Turning back to the noble golden goblin, Joe caught the hint of a grimace on the goblin's face before the golden goblin controlled himself again. He waved an uncaring hand to the goblin king, which seemed to be quite a bit more concerned over the recent turn of events. The goblin king called forth another of the four champions. The mukfrog tried to step forward, but both the goblin king and the noble golden goblin pulled him back.
The slime came forward this time, following the order of the goblin king. Joe did little, simply settling in to wait. Slime. Blunt weapon inefficient. Pin with spear and aim for core. Spoon spear… No spoon spear, sword.
Joe’s main hand slipped the cudgel back into the sheath on his back and then returned the spear to his right hand, bringing up his left to shield himself. Once again, he slid to the side, forcing the slime to aim off angle from the length of the room. It’ll jump! Don’t want it to jump at the kids!
Joe positioned himself so that he had a pillar just behind him and tried to line the slime up to leap past him towards the columns. Aim leap! Joe fidgeted slightly for a few moments, shifting laterally to the oncoming slime as he lined it up. It would jump any time… Joe collapsed backwards into a roll and twist, back rolling smoothly on to the floor as his knees buckled under him. As he came upon his shoulder, he twisted the roll into a spin using his shoulder as a pivot then swung his legs to bring him back up on his feet facing backwards from his previous position.
Even as he gained his feet, instinct guided him as he slammed his spear in a long forward thrust. Slime straight ahead. Joe’s eye’s finally captured the scene in front of him even as began to make sense from the disorientation caused by the roll. The slime had splatted into the pillar and Joe’s spear thrust was piercing into the slime. The thrust was a bit low, but it was enough to pin the slime and Joe quickly added his left hand to the thrust, letting go of the shield’s grip and trusting the strap to hold it loosely to his arm. The spear thrust directly into the slime and clinked against the stone pillar.
When Joe felt the spear hit the pillar, he braced the spear with his entire left arm, wrapping the butt of the spear up under his armpit as he encircled the spear shaft with his left forearm while grasping it tightly. His right hand dropped to his waist and ripped out the sword quickly and sliced into the slime quickly. Joe knew the slice was ultimately worthless, but it would allow him to plunge the sword to a greater depth if he could reduce the slime’s mass.
Even as he held the slimed pinned sliced gelatinous mass off the slime, he pivoted himself around the pillar as he now had his back to the noble golden goblin and the rest of the monsters. His right hand kept rising and slicing off bottom portions of the slime, the ooze collapsing in a liquid rain to the floor.
Now! After four or five slashes, he quickly changed his last slash to a thrust and plunged his sword directly at the core. Just kill it. No time! The slime had urged its core upwards away from the slashes that were ripping chunks of ooze off, wishing to keep its core with the greater mass. His sword easily reached the core, only plunging in about half the length of the blade but still more than enough. The thrust was a struggle as two core slimes seemed to have a much stronger skin that resisted being punctured, but he was still strong enough to pierce it with more than enough momentum left over to make the thrust deadly to the core.
The slime reacted quickly, its body shivering, the entire slime mass oozing even as the core began a desperate if slow travel away and to the side of the path of Joe’s thrust. It didn’t matter. The mucous in the slime’s body did flow enough to slightly parry Joe’s thrust, but single and dual core slimes never had the strength of control in their mass to push Joe’s thrust off target. The sword did slide a little to the left of the core, but Joe simply kept pressing his thrust while simultaneously shoving the hilt to the right while twisting the blade, turning the point of his sword back in line with the core. The twist of the blade turned the blade edge on in the directly of the slice allowing the point to easily cut through the slimes mass and line back up with the core before Joe twisted the blade once again and turned the blade flat side on to the direction of the slime’s ooze flow, thus using the slime’s own effort to push his blade to the side to help get his blade back on target to the core.
Suddenly, the slime quivered, even as the edge of his blade nicked through the bottom edge of the core. The slime shivered for several long moments then Joe saw the core shatter into a brilliant flash of crystalline sparkles deep in the slimes mass even as Joe felt the experience wash over him.
