The creature reached out to them with a gaunt hand. Head tilted forward, stringy black hair fell and covered its face. It could not hide red eyes, practically glowing in contrast to its green skin. With the elation of a child in a toy shop, Isaac approached with a bounce in his step even as miles tried to block him with his arm.

“Perhaps, don’t touch that.” Ryan’s cautionary tone carried a song-like note to it. Knowing that his warning would most likely go unheaded. He adopted a defensive posture, scanning the startlingly human creature between them and failing to come up with an explanation for its presence. The situation didn’t feel real to him, like it was happening to someone else, and he was only an invested observer. He flexed his fingers just to test his control over his body.

“He’s just saying hi.” Predictably Isaac ignored his companions, sitting on his haunches to get at eye level with the creature, he reached out for their hand, still outstretched and shook it as if he thought it was a universal gesture it would understand. The tiny arm went limp and allowed itself to be shaken, but its eyes dilated into pinpricks the moment they touched. “Aren’t you little g- AH!”

Broken, blackened, and needle-like teeth clamped down onto the meaty part of his forearm. Jaw locking as it made sounds like a growling dog as Isaac lifted it off its feet and shook from side to side as he tried to dislodge it. Falling backwoods and bumping into Miles’ legs.

“Oh, no.” Miles could have helped, but figured while inconvenient and probably painful, it wasn’t life threatening. Glancing at Ryan, who was pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head, he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. “Who could have predicted this?”

“Just get it off me, you twat!” Isaac grabbed a fistful of the creature’s hair, trying to pull it off forcefully, only to cry out as the force tore at his flesh. “Get it off! Get it off!” Punching at its head instead.

“You got yourself into this mess. Get yourself out of it.”

“A bit of pain is good for you.” Ryan shrugged, but watched the attack unfold as it went on, ready to jump in if needed. “Some learn by reading, others by observation, and the rest need to piss on the electric fence for themselves.”

A wet tearing sound filled the air, followed by Isaac’s shrill screaming. A chunk of flesh swallowed by the little monster as it bolted into the woods and out of sight. Blood spurted from the wound with every beat of his heart. Putting pressure on it with his hood hand, he glared in the direction it ran off in.

“I’m going to kill you, you little shit!” Before he could follow it, Ryan placed a hand on his chest and pushed him into Miles. Though his attention was on their surroundings, Isaac missed the alarm in his anger and pain. “Don’t you bastards pretend like you’re acting in my best interest now! A lot of fucking good you were!”

“We need to get back to the boat now.”

Miles squinted at Ryan, who, despite being the belligerent type, had never tried ordering them around, and wondered what got his hackles raised. His tense posture and readiness to bolt at any moment had the hairs raising on the back of his neck and adrenaline spiking.

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“What’s wrong?”

“Look around, slowly. We’re being watched.”

An uncountable amount of red eyes peered at them, the rest of their bodies camouflaged seamlessly into the forest. Wide and unblinking as they realised the threat, so too did they notice the lack of noise. The birds no longer called. Insects stopped their buzzing. It was as if the jungle was holding its breath. Not feeling enthusiastic about there being more of the bitey bastards, Isaac clutched his wounded arm close to his chest.

“Fuck.”

“Start waking and look unintimidated.”

Like the world’s most unenthusiastic conga line, they moved. None of them wanted to admit that they were frightened by a bunch of knee high, half starved humanoids, but in those numbers they became a lot more dangerous, and worse, they hadn’t exactly given them a reason to be afraid. The single scout had escaped with a literal piece of them.

Before they could get far, one creature let out a high-pitched battle cry and charged at them. A signal that prompted the rest of them to follow. A sea of bodies erupted from all directions. Miles felt claws dig into his calf, followed by a bite that was only partially negated by his jeans.

“Yia eh eh!”

“Son of a bitch!” The lack of pain surprised him, but there was too much adrenaline for him to feel it.

They broke into a run as they were dog piled. Some jumped from the trees and fell on top of them, handing on for dear life as their prey tried to flee. Ryan pulled one of his chest before it could sink its teeth into his neck. Slamming it into a tree and feeling the crack as its skull caved under his hand.

Larger members of the pack. More muscled and better fed members who stood at hip height wielded stick spears with stone tips. They encircled Isaac and tried to separate him from the others. Having watched their previous interactions, the goblins weren’t expecting the other men to aid their companion. Jumping in surprise when miles, ignoring the five already clinging to him, grabbed a spear and punted its wielder out of sight.

“Eh yia eh!”

Switching targets, they stabbed at Miles, and though they didn’t have enough force to cause more than superficial wounds, it unbalanced him enough to come toppling to the ground. He landed on as many of them as possible. More clambered on top of him, and with each added weight, it became harder to move.

Pulling them off and lobbying them into the distance an armful at a time, Isaac ignored the many injuries that were accumulating on his body until one latched onto his already grievous wound. With fire in his eyes, and uncaring of the pain, he wrapped that arm around its head and used the other to twist. The head detached in a geyser of blood.

“Eh eh eh!” Thick and warm, it coated Miles and the many goblins on top of him. They wailed angrily and switched targets once again. Latching onto his bare legs, he struggled to get them off as Miles rose back to his feet.

“A little help over here!”

“I have my own problems!” Ryan wasn’t doing much better, with attackers jumping at him from all directions he did what he could to keep them off of him while also keeping the path clear. It tempted him to leave the others to their fate, but when it came down to it couldn’t bring himself to leave them.

While he was good at protecting his front, he had picked up a couple of hitchhikers that he was trying to dislodge like a motorised bull. Doing a forward roll to crush them. Grabbing a spear, he trusted it with one of the larger goblins with enough force to pierce all the way through and break it in half. New attackers trampled and replaced the fallen.

Isaac and Miles stood back to back, pushing back any incoming attacks while making their way to Ryan. They formed a Circle, covering each other’s blind spots and repelling the goblins, killing them when possible. Though weak, the attacks were relentless, and the men were tiring. With nothing but the iron clad instinct to survive, they endured, staying within their protective formation as they made their way back to the beach.