CHAPTER TWENTY

A CAPTIVE

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The goblins were carrying someone. I couldn’t tell who yet, but I was sure it was a man, and he wasn’t going quietly.

Panic took me. They had kidnapped someone and were clearly trying to bring him back into the cave, but what the hell was I supposed to do? There were eight of them. I could ambush a few. My odds in the cave might’ve been even worse than this, but I didn’t want to hurt the guy by accident.

My options were taken from me as the first goblin approached the cave and, subsequently, my freshly recharged traps.

A buzzsaw sound was the only warning before a burst of wind hit me from halfway across the ravine. The goblin howled as the totem severed its arm with a spray of blue blood. Unfortunately, I’d only been charging it for a few minutes, and it went inert after one wind blade.

“Shit!” I hissed under my breath as the party of goblins went on full alert. Even with the empty totem, there were still nine more ready to go. If I bided my time, the traps could thin them out.

‘What if they hit that guy, though!?’ I shuddered, horrified by the idea of that blade cutting through the victim. How aware were these traps? They didn’t hit Genji, but did they prioritize the allies' safety over slicing enemies to death?

The group had another Booyagh, and I watched, paralyzed with indecision, as the goblin ordered the ones not carrying the human to walk into the traps. When they refused, the exasperated Booyagh picked up the injured goblin by his throat and held him forward, walking into my totem’s murder radius.

Five distinct wind blades sliced the poor goblin into pieces that fell limply from the spellcaster’s hand.

I felt my gorge rise at the wanton display of gore. The past few days had prepared me enough that I didn’t lose Monroe’s food all over the rocks, but I didn’t think I’d be eating Italian any time soon.

No more blades came for the Booyagh, though, telling me he’d just silenced more than half of my traps. Smart and ruthless. I had to act now before he disabled all of them.

The goblins were as terrified as I was. The Booyagh walked over to them, trying to decide which one needed to be offered as a sacrifice to my blades next while they cowered.

Fuck that.

I aimed carefully. The shot was long, but I didn’t think I’d get another chance to ambush them. The man, I thought his name was Seok, was feebly struggling, but he was tightly bound. The ropes were the really rough kind that looked like someone had run out of uses for sandpaper too, and I couldn’t imagine how much being trussed up like that must hurt. Fucking hell, I thought they’d gagged him too.

When the Booyagh stopped, he was at least eight steps away from the trio of imps that held up the prisoner. Far enough. Confident that even my wildest miss wouldn’t accidentally hit Seok, I took the opportunity and fired.

The bullet echoed off the ravine walls like a thunderclap and took the leader straight in the stomach. It went slightly lower than I had aimed, but the Booyagh tumbled to the ground while the other goblins froze.

I ran toward them, crashing through the undergrowth, hoping to scare the trio into dropping their captive.

The goblins looked momentarily relieved by their leader’s death before they saw me charging at them. I paused when I was a few steps closer, took aim, and fired again. The shot went wild, harmlessly nicking a nearby tree, but it was enough to snap them out of their stupor.

The goblins surged into motion, dropping the terrified man, exactly as planned. Unfortunately, they charged at me, unheeding my weapons as I aimed straight for them.

“Shit!” I shouted as I realized I couldn’t fire at them without potentially hitting Seok. Instead, I darted to the left, and they turned to intercept.

I fired three wild shots on the move to deter them, but they didn’t slow in the least. Fortunately, two of my other totems activated as the goblins crossed their radius, and blades of wind crippled two of my attackers. That left only one lone bastard charging straight for me.

I was shocked by how close he’d gotten in such a short time, but that worked to my advantage. Even a two-year-old couldn’t miss at that range. My next shot flew true, and the goblin jerked back, its little body flung by the force of the tiny bullet. Five spent, twelve left. Twelve bullets for five remaining goblins? I liked my odds for once.

The ones the Booyagh had considered sacrificing were significantly slower on the uptake. Rather than charge, they’d instead tried to surround me. They’d had a clearer picture of what my weapon could do. Still, killing their leader did nothing to diminish the bloodlust and frenzy in their eyes as they brandished more of those wicked daggers.

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Well. Almost all of them. One lonesome coward fled back up the side of the ravine.

“Kraabaktor!!” One of the wounded ones screamed in agony, but all it did was give me a better target. It could still be a threat, though, so I blew a hole in its head before rushing toward it to place myself between Seok and the remaining goblins. I slowed for a few steps to fire another bullet at the other downed goblin, killing it just as quickly as the first. Ten shots left.

Two active enemies, but I could still see the Booyagh twitching. I took the time to fire three more shots at it, much more fearful of those horrible ice bolts than anything the regular goblins could do. One of them at least hit the thing, and it went still with a jingle of yet more coins.

