Patricia Moore
Stories
14
Chapters
5,808
Words
3.9 M
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0
Reading
13 d, 9 h
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But that didn't mean they could simply throw themselves forward without a single care. "If they do, they'll die," Beam's eyes flashed dangerously, as he guessed what was going on behind him. With his back exposed and him clinging to the tree with seemingly nowhere to escape, the first of the Goblins hadn't been able to help itself and it had leapt straight off the top of the slope, its jaws wide, lacking the spear that it had thrown earlier. Beam turned, surprising it strongly enough that even as mad…-
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The Goblins froze their movements together, as their heads rotated all at once, locking their dangerous yellow eyes onto him. It was a horrific sight. The killing intent of all four Goblins together almost froze Beam to the spot. If he hadn't killed that Goblin earlier, and thus assured some level of confidence against him, then he was quite sure he wouldn't have been able to move at all. The Goblins shrieked suddenly, a mad, horrifying anger. They all leapt in different directions as they bounced off…
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The bear shook it off and the Goblin went tumbling through the air, landing hard with its back against a tall pine tree and falling to the floor, temporarily stunned. Before the bear could finish it off though, the other two Goblins from the southeast broke through the trees in their way and went leaping through the air onto its exposed back, both landing their spears in at nearly the same time. Still, that wasn't enough to slow the bear. It shook them both off in anger and they both went tumbling…
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Beam's movements were beginning to feel right. He was beginning to feel an electricity burning through his veins, a nervous excitement coupled with his fear, as though one side of him relished the chaos, whilst another side of him merely acknowledged it as necessary. But Beam was ready for it this time. As its face came close, he buried his knife through its eye. There was another sharp squeal, that droned on longer than the last one, ending in a gradual gurgle as green blood spewed and the Goblin…
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But that was a skill he had yet to master. Each step he took he felt like he was awaking all the spirits of the underworld. It was painfully loud. He winced with each stride. "Guh, I need to get better at this too," he whispered to himself without producing a sound. His grip on the knife felt loose the more steps he took as his hand grew slick with sweat. It began to feel foreign and unsteady in his hand. His mind began to overthink, imagining the killing blow once he got to the Goblin, expecting it…
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'Find the right path,' Beam thought to himself. 'No… Find a path. It doesn't need to be the right one. It just needs to work.' He repeated those words to himself over and over like a mantra, as he gradually restored some of the thinking function of his brain. Now that he was calming down somewhat, he reviewed his initial plan: to use his speed to his advantage and attempt to take care of each Goblin individually before they could group up and get behind him. Again, it made his heart beat faster as he…
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"If I catch them out hunting," he said, his heart beating faster, "they'll be more spread out and can make better use of their numbers, so that's a disadvantage too. I wonder if I could take them out one by one, just using my speed?" Emotionally, his body thought it was a good idea, but he got no response from his master. He clenched his fist, finding the lack of response discouraging, but decided to stick with it anyway. He stood up from his crouched position and stretched out his shoulders, checking…
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But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was certainly the pain - a throbbing, awful thing, as though threatening to split Dominus' shin in half should he make a single false step. And yet, again, pain was something Dominus was able to deal with - it had to be, after living with the Pandora Goblin poison for so long. It was the lack of performance that hurt him. Now, all these years later, it stung to see his left leg in such a state, only able to perform at 10% of what it was capable of in the past.…
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"Mm," Dominus murmured in consideration. "I suppose I can lend you this a while. Don't break it." He reached into the folds of his jacket and withdrew a short dagger. He tossed it to Beam, who managed to fumble a catch. The boy ran his hand along the wooden handle, admiring the smooth sheath made of the same material, before drawing the blade from its sheath and gasping as the steel caught the light. "So cool…" he murmured. "Careful of the edge. It's razor-sharp," Dominus warned him, moving Beam's…
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Beam just nodded again. "I'll see what happens and consider it." Then he turned his back on them and walked through the empty market square in the rain and back to the forest where his master was. Only, he'd forgotten his master's bread. When he was halfway down the road out of the village, he remembered it, and sprinted all the way back to the bakery for it, thoroughly drenched. The old lady had had a few choice words for him about looking after his health, but he'd only smiled and assured her that…
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