Chapter 44 - Standoff

"Jacob, no!" Titus shouted as the goblin took a defensive stance, swiftly drawing his knife and dropping the severed hand from his mouth to the ground. It was like everything had happened in an instant, and Titus didn't know if the goblin seemed so much faster than he'd expected because it was simply that much faster than Jacob thanks to its level and Jacob being entirely unawakened.

Petra was the first to move, doing her best to reach Jacob and the goblin before anything happened, with Titus and Jordan slightly behind. Of course, Jordan was the slowest – and loudest of the group.

But it was no use. Jacob reached the goblin in a second with his battleaxe raised high over his head, though in truth Jacob wasn't much taller than the goblin as it was.

Titus watched as the goblin's knife glinted in the dim light as the creature brought it around to bear, and his heart sank as the realisation that he could very much be watching little Jacob's last moments unfold before him dawned on him.

But then something happened that he hadn't been expecting. Jacob lowered his battleaxe at the last moment and as the goblin slashed menacingly, the blade hit the shaft of the axe with a loud thud.

And then as though to emphasise his point, Jacob struck out with the solid handle of the axe and cracked the goblin straight in the jaw. The creature fell backwards, both taken off guard by the attack and because of the apparent sheer weight of the weapon.

But Jacob wasn't done; he stepped forward to press his advantage before his foe could regain its footing. The goblin had been thrown back onto the ground and had been scrambling to pick up its blade, though had trouble doing so because it was partly lying on the weapon.

Jacob didn't hesitate. He swung the battleaxe up into a high arc and crashed it down onto the goblin's head. Red blood sprayed up from where the blade had hit, though to the amazement of everyone present – not least the goblin – the sharpened head of the axe did not cut straight through, rather it chopped in about a half-inch and stopped, like it had been sunk into very dense hardwood.

Jacob froze. Titus, Jordan, and Petra all froze. The goblin looked up at the axe that was soundly embedded in his head. And then the creature smiled.

"Unawakened," the goblin practically hissed. Its voice was strained, though it was clear that it knew the common tongue.

"Get away from it!" Petra shouted as she finally regained her senses and came to a halt next to Jacob, brandishing her stiletto dangerously.

"You can't hurt me," the creature said, seeming to ignore Petra to speak directly to Jacob. "But I can hurt you."

"Yeah?" Jordan asked as he flanked Jacob on his left now. "You and what army?"

This time the goblin cocked its head to gaze at Jordan, who was now clearly presenting the largest threat.

"Funny you ask," the goblin rasped, and as he said those words, he grinned to show his needle-thin, pointed black teeth.

And then from the darkness, five more goblins stalked out to join their kin. Titus quickly analysed them to discover they were all of the same level as the first, and as he did so, the battleaxe clattered to the ground, ejected from the goblin's head.

But that meant that this was now a six-on-four in favour of the goblin, and Jacob was no Contestant. In fact, now he wasn't even armed.

"I… I didn't know they'd be so much stronger," Jacob stammered.

"It's OK," Petra said, ushering Jacob behind the three Blue-Rankers. "This is why we're here. Just stay back and we'll sort this out."

Titus couldn't help but think that Jacob had just been told exactly what Petra and Jordan had told him when they went out into the Arena – to stay out of the way. But now he could see that he had no choice. He would have to fight, because six on two just didn't work.

"Same plan as always," Jordan growled as the goblins started stalking forward, their knees overbent so they remained low to the ground and each of them holding a disastrously poor blade. It seemed that the goblins had grouped up into two groups of three, with an equal amount bearing down on each of Jordan and Petra and nobody caring much about Titus or Jacob.

Of course, Jordan wasn't going to have any of that. He raised his wooden shield and steel sword, and clashed them together once to cast his first and only ability: Taunt.

The goblins all appeared to pause for a moment, and then, like lambs being herded into an open gate, they shifted to all start moving toward the large Defender. Jordan gritted his teeth.

It was like for a moment the goblins had all been overtaken by some blind red rage because without tactics or forethought, they all descended on Jordan, swinging their swords wildly.

Jordan, not being affected in any kind of similar way, simply raised his shield to take the first few blows with loud thuds. It was simply pure luck that the goblins didn't seem to be able to figure out that if they had surrounded the armoured man, then they would have been able to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.

