Aiden, Duran and Traynor crept through the short, tunnel like passage and stepped, quietly, on the wooden structure that expanded throughout the entire cavern forming what can only be described as a Goblin Town.

They stood still and looked around trying to find any Goblins that may be close to them. The only movement they saw was the twitching of the shadows that hit the stone walls. Traynor did not dare to make any noise until they were sure no one was around them. He simply gestured the men to follow him and they began moving once again. While walking, Aiden had his eyes on a very interesting building. A huge wooden pillar stood erect in the centre of the underground and connected the ceiling with the floor. Every side and level of the Goblin Town was connected to it, either by bridges or ladders. Aiden wanted to ask a few things about the construction, but he was too careful to talk, so he just stared at it while they strode around the Goblin Town.

A couple of minutes passed, and the wooden road had now led them slightly closer to the pillar, even though they were still sticking close to the walls. Then Aiden noticed something curious. The pillar was hollow! He could see light coming from windows and doors that were located all over the wooden building. The young man also noticed something even more disturbing. Inside the wooden construction there was a great deal of movement, and as they got closer, noise.

There was no denying it. Most, if not all, of the Goblins had gathered inside the pillar for some unknown reason. Duran clenched his fist, that meant that the group should stop walking. With the creaking wood under their feet now quiet they managed to pick up the sound of music coming from the centre building.

“They must be celebrating something.”

Aiden whispered to the rest. To him the music seemed most crude but had a weirdly uplifting melody. Duran turned to him and shook his head in disagreement before whispering back.

“Goblins are predators of the night. They’re living underground most of the day, that means they’re bound to get bored at some point, so they usually do things like that.”

Traynor nodded in agreement since he didn’t have to add anything. Duran then pointed towards the pillar and the men crept their way to one of the many bridges connected to the building before very slowly and carefully passing to the other side. The closer they got the more apparent the music was. Soon, it was loud enough to be able to talk quietly instead of whispering. Then Aiden realised something that surprised him a bit.

“Wait a minute… This song is being sang in the Common Tongue. How come?”

“Goblins, like most creatures capable of speech, learn both their own language and the Common Tongue. If you think that’s to expand their intellectual horizons, then you’re wrong. There are two reasons behind their choice: songs are usually better when written in the Common tongue, and it’s easier to fight other races if you understand the most widely known language.”

After that small informative exchange between Aiden and Traynor, they kept walking eventually reaching the pillar itself. There the men stuck to the wooden wall of the building and crouched in order to avoid being seen through one of the windows. As they sneaked round the pillar trying to think of a plan, Aiden could hear the song clearly. It was sung by the raspy, awkwardly pitched and saliva squirting voices of the Goblins.

“Through the forest, down a hole,

That’s where all Goblins go.

Beneath the trees and under grass,

Where no sunlight ever lasts.

Covered in mud and smell of blood,

Come now, join the Goblin flood!

The time is nigh, when the moon is high,

Beneath the stars of a darkened sky.

Out the forest, up the hole,

Give us back what the ancients stole!

Kill the men with fair skin,

Pound them up and make them scream!

Through the forest, down a hole,

That’s where all Goblins go,

Where men fail and elves meet foe.

There dwarves die and halflings cry,

Where angels fall and demons fly!

Far from the sun, under the ground,

Down, below in Goblin Town!”

The song was followed by loud laughter and words that Aiden could not understand. He didn’t think much of it, until he saw the expression on Duran’s face and even though he couldn’t see Traynor’s, his stillness showed that he had the very same expression. Duran was clearly worried, as well as shocked.

“What’s wrong? Did you see anything coming our way?”

Aiden was curious but it took a moment for Duran to answer.

“Goblins songs always change, that’s because most of the time they don’t write anything down. Few scriptures exist written by their race.”

“So? That doesn’t sound too bad…right?”

Duran placed his hand on Aiden’s shoulder and looked at him with a completely professional and serious look.

“That means Goblin songs usually talk about things that have yet to happen. They don’t give a crap about most of their past.”

The quiet growling of Duran made the inexperienced man think for a second. He repeated the lyrics in his mind for a few seconds before his mouth opened slightly and his eyes widened.

“No! Don’t tell me!”

His mentor patted his shoulder and turned to Traynor.

“When is the full moon?”

“I’m not sure, but I think we still have a couple of days.”

“Not good enough, we need to take care of this now!”

“I was hired to clean up a Goblin cave, I don’t mind assassinating the leader and then running out, but I will not fight an entire underground village for a town I don’t even live in!”

“Help us out and I’m going to make sure Lloyd gives you a proper reward for your troubles.”

