Without ceremony, Lan and the goblin charged each other. He swung his sword with all his strength, only for the goblin to catch and redirect it with one of its curved dark iron daggers as the other dagger raked up to gut Lan.
Sparks momentarily chased back the dark as Lan lifted his shield arm to stop the blow, then twisted his sword free and cut down.
Effortlessly, the Thin goblin redirected the attack with a flourish before launching into a dance of slashes that forced Lan to break off.
The interaction had only lasted a moment, but even that had been long enough to let Lan know that the goblin was faster than him and toying with him.
So as he charged again, he half thought about needing more speed and half-willed it
[Second configuration complete]
[Strength: 14 ]
|Body: 11
|Mind: 10
|Dexterity: 25 > 35
|Perception: 20 > 15
[Charisma: 10 > 5]
Feeling lighter than ever, Lan closed with the goblin fast enough to wipe the smile off its face as it threw everything into dodging his swing. Riding the momentum from his attack, Lan slid to a stop before shooting forward at the off-balance goblin. Narrowly avoiding his attack, the Thin Goblin flipped back and threw a dagger at Lan, which he batted away with his shield arm.
As the two traded blows, Lan had to block the goblin’s cross-blade slash with his sword, sparking steel on steel. Blocking with his shield arm and binding blades, he knew that with the shackle, he was now faster than the goblin, but it managed to slip past his guard and scored a line across his ear.
[Hp 60 – 55]
If not for the aura of his life force, Lan was sure the attack would have taken his eye, while the next time the goblin got past his sword and shield would have opened his neck.
[Hp 55 – 50]
Each strike from the goblin Carried more skill than anything Lan had fought, and it was clear the goblin was done playing around even as the grin returned as if enjoying the fight. But Lan didn’t care, for reasons he didn’t have time or the desire to understand.
The goblin’s reaction to his question had pissed him off, which along with the fire in his blood, made Lan reckless, reckless enough to leave himself open with an upward slash.
Like a whip snake, the goblin led with its right dagger, making Lan block while its second dagger looked for Lan’s heart.
But Lan was waiting for it, and he was faster.
Stepping forward, he wrapped his arm around the goblin’s as he brought his forehead into the goblin’s nose.
The goblin’s eyes shot open as it stumbled back before instinct kicked in, and it jumped back just as Lan’s sword fell, grazing the goblin’s face and neck. And although it was only a cut, his sword burned, adding to the damage done as the goblin’s flesh and blood exploded.
‘That should keep that smile off your face.’ Lan said, wiping the blood from his cheek while pulling air into his lungs.
Covering its burnt face and broken nose, the Thin Goblin stared at Lan with hate, threatening to burst the vessels in its eye as Lan sent mana into his own eyes, shifting his sight and finding the goblin’s flame smaller, about the size of a fist.
Dropping low, Lan felt the Hunter’s song in his mind as he readied himself, knowing what would come next as the goblin’s rage took over.
But instead of the red aura he had expected, the goblin’s expression became flat as it stood straight.
Blue tranquil vapour covered the goblin’s body, a heartbeat before Lan’s body and Tyr both screamed for him to defend.
Answering, Lan raised his sword a moment before it rang like a bell as the goblin appeared in front of Lan, its dagger finishing its arch.
[Hp 50 – 45]
Even as Lan tried to understand what had just happened, he noticed a ribbon of blood blossom from his cheek as the goblin suddenly appeared in a different position; its left dagger connected to Lan by a red string of blood.
Realisation crawled up his spine like an ice spider as he saw the goblin flip the dagger to aim up at his eye.
Lan kicked off the ground hard as he activated his shield arm, and the goblin’s endless strikes started pushing him through the air.
Blocking it, Lan turned as the goblin dashed to his left and started raining attacks that struck his shield like arrows.
‘Faster,’ Lan breathed through gritted teeth. He needed to be faster. Whatever the goblin had done, it wasn’t the same as the Knight. Aside from just how frequent they were, its attacks didn’t feel much harder than they had been. If he was faster, he could still win this.
