I could comprehend it yet. Even Zach, his voice rising in alarm as he realized how much damage I had taken, even he was ignored. There was just this dull thudding sound in my head, getting louder and louder. My vision darkened. The surge of strength I had before left me. My eyelids slowly came together. Then I felt two sharp stabbing sensations in my legs, and my vision and hearing came into clarity with a gasp.
Zach hunched in front of me, two hypodermic needles clutched in his hands. "Are you back?!" His voice was a mix of worry and shock. "You, I think-" He cleared his throat. "You were dying, I could see it in your face. So I looked and I found these." He held the needles up so I could see. One read epinephrine-compound-C. I don't even know what that is. The other read Concentrated Morphine.
At least the second one makes sense. My pain had almost entirely vanished, reduced to a dull throb in my subconscious. The other one, I couldn't tell, but I felt energized. Completely. I felt like I could run a triathlon. But there was a more pressing issue.
The sword impaled in my shoulder was poking out, wobbling slightly from the movement of my body. "Zach, you're going to have to pull this out." I pointed my statement at him. He looked at the Sword in shock, a bit of nausea going through his face. "You have to do it now, if whatever shot you gave me has a time limit, I don't want to be here whenever it wears off." I paused for a second, and I tried to put a pleading tone in my voice. "Please, I can't do it myself."
He stared at me for a second before shaking his head and stepping in front of the sword. Using both hands, he grasped the hilt of the sword, and slowly started to yank it out, little by little. The pain in my shoulder started to flare up again as the cool metal started sliding against my torn flesh and muscle. I grit my teeth in silence. I shut my eyes and tried to think about anything else than the sword sliding out. The pain built up, almost becoming unbearable. I opened my mouth to scream, but it slid out with a slight squelching sound before Zach let it thud on the floor.
I immediately hunched over on my hands and knees, gasping for air. I stared at the missing earhole of the goblin underneath me as I tried to catch my breath, before a drop of something landed on the body underneath me. The drop was a dark red fluid that slowly ran down the side of the body before splashing on the floor. Followed by another drop. And another one. I glanced weakly at my shoulder to see a steady stream of blood flowing. I stumbled backward into the wall before covering my shoulder with my hand. The blood quickly ran through my fingers and stained my hands red.
How fucking stupid of me, to forget pulling something out like a knife or a sword results in more blood loss. I quickly tried to tear off my shirt to wrap around my shoulder, but I was already going weak from blood loss. Zach noticed what was happening, and quickly tore off his shirt instead and dashed over to me. He began to quickly wrap it around the entirety of my wound, from the entrance to the exit, and gave it a couple of knots so it could stay in place.
I felt the blood loss slow down significantly as my breathing leveled off. My vision came back into focus. I let out one slow breath before looking up at Zach. I felt a small wave of resolve wash over me as I said, "We have to get out of here, and finish what he came down here to do. All we have to do is like the gas and we're good." I glanced over at Mino, who was still passed out on the floor of the chamber, and I lightly shook my head. "You'll have to carry her while I light the gas, I can't do it with this shoulder." He nodded. "I got you."
Before he left though, he glanced down at the sword lying on the ground. "You should take that. I've read that warriors usually get whatever their opponent has whenever they defeat them." Then his voice came with a tinge of amusement. "It'd be better than that knife you're walking around with." He stumbled off towards Mino.
Would it be a good idea? I really only beat the bastard cause of Zach. Plus, I didn't even know how to properly use a sword. But the more I thought about it, the more I was sure I was supposed to have that weapon. There was just this tugging sensation in my stomach that told me it was a weapon I would do well with. So I grasped the hilt and hoisted it up so I could properly look at it. It was a shortsword of some kind. It had a slight curve towards the tip of it, like a katana, but both sides of the blade were sharpened to a razor sharp edge.
It was perfectly balanced in my grip. I stripped the leather belt off of the dead goblin and tied it around my own waist, before sliding the sword into a little holster on said belt. By this point, Zach was ready to leave. He had Mino slung over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. He nodded to me as I stepped towards the door. My body was still shaky, the drugs I was on not actually healing anything, but I could survive with it. With me in front, we stepped towards the metal door and flicked on our flashlights.
I slowly creaked open the door and shone my flashlight out, inspecting the hallway. All clear. I proceed to open the door fully and step into the darkened passage, beckoning for Zach to follow. And then I heard a snarl and a yawn. A goblin stepped out of one of the rooms and yawned, stretching its gnarly, dry body. It then slowly glanced over at us, a blank expression on its face. Before that blank expression turned to one of shock, then fury.
It opened its mouth and let out the loudest shriek I had ever heard.