Chapter 96: Cheep!? 95

Cheep!? 

Chapter 95

If it weren’t for the fact that only so many goblins could fit side by side in the tunnels, Niko was certain that their defense would have been completely overrun long ago. As it stood, they were barely fighting them back, and Niko lost himself to a frenzy of attacking. Essence pumped through his body like blood, and every peck, slash, and bellow was reinforced as much as he could allow, pattern or not. 

Niko swept upwards with one particularly vicious strike, cleaving a Dawr Goblin through the skull starting from his chest. Even as he tried to pull back, another three goblins piled on him, and Niko felt not for the first time a sharp object dig through his toughened feathers and bite into flesh. Wrathfully, Niko stepped back and thrashed himself against the barricade, wholly crushing one of them into a cross brace and breaking its spine. The second and third were unable to hold on as he shook himself, screeching with his essence pattern rippling outwards, buffing his companions and debuffing the goblins nearest. 

When they fell off, Niko screeched, “You pecking little bastards! Stop ruining my feathers!” Before stamping down on their skulls, no longer noticing the disgusting way they ruptured. Now, all he felt was the rampant blood-pumping excitement that his joined instincts fed him for embroiling himself in combat. The one with the broken spine came next, as Niko batted his sword aside with a winged-claw swipe, before striking down like an executioner's axe with his beak, beheading it in one solid blow.

Even as he rose, five more goblins came over the cart, but these ones Niko immediately recognized as being different. The blood on their bodies was blacker, and their torso and limbs were longer, lankier. Whereas the previous goblins were like children, these were more like starved teenagers.

‘That is one horrible image,’ Niko pushed the concept that he was fighting children and teenagers out of his head. Goblins didn’t work like that–peck, beasts didn’t even really work like that all the time–so he didn’t need to overthink things at this juncture.

Even less so when the five of them jumped all at once down at Niko and Ronald.

“Heads down!” Niko heard a familiar voice before responding immediately, dropping down along with Ronald just in time for a dozen projectiles to slam into the five gob-teens.

‘Nope, just call them tall gobs,’ Niko reiterated to himself as three of the tall gobs took arrows to the head and chest, while the other two received daggers or a large throwing axe respectively. Before Niko’s eyes, the axe blinked out of existence, and if it was the first time, he would have a minor freak out. 

It’d happened already, afterall, but luckily that wasn’t during a bad time. The man throwing said axe had some kind of essence pattern imbued into the weapon that matched the glove he wore. Niko didn’t get a good look at it, and still couldn’t, but he assumed it let the thing come back to him.

‘I so wish I had thumbs,’ Niko couldn’t help but imagine having throwing axes that could return to his hand. That was somehow even more impressive than watching someone throw fireballs from their hands.

“Next wave!” Skye called, as yet another five goblins came over. Niko was about to meet them when he realized the goblins at their feet weren’t all dead yet. Quite in fact, only the one that took the throwing axe to the skull was down, in spite of all of them having received head-shots.

“What and the actual cluck!” Niko belted out a tightened, squeezed Call right in the possibly-zombie goblin’s face. To his shock, the sound came out of his throat like a bolt, and Niko nearly jumped when the tall gobs eyes widened for a millisecond before it’s head exploded like an overripe tomato getting hit by a hammer.

“Venris’ Teeth, Niko!” Dachna hacked out a laugh even as he threw several more knives at the goblins coming over the crude defensive emplacement, “I didn’t know you could do that.”

‘Neither did I,’ Niko wanted to respond, but had to dodge back from one of the other tall gob’s swings. A sword that resembled a not-so-crude gladius almost grazed his chest from the tall gob, an arrow still sticking out of its eye socket and chest. Crooked, sharp teeth were bare to see as the vile thing tried to close on Niko once more. 

The sword grazed him again, before Niko felt he had enough of its measure to attack. They were faster and stronger than the short gobs, but the real threat was the increase in their range with arms being slightly longer even than a human adult. Still, they lacked finesse, and as the goblin tried to bring another swing around with all the fury of a crack-addict, Niko stepped into its range and slammed his beak straight on through the other eye, popping its head open with a well placed Sharp Strike. 

