ABH - CH 32 - Battle Madness

A/N: Once you've read the chapter, look at the community chat for fred.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Battle Madness

Rise of Winter, Week 5, Day 4

Freddie rounded the corner without fire and brimstone. Instead, she stalked up to the first Red Goblin and lunged, crushing its windpipe and throwing it to the side before either of the creatures even realized she was there. It slammed into one of three pillars that decorated the room. 

The goblin writhed on the ground, but did not get up. Freddie angled herself toward the second goblin, fists guarding her face as she bounced on the balls of her feet. She had a goal this time. 

How many hits could she land? How many could the goblins take? How many before they fell over due to pure damage? She decided to aim for the abdomen for this fight—to get any useful metrics, she’d have to always aim for the abdomen after this. But, alas, it was for science. The abdomen was larger and, thus, easier to hit anyway. 

Huffing a laugh, she couldn’t deny this would be easy.

Freddie dove in, parrying the dagger the goblin tried to stab her with by catching the hilt with the back of her wrist and letting it slide away harmlessly. Savagely, the goblin tried to swing again, but Freddie was already in position. Ducking down, her fist popped out and landed solidly on the Red Goblin's stomach. Freddie saw the skin roll with the force of her punch, but didn’t dwell on it—instead, she pulled back, leaning just slightly away to avoid another slash. 

This one was closer and was accompanied by feral screeches from the goblin. 

Then Freddie pivoted, staying within reach of the goblin, before going in with a hook. She twisted her fist with her forearm, making sure they stayed aligned. Breaking her wrist on a goblin that had hardly a tenth of her attributes would be embarrassing. How would Freddie face Tiltham?

Landing the second hit, the goblin was forced back. It took the monster a moment to recover itself, but in that time Freddie had already thrown a cross—unfortunately, the goblin had twisted at the last moment and caused her punch to land opposite where Freddie had intended. 

Snarling in annoyance, Freddie stepped back, a healthy distance between her and the goblin, and circled the monster. The red menace followed Freddie with the point of its dagger. 

Freddie could see the twitch of its legs as it decided to lunge. Freddie charged into the attack. The blade ran across her forearm, breaking through the black fabric in jagged cuts, and scraping her skin. 

“Tit for tat, you obnoxious lump,” Freddie growled, lodging her fist into the Red Goblin’s stomach. 

This time, she heard a satisfying crack. A feral glint entered Freddie’s eye at the sound, and the goblin heaved with every breath. Its lungs must have been working overtime to continue going, Freddie thought to herself. 

The pain of a broken rib is overwhelming the first time it happens, she mused, less so the next ten times. 

Freddie had no sympathy for the goblin. Some might, if they heard its screeches of pain, if they saw the way it staggered around. But Freddie was used to fighting monsters. She knew they were out for blood. That they would take her life if she let them. 

There were some things that transcended lifetimes. 

Freddie was able to get in three more hits, two on the left of the abdomen, then another on the right—where she’d broken the rib. Or, well, she thought it was a rib. Freddie wasn’t a master of monster biology, but the thing was humanoid enough. 

As her fist landed for the fourth time, the goblin fell, grasping its stomach. It coughed up black blood, then, slowly, it leaned forward. Freddie watched, a blank look on her face as she kept her distance. As the miasma of a mana construct began to form, she knew it was dead. 

Freddie glanced over her should at the first goblin, the one she’d taken down so easily, it was silent but its chest was still moving. She went up to the monster, and, with a snarl, she slammed her boot down on its skull. 

A crack resounded, followed by the sound of bells. They chimed lightly, and Freddie didn’t bother to look down the hallway. Instead, she swiped the two red and black Mana Pearls from the ground and fetched her bag from the earlier room. 

Storing the pearls, she brought the bag into the latest room. Freddie had no intention of losing her rations, or her loot—specifically, her pillows. Life in a dungeon already sounded dreadful enough. She wouldn’t let it get worse. 

Stashing her satchel behind the far pillar, Freddie didn’t bother to process the odd hieroglyphics that decorated the thing. She didn’t really care what the dungeon wanted to show her. It wasn’t real. Dungeons didn’t have a history, and everything they did was fiction. They hardly ever even used monsters that existed in the outer world. Instead, they opted to create brand-new annoying creatures.

It was the stupid reason Freddie had to pull out the bestiary again and mark how many hits the Red Goblin had taken in one spot—five—and how many it took in total—nine—before collapsing. She also recorded its level—five—and its rarity. Which she guessed was Common, because the thing was so remarkably weak. 

The Yellow and Purple Goblins put up much more of a fight. 

At least they could break my skin. Freddie smiled to herself at the thought. 

Then, and only then, once the bestiary was tucked safely back into her bag and said bag was hidden away, did Freddie turn and face the hallway. 

She could see the end, it only went for about another five feet before it opened up into another room. Freddie could see a couple of barrels, and heard a guttural cheer come from the room and then she saw a shadow flicker on the wall. It almost looked like the goblins were playing cards. 

