As the bear continued to gallop across the plain, while the horns faded into the distance, I could only be thankful that he hadn’t abandoned me to a horrible fate. I’m not going to pretend like I would have left him behind had the situation been reversed, but it is an indescribable feeling you get when you find out that you can trust another being to have your back at the same level you have theirs. For me, it has always made me want to try harder to not be a drag on the ticket. I have always hated being the person who needs to depend on someone else, it has always caused me to feel like I owe the person a debt and that is not a comfortable feeling for me. I hate having that feeling of indebtedness to anyone.
The funny thing is that I have absolutely no problems helping other people and expect them to be fine with my waving away any implications of a debt between us. But when the situations are reversed, I always try to even the scales as soon as possible. As the bear slowed his gallop several hundred yards away from the tree line, I turned and used the greater vantage point to look back and see if they were continuing to pursue us. With the tall grass of the plains, it wasn’t easy to tell, but it looked like there was a line of spears sticking up through the grass, waving around as their owners chased after us.
Sliding off his back I rubbed his ears and said, “Thank you brother, but it looks like we need to keep going, the rats are continuing to follow us.”
As he shoved his head into my side almost knocking me off my feet, I took the show of strength to mean it was nothing to it, but not to get used to it. He wasn’t a horse, but he wasn’t going to let me die for his pride either. Or he just liked rough housing, not, being able to talk in anything but yes or no questions was really a drag on the nuances of interspecies communication.
Speeding up to a jogging pace, I worked on keeping my breathing pattern, I needed to focus on keeping it going at all times. With only having a party of two, this experience was showing me I couldn’t count on being able to process the kill energy for gains without worrying about another attack taking place, and I needed to be able to fight on in the future if the worst happened. Thinking about the implications, I thought about how large scales battles might work on this planet. I had to wonder how many people died trying to process the invading energy and weren’t able to learn to deal with it in time to intercept an incoming blow.
Feeling like I was having a eureka moment coming on I tried to continue the line of thought until my slower consciousness caught up to what my rabid hamster was trying to shout through the fog of gray matter that separated the two of us.
Killing energy needs to be processed, it feels like the anger and emotions are trying to rip into me and take me over.
Chaos can rip it apart and form more of the green energy. Along with some sort of flavored Order that I really need to look into. No, I thought, that feels like I am getting farther away again.
Processing the killing energy down to the green energy. When I absorb the green energy, I feel like I’m getting stronger.
…
“Son of a Bitch!” I shouted out, my disgust at my slowness overwriting my inner censorship that I kept out of habit more than any actual problems with vulgarity. “It’s fucking EXP! Mother Fucker!” I cursed while keeping my pace. Seeing the bear look over at me, I asked him. “Hey after every fight, do you get any kind of power up or start to feel stronger?”
Seeing him pause, I stopped as well as he got onto his hind legs and gave a pretty fair imitation of holding both paws level and moving them up and down like a scale to indicate, a maybe sort of.
Trying again I tried to clarify, “If you kill a certain number of goblins do you think you will get an increase in power or better magic?” This got a right paw and reply and I again cursed vividly, feeling the need to cut loose in the Arabic fashion that I had grown a fondness of from many novels in my youth. They have such a more vivid way of getting their point across that I tended to save it for times when I really needed to express my unhappiness with myself for a lack of ability to think.
Starting back up with my running, I gave up on trying to stay calm and keep to my breathing pattern. Instead, I let loose a string of expletives that I was sure had my friend questioning my sanity, and the wisdom in not leaving me behind.
“Son of a syphilitic donkey! You idiotic fuck, may your father be cursed with the fleas of ten thousand rabid dogs, you moronic idiot! How stupid could you have been not to have seen this earlier? It literally looks like a leftover experience pool that you have been sucking down. Seriously! You are the son of a diseased camel who has mated with a mongrel horde of patchy furred monkeys with missing teeth.” I started winding down both because I was starting to run out of breath and I doubted that the bear would let me back on him after this display of temporary insanity at my stupidity. Deciding to end my tantrum with a big one I was sure I would be lamenting this lack of observation for years to come.
