Chapter 38 - Thirty-Eight: A Turn for the Worse

Altria crept up to the corner, waited for two breaths and slipped out with Serin following close behind. She loosed two arrows as she moved. The two guards stood in the corridor fell to the ground loudly, this brought a third along from the doorway that was just a few steps further down. Almost as soon as he had stuck his head around the corner to investigate the noise, Serins sword had passed straight through his throat. The creature collapsed to the floor holding its neck as the last of its life and blood poured on the floor. Altria gave a wave to show that for now, the coast was clear. Lillia and I joined them at the entrance to the nest.

"What's the situation?" Asked Lillia.

"This looks like the main chamber. It sounds like most of them are still asleep inside, at the least they didn't here that."

Altria placed her lamp on the floor and after a quick check of the entrance to the next room for traps silently walked inside for a moment. She was only in there a couple of seconds before coming back to the corridor where we were waiting.

"It looks as if they are asleep as far as I could tell. I made out at least thirty inside. There was something a little weird at the far side of the chamber, I couldn't make it out, but it was too large to be a normal goblin." Altria reported.

"They have a guardian?" Asked Lillia.

"I don't know, it was big, could even be a small cave troll. I couldn't see it clearly."

"Hmm."

"Well what do you want to do? It's either move in now, or head back." Asked Serin.

"We can take them, while we still have the element of surprise. Serin, you and I will go in first. Stay behind me while I hit the room with daze. Altria cover us from the doorway and keep a watch on our back. Once they're dazed, I'll try and bind as many of them as possible. Serin and Theo, I'm afraid it's going to be up to you to take most of them out. Are you up to it?"

"Yes." Replied Serin.

"They're going to be mostly bound, dazed or half asleep, aren't they?"

"Yes." Answered Lillia.

"I'll manage." After hearing the screams coming from the corridor back at the fork, I was ready to kill some of the nasty creatures.

"Good. You watch our backs. We'll go in first." Instructed Lillia.

"Got it."

Then it was time to move. Serin and Lillia entered the chamber, the light from their lamps immediately begun to startle the sleeping goblins. Some of them had already started to rise, but they didn't get far before Lillia hit the entire area with daze. Altria was already busy firing arrows over her shoulder at any of the creatures that had already moved. As soon as daze was in effect Lillia moved on to bind. Roots started shooting up from all over the room and begun entwining their victims. There was sweat beading on Lillia's brow. Using the bind spell to this extent must have been testing her powers to their limit. There was no telling how long she would be able to keep it up. As soon as the roots shot up Altria called me to join the group and we switched being the rear guards.

By the time I joined the fray there were already several bodies lying on the floor about the room. Some were pierced with arrows, while the nearest bodies had been pierced by Serin's blade.

"Come with me, we'll move forward back to back." Serin instructed.

"Okay."

We made our way into the room, right through the middle of the piles of dazed and bound goblins. It almost seemed unfair. All we were doing was skewering the creatures before they had the chance to move. Every now and then one would get to its feet staggering and either Serin or I would cut them down. If they were any distance away from us Altria would bring them down. The entire time we made our way through the room there was the large dark figure that Altria had mentioned. It was in the shadows and even when we'd covered half the distance to it I couldn't make it out.

"What is that thing?" I asked Serin.

"I still can't make it out, my night sight is like yours. We'll find out when it moves, but daze seems to have effected it for now."

We continued slashing and stabbing our way through the mostly incapacitated horde of goblins. We both knew it would be best to get through most of them before that thing moved. We must have murdered half of the disgusting things when the ground shook a little. Then the screeching began, it was sounded as if the very air in the room was being torn apart. The thing that had been stood in the darkness now stepped forward. It looked somehow familiar.

"It's a damned cave ogre!" Yelled Serin.

"Is that bad? An ogre was the first thing I killed."

"There are many types, these are the strongest of their kind. We should fall back to the others."

