Chapter 28: Damn Forest Goblins

It would have been a waste of a night if we didn’t go at it like rabbits. I had Maelise all to myself, and there was no telling when we’d ever get the chance to share each other’s exclusive company again. So I made it count, where she showed me why she deserved me all to myself. I had to admit, for a virgin girl, she was a damn good lay. Maelise was talented with her tongue, her lips, her fingers, and that damn tail of hers.

All of that messing around rewarded me with more than a good night’s sleep after. Riot Slash Attack was loaded under my special skills. It was a technique for my Executioner, one that I couldn’t wait to use. And once the invisible alarm clock in my head woke me up, I and my party hit the trails bright and early to capture another artifact.

The sooner the better. We had two nights to rescue Lady Lust, and I didn’t want to waste another second lounging about. Our next stop was Pride’s country, Aganthago. We needed to head to Teppa Forest, in Zerd.

After we said our farewells to the kind family, we made our way to an open area where Pochi could ascend, except it wouldn’t be that easy. Nothing in Relo-Hell really was. I noticed a band of women and men without cargo and horses. I assumed they were local Litheenians, who had no problem walking straight for us.

I stood in front of my party, where I noticed the two daggers to the brawler-looking one’s hips. His hair was short and hot like fire, his face full of freckles, and his clothes blotched and torn. To be honest, he looked like a field worker, but judging by the aura around him, I knew he approached us with ill intentions.

“Travelers, what brings you to Enni?” he said in a rusty baritone.

I looked over to the two women and the two men behind him with a squint, holding the bright sunny rays from stinging my eyes, and then answered him bluntly, “What business is it of yours?”

He snorted. “Looking to see if we both have the same interest.”

“And that is?” Emera asked with attitude, her hands falling at her sides.

“Recovering the location of Dera-Dera, Lord Kurrun’s concubine.”

My throat went dry when I heard that name again. What’s more, that answer revealed that they were in fact here to spill blood. Because from what I remembered, Greed had promised the town who located Dera protection. Which essentially pinned every district in Litheenia against each other.

“We aren’t looking for Dera,” I answered him truthfully.

Then the brute head looked down my hand, and grunted. “You ought to cover that up. You don’t want just anyone knowing who you are.”

“I am unthreatened by anyone,” I said, a tad condescendingly but it was true. “Once we reach outside Litheenia, I will play it smart. But here, I wear this crest out in the open, as I should be allowed to do.”

“Arrogance,” he hissed. “You know, I don’t act nice to liars.”

“That’s good to know. But we aren’t lying to you,” Emera said.

“You’re our goddess’s blood squire. And judging by your aura, you ain’t strong enough to fight Lord Kurrun head on. Which means that you’re lookin’ for Dera, too!”

He moved his hand to his dagger, and I moved mine to my loaded shotgun. “It’s in your best interest to remove you and your party out of our path,” I warned him.

He gave me a devilish grin. “You would like that, wouldn’t you? Just so you can slither back to your town and snatch that free ticket to freedom from right under our noses!”

“If you were smart, you’d be able to sniff a lying goat.”

“I’m looking at one right now!” he growled.

“I don’t have time to talk to stupid people who honestly believe that Greed would follow through with such a promise. If you enjoy Greed yanking your chain, so be it. He won’t deliver you any salvation for giving him the only thing that’ll ensure his dominion over Earth.”

“You can kiss my ass, you selfish bastard!” he grunted, then his party sprung just as he did. 

A confrontation with more Litheenians wasn’t what we needed right now. But he was bent on us trying to cash in on that ridiculous prize, no matter how foolish it sounded aloud. They were dense, even dangerous. Despite that fact, I didn’t want to take their lives.

Truth be told, I was actually shocked that he’d engage Lady Lust’s blood squire without hesitation. The asshole didn’t even bother looking at my stats. He went in full throttle, and I was determined to stop him. Unfortunately for us, he was packing in more heat than I expected.

I thought that I’d be able to whip him with the butt of my gun and knock him out. He dodged my attempt at neutralizing him, and tackled me head on. I wasn’t prepared for that, and the underestimation was my fault. And while Emera, Maelise, Pochi and Faye engaged the others, I had my hands full with this heavy ass prick.

I went for my dagger, but he already had his armed, slicing me right at my ear just as I escaped him stabbing my neck. With his sword lodged in the ground, I sliced under his wrist, making him lose all mobility with that swinging arm. He drew back only an inch, and I capitalized, bucking him right off of me. I planned on giving him a warning shot as soon as I got on my feet, so I fired, and he rebelled it with a wind trait, right into Faye’s chest.

“FAYE!” I cried and Pochi did too, my chest thumping in a heated panic. Those seconds felt like hours, my white mage slowly falling on the ground, with my bullet lodged in her heart.

