Elmo wished there was more that he could do. However, most of his spells ran the risk of hitting Kim if he used them with how narrow the stairway was. Even though Kim was handling herself rather well, he knew that if she was the one who killed every goblin, then that wasn't going to work well for them later on. Especially considering how they had no idea how many goblins there were in total.
Kim swung her sword in an upward motion as the bugbear approached. However, it was quick to block Kim's attack, although, given its bulk, it was clearly having difficulty moving in the narrow stairway. Yet, Elmo had a feeling that it was going to be more of a problem than the regular goblins.
So, he decided he needed to take a risk and cast a spell on it. Though, the next question for him was which spell to choose. He wanted to deal as much damage as he could with each spell, but he couldn't be sure which would do that. Yet, as he thought about it while Kim exchanged blows with the goblin, he realized he should use the fact that it took up pretty much the whole stairway and use the AOE spell he knew.
"Kim fall back a little," he called out to her.
While he had hoped that she would do that as quickly as she could, it was clear she wasn't going to. Although, part of him worried that she just didn't hear him because of the focus she had to put into the fight, given how close some of the swings from the bugbear came to her.
Yet, eventually she quickly moved back, allowing the goblin to proceed down the stairs a little more. Then when Elmo was sure there was enough of a distance, he held up his hand towards the bugbear and called out, "Rock Spray!"
A spray of small rocks shot out, resembling a shotgun blast. The bugbear was stopped moving for a moment before it started to slump down. Elmo blinked, surprised at what had happened. The rocks had all entered the bugbear's chest and had clearly blasted into its internal organs, creating a mortal wond that the bugbear was having trouble understanding as it clearly felt the life draining out of it, unable to breathe or have its blood continue pumping blood to its weak brain.
When the bugbear fell down, Elmo rushed forward to start and try to pull it off of the stairway so it wouldn't cause a hazard for Kim while they fought the goblins that had been behind the bugbear started to move slowly forward. As the goblins saw the body of the large bugbear being dragged into the basement, the let out an angry cry as they charged down the stairs.
Kim made short work of them.
As Elmo moved back to standing behind Kim, he saw Kim pushing the bodies of four goblins behind her, clearing the space around her feet so she wouldn't trip over them. Which meant that he needed to help remove them or they'd be a hazard for anyone behind Kim.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any more goblins right now trying to push in. So, as Jonas helped him move the goblin bodies out of their way, Elmo couldn't help but notice the expressions of shock and surprise as they got a good look at the creatures that were such a threat to them.
When they finished moving the bodies, more goblins still hadn't shown up. Elmo wasn't going to complain about that. He considered suggesting to Jonas that they continue to move the bodies of the goblins at the top of the stairs, but then as his gaze rose to the broken door, he could see the body of the first bugbear that Kim had taken out. He didn't care to try and move that thng. The other bugbear had been hard enough, and that was with the assistance of gravity helping it move the rest of the way down the stairs.
As the minutes passed by and no more goblins were showing up, Elmo couldn't help but wonder if that was all the goblins that had entered the village. He had no way of knowing if that thought was correcct or not, but at the same time, he couldn't help but suspect that his group were going to have to leave the security of this basement in order to find out.
If that was the last of the goblins, then they'd be able to get back to sleep. If it wasn't then, they'd be not having to worry about the goblins interrupting their sleep again this night.
"Should we go out and see if there are any more goblins here?" Elmo asked, when several minutes had passed, or at least what felt like several minutes.
"Might be a good idea," Jonas allowed. "Though, I can't say that it would be very safe."
"At least it would let us know if some of us can go back to sleep," Kim remarked, looking at Elin.
"Should we all go or should we leave someone to help the villagers?" Elin asked.
"I'll stay to help," Sonya said, startling Elmo who hadn't noticed her.
"Then that should be good," Jonas said. "Heather can stay with Sonya as well while Elin comes with us. That way we have a healer with each group."
"Lets hurry then, so we don't have to have any more show up while we're still on the stairs," Kim said, already walking up towards the broken door.
Elmo let Elin take the place right behind Kim and followed right after her. Then as he climbed the stairs, he was aware of Jonas coming up behind him.
Briefly Elmo wondered if there could be anything between the two of them. He'd kissed Jonas, but Jonas hadn't made any indication about whether or not he was fine with that kind of thing or if he just wasn't interested.
Elmo couldn't help but wonder if maybe he should push the matter or if he should consider it a bad idea. Although, if he wanted to push the matter, that then brought up the problem of when would be the best time to do that? After all, in the middle of a fight, it wasn't exactly a good time to allow distractions like that.
However, he still couldn't get the thoughts out of his head. Try as he might, his thoughts kept going back to what he could do to try and win Jonas' interest. In addition to that, his mind couldn't help but fantasize about the two of them together.
Even as they started searching the village, he barely saw anything around him. His mind was too engrossed in his fantasies that he was merely following the others, not really being a part of the group beyond that.
The first area they searched was around the building they'd taken refuge in. No one spoke, but Elmo wasn't sure it was necessary. While they were in the basement, he wouldn't be surprised if they tried digging into the basement.
Fortunately, once they were moving onto the next area, Elmo was finally able to move his mind past thoughts of him and Jonas together. Instead, his mind was focusing on what might be hiding in the shadows around them. There was so much for his imagination to work with, but with what he'd had to endure since he had been pulled out of his own world, he found that it wasn't creating threats where there weren't any like he was sure he would have if he had still been in his world.
Moving along from one area to another, Elmo felt his eyes telling him that he needed to sleep. That he should head back to the building where they were staying and climb into what he'd had set up as a bed for himself. Yet, he forced himself to stay with the others. Partly because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to find the building right now without a good search for it. With how dark everything was, it made the village look completely different.
Not that he wouldn't be able to eventually find it. Just that he wasn't sure he'd be able to find it quickly. Which would be important to being able to get back to sleep there.
As they continued the search, Elmo was starting to get the feeling that there were more goblins around. Not that he knew exactly how many or where they were. Just that more were in the village. Even though he had no idea how he was able to know that.
"Hold up," Jonas whispered, stopping the group as they were in the shadows between to residential homes. When they were all stopped, Jonas continued, "We might be almost done searching the village, but I get the feeling we're being hunted. I propose we start moving in the direction we just came from."
"Why would we do that?" Elin asked.
"Because whoever is hunting us, would be in that direction, most likely," Kim answered.
Jonas nodded. "If we don't want them to wait for the perfect opportunity for them to strike, we need to do what we can to force them to attack before they're ready," Jonas explained. "If we can do that, might might be able to prevent them from surrounding or even cutting us off from each other."
Elmo sighed. Was that why he was feeling like there were more goblins? Was he able to detect them somehow?
"Let's start now before they get suspicious," Kim said, already moving in the direction they'd just came from.
The rest of them quickly followed, Jonas at the front with Kim, eyes alert to their surroundings, waiting for the goblins to appear unexpectedly. Though, Elmo felt his heart hammering in him, just waiting for that to occur. Wishing this was just a bad dream in a series of bad dreams.
Then Jonas tapped Kim on her shoulder and motioned to their left. Elmo and Elin followed, not sure what the reason was, but neither complained about the change in direction.
Although, he wondered if he should have when he saw in front of them at least ten goblins and two bugbears just around the corner of the building they were just passing. He quickly calculated the distance around them and realized that the goblins could easily surround them if they didn't finish them off quickly.
If this really was a bad dream, he really didn't want to find out by getting woken up from getting killed in it. He'd much rather wake up from his alarm clock, letting him know he had something important to do that day and for him to get up. Yet, as the moments ticked by, that didn't happen.