The team moved towards the same area where we spied on the goblins earlier this morning. The hike there took about an hour, but we didn’t see any more patrols, even during the trip from the bloodfields to the smaller copse of trees in the clearing.
“There are more goblins on the walls, and I don’t see any goblins leaving the gates to patrol this time,” Aaron said in a whisper as we waited crouched down at the edge of the treeline.
“Let’s scout out the other groups of trees in the clearing and see if there are any other patrols out, then,” Gary said after a couple of minutes. We spent the rest of the afternoon moving around the clearing as we checked each area for patrols, but ended up finding none.
“Well, that was a letdown,” said Gabrielle as we hiked back towards the same spot where we had camped the night before. Once the sky started to darken we headed back to call it a day, despite us not finding any other monsters to fight.
“Yeah, I vote we check back tomorrow for more patrols. If we don’t find any, we should leave the area and look elsewhere. I don’t want to assault that village,” stated Gary once we had all settled down and laid out our gear. “I don’t believe it’s something we can handle, right now.”
“Agreed,” said Aaron. “I doubt even two teams of F-rank adventurers like us could take on that village.” I nodded at his comment somewhat reluctantly. No one else was in the mood to talk after the long afternoon we spent hiking for no reward. I took the first watch and moved to sit at the only entrance to the small grove of trees we were camping in. The first hour passed slowly as I studied my status screen and the surrounding foliage tiredly. I frowned shortly before the end of my watch as I heard a growing noise in the distance. It sounded like it could be a patrol but it was pitch black in the forest so despite them getting louder I couldn’t see anything. I quickly made a decision and jogged back to the sleeping forms of my team.
“Barkskin,” I cast on Aaron and then briefly told him that I heard a patrol before I moved on to the rest of my team. No one made any noise as I woke them up with Barkskin and we quietly moved into our formation as the sounds of the patrol grew louder.
“We have a good spot to fight. Gabrielle, once they get here create some fire for us to see behind us, hopefully, it will blind them as they charge in.” Gary ordered as we prepared to see them in front of us. They were tracking us somehow since we could hear them moving steadily in our direction.
“Heightened Senses,” I heard Aaron cast the active portion of his skill from beside me and I recalled him saying that it lasted ten minutes. “Two wargs, eight goblins. Get ready,” Aaron spoke quickly in a whisper right after he activated his skill.
“Drill shot,” Aaron cast and then quickly grabbed another arrow. I jerked back when I heard the scream of a warg and shouts from the goblins seemingly right in front of us.
“Wall of flames,” Gabrielle cast a small wall of flames behind us that immediately cast the area in bright light. Ahead of us, I could see six goblins and a warg rushing towards us despite the light shining in their eyes.
“Thornbolt”
“Fireball”
“Drill shot”
“Vigor,” we started casting our skills and three goblins dropped to the floor while two reached Gary and Zack in the front. I rushed towards the third and managed to stab shallowly along its thigh before it swung at me with its sword. I blocked the blow and was sent stumbling back, the goblin was nearing the size of a hobgoblin, and my arm throbbed from where it struck my shield. I prepared to move towards the goblin again but I was interrupted by a loud horn sounding off from behind the goblins we were fighting. I ignored it as I baited out another strike from the goblin and jumped back once it had committed.
“Thornbolt,” I cast and sent the goblin to the ground from the hole in its forehead. I looked around worriedly and saw all the goblins and wargs dead with my team standing over their bodies.
“Someone blew that horn, but they haven’t moved forwards,” I stated unnecessarily. “Should we leave?” I asked worriedly. Everyone looked to Gary while he debated the decision for a moment.
“Yeah, pack,” Gary was talking and cut off as he looked towards the entrance to our camp. Two hobgoblins entered the clearing and looked warily towards us. I could tell something was off about them, compared to the other hobgoblins we had seen. I wasn’t sure what it was until I looked at one in the eyes and I could see it weighing us slowly as it glanced between us. These goblins were intelligent and I assumed both of them were Awakened monsters. We spent a minute studying each other uncomfortably before Gary spoke up.
