I stood at my place like every other goblin in the area. Holding a staff with a purple crystal embedded on top, the woman kept falling towards us as her screams continued to resound with her barely worn clothing flapping in mid-air. From the side of the old goblin Mage, who was some distance away from me, a chunk of rock shards were fired in her direction. As they rushed closer to her, she gripped her staff with both hands and pointed it towards the rushing attack. The heavy wind kept hitting her face. Unable to keep her eyes open, the purple crystal shone brightly as she swung the staff in a curved path. A heavy chunk of ice formed around her, covering her from all directions in an instant. The shards of rock rapidly hit the ice, chipping it away bit by bit. The size became smaller and smaller as it accelerated and inched closer to the ground. With a booming sound, the ball of ice burst out in mid-air, parrying the remaining rock shards. She was unscathed yet full of mixed expressions as she turned her head left and right and made another wave gesture with her staff. From the cliff above, a slope of ice started to form out of nowhere and extend in her direction. When it reached just below her, it took a curve and started forming towards the ground, in the middle of the goblin's nest. When it touched the ground, a mass of ice materialised around the bottom to better support the tall, reverse L-shaped structure.
A thin layer of ice formed near the falling surface of the woman's body as she landed on the top of the slide, sliding in the direction of the cliff. The old goblin rotated his wooden staff in a circle, and a heavy gust of wind burst out from him, slicing the support of the icy slide. And the slide started to fall apart, bending in the opposite direction. Her speed reduced, and before she could reach the cliff, the icy slide collapsed in mid-air, disappearing as instantly as it appeared, and at the same time, another round of rock shards were fired at her. In response, she covered herself with an invisible wave of energy while falling to the ground at the centre of the nest. The rock shards shattered whenever they reached the space around her, with waves of energy spreading around her like ripples in an ocean. Mana shield? When her body, covered by a layer of Mana shield, hit the ground, a heavy thud rang like an echo, with some dust rising from the ground. The goblin Mage stopped his attacks, and everyone, including me, was peering at that spot with wide eyes. Moments later, the dust cleared, and the sight of the young girl was clearly visible for everyone to see.
She opened her eyes, only to stare at her surroundings with a wide-eyed gaze. The goblins looked at her warily before it turned into an instinct to attack, and they surrounded her, screeching out their lungs. The older goblin beat his staff on the ground, and they all became silent, making a path for him to get to her. He slowly walked to her, and a slab of rock, separated from the ground, rushed straight at her abdomen. The blunt force sent her rolling back as her expression turned grim, throwing up saliva from her mouth with a pained groan. She crouched in pain, with one of her hand nails digging into the ground and the other hand squeezing her stomach. The old goblin stopped at the place where the girl fell, and kneeling there, he inspected her staff on the ground for a few moments and threw his staff to the side, seizing the purple crystal one. The staff looked hand-made, with the signs of the craftsman's effort still visible in the shape, the designs that complimented it, and the size that fit perfectly. He got up again, walked to the suffering girl, and with the bottom end of the staff, he turned her over to the side, looking up at her face closely. From one side, I could see a little bit of her pale white face with nerves bulging all over it. Her eyes teared and turned a bit red, fixated on the goblin before her. Her body was trembling, and an expression of unbearable pain was painted on her face as the goblin shoved the staff into her abdomen, where he had previously attacked. She held her breath in her lungs, making a tight fist that bled in crimson and a pained voice that couldn't escape from her open mouth. The goblin Mage's back was turned to me, and I looked around only to see the entire goblin colony watching him in silence in unknown ecstasy.
