Walking through the portal proved to be the right idea. It seems these portals had slowed my pace from a run to a walk earlier, which is what had caused me to stumble earlier. There is a certain disequilibrium that comes from starting a long stride at a faster pace, and finishing the stride with less momentum than you started.

If the silver lining was that I was able to come out at a steady pace without stumbling, then the looming storm overhead was the goblins ahead of me.

This time, the white hallway was wider—wide enough for five goblins to stand, side by side, blocking my path. There was nothing else around me, no place to find cover. It made me glad I hadn’t picked the stealth skill—something said it wouldn’t be very helpful in this situation.

The first row of goblins held swords, shields, maces, and knives. Behind these first five, I could see three goblins in robes holding wands, one goblin with a bow, and one goblin with a crossbow.

The words flashed in red as the A.I. spoke in my head, and I forced myself to run forward.

I activated Mana Modulation, focusing on Agility, suddenly feeling nimbler on my feet.

The first row of goblins was only ten yards away, and from the way they were holding their weapons, I could tell they were ready to kill me.

I immediately followed Samantha’s command, and I felt an arrow clip my right ear.

As the words resounded in my brain, I followed the A.I.’s instructions.

The line of goblins broke, and a goblin with two knives in his hands stepped forward to intercept me.

I dodged towards the wall, placing my back against the wall, and the goblin with the mace swung towards the space between me and the goblin with knives.

Then, I struck. Thankfully, the Orlan Blade was short enough that I could maneuver it to stab from my position by the wall, directly through the mace-goblin’s leather armor on his side. Then, using the weight of my body and the strike, I pushed the goblin towards the middle of the hallway, creating enough of an opening to rush past the first row of goblins.

As I rushed forward, with my back to the first row of goblins, I felt a knife plunge into the right side of my lower back.

I twisted, ignoring the pain in my back, and my left hand reached around and grabbed the wrist of the goblin that had just stabbed my back.

The goblin had already pulled the knife out of my back.

The knife-goblin was already overextended. It didn’t exactly fight me as I pulled on its wrist.

I tried, but I wasn’t able to avoid the arrow that sunk into my stomach.

I felt my body growing weaker.

Somehow, the A.I. sent me a mental image of what exactly I was supposed to do. Modulating mana for Strength would give up my Agility boost, but presumably, it would be worth it.

I gripped the wrist of the goblin behind me with my left hand. Then, using every last ounce of strength in my body, I ducked, curling forward, and tried to hurl the goblin over my head.

It wasn’t actually a toss, but I did manage to force the goblin in front of me—just in time to cross the path of a stream of fire heading my direction.

The goblin shrieked.

Not even bothering to ask why, I let go of the goblin and pulled out the arrow in my stomach.

I felt a wave of replenishing energy pass over me. In the upper left corner of my vision, I saw the words in a familiar blue font:

+20 Coins

Level up!

Before I could protest, the A.I. shouted again.

Figuring the A.I. was the only thing keeping me alive right now, I did.

the A.I. said.

Superimposed above my vision, as though it were some kind of augmented reality, I could see a translucent, pale grey outline of myself rising from my crouch and heading directly towards the nearest goblin. The goblin had a red tag over it, which said “healer.”

It seemed my A.I. was stepping up its game.

I rushed towards the nearest goblin, reveling in the way my body responded immediately and without pain. My body had been completely healed by the level up, leaving me in the same condition as the Recovery Crystal, but with none of the angsty downsides. As I ran, the outline adjusted to be just a fraction ahead of me, showing me that I should point the sword toward the goblin healer—the closest goblin ahead of me.

The other goblins—the ones with swords and shields—were following close behind me.

A white force field-like bubble appeared around the healer.

But the outline I was following had already told me to adjust and target the magician standing slightly behind the healer. I did my best to follow the footwork of the outline ahead of me—dodging around the healer, placing the healer in between me and the pursuing goblins—and then I struck the magician.

I struck the goblin magician’s neck with a powerful swing, even as the magician was trying to back away.

The strike was powerful enough to bite halfway through the creature’s neck. The goblin magician sank to its knees. Following the A.I.’s outline, I pulled back my sword and stabbed the same goblin’s stomach, lifting the magician up and rushing directly forward, towards a goblin that had a crossbow leveled at me.

+20 coins

The goblin with the crossbow backed up, towards the end of the hallway, keeping the bow pointed level at me as he readied his arrow. I was now surrounded—Three goblins approaching me from the same direction I had entered. The healer had retreated to the collapsed goblin with the mace. On my other side, two archers and a magician were retreating towards the portal that would be my exit.

I freed my sword from the dead goblin magician, and, following the outline in front of me, took an awkward tumble heading vaguely towards the healer, away from the archers and remaining magician.

As I did, a fireball flew past my head, landing on the healer’s exposed back.

At the same time, a crossbow bolt sunk into the same goblin’s butt.

It felt like a completely prescient moment. I had no idea either attack was coming, but somehow, the A.I. in my head had predicted it perfectly, and positioned us so perfectly that their friendly fire would do my heavy lifting.

My tumbling retreat placed me next to the healer, and with a quick slice of my sword, the healer died.

+20 coins

The thief, the magician, and the healer had all died so far. The goblin with the mace was still on the ground, weakened. But now, I had my back to the wall and three angry goblins circling around me. Two goblins had short swords and shields, and the third goblin had a massive, two-handed sword.

the A.I. said, in an encouraging tone.

