Monster Mansion 2 by Dante King (best way to read ebooks .txt) 📗

enough, the number 1 was carved into it. But before they could try the door, a sudden yammering and shouting caught their attention from the other side of the hall. Two groups of squat figures had appeared in the chamber with them. There were five in each group, and they hopped up and down, jeering and shouting, until one of them gave a shout of command and they all charged forward.

“Goblins!” said Sarah. “We know how to deal with them!”

Goblins were a common foe in the dungeon sims, and the ones in the VR experiences were meant to be pretty accurate to the real thing. Sure enough, as the goblins surged forward into the light, Sarah saw that they were much the same as what she and her team were used to; small, ugly creatures, dressed in ragged bits of chainmail and boiled leather armor, and armed with scimitars.  Here and there a bigger one had a helm on his head, or was armed with a hammer.

Sarah stepped back, slipping her two-handed sword back over her shoulder and unsheathing her twinned short swords instead. If the goblins got close enough, her small, stabbing blades would be better to deal with them.

Josh lowered his crossbow to the ground and drew his pistols. “This is target practice,” he said, grinning through his massive tangle of beard.

The guns were like oversized, cartoonishly big versions of the old Colt Peacemaker  you saw in vintage western movies. Unlike the movie versions, their barrels were nearly a foot long, and they had a kickback like a horse— Sarah knew; she had tried them.  Sarah was far from a weakling but even for her it was hard to get a reliable aim out of the huge guns.

For Josh’s half-ogre strength, the kickback and the weight of the guns just made them more stable. Sarah had never known anyone so accurate with a gun like that at range. These goblins didn’t stand a chance.

Josh took a gun in each hand, aimed, and unloaded on the goblins. The noise of the explosions ripped through the chamber, echoing round the vaulted ceiling and ringing against Sarah’s senses so her head reeled.

Black smoke filled the air and the stink of cordite stung Sarah’s nose. She laughed— Josh insisted on using this old, stinking powder in his enormous guns when it would have been much more convenient to get modern guns and ammo.

The goblins didn’t know the difference, Sarah reflected. They died just the same.

Bullets from Josh’s guns smashed into goblin heads, blowing brains all over the cave floor and breaking the goblins’ chests open. She saw the head of one goblin burst like a rotten melon as two rounds hit it at once, and another one fell screaming as a bullet took out its knee.

Seven of the goblins had fallen to Josh’s barrage before they managed to even get within spitting range. By then, the remaining three were wavering. Josh laughed as he yanked the throwing axe from his belt and held it up. “Told you I’d take at least on out with this.”

He flung it expertly, and the blade sank into a goblin’s face right up to the hilt.

“Two left for me!” said Sarah with a laugh, and she stepped up wielding her twin short swords. The goblins came at her, one from either side.

She spun, knocking one goblin scimitar back with a slash of her sword, and stabbing the other goblin through the throat.

“Allow me,” said Todd from beside her.

“Be my guest,” said Sarah, jumping back out of the goblin’s reach as Todd swung his massive warhammer in a devastating overhead blow. The goblin vanished under the hammer with a yelp that was cut short by the blow. When Todd lifted his hammer again, he shook bits of goblin from the end of it.

“I always said you were wasted as a healer,” joked Sarah, shaking her head. It wasn’t true— Todd was a great healer and spellcaster— but every now and then he got a chance to use his hammer, and the results were always impressive.

“Well, thanks, I guess,” he said laughing, “but I prefer my potions and spells. More intellectual, you know?”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” said Sarah, rolling her eyes sarcastically. “Todd Hammerfist, the intellectual. Come on, smart-ass, let’s see what’s in that chest over there before we try the first door.”

There was a big, iron-bound chest beside the door marked with the number 1, and Sarah had a mind to see what was inside the chest before she tackled whatever was behind the door. For some reason, she felt that the dungeon had not thrown anything like what it could at them, and she wanted to gather a bit more loot before she faced whatever came next.

Josh kept a lookout for new foes, his crossbow at the ready, while Todd and Sarah crouched down beside the chest to see if they could get it open.

“It’s locked,” said Todd, trying the lid.

“Well, duh,” said Sarah with a smile.

Todd reached for his warhammer. “I could smash it open?”

“I doubt it. It’ll be enchanted, and probably indestructible. Anyway, where’s the fun in smashing it when you could use cunning and skill instead?”

Todd gave her a look but relented. Sarah glanced around. Next to the chest was a pile of metal scraps, and here she found what she was looking for— a set of three lockpicks.

“Watch my back,” she said to Todd, and he stood over beside his brother and did as she asked, scanning the chamber for enemies.

Lockpicking was a regular exercise in the VR dungeons, and Sarah was good at it. She was pleased to find that the process didn’t seem to be all that different here. She inserted her wrench and then slipped the pick in, moving it until she felt the pins inside the lock depress. She turned