Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 08 - Don’t know Jacque - Part One {Rewrite}

Jacque grinned malevolently as she stalked towards the cowering Goblin chieftain, “This really is just bad luck on your part,” she chuckled, “I mean, I’d offer you the chance to live in exchange for the spear, but we both know that would be a blatant lie.”

The Goblin chieftain, Gobgob, voided his bladder in fear, too scared to even move.

“Still, the complications from killing you myself would be a real hassle,” Jacque shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh, “So instead, here's what we are going to do...” She slowly stalked closer and bent down to the Goblin’s eye level, “I am going to give you one chance at taking down the Ogre, and if you try to run, I will cut off your legs and leave you to the mercy of the ‘biters’. Deal? Good? Fantastic! GO!”

Gobgob immediately began backing away, tripped, scrambled back to his feet and began running towards the horde of Goblins besieging the barricades around the inn down the street.

Jacque Shadow-Stepped onto the roof of the Guild office and watched the terrified chieftain’s progress. Originally, she had intended to hunt down the pieces of the key in a more relaxed fashion, giving Tim more time to acclimate to the brutal reality of the Labyrinth and for Jacque to make sure Tim was a suitable partner. As he was now, Tim was far too soft.

The rash actions of the Guild manager Gilbert had been a welcome addition to events, if only because it forced Tim to reevaluate his previously assumed safety and rights. While it was true that Jacque did not want Tim to become a mana addict like Kiki, she didn’t want him to be nearly so weak and trusting either. It would be only a matter of time before the other Awakened became aware of Tim’s presence and if he did not grow considerably stronger, they would kill or consume him.

The onset of the raid was a perfect opportunity to see how Tim would react under stress. While Jacque was fairly confident she had a solid read on his personality, there was always the distinct possibility that Tim was misleading her. It wouldn’t be the first time another Awakened had played the bumbling Earthling and attempted to take Jacque by surprise.

As Jacque well knew, the Labyrinths were not benevolent entities. The Awakened were intended to be avatars of chaos and destruction, bloodthirsty, unrepentant and psychotic remorseless killers. It had been a truth learned the hard way, but one that Jacque had learned early in the years she had spent traversing the Labyrinths.

Those reincarnated by the Labyrinths were not chosen entirely at random. Each and every one of the Awakened had a unifying trait that made them stand out for selection.

Every Earthling chosen for reincarnation by the Labyrinths, was a killer.

*****

“I see the chieftain!” A young man holding a short crystal-topped stave called out, pointing frantically down the street and past the sea of Goblins.

Nearly as large as Toofy, the Goblin chieftain had a long-shafted spear gripped tight in its hands and a crazed look in its eyes as it charged towards the melee. The Goblin chieftain’s presence had an immediate bolstering effect on the nearby Goblins, driving them forward in a frantic apocalyptic wave of violence.

I was overrun almost instantly. Goblins flooded past me on all sides and into the previously secure ground behind the barricades. It all happened so suddenly that I didn’t know what to do. Before I realised it, I was alone amidst a sea of shrieking green monsters.

*Thwack, Crunch*, *Crunch*, *Thwack*, *Thud*

I panicked, wildly lashing out with my morningstar and looking for a way to flee.

“Tim!” I heard Toofy shriek from somewhere nearby, but I couldn't see her. “Tim!” She shrieked again, this time more desperately.

Most of the adventurers were already driven back to the inn or missing, almost certainly trampled under the mob of Goblins' feet.

“TOOFY?!” I bellowed, desperately searching for her amidst the chaos as I waded through the Goblin tide.

There! I spied Toofy a short distance away, desperately clinging to the top of a section of the barricade as she was beset on all sides. Somehow, Toofy managed to hold her own, viciously stabbing, punching, kicking and biting anything that tried to draw near.

*Thwack*

A slingers stone cracked into the back of my head, but I ignored it and bodily ploughed through the Goblins standing in my way. I felt their small bones breaking beneath my feet, but I didn’t care.

For their part, the Goblins didn't seem to care either, they ignored me, rushing after the final cluster of adventurers holding the entrance to the inn.

Toofy was frantically clambering over the barricade in an attempt to reach me, her eyes wild with fear as she stabbed and slashed at the grasping hands of the wild Goblins. “TI-” Toofy’s cry was cut short as a stone caught her in the side of the head.

I watched in stunned horror as Toofy fell and was almost immediately swarmed by Goblins. “TOOFY!!!” I surged through the Goblins with reckless abandon.

Toofy was trying to fight them off as best she could, but was obviously dazed by the blow to the head and wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

“GET OFF HER!!!” I roared, sweeping my morningstar through the Goblins and sending them crashing into the green tide.

