Some started to squirm around us to either side, but since I was dual-wielding I was able to give them a good slash to the back of the neck or leg as they left.
Other groups had joined the blond group. One man specifically towered over the goblins from the rear. Oliver and our group had arrived.
“Hold! It’s almost over!” Victoria cried. Her high pitched encouragement sent a chill down my spine. I felt like a gamer again.
As their numbers failed, the goblins became desperate, no longer trying nor caring to fight, they threw themselves at gaps in the line to try and wiggle through. Their abandonment of the little discipline they had turned it from a retreat to a slaughter.
Peter, Oliver, and Kline reached us by cutting a cavity through the center of the remaining mob.
With the last goblin down, the two blonde girls and man with them stood panting. The girls were twins, well-toned, with strong jaws. The man was stocky and wielded two hatchets.
One of the girls smiled at me, her face in a state of wonder as she stood among the pile of bodies. She had had a good dose of adrenaline high and had yet to come down off it. She wasn’t a psychopath. Most likely.
We began our looting. Victoria left most of the looting to me and instead turned her attention to thanking the group that had joined our party to help. Peter and Oliver joined her.
“Man, you haven’t even got to go shopping yet,” Kline said, swatting me on the back.
Catching my balance, I replied. “I’m totally going to steal your dinner tonight. And no, I haven’t got to be quartered and measured by Victoria yet. Don’t worry. I doubt she will let me get away.”
“Wiser words have never been said, but you’re not taking my food.” He snickered.
“Gentlemen,” Victoria said. “Let’s make sure no one loots the merchant carts.”
With a nod, we rejoined the others. Most of the goblin bodies had already disappeared since they had been looted.
“How you holding up?” Peter asked. He had left Victoria’s side and was now walking with me. Victoria and Oliver were in front heading toward a mess of gear scattered on the ground.
“Good.”
“Glad to hear it. Bad injuries can have a lasting effect even years after they heal. You’re doing well just to be holding a sword. Thank you for watching out for her. She mentioned what you did.”
“Of course.” His compliment was far from what I expected. Not that I thought him incapable of kindness, but since we met I felt he had been weighing what he thought of me, withholding judgment. Had I just passed some unknown test? Too bad there wasn’t an experience bonus.
As soon as we arrived a dilemma presented itself.
“She’s dead! I knew her the best. It’s only fair that I inherit her store and continue on her legacy!” A portly, squinty-eyed merchant said as he crawled around the ground, piling items from her overturned cart into a pile. He wore a faded blue tunic and patched brown pants.
The merchant April lay dead, a bloody wound on her chest. A blanket was spread beneath her. Her hands were folded together where she lay.
I didn’t know how to respond. Was she a person that had been paid to play a role, or was she really an NPC that had just lost its life? I was callous to her death. Most games wouldn’t allow non-player character respawning, but I felt I should feel more. Either way, this means merchants don’t respawn. That’s a problem. What about the archers?
April wasn’t the only merchant that had died.
“How pathetic! You would be dead right now if it wasn’t for us! We deserve a cut!” said the spiky blue haired guy from this morning. He started gathering the scattered items into a separate pile. With his friends’ help, his pile quickly outgrew the merchant’s.
What a mess.
Victoria now stood before the two opposing parties. Peter had joined Oliver at her side. From behind, I saw the knuckles of the hand holding her spear turn white. Her empty hand was a clenched fist. This would be interesting.
I followed Kline, who positioned himself behind Spikey’s crew. They numbered nine. Two girls had joined them that weren’t there yesterday. Why did some girls find cruel guys attractive?
“What are you doing?” Victoria asked, her voice cutting the air.
Getting a better look at the guy with blue hair, his face was long and thin. His jaw flexed in response to Victoria’s rebuke.
Turning without getting up off his knees, he shook his head when seeing who it was.
“You can’t be serious. Look. I was a bit unfair this morning. But we fought for this. We aren’t stealing it.”
“If this merchant had a family then it belongs to them. The items from the goblins you killed belong to you.” Victoria’s voice stayed steady but clear.
Other players started to gather at the sound of the confrontation.
“Oh come on. They are NPCs. It’s not like they are real people.”
“So you admit to stealing, but it being okay as long as it’s from NPCs?”
The man stood, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword sheathed on his belt. His crew stood with him.
One of the girls in his group pushed her way to the front of the pack, her platinum blonde hair snapped like a cloak in the wind. Her leather was tight like Drool’s, but much more practical. She had two short swords sheathed on either hip.
“Jerrek, you’re acting like a child,” she said, stopping next to the blue haired guy, arms crossed.
“Olivia. Hush.”
With both hands, she shoved him with all her weight, right into the pile the chubby merchant had made, scattering the items.
She wiped her hands on her leather pants as if the dirty work was finished.
“Sorry about my brother,” she said, turning to Victoria. “I’m sure we can work something out.”
How did they end up in the same starter city together? Another charity case?
Victoria let her fist relax, her fingers taking a needed rest. “I’m sure we can.”
“What if the merchant doesn’t have any family? It would only be right that the people that tried to protect her and the merchants beside her–” She eyed the merchant who was now climbing to his feet. “–That we claim what she had. Who else is going to defend them next time?”
It was a decent argument.
“Perhaps,” Victoria replied. “Let’s find out if she has a family.”
“You,” Olivia said, meaning the merchant. “Did she have any family?”
“No! Do you think I would take her stuff if she did?”
With so many people gathered, it was only a moment before another merchant stepped forward. She was a pigtailed redhead, younger than April had been, but with a similar green full-length dress and leather boots.
“April didn’t have any family, but Eustis is the last person that should get her goods. There wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t trying to take her spot with his cart.”
Everyone turned to him and the plump man turned red. He didn’t even try to defend himself.
“Anyone else have something to add?” Victoria asked.
A man called from the crowd. “He doesn’t deserve it!”
Another voice echoed the same.
“Very well. Olivia, is it?” Victoria asked.
She curtsied, then smirked at Jerrek who was standing, fist on his hips.
“Thank you for helping defend the village.” Spinning to the crowd, she raised her voice. “Each member of Olivia’s group will get first pick of the items.”
Not only was she crazy enough to run into danger, but this was as bold as it gets. My grip tightened on my sword, which sat in its sheath. The hatchet I had let hang by its neck, I now grabbed at its handle. She might cause a riot, but I snickered to myself despite it all.
Kline nudged my arm. He chuckled with me.
It didn’t go unnoticed by Jerrek that Victoria had said it was Olivia’s group and not his. His fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword.