Dante was aghast, he had never seen a clash between experts of such a level.

Just the ripples of this battle would be enough to injure him.

"So this is the General level... They are like on another plane of existence."

Dante was dazed for a moment, but he quickly snapped out of it. In life and death battles of this level one could die without even knowing how he left this world, he always had to be vigilant.

Dante readied his sword, he knew that soon it would be their turn to fight.

...

Despite the explosion's might, the Hobgoblin's side only suffered a minor loss. The 100 layered shield, raised by the eight Shamans' magic, blocked the large majority of the explosion's power with only 40 goblins being killed and another 20 or so ending up heavily injured because of their slow reactions.

The Shamans were horrified, the shield raised by the combination of a third of their combined spiritual power was in tatters.

If Doron were to battle it out right there, it would be the same as sending them to their graves!

Luckily for them, Doron seemed to have regained his senses as he didn't attack the elf anymore, but the same couldn't be said for Pan.

Seeing that his plan was foiled by the Shamans' readiness, Pan drew an arc with his sword towards three nearby Shamans.

"Blood Line."

A red arc of light flew at the three Shamans' necks. Seeing that dangerous line closing on them, the three Shamans began casting magic shields in succession to stop the arc from nearing them, the other Shamans helped them.

The red arc slowed down considerably after breaking through forty shields, the Shamans heaved a sigh after seeing that their efforts were paying off.

But that didn't last for long.

With a cold harrumph, a sea of blood appeared behind Pan but this time it was churning madly.

"Condense."

The red arc shined brightly before condensing into three bloody swords which released a thick aura of slaughter.

They cut the mana shields as if they were made of butter.

Seeing that change, the three Hobgoblin Shamans madly fled for their lives. They knew that they didn't stand a chance against those swords, they tried to cast their fastest escape magic.

However, they weren't able to finish casting their spells as their heads were sliced off their bodies.

The three swords quickly absorbed the Life Cores and blood of the three Shamans, leaving only some dried up corpses as they flew back to Pan's side.

When killing a low-level Monster it was enough to just crush their heads or stab their hearts, but higher level Monsters all had incredible vitality.

Only by incinerating them and in general destroying their bodies could one be absolutely sure of their death, as Monsters would just regenerate and enter a weakened state.

However, that was true only for those King level and higher monsters, when dealing with General level and lower monsters it was a normal custom when dealing with them to just stab the Life Core of the monster as it was where his essence laid.

Doron was incredibly enraged by Pan's swift actions, but he managed to quell his anger before saying.

"Elf let's move our battle to another place, our underlings will only bother us here."

"Ok, there is a flat land 40 km from here, let's fight it out there."

Pan had accomplished his purpose, he could now leave this battle to his subordinates without worrying too much.

Even if they were still outnumbered, the Hobgoblin's were only left with five Shamans. His four Commander level subordinates could handle them until he returned.

After a brief moment, the two disappeared from the battlefield.

...

The moment the leaders left, the two sides faced off each other.

The Hobgoblin Shamans quickly gave some orders as they began recuperating their mana for the next battle.

On the other side, the four Commander level mercenaries didn't sit idly, they couldn't give time for the Shamans to recover. They had to strike now while the iron was hot.

"We only have to stall for time until our Boss returns, but it's a given that you can take the spoils of those you kill."

The four commanders gave some orders to the mercenaries and volunteers.

The eyes of everyone were filled with greed, depending on a Monster's level the value of his Life Core would soar and looting one's own dead allies was actually pretty common in battles.

They all went into formation and readied their weapons.

Seeing that everyone was ready, the four commanders ran into the Shamans direction, not leaving the enemy any chance to recover and declaring the true beginning of the battle.

They were three hundred vs four hundred.

The hobgoblins yelled a thunderous warcry as they advanced with shields in hand, some of the weaker mercenaries retreated as they were intimidated by their fighting spirit.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ten or so mercenaries began firing their hand crossbows at a group of reckless hobgoblins which were advancing without any caution, setting an example for the other hobgoblins.

