Another skull shattered beneath the black onyx and Cira was afforded one more step forward. Their pace had slowed to a crawl while goblins funneled in and trickled out from the shadows. Luckily for the members of the expeditionary force, these beasts really didn’t like the light. Cira wondered if they would be better at dodging if they didn’t have to squint the whole time.
“Get back, you fiends!” A slash of holy light flew past her face and another goblin fell apart mid-swing. Cira nodded to her earnest defender and sought the next target ahead.
Two of her paladins had fallen back to help James and the boys, while one was on dedicated healing duty. In fact, if he were incapacitated, they would lose most of their light as well. Even with their numbers and relentless onslaught, most goblins died before getting the chance to harm Cira’s crew and most wounds inflicted didn’t go very deep.
They could be dangerous with their makeshift stone knives, but sometimes those broke apart on contact. No matter how one looked at it though, the crew would be in real trouble if they didn’t reach the end soon. Trying to get somewhere while fighting a battle of attrition was a recipe for disaster.
So, while they exhausted themselves trying to reach the end of this hellish gauntlet, liminal dormitories continued to flank them on either side. Sometimes an ambush would wait for them in plain sight, either in the middle of the road or hanging off the balconies, yet other times they would strike from alleyways as they passed or gathered in the back to keep the mages weighed down. The whole group was near-constantly pelted by rocks from above without being able to see their source.
One thing I can be grateful for is that my dad seemed to have at least made up the goblin shamans. Alas, in the tales Cira remembered, there were many goblins who could wield magic. Supposedly they had some kind of hierarchy, but her fairytales didn’t care to delve into it. They were curated for children, after all, or that was Gazen’s excuse.
“A ten-year-old girl has no use for the intricacies of goblin politics!” he would argue. Sure, Dad. A reasonable excuse when taken at face value.
Kuja took out the occasional goblin still, but it was clear how winded she was. Even as they pushed through the horde a few steps at a time between short, decisive battles, she struggled to keep up. It didn’t help that they had to tread over corpses which never ceased.
One of the pouches at Cira’s waist was a bag of holding with supplies and she handed a mana elixir to Kuja. The weary woman thanked her and gulped it in one go. When she brought the bottle down, there was a bitter look on her face, and she smacked her lips. “Sorry I can’t offer you any water.” Cira apologized and uppercut a goblin with her staff.
Her leg was getting quite sore through all this movement. Not the full leg—the place where her stub met the wooden one was shooting pain up her body with each swing. She felt it like fire in her spine and winced with this most recent attack.
Suddenly a warm, soothing light encompassed her. Cira glowed soft gold for a few seconds, and she felt the pain alleviate slightly. It was clear her paladin wasn’t an expert with intricate wounds, but she thanked him all the same. It wouldn’t be fair to expect him to have the same healing prowess as Doctor Larry or herself for that matter.
“Anything for you, oh Venerated Captain.” I like these paladins better when they don’t talk.
“Here.” Cira tossed him a potion. “Only use it when you’re almost out.”
“I thank you…” He held it like a cherished treasure, “I will use it wisely.”
Cira found Jimbo hopping around on one leg and stabbing goblins left and right, but due to the nature of his fighting style he was the most common recipient for healing. I’ll have to fast track him to Volume Three. Still, right behind him were James and Shirtless Joe. Cira thought it outright foolish to not wear a shirt in this situation as dark viscera kept splattering across his chest, but it wasn’t her place to intercede in a pirate’s way of life.
“Are we almost out of this?!” James’ blade was coated in black blood and his swings were hindered by the weight. Between strikes he took a moment to breathe as sweat dripped to the ground.
“We need only cross the pavilion to reach the stairwell,” Kuja gave a winded reply, “They won’t leave their territory.”
“They goddamn better not!” He slashed through another and kicked it to the side.
Just as Kuja said, they seemed to finally be reaching the end of the living quarters. The road widened and empty planters lined the walkway. They finally passed the last building and plunged into the empty darkness yet again. Strangely, the attacks stopped at the same time.
Now they walked through an open brick courtyard unimpeded. There were no buildings or walls within sight—nothing in their way whatsoever. Their surroundings had grown eerily silent to match.
