Chapter 11

  A Sharp Whistle And Orchestrated Chaos

  The cracks ran deep, from the surface to its long-dead heart. Veins without blood branched through stone, unbidden by what remained of its will. There are many questions left unanswered, but few that must be answered soon. What happens when that, too, is no more? When nothing is left but the memory, yet the memories can no longer reach the stone? What becomes of my once great tower? ~ An excerpt from the notes of the Architect Ascendant

  * * *

  Nik was still gasping for air and trying to regain control of his panicked state as he woke Pearl from her slumber. “What is going on? Are you okay?” she asked.

  Nik replied through gasping breaths, “I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Screams. That direction.”

  Pearl looked to the direction of his gesturing and back to him. “You are not fine. Please, tell me what is happening?” she pleaded.

  Nik used the mantra that had failed him in his nightmare, and for the first time within earshot of his friend, whispered “Think of the leaves.” He repeated it until his breaths had begun returning to his control. The worry on her face at the state he was in had left him feeling more weak and small than he’d felt since the day he left his home.

  Unable to face the topic she would want to discuss, he left her with no time to talk. Nik turned his back to her. He picked up a scared and confused Ryan from the ground, and placed him on a shoulder.

  Nik collected his gear and said, “We need to investigate, other things can wait.”

  Although the worry that was still present on her features twisted his gut, she’d given him a nod in response.

  They crept in the direction of the sounds, expecting to hear the destructive din of battle, but there was none of its loudness. It was quieter than it should have been. The screams had become subdued in their intensity. Nik and Pearl had drawn near enough to their source that they could hear the sobbing wails the screams had become.

  Stakes had been driven into the ground, with clusters of rope anchored to them. Bound by these ropes were two dozen goblins. A whole clan. Old and young, but none in between, were huddled together in terror. Their warriors lay at the feet of adventurers, some dead and some severely wounded.

  Quest Received!

  Rescue the goblins

  Reward:

  75 XP and 5 copper coins

  Nik’s blood boiled in his veins and his hands began to shake. Why would they do this? What could they have to gain by tying up the children and the elderly? His breaths grew shorter and louder as he looked on at the cruelty.

  Pearl alighted onto his shoulder, pressing a hand to his cheek as she whispered, “Be calm, Nik. We need a plan.”

  He tried to control his breathing, using his mantra to calm his mind. He couldn’t let himself be rash. His wasn’t the only life in danger here. They needed to be smart about this. The resources they had on hand were minimal, just his gear and their abilities.

  “How many adventurers do you see?” he asked.

  “I can see four of them.”

  “I thought there were too many of them when I counted three. But we have to do something. I don’t know how many of the wounded we can save, but if we don’t try soon, we never will,”

  Nik said. He took count of how many had fallen; at least seven goblin warriors were either among the dead, or were soon to join them. One of the blades that lay next to a fallen warrior was tinged in crimson. Good, at least one of the adventurers is wounded, he thought.

  Nik drew a deep breath in and said, “It’s time to test out my new earth ability. I’ll draw them away, you save the prisoners. I’ll meet you back at last night’s shelter. Oh, and take Ryan with you; this will be dangerous. Have one of the goblins carry him, but please watch over him. Help the injured warriors if you can.” He sat the tiny dragon on the ground, and when Pearl started to protest, he held up a hand. “Trust me, Pearl, I have a plan,” he told her with a smile.

  Nik went from tree to tree, keeping himself hidden as he made his way around from his friend. Black Tower’s shadow fall over you, you stupid little kobold. What are you doing? You have no plans, whatsoever, in your tiny brain, he thought. I don’t know how to go about surviving this situation, but doing nothing would be the wrong thing to do. I would have wanted someone to try for my clan, but they’re gone. I’m here, though, and I won’t stand by, hiding, he told himself, building up the courage to act.

  It was as if the forest floor had fewer small rocks than usual now that Nik looked for them. He found five of them appropriately sized for his untested ability; any bigger, and he could tell on instinct that they wouldn’t work. Nik placed his spear and four of the five stones into his inventory, and then selected his target.

  From his newer angle, Nik could see the adventurers more fully. He could now see the fourth one that Pearl had seen before; he was injured. A small trickle of the human’s blood ran down from his side, and his lower thigh had also been struck by the goblin’s blade. Nik watched on for a moment as he devised his plan. He closed his eyes and took in slow deep breaths, counting out a dozen heart-beats, and put his shield and spear into his inventory. No more hiding. It’s time to act, thought Nik, as he opened his eyes and lifted his hand, palms up.

