CHAPTER 19 - DRAIN LIFE

Lords was moving faster than I’d have expected from the man. As the goblins rushed us, he lunged forward across the gap between our two groups, ushering the party forward with his hands. “Let’s go! Move fast! Up this road, hurry!”

The other two suits took one look at their buddy on the ground and started running. The rest of the group hurried along in their tracks, quickly passing Samson and I as they raced down the road toward the police station.

I wished more than anything that I had my zombies with me, but I couldn’t sense them at this range. That sucked. If I were a little closer maybe I could order them to head this way. Since that wasn’t an option, now was a good moment to try a new spell. I cast Entangle toward the oncoming goblins.

The grass shot up around two of the little monsters, wreathing their feet, which made them stumble and slow just enough that more blades of grass wove themselves up around their legs, until they were stuck fast. Not bad! That didn’t even close to even the odds, but it was better than nothing. Maybe I could cast it again?

Before I could try, I got hit with the shakes, like I’d just run too far with too little fuel. I remembered Henry talking about how using his healing power exhausted him. This had to be the same thing. Whatever we drew power from to make these spells happen, it took something out of us, too.

The damned goblins were almost on top of us, and I couldn’t afford to be a fall-apart. I hefted up my axe as best I could and staggered forward a couple of feet to stand beside Samson. Another arrow slashed through the air. I saw it coming and stepped sideways, avoiding the shot. Thank you, tier two agility!

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“Good job on the spell! Plan is, you two cover me as best you can and we run like hell,” Lords said. He was a few feet away and…scooping up the business suit’s body? I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but then I saw the man’s eyes flutter and realized he wasn’t dead. Without an emergency room, ordinarily I’d figure he was toast anyway. But we had Henry. If Lords could get him back there in time, maybe Henry could save him.

“You got it,” Samson replied. He gripped his rebar with both hands.

“No heroics,” Lords snapped back. “Running fight. Keep them away from the noncombatants.”

Then he set off at a surprisingly fast pace for someone carrying another man. Maybe I ought to look into strength stones, too. Hell, it sounded to me like someone could use all of the things. Stamina to heal faster, and I’d be money more will would help me be able to cast more spells.

We ran alongside Lords. I was on the far right, closest to the oncoming goblins, and watched carefully for that archer to fire again. When he did, I called it out. “Arrow!”

This one wasn’t aimed for me; it clattered off the road about a foot ahead of one of the kids. That made me angry, because kids weren’t a fair target. Not now, not ever. There wasn’t much I could do about it besides shout at them. They weren’t close enough to fight, yet. But they were going to cut us off long before we reached the relative safety of the rest of our group.

Up ahead though, I saw help on the way. Bradley and Alfred rushed down the street toward us, weapons in hand. George must have seen the goblins pop out and sent them as reinforcements. I glanced over at the monsters. The two I’d Entangled had finally freed themselves, but they were way behind the pack. Not a major worry. I sensed that the spell had refreshed itself enough to cast again and gave it a shot.

Two more goblins were stopped cold, but so was I. The physical backlash from the spell was enough to make me stagger and stop running, gasping for breath. With an effort of will, I brought my breathing under control and readied my axe. They were too close to keep running. It was time to fight.

The first goblin rushed up and tried sinking a knife into me, but my agility came into play again. It wasn’t quite like the creature was moving in slow motion; it was more like it just seemed slow. I sidestepped the blow without much trouble, and in spite of being weakened by the spellcasting, I smacked him upside the head with the blunt end of my axe. He went down, and another shot—this time with the sharp side—finished him off.

Two more goblins were on me by then, but as they charged a chunk of rebar nailed one of them in midair, sending it sailing off to the side. I chopped the other goblin down to size with my axe.

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So many goblins, though! There was no time to count the things as they rushed at us. Then Alfred and Bradley were there, coming in on the goblins’ right flank with everything they had. And we’d finally gotten close enough that I could sense my zombies again. I called them and told them to double-time it. If I could get them over there quick enough to make a difference, then maybe things would be closer to even.

For now, there were too many of them. Even with my speed, it was all I could do to keep the things at bay with my axe. I wasn’t landing any more blows. Samson was in worse shape; he’d already taken a few small cuts from goblin daggers. An arrow flashed past his head, narrowly missing.

