King had been quiet for a long time now, while Neko had decided to leave King to his own thoughts he unfortunately had no choice but to interrupt him. This was because from the corner of his eyes Neko had noticed something, and not just one thing but many.

In the dense greenery on opposite sides of the road there was something moving stealthily, each one moving carefully so much as to conceal themselves as much as possible.

At first it was only one or two, but the numbers quickly began to increase. Perhaps it was because they were walking at the back of the group that he had managed to notice, because whatever was following them seemed more focused on the centre of the group.

No one else in the group had notice yet but Neko had very good hearing, so much so that it became apparent to him as to how unusual his hearing was. He had not only been able to hear the conversations of the girls in front of him but also of the boys ahead of them.

As he focused his hearing, he was able to deduce from the sound of their footsteps that their stalkers walked on two legs. Their footsteps were light and along with the sound of their movement and collision with the nearby greenery told him that they were small-bodied, around the height of children or perhaps slightly taller, and relatively skilled at stealth.

…Children? That’s a lot of them… they’re being cautious too. Why are they hiding like that? Should I let someone know? And just how will I do that? Everyone believes I can’t talk…

Meh, it doesn’t look like that much of an issue and who knows maybe someone else will notice. If not, I’ll just try and let someone know when we stop walking. The perfect plan, I got this.

Since they were only following them Neko did not think they posed that much of a risk, and since everyone believed he could not talk, it was difficult for him to let everyone know. Therefore, he decided to just observe them for the time being without being spotted.

He looked from the corner of his eyes, carefully so as not to be spotted. First towards the right-hand side of the forest and then towards the left. It was very difficult to spot them with his eyes alone, it was as though they were camouflaged, blending perfectly with the scenery. All he was able to see were the slight movements of small green shapes.

Definitely some form of camouflage that their wearing. I have to admit, it’s good. I can barely make them out— It was then when he heard it…

It was only for a brief moment, no longer than a few seconds. Even with the absence of his memories. He could never forget that very memorable and distinct sound.

He made a small smile. It was the sound of metal brushing against the grass, the leaves, the wind… The sound was comforting to him and so he closed his eyes and allowed himself to indulge in its brief pleasantness.

Ahh… I remember this… where was it again?

A sudden realisation caused him to quickly break out of his trance like state.

Are those weapons they’re carrying?! Why would kid’s be carrying weapons?! Fuck… Something isn’t right here.

He narrowed his eyes, switching to a more alert state at the thought that their stalkers were carrying weapons. There were two groups of stalkers on opposite sides of them, steadily following the group.

Oh, we’re fucked... Wait we don’t even know if they are carrying weapons, maybe it’s just something else? Yeah like… like… erm… Cooking utensils? Of course! Why on earth would they be carrying weapons, Hahaha!

OF COURSE THEY’RE FUCKING CARRYING WEAPONS. WHY ON EARTH WOULD THEY BE STALKING US WITH KNIVES AND FUCKING FORKS!!!

…Wait a minute, Fuck no…

Horror descended down on Neko like a flash of lightning as the thought that their stalkers were carrying knives and forks to eat them.

Fuck! This isn’t good! I let my curiosity lower my guard, now what do I do?! I should have quietly let someone know when I had the chance, back when there was only one or two of them… Oh, that is a lot of them…

He sighed internally. He had allowed the stalkers to increase in number without anyone else knowing, and to make matters worse, they were potentially all carrying weapons.

In other words, in the case of everyone else here, they were essentially now unknowingly surrounded.

AHH! Fuck, I’m telling you now, I’m not getting fucking eaten by kid’s in this god forsaken, but beautiful forest!... I know what to do! They’ve been mainly focussed at the centre group, right? I’ll just fucking run! That’s it, when they attack and are eating everyone with their fucking knives and forks, I’ll just run for the fucking hills!

He smiled internally at his new-found salvation, in the event that their stalkers attacked, Neko would just run while everyone was being eaten alive. A simple and effective plan.

