Chapter 5: Let sleeping dogs lie

  Liam cursed as the man just stood there holding the knife. He seemed to be frozen to the spot.

  “Look, we have to get out of here. There are goblins outside.”

  This seemed to shake the man from his lethargy. “Goblins? What sort of fool do you take me for? Well you’d better scraper. The police are on the way?”

  “Have you even looked out of the window? And how will the police get here? In their broken cars? Did you phone them with your phone that does not work?”

  The man spluttered for a bit and then looked around. “It’s just a power cut. That’s all. You’re scaring the girl. Get out of here.”

  “I came here to save you. Look out of the window.”

  The man stepped back, dragging the girl with him, until he reacher the windows. With one last look at Liam he pulled back the curtain and looked out.

  “What the hell are those?”

  “Those are goblins. And they are not here to discuss religion.”

  “Let them try. I gotta knife.”

  Liam sighed. He took a few steps down the stairs. The man turned back towards him brandishing the knife.

  “You don’t want to get close enough to a goblin for that knife to be useful.”

  “What do you know?”

  “I know that this is not just a power cut. Did you not get the messages? Did you get a class?”

  The man’s mouth opened and then closed. :”Some sort of joke it was.”

  You got a class?”

  The man just looked at him.

  “What class did you get?” Liam demanded.

  “I didn’t pick. Thought it was a joke. It was picked for me.”

  “What class?”

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  “Unbeliever.”

  “Unbeliever? What sort of class is that?”

  “Don’t know. All I know is it was uncommon.”

  Liam through for a moment. “Look I am Liam. We can escape out the back, over the wall there. You coming with me.”

  The man hugged his daughter closer. “I’m Brian. This is Jessica. You don’t even have a weapon.”

  Liam had left his rod behind when climbing. But he had other means to fight.

  “Hopefully it won’t come to a fight, if we leave now.”

  Their conversation was interrupted by a rock crashing through the window.

  “Right now,” Liam screamed.

  He leapt down the remaining stairs. The man nodded and ran to the back where Liam expected the kitchen was. Through the kitchen they ran and then Brian opened the door and pushed the girl through.

  Liam cursed he had climbed the back of the house assuming the door was locked. He had not even thought of trying it.

  “Come on,” Brian said. “Let’s go.”

  Liam paused to look behind him. Goblins were climbing through the broken window.

  “Yes let’s.”

  He followed them through the door to the wall. The wall was eight feet tall.

  Liam knotted his hands together. “Come on, Brian! You first.”

  He hoisted Brian up and with some effort managed to get him on top of the wall. Then he raised Jessica up until Brian was able to pull her up.

  As they jumped over to the other side a noise behind him caused him to turn around. Three goblins emerged from the house. They were short and spindly creatures and Liam could smell the stench of them from here.

  The two of them carried rusty shivs on their hands and on carried a short wooden spear - more of a pointy stick.

  Liam quickly activated diamond nails. As soon as he felt the pain he lunged at the closest goblin - the one with the spear. Hie tore the creature’s throat open. He was then onto the next one. The goblins were surprised by his ferocity. One actually dropped his weapon and ran. The other held his hands in front of his face only for Liam to rip open its belly.

  Not waiting to see if there were any more coming Liam let go of the spell, turned and jumped - pulling himself over the wall in one quick movement. Again, he felt surprise at how the stat boost from earlier had increased his physical prowess.

  Brian and Jessica were standing close to the wall. A large ferocious dog slept outside its kennel five metres in front of them.

  “Quietly,” Liam said.

  He motioned for them to walk around the dog. Safety lay that way. The escapee goblin was likely to bring more friends to the party and Liam wanted to be well clear of here when they arrived.

  They moved as quietly as they could around the dog. As they got closer Liam could see that it was not a pedigree. This was a dog that other dogs stayed well clear of. Near its head was a bowl that said “Puffy” and a chew toy with its head missing.

  They were almost in the clear when a soft growl sounded. Liam’s heart rate raised a couple of notches and he took a side glance at the dog. It still looked to be sleeping though soft growls still emanated from its mouth.

  Liam ushered the others to keep moving but another sound from the other side of the wall stopped them. This sound was more high pitched and chattery.

  “Move,” Liam said in a soft voice. “They are coming.” His eyes were fixed on the wall.

  He looked around to see that Brian and Jessica had not moved. A band of goblins were now standing in the way of their escape. From the corner of his eye, Brian could see heads appear over the wall.

  “Shit!” he said eloquently.