Seeing the situation, Dante began making a plan.

After thinking for a moment, an evil grin appeared on his face as he waited patiently.

...

"DRAKE WATCH OUT YOUR BACK!"

Warning his teammate of a hobgoblin backstabbing him, Joseph chopped his opponent's head before making his way to Drake's side.

Poor Drake had been surrounded by three hobgoblins and had barely managed to hold on his life by burning two of them with his fire breath.

Yes, he was a draconian. The scales on his left arm now revealed a deep gash which revealed his bone, he had stopped the blood loss with a spell but he knew that if it wasn't for Joseph's timely help he wouldn't have survived.

Trying to put a smile, Drake said.

"Thanks, buddy, I'll treat you with some good wine when we get to Winterlake city!"

Joseph laughed before saying.

"You better live through this then, I've been the one offering for... OH SHIT!"

They had been surrounded by ten hobgoblins.

"Is Norman's team full of idiots, how could they let them in?"

But they soon understood what happened, looking at the familiar sword held by the hobgoblins' Chef they knew that they wouldn't be able to see Norman's deadpan face anymore.

Joseph face darkened, but he still had some hope as he asked while fending off a hobgoblin's spear.

"Drake, how many times can you still use your fire breath?"

Joseph knew that their survival depended on Drake's answer.

"I'm only left with one breath."

Drake had used one to save another teammate's life before but the guy still died in the end, so they had to share an even bigger burden, then he used it to save his own life, so he was only left with a single breath.

John's face fell but he quickly recovered as his eyes flashed with madness.

"Hahaha, the heavens really want us dead but we won't leave this world without killing as much as we can! Let's go, Drake, this will be our last battle!"

Sensing his companion's resolution, Drake had a solemn face as he fired a breath at the hobgoblins' chef.

If they killed him, they would still have some hope of survival.

However just as the fireball was about to hit him, the hobgoblin chef broke a spherical object before a golden shield appeared in front of the hobgoblin Chef nullifying Drake's attack.

On the hobgoblins' face, a malevolent grin appeared.

"He actually had a medium grade defensive talisman..."

They had already lost all hope and resigned to their fate, as they fought without caring for their injuries.

Seeing a sword about to slice his head, Joseph closed his eyes as a look of release appeared on his face.

"What happened? Why am I still alive?"

Opening his eyes, Joseph was stunned by what he saw.

It had only been fifteen seconds, but everything had changed.

Seven hobgoblins were lying in pools of blood, while the hobgoblin chef was fighting a single demon with the help of his two underlings.

Despite being outnumbered the demon fought in a relaxed way, attacking the openings revealed by his opponents.

The demon was about to finish off the hobgoblin chef when the latter took out a sword-shaped talisman. 

Seeing the object, the demon quickly put an end to the hobgoblin's life not giving him the time to activate it.

"He should be quiet the big shot to even have two talismans, strange this is the third one already..."

The demon murmured to himself, he put the talisman in his pouch before dashing off in another direction.

"Thanks..."

Drake and Joseph were filled with gratitude towards their saviour.

"We don't even know his name..."

Joseph felt like an ingrate for not even knowing his saviour's name, but how could he know? Their saviour had left in the blink of an eye!

Drake also felt that it was a pity that they didn't know their saviour's name but suddenly a delighted expression appeared on his face.

"Joseph are you blind? He was wearing the Dungeon's uniform! There is only one Dungeon's soldier which is travelling with our caravan, we can find him later and show him our gratitude!"

The two weren't people without morals, if someone saved their lives they would surely try to repay them.

"Drake we should drop this matter now and go help our comrades, I'm sure that there are many which are in the same situation as we were... We will share our saviour's burden! We can't leave all the work to him!"

Drake was energized by Joseph's words, after recovering a bit they went to help the other teams.

Dante didn't know, but his actions had set an example, creating a virtuous cycle which had turned the tables of the battle.