Lurking in the Shadows

*SNARL!!!*

A silent growl echoed from the depts of the cave they had just came back from, which alarmed the three and quickly made them huddle together.

As the sound became more audible and louder, little footsteps were heard coming closer as well. All of them panicked.

Klein and Alice looked to Elric to defend them since he was the only one who was able to exhibit amazing skills unheard of for his age and to his class.

Klein and Alice had only recently learned the ability to coat ones hand with stone, this means that Elric had to shoulder the pressure of protecting his two friends from harm.

"Elric, blast that thing as soon as it comes out of that passage!" Klein said with confidence after seeing his friend's firepower.

Elric nodded to agree with what Klein had proposed as a plan and motioned them to once again move back and stay behind him.

He lifted his right arm, supported by his left and aimed it at the passage entrance, waiting for the hideous goblin to jump out like the other did earlier.

As each second passed, the sounds of its footsteps came closer and closer as snarled as it ran towards them.

The waiting made Elric sweat from anticipation, he started to panic and was breathing short breaths from the pressure that he was feeling.

Memories from the night before, flashed through Elric's mind causing him to lose his concentration.

This enabled the hideous goblin to clear the entrance of the passage unharmed.

"Elric! What are you doing!? You were supposed to hit it with the thing you did earlier!" Klein yelled out as the little goblin who was the size of a small child with pointy ears and glowing yellow eyes, rushed towards them.

Elric dodged to the left while Klein and Alice dodged to the right, separating them and leaving the goblin in the middle.

"I'll distract it and see if you can finish it." Klein once again commanded Elric since he noticed that he was out of it.

"I—I can't do it! I can't concentrate enough but I think I can turn my hand into a spear again." Elric replied as he touched a part of the walls, activating his skill.

[Transmuter Skill Activated]

[Rock Absorption]

[Rock Transmutation]

A crater formed on the walls once more as he coated his hands with rocks and shaped it into a pointed edge like what he did before.

They were confident in dealing with a single goblin and proceeded to go with the plan.

However, as soon as they tried to distract the goblin for Elric to kill, another jumped out of the passage entrance and swung a small looking knife at Elric which left the other one to face Klein and Alice.

The two Transmuters had already used their skill to coat their hand with rocks from the cave walls but were unable to shape them like Elric or the veteran miners.

'I need to help them! What am I doing!? I've dealt with one of these before! I can do it again.' Elric steeled his resolve and began to exchange blows with the second green goblin which was significantly skilled with the short blade that it held.

But Elric knew that if he used his range and size, it would be much easier to deal with.

After parrying a few stabs and slashes from the goblin, he sped up his attacks to catch the quick goblin off-guard and thrusted as fast as he could with his left hand that had the pointed edge.

The attack was successful as he landed a blow.

His hand had stabbed the goblin's neck and pierced through its flesh and bones. It quickly fell to the ground and bled out.

Elric quickly tried to help Alice and Klein who were having trouble on their end. Klein could not hold back the fast-moving creature that slashed at both of them.

Alice had cuts all over her hands from blocking the slashes but Klein was more heavily injured as he shielded Alice from most of the attacks using his own body.

Elric quickly thrusted his hand through the green creature from the back since it was still assaulting his two best friends.

The goblin creature snarled in pain but quickly went limp as it died from the wound on its chest.

They could finally breathe and rest from all that stress and pressure from fighting.

All three of them slumped to the floor like someone cut their string like a marionette.

Elric stood up and helped his friends lay down comfortably on the ground since they were both injured.

"I'm going outside and see if I can catch something to eat. We're exhausted from everything that has happened and we haven't had a proper meal since yesterday." Elric announced as he glanced at Klein who was still recovering.

"Can you hold out until I come back?" Elric asked Klein in a serious tone.

"Of course, ugghh." Klein groaned from his injuries. They were very shallow cuts but a lot of them could still be dangerous.

"I'll come back as soon as I can." Elric said before exiting the cave to gather food in the Teal forest.

Klein could not fight the urge of falling asleep and Alice was already knocked out cold due to the heavy stress and pressure they had to endure from one situation to another.

His eyes felt heavy and slowly closed and finally drifted into a deep slumber.

After what seemed to be mere seconds.

He slowly opened his eyes as he was woken up by the rustling of the fire pit that Elric was trying to relit and noticed that there was no sunlight leaking inside the cave, so he assumed that it was already dark outside.

Alice who was sitting up and against the cave wall opposite to him was already nursed by Elric, seeing some medicinal herbs that coated the small cuts on her arms.

He then checked his well being and saw that he was tended to when he was sleeping since he too had some medicinal herbs patched up to his wounds.

"Oh hey, you're up." Elric said as he noticed Klein was awake.

"Did I sleep for long?" Klein asked as he sat himself up and against the wall as well.

"Not really, I was only gone for a couple of hours." Elric replied as he began to skin the two rabbits he caught from hunting, to prepare it for cooking.

"Did you do this?" He asked Elric pertaining to the aid he had received on his wounds.

"Yeah, I did. My grandmother taught me how to differentiate the poisonous herbs and the medicinal ones." Elric replied as he gutted the rabbits and took out the organs.

"And the hunting?" Alice quietly asked.

"My grandfather. He forced me to come with him on his little hunts and taught me. He said he wanted me to learn all these things to survive. Turns out he was right." He chuckled at the memory.

As Elric prepped the rabbits onto a stick and stuck them close to the fire to roast them, they all were silent as the fire flickered and glowed.

"We need to get stronger." Elric said in a soft voice with eyes that were brimming with determination.

"We all need to get stronger in order to survive and uncover all the secrets with all that's happened. We can't just let them get away with it, right?"

"But we need to get stronger to do that." He continued.

"How do you suppose we do that?" Alice asked seriously.

"We train, right Elric?" Klein said to agree with his friend.

"That's right. Both of you are Transmuters so we can all learn some new skills as well. Those creatures that we fought earlier were goblins."

"Those were goblins!? Didn't the village guards say that goblins were one of the weakest monsters out there?" Klein exclaimed.

"They said that the goblin's strength comes from numbers so if we almost died from fighting just two of them, with Elric the only one capable of killing them, means that we have a lot to work on." Alice confessed with a sad look on her face.

"I hate being helpless all the time, so tell me what to do Elric, and I'll do it." Alice's eyes were shining with determination and purpose.

"If we go down there, we will encounter more goblins for certain but it's also too risky to go out of the forest because the soldiers might still be looking for us." Elric pondered as he thought of their next step.

"I know what to do next. I have a plan!"