CHAPTER 5

“I didn’t see that coming.”

Kalysto couldn’t even feel her left arm.

But she didn’t have time to ponder that.

Shortly after her strange victory, the little girl screamed again as the third goblin raised its spiked club, gathering momentum to hurl it at the innocent creature.

Kalysto ran up, grabbed the second goblin’s huge club in her right hand, and hurled it at the third attacker’s head.

“Run!” she shouted at the girl, just as the goblin took the blow and turned at the sound of her voice. “Run, now!” she insisted as she saw that the girl just stood there, doing nothing. “Run! Run around the fountain a couple of times and come back, now!”

The mini blonde nodded her head and started to run while her mother, frightened at being left alone, began to scream.

“No! Don’t go!” she cried disconsolately, surprising Kalysto with her lack of maternal instinct. “Don’t you dare leave me here alone, Katia Smith! Come back right now, young lady! Aren’t you listening to me? Come back this instant!”

Fortunately, the child did not listen to her.

And the third goblin, instead of turning and facing Kalysto, as she thought he would, ran after the slender girl.

Fortunately, unlike the other one, this one´s size and strength came with slower movements. Even for thinking. Giving Kalysto a moment to catch her breath and reorganize her thoughts. She wished she could have rested a bit, but the circular fountain that was only ten meters away from them, was not big enough to give her more than a few seconds rest.

It would have been even better without the constant cries of the mother trying to get Katia to come back and stay by her side.

But instead of sitting back and criticizing the poor attempt at mother, who seemed more intent on forcing her daughter to die along with her than on securing the life of her progeny, Kalysto grabbed her camping backpack again and stowed the bag with the loaves of bread inside, feeling bad about crushing them. As soon as she was done, she grabbed her cell phone and dialed 911 as she gathered a large group of stones in several piles, using the decorative rocks that lined the beautiful flower garden on one side of the road they were on.

After reporting to the operator that a trio of violent vandals attacked a mother, along with her daughter. She added that a group of animals apparently escaped from the nearby zoo and one of them ran over the mother, breaking her legs.

After the emergency call-taker who attended to her assured her that an ambulance was on her way, she was tempted to say that they were being invaded by creatures from another world, but fearing she would be labeled crazy she said she also noticed a strange red spot in the sky before hanging up and putting her cell phone back in her backpack. Just in time to pick up the second goblin’s medieval club and hug a second set of rocks with the arm that still held the knife as Katia ran to meet her.

“Good job! I called 911, and an ambulance is on its way!” The girl’s face lit up knowing that they were coming soon to help them, then without missing a beat, Kalysto pointed to the stones. “I hope you have good aim because as soon as I get away from that thing; I want you to start throwing rocks at him. If it’s at its head, all the better, but hit him where you can. Anything that can help me distract him while I look for a good angle to attack him will do. Understood?” Katia nodded her head as she finished reaching Kalysto’s side and placed her hands on her thin knees as she tried to recover the air she had lost while running.

“Yes...yes, ma’am,” she replied with her pale cheeks tinged red from physical exertion, making her look adorable. Kalysto’s heart flooded with tenderness at the sight of her, and she almost felt bad for asking her to help her kill someone.

But their survival was at stake.

Thank heaven the girl’s mother had stopped screaming, her face as white as a hospital wall as she saw the green creature come running back to them again, the spiked club held high. Then she fainted.

“Mommy!” Katia panicked.

“Don’t worry about her right now. The paramedics will take care of your mother. For now, the best we can do to save her is to take care of that thing before the ambulance comes. Got it?” She said, holding the club between her legs as she began to throw rocks in the face of the huge goblin as he approached, hitting his nose and left eye.

The monster roared louder, annoyed by the small blows, and quickened its steps, running straight towards them. Kalysto hurriedly threw the rest of her stones to the ground and began to evade the creature’s blows, even clumsily trying to block one of his attacks with the club she had just stolen from the deceased goblin, only for it to be thrown, along with her, to the side.

“Shit!...” She groaned as the pain from the blow she had received earlier, from the other goblin, exploded as she moved her arm after taking another blow. "Now, Katia!” She shouted, and the little blonde started throwing rocks at the only goblin left alive near them, first at its uncovered stomach, then she missed two more shots and the next one bounced off the tiny breastplate the goblin wore as armor. But Kalysto had piled up enough rocks for the girl to have available, even if she missed.

