I didn't know how long I ran.
Time blurred into a single, frantic stretch of breathless movement—my legs burning, my lungs screaming, my thoughts reduced to one simple command: run. I didn't dare look back. I could feel it behind me anyway, the tremors in the ground pulsing like an earthquake.
Escape first. Think later. Find a weapon—any weapon.
My stamina was dangerously low by the time the terrain shifted. The open field gave way to crude wooden structures ahead, barely standing huts patched together with mud, bone, and scraps of metal.
A goblin village.
The goblins noticed me immediately.
Shrill shouts rang out as several of them raised their spears at me. Normally, I might have slowed down, assessed the threat but desperation stripped away my .
"I don't have time for this," I muttered.
One of the goblins lunged.
