A little more than a week had passed since we had took the request to explore the goblin den. The castle wasn’t to happy with us going on a small journey to kill some goblin somewhere in the nowhere. Something about being to far away for to long. They would prefer that we would stay and take part in the planning and parties.

We quickly got the permission to go out, not that we needed it, after I mentioned that would be really saddened by their decision and would loudly lament the fact that we weren’t allowed to go out and do our duty of protecting others. Somehow that convinced them. They insisted that we tell all we knew about the request and what we intended to do. Apparently we weren’t even the first heroes to bock it. Others had already set out to go out and hunt monsters. The nobles seemed to get worried that they wouldn’t have heroes left to parade around at their parties.

And now we found us in the middle of the nowhere three days of travel from Ironwall on horse. This was already or fifth day of our expedition. The first three we spent traveling and not trying not to get lost. The fourth day we spent sneaking through the forest killing goblins and searching for the entrance to the den.

We found more than ten entrances and many goblin gathering parties out in the woods. We had no problem taking care of the goblin out in the forest. Having the advantage and could easily slaughter them. While killing the goblins we also stumbled over multiple entrances into the den. Erin used her earth magic to seal the entrances airtight. We continued with this until we were sure that we had sealed all but one entrance.

Clearing a goblin den is fairly easy if you have the right skills and Erin does. First you have to kill all goblins running around outside, scaring them so that they will hide in their den. Then you locate all the entrances and seal them all, but one. After that you create a fire and direct the smoke in the den. If you have missed and entrance you will no find it thanks to the smoke and fleeing goblins. If you got all entrances you no suffocate the goblins to death. Its a simple but efficient tactic to clear goblin dens and utterly boring so we won’t do it. Erin and I came her for the fun after all. Although many would call it suicidal and stupid to delve into goblin den just for the fun of it.

Now Erin and I were standing for the last remaining entrance into the den. It was an unassuming hole on a small cliff side, not even tall enough for Erin to enter it upright. Before entering I made a last check of my clothes. I had exchanged my usual light armor for a much more sturdier one. I was wearing a tight fighting armor made of overlapping metalplates and chainmail beneath. With Erins help I made sure that every piece sat right and was clasped correctly, paying special attention to that the chainmail covered all the spots That couldn’t be covered in metal plates, armpits, elbows and the likes. Around my neck and throat was a thick pelt to repel any attempts of strangling or hitting me. My helmet was a secured with straps to my head, so that it wouldn’t fall of under any circumstances. It was entirely round and flat, only with some small holes, for breathing and seeing in the front. My precautions measurements might be a bit overkill, but goblins are known for finding the one weak point in your armor. A nasty talent of them.

My weapon of choice were two shortswords with broad blades and elongated hilts and a metal chain tethered to its end. The other end of the chains wrapped around my forearms. As my backup I had a small assortment of throwing knives and a katana on my back.

Erin had only put on a different piece of cloth. She had exchanged her red yukata for a white one. Well it wasn’t really a yukata anymore, only the upper half. The lower half was long piece of white fabric slit open on both sides of her legs, two allow her full range of movements. She completely trusted her magic barrier to protect her. She hadn’t even bothered two put shoes on. Others would call her suicidal and brain dead, a magican should be as armored as a fighter, especially when the fought goblins. But that’s the way Erin is, not that she had an armor. She didn’t bother putting it on. Nor that I knew where she had stashed it.

The only thing that irritated me about her choice of clothes, was that she chose a white one. Running with white clothes in a goblin den, good luck getting the stains out. I’ve already marked some places, where we could burn the clothes later.

“Ready, to rumble?”

“Yes.”

And of we went there was no need to talk much. I went first into the den. As warrior it was my duty to be the shield for the magicians behind me. Not that Erin needed protection, but it was better this way. The other way around only meant that I couldn’t fight, while Erin had to play tank.

The biggest worry I had about our exploration was that Erin wouldn’t be capable of entering the low hanging tunnels. Or only by crouching in uncomfortable ways, granting her pack pain for days. I would probably face the same problems in some parts to, since I too wasn’t the smallest either, but not as much as Erin. However it turned out to be not a problem. Erin simply casted an earth spell that moved the ground beneath her feet down, bringing her low enough that she wouldn’t hit the ceiling with her horns. It’s a weird sight having Erin on eye level.

The light was also provided by Erin, who summoned a simply sphere of fire illuminating the tunnel in front.

We didn’t have to walk for long, until the first goblin attacked us. We smelled it before we even heard it. I assume it tried to sneak up on us as it pittering footsteps stopped just moment, before it should have come around the corner ahead of us.

I swung my short sword on the chain, before throwing it out and with a flick of my wrist and arm redirecting it around the corner. The goblin didn’t even have time to shriek, only the sound of a dead body falling could be heard. I pulled my no bloody blade back and moved around the corner. I was meet be the corpse of a goblin with a fresh sword shaped hole in its head.

Goblins are small green hideous creatures. Only as tall as a child with long thin arms and legs. Their faces are adorned with an oversize pair of ears and a nose. Their teeth are and assortment of brown crooked sharp teeth. And if you are lucky they wear some clothing hiding some things that shouldn’t see the light of day. It should be no surprise that getting hurt even in the slightest by a goblin, guaranteed an infected wound. Their weapons were by no means better, often either some rusted metal, rotten wood, or bones with molded rests on it. Goblins are known for whipping out the most vile and disgusting weapons out of seemingly nowhere. Among mercenaries it would often be joked that getting hit by a goblin, would give you a disease you would get the honor of naming. It had escalated to the point that there are even legitimate anti goblin potions, with the simple effect to prevent such infections.

