“Connor! Relax! Put the bow down!” Werner’s voice was sharp, and drew the man’s attention, but I didn’t want to risk any sudden movements.

“Werner? This weirdo’s with you?” said Connor. His words were slurred and his body swayed a bit as he turned to look at Werner, but his hands held the bow perfectly steady. He had a tangled mess of auburn hair that complemented his unkempt, curly beard and bright blue eyes. I would have expected a hunter to be small and lithe, but he was a stout, barrel-chested man with a noticeably pudgy stomach.

“Yes, Connor. Now stop scaring the poor man, you daft fool!”

Connor glanced back at me, then relaxed his bow and removed the arrow before stumbling away. “C’mon in, then. I guess.”

My heart pounded in my chest in the aftermath of having an arrow drawn and aimed at my face from inches away. How much damage would that have done? Is this like the game where it can only do a certain amount if it hits? Or would that just have bypassed my HP entirely?

It felt as though I had just barely walked away from that exchange with my life, but Werner’s hand on my shoulder quietly urging me inside gave me no choice but to enter. The home was small, just one small room with a table and a fireplace with a door leading into, presumably, a bedroom. Empty bottles crowded the table.

“So why’re you here? He my new partner, or something?” I took a deep breath to calm myself and then spoke up before Werner could reply.

“I’m hoping for that, actually, but in a different way than you might be thinking.” Connor narrowed his eyes. “I’m looking for strong men and women to join me. I plan on traveling out into the dangerous places on this island to do something and make the place more safe. I can’t offer much money just yet, but-”

“Then I’m not interested. Can’t buy more booze without money.”

“-but what I am offering is a chance to make a difference. We’ll find money along the way, make no mistake. We can plunder it from our enemies, and we’ll also get plenty of gratitude from towns who we protect. Grateful governments love paying heroes for their contributions.”

“Doesn’t matter. I get plenty working as a guard here. And I can spend my days with my best friends without having to worry about anything,” he said, gesturing to a nearby glass and bottle.

“My current end goal is finding out what the orcs are up to on the southwestern edge of the island-”

“Goldport can deal with that. They can afford soldiers from the mainland, and they’ll pay once things start to get a bit more dire.”

“-but we can’t go right to that just yet. Right now there’s something much more immediate that needs to be taken care of.” Connor snorted. “I need help doing something about this goblin threat. Werner’s strong and I’ve got my magic, but a skilled hunter like yourself would be a great boon.”

As I spoke, I had surreptitiously pulled the folded piece of magical parchment from my pocket, beneath the table. I glanced down to check Connor’s stats, and…

CONNOR WARD

Species:

Human

Class:

Archer

Level:

3

Stats

Combat

Skills

Rank

Powers/Spells

MP Cost

Duration

Strength

13

Foraging

1

Heavy Draw

3

Instant

Agility

18

Evasion:

16

Tracking

2

Poison Arrow

2

Instant

Resilience

12

HP: 21/21

Sneaking

1

Flaming Arrow

2

Instant

Presence

10

Wit

14

Willpower

13

MP: 15/15

Level three?! He’d be an amazing asset! I kept my stare even, trying not to betray my excitement.

“Piss off.”

“But I really think-”

“I said piss. Off. You interrupted my drinking for this?” he asked, looking incredulously at Werner. “Some jumped up little mage who thinks he can make a difference or something?”

Werner shrugged. “I think you should consider what he’s asking of you.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“He’s asking me to go out and get myself killed.”

“He’s giving you an opportunity to actually live again. Look at this place, it’s filthy. All you do is go out at night to keep watch, sleep, and drink.” Werner’s voice remained even as he spoke, but his eyes narrowed as he berated Connor. “You have no life here, you damned fool, so if you go out and try to do something you’ll either get your life together or some goblin will finally put you out of your misery. Either way, it’s better than how you’re living now.”

“Alright, that’s it. Out! Get out! Now!” Connor grabbed his bow again and began herding us out the door. “And don’t come back!”

“I won’t. Just think about it. I’ll be in town for a little while, so come find me at the Home Away From Home if you change your mind.”

The door slammed shut.

