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*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

I take aim down to the corridor from behind some stacked crates, and so are Dave and Sam beside me.

As we wait, we watch the last of the light in the pile of mana crystals powering the barrier start to wink out one by one. It would be any second now, and the barrier will fall.

*BOOM*

*BOOM CRACK*

With the last hit of what I could only assume was a makeshift battering ram, the barrier collapsed and the door the array was drawn on suffered a nasty crack.

There was some muffled shouting in what I could barely make out as the common language used by the kingdom, followed by the guttural language I recognized the goblinoids use.

When they were done with their discussion, there was a pause of silence for a few seconds before the door was bashed in to reveal hobgoblins using a bench as a makeshift battering ram. And for their trouble, they ate crossbow bolts from us.

The two goblins in front holding the bench were dropped immediately, one of the boys scored a headshot on one of the hobgoblins, while the one I shot got hit in the center of the chest.

The moment the hobgoblins holding the front of the bench fell, the two holding the back immediately dropped the bench and jumped to the sides, out of sight.

We dropped our spent crossbows and picked up loaded ones, ready to fire. After a moment of silence, I saw a part of a head peek out from the side of the doorway and I shot my crossbow to get that head back behind cover.

“Fuck!” I heard someone shout as the peeking head quickly ducked back behind cover and my bolt shattered on the stone wall just next to where the head was.

There were some hushed whispers from where our attackers were taking cover before one of them shouted, “Hey! Who are you? Do you know who you messing with?!”

Me and the boys looked at each other and they shrugged at me, so I decided to go with the flow, “Me-” Realizing I sounded like a kid because my voice had yet to break, I caught myself, cleared my throat, and continued with while trying to make my voice sound deeper, “Me? Who the fuck are you! And do you know who you are messing with?!” I asked them back to see if it would confuse them.

“Fuck you, I asked first!” the voice shouted back.

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“Fuck me? Fuck you! You trapped us in here, you go first!” I shouted back.

“Hey, fuck you buddy! I-” *smack* “Ow, what was that for?” the man shouted before it sounded like he got smacked and more muffled whisper shouting happened.

After the whispering was done, I saw one of the hobgoblin hands reach out and quickly pull in the bench they abandoned out of our sight, Dave took a try at hitting the arm but missed. Me and Sam held our fire for a more substantial target.

Besides them taking the bench, they seemed to be doing something because we could hear them knocking and shuffling wood around. If I had to guess, they are trying to cobble together some makeshift shields to soak up our bolt fire when they charge our position, so I made preparations of my own and weaved a few Earth Bullets spells, that at my level of power, should have no issue punching through some wood.

I would have very much liked to blow them up with some fire spells, but I erred on the side of caution to not have any explosions underground, a cave-in already trapped us, and I don’t want that happening on top of us.

After a minute, I am proven correct as a hobgoblin runs out, a bench held up in front of itself as it charged us, followed by three other hobgoblins behind it in a straight line.

The boys immediately opened fire, one of the bolts was blocked by the bench, while the other nailed the lead hobgoblin in the shoulder, but it kept charging.

It was time to bring out the big guns. I reached my hand forward and cast my first Earth Bullet, but with a twist, literally.

So far, whenever I observed anyone casting Earth Bullets, I always noticed that the Earth Bullets they use are mostly uneven and jagged shards of earth. The only person I saw using Earth Bullet differently was my Advanced Spell Theory professor, Professor Thaddeus Northwind. His earth bullet was still shard-shaped but it was smooth and rounded like polished marble and pointed at both ends.

As for me, knowing what an actual bullet looked like, I copied the shape of a scaled-up rifle-caliber bullet from my old world, but my twist was using earth Instinctive magic in conjunction with the spell to give the earth bullet rotation before launching it. My only regret is not yet finding a way to get combustion in a safe and timely fashion, otherwise, I could have got the acceleration of the Earth Bullet to where I could say I had a magic gun spell. So for now, Earth Bullet with better penetration would have to do.

My Eathe Bullet shoots down the corridor and punches a neat hole in the bench, hitting the hobgoblin dead center. The hobgoblin flew back into the second in line, flooring both of them, while the third and fourth hobgoblins who were holding crate covers as makeshift shields sidestepped to the left and right of the downed hobgoblins and continued the charge.

Seeing that the crate covers were not that big, they were only able to cover their heads and chests, leaving the lower half of their bodies exposed. I did not have to say anything as I saw bolts from Dave and Sam hit the Hobgoblins in the gut.

This staggered the hobgoblins and gave me enough time to get a proper aim and drop the last two hobgoblins with an Earth Bullet each, and nobody was left standing in the corridor, the only thing left moving turned out to be the second hobgoblin in the line.

It was breathing weakly while kicking out from under the corpse of the first hobgoblin and trying back crawl to its allies, in the center of its bare chest, was a fist-sized patch of skin that was a deeper shade of green than the rest of its body. If I am not wrong thats a nasty ass bruse and its ribcage is broken. Sweet, that means my Earth bullet managed to punch through the bench, the hobgoblin behind it, and the crate cover the second hobgoblin was using and managed to break its ribs.

Before it could crawl more than three steps away, one of the boys embedded a bolt in its skull and all was quiet.

That same head that peeked out at me before, peeked once again and ducked back before we could do anything.

There were some whispers before someone said, “Fuck! Go get the shaman.”

Well, shit. They are upping their game and bringing in a spellslinger. I tell the boys to start reloading crossbows as I take watch and prepare.