Blood Ties (Noble of Blood Series Book 2) (12 page)

Th
e
clinging darkness almost scared her senseless, but she kept her wits about her and remained quiet and still. They had all known there was a possibility of the goblins finding them when they entered this cave, but nothing had prepared her for the brutal force with which they rushed their group after the blue light pulsed and the darkness dropped.

In the fight back at the Keep, she entered the fray after most of the goblins were dead. But here they were deep inside the enemy's home, where untold numbers of them could be dwelling. And on the goblins rushed, screaming furiously at the intruders.

Nikka had both of her short swords pulled free before the blue light had finished its heart stopping assault on the first wave of goblins. She attempted to press forward to meet the assault, but fighters and rangers both pressed in front of her, cutting her off. She didn't have long to wait before engaging the enemy, however, as the group of Nobles had to spread out to give themselves room to swing their weapons without fear of taking out one of their own.

She took down the first goblin easily, then the second. They both had underestimated her strength because she was female. Having quickly proved them wrong, she turned as another two came at her more cautiously. Nikka crouched low and held her swords out to either side, giving them what looked like an opening. The first one charged and almost made it to her, but not before Nikka’s alternating slashes took it across the throat and then the belly.

The second charged in right behind the first and kept coming. With total disregard for his kin, it stepped on the dead goblin's body to give him more height to slash at her with his large rock-hammer. The swing came towards her quickly and she was a split second too late bringing her first sword back around. Victor suddenly appeared behind the creature, knocking the hilt of his sword into the back of the goblin’s neck, causing it to jerk backwards and shorten its slash.

Nikka's furious swing finished and nearly lopped off its head.

Victor moved to her side and they both assessed the fighting happening around the room. They witnessed her father being mobbed by several goblins, outnumbered, and Victor rushed away to his aid before she could say anything.

Whilst trying to defend herself, she had backed up almost to the back of the cavern. No goblins were currently getting through the lines of fighters and rangers, but there were many more pressing their way down the hallway in their direction.

“Yosan!” Nikka yelled to the warlock as he dispatched the goblin in front of him, and pointed towards the hallway. Yosan shook his head, indicating that he couldn't get there. He must not be able to project his powers, or may fear hurting the others if he did so. Still, something needed to be done. If the enemy kept pouring in at their current rate, the Nobles wouldn't last long.

As she watched, two of their fighters went down under mobs of goblins, and the small victory seemed to bolster the rest of the enemy. With heightened cheers and yells, the mob of goblins pressed in even harder from the hallway, threatening to smother them if nothing else.

Victor's aid to her father had helped at first but they were now badly outnumbered. Nikka grew suddenly cold, becoming utterly emotionless and detached. She quickly analyzed the room and made a decision. The power she felt growing in the pit of her stomach churned, begging for some sort of release. She held her hand out in front of her and a white light grew in her palm. She threw the ball of light at a goblin near Victor and struck it dead with the one hit.

Victor had obviously seen what happened, but had no time to acknowledge it. Nikka fired off several other missiles of light and picked off a few clear targets here and there, but grew frustrated as most of the goblins were in front of the group of Nobles and she could no longer see them clearly enough to target them. And even with picking off the few that she had, there were still more pressing in from the hallway.

Deciding the masses were more important to attempt to take out, she grew a larger ball of light in both of her hands, concentrating on increasing it in both size and power for several seconds. Finally when she was satisfied with it, she lobbed it up and over the heads of her fellow Nobles. With a shriek like a banshee it broke over the goblins in the entrance of the cavern and exploded their bodies into bits.

This sudden amount of carnage and destruction caused the goblins to hesitate, even the ones currently fighting. Quickly the Nobles dispatched them, using the confusion to their advantage. The goblins in the hallway shrunk back, hovering, grunting to themselves and trying to decide what to do next.

Her grandfather came over to her as the rest of the Nobles regrouped into a tighter formation in front of her.

“That was unexpected, my dear.”

“For you and me both.”

“I have never been able to project power forces before, I am impressed.”

“It wasn't really a force. I held it in my hands, it was like an object full of raw energy.” Nikka tried to explain, but it was still as much of a shock to her that she wasn't sure she explained in correctly.

Her grandfather didn't have time to further his queries, though, as the goblins outside had made up their minds to approach them as a large group, but more slowly this time. The two warlocks moved to the front of the Nobles, waiting for the enemy to engage. They both held steady, still as stones, fearless in the eyes of all around them.

