The First Goblin Mage

By Hydun

?€?Again! Hit him again!?€? cried an excited little goblin. It was a classic battle, orc vs. goblin without weapons. I noticed something a little odd about the goblin however. He was much stronger than any normal goblin. He must have bought a potion of might from a merchant in town. The goblin won easily, having the agility of a goblin and the power of an ogre. While the goblin was celebrating, the orc skulked off, muttering as he went.

I generally think nothing of such fights, but the strength spell had intrigued me. Spells and enchantments have always fascinated me. I had seen many humans and similar races cast spells, and I knew I wanted to too. I had even tried a few times, but with no success (the most experienced and powerful magi can cast spells without an amulet).

I have asked many magi in the past, but none of them told me how to cast or how they had cast their first spell. Most just told me to give up because I was just a dumb goblin. Others told me that there were already too many magi in the world, and they didn?€™t want another. But one in particular was nice to me; he gave me one spell amulet he didn?€™t use and told me once I could cast that, he would give me a few more (doubting that I would ever cast it).

So I tried and tried to cast it, but as guessed, nothing. He told me it was a spell of strength. It would have the same effect as the potion that the goblin had. But also as the potion, after the first time getting the effect on you (whether by casting or by consuming) will only lengthen the duration. After a long time of trying to cast it innumerable ways, I decided one more try, then after that I would just be wasting my time.

So I tried one last time, but as per the usual, no luck. Then I just put the amulet in my pocket and went about my business (after all, I do need to make a living). Of course people made fun of me because I couldn?€™t do it.

One of my friends was teasing me about it and was starting to annoy me. ?€?Come on Garth! Cast a spell on me! I need strength!?€? he teased. Generally Sam can be a normal guy, but sometimes he can be a jerk. ?€?Fine,?€? I said, ?€?If it?€™ll shut you up, I can try.?€? So I tried casting it on him a lot of ways. As time went by, he grew impatient and started teasing me again. I started to get annoyed again, and it felt a little different trying to cast while angry. Suddenly Sam leapt backwards. ?€?Holy crap!?€? he shouted as he jumped back. I then felt a sharp pain at the tips of my fingers, so I looked down, and my fingernails weren?€™t there!

I had singed my fingernails off trying to cast the spell. That means I created a small spark of magic! The anger must have stirred up my essence. Sam was still staring at me from his seat on the ground a few feet away from me. I saw the look of utter terror on his face, and knew that he knew I was now on my path to becoming a mage.

Now that I knew how to muster up the magical force inside me, I was getting much closer to casting the spell. The spell I had accidentally cast before was a spark spell. Unfortunately, since I was not that experienced, it had backfired on me.

By now I had gotten very accurate with spark and a few other spells I had learned, but I still couldn?€™t draw the magic from that amulet. The strengthening of muscle fibers, the changing of someone?€™s muscular structure, was much harder to assimilate than making the molecules of dust in the air move faster, eventually creating a tiny fire. I tried so hard to cast it that I ended up weakening myself. That happened many times before I realized the amulet was actually of weakening, not might. I had been casting it for a few weeks unwittingly now...

So the next day I sneaked up behind the mage who gave me the amulet and cast it on him. He instantly whirled around and was about to cast at me, but he couldn?€™t lift the amulet. Then he gasped when he saw my face. I chuckled and said, ?€?Well, where are my amulets??€? He pulled a few amulets out of this satchel (the spell had worn off by now) and threw them on the ground near my feet. I could tell he was both surprised and mad that I had actually been able to cast the spell.

The spells he gave me weren?€™t the best, but I?€™m not arguing, after all, they were free. One was fireball, which was basically the same as my spark, but more powerful, and had a bigger area of effect. Another was might; since I had figured out his little lie, he gave it to me. The last was haste. Now I can move and attack faster with haste and more powerfully with might. This combination will help me much in battle.

?€?EEEEEEEEK!?€? was the scream I had to wake up to. I thought maybe my neighbor had seen a spider or something, but then I heard a man?€™s low-pitched scream. I instinctively put on my spell satchel and went over to see what happened. On my way over to the house where the screams came from, I saw something scamper away. ?€?Hey! Get back here!?€? I yelled. It turned to look at me for a second then ran again. I cast my haste spell and ran after it. As I ran, I tried to figure out what it was. I had only gotten a very brief glimpse of its face, and was it ever ugly. It had abnormally large teeth that appeared sharp. Its eyes glowed a bright green, and looked eerie in the darkness. Somehow I thought I saw something shine, but I wasn?€™t quite sure.

