Chapter Twenty Four
/Hidden Forest/
In a serene forest, eight people can be seen moving on a single file towards the deeper region of the forest, where the goblins are located.
As they move closer to their destination, they begin to see evidence of what they were looking for, rubies and bones, the former of which Mrs Bromwyn and Henrik were involved with, with the vampire storing them in his spacial band secretly.They get to an edge where a bridge links both sides, below them they see a golden lava.
With the heat and the sizzling steam from the lava, Eric makes the first step over the bridge, testing the road made out of vines and woods.
" Do your best to stay dry" he says to them. Try as he may to lessen the tension, Gryff wasn't taking it lightly
" This is bonkers!"
" Praise the bridge that carries you over" Sara speaks as she moves ahead later with the rest moving along, leaving Finn and Henrik for last.
Sara noticed and looked back towards them
"For a hunter, ye shouldn't be scared of the bridge now, eh" she taunts with a smirk on her face.
"Don't worry about us, we will be coming over soon!" Henrik replies but his eyes never leaves the golden lava.
No longer paying them attention, Sara and the rest continue their journey.
"Do you think we could craft out items with this golden lava?" Finn asks feeling eager to test out his theory
"Aye, Finn..we bloody hit jackpot now!...how much space do you have in your spacial band?" Henrik asks a little excited
"Enough to handle five lion's weight in gold or more, you?" Finn just thinking about how much they will gain couldn't stop his excitement
"Teehee... more than double of that!" Henrik grin widens the more he thinks of the prospect. But suddenly
ROAR!!!
"Guess that's our queue"
Finn demeanor changes as they dash towards the sound
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/Earlier before the roar/
"They killed each other" Eric whispers to his companions as he observed the scene before him. They had arrived at where the mirror was located, there they met the dead bodies of the goblins, black skinned with golden hands and feet, it was evident they had fought each other.
"Just like the queen's army" Gryff confirms
"Now what?" Sara raises a question
"Now we take what we came for" Eric whispers back, looking at them this time, he continues " keep it covered, do not look into it" he warns them and after they agreed with him they moved ahead, but this time as slowly and stealthy as they could.
Eric taking the lead, hoping to get the mirror smoothly suddenly stops as a something landed before him.
Goblin.
One taller than him, no different from the dead ones around. It growls towards Eric and his companions, sniffing and smelling them.
It moved around stoping at Mrs Bromwyn side, smelling her hands holding a treasure of theirs. Mrs Bromwyn, scared to the bones, couldn't handle the tension of being sniffed out for her little score, shaking in fear while the goblin towered over her, growling and ready to give his judgement towards the thief.
At the moment of it's attack, Eric rushes towards it, showing his inhumane talent struggles with the goblin, assisted by Sara with her swift movement and fast attacks. The goblin irritated by the unfair match, growls and roars out after giving them a distance
ROAR!!!!!
It rushes into the fold with a new found confidence, all the while, the dwarves had already taken hold of the mirror now covered in cloth.
Few moments later, Eric kills the goblin with a tumbling twist grabbing the horns of the monster and dragging it down to the earth with a heavy thud, receiving the heavy blow to the head from the earth, the goblin stops moving. Dead.
*Growling*
Looking around, Eric and Sara realize they were about to be surrounded
" It's time to go love" Eric tells Sara with a smile on his face.
As they run towards where they came, one of the many goblins assaulted them on the way, quick to react, Eric rolls on the ground to dodge the attack, not minding to waste much time, he continues his run.
Sara ahead of him was about to be attacked also when suddenly a shadow passed her and the goblin was dead with a dagger on the forehead
~how heavy was that swing?~
She thinks as she traces back to where the dagger came from only to see Finn with an outstretched hand proving to be the killer, Henrik was already moving past her to help delay the goblins.
"Go ahead! We will keep them busy!" Henrik instructs as he swiftly makes a cut across the head of goblin, severing it from it's body.
"I'll help also, you two can't handle it alone!" Eric tries to suggest
"Oi! Who do you think we are? Go ahead of us! Any one that slips past us you deal with them!" Finn screams back while using his hands to hold down a goblin with a choke and a little twist the head of the goblin turns in an unnatural way.
Eric leaves them, making the two Originals to freely reign.
Their eyes turning bloodshot and veins around their eyes bulging out. Henrik grins wildly as he equipped his trusted axes same as Finn who equipped his long heavy blade.
"Free reign eh brother!" Henrik says as he rushes, jumping high towards one of the goblins rushing in mid air towards them. They meet mid way in the air with Henrik winning the exchange with a swing from his axe. He lands on a tree branch and there his slaughters begin, moving acrobatically around from one tree branch to another with flips and twists unnatural for humans to perform, he reaps the life out the goblins.
Finn taking charge of the ground level gives heavy swings one after the other, supported by his inhumane reflexes and speed, he disects every goblin coming towards his way, a thrust to the chest, a swing across the waist, a downward slash in the middle, a blow to the head with his empty hand as he wields his blade with one hand. The thrilling fight continues with the unending assualt from the goblins untill
BOOOOMMMM!!!!
*Screeches*
Both the originals and the goblins take a pause and they see smoke from where the sound came from. Seeing no gain anymore from the fight, the goblins decided to retreat.
"Tsk...when the fight was already getting exciting" Henrik comments in annoyance, it had been a long time since he had a good fight.
"Well better for us. More time to explore their territory. We are searching every inch of this forest and hoarding whatever we find" Finn replies
"Aye, but the gold river will have to wait for us later, we still have a promise to keep with Eric. Good thing we planned to rest closer to where we last had our rest, so tracking them back wouldn't be hard" Henrik agrees.
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/Next day/
After the little escapades in the goblin territory, Henrik and Finn finally arrived at the camp of Eric and the dwarves.
A frown appears on their faces as they got close to their companions. Henrik feeling the air saturated with magic, frowned harder and then he noticed ice. It was far from the season of winter, yet there was ice.
"What happened?" Finn broke the silence
"The ice witch happened" Gryff speaks agitation could be felt from his voice.
"We were betrayed" Mrs Bromwyn spits with anger
"By the female warrior" Gryff finished the sentence.
" Where are Nion and Doreena?" Finn asked
"Taken away, in cold ice. As well as the mirror. I swear I'll gut the queen meself!" Mrs Bromwyn replies angered for her friend who was taken away.
All this time, Henrik was focused on Eric who had a goofy smile on his face as he was fiddling around with his necklace. Worried he asked the huntsman
"Oi, Eric, are you ok?"
"Ok?... hahahaha...I feel great brother!" Eric replies gleefully
"He must've gone bunkers. I wouldn't if it was a female dwarf, they could be backstabbing slimy...*ugh*" Gryff speaks before he was hit in the gut by Mrs Bromwyn who was glaring at him at the moment
"No no no...I'm not mad...she loves me...Sara loves me...she shot the pendant" Eric still gleeful
"Maybe she missed?" Gryff suggests
On hearing that Eric grins wildly.
"No...she never misses"