[Attributes.]
[Strength: 14 > 10]
|Body: 11 > 10
|Mind: 10
|Dexterity: 35 > 40
|Perception: 15
[Charisma: 5]
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With this, Lan could see the goblin’s attacks coming, but doing more than that was asking too much. He needed to be faster.
[Attributes.]
[Strength: 10 = Minimum limit reached]
|Body: 10 = Caution
|Mind: 10 > 9
|Dexterity: 40 > 45
|Perception: 15
[Charisma: 5 > 1 = Minimum limit reached]
Lan didn’t know why he had gotten a warning this time, but as the goblin seemed to slow, he was able to block the goblin and started to come at him from different angles.
Blocking and dodging, he lost track of time, but faster than it should have been possible he found himself breathing hard, his body burning, as his joints stung with the effort of continuing at the relentless pace. Yet Lan barely noticed, for it was nothing compared to the fire raging in his veins or the ice in his mind.
The song of the Hunter seemed clearer than ever as it seemed to feed on Lan’s current feelings. He wanted to win. He wanted to put an end to this goblin that seemed dead set on hounding him but, more importantly, had pissed him off.
And he didn’t seem to be the only one. Tyr had been taken by her own fury as she darted around the two fighting at a blinding speed, moving so fast as to draw lines of golden light through the air.
Aside from the Hunter’s Mark, Lan could feel something building in his chest. It was a lightness like something floating in his core, but Lan tried to push it aside as he tried to draw just a little more speed out of his body.
[Attributes.]
[Strength: 10 = Minimum limit reached]
|Body: 10 = Caution
|Mind: 9 > 8 = Minimum limit reached
|Dexterity: 45 > 46
|Perception: 15
[Charisma: 5 > 1 = Minimum limit reached]
Despite the situation, Lan was hit with the realisation that the voice was only warning him as, unlike last time, he would push his stats as low as possible, but he didn’t see a way out without doing so.
[Perception: 15 > 13]
[Dexterity: 46 > 48]
With a sudden rush of energy, Lan stopped retreating, deflected the goblin's left dagger away and struck out with a stab, forcing the goblin to jump back with a flash of panic.
Before it could recover, he drove in, pushing the goblin back for a moment before they started to trade blows again, only now moving at a speed that made the trees dark past them.
But for every attack that Lan managed, the goblin answered with five, and he couldn’t block all of them.
[Hp 45 - 40]
Looking at the goblin, the grin had been replaced by a determined fury, its teeth bared as it threw everything into killing him. Although Lan knew it was a look mirrored on his own face as he met the goblin’s determination with his own.
[Perception: 13 > 10]
[Dexterity: 48 > 51]
Lan’s vision returned to what it had been his whole life, darkening even under the light of Tyr while his body began to move faster enough to trade blow for blow with the goblin, but it was more than just that. He was moving so quickly that conscious thought was too slow.
Even as he tried to find an answer, his body would have already moved to meet the goblin's attack.
The goblin was still more skilled than he was, but Lan had begun to see the pattern after seeing and feeling the goblin’s blade dance inches from his skin. It would either attack with one blade after the other or use one to feint for the other's attack. Even the angles it would strike from were becoming clear to him.
[Hp 40 - 35]
Pain broke through Lan’s thoughts as an attack that he had seen coming and had instinctively reacted to seemed to fade through his guard and stick home. Forgetting it, Lan moved to meet the next attack.
[Hp 35 – 30]
Again, the goblin’s blade seemed to pass through him even though he used his shield to block this time.
Looking up, Lan found veins bulging out the side of the goblin’s face and arms. Its hands seemed to have swollen to the point of fusing together, and it was shaking with the effort of moving. Whatever it had done, the goblins started to outpace Lan again, and in answer, Lan willed the shackle to give him more speed.
