Roaming down the main street, the night just got brighter. Flames that came out of nowhere rose high and fast as if they had a mind of their own. Cries for help echoed loudly through the night as more and more people came running down the main street.
“Help!” the cry of a woman, carrying her child in her arms. She ran for her dear life as goblins gave chase from behind.
John bolted as if sliding on thin ice. Passing right beside the woman with her child, the gleam of John’s sword flashed. A goblin’s head dropped, and not a single drop of blood stained his steel sword. It was a clean-cut, a perfect slash.
Yet John wasn’t satisfied. The sword just didn’t feel right in his hand. ‘I really need a katana, the motion just isn’t as smooth when compared to a katana.’
The shriek of the goblins pulled his eyes as they were coming. John slowly sheathed back his blade. His eyes carefully watched over the incoming enemies, waiting without blinking even once.
All of them came from the front, baring their yellow teeth and claws. No sooner they came, a burst of pink mist erupted with John at the epicenter. The battle-driven rage of the goblins died immediately as they smelled the sweet scent, and John made his move. He strode forward and the moment the sole of his right foot planted on the ground, John let his blade roared. The roar was subtle but it was deadly. A horizontal slash from left to right and heads dropped in the same direction.
He flicked the sword, getting rid of the blood from the blade, and in a single motion, he sheathed the steel back in its scabbard. A tug came from behind and John turned, seeing a teary-eye woman. Her lips were trembling and a voice could barely come out. Yet her eyes conveyed her plea.
“It’s going to be fine,” John flashed a warm smile. Hiding his cold-blooded face in just mere seconds. It was the least he could do for the fear-stricken woman. “I’ll bring you to a safer place.”
John accompanied her towards a safe distance to the saloon. After they parted, John made his way to the northern gate. He slew every goblin that came in his path. One was easy, and two needed a bit of effort but when they were more, his Scent of Bewitching made the job easier.
By the time he reached the gate, John raised his level to level six. Once again, he dumped everything to agility.
From afar, he heard the many groans of adult men down at the gate. “Hold the gate!” a familiar voice and seeing up close it was Randal. “I see you, Jose, stop fucking slacking off and help!”
Moving closer to the gate, dead goblins littered all over the road. These numbers paled over what he killed along the way. It was either blood or some goblin mush he stepped on, and even with sandals, the feeling wasn’t pleasant. He thought he got over the squeamish part but it seemed heavy numbers did the trick. There were a few times he retched and barely held it in. In the end, he had to pinch his nose, their stenches were too strong and John couldn’t help but scowl throughout the whole way.
“Start fucking hammering, Hakeem!” Randal shouted to the top of his lungs, “or else all of us going to get butt raped by fucking goblins!” Veins were popping on each side of Randal’s neck as his skin flushed, withstanding against the powerful ram on the other side of the door.
“But these were supposed to be Mr. Raj’s new gardening forks,” Hakeem said. Hesitating whether he should break the oath between a smith and a customer.
“You think he would fucking care about some fucking garden hoes right now!” Randal was getting mad. Their lives were on the line here and Hakeem got the gal to worry about that eccentric garden lover. “Just fucking do it already!” Randal shouted for the last time.
“If I’m going to do this, you’re going to foot the bill, Randal,” Hakeem took the last word, and his hammer rang against the loud ramming.
“Why does it always have to be about money,” Randal grumbled under his breath. His whole body was doing its best pushing against the gate.
“Need a hand?” John jumped into the fray and slammed his shoulder against the gate.
“Creed?” a look of surprise plastered across Randal’s face, “what the hell are you doing here?”
“Lending a shoulder,” he grinned as his shoulder was pushing against the door. The glint in his eyes was like asking, ‘see what I did there?’
Randal fell silent, staring at John with his jaw gaping. Then he snapped himself out from the daze. “Creed, this isn’t the place for a greenhorn. Go back to the saloon and let us Guardsmen handle it.”
“But from the look it, I think you need all the help you can get,” John hinted at Hakeem and a few others who didn’t wear anything that resembled a guardsman.
“I appreciate the…” Randal braced the impact against the gate. “…help, I do. But I’m saying this for your own good, Creed. A level zero won’t be much help against–”
“Who said I’m level zero?” John smiled, bearing the brunt against the never-ending force of the gate. “I’m level six,” he said it like it was his biggest achievement.
While Randal couldn’t be more disappointed. There was a tint of hope after hearing the first half, but John got him good. His face fell, not knowing what to say to this nomad who just came here a few days ago.
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“So what’s the situation?” John asked before Randal could even put out a word.
The Captain of the Guardsman sighed. It seemed whatever he was going to say was not going to get through that thick skull of John. “A horde came attacking from the north…before we knew it, those stinking bastard broke through the gates.” Randal eyed Hakeem who was still reinforcing the gates. “We managed to take the battle close to the gate but most of them managed to slip out.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” John said.
“And it gets worse, out there…there’s a fucking gobtroll,” Randal said.
“The what now?” If John could scratch his head he would do so right now. And the name gobtroll didn’t really give off a sense of fear like Randal thought it would.
“A gobtroll…you don’t know what a gobtroll is?” Randal shook his head, knowing how stupid his question was.
“Newsflash my man, we had no monsters back in my world,” John said, “so whatever this gobtroll is, you better explain how scary it is.”