“I think that went well,” said Werner. I laughed, but he said, “I’m serious. It’s like he’s been in a haze for months now. That’s the most animated I’ve seen him in a while.”

“Well… I hope we convinced him, but I won’t hold my breath. Now we’ve got to try and find someone else.” I thought for a moment. “You know Alvar better than me. Do you think we could…”

“Convince him to go diving into danger with us? Not a chance. He was barely willing to take on guard duty, and now that he’s seen it can be that dangerous I don’t know if he’ll ever willingly set foot outside of town again. He’s a cautious man, and even the promise of guaranteed pay only motivates him so much. That pitch you gave in there would fall on entirely deaf ears.”

“Yeah, I thought so. Well, how are you in terms of equipment? You had some pretty nice armor before.”

“On loan from Hugo, I’m afraid. We’ll have to visit Alvar anyway to see if he has anything for us.”

“Alright, then. I guess we’d better go do that.”

* * *

“Hmmm… I can’t make anything for you. Don’t know how to do armor. But I might have a bit of old product back in storage I could dig out.” Alvar scratched his chin as he thought. “Hey, boy! Stop mangling that attempt at a horseshoe for a moment. I need you to go into the shed. I think I’ve got some armor I bought off a merchant a while back in there. Don’t come back until you find it!”

“Yes, sir!” The boy, a gangly apprentice whose cracking voice marked him as just beginning to go through puberty, almost tripped over his feet as he hurried out the back door of the smithy.

“Still as charming as ever, I see,” said Werner dryly.

“This is difficult work. The boy’s gotta get tough if he wants to make it.” He thought for a moment, before walking back to the door his apprentice had just ran out of. “There might be a shield in there, too! Find it!” He stomped back to his seat by the anvil and sat his hammer aside.

With the apprentice out in the shed and Alvar no longer hammering, the smithy had gone nearly silent, only the crackling of fire breaking the silence.

“So, you’re really planning on going out and getting yourself killed?” Alvar asked, breaking the silence and staring at Werner.

“I could die, yes. Or I could become a great hero,” said Werner, embellishing the point by spreading his arms and pretending to bask in the adoration of an unseen crowd. “Besides, it’s not like Northwold’s as safe as it once was. Farmers could die on their way to or from their fields, I could die delivering baskets… I’m no slouch, so I may as well go out and meet the danger head on.”

“Bah. The goblins might be getting a bit more ornery, but they’re still cowards. They won’t-”

“Help! Help! Guards! Anyone! They’re here!” The voice of Alvar’s panicked apprentice tore through the conversation, and we all scrambled to our feet and out the door.

“Oh, come on! No, that’s… They’re supposed to be cowards!” Alvar’s enraged, incredulous words couldn’t drown out the singing that filled the air.

You let goblins run away,

Live to fight another day,

Carried on back to your town,

While goblins followed you around!

Killed my man, so I kill yours,

And now we’ll kill dozens more,

Women, children, even men

Goblins always get even!

Little Boss was back, and with him were a dozen other goblins. This time he wore makeshift armor, cobbled together from scraps of metal held together by strips of leather, and held a small, jagged handaxe in one hand. It glistened with some sort of oily substance, as well as blood—blood that clearly belonged to Alvar’s young apprentice, who was crawling towards us in terror and bleeding from a wicked-looking gash on his calf.

Alvar turned and ran, disappearing back into the smithy where I heard clattering and cursing, but I had no time to worry about what he was doing.

“Dance, embers!” I hastily incanted my longest-range spell, hurling it at Little Boss without bothering to carefully aim. It didn’t hit, but it did stop his advance on the apprentice as he dodged away. That was enough. “Ignite!”

With flaming claws, I hurtled across the lot towards the goblins, barely registering the knife thrown by Werner that hit one of the other goblins squarely in the head pommel-first. It didn’t manage to kill it, but did stop its attempt to intercept me, and I bounded over the fallen apprentice to begin attacking.

“Oooh, close one, human! Close one!” Little Boss taunted as he scrambled back, dodging my first swing and then throwing one of his subordinates between himself and my second swing.