“Something’s not right…” Cira tried pushing the sea of dark mana back a little further, but it didn’t do much. She reasoned it was almost twice as dense as the plateau above. “We need more light. Marko, give me back that spell I wrote down.”
His eyes fell as she tore it from his hand and shoved it into Tawny’s, “I think you can pull this off. I need it big and bright. Don’t let me down.” She also handed her an elixir.
“W-what?! But I have no experience with light magic!” The girl was flustered at having been put on the spot with an apparent great responsibility. Her eyes widened as she read the glyphs over, a glint of comprehension flickered in her eyes.
“You can figure it out as you go, now quit dallying. Focus everything on this.”
In her fluster, the girl looked at Jimbo who nodded back. Tawny nervously held out her palm and incanted, “L-Lamplight!” A vortex of light swirled over her hand, and she flinched, almost stumbling back. “How… how do I make it bigger?”
“Worry about that after it’s formed,” Cira kept her eyes and ears peeled but there was no sign of movement anywhere. Even more troubling was that not even rats and bugs seemed to exist in this place. “For now, just do exactly as you saw earlier.”
It took her a few seconds to catch on, but having seen it once, Tawny was a fast learner. “I think I’ve got it!” She was elated at her success and wore a wide smile that quickly dropped when she noticed Cira’s amused grin.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Now think of it like forming a fireball, but don’t try to condense it. If you aren’t careful, the spell will fall apart. However, if you channel mana in and let it gradually expand while focusing on the structure, you should be fine.”
Tawny replied with a frustrated nod and her Lamplight slowly started to grow. Slowly but surely, the darkness was pushed back. As light inched its way outward though, everyone froze in place.
Countless sets of eyes surrounded them on either side, forming a path. The horde was waiting for something and just stared at them with disdain. As the light touched them and got brighter, they recoiled to brace against it. A commotion started and they snickered among themseles, but none made a move to attack.
I don’t like this… “Everyone, shields up!” All Cira could do was hold the shadows back and hope not to be caught unawares, but two of her paladins worked together to make a barrier after hearing the urgency in her voice. The brothers supplemented water around the base where it grew thin, and Rictor spun around frantically trying to decide where to erect an iron shield.
A few seconds after Cira’s warning, the holy shield crackled from a heavy impact. Weakened, but still standing, another ball of shadows missed and flew right through the low curtain of water. It burst on the ground and darkness seeped out like smoke, only to be absorbed into the onyx after a few seconds.
By the time Rictor threw up a shield, there was another dark orb coming in from the sides. The paladins strained to keep their spell up against the attack and Jimbo tried to slash each one away before they could hit to no avail.
Tawny threw fireballs to snuff the enemy’s spells out before they could make it and the other fire mage had a wall of flame spinning above his head. It was like a blooming flower that could be moved around like a shield and dissipated any shadow that touched it. Unfortunately for him, a ball of darkness came in from the other side and slipped between their defenses.
“Gyahh!” He fell to the ground screaming as his skin sizzled. The clothes on his back started to dissolve into dust and blow away.
“Marko, quick!” Cira shouted her healer into action who quickly got to work. Holy magic did wonders for wounds dealt directly by dark mana, but such wounds were tricky. It would take time to fully heal him. Darkness practically disintegrated flesh if in high enough concentration, which it evidently was.
Damn you, Dad. You lied to me again. Alas, goblin shamans were real. The only problem was the shroud of shadows around them. There was a crowd of goblins on either side of them, and behind now, but no trace of the shamans could be seen. Cira was pretty sure she located a few based on the path of their spell though.
She considered rousing her newest companion Mac for assistance, but it felt far too early. If they couldn’t deal with the first real challenge, they had no business delving deeper. It was unsettling how they seem to have been led into a trap, though.
To Cira, it suggested a level of intelligence that she didn’t expect. Cutting up rags and wearing them or sharpening rocks was one thing, but tactics? She didn’t want to think it was a human that led them, but at the same time, that wasn’t the impression she got at all. It was just another ambush when she thought about it. The primary concern in Cira’s mind now was the many grunts they spent the last hour trudging through.
Why are they just watching us instead of attacking? What’s more, why have they formed a path? She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were about to walk into an even more thorough trap, but Kuja insisted this was the way they had to go. Either way, I have to do something or we could be overtaken.
