First, there was a sudden silence as all goblins just stopped. The dead silence where only a cracking of the fire could be heard. But that silence lasted only for a blink of an eye for shrieks of pain and agony of the burning and dying goblins filled the night air.

But, overpowering it all, was a loud, defying, and celebrating roar, a cheer of exuberance, screamed in union from the bottom of their guts from both fighters on the ground and those in the trees.

Without needing to be commanded, everyone leaped forward and went for the goblins' heads that were on the lower side of the fire, suddenly finding stamina and vigor they thought they did not have, slashing and killing goblins and pushing them toward the fire.

Even archers jumped out of the trees and ran to join them, picking arrows from the ground or spears that had pinned some of the dead goblins into the snow.

Almost nobody saw El on the ground, lying there lifeless. But Alice was there, and after the burst of fire had almost blinded her, she knew what happened and she jumped toward him, touched him to feel his pulse and see if he was still breathing, trying to remember how to do CPR.

But before she could press the extended palms of her hands against his chest, the bolt of energy shook El's whole body and he lifted his chest, gasping for air, his eyes suddenly wide open.

“An Upgrade!” he muttered.

Seeing their comrades burning around and dying in fire, the goblins that were running down the hill suddenly lost their drive, became very uncertain, and instead of just going around the fallen and burning tree and flanking the humans, they stopped and looked around, insecurely looking for a guidance.

El had no time to see why he got an upgrade, promising to do that if he lived through the night. But 30 new units of Mana were at his disposal, and he felt reinvigorated and knew his Health was bumped up without having to see it.

As he got up, what he wanted to see in his vision were new options and upgrades.

[Staff of Wise Upgrade:

Mana Storage Capacity: +10 Percent

Speed of Mana Emission: +25 Percent

Maximum Range of Mana Bursts: +100 Percent]

That was all good, and, unexpectedly, even better was that he got another upgrade.

[Sword of Justice Upgrade.

Energy Storage Capacity: +20 Percent

Power of Sword Swing: +10 Percent

Energy Required to Wield the Sword: -20 Percent]

But to his biggest delight was the new Improvement to his Special Vocal Ability

[Duplicate any sound you hear, Ability Novice]

If I keep on upgrading that, I bet I'll be able to speak in anyone's tongue, he thought as he looked around to find a sword that he could test his new ability on.

There was one a dozen feet away, still in a scabbard of a dead soldier whose spear ran through a goblin while the goblin's dagger went through the soldier's neck.

“I'll make it count, and by this sword, I'll make them pay,” he made a solemn promise to the dead soldier as he lifted his sword up and filled it with his Energy, lighting it up so brightly it chased the darkness away better than the nearby burning fires.

“Strengthen the flanks! They'll come from the sides now!” El yelled, and sure enough, the goblins started to recuperate and advance on them again, going around the fire-set area.

But when they came, it was not a stampede of the wicked ones, but a cautious advance, pushed forward by the loud orders of a creature that stood a head taller behind them, lashing them into obedience with a very long whip he held high above his head.

El thought about putting all the Mana in the sword and shooting the creature with it, especially when he saw its pale skin and hairless skull with two mountain goat horns on him.

“Attack! Kill them all, you worthless maggots!!” the horned beast screamed at them.

But then, as El moved around to get a clearer shot of him, a wall of tall goblins jumped in front of him, and the creature took a step back, obscuring himself behind, making El curse himself for waiting too long.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Alice ran to stand next to El, not taking even half a step back from him. She knew nothing of fighting but neither did goblins who came at them with no shields or armor to protect their bodies, lurching and throwing themselves at them and trying to slice any piece they could before El's sword would chopt their hands or arms, legs or necks.

Once the fear of their appearance and their number subsided, Alice found her legs started to listen to her a lot better, and she instinctively learned to step aside when a goblin tried to poke her with a long spear, blocking it with her axe, then she would spin around, come to the goblin's head and bury the axe between his teeth or neck, or eyes. She found she did not care where as long as her axe would not get stuck and she was free to move again and either finish the goblin off or defend against another one.

And really fast, she figured she needed to stay out of El's way because with the sword he became a danger to anyone around, almost cutting her when she stepped too close to him and he swung the sword wide around him to gather enough speed and power to cut two smaller goblins in a single strike.

But no matter how many they killed, dark figures of goblins kept coming. And soon, it was not only the goblin's blood that was splattered over her rope, hands, and face. The first cut she earned was when a goblin that El had just decapitated fell toward Alice, and she was not paying attention and his dagger-holding hand slashed her right over her left thigh.

Then an arrow from somewhere skirted her shoulder, making her spin backward. Luckily, it did not pierce her, but the blood still dashed out.

