《Vengeance in a Broken World》Chapter 2- The Goblins

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Mercy finally gains the motor controls of her body back. The first thing she does is turn around, away from the display.

What she sees is about what she expected. The other five people are glancing around at each other, almost like they are checking something. It is hard to spot, but for some reason Mercy can spot the small details really well.

A man in a hawain palm tree shirt speaks up first, “Did anyone else see that or am I going crazy?”

The woman next to him, probably a girlfriend or wife, is the first to answer, “I saw a blue box and heard a voice in my head.”

The other three people in the room voice their assent with the spoken words. All except Mercy. She stays absolutely quiet, though not because she is anti-social or anything. She is gazing at the doorway.

When Mercy first walked in, there was a doorway with no door. Now though, there is a door made out of some sort of black substance blocking their way out. The substance seems to be flowing, like black tar ever so slowly creeping down a surface. The weirdest thing isn’t the substance though. The weirdest thing that she notices is a skull inlay in the middle of the door with white words directly below it. The skull is pure white, like bone. The only speck of color is its eyes, which glow with a faint reddish orange glow.

Mercy reads the words aloud, so that the rest of the people will focus on it, “Five for five is live. Fair and square. Survivors will live, diers will give. Have fun, without any gun.”

As she first starts reading, the survivors all look at her before noticing that she is looking at the doorway. They all turn to look, surprise evident on their faces. The woman next to the hawain guy faints, dropping to the floor. The man doesn’t even try to stop her as he is in shock at the sudden appearance.

An old man, the one closest to the door, asks in a weak, thin voice, “What does it mean? Five for five? What is liv-”

The old man’s answer arrives quicker then anybody would’ve hoped. In a flash, five creatures come out of the black tar door, passing through it like it is not even there. Each of the five hold makeshift weapons, all wooden spears. As the five enter the room, they all screech loudly.

All five of the creatures are of the same type. They are fairly short, coming up to just above her belly button. Since all of them are hunched over, they appear even smaller. The creatures are a dark green color, like the grass of Central Park in summer. Also just like the grass, they are covered in dirt. Their limbs are odd to say the least. Their arms are double jointed and long enough to reach their knees, which are bent the opposite way of a humans. Their legs look like what she would see on a wolf, crooked backward at a small angle. They have three toes and four fingers, each one tipped in a wicked looking claw. The creepiest thing by far are their faces. They look humanoid, but they have small snouts. Not long like an animal, but it is noticeable. Inside of one of the screeching one's mouth, Mercy sees dozens of razor teeth, made for tearing apart meat.

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Mercy thinks they look familiar, like something she has seen in a game. She focuses on them intently, watching for what they want. To her surprise, information enters her head as she looks at them.

[Lesser Goblin, lvl.1]*5

[Description: A weak, low class creature of the Monsterian Gobulus family. They are treated like slaves by the normal parts of the Gob family. While they may be weak, in large numbers they are a threat. They, like most of the Gob family, are extremely vulnerable to falling into bloodlust.]

‘Goblins? Aren’t those the starting monsters in those games I’ve seen people play? If I remember correctly, they are definitely hostile to sapient creatures.’ As if to prove Mercy’s thoughts true, one of the goblins thrusts his spear into the old man standing by the door. If the person was younger, they could’ve survived. Since the man is well into the later stages of his life, he dies instantly as the spear strikes near his heart.

The other three, since the woman is knocked out, start screaming in terror as the old man drops to the ground, with the spear still in him. His blood leaks out like a broken bottle, filling up the entire area around him. The goblin tries to pull the spear out, but it is stuck in the old man’s corpse, so it can’t. As one is messing around with its spear, the other four of the lesser goblins start to move forward into the room.

Since this isn’t the first time she has been in a fight, Mercy makes a split second decision. In a fight, whoever doesn’t have a weapon is at a disadvantage. Glancing at all of the displays again, Mercy spots what she wanted.

She dashes to the other side of the room in a split second. Using her elbow, she shatters the display case, grabbing what is inside. The exhibit she chose is an exhibit to Ares, the greek god of war. Inside of the case is a small sword. Mercy doesn’t have much hope for it, but it can’t be worse than the wooden and stone age weapons.

As soon as she turns around, the goblins are already on her. Luckily for her, only two came at her. The other two are killing the knocked out woman on the ground. Mercy doesn’t have enough time to check the other human’s positions and how they are, but judging by the screams, they can't be well.

The lesser goblin on the left screeches and thrusts its spear at her. Running on pure instinct, Mercy dodges the blow. The goblin on the right stabs with its spear next, thrusting directly towards her head. Whoosh! Just like in boxing, she ducks underneath the blow and closes in towards the right most goblin.

She has never used a sword before, but she has used a knife. Using the techniques from a knife, Mercy pulls on the goblin and thrusts forward. This is one of the techniques taught to her, using the enemies power to deal a bigger blow. Because of the force of the stab and the force of the lunge, the sword easily stabs up into the goblins brain.

