Chapter 11

The Fall Of A Small Man

The guards posted at the bottom of the hill that led to Gibbot’s mansion were doing their usual routine. This consisted of playing poker, watching TV, drinking and sparing the occasional glance towards the direction of the entrance. A couple of years of no attempts at attacking the place had led to the guards growing lazy, thinking that there were no longer those who would dare to charge towards them.

This was about to change soon.

“Huh?” one of the guards managed to slur in his half drunken as he noticed something from top of the watchtower he was situated at. “Hey, did we have visitors for today?”

“The hell are you talking about?” another guard, just as drunk as his colleague, asked. “We ain’t got no visitors and you know that!”

“Then what is that car approaching us?”

It was only then that all the other guards decided to take a look at what their colleague was pointing out. What they saw was a car coming towards them at a high speed, leaving behind a large dust cloud. At first, the guards thought that the car would start to slow down at some point, only for that to not happen. By the time they realized what was going on, it was too late, as the car crashed into the gate.

The noise got the attention of the rest of the guards, who soon ran there to see what was going on. All of them had their weapons drawn and aimed at the vehicle, ready to blow away whoever had been responsible for this suicidal attack.

However, when no one seemed to come out of the car’s wreckage, confusion began to spread among the guards. One of them finally worked up the courage to walk to the car and opn the door. But instead of the amed rebels that he had expected to find, there was not a single living thing there. The car had been rigged in such a way that it could drive forward at top speed without a driver.

Before the guard could tell his colleagues what was going on, he noticed the large pile of explosives on the back seat. This was the last thing he saw before being engulfed in the explosion.

While this had been going on, the guards had failed to notice another thing approaching them at a high speed. This time it was a lone motorcycle that Erin was riding.

The initial explosion had taken care of a good number of the guards, leaving the rest either wounded or dazed over what had just happened. Before any of them could even start reorganizing themselves, The redheaded assassin had already broken through them and crashed through the front door of Gibbot’s mansion.

There were still guards on the inside that hadn’t gotten near the exploding car, thus keeping them safe from the first attack. While Erin’s sudden appearance had taken them by surprise, they quickly got ready to fight the intruder and were firing their guns at her.

The redheaded assassin was luckily fast on her feet and managed to avoid the gunfire. Using her own pistol, she was able to drop a couple of the guards that were now chasing after her.

However, Erin was not looking to fight with Gibbot’s hired guns, as the boss himself was her true target. Because of this, she immediately headed upstairs to the second floor of the mansion, knowing that Gibbot was most likely there.

As she was running up the stairs, the assassin noticed a group of guards at the top with stun batons at the ready. They had most likely been ordered to try and catch the intruder alive, as Gibbot seemed to still want her alive for some reason.

“If you get out of my way, you won’t be harmed!” Erin yelled at the guards. “Your boss is the only one that I want!”

Unfortunately, her warning seemed to fall on deaf ears, as the guars decided to still attack her. With no other option, Erin took out her sword and faced the guards. Had the guards been allowed to use deadly force, the battle would have most likely ended differently. But since the only weapons they could use were simple stun batons, they couldn’t really put down the redheaded assassin.

Now, this didn’t mean that Erin came out of the fight unscathed. In fact, the hits she suffered put her through quite the pain and her whole body felt like it was on fire at the end of the fight. In all honesty, Erin should have simply collapsed from the sheer agony and exhaustion her body was in, but the sheer amount of willpower she had allowed her to take all the hits that she received and keep on moving.

After her fight with the group of guards was over, she looked ahead of herself and saw more of Gibbot’s goons up ahead. Not as many as before, but there were still enough of them to be a problem. Seeing the enemies ahead of herself, Erin readied her weapons and got ready to attack.

However, before she could even take the first step forward, something unexpected happened.

“Screw this!” one of the guards said as he dropped his stun baton and began to run away. “I’m not getting paid nearly enough for this crap!”

The escaping guard was soon followed by his comrades, who all turned around and ran away. Erin wasn’t exactly sure why they decided to just abandon their position, but she could make a guess. The guards most likely were just hired thugs that did whatever Gibbot told them to do for their paychecks and not actual loyal followers or people that considered their work to be their duty to perform. Seeing how much death and destruction the redheaded assassin had already caused, along with the unreasonable demand from Gibbot to capture her alive, they must have thought that the work was no longer worth the money and thus decided to simply leave.

A small sigh of relief escaped Erin’s lips, as she had been worried that she would have to go through even more guards. Now it seemed like she could make it to Gibbot without much of an issue. She doubted that the goblin had much in terms of fighting skills.

With no one in her way any longer, the redheaded assassin quickly made her way to her target’s office. Much to her surprise, Gibbot was simply sitting behind his desk, instead of trying to hide or finding a way to escape.

