“Will! Get her out of there!” Gerald called out.

Will was already on his way, before Gerald had even had a chance to speak. He dashed through in the wake that Nina had left, stepping over bodies of liveried goblins, and sparing only the occasional moment of thought to swipe out at those still standing, disarrayed though they were. Heart beating, he came upon the pile, the writhing gob-stack that Nina was stuck under.

He drew his sword back – and hesitated. Nina’s still in there. I can’t just stab through, or I might hit her. He sighed. “Don’t die on me!” he shouted into the stack, grabbing the nearest on the pile by the back of its collar, violently pulling it from the rest. It squawked out in surprise, trying to crane its neck around to see what had a hold of it, before a burning pain began to blossom through its chest. Will tossed the creature to the side, pulling his blade out of its back at the same time in a smooth motion before quickly going to repeat the process.

As he continued popping goblins off the stack, he was dimly aware of daggers appearing in exposed necks and heads on the pile, and the occasional thudding of a body behind him, but he entered into an almost meditative state, sweat dripping off him, focused solely on peeling layers off his companion. Grab, pull, stab, toss, grab, pull, stab toss grabpullstabtoss-llgrabpullstab-ILLtoss – “WILL!”

He checked back into his surroundings just in time to see a blade, crystalline and red, closing in on him. His eyes widened. “Shi–UGH!” his neck snapped back, pulling him out of reach of the fatal strike. He stumbled back, regaining his balance and raising his own blade defensively as a silver hand snuck around from the back of his head, landing on his shoulder. It floated up and flicked him, hard.

Will grimaced. “Sorry Gerald! And thanks for the save!”

There was a grunt from behind him. “Don’t make me do it again! I don’t have the energy to help save you and Nina!”

Will nodded, glancing at where Nina still lay, interred under a layer of goblin. Ethereal silver hands flitted in and out, pulling dead and dying goblins out where they could while daggers continued to rain down. He looked back to his current adversary, the sword wielding goblin. Past the thing, he could see others with swords, slowly gathering up the remainder of the unarmed variants, reforming the lines of battle. “They’re gathering up!”

“I can see that. One thing at a time, lad”

He shook his head. Gerald was right. He didn’t have the time to be worried about the state of the battlefield right now. He took a deep breath, held it, and slowly let it out through his teeth. Let what you can’t control go. Focus on what you can change. The periphery faded away, sounds dulling, leaving only himself, his breathing, and the goblin before him. Smirking, the thing waved its hand at him in a ‘come at me’ gesture.

Been a while since I’ve had a duel. Holding his sword out front, he kept his offhand close to the hip, ready to interfere with his foes' strikes. He slid forward, watching. The goblin raised its sword in a two-handed grip, staring him down.

In the span of a breath, they collided. The mirror-beast shifted, coiled muscles tensing, bringing its unusual red blade down on Will. Just as quickly, he brought his blade forward to ward off the blow, letting the crystal sword slide off his own, screeching. The goblin cackled in its piercing, jagged tonality, as it took a step, adjusted its grip, and brought the red blade back around for blood. Will took a few measured steps back, careful not to get too far from the gob-stack, focused on redirecting the force of the swings, rather than meeting them head on.

Blighted beast is strong. I’ll need to wait for a good moment to strike. He smirked, causing his foe to screech at him. If the old lady ever saw me fighting defensive against a goblin of all things, she’d have an aneurysm. They repeated the exchange in silence a few times, blades screaming at each other to fill the void left by their voices. Will stepped back, giving ground and circling around, keeping close to where they started. He stepped back-- and slipped.

With a crack! his knee hit the ground, followed soon after by his hands, palms sitting in the slick of blood he’d lost his footing on. Desperately pushing off, long years of training beat into him turned his fall into a half-assed roll, in an attempt to salvage his footing. Clang! The goblin followed after him, missing by a hand's breadth. Will pivoted, getting his uninjured foot under him, and winced. Shit! I’m not gonna be able to hold it off on this leg anymore! The unrelenting monster barreled toward him, bringing its blade down in a devastating arc. Bringing his weapon up in both hands, Will rushed to meet crystal with metal. As soon as they touched, he felt the weight of his exhaustion, the time it took to get through the dungeon, the fight against their mirror clones, and the melee, however short it had been, against the herd in this room. He watched dimly through his exhausted, adrenaline addled brain as the red, crystal sword slid closer, leaving small nicks in his blade, yet somehow coming out unscathed itself. Huh, he thought, I bet this guy is stronger than most goblins. Slowly, painstakingly slowly, the guiding rail that he’d set up with his sword shifted under the weight of the blow. A little less slowly, the crimson crystal slid into his shoulder, cutting clean down to bone.

