Zach's face twisted in confusion. He glanced down at the bodies again before the realization of what I was saying dawned on his face. "Yeah, Yeah!" His voice conveyed the worry and alarm he felt as he stooped down to more closely examine the bodies. "You- you're right!"
I could see on his face that the wheels began to turn, as the implications of what that could mean set in. I opened my mouth to say something before a snarl was heard from the doorway behind us. Instantly, Zach leapt to his feet and I turned around, backing up a few meters to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. "We'll talk about this later, when we're not staring death in the face." His response was an enthusiastic nod.
Three goblins stepped out of the dark doorway, wearing the same uniform their fallen comrades were and carrying the same kind of weapons. With a screech of hatred, the middle goblin threw itself at us, his short legs surprisingly agile and fast.
Zach stepped in front of me while shouting "I'll take the attack head on and try to block it, then you stab it in its fucking head, got it!?" There was no time to communicate further.
The goblin launched itself when it was half a meter away straight at Zach's face. His hammer came swinging around in an arc, the wind whistling from the speed. The goblin somehow managed to catch the hammer midair and let it carry him across Zach's body.
With a shaking hand I stabbed forward, hoping to strike a lucky hit. Then I felt a piercing pain in my wrist. The other goblins had joined the fight in a flamboyant way, one stabbing my forearm with its claws while readying the sharp bone knife in its other hand to end me. A fist came hissing out of nowhere, striking my assailant squarely in the eye, a sickening pop followed by a gush of blood following close. Zach had let go of his hammer with one hand. The goblin let go of me in pain, and before he could recover, my knife swung straight into its neck, digging itself halfway in. He died almost immediately.
The third goblin had decided to attack Zach's blindspot, all the way on his right side, his hammer being occupied on the left. Both remaining goblins swung their respective weapons at the same, aiming for a killing blow.
With a roar of frustration Zach swung his hammer to his right side with the goblin still on it, and managed to strike the third one straight next to his forehead, denting its head like a soda can. The first goblin was still fighting however, and tried to swing its weapon for a second time. I lunged forward with my knife, before burying it into the chest of the last goblin. His dying gurgles as he writhed on the floor accompanied our pants of exhaustion.
"Why.... don't we.... get the hell out of here!?" I panted. Zach nodded in agreement, but upon closer inspection I could see that there was a faint hint of a smile there.
We left the corpses as we stumbled back through the dark tunnel towards the main cavern. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked, "Hey, why'd you have a smile on your face when we both just came close to dying?" I decided a direct approach about it would probably get me the best answer.
He slowed down a little while looking sheepish. "Well, ever since I was a kid, I always had this dream of being like, a hero out of a fairytale, you know? I loved those stories about the righteously good and fair heroes who vanquish some great evil while saving people." He paused for a second when we reached the main cavern, before his slow walk came to a stop. "So when I fought with you, and I was able to have your back, and help and save you, I don't know, it just... felt like I was fulfilling some childhood dream." He glanced up at me. "I... hope I didn't make you upset or seem off-putting."
I thought about it for a few seconds before answering him. "Nah, I just..... didn't think anybody could be happy or smile while being a Selected. I mean, it's literally the job that everyone's terrified of, the kind of job that nobody wants."
He shook his head, sadness coming across his face. "No, I'm not happy doing this, cause I know I'm going to have to watch somebody I care about die, someone I can't be a hero for. But that's why I cherish the few moments I do experience that happiness, because there's so few instances of it that it makes it even more special."
I had never thought about it like that. I had never believed that happiness could be associated with any part of what we are or what we do. Zach began trudging up the gravel slope, the small rocks cascading behind him and thumping into my legs. Then I heard the faint sound of meat slapping on stone. And it was growing louder.
"Zach", I whispered quietly. When he kept walking, I hissed. "ZACH! You hear that?"
He stopped moving in alarm, but still began listening closely all the same. The noise was getting louder and louder, and seemed to be coming from a tunnel off to our left. Zach's dark face managed to pale a little. " Sounds like footsteps," he whispered quietly.
Quickly, we slid back down the hill and positioned ourselves in front of the doorway where the noise was coming from. I listened closely, and before I realized what I was doing, I said, "Sounds like eight..... make that ten of them." It wasn't until a few seconds later till I realized that I had no idea how I knew that.
Zachs next words mirrored that thought. "How do you know that?" He asked incredulously. My response was a shake of my head. "I.... don't know. I guess, since they're not running in sync, I could hear the different sets of footsteps running." Zach looked shocked for a moment before the situation, the footsteps suddenly increasing in volume rapidly. We braced ourselves for the wave of goblins to come attack us, and come they did. We both held our respective weapons, and yelled, knowing that the odds were against us.
They came out of the shadows quickly, sprinting right at us. I clenched my knife preparing myself. And all ten goblins ran right past us, throwing themselves up the gravel slope in what looked to be sheer desperation.
We realized their objective. The hole. If they got out, they would wreak havoc in the small town above, slaughtering people without mercy. Zach realized what they were doing a fraction of a second before I did, because he managed to bring his hammer down on the head of the goblin last in the group. His skull caved in instantly.
My hesitation and fear caused me to miss all of the goblins close to me with any attack I could've thrown. Instead, I launched myself after them, trying desperately to at least bring down one of them.
I caught the last one by his legs, dragging him down face to face with me and stabbing downwards. I felt Zach rush past me, but his lack of speed prevented him from catching up. Instead, he opted to throw his hammer, catching another goblin between the shoulder blades. He went down like a ton of bricks, struggling to stand up before Zach was on top of him, his face a mask of worry and anger. He didn't last another ten seconds.
By that time, I had pushed myself back up onto the hill, clawing my way to the top in panic. I was scared of what would happen if they all turned around and decided to attack me, but I had already committed myself to doing it. I had a similar idea to Zach, and chucked my knife upward, the blade gleaming and spinning. By some stroke of luck, the blade managed to thud perfectly into the back of a goblins head, causing his body to fall back down.
We had taken down four. But it wasn't enough. The remaining six goblins were directly underneath the hole, ready to scramble up and into the outside world. But I saw a shadow block the sunlight temporarily, and a figure dropped down gracefully in the middle of the group of goblins.
I'm not entirely sure what happened next. All I saw was a flash of silver, and the remaining six goblins flew back down the hill, new wounds sprouting from their necks. All of them were dead before they hit the ground.
My mouth was open in awe as I stared at the lifeless bodies of the six goblins. I whipped back to look towards the new figure, and they were suddenly standing in front me, their footsteps having gone unnoticed by me.
The first thing I saw was long, black hair, tied in a ponytail that extended slightly past the shoulder blades. I looked up even further to see the face of our savior, and the first word that came to mind was beautiful. Almond shaped eyes, full lips, dark eyes that pierced your soul. It was a woman.
And she said to me, in a somewhat emotionless voice, "I'm Mino, here to investigate the supposed gathering and organization of monsters occurring within this particular underground cave."