Maria collapsed from the sneak attack, her hands gripping my waist as she slumped on the dirt floor. I was struck with a moment of panic, like a deer in headlights, my brain refusing to function as it should.
“GRAY!” Her yell snapped me out of my idle reverie, prompting me to turn around and slammed its sides with my staff. Its body rose a few inches above the air from the strike, then its body curled around my staff, tumbling away once my swing had ended. I blasted it with another bolt right before it was about to stand, leaving a charred corpse missing its skin once the smoke evaporated.
The archers had scrambled apart, so we had a few seconds of arrowless skies before we had to make our move again. But now that Maria was crippled…
To my huge relief, she took one out from her inventory and chugged it down like it was the nectar of her own damn life. Watching the effects of her healing was fascinating, but my head was focused on the next few threats that were about to reach us.
“That’s way too close. I got careless there…” She said as she got up and kicked her legs about. “Lucky I got a few to spare.”
I grimaced, she didn’t have to blame herself for that mistake. I should’ve been more vigilant. “I can’t sense their presence at all.”
She pointed to the ground. “Their footsteps and presence became perceptible before they strike. Keep an eye on-”
It was subtle, but right behind where she pointed, I saw the footstep she was mentioning about. “Watch out!”
She grabbed the dagger that hung beside her waist, dodging the nightblade’s attack by twisting her upper torso away while planting a stab on her own on its abdomen. The goblin cried as she shoved the dagger as far as she could into its body—an impressive feat, considering her size—then she kicked it away from her with a huff.
"I’m such an idiot to have let that happen.” Panting, she continued, “As I said… Right before they strike… You can sense them. And don’t blame yourself for what happened, it is all on me.”
“GRAAHHHH!!”
Phillip’s roar resounded, shattering the area with his fury. As I turned towards him, What I saw was a scene of a pure massacre, with each swing of his axe cleaving the goblins apart. How many of them has he killed? I shuddered to think that my magic would ever match his might.
But then, I noticed that Phillip’s eyes were radiating a dangerous ray of red. At first, I thought it was just a figment of my imagination, but as I looked closer, I saw a tiny glimpse of red light flickering from his irises every second or so. It was faint, but there was some kind of a sinister aura radiating away from his pores, but I failed to detect any actual evil intent from it.
Whatever it was that was behind his red eyes, it wasn’t something I’d love to hang around with.
“Looks like he’s handling himself well,” Maria glanced over to where the archers used to be. “They’re about to fire another volley. Get ready.”
I watched the frantic movements on the horizon coming from the archers, priming another bolt while keeping an eye on their plans and actions. None of them seemed to be organized, with no leader in sight to guide them, and relaying their plans was proving to be futile. Thank goodness. This gives us time.
“No time to waste!”, Maria fired a few fast, accurate shots that landed square on their foreheads, killing more than three of them with just a few draws of her bowstring. Some dodged her shots—she clicked her tongue every time it happened—and attempted to escape, which proved to be a worse decision; My bolts were ready and waiting, decimating the remainder of the tiny group of archers, wiping them out without much effort.
The fire in her eyes showed little hesitation in her shots. Even without her [Eagle aim] skill, her competency in archery needed no questioning. While her individual shots weren’t necessarily powerful, their accuracy could prove useful against enemies with prominent weak spots.
The nightblades and the archers… The description of this mission also mentioned the presence of a Hobgoblin, which pointed it to be the leader of this squad. I hadn’t seen it yet so far, but the torches on the far side of the horizon — where Phillip was busy slicing and dicing — were fast approaching.
Then, another roar echoed. This time, it wasn’t from Phillip. No, instead of his deep, guttural voice, this one was high-pitched; A monstrous wailing that never seemed to end. It was loud enough to snap Phillip out of his rampage, which prompted him to look for us. From my estimation, the hordes of goblins would reach us in less than… one minute.
Phillip noticed it too, the fiery glint in his eyes dissipated as he approached us. “They are coming,” urgency could be tasted in his voice. “What’s the plan?”
None of us knew what the Hobgoblin was capable of. Time was ticking, and the sounds of the incoming footsteps were fast approaching. I didn’t want to be surrounded and attacked from the back again, so my thoughts drifted to the wall that existed at the edges of this area.
As I scanned the fields one more time, I found the corpse of the nightblade — a result of Maria’s quick kill — sprawled still on the ground a few meters away from where I stood.
[Lvl. 3 Goblin Nightblade]
[Absorb this creature’s soul?]
The tips of my fingers shuddered with a dark wave of energy. The nature of it was similar to the one the compendium emanated when I acquired the spell, and tendrils akin to the same things that penetrated my heart diverged from my hand, enveloping the corpse with its black magic.
Once the absorption was over, what remained of its corpse was a hollow husk of its former self, like a drained mummy that has been left to dry for thousands of years.
[You absorbed a soul of Goblin Nightblade]
Soul of The Goblin Nightblade. - Poor
Rarity: Common | Rank: - | Level : 3
Attributes gained : 1 speed, 1 strength, 1 arcane
Grants skill : Camouflage.
Cloaks the user’s body to match its surrounding. Masks your physical body against all the primary senses. Lasts for 15 seconds. This skill deactivates if you attack, or was attacked by the enemy.
Cost : 3 mana per cast. Cooldown : 120 seconds.
Obviously, my act of dark magic raised a few eyebrows within the group. Not because of the magic itself, but because the resulting embodiment of horror didn’t sit too well with them. But none of them said anything about the abhorrent sight, they simply kept their thoughts to themselves. Phillip had some semblance of what kind of spells I used, from the conversations we’d had in the past, so he wasn’t as shocked as the woman next to him.
