[Interludes Vol. 1.5] In which some merged magic involves a prenatal panic (4/4)

~~** Interlude | ??? **~~

Friend.

Husband… friend…

Danger!

Bitey! Friend! Come!

I was in Goblinhome, but I don't remember anything after the Black-claws ambushed me in the forest. All I knew was that I felt there was something dangerous around Husband. I knew right where he was, too, for some reason. He was in Stupid-one's room, and the dangerous thing was there with him!

I moved with lightness I never knew I had, ran without feeling the tightness in my legs, and felt no need to draw breath.

When I arrived at the Stupid-one's room, I saw three goblins and Husband inside.

The two were strong-ones I hadn't seen before. Husband I recognized, but not the adult goblin on the ground, which was the source of my worry. I wanted to say to the strong-ones to step aside so I could deal with the problem, but words wouldn't escape my lips.

The two strong-ones were wary of me, and both of them felt as dangerous as the thing inside the adult goblin's body.

Friend. Small. Glace. Bitey… friend!

I could hear Bitey telling me that the smaller goblin strong-one was a friend.

Other… friend?

I tried asking Bitey if the other one who looked to be ready to take action against me was also a friend.

Ebony… big sister. Friend!

Ebony?

Ebony…?

I clutched my head and felt a sharp pain as the name Ebony kept repeating.

I had never heard it before, yet I knew it was the most important thing I needed to protect… as important as Husband is.

I might not be as strong a hunter as Guardian, Stone-seeker, and Tree-chopper are, but there's no better beast tamer and stalker in the tribe than me! I'm sorry if both of these strong-ones are friends, but I must stop what's coming and protect Husband!

Protect Husband? Important Friend! Bitey help!

Bitey, who had been clinging to my back climbed onto my shoulder and leapt a far distance, right into the top hair of the little strong-one. She immediately screamed and began running around slapping the top of her head with her little hands.

"Glace! It's only Bitey! Bitey would never hurt you!!"

The bigger strong-one understood, but still remained in my way.

"I don't know what you are, but I can't let you hurt Husband or Stella."

I raised my hand and pointed at the one she called Stella.

In response, the strong-one who spoke to me had stepped forward and spread her legs, balling up her fists like she was going to fight.

So be it.

I didn't want to harm her, so I would just throw her out of the way. As long as I could prevent what was inside of the one called Stella from escaping…

I rushed forward and aimed to grab the strong-one, only to find that though I could grab her, I couldn't budge her an inch from where she stood.

I felt a powerful blow right to my chest that rattled my body.

She was strong!

But she was still just a strong-one. I, however, am an adult goblin!

I leapt at her with the intention of pinning her down, only to find her squatting down quickly and then leaping up at me with her fist rising upwards, shouting something unintelligible, possibly one of Husband's human words…

"Shoutakeken!" (「昇茸拳」Rising-mushroom-fist!)

I felt the impact on my bones again and found myself flying backwards—upwards!—until my back collided into the rough stone ceiling of the cave-hole. At which point I began to fall face-first towards the ground.

I saw her preparing to do something with her hands. I managed to orient myself somehow so I'd land on my feed and I crossed my arms in front of me as I felt a blue light hit me harder than a readboar's charge.

"Kinokokikouhou!" (「茸気功法」Mushroom-spirit-flow!)

Even with my toes digging into the dirt, I was still blown back almost to the entrance of the cave-hole.

Was she using some kind of goblin magic that Old One spoke of?

Shit, was she even stronger than Guardian!?

"Hissatsu!!" (「必殺」Final attack!!)

I felt a familiar energy building up within her, like when I had taken a particularly tasty mushroom from Truffle and realized she was not going to forgive me for it.

"Kinokoakumahouhou!!" (「茸（子）悪魔（方）法」Way of the Magic-Mushroom-Goblin!!)

A whirlwind of punches and kicks came at me faster than I could see, and far faster than I could hope to block. With as much damage as I was receiving, I was surprisingly not feeling the pain I was expecting to. In fact, aside from being knocked around, I really didn't feel any pain at all from any of her attacks. They just rattled me. But, she was faster than I was and I just couldn't find a single opening to counterattack anywhere.

Having lost sight of her, by the time I realized she was behind me, she swept her foot out and tripped me, then hopped onto my chest and began punching me in the face repeatedly. It only stopped when a familiar face had grabbed her by the back of her neck and pulled her off of me.

It was the Great Protector!

"Beast-talker… is what you came to find in here?"

I couldn't answer with words, so I just sat up and nodded, pointing to the inside of the cave-hole.

"Ah, the strong-one of the mushroom-picker… Button, I believe. You have gotten much stronger as of late."

"G-Great Protector! The skeleton…" she pointed at me.

"Is a friend of your sister, the Bone Lord."

"It is?"

"She is. Tell me, is your Husband inside? Is he safe?"

"He is, but… Glace says something is wrong with Stella. Her strong-one may be coming… but also having a Blood Fury inside of her…"

A loud boom came from inside the room and Bitey came scurrying out, its bones just a little darker in color than when it leapt off of me and onto the small strong-one.

Bitey began climbing up the new strong-one who had appeared with the Great Protector.

Mint important friend!

Bitey relayed what he could to me.

I rose to my feet and recognized the one it called Mint as being important to me as well.

"No more fighting for now. Go and calm the Shaman so we can make sense of what is happening."

"Okay."

The strong-one that the Great Protector called Button reached a hand outward to me, which I accepted, and was pulled back onto my feet easily enough.

"You strong skeleton. Want fight more later."

Button then turned around and went back into the cave-hole. I followed, with the Great Protector and the other strong-one who had Bitey sitting on her head right behind me…