The guilt I felt a while before for the deaths of pregnant goblins vanished. I held my fist tight, and without shifting my gaze from the scene before me, I used my right hand to inspect the rock wall blocking the path to the tunnel behind me. The hole previously made by the older goblin was still present. And through that, I heard the sounds of multiple footsteps getting closer. I turned back and peered through that. It was still dark in there. Along with the increasing sound of footsteps, the ground vibrated, and a group of green goblins came walking out of the tunnel. Their faces lacked the usual vigour, and their bodies were covered in wounds and dried stains of blood. Sensing something from behind, I crouched down reflexively and heard a booming sound right after. When I looked at the small hole in the wall, the size had increased, with small pieces of rock crumbling from it. I turned to the older goblin, whose gaze was now directed towards me, with his staff pointed straight at me, along with all the other goblins present here waiting to burst out as they shared the same gazes. The girl behind him was still lying on the ground, and he tapped his staff two more times on the ground, and the wall behind me collapsed like thin glass. With an expression that showed all its canine teeth, a shrill sound came out of its mouth, and the goblins in front of me and the ones behind rushed at me all at once.
Mana surged out of me and turned into a powerful gust of wind, bombarding everything like a wave all around me at once. It threw the smaller goblins into the air. Dust rose along with them, blinding other rushing goblins. Crouching down once again, I unsheathed the dagger and dashed towards the older goblin, slicing the tendrils of other goblin legs along the way. With no gap between each one of them, they tried to kick whatever was before them, but I dodged everyone with their irregular kicks and punching attacks by moving in a zigzag motion myself. From above, a blue goblin swung its club at me, and I leaned in the opposite direction. When it hit the ground, I stepped on it, jumping with my right knee and aiming straight at the goblin's face. I drove it in, crushing its nose, but ignoring that, it caught my waist by surprise with both arms, its nails digging deeper into the thick set of my bandages. I stabbed the dagger deep into the backside of its neck and pulled it out, a trail of blood forming along the path, and drove it in once again, stabbing it with more strength each time. Yet, almost at death's door, it still didn't let me go, and a red goblin in front of me thrust a spear with its spearhead glowing yellow, aimed right at my head. In that position, I shifted my body weight behind me and fell on my back with the blue goblin on top of me. And the spear that was aimed in my direction pierced the back of the blue goblin, driving its way through its body and stopping an inch closer to my chest. Using both my legs, I kicked its corpse and, like a rat, swiftly moved in the goblin Mage's direction once again.
The flock of hundreds of goblins closed in on me, irrespective of their sizes, crushing their own kind under their feet at times. When the path felt too blocked for me to slide through, I jumped a little on top of the green goblins while throwing the red ones off balance by pulling their thin strip of clothes in the opposite direction of where they were moving. They were heavy, yet, as a domino effect, one pushed the other, and the other pushed yet another. Only the sound that came through their mouth and the sounds of thuds that came with them falling down were heard. A heavy gust enveloped the area and blew in one direction, revolving through the area and turning into a cyclone. The size of it increased as the length of the cyclonic winds reached halfway to the ceiling. All goblins left the weapons in their hands and fell on their fronts, digging their hands into the ground and holding their position firmly. I was alone and stood with no space to hide myself. The dust went into my eyes, and I bent a little as the speed of the wind continued to rise with each passing moment. Narrowing my eyes, I looked over in the opposite direction, wherein, in the eye of the cyclonic gusts, a dark figure held something that was almost twice its size, with its top shining in bright purple. The goblin Mage didn't move an inch from there, and when it slowly lifted both its hands, one having the staff and the other empty, and swung them down swiftly, the cyclone expanded in an instant, throwing me off balance and disappearing completely.
I immediately regained my balance as the dust settled and all the goblins, still lying on the ground, lifted their heads unanimously, with more rage seeping out of their eyes. They all started to growl at the same time as I swiped dust from my watery eyes. I felt my feet get heavy, and when I looked at them, I found two slender, monster arms grabbing them tightly, followed by more goblins holding me by the feet, joining the fray. One by one, more hands came from behind, grabbing me by my thighs, waist, and chest and finally reaching my head. Their nails dug into my skin, and everywhere they held, a fresh stream of blood flowed from top to bottom. I couldn't move, and the ground below the older goblin moved swiftly with him on top as he reached the place right before me in a second. The ground rose a step above as his gaze was up to my level. He moved his head closer to mine, a whiff of his nasty breath touching my face. Throwing an observing glance at the dagger on the floor, he moved his free hand closer to one of my wounds, dripping with blood, swiped it with a finger, and put it in his mouth. He narrowed his eyes as he looked me up from head to toe. "Y-Y-ou, th-e o-n-e?" As if mumbling, he spoke in an indistinguishable tone. How? I couldn't hear it properly, but it seemed close to a human's language. My heart raced just at the thought. Uncontrollably, my breath became foggy as the temperature in my surroundings suddenly started to dip, and a sudden shiver ran down my spine.
