Breaking news:
The coastlines of every nation with borders along the Pacific Ocean have been engulfed by the rising waters as tides rushed in, overwhelming and killing millions. A large object was released from space, which we believe to be the mana core that the alien creature warned us about. It was seen falling into the ocean shortly after the broadcast from the odd dark obelisks that rose from the ground in nearly every major city on Earth.
Due to its striking the ocean, major tsunami-like waves were sent hurtling towards the coastlines. Most islands are completely gone, including Hawaii, the Philippines, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Guinea, and even most of Malaysia. Japan is all but underwater, a good portion of Australia was swallowed, along with major parts of Central America, California, and South America. Scientists are worried that this will cause many more issues in the future as the core continues to bury itself into the earth which will leave behind devastation.
In addition to this, monsters have been appearing in the streets in towns, cities, and even rural areas across the planet. Most of these creatures seem exceptionally violent and have added to the death tolls from natural disasters. The military has been deployed to help take care of the monster problem and a national state of emergency has been declared.
This havoc has now officially been declared the greatest crisis to ever hit the world. Politicians are struggling to take in the ever-increasing demands for aid as the death toll continues to rise. Rescue teams across the globe have been dispatched to aid in whatever way they can. Experts advise everyone to come together to try to keep each other safe. Do not go out alone, find something to defend yourself with, and try to get to a gathering place which will be posted on our news social media page. Bring any supplies with you that you can to the gathering place. This will likely be one of our last broadcasts until things can settle down enough for us to return to the air.
*****
Tom, Derek, and James had ended up spending all twenty-one monster cores that he had received to get themselves stocked when Derek showed them the news broadcast from his phone. They stood there in silence for a few moments unsure exactly what to do.
The trio ended up with Derek getting a shield to complement his mace, and buying three minor healing potions at two monster cores each so they would each have one. Potions, it turns out, were just liquids in the cans and did not need to be opened to be exchanged like the other items had been. There was a short video explaining this on the digital screen before the can was dispensed from the machine.
"So we are equipped now as best as we can. We are going to have to head to one of the meetup points to see if we can help with the info we know about already." Derek said, his military training coming to the forefront.
"Should we take the car?" Tom asked, thinking about his new skill.
"We certainly should!" James said. "I have an idea for a little game that Derek should play."
"You don't mean..." Derek began.
"Oh, yes I do. It's time for a little driveby goblin baseball." James said, an evil grin spreading across his face.
"As much as I hate to admit it, James is right. That's going to give you a huge advantage in power as we move. And we'll be protected by the car, plus we can't keep it forever, so we may as well get some kills with it while we can. See if we can help some people along the way." Tom said.
"I'm still not sure how I feel about this," Derek said.
"Look, they are still playing soccer with that guy's head over there. So buck up buttercup, and let's go save our race." James said, a hard serious look on his face now that wasn't his usual demeanor.
Derek hesitated for a moment, then saw the resolve in James' eyes and nodded once, steeling himself as well. Moving over to the window to look out again, they saw that goblins were looking up now at the windows and beginning to throw rocks at them to try to break them. Several were still milling about near the door as well.
"I'll go first through the door," Derek said. "Using my shield I can get them back from the door and bash a few heads if I need to. Tom, you come right behind me and swing for the fences at anything that isn't me or James to the left. James, cover us from the rear to keep any goblins off of us to the right. I'll make for the car and we will make for the closest gathering point. Which looks to be the Trammel Crow Center."
"You know which car is mine?" Tom asked.
"It's the one with goblin blood on it. Pretty sure I'll know." Derek replied.
"Good point," Tom said sheepishly.
"Time to fuck some shit up," James said, grinning ear to ear while stroking his gun.
"One last thing before we go, scour the breakroom and let's hit up our desks for anything we might need or feel is useful that we can put in our storage now that we have them. It's such a great way to carry things we might be able to find some things that we can make use of." Derek said.
The trio began searching the breakroom. They opened the fridge and took some leftover pizza from another team's party, and a few other lunches that had been left. Some eating utensils, paper towels, and James even ran into the bathroom and raided the toilet paper stash in what the other two thought of as a stroke of pure genius.
After also raiding the women's restrooms and the restrooms on the second floor (you can never have too much ass paper) they made it back to the first floor to their desks. Gathering the few items they thought might be useful such as charging cables, laptops, and the few desk snacks they had, they turned to head to the door when they heard a loud bang.
Turning to see what had happened, there were now goblins pouring into the building.
"Shit!" James swore.