We continued our way deeper in the den. The moment we reached the first cross section we were once again attacked. I quickly took care of the goblins by cleaving them in half. One vertically the other horizontally.

Being the professionals that we are, we almost forgot to put a mark in the path, we went so that we wouldn’t get lost later on. It wouldn’t be a big problem if we got lost in the den, as we planned to slaughter our way through the entire den. It would only become bothersome, if we tried to find an exit, because finding the exit in a goblin den is always the hardest part for some reason.

Erin and I took the left path that went deeper into the den. It was a long straight path slowly moving downwards.

Two goblins charged upwards, with high pitched screaming, armed with crooked spears. A drop of water whizzed past my shoulder and straight through one of the goblins head. It entered just between his eyes and blasted out of the back of its head, ripping blood and brain out like a fountain. The other goblin halted in shock, before he could properly react to his friends demise, he too was hit by a bubble of water. This bubble however was much bigger and didn’t blow the goblins brain out, instead it remained enveloping its head. It trashed around trying to rip the water out or move its head out but to no avail. Slowly it went blue and slowed down, until it completely stopped to move. A shiver went down my back. Erin just smiled at me. Water mages are scary.

At the next cross paths the slaughter really begun. Every step we took we were assaulted by goblins attacking us from every imaginable direction, trying their best to overrun and kill us. This was also were the fun started. Mindlessly cleaving through hordes of enemys, just dancing around letting your blades dance. It was exhilarating I couldn’t hold my self and laugh will painting the walls red with blood. There were no thoughts in my head, just pure joy, as I led my blades dance and sing, whirling them around on their chains. Rarely did I use the swords like proper swords.

Erin to was enjoying herself killing goblins with a staggering array of spells. She found a lot of different ways to bring the goblins int the past tense. From giving them full body piercings, flammable breathing bubbles, bloating them with water to moving entire floors upwards to flatten them and many more ways to eliminate them. It was pretty entertaining to see what Erin could whip out for ideas for goblin extermination.

Despite us living just in the moment and killing any and all goblins nearby, we still managed to retain some semblance of strategy. We still got lost once or twice,… or thrice or forth or….

Anyways we got deeper and deeper and the hordes of goblins died, down. The remaining ones had also figured out that the best course of action was to run away from us, which was pretty unfortunate. There is no real fun if your prey runs in the wrong direction. The only good thing about that was that they ran towards their chambers, where they stored their young and their loot. Due to the location of the den, the loot wasn’t of any note, just some random bones, woods and stones.

By Erin's estimation, we had already taken care of the majority of the goblins and we were deep enough beneath the ground that she couldn’t create a straight path out of the den with one spell anymore.

Those remaining goblin where those that had hidden in the deepest parts of the den, having run and hidden themselves after having heard the ruckus we had created. Erin had to use her magical capabilities to track them down using her magic to sense their magical signature in order to track them down. Something that was much more difficult then I had thought. We wandered over and over into dead ends of the maze like structure of the den.

Somewhere along the line we even had to take a break as Erin was running low on magic. And now we were sitting in the pitch black darkness of the den. I hadn’t brought any torches with me, relying completely on Erin to create light.

“You alright?”

“Yes just exhausted, but not completely dry.”

“How does it even feel to deplete your magic. I haven’t really experienced it.”

“It feels like exhaustion after a long day, but your body isn’t really exhausted. You could still run and fight like normal. Your mind gets sluggish and depleted, feels like having studied for hours and then written multiple tests back to back. And if you really go towards total depletion you also start to feel hollow, as if there is a hole inside of you. The less magic you have remaining the bigger does this hole feel, until you feel like paper thin piece of skin with nothing inside. Don’t worry it feels as creepy as it sounds.”

“And how do you feel now?”

“Sluggish.”

“Can’t we share our magic. I have a bit and I don’t really need it.”

“I can try. Is my first time doing it though.”

I moved closer to Erin lending her my hand, to extract magic from it. She placed her palm on it and I could feel a faint tickle seeping into my hand. The tickling sensation was magic. I instinctively understood it. It felt strange, running through my hand in a fin net of lines, without order or reason. Slowly Erin hand crept along my body over the metal. Its a wired experience feeling Erins touch through the cloth, chainmail and metal as if it were on my bare skin. Erins hand moved up my arm and over my back and down the other., than back and over my chest down my stomach and along the legs and finally settled between my shoulders on my back.

“Your magic is pretty decentralized.”

“Is it something bad?”

“I don’t know? I can only compare it to me.”

“Can I ask how you magic is located?”

“Sure. Mine is similarly decentralized to yours, but with a minor center in my horns.”

“So your horns are a weakpoint, not just physically, but also magically.”

“No only physically. I am going to try to sap some magic from you. If you feel something don’t resist and resist if it’s uncomfortable.”

“Ok.”

After I gave her my I could feel a gentle tug on my entire body and mind. It felt like a spiderweb had been laid on my body and someone tugged on it trying to pull it away from a single spot from between my shoulder blades. I knew that I didn’t want it. It felt wrong, but I allowed it anyway and released my resistance.

Immediately three things happened. I could feel a drain as metal exhaustion swept over me and the tug disappeared the moment the wave of exhaustion hit me. Lastly I felt something foreign in the short time my magic was sapped out of me. It was Erins magic. It felt calm like her, but had also a depth to it, reminding me of a clam deep sea.

“You ok?”

“Yes just a bit sluggish. And you?”

“Better, but still sluggish.”

“How much magic did you take from me.”

“Half maybe? Probably less.”

We remained silent in the dark catching our breath and regeneration our lost magic. We existed in silence leaning on each other, until we were ready to go. There was no rush. The goblins would be killed sooner or later.