Dawn- An age of Darkness

With a steady pace, we kept running and outpaced most of the undead. Though they were scary, they were too slow. Lianne lagged behind but there was nothing we could do, all three of us had our own injuries to worry about.

"What is her intention? Why were you guys frozen?" I asked.

"They- they plan to make this city their base and then…" he said with a pained look. He didn't finish and I couldn't push him either.

Was he telling the truth or was he hiding something? Something about his wording struck odd to me but I couldn't pinpoint why.

Lianne cut into the conversation. "We were here on an expedition to lessen the undead but then…"

"You were betrayed…" I interjected.

"Yes."

I sighed. I suppose this is as worse as it gets. I stood mistaken: I might have thought too soon. Because a horde of goblins waited for us along with four hobgoblins dead ahead. Oh shit!

"This is what she meant," I mumbled.

The goblins outnumbered us by tenfold. But the main problem was the hobgoblins. They had massive clubs and looked ferocious. The little ones all had knives and some even had armor made from animal skins. This doesn't look good.

Goblins had little intelligence but they could be taught. This was proof.

"I'll cast a large area spell. I might pass out but don't worry about me. Just run." Lianne suggested something outrageous.

I flat-out rejected her proposal. "Unfortunately we can't have that. Hey boy, think you can fight?"

He sighed. "My left side is a little lighter than what I'd like but I think I can manage." He was probably older than me, judging by his reactions but I guess he didn't mind being called a boy by me.

If he had no problems with it, I didn't have any problems either. "Alright then…"

The elf boy had only a knife and Lianne had a sword. I didn't see her bow, maybe she'd dropped it.

I sank my torch into the earth and took out my knife. I took a deep breath, calmed my nerves, unsheathed my sword, and charged as the vanguard. I was the least injured after all. But using both the sword and the knife at the same time, wasn't easy.

Evading the first hobgoblin, I sliced three goblins with my knife. The sword was on my other hand. I used it for blocking. But the other three massive hobgoblins didn't give me a laugh. They roared and swung their clubs at me. I jumped back. Did they only have clubs? I was glad they did because if they had anything else, I might not get out of this alive. Then again, I didn't know if I'd be getting out alive in the first place. But I was glad that this time, I wasn't alone.

As I taunted the goblins, all their attention was on me. They really didn't want to kill me that was clear. Maybe it was because that emperor liked me or something? It felt weird but just this once I was glad for it.

A small rock hit my shoulder. It hit hard and my bones creaked. What the…?

There were small goblins that hid in the grass and fired slingshots. "Looks like they really don't want to kill me, huh?"

But the same wasn't for the two elves. The goblins were after their lives and I was just getting between them. However, they weren't going down without a fight that was for sure.

"Fiery heaven!" Lianne cast her spell. A small area around her caught fire and so did five goblins. The entire area illuminated with orange light.

It wasn't a powerful attack spell so she didn't pass out like she'd predicted. But she was on her knees.

Now we had better lighting. My accuracy increased and I sliced a few more goblins. I didn't have the luxury to help those two but I figured they'd be fine on their own. After all, they weren't weak like me: they had actual skill and experience to back them up.

One by one we took down half of the small ones. The elf-boy was an excellent knife user. Even without an arm, he moved faster than me. Looks like I should worry about myself instead.

I made sure to dodge the incoming projectiles. I was tracking their trajectory. And finally, I saw it. "Be right back!"

They nodded. They knew exactly what I'd been thinking. When you have coordination, everything becomes easy.

I ran and found the snipers. The poor things were just kissing the grass on the same spot, making it easy for me.

I grinned as though I was approaching children. "Hi there."

Probably not the best thing to say, at a time like this but I was a little mental. The goblins were short and looked like they were still toddlers.

"Donnt- kills us." They were prostrating before me and looked awfully humanoid. Much more than goblins…. So those guys were really saying the truth… All this time I wanted to forget about the whole ganging up on women thing. I didn't want to think about it. Maybe goblins really were just awful, disgusting creatures which didn't deserve to live.

