Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2) by Scottie Futch Page A

goblins ran at him from the corridor up ahead. They were sharp noses, green skinned, creatures that stood at about the same height as Scott’s chest. In some ways they seemed like the world’s angriest, ugliest, children.
    “Oh, yeah. Come on!” exclaimed Scott before firing off his burn spell. The tightly grouped monsters were caught in the fiery explosion that resulted.
    One goblin caught fire and started to squeal while running around in a blind panic. “Burning! I’m buuurn-ing!” screamed the goblin while he flailed his arms around in a way that made him look like he was trying to fly away.
    Scott fought back a brief bout of dark amusement at the burning goblin’s antics then utilized their sudden panic to his advantage. He raced in to take the battle to them directly. He had not reached a point where he could just spam cast his spells, otherwise he would have burned them all to death from a safe distance. There was something to be said for the ability to use magical heavy artillery when the only expense was a little food and rest.
    The sorcerer landed a flying kick to the chest of the closest attacker. It fell back with a loud cry. One of the other creatures lashed out with a rusty machete, but Scott easily blocked the strike with his forearm. His wooden armor was stronger than the dull and battered metal. The surprised goblin found that his attack was turned to the side. Scott slammed his other hand forward, ramming his rat fang gauntlet into the creature’s exposed chest. A bright red number twenty-six floated up and away.
    The burning goblin squealed once more then fell to the ground. He spasmed a few times then turned into motes of light. ‘One down, three to go.’ thought the man before following up his previous strike with a vicious uppercut that skewered another goblin’s jaw.
    He was forced to dodge the strike of the third remaining goblin now that he had gotten its bearings once more, but the creature’s clumsy attack was easy to deal with. Scott turned along with the direction assault and ripped his gauntlet from the second goblin’s jaw in the process.
    A powerful kick slammed into the third goblin’s lower back that sent it sprawling. Scott did not have time to revel in his victory, however. He cried out in pain suddenly then immediately turned to face the thing that had hurt him. The first goblin struck out once more. He had gotten back to his feet during the brawl with the other monsters.
    Scott hopped back to avoid a hard horizontal slash, and then repeated that movement when the goblin swung back in a reverse swing. He seemed a little more skillful than the others, but that was not saying much for his capabilities as a warrior. The monster posed no real threat to the sorcerer.
    A hard strike to Scott’s left flank caught his attention. He was losing focus and taking hits! The third goblin had gotten back to his feet and joined his comrade. Thankfully the second goblin was bleeding out on the floor, or the man would be hard pressed. Fighting three monsters of a similar level to you could be problematic. He was strong enough to deal with two of them, but he was taking damage.
    Scott jumped back to avoid a horizontal slash from the first goblin, but was forced to twist to the side to avoid a lunge from its companion.
    The goblins grew more aggressive upon seeing that they could back him up in this manner, but they forgot to take into account the fact that he could use magic. Their murderous intent was clouding their judgment.
    Scott hopped back to avoid a strike, but then leapt forward diagonally to evade a downward stabbing motion from the other combatant. His palm shot out and gripped the goblin’s face in a brutal display of aggressive dominance. “Freeze!”      
    He had expected the cone of freezing energy to wash out and capture both monsters in its field of effect. However, something far stranger occurred. The freezing magical attack coalesced entirely inside the goblin’s