As soon as Coin was certain he was out of sight, moving through the trees and bushes on the roadside, he warped his body out of his human disguise. His sword and belt twisted around toward his back while the rest of Coin's flesh shifted into a long-limbed mass of stony grey biomass. A form that allowed him to blend into the murk of nature, and move with greater speed. He scurried with inhuman quickness, darting from point to point and keeping low to the ground. The sword was now hitched to the mimic's back, while his cache of gold coins slid toward a pouch in his gut.

He moved among the larger stones left in the dirt, overgrown with lichen, and used them for cover as he tried to get a better look at the commotion ahead.

He warped his flesh again, two eyes morphing into six glistening orange orbs. Veins and nerves pulsed through Coin's warping flesh, amplifying the strength of his vision. From where he crouched, he was able to catch a glimpse of short armoured figures who were greener than the leaves on the trees, rushing too and fro among the brush.

"Goblins," he muttered, his mouth a jagged slit that gave a hint at the pointed fangs within. More than ten of them by his estimation, many of them carrying bows while others were clutching shields and blades. But, unlike the goblins Coin was used to, these ones were adorned in well-fitting plates of armour. Odd. But, then again, perhaps goblins on the surface just had better gear than their underground counterparts?

Many of the goblins had taken up cover behind trees and rocks, while crossbow bolts whistled into the treeline from the road beyond. Coin crept closer, his hearing growing more defined as he sculpted a pair of ears on the sides of his domed head. Now he could hear humans shouting and barking orders, in between volleys of crossbow fire.

Coin crept closer, low to the ground, and managed to see the side of a carriage through the gaps in the trees. But it was far larger, far more opulent than what Elijah carted them around in. There, seated inside the carriage, Coin could see a sharply dressed elf with a short crop of black hair, and unblemished ebony skin. He sat motionless, his cheek resting on his knuckles, and seemed quite bored despite the goblins hurling arrows his way.

But the reason why swiftly became clear when Coin moved to a better vantage point. A shimmering hemisphere of light encompassed the area around the wagon, casting a faint ruby glow. While a few arrows had feathered the walls of the carriage, any Arrows that flew toward the barrier were flash fried to ash upon contact.

A handful of guards, wearing flowing red surcoats, had taken up positions behind the barrier. Leaning over, Coin could see that at least two men had been winged by arrows, with another man tending to their wounds. And while the soldiers were doing their best to fight off the marauding goblins, the man seated in the carriage could not have looked less interested if he tried.

"Well, we'll be stuck here until those goblins are dealt with," he admitted to himself, annoyed at the prospect of having to wait. And the man in the carriage, snooty as he was, clearly had money. Perhaps helping him out of a jam would net Coin a monetary reward? Elijah had given him gold for his help, after all.

With that thought fresh in his mind, the mishappen mimic swept across the grass and made for one goblin marksman who was a modest distance from his cohorts. Coin moved from cover to cover, silent as the grave.

Like an uncoiling snake, his large and semi-formless mass snapped toward the goblin, great jaws unhinging and crushing down on him from the waist up. The confines of his jaws muffled the sudden cracking sound of bones being shattered. Blood dribbled to the grass in thin rivers.

The taste of goblin meat was every bit as foul as Coin recalled. But, still, as he absorbed some of the goblin's mass into himself... there was some benefit to having that extra strength to call upon.

And after accidentally obtaining magic from munching on a random wizard, what was the harm in checking to see if he could get surprising gifts from other morsels?

Spitting the remains out, he reverted to his human form and slid his swordbelt back around to his waist. He slowly drew his sword from the scabbard, testing the weight in his hand as he surveyed the other goblins from his shrouded vantage.

A few green corpses were scattered among the brush, feathered with bolts. But this, and their lack of progress cracking the bubble, did not dissuade them. Coin would say this much as a positive for goblins, they were as determined as they came.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

He clutched his blade tight and surged across the grass, making for the next nearest goblin. The armoured figure turned, lasting just long enough to exclaim a curse as Coin's sword punched into his gut. It felt strange, admittedly, using a sword as opposed to his bare hands. But it was another part of human culture he supposed he would have to get used to. As he turned on the next set of goblins plunging toward him, he knew he'd have to look up proper lessons on swordfighting.

Coin's swings, despite their superhuman quickness, were clumsy and only half-remembered from what he'd seen from adventurers in the past. But a sharpened length of metal was still lethal when swung, regardless of proficiency.

Other goblins turned toward him, who promptly let loose a flurry of arrows toward Coin. The mimic dodged several of the sharpened arrowheads, sprinting through the brush. But one caught him in the cheek slicing the flesh open and making him git his teeth. His skin wove itself back together, blood oozing and drying on his face.

Arrows and bolts, he'd come to decide, were far worse than spears.