One has to look out for number one after all! It’s perfect! I’ll just do that! I’m so smart, I got this!

Unless of course they choose to chase us… Wait what? What are you saying?! Who are you?!

…I’m just saying, what if they chase us? I mean think about it, everyone’s gonna run dumbass. They’re not just gonna sit there and let themselves be eaten, it’s a bad plan and also, I’m you, who else would I be? …dumbass.

…He’s got a point, you should listen to him…

WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?! WHERE ARE YOU ALL COMING FROM?!

…Why we’re all you of course, seriously dumbass, you can’t even tell that? More importantly, what do you plan on doing now, getting eaten? That’ll make a lot of people happy.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold up, how is it a bad plan, if they attack, even if everyone gets freaked out and runs. They’ve been following the centre, right? So since I’m at the back it would stand to reason that I would have the best chance for escape, as the centre is the likeliest point of attack!

…Unless, if they go for a box type formation and lock you all in.

Even so! Even so, the centre has more people so their forces would be concentrated at the centre I should be able to break through the back!

…That’s if their numbers don’t increase any further, seriously think about it, you’re fucked. Let’s say you’re right and you manage to break through okay?

…Just ask yourself, where are you gonna go? How do you know that there isn’t more of them out there or something else deeper in the forest? Say you get lost; how will you find the path again? See… You’re fucked…

They we’re right, the other Neko’s were absolutely right. Even if he escaped, where would he go? What if he lost the path? What if he ran into more of them? He was screwed, there was only one thing he could do.

Okay, okay, let’s say I tell them, they’ll be angry and ask why I didn’t say anything earlier and more importantly why I lied about not being able to talk, then what do I do?!

…You really are a dumbass, aren’t you? You should just offer yourself up as the main dish already… Listen up, they don’t know at all right now, right?

I’ve noticed you’re being consistently, incredibly mean to me and yeah, they don’t know…

…Just die already… trash… Main dish…

IM SORRY OKAY! JUST TELL ME!

…All you have to do dumbass, is pretend you just found out. They can’t blame you then, can they?

B-but what about the talking issue?

…I won’t tell if you won’t

Huh?

The other Neko sighed out loud in Neko’s mind. For some reason he really had it out for Neko, despite them all being Neko to begin with.

…Look who’s walking beside you, you blind fuck.

Neko looked through the corner of his eyes towards the right and found King who had been walking besides him, silent throughout entering the forest.

Ohhhhh. Now I get it! Hahahaha! Smart! —I’ll tell them, we’ll tell them, we need to let them know. By saving them we save ourselves after all.

…Exactly, now you get it, seems you’re not that stupid after all… Neko out…

Neko out? Wait no, no, no, no, no, please, you gotta help me! Don’t leave me!!!

The voice of the other Nekoes left and Neko found himself once again alone with his own thoughts. He had decided not to abandon everyone else and to instead work alongside them.

They’re gone… sigh, best I better get to it then. Time is of the essence as they say, although I don’t know who they are…

Neko silently grabbed King’s wrist, he needed to let King know the situation without drawing too much attention to himself. Currently, the stalkers were still focused on the centre of the group and were stealthily tailing them. For how long would this last? Neko did not know, but they needed to act quickly.

The moment Neko grabbed King’s wrist, he quickly came back from his thoughts, but before he could act out in shock Neko tightened his grip and glared at King through the corner of his eyes. This simple act was enough to silence King before he could make a sound.

King met with Neko’s eyes, his eyes were filled with suspicion and appeared very threatening. However, he did not say a word but instead simply maintained eye contact with Neko.

Uwah, what’s the hell’s his problem. I only grabbed his arm… Is my grip to tight? He looks like he’s about to kill me. I wonder if he just doesn’t like people touching him. Sorry bud, but there’s no helping it. We need each other right now… but still that stare is super scary, if you wanna kill someone, kill them…

Although, feeling extremely uncomfortable under King’s threatening gaze, Neko met with King’s eyes and then with the corner of his eyes, looked towards the right and then the left-hand side of the forest.

