65

  Rufi blinked, a throaty groan escaping his lips.

  He was on the floor. Why was he on the floor? What had he been doing? Rufi blinked again and looked at his hand. It was covered in blood. Whose blood was that? Pain lanced through his shoulder, sharp and urgent enough to snap his eyes open. He dragged his knees underneath himself and pulled himself to his feet. He looked down and saw he was dressed for combat. He also noticed he was dripping blood. Was it his?

  Rufi groaned. His shoulder felt like it had been blown out of its socket. Pain screamed across his chest and up his neck. He stumbled towards the wall, clenched his teeth, and slammed his shoulder into it. There was a pop and click and his shoulder snapped back into the socket. Rufi bit down on a scream and took several deep breaths. Blinking blood out of his eyes, he looked around. There was a fire raging. He smelt the acrid smoke before he saw the flickering flames. He saw creatures running and screaming but it was all somewhat muted, like they were underwater, and he realised that he couldn't hear properly. Had there been an explosion?

  The fire was somewhere in the back corner of the warehouse, the flames giving light to the battle in the dark. There were bodies everywhere. Blood was splattered and splashed all across the warehouse floor and walls. There were more tiny bodies than large ones, and then Rufi suddenly remembered where he was. He grunted and shook the cobwebs from his mind, trying to regain his bearing in the battle. Where were his Kith? He looked around in desperation as his mind cleared. Where was Pauli? They were fighting side by side before the explosion. He tried to find the shape of his friend's bulk on the floor around him but in the flickering shadows it was hard to make out anything properly and his vision was still blurry.

  A Gnome suddenly appeared from the darkness, his cloak in tatters, a lattice of spikes tattooed all the way down one side of his face, and a blade in his hand. He lunged at Rufi aiming straight for his heart. Rufi leapt back and barely avoided the lunging tip of the rapier. The Gnome lunged again. Rufi snapped out one long arm and caught him with a clumsy swipe across the side of his head. The Gnome tumbled then righted himself. A dagger flew from his hand, glinting in the firelight, and buried itself just above Rufi’s collarbone. Rufi gasped, looking down at the small blade sticking out just to the side of his throat. He blinked in surprise and confusion for a second and then yanked it out, a spurt of blood following it. The Gnome was on him again slashing and stabbing, spitting and swearing, in the Gnomish tongue. Rufi wasn’t able to dodge. His feet felt uncoordinated and heavy. He threw up his heavy arm guards, using them as shields to block and parry the searching rapier point. He backed away until he hit a wall and the Gnome lunged again. Rufi was out of moves. He grabbed the rapier in his hands as a last-ditch desperation move using his overwhelming power to wrench the blade from the surprised Gnome’s hand. The Gnome stumbled. Rufi grabbed him around the throat. He squeezed with every desperate ounce of strength he had left. The Gnome cried out as his feet left the floor, the tiny bones in his neck cracking and popping. Rufi squeezed so hard the little creature's eyes bugged and went bloodshot. The Gnome gurgled and tried to scramble for a hidden weapon, Rufi spun and whipped the Gnome against the wall once, twice, three times and the creature went still. Rufi flung his lifeless carcass to one side and slumped against the wall. His legs shook and breathing was raspy. The wound in his shoulder bubbled blood and poured down the front of his armour. Fortunately, his breast plate was strapped so tight that it provided enough pressure to keep the wound from bleeding freely. Rufi tore a strip from his sleeve, scrunched it up, and stuffed it into the wound, snarling as pain flared from it.

  He leaned back against the wall trying to regain his breath and that was when he heard it: a chitinous shriek in the darkness. Rufi’s blood ran cold. He recognised that cry. The Carrambus! There was another one of those scorpion monsters here!

  The fire raged, swallowing up the whole back corner of the warehouse. He heard Goblins screaming now and then more chitinous shrieking and scratching of the monster. Somewhere in the darkness it was attacking and somewhere in the darkness his Kith were dying. Rufi stumbled around and saw Pauli's discarded battleaxe. He reached down and picked it up, his left arm feeling weak but still able to move. He hefted the blade searching around for his friend. Then he saw a pair of blades flash in the darkness. Was that Chuch? No one else could move that quick. Rufi began stumbling towards the figure.

  “Chuch!” Rufi roared.

  Chuch turned looked at Rufi. One of his ears had been sliced in half, and blood poured from a wound on his scalp covering half of his face in blood. His clothes were in tatters and his weapons dripped red.

  “Run!” Chuch screamed at him.

  Rufi looked at him dumbly and then slowly looked behind Chuch and saw the creature chasing after him.

  “Shit!” Rufi grunted.

  The thing was almost on Chuch when Rufi leapt. He threw himself at the monster, wielding the axe two-handed, he brought it down on the carapace of the Carrambus, just behind its head. The blade pinged off its armoured hide and Rufi felt painful vibrations run through his arm. But the blow had been heavy and hard and even if it couldn't pierce the monster's armour it certainly rattled what little brains it had. The Carrambus shrieked and spun, jabbing its claws at Rufi, the surprise attack taking the attention away from Chuch, who swung both of his swords, bringing them down on what he assumed was the monster's head. Again the thick armour turned the blades away but they did take chips of the carapace with it.

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  The monster lashed out with its tail. This one didn't have a club like the other one. Instead it had a four foot spike that could run a creature through like it was made of paper. The blade spat towards Chuch faster than he could react. Chuch rolled with the blow, taking it across his breast place. The spike made an ear splitting grinding sound as it carved a divot in his thin breast plate and threw him off his feet. Rufi swung the axe at the base of the creature’s tail trying to chop it off, but the armour was just as thickly plated here and the battleaxe was turned away again. Rufi slipped in a puddle of something, most likely blood, and fell to one knee. He lurched backwards as the spike came lashing down out of the darkness..

