King of the Goblins 2—Chapter 28

I had never in my life run as hard as I did that day. I didn’t even bother looking behind me, as I knew it wouldn’t help any. The trolls were coming, and it was going to be a much harder fight than we had imagined.

But I had a plan. A very nasty plan.

My heart pounded in my chest and my lungs burned like fire, but I kept running full speed back towards home. Back to Solace. Yeah, I liked that name.

Of course I had no clue what their plan had been, but I thought killing the elves had been their first goal. With their armor, they could simply ignore the arrows while burning down the trees. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad plan. After that, they’d come and kill all the goblins. And with that armor, fighting them in the tunnel wouldn’t be easy.

The mouth of the tunnel came into view and a bit of hope sprouted in my heart, giving me speed. The soldiers standing there saw me running and readied themselves, raising their spears. Leena and Tressi stood there, as well. Perfect.

Leena looked concerned, which made perfect sense if she had been sending messages to her father. I ran up to her and Tressi, trying to talk between panting breaths.

“Here,” I said to Tressi, passing her the shadow stone. “Use this and hide in the treeline.” I told her the rest of my plan  as quickly as I could, and she nodded.

“Silvy arrived just a minute ago. My father says they’re just ignoring the arrows,” Leena said, her voice close to panic.

“He’s right,” I said. “They’re going to ignore most of our spears as well. Move, back into the tunnel. They’re coming.” I turned to the guards. “Let the trolls see you, then move into the tunnel. You won’t be able to do much with their armor.”

I turned and looked over my shoulder just in time to see a small tree crash to the ground as if a bulldozer had run over it. The trolls were there, walking quickly but not running. I figured they wouldn’t be in a hurry, not with armor like that. Not only was it heavy, but they were confident that nothing could hurt them. Why rush when you’re invulnerable?

As a group, we all backed into the mouth of the tunnel. All except Tressi, who slipped the shadow stone into her mouth and moved off to the side. I was able to follow her, just a shimmering outline, until she moved into the shadows of the trees. Once she stopped next to a bush, she all but disappeared.

A soldier passed me a spear, so I sheathed my sword and took the spear in both hands. We all held the spears ready, although deep down I knew the weapons were all but useless.

“Go get Coraline,” I told Leena. “We need her or the trolls are going to break into the city.”

Leena’s eyes widened at hearing that, then she turned and ran down the tunnel.

I kept my eyes on the approaching trolls but spoke to my soldiers. “Alright, boys. We’re in for a nasty fight. I’m gonna be honest with you; these spears aren’t going to do much to them. If we can simply slow them, that’ll be enough.”

No one had any questions after that. It was just the five of us, faces grim, spears held in front of us.

The trolls formed into a semicircle around the mouth of the tunnel and grunted at each other. Of course, I understood every word.

“I’m going first,” one of them said.

“The fuck you are. You couldn’t even set a tree on fire.”

“That’s not fair, the small man killed our shaman.”

“Remember, grab some of the women. Don’t hurt them, just tie them up and bring them. King Jack wants as many as possible.”

“Can I eat some of them?”

“You can eat a few, but we need to bring some with us, or he’ll get violent.”

Wait a minute, they were trying to kidnap goblin women? What the fuck was going on? And why was their king named King Jack? Well, from what I had gathered, he was human.

“Here they come!” I said as one of the trolls bent down and peered into the tunnel.

“It’s fucking dark in there. How do they see?” the troll muttered.

“With those big eyes of theirs. They look like fucking insects,” another troll said.

The lead troll got on his hands and knees and began crawling into the tunnel. I took a few steps back and motioned for the other soldiers to do the same. A moment later, a full dozen soldiers ran up behind me, each with a spear in hand.

“Back up!” I said. “We want to get them all in the tunnel. Or at least as many as possible.”

Once the troll was inside the tunnel, he began crawling. I was shocked at how quickly he moved, and I immediately saw the problem. His armor protected him rather completely from anything we could do. 

We continued backing up, and a few soldiers tried jabbing with their spears to no avail.

“Let them get further in!” I said, and we kept moving backwards.

It was hard to see past the massive troll, but I was able to make out the other trolls crawling behind him. We were a quarter of the way down the tunnel, and some of the soldiers were beginning to show fear.

“I promise, I have a plan,” I told them. “In a second we’re going to start slowing them. But we need them in the tunnel.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” they said.

The heel of my boot caught on an indentation in the ground and I nearly fell. I found that odd, as the floor of the tunnel had always been quite smooth.

“Be careful, Your Majesty!” the soldier closest to me said. “We just had those made, so we can put the butts of our spears in them to keep the trolls from advancing.”

“Good thinking,” I said. “Looks like we’ll need it.”

“Aaron, Coraline is here,” Leena said from behind me.

I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw her standing there, looking absolutely terrified. Well, I couldn’t blame her. The tunnel before me was filled with massive, heavily-armored trolls crawling into the city and I couldn’t do much to stop them.

“I’m here as well,” Silvy said. 

“Tell her the plan!” I said.

Behind me, Silvy explained our plan to Coraline while the soldiers and I faced down the trolls. I couldn’t tell how many were in the tunnel, but as I peered around the troll, all I could see were more trolls. I thought, I hoped, that all of them were entering the tunnel. Once they did that, Tressi would know what to do.

