Immediately I charged for the spot where the spearman stood, swinging my left arm to club down one of the archers on the way, before burying my ax into the back of the spear wielder with my right. As the spear started to fall from his now limp claws towards the ground, I continued on past him and ripped it from his now paralyzed fingers, leaving my hatchet buried deep in his lower back in payment for the larger weapon. Continuing to run forward, I could only hope that Gaian could tell the difference between me and the feral little green munchkins in the darkness that now enveloped us.
Hearing his labored breathing, I continued to head towards him while angling to leave a little bit of space so he would hopefully not charge at me. Calling out quickly, I said. “It's just me!” Before quickly shutting back up, I didn't want to take a chance that the remaining archer’s bowstring hadn't been ruined yet by the rain sheeting down. Not wanting to make myself a target by speaking further, I could only hope that their eyes wouldn't adjust quickly with the lightning still flashing through the sky.
With a count going on in my head of fifteen smaller ones and three remaining true threats, part of me regretted making myself known. I would have loved to have taken out more before making my presence known, but the chance to cripple their ability to fight at range was more than I could pass up. I could only hope that their last ranged threat would quickly be taken out of the fight by the torrent of water falling from the sky. As another lightning strike flashed through the sky lighting the camp for an instant, I could see that they still hadn't seemed to process what had happened. The two brutes seemed to be shouting to the small ones to gather up and charge forth, but while the little ones had seemed to be happy enough to sacrifice themselves in the earlier portal fight. These smaller ones seemed to have been startled enough by my appearance that they were going to need more encouragement before throwing their lives away as a distraction for their larger fellows.
The remaining archer had dropped all of his arrows but one, and was drawing it back as he pulled a bead on me. Deciding speed was more important than accuracy, I used an underhand toss to quickly hurl my club into the darkness that so quickly followed the flash of light that let me have a quick glimpse of the battlefield. Hoping I had spoiled his aim, the thunder that followed drowned out any chance I had of hearing a thunk from my club that would have indicated I had hit him. Not wanting to rely on the luck that a left handed toss needed to connect, I dropped to the ground and held the spear to my chest parallel with me. I rolled several times to give myself more separation from my friend. Hoping the little mongrels would still see the bear as the greater threat so that I could pick off them from behind when they rushed him.
Not wanting to risk the greater night sight that lore told me the greenskins had. I reached into my right cargo pocket for the emergency glow stick that I had pulled from my pack when I was readying the camp for the coming storm. Standing back up and leaving the spear resting in the crook of my now empty left arm, I quickly cracked it with closed eyes and after shaking it a couple of times, tossed it towards the gibbering monsters before opening my eyes to look out into the pouring rain. The green glow showed me that I had managed to crack the remaining archer's bow with my incredibly lucky toss, but he was already scrambling for a replacement from his fallen twin. Still hoping I could count on the fallen water to take that threat away, I looked to the goblin I had relieved of the only metal threat.
He stared back at me with a feral hatred in his eyes while his arms seemed to be the only things that worked, as he slowly but continuously tried clawing his way forward to get me. Unsure what his plans were other than to gnaw on my ankles if he even made it this far, I turned my gaze instead to his two shield bearing brothers, who still seemed to be in the process of corralling the smaller fifteen little ones. As they only had three and four-foot, long pointy sticks in their hands, none of them seemed anxious to charge forward, but neither were they running away either. Part of me had hoped that the lighting of the glowstick would have been frightening enough in the unknown that they would have scattered from it. But it seems like when you've seen fireballs flying through the air by magicians on your side, a glowing green stick lying on the ground just isn't that scary.
With only four sticks remaining in my pack, I still didn't count the one I had thrown as a waste, as the two club wielders seemed to have finally been able to corral the littles into regrouping for another attack, which started to confirm the lore in my mind that Goblins could see in the dark. The light I had thrown out hopefully was enough to bring the playing field closer to even. I gripped my new seven-foot spear in a slightly loose grip in both hands, holding it across my chest at an angle, letting the base of the spear rest on the ground for now, while the green little buggers decided on their next move. I wasn't happy giving up the initiative, but I wasn't going to charge at eighteen monsters no matter how small or poorly armed they might be. I was much more inclined to keep falling back and hold them at range with the only longarm still in the fight.
