14
My plan worked flawlessly. Until it didn’t. I slid around the tree at Gash’s back, crouching low. My stealth skill was clearly working at full force, likely far overpowered for the level of my enemies, because I was able to slide up behind the goblin’s back and rise like a reaper behind him. I triggered my level 11 Cunning Strike skill right before I stepped in tight, snaked an arm around his neck to pull his jaw up and away as my right hand reached around and I dragged the baselard across his little green throat, feeling the blade cut into his pebbled flesh like butter. Blood fucking sprayed in a horizontal fan out from the wound in an amount that seemed preposterous, jettisoning everywhere, cascading into the fire where it sizzled and popped on the superheated stones that ringed the firepit. Gash was dead. All the way dead. Instantly. I had been about ten centimetres shy of decapitating the goblin. With a dagger. I stared down blankly for a moment in surprise before I remembered Gordon, who had a look of surprise and horror on his jagged green face as he scrambled back on his tree stump, crying out as he toppled off the back side, landing on his back on the forest floor.
I pushed Gash’s limp body away and drove myself forward, leaping over the fire. Gordon managed another strangled cry of surprise before I could get to him, bleating out something that sounded like “Belta!” in desperation. He didn’t even try to get up, only crab walked backward through the fallen leaves as I landed deftly and stalked towards him, both daggers clutched tight, reverse grip. I bounded until I loomed over his scrambling form, and he twisted around to his stomach, clawed feet digging into the earth as he tried to find purchase and push himself up into a run. His clawed fingers left divots in the dirt as I stomped down hard on his back, driving him into the ground. I watched his health bar start to sag, then I dropped to one knee and buried my dagger in his back. It slammed through him and buried itself in the earth beneath his body. His health bar fell to a sliver, and I pulled it free and punched it into him again, killing him. I rose smoothly and tried to orient myself. I could hear the ragged cries of multiple goblins and the hoarse barking laugh of something that sounded like a hyena coming from straight ahead. It also sounded big. Shit.
This is about where reality made a swift departure from my plan. I had been correct that the dog-thing would be faster than the goblins. I had not considered that arrows would be much, much faster than the dog-thing. My dumb ass had neglected to consider archers at all. Stupid. Inexcusable. Predictably, a barbed, feathered shaft buzzed past my left ear before a second slammed into me, just below the left shoulder. I looked down in surprise to see the fucking thing sprouting from my black leather armour, blood already beginning to leak from the ragged puncture. My health bar dropped about ten percent. “Fuck!” I swore as my mind desperately tried to recalculate. A notification flashed onto my screen before quickly fading away:
Poison effect resisted.
“Poison!? God damnit!” I said. Yet another thing I had neglected to consider. This was going downhill fast. The now-enraged sounding barking echoed through the forest as the beast burst into view, scrabbling around a tree and surging towards me in a titanic blur of fur and fangs. Holy fuck, I thought, gaping at the thing. It was a hyena, and it was the size of a god-damned pony. It hadn’t looked that big at all as I saw it through the trees. Like, not at all. What the fuck? I thought, outraged. It didn’t seem right. Had I miscalculated that badly? As I stared at the thing, its indicator popped up.
Lucky - Lyena, Level 5 Beast
Level 5!? I thought desperately. I was level one. Wait. ‘Lucky?’ Really? What the hell!? I didn’t have any more time to think. I turned, and I ran. If that thing pinned me down, I was fucked. If it got its jaws around my throat, I was fucked. The goblins - there were obviously more than one - would reach me and I’d be mauled or butchered by the whole merry fucking band. My only hope was to separate the thing, break line of sight with the archers and somehow kill the horse-dog before they got to me.
I sprinted away from the goblin camp and wove my way around the tree I’d ambushed Gash from, putting it between myself and the Lyena, which was going outpace me very quickly. I was fast, but it was a big-ass quadruped, and I’m pretty sure it was way more pissed off than I was. As I dashed through the trees, I flashed a look over my shoulder to see the raging, slathering beast roaring towards me, strings of saliva twisting and whipping away from its huge head as it bounded over the forest floor with four-inch fangs bared. Holy fucking shit, I thought as my heart pounded like the bass drums of a black metal band, desperation fueling every step. There was a tree with a huge trunk looming large, straight ahead. I shifted the mask to Dancer as I made the last few strides. I couldn’t believe I was about to try this ridiculous bullshit.
