But for a Slime

Joe had carefully aimed his thrust at the dominant arm currently holding the sword but the goblin nonchalantly tossed the blade from his right arm to his left even as Joe’s thrust landed to incapacitate the arm. When Joe saw this, he settled back quickly, solidifying his stance and firming his defense as he realized that this thing was quite a bit tougher than anything he’d dealt with so far on this plane… planet. It wasn’t near what his brothers and sisters in the martial arts were capable of. He could feel it; sense it, even as it smirked and settled in for combat, taking Joe’s retreat to defense as a sign of fear. Joe didn’t allow the suffusion of satisfaction running throughout his body show on his face. The idiot thinks it’s won. It doesn’t have a clue!

Joe kept his face placid, empty of emotion, and waited. The goblin leapt forward and began wielding his sword as expertly as Joe expected; like all the other goblins had shown themselves capable of doing. But even as he settled into the flow of combat, he began to quickly notice the wooden movement and flow. There was a repetitive flow, a wooden automatic response that seemed to lack spirit or … There’s not fluid motion or planning! It’s just reacting!

Reactions could and always would be incredible. But reactions, by their very nature, are controlled by the opponent; the other. Reactions, by definition, are actions in response to another being’s actions. That meant that control was in the hand of those who caused the reactions. They were fast. They could respond quickly to almost anything. But anyone capable of controlling the flow of combat would know, all it took was forcing the other to a single possible reaction. When you knew what the other person was going to do, the battle was already won.

Joe began guiding the green goblin into a rhythm, pushing its blade with each thrust slightly out of line, more and more, until the last reactive response the goblin could give was a parry thrust pushing his spear thrust outside while sliding it up towards his hand. Joe simply stepped into the parry, bringing his body weight to bear while pressing the shield up against his spear even while he released his grip on the spear and allowed the shaft to slide up under his armpit, the resistance from the green goblin’s sword pressing the spear up back into Joe. Joe smashed his shield forward, the goblin’s sword now on the wrong side of the attack and flitting across wildly to bash the shield out of the way. The Goblin’s smile grew as he saw the shield bashed away and Joe now pulled in close, his sword in left hand hovering over his right shoulder ready for a back slash slicing at Joe’s throat.

The Goblin’s raving smile quickly froze as Joe thrust his spear forward, the spear shortened by the Goblin’s parrying thrust and his hand now choked up on the spear head, only a foot from the blade, but more than enough to plunge directly into the throat of the beast, the blade sliding off the vertebrae and out the back of the green goblin.

Even as the blade slid in, Joe dropped his grip on the spear to grasp his shield edge with his right hand to bring it over head as he dropped to his knees to allow the goblins slash to swing, weakly and uselessly, over his head. His spear was still gripped under his armpit and angled upwards in the goblins throat, chewing through cartilage and flesh as it mangled the goblin’s neck. With the shield now safely overhead, protecting his entire body, Joe leapt upwards and forwards, again angling and mangling the neck with his spear even as his shield slammed into the green goblin, blasting it away.

This time, it tumbled to the floor, no longer able to use its acrobatic capabilities to land well and Joe stepped forward cautiously. The green goblin was still alive, gasping weakly and refusing to release its grip on the sword. Not really willing to take any chances, Joe made sure to stay out of the swords range and keep his shield between himself and the goblin before finding a good enough angle to plunge the spear straight down through the goblin’s eye.

It shivered a few times before stopping, but Joe didn’t relax until he felt the familiar wash of experience rush through him. Man, I should have used my clubs. I could have taken him out with the clubs. Probably would have gotten mad cudgel skill growth! Bah! Oh well. No sense in taking chances. I’m still ok to finish in three days. It’s all good.

“Well, dude! I’m sorry you couldn’t meet your arch nemesis. He’s much better at witty one liners than I am. Anyway, don’t mess with me next time.”

Joe stood back from the beast and looked up to make sure the three kids were OK but then blinked with some surprise when he saw everyone in the room staring at him. Many in awe, others in shock, some few in surprise. Several were rushing from the dungeon back up the entrance and Joe grimaced. Time to leave! Joe looked for the kids and found them quickly, seeing that they had only made it a good ten meters from him before stopping to stare at his fight, shock obvious on their gaping faces.

He waved the three over and they came, excitedly. Joe berated them quickly for having failed to continue to the safety zone but kept it short as Joe didn’t want to be caught up in the crowds at the entrance. He asked Garnedell about any benefits from the goblin corpse, like skinning it or other more esoteric resources, and Garnedell nodded before quickly dropping to his knees to harvest the green goblin corpse.

Joe looked around the room, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the attention and was surprised to see everyone still looking at him, all other activity in the room silenced in favor of staring at him. He quickly turned away, sliding a cloak out to hide himself.

“Uh… Garnedell? Can we get out of here quickly?”

“Almost done, Joe.”

“Good,” Joe said emphatically as he hunched inside the cloak. It only took another couple minutes before Garnedell stood and the group was ready to go. Joe turned to go.

