Turning to see where he launched it, the goblin landed in the clearing of the tower. The goblin’s thrown body moved the underbrush that he was using for cover. Leaving him in clear view of all the goblins and hobgoblin. Before he could get out of sight the largest of the hobgoblins was on its feet pointing its sword right at him. It yelled; the yell cut through all the noise the goblins were making, silencing the horde. It was so loud and commanding that it even made Thomas freeze for a second.

They all looked at where it was pointing, right at Thomas. Doing the only thing he could think to do, he bolted. The thumping sound of feet and screams of joy made it clear that all of them were coming. Trying to lose as many of them as he could, Thomas flooded his body with mana. Trying to keep the mana tight and controlled so he didn’t waste it was difficult while fleeing. He had a feeling he would need to preserve as much mana as possible.

Shooting off as fast as he could Thomas made it to the ambush spot faster than before. Leaving the goblins in the dust, only slowing long enough to say just loud enough so everyone could hear.

“All of them are coming!”

When he heard a muffled “Wha…” but he didn’t wait to hear the rest. He didn’t slow down until he was in the small opening at the end of the trail that leads to the lake. Hoping that he had lost some of them he waited, sadly his hope was dashed when he started to hear a large number still coming. He only had a minute or so to calm himself before they would be on him.

The idle thought of how they followed him crossed his mind. He knew he moved fast enough that they lost sight of him. Maybe they followed him with his scent, or maybe some of them were fast enough to keep up with him. He didn’t know but it didn’t matter at this point. Calming his mana and spreading it properly this time in his strengthening technique. Trying to push down the adrenaline so he could be clear headed in the fight was hard, but necessary if he didn’t want to make mistakes. Thomas was as ready as he could be.

The first of the three-foot-tall green bastards came barreling towards him. It tried to swing its club at him, but it was so uncoordinated that even a child could have dodged it. He was surprised that it didn’t trip over itself running up the narrow path.

With a slash of his blade the goblin fell but was replaced by another, a simple follow up cut killed that one. They kept coming one after another.

By the fifth one Thomas was getting nervous because he couldn’t hear the others start the ambush yet.

By the eighth the fear started to build. Did they leave him to die? Did the entire horde follow and they couldn’t handle it so decided to just sacrifice him. He could hear an uncountable number of the little bastards trying to force their way up the trail.

As more of them came the fear turned into anger. He could run but what would that accomplish, the goblins would just keep chasing him. He would beat them in endurance, but they would still try and hunt him down. He made the choice to hold out a bit longer, hoping that they were just waiting for the right time.

Finally, he heard it, the ambush started. He could hear them unleash devastating techniques. With a sigh of relief, he fully focused back to killing the next one as they came out of the trail. Feeling lighter knowing he wasn’t left for dead. He made sure to not let any of them get through the bottle neck in front of him. A voice could be heard over the noise of battle.

Abigail’s voice came booming over the unintelligible yelling and pain of the goblins that were happening ahead. She bellowed “Thomas get up here now!”

With a muttered “well shit.” Thomas advanced, instead of waiting for them to come to him, he pushed forward. The goblin that was in front of him was being pushed forward by the ones behind. It was caught off guard when Thomas lunged forward over the bodies he created.

A thrust caught it and the one behind it in their chest. Pushing even more mana into his body to strengthen himself to a higher degree. With a twist and pull his blade was free, not stopped he brought his blade down as fast as he could to finish the next one.

A spear that he didn’t see came stabbing towards his chest. He couldn’t block in time, unable to dodge in the confined path he tried twisted out of the way. The jagged bone tip cut through his shirt leaving a cut on his chest. Retaliating, he slapped the spear aside with his free hand and at the same time he thrust the tip of his sword into the throat of the goblin.

He kept pushing forwards until he reached the bend of the path. Resetting in case of a surprised from the goblins around the blind corner. Instead of a goblin coming around the bend he came eye to eye with Phillip who had cut his way towards Thomas. Phillip without a word turned and ran back to the others. Thomas was following hot on his heels.

Thomas froze at what he saw, a literal wave of goblins that were barely being held back by the others. Thomas could already hear the goblins trying to get around the walls Tristan made. Since the wall was only about fifteen feet long it wouldn’t be too long before they made it past the dense underbrush.

Shaking his head to clear it he ran forward; the only problem was he didn’t know what to do or where to go. Never really collaborating with a team before and Thomas didn’t know what he could do.

Tristan, Phillip, and Abigail were in the front holding them back and creating a literal hill of corpses. Tristan was acting like a wall, any goblins that tried to get close either caught a shield to the face or a sword cut. Phillip had both his blades moving like a blur, any goblin that got within reach of him learned how fast he could move. Steven was behind them and throwing blades and spears of water at the goblins. The more they killed the more they had to slowly step back from the shear amount there was.

Abigail was the one that caught his eye, her blade was like a snake reaching out and cutting anything that got to close. She was using her whole body as she fought, kicks, punches and elbows killed any that got to close. She didn’t waste a single movement as she fought. Her movements flowed together in a beautiful but terrifying dance of death.

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Thomas spoke up to see what he could do by asking in a yell “Where do you want me?”

For the first time he saw Abigail use her mana, thrusting her free hand forward, a storm of ice needles that were an inch thick and three inches long decimated the oncoming goblins. The idle thought that she had a mana variant like him was something he filed away as not important right now in the current situation.

With the small breathing room, she barked “Thomas guard the rear path and watch the walls for climbers.”

Then she was back at the horde of goblins that were climbing over themselves to get at them. Thomas went to the narrow opening and got ready. The tall stone walls on either side gave him a small comfort but the thought of the goblins pushing through the brush on the other side made that small comfort even smaller.

