by Thad Ward
Ike pressed the partisan a little harder, drawing a line of blood that vanished against the weapon’s red aura like water on a hot griddle. “Thorn thrower says you’re lying. Tell me where your cave is and I may let you live.”
Ibril kept his head as still as possible. His eyes searched from side to side and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. “Clan is toward sunset. Follow fast river to high cliffs.” He gulped. “Look for black stones.”
Ike nodded and drew the blade away from Ibril’s neck, rising. “Ada?” he said over his shoulder.
“Whatever he just said was honest,” Ada confirmed.
“Good,” Ike said. “Thank you, Ibril.” He reached down and removed the ear cuff from the goblin before turning back to his companions. “Okay, guys. I know where to go.”
“What about him?” Clay said, pointing with his sickle. “You want me to…” he trailed off, pretending to draw the blade across his own throat while tilting his head to the side and lolling his tongue out of his mouth.
Ike frowned. “It’s the logical thing to do. We wouldn’t want him getting free and causing more trouble, and he’s given us all the information we’re likely to get, but I sort of promised him he could live if he told us about the cave.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Ada said with a shrug. “We’re just breaking a promise to a goblin that’ll be too dead to care afterward.”
Ike shook his head. “If I were designing this game, there’d be a system that keeps track of stuff like this. Think about how most world religions include a system of rewards and punishments for good and evil deeds. It’s a good blueprint for how the world would work if humans made the rules, and they do here.” Ike looked toward Ibril. “What I mean is, going back on our word could be bad karma.”
Ada tilted her head. “Is that why you’re always freeing trapped animals and giving gifts to bullied children and finding jobs for beggars?”
Ike shrugged. “Not really. I mean, it’s a good reason to. Those just felt like the right things to do at the time. Same with Ibril, honestly. There are enough jerks in the world as it is. I’ve always tried not to be that guy, you know?”
Clay lowered his sickle and gave Ike a puzzled look. “Wait, so swiping that extra cookie when the farmer’s wife wasn’t looking could come back to bite me in the ass? Aw hell.”
“It’s just a theory,” Ike said. “Besides, if I’m right, little things like that wouldn’t amount to much unless you did them a lot. Killing a helpless enemy you promised to spare, on the other hand…”
“Right,” Ada said. “Probably not worth the risk. I’ve got a suggestion, then.”
A few minutes later, Ada had rigged the rope tying Ibril up to a nearby tree and Clay was hoisting him into place a few feet off the ground. The goblin howled in protest all the while.
“I know you can’t understand this right now,” Ike said, crossing his arms and looking up at the goblin pinata. “I’m a man of my word. We’ll let you live. We can’t let you go free, though. If your information is good, we’ll come back in a few hours and let you down.”
The party left the goblin to his fate and walked westward. Ike swore he could still hear the creature wailing a good kilometer away.
“You know,” Ada said, a wry smile playing across her lips. “If he keeps yelling like that, some wild animal’s liable to come finish him off.”
“That’d be a shame,” Ike said in an even tone.
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Clay said with a serious nod.
The three broke into fits of laughter a moment later.
Chapter 22
Dying
“T
hese are delicious,” Ike said, admiring another big, juicy blackberry before popping it into his mouth.
Clay talked while chewing. “Nature’s Bounty is a handy spell to have if you like fruits and vegetables.” He swallowed and wiped the dark purple juice off his lips with the back of his hand. “I’ve never come this far from town, though. Mostly I’ve just used it for snacks or feeding livestock. And once to get pie filling.”
Ike nodded. “We should save some for when we save the cattle, then. And I’m sure Ada would enjoy some when she gets back.”
The two were hunkered down behind foliage near a riverbank. As they’d waited, Clay had discovered a nascent blackberry bush. A handkerchief with a pile of berries sat between them. Clay nodded and began tying the corners together into a makeshift hobo bag.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Ike said, “what do you do for a living? I’ve heard most folks are satisfied with the class the game picks for them, but that doesn’t always match up with real life. Artificer makes some sense for me since I’m a programmer, but trapper doesn’t have much to do with Ada’s job as an office worker. I’m curious how it is for you.”
