Sarah charged forward, her whips trailing behind her in the dirt. My teeth clenched, frustration boiling within me. She was headed straight into the goblin horde, risking her life for an NPC. It felt like she always went against our plans, ignoring any sense of self-preservation. How could she, a small child who can’t even fight, take on a swarm of monsters alone? I readied my bow, fitting an arrow infused with lightning.

“SARAH! STOP!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

My shout had alerted the crowd, and now a group of goblins began to march down the path, investigating the commotion. Sarah continued her sprint as the goblins turned towards her, their gaze fixed on the incoming threat. The man we tried to save had succumbed to the inferno, his pained cries silenced.

The approaching goblins wore dark red leather armor, armed with long spears. A few smaller goblins wielding bows followed closely behind. Sarah and the goblins drew closer to each other. The archers readied their bows and fired them, while the spearmen charged forward.

Uncertain if my arrows could reach the fray from my position in the tower, I couldn't stand idly by. If Sarah refused to stop and come back, I had to act. Angling my bow high, I released the lightning arrow toward one of the goblin archers.

A blue streak shot through the air, striking the targeted goblin in the head. The lightning arrow burst into a dazzling display of electric rays, decapitating the goblin. Some of the arcs of energy jumped to nearby goblins, causing them to yelp in pain. One dropped their weapon and fled, clutching the singed area of their body, while the others endured the shock and resumed their attack.

Damn. I was hoping the lightning arrow would do more damage than that to the surrounding goblins.

Sarah reached the front line of goblins, her whips a blur of deadly precision. With each crack, their flesh was ripped from their bones, and their limbs were torn apart. The spearmen attempted to strike back, but Sarah's speed proved too much. Her whips entangled their spears, rendering them useless. In some cases, the force was so great that the spears shattered, leaving the goblin warriors defenseless in the face of their gruesome demise.

Gore saturated the village as we whittled down their fighting force. Sarah had pushed through the front line and was now closing in on the goblin villagers huddled near the charred remains of the man. My bow couldn't reach that far, so I descended the tower and hurried toward the center. The goblin archers were mostly taken care of, leaving only the spearmen to contend with. After witnessing what Sarah was capable of from a distance, I had no doubt she could hold her own for a few more minutes.

I sprinted through the village, stopping every so often to fire an arrow, without hesitation. The goblins fell left and right, their heads pierced or bodies punctured. It was an exhilarating dance, a symphony of destruction.

Meanwhile, Sarah's whips continued their deadly work. Limbs were severed, heads rolled onto the ground, and blood stained the earth. She was a force to be reckoned with, an unstoppable whirlwind of violence.

By the time I reached the center, Sarah had dispatched the remaining fighters. All that remained were the terrified mothers and children, cowering in fear. And there he stood, the larger goblin wearing the bone crown, whom I had spotted earlier from the tower.

Sarah stood her ground, catching her breath. Her flushed face and clothes were splattered with dark blood, and her hair was disheveled from the relentless battle. Her hands tightly gripped her whips.

Approaching Sarah, I examined the larger goblin, the one wearing the crown.

[Goblin Chieftain]

Opal - Elite

He’s big. He’s large. He’s the Chieftain of the Goblin Village. He’s also an Elite.

“Elite Opal,” I whispered to Sarah, not wanting to provoke the creature just yet. “I think that means he’s extra strong.”

The Chieftain walked to the front of the crowd as the fire continued to burn behind them all. He took a few steps forward and raised his hand. As he did that, I notched a fire arrow and was on the verge of releasing it before he began to speak.

“Humans,” said the Chieftain. His voice was gruff, powerful, and filled with authority. “Turn around and leave.”

I laughed at his suggestion. “Why the hell would we leave? We slaughtered your fighters. You have no one else but yourself.”

“The man you came to find has perished. His corpse lies in the fire behind. Burned to nothing,” said the Chieftain. “You have nothing else to gain here. The only lives that remain are mothers and children.”

“Well, you still remain,” I said. “You look to be capable of fighting. I don’t think we need to turn back. I want this village cleared.”

Sarah glared at me from the side of her eye.

The Chieftain snarled. “You wish to inflict harm upon the innocent here? I will not allow you to.”

I looked at Sarah before responding. Her once determined and fierce stance had vanished. In its place was a tired girl with sunken shoulders.

She can’t be giving up already. I had to get her poised to battle again. Without her, this fight is not possible. We made it here to save a man that they ended up murdering. She had to be pissed off.

“Innocent? Didn’t you kidnap an innocent man from his wife? Then, drag him back to this shithole that you call a village. Torture him for god knows how long and then throw him in a fire to die an agonizing death,” I said, looking back at Sarah. Her jaw was clenched tight. “That was you guys, right? Now what are we to tell his wife? Sorry, but your husband’s final hours were long, tortuous, and horrible. He had no relief. No one was there for him. He died while mothers, fathers, and children laughed at him. Your soul mate is now dead. Gone forever.”

Sarah was shaking with rage—or about to cry—I could not tell which.