Where Jordan was now too preoccupied with defending himself to raise his sword in response, Petra was not, and she didn't wait to make her first move.

The Rogue darted forward and as wide as she could around the goblins to box them in between her and Jordan's shield. Thankfully, she knew she had a few seconds to act before any of the monsters would turn their attention away from Jordan's taunt, so she did the only thing she could think of in that moment. She moved quickly between each of the monsters, pricking or slashing them each with her Stiletto of Minor Poisoning. It wouldn't have caused more than a point or two of damage to each as she made her tiny attacks, but she knew that if she inflicted the poison debuff on each and every one of them, then they would each lose one HP every five seconds. And that meant that if nothing happened in the next two minutes, then all of the goblins would fall down dead – that was, of course, unless any of them had an antidote or some other way to nullify the effects of the Rogue's poison.

And just like that, Petra had created a battle of attrition from a position of underwhelming odds. And one that she and her friends would win if they kept their wits about them.

Titus could only watch. He didn't have a weapon to bring with him, and as usual, he had been told to stay out of the fight. But he knew that he had to do something. Seeing Jordan using only his shield, he called out to the large Defender.

"Jordan! Throw me your sword!" Titus shouted.

Jordan definitely heard him but did nothing to indicate he was going to obey Titus' demand. He could be forgiven though, having to still deal with the goblin onslaught reigning down on his shield.

"I can help!" Titus shouted. "Just give me your sword if you aren't using it, there's too many of them!"

"Do it, Jordan," Petra shouted back. "He may as well do something!"

It was clearly a bit of sarcasm and not an actual insult, but Titus couldn't help but feel a little hurt by Petra's words. Hurt, yes, but determined even so.

Jordan then seemingly decided that it probably was for the best and threw his sword onto the ground behind him for Titus to collect, which he did in short order.

The new problem was now that the taunt spell had worn off, and although the goblins still seemed to all be attacking Jordan – or trying to – they were no longer bunched up and would soon encircle him completely. Without his shield between him and the goblins, Jordan would be mincemeat.

That was when both Petra and Titus showed their worth in the fight. Petra because she was still moving around quickly behind the goblins – only one of which had now turned its attention away from Jordan to try to deal with the lesser threat – well, supposedly lesser, given that she was actually the only one doing any damage in the fight. Titus launched himself into the fight. He picked the rightmost of the goblins, the one that was most likely to lead that pack around to flank Jordan, and he struck out with his new sword.

Titus could only thank the God of Balance that he'd been working with a sword for a while now because his first slash came down from above the goblin who hadn't seen the attack coming, and it severed the creature's arm entirely with a loud shlup.

The goblin looked to the place where his missing arm should've been, paled, and then screamed a terrifying pained scream. What followed was nothing short of comical as the creature began running around in tight circles, all the while screaming at the top of his voice.

Titus didn't waste a moment, stepping into the place where the goblin had been to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jordan.

Jordan said nothing, clearly still occupied with keeping the goblins busy, though Titus saw more than a few cuts and grazes making it through his defences, and his friend's HP was slowly falling. Not fast enough for him to worry yet, but it was certainly something to watch.

Conversely, Petra had yet to lose a single point of health. She had drawn a single goblin away from the pack, and where she had already poisoned them all and had hit this one with her stiletto on more than a few occasions, it didn't have long left to live.

That meant that in front of Jordan and Titus, there were four of the six goblins left, all of which were slowly dying, even if they didn't get hit at all.

But then as Titus spared a glance to make sure Petra was OK, he felt a burning, searing pain envelop his left arm. It was like something had jumped up and bitten him.

He looked across to see a jagged line cut into his arm where one of the four goblins had peeled away, leapt at him, and slashed his free arm. Titus could only be relieved that the smaller creatures lacked proper reach; otherwise the blow might've been more devastating. As it was, it had cost him eight health points, which, although quite small, was still a good chunk as he only had fifty to begin with. What was also interesting was the fact that where the slice had met his chainmail, although it had penetrated enough to draw blood and cause damage, Titus knew that his armour had mitigated some of the loss of health points he'd have suffered otherwise.

