After an hour of walking I reached the top of a sand dune, then crouched as I spotted fires a dune away along with the gentle blue glow of calm mana. Narrowing my eyes I tried to make out the dark figures. Short. “Humph, probably more of those pathetic goblins.” “Can we cut them?”
I shook my head, too many to take on directly. There was at least thirty wandering around the encampment. Five was hard enough. “Uuu~ They dare pose a threat to us!” “Too many to cut? No! Just more to cut!” The voices in my head protested, but I wasn’t wavering on this. It would be different if I had allies or magic that could take out large swaths of them and instill panic, but I have neither at the moment.
*Bvvvvvvvv!!! My head swirled towards the noise and found a sentry on another dune near me blowing the alarm while pointing in my direction. I didn’t even spot him!? “Grr! Cut him cut him!” Suddenly another horn was blown three times on the other side of the encampment. More enemies? Good it will thin their numbers.
Dropping his horn the sentry took out his bow and took aim. Narrowing my eyes I slid to the side and charged, an arrow whistling by my face. Unfortunately there was over thirty meters between the archer and me, letting him get off a few shots- one that even scraped my shoulder- before I reached him and he withdrew his dagger to fend off Raphael. Thrusting I twisted Raphael and cut his wrist, then promptly thrust forward towards his neck, but only caught his shoulder as he dodged and yelled in pain. Stepping in close I pulled out Raphael from the wound then jammed her blade into the goblin’s throat. *Twang~ Continuing with the momentum I let myself roll forward, letting three arrows fly by me, two getting close to my shin and arm before they disappeared into the desert night. Getting on my feet I dashed towards the party of seven goblins approaching me, comprised of three archers, a mage, a goblin wielding a shield and sword, and two dagger goblins. I groaned internally at seeing the metal armor covering the shield-sword goblin glinting in the moonlight. “How dare he wear armor in our presence!” “Cut him Cut him Cut him!” “We can’t dummy! The most we can do is use the butt of Raphael to stun him or knock off his helmet!”
The archers all took aim and shot at different parts of my body consecutively. Growling in annoyance I skipped to the side and avoided the arrows, then the mage finished chanting and a wall of sand rose and flew at me. Gritting my teeth I watched the shifting grains and ran to the side, barely clearing the wall before I heard the familiar twang of bows and brought my arm infront of my vitals. *thockthock- “Rr-” Ignoring the arrows now painfully stuck in my arm and abdomen I bolted forward again, gripping Raphael as the warrior goblin came into close range.
Glancing around I spotted the dagger goblins trying to flank me. Their cooperation is no joke. Twirling Raphael like a glaive I feinted towards the goblins foot the thrust towards his armored face, startled he hurriedly brought up his shield but failed to fully block and was dazed by the impact. Not hesitating for a second I swung Raphael in a right arc, the dagger goblin reflected the blade upwards and I stepped forward while striking from underneath with Raphael’s blunt edge and slammed into the goblins hidden metal chestplate and forcing it to stumble backwards. Lowering my stance I shifted in the other direction and thrust towards the dagger goblin charging from behind. The goblin parried the blade to the side with all its effort and I used the momentum to step closer and use the other end of raphael to swipe its feet from underneath it, then brought Raphael’s blade down on its skull, cutting through the bone. *twang~ Fwoosh~ Fire and arrows approached me from the side while the warrior goblin cut off my escape, growling I used Raphael as a lever and threw the corpse under me into the flames to buffet most of the damage. The warrior roared in anger and tried and went to bash me with its shield, which I promptly jumped onto front of and used it as a spring to put distance between us, then charged the Mage and the Archers.
Twisting my body I barely dodged the three arrows and continued crossing the forty meters between us. The Archers and Mage split up going in separate directions, earning another angry growl from me. Dodging to the side I went to cut off the rightmost archer, even though the mage was the most troublesome. Two arrows flew at me from the side along with a fireball, while the archer I was charging towards aimed an arrow right at my forehead.
Gritting my teeth I swung raphael and deflected the arrows aiming for my legs while diving towards the ground and rolling, the fireball singeing the back of my shirt as it passed overhead. Bolting forward I didn’t give the Archer another chance before I leapt forward with Raphael caught him in the chest despite him trying to defend with his bow, the arrow he had pulled taught making a long cut on my arm as it flew by me.
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The soft shift of sand alerted me to movement behind me, and I threw myself over the Archer corpse just in time to dodge the slashing dagger of a goblin. Withdrawing and thrusting with Raphael I managed to catch the goblin off balance and score a long cut through his cheek, then swung Raphael’s blunt end into the goblins leg, shattering its knee and causing it to cry in pain as it collapsed.