Two to go, with one fleeing up the mountain as fast as its little legs could carry him. I holstered the gun and pulled out my new Morning Star.

The goblins seemed to grin at this. It seemed they understood how to combat enemies with 'normal' weapons, and they assumed my gun was empty. Exactly what I wanted.

They charged, but again, I was ready.

The moment they came into range, Gripping Vines sprung from the ground to snare them both before they realized what was happening. With half my reserves used on the totems, I felt the pull on my mana much more sharply, but the two spells were more than enough to grind the goblins' charge to a halt as vines snared them.

I immediately drew the pistol once more. I walked a few steps closer to ensure I wouldn’t miss, and two bullets took my final two enemies in their broad, murderous heads.

“Hah… flawless victory,” I preened, ecstatic at finally winning a fight without taking horrible wounds in the process. Maybe I was getting better at this! I hadn’t even gotten my clothes bloody this time.

I spared a glance for where the last goblin had gone, but it had long since been obscured by the thick undergrowth. If it kept running, I’d never catch it. I had bigger priorities at the moment, though.

I jogged over to the fallen man and confirmed that it was Seok. There weren’t many Koreans in the entire state, but I’d met Seok in passing a few times. I’d never known him well enough to ask how a Korean family had ended up becoming cattle ranchers in Boyerton, but he’d always been free with a wave. I didn’t drive his way nearly as often as I drove by Jill’s house or Mrs. Booker’s, though.

A sudden fear gripped me. Seok didn’t live alone. He had a wife and at least two daughters. I knew because they were always outside playing with a small dog whenever I drove by. It was early April on a Wednesday afternoon, so I was pretty sure the girls at least were safely at school, away from here and this fucked up cave. God, I hoped they were. His wife…?

There was a large bump on the man’s head that might’ve knocked him out for a few seconds, but he was wide awake now, screaming into his rope gag as I approached. The knots looked tight and complex. I thought I’d be here for hours if I tried to untangle them.

“Are you okay?” I asked stupidly as I knelt down beside him. I didn’t actually have a knife, but I did have a machete. I withdrew it slowly.

The man froze, staring at the blade as he ceased struggling entirely. Instinct overriding reason.

“I’m gonna cut you free, okay?” I said as calmly as I could. There was an almost comical amount of rope around both the man's ankles and around his waist, tying his arms tightly behind him.

He nodded as he confirmed that I wasn’t going to hurt him. I wasn’t certain how good his grasp of English was, so I hoped he understood my tone if not my words. The most we'd said in passing before this was hello, after all, and I wasn't even sure where I'd picked up his name from. Rio, probably. She drove their way more often than I did.

Cutting through the rope was slow going. It took a few seconds to cut through the outermost cord, and the rest of the rope snapped apart with the release of tension. The man breathed a sigh of relief, and I saw tears watering in his eyes.

Once one was cord loose, that gave me some slack to fit the machete beneath more of the rope and safely cut away from his skin. The going was faster after that, and with a gasp, the rope tying his arms and torso fell apart.

They had not been gentle when tying him. Rope burns had nearly shaved skin off his bones, and the rope was red where it had cut into his flesh. Still, he barely seemed to notice as he scrambled for his legs immediately, frantically pulling and tugging with all his might.

“H-here,” I said, handing him the weapon.

He only paused for half a moment to take the weapon before sawing at the rope like his life depended on it. In moments, he was free. He barely spared a moment to remove the rope that had been tied around his head, gagging him.

"Thank you!" He shouted.

“Seok. I-it’s Seok, right? What hap–!”

“Yes! But we have no time! My wife!” The man exclaimed in accented English before lurching to his feet. He took off at a run as best he could before stumbling and crashing into the rocks. Undeterred, he got back up and tore through the ravine back up towards his home.

“Son of a bitch!” I said, leaping to my feet and running after him. He’d taken my machete, but he didn’t look like he could take on a housecat, let alone more goblins!

“Wait! Were there more of them!? How many?” I exclaimed from behind him. The man looked like he was about ready to collapse, but somehow he was still moving fast enough to give me trouble keeping up.

“Don’t know!” He shouted before spewing off a series of Korean curses. I didn’t need to understand them to know the context. He was pissed and running on pure adrenaline.

Running quickly turned to climbing as the slope grew steadily steeper. The man probably weighed half of me. Tripping left and right, the lithe man still managed to scramble up the mountainside much faster than I could.

He wasn’t going to wait for me, though, and I did my best to keep up. By the time we finally reached the top, where the land flattened out near Seok’s cattle fence, I was gasping for breath.

“Narae! Narae!” Fueled by adrenaline that I couldn’t hope to match, Seok tore across the flat land toward his home like an Olympic sprinter, screaming his head off.

To my relief, I saw a woman exit the back door of the ranch home and dash out to meet him, more confused than afraid.