I was surprised to find that the room where I'd fought the mini-boss was right next to the dungeon boss. “Is that normal?” I asked Amy as she stopped to let me look into the room in front of us. There were a total of six goblins. The one in the center of the room was significantly bigger than the rest and covered in dark brown armor that I easily identified as bronze. The remaining five consisted of three warriors – identified by the swords they carried – and two small goblins that held what looked like some sort of walking stick.

  “It can depend,” Amy said, answering my question as I examined the room. “Most of the time the mini-boss is in the center of the dungeon, but not always.”

  “Kind of a misleading title if you ask me, then,” I said with a frown. “What’re those stick things?”

  “Oak holy sticks, I believe?”

  “Holy what? Is that a spiritual weapon?”

  “Calling that thing a weapon is pretty generous," Amy said with a chuckle. “They grant additional Spiritual Stats, which mean they’ll make that big girl in the center difficult to deal with but–”

  “Wait, hold on a second… Girl?” I blinked in disbelief as I stared at the goblin in the center. “That thing is female?”

  “Uh, yeah? Don’t you see the earring?”

  “I thought a single earring meant that you were gay?”

  “Maybe back in the 90s on Earth… Wait a second, you weren’t even alive back then; why would you even think that?”

  I shrugged, still surprised at this revelation. “I guess the media had a bigger influence on me than I realized,” I said sheepishly.

  “You’d have thought you’d know better, given that friend who kept you current with the latest fashion trends,” Amy replied. I felt a pang of longing at the mention of my old friend human-Amy and sighed. If Amy the cat noticed my small change in mental state, she didn’t say anything about it.

  “Anyway,” I finally said after a couple seconds of silence. “What’s the plan, then? Do I go after those spiritual goblins first?”

  “Chaplains,” Amy corrected me before shrugging. “That’s an option, though with those three Warrior sub-bosses it’ll be difficult.”

  “They don’t have any armor, though,” I noted, turning my attention to the boss in the center. “Can you tell me their levels?”

  “I can, but…” she let her voice trail off so I glanced down at her.

  “But…?” I asked, an eyebrow raised.

  “But normally beginners don’t have access to that information, and I don’t want to hand hold you too much,” she finally said.

  “Excuse me?” I growled, a flair of annoyance causing my eye to twitch. “I just died, didn’t I?” As I spoke, though, the anger vanished, replaced with confusion. “Wait, how did you bring me back, anyway?” I asked, realizing that I’d never gotten an answer to that question.

  Amy shook her head. “I cheated, and while I can do it again if necessary, I don’t think I should. Though if someone else hadn’t cheated, I wouldn’t have had to cheat myself,” she said the last part under her breath, before resuming. “Anyway, look; you’re back at full Hit Points, Stamina, and Mana,” Amy said reassuringly. “Their combined Hit Points is equal to yours, but their defenses are all significantly lower than yours.”

  I sighed, shaking my head as she spoke. “But let me guess, despite you telling me all that, you’re not going to tell me their levels?” I asked as I summoned back on my armor from Personal Space, its weight causing me to feel a weird mix of reassurance and anxiety.

  “Nope, but unlike the mini-boss, nothing here is out of the ordinary.”

  “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you given your current track record,” I sighed again before summoning my rapier. I left the sheath in my Personal Space, as I realized last time that it got in my way and if I could just summon it to my hand from Personal Space, it didn’t really make a lot of sense to have it out.

  “That’s fine here, but in a city, you’ll likely want to keep the sheath out,” Amy said casually.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Personal Space is highly sought after, and for a Beastfolk to have that? Well, let’s just say that would cause some issues.”

  I considered that for a second, frowning as I did. “Is that why you bonded it to me?”

  “Partly,” Amy said. “Look, are you going to ask me a bunch of these irrelevant questions, or are you going to fight this thing?”

  I grunted and took a few steps forward, standing at the edge of the hallway and boss room. I watched as the goblins all just stared at me, non-moving, and I frowned as I glanced down at Amy.

  “They’re not giant spiders, they won’t agro you from outside the room.”

  “Of course not…” I sighed, shaking my head as I summoned my bronze shield, feeling the weight of it in my other arm as it appeared. “Because why would I be allowed an easy fight by restricting the angles that they can attack me from…?”

