Dialysis Book: Chapter 13: Invading the Goblin Warren

(notes, the Flash Skill was redefined as a spell so I could explain how those work, long and short, spells work outside your essence bubble while skills rapidly fade.  Flash is technically a charm, which is a simple spell that closely follows its element (light).)  

We stood just outside the secret back entrance of the goblin warren and I looked super cool in my chain armor.  The chain mail fit perfectly, because everything fit perfectly with essence.  There wasn't a scrap of rust on it, and all the other gunk was gone as well.

All I had to do was expand the armor to fit over my essence bubble, and then shrink it down to fit over my actual person.  Only the actual armor could do that, unlike the rust and other bits.  They all fell off as I expanded and contracted the material.  That trick was far easier after I meditated and could visualize my essence.

"Could we use this to expand Shade's bandana, make it into a full outfit," I asked.

Spivy looked at me like I was crazy, "But that's a fragment of a cloak.  If you expanded it, you'd just have a big fragment of a cloak."

"But couldn't you take that material and remake the big fragment into a smaller actual cloak," I asked.

"No," she said, looking at me as if I was crazy.

"You are embarrassing us in front of the fairy," said Shade quietly.

I rolled my eyes and looked over at the entrance.  I was hiding on my belly in a grove of trees looking at two goblins who were dutifully watching the door.  Shade was sitting next to me, using his ninja mode to hide in plain sight.

So far the goblins had spent a long time doing most nothing, with a bit of sleeping on the job thrown in for good measure.  Unfortunately at least one of them was active at all times, so just walking right on in was out of the question.

“Can’t we just kill them,” I asked.

“Goblins are very good at noticing when some of their numbers are killed,” said Spivy as she rested comfortably on Shade’s head.  She was small enough that his Shadowy form completely masked her.  Spivy’s head slowly rose out of the Shades and she glanced over at me, “So what do you think you should do?”

I was thinking about that for the past ten minutes, and waiting until a gap formed was looking less and less attractive by the second.  Finally I nodded, “Send in Shade to scout.”

“What happens if he gets spotted,” asked Spivy.

“I run,” said Shade.  “But I will not get spotted.”

“And if he gets caught,” asked Spivy.

“We rush in, deal with the handful of guards quickly and withdraw, aborting the quest,” I said.

Spivy flew up and landed on my shirt.  She rapidly crawled into my pocket, “That works, remember, don’t kill any of the goblins yourself.  If they suspect that you are here, creeping about, they will call up a general alarm and you will have no chance of stealing the item.”

I nodded, all we needed to do was get past the first layer of defenses and we would be able to creep towards the objective in relative safety using our preexisting map.  I already had the path marked out and was sharing that map with Shade.  He was not so good at following maps, but he practiced enough to at least get back to me if we got separated.

Shade was already en route by the time I looked up and I waited patiently with Spivy while he got to the rear entrance.  The goblins were both sitting around, watching the local area carefully but only in spurts.  Every few minutes one of them would walk back into the cave and another goblin would walk out and take their place.

I wasn’t sure what the rear entrance was for.  It was obviously used from time to time.  The path up to the entrance was overgrown, but there were wheel ruts inside and the passage was just large enough that a wagon could be backed into it.

“Probably slavers,” said Spivy.  “This is off the main road far enough that one of those vile groups could swing by here easily enough.”

“Where would they get the slaves,” I asked.

“Some were from the adventurer’s guild, and I suspect those quests got issued because the goblins were kidnapping locals,” said Spivy as Shade finally slipped into the cave when both of the goblins started arguing with each other.

“And they summoned me,” I said.

“There is always a market for humans from another world,” said Spivy.  “Any race really, but humans always seemed to be the most common.”

“Because humans are the most common in the galaxy,” I asked.

Spivy snorted and shook her head, “Because you are the most curious.  Most of the other races are smart enough to not answer the siren's call of an open wormhole.”

“I just figured humans would be the most common,” I said, trying to distract myself as Shade scouted.  I had the map interface up and it showed that there were three goblins in the cave, but not more detail than that.

“Everyone thinks that of their own races,” said Spivy casually as we both watched. “There were more humans in Darven, but this is traditionally human territory and they don’t even make up half the population of that town.  Union is the human capital, such as it is, in Otherworld and there are actually more dwarves in the city than humans.”

“Are there any human majority cities,” I asked.

“Cities, no.  You have to be really focused to get more than half the population of any city to be of a single rage.  However, there are a number of towns around here that are at least half human if one is desperate like that,” said Spivy with a shrug.  “Humans tend to divide themselves into groups whenever it gets peaceful, and that traditionally screws them in terms of geopolitics.”

