Chapter 25: Ambush

You have missed a level 14 goblin archer. You have critically injured a goblin archer. Your two weapon fighting has increased to level 2. You are no longer hidden.

I bit off a curse as the blade in my left hand missed my target completely. Thankfully though, the sword in my right hand found its mark.

Yet it was not a clean kill. The archer still lived. As my blade sliced open his throat, the goblin’s eyes snapped open and he tried to roll away. Leaping forward, I straddle his body and pinned him in place. I raised my swords aloft once more.

The archer’s eyes grew wide. “Help—!” he managed to croak before my blades flew down again. This time, I struck true.

You have killed a goblin archer and have gained experience. You have reached level 7! Your shortswords has increased to level 8.

At the sound of movement from behind me, I rolled off the corpse and narrowly escaped the unseen attack of the second goblin.

You have evaded a level 10 goblin archer’s attack. Your dodging has increased to level 4.

I growled in frustration. My mishap had cost me. The older goblin’s cry of alarm had warned his younger companion who was now alert to the danger and eagerly rushing to engage me again.

I bounced back to my feet in time to meet the tattooed goblin’s onrushing dagger. Parrying aside my foe’s weapon with the blade in my left hand, I simultaneously struck out with the one in my right.

The maneuver caught the goblin by surprise, and he was not able to bring back his dagger in time to fend off my sword. The point of my blade pierced the archer’s hide armor and sank three inches deep into the lower half of his torso.

You have injured a goblin archer!

I grimaced. I had only superficially wounded the goblin. While the archer had failed to evade my blow altogether, he had twisted his torso far enough away for me not to have hit anything vital.

Favoring his injured side, the goblin stepped back and glared at me. With predatory intent, I circled him, both blades held at the ready. The archer shifted with me, keeping me front and center.

I paced a full circle around my opponent, and when the goblin still failed to attack, I darted forward myself. My blades flashed, the right one descending down from up high, and the left one stabbing forward.

Even injured, the goblin proved my match. He ducked beneath my descending sword while his knife turned aside my thrust blade. I didn’t let up. Dancing to the side, I slashed at the archer from the left and right simultaneously.

Once again, my foe proved equal to the task. Dodging adroitly between my blows, he stepped inside my blades and sent his dagger snaking forward.

I leapt backwards and narrowly avoided being skewered. Bloody hell! How did he do that? I had been pressing the goblin hard, and he should not have had the time to launch his own attack. Yet somehow he had.

From two yards away, I eyed the goblin warily. He was proving to be a much tougher opponent than I’d anticipated. In fact, if not for my two blades to his one, I feared I would have been outmatched already. As it was, I wondered if I would be able to kill the archer.

Seeming to sense my sudden concern, the goblin smiled toothily. “Stupid human. Me kill you now.” He took a threatening step forward.

Before I could stop myself, I took an involuntary step backwards. Idiot! That was the worst thing you could’ve done. Never show a predator fear.

The goblin’s grin broadened. “You die now,” he chortled and hurtled forward.

The archer’s dagger was a half-seen blur as it flashed towards my face. Instinctively, I flung my left sword upwards and parried away the attack, only to be threatened anew as the goblin brought his dagger slashing back before I could recover.

I blocked the second blow with the sword in my right hand and backpedaled desperately in a bid to regain my equilibrium. The goblin followed quickly after, not giving me a chance to recover. In his battle frenzy, the archer seemed to be entirely unhampered by the wound to his side.

My foe thrust his blade forward again. Once more, I fended it away and continued my retreat. The goblin, his eyes crazed, pursued me relentlessly and launched one onslaught after another.

I wove a frantic defense with my twin blades and somehow kept the archer at bay. My plan was in tatters, and I had no thought to spare beyond the moment. Still, it was in the back of my mind that the longer this went on, the better my chances.

Eventually, the goblin had to tire. Eventually the biting pain and blood loss from the wound to his side had to tell on the archer.

Eventually. I only had to survive until then.

The next few seconds passed in a blur as the goblin continued to hound me with his dagger and I tread a slow circle in reverse around the campfire. Not trusting myself to spot the goblin’s quicksilver blows in the darkness, I didn’t dare leave the circle of light cast by the campfire.

After a minute’s harried exchange, and with the goblin showing no sign of tiring, I began to wonder if it was time to flee. I was barely holding the goblin at bay, and sooner or later, his dagger would pierce my guard. It’s time to acknowledge the truth, I told myself. I can’t win this fight.

Settled in my course, I prepared to disengage. But as I was about to do so, I was struck by the change in my swordplay. My strokes were surer, and my grip around my blades firmer. My two blades worked less at odds with each other and more in tandem.

Where at the beginning of the skirmish, it had been a scramble to coordinate my attacks between my left and right sword, I was doing so more easily now. My skill has grown, I thought. Appreciably so.

And from the sideways flicker to my opponent’s gaze, I suspected he had come to the same realization. There had been a constant stream of Game messages in my mind since the battle began, but with my focus consumed by the goblin, I had mostly ignored them.

I pulled up the three most recent now.

Your dodging has increased to level 14.

Your shortswords has increased to level 19.

Your two weapon fighting has increased to level 11.

I smiled. So, this is truly what it means to be a player. The advancements to my skills had had happened so subtly and intuitively, I had barely noticed their individual increases. But their cumulative effect could not be denied.

I turned my attention upon the goblin. He was still faster than me, I noted, but now I was his equal in skill, at least when it came to blades, and soon no doubt, I would surpass him.

This fight is not lost yet, I realized. I let a broad grin split my face.

The goblin sensed my renewed confidence and his strokes grew more frantic. My own, by comparison, grew more graceful as the fear clouding my mind receded and I let instinct guide my hands.

Biding my time, I fended off the archer’s attacks by rote and waited for him to slip. He would too. And soon. I was sure of it. The goblin had lost his confidence and panic was setting in. Any moment now…

There!

In a bid to batter through my defenses, my foe had lunged forward and extended himself an inch too far.

I pounced.

Stepping into the archer’s attack, I parried his dagger away with one blade and thrust towards his torso with the other. Overextended, the goblin was helpless to stop me, and the point of my sword buried itself in his heart.

You have killed a goblin archer with a fatal blow.

You have gained experience and reached level 8! You have 2 attribute points available.

Your two weapon fighting has increased to level 13. Your shortswords has increased to level 20. Congratulations, Michael! Your skill with shortswords has reached rank 2.

Letting the flurry of game messages scroll through my mind, I dropped my swords and sank to the ground.

I had triumphed again, and once more, lived to fight another day.