“They’re stalling for time, other goblins must be coming in our direction,” he said briskly. I cursed and prepared to fight the two monsters. They looked similar to other hobgoblins we had seen in the past but they carried armor similar to ours; leather reinforced by bronze banding. One of the hobgoblins carried a large hammer while the other gripped a two-headed axe.
“Entangle,” I cast my skill on the hobgoblin that was holding a hammer and watched as thick vines grew out of the ground and tightened around the monster twenty meters away.
“Entangle,” I cast on the other goblin immediately after as it started to stalk towards us. Vines grew from under it and held it in place despite it trying to move out of the spell as it formed.
“Fireball”
“Drill shot”
“Thornbolt,” the three of us with ranged abilities used them while we had time as the goblins struggled to get out of the sturdy vines. As the spells rushed towards them one of the goblins grunted out what sounded like a word. The goblin shifted as it grew both taller and wider from the skill it cast and it ripped its way out of the vines as it moved to the side. My thornbolt still managed to hit it in the shoulder as Aaron's Drill shot struck it in the arm. The other goblin used a skill as well and I watched its hammer grow until it was twice the size it was a moment before. They rushed towards us together and I decided to save my essence since casting entangle already felt like a waste of about a fifth of my essence.
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“Vigor”
“Charge,” Gary cast as the two goblins neared Zack and Gary beside me and I watched him shoot forward to stab the larger goblin in the side before he darted back. I moved around it as a fireball and arrow from Aaron slammed into it as well. The goblin seemed to shrug off the damage as it furiously moved to attack Gary with a massive swing of its axe. Gary rolled to the side, but still got hit a glancing blow from the goblins’ hammer. I debated casting Thornbolt again, but I decided to try and save enough Essence for Rejuvenation in case we needed it.
“Flurry,” Gary cast after he got to his feet and stabbed towards the 10-foot tall goblin in front of him. The goblin casually parried his strike but the skill caused two spears to fly forward to the sides of his own. The goblin roared and fell backward from the two strikes to its stomach and I rushed it while it was distracted. I stabbed the goblin in the thigh and it fell back quickly to create some distance. I looked over at Zack's fight and saw that he was still holding with Aaron and Gabriel helping to support him.
“Impale,” Gary cast before he darted forwards under the goblins blow. He stabbed the goblin again in the stomach, but it only shoved Gary back with its arm. The goblin drew back with its ally and we followed them forwards slowly to not let them create any more distance.
“We have to finish them now,” Gary said as we stalked them forwards. I knew everyone had to be running low on essence by now, and the goblins looked wounded but not badly enough to hinder their movements.
“Meteor,” Gabrielle started to cast as the goblins kept slowly backing away from us and we maintained the distance of only a few meters. Her spell sent a massive ball of fire crashing into the goblin with the enlarged axe.
“Charge,” Gary cast as the goblin went down from Gabrielle's spell and he thrust into the goblins' face. The other goblin kicked Gary back after he pierced the fallen goblin's brain and Gary went flying back into a nearby tree. I raced forwards worriedly as Zack engaged the last goblin and reached Garys' side in seconds. I had barely enough essence for rejuvenation, since the fight had continued for so long I had regenerated a decent amount.
“Rejuvenation,” I cast on Gary as soon as possible and watched him weakly groan in response from where he lay curled on the ground. I stood up and reluctantly turned away from him as the spell worked.
“More goblins in the distance!” I shouted as soon as I looked up and saw a group of goblins through the trees behind the Awakened goblin that the rest of my team was fighting. I swallowed nervously as I took in the situation. Gary was still limp on the ground behind me, although my spell had just begun its work. Zack was still standing up front and fighting the hobgoblin, but he was moving slowly from the beating he had likely been taking.
“Empowered Strike,” I heard Zack cast from in front of me as I moved forwards to support him. Zacks mace didn’t change visibly, but I felt a sort of pressure emitting from it as he swung it forward into the hobgoblin's shoulder after Aaron had hit it in the eye with an arrow. The Awakened goblins skull shattered from the hit and a regular goblin jumped over its body at Zack. My spear took the goblin in the jaw as it jumped forwards and it fell to the ground.