As Katia continued to get better at her shot, succeeding this time in hitting him in the face, the young waitress tried to recover from the painful blow.

“Come on Kalysto, this is nothing!” It wasn’t, if she took into account everything that happened to her while she was growing up. By now she should be so used to pain that she wouldn’t be surprised if she found out someday that her tolerance level for it was much higher than the average person’s.

Still, it hurt like hell.

She clenched her jaw, forcing herself to concentrate on what was really important.

They had to get rid of that thing.

After a couple more breaths, she rounded on him as he was covering his eyes and trying to get closer to the girl, then Kalysto charged him from behind, burying the knife twice before quickly backing away to avoid a blow as he turned to her, full of rage and attacked her.

Kalysto dodged his blows and gave Katia a look. The girl perked up, wordlessly understanding the strategy, and they did this same thing for three more times before the creature noticed the pattern and scowled at them.

It was to their great advantage that he was not very smart. But it was obvious that the strategy was too simple and wouldn’t last forever.

Kalysto watched Katia out of the corner of her eye. The little girl still looked scared, but she was doing her part as best she could, even though it was obvious she was getting tired.

And she wasn’t the only one.

Kalysto doubted she could last much longer if the confrontation continued to drag on. Worst of all, the goblin seemed to be learning from his mistakes, and though he was far more wounded than before, he no longer let on any openings that she could use to her advantage.

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They were at a dead end.

And if the fight was one of endurance, in the terrible shape she was in, along with all the fatigue built up after a week of final exams while she worked nights, he had every chance of winning.

And that was the moment the woman with the squeaky voice with the broken cast on her leg chose to start screaming.

“Katia! Katia! Where are you, you fucking brat? Come here immediately if you know what’s good for you!”

“Don’t do it!” Kalysto shouted at her as soon as she realized that the girl took a step in her mother’s direction. “If you stop helping me distract him, we won’t stand a chance of getting out of here alive.”

The girl kept silent and continued to do as Kalysto had asked.

“The ambulance must be nearby,” Kalysto reminded her.

“Katia, come here this instant! Don’t think you’re going to save yourself just because your father has your custody!”

That seemed to do the trick.

And Katia hesitated again. Stopping throwing stones.

Kalysto let out a curse.

It’s because of things like this that it’s best not to trust anyone else. She thought with annoyance. If you don’t expect anything from anyone, it won’t hurt when they disappoint you. She reminded herself as she realized that she had actually been expecting help from the little girl. And unwillingly, an image of her father during the night when he disappeared, when the light of the full moon touched his figure half hidden in the shadows of the tall trees that surrounded the small clearing behind the house she grew up in, flooded her mind.

Stop remembering that and focus for once! No one will give a shit about you if you let yourself die right now! She scolded herself. And the singular chill that washed over her body every time she forced herself to focus, ran through her from head to toe. Making even the pain she felt every time she breathed much more tolerable.

The goblin seemed to notice the strangeness of the atmosphere and also stopped his attacks, turning his gaze from the girl to the woman on the ground. As soon as the university student took a step with the intention of approaching him and taking advantage of his distraction, he turned towards her, ready to give her a fight. Kalysto instead jumped backwards.

Staying within the mother’s angle of vision.

“It’s been at least ten minutes since she called the ambulance, mother. I’m sure they’ll be here soon,” said Katia.

“The world has gone to shit! And you really think they’ll come to our rescue?” she shouted at the kid.

To tell the truth, Kalysto doubted it too, but she still didn’t want to give up hope, not completely. Although she had always been more the realistic, practical type.

“You! Do something, you have to help us!” commanded the woman.

Her words annoyed her, not only because of the order that a complete stranger was giving her without any thanks for having risked her life so far to save them when she had no obligation to do so, but because of the way she was treating the girl.

It was at that moment, when she was about to refute her and looked down to see the blonde woman, that she noticed something strange about that monstrous creature.

His wounds were smaller than before.

