Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

Walking further and further into the prison I found cell after cell laid empty, eventually I found the cafeteria where the prisoners would all go for their meals and inside I found the first goblins on this floor. The room consisted of two stories, the bottom where the tables and food was served and eaten, and the top where the guards could watch everything happen from a safe distance. In the middle of the room was where the goblins were in little shelters made from the old furniture. Several had tables that they used for things like butchery outside that were still stained with blood and other liquids.

Several were wearing sets of the chainmail armor from the armory very loosely like they were wearing regular clothes. They also held simple weapons like knives, daggers, and the occasional spear, the metal sticks used for subduing opponents were nowhere to be found. ‘I can’t be sure just yet, but they might have melted them down for their own weapons. Those spears don’t look like they were made by dwarves, they are too small for a full grown dwarf and the craftsmanship is terrible compared to everything else in the city.’

I could also hear somewhere else in the room the sound of chopping flesh with either an axe or a meat cleaver. I hoped that it was an actual animal that was being butchered and not another goblin like on the fifteenth floor.

Watching the goblins for a while I looked upon their cohesion, or more accurately the lack thereof. They shouted at each other over what looked to be simple things and in general they were hostile to each other even though they were all a part of the same community. It was like someone took all the worst traits of humans, dwarves, and elves and mixed them all together and created the goblins.

Eventually I grew tired of just standing and waiting for something to happen so I stood up with my sword in hand and prepared myself to deal with this small gang of Goblins. Before rushing in I made sure to make a rough head count of how many goblins there were, from what I could see from where I was there were roughly ten or so within eyesight, likely around fifteen given the amount of shelters there were.

Instead of going for a surprise attack I chose to instead walk right up and fight them head on, this was because there was very little in terms of terrain that I could use to conceal myself. If I were able to cast complex illusion spells that could hide myself from their eyes I might have tried it, but unfortunately my magical studies ended far too early for that.

When I started walking forwards I was nervous that the goblins would immediately notice me and gang up on me, but with each step I took I was proven wrong. Step after step I closed the distance so that several goblins were within range of my offensive tier one spells, they were so preoccupied with fighting amongst themselves that they didn’t even notice the danger closing in on themselves. “Fools.” I muttered to myself as I was only around twenty meters from their formation of shelters and I readied my spells.

“Tri terrae fulmina, Tri terrae fulmina, Tri terrae fulmina.” I casted the tri earth bolts spell and conjured forth three earth bolts which I sent towards the closest three goblins in a group of four with the aim of killing them with one strike. Since they were for the most part not moving their heads striking them there was of little issue.

Quickly three goblins fell to the ground with a large bolt of earth sticking out of their head. The one surviving goblins shouted out in surprise and fear when it realized that its allies it was speaking with just seconds ago were dead. It looked at the bolts and then turned to look in the direction they came in and saw me standing just twenty or so meters away with my hand still raised from the casting of the spell.

The goblin dressed in chainmail and carrying a dagger and a part of a chair as a shield shouted and held its ground. Since it was calling for its still living allies I rushed towards it with both hands on my sword ready to strike down on it. With a powerful swing from above the goblin raised its shield up and blocked it, but not without dropping the improvised shield and being left defenseless for a kick to the stomach I gave it.

While the kick didn’t do much damage to the goblin it did knock it backwards and disorient it enough to keep it from dodging my second sword strike which came from my lower right towards my upper left. The blade sliced through the air and eventually through some flesh as well, the goblin fell backwards as it felt my sword cut through part of its cheek and lip leaving a hole that connected to the mouth.

The goblins screamed out in pain as it clutched at the large hole in its cheek, two more goblins rounded the corner and joined in on the fight, each carrying a spear that put my sword at a disadvantage in terms of range. The two goblins immediately rushed forward with their spears pointed forwards to try and force me away from their ally who was stumbling away clutching at its wound.

Taking several steps back I readied myself and casted the Tri Earth Bolt spell again, this time I aimed for the kneecap of each of the goblins in an attempt to disable them. I would have aimed for their faces but that was a bit more risky than knocking them down since they only wore the upper half of the chainmail armor.

The bolts found their marks on the unprotected knees of the goblin fighters knocking one to the ground while forcing the other to stop completely. Without wasting a second I thrusted my sword towards the exposed face of the one standing goblin which it barely dodged, I followed it up with a quick overhead strike in one fluid move. Even though it wore chainmail to protect its upper body the impact from the strike still left some damage and stunned the goblin long enough for a second stab into its eye.

The other goblin dropped its spear out of its own reach and fell face first into the ground leaving it as an easy kill with just one stab to the face.

Even though I had just killed two goblins and greatly wounded a third I didn’t let my guard down, I only had enough mana left for one more tier one spell so after that I would only have my swordsmanship left as a weapon and my armor for protection, not that I didn’t trust the armor to protect me, just that one single mistake would leave me wounded and without any way to recover from such wounds. I did know a little bit about restoration magic, but nothing about applying it to actual living creatures.

