The incoming goblins could be heard charging at us from behind. I drew and fired into the dark. Why not? Arrows were infinite here. I heard a swiftscale screech and knew that I’d hit at least one.

“Move out! Move, move, move!” Slade yelled.

Emma urged the cart on, and her light shot forward. The townsfolk started screaming but followed Emma's cart and the light.

Slade and Midnight shot past me at a full gallop. Slade was making his war cry as he charged into the darkness. Worried that I might hit Slade, I held my fire until I saw dark shapes riding forward to meet him. I cast Hunter’s Mark, and it stuck to the silhouette of a goblin rider. When I fired the arrow, I didn’t care that I could only partially see the target; it struck home, knocking the goblin from its mount.

Fearlessly, Slade slammed into the scouts. He swung his axe back and forth, and I watched bodies flying. The swiftscales, free from their masters, went trotting off. I hoped this attack was like the last, just a small group of goblins making a lot of noise. It was getting harder to tell moment by moment as Emma rode off with our light.

I continued firing arrows at the goblins around Slade. Often, I’d hit one, only to have Slade strike it with his axe a moment later. Glowing blue cubes were starting to litter the road, and a herd of swiftscales was wandering aimlessly.

Other goblin riders were going around us as we fought the ones on the road.

“Slade!” I yelled, “They’re going around us, attacking the villagers.”

I turned Princess away from Slade and darted towards the receding light of Emma’s staff. Shadowy shapes of swiftscales and riders could be seen converging on the tail end of the fleeing villagers. Slowing to a trot, I started firing at the dark shapes, using my Hunter’s Mark whenever available. Not all the hits were kills, but even wounding these monsters was enough to make them scamper off, giving the refugees a moment's peace.

Slade charged past me with a howling warcry. I got a glimpse of his health bar as he rocketed by. He’d taken several hits in his last fight, whittling it down. If he kept up like this, he’d be dead by dawn.

My worry about Slade made me reach down and double-check the health potion on my belt. After the fiasco in Springfield, where Emma had been downed, we’d split the potions up amongst us all. I received the two weakest ones since I tended to take the least damage in fights. Slade had gotten four, all the strongest ones. I just hoped he’d have sense of mind in the fight to drink them when needed, like right now.

Again, I heard the clash of axe on goblin. Ahead of me, silhouettes of Slade towering over the goblin hordes swung his axe back and forth, sending goblins and sprays of dark fluids everywhere.

Emma continued moving along the road, desperately trying to reach the next town. The villagers did their best to keep up, but I could see the line of fleeing villagers stretching out from the back of the running column. We had to get the group back together, or we risked having a bunch of different clusters that we’d have to defend.

Slade chased off the last couple of goblins who had attempted to attack the villagers from the rear of the column and wheeled around to face me, looking for more foes. I rushed up to him.

“I’ve got to get to Emma. She’s leaving people behind.”

Slade turned and looked back up along the column. “Go! I’ll do what I can here.”

Nodding, I added before urging Princess on, “Drink a potion, you dufus!”

Princess galloped just off the road, avoiding the villagers who were lagging behind. We rode hard, passing the bulk of the refugees. When we were fifty yards behind Emma, I called out, “Emma! Slow down! We’re stretched out too much!”

Emma stood and looked back over the end of the cart at the straggling villagers. They were mounted and running on foot and now stretched out the length of a football field. She slowed immediately. The refugees on horseback started yelling, demanding she pick up speed again. They were willing to leave their neighbors on foot behind.

As she kept pressing on, I saw a house looming on the road ahead. Then, there was another behind it. In an instant, I was elated. We’d made it. I could see more houses on the road ahead.

Then I saw shapes on the road. For a moment, I was excited that it might be knights or town guards. The shapes were too low to be horses. I realized they were swiftscales. Goblins had ridden around to the front and were also attacking from that direction.

Worse than that, I recognized Malworth at the front of this new group of goblins.

Malworth and his scouts charged in, slamming right into the two horse pulling the cart. The horses screamed jerking the cart sideways off the road. Emma went tumbling to the ground. Her staff with the light clattered to the road, dimming the light and sending crazy long shadows. The refugee riders around her shot off in all directions. The unfortunate villagers in the cart scrambled to get away as well abandoning the mired wagon.

Plunged into darkness, there was no way I could fire arrows. A one-story house loomed on the other side of the road. As refugees fled, I suddenly was able to see Emma. She lay on the ground, trapped beneath one of the tethered horses, which kicked its legs furiously in the air.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The refugees on foot scrambled over the fence around the house, some rushing to beat on the door. Others dashed across the open grassy field on the other side.

Several of the goblins had ridden past Emma towards me, leaving Malworth and his wounded shaman near our healer. I fired arrows rapid fire into the closer goblins. Two died in the volley, and two were wounded. It was a new bow that I’d picked up in Springfield after our encounter with Malworth, so I wasn’t entirely used to it.

The wounded ones charged. I was able to hit their mounts, but that didn’t stop them from slamming their swiftscales right into Princess. My mount reared, and I went flying backward, landing on my back with a good knock to my head. I heard the swiftscales thrashing around, trying to bite at Princess, but she bolted away across the empty field.

There was no time to cry about my aching back or head, I scrambled to the left of the road and climbed the house fence faster than even I thought was humanly possible. I tossed my bow over as I crested it and just let myself fall on the other side.

