DANGER! Joe collapsed at the last second as every instinct in his body seized up and spasmed simultaneously. The tumble was so disgraceful that Joe grimaced at the imagined quiet ‘tsk’ of his master at Joe’s obvious failure. Joe’s chagrin changed to anger as he fell and tumbled to his back, sliding across the floor while offering his imaginary rebuttal to his phantom master’s imaginary ‘tsk.’ I’m alive, aren’t I?
Joe kicked the floor, scuttling backwards like a crab even as he still felt the cool swoosh of air that had sliced across the back of his neck as he’d fallen forward. The goblin king had charged across the hall and placed himself up against the columns, his sword slicing out at the perfect time to take off Joe’s head.
The chagrin and anger quickly changed to a cold sweat as Joe realized how close he’d come to losing his head but the feeling was distant and numb. His whole mind was only on the goblin king.
Up. Shield. Back. Shield. Kick. Push, not damage. Up again. Good! The scuttle backwards had been ungainly, and while he’d been unable to push himself upwards the first time, he’d been able to successfully block a couple strikes and then get a hit in on the chest of the goblin to push it backwards quite violently.
Despite the goblin king’s frantic return to reengage Joe, Joe had been able to rise once again, parrying once with his sword before he’d finally gotten his feet back under him. Once back up, Joe grasped his shield brace and hunkered down behind it as he began to circle the goblin king, ready to engage, but just as ready and grateful for a quick reprieve.
Joe’s quick stand and obviously strong wins against the previous monsters gave the goblin king pause and it, too, allowed a pause, disengaging to reassess Joe and cautiously prepare itself for a longer and harder fight. The two circled, keeping their shields forward and swords back, but out of range of both. Joe’s reach was obviously longer, but the goblin king seemed canny enough to make sure the distance was enough to hamper Joe’s reach.
They circled poorly in to small colonnade, the columns and wall only just a bit wider than Joe’s own shoulders, so Joe decided to slip between the columns quickly and seek the wider space offered by the center of the hall. Joe kept his eyes on the goblin king carefully before suddenly leaping through the columns and the goblin king hissed in frustration when it lost sight of Joe. Joe backed quite a bit of ways into the center of the room, unconcerned as he maintained the minimum sight necessary: an elbow, a foot, a finger, the edge of the shield.
The goblin king came into view between the columns and Joe took the moment to flick his eyes towards the throne dais. Joe wasn’t too concerned. The spark was still screaming in electric pain, and he’d fallen past the goblin king when it had tried to behead him by surprise and now he was between the monsters and his friends. Joe’s only concern now was the last monster: the noble golden goblin.
Relief settled on him as he saw it still standing, unmoving, on the dais although it’s impotent rage burned all the brighter. Joe felt a deep satisfaction over how the fight had gone so far, but knew that he wasn’t going to be handling things too well after the combat was done. The stress and adrenaline would leave him wrung out like an old dish rag.
His eyes focused back on the goblin king and he began turning back towards his apprentices, flickering his eyes back to make sure they were OK before once again settling his focus on the goblin king. He’d made sure to be a good half a dozen meters away to make sure the goblin king wouldn’t have been able to strike in his moments of distraction, but he was now feeling quite relaxed about his current situation. The apprentices were fine, he had an eye on both the goblins now, and the spark was spent and trapped; dead already but still refusing to accept it.
Calmness settled on Joe once again as he was now back in control of the fight. No spear. Shield. Sword or cudgel? Joe pondered his options, his initial gut urgently wanting the power of the sword, but realizing the heavy cudgel might make a good blunt weapon against the much smaller goblin king and its strong armor. He would have to pay much more attention to finesse because the sword would do little if it struck any of the goblin kings armor. The cudgel, however, would still ring the goblin’s bell or wind it easily enough. Ultimately, he decided to stick with the sword because while finesse might require a slightly longer fight, it would also require quite a bit less strength, and he still had one fight left after this and unlike the other five, he had no clue how the golden goblin even fought.
