Hermera

The 18th of Thargelion

The Year 4631 in the Era of Mortals

Any dregs of sleep fled Lyssa when the screaming started. She sat upright, heart pounding, eyes flashing. She wasn’t alone. Three small, humanoid things stood near a gaping hole cut into the floorboards. One of them was next to the bed, brandishing a knife. Everyone froze. The one with the knife lunged for her. Lyssa threw up her arm to block it as she struggled to pull free from the sheets.

The knife sank into her forearm, skipping between the bones. Lyssa snarled as pain flashed through her, white and hot, then struck out with her other fist, catching the creature in the temple and sending it reeling. Legs finally free of the sheets, she kicked out before it could recover. There was a sickening crunch as a large nose gave way beneath her foot. The creature stumbled backward and fell into the hole as the other two brandished knives and rushed forward.

Lyssa rolled across the frame and fell to the floorboards on the other side, putting the bed between them, but the creatures kept coming. One circled around while the other scrambled over the top. She deflected a strike from the one on the bed, pulling her kopis from her inventory. Her blade slid past the simple guard of the knife and severed the creature’s hand, spraying dark blood across the sheets. Her second strike snaked upward through the creature’s neck and exited out the top of its skull. She snatched the knife as it fell and flung it into the face of the third, where it buried itself to the hilt. The first, having crawled back out of the hole, attacked her from beneath the bed, sinking a knife into her thigh.

Lyssa cried out as her leg buckled. She dropped her sword and clutched at the final foe, who was not as fast in getting away as it had been in getting close. Her hand closed around its throat and it gasped, eyes bulging. Spindly fingers grabbed her own, but its strength was no match for hers. She drove its head sideways into the bedframe, then down onto the ground, squeezing until it hurt. The creature raked long nails over the back of her hand and along her forearm, but she kept her grip tight until its movements became sluggish. It trembled, full body shakes against the floor, but Lyssa didn’t loosen her grip until it had gone deathly still. Even then, she summoned a second kopis from her inventory and stabbed it through the chest.

A quick look at her vitals showed that the wounds, though painful, were not life-threatening. She’d lost thirty percent of her Health and it ticked lower with every drop of blood that pattered to the floor.

You have slain 3 Goblin Sneakthieves.

You gain 1,080 experience.

Lyssa spat on the corpse. A more in-depth look at the notification told her their levels averaged out to twenty. She eyed the hole in her floor with a snarl. How they had managed to sneak beneath her room unnoticed was beyond her, but that was a question for a different time. With a thought, she inventoried her sword and equipped her boots. The rest of her armor would have to wait as it required pulling the knives out. As it was, shooting a bow was going to be painful to the point of useless. She scooped up the kopis and staggered toward the door.

Not for the first time, she wished they had an apothecary. A healing potion would have been lovely, but it was not the reality. She didn’t even have herbs with her to help numb the pain. There was no sign of Theodorous in the main room. She dragged herself over to his room, the only other on the ground floor. A loud crash came from the behind the closed door. Lyssa threw her shoulder into it and it burst open. Theodorous laid on the floor, desperately trying to keep the goblin on top of him from driving a knife into his eye. Lyssa dropped her sword and summoned a knife out of her inventory. The goblin looked up at her just in time to see steel embed itself into its forehead, killing it instantly.

Theodorous shoved the dead goblin off and scrambled to his feet. His clothes were torn and bloody, but his injuries looked superficial. When he saw Lyssa, two knives sticking out of her, his already ashen face paled even further.

“Come. It isn’t safe here!” she barked.

It was getting difficult to move her leg. The muscle was growing stiff around the knife, but it would be worse to pull it out. Still, there was more to be done. She put one foot on the dropped kopis, added it to her inventory, then pulled it back out into her hand.

“Grab the knife and come with me.”

Theodorous, to his credit, didn’t hesitate as he ripped the knife free from the goblin’s head. They barged out of the village hall and took stock.

Myriatos was in chaos.

The insulae were on fire. People screamed and roared and howled. Scores of goblins ran amuck; hundreds of them. The guards tried to rally but were at a clear disadvantage. The goblins had attacked from inside the village, not outside, so it was impossible for the guards to get between the threat and the villagers. To their credit, the guards were making short work of the goblins whenever the two groups encountered each other, but there were easily three goblins to every one villager and six villagers to a guard.

