Making it to the hallway, Joe let his mind settle completely back into combat, prepared for the fight, the list of the golden goblin’s current magical affects chanted through his mind in a cycle: snow, lightning, helm, breastplate, cuisse, cuisse, snow, lightning, helm, breastplate, cuisse, cuisse, snow lightning, hel… wait! Joe grunted and cursed, quickly slipping the spear to the side and leaning it against a column before he quickly flipped a hand back to grasp his cudgel. Lightning!
The creature floated above him, but not quite out of reach. Joe could only hope that it couldn’t go higher, although he couldn’t be certain. Protecting legs, likely can’t go higher… possibility. Club? Wait…
Joe smiled, a bubble of outrageous humor quickly overwhelming him as a ridiculous idea came to him. He kept the cudgel in his hand but slipped his spear into his shield hand while he began to back away quickly and glancing at the floor with flickering glances, eyes scanning. He soon found what he was looking for and quickly angled himself towards it, retreating and bringing the golden goblin with him. He back up several steps until he found the small crack in the floor. He wasn’t looking forward to what this would do to his spear, but he also couldn’t help grinning like an idiot. He back away a few steps before stopping and waiting for the golden goblin to approach, although Joe’s cautious search and obvious movements gave the creature some pause.
Joe waited, circling a bit, left and right, but keeping the creature lined up with the crack in the floor. When the creature was just ahead of it, settling into an obvious combat stance, Joe hurled his cudgel at the creature, whipping it up as quickly as he could. The unexpected move threw the golden goblin, shock obvious on its face even as it easily swatted the cudgel aside, eyes skimming quickly to the oncoming projectile.
Joe took the moment to grasp his spear once more and leapt forward, plunging the spear upright into the floor, grounding the spear point deeply into the crack and releasing it quickly before tumbling under the goblin in a somersault that had him behind the goblin. Leaping up quickly, he swung his shield arm as hard as he could, smacking the creature in the back, causing it to seemingly stumble. How does a floating creature stumble? The thought flickered through Joe’s mind but he didn’t have time to really consider it, focus already on scrambling after his cudgel, in case his gambit failed.
But even as he neared his cudgel and swooped it up in his grip, he heard a gasping scream of pain and turned to see the golden goblin shuddering even as the electrical spell sparked around him and grounded down through him into the spear. Man… stupid spell, if you ask me!
Joe didn’t give himself time to consider the ramifications of idiotic spellwork and leapt forward as he saw the goblin beginning to struggle away, its movement a twitching gasp to escape the grounding effect of the spear. Before it could free itself, Joe slammed his cudgel into the golden goblin, pushing it back into the spear.
The goblin shuddered, grimacing and screaming even as he glanced towards Joe with face-twisted hatred. The goblin turned away, once again attempting to flee, this time away from Joe, and Joe skirted the spear quickly, bringing up his cudgel again to smack it back over the top of the spear, his swing powerful and perfectly aimed. Ha! Lightning golden goblin tether ball! Wonder If I can start a new sport.
The goblin brought up its sword prepared this time and blocked the swing, slamming into Joe’s swing in a counter attack that was hard, much more powerful than it needed to be. Pissed off, huh… Joe’s satisfaction died, a curse leaping through his lips even as the goblin used Joe’s attack and its own power to try and give it increased impetus to flee directly opposite from Joe, flying quickly over the spear.
Joe cursed and reacted quickly, flinging up his shield and slipping the upper lip of the shield over the dangling toes of the floating golden goblin and yanked backwards. The shield offered enough resistance, or maybe… my body? that the lightning still preferred the path of least resistance through the spear, but was able to stumble the golden goblin and halt its escape, keeping it within the influence of the spear’s grounding effect, which engaged immediately when Joe whipped his hand out from under the goblin. Shield once more out from underneath the goblin, the lightning torrent around the golden goblin leapt to the spear and ground once more, bringing another painful scream from the golden goblin as the electrical torrents could be seen clinging to the surface of the goblin’s body and its armor. Alright, idiot! Focus… no more stupid tether ball jokes.
Joe circled once more, quickly, and reached up to smack the goblin once more with his cudgel, returning it to center over the spear.
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Over the next several minutes, the goblin tried escaping a few more times, but Joe was much more canny, making sure to only lightly engage to keep the creature centered over the spear, although he would regularly lash out to smack the goblin’s legs when his prodding taps were unneeded.
The fight dragged on, and the creature soon turned to other options, bringing out a wooden object of some kind from somewhere that greatly surprised Joe. It seemed to simply appear. It bent over and placed the flat wooden disc under its feet. When Joe saw this, he knew immediately what the creature was attempting to do and brought his cudgel down mightily on the hand holding the wooden disc before quickly following up with another strike to the head now that it was in range of Joe’s attacks.
