“He ain’t stopping,” I cried. The goblin ran toward Sonja in a full sprint that physics said wouldn’t end until he ran through the wooden cage.

Sonja realized the same thing. “Oh shi—!”

She dove to the left, I dove to the right, and the enraged goblin smashed through the cage door like it was popsicle sticks. Pieces of the cage flew in all directions, and I had to turn away or get a swarm of splinters in my eyes. When I looked back, the goblin had halted his forward momentum near the back of the cave—Stephen and Constantine also dove in opposite directions—roared again, and then fixed his angry yellow eyes on Sonja.

“Stephen!” I screamed and then shut my eyes.

An intense light as bright as the noonday sun exploded in the space just outside the cave doors. It was so bright that I could see it with my eyes squeezed shut. If it gave me starbursts behind my closed eyes, I imagined it must’ve cooked the goblins’ eyes.

Well, I immediately got confirmation. All five goblins roared in pain, including the frenzied one in our cage. I opened my eyes and raced through the obliterated cage door, along with the rest of my companions. I glanced back at the goblin, who had dropped Sonja’s ax and was growling, sputtering, and rubbing his eyes with the palms of his massive hands. Sonja grabbed Mourner and charged out of the cave.

The other goblins did some variation of the same pained behavior and didn’t see us. We raced about twenty paces to the right and dove behind a rock outcropping. Stephen stared intently toward our former cage, his eyes taking on that glazed look he got when he cast a spell. He moved his lips and mouth as if he were talking, but I could hear his voice twenty paces to the left of the cage.

“Run, hurry, game over, man, let’s get the hell out of here…”

Still blinded and confused, the goblins stumbled in the direction of Stephen’s fading voice. Two collided and fell down, while another tripped over the weapons pile and face planted into the gravel. All three leaped to their feet and shuffled in the voice’s direction while the enraged goblin lurched out of the cage and followed them. Their footsteps thumped like a herd of rhinos.

“That looks familiar,” Constantine whispered.

When I looked at him, he pointed to a large stone wall behind us, about twenty feet wide with slightly glowing swirls etched across the entire surface. The swirls glowed dimly, and I doubt I would’ve seen them had it not been pitch dark. There was an obvious dark line down the middle of the wall that made the whole thing look like the entrance to NORAD.

“Level Two,” Sonja said, staring at the wall. “It was farther down the river last time.”

“Finally,” Stephen muttered, “some good luck.”

“Let’s get our stuff first,” I whispered.

We ran toward the camp, gathered our weapons, armor, and as many of our things as possible before we heard heavy footsteps returning from the goblins' direction.

“Move!” I whispered.

Sonja, Constantine, and I ran back to our hiding spot as quietly as we could. Stephen paused to consider grabbing more spell components that the goblins had strewn about, but he cursed and then joined us in our flight.

We got to the outcropping just as the enraged goblin and two companions came back to the camp. They still blinked furiously, but it looked like they could see better—they weren’t tripping over themselves or the rocks under their feet. When the angry goblin noticed that we had taken our items, he gave a howl that seemed equal parts rage, frustration, and a little fear. I glanced at Sonja, but she just stared at the goblin with narrowed eyes.

As much as I wanted to stay and find out what he was saying, I assumed the goblins would soon be heading our way. I got my friends’ attention and pointed in the opposite direction. We had retrieved our hooded eternal torches but didn’t dare risk lighting them until we were far from this campsite and, with a bit of luck, in Level Two. I hoped my friends had some idea how to open the large door because my only idea was to “speak ‘friend’ and enter.” Beyond that, I had nothing. But one problem at a time.

Just as we were about to leave, a thunderclap exploded near the goblins and echoed off the dark cavern walls around us. I couldn’t help but flinch, and all the hairs on my body stood straight. I had to see what happened.

The three goblins had prostrated themselves in front of an oily, dark oval about ten feet tall that hovered a foot off the ground. A large booted foot stepped out of the oval, followed by the torso of a goblin even more frightening than the enraged one that wanted to rip off Sonja’s arms. This guy was about a foot taller than the others, and his face was older and more wrinkled. His black and silver hair was cut close to his scalp, unlike the others who wore their long black hair in ponytails. Scars covered his face, and his nose had a crooked “S” shape to it. One of his pointed ears was clipped a couple of inches below the tip. He wore a long, high-collared leather jacket that brought to mind Neo from the Matrix movies. The closer I looked, though, the more I determined the jacket was not leather but made from the black scales of some giant lizard. Like maybe black dragon-sized scales.

Good lord, I thought, if this guy killed a black dragon and he seems to be the Level One boss, what would we find when we met Angelus on Level Three?

He wore a belt with leather pouches interspersed with humanoid skulls. I tried determining whether they were human, dwarvish, or gnomish but realized what’s the point?

You look like a Trox, I thought.

He snarled something at the prostrated goblins in a tone that, for a goblin, seemed calm and measured. The angry goblin on the ground grunted something back.

The mage looked up into the darkness as if saying, “Why me?” He raised his right hand, which glowed with a hazy, black mist like the oval portal, and then brought it down.

The angry goblin split in two down the center of his body. Both sides fell in opposite directions, with the split parts cauterized into blackened meat.

The other two goblins started whimpering, but the mage ignored them. His head turned in the direction where Stephen had thrown his voice, and then he slowly turned toward us.

As one, we all ducked behind the outcropping before his yellow eyes could find us. I tried not to breathe or move and prayed nobody’s stomach suddenly growled. My friends seemed equally focused on not making a sound. We sat there for a minute, waiting for the sound of huge, thumping footfalls approaching, but none of the goblins moved. The mage—his calm, commanding voice different from the soldiers—growled something at the other two. They grunted something back.

We couldn’t run off for fear they would hear us, but we couldn’t stay for fear they would find us. We were stuck, with either option fraught with danger, but we had to do something. I had to find out what was happening to make a decision. So I slowly peeked my head around the corner.

The two goblins on the ground were still there, but the mage was gone. However, the black oval portal still shimmered in front of the groveling soldiers, casting them in a sickening black light. They didn’t move.

Stephen rummaged through his rescued spell components and then popped something crunchy into his mouth, making me wince at the sound. He chewed a few seconds, then twirled his finger in the air like he was an umpire announcing a home run.

“Okay, we can talk now,” he said. “I cast a Silent Dome on us. We can hear what’s going on outside, but no sound can escape it.”

“The mage went back through the portal,” I said as I kept one eye peeking around the corner. “The other two are still kneeling—damn it!”

I ducked back behind the outcropping just as I heard a rush of air. The other two goblins that had run off after Stephen’s voice came swooping down from the darkness. They landed next to the groveling goblins and grunted something at them. The two on the ground grunted back while gesturing vehemently at the black portal and the remains of their split comrade. The new arrivals fell to the ground and joined their two mates.

And not a moment too soon. The mage stepped back through the portal dragging an unconscious human male by the collar, and threw him to the ground in front of the prostrated goblins.

“Humans!” roared the mage in a guttural voice as he turned slowly to scan the darkness. “Come back now. If you do not come back now, I will kill this boy!”

I stared at the human for what felt like forever, my mind refusing to comprehend what I was looking at. He was a tall, lanky male with black hair and wearing a red Georgia Bulldogs sweatshirt.

He was my son, Jack.