King of the Goblins—Chapter 28

I spent the next hour sparring with Greg with both fists and a knife, trying to hone my newly acquired fighting skills into something more usable. It was surprising how quickly a person could learn with proper instruction, but I reminded myself Greg was just a magical being. His punches didn’t hurt. If I had to fight Ralcor, I would get my ass handed to me. Or any of the soldiers, for that matter. I had already learned that one the hard way.

While I punched a magical goblin, Silvy instructed both Zia and Tressi on magic. They were both quick learners, which made me glad. Everything was pointing towards this needing to happen sooner rather than later. I began to wonder how I could practice my blood magic more often, and learn more about it.

Of course, my thoughts wandering resulted in Greg punching me square in the cheek. It felt like getting whacked with a pillow, but before I could recover and throw my own punch, he landed another one on my ribs and two in my midsection.

I had to take a step back and catch my breath. Greg was a savage; even those magically soft punches caught me off guard and brought me back to reality. I raised my fists and approached him again.

The bastard was relentless. I began to wonder if I could use blood magic against him. I tried to reach into his body, but found nothing. That made sense; he was a magical being, and didn’t have any blood. I’d have to beat him the hard way.

By the end of our session I managed to land a few hard punches to his face and a flurry of blows to his stomach. I had to be careful about punching goblin men in the face; I was likely to break a knuckle. The soldiers wore armor as well, so punching them in the stomach wouldn’t work. Those thoughts made me wonder if there was any real benefit to sparring with Greg. Well, at least I got to beat up a guy named Greg, so that made it at least somewhat worthwhile.

I made a decision to focus on knife fighting with Greg from that point on. Punching an armored goblin was pointless. I suddenly wished he could wield a sword so I could practice a spear against him.

“Hey, Silvy,” I called out.

“Yes?” she asked from the next room.

“If I give Greg a weapon, can he use it in training?”

Silvy paused before answering. “Yes, but if he hits you with it, he’ll be actually hitting you with the weapon. Not soft, like his fists. That’s something to consider.”

I frowned. That was a good point. I made a mental note to grab one of the practice swords from Althidon the next time I saw him.

After a few more minutes of sparring with Greg, I decided to call it a night. I went back into the main room of Silvy’s house, where she was enjoying a cup of tea with the other two women. She asked me if I wanted some, and I told her yes.

“This one will help you sleep,” she explained as she poured some into a small cup. She handed me the cup and I thanked her.

“So, what’s your plan?” Silvy asked as she sat next to me at the table. On my other side, Zia and Tressi perked up and watched me with interest.

“My plan?” I asked. 

“For Ralcor,” Silvy said, watching me over the rim of her cup.

I frowned as I thought on that. “Sometimes thinking out loud helps, so I apologize if I ramble,” I began.

“Ramble away,” Silvy said.

“The spear will help, possibly a lot, but ultimately blood magic is what’s going to get me through this,” I said, staring into my tea cup as I talked. “However I do it, I’ll need your help. All three of you. If I try to do it alone, I’ll quickly get overwhelmed. I figure that’s how they’ll try to stop us; by attacking all at once. So we need to figure out ways to kill a dozen soldiers at a time.”

“Ugh,” Tressi said, placing her hands over her stomach. “Sorry, I’m here to help, but I’ve never been a violent person.”

“Once Ralcor is gone, you can go back to being as peaceful as you’d like,” Silvy said. “But taking him down is going to be rough. There’s no way around that. But I promise you, it’ll be worth it. Go on, Aaron.”

“I need to see where he lives,” I said. “Tomorrow or the next day I’ll need to go explore his area, so I can get an idea of what we’re up against. I don’t know anything about military tactics or planning an attack, but that much makes sense to me.”

“We can’t go there, but I can give you directions,” Silvy said. “As you can imagine, I’m not well-liked in the royal areas.”

“I also want you to teach Tressi and Zia how to kill with magic,” I said. “Or at the very least, how to incapacitate people so I can kill them. If you don’t want to get your hands dirty, I completely understand that. I can do all the killing, I’ll just need some help.”

“I don’t mind killing them,” Silvy said, her voice turning grim. “I’ve dreamed of revenge for more than a century. I’ll gladly get my hands dirty.”

Next to her, Zia took a deep breath and straightened her back. “I’ll do whatever it takes.” Tressi nodded in agreement.

“Well, I think it’s pretty straightforward, then,” I said, then downed the last of my tea. “We just need to know where we’re going to fight, and if the rooms or hallways are going to present any difficulties. It seems to me like this is relatively simple. The hardest part will be the fighting itself, but it’ll be magic against spears and clubs, so we should win easily.”

“As long as no one sticks an arrow in you,” Silvy grumbled. “But they mostly use those for hunting. I don’t think we’ll see many bows during our attack.”

“Is it really going to be that simple?” Tressi asked. “We just march in there and kill our way to Ralcor?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. None of them can use magic. Ralcor has spent decades convincing people that magic is evil. I think I understand it now; he knows that he can be easily defeated with magic. If no one can use magic, then there is no risk of anyone taking his place by force.”

