"How am I supposed to clear that out? There must be dozens of them." Ray said aloud, gripping at the small fruit knife in his pocket. It worried him trying to kill even one of them with this, now he was supposed to deal with this many of them?
He wasn't sure what the penalty for failing a mandatory quest would be, but something told him he didn't want to be the one to find out. Fairly sure that this goblin encampment set up in his old workplace at least met the definition of a 'nest', he was loathe to try and find an easier target, given how uncertain the situation was in general, he didn't want to waste time on some off-chance.
Ray could hear a car slowing down behind him, a large truck from the sound of it. Boots crunching on the gravel of the roadside between his position and the supermarket.
"Hey kid, I could arrest you for even being outside right now. Go back home and stay there until this blows over, can't you see those things? Whole world is going to hell right now."
A county sheriff, must be here to deal with the goblins. They were easy enough to see from the roadside and plenty of cars were passing by so there's no way this didn't get called in. Even so, the policeman's arrival was much too convenient for himself to be a coincidence. Was this his power's doing again? Sending him help for his mission?
"Do you know what those monsters are?" Ray tested him, making no intention to leave. As if he had was flatly ignoring what the sheriff had previously told him, seeming to piss him off to no end.
"Didn't you hear what I just said? Do you know how busy I am right now? I don't have the time to deal a kid like you."
"Go on ahead, I won't get in the way." Ray said flatly, not willing to abandon his mission he just studied the man's face with a blank expression.
His indifferent attitude sent the sheriff into a profanity laced tirade, cursing out the new generation before throwing up his hands in a resigned gesture. Beginning to make his way over to the supermarket while unholstering his weapon. Firing with learned proficiency at the pack of goblins loitering around the parking lot, each shot finding its mark in one of their green bodies, setting a panic into the survivors who fled quickly into the safety of the store.
Ray waited, listening to shots regularly spaced with silence, summoning out his silkworm familiar to wait along with him, both of them listening to the popping sound of gunshots until an eerie silence descended upon the plaza. Either his man was down or the goblins were all dead, but no matter what it was his turn to act now.
"Time to go."
Walking through the parkinglot with an unnatural calm, Ray stepped over the dead goblins as he made his way into the store. The doors parting open along with the chime of an electronic recording, while the inside of the store looked like a warzone. Ransacked shelves with their contents spilled everywhere, fat goblins dead with their hands still reached into bags of chips. Bleeding out from a single expertly placed bullet wound.
"Hello? Mr. Policeman?" Ray called out. Searching for the sheriff, or at least letting his presence be known so the man wouldn't shoot him on accident.
Passing the frozen food section he came across the query of his search, the sheriff or what remained of him. The man's uniform was riddled with bullet holes like he had just been struck with birdshot from close-range. The middle of the aisle was a gaping maw of split earth, infested with sinister tendrils that grew like vines out of the hole twisted together to form something like a staircase that descended deep into the ground. It was as if the depths of hell were emerging on earth and these monsters had somehow managed to pick his workplace as their destination of choice.
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Across the sinister chasm, at the far end of the aisle, stood a wisened old goblin with a lengthy grey beard. Potbelly protruding, as it balanced itself upright with a walking stick, wearing an old hat like that of a wizard but still naked other than a dirty loincloth. The elderly goblin noticed just around the same time that he had noticed it, both of them feeling alarm.
Diving for the pistol that remained on the floor, Ray grabbed it as quickly as he could manage, fumbling the weapon awkwardly before firing off a shot. A blinding blue barrier lighting up around the goblin as the bullet stopped in midair in front of it, spinning around excitedly as it turned a burning red color before exploding. Shards of superheated metal flashed passed him like fireworks, landing everywhere except where he stood. A small ring of unshot tiles around him.
"Barrier." The silkworm on Ray's shoulder observed, the two of them immediately coming to the same conclusion.
And also... **I need to stop pushing my luck so much.** Ray thought to himself, wiping away a hot streak on his cheek with the back of his hand he found that despite miraculously avoiding fatal injuries it wasn't as if he was somehow impervious to all damage. More aware now of the many similar scrapes and close calls where he had been grazed dozens of the few thousands of bullet shards.
A sudden ravenous hunger roared inside Ray's belly, screaming for food like it hadn't seen a meal in days. It wasn't just the hunger, he felt weak, emaciated. The worm's warning about his power's link to eating coming to mind.
It's not just that I need to eat for my powers to work, using my powers uses an astronomical amount of energy. Calories. This was probably a fatal wound he had avoided, but he felt almost like he would starve if he didn't get some food in him soon. Not amused by the irony of starving to death in a grocery store stocked to the gills.
Seeing the Goblin cackling by itself and shaking its stick in the air, he felt a bad omen. That goblin can't be allowed to live.
The gun in his hand offered no peace of mind, with that barrier it was nothing more than a paperweight. Beginning to feel the urgency of his situation, Throwing the weapon like a boomerang at the goblin and watching as it stopped short, not exploding this time. The goblin's barrier appeared to work based on speed and force, and a thrown gun had much less force behind it than a speeding bullet.
Running forward as if he were performing hurdles, Ray leapt over the small chasm seperating them with a guttural cry. Yelling at the top of his lungs as he flourishing the small knife hidden within his pocket while charging forward, coming within striking distance the old goblin shrieked backwards, fear finally tumbling over its own feet as the blade stabbed into its neck. Gurgling as it died, the goblin's body slumped against the glass heavily.
Ray's heart beat heavily in his chest, hands trembling uncontrollably as his unnatural confidence left him along with the rest of his powers. Becoming his own self once more.
"Food. I need to eat right now. RIGHT NOW." He could feel himself becoming thinner by the second at an accelerating pace, if he didn't get something in him he really was going to die.
Looking at the frozen products through the glass window, he quickly grabbed at the most calorie dense thing he could find on such short notice. Pulling out icecream sandwiches and stuffing his face as quick as he could manage, finding his hunger unsatisfied even after a full box. Emptying one after the other, he started wondering where exactly he was putting all this food, having far surpassed even a professional speed eater at this point it was like his stomach had no bounds, or more like he was burning through and fully digesting it in mere seconds thanks to some supernatural factor.
Cleaning out an entire ice cream shelf over the course of the next twenty minutes, he finally slowed down, seemingly reaching the limit to what he could eat in one sitting, his weight had made a small comeback, still considerable underweight but no longer dangerously so. Mentally exhausted from the whole ordeal, he hadn't even noticed the immaculately wrapped giftbox behind him along with the congratulatory text.