Dammit! I had overextended, with goblins beginning to circle around me and Little Boss stepping forward while I was off-balance, raising his axe before bringing it down in a swift chop. I had no time to dodge, so…

“Spread!” I shouted, moving back as much as I could as my scales momentarily spread across my whole body. The axe made contact, but I barely avoided the brunt of the swing, and it skated harmlessly along my scales as I used my arm to deflect it.

I was still in the fight, but burning through my mana quickly. Just as I began turning my head rapidly, watching for more attacks from the assembled goblins, I heard a furious shout from behind me and they shrunk back for a moment.

Alvar had grabbed several hammers, and raced towards the goblins while throwing all but one of them. Most missed, but the head of one heavy hammer landed a blow on the sternum of a goblin. A loud crack rang out, and Alvar closed the remaining distance to his fallen apprentice. He swung his hammer wildly, keeping the goblins at bay.

“Grab him and run!” I shouted, interposing myself between him and the goblins. It wouldn’t be long until they spread out to surround us again—only two had been killed, leaving Little Boss and ten more goblins. My heart pounded in my chest, but I did feel a sense of relief when I heard Alvar hoist the boy up and run away with him.

Alvar was busy with a wounded boy, and Werner was unarmored and, now that he had thrown his knife, unarmed. All that was left was me, facing down eleven goblins who seemed to have learned from past experience and were spreading out so I couldn’t burn them all. This is bad…

I raised my fists, just as I had when fighting the wolf, and began to bounce on the balls of my feet. Boxing was designed for fighting one-on-one, but a few principles were universal. One of them was to stay light on your feet and keep your enemy from getting you in a bad position.

Now that I no longer had to defend the apprentice, I was able to start moving more freely, pivoting and backing away so I could approach the goblins from an outside angle. They scrambled to reform their circle, but I took a short, explosive step forward, just into range for a strike with my claws but outside of the reach of the goblin’s small arms. My claws scratched across his face, leaving charred scars along their path, and he staggered backwards screaming before turning and running away.

One down…

The goblins’ main weakness was their cowardice, and with an overwhelming numbers advantage they were unhindered by it even as I took one of them out. I just barely reversed my step in time to dodge one who rushed forward with a knife, then kept running in one swift movement to dodge my retaliatory swipe.

I continued to dance around the lot behind the smithy, trying to keep myself light on my feet and out of reach of the goblins, but Little Boss adapted quickly.

“Rush the human! Two at a time, from different angles!”

The fire on my claws had gone out—I’d been evading and fighting them for a minute already. I was confident in my stamina, but the adrenaline was sapping my strength faster than I was used to. Two goblins spread out and began to sprint towards me, their daggers coated in a similar oily substance to the one that was on Little Boss’s axe—which he hefted, having moved into position to intercept me if I tried to move forward to escape the pincer attack.

What do I do? What do I do? What do I-?

Thunk!

The goblin rushing me on my left went flying backwards as an arrow embedded itself in his skull. The one on my right stopped in its tracks, looking over at its fallen ally, when another arrow found its place in his head. The remaining goblins turned to Little Boss for guidance as I turned and saw, standing on the road in front of the smithy, Connor, his bow in hand and fire in his eyes.

“Die, you little bastards! I’m gonna kill every single one of you!” He loosed arrow after arrow as the goblins began to panic at the sight of more of their comrades dying.

“Connor, go for the one in armor! It’s the leader!”

Connor said nothing, but stopped his indiscriminate shooting to carefully aim an arrow. He took a deep breath and his bow shimmered with a green light as he pulled it back. The wood creaked loudly and he strained against its weight before, just as he reached the end of his draw, he let loose.

The arrow crossed the distance in the blink of an eye, embedding itself in Little Boss’s shoulder and causing him to spin violently from the force of the impact before falling to the ground. The goblins screamed even louder and scattered. In the corner of my eye I saw Connor drawing back another arrow.

“Wait! Don’t kill that one! We can talk to it!”

Connor’s eyes, filled with rage, met mine. I worried for a moment he wouldn’t listen, but with a furious shout he turned and began shooting more arrows at the fleeing goblins, leaving Little Boss groaning with pain on the ground.

I walked up to him, kneeling down and locking eyes with him.

“Hello there, Little Boss. Let’s have a chat, okay?”