“It’s a crossbreed between a goblin and a troll, it’s when a goblin–” Randal wanted to explain, but John cut him off.
“That part you don’t need to explain to me. I know what a goblin would do,” he had to thank a few mangakas for enlightening him on how lustful these goblins creatures were. They would put their dicks on almost anything, not caring whether they would come out alive over their deviant advance.
“But what about the fire? It’s gonna be a lot worse if it spread,” John said, knowing the danger of a fire going wild.
“I dispatched Gunther and a few that I can spare, but unless we deal with those things outside, we can’t do a thing about the fire,” Randal knew his priority. If the gate fell then everything would fall.
“Randal, it’s done!” Hakeem's voice rang through the heavy thumping.
“Will it hold?” Randal still kept his body pushing the gate not until he knew that it was safe.
“You’re talking to the best smith in Satbury, of course it will hold,” Hakeem took pride in his skill and it showed.
The men eased up and retreated a few steps from the gate. Their eyes were kept at the gate, fearing it would fall for another time. But even with the loud thumping from the other side, the gate stood still.
“How long we got, Hakeem?” Randal asked.
“Not long if we don’t deal with the gobtroll outside,” Hakeem replied, gazing sternly at the gate. He had his pride but everything had a limit.
Randal gave out the order as he sent a few more men to settle what number of goblins left within their walls. It would be detrimental to their fight here but he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t save the townspeople.
“On the walls!” Randal’s shout reached the sky and men armed with bows climbed over the stairs.
John followed suit and by the time he stood on the edge, only darkness could be seen, stretching over the horizon. The moon was being shy tonight, and without her, it would be difficult contending against the threat.
“Shoot them down!” Randal gave the order. The guardsmen and everyone on the wall burned the tip of their arrows.
Soon, the rain of flames came down. Goblins shrieked from down below yet there was nothing of the sound of the gobtroll.
“Shoot at the middle! Shoot your arrows at the middle!” Randal gave the order and let loose of his arrow. Yet the dark shadows made them feared over what they couldn’t see.
“Lucerna. Est. Lux,” John’s voice drowned in the commotion around him, yet his arcane came to life. A ball of light emerged in the darkness, brighter than the flames torches that lined the walls.
Every eye stared at the sudden light as their motions halted in place. John threw Lantern’s Light over the wall and as it descended slowly, all eyes saw the horde.
“Nomad?” Randal couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Not once it crossed his mind that the nomad he met would be a mage.
John’s eyes widened as his mind started to falter. Their numbers were staggering as if the whole ground were covered by goblins. The Lantern’s light flickered a bit and John focused back to control the spell. Yet as he thought it would help, no arrows were flying in the air.
“Guys?” John looked around him, and the people were standing in a daze. No sooner than that, more kept falling to their knees as these numbers were impossible.
“We’re going to die,” said one of them, clutching his hair as he realized that death was right at the front doorstep.
Then people started to flee.
“Stop!” Randal shouted. But no one gave a damn. They ran down the stairs and fled where ever they could flee. For their survival, anything was fair game.
“Damn it,” Randal cursed his luck. His rage broke an arrow in half as he had never felt so disappointed in himself. Then his eyes found John who was still manning the orb of light. He came over to the nomad, who was still fighting by his side, and Randal had to admit it, nomads were really a different being than them. His hand squeezed John’s shoulder as the man turned to Randal.
John didn’t say a word and kept looking at Randal’s eyes.
“Go,” said Randal, “if you go now, you would have a chance of outrunning them.”
“Aren’t you guys going to fight?” John asked. He was confused over these people's unwillingness to fight.
“There’s no one else to fight,” Randal shook his head. Looking around, there were only a few people left. Hakeem with his hammer in his hand, and Jose with his bow along with his tired face. And counting them both, they were only four of them on the walls.
“Why did they run?” John asked, “don’t you guys love your own home?” his hand was still maintaining the light to float a few feet above the heads of these goblins.
“You can’t really blame them,” Randal let a helpless chuckle. His eyes staring at the wooden floor as it quaked in an interval. “We’re the lowest of the low in this world, most of us here ran from our home or were exiled by our families, all because of our limits hit early...In this life of ours…the only thing we could do is run.” Randal smiled yet it wasn’t a smile.
John didn’t know why, but Randal’s voice reached him. He looked away as his eyes were getting teary. The man from earth never knew that there were such struggles in this world. He wiped it off and gazed back to Randal.
“What’s the usual level of a gobtroll?” John asked out of the blues.
It wasn’t a question that Randal had anticipated. Nonetheless, he answered. “Level eighteen or twenty or so…why did you ask?”
“Can you keep a secret?” John flashed a smile.
***
Randal gathered the other two and John told them of what he was about to do. Their eyes widened in surprise and Randal lashed out.
“Are you mad? You will send yourself to your own death!” Randal grabbed John by the shoulders. Gripping tight with no hint of letting go.
“Trust me,” John said.
Randal’s grips turned loose as those eyes of John’s made him believe.
John jumped to the edge of the wall and stood there with his back against the other three.
“Hey, Randal,” John called, “I still owed you a treat, right?”
Randal remembered he left the saloon early just now. “Hey–” but before he could say something.
John jumped.