May Death Do Us Part

74 Chapter 74 : Goblins

Ella was awoken by the sound of movement from outside the tent, she didn’t know how but she could tell that those footsteps didn’t belong to any of Adam’s men. Actually, she could sense that they didn’t belong to human beings.

She sat up and scanned the area around her, her eyes adjusting to the darkness that filled their tent. There was a number of footsteps running around the camp site and with the little light from the faint starlight, she could see rippling shadows on the outside. The redhead turned to Adam and shook him gently, “Adam,” she whispered, “wake up I think there’s people ransacking our camp.”

Adam muzzily opened his eyes and sat up slowly, “someone is-” his statement was cut short when he heard someone screaming from outside the tent.

“Aaaaah what the hell!” The voice shouted in the moonless darkness of the night.

Adam was wide awake now, he tossed his fur aside and stood up, hurriedly making his way to the exit of the tent. Ella got up as well but when she inched closer to Adam he turned around and stopped her, “no, you stay here.”

“But Adam I..”

“Ella..” He took her hand and led her back to the furs, “stay here and wait for me okay. Don’t you dare leave this tent it’s to dangerous.”

“But I can help, l-”

The man placed a finger on her lips and shook his head, “I don’t want you in harm’s way, stay here till I get back.” With a quick kiss on her forehead, Adam left Ella in the tent and made his way to help his men.

.....

“But I can help,” Ella muttered to herself in annoyance. She wasn’t just some damsel in distress who needed to be kept safe. Even though she may have not have honed her sword fighting skills and archery skills as much as she would have liked in this lifetime, she still had them. Her and Nathaniel would train together every weekend at the palace even though he’d always insist on going easy on her and making her take several breaks. But regardless, she still had it in her, she could fight.

Adam ran through the darkness towards where the screaming had come from and stopped in shock when he saw Ivan kicking and screaming while being dragged away by stubby, ugly, pimply humanoid creatures. They had gray warty skin like toads, long dark fingernails and wore nothing but loincloths tied around their waists.

He turned to Beric who was catching a breath a few feet away from him after wading off the same creatures that had equally disturbed his sleep. “What the hell are these?!” Adam yelled as he picked up a sword he had noticed laying on the ground.

Zander landed in front of Adam seemingly out of nowhere, grabbed an arrow from his quiver and launched it towards the small toad skinned creature that was advancing towards them. The little humanoid screeched in pain when the arrow lodged itself into its chest and Adam saw a blue fluid oozing from its wound as it died.

“They’re goblins!” Zander yelled as he shot another arrow towards a goblin that had launched itself through the air to attack them, sending it flying into the brunches of a nearby tree. “They’re disgusting little creatures of the forests who steal from and attack travellers!”

The blonde elf jumped back and landed a hard kick in the stomach of a goblin that was about to lunge itself onto his leg with its sharpened grimy teeth bared. “And when they run out of food, they cannibalize other races!”

Adam turned to Ivan who was still being dragged away by about six little humanoids and cursed, he didn’t want any of his men meeting such a demeaning death, eaten alive by overgrown toads? That would be sad, especially for Ivan.

He ran towards Ivan at full speed, slashing the bellies, arms, legs and heads of the grotesque creatures that got in his way, leaving behind a trail of entrails and severed limbs littering his trail. Adam was surprised to feel that he had become even more agile and flexible than usual, his movement was so swift that to the human eye it would look like teleportation, his senses of smell, hearing and sight had peeked as well, he felt like one of those overpowered characters from fictional books as he dodged the little creatures and sliced them up with ease.

As he rushed towards Ivan, he saw Roland, Ozias and Odran who were also having their own altercations with the creatures. Ozias who was heavy in build had pulled a tree straight from the ground with his bare hands and was using it as a giant club, crushing and flinging the creatures away. He looked more like a Viking warrior than an elf with his bulging muscles, tattooed arms, his fade hair cut and bone chilling roar as he fought.

