Dungeon Sniper

The good news was that there were only four of them. The bad news was that four against one still sounded like a sure death on my part no matter how much I spun the words around in my head.

It was only a matter of time the Goblins passed by the house I hid and smelled the rabbit stew in the air coming out of it. And judging by their long, hooked nose, I would bet that they had an exceptional sense of smell.

Sure enough, I heard one of the Goblins stopping in the middle of the road and beginning to sniff the air.

"I smell food," said one Goblin.

"We all do, Kazuki, the Human male reeks strong of sweat."

Dude. What?

Okay, I smelled a little. I had been running around all day, after all. Being drenched in rain did not help me smell any hotter either.

"No, a different smell... Rabbits. It is one of those Human cooked foods," said the Goblin referred as Kazuki. He sounded a little dumb, but he sure had one fine functioning nose.

"Ugh, I hate cooked foods," said the other Goblin. One thing about their voices, though, was that they all had the same grinding, sandy feel to them, meaning not only did they all sound the same to my ears but they were very, very much unpleasant to the ears. But despite the uniform, phlegmy voices approaching closer, my keen sense was starting to read into the personality of each voice.

Not that it mattered. I had no intention of becoming friends with Goblins. There was a high chance that they were the same ones who raided this place and bathed in the blood of the villagers. Or drank the blood, like some traditional victory wine in their culture. They had the savage look to match my suspicion.

But what I needed to do now was not fancy myself with some exotic, barbaric custom that might or might not be true, but figure out the leader of the group. The sooner I took him out, the better chance I had against them.

"There. The smell comes from there," said a particularly grating voice. The same nasty voice that suggested forced reproduction between Human males and females for tender baby meats.

"He is in there. We go in."

There. I knew he was the leader. My guts were telling me so. I peeked outside the window and got a glimpse of the nasty voice. Yup, he looked the part, as ugly and nasty, just like I expected. He was the biggest of the four, too, standing in the middle and pointing to my hideout. I decided to mark him down as 'Nasty' for now.

I began to shuffle my feet slowly towards the end of the room as far away as possible from the entrance. They would barge in here any second now.

I took a deep breath, and waited. I had drawn up Rusty the Rusted Bow and aimed it steady towards the door. I could hear their footsteps heading this way.

I had my Night Eye on the whole time. My first action would have to be taking out the torch the two Goblins were holding for the light. My knowledge of the Goblins from the fantasy novels and games was that they were nocturnal creatures with an uncanny ability to see in the dark. My knowledge, on the other hand, always depicted them as green-skinned as opposed to red-skinned, so things might be different.

They were right outside the door. I could hear them, almost see them reaching for the knob with my Echolocation skill. I backed out and stood against the farthest wall facing the entrance. I estimated that there were some thirty feet between me and the intruders the moment they stepped inside the house. I laid down four arrows on the damaged table next to me. Just four, one for each head. I did not try to think about what would happen if I missed even one shot.

Three seconds was probably the maximum time granted by the element of surprise on my side. It was my pure luck that the Goblins were not suspecting that I was waiting to pierce their heads on the other side of the door. Either they were as stupid as they looked, or they were confident enough to take down a single Human male with just four of them.

I heard the doorknob turn, creaking and cl.i.c.k.i.n.g slowly on pace with my slowed down, concentrated senses.

How did the Goblins take down an entire village anyway? I might not know much, but the biggest Goblin would still be a head shorter than an average Human. That was my preexisting knowledge, and my peek outside a window had confirmed that this world's—Dungeon's—Goblins were the same, midget-like munchkins as I knew...

In a fraction of a second, just as the door started to open, I lowered the aim so that I would be aiming at the c.h.e.s.t level of a Human. A crucial adjustment that would have cost me my life had it come a second later.

The door opened.

The abrupt exposure to the two burning torches was blinding to my eyes, but I had no luxury to shut my eyes, let alone frown or wipe the tears watering by the lower eyelids. Instead, I let the first arrow fly right through the bald, horned head of one of the Goblins. He was knocked backward with a weird noise that was a mixture of gasp and squeak, and that was enough for me to nock the second arrow and fire it towards the second head that caught my sight.

[Skill gained: Scent Tracker - Level C]

[Skill gained: Burrower - Level B]

I aimed the torch bearers—the heads close to the raised torches—and as they dropped dead, so did the torches, still burning but lying on the floor and effectively limiting the visibility inside the house. Luckily for me, I had still kept the Night Eye despite the burning sensation from the increased sensitivity to lights. Tears were running down my cheeks now but I did not dare let go of my hand from the bow as I picked up the third arrow from the table.

One second remained before my precious three seconds were up. The two Goblins immediately realized they had been attacked. Before both of them raised their small shields in defense, I was just barely able to get the third one in the head.

