Himura Satō

The moon shone like the sun yet I felt no heat. As the cold wind caresses me, I found this uncanny experience to be oddly satisfying.

I roll my sleeves up to my elbow then take the sleeve button and buttoning them up which makes it somewhat tight but secure. Now their blood will not spill on my sleeves. “Chrichrichrichri…” A goblin laughs, as if he actually managed to ambush along with his entourage.

“This isn’t my first fight, you know–” I said in my language before opening my switchblade and stabbing an approaching goblin in the left eye– “I know how to detect when someone is sneaking up on me.” I said, putting my intent in my words, hoping it would be enough to get through the language barrier.

The goblin earlier looks distressed. “I could hammer it in more.” I said and as if naturally, I took on an artificial arrogant smile. The goblin looks even more distressed. “Chrigaahh!” The other shouts, covering his eyes. The goblin earlier is probably wondering if he is the one getting ambushed.

“I was hoping to stab that goblin and kill it in one shot, but I guess I'll do this.” Before the goblins realized that I was simply lying, I took advantage of what little I had and lunged at a goblin to my left, stabbing its neck. Another tries to be brave and rushes me but I kick his chin. Although weak, they were weaker so my kick broke his neck.

A glance doesn’t tell me whether he is dead or not, at least paralyzed if I have to say. The first goblin tries to run but I grab my hatchet with my left and raise my arm to my right shoulder and throw it. It misses so badly that for a second, I wondered if I was demented.

There were three left. “Funny how only one of them has a noticeable mutation. Does that mean it doesn’t happen to everyone?” Two goblins try to charge at me, but one slips because of a tree root while the other steps on his head. I drop and turn my side to him, his feeble mind doesn’t even realize that I took a stance to sweep his leg.

My right leg floated above the ground and made him fall. I also accidentally hit a nearby tree root with full force. “Arggh!” I exclaim in a growling tone, failing miserably to suppress the unexpected pain. “Never knew fighting such a small opponent would be so hard.” I said, hoping that the goblin earlier does not come back.

I stood up with a bit of stagger. It was my first time doing leg sweep and the fact that I had done it much lower than it should have made my body get an uncomfortable ache. The second one finally recovers, after stabbing the first one in the neck and before it could even make a move. With practiced movement, I change my grip into reverse one, stabbing his neck in a quick in and out action.

Looking at my hand, there was no blood thankfully. “Cgrahhhh!” The mutated goblin shouts as if in an echo but in reality, there is a bulge in his neck which had a second head. I picked the goblin’s small spear and chucked it to the goblin. Fortunately it hits, though it didn’t pierce him deep enough as he still charges at me…but it looks weird.

The goblin tumbled for some reason. “So two heads still allows you to move even if the main head is dead…” I conclude as the second head tries to charge at me but miserably as he was facing the back of the body, unable to turn his head. Honestly it was pathetic so I put my left foot forward and made him slip.

He looks at me angrily. I held the knife normally and stabbed his stomach. I did not know where the heart or his second neck was and since he was wriggling with such vigor, I did not want to chance it.

Looking back at the first goblin, he already bled out from his left eye and died. I took his dagger which seems to be quite new as there was no rust on it. I wiped the switchblade with their clothes and left the area, hoping that no goblins would try to find me, especially those flying ones. “They’re quite terrifying.”

In a circular field that has an abandoned structure, there is quite a scene occurring. “The fuck are those?!” I exclaim as bones attach with one another creating what I could only describe as skeletons, the monster kind. Only one of them has a humanoid structure as one did not have a lower half while another seemed to be a four-legged beast of some kind. “Definitely not a horse…”

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Looking at my two weapons, none of them would be great against them so it would probably be best to not fight them. Hidden behind a bush and a tree, I sneak away to another direction but before that, I carve an arrow to a tree, indicating where the city should be.

After sneaking for a good distance, I stood up and walked around. Before I could go far however, a disgusting rotting smell engulfs an area. I could feel my stomach hurting just from smelling it but fueled with morbid curiosity, I headed to the source of the smell anyway.

One…two…six bodies laid around a tree. The only one that was seemingly human had a chunk of stomach cut out and was the only one rotting. There is a deer some distance away, it looks unharmed yet does not seem to move, making me think that it is probably dead. Four goblins were laid around him, holding weapons stained with dry blood. All three had small cloth containers which had black berries.