When he saw the slime in its throes of death, he quickly sped up rotating around the slime, now no longer needing to use the sword but still pinning the slime against the pillar with his spear. With the wash of experience flooding through him, Joe took the moment to glance back up towards the golden goblin’s throne. The first image that caught Joe’s attention was the golden goblin standing, quivering with rage, but silent.
The next thing sent a freezing chill of cold sweat rolling across his body eve as he saw the other three monsters no longer in their place. The goblin king and the spark were advancing on him, but Joe could not find the mukfrog. His eyes glanced quickly, darting furiously to the columns across the way. Back to there, most likely location! Joe searched the single colonnade quickly as his glanced brushed down and towards the door and alcove where his friends crouched against the door. Even as his eyes captured a flicker of movement at the end of the row, Joe felt his mouth turn down in a grimace as he realized the mukfrog had made it all the way to the end and even now was slipping around the last column heading for the alcove where his friends cowered.
Joe leapt backwards, no longer concerned with keeping the slime pinned and only hoping that it was done for. Felt experience! Should be dead! He ripped the spear from the column and left the slime behind. He tossed the spear into the air and slipped his sword into his left hand. He didn’t want to drop the sword simply because it was going to be his only weapon soon. His right hand rose into the air and his eyes flickered upward to guide the catch, grabbing the spear out of the air before he once again bounced it in his hands once or twice to get the balance perfect as he reared backwards.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Even as he bowed his whole body backwards, he heard the goblin king shout in rage behind him but if the goblin king’s fight was similar to the last, he was too far to engage. Joe had plenty of time to turn and catch the goblin king’s charge. The roar did startle everyone, though, and his friends jumped, shocked out of their complacent and terrified viewing of Joe’s fight. They quickly realized that the mukfrog was coming for them just as the mukfrog turned in surprise at the goblin king’ raging shout.
Joe knew a flicker of annoyance flashed through him but he felt nothing, only compensating for the disruption. In fact, it was easier, as the mukfrog had frozen and begun to turn to look back down the hallway. Stationary target. Joe smiled, but didn’t notice, erupting forward with such speed and power that it almost seemed like Joe had simply shifted position from arm back, back bowed, to arm outthrust in front of him and body curled forward in a perfect javelin throw.
The spear sped through the air so quickly the mukfrog had no time to respond, his body still turning and eye’s only now widening as it tried to understand the goblin king’s cry. He’d reacted well, the curlicue of runes on its chest just beginning to light up for what Joe could only guess was protection when the spear took him in the upper chest, just above the line of the chest plate, plunging into the lower neck of the mukfrog.
Joe once again felt the wash of experience flow through him and turned back to face the last three, leaping away from the slime some more and placing himself back into the center rear of the room, blocking the way into the doorway alcove. He glanced at the slime and saw it had long fallen to the floor as a puddle and Joe felt some sense of peace as he realized the slime was dead. Hope the mukfrog is, too!
Joe almost glanced behind him to take in the mukfrog but decided to trust the system’s rush of experience and focused on the two still capable monsters. The goblin king and spark had rushed down the long hall, splitting to the left and right. The spark was on his right, still quite a ways down the hallway, but the goblin king had obviously charged at some point. At the slime? Or the mukfrog? Joe was uncertain, wishing he’d noticed, but could only assume the worst. Charged when I threw at the mukfrog. Fast! The goblin king had made it a good half way down the hallway but then had already stopped, rage twisting it’s features even as it backed up a bit.
Joe glanced up at the throne and dais but found the golden goblin unchanged from his last glance, although the golden goblin seemed much more enraged. Sign the mukfrog is dead? Goblin king is retreating, too? Joe watched the goblin king moving backwards and risked a backwards glance. The mukfrog lay in a pool of its own blood flat on its back with the spear falling to the floor even as he watched. The spear blade sliced through the throat of the mukfrog, the weight of its shaft tilting it to the side. The spear did not fall completely, however, the blade tip getting caught in a collar bone while the upper blade found itself bouncing against the jaw bone, no longer able to slice the rest of the way down.
