Lara’s eyes danced like fire as her consciousness returned to the world. She shakily stood to her feet, body filled with the resolve to get to her mother she marched towards the fight.
Normally she would have hesitated and thought through alternate routes to get there, ways to avoid the danger. But too much time had gone by and she felt her body surging with power, almost primal in nature and for the first time in her life, aggression coursed through her veins.
Jumping over the bodies, Lara’s eyes glanced to the river, four soldiers were slowly making their way towards the green, guns raised and sights set. They opened fire, loud shots echoed through the square and the creatures stumbled forwards.
Lara knew immediately that something was different, the creatures had only stumbled forwards, they weren’t dead. It’s as if they’d been hit with a heavy BB gun, rather than an actual assault rifle. Two of the Goblins turned, annoyance written across their ugly faces, saliva falling from between sharp teeth and dark green gums.
Shouting amongst themselves in a strange, high-pitched and snapping language the three creatures began to coordinate. One Goblin renewed their assault on the lone man, whilst the other two began to move towards the soldiers, their movements slow and haggard by a constant spray of bullets, shielding their eyes with long, thin arms and sharp elbows, they advanced.
“IT’S NOT WORKING” one soldier screamed over the gunfire, panic in his voice. He was thin, wearing a uniform slightly too big for him with thick curly ginger hair, matted with blood.
The elder of the three steeled himself, taking out two large knives, one in each hand ready to take the battle into its next phase of combat. Tears staining his two companions' faces, he prayed for a miracle as the Goblins began to pick up their pace. His eyes were abruptly blinded, a wave of heat wheeled over his head and his nostrils were stung by the strong smell of burning flesh.
The Goblin closest to him, maybe ten paces away, wheeled in agony ripping cloth from its dirty tunic, patting furiously at the side of its face. Shrieking violently, the other rushed by the soldier who presented no real threat, its eyes locked on something behind him. He turned to see a woman standing by the bridge with eyes of fire.
Lara couldn’t explain how she had conjured fire out of thin air, but it was almost as if it was second nature. The same way your hand would automatically rise to swat away a fly in the summer heat. The accuracy, well that was more like dumb luck but she was out of time and had to take a chance.
As the second Goblin reached her, it hurriedly slashed a rusted blade towards Lara’s gut. She took a jump backward, avoiding the strike and tried to invoke the flame once more to no avail. Cooldown. “Shit” Lara cursed as she braced for the next blow, the jagged blade loomed over her and came crashing down.
A low thud rang out and her forearms began to vibrate. She knelt down and intuitively raised her arms in a cross towards the threat. A large violet shield with otherworldly markings hovered above her, blocking the blow and causing soft vibrations to radiate outwards, ruffling the nearby foliage.
Staggering backwards the Goblins' fishlike eyes widened, shocked by the events. It was small, at 5ft tall, with long reaching arms and strong sinewy muscles. Oversized hands with thin, gnarled, fingers gripped its weapon. Green knuckles began to whiten as its grip strengthened, ready for the next attack.
Lara was sprayed with watery yellow blood. The Goblin let out a groan as its companions blade bluntly cut into its neck. The lead soldier had taken one of their blades and struck it from behind. Spinning around, the Goblin struck the soldier's face with a raging swipe, long black fingernails raked his flesh, popping his left eye open.
He fell to the ground, clutching his face screaming. Another heatwave washed over him, his miracle continued to radiate wonder. Fire washed over the Goblins back, it fell to his knees beside him and gasped its last breath. “We got one” he said weakly to Lara, before slowly losing consciousness.
The other two soldiers had scrambled over to their captain and were padding his wounds. The first Goblin hit by Lara’s spell had now got back to their feet, fury written across its face. Only a few more seconds and Lara would be able to hit them with another blast, she knew it was best to wait until they were closer.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
In the distance the lone swordsman let out one final gasp, the third Goblin’s polearm had been driven straight through his chest. The man dropped to his knees, thin streaks of blue leaving his body, streaming upwards towards the sky. His longsword clattered to the ground and began to fade into faint blue wisps that dissipated into the air.
Realising that victory was close, the Goblin with half a face, now blackened like ash paused in its pursuit and waited. The larger Goblin, blood thirsty from its victory, strolled down the green throwing its oversized polearm across its shoulder.
Casually it took a second blade from a holster on its leg and tossed it to the injured Goblin, muttering something indistinguishable. Taking the knife, the second Goblin bowed its head deeply and apologetically to its leader. They both began to snarl, all four of their eyes locked on Lara.
