Erani and I crept through the overgrown forest in search of the Goblins that seemingly controlled the area. So far, we hadn’t seen any sign of them, but they were apparently pretty nonconfrontational—at least, they were until they saw a moment of vulnerability in you. But ideally, one of us would find their main home before that happened.
Ainash wasn’t with us right now. Instead, once the Bond had Ranked up, we realized it would be much more efficient for her to split off and go looking by herself. Since the System had to preserve the Bond through uses of Time Loop, as it was part of my Status, it effectively took the shortcut of preserving all of Ainash’s memories that would normally be lost in order to maintain the Bond’s gained Rank. So, since I still had plenty of uses of Time Loop today, we could take the extreme risk of splitting up to cover more ground, and then if anything went wrong, I’d just use Time Loop and come back to before we ever split up, and Ainash would still keep her memories, allowing us to share what we found.
Currently, Time Loop went back six hours, so we had around a six hour window before we’d want to reconvene. We were a couple hours into that six hour timeframe, with Erani and I continuing down the overgrown road while Ainash decided she’d split off into the forest, exploring in a random direction to see if she could find the Goblins’ home out in the trees.
There was one downside to having her split off from us, though, which was that we no longer had her ability to cut down the weeds and branches that blocked our path, leaving us to do that alone. Certainly an annoying part of this whole thing, but we still moved at a decent pace, so it didn’t matter too much. I used Expedite to keep our Dexterity scores high in the thicker parts—something that ate into my ability to charge the Mana Battery I’d been given to get our discount for the teleportation circle, but there was a chance this timeline wasn’t even going to be final, anyway, so whatever.
A few more hours passed. We reached a dead end on the road we’d been exploring, so we backtracked and found another path that split off from it and went down that. Then, when that also ended in a dead end, we backtracked again, going down all the splintering trails in search of the Goblins. At no point did we find anything, leaving me with quite the unsettled feeling. I mean, sure, it made sense that we wouldn’t see them immediately, but it’d been several hours by now. Not finding a single one felt extremely unlikely.
Though, we did find evidence that they were here. Namely in the form of various traps set out on the roads we traveled. I was glad we’d listened to that gold-degree’s story about the pitfall, because we came across about a dozen of them as we walked. Once we knew what to look for, they were somewhat easy to spot—large patches of conspicuously-covered ground, where the fallen leaves somehow covered every tiny speck of dirt one would normally be able to see—but it still stressed me out, and I found myself testing to make sure the ground in front of me was solid with every step I took.
We occasionally also came across patches of ground that I was absolutely sure were pitfall traps, but when I poked it with a stick to reveal it, ended up being solid ground anyway. I wasn’t sure if I was just paranoid, seeing things that weren’t there, or if the Goblins had intentionally laden the ground with fake pitfalls just to lull their victims into a false sense of security.
There were other traps too, of course—a tripwire that Erani spotted which, if triggered, would release a pair of massive logs to come swinging out of the nearby trees, crushing whoever found themselves between them, a net on the ground with a manual pulley system which, if a victim was standing in the area covered by the concealed net which an operator pulled on the activation rope, would instantly hoist the victim up in the air, confined in the tight space. All of these things we had to carefully avoid, choosing every step with deliberate caution and constantly keeping our heads on swivels, checking behind us and around corners before moving.
Thankfully, all the backtracking gave me a decent idea of where everything was. I’d built up a sort of mental map of the roads, remembering that, after that one weird-looking fallen log was the pair of pitfalls right after each other, and around that curvy series of bends in the road was the tripwire. Though the sheer frequency of the contraptions made me wonder, even if we did rid this place of the Goblins, how could the town ever reclaim this area as safe? It felt like, even if they tried to clean up the roads, there’d probably be straggler hazards lying around waiting to be triggered for years after this job was done. Though I supposed it was worth getting rid of the Goblins, if just to keep them from laying out even more.
We’d tried our best to keep in contact with Ainash, but that got harder and harder as time moved on and we put more distance between us. It took more and more effort to stay in touch, and distracting ourselves by sending messages back and forth in such a dangerous area seemed like a great plan to get us stabbed in the back or blown up, or something.
