Chapter 43: Dauntless

While Zayn could wallow in regret that he’d already spilled his secret, it wasn’t as though he’d done anything damning yet. Furthermore, Amaya was... weird. It didn’t seem like she’d spill the beans about what Zayn was potentially plotting.

After Zayn’s talk with Amaya, the group had headed over to the camp they’d conquered and spent their first night in this unfamiliar hell pit.

Zayn was tasked with standing guard and had an awkward conversation with Axel, during which the guilt gnawing at his mind may or may not have prompted him to warn Axel. It wasn’t as though Axel would take it seriously, though...

’Right?’

Then midnight rolled around, and a horrible sound roared from the forest, followed by a scene from a horror movie...

After that incident, neither Zayn nor anyone else dared to step out, make a noise, or even move at night.

It was only in the morning that the man whose finger had been torn off was tended to and patched up with crude stitches, courtesy of string from someone’s jeans and a sewing needle someone had on them when they were summoned.

When they finally realized they could speak again, Lucas declared they’d continue their scouting mission. Zayn quickly decided sitting around would only lead to a slow death, so he followed. After a bit, Amaya joined their little cohort, probably to keep watching Zayn.

In the end, their group numbered six, and they ventured off into the wilderness, Zayn still shoeless.

By the time they returned, they had gained some insight into how the forest and its creatures behaved. Nothing could be discerned for sure, but their conjectures would be a great boon in the coming future.

The following day, Zayn and the group had their eyes set on raiding a camp to the south. The small raid went surprisingly well, and they even managed to get a bow from the encounter.

However, the sight they discovered later that day shook their group to its foundations. Idleness would no longer be tolerated.

After a lengthy argument, Lucas had somehow swayed the group to follow his path to damnation. They would attack the huge camp to their north.

Zayn couldn’t help but stare at Lucas in awe.

’How can this devil be so convincing?’

***

They had decided to strike at night, and the time of reckoning was nearly upon them. Zayn had been assigned to the distraction group, whose goal was to draw out the goblins and hold the line.

The group formed a reverse crescent facing the gate, with their strongest fighters positioned at its protruding center.

Zayn laid down his makeshift spear — a dagger fastened to a hefty black stick — and picked up one of their spare swords while keeping his other hand clasped around the handle of his shield. He held the blade steady as Lucas scraped and struck his own sword against it. The resulting screeches and clangs provoked cries from beyond the walls.

"Kreeeeeee!"

"Kreeeeeee!"

A second later, the gates swung open. The goblins’ clamor intensified as they poured through the entrance and stampeded toward the formation.

Zayn discarded the sword and snatched up his spear.

Lucas’ voice rang out behind the front line:

"Do not falter! The time is now!"

The enraged goblins crashed into the Summoned moments later. Positioned at the center of the vanguard beside Lucas and Leora, Zayn met the first wave head-on.

An unarmed goblin charged straight at his bare feet.

Zayn stepped forward and smashed his round shield into it’s chest. As it staggered, he drove his shoulder forward and thrust his spear beneath its jaw, skewering it through to the nape.

[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]

Zayn pushed the irritable old man’s voice from his mind and planted his foot against the corpse, kicking it free of his spear.

The weapon allowed them to attack from relative safety, but its crude construction made every thrust a risk. If it became lodged again, he might be forced to abandon it.

Another goblin rushed him, but Leora warded it off.

’Damn...’

Their greatest problem was already taking shape.

Any goblin that avoided a spear thrust or retreated beyond the shields was joined by another, allowing their numbers to cluster against isolated sections of the line.

Barely twenty Summoned held the formation. If even one of them fell, the opening could unravel the entire line.

Lucas, however, had anticipated it. No...

’He built the plan around it.’

’I have to remain prepared for the collapse.’

Their strongest fighters occupied the center, ensuring that most of the goblins would concentrate there. Those that attacked the weaker flanks were unlikely to be killed quickly, allowing the Summoned to keep them occupied while the center deliberately surrendered ground.

The strategy was simple: draw the goblins inward, then close around them.

Lucas screamed:

"Middle line! Fall back!"

Zayn, Lucas, and the fighters around them retreated in measured steps, allowing the goblins to press deeper into their formation. It was a crude imitation of Hannibal’s double envelopment tactic, except their strongest fighters occupied the center because they could not afford for it to break.

Ground was the only thing they intended to sacrifice.

The center of the reverse crescent backpedaled while thrusting their spears in alternating jabs, keeping the goblins close without allowing them to surge through. Deafened by the earlier clamor and driven by their limited intellect, the creatures failed to recognize the trap.

The protruding center gradually flattened, then curved inward. Meanwhile, the two flanks held their positions, forming walls along either side of the advancing goblins.

After several more paces, Lucas bellowed another order:

"Stand firm!"

The center stopped retreating.

What had begun as an outward-facing crescent had folded around the goblins, leaving them trapped within a near enclosure. Realizing the maneuver had succeeded, the Summoned roared and drove their spears into the mass before them.

Zayn didn’t share in their triumph.

’Something is off...’

Then, night became day.

’What the hell...’

The sudden brilliance drew Zayn’s eyes upward. In that single moment of distraction, a goblin leaped against his shield and drove him onto his back.

’Ack!’

A fireball struck the left flank, engulfing humans and goblins alike. Their screams merged into a horrid nocturne.

"AAAGhhhhh!"

"Kreeeee!"

The stench of melting flesh burned Zayn’s nose as he struggled beneath the goblin. His spear had slipped from his hand during the fall, leaving him to grip the creature’s left arm with his right.

Separated from him only by the wooden shield pinned on his chest, the goblin repeatedly snapped its filthy teeth at his face.

"Fuck!"

