Goblin Hunt
Inside the cave, the goblins' shrieks climbed the walls and came back doubled.
Kkiriririk—! Kkiriririk—!! Kieeeek! Kiyaaaak!
They came from every side at once, yellow eyes rolling, and I swung the muzzle and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The spray of shot struck rock and threw sparks. Ting! Ting! What was left of it tore the length of the tunnel and slammed into the goblins still charging. Three of them went down together.
Clack!
I racked another round, spun, and fired blind.
Bang! Clack! Bang! Ting-ting!! Kiyaak! Kireek! Kkiyaak!
This time they dropped by twos and threes, twitching where they hit the stone. The tube didn't hold much, and reloading was a miserable chore, but those drawbacks were exactly why I'd chosen a shotgun. The things had earned their infamy in the trenches. Troops dropping into a narrow cut of earth wanted to pour dozens of pellets down its length without ever bothering to aim, and the design had done precisely that. In a tight, endless ditch, a shotgun shone. It was infamous enough that even the Germans—hardly gentle souls—had proposed the Allies restrict their use. A cave was no different from a trench.
Bang! Clack! Bang! Clack! Bang!
I poured shot down both directions in turn. More than ten goblins, charging with daggers and hand axes, slammed face-first into the floor.
Kkrrrrk! Kkeeeek!
I dropped to one knee, cracked the loading port, and fed rounds from the belt at my waist. Chk. Chk. Chk. Chk. I'd already swept them several times over. The one mercy, so far, was that the ones stunned by the shotgun's fire hadn't rushed me while I reloaded. This time they looked half-mad with it.
Kieeeek!
Even after watching their own get mowed down, the ones with clubs and spears came on. I lifted the half-loaded gun and let fly.
Bang! Kiek! Clack! Bang!
While I blew away another three or four, a spear from the opposite side drove in at my back. Trusting the armor, I worked the pump.
Clack!
A heavy blow landed between my shoulders. Thud! The spear failed to punch through, skittered aside, and buried itself in the floor. I barely shed the force that nearly pitched me forward, turned, and fired.
Bang!
The goblin took the full load in the belly and flew backward, tumbling across the stone. Crash-crash-crash. Guts and green blood sprayed from the ruptured hide in every direction.
Clack. Click.
Damn it. The chamber was empty.
Kieeeek!
One of them leapt and brought a stone axe down. I caught it on my forearm and drew the pistol at my hip. Thud! A dull pain climbed the arm that had taken the blow, but it wasn't more than I could stand.
Think all I've got is a shotgun?
I jammed the muzzle into its gut and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
I shoved the gut-shot goblin aside and fired into the ones still coming.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Two more took rounds, pitched forward, and rolled. I spun, kicked a charging one in the belly hard enough to launch it, snatched a fallen stone axe, and brought it down. The axe smashed the skull of the goblin rushing my stomach with a dagger, and the small body, stunned by the blow, slammed into the floor.
Thud!
I wrecked another three or four in a row on the armor vest and the strength item clenched in my fist. Whenever a gap opened, even for a heartbeat, I swapped the pistol's cylinder and kept shooting.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
One storm of a fight burned itself out.
Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff.
Sweat and goblin blood had soaked my clothes until they looked spattered with green sap.
"Damn it. Haa— haa—"
I was spent, but after fighting like that in one wild rush, adrenaline was screaming through every limb.
"That it?"
I tossed the stone axe, holstered the pistol, and bent for the shotgun I'd dropped. The necklace spoke.
Left side. The real one is coming.
I scooped up the shotgun and, just in case, cast the magic I'd been holding in reserve.
Acceleration
Strength Enhancement
Body Reinforcement
Something came flying out of the dark. I jerked back and it missed.
Thud!
A thick, heavy wooden club. The face of it was worn smooth from use, and the force behind the throw said this was no ordinary goblin. A moment later it showed itself.
Graaaaang—!!!
Taller than a grown man by a good margin. What the hell was that?
A hobgoblin.
A bulging gut, the build of a fat middle-aged man—but the face was brutish, the teeth stuck out, and thick green spit strung from its mouth. A drunk the size of a building, and mean with it. Damn it. It charged.
Graaaak—!!!!
I backed off fast and yanked the pistol free.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
A couple of rounds buried themselves in its body. As expected. Even back home, a handgun's stopping power had a rotten reputation. Scroll the internet and you'd find plenty of clips of criminals shrugging off police pistols and hitting back like nothing had happened. This thing, by size and by the look of it, didn't seem any less than those men. If anything, the shots only riled it. It poured on more speed and came.
