Warning: Chapter contains action/violence.

Goblins descend onto the party like ants whose mound has been disrupted, intent on punishing whoever dared to disturb.

A fully-grown goblin sweeps up the little one from the tree, taking it away from its pile of stolen snacks and ushering the tiny creature away from the clearing. The adult, dressed in a filthy purple shirt, turns back to the rest of its group, and barks out something that Adam, Kohl, and Orianna can't understand.

"She's giving them orders to attack!" Seamus says, having learned "Goblin" as one of his character's known languages. "That one's probably the leader!"

The goblins swarm closer towards them, snarling and gnashing their teeth with their weapons drawn. One takes a swing at Kohl, who dodges with ease. Her counterattack proves to be both more accurate and deadly, but two more goblins take the place of their fallen comrade.

Seamus maneuvers to the blind spot of one of Kohl's opponents, taking advantage of its focused attention on the pirate. His dagger slides into the creature as if its insides were air; the body slowly starts to dissipate into pixels, allowing Seamus to pull his blade back out just as easily.

Throughout the combat, the halfling rogue attempts to listen in on the goblin leader's orders, hoping to give his friends some advantage. All of a sudden, Seamus yells, "Orianna, watch out!"

The tiefling wizard panics at the sound of her name, moving just enough so that the arrow aimed at her throat embeds itself in her shoulder instead. Orianna screams, the synthetic sensation of pain much more acute than she would've suspected. A crossbow-wielding goblin cheers from its perch on a tree branch, happy it managed to hit at all.

"Quick, cast 'Magic Missile'!" Adam's greatsword slashes across three goblin bodies as he advises his friend, all too aware of the fact that none of melee-users will be able to draw their ranged weapons at this point to help.

It was all up to Orianna to stop the goblins from shooting crossbow bolts through them all.

Her wounded arm useless, Orianna scrolls through her spell list with her good hand shaking. Luckily, she's able to locate Adam's suggested spell, and casts the simple single-target, automatic hit ability with relative ease. Magic rains down on her assailant like shooting stars, the sparkling streams of silver light causing immense pain on impact. Both the crossbow and the goblin hit the grass-covered ground with a thud, the latter dissolving into tiny blue fragments.

The tiefling wizard breathes a sigh of relief as her screen displays a notification about receiving some amount of experience points for her kill, happy she managed to contribute to the fight and hopeful it would soon conclude in victory for her team.

If only it would be that easy.

Surveying the battlefield, Orianna notices several more goblins scaling trees and taking aim, following their leader's orders. Seamus overhears this, translating for the team while he and Kohl take down targets and dodge attacks. Despite the two working well together to whittle down the enemy team, each is still steadily amassing injuries that Adam does his best to heal until his abilities are exhausted. They have no way to defend against ranged attacks, and face the very real possibility of death if too many hits are taken. Now that Adam's restorative powers have been used up, the situation starts to look increasingly grim.

Adam moves quickly to stop the oncoming onslaught, channeling the powers granted to him from his god in the form of an oath. He charges towards the goblin leader, his sworn fealty charging up his sword so that it pulsates with holy light, and decapitates her in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately for him and his friends, the death of the goblin's leader did not send them into the retreat the paladin had hoped for. Instead, the goblins frenzy, even more determined than before. The ground-level enemies fight harder, making more purchase into the battle against the party's melee fighters. Some even make a beeline for Orianna, who nearly loses her footing over a tree root trying to retreat to a safer distance. Seamus lobes a smoke bomb in the wizard's direction, hoping to help her disappear into the treeline. The goblins that were attempting to climb perennial plants find their footing on branches; they load their weapons, take aim, and fire.

Ranged missiles fly through the sky, tiny pieces of metal glinting in the sunlight before raining down on the battlefield. Multiple goblins squeal as they fight themselves impaled, some even lethally so; it seems that not all the archers were decent shots. However, some were, and though most failed to pierce Adam's plate armor, leather-clad Seamus and Kohl were not so lucky.

Kohl cries out, swearing both heavily and creatively as she drops one of her swords and clutches at her bleeding abdomen. Seamus manages to defend her from an attacker seeking to exploit her momentary lapse from fighting, shoving his blade through its neck.

"Just how many of these freaking things are there?" Seamus says. His teeth clench as he tries to ignore the crossbow quarrels sticking out of his leg and back, severely impacting his mobility despite his determination to soldier on.

"Orianna!" Adam calls out to the panicking tiefling, amiss at what to do as she watches her friends falter. "Do you have a spell that can take out the archers? Kohl and Seamus aren't going to survive another wave!"

The wizard opens up her spell menu for the second time, but finds 'Magic Missile' is now greyed out. Hovering over the ability, a message highlights, reading "Can be cast once per battle".

"Crap," she thinks, hastily scrolling through the other abilities she can cast and trying to speed-read what they do. "I really should've read up on my spells earlier." In her peripheral vision, a shadowy figure can be seen approaching the scene silently, but Orianna is too frantic and the situation too dire for her to pay it any attention.

