Wow. Margaret was not kidding. Smack dab in the center of the woods, I find wooden supply crates, shovels, a bicycle, an ironing board, an ox cart with no ox, lots of clothes, a few pots and pans, and all sorts of everything. It seems that the goblins have been stealing from the villagers for quite some time. Either that or they plan on opening a variety store.

Yet a lot of what’s present I can’t quite make out due to the lack of light. I can mostly only see shapes with a few minor details. There are tall trees surrounding me in every direction. The tallest of the trees all have trunks that go up about eight feet before they start sprouting branches. But above that point, the trees are covered in dark green leaves. It seems that all that I’ve found here is a bunch of stolen stuff, crunchy leaves on the ground, and tall trees in the air. Where the heck are all of the goblins?

It’s only at the center of the stolen items that I see any goblins, but those are the two that I followed here. Now they’re just standing there making some noises that could be speech, but I’m not quite sure. Cautiously, I start to walk towards them. Suddenly, the two goblins begin screeching loudly and pointing at me. I don’t know what they’re doing, but I don’t like it, and their screeching is annoying, so I cast a Comet and shut them up for good.

I don’t know about their hideout, but I at least found the stolen goods. That ought to be good enough to get the potion that Margaret promised me. As I turn to exit the forest, I hear what sounds like movement. I hold myself still so that I can listen more carefully. I hear it again, but where? There’s a rustle of leaves to my right side. My eyes jerk towards the sound, but I still don’t see anything. Then suddenly there’s the sound of movement all around me. I look over my shoulder and see five goblins behind me.

Reacting quickly, I barely manage to roll out of the way of an incoming arrow. As I prepare to attack the five goblins, green movement in my peripheral vision turns my head to the right. Now there are around eight goblins approaching me from that side. But how is that possible? Where are they coming from?

Leaves rustle just to my left side. The sound causes my heart to skip a beat and I instinctively jump away. In the spot where the sound came from, I see a goblin burrowing out of the ground from directly beneath a tree. Swiveling my head from left to right, I see a multitude of other goblins also burrowing out from beneath tress. Before I’m even able to fully process what’s happening, I find myself surrounded by at least fifty, if not more, goblins.

This is not good. I don’t care how weak goblins are as individuals. I’m in trouble. Directly in front of me, a squadron of goblins prepares its arrows. As the squadron unleashes its volley at me, I dodge and duck as best as I can, but arrows still puncture into my left shoulder, my right forearm, and left thigh. I quickly yank the arrows out without flinching: not because I’m that much of a macho tough guy, but because I know that if I blink then I’m getting hit with more arrows. Luckily, the arrows that already hit me didn’t pierce any vital organs nor did they puncture that deeply. I simply cast the Heal spell on myself and keep dodging as best as I can.

Still, I can’t dodge forever. If I don’t do something to keep these arrows from coming at me, then I’ll be dead in a matter of minutes. As one more arrow whizzes by my head, I come up with an idea. They’re only able to shoot at me because I’m stranded in the middle of them and because they’re taking advantage of my height by shooting up at an angle that allows the arrows to sail over the heads of the goblins on the opposite side even if they miss. That makes what I need to do obvious. Dip!

I crouch to my knees to lower myself to their height. The goblins hesitate at my sudden move just long enough for me to roll towards a group of them. Now, right in front of the enemy, I can launch my counterattack. “Haaa!” I shout as I thrust my staff into a goblin. The force of the thrust pushes the goblin through the air and away from me. Then I swing at the goblins to my right side. The mighty strike from my staff blows three of them away at once and I start to gain a little confidence. That is, until a goblin on my left stabs me in the arm with its knife. Ow! I pivot and attack towards my left. Another goblin shimmies around to my right side and stabs me in the leg. Ow! As I try to riposte to my right, yet another goblin stabs me, but this time in the back just under my left shoulder blade. Oww, oww, oww!

I rise to my feet in an attempt to flee. As I run away, a spray of arrows chases at my backside. I dive behind a tree to escape the arrows. Right away my chest begins to rise and fall in rapid succession as I try desperately to catch a breath. There’s just too many of them. I can’t do this alone. I can only think of one thing to do, but that would also have negative consequences. Not to mention that I’d have to live with the shame of needing such a spell against lowly goblins.