"Form up behind me! Keep near the cubicle walls." Derek ordered. "Tom stay slightly to my left and pick any off that come too close. James, fire when you have an opening, and for fuck's sake, don't shoot us!"
The trio could barely see the little goblins' heads and only because they were taller than the cubicle walls. Goblins only being about three feet tall on average was making this seem like kids going through a cornfield maze. They came closer, running through the office area to try to find anyone left behind.
Derek raised his shield and readied his mace. Tom had his greatsword ready, but it was really too big to do anything other than stab at them. Suddenly several of the goblins decided to jump up on the top of the cubicle walls and they saw the companions. One of them shrieked something and the others started climbing the walls too.
"Bingo," Tom said.
"What?" Derek asked.
"Watch this," Tom said, and as the goblins got near he yelled out to them. "DUCK!"
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Not questioning his call, both Derek and James ducked low as Tom swung his great sword horizontally in an arc over the top of the cubicle walls. The sword cleaved straight through three goblins at once, barely meeting any resistance. Blackish blood and entrails flew from the halves of goblins as they fell to the floor from the walls. The other goblins saw this happen and wisely began climbing down from the walls, still heading in their direction.
"Great move, now we need to make for the exit. Stay behind me." Derek said with surety in his voice that boosted the other's spirits. "Tom, stab beside me if you get an opening. I'll help make a hole. James...let's wait til we get outside to use the gun."
James nodded and they began to move forward. Two goblins rounded the bend at the end of the row of cubicles that the trio's desks were at and Derek roared as he lunged forward bashing the goblins with his shield. It stunned them enough for him to swing his mace down onto the head of one of them and then across the face of the other one. Dropping both of them.
Continuing forward with Derek in the lead they encountered another set of goblins. Three of them this time. Derek held his shield to receive their charge and they ran toward them. Two had spears and one had a sword. The two with spears thrust them at Derek who blocked with his shield, splintering the shafts as the weak stone tips broke against the metal. Tom stabbed out at the one with the sword as it raised its weapon to strike Derek on the right side which was left open when he blocked the spears.
The greatsword skewered the small creature almost cutting it in half. Pulling the sword back, Tom placed a foot on the body and ripped the sword back out through the goblin corpse's body, letting it fall to the floor. Derek hadn't been idle during this exchange, seeing that his flank was covered. He moved forward and bashed one of the goblins with the now broken spears in the face with his shield so hard the little bugger went flying backward, and hit the other on top of the head with his mace. The skull shattered downward with the force of the blow, the flanges causing brain matter and pieces of bone to fly out from in between them. It couldn't even cry out in death as nothing but a wet gurgle escaped its mouth as it was crushed downward, unable to open from the force of the blow.
A shot rang out from behind the party and Derek and Tom turned quickly to see what had happened.
"Take that you ugly piece of shit!" James said as a small goblin with a dagger fell to the floor with a bullet wound in it's forehead.
"Good looking out," Derek said to James. "Glad you went ahead and used that to watch our backs."
"Figured the rule didn't apply to the ones trying to sneak up behind us," James said blowing on the end of the barrel. "Back door's closed motherfuckers! Exit only!"
The others rolled their eyes and faced forward again, preparing to move. They walked through the aisles heading for the door to exit the building.
"I just thought of something," Tom said. "These are pretty small goblins. How did they get that steel door open?"
Everyone stopped, thinking about what might have been able to open that door. Just as they thought about this, a small object rolled into the aisle in front of them. A fuse lit on it, sparkling out, lighting some of the carpet on fire.
"HIT THE DECK! GET BEHIND SOMETHING!" Derek yelled as the trio dove to get behind cubicle walls.
An explosion rocked the area a moment later, sending cubicle walls, desks, and monitors flying in all different directions. The concussive blast from the explosion caused the lights nearby to shatter as well, glass and plastic from the fluorescent bulbs and housings raining down from the ceiling with a shower of sparks from the electrical equipment frying.
Tom groaned as he moved to push himself up. A cubicle wall had landed on top of him and slid off to the right as he pushed up with his hands. He found his sword just to his left, and he picked it up as he got to his knees before wiping his eyes to clear dust from them. Standing up slowly he called to the others.
"Derek? James? You guys ok?" Tom called.
There was movement to his right and he looked to see what it was. A goblin popped out of a pile of papers and cubicle walls. Tom growled and swung the greatsword horizontally at it. The small creature let out a squeak as its eyes went wide with fear just before the sword cut the top half of its head off. Its tongue moved around for a moment in the bottom half of its mouth as blood ran down its throat before the body slumped over in death.
