The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2) by Cajiao, Jez (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

kick them aside. I stabbed forward, driving the nearest goblin back, the tip of the naginata kissing the underside of his chin and slicing his rough skin like butter.

The blade slid in and out and away, cutting down on the inside of my next target’s arm, opening the wrist, before the first had time to clutch at its ruined throat.

I twisted, pivoting around, and struck out with the heel of my left foot to connect with the side of another goblin’s helm, sending it reeling long enough for Cheena to end its life with a dual stabbing of spears.

I smacked the tip of my naginata down on the ground, speeding my spin up, and I crouched down low, spinning the weapon over my head, and swinging the bladed end around. Dipping low again, I sliced through another goblin’s ankle, sending it toppling to the ground with a scream.

I popped upright, lifting the naginata overhead and swapping my grip in an instant, the chance I’d been waiting for given to me with that goblin’s fall.

I threw the naginata as hard as I could, and had the satisfaction of seeing the piggy eyes in that bloated face go wide in fear, then the blade hit, punching through the rough skin high on the right side of her chest. A screech of pain was quickly followed by a burbling cry that told me I’d scored a good hit.

I grabbed my swords, a hilt over each shoulder, and I pulled hard. I’d had to practice this maneuver so many times; despite what the movies showed, it was difficult, but I brought both swords down just in time to block the nearest upright goblin’s attack.

The world shrank into a frantic blur of steel, bronze, and teeth as all the goblins seemed to fixate on me, attacking with manic ferocity.

I cried out as a blade got past my defense, stabbing into my right upper arm, glancing off the bone, and making me drop that sword from suddenly numb fingers. I roared in rage and punted the goblin in the balls; I didn’t know much about their reproductive capabilities, but from the way it lifted into the air, and the high pitched squeal that came from it, I’d just ended that aspect of its existence. I then slashed out, determined to end the rest, only to have a mace crash into my sword, deflecting it enough that it skittered off my target’s chest plate.

I roared in pain again as a hammer hit me in the left wrist, the bracers barely cushioning the impact, and my second sword flew from nerveless fingers.

I stepped back quickly, finding that there were only three goblins left, and that Bane, Cheena, and Flux were battling two of them now. All three Mer bore various injuries, blood streaming from them. The Matriarch was squealing and pulling herself across the top of her cradle, frantically trying to drag herself close enough to grab a pack that sat nearby.

The last thing I noticed was something that I’d missed in the ferocious melee: the prisoners.

They were screaming encouragement! They were pounding away frantically at the makeshift cages that held them, bloody fists and feet ignored as they tried to get free to come to us, determined to stand on their own two feet and help.

I grinned at the goblin I faced, my mental passenger focused in tight on it as well; he’d warned me throughout the fight, keeping me alive this long, but there was only so much that was possible when the fight was that fast and vicious.

Now we both focused in with laser-like precision. The goblin growled, its jaw a mix of under and overbite working from one side to the other, yellow and black teeth interspersed with rotting… bits… made a concoction of halitosis that would kill a dentist just from looking at it. The goblin glared at me, shifting its grip on the hammer that had broken my left wrist and licked its lips nervously, nearly cutting its own tongue off.

I shifted to face it fully, teeth gritted as I glared at it, daring it to attack. It let out a growl that was mixed hatred and fear and swung the hammer two-handed at me, aiming for my chest and swinging right to left.

I stepped back, my useless arms dangling, and my Capoeira sessions suddenly came to mind as I began to move lightly, balancing on the balls of my feet and shifting from one foot to the other. I made sure it was watching me, readying for another swing. I could feel my companion getting closer, going faster and faster, our twin rages feeding each other and spiraling higher with every beat of my heart.

It swung again, right to left, then yanked it back as fast as it could, aiming to catch me with the spiked head on the back of its hammer, I dodged, barely quick enough, and I grinned at it as I leaned back. The hammer beat through the air in front of me, close enough that I felt the wind of its passage.

I’d bent back as far as I could, keeping my left foot planted, and I brought my right up as fast as possible, smashing my heel into the goblin’s face and causing it to stagger backwards, lashing out blindly with the hammer. I backed up a step, waiting for it, and as it focused in on me, I could see the hatred on its face clearly, then the confusion as I dropped to one knee.

Both emotions were wiped from its face by the terror that followed as Oracle shot over my head at tremendous speed. She used the mana I’d regenerated to make herself solid at the last second as she hit its face, fingers shifting to claws that drove deep into its eyes and burrowed into the brain behind it.

The goblin gasped in pain and collapsed, a momentarily insane wisp shredding its face while screaming incoherent swearwords. The goblin was dead