We hadn’t been on road to Happy Tots for long when we encountered our first goblin ambush. It was eighteen

  this time, I wondered if the number of goblins that attacked us scaled to the number of people in our party or if it

  was just a coincidence. Samantha, Jackie, Melissa, and Candice were getting into their grove and were functioning

  well as a team. Heather, Beth, Amanda and Kelly still had some kinks to work out. Heather and Beth were

  effectively immobile so Beth was saving her MP for Cure if it was needed, and Heather was using her Rallying Song

  from the wagon.

  Kelly and Amanda were both using their magic from behind the main line. Amanda was using Magic Missile

  and Kelly was using Spark.

  Both of the spells had their pros and cons. They both performed the same basic function, traveled from point

  a to point b, but Magic Missile traveled much faster than Spark and it was more accurate, Spark had a bit of drift to

  it. Spark was therefore more likely to hit an ally by mistake, I had no idea what that would do, would being in a

  party together prevent damage from spells that missed their target? I made a mental note to figure out what their

  other spells Flash, Create Flame, and Chill did exactly, I had a good idea, but I wanted to know for sure. The

  goblins went down fast enough, they weren’t using tactics at all, just attacking en mass we received a few rewards

  We also received loot in the form of 94 copper pieces, 4 Scraps of Ruined Fabric, 1 Puny Mana Potion, 1 Scrap

  of Ruined Leather and 1 Dull Mace.

  “Well I don’t have a weapon yet so I’ll take the mace,” I said looking at the stats on it. “Better than nothing

  right?” I picked it up and equipped it, it immediately expanded from goblin size to human size and holy crap was it

  heavy, I took a practice swing with it and fell over much to the enjoyment of the girls. “OK so not better than

  nothing?”

  Samantha walked over to me and picked me up, “you OK?” She asked.

  “Yeah I’m OK, I just didn’t expect it to weigh so much,” I said but as soon as Samantha took her hand off of me

  I fell back down. Samantha caught me in her arms before I hit the ground this time.

  “Whoa there,” Samantha said. “You are not OK.”

  A quick check of my status told me everything I needed to know. “I’m down to 1 stamina,” I said getting a Puny

  Stamina Potion out of my inventory and drinking it.

  “1?” Jackie asked. “You haven’t been doing much.”

  “Maybe trying to swing a weapon with such a low strength score cost him a lot of stamina?” Beth volunteered

  as an explanation.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  I figured that may be the reason myself but was glad that someone else had volunteered it. “That is likely it,” I

  said.

  “Wow, you really are frail aren’t you?” Jackie asked looking down at me.

  “Knock it off,” Samantha said setting me on my feet. “I’m not playing peacemaker between you two anymore.

  His knowledge is too useful to kick him out and I’m not that comfortable with leaving him to fend for himself

  anyway.”

  “I’m sorry again,” Jackie said. “It’s just that my entire world has been flung upside down and…”

  “Quiet,” Melissa said ears brimming.

  “No,” Jackie said. “I am venting here…”

  “Shut up,” Melissa said putting her hand over Jackie’s mouth, “I think I hear something.”

  We were all quiet for a moment, all straining to hear whatever it was that Melissa had heard, or thought she

  heard.

  “I hear it now,” Candice said ears twitching. “Sounds like battle.”

  “Somebody may need help,” Heather said.

  “It could also be Steve,” Jackie said.

  “Let’s find out who it is first and decide what to do about it then,” I said rushing over to the wagon and

  hopping in the back. We started moving towards the direction Candice said the battle was in. The wagon was

  clearly not built for a comfortable ride at fast speeds as my ass barely touched the seat the entire time, I was more

  than a little jealous of Kelly just sitting there like nothing was happening, I didn’t even notice her get in actually, nor

  Amanda who was back in her bucket but instead of resting she was holding it down to keep herself from falling

  out of the wagon. I decided that in the back blind to what was going on outside wasn’t a good place for me so I

  made my way tot he front of the wagon and poked my head through the flap I had built into it. Heather was

  holding on to the sides for dear life. Candice and Melissa were far out ahead of Beth, and Samantha and Jackie

  were only a little bit ahead of Beth.

  “Left up here,” Candice said coming to a stop and looking down the road.

  “Beth come to a stop here we don’t want you to tip over again.” I said to Beth. “What do you see?” I hollered to

  Candice.

