[Fifth configuration complete]

[Strength: 20 > 16]

Body: 8

Mind: 8

Dexterity: 26 > 25

Perception: 3 > 8

[Charisma: 1]

As Lan looked around the glade, he saw more and more eyes looking back at him. In fact, the wall of leaves on the other side of the clearing looked like it had sprouted amber fruit that was now staring at him with blank, unreadable expressions.

The stillness of them was enough to make Lan pause. They just looked at him and the dead goblin knight like they were waiting for something to happen. Feeling not so similarly inclined, Lan slowly hooked the mace onto his belt, and when they still didn’t move, Lan took a moment before ripping his sword free from the root and dashing towards the hole the Goblin Knight had made.

The sudden movement sparked the goblins into life as the first shrill scream was joined by another and then another. A rock shot into the foliage inches from Lan’s head as he threw himself into the leaves before pulling himself through the vines and roots as the cacophony of frenzied screeches grew loud enough to shake the glade behind him.

Working his way through the wall as fast as he could, Lan broke through the vines a moment before a green arm shot out and grabbed his cloak. When he turned, Lan was greeted with a smaller-scale version of the goblin knight, only with darker skin and none of the spots.

Another difference was Lan’s sword parted its head cleanly as he spun around; its level was lower, or it had much less health than the knight. But, as two more heads appeared through the wall and more voices joined the screams, fighting was out of the question, so he turned and ran.

Flying through the trees as a sea of goblins poured from the glade after him, fast as they were, and they were fast, the goblin’s mobility was what made the lead Lan had managed to make start to shrink. The goblins moved over the forest floor like they were weightless. Flowing over fallen trees as easily as they ran on the ground, singing their cries of vengeance. So, he poured everything he had into running, pounding the dirt under him as hard as he could, hoping for just an inch more with each step.

When the distance between them was close enough for some more spirited goblins to take their chance, arrows started to land close behind Lan as he focused on passing through the ancient trees. His mind was racing, realising that every second guess, every adjustment in direction was allowing the goblins to narrow the gap and close on him.

He almost didn’t notice a goblin to his right before it darted towards him and tried to take his legs out from under him.

Somehow Lan managed to jump over it, leaving it to be pinned by arrows. Another came running along a fallen tree that had collapsed onto another and leapt at Lan, who found a small burst of speed to dodge it.

Looking back over his shoulder, Lan guessed there were now about thirty goblins. Although none of them looked to be knights, many were wielding identical daggers to the one the knight in the glade had carried; enough of them that Lan did not like the math.

Lan’s height afforded him one natural advantage that stats couldn’t grant. His long legs bought distance with each step that the goblins needed to work harder to make up, enough that the horde started to split as some of the faster and stronger runners began to outpace the others.

Blood lust or vengeance, even as some fell behind, Lan could still hear their distant cries, and he was getting tired. Even if the Shackle changed his stats again. It wouldn’t stop the goblins from coming. He had to do something. ‘

Lan looked back. The gap between the closest goblin and the next had grown. If… he was fast enough, he may be able to kill it, and then all he would have to do is repeat it until all the goblins were dead. That was unless it dodged or had more health than the one he had killed in the vines.

Just when Lan was about to take the chance. A wisp flew to hover just in front of his eyes. Unlike the others he had seen, this wisp was a brilliant gold, and that wasn’t all. Through the aura of light were two pairs of thin wings that none of the others had.

After a moment, Lan felt that it wanted him to follow it, the wisp taking off toward the right as the thought came to him. Chancing a look, Lan thought he saw something that might have been another glade.

It was a risk, and he didn’t even know if a wisp could communicate even this much, but anything that could change his situation was worth it.

But instead of just following it, Lan rounded the next large tree before pushing hard after the wisp. By the time the goblins close enough to follow him made it around the tree, they joined with those who had seen Lan change directions and had gone around the other side.

As he got closer, Lan heard what the wisp was leading him to before he saw it. Over an embankment was a river. Reaching the edge, Lan kicked off it and into the water without a second thought.

The cold bit Lan up to the chest as he submerged and felt the current start to pull him away. The river was deep enough that his feet barely touched, and Lan half swam, half kicked his way to the other side as arrows and rocks plunged into the water around his head.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

As he reached the other side, Lan dug his hands into the dirt to pull himself out, taking an arrow to the back of the shoulder. Luckily, his armour held up, and all he got was a cheek full of mud as he slammed into the earth.

Climbing up the other side, Lan spared a moment to look back.

Although some of the goblins were still trying to hit him with rocks and arrows, a few of which came close to their mark. Most of the goblins had started to cross, only with their smaller stature; they had a harder go of it than Lan had.

Lan didn’t wait around to see if they would, throwing himself back into running. It wasn’t until he found the wisp again that he heard the first goblin cry out as it made it across. Without a chance to rest, Lan followed the wisp as the sunlight that made it through the canopy began to tarnish.

As he ran, Lan had plenty of time to wonder if he was going crazy, following a wisp while his life depended on it. But unlike the other wisps he had seen, this one did not fade away or fly off; at times, it even felt like it was waiting for him. Lan couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more to do with the wisp. Like there was something else watching him.

