"Dad! You leave him alone, Master is my most prized possession in the world!" Lyka argued, unknowingly adding much fuel to the fire.
"M-master!?" Soundov stammered, his face turning bright red. "You give me that corncob, NOW! That is a demon, do you even know its name!?"
"He never gave me it, but I trust him!" the young woman yelled in response, where it occurred to me that I had never formerly introduced myself to her.
"Oy, it's the enchanted corn from last night!" Krissy called out from behind the bars, her large green breasts pressing against the cage as she reached forward. "Hey, wanna let us out? Teleport us like you did last time?"
"Yeah, corn man, please help us talk some sense into these morons!" Dirx added. "Not only will this town be in danger if I don't get out of here, but the boss will turn my sister and I into a bloody pulp if he finds us here with nothing to give."
The poor guards looked very confused as their eyes wandered between both parties and the corn in reference as it sat motionless in Lyka's deep rack.
"Figures the goblins are in on this madness, I'll handle this myself," the mayor growled as he snatched a dagger that was hilted on one of the soldiers. "Sweetie, give Daddy the corn, please."
"I hear your boss is a hobgoblin," I echoed through my mind, setting a kernel link between the goblin siblings to add them to my telepathic call. "How dangerous is he?"
"Yes, his name is Gogrin, and he's the master of 4 different goblin groups, mine included," Dirx replied, confusing Soundov and the guards as they didn't hear my question. "And yes, he's about 25 feet tall and very dangerous. He's a lazy oaf that sits around and drinks all day, but cutoff his booze funds, and he'll destroy an entire city!"
Not the best news, but I figured that I at least had time to come up with a plan until then. As I watched Lyka wrestle with her dad for my corn body from the POV of my roach, I just hoped that I could figure out a way to use more kernel BS before the hobgoblin showed up. As tempting as teleporting myself back to the good old cornfield was, I felt a responsibility for this town already. Perhaps because it was I that unintentionally set in motion the chain of events that led here.
"G-give, give it here!" Soundov grumbled as he tried to grab my veggie body.
"Never, I'll stick him in my woman parts if I have to!" Lyka cried, causing the guards to turn away flushed, the goblin siblings to laugh, and for me to question if I had anything to do with that mindset.
"Lyka Belle! Give that—
The mayor's words were cutoff as the whole dungeon shuddered, where a loud crashing sound was heard before the yells and shouts of the townsfolk filled the streets outside. The crashing continued, like wood and glass being smashed to pieces. A bell sounded in the distance, ringing frantically as all those in the room fell silent.
"M-Mr. Mayor, we have a situation!" one of the soldiers from outside yelled as he galloped into the room. "We're going to need every available man now, the town gate and the guards there have already been crushed!"
"W-what?" Soundov replied, his eye twitching.
"Ugh, he's here, ain't he?" Dirx scoffed.
"Go home, Lyka, and you'd better have tossed that corn by the time I get back," the mayor warned as he pushed past us and followed the soldier outside. The two guards that had accompanied him nervously followed them too.
"What's going on, is that hog-goblin here?" Lyka asked as she listened to the distressed cries of the civilians outside as the crashing continued, followed by yelling. "See, this is why goblins are the worst. They smell, they're ugly, and they—
"We're right here, sweetheart," Krissy complained as she stuck her fat tongue out at the young woman.
"Look, I'm not going to lie, I wanna really just save my own skin right now," Dirx started. "But I can't do that in here. If you let us free, I'll see if I can talk to the boss so that none of these innocent people have to get hurt. Gogrin has a fat gut, I'd hate for him to start making a meal out of people."
I'd have loved to free the two goblins, as not fighting the giant goblin out there was not something that I wanted to attempt. I'd had enough high-stakes and all. However, I had no idea how I was going to bust those two out. Thinking deeply, I felt for the sources of kernel energy around me. I'd absorbed a good bit just by walking through town, so I was confident that I'd be able to do something extreme. I wanted to find a way to bust down the wall, but after pondering this for a few moments, I realized that I could just effect the locked door itself, specifically the lock.
Lyka was babbling something to me, and then to the goblins, causing Krissy to pull down her shorts and moon the young woman with her green goblin ass, but I was too focused on that specific lock to care. Using intense concentration, I tried to extend a kernel link to the lock, which was certainly different as pretty much anything I'd interacted with until that point was a living thing that gave off energy. Feeling as if I was touching something cold and dead, I attempted to "grasp" at the lock.
"Open," I thought. "Open now."
The gated door trembled, my influence apparent. I continued me deep thoughts. Open. Open. Open. Open."
Lyka and the goblins had stopped talking as the gate began to shudder violently, while a loud clicking sound began to echo through the dungeon. Twisting the lock every which way, the whole mechanism failed beneath my influence, and the door slowly opened with a creak.
"Did…did the corn do that?" Dirx asked as he and Krissy cautiously walked out.
"I DID IT!" I exclaimed telepathically, proud of myself for trying and succeeding in yet another feat using my kernels. "This is amazing, I can't believe that actually worked! It's almost like I could feel the lock, I mean I just jimmied with it but it actually worked!"
"I'm going to need an explanation for all this later, but for now, let's go talk to the boss," Dirx continued as he passed Lyka. "Hopefully he'll feel forgiving today."
"He never is," Krissy sighed as she followed.
As the other prisoners begged us to free them as well, Lyka and I left the dungeon with the goblins, on or way to face a supposed hobgoblin.
I crossed my fingers (kernels) hoping that it was just some rave instead of an invading monster.