“I guess I’d be in the same boat as Ada,” Clay said, placing the finished bag into his backpack. “I’m a construction worker in a big city. Not a lot of farmland where I live.”
“Do you enjoy farming?” Ike asked. “I mean, you seem eager to go on a grand adventure. It’s hard to imagine you wanting to feed chickens and till soil.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Clay said. “I like both. I didn’t expect to, but there’s just something about working the land.” He reached down and picked up a handful of soil, rubbing it through his fingers and watching it thoughtfully as it fell to the ground. “Even this quest feels like an extension of that in a way. There’s a sort of ‘defending the homestead’ feel to it.”
“Seems like True Calling has you pegged just like the rest of us,” Ike said with a smile. “Ever consider changing careers in real life because of it?”
Clay shook his head and just a hint of sadness played across his expression. “Maybe when I retire. It’s a nice dream. I’m glad I get to see what it could be like, but real life’s not so simple.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Ada said, appearing out of the bushes without preamble.
“Shit!” Clay said, falling backward before scrambling back up.
Ike sprang to his feet and had his short sword halfway out of his sheath. He closed his eyes and slowly slid it back in. “Maybe a little warning next time.”
Ada glanced over the bushes furtively and gestured for them to sit back down. “I’ll take it under advisement,” she said softly, “but I’ve seen goblin patrols around. Not ideal conditions for announcing myself.”
“So what did you find out?” Clay asked.
Ada picked up a stick and began drawing in the dirt as she spoke. “This is the river. We’re here. The patrol was about two hundred meters upstream when I saw it last. A group of five, so smaller than last time, but one of them’s wearing armor. He may just be better equipped, but I’d bet he’s tougher than the others, too.”
Ike nodded. “I’ll use Identification on him once we get closer. If I can’t get a read on him, we’ll bail immediately.”
“Did you see the herd?” Clay said. “It should be impossible to miss unless they drove it into the cave.”
Ada nodded and added a mark in the dirt. “The patrol was right next to them. They’ve got the cows penned in pretty tight.”
“Great,” Ike said. “Seems like our first objective is pretty clear, then. What about the cave?”
Ada drew another mark about twice as far away. “That’s what took me so long. I got as far in as I could.” She shook her head. “I’ll be honest, Ike. There are dozens of them in there, and that was just as far as I could sneak safely. There could be hundreds. We need a much larger group to even think about it.”
Ike furrowed his brow. “No sign of the leader?” he asked.
“Not that I could tell,” Ada said. “Not unless he looks a lot like the rest of them. If we saw one out here in armor, I’d expect at least that much.”
“Agreed,” Ike said. “They’re not smart enough to hide him in plain sight. He must be further in.”
Clay reached over and pa
tted Ike on the back. “Don’t worry about it. Ada can finish her quest now that she found the cave, and I’ll finish mine once we free the herd. We’ll turn those in, find a few more people, and come back stronger tomorrow.”
Ike sighed, disappointed but resigned. “Sounds like a plan. I’m not interested in a suicide run any more than you guys are. Let’s deal with this patrol and head back to Weir.”
“Right, and not like that last bunch,” Ada said. She laced her fingers together and extended her hands forward, palms out. “It’s time to show my stuff.”
Clay raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
Ike patted Clay on the shoulder and smiled devilishly. “Just follow her lead. Trust me, you’re gonna love this.”
Ike and Ada nodded to each other before she returned to stealth and crept back out of the bushes. Ike spent the next several minutes explaining their party tactics and how Clay would work into them, keeping things simple and focusing on what Clay needed to do at each step.
As she had with the skeletons, Ada used an arrow to start the fight. It glided easily along the riverbank, hitting its mark from fifteen meters away. The goblin yelped and reached over its shoulder, yanking the projectile out and turning around with a furious expression. The other four turned along with it, drawing out their usual assortment of primitive or low-quality weaponry. The one in the armor, who hadn’t been struck, raised its buckler and pointed its sword toward the party, shouting out an order in goblish.
