Goblin!

"GOBLIN!" Eres yelled, pointing at the toothy monster running at them from the woods.

His voice was high and reedy with fear, but the message was received loud and clear as the girls stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction he was pointing. As their eyes found the toad-like face of the goblin and the mouth full of jagged teeth, they screamed and struggled to their feet.

Eres looked at the town gate off to his left. It was maybe 150 meters away, but it may as well have been miles with the Goblin in front. Perhaps if they could run straight away from it, but all that was behind him was empty fields, the same off to his right. The forest behind the Goblin was thick, and the branches cast long shadows. Were more of them hiding in there, waiting to jump out?

The Goblin continued slowly stalking towards the group, as they started back-pedalling towards the town as best they could. It moved along with them, moving slowly at a diagonal to cut them off, its wide mouth dripping with drool.

Eres looked at the gate again. It still felt so far away. He didn't see any guards above it. Were they gathering because they had seen the Goblin and were on their way to save them? Or were they doing rounds and hadn't seen the threat? Or maybe they were slacking off and would be even slower to react. He just didn't know.

Eres tried to draw on his core, and tried his hardest to pull Mana through his body and into his hands to create magic, but it just wouldn't move. It felt like a frozen lake, still moving under the surface but trapped by a solid layer. In this case, Eres was pretty sure that his fear and panic were holding him back but he couldn't be sure, not really.

"Freya, can you gather any power?" He whispered, not taking his eyes off of the creature.

"Maybe a little, but not much, not now," her voice was shaking, and Eres could hear tears choking at her throat.

"Enough for a flash of light? You know that spell, Flare?"

"Yeah... yeah I can do that, why?"

Eres didn't respond.

"Eres, what stupid stunt are you planning? This isn't a joke this thing will kill you!" Freya hissed, the anger breaking through her fear.

Eres was still thinking. He might be able to make a shield, maybe. It would show Myla something strange about him, and confirm Freya's suspicions that his blessing was more than he was letting on. But it might let them get away.

Should he risk showing how strange his magic could be?

As he was deliberating over this, the goblin stalked ever closer, and Freya began to conjure her divine power into her hands. Then, everything stopped. At least, for Eres.

He watched, almost like a passenger, as the Goblin sprung through the air, plunging its blade into Myla's throat. The blood fountained out as the Goblin cried with bloodlust, turning its blade onto him. Myla, bloody and dying, tackled it to the ground and gave them time to run. He ran and ran, and ran until he couldn't run anymore. And he never tried to cast a spell, not at all. He knew he shouldn't, someone had told him not to show his magic, not ever.

Then with a feeling like his head splitting in two, he was back in control. Back in the field, with a Goblin preparing to jump, and two friends he wanted to protect.

"Freya, get ready. When it jumps, let go of the Flare. Myla, get ready to run, okay?" He hissed through the pain, seeing the creature's legs beginning to knot, its stride beginning to lengthen.

"Eres-"

"Freya, enough. We can't outrun it, so we need to do something, just be ready."

Freya nodded glumly. She didn't know what to do, so she decided to follow Eres' lead and feel bad about it later. If there was a later.

Myla was whimpering slightly, her hands placed on Eres' shoulders. He shrugged her off gently.

"Myla, when the Flash comes, you and Freya run, okay? As fast as you can, I will be right behind you, I promise," Eres' voice was much lighter than he was feeling. He couldn't look back at Myla. Images of blood bubbling in her throat were still tearing around in his head. Was it a premonition? Was it what would happen if he didn't act? Maybe it was the only way to survive this.

He didn't know. All he knew was the rage he was feeling. His blessing was that of a Defender. How could he run? How could he let someone take the blow in his place? He wouldn't let it happen. He couldn't. And with that realisation, he learned something. Rage melted the ice that held his Mana down. It moved now. It was sluggish, but it was moving.

The Goblin stopped, crouching down ready to spring. It didn't take long before it exploded into motion, sailing towards the children.

"FLARE!" Freya cried, her hands outstretched as a light flew from her hands and exploded into a shower of bright sparks. The creature's arms came up to cover its eyes, screeching in surprise.

"SHIELD!" Eres cried, forcing the mana out through his hands and into the world. The translucent pane of energy formed in the Goblin's path, stopping its momentum with a thud, "Now run! RUN!" Eres yelled over his shoulder, holding the shield out before him.

He wanted to have formed it faster. He wanted the Goblin at a distance, but there it was, climbing to its feet on the other side of his spell, less than ten feet from him. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears as he watched the creature through the shimmering pane of purple energy. A slight crack ran through the shield, but Eres had put as much Mana as he could gather into it. It should have been strong enough to stop something this size hundreds of times over, and yet it was cracked with only a single stopped charge.

The Goblin stood, one hand pressed up against the shield. The blade in its other hand pointed at the ground, swaying side to side as the creature stared at Eres. Drool dripped from its wide mouth as it stared at him and bared its teeth wide. Maybe it was trying to threaten him, or perhaps it was grinning thinking about its next meal. All Eres knew for sure was that it was staring at him without moving.