“Let’s go.”

“We should check out the goblin king throne first, Joe.”

Joe looked to the three then nodded when he saw their expectant faces. They turned to the corner and gathered around the throne. I swear this thing wasn’t here before. How could I miss something so obvious; so big. Joe chastised himself a bit but settled in as he watched what the kids would do. He wasn’t sure what to do. What’s the point of looking at the throne for anyway?

Joe stepped up and sat on the seat, wiggling back and forth, but found nothing unusual or obvious from sitting on the throne. Nor did he see anything of note from his perspective. The throne simply sat on a raised dais overlooking the large cavern full of yellow goblins. Joe wanted to look at his status and log to see if anything interesting had happened, but he didn’t want to spend long here, really wanting to get down to the next floor before too many more people started coming to see what was up. He could always check his log later. The kids began searching the area and he saw Garnedell go for a chest that was in the corner.

“Are chests trapped?”

“What?”

“Can chests be trapped?”

“What is … what does that mean?”

“Well, I’ve heard stories about chests that have traps in them where they explode or poison or… well, kill anyone in lots of different ways: arrows, poison, fire… yeah.”

With that, Garnedell quickly pulled his hand back from the chest, stepping away from it, looking up at Joe, “Have you ever seen a trapped chest?”

“Well, no. But it’s a pretty common in stories.”

“Oh! Uh… Do you think this one is trapped?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then why?”

“Huh?”

“Why?”

“Just cause its better safe than sorry. You don’t want to get hurt.”

Garnedell considered carefully before nodding, “True.”

“Besides, it's what I would do.”

“What? Trap the chest?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Well. I guess it’s to keep the treasure safe.”

“To keep it safe?”

“Yeah.”

“But… the goblin king sitting on his throne right next to the chest won’t,” Garnedell asked?

Joe bobbed his head side to side before conceding, “Well, I guess you have a point, but I would be a bit careful, I guess? Wait… goblin king?”

“Yeah. You killed the goblin king! It’s amazing!”

“Uh…,” Joe had nothing to say in response, but given the nature of what had happened, and… Joe looked at the throne. The goblin kings throne! That’s gotta be worth something.

Maybe we could take it? Or should we… wait! What about… Joe quickly flipped open his status and looked at his log, reading over the entries for his recent fight.

Log Entry: (SY 55.5 – 5.10) (10:12) :: You killed the Goblin King and gained 1657 experience.

Log Entry: (SY 55.5 – 5.10) (10:12) :: You killed a monster king. You gain the title Monster King Killer.

Log Entry: (SY 55.5 – 5.10) (10:12) :: You killed the Goblin king. You gain the title Goblin King Killer.

Log Entry: (SY 55.5 – 5.10) (10:12) :: You sat on a monster king’s throne. You gain the title Monster Throne Usurper.

Log Entry: (SY 55.5 – 5.10) (10:12) :: You sat on the Goblin king’s throne. You gain the title Goblin Throne Usurper.

Wow! Four titles? Wait! Two for just sitting on the throne? He turned to the three kids and quickly gestured towards the throne, “Sit on the throne, now. All of you,” Joe commanded emphatically!

As each sat down, Joe quickly went to the chest, having no more time to delay and punched his shield down firmly in front of the chest before hiding behind the shield and poking at the chest firmly with his spear several times. When the chest gave no reaction, he poked his head out and settled the spear point firmly against the lid just under the poorly made latch. Once the spear point rested lightly but firmly against the latch, he ducked his ahead behind the shield and shoved firmly, popping the chest lid up and open. He waited several moments before glancing over the top and finding the chest open and harmless.

Looking inside, he found several items and one really shiny object that actually seemed to have its own light source but slipped it all inside his pouch quickly before standing. No time now! Joe turned to find the three playing around the throne with Zilnek hamming it up, lazing back against the throne while commanding his minions. Joe smirked a bit at their playing before ending it.

“Alright. Let’s go. Did you all sit on the throne?”

“Yes, Joe,” they all responded.

“Alright, let’s walk. We gathered too much attention,” Joe turned to Garnedell as they began to walk, “While we go, can I see your status quick, Garnedell? I want to make sure of something.”

Garnedell settled in at Joe’s side and pulled open his status for him.

“Can you click your titles page?”

“What’s that?”

“Oh.. right,” Joe sighed quickly then pointed at the second tab, “Click here.”

Garnedell did so and Joe found to titles listed and smiled quickly before calling over Zilnek and Kilniara to check their titles as well, confirming that all three had gained the two throne titles. As Joe was checking out their status, they had made it to the entrance of the next floor. Joe turned to look back at the dungeon entrance, trying to keep his head down so his face would be shadowed. He saw an increasing number of people standing around the safety area as well as a couple of soldiers. Man. I definitely don’t want to get caught up in this. Joe turned and slipped into the entrance to the second stage, following behind the three kids.