[This chapter contains depictions of suicide, sexual violence, and graphic violence.]
"Imagination is a weapon, and those who lack it are the first to die."
Recalling to myself an old phrase from a popular dark fantasy Novel. Fiction doesn't offer any real help, but oftentimes, lots of people don't realize that it's in the absurd that the truth is hidden.
I take out from my messenger bag's Inventory an already loaded crossbow, and descend slow and steady downwards the cave spiral, the stench was humid despite the lack of breath and the sound of a woman's pleas and moans from being accosted was slowly making itself known- a lesser Courier-Adventurer would've rushed to her aid as soon as possible, however I'm not lesser, just different.
It's not in my job description to save the lives of others; that's the jurisdiction of Paramedic-adventurers, however, Song's Delivery Service does state in their terms of service that I must at least ensure the safety of those who would be able to assist, and frankly a now traumatized woman was now more of an issue than she is of a help.
I turn off my beacon, goblins are acclimate to the Darkness of the Dungeons they live in, and fortunately, the deeper you go, the more likely the advantage is of sudden lights to blind them… that was if I didn't have any other real options. I took out some flammable kerosene, and immediately the grumble of at least three goblins started to sound off before a dead silence, followed by the pitter-patter of tiny feet began to fill the space. I cast a simple spell that most Magic-users, like I assume this girl is, would have as a convenient party trick, Prestidigitation. It allowed me to make sparkles from my fingertips… the heat that emanates from it is strong enough to act as tinder in the right situations, such as this.
As I hear the steps go ever closer, I end up casting the light aflame, and push up to my face a scarf as a mask, I draw from my side a short-sword and swipe once into the goblin's attempting to go through the now slowly blazing flame and send them back into the midst of it with a swipe and a stab, their blood strangely enough is combustible, which only helps further the flames, as I've come to discover that the preferred method of goblin destruction of many a Magic-user is fire, as they claimed they had an inherent aversion to the flame as a light and as a damage type.
They didn't come to really understand completely that Goblin blood is combustible, and neither do I. I only came to chance upon a goblin's body once during one of my paired expeditions through this tunnel, specifically once before, and came to attempt to douse a cigarette I was smoking into some wet blood, only for it to explode. Pair that with their terrible diets consisting of ransacked adventurer meals and local vermin, and eventually, methane from their excrement is also added into the already lacking air these vermin breathe and breed in.
I brace myself, knowing eventually those cuts open their wounds to the flames… and then I feel the battering sensation of various body parts bouncing and wetting my body. Fortunately, none of the packages and the delivery box I had is safely outside of the flame's reach, but not far enough that I risk losing my inventory. The flames continued to grow and choke, and eventually I had to evacuate slowly but surely outside of the path for now… my feet and hands scrambled upwards, and towards my exit markings. In my hands I train a crossbow into the darkness whilst my flashlight is attached to a modification; A ticking digital watch, and laying across my back on the floor I wait… then a tremor, and another, it is rhythmic, a pace and then a great roar as massive yellowy eyes erupt from the darkness, a thick haired palm of green skin hold up a woman's body from the darkness, like a meat shield. Her body ruined, her crotch stained in mud and in the viscera of her deflower and the fishy taste of a goblin's piss-yellow seed.
An alarm breaks out from the watch, I brace myself from the light as it turns on by itself and the ginormous goblin's eyes avert just enough; I had two options, the neck which houses the spine and one well placed shot can lead to paralysis in less than five seconds followed by inability to move as blood from the injury bleeds and drowns the target, or the head where the brain is, leading to immediate death. I aim the iron sights and shoot.
Shunting into the neck, though off the mark, as I watched as blood pustulate and erupt from the shot, and the goblin thrashes around a bit, dropping the woman and removes the bolt by instinct… not realizing that the convenience of a shot to the neck, is that any attempts to remove it without precision is the equivalent of slitting one's throat.
Silence, before the bodies lay still, the broken woman of brown hair as I come to see just crumples and curls on the floor, her crotch farting… splurges of blood, as this hulking hobgoblin has had its way to her anal regions too much, nothing short of an expensive surgery paired with healing magic would even give her a semblance of a normal life past that traumatic experience.
I set her up, and take out some medication; Aspirin and paracetamol, and a small sachet of instant coffee to her tongue. A pharmacy would kill me for using both at once, and in addition to a stimulant would put someone into a dependency… but for her… I can only imagine it's enough for her to live long enough to.
"Kill-me-" She sobs, as the coughing throat of hers erupts into soft, weak sobs. I pour some water down her throat, and then tell her "...no, I won't, do it yourself. I'm not putting someone's life… on my shoulders… not again."
The silence breaks as she sits here in this tunnel, naked and with nothing to her. I couldn't even give her my chain-woven jacket, I'd be at a disadvantage if I lost any sort of body protection…but…
I handed her something else to me, a little bell on a string. It was an emergency Dimensional Door that allowed me to traverse all the way back to the casting of Transmigrate, the spell that allowed me to enter this Dungeon.
"You're an adventurer, you know what this is for… if you're afraid you cannot live your life, then end it somewhere more dignified…" I knew what I was saying; it wasn't happy, but I knew it was better than dying somewhere hopeless and far from home.
Ding ding ding!
Before I knew it, she was gone; she cast Dimension Door out of this place. I can only hope that when I return, she'll be alive.