We quickly get into formation and I stand ready to block their approach and the others make ready to attack.  I hear Cole casting a spell behind me and I can only hope that it is the same buff he cast earlier, it will be my only chance against the hobgoblin.  Before they can close half the distance to us, already an arrows and frost bolt are taking down two of the goblins,  Shortly there after Cole finishes his spell and glow surrounds me, I take that as my queue and rush forward to engage the goblin and hobgoblin.  Just as I reach him , another group of three goblins and a hobgoblin come rushing out of the tunnel we had exited.  I shout back for them to focus on the second hobgoblin.  I quickly slash the goblin, decapitating it and with the same motion I parry the hobgoblin's strike.  i quickly regain my stance and immediately flow into a combo of the first three forms, disarming and killing the hobgoblin.  Starting the fight buffed definitely helps a lot, I had forgotten how much easier it is fighting with a party.  I turn around and notice that Ben is now engaging a weaken hobgoblin and 2 goblins.  I immediately charge at the hobgoblin's back, using mana to increase my charge speed and immediately use the third form to kill the hobgoblin.  We are quickly able to finish the goblins and Cole commences to healing Ben from his injuries.  We go around to all the corpse to loot and retrieve the proof of our kills.

Afterwards, I turn to Cole and Milva and ask "Is there any chance that you have a spellbook with any other buffs or useful spells we can use in here?"

Cole "Sorry, I don't have a spellbook.  I am a cleric and we mainly learn prayers from a church, but most clerics also learn a few buff spells to help out, so far I just have the one."

Milva "I have a few buff spells in my spellbook, but I haven't learned them yet, so I would have to read to use them and that is a bad idea in a fight."

Mystera "Mind if I look at them, I have been told I have affinity for magic and I want to see if I can learn one?"

Milva "It takes a little more than just reading a spell to learn it.  You also have to be able to understand the spell and what the mana is doing for it.  Though I see no reason to not let you try, we need to take a short break to rest after that last battle anyway."

With that she searches in her bag and brings out a medium size book and after looking through it for a minute finds a page and hands me the book.  I take the book from her and begin reading the page.  It describes the spell for enchanting a weapon temporarily with elemental damage.  It gives the spell and includes the different elements that can be included in the spell.  I quickly take out my sword and begin reading the spell for fire out loud.  I feel the mana building up and when I finish the spell it flows into my sword and it begins to glow red.

Milva "How did you do that?  It takes most people a couple of hours of study before they can cast a spell for the first time, even reading it from a scroll or book!"

Mystra "I just recently found out that I had an affinity for magic and that I chose the wrong profession."

Milva "You should really look into changing professions, there are not many mages around and they are always in high demand for parties."

Mystra "What do you mean not many mages around?  I grew up away from society so I only know of them from books and it made it seem like they were common."

Milva "Supposedly, they use to be fairly common and the rare ones were the ones with potential to become archmages and the like.  The story goes that a long time ago, an archmage did something to anger the goddess of magic and she turned her back on us, so now magic is harder to learn and normal mages are uncommon and master mages are rare, with no true archmages around."

Mystra "Once this is done, I might look into it."

With that, Ben calls out to us  as he exits the tunnel that he set traps in before.  "Traps are set, let's give it another go."

We gather up our belongings and head into the same tunnel as before.  We are able to quickly reach the end of the tunnel with no problems and turn around and head back to the fork.  We then head down the other tunnel.  After a few minutes of walking, we reach a natural cavern, there are signs that the miners had used this as a staging area based on the mining supplies propped against the wall.  On the other walls we see several alcoves where it looked like the miners had started to mine, but had stopped after a few feet.  With the exception of one on the far side of the cavern that seems to go much further in.  As we approach it we can hear noises coming from it.  We stop to listen to the noises and as we are listening, they start to get louder.  We quickly get into formation and wait for the cause of the noise.  Suddenly ten goblins charge out of the tunnel towards us.  I quickly cast the fire enchantment onto my sword and watch as arrows and frost bolts begin flying over my shouldering to kill the goblins.  They are able to take down 5 before the goblins reach us.  I quickly engage the remaining five, trying to kill them, but focusing more on preventing them from getting behind me.  Due to the number of goblins, I am unable to do anything else besides parry or dodge their attacks.  After a minute of doing this, I notice that their hands are starting to smoke from holding their weapons, I take advantage of that and focus more on parrying then before.  After another minute of this, the goblins drop their weapons and turn to flee.  Ben and Milva take advantage of this and finish off the goblins.  