“I see that you made it past my personnel,” Gibbot said with a sigh. “Good help is just so difficult to find these days.”

“Well, maybe if you weren’t a horrible tyrant that treated everyone like crap, you might have some actually loyal followers that would be willing to fight for you,” Erin said before she began to walk towards the goblin’s desk. “I have to say that I am pretty surprised. I would have imagined that you would have tried to run away by now or something.”

“Please give me some more credit. I know better than anyone that the only person that will keep me safe no matter what is myself. Things like loyalty and honor are pretty much meaningless in reality,” Gibbot said. “No matter what you do, whether try to get followers through being righteous or by simply giving them money, the only one you can ever trust is yourself in the end.”

“I highly doubt you have ever tried winning people over with anything else but money. Not that it matters in the end, I suppose,” the redheaded assassin said as she was now standing in front of the goblin. She began to raise her sword up, readying herself to strike down her target. “However, I will respect your determination of staying here by making this as painless as possible.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline your offer.”

Before Erin could bring down her sword, a large, metallic hand shot up from underneath the floor and grabbed her before throwing her body against a wall. With her body shaking from pain, the redheaded assassin somehow managed to get up and see a large robotic suit standing behind Gibbot. The goblin had a smug look on his face as a hatch opened on the front of the suit, revealing a cockpit that Gibbot climbed into.

“Did you really think that I was unable to defend myself!?” the goblin asked mockingly. “Fool! For most of my life I’ve been forced to fight for my survival! It isn’t exactly easy for one of my height, but luckily there are tools that make things easier for me!”

“What the hell is that thing?” Erin asked with wide eyes.

“Do you like it? It’s my personal customized power armor,” Gibbot explained while showing off his suit. “These are normally used by miners and other workers for the more heavier tasks, but I decided to outfit my own armor with things to protect myself and crush people like you. Let me give you a demonstration.”

A missile launcher suddenly appeared from the power armor’s right shoulder that fired one of its projectiles straight at Erin. The redhead only barely managed to get out of the way of the oncoming missile, before it exploded. The force of the blast sent her flying across the room before she crashed to the floor painfully.

“How nice of you to avoid that. I was afraid I wouldn’t get to enjoy myself,” Gibbot said with a smug smile before pointing the power armor’s arms at Erin. “Now for my personal favorite.”

Suddenly, holes opened on the palms of the power armor’s hands, which then shot flames. The redheaded assassin’s arm got hit by the fire as she tried to get out of the way, forcing her to quickly tear off the sleeve of her shirt, before the rest of her body burned.

With no better option, Erin was forced to run away, as Gibbot went after her. The goblin didn’t even care about the damages to his home, as he simply crashed through the door to his office to give chase.

“I see that you’ve decided to play tag with me!” Gibbot yelled mockingly while laughing. “Hope you do better than the last person I played that game with!”

Erin wasn’t even paying attention to what the goblin was saying, as she was too busy trying to think of a way out of the mess she was in. She suddenly heard the sound of Gibbot’s armor preparing its missile launcher and she jumped down the stairs, avoiding another projectile that blew up at the top of the stairs.

Wasting no time, the redhead got up from the floor and quickly found a room to hide in. The way she saw it, her best option was to try and catch Gibbot off guard in order to win. Otherwise, it would just be suicide.

Pressing her body against the wall next to the door, Erin did everything she could to let out as little noise as possible. She listened closely as the heavy footsteps of Gibbot’s power armor walked down the stairs and began to move around the ground floor. The redhead could feel cold sweat run down her back, as she heard the goblin approach her location. She silently prayed in her head that he would just walk past her and move on.

Much to her relief, this is what happened. Erin listened as the power armor walked past her location and down the hallway without so much as a small pause. Once she could no longer hear Gibbot moving around, the redhead let out a deep sigh of relief. She was safe for now.

As carefully and silently as possible, Erin opened the door and walked out. She looked around for any signs of Gibbot, but didn’t see any signs of the goblin. Seeing that he was nowhere to be seen, the redheaded assassin felt like it was safe enough for her to start moving again and began to sneak around the mansion.

Seeing as how much of a disadvantage she was in, Erin knew that she was going to need a plan to win. A surprise attack alone was most likely not going to be enough, especially when considering the difference in weaponry. Gibbot was practically a walking tank, while she herself only had a pistol and a sword. Enough for a more human opponent, but nowhere near enough for something that was a couple of tons of steel and armed up to the teeth.

Knowing that there was a large amount of dead guards upstairs, Erin made her way to the second floor, doing her best to not cause any noise. The redhead looked through the corpses that had been left there from her initial assault, only to not find anything that she could really use. It seemed like the guards had left their more lethal weapons somewhere else after getting the order from Gibbot to capture her alive. Even if there was something that she could use, most of the equipment had been destroyed from Gibbot’s missile.

