They were small but wore armor and gear that had clearly seen many battles. One of the goblins moved slowly towards me and swung his baton in my direction.

I quickly rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack. I felt like a super-hero.

"Stop moving!" he said, stepping closer.

I was scared. While I had done this countless times in games, I had never faced it for real. Would I be able to fight?

Once again, the goblin swung his baton, and I rolled to dodge it.

"Oh, come on! I told you to stop moving!" he shouted.

The other enemy laughed.

"What should I do?" I asked myself, my mind racing.

I glanced at the hoverboard, which was too far away to reach. I played many games, I had good stats, I could do this. I could fight. I reached for my rusty knife and pulled it out.

Both goblins laughed, mocking me. Then the closer one sneered :

"Oh, he has a toothpick now. How cute."

He revealed his dirty teeth, in all sorts of shapes and colors.

It was my chance. As he laughed, I attempted to quickly stab him.

I missed.

He effortlessly moved away, easily evading my attack as I stood there in horror.

Why did I miss? I should have won this. I did this many times before in games.

"Hey now," he said with a smile. "You could have hurt me with that."

He struck me again with his baton, and I flew backward, hitting the ground, letting go of my only viable weapon. My health dropped to 68.

It hurt like hell, and I could feel the effects of my diminishing health. My head throbbed, and my neck was bruised. This was real, not like a game at all. I suddenly felt helpless, doubting myself. Could I actually do this?

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The goblin approached me once again.

"Okay, let's finish this. Just don't move this time."

Fear paralyzed me. I didn't know what to do. I looked around ; behind me was the forest, in front of me were the two goons, and behind them was my hoverboard, which likely had little time left.

The goblin raised his weapon, ready to strike. It was the end before it even began. The end of my feeble quest into the Tower, not even leaving the Noob floor. What a joke, I thought I would rock this place.

Panic starting mounting in me, my body trembling with fear. I couldn't run, I couldn't fight back. I was in shock.

"I'm not a warrior," I said. "I'm not a hero, I'm just a stupid game designer. I have no skills to survive here."

I closed my eyes, fear taking over my whole body.

Suddenly, a weird scrunching noise echoed through the air. Then a high-pitched voice let go of a scary shout.

I opened my eyes back.

"What the heck!", I exclaimed in surprise.

The second goblin that had been standing behind had vanished. In its place stood the weird pink badger-rabbit creature. But now it had a hugely stretched stomach, with a pool of blood on the ground and a twitching arm. The creature chewed loudly.

The remaining goblin, the one that was about to attack me, stared at the creature in complete panic. The pink "thing" ate calmly, its belly so big that its legs didn't even touch the ground.

As it chewed, its belly slowly started to shrink, and it stood there with a happy face, still munching.

The last goblin lunged at the pink creature, and before my eyes, something insane happened.

The creature growled, and its mouth opened wide, stretching almost as big as the goblin. In an instant, the panicked attacker was swallowed whole. Just like that. The creature had an even bigger belly, swallowing the goblin and continuing to chew, a grin on its face.

"What the... what the... WHAT THE FUCK!" I shouted as I crawled backward, staring at that bizarre creature.

The badger-rabbit creature stood still, chewing loudly as its belly continued to shrink slowly.

It stopped and stared at me.

We stood there, looking at each other, immobile.

"Good doggie, good doggie..." I said slowly.

After a moment, the creature looked away and resumed its munching, as if nothing had happened. I didn't dare to move, half scared and half in awe.

A swishing sound followed, and my hoverboard dematerialized, with glowing orange particles flowing towards the gem on my armband. The pink creature stopped eating and followed the movement of the particles with its head. As the particles vanished into the gem, which now looked more like a piece of charcoal, it stared at me once more.

"It's all good, bro," I said.

"It's all good, bro?" I asked myself, "Why did I say that?"

Undisturbed, the creature returned to its meal, looking content in the serene forest.

Its belly was already half the size it was when it grabbed the second goblin. I didn't dare to move.

And so, we stood there for what felt like an eternity. The creature eating and digesting, with the cutest face ever, and me frozen in place, scared to death.