that Gabber was still alive – but how?
Crawford must have used his tracking skill on Gabber. That meant that not only did he know Gabber was still alive, but he also knew where we were.
“We’re not going to get away from him,” I said.
“Come on,” said Gabber. “My clan is a few hours north. Maybe we can outrun him.”
I shook my head. “You don’t get it, Gabs. Crawford won’t stop, and he has more resources than us. There’s no getting away.”
Gabber scratched his head. “Well, the scouts did tell me something.”
“What?” asked Loria.
Gabber gulped. “They said Crawford was riding on the back of something. Some enormous beast with six legs.”
This was all we needed. Crawford had bought himself a mount. I brought up the Infarna wiki and checked the mounts list. There was only one available for purchase that had six legs. It was a Herecki Mount, a six-legged creature that could run faster than anything on the game.
“We can’t outrun him,” I said.
“We have to try,” answered Gabber.
I shook my head. “No. We won’t make it. And we’ve come so far that I’m not going to let him catch you.”
“So, if we can’t run, what do we do?” asked Loria.
I stared at her, and then Gabber. I knew what we had to do now. It went against everything I’d worked for, but there was no choice.
“We have to fight him,” I said. “It’s the only way.”
“But you can’t hurt him. Remember? The ward-thing that stops you hurting people like you.”
He was talking about the fake explanation I’d given him about player killer zones. It didn’t apply now, since we’d strayed into player-killing areas. I shook my head.
“That doesn’t matter now,” I said. “Up here, Crawford and I can hurt each other. That means that Loria and I can help you fight.”
“But he’s too strong,” said Loria.
She was right, I knew. Crawford was too powerful for us in levels, skills and resources. We didn’t have a wealth of options available. We could try to escape, but he would just run us down like dogs. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Not only that, but travelling with Gabber made me realize that I’d already spent the last two years running. I’d told myself I was saving up to pay my debts and leave the country, but really, I was trying to escape. I was running away from my past.
“We’ll fight,” I said, looking at my friends. “I’m done running. We’ll shore up the village defenses, train the goblins as best we can, and we’ll take the battle to Crawford. It’s time we stopped him.”
With our plan resolved, we needed to get to work. We had a few hours until Crawford reached us, and we’d have to make the best of it.
Given that goblin villages were built for protection as well as living in, we had some advantages. There were disused traps spread on the outskirts of the fence, which Gabber and I activated.
The fence that surrounded the village was only seven feet tall, and it was so flimsy that it wouldn’t help us much. We needed something bigger, but we didn’t have time to build it.
“I’ve got an idea for that,” said Loria, with a grin.
Using her major illusion skill, Loria cast a hologram around the village. She produced illusions of twenty-foot high guard towers, which she placed at each corner of the village. The guard towers looked impressive, and they came complete with illusory goblin archers. The towers would vanish if Crawford even touched them, but that didn’t matter. We just needed it to look like the village was foreboding. It might not scare Crawford, but there was a chance it’d put a morale debuff on whoever was with him.
With that done, we decided we needed to train up Gabber’s goblin army. There wasn’t a lot we could do given our limited time, but we could teach them the rudiments of fighting. That would hopefully add a point or two extra damage and defence to their fighting stats.
Gabber found seven sets of armor in the village armory. He also discovered basic swords, hand axes and a few clubs. We divided these amongst the goblins. Although the armor was too big for them, it was better than having them fight naked. Besides, after a while I got sick of seeing a bunch of naked goblins running around.
I walked into the center of the village and stood in front of them all. I counted eighteen of the creatures. It was hardly an army, but I knew Crawford would have mercs and neeves with him, and we needed as many bodies as we could get.
“Listen up,” I said, looking at the goblins.
They stood together in a group. Some of them looked at me, but most had small attention spans, and soon they were nipping and biting each other.
“Tell them to stop playing,” I said to Gabber.
Gabber spoke to the goblins in their language, but few of them paid attention.
“They’re not listening,” he said.
“You’re their chief. Make them listen.”