“What do you mean, humans work together,” I asked as the map remained steady.  That was the problem with sneaking in somewhere, it was boring which gave you lots of time to think.

“Humans work together when they have a threat, as soon as that threat ends they divide themselves into in and out groups,” said Spivy.  “So if you have a Dark Lord attacking the world, you’ll get a planet’s worth of humans running over to fight them off.  If you have 20 years of peace, the humans are at each other’s throats.”

“That sucks,” I said.

“It isn’t terrible.  Normally if you don’t have enough humans in one spot they won’t go all tribal on everyone,” said Spivy.  “That’s why humans are all over though, when the dragon is about to ruin your day you can count on you humans to run screaming into its mouth to save everyone.”

“And fairies aren’t like that,” I asked.

“We, collectively, don’t see much purpose for cities, not that we have a choice in the matter,” said Spivy with a shrug.  “Because of my role in the system, I had to follow around adventures and help them.  You get adventurers from every race, so that means I tend to go wherever they made me.  Very boring.”

I was about to ask another question when one goblin ran out and started screaming at another goblin.  Shade’s position on the map changed, but he was stationary again.  As I watched the goblin that ran from the cave grabbed a rock and smashed it on the other goblin’s head.

He stared at his hands for a second, then ran off screaming down the path.

The other goblin stared at all the blood and brains then turned around and ran back into the cave.  I was on my feet and moving before Spivy even had time to tell me what to do.  I got closer to the entrance and skirted around the pool of blood to find Shade eating something.

“What did you do,” I asked as I stepped past him and Shade moved to follow me.

“I stole his lunch,” said the dog.

“He killed his friend over a stolen lunch,” I asked.

“Friend is probably a strong word for goblins,” said Spivy as I glanced down the passage.  We needed to travel a short distance before we reached the side tunnel.

“They were all arguing the entire time, so I thought what would make me so mad I could kill someone,” said Spivy.  “Then I spotted his jerky and I took it.”

“You’d kill over jerky,” asked Spivy.

I looked at Spivy like she was crazy, she did not understand dogs.  There were no sounds except for the running goblin so we quickly moved down the tunnel until we reached the side passage.  When I’d first come through here, I’d squeezed through pretty much without thinking about it.

Now it was clear we took the long way, and that way was not well used.

“Do we know if these caves are safe,” I said as I shimmied back into the caves.

“I very much doubt they are,” said Spivy as she rode Shade in after me.  “But that’s our least worry right now.”

As she spoke I heard a dozen goblins running down the tunnel we just vacated.  They moved past our passage and presumably into the entry cave we’d just left.  We waited patiently for a minute or two while the goblins argued.

Even with my language shard I couldn’t fully understand them, but the gist of the conversation involved the fact that two goblins were lost over jerky theft.  After examining the scene, the HGIC (head goblin in charge) yelled out something and some of the goblins came back.

None of them stopped by our tunnel.

With that clear, we traveled further into the caves we’d already explored.  Spivy started fluttering her wings, causing some light to form and I activated my light skill, which further illuminated the area.

“Keep that dim,” said Spivy as we marched.  “There are a number of spots where a very bright light might get noticed down a hallway.”

I nodded and noticed that Shade was further into the caves, and out of my primary light.  He suddenly stopped, so we both dropped our lights to the dimmest possible and crept closer.

“There is something in this cave,” said Shade.  “I thought I smelt it before, but this time I saw it.”

“How can you see anything, it's almost pitch black in there,” I said.

“I can sense shadows,” said Shade.

“Even in the dark, there tends to be a little bit of light and that makes shadows,” said Spivy.  I noticed her tiny eyes were flickering blue.

“What’s in there,” I asked.

“A cave lizard,” said Spivy.

“That’s not too bad,” I replied.

“It is the size of a truck,” she stated, then considered that for a moment.  “Is a truck some sort of wagon, because that’s what I meant.”

“I get the picture,” I replied.  “This is going to be an epic battle.”

Shade and Spivy both looked at me for a long moment.

“Nope,” said Shade.

“Yeah, that’s incredibly stupid, you should sneak past it,” said Spivy.

“I thought we were supposed to defeat the monster,” I said.

“If they are threatening civilians, there are only goblins here.  I think the entire race needs purging,” said Spivy.

“That’s a horrible viewpoint,” I asked.

“They kidnapped you to sell you into slavery,” said Spivy.

