Ashes of the Fallen

Taking advantage of the situation, I quickly jumped to my left as I changed my angle of approach and swiped my axe at the fazed mage who was largely unhurt but unable to cast anything.

He raised his hands in a vain attempt to defend himself as I easily chopped through his forearms, causing him to scream in terror. The fright of pure horror displayed on his face reflected in my eyes as I readied another swing, and right as I was about to bring my axe down on his exposed neck, an instant cast flame hit me in the side of my chest causing me to jerk to the right.

"Ah fuck!" I cursed under my breath as I lost my aim on the man in front of me.

Grimacing and attempting to ignore the smell of burnt flesh, I shook my head and quickly looked to the mage I was previously attacking.

Throwing my shield out at the mage that had hit me, it knocked him back and forced him to retreat another step in fear.

The wounded mage that I had failed to kill was now running away with his severed arm lying on the floor. With his back exposed to me, I took my one-handed axe and threw it with all of my might as it flew through the air and lodged itself deeply in the man's spine. As the one-armed man collapsed on the ground, I switched my attention to the other mage that had turned tail as I stood my ground and gathered electricity in my hands once more.

"Through power, darkness turns to light, render all to ash," I muttered as I traced out the path that the man was taking. He could only run so far as the room ended a few paces away. It wasn't long before he found himself stuck at the tunnel that led to the next room of goblins; they were trapped. He stopped, as the archer had stopped, when they realized that I had been standing between them and the dungeon exit.

I had all the time in the world now.

They didn't notice it before the fight, but I had circled around the party for this specific reason. When they would undoubtedly attempt to flee, they would run away from me rather than through me. Thus, I positioned myself between the exit.

While they were busy insulting me, I was carrying out my plans.

Now, they were forced to die by my hands or by the goblin's hands.

Realizing the futility of their situation, they both turned and raised their arms in one last act of defiance. The mage began to cast another fireball, while the archer drew back his bow to fire once again.

I silenced them.

"Lightning bolt," I whispered as I let the overcharged ball of electricity fly out of my hands. In the blink of an eye, it completely traversed the forty feet between us as the dazzling array of light pierced through the ashen air.

The mage couldn't even hope to dodge the lightning as it hit him, nearly too fast to track with your eyes let alone time enough to react and dodge. With a violent explosion of discharging energy and tails of electricity floating about, the man collapsed to his knees as he was paralyzed and couldn't move.

His resistance was high though, and he began to fight it and started to stand earlier than expected, but an arrow found itself lodged in the center of his forehead as he slumped to the ground. I rotated slightly and put an arrow into the other mage that was still barely alive while lying prone on the ground, with an axe sticking out of his back and his left arm missing at the elbow.

Now, there was only one man left.

I continued to pace toward the archer who was afraid for his life, panic finally settling in. He turned and ran through that narrow passageway that led to the second group of goblins, too afraid of me in the moment to realize an escape was impossible.

I took my time, picking up my shield and axe, and ensuring that the dead were in fact dead. I looted their bodies of the coin they dropped, the five-percent that was available after a player was killed by another player. It didn't amount to much, but I did get almost two silver… the healer had quite a large purse it seemed.

Keeping my shield raised, I entered that dark passageway with a loud trudge, as I did my best to torment the man on the other side.

I began to knock my axe-head against the wall, with a clink every other step.

Then, I started to tap the shield against the wall on the other side, giving off a dull thud in conjunction, and alternating with the sound of the axe.

Clink, thud, clink, thud, clink, thud.

I was drumming up noise, just for him.

And then, the end of the tunnel came and light could be seen from the other room a little ways ahead. The outline of my body slowly appearing to the man caught between a group of goblins and the axe-man out for blood. An arrow was fired, but it fell harmlessly into the rock wall. Another came, but landed in my shield.

Then, a voice followed.

"Uh-h hey, you know we were just kidding right?" said the archer. "We were just trolling you know, we didn't mean any of it, it was just for fun. Just a joke, don't take it personally."

I stopped outside of the passageway and set my shield and axe down.