(Adimir's POV)
Adimir snuck around the group of armored hobgoblins while they fought his allies. As he entered the tent, he was greeted with an ice shard flying towards his face. He narrowly dodged it as he ducked down, feeling the chill as it brushed against his head before flying past him. Looking back up he saw a 3-foot tall goblin dressed up in a row with a wooden staff pointed at him.
"Ignis fulmine!" He shouted blasting the goblin with a bolt of fire before it had a chance to cast another spell. The goblin let out a pained cry as the firebolt slammed into it, burning the fabric of the robe, and scorched its skin. However, the goblin didn't immediately collapse as its internal mana shielding was enough to resist the attack. It must have been an intermediate mage to have been able to resist it. Cursing Adimir cast a chantless spell to form an 8-inch thick dirt wall in front of him as two other goblin mages cast ice shard spells at him. These shards buried themselves 5 inches into his defense before finally coming to a stop. Adimir heard the goblins shouting furiously as they saw him defend against their attacks.
"Crymbl!" He shouted causing his defense to crumble into dozens of small stones. The goblins on the other side of it began to gather up their mana to attack again when they saw the opportunity. However, before they could begin chanting the stones blasted forward shooting dozens of holes and killing all three goblins in one go.
"Hmph. In the end, even if you had powerful mana reservoirs you goblins lack the intelligence to make proper use of them." Adimir said while looking for his next opponent.
He didn't have to wait long as a goblin wearing a fancy iron crown decorated with valuable gems stepped forward with a strong aura of killing intent cloaking it.
"Triplici ignis fulmine!" He shouted blasting three fire bolts at once at the mage. Unexpectedly the fire bolts dissipated before they even reached the hobgoblin mage as the ambient temperature fell 10 degrees sending goosebumps across his skin.
"Ah shit. This is definitely a boss battle." He grumbled while gathering up his mana to prepare for the battle.
"Kalunus-lunos insekto. Mamatay." The hobgoblin spoke before sending a blistering wave of cold towards Adimir slamming into him and sending him flying a dozen feet. He landed roughly onto the ground bruising multiple bones in his body forcing a groan from his chilled lungs.
"Adimir! Are you alright!?" He heard a panicked voice exclaim. A blurry face drifted into view before gradually clearing up to reveal Mira's worried face.
"I'm alright. Just. Just give me a moment to catch my breath." He wheezed painfully.
Sitting up he gazed over with a mix of fear, admiration, and awe at the hobgoblin mage which had a small blizzard raging 15 feet around it in every direction.
"Is that some type of spell that it's using?" Asked Tauna as she walked over.
"Worse. That's only the mana that's overflowing from his body in the form of the element he's strongest in." Adimir answered her while struggling onto his feet. Claratte began casting a healing spell on him to heal his injuries.
"This hobgoblin mage is strong. He has far more mana than a mage of his mana should have. Young one I do not think we will be leaving here alive. It has been an honor fighting with you." The reptaurian shaman solemnly said.
"We won't be dying today. We're going to kill this bastard and then get a nice juicy bonus for this job." Adimir replied with a grin as he felt the pain in his body fade away.
"Claratte mind giving the melee fighters some support buffs? We're going to need it for this fight." He asked her. She nodded and went to casting some pain resistance and fatigue recovery spells on them. They had long since gone out of range of the massive AOE support spell, and even if they weren't the spell had run out a minute or so ago. The only reason that the goblin army didn't attack them right now was that they were too scared to get close and get killed by their enraged lord.
"I will use my pyromancy to distract the enemy with the warriors. I trust you will find a way to defeat the hobgoblin lord young one." The reptaurian told Adimir before rushing towards the hobgoblin mage.
"Tân clogyn!" The lizard cried out before his entire body was cloaked in fire and dove towards the hobgoblin mage. The hobgoblin created a large ice wall blocking off the lizard's way to it and began forming dozens of foot-long ice spikes in the air and bombarded it with them. The shaman cried out in pain as the ice spikes crashed into him partially melting but still causing significant cuts and gouges on its scales. Tauna and Mira quickly joined the fray, but before they could get close the mage blasted dozens of coin-sized ice shards at them halting their charge as they were forced to get behind Tauna's shield for protection.
He was certainly powerful, but Adimir noticed that every time he attacked the hobgoblin held power and size over technique with its magic. Certainly, an outdated way of thinking of stuff as bigger is better. Adimir fired several stones at the hobgoblin from a distance but the wind that was surrounding it blew the stones off course causing them to veer away harmlessly.
"Looks like even my stone machine gun will be useless against this guy. Things really aren't looking up for us." He commented as he racked his brain for ideas to defeat the hobgoblin lord. Out of nowhere, he thought of the banana peel gag where a person would slip on a banana peel. At first, he was about to reject that ridiculous thought, but then he realized he had magic and a creative mind. Why not go out of the box and make a fool of this high and mighty hobgoblin lord when defeating him? As he thought up an idea to make perfect use of the terrain and the enemy's haughtiness a devilish grin grew on his face.