The old goblin turned around, and a pillar of ice rose before me, separating me from goblin Mage. I put all my strength into my arms as I pulled them out of the goblin clutches. It tore some of my skin and flesh along, and with my right hand placed on top of my waist, an ember formed near my palm, turning into a full-fledged fire, covering me entirely. I burned, but within that pain, I also kept my eyes open, struggling to free myself from the hands of the remaining goblins. They had to let go of me to recover their hands from the sudden surge in heat. When I was freed, I released a soft gust, which put off the fire, and picked up my dagger on the ground while also creating another airburst right under my feet, leaping into the air and landing on top of the block of ice before me. From the front, a white floor of ice was formed in my direction. It froze the legs of goblins in its path—even the old mage—freezing them at their place. I scanned the situation below with my hands trembling. Letting out a small breath, I looked at the girl in the distance. Dressed in light clothing, she was sweating, gasping in pained breaths, with her hands placed on the ground. She was looking straight in my direction, and I could see the tiny particles of snow falling onto my face, a soothing cold spreading over my very being. My burns and wounds had already started to heal, and most of my loose clothing had disappeared entirely from my body. Even my core, exhausted from Mana, ached in agony.
A sudden cracking sound made me look below at the figure of the old goblin, Mage. The ice around him exploded, with the entire ground in the area cracking, and a pillar of rock rushed towards my face. I put both my hands to block it in reflex. It hit my left metal arm, pushing me off the ice floor. I caught the edge of the ice wall with my right hand and got back on it once again. The other goblins used their strength to break out of the remaining ice, with the skin of a few, from thighs to toes, being torn off from their bodies. Even the blood that was supposed to flow from their wounds was frozen due to the cold. I could clearly see the bones and ligaments in some of them, yet, ignoring that, everyone grouped around the area once again. The floor below the goblin Mage rose to my level, while a series of rock shards circled us at an increasing speed. He swung his staff, and from all directions they closed in on me, and when I thought they would pierce every part of my body, they changed their direction by curving their way up and then going in the direction the old goblin pointed his new staff at. The girl couldn't even look at the approaching attack as I saw the edges of the old goblin's mouth rise into a crescent smile. I jumped onto the goblin Mage. He extended his left hand towards me, and a wall of gusts rose between us. But I was already on top of him, kicking his right hand with my barely extended toes, and the direction of his staff changed slightly, his attack missing the girl and hitting the cave wall behind her.
I was about to fall to the ground, but I grabbed the old goblin's legs, pulling him down along with me while also using the perpendicular motion to swing me onto the pillar of ice. In doing that, I threw a kick onto the falling goblin's jaw, and it flew a distance, falling to the ground. His fall was cushioned by the air that circled him at the last moment. The wall he stood before collapsed, turning into dust. He got up on his feet, a murderous gaze thrown at me, and tapped his staff twice on the ground, and two pillars of rock came at me. Give me a rest already! I jumped high to dodge them, and when I landed back on the ice floor or the wall, my legs slipped. I dug my nails into the ice for a better grip. The goblins that were broken out of ice and the ones that broke it themselves jumped onto the wall of ice, reaching half the way in a second. The red ones, which were bigger in size, took huge leaps with a wide range of slender, long arms. Some of them also started to throw clubs and spears, with me barely able to dodge them. I caught a few and threw them back at the ones climbing the wall, but with nothing to imbue the runestones, they were like long stickers with sharp rocks tied at the top. Another pillar of rock came at me at a speed I could only dodge out of luck.
