7. Devoured

  The dagger trembled in his hand.

  Blake was on his knees on the cabin floor, hyperventilating, sweat running down his forehead, his face twisted out of shape.

  In front of him, the row of baskets. Covered in blood.

  "I did it..." His voice barely came out. "I did what you asked. There's your blood. Now take me back."

  Silence.

  No window. No message. Nothing.

  "Come on..." he insisted. "Answer. Say something. Show yourself."

  Only the slow drip of blood against the dirt floor.

  And then he heard it.

  "Krrk..."

  He spun around.

  A few feet away stood a goblin child. Its eyes — small, yellow, bright — swept the cabin. They stopped on the baskets. On the dagger. On Blake. Horror crossed its face in a way Blake never expected to see on a monster.

  And then it ran.

  "Stop! Stop!"

  He caught it and grabbed its arm. The goblin child opened its mouth. Blake covered it with his free hand before the sound could escape.

  Teeth sank into his palm. Blood welled up instantly.

  "Khhhh!"

  Blake gritted his teeth.

  'No... I can't let go. I have to hold on.'

  The goblin twisted its body, pushing, clawing. It wasn't going to stop.

  Blake knew it.

  He closed his eyes for a second.

  'There's no other way out.'

  The blade went in clean at the neck.

  [Goblin Child — HP: 8/8 → 0/8]

  [Target eliminated]

  "Gahhhhh!"

  The body went limp all at once.

  Blake pushed it aside and pressed his back against the wall.

  "None of this is going the way I expected..."

  He looked at it.

  And then he saw him.

  Not the goblin child.

  Darius.

  Lying on the floor with his eyes open, with the wound in his neck and the expression of someone who didn't understand why.

  Blake backed away until his back hit a pillar. He pressed his hands over his eyes and started clawing at them, pressing hard.

  When he lowered them, it was the goblin child again.

  Just the goblin child.

  Blake looked away. Breathed deeply. Trying to act as if nothing had happened.

  The cloth at the entrance moved.

  "Krrk... graa?"

  An adult female goblin poked her head in. Her eyes took a second to adjust to the dim light. Then she saw the child.

  "GRAAAK! SKRAA!"

  She bolted before Blake could do anything.

  Blake leapt to his feet.

  "Shit!"

  He grabbed the dagger and headed for the exit.

  "I have to get out of here!"

  He burst out of the cabin. He didn't stop. Didn't look back. He just ran.

  The village convulsed around him. Some goblins froze. Others pointed. Others screamed. Guttural sounds exploding in every direction.

  Blake pushed through all of it.

  'Exit. I need to find the exit as fast as possible.'

  As he ran, he tried squeezing his hands in the air to summon the interface. Nothing. He tried again. Nothing.

  "This is NOT a good time to go quiet on me!" he shouted between gasps. "I did what you asked! Now get me out of here!"

  The system still didn't respond.

  Then he heard a shriek behind him. Too close.

  He turned, but something slammed into him and knocked him forward. The impact drove the air from his lungs. The dagger flew.

  He tried to get up. He couldn't.

  An adult female goblin had her knees planted in his abdomen. Her claws found their mark almost immediately.

  "Agh!"

  Scratch after scratch, without pause.

  "Why are you attacking me?!" he screamed. "Your threat level is supposed to be zero!"

  He bent his knees and drove a kick with every bit of strength he could muster. He sent her flying several feet back.

  He dragged himself toward the dagger. His fingers grazed the handle —

  "Aghhhhhh!"

  The goblin's claws dug into his calf. She yanked back, dragging him.

  Blake gritted his teeth.

  His fingers locked around the dagger. With his free hand he scooped dirt from the ground and twisted just far enough to hurl it into her face.

  "Grrkk! Kraaa!"

  Her hands flew to her eyes.

  Blake lunged on top of her and drove the blade straight down toward her chest.

  Her hands caught the blade. She pushed up with her eyes still streaming dirt.

  He pushed down.

  Neither gave.

  "Haaaaa!"

  Then the blade went in and he twisted it.

  "KRAAA!"

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  [Goblin Housewife — HP: 0/10]

  [Target eliminated]

  The goblin's shriek cut off instantly.

  Blake stayed motionless on top of her, arms shaking, his breathing reduced to gasps that couldn't quite fill his lungs.

  'The first monster I've actually killed legitimately. In self-defense…'

  "Ha… ha… ha," he laughed, though it came out like it cost him something.

  "If I hadn't destroyed her core, I never could have killed her…" Blake murmured

  Slowly, he looked up.

  Then the silence shattered with a metallic flash.

  Blake snapped his head back with everything he had.

  The blade passed within a hair's breadth of his nose. But not entirely clean.

  A line crossed his forehead. The blood came immediately, pouring into his eyes, down his cheeks. Within seconds, half his face was covered in red.

  He crumpled down to the ground, sitting there, hyperventilating and shaking.