Ronald finished off another, as yet another frontliner dispatched wounded goblins. The second wave of them all were scrambling to get up, at least those that had survived. Their casualties were greater than the first, the ranged lines realizing they needed to increase the firepower to put them down. Even so, Niko immediately had to move in to fight another pair of tall gobs as a third wave climbed over the defensive battlements with their spindly limbs.

“Ice Volley!” A voice cried out, and Niko felt the air chill as a continuous stream of thirty centimeter long, thin spikes zipped through the air with a keening sound as though the air itself was being cut. The spikes hit home on the incoming wave of goblins, burying six or more spikes into them, and sent them crashing back over the wall. Niko heard screeches of anger and, surprisingly, pain as the volley continued to strike over the wall, guided by an unseen hand

. Niko grappled down the tall gob in front of him, dodging its snapping jaws twice before he stabbed it repeatedly in the skull, needing multiple strikes this time to bring it down. Standing up with a slight wobble, Niko turned to find the mage, and found a woman with a simple brown overcoat and straps. Her gear completely jarred the image of some white and blue dressed cryomancer that his mind had conjured up. Nevertheless, he cawed in thanks, to which she simply nodded.

It was then that Niko heard words that weren’t words, coming through clearly to his ears somehow even through the din past the barricade. The goblin’s tongue seemed to draw the frontline of the horde back as it spoke, and Niko felt a chill race down his spine at the sense of strangeness–and familiarity–that the words gave him.

“Ronald, shield us now and back up!” Niko cried out loudly, darting backwards so fast that the others on the defensive line took notice. They, too, stepped backwards, having already had enough practice with sheltering from explosives for one day. 

Ronald didn’t even need a translator for him to flare his defensive shield wide, soon joined by any other defense that the other frontliners could muster. The ranged combatants drew in closer, and Niko felt like they’d made the right call when he realized that not a single goblin was trying to come over on their side.

And then, suddenly, a blast of red that smelled like iron and copper hit the barriers and splintered them like sticks. Red eyes and tall, much more filled out goblins, charged forwards, every step like a crashing truck. Niko could see the essence that covered them, unlike anything he’d ever seen, it was less like another layer of armor now and more like a superimposed image of an unknown number of other beings. They were nearly swimming in what appeared to be blood, and as more and more blood seemed to slough up out of the bodies of the fallen, Niko realized what he was seeing. 

‘They’re using their fallen as fuel? What the peck, is the hornets playbook common or something? Alterra, come on, this isn’t fair!’ Niko felt the thick gob’s were probably supposed to be tier three, but whatever crazy doping they were undergoing completely blew any estimate he could make out of the water.

“Everyone together! To me!” Ronald bellowed, not daring to glance backwards to see if his order was being heeded, “Bring these big bastards down!”

The opposite side of the tunnel suddenly exploded in much a similar way, and Niko looked back to see that most people had similarly abandoned that defensive emplacement. Some hadn’t, though, and they were beset immediately by tall gobs that swarmed in behind the thick gobs. 

“Dawr Champions,” Skye scoffed with a sardonic laugh, “And a Dawr Shaman, if I had to guess.”

Niko looked over to her, seeing that her expression was tight with worry in spite of her tone. ‘Peck… This is pretty bad, then, isn’t it?’ 

The answer came as the Dawr Champions, formerly thick gobs, charged forward with bone rattling bellows. There were fourteen in all, but only the seven on their side were going to hit Ronald’s barrier and the other various assorted defensive works in position.

At the last second, Thokk rippled the earth underfoot, jutting up a slab granite in the way of the Champions. Their feet crashed through the stone, actually shattering it–much to Niko’s dismay–on their way through, but it bled off their momentum just enough. Much finer–and larger–weapons slammed into the barriers, and Niko heard Ronald groan at the impact. He couldn’t spare the time to see how things were on the other side, but judging by the cries of shock, they hadn’t fared as well.

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“We need to kill them fast! They’re the backbone here!” Niko cried out for any of the beasts near him, knowing that Sasha at least was with him. “The rest are just tall gobs and the shaman!” 

