The two goblins were clawing, kicking, and stabbing at the door, while Roger was pushing back at their onslaught from the inside. His two little kids, Mary and Greg, were softly sobbing in the corner while their mother embraced them.

“Shh, shh, don’t cry. Mommy and daddy are here.” But while she said those words to her kids, her expression wasn’t necessarily hopeful. She looked with fear as her husband grunted with every kick and push from the monsters outside.

“Please god, please send someone to help us.”

Just as she finished her soft prayer, a commotion came from outside. The goblins shrieked and screamed before their voices died into whimpers. After a couple of seconds of silence, someone knocked on the door.

“Hey, Mister Roger. It’s me, Roy!”

The husband and wife looked at each other with expressions that melted into ones full of hope before he opened the door. Six teenagers, none of them passed their eighteenth spring, entered the house with bloodied clothes.

“Oh thank god,” Roger hugged Roy. “Thank god you survived.”

Feeling the uncle’s warmth and concern, Roy couldn’t help but mellowly smile. “Thank you…”

“Hey, Jenneth. Take the boys to the back and make them a bath, they must be tired,” Roger told his wife.

“No, uncle Roger. We can’t be doing that now. Keep the water for drinking, we don’t know when it’s going to be safe again.” Roy then looked at the rest of his brothers before continuing, “Alfonse, Fred, Jaimie, you guys stay here. We will go out and check if everything is safe.”

“My boy, are you crazy? Stay here where it’s safe, there are god-forsaken monsters out there.” Roger retorted with a scared look.

“We can’t do that,” Roy shook his head. “The Davids, the Jacobs, and all our friends, they might be in danger right now. We have to go check up on them and make sure they’re safe.”

Roger was reluctant, but he finally gave out a sigh of defeat. “Okay, but you have to promise me to be safe. And if you find the Jacobs and the Davids, make sure to bring them here. The house is big and we have plenty of wool. It’s better if we all stick together in times like these, there is strength in number.”

“Don’t worry, uncle roger,” Jack laughed. “We’re all big men here, we ain’t gonna be letting some sickly crazy kids win against us.”

Roy’s mind wandered in thought about David, he was the one who saved him after all. After a few seconds, he looked back at the Rogers and his friends and bid farewell, “See you in a bit.”

Once the group of three left the house, Jack couldn’t help but ask Roy, “Hey, by the way, how many have you killed?”

Roy quickly glanced at the number on the side of his vision before answering, “Six. I killed six.”

“Oh damn, that’s a lot man. I barely killed three.”

“That’s because you suck. I killed four in the time it took you to kill two.”

After Robb’s retort, Jack stared daggers at him. “Hey, listen here you little shit. I’m not gonna sit here listening to you talking shit when the only thing you do is brood all day.”

“At least I carry my own weight.”

“Hey now, calm down the both of you,” Roy interjected before the situation derailed even further. “Let’s focus on what we should be doing.”

The two fell silent for a bit before Robb remarked, “Hmm, considering you’re so close to finishing the quota, what do you say we go let you kill four real quick? I want to know what happens when we finish this damn quest.”

“Oh, surprisingly a good idea,” Jack replied.

Robb was happy for a second before he noticed the use of the word ‘surprisingly’. He looked at Jack and said, “You can’t just give a proper compliment, now can you?”

Jack chuckled at Robb’s deadpan expression while the latter just shook his head at his friend’s childish antics.

“So, do you know where we can find a small group of them?” Roy asked.

“Don’t worry about that, those are everywhere. Just follow me.” Robb took the lead with a smile on his face while Jack and Roy followed close behind him. 

They made their way from one alleyway to the next, slowly but surely, making sure not to cause any commotion and to keep an ear out for large packs of goblins.

“Ay, Robb, Jack told me earlier that you saw the big large pack. How were things looking?” Roy asked after a while.

“Not too good,” Robb’s expression turned grim. “The guards and the knights were getting pushed back quite a bit. Lots of deaths, lots and lots of deaths.”

