It's painful.

It's tiring.

But I get up and squeeze the bloodied half-spear in my right hand. The rusty smell of blood hits my nose. My other arm is uselessly hanging along my body. Broken somewhere under my shoulder. I can't even move it without pain making my vision spin.

The goblin shaman is standing there with one of his hands pointing towards me and mumbling something under his nose.

I let go of the broken spear and grab a stone from the ground, instantly throwing it at the goblin.

Surprisingly, his chanting pauses and he frowns. Instead of hitting him, the stone slows down as it approaches him and then falls down about a meter away from him.

I do it again and get the same result.

His mumbling stops, and the stone slows down around 3 meters away from him and then just falls down, again. He screams something, and I quickly jump behind a tree, but there is no terrible noise, and the tree doesn't explode. Instead, I can hear him chanting something once again.

Then I hear a gunshot.

All of us freeze for a second, and unnatural silence fills the surroundings.

Another gunshot.

Hadwin is pointing his gun at the shaman. Surprisingly, the green creature isn't dead. Not even wounded. The same thing happens to the bullet as to stones.

As it enters an area close to the goblin it slows down and we can see it slowly traveling through the air. Then it stops and falls down.

"Damn..." Hadwin's voice is tired, and he is slowly limping.

Yet he seems to be in the best state out of the three of us. Sophie is holding a piece of cloth on her wounded hand while glaring at the goblin shaman. Damon is sitting on the ground and leaning against a tree. I'm not even sure if he is conscious or even alive.

The goblin looks at us, and his gaze is full of hate. He bares his sharp teeth, and a deep hissy growl escapes his mouth.

I move my tired body toward him, and the only thing I can think about is killing him.

I throw a few things at him as I walk closer, a stone, a branch, a piece of hardened dirt. Every time, they just slow in the air and fall down near him. But every time I do it, his chant pauses, and his face becomes angrier and angrier.

"You don´t like that, do you?" I smirk and I can feel the blood in my mouth.

I spit it out while continuing to walk closer and throwing stuff at him.

"Fucking piece of shit."

He keeps letting out terrible noises, maybe even words. He doesn't seem worried at all as I stop just a few meters away from him.

Is that a smile on his face?

Fucker.

I stab my spear at him, but at some distance away from him, it starts feeling weird, as if the spear is moving through molasses, and the feeling becomes worse the closer it gets to the goblin.

After around one meter, my stab loses all its strength.

When I try to quickly pull it back, it becomes even worse, as if it's stuck in something.

So I just let go of the spear, and it slowly falls down to the ground, almost like a feather.

The goblin's grin becomes even wider, and he chants faster.

 

You are so dead.

 

I step towards the goblin, and for a moment, his smile becomes even wider.

Then it instantly disappears from his face, replaced by sheer shock.

I enter the zone around him while moving really slowly. I am not attacking him at all, just taking a step toward him. Really slow step.

There is some resistance, almost like moving underwater and when I try quickly moving with just my finger, the resistance becomes much stronger.

So that's how it is.

Amazing.

His smile disappears, and it seems like he did stutter for a moment before resuming his chanting.

I continue slowly moving toward him. My body is turned slightly with my wounded arm facing him.

After entering the zone an arm reach away from him, I feel the resistance weaken slightly.

The goblin finally gives up his chanting, and a dagger appears in his hand. He is moving slowly, also affected by the field around him.

I focus once again and try to send the last drops of mana through my body.

The shaman seems to be an even worse fighter than the other goblins, as he just stabs at my chest.

I am already dodging even before he makes a stabbing motion.

His feet´s placement.

His stance.

The way he turns his body.

I predict where he is going to stab and move my body slightly to make him barely miss me.

When his dagger enters my reach, I notice fear in his eyes. He slowly realizes that he is going to miss, and I can see his body struggle. Muscles twitching, his expression turning darker and darker.

Why did you stop smiling?

Is it not fun anymore?

Smile for me.

He is trying to move as much as he can and change the direction of his stab. Then he tries to quickly pull his attack back. There is panic in his movements.

But he can't. He is also restricted by the unnatural field around his body.

As he starts pulling back his dagger for another stab, I grab his throat with my fingers. I focus most of my remaining mana into my hand and try to bury the tips of my fingers into the front of his neck.

The monster tries to escape, but I follow him at the same speed, and he keeps panicking more and more.

He keeps trying to move faster than he can and keeps getting restricted while I just slowly follow his movement at the speed the field allows me to.

There is another stab coming. From the way he moves, I know that if I dodge it, he will continue and try to stab the hand holding his neck.

I should dodge.

It's smart to dodge.

But I just shift my body, and his dagger enters my broken hand instead.

The pain is terrible, much worse than I expected. The dagger is slowly penetrating my skin, tearing my muscles, and scratching my bone.

 

But I don't let go. Instead of that, I squeeze his neck harder and harder. He is already scratching my right hand with his remaining hand, leaving deep bloody grooves on my forearm.

I am almost worried that I will break my teeth from how much I am clenching them. It's easily the most pain I ever felt in my life.

He then twists the dagger inside my hand, and I feel tears running down my cheeks.

I can't help it, but a painful groan escapes my mouth.

But I don't let go.

I squeeze even harder and harder.

I feel the blood from his neck on my fingers, and then I finally penetrate his softer skin of the neck. It feels disgusting, and I am sure I will never forget this feeling.

Blood flows down his neck and on my hands as I grab his adam's apple and start pulling it out of his neck. In the process, I lose the last drops of my mana.

Then I hear soft noise, as if something is breaking, the necklace on his neck falls apart.

The feeling of my body being deep underwater instantly disappears.

The goblin shaman falls down on the ground while putting his hands against the hole in his neck. There is blood flowing through his fingers, and he is letting out noises I already want to forget about.

After a few seconds of struggling, the light disappears from his eyes.

Only a terrible, hateful, expression stays on his face, as until the last moment, he kept staring at me.