Chapter 13 Disaster...

The stairs slopping down into the darkened basement were worn with age, pitted with the feet of countless generations, both human and the later goblin generations. The walls were blackened where the torch scones used to sit, but both torch and scone were now gone, leaving only the stain of black smoke on the stone to tell the tale of what had once been there…

My little party took the steps two at a time, each person moving quickly as we pushed deep into the keep’s lower section. “She thinks this is a mistake,” I say, causing Harland and the rest to stop short and to turn and look at me, “She does not feel right about this...”

“Rin if we don't move we don't get paid,” Harland says, his scowl set on his face, upset that I am causing a delay.

“She thinks it is hard to spend coin when she is not living,” I respond. These stairways are to narrow to effectively use a melee weapon, but if I had been in the front I would have an unobstructed shot of anything that comes out of the darkness below us…

”Listen Rin-” the darkness behind him seems to boil like a pot on the fire, and not pausing for a second I pull my bow back, nocking the arrow on the line and in a single smooth motion pull it back to my cheek. Time seems to slow as Harland and the rest of my parties eyes widen, obviously thinking I am aiming at them. I flex my fingers, allowing the corded bowstring to propel the arrow forward. As it leaves my bow there is a wobble that causes the arrow to waver slightly, but only slightly. The arrow flys past Harland’s face, the feathers of the fletching almost brushing the side of his head as it races past and impacts flesh behind him with a solid thump and sickening squelch.

Quickly he rotates on his heel and the light that is cast by his crystal reveals a tall goblin, this one a good five foot five or so, making it much smaller than Harland but still not to small, with my arrow buried in his right eye, the shaft of the arrow protruding out the back of his head a good half foot. As we watch he takes one more faltering step, his body not yet realizing that he is dead as it acts out the last messages his now destroyed brain sent him...

He crashed to the stairs, his rusted Ironplate armor striking the stone and causing a bright spark and a cringe-worthy loud noise. As he hit he flopped down the stairs, crashing and scraping as he went, the sound echoing off of everything.“Fuck,” Alaina whispered as the noise died down, the sound no longer echoing. Everyone stood there, silent and frozen as we waited for a response.

We didn't have to wait long...

A dull hiss of a number of harsh voices sounded. As well as the sound of countless feet running below us. Tamerian thrust his twisted branch high and shouted an arcane word of power, and suddenly in front of us in the space below where the stairway opened up into a wide open room was a light that after the past darkness looked like it was the light of the sun with how bright it shone in the darkness.

Hisses sounded both bellow and above us, and hearing it I turned and found that a good twenty or so feet above me on the stairs was a horde of the horrible grey creatures, most of these decked out in bone or leather or nothing at all, there small parts dangling, or rather not dangling as the sight of Alaina and I caused a reaction in their physiology that I really did not want to see. “CONTACT REAR!” I shouted, cursing myself for allowing us to get into this mess, I could have easily avoided this sandwiching if I had not just followed Harland and had instead scouted out that third path. Now we were stuck with enemies in front and behind us and nowhere to really go… I dropped to a knee on the stairs and released the second arrow I had pulled from my quiver, this one sinking into the thigh of the closest goblin, causing him to stumble on the stairs, which in turn caused the others behind him to trip on him.

The result would have been hilarious if not for the dire circumstances, and the fact that even though I had tripped a good number of them there were still an army of the damned things behind, not caring that their comrades were moaning on the stairs as they pushed over the top of them.

An explosion rocked the stairway and as I watched the tangle of grey bodies seemed to explode, gore and limbs flying every which direction painting me in red with small chunks of grey. “Push down!” Harland yelled, his crystal light forgotten as he drew his second ax.

What was he going to do with those? Sure they would be useful at the bottom of these stairs but right now we were funneled in and there was not enough room to swing one properly…with a primal roar of rage and enjoyment, he rushed forward, shoving anything and everything out of the way as he rushed for open ground. Alaina caught my eye, hers wide now with fear, not of death but of a fate much much worse and she drew her shortsword, opting to use it instead of the mace before she quickly followed Harland.

OnlyTam and I were left in the stairwell.

This, this was madness!

Surely it would be better to push back the way we came? If we didn't get paid then we didn't get paid, so fucking what? “Rin! We need to go!” I glanced down at him, his face was carved in a fierce smile. Taking a deep breath I followed behind him down the stairs…

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When I got down to the floor level I stepped into a complete war zone. Harland had room to swing his two massive axes and was doing so with zeal. The ground was soaked in blood each step soaking into the white fur between my toes, a sickly coppery smell covered everything. Pulling my bow I started firing into the hordes of goblins, each one of my arrows taking one of them down. Tamerian cast a firewall at the stair exit keeping us from being fully surrounded. Now we only had to deal with three sides as the foes backed us up against the firewall.

There had to be around fifty, and even if they were not that strong they had the numerical advantage. Pulling an arrow out of my pack I drew sighted and shot, the shaft of my arrow driving deep into the neck of one. As he or she I really couldn't tell clutched at its neck blood gurgling up the now arrow blocked throat I pulled and released again, this time burying my arrow in the chest of another. It punched right through the thin hide armor and made a mess of the delicate organs in his chest cavity. I kept firing arrows, over and over until my quiver was practically empty, every arrow but one now spent.