Toofy woozily tried to stand but collapsed.

“Toofy!” I battered away another wave of Goblins and discarded my weapon. Snatching up Toofy, I could feel her body going limp and feared the worst. Looking over at the inn, I was frustrated to see that the adventurers had all retreated and closed the door behind them.

With no other targets to distract them, the slingers' stones began pelting against my body with ever-increasing frequency. I did my best to shield Toofy with my body, but it would only be a matter of time before they hit her.

Turning away from the inn, my attention fixed upon the tailor shop. “Damnit!” I charged through the mass of Goblins and towards the open door.

Perhaps sensing what I intended, the Goblin horde began throwing themselves at me with suicidal abandon. Desperately clutching at any part of me they could get a hold of, they did little besides slow me down. But that was very nearly enough, giving the slingers more opportunities to wear me down.

Gasping in pain, I staggered across the threshold of the shop and slammed the door shut. Almost immediately, I sensed something was wrong.

“Hello again,” the dark thing croaked hungrily.

I flinched and slowly looked towards the shop counter. As I had feared, the shopkeeper was gone, replaced by the pale horror from my nightmares. Even though I had known confrontation with the monster was inevitable, I did not think I would have so little time to prepare. Gently laying Toofy down by the wall, I grit my teeth and did my best to push the pain from my mind.

Turning my attention back to the nightmare monster, I instinctively understood that I had no chance. Whatever this monster was, it was far stronger than me and I didn’t even have a weapon to fight it with. Even so, I had to try, I wouldn’t let it take Toofy! If this was how I died, then so be it, I will not abandon her.

The monster and I both froze.

It took every shred of my flagging self-control not to scream through the connection at Jacque. This was perhaps my only chance to save Toofy and I would not let it slip through my fingers.

I hissed in fear and frustration as the monster began growing in size.

There was a sudden burst of shadows by the door and Jacque suddenly appeared, as if she had been there the whole time. Narrowing her eyes warily at the monster, Jacque waved me back.

I gulped hard and nodded.

Jacque frowned and pursed her lips.

I repeated, anxiously staring at the monster as it in turn carefully regarded Jacque.

Jacque continued coolly staring down the monster.

Seeing no other way through this, I locked eyes with the monster and nodded.

The monster smiled and tapped its elongated fingers excitedly on the counter, “We have a deal?” It rasped, “Good, gooood! Forgiving your earlier failure may yet prove worth my while!” It motioned one hand and the door to the shop slammed open, “GO! GO AND FETCH ME MY PRIZE!” It demanded, “DO NOT KEEP ME WAITING!”

As I prepared to leave, Jacque stopped me for a moment. “Take this,” she insisted, handing me her cleaver, “You will need it.”

Since I was without a weapon, I nodded and gratefully accepted the heavy poorly balanced blade. Taking one last look at Toofy, I stepped through the door and raised my shield.

*Thunk* *Thunk, Thunk* *Thunk* *Thunk, Thunk, Thunk* *Thunk*

A hail of stones immediately began battering against my shield and I wondered how long it would be able to last against a sustained barrage. Knowing that the moment I exposed myself that I would begin haemorrhaging HP, I tried my best to avoid flinching and peeked past my shield to try and find the Goblin chieftain.

Still holding the spear that was far too large for his diminutive stature, the Goblin chieftain Gobgob stood out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, he was more than a dozen ranks deep behind a wall of his minions, showed no signs of wanting to approach and had a couple of hundred Goblins behind him to cover a retreat if necessary.

Damnit! What am I meant to do?!

Without the chieftain's head, the monster inside the tailor’s shop would kill Toofy. And without any other targets to draw their attention, the Goblin slingers would very likely kill me within seconds of lowering my shield or straying too far from the rear cover of the shop. There had to be some way to do this.

Maybe I could try thinning their numbers on the flanks? Or maybe lure them into an alley between two buildings?

I disregarded both ideas pretty much immediately since they would expose me to the same level of damage as a reckless charge anyway.

I blinked in shock, very nearly taking a stone to the face as my shield dipped slightly.

Would they all really back down and allow the chieftain and I to fight one on one?

That seemed crazy to me. After all, the Goblins had every possible advantage right now and it was only a matter of time until they would win.

So why the hell would the chieftain accept my challenge?

Fine! Screw it! This will work or it won't!

“HEY!” I roared in a challenge, eliciting gibbering shrieks from the Goblins, temporarily stalling the barrage of stones. “I CHALLENGE YOU!” I lowered my shield slightly and pointed the cleaver in the chieftain's general direction, “FIGHT ME GOBGOB!. My challenge was painfully unoriginal, but given the limited language capabilities of the Orcs and Goblins I had encountered thus far, it was probably for the best.