My face stiffened up and I slew them mercilessly. They couldn't put up a good fight. Killing babies might not have been my thing but to survive, I had to do it. And I needed their death for the sake of my conscience.

One of the hobgoblins was right behind me but I had anticipated him and dodged at the last moment. Its club grazed a little over my shoulder. It hurt.

"It's now or never, huh?" I lifted the sword up, focused, and held it in both of my hands, dropping the knife on the grass.

The hobgoblin swung its club but I dodged, slid under it, and punctured a hole in through the bottom. It roared, groaned, and fell on its butt. I moved before it fell on me. I picked up my knife and slit its throat. Not the cleanest way to kill something, but I had to survive. I had to make it out of here.

I was out of breath. I just did the unthinkable and even triumphed. There are three more of these things?

But my glory was short-lived. After all, there still were quite a few of them. They were too focused on the elves in front. Even though, I'd just killed half of them and one of their leaders they were still virtually ignoring me.

Before jumping ahead I caught my breath.

I sneaked up from behind and sliced three more goblins. One of the hobgoblins was staring the elf boy down. It didn't realize that all the little ones backing it were on the ground. I sneaked behind it and climbed up through its shoulder with haste. It panicked and grabbed my foot. Too late. My sword dived through its throat and blood spewed everywhere. Two more to go. But I thought too soon.

The hobgoblin didn't fall. It turned its head: bloodshot eyes.it was still holding onto my legs. I face went numb and my chest went cold. With a swing like the hulk, it ruined half of my left side, as I crashed on the ground. The impact was sudden and precise. I coughed out blood and then came the pain. It was unbearable, as though a thousand knives were slicing my skin off all at once.

Thinking they weren't after me was a grave mistake and it cost me dearly.

The hobgoblin wasn't done. It covered its wound with one hand and grabbed its club with the other. I was about to get smashed. Oh shit!

"This is what I meant when I said you lack patience," Lianne came between me and the goblin. The hobgoblin grunted, groaned, and swung its club like it'd gone mad. Lianne moved fast, too fast and sliced the goblin's head off clean. The head fell a few meters away from me as she got drenched in blood.

I sighed in relief but it felt like my lungs just exploded. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe. Why am I so powerless, so impatient? I glared at my fist.

Lianne dug through my things and fed me a potion. "I envy your regenerative abilities. A normal person would be dead by now." Though she meant that as a compliment, it only made me feel more broken.

The pain numbed, but I still had broken bones. I ignored Lianne's words. I didn't want to think about it. I was worried about the other goblins attacking. But they weren't here anymore. "What's… going… on?" I couldn't speak. My breath was totally out of sync. I panted. I needed to sit down for a while.

The elf-boy answered. He was totally calm as if nothing had happened. "They ran away after seeing you two slay two of their leaders."

How nice of them.

Lianne on the other hand barely stood on her feet and breathed heavily. The undead were yet to catch up. They were too many of them. Hard to imagine I couldn't outran those slow pokes on my first day. How wrecked was I back then?

I was pretty wrecked now too, but we had to keep moving. We caught a moment of rest to ease our breath. Life was not easy.

Lianne lent her shoulder to me and we moved. Hard to imagine she was the most injured just a few moments ago. How fate could change! And yet she was still shouldering me. She'd wiped the blood off her face but her clothes were already dyed.

Lianne was very close to me. I could feel her breath. She was weak. And yet she was stronger than me. "What did she meant?"

I assumed she meant the angel. Lianne was my savior. So I answered her as honestly as I could. "We're on our own."

She didn't say anything else and we walked on.

"By the way elf-boy, how did you know about the angel?" Back then, he used some kind of magic and the angel appeared. So I asked him.

"I didn't. I used a special magic called, spirit magic. The spirits told me to do that and that's it."

I had no idea what the hell he was talking about and I didn't have the mood to know either.

Our pace was slow but not as slow as the undead. It hurt to breathe, let alone walk but I had no choice. Thousands of lives depended on our knowledge.. We had to stop this.

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