As I consider my options, I feel a knife sink into my already stabbed left arm. “Aaaah!” I scream. I twist around enough to punch the offending goblin in the face. It flies backwards and leaves its knife dangling from my arm. Okay. Forget it. I’m either going to live with the shame of using a master-level summoning spell on goblins or die with the shame of being killed by goblins. Between the two, the better choice is clear. I focus every last bit of mana that I have left and cast my trump card. Shouting its name I call out, “Ruby Red Dragon!”

Out of a puff of smoke, a 10ft tall bipedal red dragon emerges. It sees the goblins attacking me and steps forward. But due to its size, it immediately gets stuck between some trees. The goblins respond to it by launching another volley of arrows. But unlike with my soft skin, their arrows are unable to pierce its hard scales. Leaning back, the dragon inhales a deep breath, and then loudly exhales out a giant fireball at the goblins. The fireball explodes into a massive eruption of fire that kills off many of the goblins and sets the forest ablaze.

“And that’s why I didn’t want to summon you,” I quip.

The goblins that weren’t killed by the fireball flee in terror. As fast as I can, I search through my medical supplies and withdraw both a life and a mana potion. Hurriedly, I drink them, spilling about a third of their contents on my hands. Just in time I realize that my dragon is about to breathe out another fireball, but now that I have some mana back, I’m able to unsummon the dragon before it makes the forest fire even worse. With the goblins and the dragon gone, I just have to stop the forest fire and then I can call it a day.

I come out from behind my tree refuge. The fire is spreading quickly, yet it’s still small enough for me to handle if I commit all of my mana to it at once. Using all of my mana, I perform my true specialty – triple casting. Few are the mages who can do it, but there is a unique skill that allows one to quickly repeat a spell three times. I do so with the grandmaster level elementalist spell – Water Dragon Bomb. Spraying from my magical staff, three giant dragon-shaped water projectiles crash into the fires and put them out while leaving the ground wet and muddy. I’ve got to say; sometimes I even impress myself. Of course, I can’t be too boastful considering I had to use every single one of my best skills in a battle against goblins. Never would I have believed it possible if it hadn’t just happened. Luckily, nobody was around to see it or I’d be the joke of the mage world.

I move over to the villagers’ goods and see that the fire damaged a lot of it. Crap. That’s not good. I hope that Margaret will still give me the potion. Anyhow, my quest is complete and I’m exhausted. Slowly, I walk through the woods back towards Belle Forest. After about three minutes of walking, I hear the voice of a girl screaming. Crap. That’s also not good.

I sluggishly run as fast as I can in the direction that the voice came from. Surely enough, I find Katherine being chased by goblins. Straining my muscles, I force myself to run faster, but my exhaustion is starting to get the better of me. To make matters worse, Katherine somehow manages to run into another group of goblins leaving her boxed in from the front and the back. In a panic she tries to veer off to the side, but runs straight into a tree. She crumbles over to the ground from the impact. The goblins form a firing line in front of her and prepare their bows. Like mad, I push myself so hard that it feels like my legs are going to tear out from my torso. The goblins draw back their bowstrings. Tears stream from Katherine’s eyes and she’s too frozen with fear to escape. Finally they fire.

Grunting, I make one final push and put myself between Katherine and the arrows. I try to deflect the arrows with my staff, but due to my fatigue, my heavy stone staff feels even heavier. Successfully, I manage to knock a mere two arrows out of the air. The rest of the arrows leave me looking like a porcupine with its quills in backwards. Instantly, I can taste my mouth filling with blood as the goblins ready themselves to fire more arrows. My eyes feel heavy and the forest suddenly grows darker. Yet before the goblins can attack again, I sling a Comet straight ahead and catch most of them by surprise. The few that survive run away.

I fall to my knees. I can’t breathe. I think I took an arrow or two to the lungs. Katherine comes to my side. I can tell that she is saying something, but I can’t hear her. Before it’s too late, I take out my portal stone and record book. Using what little strength I have, I tear out the one page of the book and cast the Portal spell. In front of Katherine and me, a blue water-like portal appears in the air. I don’t know if I manage, but I try to point my finger towards the portal. At this point the world is almost entirely black. It seems that I’ll never reach my goal after all. I guess some things once done can never be undone.

“I’m sorry Nadine. I tried my best.”

I feel my body become weightless and I submit to the darkness.

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