Delver Magic III: Balance of Fate - Jeff Inlo (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

Joel crouched low and avoided attention, but it was not something he could do forever. “I could double back, but that’s not going to get me where I want to go. Ok, not the situation I had in mind, but this ain’t a festival parade, either. Face facts, it was going to come down to a fight eventually. Might as well start it here, just don’t want to end it here.”

Joel took a long look down the street towards a group of goblins that staked out a crossroad in front of him. They crouched low and their small stature made them difficult targets, but they seemed to show no care toward finding cover. For the most part they stood out in the open, as if they held no fear of attack, or perhaps it was just their way of being seen so that any panicked human wouldn’t dare try to pass them.

Joel remained hidden from their sight as he contemplated the situation. “I got a clear shot at a few of them right now. If I fire from here, though, there going to see me.” He paused to look back over his shoulder. “And no real good escape from here, either. Once I take my shots, I’m gonna have to move, but I gotta move smart. Not going to get trapped here.”

Joel remained careful to stay out of sight and always remained mindful of the sounds of the hook hawk that remained in the distance. The thought of the rock beetle gave him a cold shudder, but there wasn’t much he could do about that nightmare. If it was under his feet right now, he’d never know it.

Instead, he focused on his main objective and toward that end he needed two things—a covered spot to take out a few goblins with his crossbow, and then a safe path of retreat. That path had to allow him a route away from the goblins not to a dead end. He wanted his withdrawal to take him a safe distance away, but also allow him to turn back in a direction toward his home.

Scanning the row of buildings, he found a secure spot to shoot fairly quickly. An emptied and ransacked merchant store had two broken windows facing the goblin line. It also fronted an equally empty warehouse that included a broken delivery door that opened to a back alley. Calculating the distance from the storefront to the goblin position, he believed he could hit his targets. The cover of the store would allow him to take at least two or three clean shots from the windows, maybe even four. With the windows already broken he wouldn’t make much noise. Still standing in one spot, the goblins didn’t look too concerned with facing an attack at this particular moment, so he believed he could catch them off guard. Once he fired, he hoped that before they could get a clear lock on his position he could move back through the storefront, into the warehouse, and then out into the alley.

The alley ran parallel to a street he needed to cross to get back home, so he could follow this path for as long as necessary. If the goblins called for reinforcements, they would have to close in tight, and that would open some holes in their line. He just needed to create enough havoc to distract the goblins enough for him to get through.

He took his position in the store and stared down through his line of fire. He wouldn’t get a better chance then this. “It’s getting darker,” he whispered to himself. “Shadows are getting longer, must be near sunset. Don’t want to do this in the dark, that’s their advantage, not mine. Ok, best do it now and get it over with.”

He carefully slid the crossbow down from over his shoulder and took hold of the stock. His hand trembled slightly at first, but with a quick breath, he steadied himself. He loaded the first bolt, and decided not to take any more time to think. His decision was made and it was time to fire.

The first bolt found its mark in the neck of an unsuspecting goblin. The creature spun around twice upon being hit before crumpling to the ground. The other goblins jumped at first and Joel thought they might scatter. Something, however, seemed to grip them in place as they stood frozen in dumbfounded awe of the sight. They looked back and forth from the downed monster to the streets as if trying to determine from where the attack came. The spiraled movement of the victim’s fall, however, left them looking in the wrong direction.

Joel allowed himself a short nod to his luck as he loaded another bolt. He took aim, but this time his fortune did not smile with the same benevolence. The bolt flew straight and true, but it smashed against the thick metal chest guard of another unmoving goblin. The creature was stunned as it was knocked off its feet, but the bolt did not penetrate the armor and the goblin was unhurt. It appeared to peer right at the window from where the bolt came.

Joel ducked low, mumbled a curse as he loaded a third bolt and moved over to the second window. When he raised his head slightly to get a look at the situation, the curses faded.

The goblins remained unmoving and in the open, almost as if standing in a dazed stupor. They looked in all directions and none made a move toward his position. He decided to gamble at this point. He fired the crossbow once more and quickly reloaded, fired again, reloaded and fired a third time. He ducked down and moved back to the first window, popped his head up, and took another long look while he loaded yet another bolt. He could see that luck swung back to his favor. All three bolts found a victim and now there were four goblins on the ground already dead, or mortally wounded. The remaining goblins lost their stoic nature and now moved in pure panic. They hissed and growled as they dove for cover or ran in every direction. They appeared to care very little for determining the source of fire, and thus Joel did not make an immediate attempt to leave the store.

