Chapter 5: An Outcry

An outraged, childlike cry came out of every goblin. I looked around for the rest of my new party and noticed Gronan holding a yellow light to his body. The wound he had, came back together as the blood slithered back inside him.

I felt in that same moment, my own wounds come together too, but I knew, unlike him, I was still blood-soaked. I wasn’t healing from the same thing - magic or whatever the hell it is - as Gronan now was. Even so, I was healed and that was all that mattered. Well, that and the crushing weight of the now-dead Adranock on top of me. “We defeated your monster!” I cried out hoarsely. “Now give us the damn jewelry!”

The leader glared at me, deep-set anger in his eyes, “Why would I give our precious food to the ones that defeated our greatest champion? Everyone, get them!”

As all of the goblins began jumping off of their chairs, onto our level of the arena, I tried my best to push the dead beast to the side. It was no use, the thing hardly even budged. This damned thing probably weighed as much as a car, just the fact it budged at all amazed me.

This thing is heavy enough to have already crushed me to death, right?

I watched on as Hazel shot arrow after arrow, killing a goblin per shot. Finn seemed to become a blur as he ran to goblin after goblin, stabbing them with his daggers before moving on to the next one. Gronan swung at pairs of goblins, slicing them in two with each stroke. And then here I was, being crushed with nothing I could do to stop it.

“Gronan,” I called to him as his axe cleaved through a goblin's neck, decapitating it. “Could you help me?” I felt pathetic, watching the group slaughter these guys without me. But what was I to do, gain super strength?

“Coming,” He called out but just as he began to turn toward me, a goblin jumped onto his back and stabbed his shoulder with a dagger. He jerked back and began to go into a mad scramble with the assailant to get the goblin off of him.

Two more goblins were running toward me, daggers at the ready. I realized then that my sword was no longer in my hand. My heart began to pound harder than it already was as I started to look wildly around. There it was, just a few feet to my side. I felt my heart ease and I put my arm out to grab it.

My hand couldn't reach it.

I tried to stretch but I only felt the edge of the hilt. There was no time, one of the goblins was almost to me.

I forgot about the sword. The goblin swung down to stab me. I tried to grab its arm but miscalculated. Sharp pain radiated through my arm as the blade dug through the fat of my palm near my pinky.

“Oh shit!” I cried out as I stared in horror at the wound, the knife grazing a bone and half the blade's width hanging out of my palm. At that moment, I had a strange disconnect from reality. The pain had been bad, yes, but when looking at the wound it didn't take a surgeon to know I should've been screaming.

I felt my reality begin to piece itself together, however, as the goblin tried to push down on me to move the blade closer to my face than the few inches it was already at. It was to no avail, its strength not being one of the goblin's strong suits.

The other goblin coming toward me was now here, its blade out and preparing to stab me in the stomach. I tried to flail my other arm out to grab at its arm but I couldn't move it far enough. Just when I thought my hope was lost, an arrow went through that goblin's ear canal and it fell limply to the ground beside me.

“Thanks,” I grumbled.

The goblin that still had its knife in my palm glared at me angrily before it pulled back, taking its blade with it. I watched as blood steadily began to ooze out of my palm, rushing down my arm like a waterfall. I felt myself feeling dizzy and began to get a keen sense as to how much blood I had lost over these few minutes.

The goblin was coming to strike me again. Just as my hand went back out to hopefully grab its second attack, I saw the bloodied glint of Gronan's battle-axe slice through its arm. The arm flew out of my view as blood spewed everywhere. Gronan roared at the creature and the blade went through it again at the torso, going straight through. The upper portion slid off its body and crashed limply to the ground just next to me. I stared at its bald head, its ears almost able to touch my face. I felt a certain churning in my stomach at the sight.

“I got you,” Gronan told me before the massive weight that had been crushing me was suddenly launched into the air, tumbling onto the ground to my side. “Give me your hand,” He commanded, his massive hand outstretched toward me.

I took it with my wounded hand and that was when my reality fully came back together. Apparently, it had been my adrenaline keeping the pain from reaching me and it had seemed it had just run out. I screamed aloud as Gronan crushed my wounded hand, feeling as if it was about to be ripped off.

Instead, though, the pain suddenly dissipated as his hand glowed that same yellow light. The blood that had steadily flowed down my arm reversed itself. It was a strange feeling as the blood began to pour back into my wound.

I felt my arm nearly dislodge as Gronan pulled me into the air and dropped me onto my feet. I glanced quickly at my palm, noticing it was completely healed and the blood that had leaked out of it was gone. I looked around wildly then, trying to find the next goblin coming my way but found none. They had all been taken out besides the leader, who stood in the corner of the arena, one of his hands outstretched, palm open wide. In his hand was one of his three jeweled necklaces.

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I went down and picked my sword up, ready for anything this guy tried to pull, knowing that he had to be the one with the 'magical' powers.

“Don't any of you come near me!” He barked, “I'll kill you all!”

Gronan began to step toward him, his battle-axe at the ready. Just then, a bright, white light began to form in the goblin's palm. I had seen this before, he was readying for that strange lightning attack.