Looking over to the archer as he put one of the few metal-tipped arrows he had to the string of his newly claimed bow. I got ready to dodge as he pulled the string back. But after he released his shot, I saw the arrow fall limply to the ground after only traveling two-thirds of the way to me. I could only wonder whether it was the sloppy construction or the falling water to blame. Either way, I laughed as he threw the bow after the arrow, not even bothering to dodge, as I saw it wasn’t even going to make it close to me. The laugh seemed to have angered him as the feral creature snarled angrily and walked over to his wounded comrade still trying to crawl towards me. Grabbing my old ax in both hands, he ripped it out, despite the fact that it was still buried deep in his companion's back. I couldn’t believe that with no concern for his fellow’s life, he just put his foot onto the neck of his brother to hold him still and ripped my former camp tool out in a torrent of blood.
This seemed to finally have caused enough damage to my new weapon's owner that he expired, his long snake-like tongue limply rolling out of his mouth to lay motionlessly in the muddy water that was starting to pool on the ground. Seeming to shout encouragement or threats at the smaller ones and his two shield holders behind them, he had no problem leaving his back to me while he continued to scream at them, for what I could only guess was their lack of courage. Not wanting to let the opportunity pass me by, I quickly charged forward several paces and drove my longer weapon into his center of mass. The blade burst through his abdomen, driving forward until the crosspiece driving into his back made him stumble forward, the tip sticking out through the front of his stomach. I could only thank the sturdy construction that seemed so incongruous with the rest of the shoddy equipment the goblins had, and stepping back I flung the former archer’s now lifeless body off the spear. Taking a second to watch the body roll several feet in the direction of the camp to end up in a crumpled ball on its side.
Leaving my hatchet still clenched in his hands, as my stabbing him in the back seemed to anger those still alive, leaving me no time to reclaim my former tool. His death, rather than sending the now gathering horde scattering like I had assumed it would, did the opposite. All it managed to do was cause them to gather up and start screaming at me angrily in high pitch voices that had a volume to rival the thunder still crashing in the sky. The tiny goblins either had a concept of honor and my stabbing their champion in the back had upset them, or the now dead bow wielder was a goblin beloved by the masses. Either way, the result was the same and I was about to be swarmed by the little buggers. The remaining six little goblins that had brought three spears instead of two, all took several steps forward and threw their last extra one at me, before following the sticks still flying through the air and charging at me themselves.
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Their sharp pointed teeth were bared in screams of rage, as they made it clear the sticks were just to knock me down while their teeth and claws would be the main killers, joyfully rending my juicy bits from my bones. The remaining nine smaller ones were only a step or two behind, while the biggest two banged on the shields in encouragement, before beginning a slower walk to follow on their own to follow behind at a safe distance. They were either content to let the little ones let loose to vent their hatred on me, or they had maintained a little bit of sanity and wanted to wait for my new friend to be knocked from my hands before they got within reach. Backing up, I brought the spear across my body to knock away the two cousins of his that had the air to reach me. Feeling my feet squish in mud I looked down to see I was closing in on the small trench I had dug, that formally held my fire. Trying to be unobtrusive so as not to draw attention to it, I carefully stepped back over it in my retreat.
Gaian, apparently not wanting to leave me on my own, still seemed to be too injured to move, as he roared loudly to try and frighten the horde of midgets off rather than charge his bulk forward to bowl them over. Unphased, the mass of fifteen continued streaming forward at me, ignoring him completely. While not being willing to turn my back in case they wanted to try throwing their remaining sticks, I instead kept backing away slowly and watched in anticipation as they closed in.
Water pouring down my face, I wished I had taken the time to pull out my diving gloves when I had grabbed the glow stick from my pack, the bumpy surface of the neoprene would have let me be sure of my grip on my last weapon that gave me distance to avoid the claws and teeth. Smiling as the first six hit the trench unnoticed in the soft green glow of chemical light, they were so small that two of them actually fell in and disappeared in an explosion of wet ash as they hit the angle wrong. The remaining four face-planted on the ground stunned, as the nine that were charging a couple of yards behind them slipped and fell in the mud, in their desire to avoid the obstacle that suddenly seemed to appear in front of them. I quickly took advantage of the chaos and stepped forward swiftly with several small well placed jabs, drove part of my spear's blade into their backs or stomachs depending on how they fell, quickly ending the threat from the ones on the ground. As the two that fell completely into the trench popped back up, I swept the blade of my spear low to the ground, taking them one after the other in the neck. Nearly decapitating both of them, as I used all of my strength so the blade wouldn't catch on their spines.