“You should run” the curly haired Soldier stoically said to Lara, “We can buy you time”.
“And leave you to die?” Lara retorted. “I don’t know why I’ve been chosen, or whatever this is that’s happened to me. But it’s happened for a reason”
“Grab that rusted sword. It seems that their own blades can cut them, but our metals can’t. I’m not sure why…. But your commander saved me with that very blade” Lara said, hearing how stern her was voice surprised her. She never normally took command of a high adrenaline situation like this.
“If you can hold off the big one at least for a few seconds, I think one more blast of fire might finish off the second”. Lara panted, searching for breath “then we’re going to have to get a bit lucky”.
The two Goblins were more intelligent than Lara had realised, they slowly marched towards the group, weapons held out defensively as they approached. Once they were within striking distance, Lara readied her palms, pointed them to her target and channelled the fire that was burning inside her. A huge ball of flames bolted from her palms and headed straight for the burnt Goblin.
To everyone’s shock and dismay, the larger Goblin parried the fireball with its Polearm, sending the flames off course into an adjacent building. The Goblins lips curled into a dangerous smirk and they lunged forwards.
Throwing an arcane shield to protect them, Lara took the combined strikes of the polearm and short sword, cracks beginning to appear in the ethereal and translucent purple shield. It wouldn’t be able to continue taking hits like this, Lara panicked.
The remaining soldiers sprung into action, handguns firing to stagger the larger Goblin backwards. Gus, the soldier with curly, ginger hair, found his courage and caught the edge of the Goblins knee with the rusted blade. It pierced the skin, the Goblin howled in pain and leapt backwards.
Meanwhile Lara was doing her best to avoid the wrath of the Goblin she’d burned as it hacked and swiped the air around her in a blur of rage. Its patience and strategy had worn thin and it was attacking Lara in a frenzy. Slash after slash, Lara’s shield was slowly starting to break, dodging blows between cooldowns Lara was almost backed into a corner.
Another wave of heat washed over the village, her cooldown had finally reset. The injured Goblin couldn’t take more damage and was hit square in the chest by the ball of fire projected from Lara. It died instantly, hitting the ground with a thud.
Grabbing the short sword, Lara threw it towards the feet of the soldier with the gun that was laying suppressing fire on the larger Goblin.
It was three vs one now, odds felt in their favour. The two soldiers had weapons that could actually hurt or even kill the creature and Lara had… well… she thought… magic. There was no other word to describe it.
“If we survive this… we’re going to have one hell of an adventure finding out what the heck is going on” she said, seemingly to herself.
The two soldiers were in an all out bladed fight against the Goblin leader, although it was an unfair playing field. The Goblins strength was overwhelming, each swing of the polearm caused the soldiers weapons to clatter back wildly, leaving them off balance and unable to counter.
“I need 30 seconds” Lara shouted “the fire takes time to reset”
“We’re try—“ Gus yelled back, words cut off as his squadmates throat was torn open by a rapid thrust of the Polearm. It happened in a blur, as if the Goblin was tapping into its own type of ability, a rapid lunge and leap backwards happened in seconds.
“NO!” Gus cried out as his partner fell backwards, clutching hopelessly at the gaping hole left by the Goblins blade.
In no time at all, the Goblin ran forwards to capitalise on the break in Lara and Gus’s composure. Lara continued to throw out her shield and deflected a series of rapid blows, her raw arcane power continuing to crack under the barrage. Lara could feel the energy being drained out of her with every spell, every time the shield was struck.
Finally, her shield shattered like glass, the after effect knocking the attacking Goblin backwards. Gus seized his opportunity and sliced the injured leg more deeply, causing the Goblin to lean heavily to one side.
Flickering flames flew by Gus’s eyes and hit the Goblins left arm, causing it to drop its polearm, limping towards the stream that ran through the village the Goblin fell back from the bridge. With a splash, it landed into the flowing water. The smell of burned flesh seared the nostrils of Gus and Lara. They both knew it wasn’t over yet.
Lara fell to one knee, she’d exhausted herself. The spells took stamina and she was all out, she knew this. There was no heads up display, or energy bar, but an innate feeling. She was tapped out, she needed to rest.
The sound of thick claws scrabbling at stone and the splashes of water as the creature emerged onto the stream's bank struck fear into Lara’s heart.
Her vision began to blur and the last thing she heard was Gus assuring her “I’ll do everything I can”.