“Look! The goblin’s arrow worked!” a soldier shouted from the main army.
“It’s true!” another said.
“Death to the summer antlizard!” a third cried.
“STAY ON TASK!” Leader Glazeanvil yelled. From the volume of his voice, it sounded like he’d now reached the frontline of the main army. “WE’RE LURING IT SOUTH!”
Another churning, furnace-like ring echoed throughout the alley as the summer antlizard looked down. It eyed the smaller army surrounding it, and seemed ready to eradicate them with a fiery blast.
“THE PRELIMINARY ATTACK IS OVER!” Leader Glazeanvil shouted at the smaller army. “CAN YOU HEAR ME OVER THERE? RETREAT!”
The summer antlizard widened its jaw, red-hot liquid visible between its teeth. It took a heavy breath of air, preparing to spit. As it did so, a single iridhodium arrow shot out of the crowd below it, straight up into the beast’s throat.
The summer antlizard gagged, widening its eyes and stumbling backwards. As it bumped into one of the mountain walls, Drek’s shiny arrow shot out from one of its ribs, returning from whence it came.
“Hey!” a gruff soldier shouted from the backline, turning to look at Colb and 27. “Two of the goblins are right there, and one of them’s holding a pile of weapons!”
“Yo!” another soldier yelled. “Hand me one of those boomerangs, will ya?”
“No, give Squadron 43 some love, yea?” another added.
“Oi, I’m ‘posed ta detain these here goblynns, eh? Leader Glazeanvil ‘aid no more goblynn weapons,” Sunbolt shouted back.
“Oh, bugger off!” a soldier yelled. “This is a war. Give me something magic!”
“Yea!” five more dwarves agreed.
“Hmmm, it seems the backline is on our side, yes?” Colb muttered.
“AaAaaaaahhhh, their mob mentality starting to take over, but in a way favorable to us!” 27 cheered. “If we get enough of them on our side, Leader Glazeanvil’s orders might not matter, no they might not.”
“Oi, I’m just tryna follow de orders, eh?” Sunbolt shouted to the soldiers.
At this point, around half of the backline had begun to split their attention – partially focusing on Drek’s assault against the summer antlizard, and partially looking backwards to see what Sunbolt was going to do.
“Give him a wand,” 27 muttered.
Colb grabbed sky-colored wand from the pile of weapons 27 had summoned, and put it in Sunbolt’s hand.
“Oi, what’s this now?” Sunbolt asked, inspecting it. 27 dropped his pile of weapons onto the ground, scampered up to the Yiklar Catalog on the ground, and ruffled through it. Once he found the page containing a drawing of the sky-colored wand, he ripped it out and handed it to Sunbolt.
“A Yiklar Wand of Rainfall, eh?” Sunbolt muttered, reading the Dwarvish-translated sheet of parchment.
“Give it a shake,” 27 prodded.
Curiosity getting the better of him, the yellow-haired dwarf gave his sky-colored wand a violent tussle.
BOOM! A thunderous cloud screeched as it suddenly formed in the sky, casting a shadow over the battlefield. A wash of rain drizzled down upon the army. The backline let out a collective sigh of disappointment, including “Aw,” “Hey,” “Now me hair’s wet!” and “What a waste of time.”
SssssSsSSSSSSS! A loud sizzling sound suddenly erupted from the summer antlizard’s position, as drops of rain evaporated to steam upon hitting the beast’s red-hot exoskeleton. “SCREEREERRERE!” the monster cried, visibly alarmed by the cooling effect of the rain shower.
“Eeeeyyyyy!” the army’s backline rejoiced; their cheering now positive as they realized the benefits of Sunbolt’s wand. “Give me one of those!” a bunch of dwarves shouted in unison.
Sunbolt shrugged. “Oi, ‘e can’t get mad at all of us, eh? Go on ahead, then,” he shouted back.
With permission granted, groups of dwarves started to break away from the backline, running up to Colb to take some weapons back for their squadrons. Meanwhile, 27 summoned as many magical products as he could – using Colb’s “service” of distribution as a loophole to drain his Yiklar Bank Account and fund this process.
“SCREEREERRERE!” the monster roared, Drek’s arrow clipping it in the eye as rain assailed it from above. Word of what caused this rainstorm spread rapidly through the army, causing even the frontline to shout for their brethren to grab weapons for them.
Colb frantically handed out a pile of wands, each of which seemed to further empower the rainstorm upon being shaken.
“What do those white daggers do?” a soldier asked, passing up a wand and pointing at something else in the pile of weapons.
“Hmmm, what are the daggers, yes?” Colb translated.
27 quickly ripped a few pages from the Dwarvish-translated Yiklar Catalog, set them out in front of the weapons pile, then went back to summoning inventory from his bag.
“Yiklar Dagger of Wind,” the dwarf muttered, reading one of the pages.
“It summons wind,” 27 replied, frantically pulling a couple mirror-coated shields out of his Yiklar Bag of Traveling Inventory as he spoke.