Seeing this Claratte couldn't help but shiver in fear wondering what crazy thing the child would pull next to win this seemingly unwinnable battle. Adimir began to manipulate the earth under the hobgoblin lord and then as soon as he had a good amount of control over the dirt under the hobgoblin lord, he yanked it. The following events were one that would cause the entire audience to gape in shock. First, the hobgoblin lord despite how powerful it seemed slipped from several inches of dirt underneath him was yanked away. This caused a look of confusion to cloud over its face as it was sent flying for seemingly no reason. Then when it landed its head landed on a baseball-sized stone with a soft thud knocking it out cold.
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All because the mana that was on the level of a Tier- 1 spell seemed like it didn't even deserve its attention. For a full minute, everything was silent. Adimir realized that unlike what he had planned instead of just disorientating the hobgoblin mage he managed to knock them out. So Adimir leisurely walked over while spinning a baseball-sized stone in one hand as he drew ever closer to his fallen enemy. Some might say it's dishonorable to kill an enemy while they slept. Others would say what he had done was a low blow that one shouldn't do. Adimir says that it's a free kill.
So, with a joyful smile on his face, he sent the stone flying into the unconscious hobgoblins face smashing its skull into a bloody pile of bone and flesh killing them instantly. Then he reached down and took the hobgoblins crown and tucked it away. He looked around at the audience of goblins and hobgoblins who were still standing in a dumbfounded stupor. Their leader a hobgoblin who seemed nigh unbeatable was just killed so easily. As if he was nothing more than a pesky bug to be squashed under others' feet.
"That... That was anticlimactic." Tauna finally said.
"Perhaps, but hey it's their fault for not paying attention to my magic. Even if it was only at Tier- 1 level." Adimir replied with a grin.
"Now then let's continue with the plan. Without their leader, they'll begin panicking soon, and then our forces will crush them. So, all we have to do now is hold out against countless hobgoblins until reinforcements get here." He told the rest while turning to the goblin army. He then slammed his staff into the ground
"Ignis pluvia!" He shouted causing dozens of fireballs to rain down onto the hobgoblins severely injuring many of those within the spells effective range.
This woke the hoard from its stupor as they began to split up into their own individual factions as goblins always did without strong leadership. Some decided to attack the enemy that had killed their leader, but between the five of them, the dozens that they had to face were held off. Others, however, began seizing the chance to kill their former allies and pay back any grudges they held. As one would expect of goblins, they were the opposite of unified all because of one child's actions
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(Rolafs POV)
"Sir the goblin hoard is starting to show signs of infighting! I think they succeeded in killing their leader!" A caravan guard reported to him. When he heard this news, he sighed in relief. But then he shook off his current mood and grabbed a double-sided battle-ax.
"Well, what are you standing there for!? Let's go and give those bastards a piece of our mind!" He bellowed. "EVERYONE CHARGE!" He shouted as he ran out of the defensive formation of the wagons alone towards the goblin hoard.
Seeing their leader's willingness to attack the enemy the guards raised up a wordless shout and charged after their leader towards the goblin hoard. All the while the hoard remained oblivious due to their own internal struggles.
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Adimir fired off another batch of firebolts at a couple of hobgoblins that were aiming their bows at them.
"Why the hell do so many still have to be focused on us!? Kill each other, not us!" He shouted at the hobgoblins angrily before firing another fire spell.
"Well, maybe it's because somebody didn't kill the leader in a flashy enough way to make them fear us!" Mira remarked.
"Who cares? It was funny, and I get to bash more skulls in. It's a win-win for me!" Tauna said laughing while she bashed the skull of another goblin in with her mace.
"I've been meaning to ask this." Adimir paused what he was saying to blast a bolt of lightning at a group of goblins wearing chain mail frying them.
"But are you a battle junkie?" He asked her.
"Why yes, I am! Thank you for noticing." She replied with a joyful smile.
"I'd hate to interrupt your delightful conversation. BUT WE'RE SURROUNDED AND ARE GOING TO BE OVERWHELMED ANY MINUTE!" Claratte interrupted angrily as she healed a cut on Mira's arm.
"Well we don't exactly have any exit plan, so I sort of figured that we might as well die casually talking. So that way we could be the first if anyone else hasn't done that yet." Adimir said with a coy smile.
"Young one this is no time for jokes. We must figure out a way to survive this ordeal." The shaman chided him. Before Adimir could come up with something witty to say in return they heard a furious shout and the hobgoblins starting to flee from the direction the caravan was from. Soon guard captain Rolaf emerged from the hoard of the goblin hoard wildly swinging a battle-ax sending limbs and heads flying all around him.
