Isekai Elf King: Architect of a New Empire

 Leo plowed into the small woman running at him, accidentally slamming her down to the ground in an explosion of silver hair. Leo yelped as he careened off the lady and hit a tree.

 He rolled over, figuring whatever was coming was close behind. He grabbed an old square stone from between the roots—it looked almost like a brick—and raised it.

 The shouts were almost on top of them.

 Leo stared at the girl, who was lying on the ground moaning and dazedly grasping the back of her head. Crimson tinted her silver hair.

 The girl—or woman, he couldn't tell her age, but she was on the cusp of full adulthood either way—was a mere five-foot-three, and thin as a rail. He doubted she weighed even a hundred pounds. She had extremely pale skin and soft blue eyes, and she wore a golden tiara and flowing, intricate white silk clothing, which was now smeared with dirt and torn. Somehow, the tiara had remained on her head.

 And she had extra-long ears, like his own. Elf ears.

 She was quite cute, almost beautiful, and for a brief moment, Leo couldn't take his eyes from her even as she awkwardly lay on the ground.

 Then three goblins crashed into the clearing, running from where the girl had come, and Hugh exploded from the vegetation on the other side, trailing ripped vines like kite ribbons.

 "I'm coming, Leo!" Hugh roared as he ran full-tilt into the tiny clearing and rushed at the goblins.

 As always in moments of stress, Leo coped by joking.

"That's what she said," he huffed as he got to his feet and placed himself between the girl and the goblins.

Each goblin was about four-foot-six, with thick, wrinkly, green skin and sparse, white hair on its head and body. They also wore poorly made fur armor but carried well-crafted spears with steel heads. One wore a battered and oversized iron helm that looked like it might have started life as some cooking pot.

He expected the goblins to run—charging dragon and all—but the three rushed forward brandishing their spears. Leo managed to barely dodge a vicious thrust by slapping the spear to the side with his superior arm reach and then slammed his stone down on the goblin's noggin—a perfect hit right to the crown of the goblin's head.

Leo hits goblin trainee for 5(5.4) damage (1.8 damage(2 base damage -10%(strength) x3(base +1 +.5 predator perk +.5 Agility) for critical hit.)

Blunt Critical Hit to head doing less than target health damage. Goblin trainee succeeds on Toughness check against brain damage. Goblin trainee fails Toughness check against knockout and is rendered unconscious.

 "Get out of my face!" Leo yelled, panicking as the other two goblins tried to spear him, one missing by a hair's breadth as he nimbly danced between them.

 The notification box obliged, disappearing.

The other two goblins struck again as he tried to dodge and recover enough to strike back. One missed, and the other scored a thin line down his exposed ribs. Leo hissed.

Then Hugh ran by like an enraged freight train, and the goblin with the helm disappeared with a squawk, its spear somehow flying up and then landing in the grass of the clearing where the goblin had been a second before.

Alright, score one for removing a thorn from the dragon's paw, Leo thought gleefully as the last goblin paused, its eyes open wide, for the half-second it took Leo to recover.

The goblin tried to spear Leo, but he caught the spear behind the head and knocked the wind out of the goblin by shoving the butt-end of the spear back into its stomach.

The goblin doubled over, and then tried to turn and run.

Leo slung his rock swing into the back of its head. The goblin pitched forward from the smack, and hit the ground hard. He didn't move afterward.

The elf woman rolled to her knees, took the knife in both hands, hesitated briefly, then viciously ended the unconscious goblin's life with a downward stab to the throat. Blood briefly sprayed out, a Jackson Pollock painting across her intricate white silk dress.

She turned her head to the side, dropped the knife, and fluttered her hands. She spit a few times on the ground.

Allied unknown elf kills trainee goblin. 12 experience gained.

Leo irritably dismissed the notification and glanced over at Hugh.

Hugh raised his head from where he had finished his opponent by ripping what looked like the goblin's entire digestive tract from its belly. Some of the entrails were still in Hugh's mouth. The goblin shuddered once and lay still.

Allied Hugh killed trainee goblin. 12 experience gained. Level gained!

Level gained? What does that mean, exactly?

Then Leo stared at the disemboweled goblin.

We look like serial killers, Leo's mind gibbered at him before he turned sideways and puked into the grass of the clearing.

He glanced up as Hugh spoke.

"You alright, buddy?" Tiny flecks of blood spattered from the dragon's mouth as he talked. "Did one of those goblins get you with a disease or pollution effect?"

Leo spat the acrid taste from his mouth and wiped his hand across it. Get it together, man. You were an amateur MMA fighter! You've seen blood.

Leo's legs were wobbly as he tried not to collapse. You've never seen someone damn near eat someone else before this, however.

"Fine," Leo managed to gasp out. "No long-term debuffs."

"Alright," Hugh said. "Great."

 "Whoa!" Leo said, reaching out and grabbing the woman's hand as she prepared to ginsu the other goblin. "What are you doing?"

 The lady answered him in High Averian. Once again, as with the elf in the portal cave, it gave far more information than just the words—prefixes and suffixes gave information about tone and position and even the relationship between the speaker and the listener. "In the common tone, position of superior addressing, graciously, an inferior, least formal: We are threatened, regrettably, by our enemy: ancestral, deservedly hated, victorious who still bears down on us. I must eliminate their soldiers, no matter how disgusting this duty is: This last statement is obvious and clearly rightful."

 And once again, Leo's mind translated both the words and tones to an understanding of what the equivalent would have been in English: "The rest of the goblins are coming," the elf girl had said. "Don't leave this one alive, even if its icky."

 "Just speak Middle Averian, like the dragon," Leo said. "And the goblin's knocked out. Let's go!"