The one mercy was that I'd already cast Acceleration. I opened the distance as far as I could and groped the other side of my belt for the white shells, loading on the run.
Chk. Chk.
Running in that awkward crouch, the gap kept closing. Why is it that fast? Big as it was, it felt far quicker than an ordinary man. Like a football player, almost. Damn it. I'd stacked Strength Enhancement and Body Reinforcement, but I had no interest in a straight-up fight with a drunk-looking brute that didn't even flinch after taking pistol rounds. Loading while I ran only let it close again. Somewhere along the way it had retrieved the club, and now it came with the thing raised high.
Two feet. I'll make it work somehow.
Graaaaang—!!!
I racked the pump.
Clack!
I spun and fired into the big one's gut.
Bang!
The body that hadn't so much as twitched under pistol fire rocked backward once. The momentum of the charge carried it toward me anyway.
Kraaaek—! Thud!
Even as it fell, it swung the club. I folded at the waist on reflex. The club passed over my head and smashed the side wall.
Crash!
Stone chips rained from the ceiling with a sound that filled the cave. Rattle-crash! Unable to check its own rush, it pitched forward—and even then it twitched once and started to rise.
Grrrrr.
I brought the gun up, this time at its head. It lifted its face and looked at me. Those yellow eyes, mad with it, split wide as it opened its mouth and roared.
Graaaaang—!!
It planted its arms and was about to launch again. My finger was a beat faster.
"Die!"
Bang!
Recoil kicked the muzzle up, and the slug poured out. Ten times heavier than an ordinary bullet, it caved in one side of the thing's skull.
Thud!
A round that could smash a boar's skull on pure physics and drop it dead. But—
"Tough bastard!"
Half its head caved in, it still wasn't finished. An arm shot out again. In the moment I froze, one hand clamped my leg, and then an incredible grip and a furious heave sent me airborne into the wall.
Thud! Ghk!
Damn it. Half its head was pulp, and it was still swinging a man around one-handed. Worse, I'd lost the shotgun in the throw. It heaved again.
Damn it!
As I was dragged, I drew the knife I'd kept at my belt.
Whoosh! Thud!
I hit the opposite wall.
Guhk!
But the impact wasn't as bad as I'd expected. More like dropping onto a gym mat. I snapped my focus back, hauled my leg in, and bent toward its head, grabbing for whatever my hand could find.
Damn it. Of all things—its mouth. It bit down.
"Aaagh!"
That hurt. A lot. Even so, I reversed the military knife and drove it in with everything I had.
Thud!
Into the half-crushed skull. Stab. Stab again. It raised an arm and blocked the blade, so I struck the forearm instead.
Thud!
Thick, tough hide traveled up the point of the knife, stiff as driving a blade into old wood. The skin was bad enough; the muscle and bone weren't on the level of any ordinary beast. A monster. No wonder they called them that. I twisted the buried blade, and the hand gripping my foot let go and swung at me. I rolled back, and the fist missed.
Thud!
The punch cracked stone off the cave floor. Dumb brute. But the opening was there. I scrambled back, snatched the dropped shotgun, and fed another slug.
Chk! Clack!
Half-risen, it came at me again.
Graaaang—!!
Its mouth gaped, teeth bared, aiming straight for me.
"Die!"
Bang!
The slug went in through the mouth, blew out what was left of the skull, and kept going.
Crash-crash-crash—
The thing on the floor didn't move again.
Huff— huff— huff— huff— huff—
I dragged in ragged breaths. I'd confirmed it was down, but something still felt wrong, so I reloaded the shotgun. Only after all six were in did the relief hit. I leaned against the wall and breathed.
Huff— huff— hooooo— hoooooo—
Aside from the one on the ground, I couldn't sense any others. So it really was over. I checked myself. My back ached first. The impacts had carried through, no question, but the armor was performing better than I'd expected. I'd been slammed into the wall like that and was still standing. I checked my hand too.
Damn it. There was a wound. Dumb bastard. Given the size of the thing and those teeth, it wasn't something you compared to a hyena. More like a crocodile. Or a hippo. It hurt. Still, learning the armor was better than I'd thought counted as a gain of its own. They said a well-forged suit of full plate could stop an ordinary pistol round, and worn in two layers, it had shown me about that much.
There might be more of them left. Better finish the rest. I hauled my aching body up and went deeper into the cave.