Yep. I did that thing. I could feel the hot breath of the Hyena-thing on my lower back as I ran up the tree trunk and backflipped over the charging beast like Jet-fucking-Li. The giant furred form of the beast blurred beneath me to smash, full-force, into the tree, loosing a cracked yelp of pain. I sailed backwards and over the thing, and - thank all the fucking gods, and my heightened balance skill - I stuck the landing. The monstrous Hyena scrambled and twisted its way to its feet, injured and clearly dazed, but far from dead. Its health bar was at about sixty percent. I didn’t know what it was going to take to kill this thing. My mind raced.
I had no time. I couldn’t absorb a full charge from this thing and I had to exploit the opportunity I’d just created. I didn’t think; I allowed myself to act. I darted the few paces forward to reach the beast, who was turning to face me once again with its ridiculous yellowed fangs bared, ropes of saliva whipping away from its maw. He lowered his upper body, readying his pounce as I crouched, drew back my arms, pulling my daggers in like fucking Ryu from Street Fighter winding up a Hadoken. We were only two feet apart, just one one moment from the clash. My heart thundered. I breathed, and I felt the stillness there, waiting. It had been there the entire time. I only needed to embrace it. I felt the raging panic of the fight blend into me and sink away, and I was there again; in that beautiful calm place. Just for an instant, it suffused me. The silence at the centre of the fury. I activated Shattering Charge and drove my blades forward as the titanic surge of force propelled me at the Hyena like I’d be fired from a god-damned gun.
The explosive burst blasted me straight into the Lyena as it began its leap. He dove straight into my hyper-powered twin thrusts. My offhand dagger plunged in at the base of its throat, while the longer blade in my right hand punched straight into its muscled chest, right to the hilt. I felt the blade blast through bone, and I heard the thing yowl as we smashed into the tree like crash test dummies, the beast partially absorbing the blow as its back struck the trunk. We rolled and writhed, falling to the ground in a heap, like a fucked up man-beast game of Twister. The bastard was still strong as fuck, even with my baselard buried in its god-damned chest. I felt its jagged claws drag across the mask with enough force and weight to drive my head into the ground. The thing was trying to bark, trying to growl, but what was coming out was a strangled, choked wheeze. It had twisted to its feet, rolling to loom atop me, blood gouting from its throat and down its massive chest.
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I grimaced as the blood splattered down atop me, coating my upper chest and neck in a hot splash. It was losing strength, but it stretched its neck forward and opened its jaws to savage my masked face, and I did the only thing I could think of to block it, I threw my forearm in front of my face, feeling its jaws engulf my limb, its hot breath pulsing out in ragged waves around the flesh. Pain roared through me as his jaws clamped down and began squeezing with a force that ripped the breath from my lungs. My leather vambrace was keeping its top fangs from digging in and ripping my god-damned arm off, but the pressure from its jaws was too much for the armour.
I felt the bones compressing, straining, pain causing me to clench my jaw and roar defiance through my teeth, right in the beast’s drool-slathered face. I screamed in pain, savagely twisted the dagger in its chest and…crunch. Bone splintered. Even as its health bar bottomed out, the rage in the beast’s eyes flared one more time. Lucky, the level five Lyena’s last act was to crush my fucking forearm. My health bar had plummeted to 50%, and I felt the bones crack and break as the beast spasmed, grasping at life with one more clenching squeeze of its massive jaw. It finally let out a drawn out gurgling wheeze, blood raining down atop me, then it collapsed, and I was trapped beneath the weight of the thing.
Two notifications flashed up, then flew to the right of my screen, minimised. I had to ignore them as I drew ragged breaths and twisted to push the heavy bastard away, my heart thundering, the pain from my arm coming in dizzying waves. I struggled free, gasping as I dragged myself to my feet. This fight was not over, and I had a broken left arm and a black-shafted arrow sprouting from my left shoulder. I reached up and ripped it free; grunting in pain. I did it not because that was the smart thing to do, but because I was severely pissed off. My health ticked down again, just a small amount this time. I paused for a moment, thinking, then popped a health potion from my hotbar. A bitter-sweet taste flooded my mouth as the potion appeared, sliding down my throat even as it manifested. It tasted like fucking cough syrup. I watched my HP bar bump back up to 70 percent, then noted that my potion cooldown timer was two minutes.
Even as I let the bloody arrow drop to the forest floor, pain exploded in my back as something punched into me from behind. I felt the piercing heat in the small of my back as another arrow head lanced through armour into flesh. I stumbled and spun wildly to face my attacker. A notification popped into existence, then faded quickly away.
Poison effect resisted.