  The small piece of stone shot from his hand faster than he’d ever seen anything else move. If he hadn’t been focused on the rock, then even he might not have seen its path. It struck the closest target in the ankle, and the elf fell to one knee, crying out at the unexpected impact.

  The elf’s friends looked at them as he cursed at the pain of his new injury. Nik withdrew another stone from his inventory and aimed for the elf’s head. Critical hit, the stunned symbol lit beside his head. Yes! 10 MP down already, but this ability is incredible, he exclaimed inwardly.

  He needed to draw their full attention now, so he stepped into their line of sight as he activated Stone Bullet a third time. This time, he shot it at a second target’s knee, and it twisted to the side, causing him to stumble. He shouted out, “You can’t understand me, but I’m the distraction!” They can see me now. Oh, Black Tower, they can see me now, thought Nik. He turned on his heel, and sprinted.

  From the shouts, he knew they followed. Three of them had leg injuries, but the fourth of their number could still easily outrun him. He would need to attempt to fix that problem. Turning, he shot out another Stone Bullet. An impressive crack rang out as it launched bark off of the tree it had hit.

  He missed, and they were getting even closer now. They returned fire with a bolt of electricity that launched past Nik’s head. Bright light blinded him as the tree ahead exploded into flames.

  Nik turned to face the direction of his opponent, ducked low, and sent out a crescent-shaped blade of wind from each hand. They sliced through air a foot from the ground, side-by-side. A dagger or sword clanged off of a rock nearby, thrown from his enemy’s hand. Nik was still blinded as the enemy tumbled into him. There was a mess of limbs trying to restrain him, as his vision was fading back from white. A notification window popped up to block his already limited vision.

  He slipped under an arm and tried to roll away, but hands grabbed at his foot. He kicked in the direction of his enemy, but it didn’t cause the grip to loosen. He was out of mana, and running low on options. The adventurer yanked on his leg, making him slide back towards them. Nik withdrew the spear from his inventory, and thrust.

  The point of the spear sank through their abdomen and exited their lower back. The two of them rolled to the side. Nik’s grip on the spear pulled him into an upright position as they swapped places. While the adventurer was in a moment of shock from their injury, Nik yanked the spear out, and a spurt of blood sprayed his face. The smell and taste of iron made Nik gag as he climbed off of the disoriented adventurer.

  He swiped notifications away, and resumed his flight. He could hear the others approaching, getting closer to their friend. Nik continued running in the direction they had seen him fleeing in. He ran for long enough to make sure that he was out of sight, and not a heartbeat longer before circling back towards the goblin warriors. The distance felt farther on the way back than it had traveling in the other direction, and Nik’s lungs were burning once again.

  By the time he made it back to where the goblins had been, only five of the bodies remained on the forest floor. Nik looked around the area to be sure there were no other survivors, and then he saw it.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  There were broken twigs and marks where small grooves had been carved into the dirt and leaves. They had left a trail behind as they fled. He complained to himself, thinking I seriously need another plan already? Come on… Alright, it is what it is, now, think, think, think. The last thought played over and again in his head as he scanned the area. He didn’t have much time. So, he just started grabbing everything in sight.

  He would place a hand on a sword, and it would disappear. A dagger, gone. A shield, three spears, four lengths of rope, and lastly, the four wooden spikes that had held them in place, it all went in. He moved from the loose gear and on to what the fallen goblins still had on them. Even though he knew it needed to be done, he struggled with the idea of looting the corpses of victims.

  “I’m so very sorry that I have to do this. In death, you will still help your loved ones through me,” he said. Everything from belts and leather straps to the contents of pockets; each item had vanished as Nik placed them into his inventory.

  Following along the path made by the goblins, Nik kept his eyes open for any useful locations for traps. He was finally going to make use of the first skill he had ever gained. It only took a short while to find a spot where the trail had cut through the middle of two shrubs. Their crossed branches covered two feet’s worth of the path from view. With the knowledge of basic traps imparted by the trapper skill, Nik went to work.