King’s eyes followed Neko’s and shortly after a look of shock appeared on his face. However, it quickly changed back to normal as Neko tightened his grip once more. It would appear, King had seen the stalkers.

Good… Good. You get it now, right? You saw them too, right? Now, it’s all up to you. I did my part…

King looked towards Neko, it would seem that he truly understood the situation now. Neko let go of King’s wrist and placed a finger on his lips, indicating silence.

“Who are they?”

“How would I know?”

“How long were they following us?”

“I just realised now…”

“What do we do?”

“I don’t know… but strength in numbers seems good right about now, they seem to be focussed at the centre”

“Let’s catch up to the others”

“Ok, but not too quick. They might notice”

Although, Neko wanted to communicate silently without words, King was not willing to play along, and instead chose to communicate by whispering. He nodded slowly in response to Neko’s plan to regroup with everyone else, and then gradually began to increase his walking speed.

It would not take them long to reach the girls, since the girls were walking slowly after all. However, there was a small distance between the girls themselves. Lahna and Shiori who did not appear as athletic as Lily, Rei and Miyo were walking at their own pace and so a small gap had formed between them.

Neko kept his sights focussed on the stalkers as they tried to catch up with the girls. He could now clearly make out some of them, his earlier assumptions were correct.

They really are short people, what is that green pain? They’re carrying weapons too, wooden clubs, something that looks like stone tools and one of them is carrying a dagger. Wait, what the fuck?

Now that Neko had got a better look at them, there was something extremely strange about them. They were wearing what looked to be brown loin cloths and animal skin, but that was not what Neko found strange.

Their eyes appeared yellow with some having goat like eyes, there nose was large, pointy and had bumps and spots all over. Not to mention that green paint looked more skin like than paint. It truly was strange.

“Lahna, Shiori”

“Huh? Oh, hey King! Neko”

“Hello…”

Neko and King had now managed to catch up to Lahna and Shiori. Lahna smiled and greeted Neko and King, while Shiori appeared slightly nervous. Neko nodded in response to them. King however, did not smile. It was not a situation in which he could smile.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“We have a prob—”

Neko nudged King and looked towards the left-hand side of the forest. The majority of the stalkers had begun to increase their speed, while there was still some stalking them the majority had now moved further up.

King caught on immediately, it would seem that the stalkers were done stalking.

“What’s the matter, King?”

“Shit! We ran out of time, we need to run now and catch up to everyone!”

“W-what?”

“H-Huh?”

King grabbed Lahna’s arm and began running, while Neko gently supported Shiori from the back to make her run. The moment they began running, Neko could hear the stalkers near them also running but desperately trying to remain hidden.

“W-wait K-King, what’s going on!”

“N-Neko?!”

“We’re being followed, and there’s a lot of them! We need to catch up to everyone now! Hurry!”

“F-Followed?! Where?!”

They ran forward desperately trying to catch up with the group ahead. King looked towards the forest as they ran, the stalkers we closely following behind them. Neko despite being at the back, got a glimpse of the road ahead. The group ahead had come to a stop and he could see Rei running towards the boys.

“Hey! why’d we stop?”

Rei called out to the boys as she sprinted over towards the group further up. Akihiro turned to face Rei and then pushed his glasses up with his index finger.

“It would appear that the path further up splits into two, that’s why”

“Ooohh! yeah now I see”

Rei caught up to the boys quickly, it was clear that she was a fast sprinter. She placed one hand over her eyes and looked further down the road. The road ahead had now split into a fork, with two paths.

“Damn, you girls walk slow!”

“Haaah, shut up Ren”

“Whaddya say!”

Hide was quick to tell Ren to shut up, seems like walking next to Ren had drained quite a lot of his mental strength, and he had now gotten used to telling Ren to shut up. However, Ren being Ren always needed to have the last words.

“Which way do we go now?”