The woman's chest motion increased with more heavy gasps. And the goblins clawed their way towards me. All the goblins, including the old one, focused solely on me. I crouched down with my hands holding the edge of the hollow, circle wall, and when a goblin almost reached the top and tried to attack with its razor-sharp nailed fingers, I jumped towards the woman, and the monsters that were on the ice wall, including the ones that were still lying on the ground, turned their heads following my fall with their large, wide eyes. The ones on the ice wall used it as a footing and jumped in the same direction as me, but their spring-like motion had more fluidity and momentum as they could already catch me mid-air. I kicked their hands that tried to grab me, and as I was about to hit the ground, I released a small burst of air, cushioning my fall. Even with an empty stomach, I wanted to throw up. My head felt dizzy, and I slapped myself, rubbing my eyes and focusing on the scene before us. The wall of ice collapsed, disappearing into thin air, just like the ice slide and rock wall before. "W-Who are you?" The woman beside me asked in a panic-stricken, trembling voice, her unfocused eyes and heavy gasps still the same.
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Her tender white face had been filled with scratches and dirt all over, and her age looked close to that of my sister. She held my leg, tears rolling down her eyes. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her body, bringing her face close to mine. "Listen!" I raised my voice, which even surprised me. "Can you make a Mana shield around us?" My eyes stared into hers. Almost on the verge of tearing up, she bit her lower trembling lip and nodded in response. Letting her go, I picked up the old goblin's staff that was lying on the ground and put it in her hands, making her hold it tightly. She followed my instructions as an invisible wave of energy came out of the staff, shielding us in the form of a sphere. The rushed goblin's faces hit the invisible wall, making the whole horde of monsters stop in their tracks forcibly. The goblins tried to climb on it, but they couldn't find the grip on the curvature, and the blue and red goblins used their strong arms to beat the shield, attacking it violently. It shook but didn't falter. The woman's body was drenched in sweat, revealing a bit of her undergarments. She was giving her all, maintaining the shield. I tried to think of a way out, but the goblins stopped attacking and took some distance from the shield, and from all directions, slabs of rock rose into the sky, hitting the mana shield one after another in a barrage of attacks. A slice of air tried to crack the shield next, but it could only spread waves of energy that were distributed over it like a pebble thrown into a silent sea.
They used their spears and clubs to attack. Not good. I looked around me, surrounded by a colony of goblins. There was no way to escape. A red goblin used a thrusting motion, with the spearhead of the spear in its hand glowing red, piercing the shield in one blow and forming a crack in it. The shield tried to recover itself with the ongoing supply of Mana from the woman, but another few goblins came forward, doing the same motion. Spearheads of blue, yellow, and red runestones pierced the Mana shield from all directions, with a shockwave spreading both inside and outside. "I-I can't." With a shiver in her voice, the half-broken shield shattered entirely with a wave of rushing goblins jumping on top of us, one after another. I got on top of the woman, with my back facing the horde of monsters. They used their bodies to slam us into one place. I used my entire strength to keep her safe, but the sheer number and boundless weight of the monsters only increased with each passing second, and with a quiver in my arms, I lost my balance, falling on top of her. Her gigantic, soft breasts acted like a cushion for me, but even that didn't stop us from gasping for air. Struggling under their weight, she lost consciousness, and I tried to get through it all, trying to push with my hands and gritting my teeth. But it was already too much for me, and I lost consciousness myself.
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A hot sensation coursed through my body, which woke me up. The morning glimmer of light that just filled my eyes has now turned entirely dark again. It was night. I was tied to a wooden log that stood at the centre, extending to a certain height. The girl was tied to a similar log, opposite me, and we faced each other. A ring of fire surrounded us, with many goblins dancing to a similar beat I heard the previous night, circling around us. They used their weapons together to resonate by hitting the ground each time they performed a dance step. I looked at the girl's face, lit by a mellow glow from the light coming from the fire. Her eyes were closed. Still unconscious. At a distance, to my right, the old goblin sat on a stone platform, rosen above the ground to match our level. He had a gleam on his face as the sounds of other dancing goblins intensified. Near the tunnel, a group of goblins made a line to enter like usual, but they didn't move from their places. Instead, they sat there as if waiting for something. Except for the fire that surrounded us, no light was present in the entire area. Then a loud scream echoed, and the old goblin's platform descended. He walked towards one of the medium-sized hovels at a distance, his steps steady yet fast.