  “All I see is goblins,” she yelled back. “They’re fighting something.”

  “How many goblins? What are they fighting?” I asked as Beth approached the intersection. Beth came to a

  grinding halt in the intersection and I looked up. Three blocks down in the intersection was a horde of goblins, at

  least a hundred in number all swarming around one thing that I couldn’t make out what it was. Whatever it was it

  was stronger than any goblin on it’s own as occasionally a goblin would go flying either backwards or up and

  disappeared into a point of light which went upwards and joined with a floating loot crystal far larger than any we

  had seen up until now, easily the size of a car. Just then there was a momentary opening in the goblin horde and I

  saw what they were fighting, it was the worst possible thing.

  “It’s a little girl,” Melissa said taking off towards the battle.

  “Wait no don’t,” I said too late as Samantha and Jackie followed her. “CANDICE STOP!” I screamed at the top of

  my lungs to keep my last melee attacker from leaving us behind.

  She turned back towards us. “Why? We have to help her.”

  “But running in half cocked with no plan is only going to make more people who need rescuing. You’re with

  me, Beth get the wagon close enough to the battle so that Heathers music can affect everybody, Heather Rallying

  Song, Kelly stay near the wagon when we get there and use your Spark and aim it at clusters of goblins to try and

  get maximum effect out of it, Amanda use your Magic Missile to target anything that comes near the wagon.

  Candice, when we get close to the battle I’m going to unhook Beth from the wagon so that she’s more mobile,

  cover me while I do that.”

  We arrived at the battle shortly behind Samantha, Jackie and Melissa. Samantha had charged in headfirst and

  was now completely surrounded by goblins, much to the disadvantage of the goblins, each swing of her ax was

  cutting right through at least two goblins at a time, I was quite glad that they didn’t seem to have any blood and

  guts. Jackie was closer to the girl but still trying to smash her way through the goblins to get to her. Melissa had

  lost a bit of her nerve and was further away, taking goblins on two at a time quite easily. With more targets for

  them to focus on the goblins had spread out a bit and I could get a decent look at the girl, the term ‘little girl’ was a

  huge misnomer she seemed to be about sixteen, she didn’t seem to be wearing any gear, just her clothes from

  before the change, now torn and dirty. She had a look of pure fury on her face, and was punching and kicking the

  goblins and each time she did the goblin didn’t get back up. I hopped down from the wagon and started to work

  on unhooking Beth from the wagon. “Beth when I get you free stay mobile and be ready to get in and heal

  anybody that needs it, but don’t put yourself in more danger than you need to. Use your own judgment on what

  that means.” I had gotten the first part of the harness undone. “Candice switching sides now switch too. Beth

  coming around front hold your swings for a second.” I moved around the front of Beth and got to the other side of

  the harness. “Clear, Beth swing away.” I heard Candice land behind me and two goblins give a screech as her

  daggers killed them.

  “How much longer? There’s far more on this side than there was on the other side.” Candice asked.

  “As long as it takes, I can’t rush this,” I said. “Kelly focus right try and get as many as you can at once.

  Samantha, Jackie, try and get into formation.” I tried to holler over the din of combat, but I doubted they heard me.

  I got the last of the harness off of Beth. “Beth you’re free go!” I climbed back up to the front seat of the wagon.

  “Where’s Amanda?” I asked noticing she was nowhere in sight. As if to answer my question she appeared off to my

  left, she was now more of a tentacled mass than a humanoid figure, slamming into goblins, picking up goblins and

  swinging them at another goblin. “Well Amanda is doing her own thing.” I said to inform everybody as to what was

  going on. Jackie was starting to slow down greatly between her swings, Beth even though she was new to the fight

  and using her horse half to great results, was already surrounded. Even Samantha was down on one knee and her

  ax was gone, she was resorting to bashing with her shield and hands but for each goblin she killed two more were

  there to take it’s place. Melissa was now fighting six or seven goblins at a time and spending too much time

  defending from their attacks to launch very many of her own. Candice was trying to make her way towards

  Samantha to help her up but there was a lot of goblins in-between them.

  “I only got three more casts left before I’m completely out of MP,” Kelly said.

  My mind was racing trying to figure out how to get us out of this mess. “We’re all going to die.” I said reaching

  the only sane conclusion I could.

  EVENT CONCLUDED

  A notification popped up and all the goblins disappeared instantly.

  “What the fuck?” Kelly asked.