At least if there was one thing the pain did for Titus, it was focus his mind. When he'd trained in the Pits against the lower-level monsters, they hadn't really been able to hit him properly, and when they did, it barely did any damage. Now though, Titus could finally see how difficult a level three monster was. And one that held a blade, no less.

Titus fought the urge to hold his injured arm, telling himself there would be time to deal with that later because right now, he needed to deal with this enemy.

The goblin who'd landed the strike grinned, and the very image made Titus' skin crawl. At some point during the fight, perhaps as it had been taunted tried to get to Jordan, the creature had bitten its tongue, and its mouth had filled with an almost black blood, staining its jagged little teeth and rotten tongue.

Titus brandished his sword again and stood ready to face the creature.

The goblin lurched forward as if it hadn't even registered the threat, and why should it have? It was two levels Titus' superior, and in a one-on-one fight, surely it had the advantage.

Titus managed to block with his sword as the goblin swiped again, and the sound of steel on steel rang out. But the smaller goblin was clearly lacking in strength because Titus took the impact easily as he parried the blow. But then another came, and another, and Titus assumed now that the little creature had been focusing on its agility rather than its strength.

That point was further clarified when Titus saw that Petra was actually dealing with her goblin quite well, having almost whittled it down to death, and Jordan hadn't managed to damage even a single one of his opponents, their health pools slowly ebbing away thanks to Petra's poison but nothing more.

Titus pushed his blade against the goblin's knife, and for a moment, their gazes locked as they fought to show their superiority. The goblin, though, was unfortunately a little more used to situations like this and with a single swift motion, it let go of the pressure it had exerted on Titus' sword while simultaneously darting out of the way. What happened next was that Titus fell forward, the goblin rolled to the side, and then again, Titus felt the sting of an edged weapon digging into his arm. This time he almost dropped his sword as he howled in pain.

But by through sheer willpower and the desire to live, he managed to stomp down on that desire.

The goblin danced back away from Titus to prevent any kind of counterattack – but in truth, that was the last thing on Titus' mind right now. What concerned him more was the thought that he might not be able to win this fight.

But then as though in answer to his unspoken question, Jordan let out a roar and smashed his goblin attackers back with his shield. All of them hit the floor, and all of them lost a small chunk of their health points, but after a moment, they'd returned to their feet. And then Jordan cast his taunt again, and all of the goblins, including Petra's and Titus' turned swiftly back to try to mindlessly attack the large Defender.

"Now Petra!" Jordan growled through gritted teeth. "Now!"

Petra, although having been told twice, leapt into action. She darted forwards and drove her stiletto into the nearest goblin and before Titus had blinked, she was on the second. Even as these two died, he watched as the goblins did everything they could to cause Jordan harm, and this time it was working; the blows were making it through his defences and his health was dropping.

Titus thought about casting Sacrifice on his friend to mitigate some of the damage, but he didn't know how it would work against a group of enemies, and it wouldn't function over multiple attacks. He knew he had to do something different.

So, Titus went back to basics. He identified the goblin that he had been fighting and charged at it with his sword levelled. The creature managed to turn just in time to look shocked as the sharpened steel blade ran through its stomach, Jordan's taunt having finally worn off again.

Two goblins remained, and now the tide of battle had well and truly turned. It was a trivial matter for the three Contestants to surround the two creatures who looked far less amused with the situation than they had been. In fact, if the monsters had taken this approach when they had outnumbered their foes in the first place, then the battle may have gone differently. But no, the goblins were done for; there were no two ways about it.

The two remaining goblins fell in short order, and Titus and Jordan both bent over at the waist when it was finally all over. They wouldn't have lasted much longer if things had gone differently.

"Hang on, weren't there six?" Petra asked, looking around at the ground. "What about the one Jacob hit with the axe?"

"Jacob!" Jordan and Titus exclaimed at once and as they did so, their eyes fell upon a dark shape in the shadows.

But then the creature took a step forward so they could all see.

And Titus could have cursed.

The goblin that Jacob had first hit, the one with the deep cut in his head from Jacob's axe, was standing there with a wicked grin on its face, holding its terrible knife to Jacob's throat.

The boy could only whimper.