Within this little goblin settlement several voices of anger and confusion could be heard, but unlike before they were not rushing out without any regard for their own lives. Clearly they noticed that the two that arrived to fight me weren’t alright.

Noticing that the remaining goblins were hesitant to come rushing out to fight me, I took the opportunity to kill the goblin I had wounded earlier. It was just standing off leaning against a nearby shelter holding its cheek to keep its blood from gushing out. A stab to the face with the short sword I picked up on the fifteenth floor quickly killed it.

Feeling that it would be very smart to just wait here for the goblins to all come charging at me all at once I began walking around the outside of the goblins settlement using the very buildings themselves to hide behind. ‘I should try attacking from the other side of the settlement. That way I can get another surprise attack in and leave the goblins feeling even more confused. After that I should do the same thing again until I have thinned their numbers down enough to fight them all in the open.’

Circling around to the back of the settlement I found a second entrance there that was left unguarded, looking around the corner of one of the buildings I saw that the goblins were slowly moving towards my last position with their weapons in hand. From what I could see there were seven goblins all wearing the same chainmail armor and carrying an assortment of spears and knives.

Slowly and quietly I started casting the Tri Earth Bolt spell again, this time I was aiming for the three goblins that I could see that didn’t have any chainmail covering their heads. I smiled as I conjured up the three earth bolts and held them steady until I felt they were in the perfect position and I propelled them forwards.

The three bolts shot forwards with power and speed towards my targets, the first goblin to be struck was the one in the very back of the group. It received that bolt in the very back of the head and fell to the ground as it slowly bled to death on the inside. The second goblin to be killed in this way was in the very center of the simple formation that was haphazardly put together, the bolt streaked past two other goblins and struck this one in the side of the head killing it very similarly to the first. The third to die this way was right near the front of the formation, like the first it was struck in the back of the head and fell into another goblin that was standing right next to it startling it when it noticed its ally was dead.

Not waiting to see what the goblins would do I rushed around the settlement in the same direction back around to the front where I started. The first thing I noticed was that the four goblin corpses that were at the entrance were where they had been before, there had been no effort to remove them from where they died. Now this was either because they turned back around to look at the back entrance or they were too scared to do anything.

Peeking around the corner showed that there were no goblins within sight, they were all hiding somewhere where I could not see them. ‘Now this is either the smartest thing they could have done, or the dumbest thing they could have done. If they are trying to ambush me when I enter then I would consider that smart, but if they're just hiding from me then they are as dumb as I thought they would be.’ I inwardly sighed as I stepped over the dead goblins and entered the poorly constructed settlement of the goblins.

The whole place was quiet as I kept my eyes peeled looking for anything that might show the goblins waiting for me in ambush, but I found no such ambush and no goblins outside the buildings if you could even call them that. The tables and chairs they had stacked together that somewhat formed walls were both hideous and bad, it was more likely that the collapsing of these ‘buildings’ would be a greater threat to their safety than I would be.

Since I had no intention of actually entering any of these buildings I instead chose to just push them over which was actually quite easy when you knew where to push or kick. The first building that I knocked over was the closest to the front entrance and it fell like a waterfall. It was almost majestic in how it happened, but I didn’t hear any goblins screaming out in pain from being crushed so I moved onto the next building.

Three more buildings came down before any of the goblins reacted, the building likely belonged to a butcher or the closest thing that goblin societies have to one. The sudden shriek of a goblin inside almost scared me as it was sudden and full of fear. However it didn’t kill the goblin as it was just partly buried in the broken stone furniture, a quick stab to the throat however was able to fix that.

Another three buildings fell before A goblin popped out, this time however it was actually putting up a fight and had a weapon in hand. It wildly swung its dagger around in my general direction as I stepped back and pointed my longsword towards it. Once I had decent footing and a stable grip I stepped forward and thrusted forward towards the open face where the chainmail did not cover the goblin. I narrowly missed and the goblin jumped towards me trying to knock me off balance, I was forced to drop my sword and punched the knocking it back onto the ground where I tackled it to the ground and stabbed it with the short sword.

Suddenly I heard two more sets of footsteps coming towards my position, the last two goblins trying to help their comrade and they were close. ‘That last yell must have been a signal to attack me. I need my sword or I am screwed.’

Turning around I quickly rushed for my sword just as the first goblin entered my view closely followed by the second one. Knowing I needed to kill them quickly I ran forward and swung my sword towards the neck to try and take it out of the fight. ‘That chainmail will probably keep it alive but if I am lucky it will take it out of the fight from the impact of the strike at least until I kill the other one.

Striking the goblin in its protected neck the goblin coughed before it stumbled back and clutched its neck leaving its ally to receive my next attack which was another swing from the right side this time. Since it was farther away it did only get partly grazed by my strike, but I was able to follow it up with a quick stab towards the face that left a larger wound.