Rik and the rest of the twenty or so warriors shuffled through the tunnel into a large circular chamber. As he fanned out into the room, he found himself trying to make sense of the massive contraption within. Through his helmet’s visor, the goblin warrior could just about make out chains leading from each of the platform’s corners, all connected in one single chain that seemed to extend off forever into some form of vertical tunnel. "Ere you roy?” Rik asked one of his fellow warriors. “What do you think this is?” he asked, gesturing to the platform with his sword. Another of the goblins, apparently Roy, rocked his head back, trying to see if he could see further up into the tunnel. "Well, I'm guessing they don't have spiders, right?” Roy said after stumbling to avoid falling after rocking backward too far in his heavy plate armor. "It must be how they get up and down.” Rik nodded at Roy's hypothesis; it did make sense.
A sudden muttering came through the goblins of their unit. “Whats happening?” hissed Roy to one of the goblins, slightly further towards one of the circular chamber exits. “The runners we sent out ahead of us never came back,” one of their comrades hissed back at them.
“Right boys battle formation.” came a roar from close to the tunnel entrance at the front of the unit. “Word from the boys is that he wants us to go find the runners. If there are dead, we gotta kill what killed them, then bring it back to the boss for experiments."The twenty heavily armoured goblins moved into a well-practiced formation at the tunnel entrance and began to march forward in three ranks of six behind the goblin, who had been shouting orders a moment before. The unit moved forward into the tunnel in a familiar battle march. As they plodded through the darkness, Rik spanked his head, trying to see as much as possible as the tunnel opened out into some sort of storage facility. The high-ceilinged chamber he marched into was apparently filled with high shelves, maybe twice his height, that arched into the darkness above them. “Can you see what's on the shelves?” Rik hissed to Roy, who had fallen to his left.
“Shut it!” shouted the goblin leading the march. He raised his fist. The units marching instantly halted. The unit leader raised his long goblin nose into the air and sniffed. “I smell blood, boys. Our blood. keep sharp.” The unit leader turned to face his unit. “Search every shelf; whatever it is, the boss is going to want it,” the goblins of the unit grumbled in protest. The unit leader turned to scream at the goblins. “Did you hear?"
The goblin leader was cut off as a dark shape blurred from the top of one of the nearby shelves collided with the unit leader's helmeted head. The unit leader's disciplinary screaming turned to panicked screaming as he and the dark mass, maybe two-thirds of his weight, barreled into him. sending him clattering to his back. The unit leader felt the form jerk suddenly and suddenly felt a burst of wetness inside his armour's chest plate. He opened his mouth to scream, but all that came out was a vague gurgling sound.
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Snorri rolled to his feet with a snarl. He had been lurking atop the shelves from the moment he had heard the goblins heavy marching echoing from beyond the store room. He spanked to face the goblin unit as he flicked their leaders neon green blood from his sword. The goblin unit seemingly made three choices: those in the front charge towards Snorri. Swinging evil-looking sharp swords as they came, those in the middle of the unit, seemingly confused, whatched the first group charge, staying fast and waiting to see who won the fight, the charging goblins of whatever had seemingly killed the unit leader. The third group fled from the room, sprinting back towards the lift platform as fast as they could in their heavy metal armour.
Snorri met the chargin goblins with a roar. Swining his own sword in a strong two-handed grip and driving it forward, peicing into the heavy metal plate. The goblin screamed, and Snorri pushed the blade through and kicked the goblin down. Snorri had just enough time to dive backwards before a trio of large goblin axe heads plunged into the stone beneath where his boots had been in the seconds before. Snorri launched himself into the air, arcing his sword high above his head. He allowed the weapon’s weight to pull him twice as high as he could normally jump before he drove his blade down. The blade smashed through the middle goblin's heavy-plated pauldron, lodging itself into the goblin’s chest plate. Snorri roared as he wrenched the blade free with a squeel of metal and a spray of neon green. He dropped backwards into a well-timed roll.
Another of the amorous goblins came charging through the two remaining goblins. Swing an oversized axe at Snorri’s head. The gnome threw his sword in a precisely aimed throw. The goblin’s wild warcry caused the creature to raise its head just enough from its unarmored chin to be visible from under its helmet’s visor. Snorris Blad plunged into the goblins exposed lower jaw and exsploded into the goblins head with a wet thud. The goblins warcry instantly ceased. Snorri pulled his sword back through the air towards him. The remaining pair of goblins came at him together. Swinging at his head in well-coordinated strikes
Snorri parried the blows, sending the first swordman spwarling across the floor and catching the second in a well-timed counterattack. The blow didn't have enough force behind it to break through the goblin’s thick metal helmet. The sound the clanging metal produced did seem to confuse the creature some. Snorri ceased the opportunity he had created and shoulder tackled the goblin. As he came into contact with the goblin’s chest plate, he rammed his sword blade up and under the creature's helmet. The goblin quickly dropped to its knees, letting out a low gurgling sound. A goblin roar brought Snorri back to his senses as the sword, who had been knocked to the floor, regained his feet and charged the gnome.
Snorri let out a warcry of his own and launched himself into the air. Wrenching his sword from where it had been lodged inside the goblin helmet, he heard an explosion of neon green and flashes of metal. The sword sent a low strike somewhere vaguley in Snorri’s direction as he sailed through the air. Snorri swung Arracops blade down with all his strength, splinting the goblin’s head, neck, and helmet clean in two. As the corpse rolled away, Snorri looked towards the storage chamber’s exit. In between himself and his onward journey, six heavily armoured goblins stared him down, snarling in anticipation of the fight to come.