Chapter 3: First Blood
A forest appeared around Arthur. He blinked once and knew it was the Entrance Realm. The goblin slowly climbed down from his shoulder and stood beside him.
"Gii?"
Arthur smiled. "We made it."
The goblin looked unconvinced while he continued looking around. While doing this, he didn’t notice a small bug monster with pincers rushing towards him. It aimed for the back of his leg as it reached him.
Goblin accidentally kicks it.
CRACK.
The bug monster crashed into the ground after flying through the air.
Arthur blinked.
The goblin paused.
A notification appeared.
[Enemies Defeated: 1/10]
[Level Up]
[Goblin]
[Level 1 —> Level 2]
"..."
A grin appeared, one that made the goblin shiver. "Gii?"
Arthur stared for a second.
Then he suddenly laughed.
"You actually did it!"
The goblin pointed at itself.
"Gii?"
Arthur crouched until they were eye level.
"See? I told you!"
He pointed at the invisible screen only he could see.
"One enemy!"
He held up both hands.
"Only nine more!"
The goblin blinked.
Arthur grinned wider.
"When we first met, becoming a Goblin Warrior sounded impossible."
He tapped his own chest.
"Turns out impossible is only ten monsters away."
The goblin tilted its head.
Arthur laughed.
"I like those odds."
The goblin looked between Arthur and itself before slowly puffing out its chest.
Arthur immediately pointed.
"There it is!"
The goblin squeaked and quickly stopped puffing itself up.
Arthur burst out laughing.
THUD.
But then both of them froze.
Arthur’s eyes widened.
"...Whoa."
The boar stepped into the clearing. It looked like a mountain covered in muscle.
Arthur couldn’t help smiling. "You’re huge."
"GIIII!"
The goblin slapped the side of Arthur’s head.
Arthur blinked. "Right. Admire first and then run second."
And then the boar charges.
Arthur held onto the goblin’s arms before throwing himself onto the side. Then he rolled on the ground before coming up as the boar rushed past where he was and crashing into the trees.
When he looked over his shoulder at the tree that had taken the impact instead of him, there was no tree anymore. Just a crater of white splinters and a boar that was already turning. It pawed the earth once, then charged.
Arthur turned and ran. "I wonder who pissed you off."
The boar growled in response.
The goblin made a sound. "I know," Arthur said. "I see it too."
The boar crashed through a tree to their left like the tree was a suggestion. Bark and splinters rained across the path ahead.
The goblin made another sound; this one was higher pitched.
"Don’t look at it," Arthur said. "Look forward."
"Gii."
"Forward."
"Gii."
"I understand, just keep going."
The forest moved past them in a blur.
Arthur glanced back to see everything behind being crushed by the boar charge. Even when they tried to lose it by turning or hurling to the side, the boar kept it.
Arthur ducked beneath a fallen tree. "You know..."
"GII?!"
"This is my first adventure."
"GIIII!"
"Didn’t expect this part."
The boar shattered another tree.
Arthur glanced back. "Worth it though."
And then he spotted movement slightly to the left of their current direction. A three-foot rabbit-shaped beast appeared, and a thought formed.
"I have an idea," Arthur said as he rushed toward them without breaking stride. "When I say throw, throw a rock."
The goblin lifted its head from behind his shoulder. "Gii?"
"You heard me. Just find a rock and throw it at the weakened enemies."
The goblin left his shoulder before grabbing a rock and heading over to the dying rabbit. The rock struck one of the rabbits on the side, making it squeal.
The other two froze in place. But unfortunately for them, the boar arrived a moment later and resolved the question of whether they would reconsider.
The ground shook once.
The boar had not slowed even after trampling on the two monsters. Arthur planted his back foot, spun, and drove his spear through one of them before the dust had settled. The creature twitched.
He pointed without lowering the spear. "Quickly, finish it!" He said.
The goblin dropped from his shoulder before bringing down a stone into the rabbit’s head.
[Enemies Defeated: 2/10]
"It worked," Arthur muttered in surprise. "We’re actually doing this."
The goblin stared at him.
Arthur pointed at it. "Two beasts down and not only eight left. We’ll get there."
The goblin looked strangely hopeful. "...Gi."
The boar roared from somewhere behind them.
"Celebrate later," Arthur said, and started running again.
...
The next several minutes were less a battle and more an arrangement. The boar’s rage made it predictable. It locked onto Arthur, charged in straight lines, and destroyed everything between them without any awareness that this was the strategy.
A Forest Rat and a Thorn Lizard were all crushed by the boar. Before Arthur and the goblin cleaned up behind it.
