The road did not feel like safety.
It felt like a promise that could be broken at any moment.
Lux followed it until the light shifted into late afternoon, the sun lowering behind the trees. The forest thinned and thickened in waves, like it was breathing around him. Sometimes the road widened enough to see two wagon ruts. Sometimes it narrowed until branches leaned over it like fingers trying to touch his shoulders.
He kept one hand near the sword at all times.
His thigh ached with every step. The bandage had stopped the bleeding, but the wound still throbbed, reminding him that power did not erase consequences. The canteen at his belt bumped softly against his hip. The weight of the coin and dried meat in his pouch felt small, almost insulting, compared to what he needed.
Lux tried to keep his thoughts simple.
Find people. Find a place to rest. Do not die.
He repeated it like a prayer.
A distant sound carried through the trees, faint at first, then clearer. Lux stopped and listened.
Metal.
A short ring, like something tapping against something hard.
Then a voice, low and strained.
Lux's body went still.
People.
He moved off the road and crept forward, staying behind trunks and brush. The forest here smelled different. Less moss, more dust. The ground rose slightly, and when Lux reached the edge of a slope, he peered down through leaves.
A small wagon sat in the road below, intact but stuck in a shallow ditch. Two men stood near it, both armed. One held a spear. The other had a short sword and a dented shield. Their clothes looked worn, travel stained, and their faces were tight with fear.
A third figure, a woman, crouched near the wagon wheel, trying to lift it with shaking arms.
They were not alone.
Three goblins stood on the road, just outside spear range. They were bigger than the ones Lux had killed. Their shoulders were broader, their movements less twitchy, more deliberate. One wore a crude metal cap. Another had a strip of leather wrapped around its forearm like a guard.
Behind them, half hidden in the trees, Lux saw something worse.
A fourth goblin.
Taller. Thicker. Its skin darker, almost gray green. It carried a jagged blade that looked like it had once belonged to a human. It stood with its head tilted, watching the travelers with calm interest, like a dog deciding where to bite first.
Lux's stomach tightened.
This was not a random ambush.
This was hunting.
The spear man shouted, voice cracking. "Back off!"
The goblins answered with clicking laughs.
The shield man stepped forward, trying to look bigger than he felt. "We pay you. Take food, take coin, just leave."
The tall goblin did not react. It simply lifted its blade slightly, and one of the smaller goblins moved in closer.
Lux's hands clenched.
He could walk away.
He should walk away.
He was wounded. He had no training. He had survived a skirmish in a clearing because the goblins had been careless and afraid of fire. These goblins were different. The big one in particular looked like it had fought humans before.
Lux's chest felt tight again, not with the pull that had dragged him here, but with something older and uglier.
He hated the idea of doing nothing.
He hated the idea of letting this happen and then living with it, if he even got to live.
Lux swallowed and forced his breathing steady.
He looked around for anything useful.
The slope gave him a slight height advantage. The trees were thick. The road below formed a shallow curve, and the wagon sat right where the ditch was deepest.
If he ran down there openly, he would die.
If he did nothing, those people would.
Lux drew the rusty sword slowly. The blade caught a thin line of sunlight and looked even more pathetic than it had earlier.
"Just one," Lux whispered to himself. "Just create an opening."
He grabbed a stone from the ground, tested its weight, then waited.
The goblin with the metal cap stepped forward again, raising its crude knife. The spear man jabbed, forcing it to hop back, but the spear tip scraped off the goblin's forearm guard and did not draw blood.
The goblins laughed.
The tall goblin finally moved.
It stepped forward, slow, confident, and Lux felt the air change. The travelers felt it too. Their bodies stiffened, their fear sharpening into the desperate kind.
The tall goblin lifted its blade, and Lux threw the stone.
It struck the tall goblin on the side of the head with a dull crack.
The goblin jerked in surprise and turned toward the slope, eyes searching.
Lux did not give it time.
He ran.
The drop was steeper than it looked. Lux half slid, half stumbled down the slope, boots skidding on loose soil. His injured thigh flared with pain, and for a moment his vision went white.
He hit the road hard, nearly falling, but he forced himself upright.
The travelers stared at him, shocked.
The goblins stared too, then grinned as if he had delivered himself.
Lux lifted the sword and shouted, voice raw. "Run. Get the wagon out."
The spear man blinked. "Who are you"
"Move," Lux barked.
The woman grabbed the wagon wheel again, shaking. The shield man moved to protect her, but his eyes kept flicking to Lux as if he had no idea whether this stranger was help or another threat.
The goblins decided quickly.
Two rushed Lux at once.
Lux swung at the first and felt the rusty blade connect with bone. The goblin shrieked, stumbling back. The second one darted low, trying to slash at Lux's legs.
Lux twisted, but too slow.
The knife bit into his calf.
Pain exploded.
Lux cried out, and his stance broke for a split second.
That was all the opening they needed.
The tall goblin lunged.
It moved faster than Lux expected, its blade coming in a brutal diagonal cut aimed for Lux's chest.