Finally the goblins made their charge. Yosan and Mortul charged up their blue lights quickly and Yosan released his first, taking down a couple dozen, and Mortul taking down another couple dozen after that. This time the goblins didn't lose heart or become distracted. They continued to pour in through the opening, wave after wave.

The warlocks got off another few charges, before stepping behind the soldiers to rest and recharge. Nikka felt the power rebuilding in the pit of her stomach once again and summoned another ball of white light in her hands, lobbing it into the caverns entryway. The explosion had the same devastating effects as before, but this time the goblins still came on.

Every now and then one warlock or the other would step back to the front and release a charge of light, and the fighters and rangers continued to swing wildly. Even with magic at their disposal, the sheer number of goblins coming at them threatened to overwhelm them all.

One goblin had managed to slip past the main group and was headed straight towards her. She watched it come and made another decision, one that she hoped wouldn't backfire on her.

As the goblin came on, she deftly sidestepped at the last second, barely missing the swing of his axe, and brought the hilt of her sword down on its head. The sword bounced off the creature’s thick skull and the impact vibrated up through her arm. The goblin didn't fall, but it was dazed and she didn't waste time.

Grabbing it by the back of the neck, Nikka sliced open the goblin’s throat and she clamped her jaw over the spurting wound. Quickly she drank, with the thought that goblin blood was much more bitter than the deer blood she was used to, flitting through her mind. Once done, she flung the creature’s limp form to the ground, and swung back around to face the enemy once more.

The motion made her head swim, and she nearly lost her balance, but she could feel the power churning in her gut, screaming for release. She quickly built another ball of power and tossed it, followed by another and then another. Even after the three, the power was still there, still screaming at her to do more.

Nikka concentrated on her entire body, building a bright white glow around it like she had seen her grandfather and Yosan do. It built up quickly and with it came an intense heat, and it was so bright that she could barely see beyond it.

Her eyes watering from the intensity, she made her way forward. The Nobles stepped aside at her burning touch on their shoulders, letting her pass to the front. She vaguely heard her father and Victor call her name as she kept moving forward into the press of the goblins. The enemy was blinded completely by her glowing form and anything that contacted the light around her was immediately burned to a crisp. Weapons burned to ash, skin melted, and on in to the enemy she moved.

Once she was fully into the hallway she stopped, one thought on her mind; complete destruction. Concentrating, she built more force and heat into the shield she wore until it pulsed and begged to be released. Finally she let go of the hold she had on it, and outwards the light rolled. Onwards it screamed down the hallway into the cavern they passed through earlier, and down all the other hallways that were connected to it. Everything the light touched burned away, leaving piles of ashes and bone in its wake.

Nikka stood still for just a moment, listening to see if any other goblins were running down the hall towards them. Hearing nothing coming and smelling nothing but burnt flesh, she turned back to the other Nobles, who were finishing off the last of the goblins in the cavern.

Victor ran quickly over to her, her father and the Warlocks right behind him. Victor reached up and wiped a smear of blood off her chin, but her attention was not on him. She could hear her father berating her and her grandfather trying to ask how she felt and Yosan telling her father to calm down so they could all discuss this later.

Nikka heard them all distantly, but she still was not paying them any attention. Slowly she moved forward, back into the cavern, looking up at the ceiling all the while. The white light she had sent out had brightened the entire cavern network and had caused the goblins’ scratching’s on the walls to almost glow.

But now, on the ceiling of the cavern, was a new drawing. A very large and very well drawn picture of an eye, snake-like in the iris, with lashes that sprang forth like a sweeping wing. The eye bore down on them, piercing like an actual gaze, and held Nikka almost in thrall. Finally the group around her looked up where she was gazing so intently, and a hush fell over them all.

For many moments no one spoke, just stared at the symbol as it stared right back at them.

“What does it mean, grandfather?” Nikka finally whispered.

“It means that unfortunately we were right; the Deep Dweller is still alive, and we have woken him.”

Thank you for taking the time to read my book! If you liked it, I would be thrilled for you to leave a review for it.

Click here to view A L Wright’s Amazon Author page and leave a review.

Also keep an eye out for my other series, Hartman House, also available from Amazon;

View description of Hartman House here.