Nyxpera
The 19th of Thargelion
The Year 4631 in the Era of Mortals
The doors of the trial swung open and Lyssa stood in the midst of a fading glow. The presence weighing against her receded entirely, though she had no doubt Hyperion continued to watch from vantages unseen. The others rushed in, weapons drawn and ready for a fight. Seeing only Lyssa, bow in hand but otherwise unarmed, they calmed. Vik had regained consciousness but moved slower than before, keeping pace with Grimmolt, who still nursed his desiccated arm.
“What happened?” Elpida demanded.
Lyssa retrieved Starlight from her inventory and handed it to Vik, who accepted it wordlessly.
“I activated the trial by accident. It seems to have been set once I crossed a certain distance into the room.”
“You should have waited for us.”
“It’s all right. The trial is over and the path ahead is clear.”
“What was the trial?” Grimmolt asked.
Lyssa hesitated. How much was safe to say? If she refused the power, would one of them take it? Could she trust them with it?
“Temptation. Better left unsaid.”
Elpida’s cheeks reddened slightly and a few of the others coughed, but Lyssa had already turned toward the far doors.
“Are you all ready to travel?”
A chorus of hasty agreement met her ears and she led the way. The next room was the smallest by far but easily the most unsettling. The stone floor was scuffed and scratched. Dust and rubble were piled high along with shattered, rotten wood. Most noticeable of all, however, was the crude tunnel carved into the wall. Lyssa sniffed as she eyed the scene.
“Goblins.”
“They must have dug their way in,” Gigator said. “This tunnel is larger than before. Perhaps they were carrying something?”
“Treasure, most likely,” Despoina said. “This is a dungeon. We passed three trials. This room was supposed to be the reward, I think. The goblins must have made off with it.”
“Then we have our vector,” Eleftherios replied. “Only question left is who’s going first.”
Lyssa stalked into the tunnel, bow in hand. Though it was wider than the other goblin tunnels, she still had to stoop to avoid the ceiling. Behind her, the others had similar issues, aside from Grimmolt. Gigator went last, bent nearly double as he fit his large frame into the passage.
The path ahead crept upward. A welcome sign for all of them, despite the many twists and turns. Goblin tunnel design, it seemed, was modeled after a drunk squirrel escaping a swarm of bees. It was as though the tunnel tried to confuse and disorient them, despite never actually branching off. More than once, she heard Grimmolt’s muttered curses about the sheer inefficiency of it all, and Lyssa had to agree. By her best estimate, despite the hour they spent going through it, they had traveled less than half a kilometer in actual distance.
All grumbles fell to a halt when voices echoed ahead, pitched high and croaking in a strange language. Lyssa picked up her speed. With the stone warping the sounds, it was difficult to tell how far away they were, but it was definitely goblins. Behind her, the others quickened to keep pace, doing their best to stay quiet. The scuffing of their boots was thunderous in Lyssa’s ears. The goblins ahead must have heard it as well, as their conversation quieted abruptly and one let out a screeching cry.
Lyssa emerged from the tunnel into a small cavern, barely six meters by four, to find three goblins clearly in the middle of some crude game involving bones and dice. One had a fist cocked back, ready to strike another in the face, and all three stared at Lyssa in shock.
Too close to reliably shoot them, Lyssa used her bow as a club instead, bowling two of them over with blows upside the head. The third pulled a knife and stabbed at her, but she caught the goblin by the wrist. In two quick motions, the goblin was on the ground with a broken arm, the knife clattering harmlessly against the stone. Elpida and Iosif placed weapons at the throats of the other two as the rest of the group filled the room. Lyssa knelt and picked up the fallen knife, holding the blade very close to one goblin’s eye.
“You’re going to lead us to the children.”
The goblin’s mouth opened and shut a few times as it tried to form the words.
“I bring,” it said in the common tongue, clearly lacking mastery of the language.
One of the goblins croaked something in their language, at which point Gigator placed a single clawed finger between its eyes and began to press. He rumbled something in the goblin tongue and the three made a low, keening noise. Lifting himself up, Gigator spoke to the rest of the group.
