Jex didn’t really have many aspirations in life. Well if he was to be honest to himself, there really wasn’t many career paths for a goblin holding a low-tiered rouge class of Gutterswipe like he did in Paulflint in the first place. If he and his sister hadn’t joined the adventurers then he was bound to end up in one of the many gangs as a professional thief, burglar, kidnapper or if he killed somebody, then he would’ve ended up evolving his class into some killer-related one instead.

Growing up in his family there was only him, his sister, his mum and his uncle Jerrock who occasionally visited them. Their mum had worked as a lowly-paid potion-brewers assistant and was able to put food on the table, even if it was never anything fancy. But what she did also do was to sneak out quite a lot of faulty health potions for uncle Jerrock for a small cut, who then passed it on to his gang to be resold to unscrupulous clients.

At first when Jex was nought but a young little gobblet all he wanted was to grow up to become a high-ranking Ruffian, just like uncle Jerrock in his Broken’Toofs gang. There wasn’t much to do for him or his sister considering that they, like many of the kids from the poorer families, didn’t have the money to pay for school.

So they played or they worked odd jobs such as keeping watch on street corners for a few bronze coins. They also occasionally pickpocketed for money and they carried out the little bit of food stealing now and again.

But all this all changed when they got caught stealing bread from Ol’Tuba the old Bufo baker when they ventured too far out of their neighbourhood of Lowside. They were spanked and they got smacked about but the old Bufo granny who was surprisingly fast on her webbed feet and with a grip of steel. But once the twins had begged and pleaded the old lady Ol’Tuba came round and told them that they only had to ask for some food if they didn’t have the bronze to pay. So they later came back once their rears had stopped smarting and lo and behold, the old lady was true to her word as she gave them freshly baked muffins and loafs to take home.

She then even taught them how to bake and taught them how to read and write and numbers in exchange for helping around her bakery. His sister Jam was quite a lot better on the uptake of the alphabet then Jex was whilst he was better with the numbers. In the first time in their young lives they didn’t steal and they didn’t hurt nobody. It felt right.

The twins even had enough of a change of heart to finally confess to the kindness that was shown to them instead of continuing to lie about stealing all the bread that they had brought home to their own ma and Jerrock. In turn their uncle Jerrock, who was mightily surprised at the kindness shown to his kin, even passed on the word that Ol’Tuba’s bakery was to be under the Broken’Toofs protection and exempt from protection fees.

The twins never really understood all of this. All they understood was that a few months later in a gang war between their uncle’s gang and a rival one, the old Bufo’s bakery was torched to the ground and the baker was horribly murdered. They never even got to saw her corpse, only hearing of her demise through word of mouth from some street urchins who had witnessed it all. But they knew that it was all because her bakery was considered to be part of their uncle’s gang.

Since that day the twins had become disenchanted towards the life of the common street criminal such as that of their Uncle. They then strived to save up as much as they can by doing less morally ambiguous jobs and joined up with the adventurers as soon as they could.

They headed for the closest adventurer’s branch where they found the place to be absolutely deserted by midday except for a unlikely trio making a free-posting.

It was gangly and awkward Hebdican by the name of Jexnog, a loud and mouthy orc called Methilda who was clearly a boy but was wearing a horrid-looking skirt and Deitric the halfling who was all smiles and slapping people about on the arm. The trio were of a similar age to them and they were clearly just a bunch of friends who were looking to round out their final members of their band. So Jex and Jam decided in that dingy adventurers branch then and there that they were to join them and finally put that criminal life behind them.

It was absurdly annoying to Jex for the first couple of months how people kept forgetting his name, even if he shared the same name as the first part of the hebdican’s.

Then there was the fact that the crew just seemed to bumble about from one mishap to another.

The four-eyes was also just terrible in a scuffle as he tended to punch his allies more often than not.

Then there was the big orchish idiot, who was also just absolutely insufferable whereby she would be flying off her rocker over every little slight.

They never had any accomplishments to their name and they barely ever made any money.

But somehow, Deitric just knew the right words to say.

But even his buttery words along with his likeable charm was strained to it’s limits after the vampiric goat incident and the “hunting journey” they went through afterwards.

But today Jex was really re-evaluating his life as he stepped through the fence.