Lux raised his sword to block.
Steel hit steel.
The impact traveled up Lux's arms like a hammer. His grip slipped. His wrists screamed. The rusty blade barely held, and the tall goblin shoved forward with sheer strength.
Lux's boots slid on the dirt.
His injured leg gave out.
He fell backward, hard, and the tall goblin stepped in, lifting its weapon high.
Lux's mind went empty.
He rolled just as the blade came down.
It struck the ground where his head had been, spraying dirt. Lux scrambled, trying to stand, but his calf burned and his thigh screamed. He could not find balance.
The tall goblin kicked him in the ribs.
Lux's breath left him in a painful rush. He hit the road and tasted dust.
The goblin raised its blade again.
Lux saw death in that moment, simple and close.
Not like in movies. Not dramatic. Not heroic.
Just a blade and a body.
Lux's fingers found the broken campfire stick still tied to his belt from earlier. He had kept it without thinking, charred and useless.
He ripped it free and shoved it upward as the goblin struck.
The blade cut through the stick easily, but the motion forced the goblin's arm just slightly off line.
The metal grazed Lux's shoulder instead of splitting his neck.
Lux screamed, pain tearing through him.
Blood soaked the leather.
His vision blurred at the edges.
The goblin snarled and lifted the blade again, annoyed now, like a man swatting an insect that refused to die.
Lux's hand closed around something on the ground.
A stone.
He did not aim. He just threw it with everything he had left.
The stone struck the tall goblin in the throat.
The goblin gagged and stumbled back one step, one precious step.
Lux forced himself up, wobbling, dragging his wounded legs under him. His sword lay a short distance away.
He reached for it.
A smaller goblin lunged at him from the side, knife raised.
Lux turned and drove his shoulder into it.
They both crashed to the ground.
Lux's head struck dirt, stars bursting in his vision, but his hands found the goblin's wrist and twisted.
The goblin shrieked, trying to bite him.
Lux grabbed the creature's head with both hands and smashed it into the road.
Once.
Twice.
The third time, the goblin went limp.
The moment it died, the surge hit Lux like lightning.
Strength flooded his arms. His breath returned. His vision sharpened. Pain did not vanish, but it moved farther away, as if his body had suddenly decided it could endure it.
Lux stared at the dead goblin beneath him, then pushed himself up.
The tall goblin was still there, recovering, one hand at its throat, eyes furious now.
The last small goblin hesitated, suddenly uncertain.
Lux stood, shaking, bleeding, but standing.
He picked up his sword.
The travelers were yelling behind him. The wagon creaked, wheels turning as they finally freed it from the ditch. The spear man jabbed at a goblin to keep it back. The woman sobbed as she pushed.
Lux stepped toward the tall goblin.
His body felt heavier with power, but his mind felt like it was cracking.
The tall goblin lunged again.
Lux met it.
He did not block this time. He moved to the side, letting the blade pass close enough to feel the wind of it. He swung low and hard.
The rusty sword bit into the goblin's leg.
The tall goblin roared and tried to strike down, but Lux was already moving, driving forward with a second cut, then a third.
The goblin's strength was still greater than his, but Lux's body was faster now, more certain. Not trained, not skilled, but alive in a way it had not been before.
The tall goblin staggered, blood pouring down its leg.
Lux raised the sword with both hands and brought it down with everything he had.
The blade sank into the goblin's shoulder.
The creature froze, then fell to its knees.
Lux yanked the sword free and struck again.
The tall goblin collapsed.
For a heartbeat, Lux did not breathe.
Then the surge came again, heavier than the others, crashing through him and leaving him standing there like a man who had been struck by a storm and refused to fall.
The last small goblin squealed and fled into the trees.
Lux tried to take a step after it, then stopped. His legs trembled. His wounds screamed at him. The power inside him held him upright, but he could feel how close he had been to dying.
Lux turned toward the wagon.
The travelers stared at him with wide eyes, faces pale with shock.
The spear man swallowed hard. "You saved us."
Lux opened his mouth, but his throat felt tight.
He looked down at his blood soaked leather, at the trembling sword in his hands, at the dead goblins in the dirt.
Lux's voice came out low and hoarse.
"I almost did not."
The woman climbed onto the wagon seat, still shaking. The shield man kept his weapon up, watching Lux as if he was not sure what to make of him.
The wagon rolled forward, slowly at first, then faster.
The spear man glanced back. "Come with us. There is a village ahead. Not far."
Lux wanted to say no.
Lux wanted to walk back into the forest and disappear, to pretend none of this was real.
But his body knew the truth.
Alone, he would die.
Lux tightened his grip on the sword, then forced himself to limp toward the wagon.
He climbed up onto the back, breath shaking, and as the wheels carried them away, Lux stared at the road ahead and realized something that made him colder than the forest ever had.
The first fight in the clearing had been survival.
This had been a warning.
If he wanted to live in this world, he would have to get stronger.
And strength, for him, came from blood.