  * * *

  “We were having so much fun today, until that little green, dungeon trash-lizard showed up and messed with us,” Mark said to his frat brothers. It hurt him to breathe, much less move. There was no way he would be able to keep up with the others, even with their leg injuries. He swept his straight, shoulder-length black hair out of his eyes, and dragged his hand over tawny fair features.

  Half of their supplies were stolen and so were their prisoners. There were slave traders on the higher tiers that would have paid several silver coins for each healthy goblin, too. “That’s it, guys, I’ll buy a case of beer for whoever kills the little jerk that did this,” he told them.

  “I just want our stuff back,” Neal replied.

  “Easy for you to say, mate. You didn’t get hit by a rock moving at freaking lightspeed, and you killed the goblin that stabbed you,” said Raj in his Manchester accent as he rubbed his bruised knee.

  Unfortunately, not one of them was a divine knight, and none of their injuries would allow for them to run without pain. This would be a slow pursuit, but they were going to kill that kobold and get their prize back. They bandaged what they needed to, or at least what they could, then gave chase. The path was obvious, even from having only taken a brief look around their improvised campsite.

  Pulling his hood up to cover his blonde head and palming a pair of daggers, Jason took the lead. Raj drew one of his shortswords, and kept the other hand free as he followed. Neal, who had been ever obsessed with Raj’s ethnic heritage, gripped a double-bladed katar in his right hand. He’d explained it away by saying that the silver handle looked cool against his ebony skin, but they knew he just wanted to play with the Indian weapon.

  The three of them followed the path left behind by their escaped prisoners. It was easy enough a route for Jason to track; it rarely broke, and when it did, even that was only for a matter of feet.

  “Aside from the kobold, all they have are frail old goblins and young ones. They couldn’t have gotten far,” he told the others behind him, as a rock flew through the air.

  It plinked lightly off of his chest, leaving behind a hint of the lightest sting. That stupid kobold threw another rock at me, his mind raged. “Oh, that’s it! You’re a dead lizard. Do you hear me, little lizard? You are dead!” Jason screamed as he took off from the others, running on his bruised ankle; that pain only made him more angry. The path ahead was clear, save for some shrubs the goblins had walked through, and that was where the kobold had gone, too.

  He forced his way past the branches and twigs; his foot caught and his body was falling, carried forward by his own momentum. Iron gleamed from the ground. He found himself unable to breathe. He tried to call back to his friends, but no sound came from his lips.

  His head spun as the world wobbled around him; an ocean of emptiness washed over him in crushing waves, and his vision faded to black.

  “Wait for us,” Raj had called out, but the hazel-eyed Jason was already gone. He and Neal would have to try to catch up. He shook his head and said, “Come on, Neal. Let’s go keep Jason out of trouble.” They jogged at the pace they were able, and luckily, Jason hadn’t run very far ahead. He was on the other side of a patch of underbrush, crouched over, and probably looking at the tracks.

  They slowed their steps as they drew near. Blood covered the dirt and leaves. He wasn’t moving. “Jason, you alright there, mate?” Raj called out as they crept cautiously around the outside of the shrubs, and worked their way around one of the larger of the emberwood trees.

  There was a rope staked to the ground on either side of the path. Iron gleamed in the daylight; the sword’s hilt and a quarter of its blade sat buried in the center of the trail. The other end was buried in Jason’s chest, the only thing propping his body up.

  Moments passed, and the body of their thief sank through the ground, like sand passing through a sieve. “He’ll be back in the town of Graywater within the next 10 minutes. And now we’ll have to either respawn, or travel all the bloody way back there,” Raj said, his face wrinkled with frustration. He slammed fist against the ground, and spit out, “This whole situation is ridiculous. How could one kobold do all of this?”

  “It’s not acting like a normal monster. Did they add some sort of area mini-boss in the last update?” Neal replied.

  Raj considered the implications, and said, “If they did that, then maybe we should bring in more people. You go back to Mark, and I’ll try to gather more intel. I’ll meet the two of you back in town.”

  Neal let out a sigh, looked back at the half-buried blade that had held their party member from the ground, and said, “Try not to lose any XP, like Jason did.”

  Raj winked and said, “No promises, see you in a few days, bruv.” They parted ways, with Neal shaking his head as he returned to their party leader. Neal opened his party chat and sent a message explaining the situation to Mark. Raj drew his off-hand sword, and slowly moved forward along the path.

