LEVEL 7_Grandpa left me a soulbound sword

[G: My state is low. If you run in there hacking and slashing now... remember what happened last time?

[M: I can't sit this out while they battle that thing!

Mike watched as the Hobgoblin King smashed at Gwynne's shield wall with his gargantuan bare fists. The platform shook with each smash. Mike's Grandma and Val continued to pour volleys of arrows into him, while May had joined Ben and Jay in battling the five remaining shamans who stayed close to the King's side. The remaining Divers were engaged in fierce combats with the remaining warg and spider riders scattered around the subway. The scene was utter chaos.

[G: No, you will not sit out. Just sharpen. Use the whetstone Jim gave you.

Then Mike understood. He could improve Goblin's state so they could keep fighting.

INVENTORY[-]

[LETTER FROM GRANDMA 1

[OLD BEER COASTER 1

[WHETSTONE&OIL

Mike pulled out the small cloth wrapped package Jim had given him with the improved Goblin. Inside it was a small, grey, fine grained stone that had been cut into a perfect rectangle, and a small plastic squeeze bottle of oil.

[G: Put a few drops on the stone and then lay it on my blade. Angle it slightly, then push along the length. It will take a few tries. Watch my state, you'll see when you get the angle right.

Mike tried. It was very difficult thing to focus on. The whetstone slid ineffectually down Goblin's blade.

[G: Focus, Mike.

“It's kind of hard when there's a full metal jacket actual fucking battle just over there!” Mike countered in frustration.

[G: Take a breath. Think about the ideal angle to sharpen the edge. Push.

Mike closed his eyes, breathed, and slid the stone along the blade again. He felt the small jagged nicks in the steel as he went. He thought he had it, but nothing registered. He repeated, exactly the same angle. The nicks were smoother this time. Again.

[G/STATE 6:90

[G: Yes. Do that again.

[G/STATE 7:90

Mike had it now. Actually, it was quite surprisingly centering, even in the current circumstance. He focused on one edge then the opposite. Then he repeated for both edges on the other side.

[G/STATE 24:90

[G: Good enough. Now we have a battle to fight. I have a score to settle with that beast.

Mike dropped the whetstone back into inventory. It was time for a new track, and it was time for the hobgoblins and their King, the creature who had stolen his Grandpa's mind, to be sent back to whatever hell they'd crawled from.

[M/TRACK BLACK PISTOL FIRE SUFFOCATION BLUES

[G: Mike, we never got to talking about titles. You have a title called First Inheritor. Want to know what it does?

[M: You want to tell me.

[G: It does a lot of things. But one is: it gives you a chance to critical hit the enemy who defeated my previous wielder.

[M: That guy?

[G: That guy.

[M: A chance?

[G: A chance.

Mike looked at the monstrous Hobgoblin.

Level 67!? thought Mike.

[M: How much of a chance?

[G: A chance. Per strike. Negates non-magical saves. We have to do this, Mike.

Just as Goblin said it, a loud crack sounded. Gwynne screamed. The King had broken the shield wall. He cackled, and raised his hand up in the air. It started to to glow with an eerie green light.

[G: HE IS CASTING MIND FLAY!

His glowing hand lowered towards Gwynne.

[M: IS THAT THE THING HE DID TO GRANDPA? THE THING HE WAS DOING TO ME ON MY WAY THROUGH THE RIFT?

[G: YES. MIND FLAY. IT IS... HATEFUL.

“NO!” yelled Mike. He threw himself forwards across the platform.

This ends now. he thought. The music spurred him on.

The King was shrouded in explosions, and surrounded by Val's small black and red hornet-like seeking bolts. It didn't seem to matter how many arrows and spells were thrown at him though, he just laughed them off. Between his IMPENETRABLE HIDE 60 and his MAGIC RESISTANCE (THRALL) 42 he seemed indestructible.

[M: Wait, Goblin, what does the (thrall) mean? That shaman we killed had it on it's title too.

[G: The King isn't a shaman, and he doesn't have any magic resistance or saves of his own. His shamans must be enthralled to him. That means once they are all killed, he will lose any magic resistance and saves.

Gwynne thrust her long spear upwards into the King's approaching hand as it lowered towards her head. Her spear shattered. His hand closed around her head. She shrieked, blood curdling, long, and loud, and high. Painful.

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Mike understood that feeling.

The King bellowed triumphantly. His shamans were dancing around him ecstatically now, like they were feeding off the power he was wielding.

Get the shamans. thought Mike.

“GET THE SHAMANS!” yelled Mike as he charged into the fray, “GRANDMA, VAL, MAY, FOCUS ON THE SHAMANS!”

Mike's Grandma looked at him skeptically. At that very instant Mike reached the closest Shaman. The creature's eyes glowed a possessed green, the same eerie glow as the King's outstretched arm. The creature was whirling in a wild, creepy ecstasy, banging a strangely captivating battered tambourine. Mike would have had trouble looking away from the instrument, except that the creature was spinning so wildly.

As he charged forward, Mike swept Goblin in a wide slashing arc. Goblin's crackling orange gold blade cut the creature clean in two with a sharp sizzle and a gush of viscera. Its hips dropped to the ground while its torso kept spinning.

[M/+8READ

[M/+14FIGHT

[M/+14POWER

[M/+12SPEED

[M/ENERGY 29:150

[G/VOLTERGY POISON DEALT

[G/+8FORCE

[G/STATE 23:90

[G/LEVEL UP. GOBLIN IS NOW LEVEL 7.

