Third Point of View

Joseph and Melissa opened the doors with little effort, a lifelong farm girl and a trained soldier working together are quite powerful. As they opened the doors they saw two short green skinned women one wielding a hammer and the other wielding a bow and arrow. There was also Bafz, although she chose to stay back and wait until the perfect chance to join the fight, both to get the glory and have Throf and Oneegs suffer more. “Do you have Gloria here!? Looks a bit like me but less freckled and busty but more muscled?” Melissa asked them perhaps naively hoping they would be friendly.

Instead of answering Joseph noticed they were raising their weapons. Thinking fast he pulled his pistol out and fired at the same time Oneegs pulled her bowstring. The bullet and arrow whizzed past each other with the bullet passing through Oneegs head and the arrow grazing Melissa’s cheek. “They're hostile! Deal with the hammer-wielding one.” Joseph ordered as he tried to get closer to the archer.

Melissa did so and flailed her ax wildly in Throf’s direction, her unskilled technique was more than compensated by her wild and unforeseeable attack. The attack landed on one of Throf’s shoulders and thus she failed to hit Melissa's back as she yelped in pain as the ax was pulled back out. “I’m sorry but you two tried to attack us first!” Melissa apologized before realizing she really shouldn’t. As this was happening Joseph’s next shot landed true and shot through one of Oneegs' hands.

“I see you need two hands to use your bow and arrow.” Joseph voiced his reasoning. Behind him, Throf, with a deep cut in her shoulder, swung her hammer at Melissa and knocked her in the side of the head with her head now ringing as she shouted in pain. Oneegs was fighting through the pain and pulled her bowstring back before firing another arrow.

This one landed in his stomach causing him to reflexively fire his pistol wildly missing Oneegs. “Shit, that hurts!” Joseph cursed. Oneegs fired another arrow but this time shot over Joseph as he crouched down groaning in pain. In the background, Melissa and Throf were trying to land decisive blows with Melissa missing twice and Oneegs only able to graze Melissa’s non-dominant hand.

Bafz foresaw the tide turning in the goblins' favor and so she inched forward to join the fight. “Do not worry, my fellow goblins for the goblin Bafz is here!” She announced as she got close. Oneegs jumped at her loud announcement leaving her open for Joseph to fire another bullet that pierced her chest and went through her heart. “Oneegs!”

This sequence of events distracted Melissa as well who was terrified to see a humanoid seemingly die. This left her open for Throf who used the chance to swing her hammer down on her shoulder which brought her attention back to the goblin. Using the few seconds that Throf is recovering from her hammer swing Melissa swung her own weapon at the torso of the goblin and landed true. “Forgive me!” Melissa shouted as she pulled the ax out allowing the goblin to fall as still as a doornail.

Bafz was left stunned at both how seriously she misjudged this and the death of her fellow goblins one after another. As she was distracted Joseph used the chance to fire his pistol at Bafz’s head, killing her instantly. As she dropped dead Joseph immediately went to pull the still-embedded arrow out of himself and quickly applied his admittedly scarce medical knowledge to patch himself up. “You alright?” After Melissa nodded her head he then said, “Good. Scout ahead, see if you can find Gloria but return to me if you see anyone else.”

Melissa did so without complaint as she stalked forward and came to a section where it split off into three. To the left seemed to be a cafeteria, to the right seemed to be a hallway with a single goblin standing firm, and finally forward were two female goblins. Walking back quietly she told Joseph the news. “We can rule out the cafeteria unless they are giving Gloria lunch which I didn’t see. So that leaves ahead and right, my vote is ahead as it is more guarded and seemingly longer.”

Joseph agreed with her assessment so after resting for a few more minutes continued on heading forward. As this was happening both Clerd, who was stationed in the cafeteria, and Klags, who was guarding the hallway to the ballroom, decided not to pursue it. “Halt! What is your business!?” The goblin chief known as Afasa shouted as they approached.

“We do not mean to harm you, little green people. We are just looking for my sister. Do you know of a woman named Gloria Foreman?” Melissa asked, trying to be diplomatic. The two goblin women looked at each other before laughing at the two humans finding them funny. “What’s so funny?”

“That you think you could just waltz in here and take our newest coworker, or rather boss, away from us.” The goblin known as Fieltia answered. This confounded the two humans before Joseph noticed that the two goblin women were pulling out what looked to be knives. Since they were an equal distance away from them and neither of them seemed to have a ranged weapon, those knives were clearly not of the throwing variety, he aimed for the taller and seemingly stronger goblin known as Afasa. His aim was true as it pierced the goblin chief’s thigh causing her to recoil in pain.

Melissa notices as well as she swings at Fieltia who deftly dodges but fails to hit true with her own attack. Afasa screamed as she jumped through the air and as she landed she slashed Joseph’s torso. This had the fortunate side effect (for the goblins) of reopening his wound. As he tries to fire back his gun jams and he yells out in anger. “Fucking hell!”