Is he healing? She didn’t remember ever hearing Natasha complain about it in the video games the teenager played all the time, but she didn’t remember any reference in the author’s books about it, either. Since when did goblins have the ability to regenerate... What wasn’t it trolls and slimes that could do that?

She watched him carefully, just to be sure.

It was slow, slow enough that she hadn’t noticed it before, but now that everyone was distracted by the senseless screams of that woman, who should be thankful she was still alive, and who had been lucky enough not to be bleeding out thanks to the beating she took earlier, was that Kalysto was able to notice it. Had it not been for that, she probably would have missed it.

That’s why he’s so calm watching them argue. And realizing that made her rethink the whole situation.

This thing was not only physically taller and stronger than her, but also its stamina was formidable.

But if it had the ability to regenerate, there was no way they could win this.

Then she took another step back.

“Where do you think you’re going? I told you to come!” In her fit of rage, she seemed to have forgotten how hurt she was and the little movement the blonde woman made was enough to silence her as a wave of pain hit her.

“Do I have to?” Annoyed with that ungrateful woman, Kalysto took another step back.

Surprise flashed across the lady’s face, then rage.

“Damn bitch!” She gasped with an effort. “You have to... save us!... Otherwise, why did you come here... in the first place?”

Kalysto stepped back, leaving more space between her and the goblin.

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who found her voice annoying, as the goblin decided to turn away upon seeing Kalysto’s unwillingness to continue the fight and approached the woman lying on the ground, taking her screams as an aggression he should defend himself against.

And turning his back on the twenty-one-year-old university student.

As soon as Kalysto saw him raise his spike club, ready to strike the noisy mother, the child’s scream echoed in the air as the little girl tried to intercept him and use her body as a shield in an attempt to save her progenitor. The waitress seized the opportunity, passed the knife to her right hand, ran towards the green creature, jumped on its back, and then jumped again using his huge green butt as a foothold for her feet until she reached the back of his neck, giving him three quick thrusts in the neck.

The goblin screamed, dropping his weapon and Kalysto tightened her grip on the small armor covering his chest and part of his back to get a better angle and finally slit his throat.

They both fell to the ground as she listened to the little girl tearfully check her mother. And something unpleasant stirred inside Kalysto as she avoided looking at them and checked that the monster was really dead and unable to regenerate.

No one noticed her.

None of them asked her if she was okay or thanked her for saving their lives. And that bothered her, at the same time a small part of her couldn’t help but feel a little envious having seen them hugging.

Stop this nonsense! She scolded herself as that blanket of coldness came over her again, protecting her this time from her own emotions. And Kalysto took a deep breath, reminding herself that it wasn’t for that nasty lady that she had thrown herself into helping them.

It was for the girl’s welfare.

Because despite the age difference, she could see herself reflected in her.

Then she was aware of the awkwardness of her position, sitting, hanging on the back of a creature she had just murdered. And she looked at her hands, still stained with blood.

I killed someone... three, in fact. She thought, rationalizing her actions and convincing herself that it was only for survival. With that strange coldness numbing her emotions, it was much easier to think about that. And as she stared at her dirty hands, her vision became blurry. A distant memory, one she was sure wasn't hers, came to her mind. But it was so fleeting that she could barely make out a pair of hands, smaller than hers, stained with blood that was not violet. The vision distorted and a sharp pain erupted behind her eyes, making her groan.

Great, now the migraine is killing me.

Then she closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing, on the fact that she was still alive, forgetting everything else. Forcing herself to cover herself with that coolness that protected her sometimes and to enjoy that all this drama was finally over. And probably, after that day, she would never see them again and her life would return to normal.

She survived, and that was all she had to focus on.

Finally, a little calm after the storm. She thought.

Slowly, her headache began to subside. Every part of her body hurt like hell and her right side was killing her, but at the same time, she felt more alive than ever.

And she gave herself a moment to enjoy the victory, before she thought about getting up and getting the hell out of there, leaving those two to their fate.

She had done more than enough for that ungrateful old woman.

She sighed. Soon she would leave all this in the past and never think about it again.

Or so she thought, until the sound of an elevator echoed in her mind, putting all her senses on high alert.

Out of nowhere, a blue-colored box appeared less than forty centimeters from her nose.

[You have completed all the requirements necessary to use the system.]

[System loading...]