Gobbard The Goblin

"Okay, we need to stop our break and find Shauna now. She's still missing, and I'm worried for her!" Zack cried. Umeris gently patted Zack on the head, slowly converting that pat to caressing his head. "There, there, we'll find her soon." Zack nudged his head even more to Umeris's hand as if he enjoyed it, having a face of satisfaction for him. It was quite awkward to see Zack already being pampered by Umeris, despite only meeting each other 30 minutes prior. Gray has been annoyed with Zack this entire time and didn't see why Umeris thought differently. "Jeez, what made you pamper him so much? That's kind of weird to do to a stranger."

Umeris persisted in pampering Zack while saying, "Oh, really? He just kind of reminded me of my younger brothers at home. Even though they've surpassed me in power, they always ran to me for comfort." Gray put his arms in between them and pushed them apart. Zack resisted with all of his strength to not be separated from Umeris, which came to no avail. Being split apart, Gray stood up. "Enough of this, let's just get Shauna and leave." With a warm smile, Umeris also joined in. "Right, Shauna needs our help. If we wait for a rescue team to save us, I'm afraid it would be too late." Coming in last was Zack, who pounced on top of both of them. "Yeah, let's do this as a team!" 

So the group set off deeper into the dungeon, going past the ruins and going down a deeper hallway. This hall trailed down a dark corridor in which the party could not see the end. "By the way, let us be careful, there might be more strong monsters around," Umeris warned. Zack had already considered that; he already had magic incantations prepared just in case something were to ever happen. As they traveled, Gray took note of Umeris only using magic-infused weapons this entire time. He wondered if Umeris could not use any magic as well. "Hey Umeris, why do you only restrict yourself to using magical weapons? Why not just use magic outright?"

"Well, to be flat-out honest, I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but I guess right now the best choice is to be honest about my abilities. I cannot control my mana output."

"You can't control your mana output?" Gray replied. 

"Yeah, I cannot control the output of my mana. I have a disease that makes my mana output uncontrollable, so I stick with magic weapons. The weapons I use already come with attributes such as fire, earth, lightning, and water, so all I need to do is put my mana into them to charge them up. They are already limited to the weapons, so I don't over exceed on the amount I put in."

The technology in this world astonished him. If you could implant magical properties in items, he wondered if he could do it with a makeshift tank in this world. ("A tank with giant fireballs would be pretty cool...") 

Umeris kept his head low and clenched his fist. Zack awkwardly stood behind Gray to not make Umeris's mood any worse. "But, in the end, I'm still held back greatly by this disease. My family would probably view me differently if I didn't have this disease—no, they would care about me..." Umeris was distraught at the thought. If only his outcome were different, he might not have met Gray in the first place. The party walked in silence for a few more minutes after that conversation. That talk had the atmosphere in a dreadful mood. It was not until they stumbled upon a giant door at the end of the corridor.

"Do you think Shauna is in here?" Zack asked, pointing at the corridor. "Yeah, let's enter," Umeris said confidently. He opened the door with his dagger raised in his hand. The room had rocky cavern walls that had crystals attached everywhere and an altar with a giant crystal behind it. There was also a campfire in the room for some reason. As they glanced over at the altar, they could see someone sleeping there. It was Shauna sleeping peacefully on top of the altar. Zack began rushing to the altar, excitedly shouting Shauna's name. That was when three darts were shot at the party, one dart for each person. Unlike the others, Gray caught one of the darts headed his way. Seeing this, he slipped underneath the dart that nearly hit him. "Glad Ben trained my reflexes, or else I would've gotten hit." Bringing himself up from the evasive maneuver, Gray saw that both Umeris and Zack were fast asleep. "I guess those were sleeping darts, huh." Glancing around the room, Gray caught a glimpse of a tiny figure emerging from behind the crystals. It was a goblin wearing an aviator hat and a leather vest. "So... I finally met you, Gray Swayar!" the goblin shouted. Gray had no clue what this goblin was or how it got here. 

"Umm, who are you exactly?" Gray asked.

