Author's Note: Please read and enjoy! I'd love comments about character interaction and actions taken as well as how you feel about the story so far! There's more to come!
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I burst through the door that the goblin went through just in time to hear a shrill scream cry out from a room with an open doorway about ten yards down the hall.
My blood runs cold, but almost instantly an intense, burning feeling replaces it.
As the adrenaline hits, 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 surprising even myself. I make it to the door in a little over a second 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 feel my stomach drop.
Sarah’s clothes lay on a washer four yards away from me as well as haphazardly scattered across the ground. The goblin stood in the midst of the clothes next to the washer, 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 the doorway shouting as loudly as I could hoping to catch it off guard.
“Hey, you!!!” I tried to yell, but no sound came out.
‘Fuck, I cannot be scared! Not right now!’
Steeling my nerves, I put my left foot forward and right foot back and raised my fists in preparation of what I knew could only be a life or death ordeal.
“Hey!!!” I shouted with as much conviction as I could muster.
Just as the goblin look-a-like turned around, its eyes widened in surprise, I twisted my hips, lifting my right leg off the ground aiming to end the fight with a kick to its head and…missed!
‘Huh…?’ It was then that I saw the goblin had unexpectedly been able to duck under 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.’
“Sarah!” I yelled out, hoping she was good enough to move which would make this whole situation a lot easier.
However, 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 for the first time met its eyes directly with my own.
I was surprised by what I saw.
In its eyes I could see its diminishing surprise at my earlier attack give way to rage and full on bloody murder. It was intently 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 noticed its eyes flick to a position behind me. I quickly 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 silver 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 in an attempt 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 and instantly a shocking sensation runs through my hand and it becomes completely numb.
‘What the fuck?’
My mind began to race, but before I could firmly think about my hand’s sudden numbness, I cocked my right arm back, jerk the goblin 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 in a heap and I instantly pounced on its sword arm. 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.
It was at this moment that I realized my left knee was now showing through a hole in my pants and my right hand’s knuckles felt like it had pins and needles stuck in it.
‘So the oily substance corrodes inorganic substances like the building, but numbs organics? What kinda shit…?’
“Sarah! Wake up! We need to go!” I carefully nudge her with the palm of my right hand so the oily substance doesn’t rub off on her. After a couple seconds, her eyes groggily began to open.
“Alex? I saw…something…why’re my clothes all over the ground…” she slurs out still in a daze from the rude awakening. Upon seeing the two goblins, one on the ground and the other slowly approaching, on the other side of her clothes, her eyes filled with fear.
I looked her in the eyes completely ignoring the two goblins no more than ten yards away and say, “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 the little fucker with all of my strength, how’s it 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 comic realization dawned on me.
‘Shit. They would seem weak to heroes, but that’s because they’re the heroes. I’m just a man.’ I was even beginning to sweat from the exertion of the past exchange, but that could’ve been from the mental strain of being in a life and death battle out of nowhere…
Turning my head back to Sarah I put on what I hope was a reassuring smile and say, “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 blood.
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Standing up, I tried flexing my left hand and got a less than satisfactory response.
‘Geez, how long does this last?’
I unflinchingly glared at the two goblins staring daggers at me with hate in their eyes and I emotionlessly decided that the one with the dagger has to go first and then I’d find some way to deal with the other one.
‘Hmmmmm’ I glanced around at the clothes on the ground and quickly wrapped a fallen shirt around my left hand barely noticing the huge panda logo on it. With a distance of three yards between the three of us, Sarah scrambled backwards into the nearest wall behind me. I stood up from the ground and once again breathed in and out to calm my nerves.
Then I rushed them.
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 blade and greater strength, I broke through the raised dagger in front of its body leaving a thin cut on its chest and quickly swiped upwards back across the body of the dagger wielding 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 attempting to numb it with the oily substance dripping from its hands. Reacting on pure instinct, my body dropped towards the ground into a kneeling position bringing my right arm down faster than it would have had I stayed standing. The goblin, being in midair had no choice but to grasp at empty air and watch as my sword burrowed itself into the front and out the back of its neck.
The goblin’s eyes rapidly lost the hate in them only to be replaced with an emotionless, glassy stare as the life left its body.
I faltered and almost lost my dinner at the sight, 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 quickly kicked its chest away from me while pulling 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. Blood sprayed out in an arc from the gouge in its neck covering the area under the goblin in a pool of metallic-smelling, dark red blood.
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 fiercely rushed towards one another.
Careful to avoid the growing pool of blood between us, 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 buried itself to the hilt of my weapon and stopped dead in its tracks. Its eyes, seething with hatred, bore directly into mine and I stared right back knowing that this fight could’ve ended either way.
The goblin’s eyes were rapidly losing feeling from my strike and before it could strike me with its dagger in a kamikaze attack, I ripped my sword out of the goblin’s chest and drove it through its body once more where I thought the heart would likely be.
I loosened my grip on the hilt and stood still as the goblin’s body hit the ground in a thump.
Taking another calming breath and kneeling down, I pick the dagger up out of the goblin’s right hand and extract my sword from its chest, careful to avoid the oily substance covering its body.
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 a flood of tears in her eyes threatening to break out. 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 up that wound…”
I walk back to the pile of clothes and pick up one of her shirts.
“You don’t mind if we use these 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 even sure why I winced at a small wound like this.
“Alright then, come here.” I gently say while tearing a wide strip of cloth off her shirt. Once her arm is in reach, I wrap the cloth around her arm twice before tying the two loose ends together.
“Alright, that should prevent any bacteria from getting in…We’re gonna, uh, take a breather here for a minute, calm down, and then move up through the dorm to see if anybody has any idea as to what the hell is going on. Sound good?”
She nods her head and I hand her the dagger.
“I heard a lot of noise upstairs, so 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 like five minutes we’ll move out, but in the meantime let’s check the internet 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, this is like a goddamn movie.’
“Alex, I don’t have— ” Sarah worriedly began.
“Yeah, I was just about to say 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. It’ll be safer with more people anyways.” 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 shirt. I turn back and see Sarah looking at the ground nervously.
“..th…you” She murmured.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that” I apologized while slightly 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 blushes fiercely and I just smile at 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.