Once it realized that I would catch up, it jumped and turned around in the air (it was still moving forward because of its momentum). Luckily I had fast reflexes, because as I stopped, it?€™s massive jaw snapped shut about an inch in front of my face. I instantly retaliated with an uppercut, but it didn?€™t even phase it. That is when I truly go to see it. I was right about the shine before, it was a disgusting combination of mechanical and organic parts. On one hand it had three small, but nonetheless fierce looking claws that could easily rend flesh from bone. They were already covered in blood; it must have been from those people in the house. On the left hand were very evil looking mechanisms designed for either killing or wounding very badly. But that was all I got to see in good detail while he was getting ready to hit me again. I dodged out of the way of his thrust and hit him again, but still had no effect. Then I remembered my might spell and threw some dust in its eyes to make time to cast. Now I had gotten it mad. It reached toward me with its left hand, and I saw the mechanisms start moving and extend toward me. I jumped back in fear. It proceeded toward me, left arm still extended. I turned around, jumped at a tree, and kicked off it, going over the beast. I spun around, rocking its head to one side with a sideways hammer-fist. At the same time it also spun around, making two slashes in my stomach. They weren?€™t too deep, luckily. When I hit its head, I noticed it groan. Good, I finally hurt it. It was kind of strange, as its head didn?€™t move back to its normal place. I used that to my advantage; I kept bashing its head to that side until it looked even more deformed (if that?€™s possible). But all those times it didn?€™t groan like it did the first time, it must have gotten used to its head moving. I let its head stay there for a while, dodging its attacks. By the time I thought its neck had adjusted, it was furious at me. It made one very strong, quick lunge at me; if I hadn?€™t dodged it, it would have killed me. But I jumped out of the way just in time. While I was in the air, I delivered a brutal ax kick to its head. It groaned again, but much louder than the first time. The decapitated head then fell to the ground with a sickening plop.

I dragged the thing and its head back to town. By the time I got there, the bodies of the two people were already gone and there were mourners. Many people screamed as they saw the body, but more screamed when I held the severed head in front of me. Instantly the people swarmed me, asking all kinds of questions. ?€?Where was the head attached before??€?

?€?What is it??€?

?€?How did you kill a monstrosity like that??€?

Then arguments broke out on whether I actually killed it. It was getting louder and I remembered the slashes in my stomach, so I shouted. ?€?Hey!?€? but no one paid attention, so I yelled, ?€?Hey!?€? Then everyone stopped. I calmly said, ?€?First off, yes I did kill it, but with the help of my spells, and second, I need medical attention,?€? lifting my shirt to show the cuts as I said it.

When I got back from the doctor?€™s I asked around, and apparently a few more incidents like that one had happened. The people related to the deceased said that the man was a mage, not the most powerful one, but many people did fear him. They said they knew no other magi, so they gave his spell satchel to me. I was surprised at the spells in there, the man was actually pretty powerful. I expect that he would have slaughtered the beast, had it not caught him by surprise. The first spell I noticed was a spell of regeneration; I used it to heal my wounds. He had a lightning bolt spell, which did damage, but a little different kind than the fire things I had. He also had strength and haste, so I just put them into my satchel and figured I might sell them or something.

I had to kill a few more of those things, but I eventually figured out something that helped me a lot in killing them. Fireballs, sparks, and lightning spells didn?€™t really affect them (damage wise), but I knew there were different uses for them than just that. I tried making two lightning bolts slam into each other in front of the thing?€™s eyes, and the concentration of light blinded it. I noticed something about the ones I chased, they all ran in the same direction.

