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As I was lying on the floor watching the feet of the hobgoblin enter the room, I followed its movements as it turned and walked to the stack of small crates in the corner, and just as I heard it remove the lid of a crate that I could not see, I saw the feet of the hobgoblin go still, and there was silence.

A couple of seconds after going still, I heard the hobgoblin taking short sniffs, followed by a long sniff as I watched its feet turn… in the direction of the weapons room I was previously in.

The hobgoblin started walking over to the weapons room, its steps a lot more careful and quieter than before, as it closed in on the weapons room, I heard the faint yet distinct chime of what sounded like a dagger leaving its sheath.

When it reached the doorway to the weapons room, it pushed away the curtain blocking the door and went in dagger first, and it was out of my sight.

I quickly got up, brought Dave and Sam into a huddle, and whispered as softly as I could, I could have thrown up a sound barrier, but I was getting super paranoid… what if that hobgoblin was capable of picking up the disturbance of mana, I was not going to take that chance.

“There is a hobgoblin in the room I was in, I think it is following our scent. Quietly draw your weapons and be ready to stab through the curtain when I do.” I whispered to them.

As I backed away from their ears, I could see the fear in their eyes, and I could not blame them, this was most likely their first opponent outside of a controlled setting. But despite their fear, they nodded and did as I said.

I too slowly drew my weapon and got back down on the ground, but this time, I was not lying down, I was crouching and bent my head to the ground so I could still see under the curtain. It was a damned awkward position, but I would just have to bear with it.

Soon enough, I saw the feet of the hobgoblin again as it left the weapons room, it sniffed the air again and then began creeping in our direction. As it closed in, I readied my sword to aim roughly where the center mass of its torso would be, and the boys moved forward and got into position on my left and right, ready to thrust their blades.

When the goblin stopped, its feet were right in front of me, at that point, I did not hesitate any longer and trusted my sword up from my crouched position. I felt my sword effortlessly pierce through the leather curtain and sink into something a lot more meaty.

A split second later, Dave and Sam lunged forward, piercing the curtain as they followed through with all their body weight. This brought all of us forward as we fell upon the hobgoblin and tore through the curtain in the process.

As we hit the ground, the hobgoblin somehow still had the strength to flail around as it cut away at the torn curtain covering its face and released a blood-curdled cry, we most likely missed the critical areas.

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With my blade embedded in its body, I had no time to pull it out, so I quickly turned on my aura and punched the hobgoblin in the throat, promptly silencing it, but I think it was too little too late. Even as the hobgoblin is grasping at its collapsed windpipe, I can still hear the sound of its cry echoing down the corridor.

I quickly got up, pulled my sword out of the hobgoblin’s body, and stabbed it in the head to finish it off.

After the boys got back to their feet, I told them, “We need to get out of here, now!”

But as we faced the entrance from where we came in, I saw a line of mana light up along the ceiling above us, but it was where the line of mana led to that filled me with dread, what did was a row of interconnected arrays on the ceiling of the tunnel we came from lit up.

What followed was a series of loud cracking sounds in the tunnel ahead, followed by the roof of the tunnel collapsing, “Ahhh fuck. We are trapped.” I said while thinking of what to do next.

While I was thinking, Dave and Sam were freaking out and saying things like “I knew it! We are dead!” and “Never should have come!”. I did not need this right now.

I reached over and grabbed the two boys by the shirt and shook them, “Get it together! We are trapped, and there are most likely going to be more hobgoblins on the way here!” I don't really know that, but I am willing to put good money on it because I highly doubt a hobgoblin is running this type of operation, that means there is someone smarter than a hobgoblin, and if they are smart and powerful enough to get fucking monsters to work under them, which I have never heard of hobgoblins working for anyone before, there is a high chance this dead hobgoblin is not the only one here.

After shaking the shit out of Dave and Sam, I pointed them to the weapons room, “That room has weapons, go grab a shield for each of us, and load as many crossbows as you can, I will head into the corridor and try to slow them down.” I turned and was about to do what I just said, but I was curious and asked as I pointed to the room we were hiding in, “What was in that room anyway?”

“Mana crystals, a bunch of magic foci, and a lot of different alchemy ingredients.” Sam said.

Hearing that, I smirked, “Really now?”

***

“Come on, come on!” I agitatedly mumble to myself as I drew the most sketchy array I have ever created. All the while, there is the booming sound and vibration coming from the door at the end of the corridor where I drew a quick and dirty barrier array on.

Said barrier is connected to a power supply array that I dumped a small crate’s worth of low-grade mana crystal in a pile, the power transfer and power loss is shit compared to connecting each mana crystal individually, but I just do not have the time, and time is running out.

With the last stroke of the mana chalk I liberated from the storeroom with the alchemic ingredients, the array is done. I ran mana through it to test it and found that while it was working, my rushed workmanship caused it to be highly inefficient. But that was not an issue at the moment, I had the mana crystals to spare.

With that taken care of, I started drawing a line from the array I had just completed, along the corner where the wall met the floor and back into the room Dave and Sam were done stacking boxes to use as cover when we aimed down the kill corridor with crossbows.

The only thing we could do now was load more crossbows as we waited for them to break down the barrier.