Then they were there, the first of the waist high green monsters was in the path heading towards him. It wasn’t alone for long as a dozen or more came out of the underbrush.

The fight was on once again.

Thomas hacked, slashed, pierced, and used every trick he had learned to survive. He wasn’t coming away spotless, a club hit him in the thigh, a spear hit his side barely cutting him, he blocked another club with his forearm. The rush of battle and the mana coursing through him pushed away the pain, but he knew he would feel every hit he took eventually. Any breathing room he had was dedicated to cutting down any that tried to climb over the walls.

After his blade got stuck for a split second in the spine of a goblin, which caused him to take a cut to the side of his head Thomas used more of his mana. As controlled as he could his silvery grey mana coated his blade. Increasing how sharp it was, the next goblin that came saw just how sharp it really was when he bisected it with minimal effort.

He tried to keep an eye behind him and on the walls to make sure none climbed over but it wasn’t easy. Almost always resulting in him taking another small injury. If he survived this he would be hurting tomorrow. That dark thought would of made him chuckle if he wasn’t fighting to keep his breathing under control.

After what felt like hours but was truthfully only a few minutes the goblins coming for him slowed. The few that were still in sight were clearly hesitating at the sight of their slain breatharian. That’s when Thomas heard Abigail bellow “One more push to scare them off!”

Taking a quick look back he saw her in action. She leapt over ten feet landing behind the front line of the goblin horde. When she landed, she sent out a crescent wave of ice killed a dozen, Tristan followed running then jumping just past the ones she killed sending out a wave of earth spikes that killed even more. They turned and killed the last few that they jumped over with the help of Phillip.

That seemed to break the remaining seventy or so who fled back to where they came from. Even the ones Thomas was facing fled away, some even went up the trail. Seeing how many they killed and how many were still alive made Thomas believe that he was right in his assumption of there being a cave system under the tower.

Waiting for a bit longer to make sure he was clear Thomas finally relaxed a bit. He also heard everyone else releasing sighs and seeming to calm down as well.

Releasing his hold on his mana to stop using his techniques, the silvery grey glow of his blade and his strengthening stopped. As he pulled his mana back to his core a feeling of overwhelming weakness overtook him. Thomas had to steady himself from falling. Pushing that much mana into a strengthening technique didn’t actually hurt him but it was always a shock when the additional strength was released. The pain also hit, the cuts and bruises he felt across his body were unpleasant to say the least.

Checking himself over to make sure there weren’t any serious injuries. He felt incredibly lucky to find none. To distract himself from the aches and pains he looked around at the massacre he took part in. There were easily two hundred or more here. A massacre was the only way he could describe it. The bodies of the goblins and even a few hobgoblins were in a disturbing mound that they created. It caused him to shudder slightly seeing the large destruction and death they caused.

Abigail and Tristan came back, having to jump over the bodies they created. She pulled off her helmet as she spoke up “Anyone severely injured?” She was mainly looking at him and he shook his head in response.

Phillip in his gravelly voice spoke from behind “Only small cuts and bruises on my side.”

Steven shook his head and opened his mouth to speak. “I am rather low on mana, no injuries.”

Tristan didn’t speak, he was too busy staring at Thomas, he wasn’t wearing a helmet so the clear rage on his face was visible to all. When Thomas got ready to speak about what he saw at the tower to explain what happened. Tristan advanced on him. Clearly ready to lose his cool on him for this whole ordeal.

Before anything could happen, Abigail spoke up to everyone. Saying “You have five minutes to recover before we attack. Thomas, tell us what happened.” As if what she said was common sense, Tristan froze in place slowly turning towards Abigail. Thomas was dumb struck as well.

How was this the time to attack?

Tristan voiced exactly what Thomas was thinking, his voice coming out with clear indignation. “Why the Nine Hells would we attack?!”

Abigail looked at the group and spoke in a calm voice “Well we could retreat but the Hobgoblins and probably the goblin lord would chase us. More than likely all the way back to Les, we just killed a large portion of their force. Believe it or not but as goblins grow and mature going from goblin to hobgoblin then to lord and so on, they get smarter. We just made the lord look weak, so he is going to want to kill us to show that he is the strongest and not to be trifled with. It all comes down to the power hierarchy. We really don’t have a choice at this point.”

As she finished Abigail shrugged as if it was common knowledge. Tristan lost his cool even further and pointed an accusatory finger at her and yelled “You knew this would happen! You forced us into this situation just to get us killed!”

Abigail spoke in a voice so cold and dead of emotions she said “We are adventurers. Our job is to protect the weak and powerless. Not act like cowards in front of a threat. Take some accountability for your own choices as well.”

Tristan, who looked like he was about to explode but instead he stilled, a disturbing calm settled over him. Before he spoke or even moved Steven was beside him, placing a hand on his arm. He pulled Tristan away from Abigail and Thomas. There was a whispered conversation between the two, Phillip walked over and joined the conversation. Thomas couldn’t hear what they said and was just glad the anger wasn’t directed at him.

Feeling like it was time for him to speak up, he told them what he found. At least what he suspected was happening. As he spoke up it got the attention of everyone, and Dawns Horizon stopped whispering to listen.

Taking a deep breath, Abigail nodded said. “We will go now because if we show up and kill the hobgoblins and start a fight with the lord the normal goblins will flee. They stick around for safety and follow the larger ones out of fear. Right now, they are more scared of us than them. So, either come with me or retreat but I am leaving now.”

With that she turned and jogged off towards the tower.

This just got even more dangerous, at least Thomas thought so. He could follow the strong B-ranked Abigail as she dove headfirst into a fight. A fight that was way above his skill level. Or he could stay here with a group of C-ranked that clearly doesn’t like him at all and probably wouldn’t even notice if he died.

Was there even a choice at this point?