The Goblins shifted their attention from me to their chieftain, waiting for his answer with nearly palpable expectation.

Maybe Jacque was right?

There was no reason for the Goblins to take this challenge seriously, and yet they were anyway.

The Goblins surrounding chieftain Gobgob took a few steps back, the same expectant look on their faces.

Gobgob looked furious, gnashing his teeth and glaring balefully at his cowering minions, “Fight!” He commanded, thrusting his spear aggressively in my direction.

The surrounding Goblins made no moves to follow the command, instead, growing restless and eyeing one another warily.

Even more furious, but now also quite nervous, Gobgob thrust his spear in my direction again, “FIGHT! KILL OGRE!”

The Goblins began shifting about and muttering angrily to one another.

Gobgob gulped hard, hissing and waving his spear to drive the other Goblins back. “GOBGOB KILL OGRE!” He shrieked fearfully.

The surrounding Goblins calmed down almost immediately, scrambling over one another to clear the space between myself and their chieftain. Even the slingers on the opposing rooftops had lowered their slings and were now watching the proceedings intently.

Lowering my shield to a more relaxed guarding position, I took a deep breath and slowly began walking forwards. Objectively, I knew that the Goblin stood very little chance of even hurting me, practically none at all if I could wrest that spear from him, but I was still incredibly anxious. The crimson smoky tendrils coiling off my arms told me that I was already Bloodied. The Goblin’s Vicious Racial Ability would make even this elderly Goblin deal more damage than it otherwise should. It took every scrap of my flagging willpower not to look at how much HP I had left. I knew that if I were to look, my cowardice would cause me to falter and probably get me killed.

The Goblin chieftain Gobgob hissed at his minions disparagingly and then slowly began making his way towards me, spear at the ready. Contrary to his apparent age, the withered Goblin seemed just as hale and hearty as his minions, perhaps even more so. After reducing the distance between us to a couple of dozen feet, Gobgob suddenly launched himself into a charge, shrieking like a banshee and thrusting his spear towards my chest, “DIE!!!”

*Tak-shink*

To my immense surprise, the blade of the spear bore straight through my shield and narrowly missed my arm. I was only saved by the shaft of the spear catching on the outer surface of my shield due to the Goblin lacking the strength to drive it through further.

More out of surprise than skill, I twisted and pushed my shield to drive the spear back and away from my chest.

“Gah!” Gobgob refused to let go of his spear and was pushed along the ground in a mirror to the movement of my arm.

Thinking that maybe I could copy something I saw from a movie, I dragged the spear a little closer again and tried hacking at the shaft with the cleaver.

*Tak*

The jarring force against my wrist and my surprise at leaving not so much as a single mark on the wooden spear shaft nearly caused me to drop the cleaver.

What the hell was that spear made of?!

Gobgob recovered faster than I did, yanking his spear free and retreating a short distance as he began slowly circling to my right.

Please don't let that spear be magical...

The bluish sheen of the spearhead's metal flashed in the light for a moment as if it was mocking me.

Damnit...Of course, it is magical, why wouldn’t it be? Gobgob was meant to be a boss monster or something, so why wouldn’t he have a powerful magic item?

No doubt sensing my sudden unease, Gobgob grinned wickedly and made a sweeping strike for my face.

I raised my shield to parry the blow but was shocked when it didn’t connect. Instead, pain erupted from my right shin and calf. Looking down, I could see the spear twisting and pulling back through my leg, spattering the street with blood.

This was bad, really bad.

“BLEED! DIE!” Gobgob crowed triumphantly.

Staggering unsteadily from the pain in my leg, I grimaced as I realised just how monumentally screwed I now was. The instinctive flinch every time I tried to put my full weight on my right leg all but guaranteed the remainder of this fight would only continue to proceed in the Goblin chieftain's favour. On the upside, I would die from blood loss sooner rather than later, so I would not regret my screw up for long.

Gobgob took a probing sweep at my chest, shearing off a corner of my shield and narrowly missing my face.

“I can't continue playing defence!” I grunted angrily. Staggering forward, I grit my teeth against the pain and battered the shaft of the spear aside as I tried to close with the Goblin to attack him.

Obviously understanding what I was up to, Gobgob gleefully scampered away grinning wickedly and laughing at my ultimately futile efforts.

In an ill-advised fit of anger, I hurled my cleaver at Gobgob, and immediately regretted it.

Gobgob deftly stepped aside and avoided the flying cleaver entirely, although the minions farther behind him were not so lucky. “Stupid Ogre!” He cackled, redoubling his efforts and harrying me with his spear.

