Chapter 3: Raid

Timeline Position: Present

Era: 1st Century STT

Year 87,001 ORT

As I got up out of bed and stretched, I noticed that there was the faint sound of clashing metal coming from the distant main gate to the Chief’s estate. I furrowed my brow, thinking hard as to where I had heard this sound before. Then it hit me.

“Swords,” I breathed out. “That’s where I’ve heard that before.”

I shook Jacquelyn’s arm to wake her up. When she opened her eyes, she asked what was going on.

“Well, first, it’s time to get up. Second, I think I can hear fighting going on. And third, I think it’s getting closer. So, get dressed, quickly eat something from the bowl of fruit next to you, and let’s go, okay?” I told her.

“Okay...” She mumbled into her pillow.

While she was getting ready, I quickly got my armor on, leaving the helm off for now. I went out the door to the hallway to check whether it was safe or not to go out. I could still hear the fighting coming closer, so I turned back into the room, and, seeing as my wife was ready, I told her to follow me, and to keep close.

I slowly walked out of the room, glancing over my shoulder to make sure Jacquelyn was behind me, and went down the hallway towards the sound of fighting. Once we got to the corner, the noise of clashing blades suddenly grew much louder, and as we rounded the edge, I saw a fierce battle between our hosts and crazy looking creatures.

They looked like small hobgoblins, with different varieties of horns protruding from their forehead. There were curling rams horns, bulls horns, minotaur horns, antlers; more and more kept appearing.

None of that mattered, however.

The defenders were pushed back, up to the point they were surrounded on all sides, and they slowly fell, one by one.

I turned toward my wife, and beckoned her closer.

“I’m going to go in,” I whispered. “I want you to keep an eye out for any enemies that make it past us, and tell me if that occurs through mindspeak, okay?”

She quickly nodded, some fear in her eyes. I gently took her shoulders, and gave her a quick hug.

Once I was turned around, I put my helm on, pulled out my sword, and ran into the fray. As I was swinging my sword, cutting down these monsters left and right, I was trying to see if there was any sort of leader for the defenders. There didn’t seem to be one, but I did notice a dwarf that the others seemed to look to for direction. Thus, I headed in that direction.

I stabbed a short goblin-like creature through the eye, spurting blood through the air, then I blurred with motion as I quickly activated Sie’die, slicing the heads from the bodies of three different goblins as they charged at me.

Suddenly I sensed a presence behind me, so I reversed the grip I had on my sword, and thrust backwards, going through the chest of a larger goblin.

I pulled my blade out, just in time to swing it around, and parry a strike from a rather crude blade wielded by a rather gruesome goblin. As I stood there, there seemed to be a small circle forming around me, made up of goblins ranging in size. From 3 feet tall, to 4 and a half feet tall, they stood there, weapons at the ready.

Suddenly, the crowd parted, and what could only be described as an Orc walked through. He was tall, standing near 7 feet, carrying a large club with crude spikes attached to it.

He looked down at me, and grunted out, “Hmph, little lamb kill little gobbos. No worry. Shar’ziekel crush little lamb.” He then raised his club, and charged.

I stood there, sword in a defensive position, and as Shar’ziekel rushed towards me, I stepped forwards, raising my blade to meet his club.

Now, normally, this would be a bad idea, but, when you consider what my blade is made of, then you don’t really have to worry about trivial things such as if a blade can cut through a cut down tree.

As soon as my blade hit the club, most would’ve expected to see the blade shatter. However, that didn’t happen. In fact, the opposite happened. My sword went through the club like it was made of air. Like it didn’t even exist.