"I think it’s already being handled!" Adimir exclaimed admiring the carnage that one beastkin made of the hobgoblins he came across. Just behind him the guards and civilians of the caravan were carving their way through the goblin hoard, and soon the remaining 40 of the 80 strong suicide attack force merged with them and continued their rampage across the battlefield.
By now the hobgoblins were in full retreat as they ran in terror from the vengeful souls behind them. Stomping any goblin that was unfortunate enough to fall to death. Five minutes of bloody fighting later the hobgoblins had finally managed to run away with only a couple hundred left of them.
"WE'VE WON!" Rolaf shouted while lifting up his battle ax into the air with one hand. Adimir grinned as he let himself savor the taste of victory.
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That night all the mages worked together to burn away all the hobgoblin corpses to avoid an undead catastrophe forming here. After that was done instead of continuing, they all celebrated throughout the night. Many lives were lost from this battle, but they still managed to triumph over an enemy many times their number and strength. Adimir and the four others, however, were not involved in that at the moment. Instead, they were all gathered in one of the wagons with Rolaf and the head merchant.
"We called you here today to reward you for managing to kill the hobgoblin lord. Had it not been for you Rolaf's charge would have failed and we'd all be dead right now. Take this as a token of my gratitude. 50 silver coins for each of you for a job well done." The merchant said with a smile. It seemed that when not under the threat that he was a much more amiable person.
"Whoop! With this, we can buy more goodies!" Tauna yelled excitedly.
"Now go ahead and enjoy the celebration! We'll be heading out again come daybreak. So, enjoy the night while it lasts and try not to push yourself too hard." The merchant added after watching them excitedly receive the rewards. The five of them thanked the merchant before exiting the wagon.
"We did rather well given the circumstances. Although I'm beginning to believe Adimir is bad luck or is cursed by a god." Mira said to the others. Adimir looked over at her with an incredulous look on his face.
"Why am I the one who's bad luck?" Adimir asked with an annoyed look on his face.
"Simple. Ever since you've joined the team, we've been facing abnormal situation after abnormal situation." She answered him.
"That is a good point she's raising, but I'm alright with that. It just means more excitement and bonus rewards!" Tauna added.
"Ok ok I guess you raise a point there, but hey we haven't faced anything insane like a dragon, right? So, I can't have THAT much bad luck." Adimir acknowledged.
"Don't raise one of those flags you spoke of," Mira warned him. He raised up his hands in mock defeat.
"Well, I used up a lot of mana during the battle so I'm going to go rest. You guys party without me." He told them.
"You sure? There'll be a lot of yummy goodies." Tauna asked him.
Adimir merely waved it off as he walked away. Seeing this Tauna shrugged and walked away with Mira to enjoy the celebration. After finding a secluded corner behind a wagon farthest away from the celebration Adimir took out his pet project from his bag. He wasn't here to rest as he had claimed but to make some more changes to the pigeon he had. Unbeknownst to the others in the caravan, he had managed to discreetly dig through the mess he made of the hobgoblin leaders head and dig out a chunk of usable brain mass. He took out said brain chunk now. By using his magic this entire time he's managed to keep it alive but had to use up all of the mana in his staff to do so.
"Time to play Frankenstein!" He whispered under his breath excitedly.
By keeping the brain alive he could keep a fair chunk of the mana that the hobgoblin had to use on his pigeon to gradually strengthen it. He wasn't daring enough to test it on himself as he had no idea about the side effects of what he was about to do, he began by extracting a chunk of the more basic parts of the brain and opening up the skull of the pigeon. Once he connected the two together via a fleshy cord, he moved on to attempting to channel the hobgoblins icy mana throughout the body of the pigeon and mixing it with the plain mana of the avian.
To his surprise as the icy mana mixed with the bird's mana and was gradually overwhelmed and began to change into the same form of mana as it. Like some sort of disease. This brought a smile to his face as he began to think about the possibilities of this phenomenon if it worked as he thought. He then shook himself from his thoughts to focus back on the task on hand. The grand days in which he'd wield tyrannical power was far off into the future after all. Half an hour later and he finally managed to ensure the safe transfer of the mana he disconnected the cord attaching the two's brains and tossed aside the hobgoblin's brain. He then closed the pigeon's skull and took control of it.
He decided to test out the pigeon's affinity for cryomancy magic now that it had the hobgoblins mana flowing through it. He started out with something simple and had it gather its mana into its throat and breath out a stream of frost onto the ground, decorating it with frost crystals.
"Success!" He whispered excitedly. With this, he now took his first step to have the magic equivalent of a drone to attack his enemies. He spent a few more hours practicing with his carnomancy before retiring to bed. He had a long journey ahead of him still.