Chapter 6: Encounter

"Nicely done!" Graum complimented as he approached Bjorn.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Bjorn boomed with his thunderous laughter. "But..that kinda hurt." Bjorn's knuckles were bloody and burned from the explosions.

"Why weren't you hurt from the first explosion when the goblin tried to skewer you?" Graum asked confused.

"Well..since I cast them onto my armor there was a buffer between by skin and the rune so any damage was done to the armor." Bjorn counseled.

"So why didn't you enchance your gauntlets or gloves before you brawled?" Graum asked rolling his eyes condicendingly.

"Those are also by the fire..heh," Bjorn pointed a spot next to the campfire and great sword. "...look, It seemed like a good idea at the time, can you help me out here?" He asked with a crooked smile, lifting his injured knuckles.

"Sure thing brother!" Graum remarked with a sinister smirk as he reached for one of his arrows.

Graum possessed a peculiar mana art, allowing him to 'heal' wounds… however, he had to first inflict a greater wound onto the subject. The exceptions to this ability: he could not 'heal' lost limbs or digits, and the initial wound cannot exceed half of the subject's constitution, for the injury graum would have to inflict, would kill the subject.

"Now brother... there is no need to go overboard.." Bjorn attempted to reason.

-stab-

Before Bjorn could finish his sentence Graum shoved the arrow into Bjorn's hand.

*Harmicist*

"AHHH! BY LOKI!" Bjorn yelled as his hand flooded with pain. Strangely enough the pain vanished just as sudden as it appeared along with the burns from his fists.

"That should do it." Graum smirked as he pulled out the arrow.

A shiver rushed down Graum's spine. Devil Sense detected a wave of hostile aura sharply turning his attention past the trees in front of him.

"What's the matter?" Bjorn asked collecting his greatsword off the ground.

"More goblins... and something else" Graum. meticulously scanned for the 'waves' origin.

"Wait a minute, do you hear that?" Bjorn asked tilting his head towards the sounds he heard.

"I don't hear it, but I can feel whatever the other energy is. It isn't a threat." Graum added.

"It kinda sounds like screams... no.. shouts?" Bjorn began walking towards the sounds.

"Brother?!" Graum whispered scanning the environment as they went. As they grew closer Graum could hear shouts, similar to the shouts someone makes when they're in peril.

"Brother! I see two women!" Bjorn exclaimed. Graum looked towards the two women Bjorn noticed and saw goblins on the attack. "Get down" Graum sneered in a soft tone, forcibly pulling Bjorn down to the ground with him.

"What do you see?" Bjorn asked keeping his head down below the foliage.

Bjorn trusted Graum's judgment, if Graum pulled him to the ground there was good reason for it.

"I see seven goblins and the two women, Imalidaes. " Graum observed from behind the surrounding foliage.

Bjorn blankly looked over at Graum, "What, Marmalade?!"

"Marmalade..?..What? No! Ihm-ul-ih-day. That's what those beast-like denizens are called. At least in this country anyway." Graum explained enunciating the unfamiliar term to Bjorn.

*Sense*

Looking back to the girls, Graum saw a thin yellow veil surrounding the girls… they were afraid…

"This doesn't look good, it seems they are scared." He mumbled aloud to himself, which Bjorn happened to over hear.

"Brother; do you know what goblins do to women?" Bjorn's tone deepened leaving a chill in the air.

"They kill them?" Graum replied unaware.

"Honestly that would be a better fate. But no, goblins almost never kill the women they ambush... instead they try to knock them out. After that..they make the women their playthings..taking turns. " Bjorn's eyes glazed over with violence.

Graum got the uneasy feeling that the knowledge Bjorn learned, he learned from seeing it first hand.

"Brother, we are here to complete the quest. Or did you forget?" Graum looked over at the two females valiantly fighting for their lives.

"It's not like THEY are the ones we are contracted to kill..right? Peitra knows we wouldn't kill women.." Bjorn chuckled with that silly expression he has when he trying to be chivalrous.

"You wouldn't, I WOULD." Graum coldly whispered nocking an arrow.

"Which is why… we work together! You do the things I cannot, and I do the things you cannot" Bjorn chuckled placing his hand on the black whispy bow string made of mana.

"Alright fine! We will help your damsels, but after that we focus on finishing our contract. Then getting out of here." Graum exhaled in defeat. It was futile contending against the stubbornness of dwarves.

-Bzt-

"!"

A sensation of malice so pungent Graum felt a mild shock behind his eyes. He frantically scanned the surrounding foliage with an arrow nocked.

"What's wrong, did you feel something with your devil magic?" Bjorn joked knowing how much Graum hated when he referred to his sense skill as devil magic.

"Something out here is exuding some potent malice. And I don't think we should spend anymore time here than we have to." Graum remarked letting Bjorn's crude description of his skill slide as he tightened his focus on their surrounding area.

"Alright let's make this quick. The plan is to treat these goblins like a tavern drunk. Hit em fast and hit em hard" Bjorn chuckled unsheathing his greatsword: Rage.

"Hah! Do you know how ridiculous you look wielding something that big?" Graum couldn't help but laugh at the sight in front of him; a dwarf at 5"4 wielding a sword just as tall.

"That's what.." Bjorn turns to Graum, "..she said!" He charged forward into the fray.

Graum sighed, "..and that brother..is why women find you so awkward."

Graum stood up from behind cover letting loose a volley of three arrows that wizzed past Bjorn's head hitting and killing three of the seven goblins. The first two goblins to notice their fallen companions looked to the tree line to see where the arrows came from, but what they saw was Bjorn already within striking range. Before the goblins even had time to scream, Bjorn swung his great sword shifting his weight halfway through the strike changing it from just a regular horizontal swing into a full circle swing.

"I like to call this my full moon slash!" Bjorn yelled out to Graum, using the momentum of the full moon slash, chaining it to his next swing, an overhead two-handed slam.

Bjorn muttered: "Sol Lidr Dyr."

And the small runes carved along the edge of Rage illuminated slightly.

*Full Moon Slash*

His swing severed the two remaining goblins in half then the aftershock created a small crater in the ground.

-BOOM!-