“You think she’s found anything by now?” I asked Erani as we made our way around yet another pitfall.
“She’d probably hold back and let us know if she did.”
“Yeah, hopefully. Though if she got attacked and had to defend herself, she wouldn’t have the time to do something like that.”
“Might be safe to use Time Loop at the end of the six hours regardless of whether or not we know something went wrong, just in case.”
“Well, hopefully we can find our way back to each other before that time comes,” I said.
Just as I finished saying it, though, I got a notification.
Level 32 Draconiad has slain Level 4 Goblin.
Due to having a Bond with Draconiad, you have earned 2 XP. Your XP is 745.
Erani turned to me, having seen the same thing. “Oh.”
“I guess she found them,” I said.
Level 32 Draconiad has slain Level 7 Goblin.
Due to having a Bond with Draconiad, you have earned 3 XP. Your XP is 748.
Another notification came.
“Can we…do anything to help?” I asked Erani. Evidently, Ainash was in a fight, but we didn’t know where, or how far away. But if felt strange to just wait around and watch her life-and-death struggle.
Erani looked around, searching for any sign of the struggle, but didn’t see anything. “I guess we just hope. I mean, at least she found them, right? That’s the point of the plan? Even if something bad happens, as long as someone finds the Goblins, it’ll have been a success.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Suddenly, though, I got a terrible feeling in my mind, like a part of my head was being pulled off.
“Agh!” I yelled out in pain, and heard something similar from Erani. And then I got a notification.
Your Bond with Level 32 Draconiad has been severed.
Due to your Bond being severed, you have lost the following effects:
-Your Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are no longer increased by 14.
-Whenever Draconiad gains XP, you no longer gain 7% of that XP.
-You no longer have 35.2% Resistance to all heat-based damage.
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I felt my body weaken from the Stats leaving my body, similar to the sensation of Expedite wearing off, but instead of just the Dexterity leaving my body and leaving me feeling stiff, I lost my Strength and Endurance, too, leaving me feeling sore, weak, and like I’d lost some calluses on my body, leaving me vulnerable.
I heard a thump and turned to see Erani falling straight to the ground.
I muttered a curse and bent down to help her up, remembering that the majority of her physical Stats came from the Bond. We'd had the Bond "interrupted" before, but never "severed." It said the Bond got interrupted whenever Ainash got out of the necessary range of its effectiveness, which happened occasionally—mainly when we were in town and Ainash was outside. But we normally had forewarning of that happening before it did. When it happened randomly, a sudden loss of so many Stats could topple anyone.
She was breathing heavily, and leaned on me as I lifted her to her feet.
“What was that?” I asked.
“I don’t…what happened to Ainash?” Erani sputtered.
Before I could even reply, though, I felt a sharp pain in my back.
You have been pierced. 26 damage.
Your Health is 544.
“Shit! Ambush!” I scrambled to get behind a tree, pulling Erani along with me.
Where had these fuckers come from? Thankfully, due to the way losing Stats worked, I still had my Health from before I’d lost my Stats from the Bond—my maximum had been reduced, but not my current stores—but I still seriously felt the more immediate effects of losing them, and being weak and tired during a fight was not an ideal scenario.
Erani groaned, trying to get used to the unexpected sensation of her own massively reduced Stats.
I peeked around the trunk we were behind, trying to see where the arrow had come from, but I couldn’t find the Goblins anywhere. Gazing up in the trees, I saw nothing that instantly stood out, and neither did I see them down the road or in the bushes. Then I felt something hit the back of my shoulder.
You have been pierced. 21 damage.
Your Health is 523.
“Agh!” I turned and saw one that’d popped out from behind a tree of its own ducking back behind its cover. They were taking potshots at us, probably trying to gauge our strength before rushing in and exposing themselves to danger.
Erani quickly found her own footing, climbing up from her position leaning against the tree as she effectively went through the process of relearning how to walk without the assistance of the System.
“Where are they?” She asked.
“Saw one behind that tree,” I pointed over in the direction of the one that’d hit my shoulder.
She quickly reached her hand out and shot off a Firebolt, which hit the trunk and exploded in a fiery blast that flung back the Goblin that’d been attempting to hide behind it.
