As Snorri sturgled blindly against the huge green-skinned creature, he heard a sudden crack. His eyes flickered open as he realised both he and his huge opponent had just been sprayed with a sheen of neon green blood. Snorri seazed the momentary opportunity and managed to slip his right arm free of the creature's huge grip. Still clutching his sword, he plunged the tip of the blade up into the creature’s left eyeball, setting forth another spray of neon green as the creature began to shake uncontrollably, frothing at the mouth. He pulled himself out from under his attacker and wiped his blade free. The creature instantly stopped shaking and went still.
The sounds of fighting reached Snorri’s ears, and he quickly brought his sword up into a guard as he threw away the noise. Buulk was fighting the three remaining creatures, easily parrying the blows from the huge clubs with his heavy warhammer. He let out a deep rumbling roar as he broke through one of the creatures blocks and smashed its head with the hammer, turning to launch his weapon through the air and smashing another of the creatures, turning it into little more than a neon green spray with legs. With a word, the hammer flew back to the dwarf’s outstreched hand. but it was too late.
Before the hammer could return to its wield, the final goblin was upon him, barging into the dwarf with a low tackle and sending both of them spawling the ground in a flurry of punches. Snorri ran towards them. Buulk smashed the creature's head with a series of devastating blows, but as the pair finally rolled to a stop, it was the green skinn who managed to gain the upper position, mounting the fallen dwarf and pinning his arms to the ground. It raised its head and brought it down hard into the dwarf’s nose.
Buulk swore loudly as dark purple blood oozed from his nose. The creature raised its head again. Snorri darted forward and leapt into the air. As the creature brought its head down for another brutal headbutt, he landed on its back, grabbing its shoulder with his left hand and wrapping both his legs around the creature's upper back. He let out a roar of Gnomish fury as he stabbed his sword into the creature's neck. The thing let out a roar of shock, pain, and confusion as Arracops's deathly, sharp blade opened the creature's throat. Snorri thudded into the ground as the creature finally released its grib on Buulk. He breathed in deep panting breaths as a now familiar chimed echoed through his head, and a golden letter began to spark into life in his vision:
LEVEL UP! Strength Level Six: Achieved!
NEW SKILL: Weapon Affinity Grade One.
YOU ARE NOW LEVEL TEN.
Buulk let out a goran of pain as he sat up and wiped blood from his nose. Snorri lay on the ground, blinking away those golden letters. A familiar clicking eachoed through his head. "Finnally,” Arracop’s voice echoed through his mind. “I thought you would take forever to unlock that skill.” Snorri did his best to ignore the spider and regain his breath. Finally, he pulled himself up to join the dwarf, who was cleaning neon green blood from the head of his warhammer. “Where are those things?” He asked, gesturing at the massive, green-skinned corpses. “Orcs” grunted at the dwarf. “Weak ones too; we killed about fifteen of them before that goblin horn went off. Why didn't you stay at the camp? I left you a message,” Snorri thought back to the moments after he had woken up. “The runes,” he said slowly as he pictured the campsite in his head. “I can't read Runic,” he stammered as the dwarf raised an eyebrow towards him. “Never mind,” Buulk grunted. “You can speak it; I thought you could read it.”
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Snorri shook his head. "Wait, you said there were more of them; are there any left?” He asked, suddenly spinning to look out into the darkness beyond the green firelight. "No, if they had run towards the noise of the horn, we were safe for now at least." Buulk ansered finnaly, deeming his warhammer clean and slipping it back onto its loop on his belt. Snorri felt a sudden prickle across the back of his neck. He glanced towards the dwarf to find the ranger looking dead at him. “Two levels at once?” he asked the gnome, raising an eyebrow.
“Just one” Snorri responded, "I gained another when I woke up.”
“What in?” Buulk inquired, "Yesterday, i mean, pretty ovbious, just now was combat.”
“Erm, intelligence,” Snorri said as he screwed up his face with the effort of remembering.
“Makes sense” Buulk grunted
“how? It's been puzzling me whyy I didn' gain it when you finished off the spider in the mountain.”
“Well, im guessing that talking that you had never been in the fresh air before, im pretty sure fresh air helps your brain grow?” Buulk offered, and Snorri was once again reminded he was travelling with a range and not a fellow academic. "Fool,” Arracop hissed in his snorri head. “You gained the level because you spoke a third language for the first time, fresh air in irreverence." Snorri pushed the spider's voice away and focused on his conversation with the dwarf. “So what are orcs?” Snorri asked, trying to change the subject to anything other than his own strength. Buulk screwed up his face in deep thought for awhile as he stared into the dying remains of the green goblish fire. “Greenbloods come in three varieties, mainly: goblins are the smart ones; they are tiny but clever; but centuries ago, they worked out a way to cover their physical weakness; they created orcs, the second kind, designed to be ten times as powerful as the goblins; they would be the most powerful warrior race in the world if the goblins hadn't made them so stupid.” Buulk explained in a gruff voice.
“What’s the third kind?” Snorri asked tentatively, wondering what could be worse than the orcs. “Trolls.” Buulk said bluntly, “Think like one of these, but smart; they mostly refuse to work with the others; they live deep within goblins borders and mostly keep to themselves. nasty in a fight, though.” The dwarves eyes seemed to glaze over with his words, as if he were reliving some long-ago battle.
As the fire finally died into a glowing pile of green embers, Buulk turned and began to walk back towards the copse of trees that concealed their own campsite. “Did you sleep enough?” He grunted as Snorri came up to him, “Think so. I can't sleep now anyway.”
“good” The dwarf grunted, “If we start now, we may make it to the trading post before nightfall tomorrow." As Buulk began to talk about the route they would have to take, Snorri curious activated the Appraisal skill. A golden 65 sparked into life above the dwarf's head. “Thats rude, you know,” Grunted Buulk. Snorri snorted at the dwarf hypocrisy.
“I’m serious, the dwarf said in a dark voice. Do that in the city, and any dwarf who’s level you see will think you're challenging them to single combat, but I'll let it t slide.Buulk warned him before adding in a dark voice, “This time.”