“After eating your testicles,” said Shade.

“Point, the green bastards need to die,” I replied and brought up the map.  We had gone through this hall the first time, just very quickly and without knowing the dangers that were included.  It looked like the goblins found the cavern and then built around it, ensuring that nothing came close to the giant lizard.

“Why are there little swords and shields scattered everywhere,” said Shade gesturing towards a deeper hole.  I checked the map generated through our link.  Several of the walls were obviously man made, well goblin made in this case, and I also noticed a large passage out of the chamber.

“Where does that large passage end up,” I asked, spying where the lizard must travel to hunt.

“I’d guess kobold territory,” said Spivy.  “They compete with the goblins for the worst species to build a warren next to your town, and usually build out in the same ecosystems.  If we only had one or the other we’d have a real problem, but they fight constantly.”

“So the lizard operates as an anti-kobold guard dog,” I said.

“That is insulting,” said Shade.  “All that creature does is sleep and eat.”

I glanced down at Shade.

“I also offered companionship, and fun games,” said Shade.

“Hide the dookie is not a fun game,” I said.

Shade grinned, “Depends on who’s asking.”

“Focus, you two,” said Spivy.  “We need to get past this lizard.”

“That’s easy,” I said, grabbing a rock and flinging it across the room.  It clattered against the back wall.  The lizard turned and looked right at us.  “Oh, that lizard is smart.”

“Yeah, cave lizards are unusually intelligent,” said Spivy.

“Why isn’t it attacking us then,” I said.

“Because we are really close to the door, and it is too big to fit,” said Shade.

“Ah,” I said looking around.  “Well, let’s try this then.”  I grabbed another rock and activated my flash spell.  With my greater essence control and general improvements to the spell, I was able to fill the stone up with essence without causing the bright flash.

“Your flash spell has evolved into delayed flash,” said Spivy examining my handiwork.  “That could be useful, you should have a second or two after you throw it before it detonates.”

“Cool,” I said while I held the rock, which was getting warm to the touch, for several moments then tossed it right in front of the lizard.  “Run.”

We started running the moment the stone activated, blasting a hideous amount of light directly into the lizard’s face.  The creature had large, and very sensitive, eyes and it did not take the blinding well.  The cave lizard spun around, slamming his tail into the wall of his makeshift lair as we ran to the other nearby exit.

By the time the big lizard got his bearings we were already successfully out into another hallway too small for him to fit through.  The lizard tried though, rushing up to the passage and swinging his massive claw at us several times, though we’d moved out of range the second we got in.

It glared at us with unrelenting hatred as Shade and Spivy slipped away.  I, for my part, used Flash on him again.  The lizard howled and moved away.

“We have to go back that way,” said Spivy.

“Maybe he’ll stay clear, then,” I said.

Spivy shrugged, there really wasn’t another option, and so we continued heading through the caves.  The remainder of the trip was relatively simple, we were so far into the back tunnels of the goblins warren that they never came here.  It was obvious that the only reason they were here before is because we tripped the alarm, and that alarm was no longer going.

Then I heard the gong.

“What did you do,” I said to Shade.

“I was here the whole time,” replied my dog, looking innocent.  That in and of itself was quite suspicious.

“They must be under attack, this complicates things,” said Spivy as we turned the final corner into the passages that lead to the temple.

“Shade, check it out and be very careful,” I said.

Shade slipped out, activating his shadow form and moving through the caves like a ninja.  I brought up my map and watched him.  The temple started to fill itself in as Shade started looking around more carefully.  He spotted the item right away, a large bell shaped gizmo sitting in the middle of a dias.  It was in the dead center of the room, and the room wasn’t empty.

“I see about two dozen goblins,” said Spivy.

“You have access to the map,” I said.

“I’m here to help,” replied Spivy with a smile.  “They aren’t defending the relic, but they aren’t going to let it go unnoticed either.”

I looked at the milling pattern of guards and nodded, “I think some of the guards from the room left, this might be our best opportunity.”

Shade returned, “I hear something down the hall.  It sounded like fighting.”

“Was it getting closer,” I asked.

“I am unsure, it got closer and then farther away several times,” said Shade.

“You’d have to be heroic rank to try to take on a warren this size by yourself,’ said Spivy.  “At that rank, you tend to be pretty mobile.”

“If they are fighting towards the relic, they are probably here to take it as well,” I said.  “Do we get paid if it is stolen by someone else?”

“We have to bring it back,” said Spivy.