“They will behave.”
“You speak goblin?” Elpida asked. “I didn’t know that.”
“My swamps were infested. You tend to learn your neighbors’ tongues.”
There were three other tunnels leading into the cavern in addition to the one they had come through. Once the goblins were properly bound with rope and lifted to their feet, they began down the middle passage. Lyssa cursed goblin design as they once again entered the labyrinthine network of switchbacks. Soft grunts of aggravated wounds echoed off the stone around them.
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Minor injuries abounded throughout their small group. Lyssa had been lucky so far in avoiding them, but their fighting capacity was significantly diminished. Grimmolt’s arm was still useless from the Trial of Stars, far beyond the help of leveling, and, though it had regained a little of its form, it was still unable to hold anything. Vik, too, moved gingerly after his injury. He had refused to share the extent of the damage, but Lyssa suspected broken ribs at a minimum. Elpida nursed broken ribs of her own and her armor was damaged, greatly reduced in its durability. Further attacks would be a lot more dangerous. Despoina’s breath hitched when the slope became steep, speaking to her own chest wounds. Iosif had fully recovered from his minor injuries with the Managorged Anglers, putting him with Eleftherios and Gigator for the only other members who remained unharmed.
To make matters worse, the tier-one exhaustion debuff flashed in the corner of Lyssa’s vision. She had no doubts the rest of the group was suffering a similar fate. There had been no time to rest in their hours of pursuit, not when the fate of the little ones was so uncertain. All they could do was press on and hope they would arrive in time.
Nearly an hour after the goblins began leading them, the tunnel widened. Soon, Lyssa didn’t have to stoop to get through anymore. Even Gigator was able to walk upright. Noises echoed back to them, carried by stone. Goblins talking, laughing, and squabbling together. The three they had captured grew restless. They fidgeted, casting glances at their captors, who continued to hold them at blade-point.
Lyssa called for a halt when an opening into a larger cavern came into view. Two of the goblins tried to bolt for the opening, screaming a warning as loudly as they could. Elpida and Iosif yanked their ropes, throwing both goblins to the ground, and Lyssa dispatched all three with the knife, leaving it rooted in the last.
All sounds from the cavern ahead quieted, then a battle roar grew and echoed off the stone.
“The ruse is up,” Gigator said, pushing his way to the front. “Quickly!”
He led the charge out, Lyssa fast on his heels with bow in hand. The cavern was enormous, farther across than she could reach with an arrow or measure at a glance. Spread throughout was a colony of goblins. They seemed tribalistic, having split off into various groups that bunched together in a more complex societal network than Lyssa would have given them credit for. Many gathered around fires and shelters made from stone, pelt, and bone. Lyssa quickly scanned them, calculating their odds. More than five-score goblins gnashed teeth and brandished blades at them. In the center of it all, a tall goblin with a bone staff and a deer-skull helmet raised his voice in a loud, trilling war cry.
The goblins charged and Lyssa’s group ran to meet them, shouting war cries of their own. Just before the two clashed, Lyssa caught sight of what sat at the tall goblin’s feet: the children.
“They’re in the center!”
Then the fight was on. Lyssa parried a goblin’s sword with her kopis and opened a line on its neck in the same motion. She danced back, disengaging as her allies took up their position on the line, branching slightly into a semi-circle so as not to be surrounded. With the momentary respite, Lyssa nocked an arrow and sighted the tall goblin’s forehead. She pulled the string back even further, activating her Penetrating Shot maneuver for increased speed and power. The arrow flew with a loud snap as the bow was brought back to rest. The goblin barely had time to twitch, but it was enough. A stone barrier sprang from the ground, intercepting the arrow before it could strike true. Instead of skittering off, the arrow punched into the stone and stuck there, quivering.
“A mage,” Lyssa called out. “Keep going!”
The stone barrier had blocked the strike entirely, but it also blocked the mage’s sight. If she could find the right angle to attack from, she could slip past his guard and put an end to him. Then, it was a matter of getting the children out. The rest of the goblins weren’t particularly powerful or skilled, but they had numbers on their side.
