Jack tossed Arc his spellcaster and the three spell cartridges he had taken from the bounty hunter’s jacket. Julie, meanwhile, passed Arc his knife, his revolver, and his thirteen remaining revolver bullets. All the while, Arc kept his eyes on the growing dots in the distance that were rapidly morphing into the shape of goblins.

  “The vermin of the wasteland,” he muttered quietly before speaking louder. “You two ever had to deal with goblins before?”

  “No,” said Jack, clutching his own knife with a trembling hand. “We’re usually pretty good at moving along undetected.”

  “Are we far from the car pileup?”

  “No more than a mile away.”

  “Then they were probably drawn this way by the smoke in the sky,” said Arc sombrely. “I’m sorry, you two, but them being here is my fault.”

  Arc had encountered goblins many times in his life and not one of the encounters had been pleasant. He loathed goblins. They were an invasive species that was historically a pest and had since become a plague; not that Arc had been alive in the time when they were merely pests. Goblins were savage little beasts that would cower in fear if you met one alone, only to bite you in the neck the second you turned around. In larger groups, they were confident and relentless. The worst part was that you could cut a tribe of fifty goblins down to ten and in a couple of years, they’d have bred their way back to fifty.

  “What should we do, Mr Hawk?” asked Julie, clutching at the spellslinger’s jacket sleeve so tightly that her knuckles were as white as her face.

  “I want both of you to stay in the cave and out of sight, you hear?” said Arc. “Keep yourselves behind the column you tied me to and don’t say a single word. Not even if they’re picking the flesh from my bones and gnashing away at it with their rotten teeth, understood?”

  The twins nodded and then made a dash for the back of the cave, trying their best to both stay behind the pillar. They clung to each other, listening to the stampeding footsteps that were picking up in volume. Julie kept her eyes tightly shut while Jack watched the bounty hunter’s shadow on the cave’s back wall. He wanted to help, but he knew he would only be a liability if he tried.

  Arc took a deep breath as the goblins grew closer and closer. They began screeching a battle cry that made him wince as it pierced his eardrums. He took a dozen paces out of the cave and loaded his bullets into his revolver. After that, he readied his spellcaster with three more Arcane Shot cartridges. It was a real shame that he might need to use these on lowly goblins, but it was his best chance at getting the two youngsters out of this mess. After all, they were on the verge of releasing him. Thieves or not, they weren’t heartless monsters. He would give them a second chance.

  The goblins were now close enough that Arc could make out their faces and he counted twenty-two of the green-skinned rodents. They were hideous, wrinkled little creatures standing at no more than four feet tall. They wore skirts made from hide with some of them wearing lop-sided vests that certainly weren’t fashioned by capable human hands. Around their necks, wrists, and waists they wore adornments of tooth and bone that would rattle with the slightest movement. Stealthy, goblins were not.

  Presuming he missed zero shots and it took a single shot to kill each of his foes, he was still six bullets shy of a full sweep. Hopefully, if he said a prayer, the goblins would get spooked once Arc laid waste to most of their attacking force and turn tail and run. Perhaps a single shot would do the trick if he was lucky.

  “Alright,” said Arc quietly, raising his spellcaster. Thanks to its homing movement, an Arcane Shot spell was an almost guaranteed hit. “it’s showtime.”

  He pressed his finger on the trigger of his golden gun and the cylinder glowed blue as it rotated and unleashed the first Arcane Shot. A basic spell it may be, but it was reliably effective as long as he aimed correctly. The magical orb of white energy soared through the air, whizzing over the dry bushes and dusty ground, before colliding with a screeching goblin’s head and caving it in with a gruesome squelch. Its viscous blood and liquified brain doused the next row of goblins, painting them red.

  The headless goblin fell backwards into one of his comrades, tripping him up, while the rest of the goblins shook their sharp spears and thick clubs angrily. The death of one of their own only served to anger them, not scare them, but Arc thought that would be the case; first blood had been drawn and their forces were still strong.

  Arc threw his spellcaster into the air and flicked his revolver into his right hand, catching the spellcaster with his left. He raised the revolver, looked down the sights and tapped the trigger once, twice, thrice, and then four times. Each shot was a hit and he took out four goblins; a great streak. His fifth shot was a near-miss and he winced as it grazed a pointed green ear. His sixth shot had him back on form and his round pierced a goblin’s eye, shooting out the back of its head along with a spray of blood droplets, ending its miserable life. His six kills now left the goblin horde with sixteen goblins who refused to cease their screeching.