"Over here. If you could help me with this desk that landed on my leg." Derek called out.
Tom rushed over and helped him move the desk. The leg thankfully wasn't broken, but it was clearly hurting Derek. James came up behind them, seeming to have picked a cubicle wall that hadn't been knocked over to hide behind since he was at the back of the party.
"We have to get outside!" Derek said. "Time to move out!"
With Tom and James in agreement, they formed up again and Derek led the way, hobbling slightly from the pain. The companions found no more goblins on their way to the door, but once outside there were seven goblins waiting for them.
"Well, fuck," James said, looking over the other two's shoulders.
The goblins were grinning at them and brandishing weapons. Derek raised his shield and stepped in front of the others.
"So what's the play here?" Tom asked.
"I try to help tank, you and James pick off as many as you can while I'm busy. Try to keep them off me. You have good reach so you should be able to really do some damage." Derek replied.
"Alright, let's do this," Tom said.
"Hehehehe...some bitches gonna die," James said, laughing evilly.
A moment later chaos ensued. The goblins charged with their weapons out. Derek swung his shield horizontally across his body to swipe as many weapons out of the way as he could moving left. Tom moved right and swung his greatsword in a wide sweeping arc trying to catch as many of them as he could. James pointed his gun at a goblin and fired down the center, seeing the other two moving to the sides.
Derek swept the spears away from two goblins, throwing them off balance. The last one who was holding a sword and didn't have his weapon close enough, got a swinging mace to his sword, which caused it to shatter, pieces of it flying into the air. As the goblin stared dumbstruck at the hilt of the weapon that was all he was left holding, he got a mace to the face for his trouble. The other two began to recover but quickly found that Derek was far better prepared than they were. He stepped forward, thrust kicking one of them in the chest, sending it flying backward into the door of a car where it crumpled to the ground clutching it's chest. The other tried to stab Derek again, but his shield was in front of the blow to his side, blocking the jab. He turned his body from the thrust kick, foot landing solidly and causing him to face the goblin, and he brought his mace down in a cross swing into the goblin's face.
Teeth and viscera flew from the goblin's now ruined face as blood began to flow freely from his wounds. It collapsed to the ground in death. Derek quickly moved forward and brought the mace down on the goblin that had been flung into the car door, ending it as well.
Tom had activated his tattoos at the cost of twenty of his mana. He watched as his mana bar dropped to one hundred and thirty and felt heat radiate out from the tattoos on his shoulders. Power flowed through his limbs as the sword he was swinging suddenly felt lighter and he poured more strength into the swing, letting out a roar as he did.
All three goblins that had been in front of him for the attack had tried to swing their weapons at him. Two swords and a spear. All three had their weapons cut in half along with their bodies, as the giant horizontal swing cleaved through everything in it's path. Tom's baseball swing threw all three goblins back ten feet, where they collapsed into six pieces, blood leaking out of their halves onto the pavement.
The last goblin had hesitated slightly, not sure whether to help try to kill Tom or Derek. This had been his downfall. James aimed, and fired, hitting the goblin in the chest with a bullet. It grabbed at its chest squealing in pain as it dropped to its knees. It tried to stand back up but began to cough blood up from its punctured lung. Another shot from James ended its suffering as the bullet hit the top of its head as it kneeled there, head bowed over from the coughing.
"We need to move to the car!" Derek called.
All three of them moved, Tom leading the way this time. Reaching the vehicle, Tom unlocked it and they all climbed inside. James in the back on the driver's side, Derek in the front passenger's seat. Rolling the windows down after Tom started the car, Derek hopped up and sat on the door, hanging out the window as James aimed out the window.
"Let's fucking go!" James hollered.
Tom put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot. A goblin jumped out in front of the car as Tom turned right onto the main street. Not slowing down, James and Derek braced themselves as Tom ran right over the little creature, bones crunching and blood splattering out to the sides of the wheels.
As they drove down the road, several goblins jumped out from behind cars to try to attack them. Derek was ready on the passenger side with his mace, swinging it like a baseball bat at a mailbox, crushing their skulls as they drove by. James took shots at any that got too close, killing some and seriously wounding others. When there were larger groups of goblins, Tom swerved to hit the group with the car, which sometimes made them scatter, giving the others a better shot at them, and other times just giving him three to six speedbumps at once.
"Keep it up! We will reach the center in no time at this rate, and have plenty of experience to show for it!" Derek called out, swinging down at another goblin and shattering its face in with his mace.