The other four hobgoblins went down pretty easily. It had turned into a two versus two and a three versus two on either side of the battles, making it a lot less exciting and dangerous as compared to the previous fights. Only when all the hobgoblins laid on the floor lifeless did Gracie moved closer to us.

“Not bad, I had not expected that you would have used their ambush to your own advantage. That had certainly caught them by surprise and aid you with your numerical disadvantage. I was expecting you all to fail miserably due to the strength and number differences. I supposed that I can pass you all due to your ability to create some form of tactics on the go.”

We were somewhat happy as she had praised us but didn’t let it get over our heads. If we failed in any of the parts in the fight before, the result would have been horrible. If the one that I was fighting was at its full strength and I couldn’t take it down fast enough, Aston might have fallen. If Aston had fallen, we wouldn’t be able to reinforce the others and take down each of the hobgoblins one by one. That wasn’t the only possibility on how the fight could have gone wrong though.

The fight itself was a good experience for us. To take on multiple opponents that were stronger than ourselves, we were able to improve the effectiveness of our body and skills as we had to do that to survive. It was better than just relying on the stats advantage that we would usually take. By training under these circumstances, we can improve ourselves outside of levelling, enabling us to take on stronger foes the next time and continue on this never ending path to getting stronger.

With just ten minutes of rest from the end of the battle, Gracie hurried us forward again into the near darkness. While keeping an eye on our front for the smallest of movement, we proceeded. It did not take long for us to meet another group of hobgoblin. It was smaller this time, four of them, and we took them down swiftly as we could team up easily. A few more groups later, where the largest was the first one of eight hobgoblins, there was a change in our opponent.

While not looking too different from the hobgoblins that we were fighting, it was larger, way larger. It was an ogre. The average hobgoblins stand at a height of two metres while this orge we were seeing stood at three metres, maybe even reaching four. It was large enough that it could barely stand straight and not hit the roof of the cave. The intimidating aura that it gives off wasn’t just caused by its size, it looked intelligent too.

The feeling as the ogre stares as us seemed like he was staring into our souls. We don’t really know how to react to him. He was the one to react first.

“Heh, I had a feeling that some bugs had intruded into the cave and you know what? I was right! Although I’m feeling good and would very much want to let you guys go but I’m not allowed to do so. Rules stated that any intruders are to be eliminated so I’ll have to follow that!”

The way he spoke and the impression that he gave was vastly different. He spoke as if he wanted to let us get away but the feeling he gave was the opposite. He saw us as prey and I could see the hunger in his eyes as he looked as us. However it changed to that of lust when he saw Gracie. Surprisingly not so when he saw Slyvie. Gracie noticed the lust in the ogre’s eye and looked annoyed at that.

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“The five of you should be able to take down that disgusting thing. I’ll just stand over here and wait for the death of that repulsive creature.”

“Aww, don’t say it that way. It’s not like I’m weak enough for them to take me down. And you must be feeling shy to speak of it that way. Don’t worry, I’m come over to join you once I’m done with these bugs.”

The ogre winked after he replied to Gracie who seemed more than mildly annoyed at this point in time. It was to the point that you could almost see the anger radiating out from her. 

With me charging as the trigger, the other three melee fighters dashed along with me into battle. Slyvie stood her ground as she began to cast buffs on to each of us. Knowing that in a battle of stamina, the ogre would win us, I aimed to end this fight in as short a time as possible. 

When I was within his range, his weapon which was a two metres long bastard sword smashed down towards where I was standing on. I knew that he was going to strike and already had a plan for it, but it was impossibly fast for the size of the sword. With centimetres to spare before his sword cleaved me into half, I used [Shadow Movement] to get behind him.

Smirking because he thought that he got me, I gouged into his achilles tendon, activating all the effects of my assassination skills. He screamed out in pain as he lost his balance at the same time. The stab had prevented him from moving around, making it easier for us to take him down. He had not lost the full use of his legs though as he retracted and extended the leg that I stabbed towards me.

With the activation of another [Shadow Movement], I moved towards the other leg of his crouching form and stabbed again. Not as effective this time as my [Gouge] skill wasn’t ready and that he noticed me, resulting in him moving his legs and making me missed his achilles tendon. He still screamed out in pain and anger and fell down face first on to the ground.

With him on the ground and not being able to use both of his legs effectively, all of us swarmed him on from multiple sides and inflicted as much damage as possible while he swung his arm and sword wildly at us. He wasn’t able to hit us very well due to the position that he was in and the limited view he was having. He knew that he could only get out of this situation if he could change his position, so he rolled away to his right. We were all on his left, except for me.

When he rolled away from danger, he rolled into death. His roll directed his own head onto my dagger. What seemed like chaos earlier was actually pre-planned. I had told the others to attack him from his left through telepathy. He would instinctively roll towards his right, away from danger and I would [Shadow Movement] to a place that could effectively use his own movement against himself. That resulted in his self-stabbing.

The stab was lethal as he stopped moving soon after he was stabbed. Blood splattered everywhere while a pool of blood gathered where his body laid still.

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