The goblin chief suddenly sprang upon Frank, shouting as he did. It was neither an animal's cry, nor a shout of anger. Instead, it was clearly controlled and purposeful. It was summoned to it the goblins not incapacitated by the tear gas. The creature swung it's sword as it moved in on Frank. It aimed for his hands, instead of his body, forcing Frank to either block or step back.
Frank chose to block, and to his dismay, the glancing blow of sword on quarterstaff as he knocked his opponents strike aside immediately took a chip out of the haft of his weapon. Reacting immediately, the goblin chief grinned broadly, fangs showing, as it pressed him. It did not attempt to strike at him. Having seen the damage it's blade could inflict on Frank's weapon, it focused on doing just that. Suddenly the range advantage Frank normally had was a limited time proposition.
While Frank was a skillful fighter, he was no expert in the staff. A few exchanges demonstrated this. The goblin would come in and swing, carefully ensuring that it was at a range Frank could not strike it directly, but that steel and wood might meet. Knowing that he risked damage to the staff every time the blade hit wood, Frank attempted to meet every strike with the metal tip.
He lacked the precision to do so consistently, and the goblin chief soon realized what Frank was trying, and took advantage. The chief attacked unrelentingly, weaving in feints towards Frank's body to force him to block the blade with the wood of his staff. Frank was not unable to retaliate but limited by his desire to avoid having his staff damaged beyond usability, the back and forth was largely a stalemate. Frank soon realized that he needed to change the situation.
He stopped attempting to preserve his staff, knowing that the current situation would lead to him losing it regardless. He took an aggressive tack, meeting blow for blow the goblin and using his range to pressure it. The advantage that the quarterstaff had in range allowed him to press the chief back several steps, but it deliberately circled away from Jim and Greg, to avoid being struck from behind
At that time, Greg and Jim had managed to get the pen open, and Greg was ushering out the hapless captives, while Jim, riot shield and nightstick in hand, kept the first incoming goblins who had responded to the commotion at bay. The goblins who had been struck by the tear gas were by now running about half-blinded, crying in pain. Greg got them all out and directed them to follow him through the cloud of tear gas, before leading the way through the stinging mist. Jim felled a goblin and started retreating, urging one woman who was hesitating in front of him and disappearing into the mist.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Frank had limited time now. He had to make a decisive move or abandon the battle. Not only would his weapon fail him eventually, but he had only a few short seconds before other goblins converged on the scene. He stabbed out at the goblin chieftain, a simple idea in mind.
The chieftain reacted by smartly dodging to the side, and swinging down to further damage the staff. Just as Frank had hoped. He took the blow, angling his block so that the blade dug in at a shallow angle. It bit in deeply, and Frank could feel the hitch as it stuck into the wood. It wouldn't hold fast for long, but Frank was anticipating the outcome and acted immediately, wrenching his staff to the side, which simultaneously wrenched the blade out of the goblin's hands. The torque of the blade being torn from his enemy's hands cause it to rip a deep chunk of wood out of the staff as it was flung away. The staff was no longer structurally sound and would be useless for combat.
Frank swung at the goblin with it, the creature flailing back to avoid it for a moment, as it was still not balanced from the previous exchange. He took the moment he had given himself to rush to and grab the sword, throwing the damaged quarterstaff at it to further delay it.
Weapon in hand, he now faced an unarmed goblin, but its allies had arrived. One-handed the chieftain its spear, another also armed stood beside him. those three and four others attacked. The chieftain was no spearman, but the advantage in numbers and reach made up for that. Frank was soon hard-pressed to defend himself, a fatal blow to one goblin's shoulder the only damage he managed in the first few exchanges. He was about to abandon the fight and run when two figures burst out of tear gas behind him. Greg had returned holding the riot shield and a bat, Sasha with him, wearing Jim's mask and wielding a short sword.
They immediately rushed to join Frank, and within moments had taken the pressure largely off him. He was faced only with the chieftain and its spear-wielding ally. Their skills were not sufficient to handle him, even combined. Frank wasn't a swordsman any more than he used a quarterstaff, but a decade of life and death physical combat left him with the basic knowledge of any weapon and the honed instincts to use it. He took the tip off chief's spear when an attempted stab lingered slightly too long, rendering it useless. Then parried the other goblin's attack, stepping past the spear, and slamming it with his shoulder. It staggered, and he used that opening to cut it across the stomach, disembowelling the doomed thing. The chieftain, realizing it's imminent death, its allies all slain or soon to be and it disarmed, stopped fighting back and fell to its knees. "Rik a binak sab, in ni anik abin." The creature said, mournfully. Frank chopped off its head.
Goblin Chief defeated. Goblin Encampment destroyed. Frank receives 800 EXP. Greg receives 300 EXP. Jim receives 200 EXP. Sasha receives 200 EXP. 6 others receive EXP. Frank receives Goblin Scimitar. Frank receives an Oracle.