Gabber spoke to them again, this time putting more force into his voice. The goblins still didn’t heed his commands.
Gabber huffed. “This won’t work. They don’t see me as their chief, because I don’t look like one. And until then, they won’t pay attention to either of us.”
“We need to sort this,” I said. “Not only to fight Crawford, but what about afterwards? How are you going to take back your clan with an army who won’t listen to you?”
“I don’t know what to do,” said Gabber.
I walked over and put my hand on his shoulder. “You do,” I said. “Think about it, Gabber. You know what you have to do.”
Gabber put his hand to his chin and stared at the ground. A few seconds later, he sl
owly turned his head toward me.
“The chief’s armor,” he said.
I nodded. “You need to wear it.”
He backed away from me. “I might die, Tamos.”
“You’re a chief. Maybe not of this clan, but of the Redbacks. You were born to be chief. I don’t give a crap if you’re not physically tough, or you’re not a warrior. Remember what you told me? A chief doesn’t need to fight, because he has others who fight for him. You were born to be a leader, Gabs.”
He ran his fingers through his wisps of hair. “I don’t know.”
“You can do it. You have to put on the armor. Take a chance. I believe in you.”
There really was no other way. Gabber, Loria and I couldn’t fight Crawford and his mercs alone, and it was clear the goblins wouldn’t listen to any of us. They needed a leader. And if wearing the chief’s armor was what it took, then we had to try.
Deep down, I worried that Gabber might not pass the test. That the armor would find him unworthy and would close up, smothering him. I shook my doubts away. Gabber had a destiny, and he had to take a risk to fulfill it.
I just hoped it worked.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The vault felt cold. My chest was tight with the anxiety the upcoming battle brought on me. Gabber padded across the stone floor and stood in front of the armor. We were alone down there. Loria was in the village, making illusory defenses and raiding shacks for anything useful.
Gabber took hold of the chest plate. He seemed to be gripping it lightly, as if he expected it to hurt him.
“Are you sure about this, Tamos?”
I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t tell him that. Nor could I give him reassurance without lying to him.
“This has to be your decision, Gabber. I can’t make the choice for you. But it’s clear that the guys up in the village won’t see you as their chief unless you look the part.”
Gabber nodded. “I know. And part of me knew it’d come down to this. If not now, then when I took back my clan. I was always going to have to undergo a test one way or the other.”
He turned to face me. His expression was more resolute. He took a deep breath.
“I’ll do it,” he said. “Without the bonuses from the armor, I won’t be much good in a battle. And I know what I said about a chief not needed to fight, but that was fear talking. A chief needs to be a balance of qualities, I think. He needs to have brains and to be fair, but he needs to draw his axe when the time comes. If I don’t do this, I don’t deserve a clan.”
“Okay,” I said.
“You’ll stay here, won’t you?” said Gabber. “If it goes wrong, I’d hate to be alone.”
I didn’t like him talking this way, and I didn’t want to see him die. Part of me wanted to stop him, but I remembered what Loria had said. I had to let him do this. It was his destiny.
“I’ll be here, Gabber,” I said.
Gabber took down the chest plate and put it on. Piece by piece he covered himself in the chief’s armor. He seemed to transform as I watched, becoming bigger, mightier. More like a leader. I folded my arms, waiting for the sign of danger.
“Nothing’s happening,” I said.
Gabber gripped the helm. His breaths were shaky now. “The trial doesn’t start until I put this on,” he said. “And after that, the armor will judge me.”
I couldn’t stop myself. I had to say something. I walked forward and put my hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes.
“If this goes wrong,” I said. “I want to thank you.”
“I promised you the sword. You helped me, and you got a reward.”
“Not that. You’ve made me realise something.”
I didn’t know if Gabber knew what I was talking about. He would have no idea about Sarah and Baxter, and how I’d spent a long time avoiding any sort of connection with people. He couldn’t realise how much our journey had changed things for me.
“Enough talk,” said Gabber. “I need to do this.”
