I heard the rumbling of thousands of goblin footsteps behind me as I peered over the cliffside.

  I was trapped between the horde and a drop that would likely kill me. Without Sally’s incredible power I had no way to quickly descend the mountain.

  I needed to act quickly and with purpose.

  I gently laid Sally down and stepped in front of her, facing the entrance to the mountain’s interior. I pulled out my bow and nocked an arrow. I would have to fight.

  Me against an entire horde of goblins. This would be no easy feat. I had no clue how long I could hold out. My stamina was already quite low, the inferior stamina potion I’d taken had only provided a slight boost.

  The footsteps and screaming grew louder and I began my attack. I pulled the drawstring back and loosed an arrow, just as the first goblin appeared.

  It pierced his chest and he screamed out in pain as his skin began bubbling. He dropped to the ground and was immediately trampled by his frenzied cohorts.

  I took another arrow and fired, then another and another. I didn’t even stop to check my accuracy. I fired as quickly as possible and with my stats being upgraded the way they were, that turned out to be pretty damn fast.

  Goblins started to drop in the entrance but there was no time for reprieve. There were so many of them, like a swarm of locusts. They flowed through the entrance incessantly and I continued firing as fast as I could.

  My stamina drained slowly. Luckily, my usual bow attacks didn’t use up too much of it. The attack I’d launched earlier, however, had taken half of my stamina in one go.

  How did I do that? It was so powerful. A shot like that now could be a game changer. Though more than likely it’d be less effective here since I’d run out of stamina far before being able to kill them all.

  Fortunately, the entrance to the cave provided a bottle neck of sorts. I couldn’t damage them until they stepped outside the safe zone, but the number of corpses kept piling up. 

  Pretty soon the goblins were climbing over their dead brethren to try and get to me. It made my work slightly easier, though it didn’t slow them down much.

  I had angered them immensely. It was easy to forget that these were simple monsters when I’d just attended a ball with them.

  Though they could speak and reason, at their core they were still feral beasts. And they were out for my blood. The blood of the man who had just killed their uncrowned king.

  Speaking of the crown, it was currently stored in my inventory. I didn’t have time to examine it but I wondered if it could be useful here. If I wore it, would I become the goblin king?

  It was worth a chance so, as I continued firing arrow after arrow into the bottleneck, I equipped the crown.

  I felt its weight, heavy on my head as it appeared out of my inventory.

  “Stop in the name of your new king!” I shouted, hoping the crown would add some form of magic authority to my words.

  It had the opposite effect.

  “Usurper!”

  “King Slayer!”

  “Kill the furry!”

  The goblin’s attacked with even more fervour, some of them continuing to charge even after being hit by one of my arrows.

  Using the crown was obviously a mistake.

  Shit.

  I unequipped it and continued firing, though they were gaining ground. Notification after notification appeared on my HUD and I willed them all away to be looked at later.

  The corpses piled up, there must have been hundreds of them laying in front of the door. They helped slow down the other goblins a bit, but unless I could get that pile tall enough to completely block the entrance the distraction would be negligible.

  As more and more goblins came swarming out from the cave, I found it harder and harder to deal with them.

  The corpse mountain had an adverse effect on me too. Whereas at the start of the showdown the goblins all ran in a straight line, they now had to avoid the corpses and manoeuvre around the pile.

  This slowed my attack speed immeasurably as I had to aim at each one individually before firing, rather than simply keep launching arrows into the same area.

  Soon my attack broke down as the first goblin reached me. Cursing under my breath I pulled the bow back into my inventory and equipped my dagger.

  I wasn’t as proficient with the dagger, but a bow was no good for close quarters and I had nowhere to run. There was nowhere for me to retreat to either, so creating more space and continuing the volley was out of the question.

  As the first goblin reached me I saw a burning, feral hatred in his eyes before I slashed at his neck and he dropped to the floor, a fizzing mess, and I felt a faint warmth as my skill Acid Dhampir Dagger refilled my health slightly..

  They seemed to be fighting on pure instinct. Charging at me with no plan or skill, just overwhelming numerical superiority.

  It was like one of those zombie survival games I’d played online. Alone, they were relatively weak and easy to deal with, it was the numbers that got you.

  Whilst you killed one, another would attack from the side, then another from behind and soon you were surrounded by an entire horde.

  As the second goblin reached me, less than a second after the first dropped, I stabbed out and pushed the dagger through its face.

  The next reached me and I slashed its stomach open, guts cascading onto the floor like a broken bin liner. They just kept coming and I found myself in a meditative state as I slashed and stabbed and did my best to dodge incoming attacks.

  It was almost tranquil. Like every fibre of my being, every muscle in my body was working as one single entity with the sole purpose of fighting.