Before I could finish it the Warrior goblin charged in with a roar and swung wildly. I stepped back and dodged while attacking with Raphael and shifting so the warrior was between me and the two archers- where’s the mage!? Glancing around I found the mage to my side finishing his chant. “Tsk.” I thrust towards the warrior’s head again, Raphael clanging off his shield but momentarily blocking his vision, I then danced to his side and dodged a flying cannon-like ball of sand, only to have two arrows fly at me; one painfully burying itself in my shoulder and the other nearly taking out my left eye. Yelling in pain and rage I crouched and feinted towards the warriors back which he promptly redirected his shield to block, then pulled back thrust upwards with blunt end of Raphael and successfully knocking off his helmet and stunning him. Not giving him a chance to recover I switched Raphael with Ariel then brought down Ariel’s blade on his face, cleaving into his skull and ending his life.
Grinning ferally I dashed towards the mage, my shoulder, arm and abdomen screaming in pain as the arrow heads twisted in my flesh. The mage started to panic, and after dodging three rapidly fired arrows I reached him and he fumbled his chant as he struggled to pull out a dagger. Without hesitation I thrust Raphael into his throat, claiming another life. Two to go. “Cut them!” “Show them their place!”
One of the Archers started edging towards their encampment. The other continued to fire arrows at me rapidly, which with exhaustion slowly starting to replace adrenaline became harder and harder to dodge. The other Archer, as if sensing his chance took aim as well, but I wouldn’t have any of that. I bolted forward with my remaining stamina, and the archer retreated in response and I grit my teeth. Yelling with rage I forcibly accelerated and closed the twenty meter distance, earning another cut across my leg in the effort. Tossing his bow to the side the Archer drew a dagger and charged me. I swung Ariel in an arc, then twisted my wrists as he went block, sweeping underneath the dagger and then thrusting into his chest. Hearing a whistle I ducked, the arrow taking a few strands of my hair as it passed. Withdrawing Ariel from the corpse I turned just in time to see the archer yell in fear-
-and a scaled monstrosity descend upon it with fury, one swipe of its trunk-like arm blowing the goblin into pieces. It was akin to a humanoid lizard crossed with a bear, yet moved without a sound as it turned its head towards me, saliva dripping from its toothy maw as it took a step forward and started running at me with double my own speed.
Grinding my teeth dozens of scenarios bolted through my brain as I desperately found one to cling on. Roaring I charged as well, and the beast shook as if annoyed. Swinging its arm with confidence I felt cold-sweat going down my back, then threw Ariel at its face, causing it to start in surprise as its claw redirected to get rid of the shiny weapon flying at it, allowing me to get so close I was basically right underneath the giant creature, looking upwards I gathered my breath- Nymph’s Grace!- and blew out a roar right into the beast’s face as it looked downward, Dragon’s Breath!
A tornado of light and bits of other elements shot from my mouth like lightning, the beast didn’t even have have time to roar in pain as the scathing light carved out its eyes and ripped apart the insides of its mouth, going down its throat as it inhaled and scarring its lungs. In the next moment my breath ended and I wearily jumped out from underneath the beast as it tried to roar in pain, but all that came out was a wheeze as it collapsed onto the ground, bleeding from its broken and charred face.
The shifting of sand alerted me to another enemy and instantly summoned Raphael and thrust the blunt end backwards, blowing the breath from the goblin I thought was out of commision. Turning around I swung Raphael and deprived the goblin of its head, ending the battl-
-I froze on seeing two hulking shadows staring at me from the top of the dune. Two more of the damn beasts!? I grit my teeth and prepped Raphael as they started to move. One dashed down the dune, the other jumped high into the air on course to land behind me. Dashing backwards to keep them in my line of sight I barely cleared the beasts landing point before it crashed into the sand and the ground shook with the impact. Not giving me time to rest the beast swung its thick arms. Focusing all my effort into dodging the wind-stirring blows I despaired as the other beast dashed around its companion to flank me, exhaustion eating away at my limbs as I struggled to continue fighting.
The beast infront suddenly raised its leg and a golden energy gathered around it, right before it slammed it into the ground with a thunderous roar, blasting sand in all directions and depriving me of my vision- *Cra~ckffffffffffffff - The ground buckled and rapidly started sinking, the two beasts froze in confusion as it lurched, then suddenly, like a falling tower of cards it gave way forty meters in every direction.
The beasts finally made a sound as they roared in confusion, desperately trying to cling to something as we fell among obscene amounts of sands and stones. For two dozen seconds we fell aimlessly, while I was trying to get my grips in the new environment. I spotted a few of the goblins I defeated earlier through the sand and stones, but they wouldn’t help me now. I continued to look for a way to survive, but found nothing until my ears picked up a sort of rumbling. Like a river. I looked down and peered into the quickly approaching darkness.
"""Shit.”””