Chapter 34: Goblin Raid:The fall of Nakata Town

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Goblin Raid:The fall of Nakata Town

A Few Minutes Earlier...

Victor stumbled through the gate and froze.

This was a dungeon?

He had heard many things about dungeons.

As such, he expected it to be dark and filled with monsters.

At least it should look like the abominable land of feared creatures.

Instead, he was standing in the middle of a street of cobblestones, worn smooth under centuries of footsteps.

The buildings on either side looked built from timber and packed stone, thatched roofs sloping low, smoke curling up from a chimney somewhere nearby.

The People here—yes, human beings— moved around him wearing simple tunics and long skirts, some carrying baskets, calling out to each other.

This was the market place of a town. It stretched out just ahead with stalls piled with fruit.

On another side were bolts of dyed cloth, a butcher hanging strips of red meat from a hook.

A woman haggled loudly over the price of onions. And a child ran past chasing a dog.

Victor stood there, completely stunned.

This is a dungeon? This looks like someone cut a chunk out of the medieval ages and dropped it here.

Just an entire town, going about its business like nothing in the world was wrong.

Then again, he did remember the rumors that came about this year.

The dungeons were changing. A lot of this change wasn’t something the public was allowed to know of so that they won’t panic, but it had been somewhat a big deal for the first few months.

Unfortunately, he had only started paying attention to the news after that first gate appeared in the park close to his home.

Besides, at this time back then, he was more focused on the fact that he had become an overnight celebrity.

Victor shook himself out of it.

The boy. I need to Focus.

His eyes swept the street, scanning every alley, every stall, every huddled shape that might be a terrified seven-year-old.

Then he saw him — small, curled up under the edge of a fruit stall a short distance away, knees pulled to his chest, shaking.

Victor sprinted over and dropped to his knees in front of him.

"Hey. Hey, kid. You okay?"

The boy’s face was streaked with tears. He recognized Victor from the park.

"I want my mommy."

"I know. I know, buddy." Victor kept his voice as steady as he could manage, even though his own heart was still hammering. "It’s okay. I’m going to get you back to her. I promise."

He reached out and took the boy’s small arm, pulling him gently closer, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

But even as he said it, Victor knew it wasn’t going to be that simple.

He remembered that gate exits did not appear until the gate had been cleared.

Neither of them was in any position to clear this gate.

They would have to wait for the Rankers arrival.

That was when the horn sounded.

It was loud and deep. Echoing across the entire town like a warning bell, and every single person in the market stopped what they were doing at once.

The horn hadn’t even finished echoing before the market broke into chaos.

The butcher stumbled backward over his own stall, meat and crates scattering across the cobblestones. He didn’t stop to pick any of it up, just scrambled up and ran.

The cloth merchant did the same, bolts of dyed fabric unraveling behind her as she bolted. Everywhere Victor looked, people were running, screaming, grabbing children, slamming doors.

The chaos was so bad, that one boy fell to the ground, but no one helped him. Instead, their feet crushed his unfortunate skull to the ground.

They was no way he survived that.

Victor looked up, toward the edge of town.

There was a rising cloud of dust, far off but closing fast, like something massive was moving toward them at speed.

Boots pounded past him —it was a line of guards in mismatched armor, maybe twenty strong, rushing toward the town’s outer wall with spears and shields already raised.

Victor couldn’t see what was coming yet. But he really didn’t need to. The guards’ faces told him enough.

His eyes landed on the abandoned butcher’s stall.

I don’t know what’s coming, but I won’t stand and be useless when it comes.

He grabbed the nearest knife off the counter without thinking twice.

"Come on." He pulled the boy up and ran, ducking into the nearest open house, shoving him under a wooden table. "Stay here. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound."

The boy nodded, eyes huge, pressing himself into the shadows.

That was when the screaming changed.

[GATE EVENT: Goblin Raid:The fall of Nakata Town]

[Survive 1 hour]

They came over the wall in a wave.

These were small, wiry things with a sickly green skin, limbs too long for their bodies, grins splitting ear to ear with too many teeth. They moved fast. Faster than the guards could organize against.

The line broke almost instantly.

Victor watched through the window as a guard went down, then another, the goblins swarming past the wall and into the streets, into open doors, dragging screaming families out by their hair.

He should have been terrified.

He wasn’t.

Not after the massacre he faced in Gavalon. Compared to what happened in Mallet Arena, even the goblins killing looked like nothing.

Victor did not know it yet, but some cold, calculating part of his brain was already doing the math instead of panicking.

If they keep killing like this, going from house to house — they’re eventually going to reach us.

A door kicked in two houses down. Then one next door.

He could hear gut wrenching screams from those houses.

They are here.

Victor’s grip tightened on the knife, instincts acting up before his mind followed.

The door in front of him burst open.

A goblin stood in the frame, head swiveling for humans in the room.

And then it saw the boy’s shoe poking out from under the table.

It smiled.

Victor moved.

He came from behind it, leaping from a table, his barbarian instinct taking over faster than thought, driving the butcher’s knife straight down into the top of the Goblin’s skull.

It split open with a wet crack. The goblin crumpled, twitching once before going still.

Blood sprayed up across Victor’s face, warm and sudden.

BADUMP... his heart beat hard, like something wanted to let loose but couldn’t just...

Unfortunately, it was not just one goblin checking the homes.

Another came from behind him.

Claws raised.

[In-Game Skin Synchronization—20%]