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His vision darkened around the edges, and he grabbed the sword in his shoulder, struggling to anchor himself to consciousness.

-=-<^>-=-

Annette flinched as Will screamed, knuckles going white on her staff. Everything is going wrong. Will was down, maybe dying, Nina was still under the dwindling pile of goblins, and both Gerald and herself were running low on magic. She glanced at Gerald next to her, sweating freely and intently focused on conjuring hands to clear bodies off of the pile. Looking past the pile, she saw the rest of the goblins. Apparently seeing the tides of the fight shift with the arrival of the sword goblins, the boss was content now to amass a larger troop. The shield continued to send out new clones of the mobs, a mix of armed and unarmed, with the sword-wielding ones being sparser. Likely it takes more mana to spin out new copies of those. She chuckled manically. Not like they need too many of them. Taking a few hiccuping breaths, she felt like she was on the verge of tears. Gerald is busy and Will is down. I need to do something. With a few shuddering steps, she shook out the last few bees she’d kept in reserve, preparing to dive into the fray.

Gerald grabbed her at the last second. “I see her!”

From under the edge of the now largely deceased gob-stack, a hand burst out. Covered in scratches, bruises, and blood, Nina pulled herself from under the deadweight with a vengeance, murder in her eyes. Like a chick hatched from some grotesque shell of carnage and goblin flesh, she imprinted on the first thing she saw, marking it for death with barely any time to readjust to her surroundings. A deadly bird of prey, she descended on Will’s adversary, taking the creature unawares. In moments, it found itself bleeding out on the floor, two new puncture wounds on either side of its neck.

Oh, thank goodness. Annette let out a shuddering breath as Nina stumbled to Will’s side, both bleeding profusely. I think I would have just died if I’d gone to help. Their two injured fighters picked each other up, with the aid of some supportive silver hands, and began limping their way back to the rear line of their party. Annette shook her staff, letting it begin to seep honey through the folds in the hive as she watched the two make their way over. They’re so strong. Either of them could take me apart in the blink of an eye. Nina probably still could, even as injured as she is. She directed Gerald in pulling the sword out of Will’s shoulder, being careful to avoid any further injury as he gasped in pain. I’m part of this party, and they rely on me. She spread the healing honey deep into the gaping wound, and passed the head of her staff over it, letting wax melt out of the hive and over the entire thing, stopping the bleeding and sealing the conjured honey in tight. She held back tears. I’m their support, but I can’t do anything but watch them get cut to pieces. Passing her hive over Nina’s wounds, she quickly staunched the bleeding on the young woman’s light, but numerous, wounds. I’m so weak.

Nina let out a deep sigh of relief. “Aaaahh, that feels so much better already.” She shook her head in annoyance, a note of venom entering her voice. “Under the weight of all those damn fake goblins, I couldn’t get enough space to really stab them,” she sighed, picking at a wax bandage, “though, they couldn’t either. Just left me with a bunch of really itchy, burn-y scratches with their dirty nails.”

Gerald slapped the hand she was picking with. Then he hugged her. “Crazy, reckless girl. One of these days you’ll give me a heart attack before I’m ready to go.”

“...I’m sorry.”

After a brief moment, they separated, Gerald discreetly wiping at the corner of his eyes and clearing his throat. “Well, we’ll have time for that later. For now, we have to deal with that.” He pointed to the end of the room, back at the still gathering goblins. There was some odd movement in the crowd, members of the herd shuffling around each other.

The frontliners looked grim. Will shook his head. “I don’t think there’s much we can do at this point. I only made it out alive against one of the armed ones because Nina saved me, and we’re both too injured and exhausted to do much more.”

Gerald grunted. “Not that. That.”

They watched as a small group broke from the pack, a few wielding swords, but most unarmed. Annette tensed up. This is it. This is the– Wait, where are they going? She looked on, confused, as the contingent of mirror-clones didn’t approach them, instead stepping off to the side of the hall before proceeding, circling around their party. Are they… ?

“They’re going for another item? But… why?” Nina asked. “They have enough swords, they could probably just wipe us out right now.”

Gerald just shook his head. “I don’t know. Likely it’s trying to exploit some mechanic we don’t know about. One thing’s for sure though; we can’t let it get another original of these items.”

Will staggered to his feet, sword clutched loosely in his relatively uninjured arm. Nina shook her arms out next to him. “We’ll need to get them on their way back.”

Annette’s heart ached as she watched them walk away, rock solid determination in every step. She yearned to feel the same certainty. But, at the same time, something tickled at the corner of her mind. We need to stop them from getting another original of these items… We need to stop them from getting another original… Original… Her eyes widened. Maybe… This might work.