The creature who I could only refer to as a goblin from its textbook image of all the novels and manga I read pulled back the massive club, its small arms twitching under the enormous weight. Mesmerized on how such a small scrawny creature could wield such heft I snapped out of my stupor as the cries and scream rang out around me. Swinging my trolley 180 degrees to face the monster, I thrust forward catching it of balance added to the club's weight overhead causing it to fall back hard. I frantically pushed of the balls of my feet lunging awkwardly to reach the creature before it regained its footing. Bringing my right hand down around its face a sloppy backhand however proving true as it struck the creature attempting to stand sending it spiraling on the floor.

To my dismay the contact left no damage to it, causing it to fall off balance sure and the whiplash of the fall clearly staggered it however no obvious injury expressed itself around the contact point. Having taken boxing in my younger days and being pretty strong the resilience of such a creature baffled me. Surely I should have killed it and got a glorious gift to rule all however the angered bellows of its buddies reminded me once more this was not a novel. I needed to put in more effort attempting to run away from such numerous and low center of mass creature would prove to be troublesome and clearly, my fellow humans had no desire to help pushing further and further back behind the store, pitifully clinging to shelves and screaming.

Diverting my attention away from the sorry lot, I reached out a bloodied hand from the earlier attempt showing that the attack clearly hurt me more than it, I swiped the fallen club off the floor and glared into the puffy eyes reminiscent of a dead fish. The creature's buddies gathered around seeming to egg it on as to why I was still alive. I thought to do the most obvious situation in front of me since there was obvious bait. I turned around and leaped over the stall closest to me hugging the back as I landed. Cries rang as the people were in dismay as to why I left, did they think I was stupid enough to take a whole group on whilst they clearly weren’t lending a hand.

“Hey come back who’s going save us”

“Please I don’t want to die help”

Don’t get me wrong I would love to help if I could, the heroes in the novels always did, however, that wasn’t practical and that thought would get me killed a lot sooner. Frankly, I valued my own life far more than theirs

“like I want to die”

I murmured in a gruff voice sharply inhaling.

My plan was simple, due to the goblin's small stature, them being unable to see over the stalls, and whilst the majority of the group stormed towards the cowering humans a small select few considered chasing the meal that left. Not knowing at my attempt to hide and wait an unsuspecting member leaned too far over and embraced the wood as it smashed over its skull with a sickening crunch. Blood oozed out all the orifices while brain matter fought to find a way to escape the incaved skull. Poorly timing a specific quote but thinking it fit perfectly for the scene I bluntly said

“Do you know the way”

It was my first time killing and don’t get me wrong whilst the experience was definitely not appreciated, however, I valued my life mixed with the fact that these creatures were non-human existences, it reassured of my decision and I continued forward to strike the 2nd idiot, the one who so kindly leant me his club.

Crushing 2 of the skulls I darted down another bend, realising a blinking light in my vision I frantically cast it away knowing that any distraction in such a situation could be detrimental to my future health, and I personally enjoyed being healthy very much. Running through piles of well-ordered food reminded me of how a simple shopping trip turned into a more exasperating event. At the end of the aisle, I was greeted with sticky viscous blood congealing over the floor like paint. Seeing obvious differences between this dark red blood and the more disgusting green lathered over my now sweat-soaked clothes made me feel a little better about killing.

I hunched down at the end waiting for the third and final victim of the 3 who I know referred to as the three musketeers, there clear companionship showing as they stuck together pepped me up to send this one with the others, we wouldn’t want them to feel lonely know would we, after all, there’s no such thing as a single musketeer. The finale goblin dashed through the fallen piles left by my previous graceful movement to meet a solid boot to the knee. Due to the objects clattered around me attempting to swing the heavy club at such a small target would prove difficult, the novels demonstrated this with ease, however they forgot all about velocity and that you need to swing to generate enough force, after all, I didn’t have a hobby of swinging clubs, I just choked that up to not having enough time to prepare since the creature clearly sent an obvious welcoming letter.

The overweight goblin fumbled to the floor, however, where I thought the knee should snap there were no markings of my boot coming in contact with it leading me to double down on my previous hypothesis. I smacked the leg of a nearby shelf allowing it to tumble down and trap the squirming creature. Repeatedly dropping the weighty weapon in my hand a satisfying squish echoed out indicating the creature's death.

“ Didn’t know about gravity, did you? It’s a bitch”

Swinging around I turned and stalked the separated goblins, offing them on by one killing the unsuspecting like a reaper. The finale put a decent fight however my heavier physique and stronger attacks overwhelmed the little sucker whilst keeping it at a decent distance with my longer arms. Averting my eyes from the carnage I noticed the shutters to this particularly fine establishment lowered, showing that another person had their wits during this. Grateful as I was due to having no energy I turned to observe the casualties. Thankfully I was able to kill the majority at 7 and a group of fellow humans ganged on the last still battering it's clearly broken and bent dead body.

“At least they had the common sense to gang up on it”

Unfortunately, the volume of dead corpses clearly human from the pale skin showed that although the battle was won, it was not won without sacrifice, or in their case stupidity.