DD1 ASC - Chapter 17 - Actions

They watched the monster tear its way through the goblin's camp in silence. The spidersnake, enhanced by the same magic that had allowed Arilla to stand toe to toe with an ogre, turned the unholy abomination that was the fusion of spider and snake into an unstoppable force of destruction that would haunt her nightmares for some time. When it collapsed and began seizing, she had to look away. The unpleasant memories it dredged up all too recent for her to bear. The final detonation itself was something of a relief, sending out a wave of chitinous shrapnel that did as much damage again to the goblin ranks as the creatures initial rampage. Still, as prepared for it as she was, she couldn't hold her tongue, breaking the silence that had lingered between the two of them with her emotive words that were almost drowned out by the surreal sounds of goblins crying out in pain.

“You are never casting that spell on me ever again,” Arilla said, her conviction rising as she looked on at the violent scene before her with mounting horror.

“Why not? It’s a good spell, one of the few enhancements that I can cast with a decent mana efficiency.” Typh said, her brow twisted into a small frown at the thought.

“It fucking exploded Typh!” Arilla yelled, uncaring if her voice travelled from their warded little den. Although, the screams and moans of injured goblins that filled the air drastically reduced the possibility of them being overheard.

“That was never going to happen to you, probably. Besides, now I have a much better idea how much mana your body can take.” She said, sounding upbeat.

“That's not half as reassuring as you think it is,” Arilla said, frowning herself as she watched the uninjured goblins turn on the wounded. Excited smiles on their wide faces as they savagely cut, stabbed and pummeled their kin to death.

“You don’t understand. All spells cast on a person can theoretically make them explode if you push enough mana into them. Even healing magic can be dangerous if it saturates your body beyond its limits.” Typh explained sagely, the macabre display of brutal violence that they were both witnessing, seeming to do nothing to upset the stomach of the small mage.

“That’s still not particularly comforting. How about we hold off on enhancement spells for a little while?” Arilla said, more than keen to avoid replicating her unpleasant experience with manaburn.

“Sure, if you want to take on all the survivors by yourself without a single spell empowering your movements, then that's fine with me.” Typh teased.

“You want me to kill them by myself?” Arilla asked, her surprise fueling her anxiety at the thought of wading into the goblin camp alone, even if their numbers were greatly reduced. Still, even as she verbalised her response she could feel her warrior class hungrily growl in anticipation of the experience that she would reap from such a foolhardy action.

“I don’t need the level.” Typh said flatly, and she was right; the mage had either hit 5 by ‘assisting’ the spidersnake with its kills or perhaps for killing the aberrant monster herself by pushing enough mana into its body to make it explode. “Don’t worry, I won’t be leaving you behind; I’m capped until I choose my rank up.”

“You don’t have to wait for me, you know.”

“It’s fine, besides I would be a fool to rush my rank up decision. A little missed experience here is nothing in the grand scheme of things.” She said, smiling sweetly at her, as if she was discussing the weather rather than a vicious life or death battle.

"I do feel a little bad for them," Arilla said, her concern marring her features as she felt her face naturally morph into a frown.

"Don't. They're vicious little creatures, you know what they do to captives," Typh said, clearly having no trouble denying her empathy to the goblins.

"Still, I kinda thought the spidersnake would do more damage, it had a much higher level, and that was before you buffed its stats like you did," Arilla said.

"True but levels aren't everything; the goblins had numbers and gear on their side. If we had chosen a creature better suited for a brawl, then maybe it would be a different story. But then again, that was never the point now was it?" Typh said as she once again checked the straps on Arilla's armour. "Are you ready?”

"Yeah, although I should hurry. I think we might have been spotted. That goblin over there is limping away." She said, pointing out the one injured goblin making a quiet exit whilst the remainder celebrated their hard won ‘victory’.

"Okay, go get them, warrior, don't let them surround you, and you'll be fine. I'll be your overwatch in case you need any support." Typh said, a smile on her face as she weaved what was presumably a protective spell into the metal links of Arilla's armour. Before taking the time to lean up on her tiptoes in order to kiss her affectionately on the cheek.

Arilla smiled back at her, trying to ignore how her skin tingled from the brief contact while her heart began racing, and not just from the anticipation of the upcoming battle. She picked up her heavy hammer from the forest floor, dusting off a few leaves as she marched off alone into the goblin’s nest. She didn't even make an attempt at a stealthy approach. The goblins were so thoroughly distracted with celebrating their victory as they hummed a surprisingly elaborate tune into the forest, that they all completely missed the unmistakable sounds of an adult human jogging towards them in jangling mail.

Almost two dozen goblins were spread out in a loose cluster around the shredded corpses of their kin and the splattered remains of the spidersnake. The explosion had preferentially killed the melee fighters within the tribe, with most of the archers and other ranged combatants emerging relatively unharmed. A group of a dozen archers were slowly working their way through the masses of dead goblins as they searched the gore covered ground for flint arrowheads to salvage as they began the long effort of refilling their now empty quivers.

Miraculously Arilla hustled up to the group undetected, and with a single well-aimed strike infused with [Heavy Blow], she dashed a goblins brains out along the grass. The steel head of her warhammer proving its deadly efficacy as it vastly outperformed the stout stick she had used on her last goblin hunt. She took another step and swung again, killing a second goblin nearby, quickly moving on to a third before they even had the wherewithal to turn and face her.

