The Goblin Nation

"Not exactly. I"ve been watching him make stink bombs these past four days. I wrote down the ingredients he used on this piece of paper." Stick pulled out the paper from the drawer and gave it to Flute. She looked at the paper, which for her just had random circles, squares, and other geometric shapes drawn in a line. She thought it would be filled with drawings of the ingredients, not random shapes. "I tested some of them on my own and learned what they are capable of. For instance, the Cold Flower"s smell causes sneezing, and while its petals create a burning sensation to the eye when pounded into powder and mixed with h.o.r.n.y Toad"s poison. After testing them, I wrote my own recipe for two new bombs. One blinds the target for a longer duration, and the second is a much more potent smelling bomb. Now I haven"t used these two yet, so I don"t know if my bombs actually work. But I find that today is the perfect day to test them out. I just need to make I can survive until my brothers come back."

Flute handed back Stick"s paper, "Flute don"t know how bomb work, but Flute know Stick can do it." She said with a smile.

Stick took out a leather belt and tied it around his waist. It had five small compartments that can fit small objects such as the bottles that Stick has. Flute and Stick walked towards the front door of the cottage. They were met with a large group of goblins waiting for them. Flute called out to one of them, "Tie, come back yet?"

"No, Flute." The woman answered.

"Stick," Flute turns to him with a solemn look. "Your brothers need to survive long too." She returned to the group and gave out orders. Stick stood there bewildered by her comment. But it mattered no more. Now he faces the strongest enemy of his life so far. Cala stood on the opposite side of the ditch. He stared down at the goblins suffocating from the foul stench. His face showed no sign of remorse, only anger. Olhos and a few other goblins climbed up the hill to witness the carnage that is about to unfold.

He points the tip of his sword at Stick, "You dare stand between me and my slaves! Do I need to remind what I did to Tama, or do you just want to die."

"I"m just here helping Flute take care of the women. I didn"t know anything about those traps, believe me!" Stick yelled. His club was resting on his shoulder, and he stood there with such confidence and debonair. He tucked his wooden sickle between his belt and pants and pulled out a bomb similar to Cloud"s bombs, but instead of a ball shape, it had a cylinder form. He juggled it in his hand, "Besides, does it really matter if I stand here. Oh, don"t tell me you"re afraid of me, chief. There"s no reason to on guard, because you did say I was the runt."

A blue mist begins to emanate from Cala"s body. They travel down to his legs, wrapping around it. Eventually, the blue mist settled on Cala"s boots, turning into a glistering bluish paint. Cala leaned forward, with his right leg extending behind him. He pulled his long sword off his shoulder and held it horizontally on his side with his knuckle facing the sky. "I fear no goblin." He whispered.

His left leg propelled him forward. In a blink of an eye, he crossed over the ditch, and behind him, a cloud of snow blew out from where he used to stand. Stick tosed one of his bombs in front of him before immediately ducking. Cala swung his sword across, slicing the bomb in half. Blue liquid came out and splattered on Cala"s coat and face. He stopped in his track, confused about what just happened. The smell of the liquid was horrible, and it irritated his eyes. However, the smell wasn"t as bad as Cloud"s stinkbomb. "What is this?" He said with an irritated voice. He wiped off the liquid from his face.

Stick rolled off to the side. He looked at Cala, and nervously asked, "Can you still see?" Cala glared at him. "I guess that one doesn"t work."

"You little s.h.i.t!" Cala yelled. He swung his sword at Stick. The tip glided on the snow, and a blue mist covered the sword. Stick pivoted backward with his club blocking the impact. The tip of the sword did not even graze Stick, but the shockwave that followed sent Stick and his club flying in the air. He crashed on the snow wall and then landed inside the trench.

The goblins inside the trench were coughing and sneezing. The ones that were close to the center of the smell feinted. Stick pushed himself off the ground, but the toxic smell prevented him from getting on his feet. He crawled his way through the trench.

"You!" A goblin yelled. He was on top of the snow wall. "Dun kill you!" He jumped off with a stone ax over his head. He landed behind Stick and struck his ax on the ground, barely missing Stick, who had to open his legs to dodge his attack. However, Dun quickly succ.u.mbed to the smell and dropped his weapon to cover his nose. He started to cough out blood. Stick got up and took the stone ax. Dun got on all four, then he fell on his side and struggled to breathe as the smell begins to cause inflammation and congestion in the throat.

Stick was slowly succ.u.mbing from the stench as well. He coughed out blood when he picked up the stone ax. Stick rushed to the wall and climbed up. Once he got back up, he saw Cala standing in front of the barn with its door wide open. Stick got one knee and pushed himself up on his feet. He bent backward, and the loud sound of bones cracking caught Cala"s attention.

"Where are they?" Cala turned his head to look at Stick. "Where are the slaves?" He was visibly confused and angry.

Stick removed his wooden sickle off his belt as calmly as he could. He drops the sickle hanging by the rope on his right side and began swinging the sickle in a circle. His arms moved in tandem with the motion of the sickle. The speed of which it traveled made the sickle seem invisible. Stick practiced doing this for three days. Those three days, he expended blood, sweat, and tears to perfect it. He hoped that this technique would help him against stronger foes, but he lacked the experience to utilize it effectively.

Cala charged at Stick. His sword rested on the left shoulder, and he slowly lifted the sword to strike. Stick waved his rotating sickle in the air while letting the rope slide off his palm. Then he swiped his hand across, sending his sickle flying towards Cala at high speed.

The goblins watching could not see the sickle fly towards Cala. They thought the sickle would hit Cala on the head, but Cala surprised them. Cala stopped and swung his sword down in the direction of the incoming sickle. He cut through it like b.u.t.ter. Blue liquid splattered all over the snow.

While Cala was preoccupied, Stick took the initiative and charged at him. He raised his ax over his head as he leaped into the air. Despite Cala"s height dwarfing Stick, he managed to reach and smashed Cala"s head. But Cala did not fall.

Cala grabbed Stick on the ankle and carried him up in the air like a newborn baby. "You thought you could bring me down with that?" Cala laughed, "You are nothing but a pathetic, runt of the halfling liter." He threw Stick on the ground, and blood erupted from Stick"s mouth, staining the snow and the rag over his mouth red. Stick screamed in agony.

Cala raised his sword and hanged it over Stick"s body. "Farewell, and say hi to your brothers for me." But before he could stick his sword through Stick"s body, he was overcome by the vilest smell he has ever experienced. The smell was similar to a rotting corpsed that was peed on while ants bite your nose repeatedly. He covered his mouth and nose, but he could still smell it. The smell of blood pouring from his nose mixed with the foul smell made the whole experience worse.

Stick crawled away and giggling to himself. He tied the second bomb on his sickle, so when it hits Cala, the smell will cover him. Stick planned to run away if the bomb didn"t work, but he could smell it from where he stands. He took a chance and ran up to Cala and hit him on the face, but the smell had a delay effect on Cala.

After getting used to the smell, Cala saw Stick crawl away. He was about to walk towards him and kill him when Olhos and his followers yelled out to him, "Chief, chief! Halflings come back. They bring wolf meat!"

"What? They survived." Cala whispered. He turns attention away from Stick and walked back to the hole on the wall. Olhos walked up to him with a concerned look. "I"m fine. I"ll just take a shower first. Once we get the wolf meat, I want you to kill them."

Suddenly, one of Olhos" followers yelled, "Sum back with halflings and meat!" They ran towards the square where they brought the meat.

Cala was stunned. He could not believe what he just heard. He looked at Olhos and asked, "What the goblin said, was it true? Answer me!" He grabbed Olhos by the neck.

"Yes. Sum back."