  “No fear yet?” Arc asked aloud as he put his spellcaster under his arm and loaded six more cartridges into his revolver. “Well, let’s see how long that lasts, you miserable little wretches.”

  As Arc raised his gun, he spied a spear flying through the air and quickly pivoted mere seconds before it landed right where he had been standing. The only cover nearby was the cave and there was no way he was stepping inside unless he was forced to; not with Jack and Julie hiding there. The goblins would find them eventually, he knew that, but he wanted them out of the way for as long as possible while he thinned the horde.

  Six bangs later, four more goblins were dead. Normally, enemies drawing closer would make them much easier to pick off, but the flung spears left Arc shooting and dodging simultaneously. Things could have gone better, that much was certain, but every dead goblin meant that Jack and Julie stood a greater chance of surviving the attack.

  Arc loaded his final revolver round with over half of the horde still standing. He held his gun out and shot a rather toothy goblin in the throat, toppling the ugly menace instantly. And with that, Arc shoved his revolver into its holster and snatched his spellcaster back with his right hand. It was a shame to use his last two Arcane Shots, but needs must.

  “Here goes,” he muttered, unleashing two successive bursts of magical energy.

  Before the spent cartridges even hit the ground, two more goblins had fallen and Arc had holstered his gun, replacing it with his knife. He held it close and kept his shoulders in, readying himself to thrust as the goblins closed the gap and the yards between the predators and the prey grew fewer by the second.

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  “Come on!” Arc called out, lunging forward and stabbing a goblin in the chest as it swung its club at him.

  The sudden strike threw the goblin’s trajectory off, but the club still struck Arc in the leg. Had he been at full strength, this wouldn’t have been much of a problem, but weakened as he was from his dealings with Colt, he buckled and fell to the ground, only just managing to wrench his knife free as the goblin also collapsed. Unlike the human, however, it had no chance of getting back up and lay disgracefully on the dry soil.

  Arc let out a howl of pain as another goblin swung its club in an arc through the air, bashing him across the knee. Overconfident as the goblin was, it lingered a second too long while smiling at its supposed success. The opening gave Arc the chance to grab its club with his free hand, pulling both it and its wielder towards him and skewering the no-longer-grinning goblin through the eye with his knife before tossing the little beast aside. The human scrambled back to his feet as pairs of gnarled fingers grabbed at his jacket, trying to pull him into their midst.

  Even now that there were only seven of them remaining—just shy of a third of their starting forces—the goblins did not turn and run. As stupid as these brutes were, they were just intelligent enough to grasp that Arc had run out of bullets and their superior numbers were all they needed. Seven goblins against a lone human with a piddly dagger was plenty and Arc knew it too.

  They started circling the bounty hunter, who quickly made peace with the fact that the best he could do was take out another handful before he was a goner. A pitiful way to go, dying to goblins, but at least he could say that he killed most of his attackers before perishing. Hopefully, the goblins would be too demoralised to venture into the cave and retreat to whatever filthy hole they crawled out from. There it was again, another forlorn hope.

  “Come and get me, you bastards,” cried Jack from the mouth of the cave. What the hell was the young man doing? He was told to stay away.

  Jack sprinted past the goblins and, in the distraction, Arc ended the life of yet another of his green foes. The remaining goblins split their numbers with three chasing after Jack and the others staying with Arc. Now these were numbers the spellslinger could work with.

  The goblins pummelled Arc with their clubs, but he landed a swift slash across one an unguarded green stomach, spilling the beast’s guts across the dirt. They lay thick on the dust and the blood filled the small crevices while staining the ground. A forceful knock to the head later and Arc joined the goblin upon the dirt. He raised his arms to shield his face while waiting for an opening.

  As the two goblins beat him bloody, one of them was suddenly shoved aside by a small figure. As the goblin toppled over, the last goblin turned on the pusher; Julie. She tried to run, but it wrapped its fingers around her arm, breaking the skin with its long dirty nails, and pulled her in close. It opened its dripping mouth, eager to sink its teeth into her and tear off a chunk of flesh. What a delicious morsel she would be.

  Its saliva was swinging from its tongue at it threw its head forward and Julie shut her eyes tightly, believing she would be dead momentarily. The disgusting beast did not get the chance to close its jaw as the tendon at the back of his knee was severed by a sharp blade, bringing it down.

  Julie wrenched herself free of the goblin, taking a nasty cut to the arm, and helped Arc back to his feet. As he arose, the goblin Julie had pushed over moments ago leapt at the spellslinger. Arc howled in fury as he brought his knife above his head and thrust his arm forward, catching the goblin in the neck as it fell towards him.