"I am Gobbard The Goblin; an assassin!" he announced proudly. Expecting some sort of reaction, he snickered. But coming from Gray, there was none. "Dude, why are you here, and why are you speaking my language? I thought goblins just said random gibberish." From what Gray remembered when fighting goblins, all they made was just random gargling noises that sounded like they were always choking on some sort of food. Gray always had the idea of giving them cough drops to see if they would ever stop. 

Gobbard angrily waved a dagger from his back at Gray. "You idiot, we were just speaking our language, Gukliark! Did you think we were just spouting utter nonsense?!" 

"Yeah, I genuinely thought you all were just saying random nonsense."

"No! How dumb are you? Either way, I'm going to kill you here!" Gobbard shifted around his other pocket to pull out another dagger. "Wait, why are you trying to kill me? Did I do something wrong to you?"

With Gobbard's anger becoming nearly visible, he shouted, "You literally killed my entire family by punching them to death, how could I not be mad about that?!" He then started dashing at Gray. "So when I found out that you were going to be in this dungeon, I was pleasantly surprised that I could get revenge for all you did!" Confused even more, Gray tried to talk himself out of fighting this goblin. "Wait, I killed your family? I don't remember any of that." It was then that Gray remembered that he had murdered hundreds of goblins for his training. He did not know any good response to give out at the current moment, so he simply said, "Oh, now I remember, my bad." 

Gobbard growled in anger as he swung both his blades in Gray's direction. Gray stepped away from the goblin and ran toward the campfire. ("Ben always advised me to use my surroundings to advantage!") Gray kicked one of the logs from the campfire out of the flames and prepared for another barrage of attacks from Gobbard. Gobbard attacked Gray once again, swiping his daggers in multiple directions. Gray avoided them one by one before he found the perfect time to strike. Seeing an opening in his attack patterns, Gray took that opportunity to throw a quick jab at Gobbard's chin. After being struck, Gobbard staggered for only a moment before focusing back on the fight. 

There was a reason why Gray would always train against goblins. The reason is that they were the perfect sparring partners for Gray. They were usually in the same weight class and height as Gray; which is an essential factor for combat. That is why Gray was more confident in clashing with this goblin. 

During the fight, Gobbard lunged in with the most terrible form out there. His form was so terrible, it was as if he were trying to make a poor attempt at yoga. Gray witnessed the opportunity to strike. He slipped to the side before throwing a strong uppercut at Gobbard's chin. In the split second of this happening, Gobbard grinned like he was expecting this outcome to happen. He suddenly dropped to the floor before getting one of his daggers to slash at Gray's legs. Gray, seeing this, jumped back a second before the daggers hit. "Your fighting style is quite unorthodox..." Gray mentioned. Gobbard stood back up, smiling, saying, "I know; your fighting style is also unorthodox as well. Why only use your fists when you can use the blade or even magic?" Gobbard replied. Gray got into a stance once again before saying, "That's because a certain idiot keeps bothering me about it." Gobbard lunged at him again with his bizarre knife technique. "Hate to break it to ya, but you are the idiot!" 

Gray looked down at the ground and saw the wooden log that he had kicked from the campfire earlier. ("It should be cooled down by now.") He quickly picked it up and slammed it against Gobbard's face. The ashes from the log twirled in the air as the blow scattered them everywhere. Gobbard, being flung to the ground, dropped his daggers in the process. Quickly, Gray kicked them away, so Gobbard couldn't grab them again. "You bastard... I guess I'll have to play your game then." Gobbard said, standing up. Gobbard charged at Gray with his fist raised in the air. ("This idiot is telegraphing his punch so hard right now.") Gray prepared to throw a quick 1-2 combo on Gobbard before he suddenly swapped his attack and shot for his legs. Shooting for his legs, he managed to grapple them both and take Gray to the ground. That is when Gobbard got on top of Gray and started throwing punches at him. Gobbard's punch technique was poor, but his strength was quite good. Gray was nearing his limits, so he decided to change up his game plan. He hooked his arms around Gobbard's neck and pulled Gobbard's upper body down, making them both begin to wrestle on the floor. During their scuffle, something began glowing in his pouch. Seeing this, Gobbard panicked. "Oh shoot, one of the teleportation runes!"