The Goblin was right, it was an incredibly stupid thing to do. The steel cleaver was probably the one thing I had that could parry the spearhead directly, and I had literally thrown it away. Cursing myself for being so incredibly stupid, I narrowly missed getting stabbed in the right shoulder. However, as the Goblin retracted his spear for another thrust, I got an idea.

*Tak-shink*

I caught the Goblin chieftain's spear on my shield again, only this time, I was ready for it. Reaching around my shield, I grabbed hold of the spear and angled it upwards, forcing the Goblin up off the ground. Unfortunately, the Goblin’s meagre weight was enough to cause the spear to begin slipping free of my shield. Unwilling to waste the opportunity I had created for myself, I pulled the spear free and slammed it towards the ground.

*Crunch*

I stared at the Goblin chieftain in surprise, Gobgob had clung onto the spear right up until the end and was smashed into the ground.

“Gyah!” Gobgob shrieked and tried to pull the spear from my grasp, but he was far weaker than me and lacked the sufficient size to leverage his meagre weight.

*Whack*

I swung the spear into the surrounding crowd of Goblins. Most of the small creatures evaded the blow but one unfortunate soul was struck by the Goblin chieftain’s body directly, causing them both to shriek in pain.

Gobgob stubbornly continued clinging to the spear, like a drowning man to a piece of driftwood.

“Let! GO!!” I roared, swinging the spear through the air with as much force as I could muster, cutting my forearm on the spearhead because of my recklessness.

Still, Gobgob continued to stubbornly hold on, “Gob-gob-kill!-OGRE!” He screeched hatefully.

*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*

“DIE!” I bellowed, slamming the spear against the tailor shop’s wall over and over again. Every second I wasted fighting this monster reduced the chances of Toofy’s survival and I couldn’t afford to be weak. Releasing the spear, I staggered over to the Goblin chieftain.

Gobgob’s body was in bloody ruin, broken bones contorting his limbs at unnatural angles and poking through his skin. Coughing up blood through his broken jaw and shattered teeth, Gobgob stared at me with intense hatred in his one remaining good eye, “Gwob-glob-ghil-ghog-GHURK!”

I cut his words short by stomping my foot down on his chest, causing a torrent of blood to erupt from his mouth. Pain shot up through my injured leg and I very nearly fell to my knees. Somehow, I pushed the pain to the back of my mind and kept the wherewithal to work through the pain and retrieve the spear.

[Goblin Chieftain Gobgob has been slain by Ogre Runt Slaver Tim!]

[All defensive wards and transportation portals will reactivate in one hour.]

[{Key of Awakening (???)} has been acquired and bound to your soul.]

[Conditions for identifying {Key of Awakening (???)} have not been met.]

Breathing hard, I blinked away the notifications and was shocked to find that the spear had disappeared. However, I didn’t have time to dwell on it because I was still surrounded by Goblins and could pass out from blood loss at any moment. Feeling more than a little lightheaded, I knew there was no way I would be able to fight the Goblins off for another three minutes, let alone an hour. But I didn’t see that I had much of a choice.

Grimacing from the pain, I snatched up Gobgob’s mangled corpse and held it up for all the Goblins to see, hoping that the Goblins would recognise their leader was dead and become at the least somewhat demoralised. Jacque had said challenging the chieftain would make the other Goblins stand down for the challenge, but she never mentioned what would come after. Perhaps for good reason as it turns out. Jacque may have believed that I didn’t already know my chances of surviving were close to zero.

*Chunk*

A Goblin tumbled off a nearby rooftop, clutching at something embedded in its chest before striking the ground.

*Chunk, Chunk, Thwip*

Three more Goblins shrieked in pain, two of them tumbling from the rooftops.

The horde of Goblins began crying out in fear, looking for the source of danger.

I saw the innkeeper’s wife Rose step in from beside one of the third-story windows of the inn, take aim with her crossbow and fire.

Another Goblin screeched and fell from a nearby roof.

Two more adventurers I did not recognise had taken Rose’s lead and fired their own ranged weapons at the Goblins as well.

The Goblins panicked and began to scatter in every direction.

*****

Clarice was first through the door the second Kirk unbarred it. As one of the only close combat adventurers still in relatively prime condition, Clarice, Emelia’s pair of Bloodhunters, Tobi, his pet Shady and two other adventurers had decided to rush the Goblins and stop them from recouping their morale while the adventurers searched for survivors.

Contrary to what she had expected, Clarice found that the Goblins were already scattering like rats. Even so, it was not the time to stand idle, at the very least they needed to re-secure the barricade and search for survivors.