  The goblin let out a pained gasp that elicited no sympathy from the humans. Its raised arm shook violently as it tried to move, but its strength was failing it. It released its club and collapsed on top of its struggling friend, still alive but not for much longer.

  Arc raised his boot and stomped on the crippled goblin’s head, crushing its skull upon the blood-soaked soil of the badlands, leaving only the goblins chasing Jack still alive. Arc turned his gaze to the last of his enemies and saw that the young man had an impressive lead, but the goblins were rapidly gaining on him.

  Before he could make a move, he felt Julie’s hand on his jacket sleeve. “Here,” she said, pulling his arm back and shoving five cartridges into his hand.

  With no time to question her about where she found these, Arc loaded three of the four Arcane Shots into his spellcaster before clicking the cylinder back into place. He raised the Golden Hawk high and aimed at a goblin chasing Jack. He fired, sending out one of his spells before aiming at his second target. He fired again and then pivoted to the third goblin. He squeezed the trigger for a final time and the spell erupted from the gun’s muzzle.

  As Jack looked over his shoulder, he saw the goblins dropping one by one, now all headless. Blood and bone fragments fled from their open neck holes, spreading widely before settling on the ground. Free of his pursuers, the young man dropped to his knees and rolled over, staring into the orange sky above and panting heavily. He hadn’t expected to survive the encounter and left the cave hoping to help Arc enough to give his sister a fighting chance of escaping. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat up as Arc and Julie drew close.

  “Spare rounds, eh?” asked Arc, holding up the remaining two cartridges; one red and one white, both of which he had identified by the runes they bore.

  “Yes,” said Julie, looking guilty. “We probably should have told you about those earlier, but we weren’t thinking clearly when we heard the goblins coming.”

  “Are you alright?” asked Jack, looking at Arc’s bloody face. One eye was closed and the other was already swollen near the brow even though it had barely been a minute since he took the savage beating from the goblins.

  “I’ve been better,” grunted the bounty hunter, “but I’ve also been worse. I’ll survive and so will you.”

  He turned and surveyed the horizon, wondering if verminous reinforcements were out there somewhere, skulking in a pit or burrowed within a hill. For all he knew, more goblins were lurking at a full-blown camp just out of sight. He could not risk staying here much longer, especially as depleted of usable ammo as he was. A single offensive spell would not cut it.

  “Alright, you two,” said Arc. “Gather your things and we’ll see what the goblins left behind. There’s probably nothing useful, but I’m sure you can take one of their spears, Julie. You’ll need something for the road.”

  “You’re coming with us?” asked Julie in shock.

  “Of course,” said Arc. “I can’t just leave you two out here fending for yourself, can I? I’ll take you both as far as the next town but, if we come across any other miserable creatures, I doubt we’ll make it there. Worth a shot though, eh?”

  “Thank you,” said Julie sincerely before turning to her brother and giving him a concerned look. “You should hand it over, Jack.”

  “Hand what over?” asked Arc slowly.

  “There may be something else,” said Jack, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a handful of bullets that would have been perfectly usable in Arc’s revolver.

  The spellslinger was incredulous, especially considering the twins had ample opportunity to hand over all the bullets they’d hoarded before the goblins were in range. Forgetting the spell cartridges was one thing, but the revolver rounds?

  “We need to have a conversation, Jack,” said Arc sternly, staring at the young man through his one open eye. Even with his poor vision, he could see that Jack was tense. “But that can wait until we’re far enough away from here that we can’t be sniffed out. However, before we make any more, I have one important thing to ask you.”

  “Yes?” replied Jack tepidly.

  “Do you have any other weapons or ammunition I should know about?”

  “No, that’s everything,” worried that Arc would punch him.

  “Julie? I’m more inclined to believe you.”

  “He’s telling the truth,” she said. “We’ve given you everything now.”

  The twins rushed into the cave and grabbed their bags, slinging them over their shoulders and tightening the straps. While Arc kept watch, the two retrieved everything they had taken from him and returned it, including his food and water.

  As the sun grazed the horizon, the three walked across the badlands, seeking the nearest road. Arc dared not return to the scene of the wreckage. He feared that if Colt had survived, he would be back for vengeance. At the very least he would be searching for Arc’s body to use for target practice.

  No, it was best to get a move on. Pembroke wasn’t far and it was in neutral territory, not because it wasn’t desirable, but because the local bandit groups had fought over it so often that they deemed it not worth losing more of their forces over. And that was as safe as could be expected in the harsh wasteland of this fallen world.