Chapter 68: Goblins

The forest inside the gate was quiet.

The five of them walked along a narrow dirt path, with tall trees rising on both sides and pale light filtering down through the leaves. Roger led the way with his black sword resting on his shoulder. Lily walked at his side, glancing at the branches every few seconds. Sophia followed with her eyes sweeping the shadows, and Rika and Lucia brought up the rear.

"This is pretty calm for a C-ranked gate," Lily said.

"Don’t say that," Rika replied. "It’s never a good idea to say that."

"It’s just a forest." Lily replied casually.

"That’s exactly what I mean." Riker said,

A twig snapped.

Roger stopped, and the others went still.

CRASH!

A wave of green burst out of the trees.

Goblins poured onto the path from both sides, dozens of them, screeching and waving rusty blades. At the front of the pack, towering over the rest, ran a huge hobgoblin as tall as a human. It carried a heavy sword in one fist and wore a crude plate of iron across its chest.

"That one’s mine!" Roger shouted. "You take the rest!"

He lowered his sword and charged, he was the best fit for the hob goblin after all.

The hobgoblin saw him coming and roared, raising its blade. Roger swung. The two weapons met in the middle with a deafening clang, and sparks sprayed across the path.

CLANG!

The hobgoblin was shoved back several steps. It snarled and chopped at him, and Roger twisted and parried. They traded a few hard blows, the black blade ringing against the rusted one.

Behind him, Sophia was already barking orders.

"Rika, Lucia, stay back! Rika, hit them from a distance. Lucia, keep your eyes on everyone." She pulled ice into her hands, and two blades formed along her arms. "Lily, you’re with me. We hit them head-on."

"Got it!" Lily cracked her knuckles, and lightning crawled along her arms.

They went in together.

Sophia cut the first goblin in half and spun into the second. Her ice blades flashed in the dim light, quick and precise. Lily blurred past her and drove a lightning fist into a goblin’s chest, and it flew back into three others like a bowling ball.

Behind them, Rika raised her white staff. The crystal in its arch flared, and a bolt of light shot out and punched through a goblin’s head. She fired again and again, picking off the ones that tried to flank them.

"Left side!" she called.

"I see it!" Lily said, and kicked a goblin’s legs out from under it.

Sophia dropped to a knee and swept her blades across the ground. Ice spread across the dirt and froze a cluster of goblins to their ankles. They screamed and tripped over each other. She stood, and the blades flashed again, and the frozen ones fell.

"Behind you!" Lucia shouted.

Sophia ducked. A spear whistled over her head, and Lily caught the goblin who had thrown it and knocked it into a tree. Lucia stood near the back with her pendant glowing green, watching every one of them, ready to heal.

"Lily, pull right!" Sophia said.

"On it!"

The two of them moved like they had practiced it a hundred times. Sophia held the center and Lily darted around her, striking from the sides. When one of them was pressed, the other stepped in. Rika’s bolts took out the stragglers. Goblins fell, one after another, and the pile on the path grew.

It looked easy.

Meanwhile, Roger was still locked in his own fight.

The hobgoblin hacked at him with wild, heavy swings, and each one hit the black blade with a clang. Roger gave ground slowly, letting it spend its strength. Then he stepped inside a swing, turned his wrist, and cut across the monster’s forearm.

The hobgoblin roared, and its sword dropped to the dirt.

It lunged with its bare fist. Roger ducked under it and drove his sword up through the gap that he had seen The blade slid into its chest.

The hobgoblin froze, blood gushed out of the wound slowly.

Roger pulled the sword free, and the monster fell backward and did not move again.

"Done!" he called.

The last goblins on the path scattered into the trees, and the clearing went quiet. The five of them stood in the middle of a field of bodies, breathing hard, grinning at each other.

"That was clean," Lily said.

"That was fun," Roger said, and wiped his blade on the grass.

Then the ground shook.

THUD.

It was a heavy step, deep in the trees.

THUD. THUD.

They all turned. Branches snapped as something huge pushed through the forest, and a shape stepped onto the path.

It was a goblin.

It stood seven feet tall, with thick green arms and a barrel chest, and a huge iron mace in its hand. Its eyes were small and yellow, and they locked on the group.

Sophia’s stomach dropped.

"That should not be in this gate," she said.

"That’s not a normal goblin," Rika whispered.

It raised the mace and swung.

BOOM!

The blow caught Roger first and sent him flying backward through the air. He crashed into a tree and fell, coughing blood. The mace came around again and hit the ground, and the force threw Lily and Sophia off their feet.

"Behind me, I’ll raise a Barrier!" Sophia shouted.

She slammed her hands into the dirt, and a thick wall of ice rose between the goblin and the group. The mace hit it with a crack, and the ice shuddered, but it held.

Lucia ran to Roger.

She dropped to her knees beside him and pressed both hands against his chest. Her pendant flared bright green, and a soft glow spread over his torso. He groaned, and his eyes fluttered open.

"Shit that hurt ," he wheezed. "It hurts a lot."

"Stay still," Lucia said. "You took the worst of it."

Behind the barrier, the goblin raised the mace again.