Damn, there were a lot of goblins below us. Of course, there weren't as many as the group that came to attack the village, but every goblin below me was at least a hobgoblin, most of whom were horned hobs. The level difference between the two groups was night and day.
And the arch goblin….
Looking to my right, I see Tabitha struggling to hold back her killing intent. She was focusing on the arch goblin in the center of the group, and if she let out even a sliver of her intent, I’m sure he would sense us and give away our position.
I nervously swallow a lump in my throat. Utilizing Sense Soul had given me a clear picture of what we were dealing with, and it wasn’t what I was hoping for. Before I saw him, I was praying that the arch goblin was only in the high 70s, maybe low 80s like Tabitha told me, but this.
I grimace as my skill estimates the arch goblins level to be in the low 90s, ten levels higher than I expected. Meaning only a few crucial levels were separating him and Tabitha.
Facing something on the same level as Tabitha sends shivers down my spine.
Get a hold of yourself; you have a job to do, I remind myself. We were on the clock, and every second counted. One last time, I turn to Tabitha, and she turns to me. The two of us don’t say a word and only nod to one another.
Tabitha leaps out of sight, to move into position, while I turn back to the goblins below. My job was to cause the biggest distraction possible while incapacitating as many goblins as possible. Once there was sufficient panic amongst their ranks, Tabitha would swoop in like death incarnate. However, her main goal was to be the arch goblin.
We needed to teach these pests that it wasn’t worth it to hunt us, and to do so; we'd need to take out their leader, or else he might come back with a second group.
Holding out my hands, I start to focus my mana.
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One Hour Earlier
“Will ambushing be enough?” I nervously ask Tabitha after she finishes explaining her plan to me.
“If executed properly, then yes,” Tabitha tells me. “We won’t have exact numbers until they’re back within your skills range, but our goal remains the same even if there are thousands of them. We need to kill their leader,” she stresses.
“And if we can’t identify him?” I point out. Tabitha knew I didn’t get a good chance to scan them before we started fleeing. "What if their leader is hiding?"
“I think you’re giving the goblins too much credit,” Tabitha snorts in amusement, but her eyes narrow seriously. “But if that’s the case, we target the one with the highest level. Depending on where they are in the group, I’m going to need you to cause a distraction. I'll pick off as many as possible in the chaos, but I need an opening.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?” I frustratingly complained, not because Tabitha asked too much of me but because I couldn't help her as she needed.
“That’s what we need to figure out,” Tabitha supportingly places a hand on my shoulder, something she's been doing a lot more as of late.
“What about dropping a tree branch on them?” I suggest. The trees around us were ginormous, and their branches weighed at least tens of thousands of pounds. Imagine the chaos it would cause if we managed to drop one into the center of their group. At worst we would be able to split them up.
“It would be difficult,” Tabitha shuts down my idea before it can fully take root. “It would take a while to cut through a branch of that size, and we would need to be too close to them to set it off reliably. They'd smell us and know something was up.”
“This sucks,” I slam my fist into the tree we were strategizing under. “If only I knew a siege spell.”
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Again, Tabitha shakes her head. “Sige magic takes more mana than you currently have. So even if you could somehow cast it, I'd leave you with nothing to defend yourself.”
“Then any attack magic,” I grumble, unhappy that even my hypothetical plan was turned down.
“And how would that help us?” Tabitha rolls her eyes. “You are unused to casting anything other than basic magic. Even if you knew an attack spell, it wouldn’t be a big enough distraction.”
“I could use Empowered Spell," I jokingly throw out, more to prove I wasn't useless than actually suggesting anything.
"You have such a skill!?" Tabitha's eyes widen in surprise.
That's right, Tabitha knew about all my physical and defensive skills, but I have yet to tell her about my lesser-used ones like Chanting and Empowered Spell, which I rarely use. Tabitha knew I only had three tier 1 spells available to me and primarily focused on freeform magic, so we never talked about my other magic skills at length.
“I do,” I tell her. “I use it on occasion to boost my weaker magics. It's how I make my self-cleaning spell work on my surroundings. I can also empower my little flame spell to cause an explosion, but it requires me to be at the center of it."
“That is unacceptable," Tabitha flatly tells me before I get any funny ideas.
“I figured,” I hang my head.
Even if I poured all my magic into it, I doubt I could make an explosion strong enough to kill over a hundred goblins and survive.
While sulking, I hear Tabitha hum in thought, causing me to look up. Tabitha was looking at me like a puzzle that needed solving. “Suppose I could tell you the incantation for an attack spell. Is it possible you could learn it before the goblins arrive?"
