I jogged through the forest and soon reached the end of it. I saw a small hill with ruins on top of it and two figures standing at the top. Silhouetted against the sky.
I reached the top and walked over to Matt and Seb who were sitting on some fallen columns that looked like they might have once surrounded a shrine or something. Matt was wearing foppish medieval clothing and had an ivory cane.
"Tim, what in God’s name are you wearing?!?” exclaimed Matt.
“It seems the game remembered the clothes I was wearing from my last cosplay convention,” I said as I flicked my cape out. “These clothes fit a bloodspiller type assassin like myself to a “T”.”
“Tim…. Wearing an outfit like that practically screams at the world ‘I’m an assassin! I’m going to stab you in the back!’” Matt pointed out quite bluntly. “You are hereby forbidden to be my assassin as long as you’re wearing that.”
“Poor taste in outfits aside, you said you’re a bloodspiller assassin, right?” queried Seb. “That’s a damage focused class, entirely centered around getting in one good strike at a time, then retreating out of danger. Wouldn’t the mindgamer assassin be more fitting for political assassinations? It reduces your straight up attack power, but adds tons of skills, such as disguises, poisoning, traps, forging signatures, and all kinds of handy other tools. Why’d you get bloodspiller, if your intent was to take out Matt’s rivals?”
“Who needs poisoning when you can just use a well-placed slice to an artery?” I retorted. “If you cut the right place, say the femoral artery in the thigh, the target will bleed to death in a matter of minutes! That’s far more fun than traps, disguises and the like!”
“Right, I forgot just how bloodthirsty you are,” shivered Sebastien. “You’d better keep this guy on a tight leash or he’ll take you out too, just to test his skills.”
“Heh, what good is a guard dog without fangs?” returned Matt. “At least this way he’ll be handier in direct combat. For instance, against those goblins that have been sneaking up on us for the past while.”
Matt nonchalantly swung his cane in the direction of the forest behind us. And, lo and behold, there were goblins there. As well as several who had circled around us and were in the ruins of the library.
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” exclaimed Sebastien.
“They haven’t attacked us, so it’s entirely possible they come in peace,” explained Matt. Completely unperturbed. “Assuming ill-intent is an easy way to start a bloodbath, Sebastien.”
“They’re frickin’ goblins!” retorted Sebastien, an edge creeping into his voice. “They probably noticed that new players spawn at resurrection shrines, and they prepared a welcoming party!”
“I’ll take the ones behind us,” I said as I drew my short sword.
Matt just started to walk towards the goblins.
“Are you crazy Tim?!?” asked Sebastien as he turned to stop me. “You’re an assassin, so you have incredibly high attack, but you have one of the weakest defense stats of all the classes! Two or three good hits from those goblins, and you’re done for, and that’s not even the worst of our problems! Matt can barely attack, as he has neither attack skills, or weapons!”
Seb turned around and looked for Matt, only to find him walking towards the goblins, his cane tucked into his belt. His hands spread wide to show that he was unarmed.
“The HECK are you doing, Matt!” exclaimed Sebastien, running after him.
“Halt your advance!” Matt called out. Stopping Seb in his tracks.
“Matthew?” questioned Sebastien.
“This is the modern era, Sebastien,” said Matt as he continued towards the goblin ranks. “Wars are fought with words not weapons.”
“Wait, Matthew,” called out Sebastien.
“Matt’s got this under control,” I said as I came up beside Sebastien. “If it’s Matt he could even pull off bringing goblins to our cause.”
“No, that’s not the problem…” said Sebastien as we turned to watch Matt.
“Monsters, that is what you are called, yes?” said Matt. “Yet, being forced here to abide in the woods, living as brigands being denied the comforts of civilization; can it really be you that are called monsters?”
Matthew had by now passed into the goblin ranks and was completely surrounded by them.
“Come!” cried Matthew. Raising a hand above his head as if grasping for the setting sun. “Join me, and earn yourselves a place among the bourgeoisie that now stand above you in my bloodless revolution! Lower your spears, and raise your voices! Gather the tribes and assemble before the towns; for I promise you this: Your combined voices will not be ignored!”
“See?” I said grinning. “Silvertongues can even touch the hearts of NPCs. Matthew’s even managed to sway the goblins to his side!”
“There’s a fatal flaw here,” groaned Sebastien.
“Now then, who wishes to rise above their downtrodden lifestyle?” Matt called out. “Stand up and you shall not stand alone; I will walk beside you the entire way!”
“Goblins only slightly understand our language,” said Sebastien as he put his face in his hands.
With a united growl the goblins closed in on Matt, spears pointed at him.
“What is this?!?!?” Matt said as he grabbed his cloak around him to avoid a spear thrust. “What do you not get? Follow me, and you can rise above this!”
“Tim, you’d better save that idiot,” said Seb as he cocked his pistol. “I’ll watch your back.”
“No sooner said than done!” I said as I dashed forward, sword ready.
Putting on a burst of speed, I smashed the pommel of my sword into a goblin and kicked the corpse into a trio of goblins waiting to stop me. Taking advantage of the confusion I sheathed my sword and pulled my spear off my back. Planting one of the heads in the ground I vaulted over the goblin ranks. Planting my booted feet in the face of a gobbling that had disarmed Matt of his cane.