The golden barrier overhead flickered and bore deep cracks. It wouldn’t last another minute, meanwhile water had proved useless. Kuja still deflected any attacks that came too close to breaching their defenses, but she looked like she wanted to collapse.
Her mages were all locked down on keeping the dark orbs out, and some still got through. When they went to fast Cira couldn’t absorb them in time and her mages were wounded for it each time. They couldn’t stack up to the revenants, but each ball’s density was tangible when it broke through. Marko was on double duty as dark wisps seeped through the fractured barrier and burned her crew’s hands and faces. Anyone without magic was practically useless here, and the increasing amounts of darkness coming at them almost rendered Cira useless too.
Alright, I know Prismagora could do this easily. And I know how it would, too. Let’s just go for it. From their short time pinned down, Cira deduced that most of the shamans were stationary and attacked from a slightly higher angle. She took that to mean they were on some sort of stand, held above the crowd. In a sense, that made it easier. It would purge her onyx of anything gained thus far, but it could get them out of this pinch.
It was difficult to describe as dark mana gives off no light, but the onyx seemed radiant as Cira began to channel her will. Of course, with no aura to naturally give shape to her will, it took a great deal of concentration. Her head felt like it was full of hot coals and her knuckles turned white as her grip tightened.
It took a few moments before Cira was confident in her aim, and she couldn’t get them all, but it was a start. Wincing through the pain, she raised the staff high into the air and incanted a makeshift spell which she formed words for on the spot, “Symphony of… Scintillating Shadows!” It was a shameless mashup of two separate light sorceries, but without the key component of light.
The brilliant onyx shined brighter than any mass of darkness hard any right to and beams of pure black shot out at all angles then disappeared into the dark. The next thing they heard was a series of heavy thuds like sacks of produce falling on the floor before the goblins erupted in rage. At least that’s how it sounded to Cira’s ears.
“Holy shit, did you just—” Jimbo almost got worked up in excitement, but Cira quickly shut him up.
“Shut up.” She said, simply. “Why don’t they approach?”
They were near frenzy. The goblins jumped up and down and chattered furiously, throwing death glances their way, and practically foaming at the mouth. Many screamed, others cried, yet not even a single rock was thrown.
“The stairs are right there…” Kuja said, “but I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
Almost on queue, the goblins quieted down and directly ahead, the crew was startled by a heavy footfall which further silenced everyone in the room. Cira nervously watched the curtain of darkness, but nothing emerged. Then there was another mountainous step. She could feel it in the ground beneath her feet and her whole body tensed up as if aware of the coming threat.
It wasn’t until the third step that it finally showed itself. One musclebound leg the color of onyx landed on the ground followed by an imposing figure that wore nothing but a blood-soaked loin cloth. Its abdomen seemed chiseled from stone and as it proudly strode into the light, it put Shirtless Joe’s malleable form to shame.
This creature was evidently not bothered by the light, and it bore the same eyes slanted in eternal rage as its smaller brethren. A pointed nose hung from its unblemished face and for all intents and purposes, its features were the same as the goblins—just more refined.
Imposing, however, may have been a stretch. While it towered over the horde, it was still about a head shorter than Cira. There was no way to argue with a beast whose muscles were on display though. It possessed a level of physical strength Cira couldn’t hope to match, but this much didn’t dissuade her. Strength was never her forte, and it was something she would never achieve if she avoided opponents stronger than her.
“Stay back, my Lady.” The paladins were hardly trying at this point, “We will protect you.”
The proud goblin champion caused tremors as it strode closer, somehow looking down on Cira from below. While it was clear this beast thought itself superior, it couldn’t seem to shed the blind rage they all shared. What motivated the goblins was beyond her, though it was likely hunger. Cira and her crew were no different from a passing herd of overgrown bugs in their eyes, but they’d spent some time shredding them up just to get to the exit. A little anger on their end wasn’t outside of reason.
“Look at it. That beast is here to fight me.” Cira held the paladins back and stepped forward under the predatory eyes of the goblins’ leader. The dark staff was lighter in her hands than most, and she spun it around to fall into stance. “Nobody interfere. Your captain’s been challenged.”