A goblin flung itself at a woman nearby. Its sharp teeth latched onto her shoulder and ripped out a bloody chunk. She fell and more goblins joined in, tearing at the woman. Lyssa didn’t wait to see what happened next. She joined the fray, a sword in each hand. Every step and slice were agony, but it was drowned by the fury that tore through her veins instead of blood.

A goblin with scarlet, meaty chunks dripping from its mouth saw her coming. It detached and barked a warning in a high-pitched language, but it was too late. Lyssa’s kopis cracked teeth as she slid her blade through the goblin’s open mouth. She spun to the side, ripping the sword out sideways as she worked to clear two more off the fallen woman. The last lunged for her, mouth gaping and full of fangs. She brought the hilt of her sword up into the goblin’s jaw, snapping its mouth shut and severing the tip of its tongue. It howled in pain until two cuts from her blades separated its head into three equal parts.

Lyssa didn’t stop to help the woman, it was too late for that. Instead, she surged ahead, bloodied and in pain, injured arm and leaden leg, but rage seethed within her, demanding death.

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The next group of goblins wielded crude spears, which complicated things. There were four of them and they were skilled enough in coordinating their attacks that she could find no openings to get through them. Both kopides were forced to work defense as the goblins encircled her. Snarling, she dropped a sword and flung a knife at one of them. It sunk into the goblin’s chest but didn’t kill it. Still, it backed off, one hand clutching at the hilt of her knife. Now that she had an open hand, she deflected a spear thrust upward and grabbed hold of it, yanking the goblin off balance. Her sword severed its arm and carved a deep strip out of its flank before she turned her focus on the last two. She inventoried the sword at her feet and the spear, which was too small for her anyway.

Before she could press the attack, she was forced into defense. One of the goblins harried her face, forcing her backward. The other took the opportunity to dart in close. Lyssa swung her sword upward, slashing the goblin across the chest, but not before it got a hand around the knife embedded in her leg. As it fell dead to the ground, the knife came away with it, causing a burst of searing agony that cut through the bulk of Lyssa’s rage. Green blood spurted from the wound and she stumbled.

The last goblin, sensing weakness, pushed the advantage. It stepped forward, intending to run its spear through her stomach, but before it could extend, Theodorous tackled it from the side, slamming his knife down into the goblin’s face again and again with a savage cry. Lyssa’s leg gave way completely and she fell to the ground, the world darkening around the edges.

Then, Theodorous was there. He took the sword from her hand and placed himself underneath her good arm, supporting her weight across his shoulders.

“Come on, Lyssa. The healers’ tent isn’t far. Stay with me.”

Her anger sparked again as she was forced to take in the devastation, but a dread cold had settled into her limbs. With every step, she was forced to put more weight on Theodorous, until she could no longer move her injured leg.

Odelia wasn’t at her tent but one of her healers was, a tall woman Lyssa didn’t know with ears like that of a bear. Theodorous helped Lyssa to the ground and stood guard over her while the healer quickly examined her injuries. A soft, golden glow emanated from the woman’s hands, flooding over Lyssa’s wounds. The drain on her Health slowed, then crept upward. Rage and spite were the only things keeping her conscious. That and the knowledge that if she fell now, more would die.

“Fix my arm,” Lyssa demanded.

The healer hesitated, having already focused the majority of effort on her bleeding leg. Lyssa grabbed hold of the knife in her forearm and wrenched it free, spurring the healer into action. Thanks to the quick intervention, the move barely cost any Health, even if the pain of it threatened to overwhelm her.

Lyssa’s arm was almost completely healed when two more goblins appeared. One engaged Theo while the other dodged around to get at the healer. Lyssa pushed herself into a sitting position and equipped her bracers, using them to catch the goblin’s shoddy sword blade and redirect it into the ground. She dug the fingers of her other hand into the goblin’s eyes, her sharp nails drawing blood as the goblin reared back. Before it could get out of her reach, she grabbed its abandoned sword, spun it around, and planted it into the goblin’s chest. Turning, she watched Theodorous suffer a deep cut to his thigh. As he fell, the goblin rushed forward, eager to finish the job. Lyssa’s bow appeared in her hands, an arrow nocked and loosed. The shaft hit the goblin with enough force to knock it to the side and it landed next to Theodorous.