  I danced around them, slashing and stabbing, though try as I might to avoid it, I was taking some serious hits. It wouldn’t be enough though. My stamina was dangerously low and my health was taking hits as well.

  I was no seasoned warrior and though I fought in a trance, I still took some hits. Still, I had to protect Sally, I refused to leave her, and I had another reason to survive.

  I couldn’t leave my unborn child without a father. I knew how it felt growing up without one. I wouldn’t do that to my own flesh and blood. No way.

  I fought on, slicing, and stabbing and dancing my way around my attackers as corpses soon started to pile up around me.

  It was almost euphoric. The trance of battle. The feeling of my entire body working as one towards a singular purpose, mind, body, and soul acting as one entity.

  I could easily see how it could become addictive, though perhaps not in this particular scenario. The bodies piled up as I slaughtered the goblins. I barely noticed my HUD as it began flashing red.

  Then I felt something tug at my ankle and I fell to the ground hard, it woke me from my trance and to my horror I saw that I was down to barely a single HP.

  My body had felt numb during the trance. I couldn’t feel anything accept the euphoria of battle. Now, however, I felt every wound, every slash, every bruise, and it was utter agony.

  I quickly slammed down on a healing potion, luckily I hadn’t used one yet, and felt a bit of release. The pain, however, was almost debilitating. I saw a half dead goblin gripping my ankle and I kicked him hard in the face and scurried backwards. 

  It was too late. Being brought to the floor was enough. I was surrounded by the horde of charging, frenzied goblins. As I tried to get to my feet I was knocked back down and stomped on.

  Within seconds an impenetrable wall of goblins surrounded me and began kicking and stomping. Their screeching was so loud I could barely hear myself think. I felt wetness dripping from my ears as they bled from the harsh, high-pitched wailing.

  I wondered if this was a type of goblin skill attack. It was certainly draining my HP and I didn’t have much left to spare.

  Thinking quickly, I began crawling through their legs, slashing at the ankles of each creature I passed by. They began dropping, but the ones at the centre kept attacking the corpses that had been beneath me.

  They seemed to be too frenzied to notice that I’d already left. Finally seeing a hint of light, I clawed my way out of the horde and managed to shakily get to my feet.

  They looked like full on zombies now. Piled in together in a mosh pit of fury. They hadn’t noticed me, but it wouldn’t be long. Luckily, Sally still laid untouched at the edge of the cliff.

  I hadn’t seen Panda in a while either. I hoped he’d just stayed inside where he couldn’t take damage. That would be the smartest approach for a non-combatant like him.

  I had no idea what to do, but I needed some kind of exit strategy. Just as I had that thought I heard more screaming and turned back towards the huge iron doors.

  Even more goblins were climbing over the corpse pile. They were endless. One thousand goblins don’t sound like that much, especially when you consider the mega cities on earth that are home to millions of people.

  But, have you ever looked at one thousand people all at once? More than that, have you tried to fight that many? It’s a lot more than you’d think. Especially when they’re all charging at you, and you alone.

  The new goblins headed towards me and I carved up a few. My arms were struggling to move and I found my breath to be laboured.

  As I began fighting the new goblins, the mosh pit started noticing me and moved to join in. I was trapped between them and the mountain wall. I had nowhere to go. My health was low, my stamina had almost run out and I could barely lift my arms.

  It was futile. I was going to die here having achieved nothing and protected no one. My child was going to grow up without a father and worse, without ever knowing what happened to its dad.

  I kept fighting and taking hits but the sheer number of goblins was overwhelming. If I was going to die though, I was going to die fighting.

  I didn’t want anyone to say that I gave up. I was going to fight them to my last breath.

  Then everything seemed to stop, just for a moment. As a large crash sounded out behind the horde and both the goblin horde and I turned to look.

  A man in golden armour stood before us. His impossibly white cloak billowing out behind him.

  He raised a single hand and opened his mouth, uttering words I couldn’t hear over the goblin’s screams. Suddenly, it was like they’d forgotten about me. The entire horde turned its bloodlust on the newcomer as he flashed me a smile.

  He hovered above the ground. That’s right, he freaking hovered! And he moved backwards gently, playing the Pied Piper to the horde of vicious goblins.

  He moved backwards until he was floating off the side of the cliff. He was hovering, high above the trees, as if the cliffside stretched out a few more meters.

  The goblins continued to follow him as if entranced. It must have been the spell he’d cast – at least I thought it was a spell.

  As they followed him, they plummeted off the side of the cliff. He made it look so easy. In less than a minute the entire hoard that had harassed and nearly killed me, simply walked off the edge of the cliff.

  I stared at him in awe for a solid five minutes or so. I was stood rooted to the spot as the new goblins which arrived from inside the cave joined the queue. Wating their turn to walk straight to their deaths in an obsessive attempt to reach and attack the man.

  Once the final goblin fell, the man began floating towards me.