[Skill gained: Carnivore's Teeth - Level B]

Just as I reached for my last arrow, my eyes met those of the remaining Goblin. I hoped one of the three I had shot down in a hurry was the leader, but that was not the case.

The last one standing was Nasty, the leader of the group and the biggest, meanest, and the ugliest of them.

My three seconds ran out.

Nasty the Goblin let out a bestial cry as he charged at me with his shield drawn up. I cursed and fumbled before firing the last arrow, only to let it deflect off the small wooden shield almost too easily.

Meanwhile, Nasty had not stopped and was full-on charging at me like an angry bull. He had taken out his crude sword on the other hand and was pointing it firmly in my direction.

An angry, red-colored muscular monster was now only ten feet away from where I stood. I had my back against the wall with nowhere to escape on the ground.

So I jumped, activating the Horizontal Hopper in midair. Nasty was already short and he was charging at me with his head down low, so I did not have to jump high. But I did jump far, landing almost at the other end of the room near the entrance.

Nasty ran into the wall but regained his balance quick enough to turn around to face me. I glanced at the quiver lying near the stove a few feet away with a fresh set of arrows but decided against it. Instead, I flung the bow and took out my dagger—Daggy the Rusted Dagger. It still smelled faintly of the rabbit blood that I had skinned a few hours ago but felt just right in my firmly grasped hand.

Nasty had just seen me fly across the room, so he seemed hesitant to charge headlong into my way this time. When he saw me flinging the bow across the floor, he too dropped the shield out of the way and started to creep slowly towards my direction with a raised sword.

"Who are you, Human? We made sure we left no 'male' survivors," growled Nasty.

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you who I am."

Nasty blinked his stupid eyes but sniffed maliciously afterward.

"It matters not. I was thinking that a male Human could prove useful for the 'farm.' It is most opportune I found you today."

"I heard your little idea. And no, that's not going to happen."

"You speak funny, Human."

"You speak funny."

We stared at each other for a while before Nasty took one step closer and I did the same.

"That rusted junk of yours will break just by touching my skin," cackled Nasty.

"Your arm's so short your sword can only dream of touching me," I retorted.

"You truly do speak funny, Human, I would have liked you if you were not, well, Human. You would have made a loud game on chase."

"I didn't understand your last sentence, and no, I don't want a Goblin friend who speaks like a Shakespearean character either."

"What kind of spear is that?" frowned Nasty.

"It's not—never mind. Stop talking, or I'm going to feel bad when I thrust this dagger into your brain."

"Brain. Yes, I love that part on you Humans. I have a feeling that yours will taste particularly peculiar given the manner of your speaking."

"You know what? Forget I even 'thought about' feeling bad when I kill you. I will make sure I enjoy killing you, monster, so come at me, bro!"

Nasty blinked uncomprehendingly at my last words.

"Fine. Let us get this over with, and determine who shall be the winner of this bout."

Rolling eyes before a fatal combat did not feel appropriate, but I just could not help it.

"I would very much like that, yes," smiled Nasty greedily as he raised his sword high and charged at me with full speed.

Nasty really seemed strong. As strong as a twelve-year old could be. When it was four against one, I had to be cautious because of the disadvantage in numbers. But it had finally come to a one-on-one fight against a small, albeit armed, Goblin.

A part of me was still wondering how an entire village Humans were wiped out by creatures half their size. Perhaps they were outnumbered severely? Were they poisoned even before the raid began?

All in all, I was getting too confident at having three Goblins out of the way in a matter of seconds. I was still confident when I jumped over Nasty's head this time, while kicking his head midair with a quite a force, courtesy of the Hyper Hind Legs. Nasty fell backward with his head turned comically dangerous, and even before his back touched the floor I sat down on his c.h.e.s.t with my Daggy drawn up with both hands.

"It was a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e meeting you, Nasty. That's the name I gave you in case you're wondering."

Nasty stared at the end of the rusted blade and seemed as if he were about to say something, but I brought down the dagger with an intent to pierce through the protruding, bumpy red forehead.

I felt the dagger's tip meeting the rough skin of the Goblin. The thrust into the brain was so smoothly and softly done that I barely felt anything afterward.

In fact, I did feel nothing. My hands felt lighter as I raised Daggy—left with only its rusty hilt. I looked down and saw that the blade had been shattered into pieces.

And there it was: Nasty smiling triumphantly at me before throwing me a punch that definitely did 'not' feel like that of a twelve-year-old could.

It was as if a hammer struck my chin and someone simultaneously grabbed my neck from behind and snapped it hard.

I did not even have the time or luxury to fade out this time. Just a flash of light, and then I was gone.