Slinging my bow back over my shoulder I sprang forward, claws outstretched each one easily sliding past through the thin grey skin of a goblin. My claws entered his skin at around his chin and slid up diagonally, shredding the skin on his face completely. Screaming the goblin flailed his arms around, waving the crude stick that he was obviously used for a club ineffective. I dodged under a blind swing and brought my leg up in a kick under his chin. He lifted a full three or four feet off the ground and arched back towards his companions, the sickening crunch that accompanied his departure was proof enough that he was dead.

Breathing hard I danced back, each hand clawed and ready for use dyed in a red liquid that stained my fur, as I did I noticed something strange…

There was no more fighting, it had all stopped. Everyone was standing in a daze well everyone besides me and Alaina. I glanced over at her and watched as she sung softly under her breath some sort of pacification spell. It must be one of the holy magic of her goddess Alten, as I didn't feel passified by it.

I felt enraged…

She held the talisman aloft a soft gold hue shining off of both it and her as she chanted. As she sung she walked forward, moving through the crowd of goblins like a ghost of death, the blade in her hand slipping silently across the necks of any and everyone she met.

It might have worked, and she might have been able to get away with killing the whole lot of them if a deep growl had not sounded somewhere deeper in the keep. When it did she froze, and the spell was broken and everyone held still for a different reason. A wolf the size of a pony was pacing back and forth, a rather impressively dressed goblin shaman on it’s back. This one I could tell was a woman. Despite her old and wrinkled appearance, which she hid in a cowl of dark fur and leather she had a woman’s figure. Clothed in only bones tied together by scraps of leather and holding a twisted staff that had the head of a goblin impaled on it she looked quite menacing. The head on the end of her staff was relatively new, as only part of the skin had peeled away on the right side of the face, showing the white bone and empty eyes socket on that side. The poor creature’s tongue hung out of its stiff jaw and the side that had flesh on it still was staring wide-eyed in horror at something…

The shaman raised her arm and shouted some command in whatever language the goblins use and a dull red light sprang out of her staff and flew into our ranks. Only Tamerian and I were unscathed, seeing as he had barely cast some sort of shield using a translucent dome of green magic to protect himself. I was far enough away that I only felt the shockwave of the shaman’s spell.

Harland was not so lucky.

The bolt of arcane energy hit him in the chest and as it did thousands of cuts opened on his skin, spraying blood in every direction. He screamed in pain and anger but the spell was not yet done with him. As the blood sprayed out it solidified and shot back into him, stabbing back into his body. He took one step towards the shaman and stood there, impaled by an innumerable amount of spikes that rammed through him at every angle, one so large it literally ripped the jaw practically off of his face as it forced its way down his throat and out of the back of his neck.

Harland was dead.

I heard a scream and was able to make out the form of Alaina being dragged away by five or more goblins, they had already made it almost to the edge of the room and she was crying and shrieking hysterically. The blast of magic must have flung her into the goblins. There was no way I could reach her in time, not with that army of goblins between myself and her. I looked over at Tamerian, who simply stared in horror at Harland, and then glanced at Alaina. Slowly his eyes tracked over to me and I knew what he was about to do before he did it.

Turning he cast a magic fire between himself and the rest of us and sprinted back up the stairs, not only abandoning Alaina and myself but also blocking our escape. He knew the goblins would be more interested in raping the two of us than chasing him, and he was using it to escape.

Bastard…

Alaina’s eyes met mine as they held her down, the sound of ripping cloth loud in the cavernous room. “Please,” she mouthed at me, and I knew what she was asking of me. I pulled my bow off of my shoulder and grabbed my last arrow, a sad smile played on her lips as I took aim and let the arrow go.

The smile persisted as her eyes grew glassy…

Better dead than defiled like that, every eye turned towards me, the low growl of the wolf as it stalked closer to me and the angry squawking of the goblins of whom I had robbed the evening's entertainment from all assaulted my ears.

I was blocked off from the exit.

My companions were either dead or had fled.

And a very large pack of goblins wanted to gang rape me…

Turning I fled deeper into the keep, and as I did so a massive roar of the goblin’s collective furry erupted behind me. I leaned over and placed my front paws on the ground, using all four of my limbs to sprint at full speed.

As I said before, I can outrun a pack of wolves.

Even if one of those wolves was a direwolf. The goblins on their short little legs had no chance of catching me as I wove through the debris that was the keeps basement. At the far end of a wall, I spotted a cave entrance, the brick piled up in a mound around it. I hoped there was not more of them in there, but it might be the only way out, so I took it sprinting up the mound and into the cave. After about a hundred feet I stood there glancing left and right, trying to figure out which way to go. In front of me the cave split into four or five different branching paths. A shout of anger sounded behind me and I turned around quickly. But the goblins were not here yet, as I turned a hand grabbed me around the middle and dragged me backward. I screamed in fear and anger my claws coming out as I twisted to claw at my attacker.

“Shhhhh!” a woman’s voice sounded in my ear, “be quiet or they will hear and find us!” I almost collapsed in relief as I realized I was being pulled down a tunnel not by a goblin that wanted to do unspeakable things to me but by another person. We both froze when a massive shaggy head peaked it’s way into our small crevice, sniffing the air once or twice.

I dare not breath…

The woman muttered some spell under her breath, which must have masked our scent, the massive head withdrew and the monster padded away. Breathing once again I leaned back against my rescuer and felt a multitude of emotions wash over me.

“Are you the only survivor?” she whispered in my ear, I nodded sadly and turned to look up at the woman holding me, her bright purple eyes framed by flaming red hair…