Erin silently cursed her bad luck before a certain familiar sound made her go silent again. The heavy footsteps of Gibbot’s power armor could be heard again, coming towards her from below.

Immediately upon hearing the sound, the redhead did everything she could to stay silent. She kept her body as still as possible and even held her breath as to not make any sound. From what she could tell, Gibbot was still searching the first floor of the mansion and was now coming up right below her.

Just as the footsteps came to the spot where Erin was located, they suddenly stopped. Cold sweat began to fall down the assassin’s face, as she wondered why Gibbot had ceased to move right there. Had she made a sound of some kind that had alerted the goblin of her presence?

“You know, I had hoped that you would do at least a bit better at this,” Gibbot suddenly said loud enough for Erin to hear. “I don’t get that many chances to play like this, after all. But I suppose all fun must come to an end.”

Before Erin could do anything, one of Gibbot’s power armor’s hands came through the floor and grabbed her. The redhead was violently pulled back to the first floor and flung down the hallway, where her body tumbled painfully.

“H-How…?” Erin managed to ask as she struggled to stand up. “How did you know where I was?”

“My dear, I always knew where you were. Even when I walked past you when you hid in one of the rooms,” Gibbot said mockingly. “You see, this suit of mine has been equipped with more than just weaponry. It also come with high-tech sensors of all types. It allows me to see through walls and even the heat of your body. And if I can’t see you, the audio sensors are sure to pick up most sounds you make, even if you can’t hear them yourself.”

Tears of frustration started to fall down the redhead’s eyes as the goblin began to make his way towards her. She couldn’t help but curse the unfairness that she was facing. She had come here to try and do something good for once, but she had been destined to lose no matter what.

“Oh don’t be upset. This will all be over very soon,” Giibot said as he finally finished walking up to his prey. He readied the missile launcher on the shoulder of his power armor and took aim. “Any last words?”

At first, Erin was just going to accept her fate and let it all come to an end. After all, for years now all she had been doing was suffer due to her greatest mistake, so perhaps this could finally bring her the peace she desired. What was the point of trying anymore, if all it led to was more pain down the line? Might as well give up.

However, as she was about to close her eyes and let it all end, a memory came to her mind from back when things were good.

Back then, she was still in a relationship with Devin and was just getting out of school, when she noticed her geeky boyfriend get pushed around by some of the other students. Thanks to her intervention, the bullies left before things could get too bad.

As they were walking home, Erin had asked why Devin didn’t do anything to fight back. He explained that he had already tried everything he could to stop them, only for his treatment to get worse. The only real way for him to survive the constant abuse was to simply grit his teeth and try to bear with it, as there was nothing he could actually do.

When Erin lamented the unfair situation her boyfriend was in, he suddenly stopped her and explained with a smile that it was all going to be worth it in the end. That things might be hard now, but good things would surely come in the future. He even went so far as to say that their relationship was one such thing.

Too bad things hadn’t gone so well in reality, but the memory still managed to boost Erin’s will. She remembered what she was fighting for and how important it was for her.

‘That’s right… I can’t give up here,’ the redhead thought to herself. ‘No matter what happens, I have to keep struggling, until I finally meet you and the others. Not until I have chance to personally ask for your forgiveness am I allowed to quit.’

“No last words? Such a shame,” Gibbot said, breaking Erin out of her thoughts. “Then I guess I’ll just-”

“Wait… Since I’m already beaten, could you grant me just one small mercy?” the redhead suddenly pleaded. “You’ve had this weird obsession over capturing me alive. Why is that?”

“...Very well, I suppose I could tell you,” the goblin said confidently, certain over his victory. “Normally I wouldn’t go to such lengths, but powers far above me contacted me and gave specific orders to take you in alive. I don’t know the reason why, but I didn’t really care to find out. All I know is that when those more powerful than you tell you to do something, you do so. This is something I’ve taught this town numerous times.”

“Who exactly gave you that order? And aren’t you disobeying them now that you are trying to kill me?”

“There are far too many higher-ups out there to find out exactly who it was, but considering how strict my orders were, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of the Five Great Overlords that rule this world,” Gibbot answered. “As for your other question, I’m not too worried over such a thing. As long as no evidence is left behind, nothing can be proven. I can simply lie and tell them that you ran away or place the blame on someone else. After all, only you and I know about this.”

“Well, it seems like you’ve got this whole thing practically planned,” Erin said, before smirking. “Unfortunately, you made one mistake.”

“And pray tell what would that be?”

“You didn’t take into account me fighting back.”