“You are the king of idiots, from an illustrious line of dumbasses going back ten thousand generations to the dawn of time, every first son dumber than the last. For on the day they are born it is the day the father dies. It is a miracle that you can even tie your shoes! Surely the only reason you continue to breathe is that your line has had two angels of heaven being punished with guarding you. Sitting on your shoulders, one continuously speaks the words telling you to breathe in, while the other must utter the opposing phrase telling you to breathe out. On the day that they are passed onto your offspring, that will most certainly be the day you die. Red-faced and unable to recall the next step that even the simplest of babies know how to do!” Beginning to take heaving breaths I managed to get it all out before having to stop and recover. I was raised to be hardest on myself and whenever I miss something obvious it takes me a while to recover.
Also despite my sudden epiphany, I had a feeling that I needed to dive more into it, as the bear had never gained any of the green pool. He had always had to deal with only the invading energy and before he had absorbed the core he had always seemed to be driven mad by the invading energy.
Vowing not to let this thought train disappear, I focused on regaining my breathing pattern, determined not to let my anger at my own stupidity cause even more issues. I refused to let the satisfaction of venting at myself compound the issues by getting so focused on what I had missed that I ignored fixing a separate weakness that I had already identified.
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As we finally trotted up to the rabbit wood, we found a hole in the brambles waiting for us and a line of rabbits, thumping their back paws in unison, causing the ground to shake. Or, maybe it was just in my head, but after the week I had been having here I wasn’t willing to rule anything out as impossible at this point. As Gaian and I walked through the opening they left for us, two of the smaller Purple-eyed elders began to hum I watched in awe as the brambles behind us closed back up, leaving an unbroken barrier between us and the retaliating army.
Stolen story; please report.
It is one thing to see a dragon bigger than most cities flying overhead, sucking out energy from every living being to power its flight. That is something so massive that the human brain can’t comprehend it so it is actually easier to accept. Even the troll’s ungodly regeneration was less awe inspiring than this. It was a monster, it was supposed to be a freak. But these are rabbits, I had killed and eaten their cousins back home and two of them whose ears barely came up to my knees were forming a barrier out of nothing.
As the brambles finished growing out their thorns to a foot long, both of the rabbits finished their humming, and their eyes grew dimmer, while the one on the right actually collapsed. So I guess saying they were forming it out of nothing wasn’t the best description of what happened. Clearly, there was a cost to pay, and I wasn’t surprised when four of the regular rabbits stopped their stomping and leaped over to drag their evolved elder away. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were favored sons being shown an honor or despised wretches, forced to perform the menial task and miss the big showdown.
As I saw a horde of spear points waving over the grass in the distance, I was sure that the issue would be settled soon. Hoping the elder could live up to his promise, I wondered if it would be better for the bear and me to disappear. As of yet, we haven’t left any witnesses behind, and if we needed to lead another offensive of our own. Alternatively, the goblins didn’t seem like the type to discriminate, I was sure they were happy adding whatever they could find to the pot, so it wasn’t like their ignorance regarding our presence would lessen the penalties if we were ever caught in their territory.
Asking my friend if he thought we should leave, he gave me a look that I took to mean I could do what I wanted, but as his butt hit the ground, I guessed that he was staying for the show. Soon enough the goblins started to assemble, as usual, there was a horde of fodder goblins in the front, most carrying two spears, but it looked like about a third of them either had the wealth or forethought to bring a third spear along. With their inability to stand still and the constant shifting and shoving of their fellows, it was impossible for me to get an accurate count, but I was estimating that there had to be at least two hundred of the weaker creatures.
Behind them were the cavalry, twenty tusked hogs with their smaller riders on top of them. I wondered why they didn’t have spears of their own as their ability to cause damage seemed to be entirely dependent on their mounts. Guessing that with only a single strap of leather around the hog’s bellies to hold onto instead of an actual saddle, they required both hands to keep their seats.
With the calvary foolishly lined up in the center behind the fodder goblins, I saw to either side them were some of what I was now taking to be the evolved version of the basic goblin. Although my brief conversation with the elder last night indicated that they followed a different path to power than the rabbits, I still couldn’t help but wonder at the similarities of having weaker and stronger classes.
On both sides of the pigs were twin formations composed of five bruisers with shields and clubs. Behind them were another five spear holders carrying cousins to the one I held myself. Following them were a group of fifteen archers on each side. I couldn’t help but wonder again if that was the next stage after the fodder, or if they were merely fodder goblins with access to better weaponry as they didn’t look much bigger than the basic monster and seemed to have the same level of discipline. As I had that thought, one of the archers knocked the one next to him down and stabbed him in the leg with an arrow before scampering off to the other side.
