“So that’s what was decided in the reunion” Baek Hyeon explained to the rest of the team the mission while sneaking in a curse or two at Michael Becking.

“Hyungnim, I think we can do it! If I use [Raise Barrier] no one is getting past me!” Diego very excitedly raised his shield and started mimicking as if he was under heavy attack.

“Well, whatever if I die I die, at least i’ll fall cursing the fucker who killed me” Ae-Cha also raised his support on the matter.

“If i don’t go you guys won’t have the damage to kill a fly, i'm in” Kim Ji-Ho raised her staff to conjure a flame in support.

Park Seo-Jun stayed quiet for a while with his head down before looking up with an apologetic face. “Sorry guys, i don’t think i can do it, i already got invited to another party and i'm accepting it.” Before anyone could stop him he showcased his high Agility status and ran away.

“Well, doesn’t that suck? More Xp for me but i'm still marking down his name in my black book” Ae-Cha acted as if a burden was released and it did work to raise morale a little.

“Enough of that, since everyone else is up for the task let’s move. The earlier we set out the more time we have to rest before the final boss.” The party walked up the stairs in a heavy mood, everybody accepted this mission knowing full well they might just die. Everybody besides Diego, he never put much thought into it, the only thing on his mind was his shield and he believed himself fully capable of not letting anything past it.

***

The road to the horde was free from any enemy, whoever party was tasked with this area did a great job. With nothing stopping them the whole way they soon arrived at their destination, from afar they could see a green mob, at least fifty goblins gathered together eating corpses or just playing around with each other.

“I’ve killed more than fifty goblins in total, but at the same is suicide” Kim Ji-Ho said with a little of fear in her voice.

“Hyungnim, i don’t think i can hold all of them, if it was a street maybe i could hold them back but an avenue is too wide” Diego also gave his opinion, his skill [Raise Barrier] could make the area of effect of his shield expand to about 5 meters, even though the shield itself didn’t expend.

Baek Hyeon stayed silent for a moment with his eyes close before opening them and saying with a whisper:

“I think i have an idea, this is what we’re gonna do(...)”

***

“Hey you green dwarves!” Ae-Cha yelled as he threw a rock into the horde of goblins. He didn’t wait to see if his shot hit, he turned around and started running. It is unknown if it’s a talent from his class rune but every goblin ran after him with fury in their eyes.

Ae-Cha zig-zagged between cars, made turns on several streets but the goblins never left his tail. Ae-Cha ran until he arrived at a dead end street where Diego was waiting with his shield raised.

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As soon Ae-Cha ran past him he activated his skill [Raise Barrier], blocking the street just in time, as the horde started ramming into it.

Bang—!

“Noona Ji-Ho, if you're gonna do it, do it now!” Slow but steadily Diego was being pushed back, but he held off long enough for Kim Ji-Ho who was waiting at the top of one of the buildings at the side to finish channeling all her mana into a big sphere of flames.

“With my soul as the pen and my mana as ink, draw reality in fire, flame hose conjuration!” Kim Ji-Ho chanted and released her magic at the horde. Instead of the sphere of flames acting like a fireball spell it stayed in place, acting as the source of a river of fire that spilled on all the goblins. Someone who watched from afar might even confuse the spell for a flamethrower. This spell was not some of the readymade spells that came with Kim Ji-Ho [Mage Rune (Common)] class, but something she theorized after being asked if she could tailor a new spell for the situation. She used the spells fireball and water hose as the base and was pleasantly surprised to learn that it worked, sacrificing the explosive damage for a continuous damage she could spread around.

Sizzling—!

Fire spilled everywhere, dealing a good deal of damage on all the goblins and killing some of the ones who stayed in fire for more time, even Diego was forced to dispel [Raise Barrier] since the skill gathered all damage in an area to the single point of his shield.

Even though Kim Ji-Ho couldn't participate in the fight anymore as she had fainted from mana exhaustion, she wasn’t needed.

At this point Baek hyeon appeared from where the goblins entered, and amidst their burns and confusion, he killed a handful before the goblins could realize they fell for a trap.

But even though the trap was successful, there were simply too many goblins to kill.

While Diego had the attention of most, and with the sharp words of Ae-Cha they could deal with them together, a group of goblins turned their focus to Baek Hyeon and, despite being injured, they had enough numbers to circle him.

For every goblin he felled, another took its place while another four knifed him from different angles. Even though his high Constitution granted him enough health to not die by a couple of stabs from goblins, the damage still accumulated after a few minutes of battling, and his stamina started to run low.

‘This can’t go on, I need to think of a solution soon. Thinking about it, I have all this mana in my status window but I have nothing to use it on’. Baek Hyeon's status window indicated that he indeed had mana, a hundred points of it at that, but his class gave zero skills to use it on.

I don’t need any fancy skills, so long as I can push out this mana I can at least gain time. Baek Hyeon started feeling around his body for anything different from before it all started, something that he should have tried before he thought. Soon he noticed something hot close to his heart, it circulated a little around his chest and went back inside as if lacking an output, almost like blood. Baek Hyeon started to focus on making it move to his arms and to his sword but the mana acted as if obstructed. The only time he could tug the mana a little was when he swung his sword. ‘I probably need to build a pathway inside my body like in novels before being able to move my mana around, but I don’t have the knowledge or time right now, then brute force it is’.

Baek Hyeon put all his focus into moving his mana while putting all his strength in a horizontal slash.

Slash—!

All his mana was expelled from his body and a blue line was drawn in front of him, cutting in half all the goblins that were assaulting him and even some far away that were fighting with Diego and Ae-Cha. But Baek Hyeon's mind was not on that, neither it was on the several notifications he received on his accomplishment, his mind was only at the excruciating pain he was feeling. His both arms were whole bloodied as if they had suffered from several tiny cuts, and he couldn't lift a finger anymore, fortunately the fight was already over. ‘Fuck im never doing that again’.