Then there were the goblins, if nothing else; as time passed, Lan came to terms with the fact that they wouldn’t stop. At times he would think that he had lost them, giving him a chance to slow enough to rest, but be it a minute or ten, he would see the green forms coming eventually. More than once, they would run hard to catch him and others; they slowed as if they were trying to rest as much as he was.

The wisp led Lan to a large hill where a lone Cadendrit tree stood. Even now, as Lan climbed the hill, with goblins closing in on him, he couldn’t help but be reminded about clouds looking at the tops of the tree. Just as he reached the top, a goblin jumped onto his back. Pain filled his mind the moment he registered the weight as the goblin rammed its dagger into Lan’s shoulder.

[Hp 28 - 23]

‘Ah damn it!’ Lan shouted, grabbing the goblin's hand and slamming his back into the tree, shaking some fruit loose as Lan turned and drew his sword on the goblin. With only one hand, the slash was weak, and Lan had to throw his weight into it to get his sword all the way through the goblin's neck before it could stab him again.

[50 exp gained.]

Leaving the goblin behind, Lan crested over the hill and down the other side, where he caught sight of the wisp heading back into the trees. Lan followed as he tried to sheath his sword so he could grab a potion. After that last attack, he could barely move his left arm while heat radiated from it, with only one good arm, and while running, it was not so easy.

In fact, by the time he was able to get his sword back into the sheath. He could see what he thought the wisp was leading him to. A fallen gold and red giant lay on the forest ground. This one being twice the size of the others still standing vigil.

The ancient giant had no doubt witnessed the turning of many cycles, enough to turn its bark as hard as steel, and it must have lain there for just as long. Long enough for the creatures of the woods, big and small, to eat away at its heart, leaving nothing but the bark from end to end.

When Lan saw it, he knew why the wisp had led him there. When he reached it, he stepped into it and turned.

No doubt because they had lost sight of him, but the goblins had been split up again as they rushed to find him so that only a line of them was just then crossing the hill. As Lan looked on, he retrieved one of the health potions and drank half of it.

[Hp 23 – 60]

Lan watched the fire representing his health burst back to life before the unused portion he had drunk turned to a mist and lifted from his skin. Although the wastage stung, Lan reasoned it was a fair loss as he rolled his shoulder, getting some pain but full use back.

Once healed, Lan unhooked the mace as he took the mana shard in his shield hand and readied himself. The hollowed-out tree was large enough for him to swing his mace, and even if the goblins grouped up again, he would only have to face a few at a time.

As the first reached the bottom of the hill and spotted Lan, it let out a screech before charging Lan as fast as it could. Closing the gap in seconds before it jumped into the opening of the hollow, only to meet the head of Lan’s mace, which drove it into the ground. It took another strike from the mace before the goblin stopped moving, and as Lan recovered, another goblin jumped at him.

Activating his shield, Lan pushed it back, throwing it to the ground, but before he could finish it off, another goblin charged in and tried to go for his legs. Lan stepped back before bringing his heel down on its head just as two more filed in.

Lan swung his mace hard to deter them, which worked on one and not the other, who took his return swing as his mace bounced into the wall and allowed him to redirect the momentum across the goblin's face spinning it in place.

More goblins filled the hollow, and Lan started to move back, striking at any goblins that managed to climb over the others. As Lan clubbed one that had crawled under the rest, another ran over the top of them and lunged at Lan, who caught it on his shield and threw it over him as he jabbed another with the point of the mace.

Swinging the mace off the walls of the hollow, Lan tried to cut the goblin that had fallen with the blade on his shield arm, but it scrambled back as another goblin tried to grab the mace.

Lan pulled it back and brought it down on its head before taking a cut from another green horror that appeared from the roiling mass.

[Hp 60 – 55]

Lan swung the mace into its face, but as it faded into the wall of green, another immediately took its place and caught the backswing.

Lan continued his retreat, pushing the flanking goblin back with the shield arm as he moved deeper into the hollow. He was almost a third of the way into it, and the wave of goblins entering the hollow had stopped as the last of them reached it.

With the speed and strength from the Shackle, Lan’s mace was a blur of crushing force as he started to breathe hard.

[New skill acquired: Mace wielding]

Even with the strength reinforcing his blows, his strikes weren’t enough to kill a goblin with a single hit, knocking the sense out of them and sending them back to tangle up those behind them. Only for them to appear again a second time but never a third.

Still, as he fought, Lan felt good; the feeling from the battle with the Razerwolves had returned only stronger and was now being fuelled by no longer being forced to run. And even though his mind stat had been lowered, his mind was sharpened through instinct that he shouldn’t have but felt natural, and as the tree tunnel grew darker, it felt like he could fight with his eyes closed, knowing which goblin to target.

The goblin behind moved, and Lan’s arm shot back, catching the goblin with the blade, but it just powered through and ran its dagger into Lan's side.

[Hp 55 – 50]

Lan turned to strike it but immediately changed targets as he saw another goblin charge him from the front before he sent it flying back, giving him a good view of another that had jumped at him.

Even before it reached him, Lan knew he wouldn’t make it in time, so he raised his shield, rolled the goblin over his shoulder, and booted another back into the mass before bringing the mace down on the goblin that was about to bite his leg.

The moment he did, the goblin behind jumped onto his back. Lan grabbed it and threw it back into the others. Before, two more were on him, and he was dragged to his knees.

As two more fell on him, Lan braced himself for the daggers to fall.