As Eres took a step back, the shield moved with him and the creature followed. Another step, and another. Eres thought perhaps he could keep the monster like this, watching him from the other side of this magical barrier, until the guards came to help him. Sure, they would know he could do magic and who he was, but at this point that seemed like the least of his worries.

But the monster didn't stay still for long. It stepped to the left, and Eres made the shield follow it. It stepped to the right and Eres mirrored it the same. The pair of them had covered nearly a third of the way back to the gate when the Goblin's face split into a snarl, and its blade began to move. The tip raised high above its head before crashing down into the translucent barrier that separated it from its prey.

Eres watched on with wide eyes as the blade bounced off the shield. It deflected to the side, where the Goblin swung it again, and again, and again. And with each heavy swing, the cracks in the shield grew.

Eres felt his throat clench shut as he saw his protection being chipped away right in front of him. He tried to reach inside himself, but the Mana was once again locked away, unresponsive to his call. He tried to feel that rage again, but the sound of the blade scratching across his lifeline left only fear to fill him. He wasted precious moments trying again to gather Mana before abandoning it, instead picking the pace he moved towards the gate. He didn't dare look over his shoulder, but he was sure the girls would have made it inside by now. They must have, it had been what felt like hours of Eres slowly stepping backwards.

Another crack split across the shield. Eres could feel that it was almost broken. Another few swings and he would be alone with the Goblin and no magic to help him. He risked a glance back over his shoulder. He could see the gate, maybe fifty metres away from him. Myla and Freya were nowhere to be found. He hoped they were safe, and that they had found guards to stop this thing before it hurt anyone else. He wondered if he should stop concentrating on the spell and run. How many steps could he make before it leapt? Would it be enough?

Then he felt the magic break. He thought he had longer, but as his eyes met the Goblins, he saw the rusted blade plunging towards his stomach. It was driving at an upwards angle. He knew from his conversations with Master Brom that a blade a this angle would catch his gut before it killed him. A gut wound was a bad way to go, but he doubted the Goblin would stop there. It would probably just keep stabbing and stabbing til the job was done.

Stabbing? Again? Isn't it stupid to die the same death twice? Eres thought as he watched the blade stab towards him as if time was at a standstill, as if it was slippery and he couldn't quite grab hold of it, Couldn't I just... live? Just a little longer?

Eres felt his body move before his thoughts caught up with him. His front foot drifted to one side, and he sprang off the back foot, stepping quickly to the side. Almost quickly enough that the blade missed him, but rather than sinking into his belly it nicked along his side and slid up his ribs, slicing a thin line across the skin.

The pain lanced across his skin like fire, and he felt blood begin to drip down his side, but he was alive. Time slipped back into place as he felt the blood trace its way down his body, and the Goblin stared at its blade in confusion. It growled a low sound in its throat almost like a bullfrog, before swiping out with the blade at Eres' chest. This time, Eres shifted his weight backwards and stepped out of reach, the tip of the blade barely catching one of his buttons as he leapt backwards, but the creature was already following him. Slashes, stabs, slices all flung as fast as the creature could throw them and none found purchase on Eres until they did.

Eres wasn't sure when the second cut on his skin appeared, but he noticed the third showed up shortly after and the fourth he saw coming and knew he couldn't escape. The toll of constant dodge was slowing him down, and he couldn't see the swings of the blade as clearly anymore. The wounds were minor, but they began to mount as he continued retreating towards the gate. It was a moment of weakness that almost killed him, a moment where he wanted to look back to see how close he was to the gate. At that moment the Goblin lunged, blade slicing through the air towards Eres' throat. Eres knew he couldn't step out of the way in time so he did the only thing he could think of. He managed to get his arm in the way.

The other wounds were shallow. Long, stinging cuts from the tip of the blade. As Eres felt the blade's edge bite into the flesh and bone of his forearm, he knew this was different. This wound didn't burn like fire, it throbbed like a heartbeat. As the blade was wrenched from it he screamed out, pain flooding his mind as blood began to spurt out from the giant laceration in his arm. He managed to leap backwards, landing on his behind in the grass, left hand clasping the serious wound he had been dealt. Blood poured between his fingers as he felt his vision dim. As the Goblin approached he could almost laugh.

Stabbing again after all is it? Well, at least we tried this time, He thought bitterly.

He stared at the Goblin as it raised the blade high above its head, glee shining through its eyes. He wouldn't look away, not from this.

"Stay the hell away from my friend!" came a roar from behind him, as a small girl with blonde hair ran forward faster than Eres could see, plunging the head of a spear deep into the chest of the creature, lifting it clean off the ground and throwing it nearly 30 foot back.

And that absurd sight was the last thing Eres saw before he slipped from consciousness and the void of sleep took his sight.