Joe quickly settled in for the fight, his spear and shield ready although he grimaced when he realized that he’d failed to take into account the available weapons around the king and saw it pick up a spear that was lying closest to the king between him and it. Joe schooled his face, dropping his grimace as he prepared for the fight.
He settled his stance and waited for the goblin to rush him, it coming up and thrusting forward firmly striking directly for his forward leg. Joe immediately stepped back and dropped his shield down in front of his foot, blocking the strike cleanly but was surprised by the power behind the strike given the goblin’s small stature. The greatest surprise, however, was the goblin’s almost perfect form, the spear strike hitting home and thrusting into his shield firmly without skittering off the shield as it was held firmly on point. Taking the entire force of the thrust, Joe had to take a single step back to maintain his stance.
Joe didn’t allow the surprise to affect him in any way, returning the goblin’s strike with a counter thrust from his shield which pushed the goblin back, causing him to stumble slightly but not enough to actually create an opening as Joe had to recover from his own step back.
He settled himself once again and the goblin king prepared, spear held in two hands compared to his own one handed hold to accommodate his own shield. He would have less power, but much more access to the goblin’s torso. Focus!
Everything around him faded, his awareness trapping the goblin king within his perception, his sight, sound, and even sense of smell hyper focused on the goblin. Despite this focus which dropped his surroundings into a hazy field of inconsequential perception, his awareness of his surroundings was not impaired as the scuffling nearby goblin feet, the blurred blobs of other goblins registering only as movement, and the subtle pervasive stench uniquely goblin wafted around him still gave him a distinct awareness within space of where other nearby threats might be.
The sudden stutter of a goblin’s step, followed by an angry grunt and rapid patter of sprinting goblin feet whipped his head towards it to ascertain if the new goblin was a threat to him. His head turned left forty five degrees but his eye’s remained locked on the goblin king until he’d turned his head enough that he caught movement rapid enough to match the patter of the sprinting goblin. Immediately, his head locked, keeping both in view then flicking his eyes to the new goblin threat, noticed it’s back turned to him and the charge towards a pair of adventurers beyond the goblin before his eyes were back on the goblin king, his eyes only on the possible threat for less than a second.
Then, almost like a glitch in reality, his face was once again turned to the goblin king, eyes locked. Joe noticed the king’s eye twitch, its thoughts betrayed as it noticed Joe’s distraction but failed to react in time. Instead, the goblin hunkered down lower, bringing his spear to bear more cautiously.
The two combatants froze, although Joe didn’t allow his feet to stay still, keeping his feet always moving in cautious slides across the floor refusing to leave himself in one place. The goblin king, however, seemed content to maintain its place. Joe wouldn’t oblige it and began to circle the goblin watching with some confusion as he realized that it didn’t seem to understand the concept of shifting position to maintain superiority. The goblin king did well enough to keep itself position opposite him, but the movement seemed to be unfamiliar, an unpracticed technique.
Joe took another few slides to the left before leaping forward to strike exactly when the goblin king shifted itself to once again face him. The lack of practice was enough for Joe to overwhelm the goblin king and it was pushed back, its spear now taking on the role of staff as it quickly parried it to the side, defending itself well enough but still caught off balance that Joe was able to maintain his advantage and step forward with another quick thrust.
The goblin king fell into a defense, stepping back and twisting with ease as he blocked each strike from Joe. Joe slid across the floor, pressing on until the Goblin king was finally able to regain its equilibrium and parry Joe’s strike with enough control to counter with a slashing strike that came downward down on Joe’s right shoulder.
With only one hand on the spear, Joe would be unable to effectively parry the slash so stepped left, bringing his shield into play and taking the strike with a hard shield bash, bouncing the spear off his shield with a powerful blow to once again throw off the goblin king’s balance. The goblin king didn’t fight the shield bash and allowed his spear to bounce off, the spear tip bouncing back up and over its head while maintaining its grip on the butt of the spear, turning the momentum into an aid to spin the spear over his head, letting the hand holding closest to the head of the spear release and help the hand on the butt spin it around to bring it back down in a hard two handed club like smash back down on Joe’s shield.