Before Gibbot could even react, Erin pulled out her pistol and fired a bullet at the missile launcher, hitting one of the projectiles and causing it to explode. While the explosion had been big enough to not only take out the missile launcher but also one of the power armor’s arms, Gibbot himself was still unharmed.

However, while the power armor’s pilot was still fine, the bulletproof glass protecting him wasn’t. There were large cracks appearing on it, showing that the destruction of the missile launcher had managed to do quite the bit of damage.

Using Gibbot’s dazed state from the explosion as an opportunity, Erin drew her sword and charged at the goblin, bringing the blade down on the protective glass. While most swords wouldn’t cause more than a scratch, the redhead’s sword was specially made from tougher materials. With her swinging the blade with all her might at such damaged area, the cracks on it began to get larger with each hit.

Noticing the assault he was under, Gibbot tried to fight back by bringing his armor’s remaining arm down on his attacker. Unfortunately for the goblin, Erin had anticipated this and ducked under the heavy swing, causing the metallic arm to hit the protective glass and shatter it. Gibbot himself remained unharmed, except for a few shards of glass that managed to cut his face. However, he was now basically unprotected from any attacks that could come at him.

“Guess you’re not such tough man after all, are you?” Erin asked in a mocking tone, similar to what the goblin had been using not too long ago.

“S-STAY AWAY!” Gibbot screamed in panic as he used his armor’s remaining arm’s flamethrower to try and take out his opponent. Much to his growing terror, Erin simply jumped back to avoid the flames. “I won’t… I won’t fall to the likes of you! I’M MIGHTIER THAN YOU THINK! I CAN’T FALL!”

Having lost his confidence completely, Gibbot turned around and began to run away. Little did he know that this was still part of Erin’s plan, as he was now heading straight towards the motorcycle that she had used to crash into the mansion. Taking no chances, the redhead emptied the rest of her bullets into the abandoned vehicle’s fuel tank, causing it to explode just Gibbot had run up to it.

The blast was strong enough to hit the goblin’s armor with enough force to cause it to fall down. The pilot himself had been burned by the explosion’s flames and he had been rendered almost unconscious. He was weakly trying to regain his bearings, as Erin was walking up to him with her sword at the ready.

Once the redhead reached the fallen power armor, she climbed on top of it and readied her sword to finish off her foe. She was just about to end the goblin’s life, when suddenly visions began to appear in her mind.

The images that she saw showed her Gibbot’s life. Since his birth, he had always been the runt of the group, getting pushed around and forced to do whatever others wanted. Still, he had not let this get to him and he had actually tried to bring positive change to the town as an adult. He had attempted to do so by opening a successful mining business that treated its workers well. What the goblin wanted to do was show that despite everything he had gone through, he had come out of it stronger and better.

Unfortunately, his dream didn’t go the way he had imagined.

Due to his good nature, he had attracted a lot of “friends” who were only trying to use him for their own good. Money, influence and other such things were being taken from him by people that showed fake smiles and gave empty words of friendship. When Gibbot eventually realized that he was being used, he tried to put a stop to it, which led to an incident that would change him for the worst.

When Gibbot refused to give money to his so called “friends” said people quickly turned against him in a very violent manner. Since he was a goblin, Gibbot wasn’t exactly a person of great strength and was therefore unable to defend himself. His former friends easily beat him to the ground and took everything valuable from him without any hesitation.

It was from that moment that Gibbot decided to never trust anyone and to never let anyone use him. He was one way or another going to become so powerful that he wouldn’t get pushed around anymore. Instead he would be the one doing the pushing this time and he would enjoy every second of it.

Seeing the goblin’s life flash before her struck Erin like a freight train. She had come here to take down a monster that was oppressing people, but now found out that he had been led astray due to an unfortunate life. In a way, he was like Devin and his group, the people that had been made into monsters by the actions of others. Namely her own.

As she had been left standing still from shock, Erin didn’t notice Gibbot waking up from being knocked out by the explosion from before. He immediately noticed the assassin standing over him and tried to reach for a pistol that was hanging from his belt. The sudden movement from the goblin snapped Erin from her thoughts, causing her to swing her sword down. The dark blade pierced through Gibbot’s chest before he could fire a single shot. For a moment the goblin stared at the sword in shock before closing his eyes and dying.

With her target dead, Erin pulled her sword out of the dead body and started to walk away. Her steps were slow and sloppy, as she herself was drained and exhausted both physically and mentally. In all honesty, the redhead was extremely lucky that none of Gibbot’s personal guards were around anymore. Otherwise she would have surely died.

However, as she was making her way back to the town, Erin couldn’t help but think about what she had just done. While it was true that Gibbot was a horrible person, he hadn’t started out that way, but had been turned into it due to what had happened to him.

Had this really been justice or just another crime added to her list?