Two strikes attacked me near-simultaneously. Both attacks came from the two goblins with shields and swords.

I followed my translucent outline, dodging the attack of the goblin near the exit, and using my upper arm to block the attack of the goblin closest to the entrance.

The goblin’s sword bit into my arm, and then my attack met its surprised face. Before it could raise its shield, my sword stabbed directly into the goblin’s throat.

I quickly withdrew the sword, and the goblin collapsed to the ground, pulling my left arm down with it.

I wretched my left arm free, and dove directly to the ground, chasing after the virtual outline, back towards the entrance, just barely escaping the powerful, full-force swing of the third goblin’s massive sword.

If I had to guess, I’d say that if that sword had connected, I’d have died immediately.

An arrow struck my hamstring as I lifted myself up.

I stepped to my left, placing the larger goblin with the massive sword in between myself and the remaining magician and archers. As I moved, I felt my right leg falter and burn.

Two goblin swordsmen were facing me, about to attack. On the ground past them, to my left, the goblin I had stabbed was gasping for air.

To my right, the goblin with the mace was lifting himself up painfully.

The goblin with the sword and shield jabbed at me, but I was already dodging to the side. The A.I. didn’t tell me to attack, yet.

The moment there was a hint of movement from the goblin with the massive sword, my outline moved.

I backed away from the massive sword, moving directly towards the goblin with the short sword and the shield. I delivered a heavy blow directly at the goblin, and the goblin blocked with its shield.

My sword was caught in the goblin’s wooden shield, and I yanked my sword back towards me, pulling on the goblin’s arm.

As the goblin’s arm extended, it moved into the path of the giant sword that was cutting towards me.

The goblin with the giant sword frantically readjusted the angle of his attack, and the tip of his sword cut sparks on the white floor.

With the goblin with the shield off balance, being pulled towards me, I drew my dagger from its sheath and stabbed into the goblin’s exposed armpit until the whole length of my dagger sunk into the goblin’s winkled skin. My dagger met very little resistance.

I immediately withdrew the dagger, and yanked at my sword again. The sword didn’t dislodge from the shield, but this time, the goblin released the shield.

As I pulled on the shield, I moved backwards, putting the last standing goblin with a sword in between me and the ranged attackers.

It took too long for me to find my scant cover, and another arrow sunk into my stomach.

The goblin in front of me went on full-on offensive.

The A.I.’s grey outline was somehow able to predict each attack, and I dodged each attack. The remaining swordsman’s movement was fairly slow, but I could tell the power behind each strike was immense.

As I dodged, I used the wall to leverage the wooden shield off my sword. I sheathed my dagger and placed my wounded left arm through the straps on the shield.

Once the shield was positioned, I hunkered down and took a glancing blow from the swordsman.

The goblin’s sword split my shield in half, and continued forward to bite into my arm.

I used the temporary opening to stab directly into the goblin’s throat. This was a full force blow with my sword. It sunk directly into the goblin’s neck, and with a harsh twist, the goblin died.

+20 coins

There were two goblins on the ground in front of me, each barely hanging on to a shred of life.

I drove the dead goblin in front of me towards my left, crouching behind the body for cover, until I reached the goblin that had been gasping for breath from my stab to the neck earlier.

It seemed my grey outline wasn’t in a hurry to level up. Instead, it had me free this goblin’s shield next.

Then the remaining magician made its move. A wall of fire the width of the corridor rushed towards me.

As. I did, I crouched behind the bodies of the two goblins for cover from the wave of fire approaching me.

+20 coins

Level up!

+20 coins

I felt the familiar glow of power wash over me, quickly followed by sharp burns from a breastplate that was touching my skin.

The A.I. said.

I’d lost count of how many times the A.I. had saved my life at this point, so I followed its suggestions.

The outline in front of me raised its freshly looted shield, and rushed forwards towards the ranged attackers.

I did the same.

In front of me, I could see the two archers, the magician, and a wheezing goblin with a mace.

Two arrows and a fire spell flew towards me as I rushed forward. I did my best to crouch and protect myself with the shield.

The fire spell landed on my shield and the shield caught on fire.

I ignored the flames and continued rushing forward.

10 yards.

5 yards.

An arrow sunk into my thigh, but I ignored it.

Once I was within one yard of them, I dropped the shield and made quick work of them.

I danced around the wounded goblin with the mace, and sliced the neck of the magician first. The crossbowman swung a dagger at me, but I caught the crossbowman’s dagger with my open palm, and stabbed his heart.

Dodging around the goblin with the mace, I slashed the remaining archer’s neck with my sword.

At this point, I knew exactly how much force was necessary to cause a killing blow with my sword.

I dodged a mace strike again, and killed the last remaining goblin.

I had a brief moment of wonder, looking around the room.

Many of the bodies had already vanished, but the room was still a nightmare. There were pools of blood and guts on the floor, and bloody smears on the wall. I suppressed the involuntary gag reflex that accompanied the smell.

It was them or me, I thought, trying to shake the vaguely unsettling feeling.

I collected everything I could into my Interdimensional Pouch. Each goblin left behind one or two items, either armor or a weapon they had used.

Finally, I made my way through the black doorway ahead of me.