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The goblin king followed Joe through the columns carefully and they began circling one another. Joe didn’t allow the goblin king to put Joe’s back to the golden goblin and so would regularly reverse the direction, forcing the goblin king to also reverse its direction as well. This happened a few times before the two seemed to recognize simple positioning was useless against the superior opponent they were facing. Both then stopped and dropped their center of gravity slightly before freezing the moment in time, waiting for the clash.
Time froze, neither moving for a moment until the goblin shifted the grip of his sword and dropping it slightly. Joe immediately responded by shifting his shield forward and dropping his sword hand back further. This actually gave the goblin pause, a slight tightening of its eyes before its nostrils flared and it froze again. It took a moment then shifted its stance slightly again and when Joe responded with his own tiny twitch, the goblin flared his nostrils once more and tightened his face, a sense of grim danger radiating from its body. Soon, each would shift slightly, a twist of the hips, a dipping of the leading shield hand, or a shift of the back shoulder slightly higher, each reacting to the other and as the fight dragged on, Joe felt his concern ratchet up. Reading me! Knows combat well! Expert! Joe also reacted to the goblin king, his stance shifting or arms subtly changing the angle of attack from a simple shift of position. As their standoff continued, Joe was able to see the goblin king also subtly stiffen in greater and greater tension as both took a measure of each other.
* * *
Zilnek quivered in the corner, his body pressed back into the corner as tightly as possible even as he was crushed between Garnedell and his sister. He’d watched with reasonable calm as they had walked into the room, but upon seeing six creatures piled up against the far wall. He heard Joe calling out to them, giving some kind of order, but the fear of what were likely six Great monsters left him frozen. He didn’t know who, but something wrestled him into the corner back up against the wall and pressed against the other two.
The fear left him unresponsive, unable to really comprehend what he was seeing. His fear remained spiked the entire time, fluctuating wildly when Joe was attacked by two monster at the same time and when the mukfrog had slipped around the last column obviously striking for them.
The surprise of seeing the mukfrog drop after a single throw, the spear embedded in its chest, shocked Zilnek into awareness and he felt his entire body suddenly collapse into exhausted relief. It took quite a bit longer for Zilnek to actually reengage with reality, his mind processing and making judgments although the wild elemental scream of lightning grated on his nerves.
When Joe finally settled into single combat against the goblin king, the silent face off returned the intense tension of the previous fights but liberally accompanied by fearful anticipation. As the two stopped circling each other and prepared for their attack, Joe’s twitching statue like posture began to overwhelm Zilnek with fear. He was sure that Joe had somehow been paralyzed. He’d never seen paralysis before nor experienced it, but Joe seemed to be unwilling or unable to move. The only thing that kept Zilnek from being breathless in worry was that the goblin king seemed struck by the paralysis as well since it also was twitching uselessly.
Zilnek’s eyes began drying as he stared, wishing to capture every movement, but soon he had to blink. Suddenly, in a move impossible for Zilnek to really see, Joe simply appeared on the other side of the goblin king. The goblin king didn’t move, quivering slightly before collapsing on the ground, hand dropping to his side in a desperate painful grasp. Joe stood calmly, seeming unconcerned, as he turned and sliced his sword powerfully in a two handed slash that intercept the goblin king’s neck.
The goblin king seemed to flinch then fell forward, hands that were desperately clutching his side dangling forward as his body laid out flat on the ground. As the body fell forward, the head tilted back, a strange redness forming on the neck that Zilnek wasn’t quite able to grasp before tumbling forward off the body when the goblin king hit the ground.
Joe quickly turned to face the last two monsters, the spark still screaming in pain that Zilnek didn’t really understand. Zilnek stared, awed by his master’s combat skills, but unable to enjoy Joe’s victory, his mind consumed with a simple question. He never gets hurt. He never gets hurt!? But… Why is he moving so slow? He’s a seven digit…
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