Freddie hadn’t actually taken any true damage in the last fight, and the fifteen minutes she took to doodle and write in the bestiary had been enough of a recovery time besides. She didn’t bother to run [Regenerate], not when the stinging in her muscles told her she could still build Strength the same way as in elsewhere. 

Thus, she slipped into the room, peeking her head around the corner to get a better idea of how many goblins there were. As she did, she took in the piles of goods that surrounded the monsters. There were bags of grains strewn about, split open, and their contents being used as collateral for a bastardized version of poker that the Red Goblins were playing. 

[Inspect]

[Listrain Wheat, Tier 1, Rare]

[This wheat originates from swamplands and is known for its nutty flavor when toasted or made into bread.]

[Crafted by: Dungeon M283]

Freddie nodded to herself. This is something that could be sold to Poplar, probably. They have swamps. Wait, is that Umbra? 

Deciding, once again, to forgo her flames, Freddie decided that this would be a test of her ability to count across multiple targets. There were four goblins, all of whom were wearing brass knuckles. Freddie stepped back, rolling her shoulders. And then she decided that she could probably only handle counting during a two on one.

Thus, upon charging into the storeroom, Freddie gripped the side of a Red Goblin’s head and slammed it down as hard as her Strength allowed—causing a violent crack to sound off and black blood to splatter across the room. Then, while the other three were still realizing what had just occurred, Freddie stepped behind a second goblin and wrapped her arm around its neck and pulled its head in the opposite direction. 

Two down. Two to torment.

As black miasma began to flow from the bodies of the two Red Goblins, Freddie leaned back to dodge a punch from one of the remaining goblins. As the monster’s fist crossed above Freddie’s head, she snatched its wrist and twisted it. Hearing a pop, Freddie dropped the goblin’s arm. 

Grinning, she lunged toward the other goblin, with its feral attack headed straight for her. Freddie gripped its wrist as well. Dislocating the goblin’s arm was brilliant, in her opinion—all the easier it would be to attack the abdomen without a guard to protect it. 

Twisting the new goblins arm, Freddie waited to hear a pop. Just as she felt the snap of the bone and sinew dislocating, a hit also resounded between her ears, sending Freddie’s head forward. 

The other goblin had headbutted her.

Freddie laughed, loud and harsh and all the more feral for it. “Yeah, okay. Okay. Screw the abdomen.”

Pulling the Red Goblin in front of her, she brought her face close to its head. The creature’s oversized fangs protruding from its mouth nearly grazed her cheek. And then their foreheads met, and Freddie’s skull was not the one to crack.

As the goblin moved back, dazed, Freddie whipped around to see the fourth and final goblin rushing her. Bringing up her knee, she made contact, hitting the goblin's abdomen with such force she felt the way the creature's stomach rumbled and the fierceness with which the goblin threw up blood onto her.

Disgusted, Freddie kicked the goblin away.

“Oh my Gods,” she griped, “I’m going to have to take another potion.”

Approaching the blood-covered goblin, Freddie unbuttoned her jacket. Previously, the thing had mended itself after being cut, and she had no idea if that same magic kept it clean. She hadn’t bothered to keep track of bloodstains on black fabric. Now, she was wishing she knew. 

Underneath the outer layer, Freddie wore a silver shirt. It was soft as silk and shiny as satin. In the dimly lit room, it refracted light as if it were the world’s most subtle disco ball. It had been cut, severed, torn, and shredded, but still it was in one piece. Not a stain in sight. That boded well for her jacket and pants, slick with black blood. 

The goblin was still gripping its stomach in its good arm, whereas the knuckles of its dislocated arm were scraping against the stone floor with a sharp echo. 

Freddie prowled forward slowly, taking her time looking over the creature. 

“A weaker person would see you and they would weep for how I’ve destroyed your ability to live a full life,” Freddie mused, squatting down to meet the Red Goblin at eye level. 

The goblin glared up at her for a long, helpless moment. Then, it spat blood and mucus on her face. Freddie slammed her head up against the goblins. This time, there was no crack—Freddie had had no momentum, just ill intent. 

“But you aren’t real, you know?” Freddie hissed, and wrapped her hand around the goblin’s neck. “You don’t even have a will of your own, not like the Welcoming Committee goblins. You are mana made manifest. A figment of a dungeon soon to crumble.”

At her irritation, her annoyance, her anger, the dungeon creaked. The weight of her will was bearing down on the world around Freddie. Her aura leaked out, enhanced in the usual way by [Otherworldly]. But this time, there was something nasty about it. Something malevolent. 

“I will destroy you, and then I will get out of here. Hit by hit. Breath by breath. I will get my freedom.” Freddie growled, and then, she dropped the goblin—lifting her foot and crushing its windpipe. 

Turning around, Freddie wiped off her face. There was still another goblin to handle, after all. 

Behind her, the creature’s arms were in front of its face in a mockery of Freddie herself. 

She choked out another laugh. “Oh? You want to fight? Hit for hit? Let’s go, then.”

Stalking forward, Freddie put up her guard. 

“Attack, you maggot.”

As if at war with itself, the creature’s fists darted up and down—unable to decide how to go about its next move. 

Ultimately, it didn’t matter. 

Freddie was upon it. And she was not about to let it get another hit.