JJ lurked just below the lake's surface, trying to string together a plan to eliminate his newly discovered threat.

'Aqua and Dwayne are out of the question. Both are sitting ducks in front of such a large group of goblins. Not to mention the fireballs that big guy is throwing around.'

Fearing the shaman might notice him again if he got too close, he set his sights on one pair of goblins that had chased an earth slime to the lake's edge a good distance away from the slaughter going on around the goblin shaman.

The pair of goblins finished off their helpless earth slime without trouble, and one of them bent down to retrieve the broken magic core from the broken remains. JJ took his chance to possess the goblin lazing in the back, and quickly suppressed the chaotic thoughts of terror coming from his new host.

Looking over at the shaman, JJ was relieved to see that it hadn't noticed a thing. He hefted the decently crafted spear in his hands and began walking over as calmly as he could.

'I just have to get close enough to stab that shaman before he realizes anything is wrong. Preferably in the back. I think I'll name you, Brutus' he thought towards the captive goblin.

“Grk?”

The other goblin finished retrieving the core and barked in confusion as he noticed the departing Brutus. He quickly caught up and followed along, blissfully unaware of the coming fight.

To his frustration, the shaman snapped his head and glanced over as soon as he stepped within a few meters of the creature. It spun around in anger, shouting several harsh-sounding words in whatever language these goblins spoke, before doing an obvious double-take and widening both eyes in shock.

JJ knew the shaman had somehow seen through him at this point, so he resolutely charged over to engage the shaman before it could charge up any magic.

“AGGGHHHHHHHHHHH” Brutus roared, drowning out the shaman, as it pointed at Brutus and tried to shout something back.

All of the goblins turned to watch as their shaman barely threw himself out of the way of a mortal blow.

The shaman danced to the side as Brutus barreled past, standing alongside the goblins previously guarding the lake. Instead of impaling the shaman through the chest, Brutus sliced a savage wound through its ribs.

It lifted the sturdy staff and began to conjure another fireball.

'You can't die until you kill that shaman, Brutus!' JJ yelled in determination, which came out as another indecipherable roar from Brutus.

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The rest of the goblins looked on with wide eyes as the world seemed to slow down.

JJ knew he would be too late. He could see the fireball coming together as he tried to close with the shaman. He could only hope that Brutus could power through the first attack and finish off the shaman before JJ was forced out of the body and into danger himself.

Battle cries of the surrounding goblins rang out.

Just as the fireball reached completion, a bouquet of bloody, shoddily crafted spearheads burst out of the goblin shaman's chest. Brutus nearly impaled himself on them in his reckless charge, adding his own spear to the dying shaman's corpse.

JJ saw the grievance in the shaman's gaze fade as the life drained from its eyes. He glanced around in bewilderment at the crowd of goblins, as they suddenly burst out into cheers.

They rushed as one to loot the goblin shaman's corpse for anything they could get their hands one. One particularly weaselly-looking goblin grabbed the feathered headdress and then broke away from the crowd, kneeling before Brutus and presenting it to him with sycophantic fervor.

'What?' JJ felt completely lost, accepting the offered headdress out of habit. He placed it on Brutus' head in a daze, and the rest of the goblins began screaming even louder, waving their hands in celebration.

'Oh, hell no' JJ swore to himself 'I'm not playing a goblin chieftain.'

The awkward headdress currently itching the hell out of his scalp, the aches and pains all over his body, the terrible smell, and the terrified goblin that was still screaming in the back of his mind, all contributed greatly to his decision.

'Time to get out of here!'

JJ wasted no time in abandoning Brutus' body and began to hover overhead, waiting to see if any of the other goblins were capable of spotting him.

The crowd of goblins displayed no awareness of the spectral form floating over them as Brutus paused, eyes widening in shock. He threw his hands over his head and bent down as though in pain. The rest of the goblins paused their own celebrations as they watched Brutus curiously.

Then Brutus began wailing at the top of his lungs, spinning, and throwing his head back and forth while jumping up and down. The terror in his voice was palpable. And completely missed by the rest of the goblins, who began their own cheerful wailing, spinning and throwing themselves around in imitation of their new... leader?

JJ felt his own headache building as he watched, not sure whether to attribute it to the extended use of his ability, or the impromptu death metal goblin mosh pit currently being reenacted below.

'I'm definitely crossing goblins off my list of viable character choices. They're chaotic neutral at best” JJ firmly decided.

Brutus spun and cavorted away, still yelling wildly. The other goblins danced after him. It was hard to tell whether Brutus was leading the pack or merely trying to escape all of the other screaming goblins around him.

'No more goblins!' JJ rejoiced.

'Well, I guess there's still one goblin left to deal with' he considered, glancing at the shaman's corpse lying on the beach. Noticing water slimes already gathering around body, he decided 'Not my problem. I'll let the wild slimes deal with it. I need to check on Aqua's injuries.'

He flew back into the lake and found his first slime resting exactly where he'd left it. Aqua had lost a significant amount of mass from the goblin's ambush, now appearing even smaller than a normal water slime.

As JJ regained control and began to take stock of the damage, he was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the damage was superficial. Aqua's body was almost a total loss, both the physical matter and the magic that suffused it were mostly gone, but the core that held the majority the mana pool was unharmed.

Fortunately, Aqua's absorption continued to suck in mana at the usual rate. He could feel a small trickle of mana going to fuel the slowly regenerating slimy body, but that was only a drop in the bucket compared to the current intake. JJ estimated that as long as he remained within the lake, Aqua would be as good as new within a few weeks.

Rolling Aqua back to where he'd left Dwayne, he found that the hole he'd dug earlier was running low on earth mana. Taking a closer look, he realized that water mana from the lake was settling down into the hole and flooding out the earth mana.

A few possible solutions jumped to mind, but with his exhaustion catching up to him he decided that the earth slime would just have to go on a bit of a diet until after JJ finished his nap. After all, it wasn't like he'd found any evidence that a slime could starve.