Elaria threw herself to the left, narrowly avoiding being struck by the large falling object, and tossing her backpack to the floor while unsheathing her sword in a single fluid motion and turning to face the uninvited guest who’d made such a sudden entrance. The shadow slammed into the floor, raising a small cloud of dust, before screeching out an unintelligible chain of high pitched sounds and blowing into a small metal object hanging from its neck. Now that the dust had settled, she could see what the strange creature was. A goblin. It was a scrawny thing, similar in stature to the three raggedy ones who’d ambushed her outside Felspire, but dressed in rags and furs of a better quality. It drew a short sword from its waist, which glinted in the light of the sun, not a speck of rust in sight. Clearly this goblin was a cut above the ones she’d previously encountered.
She recognised the twisted piece of metalwork it had blown into as a whistle, albeit much cruder in design than any whistle she’d seen before. No sound came out when the goblin blew into its tool, which confused her, but for some reason all the hairs on her body stood on edge. The reason for her subconscious fear was revealed when two hulking silver wolves trotted out from the trees behind her, steaming jaws dripping with saliva, with knife-like yellowing teeth on display. Each of the beasts stood almost as tall as Elaria while on all fours, and judging how they had arrived right after the goblin blew on its whistle, the three monsters were likely to be working in tandem. The missions from the guild had said nothing about different species of monster working together like this, so either her knowledge simply needed an update, or something highly unusual was going on in this forest.
Escape was impossible. With the reinforcement of the two wolves, the goblin had been able to form a triangle around Elaria, and her only route to survival was to defeat the three monsters in battle. Even though this little green guy had fancier equipment compared to his plains dwelling brethren, she still reckoned one goblin wouldn’t be a match for her in a straight melee. The wolves however, presented a challenge. Given that they were part of a copper ranked mission, she presumed it would be within the scope of her skills to take a couple down, but there was a gnawing tendril of insecurity in the back of her mind. The events of two years ago, when she’d run away from home and almost lost her life at the paws of a ravenous pack of wolves left a scar on her psyche, one that was poised to upset her delicate mental state during this intense faceoff.
Taking a deep breath to relax her jittering nerves, she whirled her sword once in her hand while shaking her shoulders to limber up and pointing out her sword at the two white eyed wolves. Elaria would be able to fend off the attacks of the goblin with a kick or a quick twist of the blade, but she would need to keep a constant vigilant eye on the two beasts, lest they deal a crippling blow with their razor sharp claws and teeth. The goblin blew on its whistle once more, and one of the wolves darted forward, raising a clawed paw and swiping at her chest. It was likely just a feint in order to probe out her abilities, but with the numbers against her, Elaria was going to use every opportunity she could in order to even the odds. Ducking down low, under the careless swipe of the wolf, she thrust upwards with her sword, and buried it deep into the belly of the beast.
The wolf howled in agony, thrashing violently in a desperate attempt to free itself from the blade, but that only made its injuries worse. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to finish it off, as the other wolf sensed an opening and struck, jaws open wide in an attempt to tear off a chunk of her thigh. Elaria wasn’t committed to the kill though, satisfied with the deep wound she’d inflicted, and her sword slid out from the other wolf with a tug, the monster rapidly retreating while leaving a trail of crimson red soiling the grassy floor. With strength that the wolf didn’t expect from such a young girl, she booted the other beast under the chin, catching it right in a soft and fleshy part of the throat. It flew a couple metres before curling up and attempting to cradle the injury. Sensing movement from behind, Elaria pivoted on her feet, but was just a moment too late as the short sword of the goblin bit into her buttocks, leaving a stinging gash that could’ve cut off use of her leg if not for her alertness.
You have been cut by a Goblin
-4 health
-1 health per hour from bleeding
The little fiend retreated, satisfied with the trade. Even though the two wolves had sustained major damage from her attacks, the goblin remained unharmed while managing to inflict a wound on its enemy. The cut was radiating pain through her lower body, but Elaria ignored it. There would be time to deal with her injuries after the fight, and right now the crafty green foe demanded all of her attention. Despite their wounds, the two wolves had returned to their feet, and with a command from the goblin, slowly stalked around her, threatening an attack from all angles and maintaining the encirclement. Not wanting to let her enemies take the advantage once again, Elaria darted towards the goblin, thrusting her sword directly for its head.
