We spent about a full hour meditating. My wounds had completely healed, although my shoulder still had limited mobility. At least I could stand up on my own now.
The goblins kept taking people from other cells, so we had to stay on guard at all times. Sure, I could escape by bending the bars, but that would take time and alert the guards. That's why we decided to wait until a goblin came to our cell and opened it.
Finally, after a few minutes, heavy footsteps echoed through the stone corridor.
They were heading straight for our cell. Someone stopped in front of it and opened the door.
"There are people who fake their injuries," said a human voice, dark and slightly robotic.
"Humans? Are they here to rescue the survivors?" I wondered.
But what happened next gave me the answer.
I slowly opened one eye to see who it was—and it was him. The same tall, bald man who had been taken away an hour ago.
He was holding a huge hammer in his hands and slowly approached those lying on the ground. And then...
He began slamming the massive hammer down on the heads of those pretending to be unconscious.
First one.
Then another.
The third quickly opened his eyes and tried to stop him, but it was useless. The hammer crushed his head and hands without mercy.
It was a horrifying sight.
And it shook me even more when the bald man began walking slowly toward me.
He raised the hammer high above his head, ready to bring it down.
But before he could turn me into mush, a black blade manifested from my hand, hidden against my torso. Long and sharp, it pierced through the man's skull like butter.
It was the ability [Will of the Sword], the one I had gained after killing the Knight of Camelot.
The next moment, I pulled the blade out of his skull, and the tall man collapsed, crushed by his own hammer.
A familiar voice echoed in my mind:
[You have killed a shapeshifting goblin]
"That was a goblin?" I asked myself, confused.
It said nothing else, so I stood up.
"Bill, what happened?" Svend, who was behind me, got to his feet as well and looked down in surprise, seeing the man with a hole in his head and his own hammer on top of him.
"We're getting out of here," I said with a grim look, making the dark blade disappear from my hand.
We started walking down the narrow corridor, where small torches were mounted on the walls.
The different cells with people inside couldn't help but catch our attention.
There were all kinds of people in them. Men, women, and...
Children. All of them injured, unable to move.
I suppressed the urge to help and protect them, because even if I freed them, I would only be speeding up their deaths. I wasn't strong enough yet to protect everyone out there.
"I'll make sure to deal a heavy blow to those gray bastards."
I knew how. I already had a plan. We just needed to get out of here first.
We opened a black metal door, and on the other side stood three goblins with their backs to us, staring into the main cave.
They sensed us immediately, and before they could react, a small black dagger appeared in my hand and I slit the throat of the first goblin, staining the blade with blood.
The others lunged at me, but Svend caught one with his bracer. I dodged a claw slash from the other, then, with great speed, sliced off its arm and drove the dagger into its temple.
I was going to help Svend, but he already had the goblin's head bouncing against the ground, leaving red stains on the stone.
We kept walking, now through a massive cave, barely lit by torches along the edges. On the walls, there were small holes the size of a goblin. Probably their homes, I thought.
And I was right, because as we walked deeper into the darkness, tiny eyes turned toward us.
Like a wave of bloodlust.
I didn't falter under their gaze. On the contrary, I kept walking, with Svend close behind me.
We just needed to reach the outside, and those little bastards would know hell. But it wouldn't be that easy.
Because one of them suddenly let out a scream, breaking the silence.
One by one, they began shrieking and leaping. They looked at us with the eyes of predators watching their prey.
I let out a small chuckle and looked around, where hundreds of them were already surrounding us.
I manifested two long daggers and relaxed my shoulders.
I let the mana flow through my body and gave them a cold, piercing stare.
"What are you waiting for? Or... would you rather I come to you?"
They hesitated for a moment, but eventually, one of them lunged forward with a dagger in hand.
I didn't even need to dodge—it was too slow to bother.
I simply let him come straight at me.
But before the blade could touch my neck, the goblin's arm was severed, floating through the air.
His blood splashed on my cheek, but I didn't care.
The goblin winced in pain, but his expression instantly changed—because next, his head was the one flying through the air.
In a fraction of a second, the first goblin was dead.
The rest lost some of their morale, but none backed down. They all stepped forward.
I looked at Svend, who was behind me, already gripping the goblin's dagger with his one hand. He seemed determined to fight. That calmed me a little—at least I wasn't fighting alone anymore.
I turned to the massive crowd of goblins and grinned:
"Come on, you damned dwarfs!"
With savage fury, they all leapt toward us, claws and weapons aimed straight at our hearts.