“With you!” Sasha snarled out, already moving with Niko as he threw himself forwards to the first Champion. The Dawr Goblin was a slab of muscle, just over two meters in height. Niko beat it in size, but not by much, though in weight he was still the greater. Even so, he had zero confidence in being able to bring the blighter down to its knees by sheer impact. Essence boiled off of him, and the black blood almost looked like it was thick and stiff on its frame, not unlike the actual sparse plate armor it wore.

Niko belted out a point blank Call in its face as it wound up to strike, diving deep into his desire for battle inherent in his Phorus’ blood, and tried to focus it for good measure. The goblins' swing stuttered as blood suddenly flowed from every orifice on its head, the weapon actually nearly going slack enough to fall out of its hands. Considering it was a double-headed axe, Niko would have counted that as even more of a win.

Yet, in the next moment, something strange happened with the essence on its body, surging inwards as a prodigious rate into the injured area. Niko didn’t waste time to see what happened, instead burying his beak deeply into the champion’s eye. Even with the Sharp pattern going, it felt like trying to dig into a tree with a screwdriver. 

Luckily, Sasha’s attack was remarkably more successful. The Sabretooth slashed through the back of its legs, essence coated claws seeming to be able to carve just enough to hamstring the thing. The champion fell forwards with Niko dragging him, and the its axe fell to the side, the blind groping of a gurgling, confused goblin trying to pry the bird out of its noggin. Sasha wasted no time in pouncing on its back, essence pattern flooding her species’ namesake with power. She sank her sabre teeth into its neck, cracking through bone and–

“Why isn’t it dying!?” Niko shouted as a meat fist knocked him away from the goblins skull. Rearing back to strike again, Niko hit the creature hard in the back of the head, Sharp Strike carving a groove into the bone, but not getting through. Sasha, on its back, was raking with her hind legs much like Niko had done before, tearing ribbons of flesh from bone and hitting its ribs. 

Then it gurgled something resembling a battlecry, forcing itself onto its knees while trying to reach out with an arm, flailing and failing to grasp onto Sasha. Niko could see the flesh coming together, but he couldn’t exactly call it healing per se. Scar tissue rapidly covered where the wounds had been, and even its ruined eye was covered over with an opaque membrane that Niko didn’t think was normal for a healing wound. ‘Hell, eyes don’t heal that kind of damage, that thing was gone. It’s straight up regenerating like a budget Wolverine,’ A flabbergasted Niko ducked down, Sharp pattern still charged, as he cut through the tendons on the champion’s elbows. He went down again, gurgling more angrily, and this time reached to try to catch Niko with not-yet healed arms.

Beyond their fight, the tall gobs were beginning to swarm around, and for a second Niko feared he was about to be overwhelmed. Before that could happen, though, Dachna strode forward, throwing Lure daggers into their midst, striking goblins in the neck with serrated and hooked blades. Given how durable they were, Niko didn’t think the strikes would be fatal, but it slowed patches of the oncoming horde. The ice mage from before threw out long ice lances that exploded into patches of frost, freezing blood and water alike and sending goblins skittering clumsily across newly frozen surfaces.

Niko spared a glance backwards, seeing Ronald and Skye taking on another of the champions, only this one was still armed. That champion's blade looked like a sword that was trying to be an axe with a perpendicular spike of metal that protruded outwards several centimeters below the sharp tip of the blade. They were doing well enough, but the same could not be said of everyone. 

On the other side, especially, where their barriers hadn’t held, absolute chaos was ensuing, with everyone doing their best to cover themselves and each other. The champions waded into the groups, forcing them apart where the tall gobs could do even more damage. In the brief glance he had, Niko saw that there were fewer people than before. Given the circumstances, he had to imagine that they were dead.

Niko turned back to the champion, voice cold as he said, ‘I need you dead now.’ And reared up, digging deep into his essence. With Sasha holding the champion down, its tendons grotesquely worming their ways back into position to something resembling healed, Niko was able to dig his talons into the stone deep. His leg pattern flared violently as he crammed as much essence through it as it could take. 

This time, when Niko brought his head down, he could hear the air whistle past his ears as he threw himself into it fully. With a solid, painful crack, Niko felt his beak break through the back of the champion's head and keep going, blasting through in a shower of gore. The strike kept going, though, and Niko slammed his face straight into the stone, blasting through stonework like a pick-axe. Niko cringed in pain, feeling his beak throbbing painfully at the far too-hard attack. 