The fence I’d just been climbing crunched as a swiftscale smashed into it. For one brief moment, I saw a goblin scout teetering at the top of the fence, threatening to fall off his mount right on top of me. Luckily, he regained his balance and rode off with his mount a second later.

I dashed to the house. It was only one story high, but that was better than being on the ground. Yellow flashes showed me exactly how to climb it, and I ran right up the side, bouncing from protrusion to protrusion without slowing.

The roof was made of a weird material—grass. It startled me that my brain would decide to focus on this detail at this moment of danger. Instead of tiles like my parents' roof back home, this one had grass or straw instead. I snapped out of the moment and took stock of what was happening.

Below me, refugees were beating on the door of the house. I could hear people inside the house, a father yelling as children screamed in terror. On the road, Emma was struggling under the horse. She had a potion out and was feeding it to the pack animal. Malworth had stopped and was busy barking orders out to the scouts riding around him while his shaman had leaped off its swiftscale and was approaching Emma.

I Marked the shaman and pulled an arrow back. The moment my Hunter’s Mark lit up, the shaman jerked backward and raised his staff. He chanted as I fired. My arrow should have landed right in the center of his chest. Instead, it bounced off something invisible right in front of him. He then turned his gaze up to me.

I pulled another arrow and fired. Again, it bounced off an invisible barrier in front of him. I reached for another arrow but felt like a guy beating his head against a wall, hoping to bring it down. I had to try something different, but I wasn’t sure what.

The pack horse sprung up, freeing Emma. It them began dragging the cart sideways across the feild by itself. Emma flung herself across the road and grabbed her staff. When she stood, the shaman looked at her and slashed with his staff. Firey flames fanned out, lighting the road in red as Emma held her staff out like a barrier.

The bright white light of Emma’s staff died as it absorbed the flames from the shaman. The scene below was hard to follow as the lighting shifted from bright and clean to murky reds to pure shadows.

I couldn’t see the shaman in the dark, but I could see my Hunter’s Mark. I let loose another arrow and heard him scream out. Shadows flickered, at times going pitch black. The shaman made strangled noises that gurgled and then faded. Where he’d been, there was a softly glowing blue cube.

A bright light burst back on the road. The end of Emma’s staff blazed white-blue hot. Both she and I only had a moment to see Malworth charging, his swiftscale dashing down the street as he lofted Max’s black blade overhead.

I grasped for an arrow, knowing there would never be enough time to kill Malworth before he rode Emma down. In my mind, she was dead and trampled, and there was nothing I could do.

There was a terrible crash of metal on metal. I blinked and saw Slade atop Midnight slam into Malworth and his swiftscale. The lizard snapped, grabbing the black horse by the neck. The two beasts thrashed, sending their riders tumbling. The swiftscale and horse rolled right into Emma, batting her away like a rag doll. Her staff flew, landing in the grassy field and casting only a dim light through the blades of tall grass.

Slade rolled and was on his feet in an instant. Malworth was a mirror image doing exactly the same. Both had weapons drawn and glared furiously at each other for one breath, then they charged.

The swiftscale and Midnight disentangled, and each went running off.

I couldn’t see Emma, just Slade and his goblin foe, both intent on a fight to the death. Both of their health bars were just barely over half full. I was glad Slade had taken the time to quaff a potion. Malworth had been a nightmare until now. I didn’t relish watching Slade try to take him alone.

Drawing an arrow, I placed a Hunter’s Mark on Malworth and aimed. My first arrow was a Crippling Shot, and I watched with satisfaction as it landed solidly in Malworth’s thigh, right before the two engaged.

Nocking an arrow, I had to play a waiting game. Slade and Malworth were too close together now for me to take any careless shots. I watched, grinding my teeth as they exchanged blows. Slade swung his massive axe with ease, grunting and taunting Malworth the entire time. Even as large as he was, Malworth moved with a speed that was surprising, blocking blows, countering, and weaving.

Slade screamed as Malworth found an opening and stabbed. Slade’s health bar dropped by half. Not dead, but grievously wounded. He staggered back, giving me an opening.

I pulled and released. The arrow streaked down to land in Malworth’s shoulder. The goblin king roared. He spotted me, then charged, tacking Slade before the human could regain his battle axe. They landed on the road in a heap, rolling together.

Another arrow was ready, just begging for an opening as the two wrestled. Their health bars were both about a quarter full. The fight was so close that I felt sick watching it.

“Give me a fucking opening!” I screamed.

Slammed onto his back, Slade looked up at me and nodded. The two rolled, making any shot impossible. I watched helplessly as Malworth got a hand around the shaft of Slade's battle axe. Slade struggled to regain it, then let go.

Malworth howled and yanked the axe away, leaving Slade empty-handed. Slade responded by lifting a foot and shoving Malworth and his axe away with a heavy kick. The axe flew into the field while Malworth reeled in the center of the road.

Staggering backward, Malworth realized his mistake and looked up at me as I drew back on my bow. With the Hunter’s Mark glowing bright, I let go of the arrow, certain it would pierce the king easily.

Instead, my foot slipped through the roof. I crashed down into the thatched roof and watched as my arrow went flying off into the dark.

The black katana sliced through the air. Slade, with no weapon, could not stop it. I watched as his health bar emptied completely and vanished.

Malworth lifted Max’s ebony blade overhead and roared in victory.

Where Slade had once been, there was a floating, gently glowing red diamond.