Once upon a time, Mickey Belcot played a certain game starring a certain boy in green. In one particular iteration, the hero of the game had a certain weapon—one Mickey had never seen a hero use. It was a weapon that was typically reserved for villains.

The Ball And Chain.

He didn’t know why, but he was enamored with its raw power. It was strange to use, and didn’t work on enemies it wasn’t designed to work on but that only made Mickey wish he could use it more. There was something cathartic in using it and watching it destroy so much of the enemy. Especially gratifying was when he could use it against the very enemies that used it.

That one weapon—Mickey wished there would be another game where using it could be so satisfying.

***

“Holy crap,” Mickey yelped as he registered that more goblins arrived.

He looked at the lodged spiked ball and pulled at it. Would it budge? Mickey doubted it. In the game he once played, the Ball & Chain had trade-offs—it slowed the hero down when he used it.

He pulled the chain—it refused to budge.

“Do not get stuck on how other games work!”

In a moment of adrenaline, the memory of what he read came in loud and clear. He focused on the goblins and pulled at the chain, fully expecting the ball and the end of the chain to fly, not because it could, but because Mickey wanted it to fly.

The ball responded, and Mickey swung from right to left. This time, the first four goblins were swept up by the ball, but the other six all dodged, with only one of the six losing a patch of its scalp.

Swing completed, Mickey pulled at the chain and the ball returned to Mickey. He took hold of the chain with both hands and let the ball dangle. As it did, the ball shrank in size until it was the size of a watermelon.

“How user-friendly,” Mickey remarked, his eyes trained on the goblins. “Okay, I get it now. Just got to tell myself that for everyone but me, the ball is heavy.”

Mickey spun the end with the ball thrice, and launched it immediately after, aiming at the head of the scalped goblin. The physics of the toss weren’t in Mickey’s favor—in the real world, it would have been a laughable misfire.

But this wasn’t the real world; Mickey’s intention made up the difference. The ball flew where he wanted it to. The goblin panicked, trying to duck again, but its luck was up.

It screeched as the ball collided fully, having expanded to a diameter that was a quarter longer than the length of the goblin. The ball flew, carrying the goblin, and crashed into the floor, squishing the goblin like a roach. The others looked to their comrade, shocked, and then followed the length of the chain back to Mickey—

Mickey flew past them, pulling himself toward the ball by having the chain reel him in. He locked eyes with one particularly angry goblin. As they crossed, Mickey oriented his foot toward the goblin and from his sole released a second ball on a chain.

The suddenly released ball, flying as swiftly as an eagle, ripped the goblin’s head clean off. Mickey landed next to his first ball, with one foot on the ground, and spun viciously. The ball still connected to his foot flew, carried by the rotation, and smashed the remaining four goblins. Mickey released the ball on his foot, letting it fly, and the goblins that were reduced to crumpled rag-dolls dissipated into smoke.

“Twenty down, eighty to go.”

Just as Mickey said his count, the next ten arrived, again looking a little bit stronger. This time, one had a mohawk.

“Wow… How liberating… I want to try everything!” Mickey wouldn’t admit it to himself, but this was the happiest he had been since a long while ago.

Mickey let the Ball & Chain dissipate and ran toward the new goblins. What followed was Mickey’s research and development.

First, the meteor hammer.

Inspired by the real-life version and then embellishing it to make it more appropriate to its name, Mickey conjured up a spiked ball on fire and brought it down. Coming out of an overhead swing, the fiery ball utterly crushed a goblin six feet away from him.

Another goblin screamed—it lunged at him with an actual metal knife. Mickey raised his left arm to block and recalled the chain, having it wrap around his arm, leaving no exposed skin. The chain was faster than the goblin, moving at the speed of a blink.

A clink and a clatter echoed from the point of contact. Mickey quickly placed his open palm before the goblin who reacted with wide-eyed surprise—a ball ejecting from his palm ripped the head and torso of the goblin clean off.

Mickey stepped forward and spun around with his arms sticking out. The two chains, now both projecting from his palms, followed his lead as did the balls they led to. Those balls and chains were whipped around; alternating the length of the chains to disorient the dodging goblins, Mickey crushed or strangled seven more goblins leaving only one, the Mohawk. Mickey stopped his spin and let the balls rest on the ground.

Mohawk roared and tensed its muscles—its veins were bulging and its green skin was reddening as if liquid anger was being pumped below it. Mickey ran at the goblin, letting the two spiked balls stay on their spot as he extended the chains so that he could run forward.

Mohawk threw his knife to the ground and approached Mickey with balled hands. In a blink, Mickey had the ball and chain retract and coil around his arms—

Ball&Chain Boxing.

With the balls fixed to his palms and the chains serving as guards, Mickey swang at Mohawk. Mohawk dodged the first jab and barely dodged the second jab, just barely curving its back out of the way. Mickey went for a third but Mohawk jumped all the way back—leaping eight feet away, well out of Mickey's reach. That third jab failed, but he followed with his other hand, stepping into the next jab. He swung, and the ball flew like a rocket right to the wide-eyed Mohawk. Mohawk tried to brace—its hands went up.

Mickey expanded the ball. Mohawk roared from behind his guard. Then Mickey had it burst into flames at the moment of impact. Mohawk cried for all of a second before the flying meteor hammer disintegrated him.