  He touched his forehead with his fingers. Stared at them.

  "No... No, no, no..."

  The goblin who had attacked him repositioned herself in front of him. Tall for her kind. Holding a sword with obvious clumsiness.

  'The fear. I can't let it consume me. Not now. Not here.'

  Blake forced himself to his feet.

  The goblin charged. But he stepped aside at the last instant.

  'Her swordsmanship is terrible. Every attack leaves her wide open.'

  He let her charge again. He waited. And when the blade came down, he countered with the dagger toward her side.

  The dagger met resistance. A dry crack. And snapped in two.

  "Damn..."

  The goblin charged again. Blake stuck his leg out at exactly the right moment.

  She went down face-first.

  "Grrrak!"

  He threw himself on top of her, driving his weight onto the arm holding the sword. He took what remained of the broken blade and drove it into her arm again and again.

  "SKRAA! KRAAA! GRRKK!"

  The shriek was long and ragged. Her hand opened on its own. The sword came free.

  Blake grabbed it and stepped back.

  The goblin rose slowly, clutching her arm to her chest, eyes fixed on him.

  "Grk... grk..."

  Then she turned and ran.

  "Now you run?!" He was already moving. "Get back here!"

  He caught her. The sword went in through her back and came out the other side.

  [Goblin Housewife — HP: 0/10]

  [Target eliminated]

  The goblin fell without a sound. Only the dull thud of her body hitting the dirt.

  Blake stood over her, trembling.

  "I'm giving you all this blood..." he murmured, staring up at the ceiling of the underworld. "And you still don't answer. What the hell is wrong with you?"

  No one answered.

  Then he heard it.

  A howl. Long. Deep. Then another. And another.

  [Warg — Threat Level: Low]

  There were several. Closing in from different angles with that slow rhythm of something that knows it has the advantage.

  He turned and ran.

  'Exit. There has to be an exit.'

  Then he heard a growl to his right. Too close.

  He turned his head.

  And all he could see was the warg launching off the ground in a direct leap toward him.

  He just reacted. He planted his feet, raised the sword, and closed his eyes.

  The impact threw him onto his back.

  He opened his eyes. The warg was on top of him, run through with the sword up to the hilt, its jaws hanging open inches from his face.

  [Warg — HP: 0/20]

  [Target eliminated]

  He shoved the body aside and wrenched the sword free. He got to his feet.

  Warrior goblins appeared. More wargs. Closing the semicircle from three directions. They knew he had nowhere to go.

  Blake spun, searching for anything.

  And he found it.

  A goblin kid nearby, eyes wide open, motionless, watching everything.

  He looked at her.

  Nothing better came to mind.

  Three strides and he had her by the arm. The goblin let out a sharp shriek as Blake pressed the edge of the sword against her neck.

  "Nobody move!" he shouted. "One step and I kill her right here!"

  The goblin who seemed to be leading the group raised his hand.

  "Grrak. Skaa."

  Everyone stopped instantly.

  Blake was struggling to breathe. Shaking uncontrollably, blood from his forehead still dripping down.

  "All I want is to leave," he shouted, and his voice came out broken, too loud, too desperate. "That's it! I won't do anything to her if you just let me out of here! I just want to go!"

  No one answered.

  Only the low growls of the wargs could be heard.

  Then he saw her.

  A female goblin pushing through the group. Arms stretched out. Holding something against her chest.

  A goblin baby.

  Still.

  She approached the goblin leader and showed it to him without a word. She was crying in silence.

  "Graa... skrrk..." the leader murmured, his voice low and broken.

  The other goblins watched. The silence that followed was different from before. Heavier.

  Blake felt the weight of every single one of those eyes.

  "I'm sorry..." he murmured. "I really am. That wasn't something I wanted to do. I just had no choice!"

  The leader turned to the goblin beside him, ignoring Blake completely.

  "Grrak skaa. Krrk graa rhak." His tone was low, loaded, gesturing in Blake's direction with every syllable.

  "Rhak. Skraa grik." The other nodded, eyes fixed on him.

  "What are they saying?!" Blake shouted. "I don't understand anything! Are you letting me go or not?!"

  The leader stopped speaking.

  He raised his hand.

  He snapped his fingers.

  The wargs began to advance. Slowly. Growling.

  "What are you doing?!" The sword trembled against the goblin kid's neck. "I can kill her right now! Do you not understand that?!"

  The wargs didn't stop, and the leader watched him with cold, calculated fury. The look of someone who had already made up his mind.

  Then the pain hit without warning.

  An explosion in his shoulder.

  The sword dropped.

  The goblin kid broke free and ran.

  Blake staggered backward, his vision clouding instantly. He reached for his shoulder and found the end of an arrow buried in the flesh. He looked up.

  A goblin on the rooftop. With a bow.

  He looked around for a way out. And then he saw the other goblin — chain in hand, dragging it along the ground, walking toward him with slow, deliberate steps.

