I fell to the ground and was surrounded by a cloud of dust. A sharp pain shot through my foot. The dust was so thick that I couldn’t even see my injury. I may not have been able to see it… but I could guess. My foot was under the rocks that had collapsed… of that, I was sure.

  I reached down to feel if there was a way to free my foot. Once my hand got to my ankle all I could feel stones… stones that were way too heavy for me to lift.

  Smutisha: “Everyone alright? What in the hells happened?”

  Dwynfel: “A trap! They held up an unstable ceiling with beams and pulled the beams away to cause a cave in.”

  Dietrich: “Back, my lady. He has a knife.”

  We heard a few grunts from Dietrich… I assume she was dealing with the knife wielding goblin… but she is on the other side of the rock pile, so I can’t say for sure. The sound of goblins laughing started to resound through the cavern… the echo made it difficult to tell from what direction they were coming.

  Smutisha: “Clever of you to conceal a knife such as this, Darling. Although, given that your attire is simply a loin cloth… the mind reels in a number of unpleasant directions as to where you were concealing it.”

  Damecus: “They are coming.”

  Smutisha: “Right, okay, darlings. Seems I may have misjudged this one a tad, feel free to kill them.”

  Agaroth: “Aboot fuckin’ time!”

  The dust around me began to clear. I can see blood dripping from my ankle… but I don’t have time to worry about that… I need to assess what’s going on.

  Damecus: “An onslaught is coming. We do not have time to unblock the passage. Dietrich, Farrow, keep her safe.”

  Dietrich: “On it.”

  Farrow: “Oi.”

  Damecus: “The majority are coming from the tunnel in the floor. Phoenix, burn it. Keith, guard her.”

  Phoenix moved towards the tunnel. Keith took up a defensive stance by her side. The spear goblin that had been walking with him and Damecus went to run away.

  Keith: “Shit.”

  Damecus grabbed the goblin’s spear, which he had confiscated earlier, and threw it right through the goblin’s back.

  Damecus: “We do not have time for prisoners. Kill any Grim that you see… apart from Dwynfel.”

  Kiyui: “Are you okay, Dwyn?”

  Damecus: “Can you move?”

  Dwynfel: “My foot is stuck, I can’t move from this position.”

  Damecus: “Can you use your bow?”

  Dwynfel: “Yes.”

  Damecus: “Then provide cover. We will return your arrows as and when we can.”

  Cover them with my bow… I can do that… I don’t need to move to do that. This should be fine. Don’t panic… Damecus has this.

  Damecus: “Kiyui, light. I want to see every corner of this cavern.”

  Kiyui: “Illuminate!”

  As Kiyui spoke, the entire room was filled with light. Where had previously been black was now revealed to be the harsh grey stone walls of the cavern. Keith and I could see reasonably before… but the others would have been struggling and relying on torchlight.

  Damecus: “Agaroth…”

  As Damecus went to speak, a group of goblins emerged from the tunnel that we had entered from. They must have circled round from a different exit to take us from behind. Agaroth spun round and charged towards them. Damecus did the same.

  Damecus: “We shall deal with these. Keith, keep an eye on that other tunnel. If any come from there, we need to know about it. Kiyui, Dwynfel, pick off any stragglers.”

  Phoenix: “Dragon’s breath.”

  I turned to see an overwhelmingly powerful burst of flames emerge from Phoenix’s hammer. The flames shot right down into the tunnel in front of her… they licked at the walls of the tunnel and the screams of goblins began to echo throughout the cavern. I hate goblins… but even I find their screams as they burn alive to be unsettling.

  Damecus and Agaroth were decimating the goblins that tried to sneak in behind us. The sound of bones splintering and skulls being crushed could be heard all the way at the other side of the cavern, where I was stuck. They were unable to get to the tunnel entrance before several goblins had managed to get into the cavern and fan out however. Fuck… this is a large group. How many are in this nest?

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  I raised my bow to start picking off the ones that had managed to evade them. I do not have infinite arrows though; I need to choose my targets carefully. If Keith and Kiyui can take them down then I should let them. I should focus on assisting in emergencies. Kiyui will likely need more support than Keith. Then again… Kiyui does have Feiffer with him and Keith is trying to guard Phoenix while she burns the other tunnel… as a result, he isn’t as free to move around. Shit.

