Gris gripped his trousers tight. But in the end, he nodded heavily. With his Trait, as much as he didn’t like being tossed in with a cockroach, meant that he probably had the highest chance of success. Or did he? He didn’t exactly know how it worked. Shit. It was also his idea to move the train.

Chloe nodded.

“Alright,” Gris relented.

“Count me in as well. Christian’s the name.” a tall, golden haired young man announced from the doorway. He had a summoned hound behind him. It had scales across its body. It was probably rare. Rarer than a half star cockroach, that’s for sure.

Jok nodded, entered the main car, and announced, “Anyone else want to join us to decouple the last train?”

There were no takers. The big guy, however, walked toward them with a nod. His monkey stood on his shoulders, tail coiling around his neck. He didn’t seem phased one bit at the summoned monkey making a home around his neck. Maybe he had a pet monkey at home? Maybe he had an overly clingy girlfriend? Lucky bastard.

So they got to work. They ripped off the tables from the car, 4 in total. Jok, Christian, the Big Guy, and Chloe’s demon held onto them, using them as shields. The plastic was strong. Maybe they’d be good at blocking arrows. Gris was doubtful.

Apart from that, everyone had pipes that they had ripped off from within the car. They weren’t very heavy, but anything was better than nothing.

With that complete, the Big Guy opened the door to the other car.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” A bald, middle-aged man shouted from amongst the people in the other car.

Jok told them the reason. Thanks to that, they created space for them to pass. Gris noticed that they had also removed all the tables. They moved them all to the back, covering the windows entirely. They focused their defence on the back. That meant the front windows were open.

As the Big Guy approached one of the open windows, an arrow streaked by the side of his head, planting into the back wall of the car. He raised his shield-table. The arrows struck it, sticking into the thick plastic. They didn’t penetrate.

The shield holders stood next to each other. Two on the left; the Big Guy, and Jok, covering the left side windows. And two on the right; Christian, and the demon.

Gris, Chloe, and the other summons hid in the middle, protected on both sides. Gris peered through a small gap in between the shields. The goblins were shouting something to each other. There were at least ten on either side. And that was just from what he could see. It was obvious the entire train was under assault. That meant there had to be at least 100 goblins in the area.

It’s worse than I thought, Gris thought grimly.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he’d come out of this alive. He always thought that if he entered an apocalyptic scenario, he’d thrive. It was obviously a flight of imagination. But now that he was in the thick of it, he felt… Strangely, he didn’t feel anything? He should have felt fear. Goblins wanted to rip him apart, or fill his body with arrows.

His hands trembled, sure, but was that fear?

Was it excitement?

That couldn’t be right. Why the hell would he be excited about any of this.

Unable to come to terms with what he was currently feeling, he decided to focus on the task at hand. As they entered the 13th train car, they were met with a problem. A small, little, green problem. On the other side of the door, were at least 10 green goblins.

“Are you really going out there?” an elderly gentleman asked. Despite his age, clearly accentuated by the deep wrinkles under his eyes, was filled with vigour. He had a large, white snake around his arm.

“We’ve got to,” Jok said. “Need to decouple the car so that we can get the hell out of here.”

“Well, good luck,” he said, refusing to leave their train car. It was easy to see why. In the entire car, only one window was shattered. This car didn’t have a lot of people, either. Most had moved into the other cars, despite it being more dangerous.

It was probably because of the little green men staring at them with red in their eyes.

“Appreciate it,” Jok said. “Right, you, what’s your name?” He asked the Big Guy.

“Bo,” he replied, voice as deep as Gris expected it to be.

“Alright, Bo,” Jok said. “You’ll be in the lead. Me and Christian will protect your sides.” he turned to Gris and Chloe, and continued, “That means we’ll need you to deal with the stragglers. We’ll be busy defending the sides and front. If they get under the shields, you’ll need to kill them. Can you do that? Take a life, I mean.”

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

Gris took a breath and nodded. He felt a little nauseous thinking about it. But if he wanted to survive, then he had no choice. Chloe frowned, but nodded as well.

“That… demon,” Jok hesitated. “Can it kill?”

The demon looked at him. It understood.

“Yeah, I think so,” Chloe said.

With that, Bo opened the door. The twanging of bows was heard in an instant. Arrows pelted the front shield. A goblin on the right had climbed a tree and aimed through the shattered window. He fired. It struck Christian’s shield. They rushed ahead.