“Good for us,” Jack coldly replied. “That’s karma for them inviting us over and then betraying us. What bullshit about recognizing our good deeds.” He spat on the ground.

“Don’t be like that,” Roy consoled Jack. “Without them fighting, the villagers would be massacred.”

“I can never forgive them,” Jack replied with a venom he had seldom ever shown. “They killed Aiden, burned him to ashes…”

“We’ll make sure to get our revenge,” Roy replied. “But focus up here first. We need to kill those damn ten goblins and save as many villagers as we can.”

While Roy consoled Jack, his eyes also glittered with an unwavering resolution. There was a reason why he was trying so hard to kill goblins—an ambition, a desire, and a destiny he had to fulfill. Now that he was brought back from the jaws of death, he would spend every waking hour to fulfill that dream.

“We found them.” Robb’s voice snapped Roy from his daze. The three brothers crouched and hid amongst the bushes. “There they are.”

From afar, they could see four silhouettes making their way through the dirt street. However, amongst the normal short kid-sized goblin was a weird variant. A tall lanky goblin, that looked like an average adult human, was wielding a long sword in his hand.

“That one is gonna be tough,” Jack commented while Roy nodded. The latter did think that there might be stronger monsters out and he discussed that idea with Alfonse, but he didn’t think that he was going to meet one already. While the other small goblins looked easy to deal with and they only had to worry about getting themselves injured against them, this variant was a tough opponent that would fight them to the death.

“We need to bait them like the ones before,” Robb proposed his idea. “I’ll be the one to do. I’ll bait the big one since it seems to be the strongest and fastest. You guys take care of the smaller ones.”

Both Roy and Jack nodded at Robb’s plan and crouched even deeper into the bushes. Robb on the other hand stood up and made his way toward the group of monsters.

“Hey, you fucks!” He shouted. “Come here and fight me!”

The tall goblin variant smiled creepily as it saw its incoming meal, before shrieking along with the rest of its group. It sprinted at Robb at a speed much faster than the rest of the monsters, startling him as a result. However, Robb immediately got back his wits and ran away as fast as he could. Soon, both Robb and the tall goblin dashed past the hidden Roy and Jack and took a turn around one of the houses.

Once the three small goblins caught up, Roy and Jack pounced out of the bushes and attacked the creatures. Roy stabbed one in the chest before slashing its throat, while Jack simply put the goblin into submission using his superior physique. He slashed away the weapon from its hand, and then put it in a chokehold. 

Seeing that only one goblin was left, Roy leaped towards the last one and kicked it in the stomach. He then stabbed it in the throat before it gurgled to its death. With one final slash, Roy killed the goblin Jack was tightly holding, bringing his kill count to nine.

“Good job,” Jack commented.

“It was all you.”

The two, however, couldn’t take this moment for a breather as Robb came back from the same corner he went through before. The tall goblin behind him was enraged, swinging its sword crudely in every which direction. Its rage turned into ungodly wrath when it saw that the goblins it left just a moment ago were all dead on the street.

It let out a mighty roar as it charged at Roy as if it knew that he was the one who killed its friends. The latter could only try and dodge to side the overhead large slash from the goblin.

“Shit!” Even though he mostly dodge the attack, the sword still scratched Roy’s left arm, leaving a bleeding wound on his shoulder.

“You motherfucker!” Jack immediately stabbed the goblin in the side of its chest, while Robb slashed away at its knee tendons from the back. The creature fell with a sharp shriek while its eyes stared daggers at all of its assailants. It kept its sword high as if to scare off Roy and his friends, but even then its hands were shaking.

Roy charged at the goblin, making it try and slash, but it was all a feint. He stopped midway, letting the monster miss, before dashing back in to capitalize on the opportunity. He slashed the goblin’s hand, making it drop its weapon, before stabbing its neck multiple times. With each stab, blood kept bursting out, until the light in the creature’s eyes dimmed and it fell limp on the ground.

“Congratulation, you have awakened.”