Continuing all the way around as I overextended putting everything into that swing, I tried to stop as I faced the nine still unwounded littles. But unfortunately, I couldn't keep my footing and slid forward, stumbling down to a knee until I was able to drive the butt of the spear into the ground to catch myself. My first obvious mistake, this had the side effect of bringing my forward-planted foot in range of one of the ungrateful little bastards that I had gutted but had yet to expire. Not liking my gift of steel to his belly he reached out with both of his claws, latched onto my boot and pulled himself with his dying strength up to bury his teeth in my calf. While I tried standing as quickly as possible, rather than letting him just have a free meal, I wasn't quick enough to regain my feet before the teeth drove into my muscles. As the pain shot through me and tried to paralyze me in agony, I groaned with teeth clenched as I slammed the butt of the spear down into the offending Goblin's skull, not wanting to risk more damage to my leg trying to shake him off.
A small chunk of my calf now missing in the dead offender's mouth, I could only thank the stars above me that the little bugger wasn't as big as the two club bearers behind it. Painful and probably infected, at least the bite hadn’t been able to cripple me, I thought, as I retreated a couple of steps back away from the three goblins still dying and yet all managing to nevertheless keep clawing their way towards me. The nine behind the trench decided to split up and go around to encircle me, rather than risk falling in and making a target of themselves for the quick stabs of the spear, that years of spearfishing had left me somewhat proficient in. Three headed around in the direction of my tent while six dared to go closer to my friendly brown furred forest creature.
As both groups made it around their respective edges, but before they could start their charge. In a coordinated move that made me think we were linked by our experience in the hell ball, each of us charged toward our respective groups. As I started driving towards my three goblins, I saw the six spin back towards the charging behemoth. Warned by a growl from the two, not quite, completely useless shield bearers that were still bringing up the back.
Unsure why they weren't leading from the front, I could only be happy at the gift they were giving us. I charged my own three, running towards them with the plan to angle across the group. Despite the shooting pain coming from my left leg, I was able to soldier on with barely a hitch to my step. With my new spear blade not long enough to run through all three of the little terrors, I knocked the center one's pointy little stick aside before lunging forward, running the blade in through his abdomen and driving him into the one on his left. Leaving them both joined together with my spear, my left foot which was now planted deep in the mud let me push off towards the still unphased goblin on the right.
As his stick came up at my eyes, my now empty right arm swept across and knocked it out of line, no doubt he was expecting this maneuver as he instantly dropped his stick and jumped towards me, claws and teeth out. Only to gasp and collapse as my left drove the shaman's jagged rusty instrument into his throat. It was a move I stole from the previous user who had used the blade to kill his fellow. Fortunately, the blade didn't seem to care who was wielding it and ended the last threat's life without bringing forth another portal. Looking back over to my four-legged companion, I saw that the six that had taken the path closer to him were all bowled over and he was smashing his paws down, crushing their chests in moves sure to finish them off, he also apparently didn't like taking chances either.
With only two left to go and from the fact that they had hung back the entire time, I looked up expecting to see the remaining two dropping their shields and fleeing unencumbered into the darkness. Only to be shocked as their images were silhouetted midair above the trench from the green glow coming on the ground behind them. Both shields were indeed on the ground, but instead of fleeing, the little bastards seemed to be content to sell their lives taking me out. Standing up, my left hand tore the dagger out of the now dead goblin’s throat. As he fell to the ground, blood mixing in the rain as the blade was bared to the falling water, my right hand reached across to draw Bowie's signature blade as both of my remaining threats landed in the mud in superhero poses, clubs held in the air in unison.
Not wanting to give the smaller creatures time to set themselves or come up with any other surprises, I charged at the closer one with just the slightest limb slowing me down as adrenaline continued to pound through my veins. As he stood up and turned towards me, his friend seemed content to let him take the brunt of my rush. While he did turn towards me, he stood his ground, rather than stepping next to his companion. Unknowing being sacrificed by his fellow, as the lamb had his eyes locked onto my own, club raised and howling his monstrous battle cry. He swung down only for my longer blade to catch it. Leaving me free to drive my nicked and cruelly serrated blade into his chest. I shouted in pain as he ignored everything to bite down on my right arm in a final act of vengeance, making no effort to save his own life as he sought to cripple me.
Again and again, I stabbed into him with the cruelly jagged blade in my left, as the pain in my right forearm caused me to block out every thought but removing the horrible creature now clamped down onto me. When the dagger finally seemed to hit something painful enough to cause the mouth to come howling off of me in a pain filled scream of his own, he still managed to stay latched on to me with his claws. Awareness flooded back into me as I realized how big of a mistake I had made, looking past his dying smile, I saw the Goblin that I had forgotten in that brief moment of agony, already in motion. Seeing the club coming at my face I could only duck my head into my newest friend's chest and try to ride out the blow. Starbursts blazed into my eyes, telling me I failed, as I slowly collapsed to the ground and the darkness claimed my now limp body.