[Strength: 10 = [Minimum limit reached]
|Body: 10 = [Caution] > [[[Locked]]]
|Mind: 9 > 8 = [Minimum limit reached
|Dexterity: 51
|Perception: 10
[Charisma: 5 > 1 = [Minimum limit reached]
Maybe it was the Hunter song, now deafening in his mind, having never left him from the start, the odd feeling building in his chest that almost felt like it could pop, Tyr flying wild, still sending compulsions to him, or just his own anger, but even though he understood why the shackle had locked his health from being tapped, it still made him want to scream. There was no way out of this outside of being faster, as even though he moved at a speed he never thought he would achieve, he was still trapped in a cage of steel blades.
A cage that was once again closing around him.
Despite knowing better but having no choice, Lan willed the shackle to draw from his Perception.
[Perception: 10 > 9] [Dexterity: 51 > 52]
[Perception: 9 > 8] [Dexterity: 52 > 53]
[Perception: 8 > 7] [Dexterity: 53 > 54]
Unlike before, this time, as Lan’s Perception fell, darkness stretched into the corners of his eyes instead of blurring, even as he began to fight back. Stopping and refusing to take another step back, Lan met the goblin steel with steel ready to end it where they stood.
[Perception: 7 > 6] [Dexterity: 54 > 55]
[Perception: 6 > 5] [Dexterity: 55 > 56]
[Perception: 5 > 4] [Dexterity: 56 > 57]
With a sudden roar of frustration that would have broken Lan from his concentration if not for the fact that he was shouting too, the goblin threw itself at him as it abandoned technique for instinct. Even then, he pushed himself to meet the goblin, letting his sight grow dark to the point that only the goblin was visible, but soon, he couldn’t even see its arms until it was right in front of him, forcing him to strain his body even more to.
[Perception: 4 > 3] [Dexterity: 57 > 58]
[Perception: 3 > 2] [Dexterity: 58 > 59]
[Perception: 2 > 1] [Dexterity: 59 > 60]
Lan’s vision faded to only a pinprick, yet it did not matter as time slowed as he reached the next milestone before the goblin, sending lightning racing through his body. Feeling the slight change in air pressure from the goblin’s sideways slash, the same that he had blocked and dodged countless times, Lan let it pass him before bringing his shield up to meet the left cut.
When steel met his Shield Arm, Lan activated it, propelling the side blades out with enough force to rip the dagger out of the goblin’s hand. As he heard the dagger thunk into a nearby tree, Lan brought his sword down, ready to end the fight.
His sword fell, aiming for the little light that he could see. Suddenly, He felt a pain stab into his back, and although he knew it was only a trick of the goblin, his battle-ready state caused him to hesitate for a moment before his sword could find its mark.
The moment was all the goblin needed to reverse its one remaining dagger and cut it up. As the two blades met, Lan’s reduced strength came back to bite him as he lost the grip on his sword while the goblin’s dagger exploded into a rain of metal.
Lan's mind raced for an answer, his sword slipping out of his hand. He had been sure that this would work, but now that it hadn’t, he needed to think of something. He had his mace, but without the power of his sword, he didn’t know if he could kill it within one shot and trying to fight with a new weapon while in an ocean of blackness did not leave him with much confidence.
Lost in a black world, Lan hesitated for a moment.
In a desperate last attempt, Lan reached out for his sword, knowing that he wouldn’t find it but needed to do something. Yet as he did, Tyr's thoughts filled his mind clearly enough for him to see her as she stopped her wild flying and raced toward his sword.
Reaching it, the little light bumped into the handle, being knocked back as the sword turned once through the air and vanished as if being erased from the world.
[Inventory]
[Odd Steel Sword: Added]
Realising what she had done with a mix of surprise and joy, Lan reached into the Other World Chest and drew his sword. Taking it in both hands, Lan shot forward with the point of his sword aimed where the goblin had been. Slamming into it with all the force he could manage, Lan felt a sharp pain along the side of his neck before all was still.