“Oi, it summons wind,” Sunbolt translated.
Satisfied, the dwarf took a dagger and left, only to be immediately replaced by three more dwarves poking through the catalog pages.
As dwarves started looting the weapons pile on their own, Colb looked out at the summer antlizard. The smaller army that used to surround it seemed to be retreating to join the main force – the rainstorm and Drek’s Yiklar Bow of Returning Arrow covering them for their retreat.
“THE PLAN HASN’T CHANGED!” Leader Glazeanvil screamed from the frontline.
“WHY NOT?” some dwarves shouted back in response. “LET’S SLAY THE BEAST! LET’S SLAY THE BEAST! WITH GOBLIN MAGIC, LET’S SLAY THE BEAST!” they chanted. The confident words of the soldiers drowned out Leader Glazeanvil’s authoritative yells. By the second, more and more dwarves seemed to be conforming to one popular opinion: 27’s weaponry works.
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While Colb listened to the frontline riling up, the backline seemed more frantic than anything else. Dwarves were rummaging around and grabbing weapons faster than 27 could mass-purchase them. Some dwarves had even started pouring their own money into piles around 27, having noticed that the goblin seemed to need nuggets to summon weapons.
“Hey,” a dwarf said, poking Colb in the shoulder to get his attention. He was holding a sheet of paper from the Yiklar Catalog. “What does a Yiklar Boomerang of Lightning do?” he asked.
Colb repeated the question for 27, then picked up a mirror-coated shield and handed it to a nearby dwarf with damaged armor.
“MmMMmmm, it makes lightning strike wherever it hits,” 27 replied, glancing at Sunbolt, the translator of his words. The noble goblin seemed out-of-breath as he dumped a fresh pile of nuggets into his bag. “We try to name these things in a way where I don’t have to be asked what they all do.”
As the battle raged on, Colb continued to help explain and distribute the Yiklar-made weapons. Eventually, he found himself face-to-face with Stibs, who must have returned with the retreated smaller army that had surrounded the summer antlizard earlier.
“Hmmm! You’re safe!” Colb cheered.
“Hurmph, I suppose so,” Stibs replied. The old goblin presented a deformed hilt to Colb. “Hurmph – I hate to admit this, but my bone sword isn’t looking too good, here. I slashed at the beast’s foot, and the blade melted like a slab of cowmammoth butter in the sun. Got anything better for me?”
Colb handed him one of the mirror-coated shields. It had Yiklar Shield of Reflecting engraved into it in Goblish. “I meant a weapon,” Stibs said, although he accepted Colb’s offering anyway.
“Take these,” 27 said, tossing him a blowgun and a small bag of ammunition. “That packet contains fifty Yiklar Blowgun Darts of Freezing, yes it does. They are highest-of-quality! I think they’ll be good for this fight, so I’ve been summoning a lot of them.”
“Hurmph! They don’t have that Kreet charm,” Stibs grumbled, “…but they’ll do.” Armed with a new blowgun and shield, the old goblin ran off to rejoin the army. Colb watched nervously from behind the backline as the next leg of the battle commenced.
The Yiklar Wand of Rainfall-induced storm raged on, pelting the monster with water, and painting the surrounding mountains in a wet sheen. At the same time, a flurry of metal boomerangs erupted from the now-fully-united army. The boomerangs flew majestically through the air, then smashed into various parts of the beast’s exoskeleton.
As each crescent-shaped weapon struck the summer antlizard’s hide, a crack of lightning came from the storm above, striking the beast where the boomerang had hit. The summer antlizard shrieked with surprise at the sudden electric attacks.
A few minutes later, a unit of dwarven soldiers broke away from the frontline. They flanked the summer antlizard’s side, firing a volley of freezing-cold darts at the creature’s long legs. Wherever darts hit the summer antlizard, visible frost appeared on its exoskeleton, leaving cool, blackened scars on the beast’s outer tissue.
The beast roared with pain, which only served to excite the dwarvish forces. The backline began throwing their boomerangs in an upwards curve, such that lightning continually struck the monster’s back. At the same time, dwarves in the frontline started throwing white-painted daggers under the summer antlizard, which summoned great winds to cool down the red-hot abdomen of the beast. Getting hit from above, below, and from freezing darts on the side, the summer antlizard screamed in agony. One of its legs, completely black from frozen blowgun darts, began to crumple to the ground.
As the soldiers continued to pressure the monster, a short green goblin stepped out past the frontline. He walked until he was very visibly out in the open: halfway between the frontline and the dart-shooting group that had flanked the beast’s side. Standing alone, the green figure raised his Yiklar Bow of Returning Arrow, aiming it true towards the monster’s head – likely watching for a good moment to fire the final blow.