Mickey dissipated the two Ball&Chains he had out and conjured up two smaller Ball&Chains with orange-sized balls. He held the chains from two feet down their length from the balls and spun them from around. For these, he had the chains coil loosely around his arms and up to his back where the two chains hooked together making it so there were two balls joined by one chain; an image a little closer to a traditional meteor hammer.

“I should get a little more abstract. I’ve got seventy left, right?”

The next victims arrived with a new Mohawk. This time, Mohawk was muscular—so muscular he was wider than three goblins. The nine goblins accompanying him this time however seemed…healthier.

Mohawk roared and the other nine howled before disappearing.

Mickey was taken aback—he took an actual step back—

Blood flew across his field of vision and pain followed soon after. Then another—a green blur flew across his field of vision, a fountain of red coming soon after. As the red obscured his vision, the searing pain assaulted Mickey's senses, sharpening them.

Speed types. They’re speedy enemies. Dang—speed isn’t really modeled like this in turn-based games. What do I do?

Mickey was surrounded by blurs whipping across him, each time they crossed, pain was sure to follow.

“I reject this damage!”

Mickey glowed and the damage disappeared—even his clothes were repaired and clean. But just because he rejected the damage—it didn’t mean the sources would stop.

The goblins kept going; Mickey shot the two spiked balls, aiming for a different blur with each. The balls missed their targets and flew towards the floor, the chains extending as they flew—

“I haven’t missed yet!” Mickey yelled, fueled by an idea.

The balls collided with the floor and bounced shooting off in different trajectories than the ones they had before the collision. The balls flew and hit different walls while Mickey took more damage that he quickly rejected. The balls again bounced—this time their trajectory took them close to Mickey’s spot—the chains still extending without end. When they crashed near Mickey, the balls again bounced, adopting a new trajectory.

This cycle continued until finally—

“GREEEEEEEH!”

“GRACK!GRACK!GREEEEEH!”

“GREEH!GREEH! GREEH!”

The goblins were hollering as they were tripped up by the mess of extended chains that Mickey had created.

Let’s call this Ball&Chain Mayhem. I was inspired by cages, but now for you guys—

Mickey had made it harder for the goblins to move by making use of the flying and ricocheting Ball&Chains that could produce endless trails, but he also made it tough on himself. So for this occasion, he sprouted six arms from his back.

I’m not a big believer in divinity but there are these gods with many arms in another religion—I always thought they were pretty cool.

Mickey walked forward through his mess with the composure of a Buddha strolling through a screaming hell. One goblin with his foot caught in a chain—one palm struck his head, driving it into the ground at an angle so sharp its neck snapped and left it a bobblehead.

Four jumped out—the previously lucky ones that escaped the tangled mess— and using the more-or-less taut chains as stepping stones, they lunged at Mickey, each going for the head. Four swift palm strikes met them simultaneously and from each palm, news balls on chains launched out, taking them to the ceiling.

With eight arms total, Mickey grabbed onto a chain and pulled. Guided by the mental image of a ball of chains with goblins jammed in it, Mickey had the chains swirl around him, sweeping up the reaming speedy goblins. The six extra arms guided the process, almost like they were weaving a ball of silk. With poise and guided by the image, the chain-ball was formed, the limbs of goblins sticking out of chain links and cries echoing.

Mickey ignited the ball and with his six extra palms, pushed the ball with so much force that it was practically a flaming cannonball as it flew at Mohawk.

Mohawk roared and grew two sizes, he met the ball head-on and with a mighty groan, lifted up, redirecting the ball into the ceiling. The ball hit the ceiling with a thunderous crash. Vision cleared, Mohawk looked at Mickey with a cocky grin—

“Grah?” Mohawk bellowed, his face warped.

Mickey was standing, still calm, with a chain gripped in each hand. Each chain led to the flaming ball in the ceiling.

With a straight face, Mickey pulled down on the ball like was slapping on a horse’s reign. The ball responded swiftly. Mohawk threw himself out of the way, the flaming ball crashing one foot behind him.

Mohawk scrambled to his feet—

“Oh, that gave me an idea—”

Mickey yanked on the Ball&Chains, directing the ball toward the ceiling. Before crashing, the ball exploded into a flowery fireworks display that illuminated the room with the full spectrum of color. But behind the light display that distracted even a monster was an ominous smoke that formed dark clouds.

A bright orange light illuminated the clouds from behind. It broke through and Mohawk’s jaw fell slack as his face was illuminated orange.

From the skies above, a meteor fell.

“Grah, grah?” Mohawk whimpered.

The meteor, the size of a house, fell on Mohawk, disintegrating him as it erupted into a tower of flame upon contact.

Mickey whistled, his body illuminated by the orange glow. “I didn’t think they’d actually let me drop a meteor. Never did I think VR could be so empowering.”

The flames settled, revealing an untouched environment, but no Mohawk.

“Interesting, no environmental damage… Is that because I didn’t imagine environmental damage? Okay, I’ll test a different mental image. Sixty to go.”

***

Now Loading... Information

Bestiary

Goblin Boss(Trial)

No info...

"I wonder if I could be that muscular..."

Goblin Assassins(Trial)

No info...

"These could have been a real trouble!"