Elin: (Not that long, then.)
Elin: "Open."
She stared at her screen, sighing in disappointment.
Elin: (Still two.)
Elin: "Close."
They continued on, chit-chatting about their skills. There wasn't much else to do.
(20 minutes later)
The outline of the hotel came into view, and relief washed over all three of them.
They marched in like heroes returning from a perilous quest — the last few hours had felt like days.
A feeling that wouldn't last long, considering someone had other plans.
*Rustle*
A faint noise slipped out of the silence, seemingly from nowhere. Barely audible, yet Dylan picked up on it instantly, raising his hand to stop the other two.
Elin: "?"
Ethan: "What?"
Before either of them could question him further, he dragged both of them into a nearby corner and raised a finger to his lips.
Dylan: "Shhhh."
*Creeeak...*
A wooden floorboard groaned.
*Creak. Creak*
The sounds echoed faintly — familiar ones, to Elin at least. The unmistakable creak of the hotel's wooden floors. How could she forget?
Elin: "It sounds like it's coming from inside the hotel."
Dylan: "And there's more than one."
Ethan: "More goblins?"
Elin: "No way. Goblins would've attacked us already. Besides, they're out cold at night."
Ethan: "They're not entirely out of the picture. Remember the intelligent ones?"
Dylan: "Any chance it's just animals?"
Dylan didn't even want to think about the terrifyng possibility of multiple intelligent goblins hunting them down. As if one hadn't been enough to ruin his week already.
Elin: "Not likely. I have spent weeks and haven't seen a single stray cat or dog. At most a few birds, maybe some mice."
Dylan lowered Ethan's bag onto the pavement, unsheathing his trusty bat. He braced himself for the upcoming fight.
Elin: "If those intelligent goblins are really as dangerous as you described them to be then won't it be better to just, run? For the time being of course."
Ethan: "Well.. Ugh~"
Dylan: "I mean–"
The possibility of retreat completely slipped off their minds as in most cases running from a goblin was next to impossible, but this time the goblins hadn't attacked them, at least not yet.
Ethan: "I guess, do you have a particular place in mind?"
Elin: "I have a couple."
*Thud*
As they were about to leave, something dropped in front of them.
Without any time to think Dylan struck the creature away with full force. The creature was launched across the street like a ragdoll. Even without a skill, his strength was monstrous.
The creature rose back up, and the sight of it froze all three of them where they stood. Even Dylan — punch-first, ask-questions-later Dylan — went rigid. It looked unlike anything they'd ever seen.
It looked. No, it unmistakably was a human. Or rather it had once been, now it resembled a mismatched jigsaw puzzle assembled from human pieces.
A human torso, pale and scarred, stitched together where the skin didn't quite match. Where legs should have been, two arms extended instead — elbows bent backward at the joint, palms braced flat against the ground, carrying its weight like a grotesque spider assembled from human parts. Two more arms, human in shape but wrong in proportion, hung from where its shoulders should have been.
A single leg jutted from its torso, flailing uselessly, like an unwanted guest that had wandered into the wrong body.
Its proportions were wrong in ways the human mind instantly rejected. At least in the case of a goblin it resembled a complete creature.
Its hollow eyes stared straight into their souls — set beneath a face turned upside down, an uncanny smile stretched across its face — filling all three of them with an uncertainty they had never felt before.
*BANG*
A gunshot tore through the heavy silence, the bullet punching clean through the creature's skull. It dropped and went still, lifeless.
Dylan and Ethan spun around to find Elin standing there, breath ragged, the gun trembling in her hands.
Ethan: "Damn. Nice shot."
He gave her a thumbs up.
Ethan: (I forgot we even had guns.)
Dylan: "A heads-up next time would be nice. I don't want to be shot by accident."
Dylan: (Is that really it?)
Elin: "Ya. Sorry."
Elin slowly lowered her revolver, and composed herself with one deep breath.
Dylan: "No need, you did a way better job than Ethan."
Ethan: "I am right here, you know."
Dylan: "I know. Let's leave before we find out what those other noises were."
Dylan, still unsure of victory, glanced back nervously. A faint white glow had started blooming from the wound in its skull.
Dylan: "Look out, it's doing something."
Ethan: (Is that reverse curse technique?)
Ethan's hand shot up.
Ethan: "Mana blast."
Blue particles began gathering at his fingertips.
Ethan: (Just in case.)
He drew the gun from his pocket and aimed it at the lifeless body.