My shoulders slumped.  “Then we need to get it now or my vacation will be ruined.  We need that gold.”

“Seriously,” asked Spivy.

“Vacation,” I replied.  “Like you said, no one person can change the world.  I’m not here to be a hero, I’m here to see the world and that sounds like a vacation.”

“You are fighting monsters,” said Spivy.

“A working vacation then,” I said.

“Those are fun, I get lots of snacks,” said Shade.

Spivy groaned, “Look, I need to be straight with you.  You are operating under an altered mental state.”

“I know, my essence is making me less depressed,” I said.

“No, you don’t.  Your essence is making you not depressed by bolstering another part of your mind,” said Spivy.  “A lot of people think if they aren’t sad they are happy, but it doesn’t always work like that.”

“But I’m not unhappy,” I said.

“Not anymore,” said Spivy, sighing,  “And the reverse for you isn’t happiness, it's bravery.”

I paused.  That made a tremendous amount of sense.  I was off here fighting monsters and it did not legitimately bother me at all that I was putting my life on the line.  I just didn’t care if I died fighting these monsters.

“I’m not suicidally depressed anymore,” I whispered.

“You’re not depressed anymore,” replied Spivy.

Then it hit me like a sledgehammer, “I’m still suicidal, I’m just not depressed.  My opposite of depressed isn’t happy, it is brave.”

“That makes sense,” said Shade.  “You were always afraid to do whatever the mean lady asked you to do.  That made her meaner.”

“Does that mean I’m suicidally brave,” I said, and realized it as soon as I said it.  I’d been fighting monsters with at best a limited degree of care about what happened to me.  I just didn’t care, but I also really wasn’t thinking about it.

“Yes, and I don’t think that it is wise for you to keep fighting without being aware of that,” said Spivy.

“So my choices are suicidally brave, or suicidally depressed,” I groaned, sensing my essence.  A lot of my total essence was going to reinforce my mind, and that explained it.  I was reinforcing my bravery to offset my depression.

“Yes,” said Spivy.  She was preparing to continue but I cut her off.

“Good enough, I choose to be suicidally brave then,” I replied.

“What?” said Spivy.

“Thank goodness,” said Shade.

“Don’t you go helping him,” said Spivy.

“I am a dog, that is what we do,” said Shade wagging his tail.

“He’s got a point, suicidally depressed me was sitting in a dark room eating room temperature microwave meals with my fingers because I can’t be bothered to go into the kitchen and crying because no one loved me,” I said.  “Me being suicidally brave is fighting monsters and banging the cute guild master while getting paid tons of money.  Of the two, I’d rather be brave if I’m still going to be suicidal.”

Spivy looked at me, then shrugged, “As long as you know, I guess.”

I surveyed the map of the temple again and decided.  “I’ll be the distraction on this side.  I’ll get to this exit and get the goblin’s attention.  After that you guys steal the relic and we all run out past the lizard.”

“That’s dangerous,” said Spivy.

“Should be fun though,” I replied, summoning up my spear.  “The only thing I know from experience is that I can outrun any goblin that doesn’t have a quickness core.”

“Which they might have,” said Spivy.

“I’ll worry about that later, do you have a better idea,” I asked.

“Sadly no,” replied Spivy, looking at the map for a moment longer.  “Just promise me you will try to get away.”

“Will do, now that I know I think I can get a handle on the whole suicidally brave thing,” I said.  “I’ll just shoot for regular brave.”

“I would like that very much, Chum,” said Shade, and I scratched his head.

“Fine, big distraction then run back here.  We can certainly get back here before you.”  She fluttered down and grabbed ahold of Shade’s fur.

“We will be fine, be careful, Chum,” said Shade.  “I will not be there to protect you.  Remember, bite hard, and run.”

“Will do poop ninja,” I said as Shade started off.

Before they left I heard Spivy groan, “Wait, his nickname is Chum and your’s is poop ninja.”

“Yes, I need to think of a cooler one,” said Shade.

“Thank the gods,” said Spivy.

“Yes, Chum just doesn’t seem appropriate anymore,” stated Shade as he vanished.  I hope I made it, otherwise Spivy would go insane.

I pushed more essence into what I thought was my bravery center and started through the hall.  Shade went to the left, I went to the right and down some awkward stairs.

“Goblin sized,” I grumbled when I reached the bottom.  There was a small tunnel, which I had to bend over to walk through.  It wasn’t that long of a tunnel though, and I quickly went from a non-descript stone hallway to a finely carved section of stone.

