That stairs continued to spiral down and down further into the underground. Small sconces lit the staircase as Alex continued to run to the bottom.

“How long is this thing?” Slime asked still clinging to Alex’s shoulder.

“I, don’t, know, but, I, hope, it ends soon!” Alex said in between breaths as he continued running down the stairs. Finally, the end was in sight. Alex’s foot hit hard on the landing that marked the end of his long sprint. He stopped, bent over, and leaning against the wall with one hand tried to catch his breath.

“Nice one kid.” Slime said now looking behind them to see if the goblins had decided to follow them.

“I hate to be a pain, I know you’re out breath, but try to hurry it up. I don’t want those creeps to catch up to us.” Slime said urgently.

“O, k!” Alex replied with a smile, that quickly returned to him panting for air.

A couple minutes went by and Alex stood up again. He grabbed his canteen and took a quick drink from it and offered some to Slime, but he passed.

“You keep that water for yourself kid, right now, you’re doing all the heavy lifting.” Slime said. He meant this to be a gesture of kindness, but it came out rather matter of fact.

Alex nodded and closed it back up.

“All right I’m ready again.” Alex said.

The two left the stairs behind them and walked forward a few dozen steps to another door. At this point their idea of being careful had been long forgotten. The goblins knew they were here and if the entire tribe didn’t yet, they’d soon know they came this way. Finding a way out was the only objective now. The door made a loud creek as they opened it. On the other side was another hallway. They shut the heavy door which let out another creek and with a thud was closed again. Continuing forward down the hallway they eventually came to upon three possible routes. They could continue forward into the darkness. Follow the scones to the right or they could head into the darkness to the left.

“Where should we go?” Alex asked.

Slime thought for a moment. Following the sconce likely meant taking them to more goblins. He really doubted this would lead them to the exist. But at the same time the other two directions had no light marking the way, so maybe it was better to follow the lights?

“Uh Slime.” Alex whispered.

“Yeah what?” He asked, still considering their options.

“Were there a bunch of red eyes looking at us a second ago?” Alex asked.

“Of course not.” He replied.

“Oh…okay.” Alex gulped.

“Wait, why?” Slime said as he looked to the front of him now seeing what Alex saw. Down the hall in front of them were 3 pairs of red beady glowing eyes. To their left the same.

“Run.” Slime whispered into Alex’s hear and Alex bolted to the right and followed the sconces down the hall. The sound of the flames whipped by in their ears as they continued down this long hall. Taking a left and then a right. The hall did this a few more times. Behind him the sounds of snarling, shouting and claws scraping stone could be heard. Whatever those creatures were it was clear they had every intention of capturing Alex.

“What are those things!” Alex gasped as he continued to run.

“There’s only one other species that’s willing to work and lives alongside goblins.” Slime said.

“And that would be?” Alex asked in a loud breath.

“Imps.” He said coldly.

“Imps?” Alex asked back and Slime nodded in confirmation.

They reached another door and without much though Alex threw it open. Once through he turned and slammed the door shut. They had now entered what looked like a loading dock. Tall creates and barrels were seen all around the room. Rugs were laid on the floor where Alex stood and on the other end of the room. A few tables were there as well that had scrolls of paper and small candles on them. Across the room he saw a large wooden double door. Glancing around the room once more he tore heavy sacks off the boxes near him and threw them in front of the door. Hoping to add a block to prevent the imps from coming through he kept pushing and tossing bag after bag until he had moved about 10 or so in a big heap right in front of the door. Just as Alex finished another pair of goblins broke in from the opposite side of the room through the large double doors.

“Kid!” Slime called out. “We’ve got more of’em.”

Alex spun around to see the two goblins starting to slowly approach him. Behind him a loud thud was heard as the imps had reached the door and were trying to break their way through it. Alex reached up for Slime again, but this time Slime jumped off his shoulder and on to his head.

“No! You’re not throwing me again!” Slime scolded.

“But it worked last time!” Alex persisted.

“That was a one-time thing kid!” Slime said bouncing to Alex’s other shoulder to evade his grasp.

The goblins were still slowly making their way to the pair.

“I don’t have any weapons Slime!” Alex started to panic.

“Bleh, Okay!” Slime said. Knowing they had no other option. “Then for now use me!”

Slime launched himself above Alex and began changing his shape.

“Tran-slime-guratoin!” Slime shouted. His body mushing and gooing and changing into random spikey shapes.

“Slword mode!” Slime shouted again. His body now changing into the shape of a short one-handed sword. It, like Slime, was green and translucent. The sword began to fall.

“Oi, flippin’ catch me kid!” Slime shouted and so Alex reached his hand up to catch the sword by its hilt. As the sword touched his hand it changed into stone.

“Woah you’re a sword, awesome!” Alex said in excitement.

“Yes, I call it my Slword form!” Slime boasted.

While he did have the appearance of a sword now his eyes and mouth were there as well. It was very similar to if a sword had eyes on its blade and a mouth at the hilt. This is how Slime appeared in his Slword form.

“Now what?” Alex asked.

“Flippin’ fight that’s what! And don’t talk to me in this form, its hard enough as it is to concentrate without you babbling at me.” Slime demanded.

The tricky thing about changing his forms and turning parts of himself into stone was that he needed to keep a portion of himself a Slime still. That meant he had to concentrate on which parts of himself to turn into stone and when. If he wasn’t careful, he could accidentally make his entire body stone or none at all.

One of the goblins let out a scream as he jumped in front of Alex and gave him a swift kick to his ribs. The kick sent Alex jolting to the side.

“Ow!” He cried out crashing into the floor and sliding into one of the empty creates.

“Kid get up!” Slime yelled.