Joseph focuses on avoiding hits as he tries to fix his pistol he narrowly dodges Afasa. Melissa and Fieltia meanwhile continue to dance around each other as they trade light attacks that fail to do any real damage. After another grazing blow connects from Melissa onto Fieltia, Afasa goes to aid her friend by striking Melissa from behind. “Let’s switch partners eh!?” Afasa shouted out as Fieltia went to swipe at Joseph and missed.

Melissa goes to strike at the intruding Afasa who smugly dodges her unskilled swing. Joseph finally fixes his gun jam before it clicks and he fires at Fieltia point blank. “Dodge this.” He says coldly as he fires and sure enough Fieltia fails to dodge the bullet as it tore through her forehead. Afasa looks to see her dead friend and flies into a rage as she dashes toward Joseph.

Her large knife stabs into his thigh causing him to stumble backward. “You’ll pay for that!” Afasa screams in a rage. Now that her weapon is stuck in him Joseph uses the chance to fire on Afasa hitting perfectly in her stomach. Afasa leaves her weapon behind as she staggers back barely finding the strength to stand.

“No, you will pay.” Melissa says as she swings her ax down on Afasa’s neck killing her instantly. “Tch, just more and more death. This is supposed to be a farmer’s ax, now it has been killed.” Melissa said dejectedly as she pulled out her ax.

The two recover in silence as Joseph redoes his bandages and adds a new one on his thigh. “You can go back, you know?” Joseph said suddenly as he struggled to his feet. “It is clear this could prove fatal, a civilian like you should be far away. I, however, will continue on.”

Melissa shook her head. “You are the one who convinced me to come. You are not going to be able to convince me to leave while you stay and continue to fight and most likely die.” Melissa said stubbornly. Joseph chuckled at himself, wondering why he ever tried to convince the most stubborn of the Foreman to give up.

The two made a silent agreement to it as they continued forward. There was now a large set of doors ahead and a hallway guarded by two humanoid dragons guarding what looked to be a cell. Joseph thought it might have been where Gloria was being kept but Melissa noticed it was currently unoccupied and convinced him that she wasn’t. So they readied themselves to head towards the large doors that would lead to Gadra’s Boss Room. That was until…

“You must not have seriously thought you could just walk away.” The brown-scaled kobold known as Ohsoss shouted out towards the two, just in time for them to stop before the Spike Pit. Unlike Clerd and Klags decided to face the two adventurers. “That here is where our boss resides, we will not let you enter so easily. Now, prepare and face us!”

Joseph was at this point quite done with being delayed and so lazily pointed his gun towards the green-scaled female kobold, who due to having no weapon he guessed was some sort of medic. In warfare, this would be considered a crime but this wasn’t a war so he frankly didn’t care. A flash of the muzzle later and Dreepy dropped dead before she could do a thing. “Dreepy! We really must work on your staying power in a fight or rather we should be more protective of you.” Ohsoss shouted before starting calmly.

The humans were caught off guard by his casualness at his friend’s apparent demise. That was until Ohsoss jumped with surprising dexterity to which Joseph only barely reacted in time, allowing him only to knick his skin. Melissa tried to respond in kind but failed to hit the dodgy kobold. The two continue to try and land a hit at Ohsoss but miss as Ohsoss attempts to strike back against Joseph. “I’ll have you know I am the toughest of the non-leveled-up non bosses around here!”

The two didn’t understand what the kobold was saying nor did they care. The two worked in tandem as Joseph distracted him with a rain of bullets, one of which passed through his shoulder, as Melissa chopped off his tail. “Will you just shut up!?” Melissa screamed in frustration as the kobold screamed. The kobold wasn’t dead though and he proved it by prying himself off the ax and slashing Joseph’s cheek before he could back away.

The somehow still mobile turns his attention to Melissa who chopped his tail off as he walked towards her. With his injuries getting to him Joseph hands shook and fails to even hit Ohsoss much less finish him. Ohsoss and Melissa both strike and Ohsoss encased his knife into her arm while she puts all her strength into her swing. Melissa proved to be more fatal as her ax went inside his scaled skin and out through his neck separating Ohsoss’ head from his shoulders. “Fuck you bipedal lizard!” Melissa shouted in victory.

The two humans then sat down in both exasperation and to heal their wounds. Joseph both fixed up his wounds and covered Melissa's major injuries. "That's the last of the bandages, maybe we should back? Together this time." Joseph noted and then proposed. Even the stubborn Melissa had to agree with him, at the rate they were going they would more than likely die if they continued.

So they turned away from the Boss Room doors and started their journey out of this Dark Castle. Unknown to them however was that a goblin they passed by and the woman they intended to save was moving to intercept them. Clerd decides to stay back even still. "Make sure they don't escape!" The Dungeon Core orders them.