My will wanes as an all-encompassing black now surrounds me. My body trembles and my ear hones in on their nightmarish cackles, from what I can presume is only a couple of feet away.
What could only be worse is if they... stopped. An air of absolute silence filled the dark room.
I held with baited breath, trying my hardest not to tremble. It was as though I was in bloody water, surrounded by a horde of sharks. In this blackness I had become prey.
I feel a prick as moisture collects on my clothes, instinctively I back up in surprise, quickly putting my hand to where I felt the sensation. Liquid that clings to my palm bathes me in panic. It is blood.
It seems like I'm already dead as my body runs ice cold. I blink and force calming supplements into my head. My body has no end of useful features, though obviously it doesn't help fully due to power shortage, though I still exhale defiantly, my senses already subconsciously aware that there must be another coming, the question was, where would it attack next?
I take on a wider stance, bending my knees ever so slightly as the pseudo-skin of my hands tighten around the handle of my blade.
The goblin's bare feet tap on the stone, alerting me to their locations, though, I distinctly hear two sets of steps, they're planning to attack at once! I gnash my teeth, grunting as I pull forward with my sword held in front of me to protect my body.
Blurs fill my sight as their attack begins, one with a spear comes straight at me through the void with a thrust directed at my chest, I manage to meet the spear with my sword, and I work it swiftly past the spear tip, parrying it away, my blade already pointed in the direction of the goblin, I push it forwards even further, it pierces through the chest of the goblin and it dies with a pained screech.
The other goblin is already behind me. It's footsteps a funeral bell for any other person.
Implants within my ears constrict and finetune vibration frequency, I know exactly when it's coming.
My brain has scanned and remembered many martial arts throughout my long life and also mainly because of the incredible storage of knowledge in my head due to the cybernetic enhancements.
Muay Thai is one of my favourites, it's quick and brutal, reliant on pure striking over grappling.
I pivot my entire body, my waist guides me like a river snaking through a valley. Raising my free arm up and clenching my fist in an instant. My elbow is thrown with my spin into the head of the goblin. With the last reserves of bio-electricity sinking into my legs and arms as they culminate as much force as they possibly can into the strike.
A reverse elbow strike sends the goblin whirling into the stone floor, the side of it's head being reduced to a crater. The power of momentum is a wondrous thing, I win.
Though I am still bathed in darkness, I blink a few times to see if my retina has repaired its self, to no avail.
I need to rest desperately, this fight has really spent me in terms of effort put in, combined with my failing systems, wounds and lack of bio-electricity, the situation is pretty dire.
I sit down on the cold stone floor cross legged, placing my fingers against my temple and rubbing it in an attempt to think more clearly. I have time to analyse my body in a closer state. I notice that over 85% of my systems and regular bodily functions are either compromised or completely down. That includes my retina, stamina, regeneration, weapons and bodily enhancement systems.
My focus then lies next on my wounds, a deep cut stings my side like no other injury I've ever had. My overworked body sloppily delivers a half-dose of painkillers, it's all it can manage.
I'm finally able to breathe without a spear being thrown at my face, and I take the time to fully process and let sink in the scenario laid in front of me. So... I fought goblins with a sword. Goblins are creatures of myth, they were not proven to exist anywhere on Earth, no bones, no accurate recollections, nothing. An expression of confusion stains my face as I try to connect it together. Surely that means we can't be on Earth? I blink.
The mass-injections must have been inaccurate, although. Space-time is influenced by mass isn't it? Not just time? Perhaps I overshot the equations so much that the space... Am I in a different space entirely? Such thoughts bubbled in my brain like molten magma.
The theory of parallel... or rather multiversal theory is accurate it seems. I'm awe-struck. Just what kind of universe is this anyway? I'd half expect a dragon to pop out and eat me at this rate. Not only that, but my time-machine was nowhere around me upon the shift. My urge to go back and check strengthened at this, but I decided against it for the moment, as I desperately needed to catch my breath.
