"Quickly, grab the soft female and restrain her!" a rasping voice shrieked, slicing through the night like rusted metal dragged across stone.
The goblins surged forward, not in a line or in formation, but in a writhing, chaotic flood of gray limbs, snapping teeth, and clawed hands reaching for Ella.
Ella tightened her grip on the dagger, then she too she moved. The first one lunged low, she pivoted, driving her blade down into its shoulder and kicking it away before its claws could reach her legs. Another came from the side, and she twisted sharply, slashing across its face, blue blood spraying in a sickening arc.
They kept coming, too many of them from every direction.
She ducked, spun, kicked, and stabbed, her movements quick, instinctive, almost feral. A goblin leapt from above and she drove her blade upward into its torso, its shriek bursting in her ear as it collapsed against her.