Clay stood front and center, his barrel lid and sickle at the ready. Ada was a few steps behind and to the side of him, nocking another arrow. Ike stood at Clay’s shoulder, close enough that his partisan’s reach took full advantage of the shield user.
The four unarmored goblins charged forward, shouting their shrill war cries. The armored goblin brought up the rear, moving more slowly from the weight of his gear. Ada drew a beat on him and arced her arrow over the advancing goblins, but the armored goblin had expected the shot. It lost a step of momentum but brought its shield up to intercept. The arrow embedded itself and trembled slightly before the goblin warrior shook it free.
Ike squinted past the oncoming goblins. “You were right, Ada. Goblin warrior. About twice as strong as the others. And it hits even harder if you’ve slain a goblin.”
“Damn, that’s dirty!” Clay said, bracing his feet to meet the charge. “They send their lackeys first to trigger the buff!”
“All good,” Ada said, nocking another arrow with a casual smile. “After all, we’re not the ones killing them.”
The goblins weren’t very smart, but they were accustomed to ganging up on their prey. They fanned out, attempting to encircle the party’s formation. Then blood sprayed into the air amidst the cries of the two outermost goblins. The two coming straight on slowed to watch their companions get impaled by the wooden spikes along either side. The goblins in the traps hung limply, pierced in half a dozen places. The two in the center stopped in their tracks, looking hesitantly from the party to their leader.
The leader gritted his teeth and growled out a series of orders, increasing his pace. One of the unarmored goblins came straight on, lashing out with a rusty mace only to meet Clay’s shield. The other unarmored goblin tried to repeat the same flanking tactic but guessed at the position of other traps and attempted to leap over them.
Ike could see the series of spike traps Ada had laid out in a V shape leading up to Clay. The goblin was either skilled or lucky; it had guessed correctly and was halfway over one of the traps when Ike activated Shield of Faith. Quick as thought, the shield flew into position in front of the goblin. Ike saw the confusion on its face as it smacked into the translucent construct and fell backward onto the trap. Blood fountained upward. The creature let out a piteous gurgle and promptly died.
Ike turned his attention back to the last unarmored goblin. Clay had followed Ike’s instructions and focused entirely on defense, fending off the goblin’s attacks without sustaining any injuries. As luck would have it, this was the goblin that Ada had struck with an arrow. As its attacks pounded against Clay’s shield, they grew slower and weaker. The creature drew back one last time, wobbled, and fell, foam frothing from its mouth.
“Huh, worked faster than I thought,” Ada commented. “I wonder if poison or traps count as slaying.” She raised her bow and trained it on the goblin warrior, waiting for a good shot.
The goblin warrior’s charge finally brought it to its decimated front line. It howled in anger and drove its sword at Clay’s gut. Clay managed to deflect the blow, but the force of it tore a chunk off the side of his shield. “This guy seems to think so!” Clay said through gritted teeth. “Can I attack now?”
“Yeah, let’s take him,” Ike said. He hopped lightly over the nearest trap and took a jab at the goblin warrior. The attack was intended more to distract than to inflict damage, and the goblin warrior batted it away with its buckler.
Ike had explained basic flanking tactics to Clay while Ada had prepared her traps. The concept was simple: Get on either side of a target. If the opponent concentrates you on, focus on defense. When its attention is on your ally, attack. Even if you don’t land a hit, you’ll harry the opponent enough to render its attacks ineffective.
Clay had been paying attention. The goblin made a quarter turn and sliced toward Ike. Ike brought his partisan up to block. Clay saw his opening and took a swipe at the side of the goblin’s head. It leaned away at the last second, taking only a glancing blow. Blood trickled from where the tip of its ear had been.