He went inside and let out another prolonged scream. A light lit up inside the hovel, and moments later, he came out with a baby goblin wrapped in cloth. His mocking, gleaming face was now replaced with a warm smile that was still different from his robust monster features. The unlit torches lit up one after another, lighting up the entire nest. He lifted the baby for all the colony to get a view, and every goblin went near him, dancing uniformly to their own beat of shared happiness. The force of their footsteps sent vibrations all over the place, and I heard a grunting sound and looked at the girl in front, who started to wake up. With a soft, painful moan, she opened her eyes and looked at her body, which couldn't move. She struggled with her body to get out of the bind, moving her head left and right violently, only to find herself in reality. I could see her already thin set of clothes torn at places, revealing her bare white skin near her thighs, shoulders, and waist. Her gaze fell on me.
"W-We are still alive? W-Where are we? Who are you?" The sound of her voice was drowned out by the more resounding sound of the goblins' celebratory night and felt like a whisper to my ears instead.
"What's your name?" I asked, ignoring her.
"Tell me how to get out of here. A-Are we going to die? Why are you in this place? What is this place even about? Where are we?"
"You can struggle as much as you want, but it won't do you any good. Answer my question first."
Ignoring my words, she tried to figure out a way to free herself. Unlike me, whose body heals, she still had those wounds from before. "I am Eveline Donovan from Goldenvale. Who are you? What is this place?" And replied and questioned at the same time. From the half-opened eyes, which she tried so hard to keep open, I could tell how lethargic she was. Even before reaching this place, she looked like she had gone through a lot.
"What are you doing here in Andor?" Goldenvale was in another province entirely.
"I will die, won't I? No one will even know where I died." Her breathing became erratic.
"You came with your friends?"
"We came to become adventurers here. But…"
"Are they here?"
"No."
"Are they dead?" I asked after a pause.
"I-I don't know." I could only hear those mumbling words because of the distance between us. "Just stop asking me and tell me. What the hell is this place!?" A voice that didn't have the previous panic reached my ears. Guilt?
"I don't know where we are. I don't know whether we will get out of this alive or not. I am in the same situation as you." I looked in the direction of the cliff and the dense forest area that spread across it. Nothing was visible except the blinding darkness that covered the area. "How were you able to reach this place?" I asked, my eyes glancing at the cave ceiling.
"No, no, no. That's not the point! Who are you? Where are we? Are they going to eat us alive?" She repeated the same thing. Her eyes were clearly focused on the fire and the monsters that were dancing in the area. I sighed to myself, and before I could answer any of her relentless questions, the sound of the celebration died down and a wave of silence spread over the area. They all looked in our direction, and two blue goblins jumped over the ring of fire, leaping over it and climbing onto both the wooden logs we were tied to. They tore my already tattered clothing, even cutting off the thick set of bandages underneath. I heard a scream in front of me, and when I peeked a little, I saw the woman's clothes falling to the ground, one after another, in pieces. Using their own sharp nails, they made a long cut in one of their palms. Thick blood came oozing out, and they rubbed it all over our naked bodies, like a painter painting an empty canvas. The goblin slapped me, and it left a scratch on my chin, which I felt was already healing. Amused by it, the blue goblin held my jaw and slapped it many times over until one side of my cheek swelled in pain. I spit on its face, filled with blood and saliva, and it growled back at me, grabbing me by my neck and tightening its grip. With the sound of the staff, he calmed down and jumped back to the ground, as did the other goblin. "Ple-Please don't look." Tears welled up in her eyes as our bare bodies, even our private areas, covered in the thick scent of blood, were left as a sight for everyone to see. It was a kind of shame one couldn't digest. Especially a young woman like her. They forced the standing logs to lean and fall to one side, and another two pairs of goblins caught them, moving in the direction of the tunnel. The goblins that sat before the tunnel too got up and started walking at a steady pace, and the goblins on each side of the logs carried us like some deadweights, with our faces close to the ground below. My eyes fell on the old goblin Mage one last time before he went back inside the same hovel, carrying the baby goblin in his hands, and all the other goblins went back to do their own things.
Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours. The tunnel that seemed linear at first had many twists and turns, and it split further into many pathways. My sense of direction messed up on the fourth turn they took, followed by another set of tunnel entrances moving forward. And in all that, it was completely dark. I was lethargic. My eyes tried to betray me and make me fall asleep, but their light yet heavy footsteps and the presence of another human were the only things that kept me from doing so. With my hands tied behind my back, I let out a small whistle for the girl to listen to without looking at her side. "What?"
"Are you okay?" I whispered, and none of the goblins responded. So, I was sure not everyone knew the human language.
"You are mocking me?" Her voice was heavy. I could hear her little sniff from time to time for all that crying.
"I didn't look at you before."
"Are you trying to comfort me? Don't. It doesn't matter. We are going to die anyway." Her tone was filled with dejection. "It is karma for leaving my friends behind. I should have died with them instead of running like a bitch." I felt an ounce of guilt from her words and the current situation that made her accept her inner feelings.
"It's not necessary that we die."
"Ah… The last thing I want is to get comforted by a kid on my way to death. Am I looking that pathetic right now?" Her tone was cynical.
"There is an Aura user in the forest near the cliff. An old man powerful enough to save us."
"Then why didn't he come? Don't make things up, kid. I am not even grateful."
"How do you think I got here? Do you think I would have survived if I had been alone all this time? I am in the same situation as you. Why would I bother lying to you? Is there something you can do in this situation?"
"I don't kn—"
"You can't. And you know that better than me. Believing my words is a choice I leave up to you. The last thing I want is to save a person at the cost of my life if I can. I, Ashborne Winters, the only son of the Viscount of Riverdale, will make a promise upon my land and my father that what I speak here is nothing but truth."
"Viscount's son? I didn't hear about Riverdale Viscount having a son, though. Is that really true?"
"As I said, you think I would lie in this situation? For whose sake and for what purpose?" I didn't have any reason to. And she knows that better than anyone. The person who was in the same predicament as me.
"Then... then, w-we won't die?" I didn't respond any further as I felt the goblins' pace slow down a little. And they completely came to a stop. We were completely behind the entire group, and they made way for the ones carrying us to come forward. In the silence of unfound darkness, we inched closer to the exit of the tunnel, an ambient light greeting our eyes along with a shiver that couldn't be explained. They cut the rope with a single gesture from their weapon-like hands, and we both fell to the ground at the same time. "Wh-What is th—?" The words in her throat never came out, and in turn, I turned my head to look at what it was.
In a similar but small mimic of the cave before, a being that covered the entire space was before me. My body lost its strength to even take in the air to breathe. My hands and legs turned numb as I lost the sensation in them altogether. Fear. It resonated in every fibre of my being. The fear that rose just from its presence. Even in this darkly lit cave room, my eyes tried to seep in the little light that outlined its thick presence. I kept my hand near my mouth, and when my erratic breathing hit it time after time, the sound reached my ears. I tried to keep myself from surrendering to the situation before me, but nothing inside my body listened to what I thought. My lungs squeezed for air. My heart squeezed for blood. And my sweat glands squeezed every water droplet in my body in an involuntary response. Its body complemented the already dark atmosphere, and its silent breath echoed in this cave room as a low-sounding growl. My ears rang for a second before returning to normal. My eyes strained just from looking at the mighty figure of the monster. There were five heads and four more, which were no longer present. The wounds at those places were already healed. It was a being, limited to the drawings in an informational book. A being known for nothing but pure chaos. Right from the Ancients' era, it stood before me. The guardian monster of the first level of hell. A serpentine creature with multiple heads, each head deadly enough to stand at the top of the food chain. Hydra of Lerna.