Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2) (15 page)

“Ero... Ero? I like it! Why that name, though?” asked the Fairy.

“You’re a perverted little fairy, so I named you accordingly.” replied Scott.

Ero was silent for a moment. Scott felt a weird sensation inside his skull. When she did speak it was to say, “That’s what Ero is? This is going to be a fun adventure!”

“Did you just check my memory to find out the meaning of your name?”

“Yeah! I’m really excited now.” she exclaimed happily.

Scott slapped himself in the forehead then sighed. He had corrupted a sweet and innocent little fairy. He had introduced her to the concept of erotica, and she openly liked it. Somehow, that seemed like it would end up being a problem in the future.

Chapter 8: Karsh and the Tears of a Fairy

There was nothing left but to do the thing. There was a battle to fight; a chance or live or die by his skills alone. Scott was both thrilled and disturbed by what was to come. His only hope was that the boomerang skill that he had just acquired would solve his current dilemma.

It seemed a bit coincidental that he had acquired exactly what he needed, but he had done so only after discovering a secret. Life was strange in that way. His situation had turned from hopeless to hopeful once more.

“Ero, there will probably be a lot of monsters waiting for me out there. Will you be alright?”

“Sure! They can’t hurt me unless you summon me out. You can use my powers without doing that, though only to the extent that your own abilities allow.”

“I see.” So, she was saying that she would be strongest if summoned, but she could be hurt if she was. Either way, it could be useful to have her along. Now that she had settled into his mind he had a stronger understanding of her exact abilities. He could not wait to try a few of them out, as there were a few more than she had claimed previously.

Scott climbed up the stairs that lead to the mine office then jumped up and climbed back into the building. He looked down at the hole that he had crawled out of and wondered exactly why it was covered up to begin with! Couldn’t they have just locked the door or something? “Hey, Ero. Do you know why the entrance to your grotto was sealed?”

“Sealed? Oh, yes. The mine foreman and I were good friends. He sealed the entrance because he did not want anyone to hurt me.

“What, like wandering monsters?” asked Scott.

“No, monsters would not wander into a Fairy’s Grotto. They cannot enter even if they wanted to do so. Humans and others can, though. Not everyone is as nice as you, or Mike. He’s the former mine foreman by the way. Anyway, they might have captured me and put me in a jar so that they could sell me off as a pet, or worse.”

“That’s terrible.” said Scott. It was also a fantasy cliché, the fairy in a jar. He could also think of many other terrible things that might fall under the worse category that she had mentioned.

“It would be. Sometimes fairies are captured and forced to create sacred springs for rich people, or governments. The water can be used for high-quality restorative potion creation, so alchemists and similar people do it too.”

“You’re bound to me now, can they still capture you?” asked Scott.

“Nope, I am all yours forever and ever and ever and...!” The fairy continued to say the word ‘ever’ with great excitement.

Scott shook his head. She was certainly energetic. “Yeah, I guess we’re BFFs now or something, since you live inside my head and know all my secrets.”

“What’s a BFF?” The fairy asked him.

He felt an electrical sensation inside his skull and she ended up answering her own question before he could. “Wow! You think we’ll be best friends forever? I do too! Yay!”

Scott could feel a fluttery sort of sensation in his head after that. Ero was far too pleased by that bit of information. Somehow, he felt that it would lead to issues and misunderstandings later. He turned toward the door and sighed. He started toward it, but stopped. Maybe he was just procrastinating but he did want to ask something else. “Why didn’t you form a bond with Mike if you were such good friends?”

“Oh, I wanted to but I couldn’t. He was married and his wife did not approve of us being so intimate. I wouldn’t have minded being friends with her too, but she was mean to me. Eventually, I called her something mean as well.”

Scott winced. That did not bode well for his immediate future when Rhea returned. “What did you end up calling her?”

“Angry Bird Woman. She had a pinched face and a long sharp nose, and always had the angriest expression. She looked like a mean old bird! Can I help it if I’m adorable and human men love me?” She giggled and made a happy little noise inside his head.

The sorcerer laughed at her admission, but knew that trouble was coming. He was not thinking of the upcoming fight at the time, either.

The background music had been muted somewhat, but the moment he stepped out of the office it blared back to life. It washed over him and infused his world with riotous sound. The loud crash of booming drums and the tone of brass instruments playing an orchestral fanfare signaled that a major event was in progress.

Scott ran to the edge of the area and looked across the gap. The number of monsters seemed to have tripled from before, but they were all rats and goblins. He saw no spiders or bats. Maybe they had given up?

“Well, time to see what we can make happen!” He whipped out his boomerangs experimentally. They arced outward in a lazy manner then zipped in to strike at two different targets, neither of which was his actual target. Either his accuracy was not high enough, or he would need a lot more practice at this range.

The boomerangs returned to him in a wide arc and he caught them with little effort. For the moment,he chose to continue his lazy throws. The area before him was the definition of a target rich environment. As long as he actually aimed at something, he would hit something. It was practically guaranteed. His only real issue was that the damage from his weapons turned out to be less than he had hoped. It seemed like the attack power was split between the boomerangs equally, so it took several hits to bring down even a cave rat.

Still, it was easy experience as far as he could tell. He whipped his boomerangs out repeatedly for over half an hour while using the distance and gap to good effect. The number of monsters thinned over time but they still arrived out of the tunnels at regular intervals to replace those who had been lost.