Mercy notices that there are two pieces of news. One good and one bad. The good is that, from the green blood pouring out of the lesser goblins wound, it is definitely dead. The bad is that the sword definitely snapped in two when she tried to pull it out. It makes sense, considering the sword is hundreds of years old. It’s a surprise it even lasted this long.

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The first goblin stabs towards her again with his spear. She dodges once again, this time not so flawlessly. The wooden spear cuts open her side loosely. It is a small wound, but it is big enough for her to dye the clothes red. Luckily, her hoodie is black, so the blood isn’t very noticeable.

Gritting her teeth, Mercy chunks the hilt of her sword at the goblins face. It smacks him in the eye, causing him to screech loudly. Mercy quickly picks up the now deceased goblins spear and stabs it into the one that got hit in the face. The wooden spear easily pierces its head and into its brain. Gray matter and green blood pour out of the wound as she pulls the spear back out.

With a quick analysis, trained from years of scrimmages and fights, she takes stock of her situation. One goblin is still trying to pull out its spear out of the old dead man. Judging by the scratching noise, the spear must’ve gotten caught in between his ribs. The other two are ruthlessly stabbing the previously knocked out woman. She is now screaming in agony as they repeatedly stab her, over and over again. ‘They are caught in their blood lust like the description said, they haven’t even noticed that two of their compatriots are dead.’

Two scenarios play out in Mercy’s mind. The first is attacking the duo of goblins, the second is attacking the goblin still wedged in the old man. ‘If I attack the duo, there is a high chance I will put myself in danger of an ambush. The goblin might be able to pull its spear out of the old man. If I attack the single, there is a chance of getting ambushed still, but I will be able to fight them off easier since the single should be dead by the time they reach me.’

Since she doesn't have a weapon, Mercy pulls the spear out of the second goblin and picks up the other spear. With a strong throw like a javelin, one of the spears impales the goblin standing over the old man. The goblin screams wildly as it collapses to the ground. From the sounds of it breathing and the ups and downs of its chest, Mercy can tell it is still alive.

She quickly approaches and raises her spear to stab it… before freezing. The lesser goblin is staring up at her with tear filled eyes. Its expression is that of terror. She stops because it is such a humane look, like a small child that just scraped its knee. She shakes the thought out of her head and stabs down, piercing its head. One again, green blood bubbles out and fills the ground.

She almost didn’t kill it, but then she remembered what happened when the goblins first entered the room. The way that the goblin in front of her heartlessly stabbed the elder man, killing him without remorse.

By sneaking a peek over her shoulder, Mercy sees that the other two lesser goblins have now fully murdered the woman. A few things give this away, with the most prominent that she is now in pieces. Her arms are almost torn completely off while her head is fully separated. Her decapitated head is still open, in a permanent scream of absolute terror. Her eyes are staring eternally, never to see again.

One of the goblins licks the end of his spear, the tip covered in blood. And then, both goblins walk forward towards the other three survivors. Mercy has a short thought to escape while they are busy, but that plan is dashed when she sees that the doorway is still blocked by the tar substance from before.

With a gulp, she turns back to the other goblins. While Mercy can fight them off, she doesn’t want to. Fighting is like a ticking time bomb. Learning new techniques, getting better, or increasing the fitness of your body all add to the timer, but eventually the fighter will get hurt. Mercy has already killed three of the five lesser goblins, taking a minor wound. Since she is wounded, even if it is minor, it will be more difficult to fight. Not impossible, but more difficult. Luckily for her, the lesser goblins are slower, weaker, and not as intelligent, giving a clear advantage to Mercy in every department but numbers.

She picks up the two spears, one from the old man’s corpse, and the one she used to kill the goblin. Repeating what happened last time, Mercy chunks a spear at the goblin on the left of the duo. The spear strikes true into the back of its head. With a meaty squelsh, green blood oozes out from around the wound.

Before the other can turn around, she stabs forward. For the first time, the goblin dodges the strike. The spear, unfortunately, gets stuck in the wooden part of one of the displays, right next to one of the useless men’s faces.

With no other idea left, she charges the goblin and punches it in the face. Caught off guard, the goblin drops its spear to protect itself. Mercy grabs the dropped spear and stabs the goblin while it is distracted. The corpse drops down to the ground, one of the seven in the room.

Every single human is staring at Mercy in shock, but she couldn’t care less for three reasons. One, because the door of black tar has started vibrating. Two, because a few blue boxes have popped up in her vision. Three, because why would she want the appreciation of useless people. From her childhood, she knows that useless people will just drag down everyone around them instead of contributing.

[Lesser Goblin killed: 3 points]

[Lesser Goblin killed: 3 points]

[Lesser Goblin killed: 3 points]

[Lesser Goblin killed: 3 points]

[Lesser Goblin killed: 3 points]

[Points: 15. Solo Modifier: x2]

[Total Points: 30]

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