Lyssa strafed the mage, swapping out her bow for her swords. She crashed into a line of goblins trying to surround them, forcing four back as she skipped to the side and ran around. Most goblins focused on the others, but over a dozen now trailed her. She swapped for her bow again, quickly drawing and firing at the goblin mage. She pulled up short as a shard of stone whizzed in front of her, propelled by magic. It sliced open her cheek and hot blood streamed down her face.
The delay let the goblins catch up to her, putting her on the back foot as she tried to disentangle herself. They fought like rabid animals, no thought to tactics or safety as they flung themselves at her, scratching and biting as much as they used their crude swords and knives. Lyssa pushed herself back and gasped for breath. The heavy stink of magic caught her nostrils.
“They’re enchanted!” Lyssa shouted as a goblin kept throwing itself at her even after she severed its arm.
She ducked away, dodging another launched rock as she took stock of the situation. Her allies had positioned themselves in front of the tunnel, in case a getaway was necessary. They were fighting strong, but the sheer mass of bodies pressing against them was adding up in injuries. It was only a matter of time before one of them fell. Her own situation was more precarious, without a clear exit strategy, but she at least had her speed to rely on. She twisted and ran away from the goblins amassing at her feet before they could overwhelm her. Another rock shot by, exploding on the cavern wall next to her. The mage had clearly identified her as the most prevalent threat and was intent on taking her out first.
Lyssa loosed two arrows mid-stride, not really expecting either to do much against the mage’s defenses but hoping that they would at least buy her a few seconds. The mage threw up another stone barrier, blocking its sightline of Lyssa entirely. Lyssa turned and made a Drill Shot backwards, toward the mass of goblins behind her. The spinning arrow tore through three of her pursuers, but the rest crawled over the fallen as they gave chase.
“Cease your fighting or I will slay your children!” The magically amplified voice echoed throughout the cavern.
Many of the goblins took a step backward, blinking in surprise and clutching at wounds that had been otherwise ignored. The goblins chasing Lyssa stopped and turned toward the mage, who held a dagger against the throat of a small, human girl. Hot rage seethed in Lyssa’s chest, crawling up her throat, but she forced her hands to stay idle. Her arrows wouldn’t reach the mage before the knife moved.
“Surrender yourselves,” the goblin mage said.
Lyssa watched as, one-by-one, her friends were forced to their knees, their hands bound before them. She clenched her teeth and nearly struck the first goblin that approached her, but the mage was watching her carefully and had adjusted the angle of the knife. Despite the distance, she could see the thin line of blood trailing down the girl’s throat.
Lyssa dropped her bow. Something struck the back of her legs and she fell to her knees. Rope bound her wrists and ankles. Impotent rage and shame washed over her.
They had failed.
A day of tireless pursuit, and they had failed. She had led them all to their deaths, allowed the children to be captured in the first place. Nothing would stop the goblins from killing all of them. There was nothing she could do.
The goblins dragged her forward until she and her friends were before the goblin mage. Lyssa tensed, ready to spring. If nothing else, her sharp teeth could tear through goblin flesh before they killed her. As if sensing her defiance, four goblins grabbed her shoulders and legs, forcing her flat to the ground. The mage pushed the little girl away and lifted his arms. He shouted something in the goblin speech and the rest howled. Before him was a wide bowl, easily over a meter in diameter. With a quick slice, the mage opened his palm and sprinkled blood into it. Dark lines of glowing red came to life, not just in the bowl but on the ground around them as well. Some sort of magic ritual or runecraft.
The goblins chanted something in their foul language. Four syllables, over and over again. Lyssa didn’t know the word, but she felt dread creep through her veins. The need to do something, anything, was unbearable, but she had been effectively restrained. There was nothing she could do.
The mage stepped toward them and scooped a child off the ground. A baby, still young enough to cry for mother’s milk. Lyssa watched in mounting horror as the goblin lifted the infant high with one hand, leaving a bloody red imprint on its swaddle, while the dagger poised to strike.
In the heartbeat before tragedy, Lyssa broke.