The Chieftain laughed. “That man, innocent? That man was not innoc—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a fire arrow from my bow found his forehead. The momentum from the arrow jerked his head back but he remained largely unwavering. He reached up to the arrow that was singeing his dark green skin and yanked it out with ease. The arrow vanished from his hand as he flashed his sharp vicious teeth.

Oh, fuck. He was stronger than I thought. That arrow did nothing. I began to step back to ensure I had space between him and myself.

Sarah remained in her spot, her whip ends laying loosely on the ground.

Don’t freeze, Sarah. I fired another arrow that landed square in the Chieftain’s chest. This time it was lightning. The Chieftain was hit with a large burst of lightning as arcing rays shot backward toward the scared crowd that stood behind him. A few of the rays reached the crowd and struck a couple of goblin mothers and a child. One of the mothers let out a shriek from the pain and was knocked to the ground. The other fell silently to the dirt. The child goblin erupted into a spray of blood and guts.

Level Up! You have reached Opal 2.

You have 4 unassigned attributes.

My eyes were as wide as saucers. Holy shit. I hadn’t expected any of the lightning to reach the crowd—and if it did—not inflict that kind of damage. But a level from it seemed to be worth the trade-off, although I didn’t realize that I was teetering on the edge of the next level. I made a mental note to look into how all that worked after this. I also didn’t have the time to think about assigning the attributes now but the thought of it made me grin.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Sarah shot daggers at me. I raised my free hand in an apologetic way. “Oops, my bad.”

The crowd screeched and chaos ensued as it began to disperse. The Chieftain roared with anger. He reached over his shoulder and pulled out a wooden staff. The staff was adorned by bones that ran the length of the shaft and topped with a skull at the top. The Chieftain grasped the staff in both hands and raised it high above his head. He began to mutter something unintelligible.

I didn’t know what kind of spell was being cast or if it was even a spell but I wasn’t going to stay and find out. Sarah was refusing to move but I needed her to not freeze again. I began to retreat to find cover and screamed to Sarah, “SARAH! MOVE!”

A dark, swirling orb appeared over the skull of the staff. The orb pulsed with a sickly glow as it cast an otherworldly hue upon the battlefield. Within an instant, the orb launched at Sarah, who was now beginning to run toward the Chieftain.

I ducked behind a small shack as the orb blasted the earth. Peering around the side, I saw orb after orb launch from the staff, tailing Sarah’s every movement. If she would stop moving she would be obliterated.

I notched an ice arrow and fired it at the Chieftain.

It pierced through his chest, although he did not waver. The frosty rime became to radiate outward from the point of impact, slowly covering his entire body. In the meantime, Sarah was now in his face and began to lash out with thunderous cracks of her whips.

Although he was iced, the Chieftain kept raining down the orbs from the sky, at a slower speed, toward Sarah and a few toward my position.

I scrambled away from my spot as an orb blasted the shack. The shack blew up into pieces, sending scattered debris across the battlefield. Another orb landed not far behind me as I kept running.

The scrambled crowd of goblins was retreating through the battlefield and into their dwellings. As I ran between the buildings to escape the orbs, the goblin mothers and their children would bare their savage teeth and pounce at me. Fortunately, they were easy to dodge and run past as I was able to ignore most of them. Except for one—a goblin mother that was able to jump me and sink her teeth into my arm.

I cried out in pain as I pummeled her off of me. She was light and weak. They all were. They were so weak, in fact, that punching and kicking them would send them soaring into the outside wall of their structures.

As I continued to run, a child goblin appeared in the path of my fleeing. Instead of running away, it snarled and barreled toward me. As it neared, I punted it, square in the face. The kick sent a minor pain through my foot.

A grunt and cracking sound rang from it as soared into the air and crashed to the ground. The death of their child caused the surrounding goblin mothers to enrage as they raced toward me.

Using the regular arrows of my bow, I shot at them in quick succession. The arrows would all find their mark thanks to my passive accuracy ability. The arrows would impale the goblin through the head or throat. Some in the chest. They all ended in the same fate; crumbling to the ground, gurgling, as blood pooled around their corpse.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough and a few were able to reach me as they bit into my flesh and tore it open. The pain radiated up and down my arm as the blood fell down it. I punched them in the face and shoved them away as they fell to the ground.

As they came near me, I punched and shoved some more. Any that fell to the ground, I would stomp on their heads, caving in their fragile skulls, which caused an audible wet crack as my foot found its way through them.

I had to get back to Sarah. She and the Chieftain were obscured by the buildings that I ran between to use to escape the dark orbs that were chasing me. But the onslaught of the remaining goblin mothers and children was non-stop. There were so many. They kept coming and coming—even after watching their friends die in a glorious fashion just moments before. But they were relentless.

I would use the punch, shove, and stomp method to give myself a clearing which allowed some breathing room to launch arrows before they enclosed me again. This happened until there was just one left. A child goblin.

He charged at me, half growling and half crying. I almost felt bad for it but they were asking for it. I notched a lightning arrow and let it fly, striking the tiny goblin. It exploded like a grenade in a bucket of red paint.