A cleaving swipe shaved one goblin's head from his shoulders, sending it tumbling to the grass. His left hand swept up, firing a coil of wind from his palm that slammed into two goblins, lifting them off their feet and smashing them into a nearby tree. Not hard enough to kill them, but certainly it had them woozy and off balance.

Coin twisted and swung at an attacker, who deftly dodged and countered with a sweep of his scimitar. The edge grazed Coin's hip, the mimic reflexively hardening his flesh to ward off the impact. His boot caught the goblin in the head, breaking his neck with the force of his heel.

The soldiers on the road had seemingly picked up on the commotion, emerging from cover to get better vantage points. More bolts flew through the trees, cutting down a few of the goblins as they tried to emerge from cover.

This, it seemed, was finally enough for the survivors to try and beat a retreat. One of them, who looked slightly larger than his kinsman and had a red cape of sorts pinned to his pauldrons, barked out a guttural command and turned to flee into the woods. His remaining soldiers turned to flee, just as Coin cut down the last of the goblins nearest to him.

Coin watched them go, huffing for breath. He sheathed his sword, hummed to himself, and then checked the nearby bodies to see if any had been carrying money. Not much, as it happened. But a few extra coins was better than none at all.

One of the guards poked his head in for a better look. his face concealed by the sloping steel faceplate of his helm. "More of them than I thought," he muttered, looking Coin in the eye. "Appreciate the help. Even if, normally, we shouldn't accept help from civilians."

Coin shrugged. "Can't complain too much if it worked, right?" he asked. "But, who are you people exactly?"

"We're the security detail for Chancellor Fiodor. We were en route back to Sentinel when those vicious little bastards attacked us. More dangerous than any goblin ambush I've dealt with before."

"Fiodor," Coin murmured. Must have been the disinterested man seated in the carriage. "Definitely never seen goblins dressed like this," he said, gesturing to the nearest corpse.

"Nor I. But, well, thank you again." The guard bowed, turned stiffly, and made his way back to the carriage. Coin hesitated before following after the man. Perhaps the fellow in the carriage would be more eager to give him a reward.

The barrier around the carriage was dissolving away as Coin made his approach. Fiodor emerged from his carriage, the chilly breeze flapping at the base of his long coat. "Did we truly waste so much time being waylaid by goblins?" he asked in a low voice, lazily examining his fingernails.

"They were... tougher than standard goblins, Chancellor."

Fiodor stared at the guard, his expression flat. "I'm beginning to question your qualifications as a security detail," he bluntly replied. Before the cringing guard could reply, Fiodor's steely eyes swivelled toward Coin. "And you had to rely on a stranger to get you out of trouble."

"Ah, well. I just needed to get the goblins out of the way. But if you wanted to thank me, I wouldn't say no."

Fiodor stared at him, a pale blue glow shimmering in his eyes. "I see you're rife with magic," he remarked, his eye twitching slightly.

"I... am," Coin reluctantly replied. A chill ran down his spine. Had the elf seen through his disguise?

"Always a disgraceful sight. Humans meddling with magic, the domain of my kind... Your ilk should stick to pointy bits of metal. And you have the audacity to come to me, expecting a handout?"

He felt the rising disdain from the tall, willowy figure. The goblins hadn't been enough to get him out of his chair, but the prospect of a human with magic seemed to vex him to his core. "I was simply lending a hand." Admittedly for his own benefit, and then for the chance of some extra money, but he didn't need to know that.

Fiodor scoffed, raised his right hand, and let loose a bolt of pure pressurized force. Coin snapped his hands up on a reflex, forming a basic barrier that his textbook had described. A hemisphere of raging, magic-infused wind flashed into existence a few paces ahead of him, warding off much of the impact as it uprooted a swathe of ground at his feet.

"Oh, what an adorable little barrier," the elf mockingly remarked. Through the haze of shimmering air wrought by Fiodor's power, Coin could glimpse metal ring glittering on his finger. "Know your damn place!"

A stronger wave of force suddenly erupted from Fiodor's hand, cleaving through the air in an instant. Coin's barrier was shattered, the mimic being flung off his feet as if swept aside by a turbulent ocean tide. His back met the unwelcoming earth, rock and soil being torn asunder, before he came to a grinding halt with an earth-shuddering force that knocked several trees from their moorings. Flocks of birds flew from their perches in a terrified panic, making a beeline for the clouds.

Fiodor lowered his hand, staring at the smoking crater he had hewn into the landscape. His gathered guards stared, dumbstruck and horrified. The elf scoffed, turning back toward his carriage. "A damn aberration, asking me for a handout. The nerve. Come on you layabouts, I want to make it to Sentinel by sundown. No more delays!"

And so Fiodor's group pressed on toward the city, leaving Coin unconscious in a furrowed crater.