I stomped on Matt’s cane and sent it shooting into his hands.
“It’s dangerous to go alone,” I said. “Take this!”
“Tim, kill these savages!” said Matt as I stabbed a goblin. “Those who stand in the way of advancement will be used as the stones to pave it!”
Lashing out, Matt hit a smaller goblin under the chin with his cane. Sending it flying through the air and onto the spears of the goblins behind it.
“I’ll show them just how bloody politics can be,” I said as I drew my sword with my off hand and licked the blade. “Consider them as good as dead.”
“Leave any that flee, and spare the unconscious,” said Matt as he planted his cane in the temple of another goblin. Knocking it clean out. “There has to be some left to tell that tale of what happens to those who oppose Democracy.”
“Tim, look out!” I head Sebastien yell, followed by a gunshot. I turned just in time to see a goblin collapse with a bullet hole in its head.
“Don’t forget an assassin isn’t meant for direct conflict,” said Sebastien as he shot another goblin. “Take too many hits and you aren’t gonna be any good to any of us.”
“Take a bit of your own advice!” yelled Matt as he flicked his cane. The shaft of the cane flew off and caught a goblin behind Seb right in the windpipe. “Here’s another surprise for you, peasants!” grinned Matt as he flourished the blade that had been hidden within the cane.
“Thanks for that, Matt,” said Sebastien as he dropped to the ground and picked off four goblins who had encircled us.
“You had your chance to appeal!” Matt yelled as he sliced through a spear and the arm holding it. “Now you will face your judge, jury, and executioner!”
“Who needs a judge?” I asked as I threw my dagger at a goblin, impaling its leg and causing it to fall and stab the goblin in front of it with its spear. “I say we kill them all and let God sort them out!”
“Just checking guys,” said Seb as he emptied his gun into the ranks of goblins. “but you guys are fighting on the side of justice, right?”
“Justice is simply a sword,” said Matt as he kicked a goblin’s knee, fracturing it. “By itself, justice can only punish the guilty. That is why one must also have mercy to act as a shield from justice’s punishment. However, these miscreants have forsaken the mercy offered, so now they must take justice’s blade at its full.”
“They’re just NPCs anyway,” I said as I backpedaled out of reach of a spear thrust and answered with one of my own. “They’re simply practice for the real foes.”
“I think you started off your “bloodless” revolution on the wrong foot,” said Seb as he shot the kneecaps out of a pair of goblins. “They’re gonna have to leave this one out of the history books.”
“History is written by the victors anyway,” responded Matt as he grabbed a thrusting spear and guided it into a goblin behind him.
Suddenly, the goblins stopped attacking and pulled back.
“Think they got the message?” asked Seb as he holstered his gun.
From my vantage point on a boulder I could see behind the ranks of goblins and saw a large plate mail clad, leaderlike goblin riding a large wolf advancing. I jumped off the boulder and ran to a pile of dead goblins halfway between my friends and the goblin ranks.
The goblin ranks parted to make way for the leader. I drew my remaining throwing knife and held it by the blade. As the goblin spurred its mount forward I yelled, “SPLINTER!” and threw my knife at the goblin’s back. The knife glowed as it flew and imbedded itself up to the hilt in a chink between two pieces of the goblin’s armor.
I leapt out from behind my hiding place and running forward landed a flying kick to the knife imbedding it up to the pommel stone in the goblin. I landed on my hands and springing up kicked away two goblins that had gotten too close.
I turned in time to see the goblin fall off its still running wolf, blood gushing out of the mouthpiece of its helmet.
The wolf kept running and leaped at Matt, who had his cane sword embedded in the ground. At the last second Matt sidestepped and wrapping his arms around the wolf’s neck spun and threw it into the goblins behind him. The wolf rolled as it hit the goblins, taking down a half dozen of them. Then it was back on its feet running it Matt.
Matt grabbed his sword and at the last second stabbed it up to the hilt in the wolf’s forehead. The beast’s momentum carried it forward, its claws flailing at Matt.
I stabbed one of the last goblins and ran towards where the beast was lying on top of Matt, still in its death throws. Just before I reached the wolf, Matt’s hand surfaced from beneath the beast and delivered a tremendous uppercut. Then his other arm appeared and both of them wrapped around the wolf’s neck and twisted.
With a loud snap the wolf’s neck broke, and it became still. That was enough for the remaining goblins as they broke ranks and fled.
I grabbed the shaft of Matt’s cane from the ground and reached the wolf at the same time as Sebastien. I pulled Matt’s cane sword from the beast’s head as me and Seb pushed it off Matt.
I sheathed Matt’s sword and then helped Seb to pull Matt off the ground.
Matt’s shirt had all but been torn off him and his front and back were covered in long bloody cuts.
“I’m gonna have one hell of a tale to tell the folks at the keg,” he whispered as he stumbled to his feet.
“C’mon champ,” I said as I put one of his arms over my shoulders. “Let’s get you to town. Besides, you’re heavy.”
ns 15.158.61.48da2
