Grey picked up the bone dagger, drawing it across the throats of both goblins for extra measure.
The dagger was more difficult to use in battle than a spear, but because of its smaller size, its durability was more reliable. It dulled quickly, but it would be decent for a few fights.
He weighed it in his right hand and then continued forward in the opposite direction of the safe room. He had taken three hours to clear the goblin village before, he wanted to see if he could make that faster.
Slowing up a bit, he peeked around a corner and saw the village ahead.
The ceilings in this network of tunnels were quite low. The start of the village area began to change that. The two goblins he had just killed were the first line of defense. They had probably heard his laughing and then come for him. But there were still two others ahead.
The region around the corner started to open up a bit. The tunnels became wider and the ceilings started to slope upward.
If Grey continued down this path here, he’d run into another set of guards. Then, further beyond them, there would be a final set who guarded a tall, wiry fence that screeched against the grey stone when it opened up.
What was interesting about that foyer, though, was that there were two other entrances to it.
Before, Grey hadn’t known that. So when he fought the last set of guards the first time, they received reinforcements. He had been forced to run and play a game of cat and mouse that took up the large bulk of the time.
These goblins were ugly, annoying, and smelly, but that was about it. Most had the strength of human children that were about eight to ten years old at most. So long as he didn’t get surrounded or overwhelmed by their number, he could easily pick them off, even if they were in groups of two.
It was when their numbers were at three or more that he started to have problems.
’We’re not doing that again. There’s another path. First I’ll deal with this first set of guards, then wrap around to deal with the others. Only then will I go for the gate.’
Grey got to work.
He had spent hours running around these tunnels trying to preserve his life before. He was more than familiar with them, and goblins weren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. They couldn’t have lived in complex tunnel networks to begin with.
It didn’t even take him half an hour before he was creeping toward the front door, eyeing the guards at the wiry gates.
They were a bit better equipped than the other goblins, each one wearing a leather-fitted armor over their torsos. Though, it was the sort of leather that was worn and wrinkled—like one you might find in the backseat of the minivan of a mom of six children.
One of them had a pair of bone axes on his back, and the other held a similar pair in hand. The latter one was also a half head taller than the other goblins Grey had come across until now, a long infected scar running from its left eye to the opposite side of its jaw.
The first time Grey had killed these two, it hadn’t been like this, and certainly not in such an open space. He had managed to take them on one by one using hit-and-run tactics.
This felt different and definitely more dangerous.
His fur-lined collar was still in his hands, wrapped around both of his fists. But now he had one dagger in each hand as well.
’Going to have to be good enough. But let’s see if they’re as stupid as I think they are first.’
Grey punted a rock with his foot.
About the only thing he was supposed to be wearing right now that he actually had were his shoes, a pair of streamlined, sleek black soles and fabric that perfectly wrapped around his toes and ankles. They didn’t exactly have shocking defenses or anything, but they were about as good as any steel-toed boots Grey had come across back on Earth.
He imagined the rest of the fabric had defenses about as good—a realization that had only made him more pissed back then. But what good was it to keep harping on it?
The rock rebounded hard and heavy across an opposite tunnel, and both goblins immediately looked over.
Grey watched as their expressions changed. And then they looked toward one another.
They began to chirp as though they were deciding something, and to Grey’s amusement, they did as he hoped and separated, the larger of the two bouncing his shoulders and flexing his wrists as he rushed over.
Grey silently watched him vanish, and the instant he couldn’t catch sight of the larger goblin anymore, he dashed forward.
Time was of the essence because these little bastards loved making a ridiculous amount of noise.
The goblin was so distracted that it didn’t even notice Grey until he was within three meters. Its head snapped toward him and it reached for the double axes on its back.
Thinking quick, Grey threw one of his daggers at it. It flew end over end, its pommel driving right into the forehead of the green little beast.
"They make it look so easy in the movies," Grey cursed, but he didn’t stop.
His dagger might have failed to land blade-first, but the goblin hadn’t known that would happen. Its immediate reaction was to try and fail to dodge, giving Grey just enough time to leap forward and punt the goblin’s jaw into orbit.
The green beast was taken off its feet a few inches before collapsing to the ground, where it never got a chance to stand back up.
Grey’s second dagger drove down from above and right through its neck.
Without missing a beat, he turned it over and replaced his daggers with the two axes, standing quickly to face the larger goblin that was already on its way back.