Several hours later, I hung onto a stalactite hanging several meters from the floor of a massive cavern talking to myself, "Yup, I'm dead." My arms were starting to tremble from holding myself up for so long, my back hissing in pain from my wounds, my stomach growled, eating itself since I hadn't eaten since I'd entered MSE. My face was impassive, yet if you were to look closely at my eyes you could see a frenzied panic.
To really understand just how FREAKING STUPID I'd been, I'll have to go back and tell you about the last several hours. I left the cave's entrance in great spirit, walking briskly into its depths while marveling at the environment. The moss like plant glowed eternally on the walls, as massive tree roots at least 15 feet thick intersected the cave. Pools of water were interspersed throughout the cave, condensation sticking to the walls. If I had to guess, the cave entrance catches tons of water when it rains, which then carved out a stream that helps to feed the roots of these giant trees. When the rain stops for a few days, the stream turns into ponds, probably eventually drying up. It must've rained fairly recently.
I was so caught up in investigating the roots, fascinated by their sheer size that I didn't even notice the attack until I had an arrow made out of shale stuck in my back. Screaming in pain, I ripped it loose while diving behind a root for cover. The sound of several shale arrows shattering on the rocks, followed by a trilling war cry made my skin crawl. Pulling my staff from it's place on my back, I winced in pain. The wound from the arrow would pull every time I moved my arms, I knew this was going to be a bitch of a fight right then.
Listening to the sounds of swift footsteps, I waited until they were close enough the archers couldn't fire to jump from behind the roots attacking with my staff. Imagine my surprise when I was met with nearly 20 goblins gnashing their frighteningly sharp teeth. They were completely naked, not even carrying weapons, and to my surprise the 5 archers in the back kept firing despite the risk of friendly fire. Guess they didn't care too much about the grunts.
Swinging my staff, I just barely managed to fend off the goblins while somehow managing to not get hit by the arrows. Honestly, they would've been better off with fewer of the grunts, they weren't very strong but made great fodder for the arrows. That didn't help me though when I'd finally managed to survive long enough that only for another group of goblins even bigger from the last one rushed at me. Grabbing a dead goblin with one hand, I used it as a shield as I ran away. This strategy worked perfectly, until I realized that the 'Dead' goblin really wasn't, and he took a chunk out of my ear. With a scream of rage I threw it at the group following me, knocking several of them over and resulting in a colossal traffic jam behind me.
Running towards the entrance of the cave system, but it was already too late. The goblins were actually coming from a shaft that I'd inadvertently passed on my way into the tunnels. However, I didn't realize that until I ran into a group of nearly 100 of the buggers. Turning back around, I ran back the way I'd come, jumping over a bunch of them who were still trying to get back up after I'd thrown a strike in 15 goblin bowling. I think if it wasn't for the surprise factor, the archers would've killed me before I could hit the ground. Thankfully, it took them a moment to fire as they weren't expecting me to turn back around. By then, I was rolling behind a tree root and continuing to run away while playing peekaboo hiding behind the massive roots that ran through the tunnel every 50 feet or so.
Small groups of goblins would catch up with me, 5-10 at a time, while the arrows continued to rain down on me. Fighting them off quickly, I'd keep on running. This happened at least 5 times before the arrows stopped coming. Apparently, they'd run out of arrows so instead the archers had taken out daggers and were attacking in formations. Meanwhile, the occasional goblin that was nearly as big as me covered in heavy armor would charge at me. Quite frankly, the only reason I'm still alive is that the heavy armor slowed down the big guys, while the archers without their arrows were easy for me to kill.
Turn after turn; fight after fight I ran The more tired I became, the louder the goblin's war cries echoed. Finally, I came to a dead end. A cliff over looked a massive cavern several hundred feet tall and at least a thousand feet wide had been carved out of the mountain. Looking down into it, I saw several stone buildings that must've been abandoned for decades. Turning back, I saw the goblins running at me red in their eyes. There was no way I could go back, I couldn't survive the drop if I jumped. So I did the only thing I could do, holstering my staff, I jumped to a massive stalactite hanging from the ceiling. Wrapping my arms and legs around it, I slid on the slippery surface for a bit before I just barely managed to hang on.
Seeing me make the jump, one of the bigger ones covered in heavy armor tried to jump too. Thankfully, he landed lower on the stalactite than I did and slid all the way off of it slamming into the ground in a massive crash.
At this point, I thought that things couldn't get any worse, but apparently the buildings weren't abandoned. Instead, a different tribe of rival goblins had taken over the ancient town and when they heard the war cries of the goblins chasing me, combined with the massive crash of the heavy armored goblin falling into their town, they thought it was a declaration of war.
So now, I find myself covered in minor injuries, starving, exhausted, and hanging from a slippery rock several hundred feet above a battle straight out of the Lord of the Rings. All I'm missing is the one ring, and the Uruk Hai...