Soon there was a dark cloud coming over the villages, which came from the direction that the things ran to. The reported sightings of those things increased greatly, and even of things that were different. The different ones were said to be fiercer, because with them the people didn?€™t get a chance to scream. Once I encountered one of the new ones. It was much stronger and deadlier than the first ones, but not as quick. The trick I had to blind the normal ones didn?€™t affect this one. I used weaken on it, and that made it a little bit easier. I killed it, but I had some injuries. With my regeneration amulet, that was easy to fix, though. The only problem with using that amulet is that it takes a lot of concentration and time, and I get exhausted after using it.

I started facing more and more varieties of the creatures, and as I did, I noticed that each newer one was more powerful but slower than it?€™s predecessor. It was getting really hard to kill them, I was even facing groups of two or three at once. After those battles I had to regenerate a few times. I finally realized that I needed help, so I got some warriors from the village to join me. They even gave me a sword, so now it would be easier to kill them. We got to be good friends after a while, and they said it really felt good having might and haste on them. Now, put together, we could take on bunches of them. The problem was they just kept on coming, and the ones we killed kept disappearing. We had to get more and more people until we had an army, including a lot of magi now. Another small problem to me was I seemed kind of out of place; there were all these tall, naturally powerful races, then this tiny goblin on the back line casting spells.

Our battles were an awesome sight to behold. Archers fired hundreds of arrows, and as they rained down on our enemy you could see many drop from arrows piercing just the right place. Magi casting all kinds of spells to the enemy ahead (the things were now attacking in packs of over one hundred), and when someone cast a more powerful lighting spell, you could see the electricity travel through it and many others, leaving them smoking piles. Warriors rushing into battle with all shapes and sizes of weapons, magic glinting off them from enchantments. Seeing the evil machine-animal hybrids get slashed in half, decapitated, or otherwise maimed.

Eventually we got fed up with just defending the town when they kept coming back, so we decided to explore the direction where they came from. What I saw that day, I would never forget. There was a group of magi in a huge circle around what looked like a black hole. The magi had so much power that it was radiating from them in violet auras. It was a portal to another world, the world where the things originated. There were countless things dropping out of the portal. Also we saw the bodies of killed ones being taken apart, and the parts reused on others. It was a fearsome sight, many people threw up seeing the things put on body parts of the dead ones. We made sure to stay behind the trees, so as not to be seen.

One of the things went toward the trees as I?€™m guessing they normally do, but I don?€™t know why. We were all hidden well enough that it didn?€™t see us, plus these things don?€™t have the best sight in the world. He made a motion and a group of things started towards the trees near us. We knew we had to get back so we could stop them from killing everyone in town, but it would be hard to do it without being heard. When the things were in the small forest they made a lot of noise, so that would act as most of our cover, but we still had to go quietly because we were at a different part. We had a sizable force go back and stop them. We noticed a certain motion go through a lot of the things that remained behind at a certain time. A few minutes later our force came back and said they were all dead. We figured out that when the last one of a group died, they sent out the clean-up crew to get them for parts.

The things now had a big disadvantage, it would take them a while to get up another force that big; now was our chance to strike. We got all our soldiers ready, casting all the necessary spells on them, then we waited for everybody?€™s essence to recover at least a nice amount so they could cast spells on the enemy. When we were all ready, a mage killed that first scout thing with a spell, since he was near the trees again. As the thing died, all the others perked up, just like when the army they sent out died. They knew we were here with them.