  I count three heading in Kiyui’s direction and five heading for Keith. Keith pulled out two throwing daggers. He threw them both in quick succession, getting one in the heart and another in the eye. The one he hit in the eye is screaming on the floor. It will be back up soon, but it has been delayed. Three on each side now. Kiyui can’t take three on his own, even with Feiffer.

  I drew my bow and took aim. Kiyui stood firm. Gripping his quarterstaff tightly, a look of determination in his eyes. I shot one of his attackers in the stomach, slowing him significantly and I hit another in the leg, causing him to drop to the floor. Didn’t kill any, but staggering them reaching Kiyui will be enough. Goblins are small and weak… Kiyui should be able to take them one at a time.

  Gods… the smell of burning flesh is seeping into the room from that tunnel. It is horrendously overpowering… it isn’t like when you cook meat on a stove. That meat is exsanguinated so you don’t get the smell of the blood… and blood smells so metallic… urgh.

  I turned my attention towards the goblins approaching Keith. Keith seems to be attempting to maintain his range, but also keep their attention so that they don’t head towards Phoenix. He has a short sword in a scabbard, but he hasn’t drawn it, he is instead using the throwing knives from his belt. It seems that as I was assisting Kiyui he has managed to take out another one with a knife to the chest. Another has a knife sticking out of its hand. It must have blocked one of his throws.

  The uninjured one has almost got to him; I should take that one out. I loosed one of my arrows and hit it right between the shoulder blades. Keith swiftly shuffled past the injured goblins and retrieved two of his knives from the chests of the dead goblins. The one I shot fell to the ground, struggling to breathe. I must have pierced one of its lungs.

  I have seventeen arrows left. I shouldn’t use them all as long as there aren’t any more large waves. I turned back to Kiyui who was smashing in the head of the last of his goblins with his quarterstaff. I knew he’d be fine.

  Keith: “Shit, Phoenix, move!”

  I looked back towards Phoenix and Keith to see a flask tumbling through the air in her direction… it had two types of fluid inside, one half yellow, the other green. Shit… explosive flask. Phoenix stopped her spell and went to back away, but she wasn’t fast enough. As the sound of the glass smashing resonated through the cavern, Keith dived in front of her and the fluids mixed together. The area erupted in flames and smoke… the sound was deafening.

  Smutisha: “What was that?”

  Dietrich: “You guys alright?”

  Damecus: “Unknown. They have explosives. Be on your guard.”

  Dietrich: “They aren’t using explosives on us. They think they can take us down with nets… it isn’t ending well for them.”

  That makes sense… those three are all women… they want to capture them… if they blow them apart then they can’t use them to expand the nest. Probably safe to assume that we don’t need to worry about them for now. They will be coming at us with everything that they have because, with the exception of Phoenix, we are all men and we are of no further use to them.

  Damecus: “Good. Then we need not worry about you. Agaroth, check on those two, now.”

  Agaroth: “Righty oh.”

  Damecus: “Kiyui. move in closer. I can’t contain all of them on my own. Some will slip past. When they do, destroy them.”

  Kiyui: “Will do.”

  Agaroth moved over towards the cloud of black smoke and Kiyui advanced towards Damecus… but he made sure not to get so close that he would be in the way.

  Agaroth: “Red! You in there?”

  Agaroth covered his mouth with some cloth and entered the cloud. Damecus continued swinging his club at any goblin that dared to enter the cavern from the entrance tunnel.

  Damecus: “Dwynfel, where did that explosive come from?”

  Shit, I didn’t see. I was focussing on the goblins in the room. It wasn’t any of them… which means it had to come from somewhere else… it couldn’t have been the lower tunnel; Phoenix was burning the shit out of that. Couldn’t have been the main entrance or the tunnel that I am stuck at… that leaves…

  Dwynfel: “The raised tunnel… it had to be… there aren’t any other entrances or ledges in here.”

  Damecus: “Shit, we need to get…”

  Agaroth: “Fuckin’ hell, this isnae good!”

  Agaroth emerged from the black cloud and headed in my direction. He was dragging Phoenix behind him and had Keith over his shoulder. Phoenix’s eyes were flickering and her head was bleeding.

  Dwynfel: “Is she alright?”

  Agaroth: “Her I can heal…”

  Agaroth flung Keith down on the ground next to me.

  Agaroth: “Him… he’s fucked.”