To say that the goblins were numerous was a severe understatement. There were more than just a few dozen of them; the persistent fog couldn’t even mask their numbers when they were this many walking about at the same time.
Gulp.
This revelation was nerve-wracking, sure, but it wasn’t just the numbers that worried me so. The mixture of the goblin types alarmed me. If these were just the regular goblins, we would’ve had an easy time dealing with them, but once you put archers and those sneaky goblins in between their ranks?
What kind of sneaky tactics I could use when they were this numerous? No matter where I go, I’d meet one of the goblins and reveal my position.
Yet, not even those were as threatening as the giant goblin that stood proud amid the horde. Its figure was a few times taller than the other goblins — who were already short on their own — but multiply that smallness a few times, and you’d still end up with something large and imposing. It wasn’t like, thin, either. From a glance, you could tell that this monster packed quite the punch; From its bulging forearms and well-shaped body, legs that screamed ‘I don’t miss my leg day’, and also, the giant steel club it held.
Phillip knew what the stakes were when he saw what awaited us on the other end of this stand-still. His glare was locked straight at the Hobgoblin, whose scorn stared him back in return. I felt the tension in the foggy air rising from every breath we took, and at any moment, a sudden attack could happen.
My primed spell was ready. I could launch it at the Hobgoblin, but I knew that it would be futile. Like the spearman, creatures of its level possessed a higher level of intelligence, and firing spells at them without any plan or reason would result in me losing my mana, and the target scoffing at my stupid attempts.
Maria leaned in, whispering, “What do we do? I’m down for some target practice...” Apprehension audible in her trembling voice, betraying her words. After all, no one would be unphased by the sight of an army that was about to swallow them whole.
Nothing. We do nothing. was what I would love to say if I could afford to do so. But seeing that it was an impossibility, I, we- have to come up with other plans. If killing them all was impossible, then, perhaps…
What if we focus on killing only the Hobgoblin? My sight turned to Phillip, courage filled the irises of his eyes, reflecting the image of the goblin horde ahead.
He didn’t flinch in the face of such extreme odds. In fact, The grip of his axe grew tighter, and a slight smile was drawn on his lips. He’s excited, which I was relieved to have noticed; that meant that his supernatural senses didn’t sense our demise, at least, I hoped so.
“There is no way we can deal with every single one of them. I have a feeling we’d turn the tides by getting rid of the biggest guy here.” I whispered, explaining my thoughts in the simplest way possible. “Phillip… You need to distract that one.” I pointed at the Hobgoblin, “We’ll deal with the rest. Keep our formation tight.”
He nodded, his eyes unwavering against the horde, his will as mighty as the steel he was wielding. He truly felt like the main character of my own damn story.
Done with waiting, the goblins initiated their charge with the Hobgoblin in their front, leading their pack. Their collective small steps quaked the ground where we stood, the roars from their snouts rupturing the silence of the air. Their small figures grew bigger as the distance between us shrank; Behind their front lines, I witnessed the skies above shrouded by the incoming rain of arrows, appearing as small dots from above.
Maria ducked under my shield, which was already raised to block the danger from above; Returning fire after a few seconds or so. “Phillip!” I shouted, worried about his safety, but those worries were unfounded.
I witnessed the arrows bouncing off his gray skin, Whose texture was now closer to a rock’s than human skin; It was as if the volley of death wasn’t there at all. A skill?
At the same time, the hobgoblin reached his position, raising his massive club with fury in its glare, ready to slam. Phillip reacted in time, bending his stance sideways, his axe reaching the abdomen of his enemy within the blink of an eye.
But that wasn’t the only goblin aiming at Phillip. A numerous amount of them, tens at the minimum, crowded beside the Hobgoblin, the hunger in their eyes shone as they snarled, salivating.
Arrows of from different angles railed onto the advancing army, their eyes and limbs peppered with Maria’s arrows, and it was followed up with my own set of projectiles.
“Take care of his right,” I relayed to Maria while priming another set of bolts, “I’ll take care of the others.”
The next bolt flew, shrieking past the fog, blasting the zone where they were at their most dense. I thought the blast would at least draw their attention away from Phillip, but no, the explosion, the deaths, and their melting skins didn’t flinch their advance.
Phillip’s axe clashed against the Hobgoblin’s club. Resulting in a deafening collision that almost burst both my eardrums apart; It was like listening to 2 separate cars crashing into each other.
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But neither of them won their initial exchange. Phillip’s pupils widened; his expectation of an easy victory shattered. But the smile he showed afterward proved he desired this outcome even more; It wasn’t a secret that he loved to fight.
However, the Hobgoblin wasn’t as jubilant as he was. The fury in its eyes compounded, as the veins of its green skin turned red, turning it into a scarlet beast. A tick of a second went past, and Phillip’s grin curled the other way around, and he — No, everyone — felt the changing of tides that was about to happen. If we didn’t know about this before, now we knew; Do not piss this guy off.
Its brutal swing cleaved the air apart. The goblins around it were smashed into gulpy pieces, their brain matter and guts sprayed all around the battlefield. Strong wouldn’t be an apt description of what I saw, no, it was pure fury in its most basic, primal form. There were no friends or foes in its sight, they — and us — were just targets, and none of us wanted to be at the end of its mighty stick.
The first swing took Phillip by surprise, his body curled into a C-shaped donut from the impact, flinging him off to the wayside. He was lucky a part of his skin was made of stone.
Its sudden change in behavior took us by surprise, but that wasn’t all; the hobgoblin turned against its kin to satiate its rage.