 He yanked her by the arm, and despite his new, weaker body, he managed to pull the elf to her feet. She jerked away, however, toward the clearing.

 "What are you doing?" Leo asked, his eyes wide. "You just told me that the goblins were coming."

 "Our people are back there!" she cried out. "Are you a coward? Help me rescue them!"

 Oh, for frik's sake!

"Listen!" Leo said. "Be still and listen for a moment!"

The girl stilled and listened to the high-pitched shouts, which sounded like they were moving closer.

"No clash of metal. No screams or yells except those goblin war cries. Your people are dead or fled. We need to leave now!"

"We have a dragon!" the girl snapped.

"The dragon goes where Leo does," Hugh quipped, but he was edging back the way they had come, toward the river.

The sounds of the goblin yells were now obviously getting closer.

 "Curse those hideous creatures!" the girl said, her face twisted with loss. "Fine!"

 Leo ran back the way he had come, and the girl and the dragon followed, goblin yells hot on their heels.

***

 It had taken a hard thirty minutes to finally outrun and evade the goblins, and they'd made it back to the bank of the Blue River.

Gasping for breath and shaky with exhaustion, Leo sat on a rock, trying to will life back into his limbs and clear his lungs. He'd collapsed amid the smooth rocks and the ruined foundations of old buildings, hopefully screened from view. His spittle was pink-tinged. The late afternoon sun was warm against him.

 If he hadn't run himself near to death, Leo would have been quite at peace with the scene.

 And that was barely hyperbole—the notifications box had helpfully informed him that he had depleted his stamina, done damage to himself through overstrain, and depleted even his stamina recovery rate temporarily.

 I haven't run that hard since I was training for my bouts back in college. And I don't think I ran till I tasted blood then, either.

 He had seen a few extraordinarily dedicated fighters reach that point once or twice, but still, he'd never done it.

 The girl looked even worse for the wear, still dry-heaving as she tried to relax, her limbs occasionally shaking. She'd puked multiple times, and he was pretty sure she was on the edge of shock from sheer effort. Her beautiful silk clothing was ripped to pieces, and her pale skin was visible through the rents in her attire—although she had worn sturdy boots, at least.

 Even as he watched, she pulled herself to her feet, trembling, and went over to the river. She washed her hands, getting the blood off. Then she tried to arrange her hair and smooth down her dress. Given the blood all over her, her beautification process was a partial success at best. After a few minutes, she returned, and gingerly sat on a large, flat rock, facing Leo.

 She carefully crossed one leg over the other, adjusted her clothing, and then put her trembling hands in her lap. She lowered her head, but otherwise, maintained a proper pose. Leo couldn't help but admire the dignified poise she projected, even in her ripped, dirty, and blood-stained clothing.

 Damn these weak-ass elf bodies! How do they even survive as a species?

 Hugh crawled down the side of the riverbank to the place Leo and the girl were sitting. "I think we finally lost the goblins. I can't see or hear them, anyway."

 Leo nodded his thanks, still too winded to respond.

 Hugh looked at Leo with his brow furrowed for a moment, then smiled, baring his fangs. "So, um, I have some good news."

 Leo wasn't sure he wanted to deal with any news, even the good kind. Dealing with things would hurt too much right now.

 Hugh pointed south with one large claw. "I think our flight from the goblins brought us closer to our destination."

 Leo looked where Hugh pointed and could make out a single spire of a fantastical castle, beautifully designed with white marble, over the treetops.

 The elf girl managed to raise her head. "Your…" She coughed, dry-heaved, and then tried again. "Your destination?"

 "Yup," Hugh said. "My destination. And Leo's. We're going to get my sire's hoard!"

 The elf girl's eyes narrowed, and her trembling hand strayed to the filigreed dagger at her belt.

 You were so set to kill me, Hugh, and now you just announced your goal to this elf?

Although this tiny little hundred-pound escaped beauty queen has moxie, for sure. No grasp on reality, but moxie. What does she think she's going to do against the two of us when she can't even keep her hand still?

 Leo took a deep breath as his body recovered a touch more. "So, um, I'm Leo—never Leonard, that's my dad—Evans, and this is Hugh of Storm Vale. Might I ask your name?"

 She spoke in High Averian, her face expressionless as she talked. "In the noble tone, High Superior addressing a disappointing inferior: I am Lilianae Kuvella ap Willowynd, second child of Duke Iloran Lazael ap Willowynd: Sorrow at his passing. Why are you here with this dragon: enemy, ancient, victorious?"

 "Pleased to meet you," Leo said. "I'm helping him to get his dad's hoard so he can gain prestige within the dragon community, in return for his assistance. Also, I can understand those little inflections in High Averian, for whatever reason. I, again, recommend that you stick to Middle Averian so that we can all have a little ambiguity as to our apparently negative opinions of each other."

 Hugh snorted laughter, but he had moved into a less relaxed pose and was eyeing Lilianae.

 The girl stared at them for a moment, breathing heavily. Her face was hard and her blue eyes narrowed as she stared at them, but then she suddenly relaxed, a miniscule release of muscle tension that Leo recognized from his time fighting.

 "Very well," she said. She took her hand off her dagger hilt and laced her fingers together in her lap. "I will speak Middle Averian with you, since you seem unusually educated and touchy both. Please call me 'Lily' if we are to speak in this vulgar tongue—it's how the humans address me."

 Leo smiled. "It's a pretty name. I like it. So, Lily, why are you here? And glaring daggers at me?"

 "I'm here to rebuild the Kingdom of Averia, and be its queen!" Lily said, her pronouncement ringing out over the rocks of the riverbed.