It was then that both Gobbard and Gray were teleported into a tavern with a multitude of different species. Dwarves, werewolves, lizardmen, elves, goblins, and even dragonborns. Both Gobbard and Gray continued their fight, with Gray shoving Gobbard off of him. Gray threw a quick punch combo to the head area of Gobbard, making him block. Gobbard retaliated and also threw slow, strong punches at Gray. Gray then threw more punches at Gobbard, which he promptly blocked. Gobbard threw one more punch at Gray's head before Gray weaved under it. Gray hurled another punch, in which Gobbard proceeded to put his guard up to his head again. That was when Gray's trap came into play. Gray's attack was not sent to his head but was actually sent to his body. He sent a strong left hook into Gobbard's liver, plowing his body with all the force he had. Gobbard's face quenched up as the blow felt like a cannonball piercing through his liver. Gobbard collapsed, twitching on the ground. "They said that getting hit in the liver was like getting hit in the balls; I hope that is true right now," Gray said. Everybody in the bar was stunned by this sight. They witnessed a human from a whole other continent fighting against a goblin. 

"I'll show you what getting hit in the balls is like!" Gobbard screamed, hitting Gray right in the testicles. Gray was caught off-guard by this blow and completely weakened by it. It felt like a surge of electricity was going through his body. In unbearable pain, he collapsed right on top of Gobbard, accidentally clashing heads with him. As they both hit each other in the heads, another one of Gobbard's teleportation runes activates, sending them to a new place. They both teleport inside a bathhouse. Inside the bathhouse, beautiful women were bathing there. Silky smooth skin, and faces that were beyond this world. With the appearance of Gobbard emerging from the waters, all of them screamed at the top of their lungs. "It's a pervert!" As Gray emerged from the water, all of their screams turned into adoring noises of praise.

"Awwwww, look how adorable that boy is!" 

"He's so cute!" 

"Little boy, where is your mother?" One of them said, approaching Gray.

Cutting into the scene, Gobbard angrily waved his fist in the air. "You goddamn whores, why the sudden mood change with him?!"

Gray squinted his eyes at Gobbard. "Why do you have a teleportation rune for here?"

Gobbard averted his gaze away from Gray. "U-Um, i-it's a secret..." 

In dismay, Gobbard tackled Gray into the waters, accidentally activating another teleportation rune. This time, they were transported into a horse stable. It smelled horrible; it was the smell at the petting zoos that he always hated. As they both stood up, exhausted from all the fighting, they went in for one last clash. "You damn kid, I'll beat you to a pulp!" Gobbard said, charging straight at Gray. In response to this action, Gray slapped the horse's buttocks that stood right next to him, causing it to kick in reflex. The kick hits Gobbard right in the side of the head, making him ragdoll to the wall 10 feet away. The fight was over, and Gray was exhausted. He stumbled over to Gobbard, the smell of the horses and their feces didn't bother him at this point. "Who told you I was in that dungeon? You said someone told you I was in that dungeon, so you need to tell me who it was," he asked. Gobbard smirked in response to his question, saying, "An assassin will never expose his clients." Gray, taking the bag of runes from Gobbard, said, "Ok." 

Gobbard's face quickly shifted into a face of terror. "W-Wait, I can't leave without those!"

Gray used one of the runes right in front of him, trying to find his way back to the dungeon. Instead, he teleported to some shady hideout. It was all menacing men with cloaks on and terrible glares. "Nope, not here." He tossed the rune right behind him and picked out another one. He uses another one and is teleported to a valley full of corpses and blades stuck to the ground. Arrows are scattered everywhere, and some of the soldiers have their bodies cut in half. "It seems like a war has just finished recently. It smells way too much like fresh bodies." Feeling a strong sense of bloodlust in the distance, he squinted his eyes up ahead. He saw a dark figure with sharpened claws and iron armor showered with blood. It then started darting in Gray's direction. Gray quickly used another rune, teleporting himself to another location. "How many runes did that Gobbard guy have?!" He was teleported into a bedroom. The walls were made of oak, the same as the roof and the flooring. The decor in the room was pretty plain, and the bed seemed simple. "Who would live here?" Gray stepped to the window to see the outside scenery. It appears that he teleported inside of a giant tree. He can see that at the exit, there are wooden bridges that lead to other trees. It was like an entire village built on top of trees. It was then that the bedroom door was unexpectedly opened.