As soon as the tingling wore off, I looked around and saw that the bear and the children were staring deeper into a tunnel that led deeper into the cave, but it didn’t look like we had any threats coming from that direction. The older girl was hugging the smaller child who was crying, trying to quiet her down. Ignoring the commotion for now I saw that the room had opened into a large cavern before tapering down to a tunnel farther back where the other arrivals were. So I turned to call back to the former prisoners, letting them know that there was plenty of room and it was okay to join us.

I tried to step outside the cave to call to them, but found myself I running into an invisible barrier at the entrance. Fortunately, I was still holding the spears in front of me, as the resistance stopped them before I had a chance to test it with my face. Setting the weapons down I pushed on the substance with my hands, it was smooth as glass and gave no feedback to me whatsoever. Taking one of the clubs, I started banging on it, but it was like hitting a brick wall, only no noise was reverberating off of it which made it seem all the stranger.

Looking out, I could see the refugees were completely ignoring any option of retreat as they fought with a blind fatalism. The goblins had gotten archers into the mix and two of the spear holders were down. I saw that they had been dragged back out of the way and two more men had stepped up to take their place. Looking at the wounded men, I saw the woman who had stopped the man who had tried to run away, squatting down and talking to them. After saying a few words she placed her hand on one of the men’s shoulders before driving her dagger up into his throat, looking into his eyes the entire time. This didn’t look anywhere near as vicious as when she had killed the coward, instead, she held his hand and waited for the blood to stop spurting before reaching out and closing his eyes.

Letting him slump down, she moved on to the second man with an arrow sticking out of his arm. After talking to him for a little bit she instead reached down to rip the arrow out before removing his shirt and tying it tightly around the wound to stop the bleeding. I could see that the man was screaming in pain, but whatever the barrier was made out of was stopping all sound from getting through. Pulling the wounded man to his feet, she helped him get back into the line where another man who was waiting behind a spearholder turned and gave him his club.

Looking forward I saw that more of the goblin bashers were being pulled back and replaced by their own spearmen as they looked to try and counter the longer reach of the former prisoners. Already I could see blood flowing down the trail and start turning the ground beneath the human’s feet to mud. Despite the weight of their brethren pushing them down into the barrier of steel, the goblins weren’t able to make much progress. I could see continuous black funnels of exp forming and splitting between the two species. Seeing how furiously the humans were fighting I didn’t understand how the goblins had been able to take so many prisoners in the first place. Although looking at how the sides of the earth walls were forcing the goblins onto such a narrow front, it was a completely different battlefront than an ambush in the grasslands. There the goblins would have been able to swarm over the larger humans. Also after last night, the humans knew their eventual fate, so surrender was no longer on the table.

Another wave of arrows came down and another spearman fell, this time struck in the throat. He collapsed instantly and as the humans retreated several steps, the goblins started charging forward to take advantage of the confusion. Immediately the man I took to be the father who had talked to me shouted something out and the spears were raised while three of the club holders dashed forward smacking the goblin’s spears away before closing quickly once they were past the blades. They were followed by three of their fellow men who were unarmed. The club holders started laying into the goblins, quickly killing as many of them as they could before they were eventually cut down by numerous thrusts coming from ranks farther back.

But their sacrifice wasn’t in vain, as the unarmed three were able to gather up a bunch of spears and drag them back to the group. Quickly the spears of the line were dropped to cover the looter’s retreat as the kamakazis did their best to give them time to make it back. None of them faltered and all took multiple stabbings before the goblins were finally able to push past them to be met with a new wall of blades holding them back. Every man had a spear now and there were several spares leaning up against the wall. They had picked a good stopping point to make their last stand, as they were partially covered by the wall leaning out over them stopping any arrows that were coming from above. Three lines of men had their spears pointed out like a formation of hoplites, and with their longer arms they had no problems killing any of the goblins that got too close.

There was only one man currently not wielding a weapon. He was the leader who had sent me down, he eschewed a weapon and instead stood right behind the wall of men. Holding one of them by the shoulder, he was shouting out orders and having them rotate back every minute so that none of them would get tired. I could see the constant streams of exp flowing into them, every once in a while you could tell that one of them was gaining some kind of increase as they would shudder slightly and stab forth with a renewed strength, shouting their rage at the attackers.

A stalemate was forming with the only ones dying being the goblins. I wondered why they didn’t try to retreat to the cave. Surely even if we weren’t able to get out past the barrier it was better to try and find an escape this way because, despite the small increases in strength, there was no way they were going to make it past the goblins.

