That was when three small goblins and a hobgoblin finally stepped out of the bushes. The four monsters and James just stared at each other for a moment in complete silence.

“Hehehehe,” The hobgoblin started laughing as it licked it lips looking at its prey. It was the biggest one overseeing the other three and it was taller than James by almost a foot with its dark grey skin. The hobgoblins head was oval with pointy ears and was balding but still has some black hair running down its head. Leather armor covered its chest with metal shoulder pads attached while its sharp teeth looked hideous. Its weapon was a thin club looking like a bat that had spikes throughout the top half.

The three goblins size was below James’s chin in height and all were wearing a loin cloth covering their privates but were naked besides that. The goblins were thin and skinny most likely serving as slaves while their skin was a lighter green with completely bald heads shaped like their leader. Each had sharp yellow teeth, but it was the spiked club in the hob goblins hand that made James alert. Two of the small goblins were empty handed but the other one had a big rock in its hands as its weapon.

The hobgoblin broke the silence with a huge evil grin. After pointing his club at James, he announced the start of the battle screaming, “Ra gu oog!”

That was when the two bare handed goblins started running at James.

Holding his shield up James started casting a spell, “Lightning Augment.” He sent the mana to his right arm and both legs in preparation for battle.

One small goblin came from the front and was going for a frontal assault on James. It had a skinny fist raised above its head ready to swing on James. The other was running to the side to probably catch him off guard.

James instead charged at the goblin running right at him with his shield covering his face. He used his Lightning Augment to catch the goblin off guard with his speed.

Running at it shield first definitely got a reaction from the goblin. It couldn’t react to how fast James was running and for a moment froze. This gave James a chance to slam his shield to it’s face but at the same time whisper, “Wood Manipulation.”

As the shield hit its face a sharp elemental wooden spike was created from the center as it punctured through the goblins nose creating a giant bloody hole. James recalled the spike to the shield as red blood poured out its face whole looking at the empty looking big red eyes and the goblin fell dead.

The second goblin realized what happened and was already running upon James both arms raised to swing on him from the side. He twisted to face the goblin while at the same time lifting his shield with both hands blocking the double arm swing.

Suddenly a rock hit James in the head leaving a bloody gash causing him to gain a wave of pain to assault him. He stumbled to the side but not taking any chances James pulled his right hand from the shield and grabbed the goblin that was bringing its arms down by the throat and pulled him close. The arms missed his head instead falling towards his back as it tried to bite at James when brought closer.

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The rock thrower followed up to run up on him after it’s successful attack. James lifted the goblin he had by the throat and held him to block off the rock thrower almost upon him.

The goblin screamed as James augmented his right hand to squeeze quickly on its throat in the air. While at the same time the goblin wrapped its arms around James digging its nails into his back.

“Ughhh,” James grunted as he felt blood down his back with multiple gashes opened but he stayed clear headed and gripped harder until he heard a noise. With a crack and gurgling noise coming from the goblin, James threw the limp dead goblin at the rock thrower.

“Wood Manipulation,” James whispered sending a small branch from his shield that he held up to be hidden from the eyes of the goblins. It quickly traveled along the ground almost as it if it was a snake.

The rock thrower was unprepared and was knocked back to the ground with a dead goblin over it. It managed to free itself quickly with a look of anger aimed at James. It screamed at him and charged again.

By now James had a scar across the side of his head also huge gashes on his back and was also low on mana, so he had to play it safe. This was his last spell so he had to make it count and could only pray Angelina would be back soon. The hob goblin was still there for him to deal with as it watched enjoying the fight.

As the rock thrower was only a couple of steps away charging at him, James changed the end of the wood branch to shape another sharp spike. It slithered up behind the rock throwers chest as it was starting to swing its arms only a step away from him.

“Slliik,” was the noise heard as the spike jabbed through its back piercing into the rock throwers heart as James canceled the spell once complete. A ding could be heard but James was too focused to realize it.

The last and now dead goblin came down face first but did not reach James.

James took a deep breath while giving the hob goblin a pensive look. It was just standing there watching this all happen with the club propped up on its shoulder. It was not grinning anymore but instead had a look of curiosity and sick pleasure as it looked throughout the bloody battlefield.

Slowly the hob goblin started walking towards James with an evil grin as its big sharp teeth stood out. It was most likely playing with James noticing he stood no chance with his state. James lifted the shield up while walking backwards at the same pace because he was out of mana while being physically and mentally exhausted. It took almost everything to keep his shield up and keep moving.

After a couple of steps James tripped over a dead goblin falling backwards to the ground. He happened to drop his shield and the big goblin managed to decrease the distance to the point it was standing over him.

The hob goblin looked down on James as it laughed then lifted its spiked club with both arms looking down at its prey. Looking death in the eye James knew he was out of options.

James could have sworn he heard, “Razor leaf” coming from the air.

Just as the club was being swung down a “Swish,” could be heard coming from the bushes area. The next thing James knew he saw hundreds of leaves flying across and blocking his vision. Once it cleared up, he noticed the big goblin now was gone as it became just an amassing of bloody pieces scattered over the road.

Still laying down James was brought out of his thoughts when Angelina flew over standing on a giant leaf as she hovered in the air.

She looked over the four dead monster bodies before looking at James and staring for a few seconds.

Worried she might have seen something and completely out of fuel, he could just sit and wait for her to break the silence.

Angelina just nodded and praised him but saying, “Good job, we cleared out the rest of the monsters. Now get back to camp and I will come by later to address the group.”

She flew off right after speaking to James leaving him alone on a road covered in blood.