Joe’s strike was enough to shock the golden goblin’s hand, and it dropped the wooden object. But the hit to the head proved to be the golden goblin’s undoing as it staggered, and began to spin and circle in a lazy dizzy struggle as it desperately tried to stay aloft. Its drifting slow fall actually took it away from the spear and for the first time, it was able to escape the grounding effect, it’s lazy and random drifting confusing Joe enough that he was unable to circle the spear quickly enough to batter it back into range of the spear.
It mattered little, however, as the creature seemed completely stunned, mind unable to grasp its surroundings as it simply retaliated mindlessly in the direction of the last attack, and Joe was able to leap forward and begin to pound the creature senseless, ultimately ending the fight with a massive overhead strike that battered the creature into the floor. With that, the last of its electrical spellwork seemed to ground immediately, its charge plunging into the ground through the armor and body of the goblin. Joe was quite amazed by how long the charge grounded and surprised that it continued for almost ten seconds. The corona of lightning strikes surrounding the goblin was enough to keep Joe back, as he danced around the edge of the striking lightning before leaping forward as soon as it was done to begin hammering the creature once more, his focus too much on ending the fight to consider changing weapons to his sword.
Only a few moments later, the fight ended, although the creature had long since collapsed and was unable to defend itself well, let alone retaliate. Joe felt the wash of experience hit him and he took a deep breath, stepping back once more to calm himself. He staggered back a few steps until his back hit a pillar and his eyes flickered around the room in rapid assessment, seeking out more opponents, until a blue screen flipped up in front of him.
You have defeated the Kingdom of the Hobgoblin Dungeon.
You have conquered the Kingdom of the Hobgoblin Dungeon.
Joe felt his heart calm immensely after seeing that notification, but didn’t let the seeming completion of the dungeon relax him to foolishness. He continued glancing around cautiously as he called out to the kids, “Everyone OK? You can come out now. I want to make sure you’re all OK!”
Garnedell came out rapidly, excitement driving him, while Kilniara and Zilnek poked their heads out more cautiously as they looked around. Joe nodded to himself approvingly at the two Acokzau’s attitude but didn’t make any comment at this time, still glancing around himself, although he made a mental note to bring it up later. Joe returned his focus to securing the area, “Spread out and look around, but be careful! Don’t go up on the throne or platform yet, until I’ve checked it out.”
The other three spread out and looked up and down the hall cautiously. Joe joined them as well, although he simply passed by each colonnade and glanced down them to make sure the majority of the hall was clear. He glanced up at the throne and the platform, but elected to rest, although he did make a mental note to himself about the throne. Gotta sit in it! Get me some yummy new titles! Heh, although the throne ones… Joe flipped open his blessings and titles to look quickly. Hm… just gave me extra money, right? Not really worth it…
The kids ran around, babbling through the room excitedly, stopping at the non-elemental monsters and began to butcher them, quickly digging in for the cores. Joe thumped his head against the pillar and let himself rest, his mind finally dropping from hyper awareness to a more restful state. Joe let his head lay back for a few moments before he looked up again, a small smile coming to his face as he listened to the three bicker, the two siblings a bit more vicious with one another, as is normal for most siblings.
Each of the three had taken one of the corpses; the goblin king, the mukfrog, and hobgoblin king. The three seemed to be in a race to see who could get the cores first and Joe allowed it to continue for a minute before deciding to toss in some extra stress.
“Don’t you break the core from rushing!” Joe added in a stern and angry voice, struggling a bit to hide the smirk that wanted to slip out.
The three quickly stopped, surprised by the comment but also with a hint of guilt slipping through as the they looked back at him and quickly offered “yes, master” while dipping heads. Joe’s good humor slipped as he heard their cries of ‘master’ but didn’t want to dampen the mood and let the comment slide, letting the sour discomfort slide from him with a deep cleansing sigh.
Soon, the three had run back and carried forward their loot, all three holding a core.
“Master! It’s amazing. How do you get cores so easily?”
Joe simply smiled, saying nothing. I have no clue! Seems easy enough, but… Joe quickly changed the subject not really wishing to reveal his ignorance, although he couldn’t say why, “So, are you all alright?”
All three nodded quickly and Joe dropped his head back once again, “Good. I need some rest. You guys have fun if you want, relax. But please be careful, I don’t want you to get hurt and I really need to relax after that fight. Give me ten… maybe fifteen minutes. OK?”
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