Its fetid breath mixed with the reek of burning flesh, forming a rancid amalgamation that made Zayn wish he had anosmia.

The goblin snarled and forced the shield lower until its teeth nearly grazed his nose.

Leora rushed in and kicked the creature’s side.

The impact knocked both it and the shield off Zayn, sending them tumbling beside him. Its sword slipping from its grasp during the fall.

Zayn scrambled toward the weapon, seized it, and drove the blade into the goblin before it could recover.

[You have slain Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]

He lurched to his feet and found the formation gone. The fireball had torn open the left flank, and the goblins had flooded through the breach. What had been a single organized battle had fractured into dozens of overlapping skirmishes, with fighters stumbling from one clash into another.

All order had vanished.

The people caught in the flames were still screaming.

The fire did not spread beyond those it had struck, but neither did it weaken. It clung to its victims, consuming their eyes and then their flesh in unending agony.

Zayn parried a goblin’s strike and looked past the surrounding clashes toward the gate. A robed goblin stood just inside the entrance, clutching a book in one hand. Above the other, a spark swelled into a flame, then a blaze — and continued growing.

’You. You must die.’

Zayn disengaged and darted behind the fighting toward the right flank.

Lucas screamed after him:

"Don’t you dare run!"

A goblin lunged at Lucas before he could say more.

Zayn didn’t look back. He was going to slaughter the creature holding that book.

The flames had made the left side impassable, while charging directly through the center would be suicide. The right flank was crowded with goblins, but circling around it offered his only chance of reaching the gate.

However...

It was also the mage’s most obvious next target.

As the thought crossed his mind, another miniature sun rose above the gate and hurtled toward the right flank.

Zayn threw himself away from its path just before it struck.

Fire erupted behind him, swallowing the fighters who hadn’t escaped. Humans and goblins shrieked together as their flesh began to melt.

’Shit!’

Zayn forced the sounds from his mind, pushed himself up, and kept moving.

The blast had shattered the goblins’ line. He charged through the opening, slipping between the disoriented foes and deflecting the few blades that reached him.

’Almost there!’

Something slammed into his side.

Zayn stumbled across the remaining distance and crashed shoulder-first into the fort’s blackwood wall. Still dazed, he raised his sword just in time to deflect a strike aimed at his skull. A second blade followed before he could regain his footing.

’No...’

He was trapped with his back literally against the wall.

One foot braced against the black timber, Zayn glared wildly at the five goblins closing around him.

The robed goblin remained only a few meters away to his right. If he could reach it, the Summoned might still win. It would be a costly victory, but a victory nonetheless.

The nearest goblin rushed him.

Zayn kicked it in the stomach, then slashed another across the chest, forcing it backward. Before he could determine whether the wound was fatal, a third lunged from his right.

Zayn twisted and caught its blade against his own.

That left the final two unanswered.

One brought its sword down from above.

Zayn jerked aside, avoiding the blade but losing his balance in the process. Then, he fell directly into the reach of the fifth goblin, whose sword hacked into his shin and bit down to the bone.

"Aagh!"

Zayn yelped and dropped to one knee.

As he fell, he swung his sword through the goblin’s neck. Its body crumpled beside him, but the remaining four immediately converged.

[You have slain Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]

’These mad mutts!’

Zayn raised his forearm to protect his throat. One goblin sank its teeth into the offered limb while another latched onto his uninjured ankle. The remaining two lifted their swords to finish him.

Then something even more psychotic than the murder-infected goblins crashed into them.

Lucas barreled into the two armed creatures, knocking them away from Zayn.

The man had lost his weapon somewhere in the carnage, yet he mounted one goblin and began hammering his fists into its face. His long hair fell forward, concealing his bloodlusted eyes.

Zayn had no time to wonder how Lucas had reached him.

Gripping his sword with both hands, Zayn raised it and brought the blade down upon the skull of the goblin biting his ankle. The steel sank so deeply that it became lodged in bone.

’Damned anklebiter!’

[You have slain Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]

Zayn released the sword, lifted the arm carrying the other goblin, and smashed the creature against the fort wall. Once it was pinned between the timber and his forearm, he pummeled its face until the luster faded from its black eyes. He pried its teeth from his flesh and let the corpse collapse.

[You have slain Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]

He glanced toward Lucas.

The man was covered from head to toe in blood, scratches, and bruises. He had killed the other two goblins, but now looked like a dead man still forcing himself to move.

Beyond him, the battle continued beneath the night sky, though the carnage was beginning to subside. Between the wall and the shattered frontline, no clear route led to Zayn’s position.

’Damned maniac ran straight through the melee.’

Zayn bent down, retrieved a rusty sword from one of the corpses, and hobbled toward the entrance. The robed goblin was only a few meters away, and the growing heat warned him that another fireball was forming.

"No...!"

A goblin stepped between him and the mage. Zayn had neither the time nor the strength to fight it.

It charged.

An arrow punched through its skull, dropping it at Zayn’s feet.

From more than twenty meters away, Claire had landed a prayer of a shot.

Zayn had no time to thank her. He stepped over the corpse and finally gained a clear view of the robed goblin.

"Die, fucker!"

Its back remained turned to him, one hand raised beneath a third ball of fire while the other clutched the book. Zayn didn’t question why it had failed to notice him — or what would happen to the suspended flames if its caster died.

Instinct drove him forward.

He lunged and plunged his sword through the goblin’s back, piercing its heart.

[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]

Some rationalization retuerning to his crazed mind, Zayn looked up, expecting the fireball to fall.

Instead, it flickered out with the goblin’s life and dissolved into the air. The book flashed blue before slipping from the creature’s hand and landing beside its corpse.

Haggard and bloodied, Zayn wanted to collapse, yet curiosity compelled him to crouch and touch it.

[You have acquired Minor Relic: Flame Spitter]