“Squoink?”
The red goblin motioned everyone to stay back before it peered down the tunnel in both directions. A little boar rummaged through the moss. It squeaked. Moss pulled into its snout and lifted until it revealed a toadstool growing in a small pit surrounded by broken tile. The boar’s fat neck lifted as it munched the fungus with the smooth molars housed in its snout. A smacking sound slapped through the tunnel. Dollops of saliva cascaded from its mouth.
Moss scrunched under Lizbet as she joined the goblin. She squinted. The light in this tunnel made everything blurry. It was becoming increasingly harder to see. The colors were oversaturated like an old television that had broken. The further away a thing was, the worse it got. But she could recognize the baby pig.
She felt Janele’s hand on her shoulder, “Aww, cute, looks like we have dinner.”
“Arbingsker.”
The red goblin pointed to the fire, jumped, shook his head, put a hand over its mouth, pointed to the ground, and sat down. Lizbet squinted at the goblin; the red burned off its skin as it blurred into a monochromatic figure. Squinting helped define its shape, but the colors didn’t return.
“Goblin mister, go kill one of them pigs and bring it back here,” she turned to Janele and squinted, it was Janele, right? “We can have the cop butcher it and share the meat.”
“Squeap! Squeap! Squeap?”
Squeals came both sides of the long tunnel. Lizbet rubbed the side of her head, pulled at her gold hoop earring, and winced as Janele leaned over her.
“I see three, why not kill them all? They’re just animals. We can cook them with our fire.”
“This tiny fire can’t cook much, and I don’t see material to feed it,” Chien said.
The goblin crept slowly along the wall towards the small boars as they munched. It grumbled in protest, yet in the most hushed of whispers.
“Tell your goblin to hurry up! We don’t have all day.”
Lizbet peered from their opening and looked down both sides of the hall. Everything was monochromatic and blurry. Her eyes narrowed. She pushed at the sides of them with the tips of her index fingers. The grumbling of the goblin could barely be heard to the left.
“Hey goblin! Stop being stupid! Hurry up and attack now! Kill the closest one!”
“Greeeeeeb…” returned from the hall in response. It understood what she wanted from it via the contract power and had no other choice but to obey.
“Spoink? Squrreeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
A stone dagger plunged into the side of the brown furry piglet. It rammed the goblin with snout, only to get stabbed again. The stone blade slid across the left side of the beast as it backed away. A trail of blood spewed across the moss as it ran deeper into the tunnel.
“Squeeeeeeeep! Squeeeaaaaaaa! Squeeeeeeeep!”
“It won’t get far, after it!” Janele said.
“Yeah, goblin, after it, hurry it up!”
The blade pulled out of Janele’s belt. She squeezed her fingers around the grip before chasing the goblin. One of the fatter piglets jumped in her way.
Skill Description Kicking Novice 13
Your kicks are six percent more likely to land as a critical hit. You can utilize a power kick with ten percent increased strength once per day.
A swift kick shoved the beast against the tile wall. With its snout pressed into the tile, Janele gave the stunned animal a strong stomp, then another. It slid to the ground on its side. She used the leveraged to stomp its skull until it stopped moving. The bone structure proved a bit too strong to break even while using her body weight like a sledge hammer. Blade cleanly sliced the neck to finish it. Blood gushed onto her sneakers.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Lizbet, come back! No need, I got a bigger one!”
Lizbet turned in the direction of Janele’s voice, “Really, fine then. Mr. Goblin, return!”
Chien put his hand above his eyes to block the strong glare as he looked down the tunnel. Lizbet looked disorientated as the goblin hopped to her side and grabbed her hand. Was it directing her forward? A dying beast squealed as blood drained from its neck. Janele held it down with her foot.
Metal clanged as a vent cover stripped its screws before being flung against the wall. He turned around.
“Squrunk!”
On four legs, it reached nearly half his height. The boar had tusks. Tusks on its face. Tusks lined its back. Tube like tusks extended from both its sides. It began to rev. The sound of an engine grew loud as it furrowed its brow at Chien. Big green angry eyes glared in his direction. The Makarov aimed at the beast’s forehead as he stood his ground. The boar stomped its right foot, lifted its snout, and grunted. The snout pulled back and shot forward. Something small and round smacked Chien’s trench coat. It stung through the clothes covering his thigh. He winced a bit.
“Is that all you got big fella?”
The beast braced its hooves into the moss and opened wide, “Facciam coda alla GEEEEEENTE!”
