I breathed and gritted my teeth. But, I couldn’t even defend. The large goblin’s one swing was enough to screw me over more than ten times. Not even in my darkest dreams had I ever wanted to face something this ferocious. With a face like an uglier version of the already ugly-looking goblins, it moved forward with incredible speed. Given its size, it was surprising and had caught me off guard.

All I could do was, try to block the club with the withering sword. Not only did the sword break in half and the lower half pierced my stomach but also I was sent flying like three meters away: it hurt like being crushed by a dump truck. Don’t ask me how I knew that.

Most of the bones in my left side were crushed by the club- literally. Maybe God did hate my left side after all for the sword tip had entered through my left side as well. Losing blood rapidly, I barely clung to my consciousness. Not being able to move at all was the least of my worries. The large one growled like a maddened beast as it came close slowly. Every step it took made my heart pound beyond the manufacturer’s limit. Maybe I’d even meet my manufacturer soon.

The rest of the goblins were enjoying the show and making weird noises, I could only think to be laughter. They could imitate human words and understand humans to some extent, right? So how come they were so intent on eating us? Maybe humans really tasted that good?

Suddenly arrows from a great distance hit the large goblin’s head. The hobgoblin looked around, confused. The whole thing was followed by a large spear that penetrated the goblin’s throat and dropped close to me.

As it fell to the ground, the rest of the goblins fled in fear. However all of them were massacred by the arrow rain that took place all around me. Even I thought that my time was up seeing so many arrows. But none of them came even close to hitting me. I could make out some figures in the distance: eyesight was the only thing I was proud about myself after all. “Hel-” I wanted to ask for help.

I couldn’t even speak anymore as I lost consciousness immediately but I thought that I would be saved.

***

After an unknown amount of time I woke up and found myself next to robbed corpses of the goblins. Whoever they were, they killed these goblins for their own purposes, not to save me and that was crystal clear. Fangs, ears, and weapons were missing from the corpses. Even the blade that went into my stomach was missing: thank goodness it was precisely removed. However they were nice enough to rub some herbs on my wounds. I wondered if that did any good. I could still see the crimson through the drenched cloth around my waist. If they were going to save me, couldn’t they have taken me away from this damn field? I guess I shouldn’t have expected that much. But I was glad that at least they helped me to this extent regardless.

My left side was still numb and I knew there were more than a few broken bones here and there. Miraculously I could still stand up and move forward, but I was leaking blood all over. Did someone put a curse of never dying on me? If so then why didn’t they just made me invincible instead? I couldn’t understand if that was some God’s gift, Misrael’s blessing or just the herbs: maybe all three? I couldn’t even begin to guess.

I moved forward because I had to, as it was definitely the afternoon and the sun was bound to sink soon. After personally experiencing what a night in this world was like- by whatever means I wanted to get to that village.

It was an arduous journey toward the village as the sun kept sinking and my body throbbed, much more than last night. I had to drag my left leg and it was not pretty. Only after half an hour did I feel what my body had gone through as my senses came back slowly. It was so painful that I felt like ending myself. But, that wasn’t an option. Killing yourself is an act of cowardice and I wasn’t such a coward. Even with such pain, I moved on. At this point seeing small animals like rabbits and birds didn’t make me that happy. I was far away from dead corpses but who knew if they could hunt me down in the night or not. I sure wasn’t going to stand around and give them the chance.

***

The sun finally sank. I immediately felt all sorts of presence around me. My senses were on overdrive. Undoubtedly this entire place was the playground of the undead, and I had no intention of playing with them. The rotting smell was the proof of their existence. The smell wasn’t as intense as that dreadful forest though.

The smell became more and more dominant as time moved on. As though, it was a signal from the world around me that the undead won’t let me go. Maybe the undead won’t follow me here… But this smell….

There was still some redness left in the distant sky, which was definitely a blessing to me. I dragged myself on. With every step, I bled red tears, or were they just blood?

Before it became fully dark I reached the village, but with it came more frustration and a feeling of defeat, for the village was surrounded by a massive wooden wall and I just couldn’t find any entrance.

What was an obvious thing to do if you would live in such a place? Build a wall of course!

“Is anyone there? Somebody! Please help me! Anybody!” I kept on shouting but to no avail. Nobody came to my rescue. There was some sort of fire lit up on top of the wall though. I tried to shout towards that as well. But there was nobody there.

I saw quite a few undead in the opposite distance. They were slowly moving forward: red glow, everywhere. Cursing my fate I followed the round-like wall in hopes of finding a gate. Alas! The undead were already onto me. Did they want revenge for their fallen comrade? Did they possess enough emotion to exact revenge? Or was it that they just wanted to have a piece of my action? I suppose I’d never know the answers to those questions if I didn’t make out alive.

I did eventually reach the gate but as anyone would guess, it was shut. I screamed my heart out and eventually was left there crying, being an adult such as myself, this was more than just rare. All this time my left side was slowly becoming more and more painful. I felt my vision going blurry. “Is this it? Is this how I go out? What a dull life I’ve had. If I got another shot; maybe I’d get a girlfriend this time,” I mumbled to myself. I had regret, I had sorrows.

Slowly I fell on the ground with tears flowing down through my cheeks. There was a smirk on my face; the grin of defeat. Laughing at your own fate can be quite a dilemma at times.

The grass was rather soft here. It wasn’t very large. I don’t know why but I liked this grass.

But for just a second I felt a warm light soothe me: I felt a warm comfortable light surrounding me as I gradually lost consciousness. All I heard before that was an enchanting feminine voice saying,” Don’t worry, I’ve got you now. Everything will be alright..” I don’t know why but to me that was beyond comforting.