Rushing out the door with her sword at the ready, Clarice saw Tim staggering into the tailor’s shop, dragging a broken and bloodied Goblin corpse behind him. Fearing the worst, she quickly glanced at her group status and flinched.

[ Tim - HP: -7/45 - Bloodied, Bleeding ] [ Toofy - HP: -3/23 - Bloodied, Stunned ]

Clarice had already known about Toofy’s critical condition and to a lesser extent, Tim’s. But a great deal had changed in the past couple of minutes and Tim had lost more than nine hp in a single hit and gained the Bleeding condition. Immediately shifting her priorities, Clarice dropped her sword and sprinted across the street. The Goblins had already fled the immediate vicinity so she was in very little danger, or so she thought.

Barrelling into the tailor's shop, Clarice froze in muted horror as a pale, sickly long-limbed horror stuffed something into its large razor-fanged maw and messily began to chew. Blood and viscera spattered down its front and onto the floor as it groaned in ecstasy, “MMM! Delicious!”

“We need to leave!” A familiar voice stated firmly.

Clarice shook her head numbly and returned somewhat to her senses. Shuddering as she pulled her eyes from the horrid thing at the far end of the store behind the counter. Clarice saw that Jacque was carrying Toofy over her shoulder and struggling to try and keep Tim standing with her one free arm.

“NOW!” Jacque insisted, ineffectually trying to drag Tim towards the door.

Clarice nodded, “R-right!” She stammered, doing her best to ignore the sounds of crunching bones and ripping meat. Quickly pulling Tim’s shield free from his arm, Clarice took the bulk of Tim’s weight and began dragging him out the door. Tim’s skin was clammy and he didn’t seem to know what was going on, dragging his right leg limply along and leaving a trail of blood.

[Bloodhunter has been killed by Goblin!]

Clarice flinched and redoubled her efforts in moving Tim across the street and back to the inn. Just as Kirk had warned them, the Goblin rout would not last long and the Goblins would quickly return in force.

Tobi and the other adventurers were already frantically dragging bloodied adventurers back to the inn while Shady savagely tore apart any Goblins who drew too close.

As they reached the inn, Jacque left Tim to Clarice as she hurriedly moved to lay Toofy down on the bar before returning to help manoeuvre Tim through the door. Tim’s bulk had made this entire endeavour much harder than Clarice would have initially expected and she was already breathing heavily from the strain. “Nadine! We got him!” Clarice called out as she tried to ease Tim down onto the floor as gently as she could, but had to settle for sitting him up against the bar.

Nadine made no visible sign to acknowledge what Clarice had said, but Emelia was already rushing over with a bucket and fistful of bandages.

“Wrap the bandages tightly around any open wounds!” Nadine called out loudly, “I am nearly finished!”

Emelia quickly moved to do as she was told.

Clarice hurried back out the door to try and find other survivors and grimaced as she quickly realised that there were precious few of them to find. The Racial Ability Synergy from the one remaining Bloodhunter revealed only five more survivors amongst the thirty or so human bodies strewn about the barricades. “Damnit...” Clarice cursed, hardening her heart and pointing out the survivors to Tobi and the others. They would not have time to retrieve all the bodies and the living had to take precedence.

*****

Blearily opening my eyes, I groaned in pain as I became all too aware of my battered and bruised nerve endings. It felt like someone had taken a steak tenderiser to my back and chest with a vengeance. But even that was nothing compared to the soul-draining ache from my stomach. It felt like I hadn’t eaten in weeks if not longer. Shakily pushing myself up into a sitting position, I dragged my feet over the edge of the bed and weakly tried getting to my feet. It was only after putting my full weight on my leg that I realised how stupid I was being and hastily sat back down, bracing against the anticipated wave of pain.

However, contrary to my expectations, the pain didn’t come. In fact, my legs were one of the only places that didn’t hurt. Worried that maybe I was in some form of shock and had exacerbated the injury, I anxiously looked down at my leg.

I blinked in surprise. My leg appeared to be completely fine, albeit hosting two large new scars.

It took my brain a couple of minutes to process this sudden revelation and I realised that Nadine must have healed me using her special Ability. Gingerly getting to my feet again, I staggered and very nearly fell over from a sudden onset of dizziness. I should have expected that, I was probably rather anaemic right now after losing so much blood.

Looking down at myself for a moment, I realised that I wasn’t seeing the crimson smoke as I had before. Glancing at my group status, I could see that I only had ten HP and still had the Bloodied condition.

“Status,” I croaked while staggering over to the wall by the door. Skimming through the information, I saw that the Scent Blood Ability was gone from my Synergy list and after looking more carefully at the group status, I realised why. Both Bloodhunters were no longer part of the group. It shouldn’t have been all that surprising, but the assumed deaths of the hideous beasts still came as somewhat of a shock.