Does science even exist here? The radical question stabbed at me. I waved it off as absolutely ridiculous. The fact that my enhancements were able to work, including the conduction of my bio-electricity is proof enough. My main goal was to find and retrieve the time-machine, and either get back to my own time, or the time proper enough to dispatch Markus when he wasn't a threat.
I finally decide to get up, the pain-killers, inefficient as they are in this situation, work wonders to treat the pain in my side. My feet guide me towards the door, I decide to take the sword with me, just in case there are any more threats to my life within this dark place. Everything is still coated in a pitch black as I walk.
As I reach what I presume is the exit to the room by feeling around my surroundings, a strange noise catches my interest. An incredibly prominent clicking sound was emitting from, presumably, the bag which the goblins were guarding.
My head turned to face the darkness of the room I was about to leave behind, my body following as I raise my sword once more and prepare for whatever else could happen at this point.
The pressure in my ear gathers as I hone in on the faint sound of the bag undoing and tearing. More clicking then ensues, before reducing into a long absence of sound which left the atmosphere frozen.
Leaving some sense and logic behind, I decide to call out. "Hello?" My voice escapes and enters the dark room with an echoing shiver.
It's then I hear a quiet gargle, like someone in the picture of calmness drowning, my eyes narrowed to get a look at whatever was only a few metres in front of me, catching a glimpse of a shimmering light. The sound begins to grow louder... It's approaching me. The noise halts for a moment very suddenly which sends my body into a tense focus.
The sound is over to my side now? In an instant? It's where the weapons are. A horrible grinding sound of metal against rock reverberates through the room.
My raised sword violently meets with a great force in a matter of moments, my arms buckle and would most definitely be shattered if I was composed from regular bone and flesh.
Brilliant orange sparks are sent hurtling out of the clash, lighting up my opponent for a second. I am greeted with a harrowing sight as my eyes meet with the hollowed out sockets of a skull, it's skeletal frame is bathed in a gleaming metal suit of armour, reflections of light dance brilliantly and pierce through the darkness, including into my eyes, which daze me even further.
I am fighting with a fucking skeleton. It's strength is unnaturally high too, it continues it's slash, at my low capability I am easily overwhelmed and the sword flies from my hand, along with my index and middle fingers.
I scream out as blood spurts from the remnants of my two fingers. I already hear the sickening click of the being's body of bone as it moves to strike me again. Naturally I throw myself backwards, in order to compose a desperate escape from the monster right in front of me. Something that I cannot beat, which will pursue me in pitch blackness, it seems like a scenario straight out of a nightmare.
Muscles constrict and whine at me to stop as I push my physical limits to get myself out of the room, I blast out of the door, knocking into the side of it with my head as I have no way to ascertain what's in front of me in this situation. I shrug off the likely minor concussion and sprint for my life.
Luck has me in it's grip as I haven't collided into anything yet, but if I was truly fortunate, my face would run straight into the metal of my machine. I'd be able to go home like nothing had happened, though fate had other plans, and there was no sign of anything as I charged down a straight corridor of stone.
I had decided to shout for help all the while, even if it would give away my location to other 'monsters'. It was still a deadly situation subtracting any creatures that come to feast on me anyway.
My footfall eventually brings me to a widening in the corridor, I notice this as before when sprinting my sides would sometimes collide with the walls, that happened no longer.
I hear it's clicking behind me. A sound that punched me into a state of absolute dread. Exhaling and inhaling practically happening at the same time as my lungs try to pump with all their might to keep me going. My mind flashes to all my enhancements, my legs begin to tire, I lament the fact that my cybernetic enhancements were not all working, if they had, this wouldn't have happened.
The energy inside of my legs dies as my pace scarily slows. My teeth gnash and grind, almost chipping off against each other as I attempt to cope with coming fate. The clicking is upon me now.
Multiple shadows move upon a newly lighted wall, a newly lighted everything. A flickering torchlight casts all in a soft orange. There are people!
I hear their strange language shout out to me, my nose lets out a struggling breath as I hope their intentions are good. It's all I can do, I decide to shout back.
"HELP!"