#

Sazar immediately sensed the attack on his goblins. He felt the loss of the minion almost as if someone plucked a scale from his skin. As he stood in a dusty warehouse, he peered out a half broken window toward the north.

“What’s this?” he asked himself. He flipped through a myriad of images in his mind. He saw Pinesway from varying perspectives through the flashes of sensations he obtained from his goblins. He quickly categorized the different sections of town and immediately sharpened his focus on the area of the attack. He could visualize the goblin dead on the ground with a crossbow bolt in its neck.

“Crossbow fire, but just one shot,” the serp mused. “I wonder where from. There will be another I’m sure.” Sazar linked his thoughts directly to the goblins in this precise area. The images of the other sections of town quickly blurred out of his mind. With his attention narrowly focused on goblins near the point of the assault, his contact with the other monsters in town broke off. For these minions, the orders Sazar previously pressed into their minds would remain in the forefront of their thoughts, but they were also now more or less on their own.

“Stay as you are,” the serp whispered to a thread of energy that instantaneously brought the command to the goblins that stood near Joel’s position. They did not hear it with their ears, but it rang in their thoughts as if the order had been shouted from a mountain top. “Keep your eyes to the buildings toward the center of town. Look for movement.”

At that moment, the serp actually felt the bolt that Joel had fired into the chest armor of the second goblin. So powerful was the link to this creature that Sazar almost lost his breath. He followed the gaze of this fallen but unhurt goblin, and Sazar believed he knew where the attacker hid. He focused more strenuously on the sight that came crisper into his mind. Seizing the very vision of the goblin at the scene, the serp saw movement of shadows through a broken window.

“Yes, there he is. This one is getting brave. Can’t let that happen.” He refocused his thoughts on the band of goblins. “Split into two groups and sur…”

His complete order never reached the goblins. Another bolt found a goblins ear and the creature screamed. The sudden explosion of pain and sound surprised the serp for only a moment, but it was a moment long enough. Another bolt found its mark and a goblin collapsed, dead instantly with a bolt lodged past the arm hole of its chest guard and into the creature’s black heart. A third and final bolt also hit its target, piercing a goblins cheek and through its mouth. This goblin could not scream, but it gurgled in agony.

The serp endeavored to refocus his link with the goblins that were under attack, but the creatures’ own delirious panic overrode such an attempt. They broke formation under the stress, ignored any whisper of the serp’s commands that tried to enter their thoughts, their minds clouded with their own fear. Sazar’s words could reach their minds, but it could not break through the haze of terror that now gripped their every concern. They ran and hissed, scrambled and screeched. They showed little regard for anything else other than searching for cover from the unseen attack. They moved without direction other than the desire to avoid the next bolt.

“Incompetent imbeciles,” Sazar growled. He quickly ended his link with these goblins, deciding further attempts to corral them would be futile. Images from his other minions slowly began to filter back into his mind once more. He sensed no other calamity throughout the town and he drank in the relief that this instance of resistance appeared to be completely isolated. Still, he needed to address the issue to ensure that it would not spread. He immediately redirected the hook hawk to cover the area from above.

He considered sending the rock beetle as well, but quickly dismissed the thought. The beetle remained in its position chomping away on the remains of the two goblins the serp had commanded to be its meal. More importantly, the beetle remained stationed in a strategic position that cut off the river rogue from the rest of the town. With his ring of goblins tightening on the center of Pinesway, the serp wished to keep the territorial river rogue from venturing beyond its claimed land. The rogue could no doubt smell the rock beetle and would remain defensive of its position as opposed to curious about the upheaval near the town’s center.

“Can’t rely on the goblins, though,” Sazar lamented to himself. “My other shag is too far across town. Best to send the big one.”

With that, Sazar directed a mental command to the large shag that served as the serp’s personnel body guard and was doing nothing more at the moment then standing guard outside the building. The shag grunted, crouched low, and bounded off toward the center of chaos that was all that was now left of Pinesway.

#

Ryson circled Pinesway from the edges of the surrounding forest before he even considered entering the town. He dashed through the trees in a blur of movement, quickly taking glimpses of each road that became visible as he traveled. The river that cut across the northwest section of town proved to be his only true obstacle. He could have cut across the