Kyle hadn’t been in anything resembling physical combat since elementary school, and the fights back then had never ended well for him. Options flew through his head. Hit the goblin with the axe before it swung its sword? Try to block the swing with the axe haft? Jump over the goblin? Dodge roll to the side like in an action game? With a myriad of possible options in front of him, Kyle took what was probably the least effective course of action; he stood there paralyzed with indecision as the goblin charged him. The closest thing to a response he mustered was to tense up as the sword sunk into his thigh.

“Aaurgh!!” Kyle cried out. The pain was real and biting. Instinct took over, and he kicked at the goblin with his unwounded leg. The blow connected in the goblins stomach and sent it tumbling backwards. As the goblin regained its footing, Kyle readied his axe to swing it at his foe.

Kyle paused before delivering the blow, though. He had killed thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of enemies in various games. Many were goblins. Many were in the first person.

But none of them were this real. Kyle realized there was a huge difference between clicking a mouse and chopping at the head of a living creature with an axe.

As Kyle hesitated, the goblin struck again, stabbing its sword in the right side of Kyle’s chest. Kyle shouted, half battle cry and half cry of pain. Then, fuelled by his pain, he brought his axe down towards the goblin’s head. He missed, grazing the goblin across the chest. The HP bar above the goblin decreased a bit as the goblin grimaced and took a more defensive stance, dropping its torch on the ground to hold its sword in two hands. It continued to swing its sword, but Kyle had longer arms, and the goblin now seemed unwilling to commit enough to get within Kyle’s reach.

Now that Kyle was no longer acting on reflex, he took mental stock of himself. His leg and chest hurt like crap, but his leg was supporting weight and his chest wasn’t dripping or anything. He took a step forward and shouted something indistinct at the goblin, hoping to maybe scare it off. It screamed back at him, that same unnerving, feral screech, and swung its sword, about a foot away from Kyle’s stomach. Kyle slowly advanced on it, and it kept pace moving backwards, staying just outside of Kyle’s reach.

Finally, Kyle took a deep breath and bolted towards it, bringing his axe down in an overhead chop.

The goblin stuck its sword above its head to try and parry the blow. The flat of the sword blade intercepted the haft of the axe, but Kyle had put more force into the blow than the goblin could withstand, and the axe head sunk into the goblin’s skull as the sword was knocked low.

The sudden feeling of resistance as the axe hit flesh was unnerving. Kyle had just killed a thing. He squeezed his eyes shut, let go of the axe, and turned away, hearing a thump as the goblin hit the floor.

Kyle felt at his chest. It hurt, but he couldn’t find a gash in his clothing. His pants were likewise unharmed. Still, the pain was tangible and real. He stuck his hand under his shirt to feel for the wound, but felt neither gore nor blood.

He opened up his status screen, and glanced at his HP. He was at 58% of his max. The goblin went down fast, but had Kyle been a little less decisive, he could have been dead. Or… whatever passed for dead in this game.

Crap. If being at 58% hp hurt this bad, then what would dying feel like?

Satisfied that he was not in immediate peril, Kyle looked towards the goblin.

The axe was still stuck in the goblin’s head where Kyle had left it. There was no blood, making the view seem strange and incongruous, but not grizzly. The goblin’s eyes still stared blankly forward. The HP bar had disappeared.

Kyle took a deep breath, planted a foot on the dead goblin’s chest, and yanked at the axe. It pulled free, and left a perfectly intact goblin head, with only a thin pink line to show there had been a wound at all. Kyle also saw the start of a pink line near the goblin’s neck that disappeared under the goblin’s leather shirt. For something so authentically violent and unnerving, the lack of blood felt… wrong. Censored. But censored poorly.

No fanfare. No XP bar rising. No loot list.

Which wasn’t to say there wasn’t loot, Kyle realized. He grabbed the goblin’s sword and Examined it. Crafted by “Goblins”, 39/40 durability, 15% quality, +4 damage. Seemed the axe was better. The sword was vendor trash then? Whatever. Holding the sword in his left hand, he punched the appropriate commands to drop it into his inventory. Loot. Yay. A familiar trope in an eerie world, Kyle thought grimly.

He considered looking for other items on the dead goblin, but couldn’t bring himself to. What was he supposed to do, strip the goblin nude? Whatever. It probably didn’t matter. Goblins classically never carried much of value anyway.

Leaving the corpse there, Kyle approached the door on the other side of the room. The lack of hinges on Kyle’s side implied it opened into the room beyond.

Kyle gripped his axe in both hands. Well, if this is how the game works, then so be it. Time to embrace his inner murder-hobo.

He put on his best intimidating grimace and kicked the door open, shouting and brandishing his axe.