I’d been hoping a display like that would be enough to scare the things off, but it seemed the opposite happened, instead. The moment the explosion went off, all the hells broke loose.
Instantly, a dozen more arrows flew from every nearby tree, behind every rock and fallen log, from behind every hill in sight, all straight at us. Even if I saw a few of them coming, it was impossible to dodge every one of them, as leaping out of the way of one would just put you in the line of the other.
With a flash of biting pains all across my body, my mind flooded with damage notifications and my Health dropped below 350 in a single instant. Not good.
I tried reaching out to curse as many as I could with Crippling Chill, now able to point the Spell in the direction of the ones I’d seen in their attack, and Erani wildly shot off Firebolts at as many of their hiding spots as she could, but it was basically impossible to keep track of them. The moment one of them fired, it’d leap up and run off to another spot to hide behind, so the entire surrounding area was full of these little flashes of movement, each one representing a Goblin that was no longer where I’d last seen it. And with so many happening at once, and with my vision already obscured by the heavy foliage that barely even allowed me to get a half-decent look at the damned things, I could rarely find a time to hit one of the bastards with my Spells.
One after the other, the Goblins drew back their bows and fired, each arrow coming from a wildly different direction and seeming to hit me when and where I least expected it. I heard cries of pain from Erani as she attempted to scramble for cover, unable to find a spot that could possibly shield her from the massive ground surrounding us on all sides.
You have been pierced. 19 damage.
Your Health is 311.
You have been pierced. 29 damage.
Your Health is 282.
Time after time, arrows pierced my body, each one shooting waves of pain throughout my limbs. A stone arrowhead in my thigh. One impacting my neck. I still had enough Health that they weren’t sticking into my body, but they were beginning to draw blood, and as I felt my clothes soak red, I understood this was not a winnable battle. So many enemies, all of them coordinated with each other and hiding off in the land where they’d made their home, perfect knowledge of every tiny spot they could conceal themselves, it was the perfect storm. Pings of damage each slowly chipping away at my Health.
Fuck it, I thought. May as well try to get a bit of information before I inevitably have to use Time Loop here. Index, find me one nearby, one that’s reloading and not paying attention.
“Sure. Uh…to your right, behind that fallen log!”
I instantly turned and sprinted off toward my target.
You have been pierced. 26 damage.
Your Health is 166.
You have been pierced. 18 damage.
Your Health is 148.
I caught a couple more shots in the back, but as long as I wasn’t killed by them, it didn’t matter. Leaping over the half-rotted log, I did indeed find a Goblin crouched down behind it. Shouts of warning from other Goblins filled the forest, trying to tell their compatriot about its looming demise, but it looked up at me when it was too late, and I reached down, grabbing the thing by its throat and lifting it to my eye-level. It was short, probably less than half my own height, and skinny, with a malnourished face, sunken cheeks and arms showing off its scant muscles and skeletal structure. Its green skin flushed pale as its oversized eyes locked onto my face.
It reached its hand into a bandolier around its waist—the only clothing it wore—fumbling with a small leather pouch it retrieved from one of the pockets. A thin string snaked from the top of the pouch. The Goblin then struck that string against a patch of bumpy material on the bandolier, and suddenly the string was set alight, sparkes fizzling off of it as a flame crept down the string.
You have been pierced. 30 damage.
Your Health is 68.
I caught another arrow to the back, but again, it didn’t matter. We’d lose this fight regardless. I just wanted to see how powerful these explosives were.
The string burnt and burnt, down into the pouch it protruded from, as the Goblin who was still left holding it tried frantically to escape from my grasp. I technically could let it go—it didn’t matter whether it lived or died here—but honestly, I kind of just wanted to kill at least one of these things in this timeline. They attacked us, they deserved to see some losses for that.
Second after second ticked by, and the Goblin grew more and more frantic in its attempts to escape my grasp. The bomb had been dropped on the ground by now, fuse burning away by my foot. It cried out and clawed at my arm, and arrows from its allies hit my back, but I didn’t die yet.
And then, the fire from the fuse went into the back, and—
You have been blown up. 185 damage.
Your Health is 0.
You have died.
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Okay, I thought as I awoke in the void, now, we get payback.