Joe saw the spear bounce off his spear like a rubber ball off a cement wall, its spin whistling around to strike at him on his shield side. Joe pulled the shield back in tight to his side to take the spear strike but stepped into the strike and brought his spear in a rapid thrust directly towards the king’s gut. The goblin king, more than aware of the danger, step back and to Joe’s left, moving out of his thrust range but maintaining distance to allow its swing to still strike with devastating effectiveness before sweeping the spear down to the ground, aiming to sweep Joe’s feet.
The sweep would be ineffective as a sweep as Joe would be more than strong enough to hold his ground against it but the bladed weapon striking against his ankles would be deadly, leaving him crippled. Even if he was hit with the broad shaft, negating any slashing damage from the blade, his ankles were unlikely to feel comfortable after the strike and leave him hobbled in his movements. Besides, he still remember the remarkable force the tiny goblin had somehow been able to bring to bear on him and the beginning of the fight which still forced him to step back to maintain balance.
With the strike now aiming at his vulnerable exposed feet and his strike at the goblin’s torso now impossible because of the goblin’s retreat, he turned his thoughts to defense and let his thrust retreat from deadly to maiming, aiming for the only exposed part on the goblin; it’s shoulder and left arm.
The goblin doubled down on his strike, dropping lower to allow Joe’s strike to pass harmlessly overhead and Joe grimaced, the spear swinging rapidly towards him. Shield? Can slip under. Jump with shield? Trip onto shield. Step forward? Kneel? Joe ran through his options, each dismal and settled on one he really didn’t want to do; one that would leave his master apoplectic.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Leaping backwards, Joe moved his shield to the left to take any strike the goblin might be able to land while also pulling his legs up as high as possible, bringing them up to also find protection behind his shield. The goblin king saw Joe’s backwards leap and grinned with feral rage, its sweep already aborted as it shortened the spear, pulling it backward by placing one hand forward to arrest the spears sweeping movement. With the pull backwards, the spear once again took on its main role and the goblin king leapt forward even as it thrust his spear straight into Joe’s torso, but aimed to his right side to escape the protection of the shield if possible.
Joe saw the goblin slowing the spear, pulling it into its side and immediately pulled his shield in front of him even as he swept his spear in a vertical spin, of which he would only be able to complete an almost complete spin. He only had one hand to use his spear on and couldn’t easily spin the spear in a full three sixty while maintaining a proper grip. It didn’t matter, he was not attempting a flourish, but timed his spin such that his spear slapped into the side of the goblin’s even as it thrust towards him, sweeping up over his head and back down past his left side before it spun down and slammed into the inner side of the goblin’s spear, pushing it out of line with his body where it slipped past his right hip, just missing his torso.
Joe felt a shudder pass through him at the close call and foolish reaction but discarded the thought. He had plenty of time to berate himself after the fight. The goblin retrieved his thrust and turned the tables, thrusting with each step forward, sending a half a dozen thrusts into Joe’s defense. Joe took two or three thrusts before having to step back, but was still driven back a couple feet before he was able to regain equilibrium and the two began trading strikes, spear’s striking each other and the shield in rapid succession.
The two had soon exchanged a couple dozen strikes with both stepping forward or back a couple steps before goblin king seemed to go slightly berserk and leapt to Joe’s right before Joe quickly took a step back with his right foot, spinning to once again bring himself face on with the goblin but was now left foot forward before the goblin did it once again with a leap to the left again and another thrust.
With his left foot forward, his spin to bring the goblin king head on, while significantly less effective without the shield to defend his right side, was still his best option and Joe opted to quickly drop his left foot back once again to allow his right foot to be in the forward position again where he could execute another large pivot by bringing his right foot back while spinning once again to face the goblin king. This, however, cost Joe two steps back which were unimportant given the large flat arena they found themselves on.
But when Joe took two large steps back to easily block the goblin king’s thrust, its feral joy drove a spike of concern straight through Joe’s thoughts and his mind quickly struggled to parse his entire perception to understand what the goblin king could be happy about. His mind rapidly filtered through his surroundings, dismissing perceptions rapidly until the bored shuffle of a goblin behind him shifting to a rapid charge leapt to attention, strangling his thoughts.
Behind!
