Lucas fought his body, forcing it to listen and do what he commanded as the roiling mass of corruption quickly approached. The notification he'd received from [Identify]ing the hunched goblin had been corrupted--even more so than any he'd seen before--and it hurt somehow. Something about the ultra-dense concentration of corruption he sensed within the goblin caused a tremble in Lucas's mana currents, and he was left disabled in its wake.
He could barely move. All his focus had to go into stabilizing himself, so all he could do to dodge the blast of corruption was blindly throw himself to the side, but even then, without active use of his Skills, it felt as if he was moving in slow motion while watching death's inevitable approach.
Lucas hit the flat stone ground to the left of where he'd been standing and two things happened nearly at once. First, he managed to rein in the trembling in his mana currents to a point he was sure they would not come apart. He actually had experience doing something similar before, prior to his System unlock when he reshaped the currents. But that only meant he could just barely hold himself together.
Then the goblin's blast passed right over him. Lucas successfully escaped its path, if only barely, but as he watched it fly by, he could've sworn something in it turned and watched him. A chill overtook Lucas's body, and for a moment, there was nothing he could do to turn away from whatever he'd seen in the corruption.
[Identify]ing the hunched goblin had given Lucas a peek at something so dangerous that that one look sent him into complete disarray. Through that blast of corruption, he thought it might have taken a peek back at him as well. But then the blast was far beyond him in the open air, and it dissipated harmlessly.
All at once, his slow-motion perspective bled away and Lucas could once again hear the dissonant screeches of the nilbogs. From the quick slaps he heard against the stone, coming closer, he knew he didn't have much time until he was surrounded. Lucas rolled onto his feet and faced his enemies.
Half of the nilbogs, which meant roughly a dozen, had abandoned their charges and rushed at him. The hunched corrupted goblin was nowhere to be seen, but there wasn't time to process that as the closest monster was only around fifteen paces away. But before Lucas could formulate a plan, Belinda finally crested the top of the monumental altar, and complete chaos immediately broke loose.
"RaAGGHHHHgh!" the closest monster bellowed painfully as a blurred, telekinetically carried object collided with its throat and dropped it to the ground. That scene repeated with many of the other charging nilbogs, and even some of those that remained on the other side of the monument, and it gave Lucas just enough time to address Belinda before he jumped into th fray.
He gave her a nod of thanks, and yelled, "Focus on extraction and watched out for the corrupted goblin [Mage]--leave the nilbogs to me!"
She might have given him some form of answer back, but as soon as he got those words out, Lucas committed entirely to the fight in front of him. He had a chance to take out a number of his enemies early, and he wouldn't let it pass by.
As he began channeling a number of Skills, Lucas considered his approach. Though Belinda was quite high-leveled compared to him, and likely every monster here, she was a [Cook]. Even a [Warrior] at her level might have difficulty fully ending one of the nilbogs. But a [Healer], in contrast, could kill them easily.
With his augmentation active, [Arclight Renewal] flowing through his body, and a charge of [Shock] arcing across his bared blade, waiting for release, Lucas [Quick Step]ped to the nearest flattened monster and struck right at its heart. With a bit of mana manipulation, he tried to blend his healing magic with his attack Skill for maximum effectiveness, but if it helped at all, it was entirely unnecessary. That first nilbog convulsed as his Skills were delivered, and its regeneration could not come into effect before the lightning killed it.
[*ding You have slain [Nilbog - level 58]!]
He didn't celebrate. If all of the surrounding monsters were that low level, then he could have a chance at eliminating a large number, if not most of them, before it became a true fight. Lucas was dimly aware of pained screeches and flitting objects passing him by as he [Quick Step]ped to the next target. Then the next. Then the next.
[*ding You have slain [Nilbog - level 53]!]
[*ding You have slain [Nilbog - level 54]!]
[*ding You have slain [Nilbog - level 61]!]
They're all so low-level. Not that I'm complaining, but the first one was much stronger, it seems.
Whatever the reason for that, the first wave of the creatures were slow to get up, and he was able to kill six of them before he had to worry about any attack. When the attack finally came, it was from an unexpected source. [Vigilance] gave him just enough warning to leap into the air and out of the path of a rolling wave of stone coming from behind.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Lucas flipped in mid-air, and with his [Hyper Processing], he quickly took in the battlefield as he fell back to the ground. All around, chaos reigned--even beyond the altar in the expanding camp. Fires had broken out everywhere, and he could see frantically moving figures in every direction. His mom and Harry were nowhere to be seen of course, as was the plan. But closer to him, he saw Belinda lift the first of their people--the one that might be Eugene--with her magic while holding off a number of nilbogs.
She had things well-enough in hand, so Lucas turned to more pressing concerns.
It was easy enough to see where the attack had come from. Standing atop the central dais at the true peak of the monument, towering above everyone despite its hunched back, was the corrupted goblin. It pointed its staff at Lucas's position in the air and [Vigilance] suddenly blared another warning.
The ground shot up to meet him, and in the open air there was little Lucas could do to dodge this spell. He grabbed his mother's amulet, squeezed it three times and braced.