Jumping in surprise, I felt the bear’s nose push me slightly forward as he touched my back. Turning around slightly, I saw that the three children were standing next to him. The older girl was hugging the smaller one to her, as she held her on her hip with one hand while still holding onto the club I had given her with her other. They stepped up next to me to look at their friends and family’s last stand. Not thinking they should have to witness the depravity that was soon to come, I motioned to the older girl, indicating they should follow the bear back deeper into the cave. But she shook her head at me, put her club arm over the boy’s shoulder, and held him closer while they continued their vigil. Asking the bear to cover the cave I thought we should start retreating, but the kids refused to move. So I stood there with them, determined to witness the final moments of their loved ones and give them what support I could.

Turning back to watch the fight I saw that another arrow had made it through, but it had only hit one of the men in the arm and he was now permanently in the back row shaking off one of the women who looked to be trying to pull it out. Watching as the goblins seemed to stop pressing forward, I wondered what the next thing they would try might be, as it seemed the larger humans were going to continue to hold their own now that they had found the perfect stopping point. As the front rows were rotated back again, I saw them immediately start taking heaving breaths, trying to recover before getting back in line to be ready for whatever would happen next.

Wishing I had left them some food and water, I regretted not leaving them more supplies. But I had thought they would have followed me down to the cave. As good as their holding point was I couldn’t believe it wouldn’t be better than retreating back into the cave. Watching as the goblin spearman started to retreat, the humans refused to be baited out of their overhead cover. Instead, they continued to wait and try to recover.

Looking out, I saw the leader shout in alarm and all of the spears snapped down. Even the women got to their feet, holding their clubs or daggers tightly in their hands. As waves of fodder goblins came streaming down the path, throwing themselves onto the spears as they tried to claw their way down the blades. They were using the weight of their swarm to try and push the weapons out of their way. Swiftly they died as the humans thrust the blades forward before pulling them back so the long weapons wouldn’t get weighted down by the dying bodies. Slowly a wall of bodies began to form as the goblin wave melted into the spears like snow thrown into a fire. On they came, uncaring that they were taking losses that no human army could have stomached. Unfortunately unlike snow, their dead bodies didn’t melt away and the barrier they formed lessened the pressure initially. As it grew higher, the smaller goblins started climbing their former comrades, before launching themselves off the wall in their desire to reach the humans who had stopped them.

Finally one of them made it past the wall of blades landing on one of the men the monster managed to get his claws into him. But the leader managed to rip the feral goblin away from him before he could sink his teeth into his victim. Flinging him back, the goblin was quickly fallen upon by the women, who beat its body into a boneless lump with an excessive amount of swings. Finally finding one of the hated enemies that had captured them in their grasp, they unleashed their hatred on that unworthy ambassador. None of them showed any delicacy that the fairer sex was known for, as they screamed out their rage and hatred while destroying the monster.

Turning my attention back to the main fight, I saw that finally, enough exp had made it back to some of the fodder goblins that some of them were starting to evolve. Only this time none of the others were waiting for them to finish to attack them in turn. Instead, any that weren’t evolving continued to try and clamber the wall to attack on their own. As more of the goblins continued to make the leap one of the spear wall was finally killed before they were able to have the monster torn off of them and thrown back to the women. The leader called out another command and they retreated farther back out of cover to increase the space between them and the wall of bodies.

I was surprised when a wave of arrows wasn’t immediately forthcoming from the monsters. Instead, bodies were pulled away and dragged up the hill while the endless waves of fodder continued their attack. Looking at where the first of the smaller goblins were finishing their evolutions. They immediately headed back up the trail, rather than continue forward to help their former brethren attack. Realizing the leaders were using the humans to force some evolutions through. It seemed the smaller goblins had no value to them, as over a hundred had fallen to the humans so that only five could evolve to retreat back to safety.

This was insanity, no human army would stomach those kinds of losses in the modern world. Only having a five percent chance at coming out alive and improved were horrible odds, and yet the monsters continuing to pour down the hill were only slowing when the wall of bodies grew too large to pass easily.

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While the majority of the exp was streaming to the humans, perhaps because of their older age, the number of times they seemed to gain an increase was minimal, with the leader never having an episode at all that I could see. Finally, the tide of smaller goblins slowed and the remaining ones were called back.

Down to replace them came three rows of bashers, they seemed to have brought out larger shields than they regularly carried. Nearly the size of a tower shield when they grounded them down, overlapping the edges you weren’t even able to see the tops of their heads sticking out. Behind them was a row of spear holders, holding their blades out over the wall of wood so that none of the humans would be able to throw their bodies on the makeshift wall to tear a hole into it.