I cleared my throat and returned our attention to our next plan.
“We retreat to the edges of this area. If this arena is any similar to the others prior, there will be an invisible wall waiting for us there. It’s a bad idea to deal with their attacks from all sides.” I pointed to the arrow on my shoulder. “Unless any of you have any better plan, we need to go now.”
My mind blazed through all the possible ideas to handle the hobgoblin as we raced to the invisible wall. To make things simpler, I’d assume that the Hobgoblin was a bigger, badder, and tougher version of a regular goblin, which Phillip should be able to handle on his own if it was true. Maria and I would deal with the archers and Nightblades if they showed up, and if they didn’t, then we’ll blast the goblins that were far away enough from Phillip.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Explaining the plan was easy. In theory, this plan wouldn’t be difficult to execute, as long as we keep our calm.
The pain on my shoulder flared up once in a while, the aggravation worsening from our cadence, blood spilling from every few steps I took.
It didn’t take long for us to arrive at the edge of the zone. The goblins’ pace was slower than ours, so we were able to create some distance between us. While that was a piece of positive news, on the other hand…
My ragged breathing and my paling face didn’t inspire any confidence from them, but I had to stay conscious and useful until this fight was over. Through my underestimation, and in part, my belief that goblins wouldn’t prove to be this perilous of a battle, I subconsciously ignored my need of potions—which proved to be a critical error on my part. With all the residual damage I had taken, there was no way I could hide my current situation from them.
“That looks ugly, Gray.” Maria studied the arrow protruding from my shoulder, “You want a potion?”
I shot a hopeful look at her but held my tongue, perhaps from shame, or fear of being seen as a burden, either way, I couldn’t answer her. As much as I would love to…
She took out another vial of the red potion, extending it over to me. “Take it.” She said, “I owe you one for that arrow. Besides, we can’t have you dying on us in a situation like this.”
“Thanks…” I grabbed her potion, a thankful expression beaming on my face.
Chucking down her vial, Phillip removed the arrow that was stuck on my shoulder as I healed. The refreshing sensations were a warm welcome in this tiny pit of despair, alleviating my worries, albeit, only just a tiny bit.
“You good to go, Phillip?” I turned to him with the arrow still held in his hand. “You decimated a lot of their population on your own.”
Beaming with a sense of pride, he replied, “I can do more than just this. Don’t worry about me.”
“That was way too close.” Maria chimed in, the close death she experienced was still fresh in our minds. “Anyway, we’re not close to being out of the woods yet.” She raised her arm, pointing at the distance, “There. Torches. You know what those mean..”
I grumbled, the prospect of dealing with goblins was turning into a chore rather than an opportunity for strength. But I had new tools to play with this time, and I was eager to try them out.
“Wait a sec…” I close my eyes, then conjured the compendium. A surge of surgical amounts of mana was drained from my chest, forming the book within less than a second. The sinister-looking book shocked them, Maria’s eyes widened from the appearance of the book, as if it was the book of the Devil himself.
Which it kinda is.
[Death’s compendium.]
I searched the contents of the book, flipping the pages until it reached one with a single line of passage in it. In the line, the name of the Goblin Nightblade was listed.
[Soul of the Goblin Nightblade.]
[Integrate soul?] [Yes] [No]
Yes, yes… Do it quickly.
[Integrating soul. You are locked from integrating another soul for 1 hour.]
I ‘integrated’ the soul into my body, feeling a slight change in how my body felt. The most significant part of having this soul inside me—other than the strange, unpleasant feeling—wasn’t the attributes themselves, no, it was the skill that I got from their souls that was reeling all of my attention in. Of course, I could only use one of the souls at a time, but one is better than none at all.
To be honest, the whole soul integration thing bore striking similarities with how we equip a weapon. I planned to keep this skill until the Hobgoblin showed itself, then fire at it with all I had from its back while I was hidden. Perhaps this way, I could contribute more than just tanking a few stray arrows and firing my bolts once in a while.
And also, to ensure this mission’s success, I needed to allocate all my free points that were available.
Opening my stats, I allocated 5 points into ARCANE, more casting is better. and put the rest into my ARCANE. POWER attribute. Watching the end result, I reassured myself that I’d done all I could, and whatever results came after would be in God’s hands.
After that, what reflected my eyes was the resulting status screen after all of my points were allocated.
STATUS
HEALTH
40/40
MANA
36/36
RANK
-
Level
5
POINTS
18
RACE
HUMAN - 1
ACTIVE CLASS
none
SUB CLASS
none
FREE ATTR. PTS
0
ATTRIBUTES - BODY
ATTRIBUTES
Progress (%)
Total Attr.
STRENGTH
4( +1, +1 )
2
6
SPEED
2(+2)
54
4
TOUGHNESS
3 (+3)
78
6
VITALITY
4 (+3)
2
7
RESISTANCE
1
2
1
ATTRIBUTES - MIND
ATTRIBUTES
Progress (%)
Total Attr.
ARCANE
7 (+5,, +1)
97
13
ARCANE. POWER
7 (+1)
3
8
ARCANE. DEFENSE
1
20
1
WILLPOWER
1
12
1
AFFINITIES
SOUL INTEGRATION
Equipped soul
Goblin Nightblade
Skill
Camouflage
Attribute bonuses
Strength + 1, Speed + 2, Arcane +1
??? - unlocked after clearing the trial
Now, I could use 7 of my bolts before running out of mana.
After that, I looked away from my screen; right on cue, the hordes of the goblin appeared on the horizon.