Grey light flickered in a sphere around him just in time to block the ascending pillar of stone, with a resounding crack not all that dissimilar to the shattering of glass. The magic shield absorbed the blow, but enough force remained that Lucas was thrown off course on his return to the ground. He flew backwards, and when he landed, he did so awkwardly in a scraping slide.
Ouch, he thought, then [Vigilance] blared again and he was forced to quickly return to his feet. A small boulder, about the size of Lucas's head, flew directly for him, but it was far enough away that it could be dodged comfortably. Lucas started channeling [Arclight Renewal] to deal with the abrasions he'd received during that slide, then a nilbog tried to tackle him around the waist.
"Woah--No you don't!"
Lucas spun and delivered sharp jab to the side of the monster's head, only realizing mid-swing that he'd lost [Single Sting] sometime in the past minute. The jab still connected, and thanks to his healing magic the damage would remain, it would just have a lot less impact.
[Vigilance] started blaring again, but this time, it did not stop. He turned around to see several more charging nilbogs and flying boulders, then he started running. Lucas dodged to the side to avoid two nilbogs at once, then slid beneath a boulder, only for the ground below him to rise up and throw him slightly into the air. More projectiles came shooting his way, but he activated [Quick Step] to turn the slight boost he'd gotten from the rising ground into a blasting propulsion forward. He hit the ground running, with the majority of the monsters behind him.
Need to change things up. There's no way I'll last if I keep acting as I have now.
Lucas eyed the hunched goblin, then looked over in the direction he'd seen Belinda. Objects were still flying through the air by telekinetic guidance, but the woman was nowhere to be seen. Luckily, neither were many of their people. A few nilbogs were still standing, yet to be subdued and stubbornly guarding some of their captives, but the extraction seemed to be proceeding smoothly.
For that reason, Lucas was glad he had the earth [Mage]'s attention, but he was also realizing that, for once, he may have bitten off more than he could handle. He had to change his approach quickly, otherwise this goblin might be the end of him.
More and more spells flew at him, and an entire host of nilbogs were now in his pursuit. Lucas began a wandering approach toward the central dais while dodging it all. Pillars rose up from the ground, one after another. Groups of the monsters tried to flank and surround him, yet he escaped. Lucas's chained activations of [Quick Step] to achieve all this, and though it drained his MP precipitously, for the moment he was fine.
As more and more pillars were erected, it started getting easier and easier to avoid the myriad attacks. Lucas moved in such a way that the corrupted goblin had inadvertently started making a bit of a maze, complete with confusing paths the nilbogs had to navigate to chase him and plenty of walls to provide cover from the flying boulders. He pressed closer, and the maze grew.
[HP: 880/920]
[MP: 800/1380]
Ok, still got plenty.
Lucas couldn't avoid everything, of course. A few boulders did still clip him through the remaining open spaces leading to the goblin, and one nilbog did manage to catch up to him. He was forced to detour a bit and spend a few seconds dismantling the monster with a number of quick, judicious [Shock]s. But he didn't even slow down long enough to ensure the monster died. That wasn't what was important right now.
"Lucas!"
When Belinda called out his name, Lucas momentarily veered out of the maze in her direction. He saw her standing at the edge of the structure's top, surrounded by subdued nilbogs and with a couple unconscious human bodies floating in the air nearby.
"This is the last of them! Come on!" she yelled and waved at him.
But she hadn't just succeeded it getting his attention, she'd finally gotten the corrupted goblin [Mage]'s as well. It faced her and let out a dissonant screech that seemed to shake the ambient mana, before it started charging up a much larger spell than what it had been throwing at Lucas.
Lucas hesitated a moment, then nodded his head in resolve. "Go!" he yelled back to Belinda. "I'll be right behind you!"
Belinda didn't leave immediately, but she looked over the structure's edge and seemed to come to her own resolution a moment later. "Fine. Don't keep me waiting! If you're not following behind in two minutes, I'm coming back up!"
Lucas nodded, but he didn't watch her and the last few guards drop over the edge. He needed to disrupt the corrupted goblin's spell, so he charged as fast as he could. The attack it was building had already grown to the size of one of the goblins' shoddy huts, and it bore the distinctly sharp twists of corruption to his senses.
Nearby, a shiny glint caught Lucas's eye, and he looked to see a familiar blade partway to the goblin. An idea formed, and he detoured just slightly to snatch it up. Then, with hardly a break in his momentum, Lucas pulled his arm back and threw [Single Sting] with all he had.
He watched it tumble end over end nearly in slow motion as it drew closer, and collided with his target. The blade hit the corrupted goblin directly in the head--unfortunately, handle-first--and knocked its focus from the mana its had been gathering. Its spell collapsed with enough force to knock it on its back and raise a cloud of dust, and Lucas had to halt his approach to brace himself.
The air grew still, and when the dust cleared, Lucas saw the goblin was back on its feet. It looked between where it had been gathering mana and the spot where Belinda had disappeared, then it turned toward him and let out another dissonant screech.
"SskreeEEh!"
Time for round two.