The goblins, for all their utter lack of finery elsewhere, had spared no expense when making their temple.  The stone was carved granite designed to look like one or more of their gods, I suspected.  Racially, they liked fractal patterns and those were everywhere on the walls.

There was a lone goblin carved again and again into the walls with all the other goblins praising him.  At least some of them were missing hands.

As a human, this looked alien.  It was the worst part of culture shock, I didn’t even have a basis for comparison.  It would be like living in a modern skyscraper and then suddenly going to the Shree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in india.  It was beautiful but the contrast was intense.  This was even worse, because it was clearly non-human.  At least that beautiful temple had been carved by human hands and while I didn’t know the exact religious practices there, I had at least some idea.

The hands that did much of this stonework were smaller, and weaker by comparison.  They had inferior tools, and the lines in the stone that should have been straight were as often as not crooked.

The colors were even more strange.  The goblins clearly saw in a different light spectrum than humans did, so the reds and greens were bordering on neon level intensity while the blues were entirely missing or appeared as an effort to detract from certain flaws in the design.

Except for the headdresses on certain larger goblins.  They never showed faces, always from the back.

The door I was planning on using was a wide open arch, with statues of deformed goblins holding up the pillars which were in turn holding up the arch, which itself supported more goblins on top carved to appear as if they were holding up the ceiling.

In total, it was screwed up so I did my best to ignore it while I moved into position.  Thankfully due to the map I knew when Shade was in position.  He crept in as close as he could manage to where the relic was.  I peeked in and spotted him, hanging from the ceiling as his essence ran low.  That meant it was time for my distraction and the dozen goblins nearby were going to be unhappy.

I spun around the corner, spotting all dozen goblins as they looked at me in shock.  I held two rocks in my hand, ready to activate my flash spell when a javelin flew through the air and impacted me straight in the chest.  It held there for a two count before falling off of my light shield and clattering to the ground.

“He has cores,” yelled the goblin who threw the javelin.

“Let's kill him,” yelled a bugbear female at the top of her lungs.  My language shard allowed me to pick up her gender, and her fury.

The rest of them responded by screaming really loud as both flashes blasted off directly in front of the goblins as the rocks both exploded into light.  The one goblin that was moving towards me obviously had a core of some sort, but he was also blind and in spear range.

I thrust into his throat, my laser spear decapitated him in a spray of blood and then I turned and ran up the stairs.

“Get him,” screamed the bugbear.

I got to the little stairs, expecting to take them five or six at a time, but I miscalculated.  The goblins were not precise in their stonework, so none of the stairs were exactly even.  When I tried to run up them, I stumbled repeatedly as the goblins chased after me.

At the halfway mark, it was apparent I wasn’t going to make it the whole way up before they reached me.  That was going to be a problem, and I did want to get out of here alive.  The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want to die in a blaze of glory fighting goblins.

I spun around, spear at the ready just as the first goblin engaged a quickness core.  I was better with my spear now, but that was mainly focused on doing damage rather than accuracy and the goblin easily slipped past my spear head before running straight into my light shield with a thud.

The faster you struck the shield, the harder it was and while I was stationary the goblin was moving so quickly his body blurred.  At minimum, he winded himself but I was pretty sure he’d cracked several ribs.

Not that it mattered as I decapitated him.  My new spear head wasn’t just pointed at the end.  There was nearly a foot of sharp steel at the end of my shaft that ended in a sharp point.  The other part of the spearhead was a long, sharp blade.

The head was still symmetrical and I could throw it, so it still counted as a spear but I was brushing pole arm territory.  If the blade got much longer, I wasn’t sure my spear core would still work with it.

In any case, the goblins' oversized head started plunking down the stairs even as his body glowed.  I attempted to loot him, which required me shoving my essence into his corpse.  The small bracers on the goblins arms both vanished, but his armor and other equipment remained which was puzzling but I didn’t have time to consider that as three more goblins ran up towards me.

Two flung daggers and the one aimed towards my face was blocked by my shield.  The other dagger slammed into my side, and bounced off.  Chain armor was handy, that would have easily damaged my leathers and whatever was underneath them.

That was me, by the way.

With their initial volley expended, the three goblins attempted to close and they did not have quickness cores.  I did a quick laser thrust into the first one's chest, the blade carving the goblin nearly in two as I pulled it out and made a second quick thrust at the next goblin.  He leapt to the side, but landed badly on the uneven stairs.

He started tumbling down, and with no guard rails he was going to be at that for a while.