While the horde waited, three more finally showed up and took their place in the center behind the calvary. Two of the shamans, both of them carrying crooked staffs with a glowing crystal in the head. One was colored with a green glow, while the second one had the same evil yellow glow that had accompanied the troll core the bear had eaten. He alone had a dagger that looked to be the cousin of the shaman whose spell I had interrupted so disastrously.
In the center and slightly behind the two of them the leader finally made his appearance. Wishing I had a better way of differentiating between goblins, I was not well enough acquainted with their features to tell if this was the one that I had seen chasing after the rabbits on our raid. He had the same style of helmet and armor; but instead of being on foot, this one was mounted on a gray furred wolf. Whether it was a status symbol or a declaration of wealth the boss declined to use the strap that the goblins needed for their pigs. Instead, the wolf had a full saddle complete with stirrups on it.
Waving around a straight sword rather than carrying a longer spear or curved cavalry blade that would be more sensible, the goblin leader shouted out words of encouragement to the horde in front of him, apparently trying to build up their enthusiasm for a charge at the waiting rabbits. I’m guessing that he wasn’t the best orator as the fodder goblins were looking decidedly unenthusiastic about having to run at a barrier of brambles both taller than them and deeper than the length of their spears. Some of the thorns on the branches looked to be between six and eight inches long.
Those monsters would do damage even to the bear beside me, I shuddered a little to think how the daintier goblins would be ripped apart. I wasn’t a fan of them, but that didn’t mean I wanted to see them tortured for no reason. Even I hadn’t been that cruel to the ones I had captured, I had merely given them what they desired before eventually ending them when they attacked me in a show of intense ungratefulness for my generous gift to them.
Laughing silently at my ability to describe poor behavior I had rationalized away, I waited to see what would happen when the mounted boss finished his speech. Speaking softly to the bear beside me, I said. “Okay, I’m sure you could take the wolf in a fight, but what do you think the outcome would be if he had his pack with him? How many do you think you could take?”
“Four? Five? Six?” When the bear finally raised his right paw I wondered to myself if he might be overestimating his abilities, but decided with the regeneration he had gained he might be able to take them on. Hoping we never had to find out, I was getting less inclined to head back on another excursion into the Goblin Woods. I think after processing the pigs and getting our supplies together, we might start heading for the river instead. Hopefully, either on the way there or upon our arrival we would find signs of the Allied civilization the rabbit had told me about in our conversation inside of their training device.
It seemed like the goblin Chief was finally wrapping up and I was anxious to see how the rabbits held up, yeah the barrier looked to be sturdy, but there were only around a hundred of the regular rabbits stomping in unison while being backed up by twenty or so of the glowing eye variety. Well, nineteen now that the one had collapsed had been dragged back to his burrow. I looked around but couldn’t see any sign of the elder who had guaranteed our protection.
As the fodder goblins started charging forth to hurl their spears over the brambles and into the fluffle of rabbits. The pounding of the rabbit’s right legs grew to a crescendo and with a massive stomp a visible rolling of the earth grew out from that point and was sent forth out to knock the goblins off their feet. The timing looked to be perfect and the smaller goblins were either too focused on their tasks or just didn’t have the necessary brain wattage to understand what was happening, but right before they were ready to release their volley, the rolling hill hit them and knocked their feet out from under them. As they collapsed to the ground, many spears were gripped too tightly and as they spun around they were stabbed into their fellows.
As the boss goblin screeched out commands angrily, those that could stand back up retreated back, while a good quarter of their number lay dying on the ground. As individuals started to expire, I started seeing the exp stream up angrily into the sky, separating out into numerous smaller streams as it tried to divide itself up before running out of energy to form enough streams for everyone present. I saw that it headed back into the goblins for the most part while the occasional stream found its way to me or the bear. But all of the rabbits were left alone undisturbed by any of the energy that wanted to devour and take over its recipients. As I was already maintaining my breathing pattern and the actual amount that was making its way over to me was minimal, I wasn’t too worried about being taken over this time.
Instead, I focused on what was happening to the bear beside me. While not a perfect test as it was such a low amount, I wanted to see if he had any unfocusing of his eyes or anger problems that I remembered him having back in camp when creatures had died and sent out their souls to be devoured.