Every kill brought another notification.
[4/10]
[5/10]
[Level Up]
[Goblin]
[Level 2 —> Level 3]
Halfway.
He suddenly stopped. "...Halfway."
The goblin immediately panicked. "GI?!"
Arthur grabbed both of its tiny shoulders. "We are halfway there, partner! Halfway!" He laughed. "Do you realize that?"
"Gi?"
"When we met, you didn’t even believe you could beat one. Now look at us!"
The goblin blinked, and then it slowly raised both of its tiny fists. "GII!"
Arthur copied it.
They bumped fists.
Arthur laughed. "Let’s finish this."
And soon they reached eight enemies after killing another rabbit.
[Enemies Defeated: 8/10]
"Eight!" He laughed. "Partner! Only two left!"
The goblin immediately looked around for another monster.
Arthur blinked. "You want to keep going?"
"GII!"
Arthur smiled. "Now that’s the spirit."
It was then they heard a roar and saw the boar had completely lost its mind. Its body was covered in cuts, with one tusk chipped and blood staining its fur.
"Man, I’m kind of disappointed," Arthur said while pointing his spear at the trembling boar. "You’re really bad at this."
The boar froze, and its eye twitched.
"You’ve been chasing us for ten minutes." Arthur shook his head. "And not once did you hit us... It’s getting embarrassing."
The boar stomped on the ground, shaking it a bit.
The goblin rapidly tugged his sleeve. "Gi!"
"Hm?"
He saw the goblin sending him a panicked look as if asking if it was right to provoke it.
"It’s fine," Arthur said. "I know what I’m doing."
"Gi," the goblin looked down with a resigned look.
The tone made it clear that it had noted this statement and reserved the right to revisit it later.
The boar lowered its head, but Arthur was already running. The goblin screamed behind his shoulder as the arrangement continued.
...
[9/10]
Arthur stared. "One more." He couldn’t stop smiling. "Just one monster left."
"Gi?"
He looked at the goblin. "Can you believe it? The whole world said you couldn’t do anything. Now you’re one monster away."
The goblin nodded its head, making him chuckle.
But then he paused as he felt something shift in the air. Then Arthur turned towards the boar and his smile vanished.
The boar wasn’t charging, but instead it was watching.
It stood thirty feet away, breathing hard, and it lowered its head. For the first time, something had changed.
Arthur blinked. "Huh."
The boar wasn’t charging.
It was watching.
He tilted his head. "You learned."
The boar exploded forward.
Arthur dove to the right and felt the change in air pressure as the tusk passed through the space where his ribs had been. Then there was a sound like cracking stone and a flash of blue light across his side and a force that picked him up and threw him before his body had time to report what had happened.
He hit the ground on his back, and everything went white for a moment. And then gray, and then came back with a sharp amount of pain. The academy uniform had absorbed what it could, but what it hadn’t absorbed was distributed across his left side and doing its best to make itself known.
Arthur pushed himself up to one arm. But he could already feel the ground shaking and knew the boar was coming.
When Arthur looked up, he saw a sight he would never forget. The small goblin was standing in front of him with his spear. For one terrible second, Arthur thought he was about to watch the goblin die.
...
Arthur wasn’t moving.
The goblin froze, and its heart pounded. Its hands trembled as he tried to get it to stop, but it wouldn’t. And once again Arthur wasn’t moving while the boar was coming. It never wanted to do something like this, it knew this was a bad idea. The monster looked unstoppable. The goblin wanted to run away and hide somewhere safe.
Just like before.
Then memories surfaced.
"A goblin?"
"Throw it away."
"Disgusting."
It should just save itself, it’s not like it could do anything to help. As the goblin was about to turn around, it froze when it saw Arthur struggling to push himself up. And he saw he was still smiling even though he just took a hit.
Then another memory surfaced.
"It’s okay, little guy."
It remembered Arthur smiling.
"They’ll regret laughing someday."
It remembered Arthur patting its head.
The goblin looked down before slapping its face. Then it picked up Arthur’s spear. The weapon felt heavy, like he was carrying a massive rock. Both hands were needed just to lift the rear end off the ground, and holding the point level required more than it had expected to have available.
Its entire body was shaking, but it still ran over and stood in front of Arthur.
It raised the spear.
Its arms were shaking, but it did not lower the spear.
Even as the boar charged and the goblin closed its eyes.
It did not move.
...
Arthur saw the goblin holding the spear and not running, and he was on his feet before the thought that told him to get up had finished forming. His left side had significant opinions about this, but he moved anyway.