Finally, a leader of the greenskins deigned to come down now that his safety was assured, it was one of the goblin leaders on his wolf. He started screaming at the humans, pointing back uphill. I could only assume he was ordering them back to their cages. None of the humans looked to have any desire to take him up on his offers as they held their spears resolutely down, not wavering in the least despite their weight. I don’t know if they were able to understand each other, but as the goblin leader turned back uphill to say something to the goblins behind him, the human leader took up one of the spare spears and hurled it over fifty yards. Just missing the leader as the distance turned out to be too great for his aim. But as the weapon slammed down into the side of the wolf, the leader was sent tumbling as his mount collapsed in pain.

As he jumped to his feet screaming what I could only take to be obscenities, the magic users he had called down hurried faster to his side. As he threw one of them down next to the wolf, the monster’s hands started to glow green. When the humiliated leader pulled the spear out, I saw the magic user press the green light to the wolf’s side and hold it there, while the mount howled his agony out to the sky. Eventually, the shaman collapsed. But apparently it was enough, as the wolf regained his feet, shaking the blood from his coat.

The goblin leader remounted his wolf and pointed his sword at the humans still standing. One of the mages began to chant and form a ball of fire in his hands. This seemed to be a ball of true fire rather than the evil that had involved sacrificing the soul of another goblin. Wondering if the shaman that could summon that evil was still recovering from the backlash the rabbits had caused. I watched as the humans stared at the mage, just waiting and watching as the ball of fire continued to grow larger.

When it finally grew so big I could see that the mage was struggling to contain its power. It seemed like he agreed with me as with a final shot, he flung it forward in a motion in a move that was just as likely to be found on a basketball court. The ball arced over the heads of the goblin wall that was separating the important goblins from their escaped captives. Finally, the leader of the humans acted. Shouting a command, every human dropped to lie flat on the ground as one, and the ball that would have passed into them at chest height, exploding in the middle of the group, instead flew over, leaving them unharmed. The kids beside me finally reacted and let out a cheer at the apparent victory of the humans in surviving such a crisis. I however saw the trajectory of the vicious blob.

Tackling them, I dove to the ground, placing my body on top of them to mitigate the explosion as best I could. When no burning sensation ensued, I eventually climbed back to my feet. Looking out past the barrier that had apparently kept us safe, I saw that the ground before us was still burning. But whatever was trapping us inside seemed to be keeping the heat of the blaze out as well. The kids looked at me like I was crazy, but all I could do was shrug and begin pulling them to their feet.

Looking back up the hill to the current standoff, I saw that the goblin leader wasn’t happy with his subordinate’s poor aim. Leaping from his mount, he started to rain down blows upon the cowering magic user’s head with his fists. This uncontrollable rage must be typical for the greenskins, because the humans that had already stood back up seemed to have anticipated it and started charging forward with no signal, in a move they must have discussed beforehand. While the first rank started trying to drive their spears over the wall of shields, the second and third ranks hurled their weapons at the magic users that were now closer in range.

Surprisingly it seemed like the healer was the one they wanted to kill most of all, as three of the spears slammed into his body, which almost instantly sent a cloud of exp up into the air. The rest of the contingent wasn’t ignored, as most of them suffered from the falling blades, but none of them faced the onslaught that the healer had. The men accomplishing their task started driving themselves onto the blades pointed at them, forcing the goblins to kill them. Despite their unarmed state they still managed to take out two or three of their hated foes before finally falling themselves. The leader of the humans alone held himself back, taking one of the spare spears he was talking to the women. One of them shook her head, and the crazed former prisoner ignored his offer before holding her own dagger to the sky and let out a primal yell. Then with a running leap, she sent herself flying over the shields and spears to fling herself bodily upon the goblins. She started stabbing with the wild abandonment of someone who knew they were dead and just wanted to take as large of an accompaniment with them to the afterlife as they could. She managed to take out nine of the evolved goblins in a series of moves that I knew even with years of practice, I had no hope of matching.

Aware of how quickly the time that was being bought for him was being used up the leader drove his spear quickly into the chest of two of the women, one after the other. Part of me was sure that the task had to be wearing on his soul, but his face showed no sign of it as he took the woman I assumed to be his wife by the hand, and they both came running over to the cave’s opening. Pressing their hand against the barrier, it was clear that there must be a limit to this dungeon as they were refused entry. The children held their own hands even with their parents. They stayed silent, refusing to cry out at the impending loss. While the parents mouthed what I could only assume were words of love and encouragement, I again tried to hide their eyes from what was coming, but the older daughter said something to me sharply. So I dropped my hand to my side and watched as more of the goblins came streaming down with no more humans left to hold them back.