  “That would have been a good strategy, though,” Amy admitted. “Oh, speaking of,” she said, causing me to pause right as I was about to cross the threshold to the room. “While these goblins are not high enough level to normally be considered multi-combat, that doesn’t matter, since they’re classified as sub-bosses.”

  “Of course they are,” I sighed. “Whatever. You weren’t lying about being able to bring me back again if I die here, right?” I asked, trying not to sound nervous.

  “Nope, at least, not until Ad– Ah,” Amy hesitated and then went silent. I glanced down at her only to find her shaking her head. “You’re fine, we have some time. But I assure you that it won’t be an issue. Now, stop wasting what time we do have and go.”

  “I’m beginning to understand why Thorne’s instincts are that cats suck,” I grumbled and then exhaled loudly before stepping into the room. A wave of pressure hit me as my foot hit the ground to the room that was similar to what I’d experienced the first time I’d stepped into the dungeon, only magnified ten fold. I briefly considered retreating, only for that thought to quickly fade as the goblin boss let out a loud roar as her three Warrior underlings charged at me.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  I’m not really sure what came over me, as it wasn’t like the times where my Anger Boost had taken over, but I yelled back and charged them. As I lunged my rapier at the chest of one of them, I realized I’d overcalculated my speed vs theirs and failed to account for the difference in our heights; my lunge missed what my body told me should have been an easy shot, but before the goblin could capitalize on my mistake, I had my shield in position to intercept his attack.

  I quickly put some distance between him and the other two, noticing as I did that the dungeon boss herself hadn’t moved from her spot. “Hey, what’s her deal?” I called over my shoulder to Amy. I got no reply, but didn’t have a chance to follow up as one of the goblins took another swing at me. I blocked their attack with my shield and tried to deliver a follow up, only to have to dodge as one of the other two swung at me.

  I dodged two more attacks before the flashing of my Combat Log icon gave me an idea. “Amy might not be able to tell me your guy's level, but maybe I don’t need her to.”

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 5 Goblin Warrior [x3].

  “Aha,” I said, a grin on my face as I dodged yet another swing of a sword. “Looks like you all are well below my level. Guess Amy was right,” I said, seeing my first opening since the three Warriors had closed on me to attack. I timed it perfectly, my attack hitting right where I thought their hearts should be, based on what Amy had mentioned earlier. “Gotcha!”

  An unexpected sensation of blissful energy washed over me as I watched the goblin’s body crumple as I withdrew my weapon from its chest. The sensation was so overwhelmingly surprising that I’d responded slower than I’d wanted to as one of the other goblins attacked me, letting them score a hit on my arm in the process.

  “What was that?” I gasped, bringing my shield up to deflect the strike from the second goblin. With still no answer from Amy, I decided to just focus on the fight in front of me, which I honestly should have been doing to begin with, and went to stab the closer of the two goblin Warriors. Unlike last time, I could tell right away that I’d missed my mark as this goblin cried out in pain, rather than just collapsing to the ground.

  His friend attacked me from the side, and I was forced to block with my shield. I was surprised when I felt a hit to my side, and I realized that the goblin had grabbed the sword from its fallen brother and was now dual wielding against me. Before I had a chance to respond, it swung its original sword at me again and I was forced to let go of my rapier to dodge this attack.

  “Stupid,” I cursed under my breath as I watched the goblin I’d impaled pull my weapon from its chest and start after me with both its weapon and mine. I’d have been impressed at the fact that it was ignoring bleeding out if not for the fact that I now had four swords to deal with. I found myself backing up as the two warriors attacked, forced to dodge and block swing after swing.It wasn’t until dodging the second set of attacks that I metaphorically slapped myself in the forehead. “You have claws, Naomi!”

  Extending my claws, I returned my shield to my Personal Space, as it was just going to get in the way here. I felt a sensation of calmness wash over me as I steadied myself and waited. When I finally did attack, I noticed I did so with a sensation similar to that of when this fight had started. My movements felt guided and I landed hits that I had no idea I’d manage to do, all while dodging attacks from both goblins at the same time. Both goblins fell instantly and I dismissed my claws as I grabbed my rapier from the hands of the fallen goblin.

  A roar rang out and I looked up in time to see the goblin boss charging at me, her green skin glowing with some kind of red aura as she readied her two swords. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed the two goblins that Amy had called Chaplains were holding their staffs upward, both glowing the same red color as the boss. “Some kind of buff?” I questioned as I dodged, only to fail and receive a slash to my chest.