A dagger suddenly materialized in the same palm in the flesh beside the medallion. The goblin leader cried out in pain and the necklace fell from his grasp - the light going out as it did so. He stared down at the new object in his hand before ripping it out. “Y- you bastards!”

“Give us the jewelry, now,” Hazel said, aiming her bow at the goblin's head.

His eyes scanned the room quickly before nodding, “Okay! I'll give you everything!”

Just as he began to use his non-injured hand to take the other hand's rings off, however, Gronan was upon him. Gronan kicked the goblin right in the face, causing him to hit the ground with an echoey thud. Before the goblin even had a chance to recover, Gronan then placed one of his large feet onto the chest of the goblin leader. Placing his battle-axe's blade onto the goblin's neck, he asked, “Tell me, how did you attain such an unholy creature?”

The goblin looked at him with crazed, angry eyes and screamed, “I'm already giving you my food and you killed my entire family, do you think I'd tell you a single thing more?”

Gronan shifted his weight and his foot sunk an inch into the goblin's tiny chest. The goblin gasped, blood-mixed spittle coming out of its mouth. “Stop!” He gurgled.

“Tell me now, or I'll make your death slow.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, and for just a moment, I felt sorry for the small creature. “Okay, we...we got it from a necromancer.”

“Who was it?”

“We don't know. They left the beast by our cave. He must not have wanted it anymore. Please, just let me live.”

Gronan nodded. “I wish I could do that, but no one who is allied with the unholy is allowed to continue sucking in breath,” he raised the battle-axe into the air.

“Gronan!” Hazel yelled, putting her hand out. “Stop!”

Gronan did so, his axe still raised high. He looked in her direction. His eyes looked nearly deranged. They reminded me of a rabid dog.

She took a step back from him.

“Why?” He asked as a vein in his neck began to make itself known. He had seemed like a good guy moments ago, but now I felt the urge to run from him.

“He's surrendered, he should not have to die."

Gronan's voice echoed as it boomed out of his throat, “He allied himself with the unholy, anyone should die for that!”

“He just found the thing,” Finn said, a dagger out and pointed toward Gronan. He seemed nearly ready to use it. “He's a piece of shit, I'll agree with you on that, but Hazel's right. He's surrendered, he shouldn't die.”

Gronan huffed and looked back at the goblin who had seemed so full of himself earlier now looked like a scared, whimpering child. A long moment passed, and no one spoke. Then, Gronan let out a loud yell as he forced his axe into a downward strike at the goblin.

Hazel looked away in a terrified scream.

“Gronan, don't!” Finn yelled, holding his dagger hard in his hand.

The axe cracked through the stone and Gronan stood there, huffing. I was stuck there, staring at him, sure he had just killed the little creature.

But then, Gronan spoke. “Seems like you got lucky.”

I realized the goblin was still moving, the axe not even an inch from his face. “Th- thank you!” It said, truly grateful.

Finn let out a long sigh, loosening his grip on the dagger.

“Oh thank the Goddess,” Hazel said.

Gronan ripped the axe out of the ground and walked past us, into the hallway without another word.

Finn went to the goblin and put out his hand. The creature went to grab it but Finn smacked it away. “The jewelry, now.”

As the goblin began to take all of the jewelry he had on him off, I made the mistake of looking around the room. There were so many bodies. Goblins lay with arrows sticking out of every limb and many more had bits chopped off, laying several feet away from where the corpse was. But that wasn't what truly haunted me, it was that monstrosity. The leader had said that thing came from a necromancer. Those body parts, they had come from people, and though they called him a necromancer that couldn't have been true. People didn't just come back to life, this had to have happened to people who were still alive! I was still sure magic wasn't real, but whatever science was used to create that monster, I knew it wasn't good.

Do those people feel everything that is going on?

I shuddered at the thought.

I felt something hit my shoulder and I tensed, ready to fight whatever now opposed me. It was Finn, who had slapped my shoulder with the now-bloodied necklace the leader had held. “You coming?”

“Oh, yeah.” I followed them to the exit.

“We aren't giving you our rope out of here,” Finn said to the goblin as we walked into the hallway. “Have fun trying to get out.”

The goblin didn't say anything. Just stared around the room at his dead group. I wanted to feel remorse for what we had done but found I didn't. He had stolen from people, set a monster onto us, and then they all tried to kill us. Perhaps he hadn't deserved death, but this definitely felt like enough.

Finn and Hazel went up the rope quickly and I followed them, clumsily pulling my way back up. At the top, I saw the three of them outside, waiting for me.

Finn's had an arm around Hazel who looked toward the ground and Gronan stood several feet away, vigorously cleaning his battle-axe. “Pull the rope up,” Gronan told me, not even glancing my way.

I did so and unscrewed the metal in the stone before going behind Gronan and unzipping his bag. I stuffed the rope into the bag and zipped it back before staring awkwardly around the group. I felt like such an outsider.

I am an outsider.

I cleared my throat. “Alright, where to now?”

“Let's go back to town, I think we all need to rest,” Gronan said, putting his axe into his holster.

I nodded and Gronan led the way. None of us spoke a word as we began to silently walk through the forest toward whatever town he had mentioned.