Adam continues to make headway into the dwindling but sizable group of goblins in melee range, allowing Seamus enough time to retrieve the only two healing potions he has. He tosses one of the previous objects to Kohl before downing the other in one gulp. Adam breathes a sigh of relief as the paladin watches the wounds of his friends close, but then confusion clouds his expression.

"Wait a second, where did you get healing pots, Seamus? Aren't those incredibly expensive? There's no way we could've afforded those!" The holy knight calls out to the rogue as the former turns yet another goblin into pixelated dust.

"Not the time, man!" Seamus says, watching Kohl's back as she heals up. "Besides, you don't want to know!" The rogue groans as he tanks a crossbow bolt in his forearm that would've hit Kohl's stomach had he not intervened. She repays the favor by cutting down a goblin ready to sever Seamus's spine, the consequence of which being a shallow slash across her bicep she would have otherwise avoided. The two exchange brief looks of respect and gratitude. They both know to have the best chance at survival, they can't let the other die.

Meanwhile, the paladin heckles the rogue about the dangers of thievery and the impact on NPCs' livelihoods in short bursts between blows. "If you stole them I'm gonna make you go back and repay the vendor!"

"Fine, I'll tell you, but just remember you were warned!" Seamus grins through the blood dripping down the gash in his forehead as he reveals, "I got them from your mom's house last night!"

With that brilliant revelation, numerous enemy crossbows fire once more. A swarm of quarrels litter across the forest clearing, many of them finding their mark. Seamus falls to his knees, the fake sensation of pain from multiple wounds feeling all too real. His pirate companion manages to stop what would've been a mortal blow to him before blades pierce her side and legs, adding to the injuries received from the latest aerial assault.

Even Adam, whose armor still serves him well, has incurred a plentiful amount of damage to his person through stabs and slashes, not having the advantage of someone dutifully watching his back as Seamus and Kohl do.

Seeing the adventurers are close to meeting their virtual end, the goblins rally. The few left in melee distance combined with those up in the trees are more than enough to finish off the party. They fire more bolts, and Adam glances over to the forest in search of Orianna, his last hope at the four of them living through the fight.

He pales at the sight of the tiefling, at her fallen form and white wizard robes now stained red around the crossbow quarrel in her chest. His skin turns an even lighter shade as he notices the creature directly behind her.

Just beyond Orianna's spot in the forest lies a ginormous snake, well over ten feet in length and tens of inches thick, poised to strike.

"What the actual hell is going on?" Kohl says as a dozen smaller snakes slither up the trees and coil around the goblins, hugging them tighter and tighter until the humanoid creatures vomit their insides and become blue dust.

Not hearing the expected quip from her partner-in-crime, Kohl whirls around to locate her halfling friend. "Seamus?"

She finds him flat on his back, his breathing shallow, and the blood from his wounds slowly pooling beneath him. The rogue's eyes struggle to meet hers, and can barely stay open when they do.

Before Kohl can rush to his side and accomplish nothing due to her having no healing capability whatsoever, the mysterious, oversized newcomer moves first. The head of the snake shoots out and bites a goblin near Seamus into pieces, immediately spitting the chunks out to knock another enemy on its back. The snake's tail-end sweeps across the clearing, forcing many of the few goblins remaining away from the four friends. Frightened by the sudden appearance of the huge reptile, the small creatures lucky enough to be pushed away take the opportunity to run farther into the forest and away from the fight.

Adam watches the smaller snakes move throughout the trees and squeeze goblins to death until all have been eliminated. Then, amazingly, the snakes themselves disappear into thin air, and everything finally becomes clear to him.

"That's a druid ability!" The paladin calls out to Kohl as he moves to stop Seamus from dying, a commonplace medical kit in hand. "This is another player!"

The snake kills the one or two NPCs still alive, then starts to diminish, its head returning to its body as it shrinks several feet. After just a few moments, the once-reptilian body becomes that of a slight elven girl, appearing no more than sixteen in human years. Her snake scales meld into a flowing white shift and waist-length dark hair; her green eyes grow wide as she feels the weight of the party's bewildered gaze on her.

Quickly, the druid girl casts a healing ability on Seamus and Orianna before turning and high-tailing it out of their sight, her bare feet turning into paws as she melds into the form of a cheetah to boost her speed immensely.

The four friends slowly regain their bearings and stolen belongings, taking the much-needed time to recover after their near-death experience. Then, they unanimously reach the decision to chase after their savior, who coincidentally ran in the direction they were originally headed in anyway.

~~~

Word Count: 1931

Total Word Count: 8223

T&T Handbook:

Druid: A well-rounded class with melee, magic, and healing abilities. Usually possess the ability to shape-shift into animals. Magic typically follows a nature theme.

Humanoid: A human-type creature, but not necessarily a human. A race capable of human-life thought, such as elves, dwarves, etc.

Quarrel: Not a gaming term, just another term for a crossbow bolt

Anything I miss? Let me know and I'll add it in!