“Step back!” Samson called out. I did, following him in careful, concerted steps as we gave ground to the oncoming band of monsters. That let Bradley and Alfred tear into their flank all the more.

My boys were finally on the way! I sent Rosie off to deal with the damned archer—just find and destroy, please! Then I ordered Guildenstern to come to our aid. They were still a little ways off from their targets, as zombies weren’t the fastest creatures. We just had to hold.

I got in a lucky shot that took down one of the goblins. Two more darted in, and one of their knives slashed into my left arm. It stung, but I wasn’t bleeding too badly. They kept playing that same game, though—quick, darting movements forward with little slashes. There were too many of them for me to easily kill one when they attacked, but if I played defense, sooner or later they’d take me down with tiny cuts.

Entangle wasn’t cutting it. As a spell, it was useful, but if I used it now the goblins would kill me before the weakness wore off. I stepped back from them again, Samson and I still giving ground in front of their attack, and used the few seconds of respite to switch stones.

The Entangle stone popped out. The Drain Life spell popped in. Thankfully, the tier two stone didn’t break. I’d been hoping it would hold up, because I really didn’t want to lose such a valuable stone. But I had a hunch I wanted to try. When I’d first slotted the spell, I’d gotten all the memories around how to use that magic. It would harm another, and heal me.

I cast Drain Life on the nearest goblin, stretching out my hand as black fire reached from my fingertips toward the monster. It squealed as the magic struck, sinking into its body, withering its skin.

It was actually pretty horrible to watch, but I couldn’t dredge up sympathy for the goblin. They’d attacked me.

I felt the punch from the magic use hit my system, but a moment later there was a flood of golden energy, pulled from the goblin’s body back into my hand. The wound on my arm closed in an instant. The remaining ache from the snake bite on my ankle? Gone. And most of the energy loss from the spell cast itself faded away, too. I’d hoped that might be the case.

The goblin wasn’t quite dead yet, which was disappointing, but it was slow, weak, and Samson crushed it with a quick blow from his rebar.

“What was that?” Samson asked.

“New spell. Drain Life,” I called out. “If I set them up, you think you can knock them down?”

“You know it, lady! Do it.”

The spell hadn’t quite reset yet. It seemed like it took a little time between casts, even though it restored my health. Why, I didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. I felt it the second the spell came back online, and reached out my hand to cast again. Another goblin shriveled up, and Samson was able to smack it down as well. The energy I got almost completely wiped away the exhaustion from the spell. We were doing this!

Then an arrow sprouted from Samson’s shoulder.

He staggered back with a grunt, letting go of his rebar with one hand to clutch at the wound. The goblins could tell it was dinnertime, and came in with a rush, driving sharp knives into Samson’s legs. He cried out in pain.

I came in swinging, my axe cleaving away one of the goblins, then taking another down on the backswing. All at once Guildenstern was there, too, tackling a pair of goblins to the ground. They shrieked as he bit one and slashed the other with his blade.

A horn blew. It was a signal, clearly. All at once, the remaining goblins took off and ran back toward the trees. I was too exhausted to chase, but cast one more Drain Life spell on one as they dashed off. It toppled over as the spell hit, barely coming back to its feet before Alfred cut it down with his axe.

“You guys okay?” Alfred asked, coming over.

“Been better,” Samson said through gritted teeth. He was in rough shape, between the arrow and the knife wounds he’d taken, and he collapsed to his knees.

“Lay down,” I told him, pulling what was left of my first aid kit from my pack. “I’ve got to get some of these wounds dressed.”

I looked back toward the station and saw why the goblins had retreated. Lords was on his way back, and he wasn’t alone. George was there too, and they’d convinced half a dozen of the students who’d been camping with us to come and help as well. With eight more people rushing into the fray, the goblins must have finally decided they weren’t going to win this fight.

We were in the clear, for now. But that many goblins all in one place made me think they were organizing, and the way they’d all turned and run as soon as the horn blew said the same. Just across the brook was a forest preserve. Tons of trails through acres of woods. Plenty of space for a lot of goblins to gather, and way too close to where we camped for my comfort.

That was a problem for later, though. For now, I needed to close up these stab wounds as best I could. I sent mental commands to the zombies to come back to me and guard, and got to work saving a life.