Chien staggered due to the sonic blast at the last note that left his ears ringing. He waved his pistol, almost dropped it. The beast charged. Chien held unblinkingly then dodged aside at the last moment. It ran full speed toward the others.
Behind Lizbet, another large bore loaded with tusks ran out of an opened vent. It slammed into the opposite wall, slid, and then braced itself to block the path.
“Lizbet! Behind you!”
“I can’t see anything! My vision is all blurry!”
“Vogliamo una cena prelibaaaaata. Squoink.”
The boar scrunched its snout back, then popped it forward. Lizbet felt a pellet pierce the back of her neck. Another lodged into the skin of her upper arm. A gasp released spittle as she reached for the back of neck and felt warm wet smear her fingers. The goblin pushed her against the wall before the larger boar could body slam her from the other side. The boar dug its hooves into the moss to not slam into its pack member.
The smaller boar revved with the sound of a go-cart engine. Acrid smoke escaped the pipe shaped tusks on its sides. Its tail lifted as brown dusty smoke poured out from underneath. The goblin clung to the wall, pushed itself up, and jumped on its tusks. Chien fired at the backside of the larger boar. It sang.
“La commedia è stupeeeenda!”
The sound of a roaring engine overwhelmed the narrow passages as it ran in circles until it veered face first into the wall. Janele leveled a power kick into the spine of the offending swine. A harsh crack echoed. The beast’s left tusk cracked and fell against the moss as it stumbled back and fell on its side.
“Il vizio...”
Another shot echoed as Chien’s ears rang. The aim proved true, right between the eyes of the beast ridden by the goblin. But the shot barely slowed its charge toward Janele. She grabbed some moss and tried to tuck herself upward. It wasn’t strong enough to hold her weight, so she pulled two thick tufts from the ceiling. Tusks rammed her dead on, one against each hip.
Janele flew back until her butt hit the moss. The boar stomped over her as the goblin’s stone blade clanged against the back tusks. Soon it found purchase in the tough furry skin. The stone work gave up. The blade of the crude weapon lodged inside. The goblin threw the twine wrapped handle aside and crawled over the back tusks. The bucking boar caused the tusks to punch his chest and gut along the way. It punched the boar’s forehead in return. Janele kicked at its belly to protect her chest and neck.
Lizbet hugged the walls in tears. A small string of blood ran to her left wrist from her upper arm. The shirt collar became red. She could hear the struggle, but everything around her blurred into the same vague blob. No matter how hard she squinted, she couldn’t see anything!
Chien fired at a mid-sized piglet that charged her. The shot spun the beast and it collapsed. The next shot staggered the larger beast on top of Janele. Blood trickled from a small wound right between the eyes as the boar remained standing but stupefied.
A singing echoed through metallic vents, “Qual dolore, qual bruciooooore!”
“S'avvicinano di qua!”
“S'avvicinano di là!” echoed from a far vent in the direction they had come.
And then from right behind him, “Giunge la Ritirata!”
Chien ran without looking back. He ran past the already extinguishing fire as Janele kicked the dying boar off her body. Squeaks and squeals echoed from every vent. Opera singing rang behind the walls. Chien kicked the body of the big tusked boar to provide an improvised obstacle. Two more boars entered the tunnel from behind them and readied a charge.
“We need to run.”
“Are you kidding me?”
"No!"
He put a hand to Lizbet’s face. The pupils of both eyes were cloudy and she wasn’t focusing on anything. She shivered at his touch. Tears ran down her cheeks.
“Get on my back, tell your goblin to follow us,” He looked at Janele as Lizbet clutched his shoulders and hopped up, “I only have a few more bullets. And I have to make them work for us.”
“Goblin, listen to the detective for now.”
Janele kicked the nearby boar corpse against the others. The revving of an engine followed a bellowing note.
“INFINITAAAAAA!”
“You and the goblin, run ahead and clear the path!”
The two large boars charged together, side by side. From a distance behind the dead boar barricade, Chien fired his Makarov. Lizbet winced while clutching his shoulders. The shots landed, one right between the eyes of both boars. They didn’t slow their charge. Smoke poured from the tube-like tusks along their sides.
The air felt unbreathable, dizzying. This stinky smog was bad news.
Chien hoisted Lizbet a bit more stably and ran. Maybe the barricade would slow them down? He heard them slip and grunt as they crashed into it. No way he was going to look back now.
He hoped a run speed in the seventies and back strength in the fifties, whatever that meant, would be enough. Squeals echoed from vents and caverns.
“SqeaaaaaliiiisiMO!"