The boar was thirty feet away. Then twenty. The sound of it was everything; the ground and the air and the trees were shaking.
The goblin had its eyes closed. Both hands gripping the spear. The point was shaking because the goblin’s whole body was shaking, but the point was still forward. Still raised. Still there. It had not moved.
Arthur reached it and grabbed the rear of the shaft. His hands closed over the goblin’s without taking the spear away.
The goblin felt him. "Hey," Arthur said.
Ten feet.
"Hey. Open your eyes." The goblin opened them. "Look at me."
It found Arthur’s green eyes immediately. "We’ve got this. It couldn’t kill us in the last ten minutes, and it won’t kill us now. Let’s end it, partner."
"Besides, if we lose now! All that running was for nothing." The Goblin’s eyes widened before it gritted its teeth and nodded.
"Together," he said.
Five feet.
The goblin looked forward and gripped the spear while Arthur held on to the spear.
"GIIIIIIII!"
They drove the spear forward as the boar drove itself into it, and the tip found the wounded eye, and the charge stopped as though something had cut the cord holding it in motion.
The boar took one more step. Then another. Before finally stopping and collapsing down onto the ground. The area around shook, and then the forest went quiet.
Arthur stood breathing.
The goblin stood breathing.
They were still holding the spear between them.
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Arthur started laughing, not because it was funny. Because they were alive. He then looked down at the goblin, and the goblin looked up at him. For a moment neither of them said anything because there was nothing that needed to be said yet.
Then the goblin let go of the spear and grabbed Arthur’s sleeve with both hands and held on. Not clinging the way it had clung in fear during the chase but in desperation like it was afraid this was all a dream.
Arthur looked at the tiny fists in his sleeve. He put his hand on top of the goblin’s head, the way he had behind the vendor stall.
"Yeah," he said. "We got it."
The goblin made a sound against his sleeve.
Then he walked toward the enormous corpse.
The goblin immediately grabbed his sleeve. "Gi!"
Arthur looked back. "It’s dead."
The goblin shook its head furiously.
Arthur crouched beside one of the giant tusks. "Wow." He poked it. "It’s even bigger up close."
The goblin covered its face.
Arthur leaned closer. "Do you think it always looked this angry?"
"...Gi."
Arthur nodded. "You’re right. Probably shouldn’t touch it."
He poked it again.
The goblin buried its face in both hands.
Arthur laughed. "Relax. If it wakes up..." He tapped his spear. "...we’ll run again."
"Gi!"
He laughed. "You know... You don’t hide behind me anymore."
The goblin looked up.
Arthur chuckled. "Back in town. You wouldn’t even look at anyone. Now..." He pointed toward the dead boar. "You stood in front of that thing."
The goblin looked at the corpse.
Then at Arthur. "Gi."
He nodded, and then a screen appeared.
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Goblin]
[Level 3 —> Level 5]
Warmth moved through Arthur’s entire body, and the pain in his side dimmed toward something manageable. He heard the goblin make a sound, small and wondering, as the same warmth moved through it.
Then the final screen appeared.
[Enemies Defeated: 10/10]
"We did it."
The Goblin looked at him.
Arthur suddenly threw both arms into the air. "YES!"
Birds exploded out of nearby trees.
The goblin jumped.
Arthur laughed. "Not only did we kill ten beasts but survived our first big challenge!" He crouched down before pointing toward the forest. "And we’re only getting started!"
[Evolution Requirements Complete]
Golden light was rising from the goblin skin, starting at the fingers and spreading toward the wrists. The goblin watched it happen with its mouth slightly open and its wide eyes wider than usual. Then it looked up at Arthur with an expression that contained multiple things at once and no words for any of them.
Arthur crouched and put his hands on its small shoulders and looked at it directly, eye to eye. "Listen to me," Arthur said. "Whatever you become in there, we’re still us. Understand?"
The goblin looked at him.
"You carried a spear you could barely lift and stood in front of a boar that was eight feet tall," Arthur said. "That’s who you are."
The light had reached the goblin’s shoulders.
Its eyes were still on Arthur’s face.
"Gi," it said softly.
Arthur smiled. "Yeah."
He had seen the goblin hide from laughter. He had seen it tremble behind him during the chase. And now he had seen it stand its ground against a monster ten times its size.
Whatever came next, it had earned it.
The Goblin’s eyes widened before it smiled and nodded at Arthur. He could feel the happiness, pride, and courage coming off it.
The light swallowed the clearing whole.
[Condition Met]
[Evolution Activate]
[Goblin Warrior]
And the world froze.
Comments