The third goblin made it past me and swung at my leg only to get blocked by my light shield.  This didn’t bother the goblin who adjusted the grip on his knife and thrust again while I tried to get repositioned.

The issue for me was that the stairwell was built to goblin specifications which made it far tighter than any human staircase.  It was something right out of a kids playground and I couldn’t even properly shorten my grip on the spear without the rear getting in the way.

When he went for another stab I just released my hand on the spear and punched him with my steel gauntlet on the side of his head.  That was enough to stagger the goblin, and I backed up several steps before thrusting my spear into his side.

The goblin’s entire arm fell off and he started screaming, until he slipped and fell down the stairs as well.

The problem with anyone falling down a long staircase made of stone wasn’t the screaming, it was the eerie point when the screaming abruptly stopped.  It took the armless goblin about twenty stairs before he bounced up and landed silently.

Another spear smashed into my light shield, the head digging several inches into the normally solid disk.  I realized that the goblin must have a core of some stripe that was amplifying his thrown weapons.

Or just a spear core, like the one I got from another goblin.

Still, I grabbed the weapon and spotted the goblin several dozen goblin steps below me.  I took aim and lobbed the spear at him, where it promptly hit the ceiling of the stairwell and clattered uselessly down the staircase.

My head was nearly at the level of the ceiling already, and I had to throw the spear at a slight arc to get the range.  Meanwhile the goblin was gripping two spears in the same hand, and was several feet shorter than myself.  He had the space to arc the throw.

“Toodles,” I yelled and started further up the stairs.  The goblin followed me, flinging the pair at me as I ran.  Without looking my light shield didn’t move into proper position and both spears struck me, still I was wearing chainmail and that counted for a lot.

The first spear hit me in the back on one of the metal plates, that turned the head and did trifling damage to the armor.  The other struck me in the back of the leg and I felt a flash of pain as it dug into my flesh.

But it wasn’t deep, and the spear popped out as I continued running while looking over my shoulder.  I could already feel my essence on the wound, stopping the bleeding while minimizing the damage.

The problem was that with me looking over my shoulder, I couldn’t move up the stairs fast enough to avoid the goblin who was having no issues with the stairs.  I could see the other goblins with the spear chucker, and they were staying with him after the first failed assault.

I just needed to get to the stairwell, and then I realized what I needed to do.

Activating flash, I blasted the hallway just before two more spears flung towards me.  One was just going to miss, and light shield moved into the path of the other.  As the spear struck the shield, it shattered it and continued to my chest.

Thankfully the energy from the toss was greatly diminished, so it just thudded there and fell to the ground.  I staggered as my essence levels started to dip.  I couldn’t manage all these things at once, and activating flash was the final straw.

I stomped down hard on the goblin spear, breaking it in two as I continued up the stairs.  The goblins near the spear thrower were advancing forward and my essence levels were not at the point I could confidently take them all when I stumbled and they raced forward.

Searching for footing, I realized I was on flat gound.  I made it to the hallway.  Stepping back to give myself some cover from the spear thrower, I waited for the other goblins.  I didn’t want to die here, but I also couldn’t make good enough speed without both legs working.  Goblins were quick enough to keep up with my tired, lamed self.

As the first goblin crested the stairs and drove the point of my spear into his face without activating laser thrust.  I jerked the blade free, but it took just long enough that the three other goblins with him were starting to circle around me.

I was going to use a spinning attack to try to get all of them when one of the goblins screamed as Shade emerged from the shadows.  The other two goblins spotted my dog and realized they were at a disadvantage.  One tried to run down the stairs, so slashed at his back sending him tumbling down.

The other started running down the hall, towards our escape tunnel.

Shade turned to run after him when the spear thrower got to the top of the stairs.  He spotted his friend running, and Shade.  He considered for an instant and lobbed his spear at Shade.

I threw as much essence as I could into the blocking skill and swung out with my spear, and somehow caught the edge of the attack.  The goblin’s spear spiraled wildly, missing Shade as he continued the pursuit.

Charging forward, I thrust at the goblin who used his own spear to parry but he was like a man fighting a giant.  My trust knocked him back a pace and my follow up move was nothing more complicated than pulling my spear away and slashing at him.

The goblin blocked that strike as well, but when he went to find his footing there was none.  His expression went wide as he tumbled backwards down the stairs, streaming for around thirty steps.

I exhaled, feeling all the minor wounds from where the dagger had poked me or where the spear had pierced the back of my thigh.  I was alive, and it felt great.

“Best vacation ever,” I yelled, turning back towards the escape tunnel and freedom.