Gris’s grip tightened around the metal pipe in his hands. Shit. It was happening. They were about to fight. Blood was going to spill. And yet, Gris still felt nothing. Only a will to survive, no matter what.

Wait, is it the cockroach messing with me? God damn. It was a disturbing thought.

Bo smashed into the goblins. Then all hell broke loose. Three goblins climbed under. Two leapt over. One of them slashed their claws into Bo’s back. He roared in pain.

Gris, Chloe, and the demon reacted quickly.

Gris struck a goblin that was on the floor hard in the head with his pipe. It was holding a small, serrated blade. He felt a sickening crunch transmit into his palm. Oh god. It felt horrible. He lifted it again to strike another goblin that was scrambling on the floor, clambering to its feet. But he hesitated. The goblin used the time leap, and sank its teeth into his collar bone.

“Fuck!” Gris screamed. But when he realised that it didn’t hurt. Or more accurately – didn’t do any lasting damage, his mind turned hot, blood even hotter.

“Bo, lower the shield!” Jok shouted from the side. The big guy listened, he slammed it down, stopping the other goblins from climbing under. They squirmed and thrashed, but he pressed them down.

Leaving the goblin munching on his flesh, Gris struck another goblin in the skull. Thud. He left a dent in its head. Yet it wasn’t enough to kill it. They seemed tough. Even with his increased Strength, it wasn’t enough to smash through the dense bone. He hit it again. And again. Finally, it fell. But he was certain it was still alive.

Chloe used her wooden sword as a jabbing tool. She must have realised that she couldn’t deal damage by striking. She aimed for a goblin’s eyes. Her aim struck true. The goblin covered its eye, and then the demon arrived. With a swift swing of the club in its hand, it cracked against the goblins skull. It was still alive.

Then there was Christian’s dog. It was terrifying. Snarling, it ripped into the goblins, killing them swiftly. Gris was jealous.

By Gris’ feet, was one unconscious goblin. Then there was the one latched onto his collarbone. It was starting to hurt. A lot. He wanted them dead.

Gris snapped. He didn’t know if it was from a lifetime of being looked down on in work, neglected by his parents, or maybe he just needed to release a heck of a lot of stress, or maybe it was the goblin tearing on his flesh. And oh boy, it wasn’t pretty.

In silent fury, he bent down and used all the strength his body could muster. It turned out that he was holding back. Descending all his might onto the grounded, unconscious goblin, he splattered its skull open with a sickening, wet crunch. Blood splashed up, splattering his face red.

[You have defeated a Level 3 - Greenkin.]

You have received a quest - Kill 10 Greenkins| Reward: 1 Free Summon Spin.

He grabbed hold of the goblin on his front. It used its sharpened fingernails, and raked it across his chest. With his hand barely on its throat, he sprinted with all his speed, and clashed against a solid railing. The goblin’s head clanged against the metal. Dazed, it lost its strength, falling to the floor.

Gris rose his foot and repeatedly stomped its brain over the car’s floor.

[You have defeated a Level 2 - Greenkin.]

He immediately moved onto the next, swinging his metal pipe in blind, seething fury.

[You have defeated a Level 2 - Greenkin.]

[You have Levelled up.]

| Level 1 -> 2

| You have Stats to assign.

Stats?

However, he was too busy to look at them. After defeating the goblins that had either jumped over the shield, or climbed under, Bo walked forwards, releasing the creatures that he had pinned. There were 3 of them. Christian’s hound immediately set upon the one on the far left. Chloe’s demon had the one on the right. So that left Gris with the one in the middle.

He didn’t let it get onto its feet. He arrived fast, and with a quick and violent swing, incapacitated the goblin in one hit. The first hit was to daze it. Then came the second hit. That was enough to kill a Level 2. He killed it, then peered over Bo’s shield.

Four goblins were left. They inched closer to the back door. Snarling, they opened it, entered the next car, then quickly shut it after themselves.

Bo slammed the shield against the door, blocking the entrance.

Gris looked back. From where they stood, no arrows could hit them. The train was too high up, and the goblins – or in this case, Greenkin’s – were too small to climb in. They must have climbed in somehow.

Gris saw how as he glanced into the next car. A felled tree had crashed against the roof. Goblins were climbing in from the tree, lowering themselves into the window. They snarled at Gris and the others from the other side.