Quickly looking at Toofy’s information, I was relieved to see that she appeared to be recovering. Even so, I felt a familiar pang of worry and looked over the room again, in case I had overlooked her. Seeing no sign of Toofy, I tried opening the door, but unsurprisingly it was locked. Looking back over at the bedside table, I saw the room key laid out beside the washbowl. Grumbling that I should have noticed it sooner, I staggered back across the room and decided that I might as well freshen myself up a bit while I was at it.

After splashing my pits and face, I thirstily gulped down the remaining water and then dried myself off with the bed blanket. It was no substitute for a real bath, but it had to do for the time being. Feeling somewhat cold, most likely from the anaemia, I wrapped myself in the blanket like a cape, tying off two corners in front of my chest so I didn’t have to hold it in place.

The pain in my stomach was growing worse and causing my hands to shake, so I decided that I needed to unlock the door while I was still able to do so. Lethargically crossing the room, yet again, I shakily pushed the key into the lock, unlocked the door and walked out into the corridor. Knowing that Toofy was almost definitely in Clarice and Nadine’s room on the third floor, I groaned and made my way over to the stairs.

Clinging tightly to the bannister, I dragged myself up the stairs. Resting against the wall for a moment while waiting for the dizziness to pass, I could almost hear muted conversations from the nearby rooms. I pushed myself off the wall and continued staggering down the hall. Finally standing, leaning, in front of their door, I knocked and tried turning the handle. It was locked...

Groaning in frustration, I knocked again, but no one answered. I slumped hard against the neighbouring wall and slid to the floor. I was just so tired.

Unable to keep my eyes open, It only took a moment before I lost consciousness.

“Tim? Wake up, Tim?” Someone said quietly while gingerly jostling my shoulder.

Tiredly opening my eyes, I saw Clarice kneeling over me with a candle in hand.

“What were you doing up here?” She asked worriedly, “You were meant to be resting in your room!”

I blinked blearily and tried to sit up, but lacked the strength and coordination. “Toofy...” I groaned.

Clarice sighed irritably, “You could have asked us to bring her to you, y’know!”

I stared uncomprehendingly at her in reply. I knew what she was saying should make sense, but it was getting harder and harder to think.

“Fine! Might as well try dragging you into our room I guess, no way in hell am I getting you downstairs on my own after it took three of us to get you into your room in the first place!” Clarice growled but seemed more concerned than angry.

Clarice unlocked the door and began heaving me across the threshold like a heavy sack of potatoes, dragging me by my arms and leaving me by the bed. Grunting loudly, Clarice then hooked my arm over her shoulder and lifted me just high enough to drop me backwards onto the bed. ‘Bloody!-Hell!” she gasped, “Were-you-all-ways-this-heav-vy?!”

I closed my eyes and began to pass out again, much to Clarice’s annoyance.

“Tim! Breakfast!” Toofy yelled and something was jammed into my mouth.

Opening my eyes, I found Toofy sitting beside me on the bed and shoving a fistful of meat into my mouth. I tried to speak but nearly choked instead.

Seeing that I was awake, Toofy’s eyes sparkled, “Tim!” She suddenly jumped up onto the bed and gave me a hug, inadvertently clearing my airway and allowing me to breathe again.

“Toofy,” I croaked, too relieved at her recovery to be mad at her for nearly choking me to death. Besides, I assumed that Toofy had meant well.

After hugging me for a while, Toofy sat back up and pouted, glancing at me expectantly. “Toofy feed Tim all night,” she stated sternly, “Tim scare Toofy! Tim bad!” Toofy insisted crossly.

“I am sorry Toofy,” I apologised sincerely. While I did not regret doing what I did to save her life, I appreciated the distress my brush with death would have caused her. If things had turned out slightly differently maybe there would have been a better option, but I still felt like I had made the best choice I could under the circumstances. More or less.

My lack of fighting skill and experience was arguably my greatest weakness right now. Even though the Goblin chieftain had what I assumed was a magic spear, I had literally almost every other advantage and still nearly died.

Remembering how I tried throwing my only weapon away made me feel ashamed of myself. Almost everything I knew about fighting came from watching movies and anime, so I should have known better than to just blindly copy them and hope for the best.

Going forward, I resolved that I would at the very least strive for basic competence in some form of martial arts.

Perhaps Clarice could help with that?

She was a Swordsmen and looked like she knew what she was doing from what I had seen so far.

Toofy nodded, seeming to accept my apology, but she insisted on feeding me the pieces of meat I had spat out earlier, “Eat!”