“First we’ll wait for everyone to catch up, and then we’ll decide”

Rei looked up in surprise, but it was not just her but the group of boys near her who were likewise in surprise. For it was Kenji who had answered her question. For the most part of the walk Kenji had remained silent, walking ahead of the group alone. Yet now he had walked back and had regrouped with everyone.

Kenji looked back once more to the fork in the road ahead, he was looking for recent signs of people, footprints, road tracks anything that would have indicated human presence.

However, it was then when he noticed.

“—GET BACK!”

Kenji’s roared at Rei with all his might, his face looking as though he was furious. Rei, backed away quickly, terrified from Kenji’s expression, she accidentally tripped and fell back. However, that alone had been enough. An arrow flew off a few inches away from Rei’s knee.

A second later and it most certainly would have hit its mark.

“Aiiiieeeeeeee!”

“—Wha”

“W-what!”

“What the hell are those things?!”

They did not have enough time to react to what had just happened. Immediately, after the arrow had missed, a group of small green people ran out from hiding and proceeded to attack them.

Kenji backed away from the two-green people near him, behind Kenji was Akihiro who was met with one of the green people as well as Arche, who found himself with two of the green people. All of them had either a wooden club or a stone weapon.

Rei was in the centre of the group behind everyone, with Hide and Ren covering her from behind. There was three green people facing Hide and Ren. They were quickly surrounded from all sides.

“What are these things!?”

“I don’t know!”

“I-I think they’re Gob-Goblins!”

“Goblins?!”

“Where the hell did, they come from?!”

“Quit asking me, you idiot! Why don’t you ask them?!”

“Th-There’s more of them up ahead!”

“Tch! This isn’t good…”

♦ ♦ ♦

“W-What the hell are those things?!”

“Aiiiiiieeeeeee!”

Miyo looked in shock as the group ahead of her was surrounded by goblins, she was about to run over and help, when Lily screamed. Three goblins had appeared out of the forest behind her, carrying wooden clubs and slowly began approaching them.

“Geheheh!”

Miyo quickly grabbed Lily bringing her close, the goblins were slowly moving forward causing them to step back towards the group. It was only a matter of time before they ended up sandwiched between the goblins attacking the group and the ones in front.

“Lily! Miyo!”

Lahna looked over ahead and saw Lily and Miyo, in front of them were three goblins. The goblins jumped up and brought their wooden clubs down. However, they were unable to land their attack. This was because, King had arrived.

“—GEH!"

King let loose a powerful punch while the goblins were mid-jump, connecting them and sending them flying towards the right. The wooden clubs fell to the floor in front of King and neither goblin got back up.

“You all right?”

“Y-Yeah… th-thanks”

“K-King!”

Lily ran from Miyo over to King and hugged him, while Miyo just stared in amazement of how King took out three of the goblins with a single punch. He had made that impending threat disappear in an instant, and it was not just Miyo but Lahna, Shiori, Neko and even the goblins following them who could not help but just stare in shock of King’s strength and fierceness.

“It’ll be alright Lily, now let’s go help the others”

“W-wow”

“Wh-What are those?”

“I don’t know, but we need to get to the others now”

“Yeah”

King put Lily down and gave her a head pat after doing so he picked up two wooden clubs and ran with everyone to the others. Neko quickly took the other wooden club and then ran after them.

♦ ♦ ♦

“Just what the hell are you?!”

Kenji looked at the two goblins facing him, they were both carrying wooden clubs. He roared as he tried to kick one of the goblins, the goblin backed away while the other jumped up to attack him.

“Gueehhhhh!”

However, Kenji was quicker as he managed to grab the wooden club, the goblin stared at him in fear as he headbutted the goblin and took the wooden club. The other goblin charged at him, but Kenji parried the attack and kicked him away.

“Kenji, there’s too many of them!”

Akihiro and Arche who were behind Kenji had been doing fairly well working together to dodge the incoming attacks, but they could not keep this up. In fact they had already begun to take a few injuries, although they appeared to look as nothing more than light scratches.

