Goblin Bound: The First of Many

Chapter 13: Vengeful Mob

The yell of the goblin sounded especially deafening, spreading far farther than it would have. The goblin outside the gate ground its teeth in rage, its expression twisted into something truly ugly. Kenny had been too far immersed in ambushing the first goblin he had paid little attention to anything else and had thus missed the obvious sound of footsteps.

The goblin stormed through the open gate, whipping out its dagger from its waist. It growled, slowly approaching with its dagger poised in the air. Kenny saw the rage in its eyes, but it’s hesitant movement told him it also felt an ounce of fear. It was probably regretting entering impulsively but Kenny wasn’t about to give it any chance to pull anything off.

Springing from his crouch, he charged toward the goblin. The goblin yelped in surprise, but it managed to compose itself in time and leapt out of the way. Kenny skid to a halt, twirling his body around to pounce on it once more but the goblin was anything if not slippery. With no weapon to lengthen his reach, he could only engage in an elusive dance with the slippery goblin.

But the dance was never meant to last long, already he could hear the thundering sound of dozens of footsteps and the goblin heard it too. It let out a vicious grin, emboldened by the coming of its comrades. It dashed to a side and pounced abruptly, its dagger slicing through the air.

Kenny, surprised by the attack, hurriedly raised his arm in defense but he only recognized his folly after. The dagger sliced through his arm, effortlessly ripping his weak clothes apart and drawing blood. The pain numbed his mind, but still his hand shot out instinctively to wrap around the goblin’s throat.

It croaked as it lay suspended in the air with a tightening arm around its throat. Kenny groaned from the slice on his arm and that pain shifted into rage as he tightened his hold. Goblins began to pile at the gate and the first sight they saw was the human snapping the neck of one of their own.

They exploded with rage and swarmed into the cell. Kenny let out a grunt and tossed the dead goblin into the mob, knocking down a few but it was merely a pebble in the surging river. He only managed to thrash a little before the rest piled upon him, pinning him down with their collective weight and that’s when he felt the multiple stabs.

His gasps of pain was overshadowed by the noises of the vengeful mob, they kicked, punched and stabbed without reprieve. He curled into a ball as best he could but it did little, no part of him was spared. From within that circle of beating, he heard the piercing scream of the girls and his eyes widened.

He strongly grabbed a leg of one of the goblins, but a vicious kick in the eye forced him to let go. All he could do was take the beating while listening in anguish to the fading scream. The mob dispersed slowly, others lingering longer to kick and spit on him but eventually they all left.

Kenny spat out a mouthful of blood, several pieces of flesh mixed within the puddle. He coughed, deep bouts of painful rasps he felt inside his chest. Taking several heavy breaths, he stabilized as best he could and hurriedly turned towards the girls huddled in the corner. He let out a small heave of relief seeing Rya but the tears marring her face told him all wasn’t well. He did a quick count and his face turned ashen, they were two less.

Stifling his groan, he edged closer to them as quickly as he could. This time his body wasn’t as terribly damaged and he managed to stumble his way over, but he quickly became at a loss for he didn’t know what to do.

He didn’t know how to comfort them and a nagging guilt that this was his fault was beginning to eat at him.

“This wasn’t your fault, this was always going to happen.” Rya said, reading the look on his face. Her words were meant to be comforting but they only ended up sounding ominous.

Kenny slumped against a wall, unable to truly agree with her. He lowered his head to hide the tears glistening in his eyes. He hadn’t know them for long - he was out cold most of the time - but a strong bond had grown within him, a bond he was just now recognizing. They were all trapped in this hellish hole with little to probably no chance of escape.

His eyes glistening with tears blinked, the guilt giving way to conviction. There was one thing he learned in all his time studying physics and statistics in university, the probability of anything was never zero. It might be in the far decimal range but nothing truly ever was a zero probability.

Plus if there was any other important thing he learned, it was to not give in to the guilt and grieve. He would only sink deeper into that quagmire until it became near impossible to resist and act.

Stifling his groan, he forced himself to his feet and slowly waked over to the weapon pile. The girls watched him move with teary eyes and puzzled looks. He knelt and slowly dug through the pile of weapons, careful not to cut his fingers. He soon found a sword - relatively sharp and caked in dried blood- with the hilt and a few inches of the blade peeking out. The sound of scratching metal echoed as he slowly pulled out the blade to its full length.

It was a short blade a little longer than a dagger and barely the length of his arm, but it looked sharper than his last one. Brandishing it as best he could, he found its weight light but satisfactory.

“What are you doing?” Rya stared at him with an unreadable expression.

Kenny turned slowly to her, silent but his eyes spoke more than words would in that moment.

Rya shook her head in exasperation.“There is nothing you can do.”

“Maybe, but I won’t know till I try.” Kenny said, crouching to find a suitable sheath for the sword.

“You would do us much more good by helping us die than trying to find a way out.” Rya said.

Kenny turned his gaze to her but the hard expression on her face told him she meant every word. Speechless, he could only turn back to finding a sheath and pretend he didn’t hear her words.

“How good are you even with a sword?” Rya asked.

“I don’t know, passable I guess.” Kenny shrugged.

“Is that so?” Rya narrowed her eyes. She wiped the remnant of her tears and moved toward the weapon pile. Kenny watched her easily fish out another short sword and stared in puzzlement as she walked to an open area of the cell. “Then show me.”

“Uhh what?” Kenny couldn’t help the doubt creeping into his voice.

“Let’s spar, I might have been here a while but I…used to be a fairly decent adventurer.”

“Adventurer huhn?.” He found it somewhat hard to believe but he was also curious just how true it was - plus the look on her face told him she wouldn’t let him go easily this time. He slowly stood, flexing his body to relieve the aching a little but it did little for the several bleeding wounds soaking his clothes - wounds he paid little attention to. He moved to face her, a good distance between them.

“Are you ready?” Rya asked, leisurely holding the sword without assuming a stance.

Kenny nodded, holding the sword with both hands. Rya hummed watching him assume some sort of stance and slowly began walking forward. Kenny’s eyes widened and a sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead. It didn’t seem like a delicate woman walking toward him anymore, it looked more like a vicious beast stalking closer to consume its prey. The pressure crashing into him in that moment fell short that of what he felt from the huge goblin, but it was nevertheless stifling.

He grit his teeth and prepared to meet her attack. He waited for her to get close enough for him to attack, but in the next moment he only felt the cold edge of the blade resting against his throat.

“So, not so good with a sword then.” Rya said, a cold look in her eyes - the look of a killer. That look sent chills down his spine and goosebumps over his skin. He couldn’t help but wonder how a woman like this got stuck in a place like this, with hardly any will left to fight. She could easily kill him right now and would no doubt have it far easier against the goblins.

“Why?” Kenny said, taking great care not to gulp.

Rya let out a sigh, lowering the sword. The cold look in her eyes melted fast and the pressure exuding from her vanished without a trace.

“The hex on us does a lot more than prevent us from committing suicide.” She said, exhausted.

“You can’t fight back?” Kenny asked, furrowing his brows.

Rya gave him a long look. “We can’t do a lot of things.”