  The pain shocked me, given the damage hadn’t managed to pierce my armor. I quickly summoned my shield and made sure there was enough distance between me and the Goblin before checking my Combat Log to see if there was anything that would explain the sensation I was feeling.

  You have taken 35 (4 + 31 Goblin Rage Blessing) points of Melee damage from: Iron Longsword.

  “Goblin Rage Blessing?” I tried to block the follow up attack with my shield, only for the same thing to happen again.

  You have taken 13 (4 + 9 Goblin Rage Blessing) points of Melee damage from: Iron Longsword.

  I hissed as I felt pain coursing through my whole body. “What is this Goblin Rage Blessing thing?” I asked through gritted teeth as I finally managed to avoid an attack from the stupid boss.

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 10 Goblin Warrior.

  “This thing is only level 10!?” I cried in disbelief and was rewarded with another slash to the chest. I noticed my Hit Points were down to 123 total and couldn’t help but wince, both from the pain of the attacks, but also that I was nearly at half my remaining health and that I hadn’t landed a single hit on this guy yet.

  “Go for the Chaplains!” I heard Amy call out, causing me to glance over in her direction just in time to take yet another hit to center mass like an idiot. This time, though, I felt my anger building.

  “Those Chaplains can wait, this girl is getting on my nerves…!” I growled, tossing my shield and sword aside and extending my claws. “It’s time to teach her a lesson.”

  “Naomi, wait!” I heard Amy call out, but I had tuned her out already. If she was just going to throw me into fights like this on my own without any help, I was just going to have to take care of things the Thorne way – anger boosted violence. I ducked under a swing from the goblin boss’ swords and raked my claw across one of her arms in the process. While I didn’t draw any blood, the swift strike put me in position to dish out two more swipes with my claws and a kick before I had to disengage or get hit by another one of those swords of hers.

  I watched as the boss stumbled back, the red aura that surrounded her fading, replaced with a blue and green one. I narrowed my eyes and shot a glance at the two other goblins. “Alright, bet. You both just signed your death wishes.” With the boss still recovering, I dashed toward the nearest of the two, dismissing my armor as I did as it was just slowing me down. I immediately felt the difference as I rushed the goblin, my claws racking through its flesh and killing it instantly ending the blue glow that surrounded its staff.

  The other goblin seemed smart enough to realize that it was in trouble, as it dismissed the green aura from its staff and instead seemed to take on a fighting stance. Not that it mattered much, given how slow it moved as it tried to attack me. I easily side stepped the attack and sank my claws into its flesh, pulling them out and letting out a growl that would have scared me had I been on the receiving end of it.

  “Look out!” I heard Amy shout, just in time for me to get a slash to my bare back from one of the boss’ swords. I used the momentum of the attack and rolled forward, jumping to my feet in a spin so that I was facing the boss. It was a good thing I did, too, as she was already charging after me.

  I dodged both swings of her swords, before closing in and delivering another series of attacks of my own. I managed to get three strikes with my claws this time before the goblin managed to push me to retreat, though as I did, I noticed that she wasn’t looking so great.

  “She’s down to half her health!” Amy informed me, which made sense. She was covered in blood, and my claws had managed to deal a significant amount of work to her armor. All I needed were a few more hits and this would be over.

  I grinned and decided that I wasn’t going to give this goblin a chance to recover, not that I was sure she could do so without her Chaplains to assist. I ducked under a sword swing before digging my claws into her arm, tearing the armor off the hand with the longsword and then digging my claws back in, causing her to roar out in pain. I grinned, seeing the fight beginning to leave her eyes as a sensation inside of me grew. It was like a hunger that craved to defeat the goblin and acquire whatever it was the dungeon would give me for my victory.

  “Time to die,” I heard myself say as I withdrew my claws from the arm I’d dug them in and lunged myself at the goblin boss. She tried to block with her arm, but I’d expected that. I easily batted her arm aside, my other hand striking at her throat. With what felt like a practiced ease, my claws pierced her throat, sinking down to the knuckles as her body convulsed.

  Somewhere in the back of my mind I screamed at the fact that I’d just so casually killed this goblin with my bare hand, but that was buried under the thrill of the hunt that caused me to let out a loud howl of pleasure at my victory.

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