6

“Are you sure you don’t want to try to find another route?” Randall asked again.

“Randall, I get what you’re saying, but take a look. Where can we go that doesn’t involve fighting a swarm of monsters? We can go back up and down someone’s fire safety and flank them, but then what?” Jordan saw the flash of frustration in Randall's eyes as he looked toward Dad. “One way or another, we’re doing this. Delaying it will only make the situation worse.”

Gripping the hilts tightly, Jordan left the safety of the stairwell. Inaudible muttering sounded behind him, but a firm hand rested on his back, following him through the door. He counted a dozen minions, scavengers, and scouts—almost forty Goblins in total.

Tilting his head over he shoulder, he frowned. “I hope you have more ammo, ‘cause we’re gonna need it soon.”

Randall shook his head, pulling out a pocket knife he flipped open. With the pistol in his right, the pocketknife in his left, Jordan felt a bit more confident in Randall. He knew that the energy would keep him moving through the fight and the dual swords were strong—

—but he knew this would be hard. If they all made it out alive, he’d be surprised.

His body already felt tired, despite the rejuvenating effect. It didn’t remove the prolonged stress from his body. He needed sleep—desperately. As much as the thought teased him, there were too many things to do before he would get to rest again.

“Okay, Jordan, I’m with you. Let’s do this,” Randall whispered, patting Jordan on the back.

Slinking forward as low to the ground as he could, Jordan crept toward the car. In the large hosting room, he heard the sounds of slurping and sucking. Holding up a hand, Jordan looked and saw Rasuptin.

His teeth were short and sharp, filling his mouth. They chewed on bones—human bones. Jordan frowned, looking away and stepping back. He stopped himself from retreating. They had to do this, just as he told Randall. There was no other way forward, even if it meant fighting the Goblin Boss.

Around the ugly, larger Goblin waited his group of Swordsmen, watching him fill himself. He hoped Randall could deal with them. He didn’t know what else he could do if guns didn’t work. The swords worked, so it reasoned they would.

But would it be enough?

Randall stepped past him, creeping along the side of the wall. There wasn’t much to do about their situation but continue. Time was of the essence. The longer they waited, the more the fatigue wore his body down. And so, he continued. Peeking to the right, Rasputin continued to gorge himself on marrow.

Maybe we'll get lucky. But the half-hearted attempt to ease his nerves wasn’t fooling him. They got to the edge of the wall. Taking a deep breath and gripping the blades, Jordan jumped out and rushed forward. Immediately, he cut down two of the Goblins, eliciting screams from the others as their brethren’s blood spilled freely on the ground.

Jordan didn’t hesitate, and neither did Randall. The pocket knife made sick schlick-shlock sounds as it cut against one throat, then another. The sound of the pistol resounded through the air as Randall started his assault in earnest. If Rasputin didn’t know they were there before, he did now. The pop-pop of the pistol claimed two more of the Goblins, the pocket knife never staying still.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Jordan fought to follow up on the momentum they built as the Goblins stared in shock and outrage at the other Goblins falling around them. He knew his movements were unrefined, but the more lives he claimed, the more Essence Orbs he could crush and the more invigorating energy rushed into him. Schlick-schlick, an x-cross strike with both blades across a Goblin’s chest.

He raised his arm to stab another, but a searing pain sent his mind into a frozen block of terror and confusion. When he looked down at the pained area, the tip of a sword—identical to the ones he carried—pierced through his gut.

Barely able to process, he threw himself back and rolled to the side, scraping his arms and legs against the concrete. Warmth spread across his shirt as he moved, but he refused to go down so easily. When he came out of his roll, he slashed out with both blades, turning into a whirlwind of fury. His arms moved even though his mind grew dull and sluggish.

It didn’t matter.

His body knew what it needed to do. His will pushed him forward, summoning the Essence from his chest. Instead of any profound effect, one of the silvery windows reappeared, one he’d seen before.

View Essence Map now?

Yes

No

Please, don’t let me regret this. He mentally nudged “yes” as he defended against another of the swordsmen. As the power bloomed in his chest, a heat spread through him like fire and time seemed to stop.

Then darkness.

“What? Where am I?” he shouted, but his voice got lost in the darkness.

Nearly a minute passed before anything noticeable happened. The whole time, he screamed for whatever listened to release him.

But nobody listened.

Then in the distant darkness, a dais raised from the ground, shimmering with luminescence. The dais clicked into place at chest height, and not seeing any other way to escape the darkness, Jordan approached.

On the side, a map of the cosmos had been etched, giving the thing an otherworldly feel. As he looked over the thing, panic started to fill him. There wasn’t any time to mess around and look at the stars when he didn’t know what was going on!

Though, if what he saw hadn’t been some kind of hallucination caused by adrenaline and an Essence overdose, the world around him had come to a grinding halt the moment he’d selected “yes”.

But that’s not possible, right? Then again, Goblins and Slimes shouldn’t be possible either. So maybe…

The thought calmed him enough to continue looking over the strange star-covered dais. A slot big enough for a single marble had been carved out of the exact center on its flat, circular top. The circular top had thousands of intersecting lines equally spaced across its entirety.

But he didn’t have anything to place in the middle of the dais, nor did he have any other way of interacting with the thing. So what do I d—

His focus snapped upward, as if guided by some unseen force. An Essence Orb descended toward the perfectly spherical, marble-sized divot in the dais.

A ray of silver guided it down, encompassing that milky light. Jordan felt mesmerized and couldn’t look away. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t. When the Orb touched the dais, it filled the slot, fitting perfectly.

Everything flashed.