Fucking shit, I thought immediately. There were three. Three god-damned goblins, edging towards me in a loose semi-circle. The archer was reaching to pluck another arrow from the quiver at his back. Fuck, I thought, my broken arm dangling uselessly at my side. It was beginning to knit, but not fast enough to matter. The HUD identified the goblins as a Pig-Sticker, a Scout, and a Grunt. All were level three, two above my own. I vaguely registered that the Grunt’s name was Everyday Joe. Stupid fucking writers, I thought. One dagger against a spear, a bow, and scimitar-type-thing. Fucking fuck. These were bad odds. Still, I wasn’t going to run. There was no guarantee I’d get away anyway. I didn’t want to run. Sage’s voice suddenly bloomed in my head.
There are no enemies within range to your rear, should you need to withdraw. I flickered a look at my health bar. Sixty five percent.
“I’m not running,” I said through gritted teeth. The goblins spoke to each other in low, clipped rasps, and they spread out in a fan around me. The scout had knocked his arrow and was drawing back to fire. No time. Attack, I thought. Force them to react to you. I shifted the mask back to War, I buried the throbbing pain and threw rational thought away. I exploded into motion, shooting straight toward the Scout with the bow. His eyes went wide as he was pulling back on his bowstring and his grip faltered as he loosed the arrow. I weaved just slightly to my right to let it buzz past me, and then I was on him. I threw a simple feint at his midsection and he dropped the bow lower to try a desperate block, but I quickly pulled the dagger back and shot it back in like a snake strike, driving it straight into his exposed throat. I saw his health bar flash, then plummet and bottom out.
The Pig-Sticker’s spear is likely poisoned! Please consider retreating, Luck.
I ignored Sage as I spun away from the still-toppling Scout, blood spattering in a fan as my dagger came around. Thud. A notification bloomed.
You have been poisoned.
My mind raged as I looked down to find the Pig-Sticker’s spear half-buried in my stomach. I didn’t have antidotes. The poison would probably kill me when combined with the hits I’d been taking. This left me with only one option. God damnit! My armour had taken half the blow, but the spearhead had pierced a good 5 inches into my midsection. I loosed a ragged cry in pain and blearily registered my health bar at 42 percent as the poison began to take effect. The green bar was beginning to seep downwards.
Damnit Luck! Get away while you can! I could barely register her desperate plea. She sounded so raw.
“No!” I screamed aloud as I parried a slash from the scimitar. My potion cooldown timer was still active, and my dumb ass had failed to prepare for poison. There was only one way I was getting out of this now. Even running wasn’t going to cut it; the poison would kill me before I could take another health potion. The effect of the poison was hot and nauseating and suffusing my senses as I desperately pulled back from the spear. I felt it slide free from my abdomen. Thirty five percent. I levelled a kick at the Grunt and caught him in the chest, sending him reeling back. I spun back to the Pig-Sticker, who was already driving in for another thrust at my stomach. I managed to half-block it and knock it slightly aside, and it instead pierced my side. I groaned in pain and started to double over, staggered.
The poison effect was causing my vision to blur, sapping my energy and dizzying me. Reeling, my gaze desperately flashed between the two goblins. Twenty percent. The scimitar-wielding Grunt had recovered from the kick and was back in action, coming at me with his blade raised. The Pig-Sticker’s yellow, jagged teeth were bared in a wicked snarl as he pulled his spear back for yet another thrust
From nowhere another arrow sped past my cheek and sent shards of bark flying as it pounded into a tree at my back. I heard the harsh, stilted tongue of more goblins shouting as they came bounding over the snaking tree roots into the fight. Two more; one with a bow in hand, and the second wielding another scimitar. Well, fuck. I thought in resignation. I could handle two, with the help I was about to receive, but four? Shit. That was a short career. How god-damned embarrassing. I had been such a tough talker, and goblins were going to end me on day two.
It was then, with my fate nearly sealed, that my health bar dropped to fifteen percent, then the poison ticked it down to fourteen. In a daze, I saw a raging, glowing red eye open in the centre of my screen, looking super pissed off. Everything seemed to slow to a crawl, and the world spun around me. Something was pulling me down, down into a pit of roiling chaos that surged with the rage of a cornered animal. To overcome. To rend and tear. My mind shrunk to a single word: No.
Poison effect negated.
The ring on my right index finger pulsed and burned, power swelling from the Silosian god’s relic. No. The Batshit Crazy buff manifested as rocket fuel pumped straight into my veins, and I was transformed into a tornado of pure violence. Defiance roared in me; a primal, raw force that drove me straight into the fray, completely disregarding anything but the thought of tearing down enemies. My mind raged in a ripping, clawing denial of fate.
No.
Everything…everything, went red.