I went numb. Emera screamed something to me in the background, but I didn’t hear any of it. As a matter of a fact, I didn’t hear anything, nothing but this sharp siren in my head telling me to slaughter them all.

They were not after peace, but carnage. And I was happy to pay them in kind, with my Riot Slash attack.

Once Maelise ducked for cover, they were all lined up for me, so very imperfectly. I swung my blade overhead, and struck the ground hard, a narrow surge of energy exploding out of my strike. It sliced through each one, at different points, including the stubborn mule who sliced my ear. Some of his men lost an arm or a leg from the slicing gust of energy, some unlucky ones like their leader got a nice bilateral cut dead center. I didn’t hold back on my attack, where even the ground felt my unholy wrath.

Those lucky few who had only lost their wielding arm were due for a finisher, and I didn’t hesitate to pull my shotgun and pull the trigger. But Emera, she stopped me, making me miss my shot when she jerked my arm upward.

“That’s enough, Serrian,” she said softly as she stood behind me. “They understand.”

She was too forgiving…

The grip around my gun shook, anger simmering inside me. The two women who had survived made a quick run for it, my dilated eyes watching them as they scurried beyond the horizon. “They deserved death…” I whispered under my breath, before Faye’s gasp rushed my feet to her.

I locked my gun to my hip and dropped down to her by Maelise and Pochi, looking down at my white mage softly. “Faye, you’ll be all right,” I promised her, her face growing more and more pale by the second.

“B-b-butcher…” she stressed, her body seized with tremors.

I couldn’t let her lethal state wound me. I had to be her anchor, just like I’d promised her. It was my fault this had happened to her, and I apologized, before fishing for my dagger, eyeing the tip of it with the bullet. “I can see where it’s embedded. It’s a few centimeters deep. I need to remove it before you can heal yourself.”

“Do it. H-h-urry…”

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She was strong, Maelise holding her hand as she gritted her teeth and pressed her eyes shut to withstand the pain. At some point it became too much for her and she had to lash out with a loud scream, Faye jerking her head back as her body continued to convulse. I fished the bullet out, and then quickly took her hand to her bloody chest, prompting her to initiate her healing before she got too weak.

The emission from her healing brought me to rest. I didn’t know what I would have done if I’d lost Faye. Once she had enough strength to sit up next to me, I placed my hand on her shoulder gently, and asked her, “How do you feel?”

“Like… I came back from the dead.” She was still shaken up, but safe nevertheless. Maelise leaped on her with a tight hug, but she didn’t say much as she wiped her tears behind Faye.

That hug brought a smile on my face, to see Maelise putting aside her jealousy to comfort Faye. Then she sprung up and marched up to one of those bodies. “We outta loot those filthy bastards!” Maelise exclaimed with her fist in the air.

Emera walked over clacking her hooves, and then reached her hand over to Faye to help her up. “Glad you made it, priestess.”

+++

Despite our party being stirred, we had to push on. Maelise pocketed a couple of Nudas between all of the bodies we’d left back there, and a few mana bars for the road. She also got a gadget that none of us knew how to work, while the name on her inventory didn’t give us any ideas to what it was either. I said it might get us in trouble, but Maelise protested, saying it could be valuable. So she kept it in her stash, the five of us heading to the forest via wyvern express.

Mentality, I was still trying to shake Faye’s near death out of my bones. I sat behind her on Pochi, where she hadn’t said a word since the incident. Her body was riddled with goose bumps, making me feel even worse. I told myself to give her more time, and planned on talking to her alone when we descended.

After an hour more, we made it to Zerd in the Teppa Forest. The acreage on this place was massive, so we had to pair up, and made a plan to meet back in two hours along the forest line. It was me, Pochi and Faye, and Emera and Maelise. After the thirty minute mark, I tried talking to Faye, but she didn’t want to relive the moment, and preferred to preoccupy herself with snuggling Pochi for comfort instead.

Whatever made her feel better, I was all for it. Though, when me and my party reunited after two hours and came short, everyone started to lose morale. I instructed them to spread out further with a new rendezvous point, and adding another two hours of searching. I had to consider their stamina. If we couldn’t find the artifact during this round, I planned on finding ourselves somewhere to camp for the night, so we could search again early in the morning.

It sounded like that wouldn’t be a problem though, because I heard leaves crunching in the forest, and it wasn’t ours…

“We are being followed…” I whispered to Faye, and Pochi jumped from her arms landing by her feet. Ready to defend. The wyvern was angry, hissing at the shadows moving at the distance. This time, he didn’t want Faye getting in the fight, and truthfully, neither did I. “Stand behind us.”

Soon enough our threats began revealing themselves one by one. There were over two dozen of them, and we were in the middle of their circle.