“Help him!” Lyssa shouted at the healer, turning to find a third goblin had snuck up on them and driven a dagger into the woman’s belly.

The goblin sneered at her and ripped the knife free, stepping forward to strike her as well. It fell to the ground with Lyssa’s fletching sticking out of its forehead. She moved to the woman’s side, pressing her hands against the wound in a desperate bid to apply pressure. The healer’s own hands were shaking as she attempted to make the gestures necessary for her spells. A gold light flickered to life, then died as the woman lost control. The light flickered five times as she kept trying to recast it.

“Stay with me. You can do this. Cast the spell.”

The sixth time, the light didn’t even appear. Lyssa met the woman’s eyes. They were glassy with fear and pain but Lyssa had no comfort for her.

“Keep trying. You have to keep trying. We need you.”

The woman’s shaking hand brushed against Lyssa’s face. Her face drew tight with emotion, but the light was already leaving her eyes.

“No! Stay with me. We need you!”

The healer’s hand fell away, leaving a wet imprint on Lyssa’s cheek and forehead. She stood, gritting her teeth against the pain in her leg. The healer had stopped the bleeding, but that was about the extent of it. It would have to be enough.

Bow in hand, Lyssa took in a deep breath and let it out. In one swift motion, she drew back her bow and released an arrow. Her hands worked automatically, pulling the string and letting it go. Arrows appeared in her hand almost of their own accord, surging forth through the air to land in mottled gray-green flesh. Each release was rewarded with a soft, flashing glow of a kill notification. There was no joy as her enemies fell. Nor could she feel the hatred that had burned just minutes before. A hollowness had enclosed her. She felt only the pain in her leg, the blood on her face, and the flexing muscles in her back as she pulled her bowstring again and again and again.

Lyssa tried to draw an arrow from her inventory to find that she had none left. She ripped the arrow from the skull of the goblin at her feet and aimed it toward a group near the insulae. It clipped a goblin’s head, not a killing shot but enough to give a guard the opening to run a spear through its chest.

The rest of the village hadn’t been idle during her salvo. Gigator rallied most of the guards and villagers into a defensive position where they could protect each other. Elpida had practically formed a ground calvary unit, breaking any defensive line the goblins formed with four other warriors as they sprinted through the battlefield they once called home.

The goblins were in full retreat. Hundreds lay dead; gray blood pooled over the saturated dirt and mixed with the mostly red blood of the villagers. The rest fled toward various pits that Lyssa hadn’t noticed. What was worse, some of the goblins were dragging bodies of the fallen, both goblin and villager, into the pits with them. Without any more arrows and with her injured leg, she could do nothing but curse them.

She turned back to the dead healer and tore a strip of cloth from the woman’s chiton. Theodorous clutched at his leg, letting out small, pained gasps, but she made him remove his hands. Once bound, she made sure he wasn’t in further danger of bleeding out, then handed him a sword and limped away. The dark of night combined with the burning rooves of the insulae made it difficult to see, but Lyssa’s vision was better than most. Any goblins outside were no longer above ground.

“Gigator!” she called out. “We need to put out those fires.”

The giant sauros called out orders, organizing guards and villagers alike to douse the flames.

“The rest of you,” Lyssa called out. “Seek the wounded. Travel in pairs. Save who you can, leave the rest.”

As people moved to follow her orders, a crack of thunder sounded overhead. Lyssa looked up to see storm clouds had gathered over the village. A flash of lightning lit up the sky for a moment, then another peal of thunder rang out, so loud it seemed to split the sky in two. Then the rain fell. Big heavy droplets that quickly drenched everything in their wake. The fires roared against the rain, but between the deluge and the bucket brigade, it was quickly under control.

Lyssa fell to her knees, bow falling from numb fingers as the rain dripped down her skin. They had survived the attack, but the cost had been heavy. They’d been caught by surprise, attacked from below. Their response was unorganized and haphazard. No doubt many had died avoidable deaths. One thing was certain, however.

The next time they met, Lyssa would bring the battle to the goblins’ doorstep.