I leapt onto the table feeling the food sloshing in my stomach. The alcohol quickly hit me and I felt my face go numb. I put my face into my hand and quickly smashed my Hunter’s Instinct ability. The room changed as a soft white ping went out around me. The dwarves weren’t marked, but whoever stood in the doorway was outlined red. And there were a lot of them.

  “For Lord Greatwood!” Brukrag’s voice boomed through the hall. It was louder than anything I had ever heard. My eyes started to ring from the massive shout which emanated from him.

  A slew of buffs appeared and I felt stronger. I didn’t take any time to look at them. I pulled my bow, and loosed arrows toward the door.

  I felt Paco hop on my back. It startled me so much I jumped and almost sent him crashing to the floor.

  “Chris, throw me!” he shouted as explosions went off again. Wood splintered and cracked as the fire began to spread towards us.

  I didn’t think, I grabbed him by the shoulder and placed a hand underneath him and launched him as hard as I could towards the door. I watched as he somersaulted, landed on one of the tables, and ran on all fours.

  I hit my Dead Eye ability as a knocked an arrow. It launched at what looked like a goblin. At roughly three feet tall, it had pointy ears, a long, crooked nose, and pale green skin. It was hardly wearing anything except for the tattered loin-cloth at the waist. It was holding a massive club almost as large as itself. My arrow struck it between the eyes and it fell forward. I watched as the point came out the back of its skull and thick black blood oozed on the floor.

  Men and women were now joining the fight as more goblins filled the area. Then the worst thing I heard rang in my ears. A mother Demon Hawk screeched as she tore through the air and landed on the table next to Paco who was swinging his stick as hard as he could at anyone who got too close.

  She screeched again and beat her wings, sending smoke and ash billowing around everyone. She soared up as high as the ceiling would let her go, and dove down directly at Paco. I watched as her metal talons grabbed him and his stick dropped to the floor.

  “No!” I shouted. “Bruk! It has Paco!”

  I watched as the dwarf turned to me then up to the ceiling. He pulled his axe out of the torso of a goblin and let its lifeless body hit the floor. Before I could react, Brukrag was on me. His hands grabbed my shoulder and back of my pants. Then I was flying again. I put my bow away and pulled my small knife. In the blink of an eye, I was thrusting it directly into the eye of the Demon Hawk. My body crunched as I smashed into the bird and fell back towards the floor. I felt fire burning me as I tried to blink away the pain. My bones had broken, and I could hardly breathe. I smashed my Heal. My health had just gone into the red. My bones readjusted, and with every painful alignment, my consciousness slowly came back. I pushed myself off the floor and away from the fire which whipped against me and blistered my skin.

  “Where’s Paco?” I shouted again.

  “I got him!” a voice. Familiar.

  “Wilduwen,” I whispered.

  “They’re retreating!” another voice shouted. One I didn’t know.

  “Get the fires out!” Brukrag’s voice cut through the air.

  I watched as everyone swarmed in and out of the building, bringing buckets filled with water and dousing the flames. I had no clue how to help, and ran outside to the retreating throng of goblins. I ran as hard as I could towards them, eventually catching up to an injured one. I swung as hard as I could and felt my fingers break against the side of his skull as he let out a gasp and crashed to the ground. I was breathing heavily as I bent down, grabbed one of his spindly legs and dragged him back towards the dwindling fire.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I walked up the steps feeling the thump of his head as it connected with each that I took. I almost felt bad. Almost. But he had been a part of this raid that almost killed me, Paco, and this community I still knew nothing about.

  Inside, Paco was sitting at one of the tables with Wilduwen comforting him. Brukrag was up in the front directing people where to throw more water, and yelling what needed to be fixed as soon as possible. I walked up to him.

  “Here,” I said as I tossed the small goblin at his feet.

  “What’s this?”

  “He’s alive,” I said as I focused on the goblin. It had an Unconscious debuff above his head.

  “You two, take him in the back,” Brukrag pointed at two men who were assessing the damage to a few of the wooden beams. They quickly obliged and the goblin was taken away. Before it was, I was able to finally focus on it and get more details.

  Goblin. Level 8. It’s nothing special. Carries around a big club to make up for its overall size. Yes, that size is included. It’s small. Comically so. That’s why they’re so angry all the time and the women are unfulfilled. That being said, don’t get into too much trouble with them. A goblin raid, or their counterparts, the hobgoblins are nothing to be fucked with. They like fire. They like explosions, and they get off on the chaos of both. Usually seen riding demon hawks.

  Interesting, I thought. I wondered if killing that first baby was the reason they came here. But, how would they even know? A tracker? A pet? Something that didn’t come back when it was supposed to? Like a child who was supposed to be home when the street lights came on.

  “How you feeling?” I asked as I walked over to Paco.

  “Pretty good, still a bit sore. Wilduwen had to heal me because I was unconscious when we fell. And a patch of my fur is gone,” he turned to show me where the massive metal talons dug into his side just below the ribs.

  “Another cool scar?” I asked.

  “No,” Paco said sullenly. “Wilduwen said the healing spell she cast on me will fully mend anything. And my hair will grow back. No scar this time.”

  I noticed Paco had leveled up. He was now close to level seven. I checked mine and saw I was just barely level six.

  “Oh cool, we both leveled up with that. I also got a box for stabbing the demon hawk in the eye. What’d you get?”

  Paco took a moment.

  “I got a box for surviving the attack and another box for almost dying.” There was a brief pause. “And my stick leveled up!” Paco stood up and produced the stick.

  Upgraded Lackluster Stick of the Samurai.

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Watch,” he said as the stick sat on his waist. He grabbed the top just above the lone leaf that clung to the side. He pulled and out came a sword. It made that classic sound from every movie I’ve ever seen, and when he swung it, it still made the whooshing sound he loved.

  “Fuck,” I whispered. He was going to hurt himself, or someone else.

  “Isn’t it cool?!”

  “Yeah,” I said. “It sure is.”

  He put the sword away and it made the same movie sound as he sheathed it.

  “Good job, you two,” Brukrag said as he came over. “It has been a while since I’ve seen someone so low level take out a mother that big,” he said as he turned towards the corpse of the bird.

  “Can I loot it?” Paco asked.

  “Yes, but Chris gets first pick since it was his kill,” Bruk turned and nodded at me.

  I walked over to the bird and looted all of the meat and feathers. I left the rest for Paco. Even leaving a surprise for him.

  Paco scampered over when I was done.

  “Why’d you leave these?” he asked.

  “I knew you’d want them.”

  Paco pulled the metal talons from the birds feet as blood splatched onto the floor.

  “Thank you, Chris,” he nodded as he put the talons away.

  “Now, it’s time to go question our guest. Come,” Brukrag said as he led us to a room behind where we had sat at the feast.