I burst through the door that the goblin went through just in time to hear a shrill scream cry out from a room about thirty yards down the hall. My blood runs cold, but almost instantly an intense feeling replaces it. The pace of my breath quickens, I feel lighter, and my eyesight becomes sharper. ‘Damn, I hope it hasn’t hurt her!’ I think to myself as I kick off the ground and rush down the hallway at a speed much greater than my usual. I make it to the door in a little over three seconds and skid to a stop while stretching out my hand to catch the open doorway. My vision focuses in on the scene in the laundry room and I freeze for a moment.

In this moment I caught the entire scene. Sarah’s clothes lay on a washer four yards away from me. The goblin stood about another four yards from the washer into the room, its thin sword raised high above its head preparing to plunge it down into Sarah’s prone figure underneath itself. Below Sarah was a small pool of blood flowing from a wound that seemed to come from her arm.

‘Shit, she must’ve passed out due to the shock and pain’ I guessed.

Knowing I didn’t have much time, I burst forth from my spot shouting as loudly as I could hoping to catch it off guard.

“Hey, you!!!” I tried to yell, but it only came out as a squeak.

‘Fuck, I cannot be scared! Not right now!’ Steeling my nerves, I closed in and stopped right behind the goblin with my left foot forward and right foot back.

Just as the goblin look-a-like turned around, its eyes widened in surprise, I kicked off the ground with my right foot aiming a kick straight at its head and…missed!

‘Huh…?’ It was then that I saw the goblin had narrowly ducked my kick. Its eyes narrowed at me as my foot landed and I took two steps backwards from the goblin holding some fighting stance I must’ve picked up from a movie.

‘Little bastard’s got some quick reflexes to duck and stay on its feet like that.’ I thought.

“Sarah!” I yelled out, hoping she was good enough to move.

Sarah remained on the ground unmoving, but I could see a slight rise and fall in her upper body where she cradled her injured arm. I turned my attention back to the green guy and it was intensely staring at me with a malicious smile on its face. I felt the fear in me rise again at seeing this unknown entity, something that shouldn’t even exist, staring at me like it had the whole situation under control. It was then that I saw it wasn’t looking at me, but behind me. I looked back to see another of the green midgets behind me with the same get up as the first, but instead of a sword in its hand, it held a tiny rusted dagger.

‘Dammit, this could not get any worse.’ Turning back towards the first goblin, I decided that we need to switch places so that I can effectively protect Sarah and not get skewered from both ends. I widen my stance and try to keep an eye on both creatures. I take a deep breath to calm myself and my eyes light up in determination.

‘Let’s try this then.’

I feint towards the goblin closest to Sarah, and it instantly swung its sword at me. Pulling back, I instead make a full lunge towards Sarah’s clothes on the washer. I stuff as many clothes as I can into my hands and hurl them towards the sword-wielding goblin. The goblin raises its arms in front of its body to instinctively protect itself.

Following behind the clothes, I grab its left arm with my left hand. Cocking my right arm back, I jerk it towards me and my right fist connected fully with its face. The goblin’s eyes became unfocused and I brought it back towards my body bringing my left knee into its face as hard as I could. The goblin collapsed towards the ground and we both went down fighting over the thin sword in its right hand. Thankfully, due to the damage I already dealt it, the goblin had a weaker grip than my adrenaline induced strength and I wrested the sword from it quickly scrambling backwards in a kneeling position next to the still unconscious Sarah.

“Sarah! Wake up! We need to go!” Shaking her awake, her eyes groggily began to open.

“Alex? I saw…something…why’re my clothes all over the ground…” she slurred out still in a daze from the awakening. Upon seeing the two goblins her eyes filled with fear.

“Sarah, calm down it’ll be fine. I’m gonna get you out of here.”

The one I had taken the sword from was just now getting up from the ground with the assistance of its comrade.

‘I hit him with all my strength, how’re they still getting back up. Little creatures like these are never as strong as the ones you fight in games. They’re like level 1 trash.’ It was then that the realization dawned on me.

‘They would seem weak to heroes, but that’s because they are the heroes. I’m only someone smarter than your average Joe.’ I was even beginning to sweat from the exertion of this life and death battle.

Turning my head back to Sarah I put on a smile and said, “Just give me a minute, Sarah. We’ll be fine.” I wasn’t sure if I was reassuring her or myself, but seeing as how those two green creatures weren’t leaving it could only mean that this was going to end with either us or them lying in a pool of our own blood.