“WH-WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”

“GUUOOOHHH”

“OI, IDIOT REN, YOU’VE ONLY GOT ONE, HELP ME OUT OVER HERE!”

“IM THE ONE WHO NEEDS HELP YOU IDIOT!”

Hide called out in desperation at the two goblins in front of him as he desperately tried to dodge the second goblin, while Ren was struggling to take the wooden club off of the goblin who was on top of him.

“NYAAA! TAKE THIS!”

“YEAH! GET HIM!”

“GUEEHHH!”

Rei meowed as she kicked the goblin off of Ren, the goblin let go of the wooden club and snarled at her as Ren got up and chased after the goblin, attacking with a flurry of attack, each one missing completely. However, the mad flurry of attacks succeeded in scaring the goblin as it backed away and drew one of its stone knives and stared Ren down.

“GUEERRRRR”

“Yeah… that’s right, I ain’t no small fry. You’re dealing with the great Ren! HAHAHAHA!”

“GUOOOHHHH!”

“Wh-What?! AAAAHHHHH!!!, get off!”

“Seriously! What the hell are you doing?! Stop fucking around!”

“I’m not! This goblin’s got serious skill! It’s clearly the strongest goblin here!”

The goblin that had been kicked off of Ren threw its stone knife at him. As Ren dodged the knife the goblin had jumped up and tried to bite down on him. Ren acted quickly and blocked the bite with the wooden club, except the goblin refused to let go, no matter how much Ren shook the club.

“GGGGGRRRRRRR”

“Ahahahahah!”

“GRREOW!”

“Come at me you idiots! AHAHAHAHA!”

“Haaah. He’s finally lost it…”

Ren succeeded in knocking the goblin off of his newly obtained club, while Hide and Rei just stared in disbelief at the idiot who was now taunting the defeated goblin by patting his ass, while laughing smugly with an idiotic face. Ren’s taunt made even Hide want to switch sides and beat him up.

“GUUHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The beaten goblin made a strange cry and out of the forest came three goblins. One of them was carrying many iron knives, the other had two iron short swords. However, the last goblin was unlike any of them… it was a giant.

A cold sweat fell from Kenji’s face. Akihiro, Arche and everyone there went pale. Not even Ren could muster up any words as they stared in silence.

The giant goblin looked to be over seven-foot-tall and had very large muscles. It carried with it a large iron sword that looked to be about the length of a person. It was clearly in a whole another world from the goblins they had just been fighting.

“GUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”

Upon hearing the giant goblin’s roar the other goblins with wooden clubs began getting up and readying themselves once more. The already dire situation had just become drastically worse.

The twin sword goblin charged at Kenji and began slashing at him. Kenji armed with only a wooden club was barely able to defend against the sword goblin. As Kenji fought back, he realised the sword goblin was much faster than the other goblins. It was skilled… it was experienced…

Akihiro and Arche quickly tried to help Kenji, but they were blocked by the knife goblin who swiftly intercepted them with knives. They soon found themselves on the defensive trying to dodge the attacks of the knife goblin.

“Oh f—”

“S-Shit!”

“You pissed them off Ren!”

“Sh-Shut up! They’re trying to kill us anyways. They’re already pissed off!”

The goblins that had gotten back up, began targeting Rei, Hide and Ren. The giant goblin walked past and sat down at the end of the road blocking it, preventing their escape.

Ren’s taunt had been too effective.

♦ ♦ ♦

“Watch out! Stay back… There’s an archer somewhere out here…”

King quickly stepped out of the way of the incoming arrow that appeared from nowhere. The goblin archer that had tried to get Rei was now targeting them, or more specifically it was now targeting King and due to the thick greenery in the forest, it was difficult to tell where the goblin archer was hiding.

King stopped running, he instead began to focus on the direction on where the arrow had come. He could not advance any further with the archer targeting him, in the worst-case scenario one of the girls could be hit in the crossfire.

Where are you? You sick son of a bitch.

Neko and the girls stayed a small distance away from King, if they were too far away from King, the goblins that were behind them were likely to attack. It seemed that they were currently afraid of King and were not willing to attack yet.