“There’s another band coming behind this one, cast a skill to cover our retreat if you have any Essence,” Gary said from behind me as he walked up to Zack and me. I had no Essence remaining and I saw six goblins closing in on us while another group moved further back in the dark woods.
“Fireball,” Gabrielle cast on a fallen goblin spear and picked it up to use as a torch. “All the Essence I have left.”
“Fortress,” Zack cast just before the six goblins in the front reached us and then turned in the direction opposite of them. “Go!” Zack shouted and we turned as one to rush through the dark nighttime bloodfields. Gabrielle passed the torch to Gary and he jogged in front so we could see the path ahead of us. I was already breathing heavily when we started and Zack was even worse as he took giant gulps of air while we ran through the forest.
“Slower, but don’t stop,” Aaron said to Gary after we continued for about ten minutes. We could still hear the goblins chasing us, but Aaron, Zack, and Gabrielle were barely able to keep jogging. We slowed to barely faster than a walk and I could hear goblins continuing to get closer.
“What do we do?” I asked Gary worriedly as I gestured behind us.
“You and I will thin the closest group if possible, then we continue retreating. It doesn’t sound like more than three or four are close.” He said after a moment of hesitation. He looked completely worn out, but he said it determinedly and I nodded in reply. We moved to the back of the group as they walked forwards and tried to catch their breaths.
“Barkskin”
“Barkskin,” I cast my defensive skill on the two of us again as the patrol neared us and used all of the Essence I had recovered since casting rejuvenation. I couldn’t spare any to save for Zack when the two of us would be fighting alone.
“Keep going, we’ll be right behind you,” Gary said as the group stopped in front of us when they saw we stopped. Gabrielle looked like she was about to say something but I interrupted her quickly.
“There’s only a few, keep moving. We’ll handle them.” I said and they seemed to trust my word.
“Fireball,” Gabrielle cast on a stick lying nearby, and then they continued to lightly jog away from us. I turned back to see five goblins and a warg coming through the trees a few meters ahead of us. Gary stood his ground beside me and I didn’t see him use any skills. Gary positioned in front of the warg and I moved to meet the goblins coming from behind it. I parried a stab from the first goblin to reach me and bashed a slash from another one beside it with my spear. I took a few steps back and met another spear strike with my shield.
“Charge,” Gary sped in front of me and stabbed the goblin closest to me through the skull. I moved forwards and stabbed another while it turned to face Gary. Both of us attacked from either side and we pushed our way through the rest of the goblins in only a few strikes each. I was still for a moment after the rush of fighting as I realized we cleared through the medium-sized group with ease. The regular goblins were no longer the threat that they used to be.
“Come on, let’s move,” Gary said when he noticed me standing for a moment and I shook my head to clear my thoughts. We jogged together after Gary picked up the burning spear from the ground, although it had almost completely burnt out. It only took us a few minutes to reach the rest of our group and we continued throughout the night. We switched back and forth, spending time jogging for a few minutes before we returned to a quick walk for hours as and fought more than one patrol of goblins after they caught us a few hours later. Everyone had full Essence by that point and we killed the groups without any of them truly threatening us.
“There, finally,” Aaron wheezed out as he pointed towards the gap ahead of us. I sagged in relief once I realized we made it back out of the bloodfields, where the goblins would likely stop chasing us. The sun was close to rising and none of us had slept more than an hour since the last day.
“Let’s just sleep. We can talk tomorrow,” Gary said as we wearily walked a few hundred meters away from the edge and began setting up our camp. None of us suggested eating and I checked my status as I lay down to sleep.
Eli - Lvl 4 Druid
Experience - 1240/5000
Strength-8 (+1)
Dexterity-7
Perception-6 (+1)
Vitality-7 (+1)
Spirit-8
Willpower-9 (+1)
Barkskin - Level 6\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 1340\3200
Thornbolt - Level 4\20 Upgradeable
Experience - 810\1600
Rejuvenation - Level 3\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 610\800
Entangle - Level 1\5 Upgradeable
Experience - 70\100
I had leveled four statistics in only one day and night of almost constant fighting, as well as gained a substantial amount of experience for both my class and skills. Despite the danger of the night, I felt more alive than I ever had before.