Party member Sarah King has low health! 25% remaining!

My heart jolted at that message. I sprang into action and ran back toward the center of the village with a notched ice arrow. As I turned the corner of a structure, the battle between Sarah and the Chieftain came into view.

Sarah was swinging her whips, one after another, at the Chieftain with such force I was sure that it would be able to tear through anything; like a hot knife through butter. But the Chieftain was no longer just launching orbs. Rather, he was enveloped in a dark purple sphere, with his arms stretched outward and staff in one hand.

The sphere acted like a shield that seemed to deflect Sarah’s attacks. Each strike of her whips would cause the shield to ripple but remained whole. Every so often, the Chieftain would sneak out an orb attack between Sarah’s onslaught and then go back to holding the shield. The orb would blast into the ground as Sarah narrowly avoided being hit it. Instead, the radius of the blast would damage her causing a tired, sad cry of pain to leave her mouth. She looked determined but horrible—as if she could collapse at any moment.

I had to do something or she was going to die. My heart hurt for her and I had to think of something quick. Her strikes weren’t getting through the shield to heal herself. I wasn’t sure if she had already used her Heal Self ability but she was smart, so I had to assume she did. How the fuck was I supposed to remove the shield? …Holy shit!

Without hesitating, I pulled my up bow, notched an arrow, and fired. This time it wasn’t an elemental arrow. Well, it was the Elemental Arrow ability but not any I’ve used. The new arrow popped into place. There was a swirling purple shroud that surrounded the arrow as it gave off a purple glow. An ethereal arrow.

It struck the shield of the Chieftan with a resounding crack. My arrow disappeared as a dark crack appeared in the sphere like it was made of glass.

The Chieftain jerked his attention to me as Sarah continued to fight. He began to blast orbs in my direction. I didn’t run. Instead, I continued to light him up with an onslaught of ethereal arrows. Each arrow caused more cracks to appear.

The orbs closed in and as they did I triggered my Shadow Veil ability. The orb exploded where I had been standing.

Instinctively, I threw my arms up over my head and cowered away from the explosion. But the blast did nothing thanks to the ability's invulnerability effect. I had to push the urge away to cover myself and forced myself to continue to launch arrows.

The timer ticked down. Two seconds remained before my invulnerability would expire. I began to run, notching and firing arrows along the way to escape an orb that may explode after my Shadow Veil wore off.

Holy shit. Why haven’t I done this from the beginning?

The running and notching proved devastating for the Chieftain as he couldn’t fire orbs quick enough while the ethereal arrows kept striking his shield lowering its durability.

I fired one last ethereal arrow that struck the Chieftain’s shield. The shield shattered, sending a wave of dark purple mist outward.

The Chieftain roared. “You will die!”

At that moment, Sarah glowed with an aura of white light. It lasted a moment before another, more menacing aura appeared around her. This time it was blood red.

Simultaneously, I commanded the status of Sarah using my Party ability. It showed me an image of her with a red bar above her head that read her health percentage. She was at 25% remaining which then began to increase.

Her health bar reached 40% before it began to decrease at a much slower rate. It stopped at 30%.

Sarah screamed with seething rage as the red aura enveloped her. The aura did not disappear as she began her relentless assault on the Chieftain once again. This time her whips met their target with destructive effects.

Pacing myself, I ran around in a small radius firing arrows. The Chieftain was met with an ice arrow, followed by a few fire arrows, and then a lightning arrow.

I was worried the ice and fire arrows would cancel each other out but they seemed to work either way. The Chieftain’s skin began to burn as the smell of burned flesh wafted through the air. Meanwhile, the frosty rime began to cover him again. I had hoped the lightning arrow would knock him over or his grip on his staff but he was fortitudinous.

While I continued to send a volley of arrows at the Chieftain, the Chieftain started using a different spell. He was sending out arcs of swirling purple darkness toward Sarah. Sarah would take the brunt of it face-on as her whips began to wear down the goblin leader. The new spell came at a much faster rate at the trade-off of seemingly being much weaker than the orb spell.

As I watched Sarah’s health bar, it would increase little bits at a time as she kept striking the Chieftain, preceded by decreasing by a large chunk as she collided with the swirling arcs. She had been fighting for so long that her Strength and Constitution had to be at the top of whatever her ability allowed it to go.

Sarah’s aura began to flicker, slow at first, then increasing in speed. With one last effort, Sarah lashed both her whips at the Chieftain. They caught him in the throat, wrapping him tightly with their jagged edges. The Chieftain reached for his neck and struggled to pull himself free of her grip. Sarah let out a glorious scream as she yanked her whips backward, tearing the goblin’s head straight off. The red aura that once enveloped her was now gone.

The arrow-littered body of the Chieftain fell to the ground as blood spurted out from where its head had once been.

A torrent of notifications swarmed my head.

New Achievements Unlocked! X6

Level Up! You have reached Opal 3.

You have 8 unassigned attributes.

Jesus Christ, another level? This was more than I had hoped.

Sarah squealed. “I unlocked some achievements—HEY! I leveled up!”