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It panicked, blowing the whistle while jumping backwards to avoid her blow, falling perfectly for her trap. The strike at the goblin was simply a feint, and when the two injured wolves ran towards her, teeth bared, she was ready. The closest wolf had jumped high, sailing through the air towards her with claws raised. Inadvertently, following the commands of the goblin would prove to be a fatal mistake, as being off the ground meant it could do nothing to avoid the oncoming blade. Elaria’s sword sung as she slashed a beautiful arc through the neck of the beast, separating head and body with a surgical cut. Despite still having the small stature of a young girl, her mind, sharpened from years and years of investigations and avoiding her enemies, was working overtime. Using the momentum of the corpse, she kicked out, and the other wolf, which had been attempting an attack while she was distracted, yelped as the body of its comrade thudded into its side, knocking both to the ground.
Elaria pounced on the fallen wolf, pinning it down with a boot on its throat, and struck her blade deep into its chest, holding it there as blood spurted from the wound and it desperately flailed and kicked in a futile struggle for its life. It soon fell still, and expecting the goblin to use her momentary distraction as an opportunity, she twirled round, holding out her sword and hoping to parry the incoming strike. Her vigilance was not rewarded, because her cowardly foe had decided that any opponent who could dispatch its pets so quickly was not one to be trifled with, and fled back into the forest. Wiping blood from the blade, she sheathed her sword, and decided to quickly find somewhere secluded, lest the goblin return with more of its kind in order to seek vengeance. Her mission did require her to kill 25 of the ghastly green gits, but she would prefer to do it on her own terms, rather than face another ambush.
She found a spacious grove, with clear lines of sight in all directions to prevent anything from sneaking up on her, and a soft bed of moss to relax on while she recuperated from her wounds. Elaria took a bandage and a small bottle of bright red liquid from her pack, downing the fluid in a single gulp before cleaning the cut on her glutes and bandaging it tightly. The red bottle was a health potion that she’d picked up from the adventurer’s guild before leaving Felspire at a discounted price. She figured that since the mission rewards would refill her diminishing purse, she might as well use the remainder of the money her father had given her to pick up some supplies. In the guild store, lesser healing potions went for just 2 coppers apiece, and she’d purchased nine of them, using all of her coins. It was a worthwhile purchase, since each potion would bolster her natural regeneration by 2 extra points of health per hour for six hours and immediately restore 5 health, meaning the damage from the earlier fight would be healed in no time, and if she got into any more scuffles, there would be a reduced risk of dying too quickly. Having dealt with the immediate issues, she pulled up the notifications which had been piling up during the battle.
Silvermoon Wolf x2 has been slain
+21 XP
Wolf Fangs x2
You have levelled up!
+1 stat point
Due to your actions you have received a skill!
Sword Proficiency Lv. 1
+1% damage when wielding a sword
Other than the skills which had been created by her personal ability, this was her first time obtaining one. The bonus was rather insignificant, but she supposed it would add up in a longer battle, and based on the fact the skill could level up, Elaria guessed that the measly damage increase could eventually become a huge multiplier. There were now 2 stat points floating around, so she figured it would be sensible to allocate them, given that this forest seemed to be rife with danger. Saving up points for a time when she had a better grasp on how to utilise them was all well and good, but unallocated points were no good to a dead woman.
Even against such weak foes, she’d still allowed herself to take damage, and compared to the monsters she’d battled on the way to Felspire, it had taken a few strikes to slay them. Elaria had wanted to keep pumping up her luck stat just to see the effect it would have when combined with her personal ability, but that was probably not a sustainable long term strategy. For now, she put 1 point each into agility and strength, to sharpen her combat prowess for the dangerous path ahead. She pulled up her status to have a look, impressed with her own rapid progress having left home just a few days prior.
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