I turned my gaze to the bush which seemingly had taken root inside the tree. I took a berry and crushed it with my foot, making it burst with a somewhat black liquid. My gaze returned to the man. “I should probably go, any longer and I might throw up.” I have no clue what berries do but seeing dead bodies around this berry bush already tells me enough.

Before leaving the area, I approached the man, closed his eyes whose final gaze might have been one of fear. I then took his sword and small waist bag. I go back near the skeletons which seem to have not moved.

I unsheathe the sword. “Finally, a sword!” I exclaim in my head, unable to contain my excitement for such an unexpected boon. “Well maybe a bit expected, this place is dangerous and I’ve been taking some weapons from goblins so a sword shouldn’t be surprising.”

The sword was weird, had somewhat longer than a shortsword around 40 centimeters, crescent-shaped guard, oval handle which enabled two-handing, and a flat pommel. What made it weird however was the blade. It was triangular in shape, similar to a cinquedea and due to the length, the base of the blade was very wide.

It felt foreign in my hand, yet oddly comfortable. It is clear that the one who made it put his passion into it. I squeeze it even further, the sword feels balanced, as if it was not made for someone specific, a weapon meant for everybody perhaps.

I put it back to its sheath and tied it around the left side of my waist. I open the waist bag which I have tied to my back side. Rummaging through it yielded an empty pouch with two strings inside the cloth and the rest being the same black berries as before.

I tried to throw it away but an unexpected sound of crashing bones surprised me and I immediately hid deeper. Slowly, I peeked around the tree and saw a peculiar scene. “Hold on…I recognize them.” Although the features were not that memorable, I did remember that woman on my far left.

Ears shaped almost like a knife, a bow with a tree root-like pattern going in a spiral, and now looking closer, sleek iron armor that only covers her legs and arms. She shoots an arrow with a large but blunt tip, hitting the humanoid skeleton right in the head. A seemingly old man, stands beside her, only armed with a hammer in one hand and a parchment on the other.

Another woman, wearing a long flowy robe and a hat, on the back stands still, holding a wooden staff fitted with a pink gem. As the skeleton without a lower half crawls towards her, she extends her arm towards the skeleton. The skeleton was stopped forcefully. Her hand closes to fist and the skeleton’s head is crushed through some sort of mysterious force.

The two men, one wielding an axe and the other a spear fought the four-legged beast. The beast tries to bite the man with an axe but he jumps to the side while raising his axe, striking the beast’s rib, destroying and killing it.

They all regroup in front of the abandoned structure. The knife-eared woman speaks gibberish in a complaining tone while the other seems to be exasperated. The old man did not care for their gibberish pointed at him but instead he unrolled his parchment revealing map of some sort.

He points at the abandoned structure and discusses something with them and then he lights up a torch and the group descends to the abandoned structure.

That should be all there is. I should just continue exploring the forest hoping to stumble into more stuff but something within my mind begins to scheme. “I need money therefore, I need a job. Jobs exist within that city. The problem is that I am a nobody and I can’t even understand any of them.”

I check everything I have and its qualities. “There is a chance they could try to kill me if I approach them without speaking so to make my intentions clear, I need to save them. I don’t need money at the moment but what I do need is existence. The proof that I am alive, in short, I need a place in their society. If I can do that, the rest of my current problems will be easier.”

After finishing my inspections, I head towards the abandoned structure. The plan is simple: Follow them without detection, pray for their misfortune, save them from it, gain their favor and let them know my intentions, and then, stick with them until further developments.

“But it’s a gamble, it would be better to stick to this forest since I know I can solve my predicaments here.” I stay silent for a few seconds, as their torch grows dimmer, I ask myself, “Isn’t everything a gamble?”

My livelihood, my financial status, everything I have worked for was a gamble. It was because I had nothing, I despised begging and receiving help out of pity or kindness. That is why I left, to make my own place in society.

Then again chances, I have never liked that but I can never deny nor escape their existence. “Opportunity, that’s a better word. Turn chances into opportunities and have the skill to take it. In the end, all of my skills are always about those two things.”

I almost found myself laughing at that revelation. My plan, although rat-like, is a solid one, this forest will act as my backup plan. I took one step into the structure, the air warned me of certain death but I did not care to listen. And so, I followed them, hoping that the jaws of death would try to bite them so that I could save them from it.