Looking at his wife, the leader took the dagger from her hands and drove it into her neck. Leaving her to fall lifeless to the ground, he dropped the smaller blade to get a better hold on his weapon. As several of the goblins charged forth, he managed to drive them back with long swipes of the spear. Suddenly all of the attackers took several steps back. I don’t know who initiated it, but it seemed like the leader of the goblins was agreeing to fight the last of the humans in a duel. Walking down the ramp to the bottom level he quickly moved past his lackeys and faced off with the last of the humans on the wrong side of the barrier.

The horde of goblins closed ranks behind him, and he and his wolf separated so the man couldn’t focus on both of them together. Forced to wave his spear from one to the other, it was easy to see that the monsters had the upper hand as one would dash forward, only to retreat when they had gained his attention. Finally, it seemed like the man had enough of being toyed with. Lowering his spear, he charged at the goblin leader who just managed to dive to the side and avoid the massive blow, as the blade drove through the space he vacated it only managed to scrape off his armor instead of gutting him like the human must have planned for it to do. Overextended the man tried to recover, but it was too late. The wolf had dashed in behind him and closed its vicious jaws on his hamstrings, crippling him. As he fell to the ground, you could see him try to maintain a grip on the heavy weapon. Desperately he tried to use the have of the spear to try and prop his body up.

Continuing my vigil I watched as the wolf retreated and saw the goblin getting back to his feet to walk slowly toward his doomed foe. As the man tried a weak thrust, he wasn’t able to maintain his balance and instead fell to his back, where he continued to try and use the longer weapon. The leader of the monsters contemptuously knocked the blade of the weapon away with his sword, before grabbing the haft and ripping it from the downed man’s hands. Throwing it away, all of his attention was on the cave’s entrance. It was as if he knew we were standing there watching. Walking over to the children’s father, he dove down onto him and lowering his wicked jaws, ripped out the man’s throat in an explosion of blood that soon covered the monster’s face.

Finally, I heard the smaller girl break her silence and let out a wail of agony only to be quieted by a sharp word from the older girl. Looking over to them I saw her holding onto the little one, forcing her to watch what was happening. I again wanted to intervene, as there was no way I would want my children watching what was happening. But something caused me to hold back my first world instincts. I remembered how I thought that there was no way I raised my children hard enough to survive this world. This right here is how you make sure they grow hard enough to do what they must to survive. I knew at that moment this world wasn’t like ours. There we could eventually forgive and forget as generations passed and we learned to forgive old wrongs, here it was different.

So I turned back and watched as the leader walked over to the entrance laughing, covered in the blood of their fallen leader. He pointed deeper into the cave and I saw as he continued to speak, bits of the children’s father flying from his jaws only to bounce off the screen that was separating us. Without a translation, I could only imagine that he was telling us our doom was what awaited us farther into the blackness. Turning back to the fallen corpse, he screamed out to the sky, before burying his jaws in the softer belly. While his wolf pulled off an arm as its share, before laying down to eat as well.

Finally having enough, I pulled on the older girl’s arm and pointed over to the bear, telling her it was time to leave and join our companion farther in where we could ignore what was going on beyond the barrier. As we joined the bear, I continued to think back to Earth. It’s easy to say that peace is always better, that someone needs to forgive and take the first step so that the healing can begin. I had always preached that to my children and told them sometimes you just had to be the bigger person and let it go…

Anyone who has ever said that, has never seen a father eaten in front of their kids. I don’t know why they chose me to accompany their children instead of one of them. Maybe they thought I was more powerful than I am. It might have seemed that way to them with the way we broke past thousands of monsters to free them and rescue their children. Or maybe they just thought Gaian was my bonded monster and that he would be released upon my death. Either way, it was obvious that they knew there was a limit on the dungeon and that none of them would be able to accompany their kids. So they had left them for me to protect, giving arms they could have used to help take out more of their foes. Swearing a vow under my breath, I felt it settle around my core. This time I didn’t even consider breaking the chains as they settled around my center, binding my intent to see these kids to safety.

My life before theirs, I will do everything I can to see your children to safety and make sure they are able to live the lives they wanted. No matter what it takes. I will burn every goblin to the ground before I let one of the monsters harm these kids. The goblins thought that they were the monsters. They had no idea the depths of depravity a man with something to protect would be willing to stoop to, in his efforts to protect his charges.