“Where did that come from?!”

“I don’t know, just stay back for now. I think it’s after me…”

“B-but King you’re in danger then!”

“it’s okay, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine”

“You sure you’ll be okay King?”

“If there’s anything we can do to help just let us know”

“Sure thing”

King smiled towards the girls. They really were nice people, he wasn’t going to let anything happen to them. Not the goblins, not Neko, not while he was still alive and able. Meanwhile, Neko just stared at King from behind.

Kyaaa! King you’re so cool! B-but King you’ll be in danger! It’s okay don’t worry about me… Sure thing… Ughhhhh, get room you pieces of filth. The idiots just standing there like a target dummy, he got lucky dodging that arrow does he actually think he can do that again. Fucking idiot’s going to get himself killed.

Fuck, he’s an idiot but he’s actually good in combat, seriously what was that fucking punch from earlier. Those poor things probably got broken ribs or something, they’re certainly gonna feel that when they wake up.

Right, before the idiot gets himself killed. I better take care of that archer.

Neko picked up a rock from the ground, he then focused his hearing and sight. He already knew from earlier that his hearing and sight was above normal. All he needed to do was focus in the direction the arrow came from and see if could find anything.

“Neko? What are you doing?”

“Hmm?”

Oh crap, Shhhh, I’m focusing… Now where are you…

Shiori had spotted Neko picking up the rock, but Neko did not have time to play the mime game and try and have them guess. King was a sitting duck out there and the idiot was quite literally going to get himself killed.

There you are…

A small glinting came from the forest under the dense greenery. It seemed appropriate considering the goblins general height. He just needed to throw the rock at the goblin archer, a hit would be good but even if he got it near, the archer should be spooked enough to move locations and when that happened, he’d be able to spot him or at least it would buy more time to advance.

“—Guh”

Neko threw the rock he had picked up into the forest, and then he heard it. The dull sound of the rock hitting the goblin archer, it sounded like a headshot. The others most likely had not heard it, but he was certain he got the archer.

“N-Neko?”

Neko waited a moment not making a movement, for some reason when he was completely still his senses appeared more focus. A short moment later, the idiot was still alive, and the goblin archer had not moved. Neko had managed to get the goblin archer, whether it was still alive or not, he didn’t know but it wasn’t moving for now and that was good enough.

I got him, archer down. Let’s move!

“What are you doing?!”

“N-Neko!”

Neko walked up to King and stared at him and then simply started walking past him. It was time to go and regroup, and since King was not moving and he could not be bothered with the mime act, he simply started walking past King to indicate the archer was gone.

“I-I think he got the archer, he threw a rock there into the forest”

“N-No way”

Shiori pointed into the direction of where Neko threw the rock. While King did not say anything, Shiori was right, he had got the goblin archer and Miyo’s doubt was understandable, he did not expect to take down the goblin archer that easily. He was beginning to find out he was skilled in more ways than he thought.

“What the hell is that?!”

Their attention was quickly brought over to the group ahead of them. Unbelievably, a giant goblin had just appeared as well as some other dangerously looking goblins.

No way, what the hell is that thing. Oi this ain’t fair, I didn’t sign up for this! We can’t fight that thing. Seriously! What the fuck is that!

“King! Rei and the others need help!”

“I got it! Guys get ready!”

Before Neko could even think about wanting to run, King had already run off to fight the many goblins that were attacking Rei, Ren and Hide, behind him the girls followed close behind. He wanted to try his mime act to convince them to run, but now that was not an option.

The only idiot with enough strength to run with a good chance of escape has just charged into that shit fest. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck this. Fine I’ll fucking do it, that’s what you want right. Fine, Fuck it!

While he wanted to run, he still wasn’t confident in testing his luck out there and so Neko followed in after them.

“Woah! What the hell king! Nice!”

“K-King! Nice timing!”

“Miyo!”

“Rei! I’m glad you’re okay!”

“Is everyone okay?!”