If there was a bright side to this turn of events, it would be that the other goblins were busy dealing with a rampaging beast of their own making. Perhaps this was the intended way to clear this mission; to turn their leader against themselves, but unless the goblins were able to kill their leader, all that we got from this turn of events was time.
“Arghhh!!” A cry was heard from where Phillip landed. Of course, that swing must’ve hurt, but I never once expected that he would yell in that manner. His face was snow white when we approached and provided backup; Maria’s hands trembled as she handed him over her potion. Thank goodness.
During his healing, I kept a constant watch on the goblins who struggled to keep their leader in check. Sticks of arrows were seen all around its unharmed body, and the hapless goblins kept trying to approach, only to have themselves ripped apart with its sheer strength.
“It can’t do this forever,” I mumbled under my breath, realizing that we may have a way out of this dire situation. “Phillip, how are you doing?”
He gave me a wavering thumbs-up. The potion had healed most of the damage he’d taken, but that wasn’t enough to keep him in full health. But neither of those acts masked his scowl.
The shrieking of the goblins stopped. As I turned around, the dirt field had turned into a blood-soaked hell, with goblin guts and digestive material scattered all around. The rest of the goblins had turned their tail and ran, leaving us and a small shivering goblin to deal with the enraged creature on our own.
“Run. Get as far away from here as possible.” I charged my spell, aiming it towards the Hobgoblin’s head when it was busy slamming down the last goblin near its vicinity. “I’ll draw its attention to me. Keep yourself just right outside of its vision and keep track of its silhouette from afar. When I scream for help, you come and strike it from behind, okay?”
The tip of Maria’s bow slapped my forehead. “And leave you alone?”
Her response genuinely shocked me. Even when she was afraid, she never planned to leave me behind, even when I asked them to.
“No.” Phillip readied his axe, a hint of extreme anger drowned inside his intense voice. The red glint of his eyes appeared again, with a different shade of intensity this time. “We kill it. Now.”
Yeah, if it wasn’t clear enough, the person we were talking to wasn’t quite Phillip at this moment. But none of us cared. We all simply wanted to get this done with.
“Fine…” I couldn’t help but sigh; but deep down inside, I couldn’t smile any wider. “I’ll start by drawing his attention. You both flank it.”
Then, my spell flew and blasted the back of its skull. “Now!”
The both of them turned the other side, not sparing a glance toward the incoming rampaging monstrosity as they ran.
Raising my shield, I watched the dissipating smoke as the hobgoblin’s figure broke past it. Then, I activated the NightBlade’s skill. Within less than a second, my body vanished, melding into my surroundings.
The hobgoblin stopped its charge as it couldn’t track where I was. The smoke had covered its vision just enough to stop it from seeing me disappear, and just enough time to keep me safe. For now. The duration was ticking down, as I snuck my way to its left, away from the others, glancing every few steps to see where it was looking. When I got to its back, I saw the remnants of the effects of my spell burning its scalp, but not enough to deal any serious damage.
Once it lost its main target, it then turned its attention to the other two figures opposite where I stood.
No… Not yet.
I miscalculated. The hobgoblin regained its senses too quickly.
During this intense moment, time seemed to slow down. I noted its scarlet coloring losing its luster, and the green of its skin surged back to its rightful place. The Hobgoblin’s rage was running out, and from its rough, uneven breathing, so was its endurance.
I charged my spell, my invisibility unveiling as my staff glinted. When I looked up, its back shrouded my field of view as it prepared to meet Phillip’s steel and Maria’s arrows.
Phillip’s strength only seemed to multiply, and yet, despite the roaring of his steel, he wasn’t able to break past its strength. It was Maria’s arrows that stopped the hobgoblin’s retaliations, her arrows penetrated its eyes and its tendons, allowing Phillip to breathe.
From a distance, even with the hobgoblin’s waning rage and Maria’s support, it overpowered Phillip, pushing him back, nearly clawing his head with one of its attacks, only to be interrupted again by Maria’s well-placed shot near his cheek that caused its head to rock aside.
Look at me.
I released the bolt while screaming as loud as I could. At the same instance, I charged a second spell on my shield hand and directed that second bolt at its head too.
Two spells wailed, both landing one second apart where I wanted them to, and their combined explosion scattered the foggy scene. My invisibility remained on cooldown, and I shuddered when I saw the hobgoblin’s massive frame break past the dark smoke, sizzling. My second round of spells had dealt even more damage on its scalp, but none of my efforts were enough. I wasn’t even close to killing it.
All my limbs froze, like a deer in the headlights.
In the corner of my view, The rushing figures of Phillip and Maria followed, their bodies overshadowed by the bleeding head of the Hobgoblin; its club, in the middle of a swinging motion, aimed straight at my abdomen. I couldn’t dodge it at this distance, all I could do-
Stop thinking.
I raised my shield just at the right angle; the middle of it was right at the sweet spot of blocking its full wrath.
Look at me.
Behind the hobgoblin was Phillip’s fatal strike. This was it. The opening.
Just me.
What hit me wasn’t its club. What hit me was a fucking truck.
I flew. No, it wasn’t an exaggeration, I flew. Both my arms snapped from The Hobgoblin’s full weight crashing into my shield. My wrists, my tendons, my elbows, all of them, smashed into pieces; heck, even my ribs were done in. I felt both of my arms had left their respective places in my skeleton, and as I floated in the air, drifting away from where it launched me, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
That light was Phillip’s massive axe; the tunnel, the Hobgoblin’s exposed skull.