Still quite hungry, I ate the food without complaint, even though I would have very much preferred to feed myself.

Toofy’s idea of portion size was literally how much of a thing you could fit in your mouth and still chew. It was perhaps a small miracle that I even woke up when I did. If Toofy had in fact been feeding me all night, I wondered how many times had I come that close to choking. There was no good answer to that question, so I promptly dropped it and focused my attention on chewing and swallowing as fast as I could manage. Thankfully, the food I had spat out earlier was apparently the last of the food Toofy had on hand.

*Gurgle*

Toofy pursed her lips and rubbed at her stomach.

“Toofy? Did you not eat breakfast yet?” I asked warily, already suspecting I knew the answer.

Toofy shifted guiltily and quickly hopped off the bed and onto the floor, snatching up a stray fragment of meat and stuffing it in her mouth, “Yeees?” Toofy replied cheekily.

I narrowed my eyes at Toofy and sat myself up, more than a little surprised to find that most of the pain I had felt earlier was now gone. “Maybe we should go get more breakfast?” I suggested.

Toofy stiffened and looked at me in surprise, “More breakfast?” She asked curiously, drooling a little and rubbing her stomach.

I nodded, now having made up my mind, “More breakfast,” I insisted, feeling the hunger in my stomach intensifying again. Finding the blanket from my bed had just been untied and left beneath me on the bed, I got up and tied it around my shoulders again. I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of walking around the inn in my underwear, so the extra layer helped to alleviate a certain degree of my unease.

Toofy, who was only wearing the tunic and pants I had made for her, seemed somewhat jealous, so I made her a cape similar to my own from one of the girl’s towels.

“Ready for breakfast?” I asked, grinning a little as Toofy swept her ‘cape’ back and forth behind herself.

“Huh?” Toofy looked surprised for a moment before a petulant gurgle from her stomach reminded her what we were doing, “Breakfast!” She agreed emphatically.

Unlocking the door with the key, which had conveniently been left on the bedside table, we left the room, locked the door again behind us and headed downstairs.

Toofy was rushing ahead, whooshing back and forth while holding her ‘cape’ out to either side, giggling and shrieking for reasons I honestly didn’t quite understand.

By the time we reached the stairs to the common room, we had already gathered somewhat of a following from bemused adventurers investigating the noise outside their rooms. Not that Toofy seemed to mind, but I felt more than a little bit embarrassed about it. The stifled laughter really didn’t help.

“Woosh!” Toofy cried as she leapt down the final half dozen steps in one go, narrowly avoiding tripping on her ‘cape’ as she rolled and sprang up onto her feet again. Toofy looked at me expectantly, hopping around in her excitement.

Already about as embarrassed as I could get, I sighed and leapt down the final few steps of the stairs as she had done, flourishing and billowing my own ‘cape’ dramatically as I landed in an incredibly poor approximation of a Batman swoop landing.

*Whoosh*

Toofy just stared for a moment in wide-eyed surprise, then she began shrieking excitedly and scampering back up onto the stairs to try it herself. Jumping from much higher up the stairs, Toofy sailed with her towel cape fluttering around her, briefly landing on my shoulder before launching off and into a tumbling roll.

I assumed that this strange sense of pride and envy I was feeling must be what all parents feel when their child surpasses them.

Toofy hopped around excitedly before rushing up the stairs and doing it again, clearly demonstrating that it had not been a fluke. When she repeated the leap from the stairs for the third time, I shifted and caught her instead of allowing her to jump off my shoulder.

“Breakfast, remember?” I reminded Toofy with a playful hug.

“Oh! Breakfast!” Toofy agreed, much to the disappointment of our rather sizable audience.

Sitting Toofy down on my shoulder, I moved quickly over to the bar, causing her ‘cape’ to catch some air and flutter a little behind her.

Kirk and Rose were struggling to keep straight faces as they watched us take our seats, the former hiding his amusement behind his bristling moustache and the latter behind her hand.

“We would like breakfast please,” I requested with a poker face of my own.

“Breakfast!” Toofy insisted, thumping the bar like a thug to accentuate her point.

Rose and Kirk shared a quick glance with one another before Rose hurried off to the kitchen, breaking into raucous laughter the moment she left the room.

“Pfftft,” Kirk covered his mouth with one hand, “I can't, I just can't! Ahaha!”

Objectively, our antics were not all that funny, or at least I didn’t think so. So I decided to chalk it up to the amount of stress everyone had been under than the quality of the entertainment.

Still holding back laughter, Rose brought out two trays piled with roasted meat and placed them in front of myself and Toofy.

Toofy immediately set to hungrily stuffing her mouth.