  The sound of metal scraping against dirt was the most terrifying thing he had heard in a long time.

  He ran.

  He didn't think. He just ran.

  "Please!" he screamed into the air, lungs burning. "Please, get me out of here! That's all I'm asking!"

  Mor'khad didn't answer.

  Something pierced his left calf.

  "AAGHH!"

  He kept running. Limping. Dragging his leg.

  Another arrow. The right one.

  "OH GOD!"

  He fell.

  The ground caught him face-first. He lay there, palms pressed into the dirt, trying to get up and failing. His legs weren't responding.

  "Please..." His fingers began moving through the air, touching, searching. "Please, appear. I just want to leave. That's all I want."

  Nothing.

  "Please!"

  And then it appeared.

  [Do you wish to exit the safe instance?]

  [Yes] / [No]

  He reached his finger toward [Yes]

  But something cold wrapped around his neck.

  The chain snapped taut, cutting off his air completely. He was dragged backward across the dirt, clawing at the metal with his fingers, trying to loosen it, getting nowhere. The window kept floating in front of his eyes, drifting farther away.

  His fingers only managed to brush the [Yes] option.

  Then he lost consciousness.

  ***

  He jolted back awake.

  He tried to move.

  He couldn't.

  He had a chain around his neck and around his legs. Anchored to the wall with crushing finality.

  He looked up.

  Bars.

  And on the other side, watching in silence, the female goblin. Still holding the baby. Still crying without sound. The leader beside her. And behind them, more goblins — dozens, packed together, staring at him with an expression that needed no translation.

  Pure contempt.

  Then the window appeared.

  [Time Updated!]

  → Time Remaining — 00:30

  'What?' He lunged toward the bars as far as the chains would allow. 'I still haven't completed it? After everything I did?'

  "Let me out!" His hands gripped the metal, pulling, shaking. "Please! Just let me out!"

  "Grrak." The leader didn't move.

  "Skaa." Neither did the rest.

  → Time Remaining — 00:15

  Blake looked back.

  A hatch in the far wall opened slowly.

  Wargs began to pour out.

  They moved toward him with that slow rhythm he already knew — but this time there was nowhere to run.

  "No!" He pressed himself against the bars, yanking at the chains. "Don't do this to me! Please! Let me out!"

  No one moved on the other side.

  The first warg reached him.

  "AAAGHHH! STOP! PLEASE, STOP!"

  The pain had no name. No shape. It existed only as something absolute that filled everything all at once and did not relent. Blake screamed. Kept screaming. He tried to pull away, to twist, to get some distance, but the chains gave him no more than a few inches in any direction.

  "NO! STOP! STOP, PLEASE!"

  The sounds coming from his throat no longer seemed human. As more and more wargs leapt in to devour him alive.

  And with one eye — the only one he could still see with — he watched the goblins on the other side of the bars.

  Not one of them looked away.

  Not a single one.

  ***

  Light.

  Blake opened his eyes.

  The bathroom ceiling. The white tiles. The constant drip of the faucet he hadn't turned off all the way.

  He sat up sharply and started patting himself down — arms, legs, neck, shoulder. No arrows. No chain. No wounds. His clothes intact. His skin clean.

  'What...?'

  He stared at his hands several times, turning them over, as if expecting to find something that wasn't there.

  'The pain was real. It was completely real. I felt all of it.'

  He leaned back against the sink, still trembling, still feeling in his body something that no longer existed.

  Then the window appeared.

  [You have not met the blood quota...]

  [ACTIVATING AUTOMATIC CONSUMPTION PROTOCOL.]

  Blake closed his eyes.

  Gritted his teeth.

  Waited.

  Nothing.

  He opened his eyes slowly.

  "Does that mean... I completed it?"

  Silence.

  Then he heard the clock on the bathroom wall.

  He looked at it.

  'Oh no.'

  He was out the door before the thought finished forming.

  The academy hallways blurred past him as he ran.

  And then, without warning, something exploded in his abdomen.

  Blake doubled over without breaking stride, pressing one hand against his stomach, biting down on his lip to keep from screaming. It felt like something was destroying his insides from within.

  He kept running.

  The door to classroom 5-A appeared at the end of the hall.

  He shoved it open.

  "Where the hell have you been?!" Magnus's voice filled the room instantly. "Two of your classmates went to the bathroom to find you and you weren't there! I want an explanation right now!"

  "I-I..." Blake took a step forward, one hand pressing against his abdomen, trying to stay upright.

  He blinked.

  And vomited blood.

  The sound that swept through the room was not a single scream. It was several, all at once, as Blake collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud that echoed across the entire hall.

  "My God!" Magnus's voice, for the first time, held not even a trace of its usual coldness. "Someone go get the nurse right now!"

  Blake heard the footsteps. The voices. Someone calling his name.

  But his vision was already fading — narrowing to a dark point, then to nothing.