“You know a spell?!” I exclaim. "Why hadn't you taught it to me sooner?"
Tabitha scoffs as if I said something offensive. "Do I look like a magic teacher to you? I only know cantrips like yourself and have no experience in teaching magic. So why would I waste my time when I could improve your fighting technique?"
"But you just said?" I start, but Tabitha holds up her hand.
“I said I could give you the incantation, not teach you how to use the spell. I only know the words because I’ve heard them used so many times. I must stress that you'd need to learn how to cast it by yourself, with no help from me. Do you think that's possible?" Tabitha fixes me with an intense look.
“What’s the spell?” I lick my lips in anticipation.
“Fire javelin,” Tabitha answers, and I have to hold myself back from leaping into the air and shouting.
"I can do it; you can count on me," I assure her without even thinking.
“If you can’t, you’ll just be wasting precious time,” Tabitha looks at me like she wasn’t sure.
“Let me help you,” I’m practically begging at this point. As excited as I was to learn a real fireball spell, I was still aware of why it was so important in the first place. If I couldn't decipher how to use the spell correctly all on my own, I’d be extremely limited in helping Tabitha. So I needed to make this spell work to help her.
"Fine," Tabitha sighs, seeing my determined expression. “But if you aren’t making progress in thirty minutes, I need you to tell me so we can think up another plan.”
“I promise,” I nod in agreement.
"Alright, listen closely," she waves me closer as I struggle to hold back a manic smile.
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Now
Gathering nearly 200 points of mana into my hands, I start my chant.
“Hinsung gab bas ri he dymntn, o silf wer yemki por faestt.”
After I say the first line, a growing sphere of fire forms in front of my hands. Unlike my other spells, Fire Javelin was a tier 3 spell, so it had multiple parts to its incantation, and I had to be extremely careful as I correctly recited each.
“Ir metbels bnieght eforem em meyme, es weth firmesnu molh acose.”
As I finish reciting the second verse, the sphere starts to compact and elongate. At this point, the goblins below had already noticed me. It would be hard for them not to, considering my spell was excessively flashy.
Dozens of goblins were already crawling up the nearby tree trunk, so I needed to hurry.
“Dat ruenghtl fys trai, ight nurrbb!”
I finished reciting the spell, but I wasn’t done just yet. Before the bolt of fire can leave my hands, I activate Empower Spell and forcibly cram another 200 mana into it. I have very little time to adjust the spell how I want, and most of the mana just goes into making it bigger and more deadly, but my skill does its job.
The bolt of fire launches from my hands with the force of a ballista aimed straight at the arch goblin.
Hundreds of feet may separate us, but I can see it grinning at my oncoming attack. The arch goblin readys its claymore, I’m assuming to block it with some sort of skill, but now it’s my turn to grin.
A hundred feet from the ground, my fire javelin spell suddenly, and to the shock of all the goblins, breaks apart into hundreds of smaller fire arrows. The goblins have almost no time to react as I literally rain fire down upon them.
I wish I could watch my spell's effect on the horde, but the first wave of goblins climbing toward me was almost here. The only thing that told me my spell did its job was the hundreds of goblins screaming below me and the smoke wafting up into the canopy.
I sense a few whisps of experience points drifting up toward me, so I know I killed at least a few, but that wasn’t what my spell was meant for, though I’m happy for the results.
Tabitha would emerge and start slaughtering any second now, but I had other things to worry about. I count forty-three goblins climbing up after me, including the other six scouts rushing through the treetops toward my position.
I had completed my main objective but still had more to do. To help Tabitha, I needed to keep as many goblins focused on me as possible, so though scary, it was a good thing a third of them were converging on me. She said I only needed to keep their attention, but I wasn’t only going to settle for being a distraction.
Each goblin I killed was one less Tabitha needed to worry about. So, instead of Flash Stepping away as the first goblins reach my position, I draw my hammer and stand my ground.
“I’ll kill all of you,” I growl and raise my hammer threateningly.
I didn't bother to check the level of the goblins rushing me because it didn't matter; I was going to turn them into meat paste anyway.
The goblins snarl at my challenge, holding their weapons at the ready. They move to rush me, but I’m faster.
I Double Step in close, dodging a spear thrust to my face, and initiate my counterattack. My hammer slams into the first goblin's chest before it can react. I can feel its chest cave in under my strike, but I don’t let up. Activating Double Strike, I add a second blow to the already dying goblin, sending him flying into his teammate standing behind him, catching him off guard and knocking him off the tree branch.
Two down, another forty-seven to go.