Ken's hands were shaking like leaf in a monsoon. He wanted to help the boy, but he couldn't bring himself to move. Unlike his battle with the forest goblin, he wasn't fully pumped full of adrenaline just yet, and he was facing five armed enemies instead of just one unarmed enemy.

The boy screamed again as he lunged at one of his opponents. The goblin simply sidestepped the blade and slashed at him with its sword. The cut was shallow, but that was exactly what the goblins wanted, to slowly whittle the boy's endurance down for fun. The boy was truly a plaything to them, just something to cure their boredom.

Ken knew this, and it sent him over the edge. He dropped his bag, grabbed a baseball-sized rock from his feet, pulled his knife from its sheath with his left hand, and stood up into view. He was still shaking, but he put his right foot out in front of him and started walking. His breathing increased, and his eyes dilated even more. His nervous system was preparing for a fight.

Ken's walk turned into a jog, crunching the rocks under his feet. One of the spear goblins was alerted to his presence and shrieked at its friends, pointing a dark gray finger at Ken. All four of their heads turned to him, and one goblin turned its whole body. The boy took the opportunity to lunge behind it and thrust his sword into the back of its ribs, but he missed any organs by a substantial amount, and very little blood dripped from its wound. The goblin dropped its sword and started thrashing about trying to dislodge the one in its chest. As the goblin thrashed around, the boy lost his grip on his sword and stumbled backward.

Its howls of pain were blood-curdling.

The goblin with the sword sticking out its chest writhed around on its feet and eventually tripped over itself and dropped into the gravels face-first. When the goblin fell, the sword shot up out of its back and dislodged itself. The wound was now open and bleeding profusely. The goblin would pass out within a minute.

Ken had already started sprinting, and he was only within a few meters from the two sword goblins that were left. One of them was facing the boy with its sword pointed out, the other was in a wide guard facing Ken. The boy's sword was out of his reach, and Ken knew he had to act first or the boy would be cut down.

Ken started to close the distance between him and his mark and threw his rock at the goblin's left shoulder. He caught it off guard, and it moved its sword to try to deflect the rock, but it missed and the rock struck its shoulder. Ken was already moving in on its left side.

The sword out of his way, he threw an amateur low-sweeping kick to the goblins side and sent it stumbling into the gravels. It dropped its sword, but Ken completely lost his balance and fell. He instantly found his way back onto his feet, however, and lept onto the unarmed goblin and forced his knife into its neck. It struggled and screamed, but the knife found its target, and it stopped struggling and dropped its arms. Ken pulled the knife out of the goblin's neck, and it started to stream blood.

The boy had reacquired his bloodstained sword and was in the process of fighting his goblin. It evaded all of his strikes, but it was getting slower and slower. Ken slid his knife back into his sheath, equipped an arming sword from the ground, and positioned himself behind the goblin, but it was too preoccupied with the boy to notice. The boy backpedaled a couple of times to give Ken room, and he brought the sword down onto the goblin. Like the two before it, it gushed blood and fell onto the ground motionless.

"Thank y-" the boy started to say, before Ken pointed towards the two spear goblins, rushing towards them. They were still a few seconds away.

"Get ready, they're coming," Ken said as he bent down and grabbed a good looking rock. He also dropped the sword he had and picked up one with less blood. He stood back up and walked a couple of meters away from the boy, who was in a practiced stance, ready to counter-attack. The boy had regained his composure, and his training started to show itself.

The goblins had split up and were upon Ken and the boy. Ken threw his rock straight at the goblin's chest and tried to run deep into the goblins range. It saw through his attack, evaded the projectile, and slashed at Ken right as he got inside its spear's range. Ken caught the flint spearhead with his crossguard, stepped inside the goblin's stance, sliding the sword along the spear as he went, and shoved his opponent, sending it skidding onto the gravel. It didn't lose its grip on its spear, however, and got back on its feet, but Ken was already attacking, rapidly sending uncoordinated attacks aimed at the goblin's head. It blocked all of them but stumbled, and Ken kicked at its knee. The knee bent backward, overextended. The goblin howled in pain. Its guard was nonexistent, and Ken chopped at it, first opening up its shoulder, then its neck.

The boy's goblin, however, had tried to thrust its spear into his stomach, but he merely batted it away and cleaved its wrist, severing tendons. Grunting loudly in pain, it dropped its spear lowered. It mustered its strength and tried to raise his spear back up, but the boy batted it away again, this time bringing his sword down onto the goblin's neck.

All five goblins had fallen. Both humans were guzzling air. Oddly enough, Ken's hands weren't shaking anymore. He was very hot though, and he threw off his bloody windbreaker and dropped it far away from the five pools of blood.

"Th-thank... you," the boy managed to stutter through his hard breathing. He placed his hands on top of his head and took a few seconds to catch his breath.

Ken saw that the boy was preparing to say something else, and he stared at him expectantly.

After his breathing had somewhat stabilized, he walked up to Ken, dropped one of his hands from his head, and went in for a handshake.

"I am Thejn. I owe you a great debt, please let me serve you."