Standing up, I decided that the one with the dagger has to go first and then I’d find some way to deal with the other one. With a distance of three yards between the three of us, Sarah scrambled backwards into the nearest wall away from the fight. I stood up from the ground and once again breathed in and out.

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Rushing towards the creatures, I yelled out, “We’re going to live!”

Gripping the little sword tighter in my right hand I swept a downwards stroke towards the goblin with the dagger on my left. Capitalizing on the superior length of my sword and greater strength, I broke through the raised dagger in front of its body and quickly swiped upwards back across the body of the goblin on the left, but it jumped backwards out of reach before I could connect with it.

The barehanded goblin on my right jumped towards my upraised sword arm. Reacting on pure instinct, my body dropped towards the ground into a kneeling position bringing my right arm down faster than if I had stayed standing. The goblin, being in midair had no choice but to grasp at empty air and watch as my sword struck four inches deep into its neck.

I almost lost my dinner at that moment, but I willed myself to grip the handle of the blade even tighter.

‘I need to be strong…I can’t lose my determination now’ the goblin’s body was weighing the blade down, so I put my left foot against its right shoulder and, using leverage, pulled the sword out of its neck. The movement was accompanied by a sickening squelching noise and a thud as the goblin’s body hit the ground.

Bringing my sword up in front of me, I turn my eyes to the armed goblin that jumped back. Our gazes met and a moment later we jumped towards each other. I pushed my right hand up to the top of the hilt and placed my left palm against the bottom of it and using my greater reach, pierced my sword directly into the chest of the goblin and out through its back. The goblin stopped dead in its tracks and its eyes bored into mine seething with hatred. I stared right back at it unflinchingly knowing that this fight could’ve ended either way.

I drop the goblin onto its back and place my foot on the wrist of the hand holding the dagger to avoid any nasty surprise attacks at my ankles. Ripping my sword out of the goblin’s chest, I pierced it through the area where the heart should be.

Kneeling down, I pick the dagger up out of the goblin’s right hand and extract my sword from its chest. The room was completely silent and I turn around to see Sarah with her hands over her eyes too afraid to have watched the carnage before her unfold.

I slowly walk over to her and gently call out to her, “Sarah, it’s over. You’re safe.” She lifts up her head and I can see tears in her eyes. She jumps up towards me for a hug, but I hold out my hand in front of her to stop her.

“Sorry, I’ve got those things’…” I gesture towards the two motionless green bodies “…blood all over me and you’ve got an open wound and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to get infected” I explain to her. “Speaking of…let’s see about closing that wound…”

I walk back to the pile of clothes and pick up one of her shirts.

“You don’t mind if we use this do you? We should treat it before we leave this room so Band-Aids aren’t really an option…” I trail off.

She shakes her head, “Oh, no it’s completely fine. Do what you think is best” she replies while holding out her injured arm with the support of the other.

I finally see the 6 inch gash on her forearm and wince a little bit. Thinking back to the scene behind me, I’m not sure why I even winced about a small wound like this.

“Alright then, come closer.” I tear a wide strip of cloth off her shirt and wrap it around her arm twice before tying the two loose ends together.

“Alright, that’s done. We’re gonna take a breather here for a minute, calm down, and then move out to the lobby upstairs. I’m sure the desk lady is there. We can tell her what happened and maybe figure out what’s going on. Sound good?” She nods her head and I hand her the dagger.

“Use this to defend yourself and try not to drop it, okay?” She responds with another nod and I smile. I had another thought and pull out my phone.

“Sarah, it’s 12:15 a.m. right now, so in five minutes we’ll move out, but I want you to surf the web or any news apps you might have to see if this type of incident is occurring everywhere or just here.”

I flip my iPhone out of my pocket to do the same, turn it on and frown.

‘No service? Of all times? Dammit.’

“Alex, I don’t have service” Sarah worriedly told me.

“Yeah, I was just about to tell you the same thing…well, since we can’t check our phones, we may as well just move on upstairs and check out the situation rather than waste time here.” I begin to move out of the laundry room with the sword in my right hand held out in front of me, but feel a tug on my left hand. I turn back and see Sarah looking at the ground nervously.

“..th…you” She murmured.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that” I apologized confused.

“Thank you. For coming back to save me” She said more clearly with an evident blush across her cheeks.

“Oh, no problem…I would think anyone would do what I did, right?” I reply to her.

She nods her head vigorously and I smile to her.

“Alright, let’s go upstairs.” I say as I walk over the corpses of the goblins one right after the other and out the door.