Night fell.

Walking through the forest, the dress dried as the goblin's blood left bloody stains.

The temperature has dropped, and a hospital gown wasn't useful to fight the cold; even with the help of the pieces of leather taken from the goblins' body.

A piece served as a belt trying to close the gown's back, while the second one, was used to dab the bite wound, that had yet to stop bleeding.

An hour after dark had fallen, the visibility had decreased considerably. The moonlight could not get through the canopy of the forest; as even walking became difficult, he sought shelter for the night.

He found a large tree with tall and thick roots that protruded from the ground, forming a hollow. He collected the scattered leaves and anything that could be used to cover himself.

It took him a long time to fall asleep. The ground was cold, and the bite was itching.

The bleeding had finally stopped, but the bite had swelled up a lot.

He kept waking up all night.

Every time he woke up, he felt worse, continuously assaulted by dizziness, tremors, and by the cold of the night.

He fell asleep only because he was too tired, only to be awakened by the first light of dawn.

As soon as he woke up, he felt a terrible headache again, accompanied by intense nausea and dizziness, which made him vomit.

He ran his hand in front of his face, trying to clean himself from the rest of the puke, when he noticed that even his forehead was hot and his gaze unfocused. Even his breath was irregular.

As he got up, a tremendous pain came from his leg. The bite wound had swelled even more than the night before, but he couldn't just sit there, so he started to walk.

After a few hours of walk, he had to stop as the pain had become unbearable; he took a brief break and searched for a cane that could help him walk.

Injured, feverish, hungry, and with few hours of sleep, as he saw that the sun was almost at its peak, he thought it was a good moment for a break.

He found a small glade where he could even enjoy a bit of a breeze.

The weather wasn't hot, but the long walk and the fever made him sweat a lot, so he raised the hem to wipe his face, but when he put it down.

"Yaaahhh"

Alarmed, he raised his gaze to see five figures coming out from the other side of the glade, no more than fifty or sixty meters away from him.

Four of them were the same goblins he met the day before, while the other was higher, more or less one hundred and fifty centimeters.

Its skin was darker, and it had a bigger club and more pieces of leather that covered all his upper body.

The small goblins started soon to run toward him while the biggest one

went stayed behind.

He braced himself, but was unstable on his feet.

The leg hurt, and the fever made breathing difficult, but the goblins did not wait and they soon arrived.

As soon as it was within his range, the first goblin was greeted with a thrust of the cane, hitting the goblin on the nose.

Hit in the nose, the skull broke and went back inside. The elf fell to the ground, motionless.

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He rotated the cane, hitting the second one with a diagonal blow, and a crack sound followed the dislocation of the goblin's jaw.

Then he spun around and used the force of the spin to deliver a lethal blow to the neck, which snapped.

Another goblin arrived and raised his club to hit him. He parried the blow, holding the cane with both hands, but as he blocked the blow, the last goblin jumped on him, pushing him to the ground.

He lost his cane and, lying on the ground, had to use his hands to stop the goblin who was trying to bite him in the face.

Holding the goblin's face, he saw the third goblin raising the club to hit him on the legs.

He let go of the goblin, who tried to bite him, then hit him with his elbow on the temples, stunning the goblin and then pushing it away.

Gotten free, he rolled on the ground, just in time to avoid being hit on the legs.

He got up; the breath was worse than before, and even the fever was getting worse.

As he stood up, the goblin who had attacked his legs continued to attack him, but he stepped to the side, avoided the blow, and struck back, punching his head.

The goblin let go of the club and staggered backward, nearly falling.

He then picked up and used to hit it again. With two hits he deformed the head of the goblin.

Blood was dripping from the club, but he didn't notice it as his vision blurred. Too tired, he too staggered two steps back.

As he shacked his head to get free from the dizziness, the last goblin jumped on him, biting him on the arm.

He turned to face the goblin but got hit by the tallest goblin that finally reached him.

He fell, and his vision blacked, and a terrible whistle numbed his mind

Instinctively, he rolled away to put distance between him and the goblins, blood obscuring his vision, but he knew they would try to hit them.

He ran a hand across his face to wipe off the blood, just in time to see a big club felling down on him.

He threw himself on the ground and tried to use the force of the fall to get up immediately.

His head was bleeding, breathing had become terrible, and he almost couldn't use a leg.

The two goblins stood in front of him, ignoring the death of their kind.

The biggest yelled something at the other one, who ran against the enemy.

When the goblin jumped on him, trying to gain some advantage.

But as it was in the air, the big goblin hit its kind, throwing it on the enemy.

Surprised by this new attack from the goblins, he lost his balance and fell onto his back, with the goblin over him.

As he kept the goblin away from his face, another blow hit the goblin.

The high goblin was trying to hit him through the other goblin.

Blood started dripping from the goblin's mouth as a third hit him.

His arms went numb as the fifth blow landed on him as blood fell all over his body.

As he tried to resist the blows, he saw the goblin's legs come closer to his. After another blow came, the goblin was finally close enough.

With a kick, he swept off the goblin's legs, knocking him over.

The goblin fell down on the ground, losing the club.

He threw the corpse onto the tall goblin and fell on all fours as he tried to get up, but was able to put few meters between him and his enemy.

The goblin, almost unharmed, stood up, took the club back, and walked towards him.

Seeing the goblin approaching, he knew he could not keep fighting. His leg hurt, his head was bleeding, and his vision was unstable.

He knew that this fight had to end.

Remaining on all fours, he looked up, staring at the goblin, who had now reached him.

The goblin raised the club, aiming at his head. He saw the goblin's club falling on his head.

When the club was almost upon him, he rolled to the ground, avoiding the blow, and threw himself on the goblin.

Taken by surprise, the goblin did not react in time and they both fell to the ground once again.

Fell to the ground, they rolled, and their position reversed.

Now he was lying on the ground, his back on the ground, while the goblin was on his knees above him.

The goblin attacked with its claws, opening other wounds on his side.

When the goblin wounded him, he managed to lock the goblin's claws while using his legs to grasp the goblin's body, immobilizing it.

As the goblin struggled to free himself, he had seconds to recover and think.

He was tired, bleeding, feverish, while the goblin was in better shape than him. He knew he couldn't keep fighting.

He placed his left leg on the goblin's flank and pushed, while pushing the goblin's left arm towards the goblin's stomach and his other leg up over the goblin's neck.

The pain from the bite wound was unbearable, but this was his only choice.

The goblin could be nothing to stopping him.

With one leg over the enemy's neck, he pushed down, bringing their body closer.

He released his right hand from the now blocked goblin's left arm and used it to block the other arm.

Then he grabbed his right leg with his left hand and pulled it down, trying to suffocate the goblin.

The goblin didn't stop fighting, so he also used his left leg to apply more pressure.

His back arched from how much force he was putting into it.

CRACK

The goblin's neck broken, the goblin stopped to breathe and move.

He stood there for a few minutes, gasping, trying to get some air, and after a while, he moved the goblin's body from above him.

He crawls, trying to leave, not knowing something else would appear as he tried to get up.

But when he finally managed to stand up, his gaze went black, his legs lost all energy, and he fell to the ground, passing out.