[GOBLIN | LEVEL 7 | STATE 23:180

[SOULBOUND SWORD | ARMING SWORD VOLTERGY BLADE

[FORCE 69:128 | GRADE 64:128

[WORMWOOD SPRIG | SPORTS CAR TIRE SHRED | HIGH LEVEL KRAKEN HOOK SLIVER | JUVENILE CAVE SPIDER FANG | EPIC TRACK SAMPLE

[MIKE | LEVEL 6 | HEALTH 120:300 | ENERGY 29:150

[SOULBOUND SWORD WIELDER | FIRST INHERITOR | LEATHER JERKIN CLAD

[READ 88:120 | FIGHT 104:120 | POWER 95:120 | SPEED 98:120

[FEAR 18 | SPEED DEMON 18 | RAZOR SHARPNESS 5 | POISON DEALER 2 | FRISSION 20

[SAVE 2 | MAGIC SAVE 2

[INVENTORY[-]

The King stumbled, just slightly. He looked around and saw the dead shaman. He saw Mike and bellowed in rage. It was enough of a distraction that he let go of Gywnne’s head, and she slumped to the ground.

Mike's Grandma then yelled over the chaos, “ALL DIVERS, GUARDIANS, ATTACK THE SHAMANS!!”

The barrage against the King was suddenly redirected to the four remaining unhinged looking shamans dancing around him.

One of them exploded with an arrow from Mike's Grandma.

Another finally succumbed to an energy bolt from Ben.

The King screamed something unintelligible to his remaining guards and riders. They immediately started throwing themselves between the attackers and the last of the shamans.

The King re-formed his gargantuan fist and swung it towards Mike, but May saw it coming. She must have cast some sort of transference spell because existence blinked for Mike, and with a jolt, he wasn't there anymore.

Mike had rematerialized six feet back from where he'd been an instant before. He watched as the King's fist smashed a mighty crater into the concrete.

He shuddered. That was supposed to be me.

The King's fist was right there in front of him.

Now is my chance.

He raised Goblin, but hesitated. If this didn't work, he'd likely die.

But if I don't try, thought Mike, they all might die. And the King will get up and into the city. He'll cause a nightmare of chaos and death and destruction up there.

[G: Do it, Mike. For your Grandpa.

With a yell Mike charged at the King's fist. But he was stopped by a debilitating, shocking pain in his arm. He glanced sideways to see a nightmarishly large electric cave spider with it's fangs embedded in his shoulder. The hobgoblin rider stabbed down with its spear. It caught him in the chest, plunging deep. He cried out in pain even as he twitched and spasmed involuntarily from the volt poison.

[M/AFFECTED BY VOLT POISON

[M/HEALTH 62:300

[M/SAVE 2

[M/HEALTH 64:300

Mike forced himself to push through the pain, and struck back defensively. Goblin flashed around. It was a reactive strike, and Mike was off balance from the spear and the intensity of the surging poison in his veins. He mistimed it, catching the spider ineffectually across two of its chitinous legs.

[M/ENERGY 28:150

The electric spider reared up on it's back legs before plunging back down towards him with incredible speed. Mike tried to bring Goblin up, but he wasn't going to make it in time.

With a buzz and a whisp of red, a black seeking bolt buried itself in the spider’s face. In the same instant a blue blast of energy slammed the rider sideways off his mount, killing him instantly. Both Val and Jay had attacked together.

It had all happened in an instant, but the King had now lifted his fist from the crater he'd smashed in the floor, and Mike's chance to strike him had passed.

Mike had an idea.

“MAY!” he shouted. She turned. “GET ME UP THERE!” He pointed up at the King. She didn't understand.

He had distracted her.

"NO!" Mike yelled as he saw a warg pounce towards her from behind.

Without hesitation or calculation, Mike threw Goblin. The sword shot through the air like a bolt of orange lightning and smashed point first into the warg's head with a crack. Only the hilt remained sticking out. The creature shook and spasmed, as if it had just poked it's claws into a power outlet. Goblin vibrated, shaking up and down faster and faster, until with a loud bang the warg burst open explosively, and its rider with it.

[M/+20READ

[M/+15FIGHT

[M/+15POWER

[M/+15SPEED

[M/ENERGY 26:150

[G/+15FORCE

[G/STATE 20:180

May just stared at him wide eyed as he ran over and picked Goblin up.

[G: That was the best thing we've ever done.

“May,” Mike said, “please, send me up there. I can do this.” He pointed up at the Goblin King's shoulders. He glanced around as he did. There was only a single shaman still alive. The Hobgoblin King was going berserk. He had picked up the last remaining shaman and cradled it protectively under his arm while he balled his other fist. He looked angry enough that he could destroy the subway entirely, punching them all to their dooms.

Mike locked eyes with his Grandma. She nodded, nocked an arrow and aimed it at the last shaman.

“Now May!” cried Mike, and suddenly he wasn't on the platform anymore, he was standing unsteadily on the Hobgoblin King's broad shoulder.

The King's head snapped around, looking at Mike in surprise.

Grandma loosed her arrow.

Mike raised Goblin over his head, point down.

The King bellowed at Mike and brought his hand up reflexively to smack him off.

Grandma's arrow exploded, enveloping the shaman in flames, killing him.

A green light shimmered around the King and then dissipated.

Mike plunged Goblin down with all his strength. The blade sunk into the giant’s shoulder all the way to the hilt. It crackled and sparked at the point of entry and started to vibrate like it had when Mike had thrown it at the warg.

Mike jumped.

The King's hand grabbed and scrabbled at Goblin's buried blade.

[CHANCE AT CRITICAL HIT…

[...

LEVEL 7

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