Luckily for my ears the screeching stopped as the cave ogre stepped forward. Seeing the thing move, Altria let off a flurry of arrows to slow the thing down. They didn't have the desired effect, each arrow bouncing of the creature's thick skin in turn. It was almost as if it was wearing thick metal armour, but it clearly wasn't.

"Tsk… One of these." Complained Altria as she watched the arrows bounce off the monster.

This didn't stop her attack the next arrow hit the thing in the eye socket. This time it didn't bounce out. There was the awful screech once again for a moment as the monster reeled in pain from the injury and its progress towards us was halted for now as it held its eye.

"I think it's time to switch up the strategy Lillia." Advised Serin as we joined the others near the chambers entrance.

Lillia was still deep in concentration keeping the remaining goblins bound, but she managed to respond to Serin, if sounding a little strained.

"What do you suggest?" She asked.

"Drop bind on the goblins, take a mana potion. Then hit the room with daze and try to bind that cave ogre. Altria and I will deal with the Ogre, Theo will cover you and mop up any goblins that make it back here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, less than half the goblins remain, but we can't let that thing get close."

"Okay."

Lillia dropped the bind spell and the roots around the room disintegrated into thin air. The remaining goblins slowly got to their feet as the daze effect was beginning to wear off. Altria shot off arrows taking down one after another and Serin skewered any that came close. Lillia reached into her pouch and pulled out a potion, popped the lid and downed the liquid in one go.

I turned to see what was going on with the creature across the room. The eye where the arrow had hit it was swelling out of the socket, a moment later and the arrow had been pushed from the eye itself. It was only a few seconds before the eye regenerated after that.

"Watch out." I yelled.

The creature had picked up one of the goblin corpses off the ground and had hurled it towards the group. My warning was just in time and everyone scattered avoiding the incoming body. Altria the first to get back to her feet fired off another arrow, targeting the eye again, but the trick wouldn't work twice in a row. This time the ogre picked the arrow out of mid-air.

"Now Lillia." Yelled Serin.

Lillia hit everything in front of her with daze once more. This slowed down the remaining goblins and the cave ogre's approach. She then Immediately switched to bind, and roots shot up at ogre's feet and started climbing up its body. It quickly became apparent that this was only going to slow it down, as the giant beast stepped forward, the roots peeled away from it. Lillia wasn't deterred, she kept going more and more roots shot up at the creature. I could tell just by glancing at her face that this was an even more taxing use of the spell than when she had most of the goblins in the room pinned down.

"Are we doing this Serin?" Asked Altria.

"We are. Come on."

The pair dashed across the room towards the ogre, more roots shooting up its body as they went. As soon as the roots reached its arms, Altria loosed more arrows. Two were on target, hitting each of the creature's eyes and completely blinding it momentarily, but we all knew it would only be so long before it healed. There was another blast of the awful screech as the creature reeled from the attack. The pair continued their approach, splitting when they neared the beast. Altria sped behind it, pulling out a large dagger and slashing at the back of its knees. The beast's skin was thin enough here that she managed to cut into it and the ogre started to topple to the ground.

Serin hadn't been idle while this was going on, she appeared to be prepping for a powerful move and it was if a faint light was started to be given off from her blade. Luckily, the remaining goblins in the room seemed to sense they had no hope of fighting either Altria or Serin. I say luckily, they turned their attentions to me and Lillia. I had to bar their way and cut down one dazed goblin after another as they approached us.

There was a dull thud as the ogre finally hit the ground, on its knees. In a flash Serin dove forward. Her first strike must have penetrated six inches into the thing's skull, but she didn't stop. The next was under the right shoulder, then left shoulder. The centre of its chest, as she pulled her blade from its chest there was a loud tearing noise. One of the ogre's arms had torn free of the binding roots. It swung blisteringly quick and crashed into Serin with full force before she had a chance to react. She was hurled across the room and hit the far wall with a loud crash. Her limp body slid down the wall and landed on the ground.