I almost couldn’t look. I imagined the helm closing on him, squeezing the oxygen from him. Gabber thrashing around, trying to draw breath. If this went badly, I didn’t want to watch him die. All the same, I knew I couldn’t turn away.
“You can do this,” I said. “You’re a born chief.”
With shaking hands and quick breaths, Gabber lifted the helm above his head. He slowly lowered it down. The tension in the room was so thick that I felt it settle on my shoulders and try to press me down.
Gabber put the helm on top of his head. Taking a deep breath, he pulled it down, until it covered his face. The armor was complete now. Gabber looked every inch the goblin chief.
I waited for something to happen, but it didn’t.
“Has it worked?” I said.
“I feel strange,” said Gabber. “Like something is seeping inside me. It's crawling into my brain, reading my thoughts. But I think it’s worked-”
Suddenly, the helm visor snapped shut, cutting off his sentence. The armor seemed to turn liquid, and it spread over his body and then moulded to him. It seemed to be squeezing him from the inside.
Gabber grasped at his chest and tried to pry it off, but the suit just moulded tighter. The helm wrapped around his face, closing over his nose and mouth until I couldn’t even see him anymore.
Panic filled me. I stepped forward. I grabbed my friend and tried to find a gap in the armor, but there was nothing. I tried pulling it off, but the armor was a part of him now, like a second skin, except it was smothering him. Gabber beat desperately at his own chest.
He was dying. The words ran through my head and sent panic shuddering through me. Gabber was dying and there was nothing I could do. I pulled my sword from my sheath.
Gabber fell to the floor now. His movements were slowing as his breath left him.
There was nothing left to lose. It might hurt Gabber, but if I didn’t do something, he would die in second.
I aimed the sword at his chest. I struck the armor with a mighty blow, hoping to tear some sort of hole in it.
Nothing happened. The armor was too tough. I hacked again, and my sword made a ringing sound as it struck the metal, but there was no sign of any damage. Gabber’s arms flopped away from his chest, and he was still. He lay on the floor, motionless.
He was dead.
Desperation took hold of me. I grabbed Gabber and lifted him close to me. The armor changed, the mold separated. I could see his face. Pale, lifeless.
How could this be? Gabber was destined to be the chief of a clan, so how could he have failed the test? How on earth had the armor found him unworthy? It was such a cruel end, one that he didn’t deserve.
I stepped back. I shouldn’t have let him do it. This was my fault. I’d been so stupid.
And then I realized what I had to do. There was a chance. Small, but there all the same. A glimmer of light in the dark vault.
I looked at Gabber and concentrated on his face. Staring at him, I cast Spare the Dying.
A light gathered in my palms and then spread out, covering every inch of the goblin’s body. It lit along the armor and then seeped in through the cracks until it bathed his skin. Then it gathered in the center of his chest and rushed out toward the ceiling. It banished the shadows of the vault and blazed like a flame.
Gabber coughed. His eyelids flickered, and then opened. He tried to sit up, and the armor made a clanking sound as he moved.
“What happened?” he said, looking at me.
He looked around, as if he was unsure of where he was. Then he stared at me.
“The armor told me that I’d failed. I could feel it probing my mind, looking for my secrets. It told me I couldn’t do it alone. That on my own, I couldn’t be a chief.”
I didn’t know what to say. I could hardly explain to him about my skill.
“And then I felt something. A glow inside me,” said Gabber. “It told me that I couldn’t be a chief by myself. But if I had someone with me, then I could pass.”
>
He sat up and looked at me. “It was you, Tamos,” he said. “I needed you with me. I couldn’t pass the test by myself, but I could if you were here. I needed a goblin shadow.”
He stood up. He seemed more comfortable in the armor now, as though it was part of him. I couldn’t help but think that he seemed taller and stronger, that a different person was stood before me.
“The Hunchtail clan chiefs had alliances with humans,” he said. “And every chief had a protector who they called the Goblin’s Shadow. If I’d tried the test alone, I would have died. But because you were here, you became my shadow. And the armor saw me as complete.”