?€?Charge!?€? came from a soldier; idiot, he should have waited for the archers to shoot. All the soldiers rushed forward, slaughtering the things as they went. Then the magi saw us, and knew if they didn?€™t do anything, their forces would fail miserably. Suddenly, all of the things grew to two times their normal size; if they jumped, they could stomp on a person and kill them. Of course, that put their torsos right at a good slashing level. That was the first time that lot of our soldiers got killed. Then they started casting spells on our soldiers. They were the most powerful magi I had ever seen. Their spells blew right through our ranks, one or two fled in terror. I saw meteors fall from the sky, killing many. I saw localized blizzards freezing people to death. Enormous fissures formed in the ground and people fell in. Then more of the townspeople came to our aid. They were ready to do battle and had more soldiers with them too. We had to quickly cast the beneficial spells on them. Our soldiers were getting closer to the magi, so they threw up many giant walls in the way. The magi knew that wouldn?€™t hold us off for long, so they took all the ones that were falling in, and killed all but one. They then made that one take all the parts of the others and make itself gigantic. We could see him over the walls, and this thing could kill a person by flicking. But it didn?€™t seem to focus on the soldiers, the magi figured they could take on our soldiers at least fairly easily. The thing was going straight for us, the magi. The soldiers parted, letting the thing through since it wasn?€™t going for them. They knew they couldn?€™t take on it anyway. Now the cavalry came from behind the magi, they were getting scared since they didn?€™t have the energy to keep the portal up and kill all the soldiers. But they knew the things were the only things holding back the soldiers from them. Meanwhile, the giant thing was slowly moving toward us, and we didn?€™t know how to kill it. Our magi were hitting it with every spell they could think of, but it was no good, they didn?€™t even scratch it. I knew I had to do something. There was a spell I had envisioned from the very beginning, one I wanted to do, but had never heard of anybody doing anything like it. To do it would require a lot of concentration, time, and immense magical power. I began to concentrate and try to get the spell to work, but I didn?€™t have enough energy to do it. I quickly asked the others to lend me some magical power, and they did. I could feel the huge amount of power coursing throughout my body; I had never felt anything like it, and I doubt that I ever will again. I concentrated and tried again, but the ground was shaking as the massive thing got nearer to us. One of the other magi cast a spell of float on me, so I wouldn?€™t feel the ground shaking. I tried again, and lost concentration again. The thing was extremely close to us now, too close; it had already gotten one of the magi. I felt my power lessen as he disappeared into the abyss, but then all the magi put more power into me; they knew I was their only hope. I concentrated and concentrated, and envisioned it happening, but then I could feel the thing?€™s presence near me. The people were yelling at me to move, and it was disrupting my concentration a little bit, but finally I felt that draining feeling when a spell has been cast.

As I opened my eyes and en ethereal spirit coalesced out of thin air. The thing stopped, obviously confused by this spirit that had just appeared in front of it. All our magi were quiet now, watching my spell in action. The spirit went toward the thing, and it actually seemed scared, it must have been too much for its feeble brain to comprehend. The spirit sought out the one small part of the monster that was alive. The big thing, now definitely scared, grabbed out at the spirit, trying to stop it, but its hands went right through it. The spirit was finally next to the center of the thing. It reached out and grabbed right through its chest and ripped out its heart. The heart was mercilessly torn into shreds by the spirit. Then there was a thunderous crack as the spirit banished itself back to its natural plane of existence.

All the magi cheered for me. But we still had bigger fish to fry. The walls were still standing though, so we had to go around them. We then looked to find the enemy magi, but they were gone, so was the portal. Then we saw all our soldiers there, behind a huge mound of dirt, waiting for us to be done with the monster, or vice versa. One soldier saw me and said, ?€?We killed the magi, but they took hundreds of us. Is that thing dead??€? I nodded, and a cheer erupted from all the soldiers.

Epilogue

The thing was still standing there, just not alive. Then I realized if it fell down, it would cause a massive earthquake. ?€?Wait! We still have to deal with this thing.?€?

?€?But I thought you already killed it,?€? said one of the magi.

?€?Yes, I did kill it, but do you remember the tremors it caused as it walked? Just think if it fell.?€?

?€?We need to do something.?€?

Everyone thought in silence for a little while, then I got an idea. ?€?Give me some rope,?€? I ordered, ?€?We will need a lot of very long rope. We can put some rope on him, and make it fall down to both sides. Then the strongest people will have to get on each side and pull the rope in their direction, but one side will do more than the other.?€? The people already understood my plan. When we finally got it down, we took it apart and put all the pieces of metal in a pile for scrap metal to make new weapons.

After that was all done, we all sat down and talked about our experiences in battle, the new weapons we were going to make with the metal, and other things. I was actually the center of attention though, because there were a lot of people around me that wanted to know how I had killed it. I told them the story, and all the magi nodded in agreement, and one said, ?€?We put all our energy into him, all we could do was to watch and hope for the best. The best came.?€? I was happy after that, and just relaxed and listened. Then that mage started chanting, ?€?Garth. Garth.?€? Then another chimed in, then a whole group, then another, then the whole army was in on it, ?€?Garth! Garth! Garth! Garth! Garth! Garth! Garth! Garth...?€?