Hawk brought yet another weird girl to ARF. At this rate, ARF would become Hawk’s harem of weird girls. Sigh… I wished a normal guy around our age would join. It’s highly doubtful Hawk would let someone normal join though. Well, maybe if we met one of our former classmates like Jugs or Jaden.
The fifty Players, including myself, entered the door. We caught a glimpse of a small group of six or seven Goblins running away. The Goblins differed from the Goblins we’ve fought in that they wore proper and noble clothing. They fled bringing a sack filled with old torn books and broken statues.
As we chased after them, a symbol similar to a magic circle illuminated from the ground and blocked our path. A grotesque creature stood before us. The creature name Gobbled Goblin as well as its four Health Bars appeared in front of it.
The Gobbled Goblin had… mutated Goblins forming its body. It was an amalgamation of Goblins of different sizes and slices. What made me feel sick was that each individual Goblin showed indications of being alive. Those with eyes and mouth intact clearly showed consciousness with their eye movement and crying in Gobledgack language.
Unlike Hawk who was bad at distinguishing languages, I could mostly tell what language was being spoken even though I did not understand one word of it. Each language had their own distinct patterns of sound that I could tell apart. Gobledgack sounded like a beautiful language corrupted by old age.
Due to the large number of Players, we could not find the best specific position. Instead, we settled with the suboptimal choice of grouping based on job. Two-thirds of the tanks stood in a spearhead formation with Kin at its tip. The remaining third led by Purge defended the sides a back in case of a flank.
Directly behind the tanks were the short-range attackers, ready strike any foe who reached the tanks in front. Due to the large number of this group, they were broken down into two: Hawk’s and Blitz’s.
Behind them were the middle-range attackers led by Swan, composed of Players with medium range weapons and the handful of mage-types with short cast ranges. They were there to take on any enemy that might break through the formation.
Following them were the long-range Players, including most mage-types and archer-types. Since there were already a large number of sword-users compared to bow-users, we decided it would be better if I played Archer primarily in this battle.
To be honest, I was worried about the bow-users the most. While the mage-types were led by Zoe, there were no bow-user that led any of the famous Parties. Hawk did propose for me to lead them, but most Parties except for Cerulean Seas were reluctant or outright refused it. Zoe did tip me before this battle that most people believe that Hawk Partied with me simply because I knew him from real life. Of course, Hawk never mentioned this since neither he nor I cared what other people thought of me. Besides, at least I didn’t have to think about other Players and can do my own thing.
Before any of us readied to attack, the Gobble Goblin was divided in two horizontally by a sharp rock piercing upwards from the ground due to Swan’s Ability, Stalactite Birth. Hawk told me the Ability name after we partied with Swan. Unfortunately, no one knew of the exact limitation of the Ability since there was yet a person to force her to use the Ability to its absolute limits.
The Gobbled Goblin did not lose any of it Health from the attack. As the Players were too deep in thought on why it did no damage, the right half of the severed body squirmed its way into a standing position. The left half regrew the rest of its body and charged at us.
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Numerous magic circles appeared over the right half of the Gobbled Goblin as the various mouths uttered simultaneously. The already crumbled ruins of the Goblin City shook as if it would bury us all alive. Pillars broke. Ceilings fell. Floors split. Our formation broke as the Players sought safety in the collapsing dungeon.
Amidst all the chaos, the fully regenerated (left) Gobbled Goblin swung its arms its closest targets, a group of four people scrambling for safety. As if they were as light as feathers, the four flew several meters away from their original positions. The impact from the attack alone took over half the health of the four. The damage they then took as the hit the ground and walls took an even greater dent in the Health. One of them was unfortunate enough to hit into a pillar, which in turn collapsed and reduced the Player’s Health to zero, marking the first casualty of the battle.
As the left Gobbled Goblin sought for its new target, I found firm footing atop a collapsed pillar and shot arrows as fast as I could. Just like Swan’s attack, the Gobbled Goblin took no damage.
Purge and Razor attacked the right Gobbled Goblin, which still had the magic circles over the body. Razor’s lightning covered sword struck diagonally across the enemy followed by Purge’s uppercut that sent the boss flying into the air and crashed into the ceiling.
If I recalled correctly, Razor’s Ability, Lightning Blade, created an Electric field around his weapon. The Electric field further damaged and mini-stunned the opponent when an attack connected. Hawk had already deduced most of the additional details about the Ability and told them to me, but those details would be noted when they showed.
Purge’s Ability, Sky Uppercut, was a single-target Ability that sent its target directly upwards for an amount of time. Unlike Lightning Blade, most of the details about Lightning Blade were yet to be figured.
The battle raged on and became too chaotic to describe. Each severed part of the Gobbled Goblin transformed into several dozen regular goblins. Even worse, these regular Goblins would occasionally return back to the Gobbled Goblin, which not only regenerated its health but also gave it more parts to sever.
While I cannot pinpoint the details due to my focus in battle, Zoe screamed orders like a mad man to minimize damage. Zoe’s talents were fully shown by how she remembered each person’s name and their ability.
I had already switched to my sword midways into the battle. Currently, the fifteen or so best Players, including myself, purely focused on the Gobbled Goblin while the rest took care of the ever increasing number of regular Goblins.
Kiwi pretty much gave all her priority to protecting Canary as per Hawk’s orders. Unfortunately for Canary, her abilities were unfit for this battle since the hordes of Goblins soaked up her Electrons, even ignoring the how delicate the control had to be due to friendly fire.
The battle was in no way exciting. After seeing the only pattern the boss, it was merely a slugfest to whittle down the Gobbled Goblin’s massive Health. Our true limitation in this battle was neither Health nor Mana, but fatigue. At some point, I already lost track of myself and went completely on instinct, at which point Hawk forced me to fight the Goblin horde instead, much to my dismay. Every once in a while, Hawk would kick a Player away from the battle against the Gobbled Goblin into the horde.
After one hour of continuous adrenaline, Swan’s finished off the boss. Ignoring everything else, I drag my fatigued body to Hawk, who was sitting on the ground with his legs spread out. I rested my head on his right leg as I lied on the ground. After a while, Canary did the same. Kiwi also approached us but simply sat beside us. After a few seconds, I fade into unconsciousness. After a few minutes, I could hear conversations starting up again from Hawk and others, but I was too tired to continued and slept through it.