The goblin fell back a step, moving out from between them whenever Clay or Ike would move to flank. Ike had expected it to be angry and reckless, but this goblin seemed different. There was plenty of intensity to its attacks, but there was also cold calculation in its eyes as it maneuvered, flicking its gaze back and forth between the three of them.
“I can’t get a clear shot,” Ada called. She kept her bow drawn and pedaled back and forth, rising and dipping as she searched for an opening. “He keeps moving so one of you is in the way. And he’s moving us away from the traps.”
Ike narrowed his gaze. The goblin warrior wasn’t just avoiding them; it was up to something. He considered the other tricks he had up his sleeve but decided to continue the attack instead. It seemed far-fetched that they would have this much trouble with an opponent of the same level that they outnumbered three to one.
The dance of combat brought the four of them to the river. The water was to Ike’s left, its swift current lapping the shore. Ada was behind Ike and slightly right, still unable to get a clear shot. The goblin was in front of Ike with Clay just behind it. They’d backed it up to the water and finally gotten it between them.
The goblin whipped fully toward Clay and Ike took the opening, committing to a full forward thrust. The goblin, who must have judged the trajectory of the attack without seeing it, managed to take a glancing blow to the shoulder. It raised its sword and shouted something in goblish, bringing it down with a flash of red light.
The attack cleaved Clay’s sickle cleanly in two and sent him reeling backward. In the same fluid motion, the goblin scooped up the head of the sickle by its shortened half and turned back toward Ike.
“Ike, look out!” Ada cried.
“I see it!” Ike said, meeting the goblin warrior’s gaze. He had misjudged their odds. The three of them had numbers and Clay had raw strength, but the goblin warrior had something they all lacked: Combat experience. It had probably seen that Clay had no backup weapon and had drawn them into their formation on purpose. Now there was no big shield between Ike and the goblin.
There was a distant twang. Ada collapsed against Ike. The shock of it threw his mind into chaos. “Ada, what…!?” Ike said, the words stopping in his throat. He saw blood trickle from Ada’s mouth and then saw her hit points flash red.
Hit Points: 0 / 10
Ike called his Shield of Faith to fend off the goblin, trying and failing to catch Ada as she slipped off and fell past h
im into the water, a crossbow bolt protruding from her back.
“Son of a bitch!” Clay yelled. “A sniper!” He lifted his shield in front of him and charged away from the water toward a patch of foliage.
Ike spared a glance but couldn’t spot the attacker Clay was after. The goblin warrior made him pay for his lapse in attention, side-stepping his shield and striking him in the calf.
Hit Points: 3 / 6
Ada was in the water somewhere behind Ike. Clay had charged out of his sight after some other assailant. The goblin warrior attacked relentlessly, alternating between the sword and half sickle as it beat on his shield. All it would take is one more sundering attack and Ike would be at its mercy.
“Damn it!” Ike swore, activating his ring.
Confidentiality had supplied the invisibility effect, but it had been impossible to apply to a person without adding several limitations. The single-target code from Blood Trail and the once-per-day limitation from Safety had just barely made it possible.
The goblin warrior leapt backward, searching left and right for Ike. Ike knew his advantage wouldn’t last. Invisibility wasn’t the same thing as stealth. The goblin would still be able to pinpoint him from disturbed dirt and grass, so Ike charged forward, entrusting his whole defense to the goblin’s momentary confusion.
The blade of the partisan pierced the goblin’s arm. It shrieked and dropped its sword, batting the shaft of the weapon away blindly with its broken sickle. Ike drew back and lunged for the goblin’s midsection, landing a shallow blow that failed to penetrate the goblin’s armor. The creature yelled in frustration and turned to run.
Ike let it go. He was angry. Angry at waiting to use his trump card against the goblin. Angry at being ambushed. Angry that he didn’t know who had attacked them. He would’ve loved to take all that frustration out on the fleeing goblin, but he had more pressing concerns.
Ike turned away and ran after Clay, catching sight of the big man a few moments later. Clay was coming to a stop and catching his breath. Ahead of him, a dark figure retreated downstream faster than Clay could sprint.