Roland was also in the heat of battle with the stubby dreadful creatures. Wielding two short daggers, which were his preferred weapons of choice, he was slashing up goblin behind like he’d done it a million times. Unlike Ozias who was brutal and ferocious, Roland was swift, agile and graceful in his fighting. The way he moved on the battlefield was akin to a ballerina on a stage, no wonder men thought he was a beautiful buff woman.

Odran’s weapon of choice had always been an axe, though heavy, he swung it like he was playing with a stick, cracking the skulls and spines of the goblins who where attacking him.

Adam reached the pile of goblins that were dragging Ivan into the forest and with his sword, cut one in half by plunging his razor sharp blade into its torso and pulling it upwards in a powerful swift motion. With another he sliced off its head and stabbed another that tried to attack him from behind with a swift backward push of his sword.

Ivan managed to kick a few goblins off his body but as he tried to get up, more appeared from the trees around them and pinned him down again. “Why the fuck are you only coming after me?!” Ivan yelled in frustration as he struggled to loosen their grip on him.

“Tie up the soft one and kill the others!” One goblin rasped in a horrendous little voice.

At that command, hundreds of little creatures swarmed the campsite, and no matter how hard the men fought them off, more and more kept coming.

“It’s an entire pack!” Zander yelled as he struggled to fight off the goblins who where lunging at him. He swiftly jumped up onto a thick branch of a tree and reached for his quiver but realized he’d used up all his arrows. He muttered an incoherent ‘fuck’ and turned to Adam, “we’re outnumbered your grace!” He called down to the elven prince, “we need to escape!”

“And leave Ivan behind?!” Adam yelled back in a breathless voice. He too could feel his stamina dwindling fighting off the hundreds of goblins that just kept coming.

“We don’t have a choice!” Zander responded

“WHAT THE FUCK ZANDER!” Ivan screamed as he kicked some goblins to let go of him.

Adam leapt up into the air and landed on the brunch where Zander was crouching. He looked around and realized that this was a losing battle, his men were getting tired and these goblins were many. They had the advantage of numbers, so no matter how many of them they killed they’d still be outnumbered.

“Ivan! I will come for you! Just don’t die!” Adam called out to his friend who was now being tied up by the stubby creatures.

“I don’t want to be cooked your grace!” Ivan yelled in frustration mixed with fear, “I’m too beautiful to be eaten by these horrid creatures!”

*

Meanwhile back in the tent, Ella had heard Ivan screaming for help. She cursed inwardly and got up, making her way to the exit of the tent and peeked out. She couldn’t just sit there while Adam’s men were fighting for their lives, she had to do something. These men had rescued her from a sham of a marriage, risked their lives and betrayed their kingdom for her. She needed to return the favor.

The blue eyed woman turned around and grabbed the bag where she kept her belongings, and from it she pulled out a dagger. She gripped it tightly and started making her way towards the exit when a rasping sound from behind caught her attention.

“Aaah another delicious soft one,” the voice rasped and slurped up saliva, “and this one is a woman, the breast and buttocks are goblins favorite, so soft and juicy.”

Ella turned around and her eyes went round. A goblin had dug its way into the tent and was now preparing to jump at her, its sharp nails in full display and its dark tongue licking its blistered and cracked lips.

Adam’s head quickly whipped towards the direction of his tent when he heard Ella grunt. He saw her crushing out of the tent with a goblin on top of her. “Ella!”

The redhead kicked the creature away and got to her feet, pointing the dagger at the many goblins who were now surrounding her. “Stay back!”

“Grab the soft redheaded one!”

The goblins lunged at the woman but she managed to jump back and sliced three of them across their torsos with her dagger. Thank goodness she had gotten rid of that horried dress.

Ella’s ears perked up when she heard a movement behind her, she jumped to the side and round kicked the goblin who had tried to sneak up on her, sending it crushing into its friends that scattered on impact like bowling pins.

She pointed the dagger at the other goblins who were now approaching her cautiously after seeing what she had done to the others. Clearly this was no ordinary female.