Traynor lowered his head in thought and then Aiden jumped in, confused about the whole situation.

“Wait, wait, wait. What are you talking about? I thought we had a plan, w-we don’t need to change it… I mean, we still have a couple of days till the Goblins do their flood or whatever…”

Duran was quick to clear up Aiden’s confusion.

“You see, Goblins may be monsters of lesser intelligent that hate almost every single being that doesn’t belong to their kin, but they’re far from incompetent. Our plan would have worked because the death of a leader would make them fight over the throne, and by the time they were finished they would be weak and probably scattered all around the forest. Now, they already have a plan: wait for the full moon and attack the village, our village! If they’re leader dies, they’ll still carry out the plan and they may execute it even faster out of anger and thirst for revenge!”

That news was grave. Judging by the size of this place and the amount of Goblin voices a raid, even if the village was prepared, would prove extremely dangerous for all the townspeople. Aiden was scared, frightened, worried and nervous…but he was not about to give up. To him, giving up at that moment would be the greatest insult to Lloyd, Lin, Serena, Conrad, Duran and everyone else at the village. It would be the ultimate betrayal, something that he wouldn’t be able to live with.

-If I must throw myself in the fire, I will…I don’t want to…but that doesn’t matter. I wasn’t the one to save myself from the wilderness, I didn’t give myself a roof to sleep under, I didn’t teach my self how to use a sword and I didn’t equip myself with the information needed to survive. Those people had no obligation to help me, but they did. –

Aiden’s life was never completely built by him. Be it family, friends or teachers someone always gave him the things he needed to grow into the man he is today. He, of course, knew that. He had helped his close ones many a time…but he was never asked to put himself in such a great danger for them. It took some seconds for Aiden to respond. Then, with a deep breath and a sigh he decided.

“Alright… I’m ready, let’s do what we have to do.”

Traynor, who had already agreed to Duran’s offer, was surprised by Aiden’s decision, and even though his voice sounded shaky and reluctant, he never showed any other sign of lying or backing down. Duran was particularly happy when he heard Aiden’s choice and his smile showed that, in his eyes, Aiden was forgiven for his cowardly talk when they were inside the tunnels.

“You make me proud lad! Now, let us throw these monsters back into the pits of hell, where they belong!”

Steelthunder was not quiet, at all! He stood up tall and rushed towards the window closer to them. Traynor and Aiden were dumbfounded as they watched the man jump inside the Goblin filled building.

“What the fuck are you doing?! You’re going to d—”

Traynor was interrupted by two Goblins who had just been launched out of the window and plummeted to their death. Aiden snapped back into reality and followed his mentor, he held his sword tight and his shield high before jumping inside the pillar.

This floor of the huge structure was full of crudely made tables and chairs as well as a bunch of large barrels containing Goblin liquor. Right now, all that furniture had been thrown around or shattered by a rampaging Steelthunder. His axe was swinging around, as if it was the scythe of death, eagerly reaching out to cut flesh and crack bone. His wooden shield was up, protecting his armour-covered body and even though it had only been a couple of seconds, its wood was coloured red by the blood and had a collection of knives sticking out of it.

Aiden had no time to lose, as soon as he entered, he placed the shield in front of him and blocked the incoming edge of a Goblin’s knife. The thought of having a group of Goblins cutting him open and playing with his guts filled him with adrenaline. His movements were hectic and shaky, unlike Duran’s, but they worked just fine against the stunned group of ambushed Goblins. Aiden’s first victim was stabbed straight through the neck by his sharp sword, the second was quickly pushed back by his metal shield before being sliced across the chest and having its insides spill out, his third Goblin had its skull cut halfway through by the sword’s edge.

Behind Aiden, Traynor jumped inside as well, using his buckler to pummel the Goblins’ skulls, while his bastard sword was swift to decapitate any monster that stood in his way.

The cries of the dying Goblins were heard all over the cavern, their echoes were travelling up the tunnels and died out before reaching the surface. Traynor knew what was about to happen.

“We’ll soon be swarmed! We have to get out of here and fight them in the open!”

It hadn’t been five seconds from the moment he said that, and Goblins were already climbing inside the room, adding to the already high number of enemies they had to face. Suddenly, Duran threw his shield, hitting a Goblin in the face and allowing Aiden to slice its throat. His axe was soon thrown as well, hacking into the head of a Goblin and making its brain spill out.