  Raj had been following the path for a while now, but little changed along the trail the goblins had left. He tried his best to move quietly. The noise a person made always sounded loudest when they were trying to make the least of it, though. He thought, There hasn’t been any sign of another trap, but I’m going to end up stepping right into it when there is one. I need to be smarter. He left the path, taking an angle to the right and following along parallel from there.

  Hopefully, I can glean enough information from this little solo adventure that we can gain some advantages against this thing, especially if it is some sort of new miniboss. Besides that, even if... His thoughts were cut short by a whistle from behind, and all around him, a chorus of cackling laughter rose. What in the Black Tower did I just run into?

  He turned to run and a spear glanced off his left shoulder. A blade of wind slashed across the back of his studded leather as dozens of small rocks pelted his back and sides.

  Another spear came at him and he barely swung his blade in time to knock it to the side. He saw it then, a red cloak hiding green scales.

  He ignored the stones being thrown and lunged towards the kobold.

  * * *

  Nik had sat in confused silence as a dark-haired human with a slight limp walked within arm’s length of him. He almost acted then, since they were obviously trying and failing to be stealthy. He held himself back from acting prematurely, until they moved into the correct area to be within striking range of the others. We all just need to follow the plan, and everything will turn out fine, he had thought. Just a few more steps… Then he let out a sharp whistle, and orchestrated chaos broke loose.

  He’d missed with the thrown goblin’s spear, and now a human with two swords had just lunged at him. Nik leapt back, withdrawing the gifted spear from his inventory. The instant his feet touched the ground, he fell into a crouch and swung his spear at his opponent’s shins.

  They jumped into the air slashing downward across Nik’s face. He cried out as his blood sprayed off of the tip of his enemy’s blade.

  Nik’s mind was racing, I can’t keep this up, I need to find a weak point. His enemy lunged again, and Nik retreated another step. He fought defensively now, blocking the next two strikes with the shaft of his spear, but his enemy was stronger and quicker than he was. The adventurer’s leg shot out, and struck him in the chest, and his back bounced off of the tree behind him.

  Nik was struggling to keep up as another two attacks came in rapid succession, and his spear was knocked aside for the incoming third slash. The blade bounced off of the shield Nik had barely summoned from his inventory in time. His enemy did a stutter step away from him, favoring one leg as he retreated from the range of Nik’s spear.

  This is the one I hit in the knee, he realized. Nik didn’t waste a single breath more as he launched himself at his opponent. He faked a short stab to one side and then their other. He juked to the side of their injury.

  As his enemy did their best to recover from placing too much weight on a badly bruised joint, Nik ducked low as flame burst from a wildly swung blade. His feet were planted, and his arm extended to create a solid line from his back foot to the spear’s tip.

  His feathers were singed by the heat as he thrust his spear forward to carve a path through the short distance between them, and through his enemy’s throat.

  Nik let go of the spear as the adventurer fell and remained silent as the goblins cheered. A bell chimed and the corresponding box of text popped up on cue. Nik swiped it away to join the others he had yet to read. He stood in silence over the body of the human and allowed himself a moment to breathe after the physical and mental strain of combat.

  Pearl made her way over to him to check the severity of his wounds, and a goblin carried Ryan to him shortly after. Reunited with his friends, he returned the tiny dragon to his shoulder. This isn’t over. These goblins aren’t safe yet, he thought. He looked at their clan, celebrating a battle won, and raised his voice to call over the loudness of their victory cries. He moved to stand on a raised tree root, which put him just over the level of goblin height.

  “It isn’t the time for celebration, yet. That time will come later,” he shouted.

  There were questions called out from the crowd. “Are we not safe,” called out one. “Are there more coming,” called out another.

  Nik raised his hands to try to quiet the barrage of concerned goblin voices. He continued the speech that the moment demanded of him, saying, “Adventurers don’t stay dead, and there are two others that didn’t follow us here. Black Tower knows they will come, and maybe in higher numbers. We need to get to somewhere that is hidden and safe.”

  “The demand I’m about to make is one that I would never ask lightly of a goblin. The situation is serious and we have, at most, days to find a way to survive. So, we have come to the only solution that I can think of.” He stood there, resolute, with Ryan on one shoulder and Pearl hovering over the other.

  Nik looked into every set of eyes that gazed back into his own with as much confidence as he could fake. In a surprisingly clear and commanding voice, he said, “You’re taking us to your burrow.”