  “Fire!” Rufi roared at Chuch. “Fire! The fucking thing doesn't like fire!”

  He didn’t know if Chuch had heard him. He saw the gangly Goblin dive away into the darkness, narrowly avoiding the spike tail, and then the Carrambus was on Rufi again, its claws stabbing out at him. He rolled to one side and leapt to his feet, his chest heaving. He was exhausted, he was breathing so hard he thought he would vomit any moment. The spike lashed out again. Rufi tried to dodge but his movements had become slow and clumsy. The razor-sharp spike slashed him across the back of his thigh as he tried to evade. A line of red hot pain seared across his thigh. Rufi cried out as he felt his leg go completely numb. In that moment he remembered Tiko’s warning about the Carrambus and how their claws and spikes were tipped with toxins. Panicking, Rufi limped away from the monster with one good arm and one good leg. The Carrambus stalked him. It knew, in a primordial predatory way, that its prey was wounded. It didn’t rush at him, but he heard the clicking and clacking of its legs across the warehouse floor as it readied for the kill. Rufi turned to face the monster, his numb leg giving out and sending him sprawling. He scrambled for any weapon left on his vest. He pulled out a palm length dagger and flipped onto his back in time to see the Carrambus rear back for the fatal strike.

  And that's when Pauli fell from the sky. Rufi barely saw what happened, his foggy brain unable to put all the pieces together. The bulk of Pauli landed on the creature's back slamming into him with such force the monster's leg shot out from underneath it, crushing the creature. The Carrambus made a wheezing high-pitched noise as its organs were squashed. Rufi heard carapace crack and crunch. Pauli hit the monster so hard that he bounced and flew off skittering across the floor. The Carrambus flailed in agony and Pauli groaned clearly winded. Rufi wasn't sure what to do, he had been ready to die and now the monster was twitching and oozing some sort of black goo from the cracks in its carapace, two of its legs were bent at strange angles. Its tail flailed around and tried to stab at Pauli but he was out of range so instead it whipped at Rufi. Rufi threw himself backwards, cracking his head painfully off the wall behind him and narrowly avoiding having half of his face sliced off. The thing dragged itself closer to Rufi, tail poised ready to strike.

  A flaming arrow flew from the darkness and buried itself in the Carambus’ broken carapace. There was a moment of confusion and then another blazing arrow flew out the darkness and hit the thing in the side.. It took a second for this new agony to register in the monster’s mind. It let out a wheezing screech, flailing its body left and right as the flaming arrows ate into it. Rufi looked up and saw three figures stumbling out of the darkness waving shards of flaming wood. It was Chuch, Mikkel, and Pug!

  They surrounded the Carrambus and stabbed it with their flaming brands. The monster screamed and twisted its ruined body, the pain driving it mad. Smoke began to rise from it and Rufi could hear the crackling of its burning shell. The monster seemed to be swivelling invisible eyes between the Goblins as if deciding who it would kill before it died. It must have chosen Rufi. It raised one of its pincer claws ready to strike down the hobbled Goblin. Pug threw himself between Rufi and the monster and brought down his flaming shard of wood two-handed straight into the monster's face. He stabbed through the soft flesh in its mouth setting the creature’s insides ablaze. The beast screamed a dying curse before curling into itself. Its whole body spasmed as it died fitfully. Pug gasped and stumbled backwards over Rufi falling down next to him. his eyes wide as they watched the creature smoulder.

  “Rufi! Are you okay?” Mikkel ran over to Rufi and offered him his hand.

  Rufi nodded and accepted the hand pulling himself to his feet and reaching down to pull up Pug who was still staring at the thing burning and smoking in front of them. Chuch dropped his flaming brand and limped over to Pauli who wasn't moving. He grabbed the thick HobGoblin by the collar of his armour and dragged him back towards them.

  “Is he…?” Rufi asked breathlessly.

  “He’s alive,” Chuch grunted.

  He dumped Pauli and then stepped in front of him defensively, drawing his one remaining sword and looking about the blazing inferno around them.

  “This is madness!” Mikkel shouted over the flames.

  He was covered in gore and one of his arms didn't look right, like his shoulder might be broken.

  “Pug, you alright?” Rufi asked breathlessly, as he dragged himself back over to the young Goblin.

  Pug just nodded and wiped blood from his face.

  “We need to get out of here,” Rufi said, realising he had no way of knowing whether their mission was complete or not.

  “The boats,” Chuch growled. “I saw a group of Gnomes just now running to the dock. I think they’re trying to escape.”

  “Fuck them!” Mikkel shouted at him. “This is insanity, Ruf! We need to get out of here!”

  Rufi looked from Mikkel’s pained face, to Pug’s shell shocked expression, to Chuch’s bloodsoaked face.

  “You guys go,” he said, hauling himself upright. “I have to finish this!”

  “I’m with you Shoya,” Chuch growled. “We die here tonight if we must.”

  “Fuck’s sake!” Mikkel growled in frustration. “Come on, Pug.”

  “No…” Pug said quietly. “We finish this Mik… together.”

  Mikkle looked at Pug. The young Goblin’s mischievous little eyes were now hard and brimming with resolution.

  Mikkle sighed and took a slow breath.

  “Well someone pick up Pauli at least,” he said, throwing away his flaming brand. “If we’re gonna die we might as well do it together.”