“Well, no one but me,” Silvy said.

“Yeah, but he uses you for your magic,” I said. “And spreads word that you’re some crazed old crone, so no one takes you seriously. And he has that stupid pendant, presumably to protect himself from you.”

Silvy frowned at my words.

“Hey, I don’t think you’re a crazed old crone,” I said, raising my hands. “That’s just what Ralcor says. And let’s be honest, so far it’s worked. But we’re going to bring the fight straight to him, and he’s going to lose.”

“How can we kill with elemental magic?” Zia asked.

I answered before Silvy had a chance to. “I imagine there are countless ways. You can make the stone open beneath their feet, then close around their ankles so they can’t move. I can finish them off. Our bodies are mostly water, so I’m willing to bet you can use magic to pull water from their bodies. That’ll kill them in a matter of seconds.”

Zia looked mildly horrified as I continued to describe how to kill people with magic. “Are you sure you’ve never done this before?” she asked.

I laughed. “I guess I’m just a bit desensitized to death, coming from my world.”

“How so?” she asked.

“Well,” I said, then paused. “I mean, my entire world just died a few days ago, remember.” I paused for a moment after saying that. Until that moment, it hadn’t really hit me. “Holy shit. I’ve been so busy with all this I never really thought about it. My parents are dead. My friends are dead. Everyone is gone.” I slumped in my chair. An overwhelming sense of sadness suddenly loomed over me and threatened to smother me.

“I need you to stay with me,” Silvy said as she reached out and took one of my hands in both of hers. “Don’t drown in your sadness right now, Aaron. I know you’ve got some loss to deal with, but you’re here and alive, and that’s what’s important. Everyone else died, but you got a second chance at life.”

“You’re right,” I said, wiping an eye that suddenly felt damp. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. “I’ll take the time to mourn them, and maybe build something to help remember them. A monument or something.” Shit, I didn’t even have a picture of my parents. All I had were memories, and those would fade with time. 

What a fucking dark thought.

“Let’s stay focused on the here and now,” Silvy said, giving my hand a squeeze. 

“Yeah, that’ll keep me from getting down,” I said, squeezing her hand back. “So, where was I? I need to see where we’ll be attacking. I need to see Ralcor’s place. If you just give me directions there, I can probably use the shadow stone and see enough to start really planning. I can’t think of anything difficult about what we’re doing, other than the actual fighting.”

Silvy nodded slowly. “There isn’t anything complicated about it, other than fighting all the people. Killing them, that is. I think you’re right.” She turned to the other two women. “Well, at least now I know what to teach you two.” She clapped her hands once. “Tomorrow, I’ll start teaching you both how to use magic as a weapon.”

“I suppose I don’t need much help in that department,” I said. “Blood magic makes killing surprisingly easy. Like I said, if you three can even just stall people or hold them in place, I should be able to take care of the rest.”

“Be careful,” Silvy said. “If you overwork yourself, you won’t be able to use magic at all until you rest.”

“Good point,” I said. “So, once we get in the area, is there anything I should know about Ralcor?”

Silvy frowned. “He’s as vicious as they come. A long time ago, when he killed the previous king, it was just him and a small handful of supporters. Ralcor did most of the killing himself. The man is an absolute monster with a sword. I don’t think there’s anyone around that could even come close to challenging him.”

“Note to self, don’t fight Ralcor without magic,” I said. “Except with that pendant, magic doesn’t work very well against him, you said. Maybe if we all use magic against him, that’ll be enough to slow him down.

“I think it will be. You wouldn’t last a heartbeat, otherwise,” Silvy said. It wasn’t an insult, just a plain statement of fact. “He tore through the king’s personal guards like they were novices.”

“How did he get so good with the sword?” I asked.

“Because he practiced for years on end, making sacrifices in every other area of his life,” Silvy explained. “Becoming a more ruthless fighter was all that mattered to Ralcor for decades. People thought he was obsessed and wondered why he spent every waking moment perfecting his skill with a sword. Then, on his hundredth birthday, he began to gather support.”

“Let me guess, he used his skill with a sword to convince everyone he was the best choice?” I asked.

“Basically,” Silvy said with a shrug. “He said that no one could challenge him, therefore he should lead.” She sighed. “I tried to warn my husband, but he didn’t listen. And now he’s dead. Him and a hundred other people, at least.”

“This world will be a better place once Ralcor is gone,” Tressi said. “I suppose as a king he’s not the worst. He doesn’t tax us too heavily, justice is swift and reasonably honest. But we all know what kind of person he is. Anyone that upsets him is likely to find themselves dead, sometimes for the silliest reasons.”

“Plus he ruined relations with the elves,” I added.

“I’ve heard from some of the elders that elven wine is amazing,” Zia said. “None of us have had any in more than a hundred years.”

“Well, when all this is done maybe we can raise a toast to my family, and we’ll make the toast with elven wine,” I said.

“Keep that thought,” Silvy said. “First you’re going to check out the royal city. And the sooner the better.”

“Why do I get the feeling you want me to go tonight?” I asked.

“Because I do,” Silvy said with a smile.