We Fight

Penny

We walked up next to her, Alice on my left, and the mystery woman on my right. She looked at me in surprise, astonished to see that we'd come back.

"What are you doing? The goblins are almost here!" She said, very confused.

"We're not going to let you fight them alone. You deserve better than that."

She was still utterly flabbergasted, but now her shock was tinged with gratefulness. She looked at me, a warm smile lighting up her face "Thank you for coming back." We waited at the center of the cave, hearing the goblins get closer and closer. Their smell was almost overpowering, and I could hear their chittering tongue, almost like nails on a chalkboard. My palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy. I was nervous of the approaching battle, my third real fight in two days. But I could almost feel the anticipation in my two allies. Unlike me, they wanted this. They wanted to fight and kill the goblins. Mystery woman picked up a javelin, and got ready to throw it, while Alice ignited her sword.

The first goblin walked in looking exhausted, and didn't even notice us at first. He glanced at the firepit behind us before looking away, and then snapped his head to gawk at us. He screamed out a warning and took a javelin through the skull for that. His body flew backward before the javelin tip hooked into the ground. Then the rest of the goblin army arrived. There were only twenty of them, looking weakened and wounded, but I guess our state of undress and lack of numbers gave them confidence. They slowly began to advance, and my allies met them head on with a roar, Alice skewered two on her blade, while our captor smashed into them with her twin axes, a whirlwind of ****. She spun around, slashing through spears and splintering shields. I charged in behind Alice, stabbing one that tried to sneak up on her, before sidestepping a bola thrown at my throat. The bola thrower drew his dirk and rushed me, slashing wildly as I retreated. I parried an overhead slash, pushed his blade down, and punched him in the face. He staggered backwards, clutching his nose, and I got a good look at him.

He was bigger than the others, standing around 5'6, an inch taller than me. Muscles bulged in his arms, and battle scars marked his torso. Gold jewelry adorned his body, with bicep rings, bracelets and a long gold chain. Three gaudy rings were on his right hand, red, blue, and orange jewels shimmering despite the dim light. He was by far the biggest goblin I'd seen, and I gulped nervously as he tossed aside his knife and drew a wicked looking bastard sword from his back. The jagged blade was around three and half feet in length, and he swished it around confidently before stalking towards me. He held his sword above his head with both arms, blade pointing towards me as he approached.

Of course I have to fight the boss.

He dashed forward, a horizontal sweep threating to bisect me, but I backstepped and dodged it. He moved forward, swinging again and I was soon backpedaling for my life, completely on the run. I backed into a wall, and panic shot through me as he slashed straight at my throat. I ducked, feeling the blade slice some of my hair off as it carved a line through the stone where my neck was a moment ago. I headbutted his stomach, feeling like I had just run into a wall as my head crashed into his rock hard abs. I ran out through the gap between him and the wall before getting into a dueling stance, sword held diagonally in front of me with both hands. He swaggered towards me, confident that the terrified girl before him wasn't a threat, and stretched his arms out wide, goading me to attack. I lunged, stabbing straight at his heart, but he was faster. He sidestepped my thrust and grabbed my wrist. My sword clattered to the ground as he squeezed my wrist, and bent my arm behind my back. He shoved me and I faceplanted onto the rock floor. I could hear the goblin laugh behind me as I crawled pathetically away from him. Then I saw it. The dirk he dropped earlier was right in front of me. I could sense him walking towards me and I quickly grabbed the knife and hid it with my body. He stepped closer, his shadow covering my frame, and flipped me onto my back. His sword was pointed straight down at me, and he was about to stab me through the stomach.

"Take this!" I slid under his feet and slashed both his ankles, severing his Achilles tendons, and tearing apart his ability to walk. He collapsed to his knees, and I stood up before walking behind him to yank his head back.

"Fuck. You." I said, and ripped open his throat with the knife. He fell forward, blood spraying onto the ground from his carotid artery as he died. I looked around, and realized that the battle was just about over. Alice stabbed the last goblin, breaking her sword as she tore it out of his chest. She tossed it away in frustration before looking at me and smiling with joy. Our captor exploded out of a pile of dead goblins, utterly drenched in blood. Corpses were scattered all over the cave, and it looked like we had won. But I didn't feel a sense of victory. I was just so tired. Tired of running, tired of fighting for my life. I'd killed so many people-

Were goblins even people?

-And I was just exhausted. And starving. And thirsty. I looked around, and realized something. Alice and the other had killed eighteen enemies in the time it took me to dispatch one. Gods I was weak.

No, no, no. You killed the strongest goblin, he's worth at least ten of them. They killed the weak, pitiful goblins while you fought the boss.

My inner monologue was a hell of a lot more self-appreciative than I was, and I felt a little better after thinking about it for a bit. I startled as someone grabbed me, and twisted out of their arms. "Fuck, I thought I killed the bastard" I thought as I whirled with my knife held before me. But in front of me was Alice?

"Woah, Penny, it's me. Calm down." She reassured me, pushing my blade down. I stood there, heaving for breath and she slowly embraced me again. "It's okay baby, we won. Take deep breaths, it's just your amazing, sexy girlfriend hugging you." I slowly felt myself calm down as the adrenaline left my body and she pulled back a bit to look at my face. She planted a light kiss on my mouth, her soft lips just grazing mine as I stared into her alluring eyes. She really was my amazing and sexy girlfriend, and the things I was going-

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! THAT WAS AMAZING!!" Our naked, blood-soaked berserker, captor-turned-ally screamed, howling maniacally as she looked at us wild-eyed. Alice let me go, and I grabbed her hand, not willing to let go of her yet. Our ally walked over to us and stuck out a blood-stained hand. I looked down at it with distaste and she chuckled before wiping it on a dead goblin's rags before offering her hand again.

"My name's Yasmina Lyrkos, from the town of Pyrtroke. But you can call me Yas. Thanks for helping me fight those goblins!" She said brightly, filled with joy at her newfound freedom. I shook her hand, kind of afraid, but also weirdly turned on.

Her smile is so pretty...

"Well, I'm going to head home now, hopefully we cross paths again." She said, walking over to a bucket of water and cleaning herself off.

"Penny, the town of Pyrtroke was razed a few months ago." Alice whispered to me, "We have to tell her!"

"You tell her! She's scary!" I whispered back.

"Pussy."

"At least I'll be alive." I retorted. Alice rolled her eyes before walking towards Yas. She dragged me behind her as I dug in my heels, but she was stronger and easily pulled me towards the scary lady.

"Hey, Yas-"

"Oh, I can't wait to see my husband again, all my friends, and have everything go back to normal." She said dreamily, washing off the blood with a towel. "You know, Relan, that's my husband by the way. He wanted to go to the beach by the capital. I can finally see the ocean with him! Oh, and we were trying for kids and well, I hope I can still bear normal children!" She started talking about her dreams, everything she was going to do now that she was free. And I felt horrible. I was going to break her heart. But it's better to know the truth right?

"Hey, Yas?" I placed a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at me, beaming from excitement. I hesitated, and **** out, "Pyrtroke-

Got razed a few months ago and everyone's dead. Including your husband.

-is on the way to the capital. Do you want to come with us?" I couldn't do it. I couldn't shatter her hopes and dreams.

"Of course! The more the merrier!" She started humming a catchy tune to herself as she washed, and I dragged Alice away.

"What was that Penny? Why didn't you tell the truth?" She whispered furiously.

"Do you want to break her heart? Look at how happy she is! She's spent the last year being enslaved and bred, let her have this until we reach the ruins." I whispered back, and Alice sighed before rubbing her forehead.

"Alright, let's go loot."