There was so much screaming.

  Not just from the mass of humanity that called the village home, expressions of guttural terror tore through any sensibilities I might’ve had in that situation, but from the goblins as well. Things that I refused to acknowledge as anything natural. Spindly and weak and terrifying. I stared into the eyes of one, dagger jammed through its chin and up to the brain, the only thing that met my eyes was madness.

  Even in death it didn’t dull, intensity like a blazing flame to bring pain.

  I’d never killed anything before, despite how often I trained with the sword. I imagined Isidro would’ve had me and Yir hunting down goblins like these in a year or so, considering they were easy enough to find with a decent tracker. Most of the time goblins minded their own business, hunting animals and lone travelers, it was when a horde gathered that they become more rabid.

  At least that was what my pa told me, and my pa was smarter than most so I trusted him. Damn, pa’s up by the wall where the goblins breached.

  I hoped he was okay, hoped everyone made it out okay, but I refused to let worry cloud my actions. I had people to protect, three children like me all huddled in my family’s cellar, waiting for the wave to pass or crush them under its heels.

  Uria was there, so there was that, but the rest?

  I didn’t know where the rest ran in the midst of all the chaos, or if they even ran at all. Considering her personality I wouldn’t find it surprising if Yir charged the green gremlin of death. But I couldn’t look for her, coudn’t look for any of them, to leave the cellar was to die.

  I could hear them, clacking and screaming and warbling. They were out there in so many more numbers then I could hope to survive, so all I could do was pray to the gods, hoping that they were inclined to mercy on that day. The screams did much to dissuade me of that possibility, but it was all I could do, all that I had.

  The chaos had to end eventually, and when it did all my loved ones would emerge whole and hale.

  They had to, they just did.

  The cellar had plenty of food, and two of my fellows had been munching somberly in a bid that I imagined was meant to stimulate the brain beyond fear. I didn’t have the heart to tell them to stop, despite them downing my favourite sausages. Was that weird of me to consider during all that? Probably, but no one needed to know.

  Focus.

  Uria by my side, I stared intensely at the cellar door, knife a petty protection against the horde. Through all of it, there was the never-ending screams.

  Both normal and surreal.

  Uria turned to me, a little bit of red on her cheeks as she stared at the ground. “We’re going to die, aren’t we?”

  “Don’t say that, we’ll live. This is just a minor misstep in our lives, and that’s all it’ll be.”

  “I wish I could be that optimistic,” Uria giggled. “But I’ve learned from Yir that sometimes things are just hopeless. This feels like one of those times.”

  I turned to look at the girl. She was dressed in peasant garb with short brown hair and a sharp nose. She was trembling a little, and there was a brittle smile on her face as she stared at the floor. I didn’t like seeing her so fragile, not at all.

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  “It’s not hopeless,” I whispered.

  Uria shook her head in small motions. “It is. There are plenty of stories of hordes destroying villages, and we haven’t heard from the other villages, have we? Likely they’ve already fallen, and we’re next.”

  “We have the army,” I said. It came out weaker than I’d like.

  “Yet there are goblins in the streets,” Uria said. “I’m not really interested in the military or their strategies, but I’m pretty sure letting the enemy get behind you is a bad thing.”

  “So what am I supposed to do, give up?” I snapped.

  “What else is there we can do?” Uria said with solemn countenance.

  My lips pursed in a thin line. “We can hide.”

  “And then what? Assume the goblins don’t find this cellar, there'll still be plenty in the village. We all won’t survive long without water, so we’ll have to confront them eventually.”

  “What’s the point of this? Are you trying to convince me to just give up? I can’t give up!”

  “You can’t, can you?” Uria said with a soft smile as she finally looked up at me. “I already have, so just…let me have this.”

  “Let you have wha—”

  Uria wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me close. What followed was two children essentially mashing their lips against each other, and I was supremely confused during the whole process.

  Uria pulled back, face red as a tomato and mouth curved in a small smile as she stared at me. “Sorry, that wasn’t very good was it? Should we try again?”

  “Wha-I-why,” I sputtered, blinking rapidly as I stared at the girl. “Ha-have you never heard of a warning! And why would you do that?”

  “I like you,” Uria stated matter of factly.

  “I-I like you too! But there’s supposed to be a process! You can’t just kiss me out of nowhere.”

  Uria tapped the bottom of her lip. “Well, that process probably won’t happen. So why not skip a few steps?”

  “Could you at least ask next time?” I sighed.

  “So there’ll be a next time?” Uria's smile was slightly predatory at that.

  I just looked at the floor and nodded, red as a tomato.

  “Can that next time be right now?”

  I hesitated for a moment, then nodded again.

  It’s all this noise, I just couldn’t get used to it.

  Whatever these green gremlins warbled wasn’t natural. Like a tune sent from chaos, there to torture sound minds into insanity. I’d fought plenty of goblins, had to considering our travels before settling in Okama, so I was familiar with the cursed song. But never had I faced so many at once, and it was a torture to my tympanic membrane.

  Which just encouraged me to fight harder, swinging like mad at a never ending deliverance of blood. I knew how to use the blade, any self respecting smith would at least be familiar with what they craft, so I’d killed plenty. But the blood that marred my blade did nothing to soothe my irritation, nor my worries.

  Goblins were breaking through our lines, the horde being too much to face head on, so that bastard of a captain ordered us to let some of the goblins flow through our defences. Using the helpless in the village as tantalizing bait to reduce the burden on our shoulders, and it worked, so far.

  But my daughter waited behind me, along with so many where the greenskins had free reign. I’d argue, I’d rave, I’d rage at the injustice of using children and the infirm as bait, but all I could do was swing my blade.

  It was the only thing I had beside the burning in my soul as I cut down a swath of vermin. It wasn't worth it, not worth it at all.

  My only daughter, at the mercy of so many.

  I could only hope she found somewhere to hide.

  I could only hope that if she were to die, it would be painless.

  I could only hope—

  Then.

  A roar.

  Something so loud it vibrated through my muscle and reverberated bone. Like the call of a beast, but twisted to sound something like a scream. The ground shook as something of bulging muscle stomped forward, pushing through the mass of bodies like they were mere leaves.

  I got a glimpse of the thing before its fist punched through my head.