Forest goblins… no taller than two to three feet high.

If I had to guess, I’d say that we had stepped into their territory, and they weren’t appreciative of surprise guests. They hissed and growled as they cautiously grew closer and closer, closing that circle in. When Pochi struck first with his wind breath, he had the right idea—forcing them to keep their distance. The first offense drove them wild, and I must admit, for a bunch of short demons, they were pretty well coordinated.

The first layer ran around us like a cyclone, while the second layer leaped into action. I took Pochi’s lead and used my Single Bullet Berserker, taking two for one specials. Unlike before, lining these guys up for a quick kill was hard. Not only were they short, they were incredibly fast on their feet. I tried the best I could to blast them away from Faye, but it was about time we got a little creative.

I had a gun in one hand, and a sword in the other. This unlocked a new meaning of dual wielding, but it worked. It was a son of a bitch single wielding that heavy ass sword, but I wasn’t going to let Faye get hurt again. My white mage covered herself with an extra layer of protection, standing there in her Light Shield while she watched us fight.

I sliced through goblins, my movement along the terrain restless. Pochi might have been slow, but the range he had with his ice breath made up for it. He had me covered, even after more of these goblins started pouring through. The next couple were a lot more aggressive, and they started spitting acid balls at us.

These next couple were also smarter, avoiding Pochi’s ice sweep. Instead, they forced him to be defensive, Pochi having a hard time dodging the acid balls. The trajectory on those things had me dancing too, completely nullifying any attempts of me using my stronger second special, Riot Slash attack. The start up on it would leave me open, so I was limited to my Single Bullet Berserk.

When our mana went low, Faye replenished us. I imagined Maelise and Emera having a hard time too, judging by how wildly the ground started to shake. Emera must have gone big on them for a faster execution, which was more than required without the party being all together.

But damn, these goblins were relentless. No matter how many times I slashed and shot, they kept on coming. I could tell that my stamina was dwindling away. I was breathing heavily through my mouth, my movement getting sluggish. The line I didn’t let them pass kept getting closer and closer to my space of safety. I might have to consider fleeing this flight. I knew my boundaries, and my party’s limitations as well. Faye was an amazing healer, but she could only restore a percentage of our mana at a time. There was nothing she could do about my stamina. Although, when she noticed the enemy rushing me down, she stepped up, encasing me in her shield, and used her Divine Blast for the first time.

Energy pulses escaped her palm, Faye shooting one by one like a jolt of lightning. The light show had a pretty gory aftermath, and for their size, the goblins’ explosions were even messier. They lit up like a star on a Christmas tree right before their guts blew up like fireworks, bathing poor Pochi in blood.

I did a terrible job by underestimating her again, Faye Belmauer taking out more bodies than I could count in one swift showdown.

The handful who witnessed her power escaped, whimpering—something about holy magic shaking them down to the bone. And I didn’t blame them.

“I’m not completely useless, you know,” she sassed me with a cheeky grin, Faye finally taking her shield down.

I scoffed. “Thanks.”

Pochi squealed, running to his surrogate mother, but Faye immediately jumped behind me, the smell on Pochi offensive.

“You cannot possibly think you can scurry over to me with that filth, can you?!” she cried, pinching her nose.

I snorted, and crouched down to Pochi to pick him up. “He was just excited that you made it out all right.” I turned to the little guy. “But foul is putting it mildly. Come on, I saw a stream not too far from here. We can w—”

“Let me stop you right there. You cannot say the words s-h-o-w-e-r, b-a-t-h, or w-a-s-h near him! He will make a run for it!” Faye warned me.

“Noted.” Pochi was in for a rude awakening regardless. As soon as we made it to the stream, he started having a few trust issues with me. I had to tussle with the little guy, Pochi staying true to his feline behaviors. But once I dunked him, he stopped fighting the inevitable.

As I washed him, he mellowed out, and all of that restless splashing stopped. From the looks of it, it seemed like we were both taking a bath, the wyvern showing me how he really felt about baths by soaking me with the cold water, too. But once the water calmed down, I got to see something beaming at me from inside of it. I squinted, and cocked my head to the side, realizing that I might have found the second artifact.

I reached my hand in, the water a lot deeper than I thought. I heard Faye say something behind me, but it was too late, the sneaky little reptile bumping my butt and pushing me into the water.

Payback—I didn’t think he had the balls to do it. I watched him flap his wings happily, cooing and mocking me. I gave him a dirty playful look, and before I could pull him in, he dashed to his mother’s feet.

“I’ll get you when you least expect it,” I said lightheartedly, then went fishing for the artifact, unlodging it from between two rocks in the bank. “Cotha. You were a bitch to find.”

“Butcher!” Faye beamed, taking a sigh of relief.

“Come on, let’s get out of here. I’m starving.”

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