“Y-Yeah just about, thanks to you man, no thanks to this idiot though”

“Who are you calling an idiot! But you really did save our asses man!”

“B-but what are we going to do about that?”

“Th-that is a problem”

King used the wooden clubs to bat aside goblin after goblin from behind, it didn’t take him long to reach the others. Rei hugged Miyo as the others fended of the goblins. Hide and Ren despite arguing with each other were in an agreement for once about the giant goblin that stood in the way of the forked road ahead.

“KENJI! We need to run!”

“HOW, THERE’S TOO MANY OF THEM AND THAT GIANTS BLOCKING THE ROAD”

The goblins that they had knocked down were slowly getting back up, and to make matters worse the longer they stayed, more goblins began appearing. They couldn’t stay here like this, that much was obvious, but they could not do anything with the goblin giant sitting in the road.

“GET READY AND LEAVE THE GIANT TO ME”

“WHAT ARE YOU INSANE?!”

“JUST GET READY”

Kenji dodged one of the short swords that came a few millimetres away from his neck, he then kicked the sword goblin straight in the stomach sending it flying off its feet a few meters and into a tree. He than ran over and slammed his wooden club in the head of the knife goblin from the back.

The knife goblin dropped to the ground instantly and did not get up.

“READY!”

King ran as fast as he could, knocking the goblins in front of him out of the way. He charged towards the giant goblin. The giant goblin saw him and began to stand up and readying itself.

“RUN NOW, JUST KEEP RUNNING, IGNORE THE GIANT AND RUN, LEAVE HIM TO ME!”

“W-What?!”

“KING!”

“RUN, EVERYONE JUST RUN NOW! TRUST ME!”

“COME ON, LEAVE IT TO HIM, EVERYONE RUN NOW”

“LILY COME ON GO!”

“B-BUT KING!”

“RUN, AND JUST KEEP RUNNING!”

“GUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

King ran towards the goblin giant as he threw one of his wooden clubs aiming at the goblin giants head. The goblin giant batted the wooden club out of the way with his large sword and roared as he ran towards King, causing the ground to shake as he ran.

As king drew in right near the goblin giant, he threw his other wooden club again aiming for the goblin giants head as the goblin giant batted the wooden club once more, he noticed the group of people trying to run past him.

The goblin giant roared as it tried to lower its huge sword down on everyone passing by, in that moment something strange happened as everyone ran past the goblin giant. The goblin giant had frozen and a pained expression was across its face.

In the moment the goblin giant had tried to target everyone, King had attacked it in the solar plexus. His wooden cubs were nothing more than the tools used to get the goblin giant to raise his sword and leave an opening.

King twisted his fist as he brought it back. The goblin giant stepped back and fell on one knee. It was clearly in a lot of pain and from the look of its face it was furious and desperately trying to stand. King’s attack had brought enough time for everyone to flee. However, King did not run.

“Get up…”

What would happen if King was to run now? The goblin giant would soon recover and then proceed to chase after them again, and from the way it ran over to King earlier, he knew it would not take long for the goblin giant to catch up to them. When that happened everyone would be in danger again. Which is why he planned to end things now…

King picked up his two wooden clubs. The goblin giant was about to get up when in fell forward and collapsed. King stared in confusion until when the goblin laid down on its front, he saw Neko behind it.

Neko had not ran with everyone else but instead stopped after passing the giant. He had picked up another rock and aimed for the back of the goblin giants head, he had merely been awaiting a good opportunity to throw the rock and had taken it when the giant was on one knee.

“What are you doing?”

“I could ask the same, I knew you were an idiot, but this is too much. It’s time to go, we can still see them so we should be able to catch up fairly quick…”

King asked suspiciously, he still did not trust Neko, not after what he had remembered. He couldn’t. Neko had suspected that King was not the type to run after observing him, but he also knew that King would likely die if he tried to fight the goblin giant and Neko needed King to get him out of the forest and so he had chosen to help.

Together they made their way to regroup with everyone else.