Chapter Four: The Never-ending night.

...

As soon as the horn sounded off in the distance Capra ran over to his table and picked up his new dagger and wand, then he placed them in his inventory next to Baba’s axe.

Step. Step. Step.

Outside the shack the goblin village was gradually becoming louder and louder. At first Capra could only hear a few goblins walking past, but within minutes what could have been two or three individual goblins became what sounded like a frenzied march. Capra opened the door to his shack and was caught off guard.

“What in the world?”

It was as If the entire goblin village had woken up from a deep sleep. The goblins were so densely packed that a goblin was pushed into Capra’s house when the door opened.

“Sorry. Sorry.” It apologized, before promptly jumping back into the sea of green.

Capra watched as it leapt away, then he set his sight on the rest of the village and noticed a few more changes.

Off in the distance several goblins grabbed and tossed wood into the village’s bonfires, causing the flames to grow stronger and stronger until the night sky was covered in smoke. Meanwhile some goblin shamans and workmen surrounded the flames using them to burn a large pile of ingredients.

The workmen removed the ingredients from the flames with shovels and placed them before the shamans who then scooped them up into small wooden orbs, added a touch of dried bat guano– and some other ingredients Capra couldn’t make out–, and then sealed the orbs with a wick.

“Bomb Ready!” A shaman shouted as he carelessly tossed the bomb into a pile— during which other goblin craftsmen working on spears and barricade parts shouted,

“Need more wood!’ As they quickly forged spears, and “Need more spears!” as those spears were taken away.

“Strange.”

Capra noticed that a few of the goblin craftsmen were smaller than normal, but as he looked on, he noticed the reason for the difference.

“Are those goblin children?”

Other than being uglier and more big headed than most children, goblin children looked just like any other kid, so Capra was able to spot them amongst the workers. The kids weren’t as deft as the older craftsmen, but their small pudgy hands were skilled enough to turn scraps of wood into spears usable by goblin spear men; however, it didn’t make sense to Capra that they were helping.

The villagers had been active the last battle, helping distribute bombs and the like, but things weren’t so bad that the children were recruited. Capra could only wonder if he should be worried.

“I should find Baba and Workdidi, they would know what’s going on.”

Capra started to close the door to his house, but before the door completely shut a small form bolted it.

Skrii!

Ulysses rolled out to the dirt road — almost landing himself under the feat of the goblin masses passing by, but luckily a well timed footstep by Capra blocked Ulysses from going too far forward. The impact left Ulysses reeling.

Skri...

Ulysses shook its head as it stood up on its hind legs in an attempt to get rid of the dizziness from the collision, then Its nose wiggled as it came up to Capra and used its front paw to tug at Capra’s leg. It looked up at Capra, its black gem like eyes reflecting Capra’s somewhat bemused expression.

“Heh, cute. Well, I guess you can come too.”

…

It didn’t take Capra long to find Workdidi— although Baba was nowhere to be seen.

When Workdidi spotted Capra coming his way the little goblin shaman jumped in excitement.

“Come, come.” He yelled over the masses.

He pushed goblins out of the way, while beckoning for Capra to come closer. Within a few seconds Capra made his way towards Workdidi, and the goblin shaman excitedly grabbed his wrist, to which he sharply inhaled.

“Ow, geezus. Workdidi is stronger than he looks.”

Before Capra could get a word out Workdidi was already pulling him towards the western battlefield while pointing at the barricades in the distance.

“Make stone, make stone.” He repeated hurriedly, then he let go and ran off.

“...”

Capra couldn’t help but think it was strange. No razor terrors, no flying horrors, and no log tossers were visible yet. So why was the entire goblin village in such a rush? In the end he couldn’t think of an answer, so he got to work.

System Notification: Your alteration of [Goblin Barricade] is significant: +10 Contribution points.

He finished one barricade within four minutes.

System Notification: Your alteration of [Goblin Barricade] is significant: +10 Contribution points.

Then another, “

“Two down… 808 to go.” He counted.

By his calculations at the rate he was enchanting it would take him at least ten days to get the 8080 contribution points he needed to purchase [Curse of Lightning], that is assuming there were 808 barricades to essence forge.

“It’d probably be more effective to kill razor terrors...” He thought.

A razor terror was worth at least one contribution point by his estimate, and he could kill 40 or 50 of them by the time he was one fourth of the way done essence forging a barricade, so he he’d rather do that.