Joe glanced forwards once more and took his options into consideration, reading the field. It seemed that he still only had to deal with the goblin king and the spark, the golden goblin still frozen on the dais. Why? Three versus one is much better than two? Joe didn’t like that the golden goblin was holding back. It had obviously decided that one on one honor fights were not its thing, so why not go all out with a three on one? The golden goblin’s reticence really sparked warning signals but Joe had two other opponents, no time, and too little data. His eye flickered back to the last two closing in on him. The spark moved towards his right while the goblin king angled to his left. The goblin king was obviously much faster than the spark, but it kept itself in line, making sure to threaten Joe simultaneously and equally. Joe’s mind began whirring through options.
Goblin king. Traditional combat. Spear? Spark. Need wood. Can’t use spear. Cudgel not very good against goblin king. Joe’s mind skittered through a couple scenarios before grimacing as realization came to him quickly: he wouldn’t be able to take them both on. Need to incapacitate one. How… asterix trap! No! Don’t have it. Need metal… spoon spear? No. Unavailable. Only spear. Sword too short… probably. Spear!
“Garnedell! Bring me the spear now! Now!”
Joe sidled backwards a few steps, reaching out with his left shield arm with his hand open. He glanced back once more to make sure the mukfrog was dead but quickly turned his eyes back to the front. He heard scrambling coming from behind him and the scuffling of running feet. It quickly reached the body of the mukfrog, Joe could only hope, since the running patter of feet had stopped.
The goblin king growled and leapt forward a couple of quick steps but then stopped and withdrew when Joe moved to cut him off, keeping the goblin king’s lines blocked and forcing him to still have to engage Joe. Seconds later, he heard some running and a cold slap hit his palm and he grasped the shaft of his spear with a slight relief, tension rushing from his chest and upper arms.
“Back to the other two. Now. Make sure the mukfrog doesn’t hurt you. Shout real loud and fast if you hear or see it move. Got it?”
A garbled and huffed, “Yes, master,” came from behind him in a desperate panting feminine voice and Joe realized it had been Kilniara.
“Thanks, Kilniara! This really helped,” Joe replied, offering his gratefulness to who had really helped him.
The goblin king quickly stepped back once more, aligning himself with the spark and the two began pressing down the hall. Joe watched for a few more seconds before pushing forward himself, wanting as much space as possible to engage the goblin king. As he rapidly pressed forward, the two slowed and pressed outwards until the goblin king slid out of sight behind one of the columns and the spark did the same.
Joe grimaced at losing sight of the two but leapt forward, sprinting towards the right, aiming for the spark first. The spark and goblin king had only been two columns away from him, and he easily sped past the first set before cutting out past the column to catch the spark just as it was coming around the column it had slipped behind. Joe didn’t think at all, rapidly taking his spear and grinding the point into the corner between the wall and floor before dropping the spear shaft to rest against the column. The spark was only half way around the column, and Joe could only hope that it was enough that it couldn’t use its leaping teleportation.
It seemed enough, as it continued to arc around the column, trying to keep its body equidistant from the wall and the column. Joe slipped his sword into his left hand once again and took out his cudgel, dipping it under his spear and lifting it up quickly towards and into the body of the spark. The spark howled in electric pain as it found itself suddenly adhering to the metal shaft of the spear and grounding itself out down its shaft. Joe grimaced from the flashing sparks and heat as he quickly and gently guided the spear back to the column and rested it against the column, hoping that it wouldn’t end up falling to the floor and freeing the trapped spark. Not going to work twice, right? He backed away quickly, but kept his eye on the spear and hand on the cudgel, even as he backed up and turned himself to face the center of the hall while looking out for the goblin king and making sure the spear didn’t tumble.
Joe only took a second to make sure it was seated well before turning and sprinting down the colonnade, eyes flickering to the right looking for the goblin king. He’d made his way several columns when he heard collective scream come from the apprentices at the doorway, absolute terror easily heard in their cry and he redoubled his sprint. DANGER!
<continued - 3/5>