Chapter 98 Puppetry Of The Goblin's Curse
Alten rushed through the cave systems, feeling okay to take on any forced goblin encounters, but still wary of sudden attacks. Each time he turned a corner, the thought of a goblin being right there, ready to stab him as he came through was imminent.
As he ran, the pathways began to look the same as each other, slightly confusing him, "Which way did I come from?" He said, rushing forward.
He ran quickly not only because he wanted to help out Leon and Lyrian, but also because he didn\'t want to be alone for so long.
As he ran, he suddenly came across a fairly large opening. It was similar to the other ones, except bigger. Still seeing the other pathways, he charged forward to go into them, but as he did so he was suddenly stopped by something.
Out of nowhere, his body stood still, almost as if something had frozen it in place, \'Huh!?\' He immediately thought to himself in confusion as he looked around the room and surveyed if there were any goblins inside.
Almost every cave room had a goblin, but he would just ignore them for the most part. He was surprised they hadn\'t grouped up behind him thus far but wasn\'t complaining either.
Looking around, there seemed to be only one goblin. It looked odd, it was an old goblin, but also wore purple regalia and wielded a small, crooked wooden staff.
\'A goblin without a dagger?\' He thought to himself as the goblin lifted its staff in the air and twirled it around, chanting a spell at the same time.
"Kesus jiaos joeu koei kaue kats!" It spoke, thrusting its staff forward as an odd, chilling feeling suddenly overcame Alten.
He still couldn\'t figure out why he couldn\'t control his body and limbs, but before he could think any more about that his hand started to raise in front of him, not according to his command but on its own.
Alten was shocked. It was enough to cause shivers to run down his back. Not having control of one\'s own body was a creepy thought.
\'What the hell!? Is this the goblins doing?\' He thought as the hand stopped parallel to the ground in the air.
After a short delay, the hand abruptly swung towards his stomach and punched him hard, making him exclaim slightly in pain as he coughed.
\'What the!? I can\'t do anything!\' He yelled in his mind, trying to control his body with his full willpower, but nothing seemed to be happening.
After this, his body slowly began to walk on its own before stopping near the side of the cave walls and bending down to pick up a rusty dagger. Alten saw but couldn\'t prevent any of this, almost as if he was a doll attached to strings or a robot controlled by a remote.
Again, his hand slowly rose like when he punched himself, but this time, it was armed with a broken dagger. Even though it wasn\'t in tip-top condition, Alten did not doubt that it was enough to kill him if it were to be jabbed into him with the same force as the punch.
As the hand rose, Alten freaked out inside, \'No no stop! Stop! Please! Fuck! How the hell am I meant to do anything? Am I going to fail here!?\' He yelled as his eyes darted across his vision of the room to see if there was anything that could help him.
His efforts to find something bore no fruit, as the hand stopped at parallel once again. At that moment, Alten\'s heart dunk down into his chest as he stared at the dagger, his entire body shaking in fear.
*Step step step*
Suddenly, rapid footsteps sounded from one of the cave pathways. After a few seconds, Leon dashed into the cave room that Alten was in, his eyes immediately widening as he saw what was happening.
"What the?" He said, dashing toward Alten before knocking the dagger out of his hand, "What are you thinking?" His eyes quickly darted to the robed goblin and back to Alten.
Alten tried to speak, but only his eyeballs moved around frivolously, nothing being able to come out of his mouth. Noticing how bizarre this was, Leon decided to end the problem by killing the goblin.
He dashed toward the goblin, but before he could do anything or take his sword out, his entire body froze in place, \'Huh?\'
Just then, Alten found that his ability to talk returned. After breathing a large breath of relief mixed with exasperation, he spoke," I can speak!"
...
"Leon! Did it get you too? It tries to make you hurt yourself with weapons!" He said, as his body suddenly picked up the broken dagger from the floor once again, "Wait... what the hell!?"
Alten thought the situation was better, now that Leon was here, but realized that it was now even worse. Not only was Leon also stuck in the trap, but he was now faced with the same problem as before with the dagger.
"Shit!" He exclaimed in frustration, \'What do I do!? Now, Leon\'s in a situation where he can fail as well! Would this not have happened if I wasn\'t here? If I didn\'t trigger that goblin spell in the first place!?\'
As Alten continued to think to himself, Leon slowly began walking over to another rusty knife.
Suddenly, just at that moment, an idea popped up in Alten\'s head. "Hey, goblin!" He yelled, hoping that it could understand him since it was chanting spells before. If it couldn\'t his plan would be destroyed, but if there was any chance that it could, both him and Leon could be saved.
Hearing this, the goblin\'s ears suddenly perked up, as it looked at Alten, \'It can understand? Then I might as well go for it!\' He said in his mind as he yelled, "Look at that sharp blade on his hilt! it would be much easier to kill himself with that!"