Aiden was unsure of what his mentor was doing, but it didn’t take long for him to find out. Steelthunder grabbed his claymore with his right hand, while using the left one to unstrap it from his back. Soon a long, thick and sharp piece of metal was up in the air, before being swiftly brought down on two Goblins that tried to get him from the front. The moment the sword contacted the Goblins’ skin a loud sound echoed through the underground, it sounded like the thunder right after the lightning strike and a shockwave shot out in the direction of the slice. Its sonic boom made a lot of Goblins cover their ears, while also surprising the hell out of Aiden and Traynor. The shockwave itself blew through the side of the wall Duran was facing and created a large enough hole for the men to escape towards the rest of the structure, making a bunch of Goblins fall to their death in the process.

“They don’t call me Steelthunder for nothing! HAHA!”

The men now followed Duran, who was running across a wooden bridge away from the pillar. Aiden, before moving too far away from the building, sheathed his sword, picked up a torch that was placed there to illuminate the bridge and chugged it back inside the hollowed pillar. The flaming torch touched the liquor that was splashed all over the place and caused a fire to break out, followed by an explosion that was strong enough to destroy a large part of the structure as well as the bridge the men were currently running on. With a leap Duran and Traynor made it to the other side, unfortunately Aiden was not that lucky.

Aiden grabbed onto the rope-tied planks as they were falling and swinging towards the stone wall. He soon smashed into it but was able to hold on. Duran and Traynor were already fighting off Goblins trying to protect the hanging Aiden. Every time Steelthunder’s sword sliced through an opponent the shockwave was launched and the thunderous sound was heard. Aiden was trying to climb up while Goblins where falling like rain all around him. He, of course, couldn’t get up because of his shield.

-There is no time to worry about a piece of metal! –

Biting into the leather straps he hectically managed to unbuckle them and allow for his kite shield to fall down the cavern followed by another wave of Goblins. Aiden did not dare to waste a single moment. As soon as his shield was off the young man climbed up the destroyed bridge as fast as he could. Once he was close to the edge, Traynor grabbed his arm and helped him up before thrusting his sword into a Goblin’s eye socket. Aiden was now up, standing between the two men while a good number of Goblins were climbing behind him. He quickly unstrapped his zweihander and, placing his left hand near the guard and his right near the pommel, he took it out of its sheath before a delivering a powerful overhead strike that split a climbing Goblin’s skull in half. Duran turned to check if Aiden was alright and then began running down the wooden structure towards the same room they came from.

“Follow me! We can’t stay still for too long!”

“Copy that!”

“Run ahead old man!”

With Duran cleaning their way with his thunderous shockwaves, Aiden and Traynor were running almost next to each other, keeping the Goblins chasing them at bay. The great, wooden pillar was no almost entirely burning, and it didn’t take long for a few more explosions be ignited, causing the building to break apart and collapse under its own weight. Following the destruction of the pillar, the roof of the cavern started gradually crumbling and the whole cavern begun shaking.

Steelthunder let out a war-cry while his claymore was striking down group after group of the incoming Goblins, Traynor was swiftly dashing around separating head from body, finally, Aiden was swinging his zweihander towards the Goblin threat, using its size and power to keep the Goblins back. Although his skills were not as honed as the others’, he was still able to get a few kills and help the party.

While they were getting closer to the same passage they had previously used, a few large boulders were separated from the crumbling ceiling and crashed on the wooden structure making the whole place to become even more instable, to a point where it felt like it could dismantle itself at any moment.

By the time the men reached the hole in the stone wall, most of the Goblin were now behind them and were trying to escape into the more stable garbage room as well. Fortunately, very few made it. The bottom of the cavern was now full of rocks and corpses, with more being added every second. A final burst of speed was all the three men needed to pass through the hole and barely escape the collapse of the cavern behind them. Aiden felt his arm being scratched as he was the last one to jump into the safe room. He also got hit by a gust of wind carrying dust and pebbles from the now entirely destroyed Goblin Town. Next to them a few Goblins managed to come through as well but were quickly taken care of by Duran and Traynor.

“Let’s rest for a moment, I can’t…continue…”

Aiden collapsed on his knees trying to catch a breath and control his sky rocketing heartbeat, while gathering enough energy to carry himself up the ladder and through the tunnels.

“Sword up lad! We’re not done yet.”

Aiden turned his head to complain but shut his mouth and sprang up on his feet as soon as he saw what was waiting for them in the chamber.

-Fuck… this couldn’t get any worse! –

Down from the wooden structure they were on, next to the tubs and the ladder, there was a monster. It was no Goblin, but seemed to be in good terms with them, in fact, it was their leader. Three larger than average Goblins were around it. The monster looked up at the group, it was definitely taller than two and a half metres in height, its body shape was way wider and more muscular than that of a human, it’s face was similar to that of a Goblin, although its ears were smaller, and his hide was thick, pale and hairless. It wielded a large wooden club with long, iron nails sticking out of it and wore some crudely sown animal furs.

“An ogre! Quickly get down!”

Traynor barked at the group and hastily went to the nearest ladder before sliding towards the ground, the other two followed. Mid way through the ladder the Goblins gathered around it and were waiting for him to get in range for their weapons to reach him, but Traynor surprised his enemies. He jumped off and landed aggressively on one of the Goblins, stabbing it through the chest, while the Ogre used its club to break the structure down and make the men fall. Duran was next, he jumped off as well but, unlike Traynor, he landed on the ground and rushed towards the Ogre. Last, as always, was Aiden who wasn’t ready to jump off, so he just slid down normally while Traynor was fighting both the living Goblins. Then, three different battles broke out.

Duran challenged the club wielding ogre. The man used his sturdy claymore to redirect the many strikes he received before managing to create an opening and counter attack. The strike that hit the side of his great sword was redirected and it smashed into the ground creating a two second opening. Two seconds were all he needed. The first was enough for him to lift his claymore and the second was more than enough to let him bring it down and hack through the Ogre’s shoulder. Once the blade was deep inside the monster’s body a shockwave was released, creating the same thunderous sound as the Ogre’s scream seized and blood and guts flew everywhere.

Traynor had one of his Goblins taken away by Aiden, but the second one was still very much alive. The monster was covered in rusty, but strong scale armour that proved more than difficult for the man to cut through. Eventually he raised up his buckler and blocked one of the incoming Goblin-axe attacks, before grabbing the edge of his sword and half-swording it through one of the exposed body parts. The tip of the blade dug deep into the right side of the Goblin’s chest and after a desperate attempt to swing its axe, the monster fell and bled out.

Aiden managed to draw the attention of a scimitar wielding Goblin that wore no armour, other than clothing. Luckily, his solidly built zweihander proved useful and helped him supplement his diminishing stamina and failing endurance. Unfortunately, his great sword couldn’t block the reek of the tubs. The smell of alcohol was now almost completely washed out by blood and dust, so the foul stench that dwelled in this room was hitting him as hard as ever. It wasn’t long before the breakfast he had was ready to spew out of his mouth.

- I can’t keep fighting this guy for too long! I can’t keep it down! –

Duran and Traynor were already done with their foes, but Aiden hadn’t even scratched the attacking Goblin. He was not able to counter attack and the feeling of saliva gathering inside his mouth while his food was climbing up his digestive system was enough to leave him open. The final strike was not properly deflected, and the point of the Goblin’s scimitar cut through Aiden’s gambeson and sliced into his arm. With a cry of pain Aiden kneeled in front of the Goblin and threw up on the floor. His zweihander fell on the ground with a clang and the scimitar was raised over his head. Duran and Traynor rushed to save him, but the sharp edge was already on its way down, going straight for his neck.

-This is bad! I can’t go out like that! Come on, you’re not vomiting anymore! Roll to the side! DO SOMETHING! I AM GOING TO DIE I AM GOING TO DIE IAMGOINGTODIEIAMGOINGTODIE! –

Even though he was looking straight at the ground he could feel the Goblin’s scimitar descending towards him. Tears began flowing down his face and drop into the disgusting liquid below him. Then a scream escaped his mouth. The scream sure was that of fear, but it wasn’t that of a coward. It was most likely a mix of fear and desperation, like an animal’s final growl or howl before a hunter strikes it down. Aiden was hoping for that scream to save him, he thought it would scare the monster or knock him out of the way, unfortunately the scream wasn’t going to do anything.

The last second before the blade made contact with the young man’s skin, a powerful burst of flames embraced both Aiden and the Goblin. The scimitar never reached its destination. Duran and Traynor jumped back slightly to avoid the flaming hell that was unleashed with Aiden at its centre.

It took a few seconds for the flames to clear up, but when they finally did, Duran and Traynor rushed to aid a now passed out Aiden. The young man had fallen unconscious while being on his knees. Next to him, there was lying the charred Goblin’s carcass. The energy released from the combustion was enough to stop the scimitar half way down and completely burn through the Goblin wielding it.

Duran and Traynor were very confused by this event but didn’t waste any time on talking. They immediately checked Aiden’s body for any fatal wounds. None were found, so they picked him up and, with the help of some rope, managed to get him up the hole and out of the forest.

Chapter 5: Down, down in Goblin Town.

End