Just as the final goblin is being killed, we notice more monsters arriving from the tunnel.  This time, it is a large hobgoblin that seems to be twice as muscular as the ones we killed earlier and on top of that he is wearing plate armor and carrying a greattsword.  On his left is a much smaller hobgoblin wearing robes and carrying a staff with a skull and feathers on the top and on his right is a giant lizard-like creature with small spikes all over it's body and small unusable wings on its back.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Ben "Damn its a Chieftain, shaman, and an earth drake!  Run away!"

As we turn to run, the shaman begins to cast a spell and just as we reach the exit of the cavern, spikes shoot out of the ground forming a wall inside the tunnel blocking our way out.    We turn around as the Chieftain begins to approach us.

Chieftain "Did you really think that I would let you leave after killing so many of  my warriors foolish humans?"

Ben "Did anyone understand what he said, I can only assume he said something along the lines of I'm going to kill all of you slowly or torture us , not that it makes much of a difference?"

I realize that he must of been speaking the goblin language and even though I don't know it, I understood him.  I would reveal that I knew what he said, but I am unsure if I could reply back, so to keep from having to answer question I keep silent.

Ben  "Nobody, oh well.  Stay in formation and hopefully we can all make it out of here alive."

With that he begins to  shoot arrows at the shaman, while Milva and Cole begin casting their spells.  I take my stance and wait for the Chieftain to approach.  As I keep my eyes on the Chieftain, I notice the drake begin to charge at us, I begin to worry about how to handle it when suddenly white chains burst from the ground and wrap around the drake.  I look back and notice that Cole is pointing toward the drake and is in deep concentration which can only mean the bind spell came from him, it also means I will not be able to count on his buff for this fight.  Noticing my slight distraction, the chieftain charges forwards and takes a horizontal swing right out my neck.  It is so fast that I have to dive to ground to dodge it, I quickly go into a roll as I hit the ground and spin around taking a slash at the back of his knees.  In an amazing feat of strength and dexterity. he is able to pull out of the swing and block my attack.  the sheer force of his block sends me flying back.  As I am recovering. he charges at me and attacks me with an overhead swing.  I do not have the footing yet to dodge it, so I quickly parry it to the side.  As I parry it, his attack pulls my sword from my arms with the sheer strength and when it hits the ground the shockwave sends me flying again.  As I am recovering again, this time I am ready for his charge and as he gets ready to attack I dive past him and roll back to my feet.  Though I am now a little sluggish due to weight of the armor slowing me down, I am able to dodge his attack.  I quickly run to where I can see the hilt of my sword next to the crater of his last attack.  I quickly grab it and spin around and get ready for his next attack, as I take my stance I notice my fatal flaw. . . I never replaced the sword I found in the ruins and it has failed me.  There is only a few inches of broken blade attached to the hilt.  I only have one choice, I have to attempt to use my divinity to make a blade for the sword.  I close my eyes and begin to focus.

Ben's POV:

Milva and I had just finished killing the shaman and were preparing to help Mystera with the Chieftain while Cole held down the drake, but as we turn to her fight we notice that her sword had broken.  Just as I was about to yell for her to run, she closes her eyes and then the most amazing thing I have ever seen happens.  Her armor begins to flow from her body up her arms and into the sword forming a black blade leaving her wearing a black robe that matches the design of most mages.  If that wasn't amazing enough, her black hair is flowing back like it is being blown by the wind, but I don't don't even feel a breeze, on top of that its glittering like looking at the night sky and seeing nothing but stars.   As her hair settles, she opens her eyes and looks at her sword, as if checking to make sure it was there.  She then looks at the Chieftain, who just like me is just staring at her in amazement.

She again closes her eyes and relaxes her arms at her sides.  Its like she is relaxing and performing some meditation technique.  The Chieftain notices as well and charges forward roaring something that I can't understand.  As he get a few steps away, she opens her eyes and charges forward.  Right as they are about to reach each other, suddenly large black claws form on both sides of her and slash at the Chieftain.  As the black claws disappear, they are now a few steps away from each other facing away.  The Chieftain looks like he is about to turn and then collapses,.  I quickly turn to Mystera and see her cough blood before collapsing to the ground as well.  I go to run to her but luckily Milva calls out to me, reminding me of the drake that we still need to kill.  Between the two of us, we are able to make quick work of it and then all three of us run to check on Mystera.  We are able to verify she is alive, but her breathing is ragged and she is unconscious.  Cole immediately begins casting healing on her and after a few minutes, her breathing begins to steady out.

A/N:  So trying to decide which style of writing I prefer for fights.  Either the 'used this technique and killed the opponent' or 'slash by slash with the occasional technique thrown in'.  Next chapter I plan to show her POV to explain what happend(cliff hanger muahaha) and then go into a short time skip and begin the real adventure.  I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far.