Chapter Sixty-Three - What about Becky?

Chapter Sixty-Three - What about Becky? "Continue, or stay here?" I asked as I finished reloading my revolver. I had come in here with eighteen rounds and fired four. So I had fourteen loose in my pocket, six more in the gun's chambers. There had been about that many goblins in the room. So, this portal was going to be like that. Overwhelming numbers. The kind of portal that corps hired D-rankers for because you couldn't just send in a team of spec-ops and hope for the best like you could in some other D-rank dungeons. This one would require magic to tackle. Magic that I didn't have. So. I either planned things differently--which I could, my Save was hours ago--and came in here with a lot more ammo and maybe a gun with a higher rate of fire, or I learned to deal. I had my knife, and my sword. Both ought to be enough to kill a few goblins. The knife alone had been more than enough for the kobolds I'd fought in my first ever solo run, and the smaller goblins looked, if anything, weaker than the average kobold. "Franklin, head back, get more ammo, anyone that wants to step in too," Josh said. "Lady here and I will stand guard." "What about Becky?" Franklin asked. "We'll save her a lot faster if you hurry," Josh snapped. Franklin nodded, then ran off back through the portal, leaving me and Josh just standing there. "So, you really in this just to get stronger?" he asked. "More or less, yeah," I said. "If... when I kill the boss, I'm keeping the loot." "You know, we're making good money from this one," he said. "And you might've lost a D-ranker from it too," I replied. "I hope not, genuinely, but even a weaker D-ranker is worth more than one portal, no?" Josh grimaced. "Fuck. Yeah. Becky's a good kid." Kid? How old was she, then? Maybe not that young. Josh looked like he was in his forties, maybe. Hard to tell with him being a D-ranker, and obviously one that had a few tricks up his sleeves. For all I knew, he might be sixty... though he probably wasn't. D-rankers aged more gracefully. That was the conventional logic. Portals hadn't been around long enough to really tell. I think the oldest D-ranker was probably in their nineties, but they'd hit the rank old, so the rank ascension had mostly just made them look a bit younger and made them more fit. Or something. It wasn't like I'd really read the documentation on it. Franklin came back, and with him came three more River Rats. two men, a young woman, all in gear that showed their allegiance to the gang. One of them had tats running up his arm of rats, another had rat emblems sewn into his leather coat. They were carrying guns. Handguns, big pump shotguns. That'd work on the goblins, I was sure. Franklin slapped the side of his SMG, then gestured ahead. "I'm ready," he said. "Then let's move. You three, stay here," Josh snapped. He glanced at me. "Deadline, coming?" I nodded. "Yeah," I replied before stuffing my revolver away. Might as well see what I could do with the sword for now. I had done a few practice sessions with Natalie already, and it was enough to know that I had a long, long ways to go before I was even halfway proficient. Still, I was working hard lately to get more fit, and that training had given me an idea of what baseline competency looked like. Since this was definitely not the last loop, I was going to use it to train. It would suck to have a magic sword and just... not use it, right? Josh took the lead, Franklin to his left, and I swung my sword out once or twice, swishing it through the air while working out the grip before following to his left. The space just ahead was darker, but further in it was lit by some pitch and rag torches hanging off of crudely made sconces. These goblins had something approaching technology. I mean, in the sense that they had to know how to make and use fire. Those bows they had, I looked at one in passing, and while it was far from impressive, it was still a carved length of wood with string holding it bowed and tense. Not good crafting. Crude, certainly, but it was a sign of intelligence. Certainly more than any Earthly animal could do. "Expect traps," I said before casting See Darkness and then Soothe Minor Pain on myself. Both spells used up a trickle of magical energy, energy that I didn't have massive pools of, but being in a D-rank portal was probably replenishing my supply faster than I could spend it. Love this novel? Read it on novelhall to ensure the author gets credit. "Ever fought goblins?" Josh asked. "No," I said. "Nasty. Faster than you'd think. E-rank ones are more annoying than anything, but at this rank? Could come out with surprises. Franklin, eyes peeled." "Can barely see shit," Franklin swore. I glanced over to him, then back ahead. We were in a small antechamber, block walls, scaffolding on the sides, doors that had been ripped off their hinges. No statues or anything, but the construction looked a little too... good to be goblin. My See Darkness was letting me adjust to the darker parts of the room quickly, which is probably why I noticed the goblins waiting in ambush on the side. One to the right, two to the left. "Ambush," I said, calmly. "One on my side, two to the left. In the shadows." Franklin proved to be a bit too twitchy, he turned and aimed, and that seemed to be enough to let the goblins know that they were made. They charged out, screaming. Josh turned his attention right even as Franklin opened up on one of them, so I was alone to deal with the goblin coming in from the right. Easy enough. I lowered my sword so that it was parallel to the ground, then lunged forwards. It was easy to lunge, it was much harder to aim the tip of the sword with exact precision against a moving target. Still, the goblin was running right at me. There was a thump that ran through the blade, and it was suddenly a few inches into the goblin's upper chest. Then I tried tugging it back and found that it was stuck, and the goblin was still alive. "Dammit," I muttered. I jerked my arm to the side, bending the blade a little, but it sprung back and came free. The goblin was bleeding, profusely, but it still screamed and came at me, two knives in hand. I raised my sword up, and it followed it with its eyes. So... I kicked it in the gut. I didn't have a ton of mass, but I had to weigh more than a goblin, and I put some force into that kick. It stumbled back, screaming, both knives dropped. Walking over, I stabbed down, aiming for the neck and hitting it for once. Josh and Franklin had theirs down, but Franklin had been anything but subtle about it. "Let's keep moving," I said. "Huh?" he asked before sticking his pinky in his ear. Josh and I both sighed. Right, not all D-rankers were career portal delvers. I hadn't even seen a spell from Franklin yet, though that didn't mean anything. The antechamber led into a large, open room. Long, with six huge pillars in twin rows to either side. Scaffolding had been put up between the pillars, and it was clear that the goblins had made homes there. Moreover, there were passages off to the sides. It reminded me a little of the sort of vestibule spaces in old churches. The arched ceiling had that kind of feel too, though the back of the room was natural stone. On the ground were about twenty goblins. They were mostly dead. Two of them looked up from where they'd obviously been looting. They hissed, then Franklin shot one of them and the other took off running. "They'll be back," Josh said. He squinted as he surveilled the room, then jumped and took off running ahead. "Becky!" I walked over, keeping to his six while Franklin looked to the left and scanned for trouble. We... found Becky. She was young. Maybe nineteen or so? Pretty, in a rough and tumble sort of way, with black hair that had the tips dyed blue, and a bright yellow coat with a rat painted on the back. Josh turned her over, and I winced in sympathy. Becky's face was smashed in. Not the survivable kind of smashed in, either. She had a few cuts, in her coat and arms, and a nasty hole punched into her front that looked like it had bled a lot. I looked away. It was one thing to see heaps of dead monsters. A person... yeah, I didn't like that so much. The monsters nearby, I noticed, were mostly slumped to the ground. Even the one nearest Becky, who was... huge, way larger than any goblin I'd see, with iron bands over makeshift gauntlets and armour that had a passing resemblance to platemail, looked like he'd been in a rough spot before he died. I moved over, using my sword tip to turn his head. No eyes? Or... no, the eyes had melted out of his face, and there were burn marks with little lightning patterns across his metal plate. I glanced over at the young woman, who was being looked over by Josh and Franklin, both treating her with careful respect, even through their obvious sadness. She'd gone down fighting. ***