“This is great, but it’s taking too long. I’ll die of starvation here.” said Scott. He was more than happy to mow down monsters for days at a time like this, but he did not trust the situation at all. Something about how easy this was unsettled him. It reminded him of a similar situation. It would not be long before his fear and lack of trust began to bear fruit.

<<< * >>>

The goblins have grown restless, frustrated...

<<< * >>>

“That does not sound good.” murmured the man before launching another attack. He had managed to halve the number of monsters, if his guess was accurate. There were maybe fifty or sixty of them remaining. There were too many to fight in a mass melee. Even four goblins at once was a difficult prospect. Worse, most of the remaining monsters were cave rats. They were weaker than the goblins but they were fans of the tackle attack. If he went down even once when facing that many opponents at this level, he would not get back up.

Time passed, he took down several more goblins and rats. The goblins started to act strangely. Scott watched as a few of them began to actually walk away from the battle. They showed greater intelligence now. They no longer simply stood there waiting to get hit by boomerangs.

The smarter goblins, as he thought of them, began to gather on the mine floor. Scott attacked in earnest now, since most of the monsters on the platform before him were cave rats. If the goblins tried something, he would want to deal with as few of the rats as possible.

The gathered goblins began to jump and shout. Eventually, one of the bigger goblins began to shove and slap at the others. After the larger goblin made his desires know, four of the smaller goblins ran off in different directions. Each of them took a different tunnel.

<<< * >>>

The goblins have had enough of this endless battle! The strongest goblin miner has sent the weakest members of the tribe to seek reinforcements from the warrior elite.

<<< * >>>

Scott’s eyes widened as he read that message. The goblins that he had been fighting were not the main fighters in the mine?

He could do nothing at the moment but continue to fire off his boomerangs to kill the rats. Why was nothing ever easy? Why wouldn’t those stupid goblins just die and become his experience?

A half hour later the music died down. It caught Scott’s attention easily since he had just finished off the last of the rats. He was about to try and find a way down from the platform. Hopefully he would be able to find a way onto the next one over so that he could use his limited approach tactic once more.

The music started again. This time it was a slow, ominous, drum beat. ...Bum bom, Bum bom, bum bom, bum-bomba-bum bom...

The wail of bag pipes and a slowly rising electric guitar arose alongside the beating drums. The tension of the moment increased dramatically for the tired sorcerer. Scott watched in horror as dozens of goblins raced out of the tunnels. Each of the new arrivals wore real armor and brandished decent weapons.

The new goblins formed up ranks like a proper army then stood at attention. Their postures were perfectly maintained and their eyes gazed only forward. One of the bigger goblins called out something. The massed goblin warriors, and the weaker goblin miners, brought their right elbows up and their right hands rose to their brows. They had saluted on command.

Another goblin walked out of the tunnels. It was a full head taller than the rest and to Scott’s growing horror; it had a bright red name flashing above its head. He could not read the name from this distance, but he knew what the glowing letters meant.

<<< * >>>

Goblin Captain
Karsh Six-fingers
has arrived. All goblins under his command have had their morale increase greatly. Their status will now increase by fifty percent for the remainder of the battle, or until Karsh dies.

<<< * >>>

Scott read through the message then glared hatefully down at the army of goblins. “Fuck!”

He could do nothing but wait for the inevitable onslaught now. There had to be over two hundred goblins down there and they were all at higher level than he was. While he could not be absolutely certain of that fact, it was easy to guess. What could he do against those numbers when his opponents were actively stronger than he was?

“Scott, things are bad aren’t they?” asked Ero.

“Yeah, Ero. Things are bad. I would have trouble with these guys even one on one.

“Why? They are just goblins. You’re a sorcerer.” said the fairy.

“Yeah, a sorcerer several levels lower than them...” replied Scott.

“Does that matter, really? You’ll never know until you try!” shouted Ero inside his mind.

“That’s true, the worst that can happen is that I die.” answered Scott.

“That’s the spirit! Hey, wait...” Ero had taken a moment to comprehend what he had said.

Scott could not help but laugh a little. The tiny naked girl who currently lived rent free inside his head was right. Why become disheartened just because he was outnumbered over two hundred to one? He had dealt with the same issue the entire time that he had been involved in this battle. They still had to reach him somehow. He still had to high ground, and a wide gap between their army and his current position!

The captain finished speaking to his troops then shouted something that sounded harsh, guttural. They snapped back to attention and responded in kind, before separating into groups of five.

Each of the groups had two lancers, a sword and shield wielding goblin, and two archers. They were going to try to use squad tactics against him! That would be a great way to wear down an opponent if he was on the ground with them, but how would that work with the ramp down?

Two of the larger goblins spoke with the captain for a moment then called out orders. Five squads raced toward the ramp that led up to his platform. Another five squads raced toward his position from the ground. The remaining ten squads held position. The weakened miners were instructed to mine the area. They had no place on the battlefield at the moment.

Scott threw his boomerangs as soon as the first goblins got within range, but the spear wielders on either side of the swords-goblin blocked or deflected them. Once the first squad reached the edge of the platform across from Scott the lancers and sword-wielder knelt down and the archers took aim.

The sorcerer immediately understood what they intended to do after the first arrows flew. He avoided them easily enough, but he would not be able to hold the front of the platform. He aimed behind them with his next shots, figuring that the spear wielders would try to block. Unfortunately, the squad behind them took up their slack and deflected the divinely granted weapons.