Joe didn’t take any chances and quickly charged forward, slamming his shield into the goblin king’s spear with the first step and its torso with the next, bouncing it back a few steps even as Joe spun leftward so that his shield could be between him and the new charging goblin first.
Taking another four or five steps back, Joe brought both goblins into his view and felt his heart drop when he saw another goblin bearing down on him.
Eye’s flickering to the goblin king, Joe saw it was still discombobulated and dismissed it to rapidly take care of the other goblin. It came at him with some sort of crude wooden club and Joe also rapidly closed, his spear striking directly at gut as he rushed in. Not even stopping, Joe let the club hammer down towards him and kept his shield tucked in close to his side, not wishing to take long with this second goblin, he collided into the goblin full force with his spear buried in its guts. The club hit with force a split second later, slamming into his shield, glancing off the top. This normally would have been excellent except that Joe had intended to collide with the goblin to rapidly take care of it and had tucked his head down low under the shield’s edge as the goblin had taken a wild overhead swing at him and he didn’t want to be clipped by the club if it did exactly as it had, bounced off the edge and on over the top of his head.
The strike, however, was still strong enough to slam his shield back, tilting it back and dinging the top of Joe’s head. The strike wasn’t enough to do any damage and wouldn’t likely leave even a bump nor would it daze him long as his training had prepared him significantly to take blows all over his body, including his head. But no matter how one is trained, any blow to the head would still daze and while he had extensive training and preparation, the split second left him unresponsive with his back to the goblin king.
Even as Joe began to spin left, desperately trying to bring his shield back in line, he felt the goblin king spear pierce his left lower back, punching directly into his left kidney and swallowed the groan of pain, his face grimacing savagely. He continued his swing. A truly poor way to healthily extract a spear embedded in an abdomen, but considering his enemy was unlikely to let it stay there carefully for his safety, he opted for its rapid removal, his shield slamming into the side of the goblin king’s spear even as it slid out of his side. No time! Finish fast!
Joe’s thoughts whirled rapidly as he struggled to figure out his next steps but his only option was to finish his opponent faster than the blood loss and damage finished him so he stepped in rapidly after spin and took two rapid steps forward, stomping with his last step down on the goblin’s foot, not allowing it to escape even as he slammed his shield into the goblin’s torso. Even as he closed with the goblin king, the adrenaline quickly dulled the pain, allowing Joe to think quickly and he could only thank his intense training preparing his body for and resisting an incredible amount of damage.
The goblin had pulled his spear back to block with Joe’s rush while quickly stepping back, but Joe’s stride was almost double the goblins and his two steps matched any four the goblin king could take with the goblin king further hampered by its rapid backwards retreat.
With his shield slapping hard into the goblin and his foot holding one of the goblin’s feet, the goblin king was unable to stay standing and began to tumble backwards, a cry coming from his lips as the awkward fall and bend of his still held foot forced it to keep his knee up to protect its trapped ankle. Even as it fell, Joe tossed his spear up into a throwing hold and brought the spear down over the top of his shield and down into the chest of the goblin king.
The goblin king, despite its fall onto its back, was still able to bring its spear up to parry his thrust and the spear slammed into the right shoulder of the goblin. Joe grimaced at missing the killing blow and took a large step forward with his left foot, bringing it down hard on the goblins right hand and crushing the goblins fist around the spear it held. With his right foot pinning the goblin’s left foot and his left foot pinning the goblin’s right hand and spear, the goblin king was now mostly disarmed with only its left arm free to attack but weapon pinned under foot, it began to wildly flail its clawed hand at Joe’s lower thighs and knees. Luckily, the goblin king’s reach was much too short to target Joe’s more tender nethers.
Easily ignoring the pain of his punctured kidney and the claws ripping through his thighs, Joe could only thank the adrenaline that muted it to a dull throb, allowing him to continue the fight, but could already feel a bit of trepidation at the recovery time from this. Joe grunted even as he pulled his spear out quickly and slammed it back down just left of center, spearing directly through the center of the beast and the goblin spasmed in death throes before life left the angry feral grimace of the goblin with a small gasping sigh. Joe gasped a few times himself before standing and returning his own grimace, but at his own folly.