LIGHTNOVELONLINE CHAPTER 4 “One down, two more to defeat”
CHAPTER 4
“One down, two more to defeat”
Are these supposed to be the weaker monsters inhabiting other worlds? Kalysto questioned fearfully. Beginning to doubt that she had any chance of survival if she encountered monsters stronger than this one, in her current state.
At least the first one was easy. She tried to cheer herself up. But the way things were going with this one, she had serious doubts that she could save the other two from the third goblin.
Again, her mother’s face, with its empty look, her body full of bruises, marks, and scars, along with her face bathed in blood, tormented her.
No, I can’t give up. She scolded herself.
The goblin raised its huge medieval club and aimed at her, but Kalysto dodged the blow by mere inches. After dodging two more, she darted to where she had dropped the little goblin’s knife and picked it up, with the green creature almost at her heels. She swerved, dodged another blow and changed direction when she saw, a couple of meters away, her backpack along with the shopping bag with the loaves of bread and cookies she didn’t want to keep inside. Now she hoped none of those monsters would step on them, or worse, eat them.
If I had a bow and a couple of arrows I could easily shoot them in the eyes. She thought, but she had no such thing at hand, unless Alice magically appeared in the next few seconds. She wasn’t counting on that, but any small hope she might have harbored died quickly as the second goblin kept sending one blow after another toward her. The first one, the one that had hit her, had caught her off guard, but the rest she could avoid them with ease.
Who would have thought that all those years of experience dodging the things my stepfather threw at me when he was in a bad temper would do me any good? She recalled once when he had even thrown the dining room chair at her and then got mad at her because, in avoiding the impact, the chair broke. The beating and punishment she received afterwards for that, when she had been naïve enough to think she was safe while sleeping in her bed at night, had been epic.
Despite her efforts, the goblin’s next blow passed just a few millimeters from her face. If she had had a nose as big as that of these creatures, she would have broken it by now.
Enough! She scolded herself and forced her mind to go blank, focusing only on the monster in front of her, his movements, and his wood club. In the distance, she could hear more screams, but she didn’t allow herself to be distracted.
She had enough on her plate with this creature. The others could defend themselves, however they could. She had done more than enough saving them once.
Still, her heart clenched with helplessness.
When the next blow passed so close to her that if it had hit her it would have fractured her right leg, Kalysto began to reproach herself for running headlong into danger. A sensible person would have run away or called the police instead of interfering. Unfortunately for her, she was well aware that, if she did not take care of these two creatures, that girl and her mother would soon die.
Just as she would if she did not find a solution in the next few seconds.
And if by some miracle she managed to defeat them, she would not have enough strength to carry the mother and help them escape. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at her forgotten backpack and her cell phone lying on the ground. And a harebrained scheme popped into her head. If she could distract him long enough, maybe she would have a chance to defeat him, and then she could go for the other one, while the girl called the police and asked for an ambulance.
It seemed the only reasonable option.
So she spent the next few seconds studying the second goblin’s movements, looking for a pattern or an opening in his defenses, so as soon as he swung his club at her as if it were a baseball bat poised to take her down, Kalysto dodged it, only to leap toward him and bury the dagger along his forearm, from his elbow to the green wrist. And immediately, she jumped back, creating some distance between them, preparing for his retaliation.
But instead of attacking her in the next second, the monster screamed in pain drawing the attention of the third goblin, who stopped for a moment from spoiling the legs of the older woman, despite the continuous pleas of the little girl whom he threw aside, to watch his comrade who launched a counterattack after changing the hand with which he wielded his huge wooden stick.
Kalysto dodged his blows again with her characteristic agility and could almost feel that voice in her head about to speak to her again when, after dodging the last blow, she lunged forward ready to stab his other arm, only to discover that the knife she had stolen was gone.
What the hell? She barely managed to blink in confusion when her body moved of its own accord, filling her with dread.
Her left arm rose with the knife firmly in her grip and with an agility that took her by surprise, she slit the unsuspecting goblin’s throat.
They both looked at each other for a moment, confusion etched on their faces before he fell back lifelessly and she had to cover her eyes with her right hand to avoid the blood.
She blinked once, then she did it again, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as her stomach contracted and bile rose in her throat as she looked fearfully at her left hand, still armed.
What the hell was that? She thought, looking at her hand with distrust and instinctively took a step back.