What in the fucking name of Shadow-tongue am I doing here? He cursed to himself as he took wobbly steps into the courtyard.

Why the fuck is the horse-boy looking at me like I’m some sort of brave soldier off to die in war? Jex wondered as he glanced to his side at the reverse-centaur who was in a sorry heap and clutching at his broken arm beside the entrance.

“Good luck James,” quietly muttered Timothy before another bout of pain caused his face to contort into a rictus of agony.

It’s Jex you twat, Jex swore to himself as he grumbled under his breath before turning to look at the Leonid who was dragging out his unconscious friend from the circle.

“Well it looks like something can quieten that oaf down once in a while,” muttered his twin from behind in a half-hearted attempt at a joke.

Under normal circumstances Jex would’ve relished at the opportunity to laugh at Methilda’s misfortune. But today he was too feared of the black little menace to spare any thought for laughter.

The horrid Leonid easily dragged Methilda like a sack of vegetables before depositing her body beside the Badgians.

Then to Jex’s surprise he saw a slight twitching of the detestable Leonid’s brow before a slight smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. This was accompanied by the sound of the fence opening and closing behind with the sound of familiar footsteps approaching him from behind.

“Wait for me-e you useless shit,” muttered his twin Jam before she came to stand beside him on the edge of the ruined circle. Their foe awaiting them on the opposite lip of the same circle only cocked it’s head before snorting out in a low hissing sound.

Jex knew that his twin was putting on airs and pretending to be brave, but he could hear the slight warbling of her voice that she was prone to when she was scared. Nevertheless he could not express in words how much he loved her in that moment for choosing to face this challenge together with him.

He did expect the shitty Leonid to tell them that it was somehow against the rules. But her none-reaction only spoke of how shitty the situation he was going to get in and how his sister wouldn’t really change much in the grand scheme of things.

“How bout the old two-four switcheroo?” he asked his twin with a cocked eyebrow.

“Alright,” she curtly replied as she cracked her knuckles by flexing her grip.

What a show-off, he thought as jealousy momentarily won in a war against fear. He never really knew how she was able to crack her knuckles like that. His thoughts were soon brushed aside as she sped forwards and he too, sprinted off as he trailed in her shadow.

The twins made a beeline towards the Elite who stood there unperturbed by their charge. But it’s calm continence changed as the black Chitpulka simply answered with a quick hop of it’s own that turned it into a blur.

As the first of the twins was to collide with the Elite, her and her brother both cartwheeled of to the sides. This unpredictable move left the Elite momentarily dazed and unable to choose whom to go after as it quickly came to a halt in the sand at the middle of the ring.

Then Jam ran ahead in an arc before looping back round towards the elite that stood stock still. Whilst Jex carried out the same manoeuvre but in the opposite direction but with the same destination in mind.

The black mood who now seemed to be caught in an elaborate pincer, still did nothing but turn to its side to keep both of the twins within its line of sight.

Whereby at the very last moment where the elite actually started to brace itself for a kick, the twins both performed a synchronized backwards summersault and leaving everybody in awe of their coordinated athletics.

Seemingly having had enough of the show the mood finally went into action itself. It sped off towards Jex who was on its left in a flurry of motion that was faster than the twins were capable of reacting to.

Before Jex was even able to land from his summersault, the Mood delivered a kick to his head as he was in the midst of flipping backwards and caught in an arced handstand.

The goblin youth didn’t even finish collapsing into a boneless heap before the elite had already turned and was already accelerating away towards his twin sister.

….

Dornmit really did think that these two goblins had something going on there.

They had the co-ordination and they had clearly practiced those maneuverers considering how they were able to perform such a stunning display of synchronized acrobatics.

There was even one moment where he had imagined himself and Timothy performing such an act together in the heat of battle against imaginary foes.

But in the end after the Elite had joined into the fray, all of their moves just wasn’t enough in the face of overwhelming power.

To Dormit it even seemed like the Chopeck was just as surprised as he was to see the goblins hopping about all over the place.

But it quickly grew tired and knocked them both out with only nought but two swift kicks.

But maybe it did enjoy the show if it didn’t even give any of them and broken bones….

“Four-eyes!” his master soon shouted out.