What was the point of essence forging more barricades? The barricades he had essence forged previously were still in good condition, so he doubted the goblins would need many more. He glanced over the battlefield and made a decision.

“I’ll continue until the razor terrors show up.”

Then he got back to work.

...

Off in the distance Workdidi watched Capra work, but there wasn’t a smile on his face despite the almost free labor he was getting from the human, instead he mumbled something under his breath while looking off into the distance, his eyes glowing a strange blue.

“Keep...” He prayed.

At the northern battlefield region Baba kneeled down, his right hand on his chest, and he mumbled as well.

“Protect...” He continued.

And by the eastern region, flying high up in the sky an unknown goblin looked off into the darkness. His eyes unsettled...

“Remember...”

…

Then unbeknownst to Capra three powerful goblins, each in different regions, each with their eyes glowing a strange blue, simultaneously completed a prayer.

“Keep us. Protect us. Remember us… if we fall... to.. never ending night.”

As if to signal the end of the prayer a loud and familiar roar shook the underground world. It sounded like the a mix between that of a gorilla and a crocodile... Still as profoundly inhumane as Capra had remembered it to be.

The underground world shook, and a black mass took to the sky. Six figures gigantic loomed in the distance, and a ball of flaming granite was catapulted out from within the goblin village towards the gigantic figures. It was an exact replica of the first night… with one exception— the six figures seemed closer now, and an unnatural gloom pervaded the world.

“They… coming...” A goblin whispered.

Then the goblin village fell into silence as goblin after goblin took their place behind a barricade, spears in hand.

For a moment the silence remained.

Skreeeee!

But the brief moment was quickly shattered.

The trees in the distance trembled as razor terror after razor terror dashed out. They were frenzied, stepping over each other as they ran, their eyes bloody and red.

Baga baga baga!

Behind the razor terrors huge trees were knocked aside like paper rags, and monsters, each three meters tall surged out of the forest. There weren’t many, only four as far as Capra could count, but the beasts had an overwhelming presence.

They looked like trolls, except their skin was a bloody red instead of green, their necks short and stubby, and their heads extended forward grossly to reveal long snouts. Their legs were proportionate to their torso, but their arms looked like something out of an episode of Popeye.

These deformed troll-like creatures ran forward with gusto on all fours, like apes, smiling and laughing maniacally all the way.

Baga baga baga!

It was a weird laughter…

As the creature’s ran forward they occasionally grabbed at the razor terrors, picking them up with their strong arms and dropping them into their opened maws like a piece of candy.

Crack. Crunch. Slurp.

Baga baga baga!

The trolls laughed in delight, then they warbled as they made their way closer and closer to the goblin barricades, as if on a stroll. However, Workdidi wasn’t having it.

“Throw!”

Capra turned to see Workdidi give the goblins a command, and immediately bombs flew into the air spiraling forwards towards the deformed trolls.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The closest of the four creatures took three bomb hits and lost huge chunks of its flesh. It screamed in pain.

Its right arm had been blown off, and its ribs and skull were clearly visible alongside the accompanying organs beneath, yet the creature still lived.

“Again!”

Another rally of bombs flew at the creature, but this time they missed.

Despite its heavily injured body the creature managed to use its remaining arm to push itself back out of bomb range. At this point its happy countenance completely disappeared, and replaced was replaced by a scowl filled with hatred.

The creature used its remaining left arm to angrily grab at a nearby razor terror, picking it up and tossing it down into its maw, then its jaw shut. Light screaming could be heard briefly, bu the creature chewed, and then it swallowed, and the screaming was gone.

Within milliseconds Capra noticed that where the creature’s arm had been blown off a chunk of flesh was being generated at a rate fast enough for the naked eye to see, but the deformed troll didn’t seemed satisfied and it reached out to grab more.

For a moment Capra felt pity for the razor terrors.

The razor terrors tried to run... but they were too frenzied, and panicked so they tripped on each other making themselves easy prey for the deformed troll. It grabbed four at once— its maw extended open like a crocodile’s, and then its short chubby neck expanded and it swallowed all four razor terrors whole.

In the blink of an eye its body was fully restored, and it growled out towards the other trolls causing them to halt their advance and turn angry as well. They then hooted angrily and banged on their chests like gorillas. After which they did something unexpected.

Each deformed troll grabbed four or five razor terrors, but they didn’t eat them… instead they tossed them forward over the barricades. The razor terrors snapped their jaws madly as they flew through the air.

“Aaaaah!”