Seeing that familiar glint of iridhodium out-in-the-open, the summer antlizard started to glow red again, visibly engaged by the sight of this archer that had been hitting it relentlessly all battle. It’s throat redder than anything else, the monster appeared to be bringing up all its remaining energy to the mouth for a single last-ditch attack – despite the cold rain still pouring down upon its head.
Colb watched anxiously as the beast adjusted its jaw, likely charging up to spew lava towards what could only be Drek. Colb then saw another green figure – probably Stibs, he guessed – breaking away from the group of dart-blowers, and running straight towards the very exposed teammate.
The hooded goblin pulled back his iridhodium arrow, then launched it towards the summer antlizard’s face – but he was too late. Before the arrow could connect, the monster ducked straight to the ground, and released an enormous beam of molten liquid towards its attacker.
However, before the lava could incinerate the young goblin, the taller green figure jumped in the way. The green soldier stomped his feet into the ground, holding himself up with a rock-solid stance as the molten beam smacked into him instead – then deflected right back towards the summer antlizard.
“AaAaaaaahhhh, a fine display of the Yiklar Shield of Reflecting at work!” 27 cheered, now watching the battle beside Colb.
“Hmmm! That’s Stibs, isn’t it?” Colb worried. “He’s going to be okay, yes?”
“Like all Yiklar-made products, the Yiklar Shield of Reflecting is most highest-of-quality, yes it is,” 27 cheered. “Stibs will be fine! That item was a good choice to give him, yes it was.”
Colb smiled, glad to have given his friend something to make them safe. “AaAaaaaahhhh, quite the preventative measure, yes that was,” 27 continued, patting Colb on the back. “Why worry about burn wounds if you can avoid getting seared in the first place? Excellent work, medic!”
The summer antlizard let out a whimpering screech, no longer glowing red-hot. Although it didn’t seem to be directly harmed by the lava Stibs had deflected back onto its face, the lack of heat left inside its body seemed to take a toll on the beast.
“FOR MAXTEN, GOD OF WAR!” the familiar voice of Leader Glazeanvil shouted. The exceptionally short, black-haired dwarf jumped out from the frontline of the army, and smacked his Yiklar Bowstaff of Earthquakes into the ground.
The earth began to shake violently, knocking everyone off their feet. The summer antlizard – weakened from the many attacks, and unprepared for the sudden earthquake – fell prone to the ground with a crash.
Leader Glazeanvil, however, stood standing, holding his Yiklar Bowstaff of Earthquakes strong on the ground. Soon, a wide crack formed in the earth from his rock-textured bowstaff, quickly growing in width and depth as it traveled towards the beast. The summer antlizard had no time to react as a ravine magically opened up under it. The monster screeched, becoming swallowed into the earth.
A plumb of dust rose into the sky, then settled as the ravine closed back up. The summer antlizard was finished, leaving nothing but a small pool of lava in its wake.
A realization that the battle was over entered everyone’s minds, and a roar of rejoice exploded amongst the troops. The dwarves cheered for Leader Glazeanvil, who had dealt the final strike. “The path is open! The path is open! By Maxten’s decree: the path is open!” they chanted in Dwarvish.
A group of soldiers lifted Leader Glazeanvil up on their shoulders, holding him high for all to see. “Let’s head eastward, back to the campsite…” Leader Glazeanvil announced with a grin, “…and wake all the civilians with a grand party, celebrating our victory!”
“Yea!” the soldiers cheered.
“I think ye goblynns are off de hook,” Sunbolt said to Colb and 27, watching the dwarves start to carry their leader back to the campsite. “Leader Glazeanvil won’t soon forget that yer weapon made ‘im an ‘ero.”
With that, Sunbolt gave them a nod, and head off to join the parade. Officially free, Colb and 27 rushed to regroup with Drek and Stibs.
“Hmmm, everyone is unharmed, yes?” Colb asked, looking his teammates up and down. The old goblin’s Yiklar Shield of Reflecting was covered in soot.
Stibs and Drek nodded in agreement. “Rrghegh… I’m good,” Drek grumbled. “Thanks to… rrghegh… Stibs, you did good out there,” the young goblin spat, staring at the ground.
“Hurmph, looks like that dwarven leader won our bet,” Stibs said, patting Drek on the back. “He was the one who dealt the final blow. I guess that means neither of us is better than the other – equals on the battlefield, so to speak.”
Drek shrugged. “Rrghegh… I suppose so,” he agreed, glancing at the blackened Yiklar Shield of Reflecting attached to the old goblin’s arm.
“AaAaaaaahhhh, well I’d say we’ve officially redeemed ourselves for our mistake, yes we have,” 27 announced to the group. “…which means, we’re no longer guilt-obligated to travel with the army. Given that… I feel comfortable saying I’d rather go to bed than party with them right now, yes I would. What do we think about traveling westward a bit, then setting up the Yiklar Folding Cabin for the night?” he pitched.
The other three goblins nodded in agreement, exhausted from the strain of battle. And so, the crew trotted off in the direction of Bellra, eager to leave the battlefield behind them.