She had no time to put pressure on it or think about the pain and had to go swinging to kill another goblin that came forward.

Sometime during the fight, Holgar went down, seemed wounded, and unable to get up, laying on the ground and holding his shoulder. Scarface jumped in front of him and sliced a goblin that was ready to finish Holgar across his neck, then bumped him with his shoulder, pushing him down and kicking him hard with his boot to fall into the legs of another goblin that was already ready to take his place. Then he thrust his long sword and impaled two of them together, giving a chance to one of the archers to come from behind with a long shield and close up the hole.

“I was hoping you would not kill me. Never dreamed you would save me,” Holgar muttered toward Scarface, still on the ground.

“Memory of Ol' Farman. He would want you to live. To remember him. And do him an honor by keep on fighting these monsters.”

“I, I’m so…”

“No need to say it. Need you to get up and fight. That’s how you say it. Live! And fight! Come on, man!”

And just like that, Holgar got up, picked the pike with his good hand, and with a heroic cry drove it inside the neck of a goblin that rose above the soldier's shield and was ready to bury a crude axe on top of his head.

To the left, another hole opened up as a giant goblin waving a tree trunk had knocked two soldiers down, together with their shields. With everyone busy fighting further away, El needed to come to an aide, but the distance was too great, and Mana was not even in his sword, so all he could do was throw the sword through the air. making it spin. It flew like a propeller that just came loose from some machine, and flew straight at the beast, severing its neck.

With no time to lose or time to go and pick his staffs he left somewhere behind, El picked another sword from the ground.

Again, he shot it up with enough Energy to make it shine which all by itself made all the goblins hesitant to make another step forward, their sunken eyes almost hypnotized by the blistering blade.

“Oh, come on, you fuckers! Come and taste it!” he screamed at them and jumped to close the distance since they were not willing to listen.

As he was slashing the goblins, he realized it was just a matter of time before their lines would break again and then the goblins would encircle them all and kill them one by one. so, the idea he wanted to try suddenly became all he could think of.

'System, duplicate the sound of the horned creature, make me sound like him,' El said.

[The Sound Duplication Option: Enabled]

Then, he cleared his throat and yelled, “Retreat!”. The voice did not come out as his own, but not nearly close to the beast's, and no goblin took notice of him.

However, the Prince heard it loud and clear, just as he was holding goblin’s crude sword with his forearm armor while he stabbed him with his free hand. “We can't retreat now!!! We have to stand! They'll slaughter us!”

Even while the Prince was still speaking, El realized his mistake.

'Should have tried that out first. My Novice ability is clearly not good enough. Can we at least try to emit their drumming-alarm sound? Max force!'

El opened his mouth and let the air out of his lungs, and the high-frequency sound came out that no regular humans could hear, but somewhere in the trees up the hill, ravens smashed their feathers as they flew off the trees, and goblins instantly stopped advancing.

El thought it was working and repeated the sound again. And then, the voice of the horned monster overpowered all the fighting as he yelled, "Goblins, retreat! Back to the Dungeon Lord!!! Now! On a double!!!"

Those were probably the sweetest words Alice ever heard. And she was not the only one.

The goblins did not need further invitations to turn around and head back up the hill.

El was ready to say something, but then stopped himself before opening his mouth and gave the system command. 'Change my vocals to normal, now!'

[The Sound Duplication Option: Disabled]

Seeing goblins running back up the hill, El could not wait to yell the command in his normal voice again,

“This is not over, people! Kill all the injured ones! Don’t let them escape to the dungeon!”

El did not stop back then. He followed the goblins, cutting them up from behind, trying to prevent as many as possible from reaching back to the safety of their dungeon and recuperating there. Trim, Scarface, and a few others followed from behind, guarding his back and killing the goblins that did not run fast enough.

But soon El was out of breath and Alice's loud warning from below, calling him back, made him stop.

And realize something.

“When they stop, we have to turn around and run back. They’ll attack us again! As soon as they realize I tricked them in retreat."

They all looked at him as if he announced that their victory was not victory at all.

"People! They'll turn around and attack us again! So, Trim, run back, and organize the defense. This is not over yet!”

And that is exactly what happened in another minute as they went up another fifty yards. They saw the torches stop and suddenly turned around to run down toward them.

“Retreat! Run to the camp!” El screamed at Scarface and two more villagers who were still behind him. those who followed him. “Run, run sideways so as not to run into our own men! They are coming again!!!”

So, down he ran, slipping over the snow, dropping down and almost nailing himself in a large tree trunk, and hoping that the third wave of attack was not going to be worse than the first two.