“It’s okay, keep backing up,” I said. “We’re almost there. You’ll know when to start fighting them.”

“Is there going to be some kind of signal, Your Majesty?” a soldier asked. He had to yell over the sound of the grunting troll scraping his way through the tunnel.

“Trust me, you’ll know,” I said.

Only seconds after I said that, Tressi started the attack. A flash of light came from the other end of the tunnel, immediately followed by the unmistakable sound of trolls roaring in agony.

“Now!” I said and lunged forward. I rammed my spear right into the troll’s helmet, hoping to catch one of the eye holes. My spear point was too big, though. 

Next to me, soldiers all thrust their spears against the massive troll, Steel blades scraped against steel armor, and none found purchase. The troll lashed out with a massive, gauntleted hand and caught one of the spears. He snapped it like a twig. The soldier immediately recovered. A man behind him was ready with more spears, and passed them to the soldiers as needed.

“Ground your spears!” one of the soldiers shouted.

I followed their lead and planted the butt of my spear into one of the divots in the stone floor. The troll crawled closer and found himself pushing against nearly a dozen spears, all of them seeking weak points in his armor.

“Now, Coraline!” I shouted.

She stepped up behind me and I felt her pull a massive amount of magical power into herself. I couldn’t even begin to imagine holding that much.

Further down the tunnel, trolls screamed and thrashed around, but they were stuck. Thick, acrid smoke began to fill the area.

The troll in front of me swung his fist, snapping five spears like toothpicks. Soldiers immediately brought more spears and he hurriedly put them in the troll’s way, doing anything to slow his advance. It was like trying to slow a city bus with a shovel. Our efforts simply weren’t enough.

I reached out with blood magic and tried to drain as much blood as possible from his arms. After a few seconds he slowed and flexed his gauntleted hands several times, but continued moving. 

“Hurry, Coraline!” I yelled.

“I’m trying, Your Majesty!” she replied.

“I’ll help!” Zia said as she joined the mix.

I could see them work, but it wasn’t fast enough. It might get the rest of the trolls, but the one in front of us would get through.

“Start behind us!” I shouted.

Coraline took a few steps back and began pulling on the tunnel walls with magic. Zia added her strength and the two moved the stone like soft clay, swelling and reshaping it. The walls closed in, substantially narrowing the tunnel. We had to press together as the tunnel shrank.

The troll noticed what was happening and shouted in rage. He swung his arms about, knocking spears aside. I tried draining blood from just that arm, but he was simply too strong. He reached out and his gauntleted hand caught on a goblin soldier’s breastplate. He yanked the small man to him and slammed him on the ground, once, twice. That was all it took and the soldier was dead.

“Move!” I shouted, meaning it for everyone.

Silvy used her magic to try to close in the walls as well, but she was much weaker than Coraline. Instead, she moved up behind me and held her hand out. 

As I rammed a spear against the troll’s helmet, trying my hardest to slow him, a baseball-sized flame shot out and struck the troll right beneath his helmet. Leather and mail armor covered that area, but the heat of the flame was enough to draw his attention. He shook his head and beat at the flame with his massive hand. It bought us a few seconds, which was all we needed.

I backed into stone. Quickly glancing over my shoulder, I saw the tunnel had been narrowed to only a few feet wide. We pressed together and passed through the narrow opening, still holding our spears in front of us. 

Seeing this, the troll shouted angry obscenities at us and slammed into the narrow stone opening. His heavy steel gauntlets sent chips of stone flying, but not enough to widen the opening.

“Do it,” I said.

Silvy and Coraline both sent more flames into the opening. Only seconds later, Zia sent fire into the troll as well. Coraline wasn’t particularly strong with fire, but she did her best. Silvy sent a fireball a foot in diameter through the opening and it struck the troll in the shoulder. I felt magic surge in her and the fireball stayed in place, burning the troll to a crisp.

The troll shouted and beat at the fire, but it wouldn’t go out. He scrambled backwards, trying to escape, but another troll was behind him. The women sent more fires at the second troll.

“You might want to back up,” I said to the soldiers as smoke filled the tunnel.

Leena rushed forwards, carrying a handful of damp cloth strips. She tossed them over a shoulder, then took one and tied it around Silvy’s face and mouth. As soon as she was done, she did the same for Coraline and Zia.

Leena tied a strip of damp cloth around her own face, then joined the fight. She sent a thin line of flame through the stone opening. It looked like the fire from a blowtorch, but it reached out ten or fifteen feet and incinerated anything it touched.

The women that had been working on digging our new tunnel all showed up, ready to help. Leena tossed the cloths from her shoulder at them and they all covered their faces with them.

I coughed. “Move back, give them space,” I said. “One of you help clear the air.”

A full dozen women filled the tunnel with fire. It looked like the inside of a cremator. Another woman created a gust of wind and blew it into the tunnel, forcing the smoke back and providing oxygen for the fires.

The trolls screamed as they burned to death, trapped in the tunnel. It was a hard way to die. Several soldiers turned their heads so they didn’t have to see it. Some hardened their gazes and watched until the last troll was dead. Ultimately, the trolls had come to kill us all. They got what they deserved.

Their king was next.