Cries of warbling panic rang out, taking a moment to disrupt the victorious hum allowing Arilla to finish off two more of their number before the rest of the camp responded. The seven remaining goblin archers backpedalled, trying to get enough distance to use their bows rather than draw the flint knives they had sheathed at their waists. It was a mistake that they would never get the opportunity to learn from, as the young warrior advanced on them swiftly. Her heavy armour not slowing her down as her [Warriors Strength] not only eased the oppressive weight but also strengthened her blows further. She had been fed on a steady diet of rich monster meat since she had first met Typh, and while there still was a long way to go on fixing her underfed body, the mana infused meat had already given her a marked improvement to her muscle definition.

With her much longer legs, she easily outpaced the goblins as they fled from her. The smaller creatures fleeing from her hammer as she waded through their disorganised ranks, smashing skulls and crushing chests with every one of her long steps. Her heavy armour and Typh's potent spells shielded her from harm as the goblins’ flint weapons snapped and chipped ineffectually whenever the small monsters stood their ground for long enough to stab at her with all of their limited strength. Killing them in this way was disconcertingly easy, the differences between their relative statures and equipment more than making up for the level and numbers gap. Occasionally a goblin would slip through her defences, a knife blade headed for her unprotected ankles or neck, only for a flash of golden light to splatter the offending goblin over several feet as Typh sniped them from afar.

Arilla smiled despite herself, panting for breath as another goblin charged her, manic glee in its overly large eyes moments before her hammer met its face. The force of her [Heavy Blow] hitting it at an angle, and shearing its grinning face from its skull. The goblin fell to the ground, its claws still reaching for her as she stomped twice on the exposed bone of its head. Finally ending the creature's struggles with a crunch as her booted heel shattered through the front of its skull.

Another screaming goblin leapt at her with flint knives in both of its hands, and as she swatted it from the sky, caving its narrow chest inwards with a solid blow from her hammer. She stumbled, belatedly realising that her boot had gotten snagged inside the skull of the dead goblin without a face. Before she could free herself, from the corner of her eye she saw the steel blade of a boar spear stabbing towards her. Arilla twisted on her stuck ankle, the joint screaming out in agony as she forced herself to fall to evade the blow. She hit the ground hard, her mail dragging her down into the dirt as she felt her ankle snap under their combined weight. She looked up to see a well-muscled goblin towering over her. 4 feet of green skinned anger and spite directed entirely at her, its long spear held in two clawed hands high above its head as it brought its weapon down towards her heart in a killing blow.

She closed her eyes as she waited for Typh to save her, the golden light never coming as the spear descended. Her fear heightening her perception as time slowed to a crawl, the blade's point moving down through the air as if it were travelling through molasses. She thought about her life so far, of the stories that would never be told if she met her ignoble end here as just another failed adventurer destined for a goblins cookpot.

With reflexes she didn't know she had, Arilla released her grip on her heavy hammer, twisting her body as Creation finally sped up to normal. As the goblin stabbed down, she punched the flat of the spear blade, [Heavy Blow] pulsing in her chest as the fast-moving metal rebounded off of her clenched fist, skinning her knuckles and plunging the long blade deep into the soil between her arm and her chest.

The goblin looked down at her in surprise, planting its feet firmly on either side of her chest as it tried to retrieve its spear from the clinging earth. Arilla rolled to the left, using her superior weight to pull the goblin down to the ground, where it clawed and spat against her chest. Its sharp claws failing to pierce her mail shirt as she clenched her fist and hammered the creature in the face, each punch reinforced with [Heavy Blow].

Her knuckles bled and cracked as the goblins needlelike teeth flew. Her hammer forgotten as she rose to her knees above the creature, smashing her fists into its face over and over again. In that moment, something dark from deep within her bubbled to the surface as she relished the feeling of superiority that she had over the goblin. Its feeble struggles failing to elicit even a shred of sympathy from her as she vented a lifetime of pains, frustrations and disappointments on the little monster. She didn't stop until long after it was dead. By then its head was a messy ruin of fragmented bone and torn flesh, the pain in her hands preventing her from carrying on.

"That looked cathartic," Typh said, having moved to stand beside her whilst she was otherwise distracted.

"I think I broke my ankle," Arilla said, slowly standing up with Typh's aid. The taller woman leaning precipitously on the shorter. "And maybe my hand too." She added with a wince.

"It looks like it," Typh said hesitantly, her eyes looking her up and down appraisingly. "Make sure to invest a little in vitality; it will help with the healing. And you really need a passive defensive skill."

"Okay, why are you telling me this?" Arilla asked.

"Arilla, look around you," Typh said.

She did. All around her were dead goblins, their corpses in various states of mutilation, either from Typh's manabolts or her own hammer. The largest building located slightly off from the centre of the compound burned, its roaring flames rising high into the air, bathing them both in heat and orange light.

"I levelled didn't I?" She asked.

"Of course, maybe we went a little overboard, but there's more than enough experience in the air to push you up to 5," Typh said.

"Any of them get away?" She asked.

"A few," Typh said with a shrug. "That one with the limp and maybe a handful of the others, but not enough for us to be concerned with."

"Okay. Can we go home now?" Arilla said, stifling a yawn, feeling as tired as she sounded.

"Yes, I think we've done enough," Typh said. "Oh, and Arilla, congratulations on clay rank."

"Thanks, congrats to you too. Uhm Typh, why is that building on fire?" She asked, resting her head on the mage’s shoulder, an impressive feat given their significant differences in height.

"No reason." She answered. From the way she avoided meeting her gaze, Arilla knew that it was another lie.

"Typh, you promised me no more lies," Arilla said, chastising her.

"I know, but allow me this one. You've been through enough today." Typh said softly, holding her close as together they limped away from blood-soaked clearing as the flames slowly spread to consume the rest of the goblin settlement.