The other goblin let out a laugh as he started running towards Alex. The goblin raised its fist into the air and began to bring it down towards Alex.

“Kid!” He shouted again.

Alex’s head shot up to see the goblin’s fist in pursuit of him. He rolled to the side just as the fist slammed into the ground. The goblin let out a small yelp in pain picking its hand up to cradle it in its other. Using the momentum from the roll Alex got to his feet.

I need to remember what my dad taught me.

He thought and as he did he lunged forward with his Slime Sword,Slword, in hand. Alex caught the goblin off guard with his approach, its hand still being held be the other. With a might swing Alex swung at the goblin’s head. As the sword approached its translucency faded, on the edge that was about to collide with the goblin, and it turned into rock as it crashed into it’s head. The goblin let out a loud cry of pain and was knocked off balance by the blow. It ended up crashing into the empty crate, that Alex had bumped into, which broke under the goblin’s weight. A barrel was sitting on top of the create beside the now broken one. The force of the impact knocked this barrel lose and it fell upon the injured goblin adding to its injuries.

The other goblin was in surprise. They had been told this was nothing more than a kid who didn’t have any fighting ability and now suddenly his comrade was unconscious underneath broken creates and barrels. Something goblins are known for is their temper and this, in no surprise, enraged the goblin.

“Yous trickys human!” The goblin yelled stomping his foot against the floor. Its muscles seemed to clench and bulge as if getting larger and with another yell the goblin lunged at Alex. This time the goblin tried to punch him, but Alex was ready, and he brought his blade up to block. However, the strength of the goblin had increased, and it broke through his defense. Alex staggered backwards from the force of the mighty punch. As the goblin pulled back for another punch Alex shouted.

“Get ready Slime!” And he threw the slword at the face of the goblin.

“I told you not…HEY, WAIT A SECOND I’M NOT…” and the sword splashed into the eyes of the goblin just as it started swinging towards Alex. Alex’s eyes widened as Slime’s sword shape splashed upon the goblins head, no longer a sword, but a puddle. The spray of slime covered the goblins eyes and face, it splashed onto the ground around them. As the enclosing fist came closer Alex rolled forward past the goblin and out of the way. When Alex landed on his feet it was into the puddle of his friend.

“Oh no!” Alex said as he looked down to see that he was sitting in a puddle of what used to be Slime.

“Slime oh I’m sorry, I …” Alex started to apologize but it appeared as if the liquid had began being absorbed into the carpet and stone floor beneath him. Before Alex could do anything, the puddle that was Slime was gone. At the same time the goblin had put so much force into the punch that he had thrown himself off balance, slipped on a remaining puddle of the slime and landed face first into a 2 step stair case crashing through and breaking it in the process. The goblin’s head was buried in the debris of the stairs while his body laid lifeless on the ground.

Both goblins laid motionless on while Alex just sat there looking at where his friend had disappeared.

“Slime…” He said sadly. But his moment of peace wouldn’t last as a loud crash of wood was heard. He looked to the door he entered from to see a long, but thin, spikey tail jolt through the door and then retreat.

“The imps.” He said. Getting back to his feet he said a mental goodbye to this room in honor of his friend and bolted for the opened double doors. Through it revealed a small room about the size of an average living room. There were ramps leading up to double doors, a set of stairs to his right, and down a bit was a single mine cart on a track. This room also had crates and open barrels that appeared to be full of weapons and armour. The door behind him finally broke up as the imps had destroyed what was left of it. He ran down the ramp and towards the mine cart. The imps, now having some room, spread their wings open and flew forward at the boy. Alex climbed into the mine cart and pulled the only lever he saw available. The cart began to slowly move forward as the imps flew into the mine cart room.

“Come on hurry up!” He called to the mine cart hoping it magically take off at full speed. One of the imps swooped down to try to grab him and missed as Alex ducked back into the cart. Then came another and another. Three times these imps were unsuccessful from grabbing the boy on the slowly moving mine cart. It continued to pick up a bit of speed and move down the tracks. The tunnel grew more and more narrow which didn’t leave the imps a lot of room for flying. In a final ditch effort, the Imp leader let out a loud scream and flew straight into the narrow passage. It folded its wings around its body and began to spin as it propelled toward him. It had caught up to and landed on the back of the mine cart. This caused Alex to fall down into the mine cart from surprise and as he did the imp lunged in a claw to grab for him, but this tunnel was old and had collapsed in certain areas. Had the imp been paying attention it would’ve seen the broken low hanging support beam that was fast appraoching, but it wasn’t, and as such crashed into it and was knocked off the cart. Alex’s eyes opened wide as he saw the imp disappear as the beam flew overhead. Thankfully he had fallen inside of the mine cart and was out of harm’s way.

Alex rose to his feet again and looked in the direction the mine cart was now traveling. The cart started to go faster and faster and when he looked down towards the level, he realized that it had been snapped off. While the imp missed getting his hands-on Alex, it did get its hands on the lever and tore it from the cart. This was an unintended accident and unfortunately for Alex the cart was rushing at incredible speeds now and there was no way for Alex to slow the cart.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!” Alex kept saying as the cart continued down the tracks. With small little turns here, and merges there. The cart would tip onto its sides and Alex would jump to the other side to prevent it from flipping over. Alex looked behind him, as he just saved himself from flipping over, to get another look at what he just went through. The tracks were in a squiggle like partner behind him but as he turned forward again his mine cart slammed into the end of the tracks. A wood stopper was smashed to pieces along with the cart and Alex was launched upside down into the air a stone wall. Alex waived his hands in front of him hoping it would stop him but when it didn’t, he braced for impact.

A loud thud could be heard echoing throughout the chamber as Alex’s body now laid motionless in a heap on the ground.