Despite originally intending to set a better example, I honestly didn’t behave much better, quickly sinking to her level and shovelling food into my mouth as quickly as I could chew and swallow it down. I had seriously underestimated just how hungry I felt.

In the end, Rose brought out another three trays of food before I finally felt the hunger recede. With the hunger pains no longer distracting my thoughts, I supposed that considering how injured I must have been, eating at least this much was to be expected. Even so, it was a prodigious amount of food and I didn’t quite understand how I had managed to fit it all in my stomach. As if on cue, I felt a sudden shift in my guts that signalled an urgent need to go use the restroom.

Unsurprisingly, when I left the restroom, I found Toofy running around the common room, jumping off empty tables and unoccupied chairs. Since we had been through so much in just the past few days, I decided to let her have her fun and took a seat at the bar again.

“Want another?” Kirk asked with a sly smirk.

I smiled wryly and shook my head, “One kid is enough I think.”

Kirk baulked, “Wait...what?”

I knew he had probably been referring to another meal, but I felt it was only fair to get at least one joke in at his expense in exchange for the earlier entertainment.

“Oh, hardy har har,” Kirk muttered derisively upon quickly recognising the joke.

I shrugged. I kind of meant it, Toofy was a bit of a handful and I really didn’t think I was doing that good a job taking care of just her, let alone another kid as well. But that did get me thinking about Clarice, Emelia and Nadine’s collective absence. When I found that Clarice and Nadine weren’t in their room, I thought that maybe they would be here in the common room instead, but I was apparently wrong.

“Do you know where the girls have gone?” I asked Kirk somewhat worriedly.

Kirk nodded in understanding, “Yeah, I think they were headed to the Guild office to confirm your party rewards for the raid. Since they have been gone for the better part of an hour, I expect that they are probably haggling over the precise amount of the compensation owed,” he explained thoughtfully, “I wouldn’t worry too much about it though. With the portal reactivated now, they can just take a complaint directly to the Guild branch office in Hurst just outside the Labyrinth.”

I nodded to show I understood what he meant, but still couldn’t help but worry anyway.

What would happen if the Guild manager realised Nadine and Clarice were enslaved by me and not the other way around?

“On a brighter note, Rose and I are expecting our staff to return from holiday at some point today,” Kirk added cheerily, “Not that we haven’t appreciated your help around the inn, but it will be nice to have things up and running smoothly again so we can begin taking things a little easier for a while.”

I nodded and remembered something else, “Didn’t you say that you were expecting more adventurers soon as well?” I asked, a little unsure about when exactly he had mentioned it, only remembering that he had done so at some point.

Kirk nodded, “Aye, but I think the Guild is holding off on letting them through until things are cleaned up a bit more. The Goblins really thrashed a lot of the furniture and other materials used to make those barricades,” he sighed and shook his head, “There is also the matter of the adventurers who didn’t make it. They have been busy filling out the paperwork and preparing letters to notify next of kin for the better part of the morning.”

“Oh...” I didn’t really know what to say to that. I guess I had been avoiding thinking about it. Recalling how quickly the barricades had been overrun, it was inevitable that people had died. I suppose I was still far too naive, “How many?...” I asked hesitantly, regretting my choice almost immediately, knowing that any number would seem like too many.

Kirk had noticed my hesitation and tightened his lips for a moment, his expression making it obvious that he was seriously considering whether to tell me the truth. “Thirty-seven,” Kirk replied quietly, “Nadine did her best to save as many as she could, but there was only so much that could be done..."

Thirty-seven...The number repeated over and over in my head, accompanied by faces of young men and women I had seen manning the barricades, but knew only in passing. Thirty-seven...I didn’t even know their names...Thirty-seven people died because I wasn’t strong enough because I didn’t do what needed to be done and kill that Goblin chieftain sooner...

“It’s not your fault Tim,” Kirk insisted firmly, “You did what you could. No one in their right mind would accuse you of anything less. Ninety-three people are alive because of you and what you did, don’t forget it,” he leaned over the bar and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze, “I know Rose and me sure as hell won’t, nor our daughter Millie for that matter either.”

Still feeling rather upset, I nodded slightly and tried to feel less guilty about things that had been out of my control. But my subconscious was relentless, perfectly willing to prove how exactly Kirk was wrong and that I was in fact responsible for everything that had happened.

“Hey, Tim!” Clarice called out warmly as she walked in through the front door, “Huh, what's up? You still feelin weak?” She asked curiously.

“No, I...I’m fine, I just need some time to process a few things...” I replied quietly, “I...I think I need to go lie down for a bit...” I somewhat shakily got to my feet and began making my way towards the stairs.