"Yup, I'm dead..."
Yet, I couldn't just give up. So, I shimmied around the stalactite so that I'd be nearly invisible from the cliff I'd jumped off of and hung on for dear life.
Shrilling war cries echoed through the cavern, and the fighting grew more and more intense. I must've stayed there, panting with my arms trembling from exertion for nearly twenty minutes before I heard the chanting. A garbled, ancient voice was coming from the cliff I'd jumped off of. Peeking out, I saw that all the goblins that'd been following me had disappeared, replaced by an ancient looking one holding up a staff that crackled with lightning. As his chant grew in volume, a massive bolt of lightning shot towards the stone houses. Before it could hit however, another ancient voice spoke and a barrier of Air covered the entire town, blocking the lightning and dissipating it.
This was my chance! The old goblin looked exhausted, and had to hold himself up forcibly using the staff as a cane. He was focused completely on the battle going on below, so when I slowly moved around to the other side of the stalactite he didn't notice me. Seeing him focus completely on sending out another spell, I decided to wait for him to completely exhaust himself. Another bolt of lightning even stronger than the first rippled through the air, breaking through the shield with a booming thunder. The fight below ceased as goblins on both sides were electrocuted, either fainting or outright dying.
My time had come, jumping from the stalactite just barely managing to make it back onto the platform my exhausted body running on fumes. The exhausted goblin shaman stared at me with wide eyes as my staff slammed into a shield that automatically covered him over and over again. Finally, a necklace of bones around his neck shattered, and he slumped the floor dead after a final strike to his head. Breathing heavily, I holstered my staff before grabbing the goblin shaman's magic staff and searching his body. Finding an ancient looking book, I took it and ran before anyone or anything else could attack me.
The noise of battle must've attracted the predators of the tunnels, because before I could run more than a hundred feet I ran into a giant mole-like creature chowing down on one of the goblin archers I'd managed to kill in my escape. Putting the book down carefully, I took up the shaman's staff approached silently. Swinging the staff, I slammed it into the mole's head before it even knew I was there. I nearly dropped the staff in shock when it buzzed with electricity, and the mole's entire head just disappeared in a *CRACK*
Without the time to marvel over the weapon's strength, I ran back to where I'd put down the book. After spending a minute to hide it in my clothes, I came back to grab the archer's knife and the mole's corpse before booking it back the cave entrance I'd first entered.
About an hour later, I'd finally managed to lose all pursuit from animal or goblin and reached the entrance I'd originally came in. Not without several wrong turns of course, but thankfully the corpses of dead goblins made an excellent trail to follow. I really wanted to just collapse and sleep again, but with the reminder of what happened to the wolf carcass the last time around I couldn't. Instead, I approached one of the thinner roots and tried to cut it with the knife.
*Snap* The rusty old knife snapped in half and I lost it in rage. I could see the sun again, and it had to have been more than 24 hours since I last ate. I'd gone from being a normal high school student who'd never fought anything tougher than a 4th grade bully to fighting a pack of wolves, and running from goblins for hours through an unfamiliar tunnel system. I just couldn't hold it in any longer. With a primal scream of rage, I ignored the pain as I slammed my fists into the root again and again and again. Amazingly, it actually managed to crack the exterior of the massive root, as my now supernaturally enhanced body slammed into it. Finally, in a last act of rage I slammed the stolen staff crackling with electricity into the root. A flash of lightning, and the root actually cracked nearly in half while a sizzling energy came from it.
In front of my amazed eyes, I saw a small fire grow on the root. Finally back in control of myself, I ignored my broken knuckles as I grabbed the half-broken rusty knife and used it to viciously skin the mole. Thankfully, I was a born and bred Coloradan, following my dad to hunt for deer every year. Occasionally more than one, but we don't talk about that where the game warden might find out. So, I had plenty of experience skinning dead animals, removing their organs, and letting the blood drain out. Also, since I'd evaporated its head, then carried it upside down while running for over an hour the blood had long since drained from the beast.
*Munch Munch Munch* Never before had I had such a DISGUSTING meal in my life! Without salt or hot sauce, the meat is incredibly gamey and tough while tasting like sewage. Not that I've ever tasted sewage but I imagine it tastes just like this! Honestly, if I wasn't so damned hungry I probably would've puked it out as soon as I ate it. Instead, I found myself cracking open the bones and sucking it's marrow out before I realized that I'd eaten the entire 80 lb creature leaving only the organs' behind... and not even all of them.
Burping, I walked away from the dying embers of the fire I'd started on the tree root, and towards the entrance to the cave. Sitting down, I started to meditate and train again. I needed to get stronger. I would've been dead long ago without the extra strength, stamina, and toughness the minimal amount of training had already given me. I just hoped that I wouldn't get tetanus from the rusted metal knives... or rabies from the damned goblins!