And as they landed one of the razor terror’s latched on to a goblin spear man's torso, its jaw tightened. The other goblins tried to pull it off, but the razor terror was unrelenting. To make matters worse as they pulled the pulling force hurt the goblin spear man more and more, causing his health bar to appear with each instance of damage.

From what Capra could see, the goblin spear man was tough. Despite being latched on to by a razor terror the spear man had only lost about a tenth of his health.

“Chaos bolt!”

System Notification: [Chaos Bolt] deals 78 earth damage to [Razor Terror]. You have slain razor terror. Awarding experience. +5 karma.

The razor terror exploded into a ball of goop, dying instantly.

Before the goblin spear man could thank Capra another scream broke out. Off in the distance three razor terrors latched on to a goblin spear man, causing his health to plummet quickly.

“Nature’s fulmination!”

A green light shone done on the goblin being chomped.

System Notification: Target ally regenerates 56 hp. You have dealt 28 damage to [Razor Terror x 3].

System Notification: Target ally regenerates 56 hp. You have dealt 28 damage to [Razor Terror x 3].

The goblin’s quickly plummeting health saw some relief, and although it was still dropping, it dropped much slower, and each time the goblin was healed his body released green thorns, damaging the razor terrors latched on to him. This gave his companions times to save him.

System Notification: You have rescued a goblin. +2 contribution point.

System Notification: You have assisted in killing [Razor Terror]. +1 contribution point.

System Notification: You have assisted in killing [Razor Terror]. +1 contribution point.

System Notification: You have assisted in killing [Razor Terror]. +1 contribution point.

Yet again, before the goblins could thank Capra five more razor terrors flew over the barricades, and soon more and more flew forward. It was like it had begun to rain razor terrors all of a sudden, and as Capra looked off into the distance he could see why.

The deformed trolls were each tossing faster and faster by the second, until eventually they reached a maximum velocity of 10 or so razor terrors per second, per troll. This caused the secure zone behind the barricade become compromised.

The goblins could no longer toss bombs as easily as before, and as a result the flood of razor terrors outside the barricades were able to rush forward— biting and nibbling at the sturdy stone barricades Capra had fortified, slowly lowering their resistance.

“Shit.”

Capra prepared to cast a chaos bolt, but one of the razor terrors that made it behind the barricade lunged at Capra while he was distracted. The distraction was costly, and Capra was too slow to dodge it.

System Notification: Critical. You have taken 75 damage. [HP 245/320]. Your fibula has been broken.

Movement speed -90% until healed.

“Gaaaaah!”

Capra screamed out in pain. The razor terror snapped down on Capra’s calf and It hurt like hell to have is fibula broken... and to make the matters worse the razor terror didn’t seem to have any plan of relenting.

Bam!

Right as the razor terror intended to snap down on Capra’s calf again, a small figure crashed into it.

System Notification: Your familiar Ulysses used [Tackle] on [Razor Terror]. 12 damage.

“Good job Ulysses!”

The damage wasn’t much, but Ulysses had saved Capra from a rough spot. He gritted his teeth and yelled.

“Nature’s fulmination!”

The 15 second cooldown had long since passed and Capra used the brief moment of respite gained by Ulysses to heal himself.

System Notification: You regenerate 56 hp. [HP 300/320]. Your fibula has been slightly repaired.

Movement speed -80% until healed.

System Notification: [Nature’s fulmination] deals 28 nature damage to [Razor Terror].

Capra could still hardly stand, but the healing from Nature’s Fulmination considerably lessened the pain he felt on his calf, so he waved his hand causing chaotic energies to flow forth and form a writhing mass of chaotic energy.

“Chaos Bolt!”

System Notification: [Chaos Bolt] deals 83 fire damage to [Razor Terror]. You have slain razor terror. Awarding experience. +5 karma.

The razor terror combusted into a ball of flames on contact with the chaos bolt, instantly dying.

System Notification: You regenerate 56 hp. [HP 320/320]. Overheal. Your fibula has been greatly repaired.

Movement speed -10% until healed.

“One more tick and I’ll be fully healed.”

Capra pulled a black wand out of his inventory as nature’s fulmination continued to tick and repair his fibula, and for a brief moment he couldn’t help but think how glad he was he’d gotten Ulysses as a familiar… because if not for nature’s fulmination he might’ve died due to a single razor terror...

“Chaos bolt!”

Capra wielded his wand, firing off with [Chaos Bolt], and continuously one shotting any razor terrors that made it past the barricade.