Niko felt the essence that had been part of the champion's body begin to retreat, but this time Niko didn’t allow it to happen. With every fiber of his being, he threw his own essence into the mix, wrestling it down and pulling it into himself. It was like trying to fight with an ocean wave while holding onto a wide wooden board, but somehow he managed to seize it, pulling it down into his depleting reserves.

Then he felt the flare of two things deep in his soul as the essence touched into the reservoir that sat deep within his being. Like ravenous animals, the ‘gifts’ of Alterra and Venris tore into the energy, and only then did Niko realize what he’d felt in the mix. A deep, tonal shuddering rocked through Niko, before seeming to expand outwards towards the goblins all around. Niko fell from his feet like a puppet with its strings cut, and heard the panicked scream of what must have been the Dawr Shaman.

“The Great Warrior commands retreat! Back, fools! Do not anger him further, take flight!” The voice continued to almost scream, hysterically, as the goblins suddenly pulled back, a second and third champion falling to the combined groups even as they tried to escape. Ronald and Skye, tired, stood over the corpse of their own gigantic goblin.

Skye ran over to Niko, but the only thing he could feel was the distant sense of primal satisfaction from a connection between those that had blessed him, and a world-numbing rage from another. As the pool of essence was devoured, though, he felt that connection grow thinner and thinner, until it snapped altogether like a thread pulled between two ox carts. 

For several seconds, the defenders simply sat numbly, staring off into the darkness, before cheering erupted. Niko couldn’t share in the mirth, exhaustion sapping at his bones, but he did lift his head and let loose a low tone of celebration. 

“That was quite the strike,” Sasha flopped onto the ground next to Niko, ignorant or uncaring of the mess she was covered in.

“Thanks.” Niko chirruped, “If I had to name it, I’d call it the Sharp Strider Strike, has a nice ring to it. Hurts like pecking heck, though.” 

Sasha looked at the hole in the ground and back to Niko’s face, “I am not surprised, honestly.” 

Another body flopped down partly on top of Niko, Skye began whispering, “Are you okay? I felt something… different, from our mind-bridge just before they fled.”

Niko shook his head, before doing his best to speak with her only through his mind, “I think I just fed this Champions essence to Alterra and–” he stopped himself from saying ‘Venris’ at the last second, smoothing leading into saying, “–I’m pretty sure they felt it.” 

Skye looked quite unsettled by that revelation, responding with, “You… fed a Dawr Champion to the Great Mother?... Uh… Alright.”

Sharing a sympathetically strained smile, Niko tried and failed to move again. 

“I don’t know why they fled,” Ronald cut off the cheering, “But expect them to return. We are in… very bad shape.” Those that weren’t already wearing downcast expressions or openly weeping realized that there were several who had fallen in the last of the fighting. “Take our fallen in with us, they don’t deserve to rest among this filth. We need to reinforce the entrance into the tunnels as much as we can. Hopefully, the geomancers can spare some people.” 

Tiredly, and with tempered spirits, the guards and guildsmen alike gathered their fallen. 

All the while, Niko was stuck with his own thoughts, a deep seated dread that he did his best to hide from his connection to Skye. Because, if there was anything that might get both of his blessings acting like that, and cause the goblins to panic so hard, it could almost definitely mean only one thing.

‘There’s a God behind these Dawr. And I’m pretty sure I just took some food from their plate. Or maybe just swallowed a piece of them. Either way, I’ve read enough Greek mythology to know that’s not going to just go away. Peck me, this is not how I expected to run into one of these guys.’ Niko groaned to himself, uncertain what exactly he’d just jammed into his gullet, and what the goblins were going to do from here. ‘I suppose it’s too much to ask that they just go away, right?’ 

“C’mon, Niko, let’s go.” Skye said, hefting herself up, “The alchemists are about to deploy the poison, so our job is nearly done.” 

Niko shook his head of darker thoughts, forcing himself to his feet unsteadily, gradually feeling his body refill with essence that felt somehow more than it was before, if only fractionally. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but he supposed that he’d probably already passed the point of no return. Wordlessly, Niko trailed after Skye, only glancing backwards at the carnage they’d left behind. 

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