The goblins charged at the group. Their faces grim and greedy. To Dave's surprise, there were more than a dozen or so they had seen at first. Their ranks were quickly broadened as more and more goblins came out of the trees. Like an endless flood of green.
Dave had faced danger one too many times by now to freeze in a moment like that. He immediately gripped his spear tighter, stepping protectively in front of the group.
It took one breath for Max to gather his senses and start shooting at the creatures attacking them. It took another breath for Ryland to step forward too. By the third breath, the goblins were finally in Spark range and Dave unleashed hell upon them.
The first goblin to arrive was shocked, quite literally, by Dave’s Skill. The next ones Dave went through like he was harvesting ripe wheat.
Max felled them systematically with his shots, making sure never to let too many arrive at once. They started falling almost in sync with his finger hitting the trigger.
Ryland carved one goblins face inwards, kicked another multiple trees away, and stepped in front of Max. The signal was clear, as it was a strategy they had planned.
Max took the spot of their ranged support, Ryland was defending him by bashing every goblin coming too close into pulp, and Dave was free to roam through the midst of their enemies. Like the angel of death he was.
Where Dave went, screams and blood followed. One goblin was pierced through it’s guts, another fell to the ground smoking. Some were dead before they even noticed it. Most of the attacks against him he was able to parry, but some he had no choice but to take. The goblins scored multiple small gashes against him, but nothing that would stop him.
Until one of them bit down into his leg. The pain was blinding. Dave tried to shake it but was unable, by slowing him down, the goblins really put Dave into danger. The beasts started ganging up on him, more and more small wounds started accumulating. Dave tried to block as much as possible, but suddenly another goblin was biting down into his other leg.
He managed to grill the first one with shock, but by now he was exhausted. Out of breath and hurting all over. He had to fight to stay on his feet. Falling down against those creatures would make him end up like the boar.
Luckily Ryland was there, he crashed into the horde of goblins like a bulwark. Some goblins were sent flying, some scattered away in fear, and some were simply run over by Dave’s enraged friend.
Laser shots started hailing into the mass, clearing a bit of space. Together Dave and Ryland managed to fight their way free and slowly retreat uphill again.
Dave was cautious with his fighting style now, much of his mobility was hindered, which wasn’t good since he relied heavily on his speed and evasion. His spear gave him a solid range to keep the tide at bay though.
Conserving his energy he thrusted rarily. But when he did, a goblin fell with a critical wound. Ryland faced most of the front-running goblins, grabbed and ragdolled them. He simply threw them back down the slope, where their either dead, or strongly maimed bodies, slowed the rest of their companions.
By the time they had reached Max again, only one or two goblins remained. Which was fortunate, since Dave was so winded by now, he fought for breath. After seeing all their friends dying around them, the goblins naturally went to flee. But Max’s aim was quicker.
After the last body hit the floor, Dave followed suit and let himself drop against a nearby tree.
“God I’m exhausted.”
“That were a lot of those fuckers.” Ryland said, also out of breath.
“Yeah and they just didn’t stop coming.” Dave agreed.
Max’s eyes were still scanning the battlefield when he spoke up. “28.”
“What?” Rlyand asked, confused.
“We killed twenty eight goblins.” Max stated matter of factly.
Dave’s eyes grew wide. “Shit I didn’t realize there were so many.” He looked up to Max and sighed. “I’ve lost myself a bit there and got reckless, things were really close there for a second. Thank you guys.”
“Don’t worry.” Max said, his face still blank. “Shit really almost turned sideways there.”
As they made their way back to camp, slowed down by Dave’s hobbling. Dave suddenly had an idea.
“Wait. How many goblins do you think have attacked our camp earlier?” He asked curiously.
“I don’t know, ten or so?” Ryland said disinterested.
Dave nodded. “Yeah that’s what I would’ve guessed too.” He ran a hand along his hair. “So together with the almost thirty we killed out here, that makes fourty.”
Max stopped abruptly. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” Dave stopped to look at Max as well, sharing their understanding.
“What is it?”
They both turned towards Ryland, Max speaking up to explain first. “Just think about it, fourty of those goblins? A few weeks ago we faced a handful of these snake things. That’s a drastic increase…”
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
A light turned on in Rylands head. “Oh shit.” He mirrored.
“If the numbers and strength increase that fast…” Dave started, but stopped.
None of them picked the topic back up as they continued their way.
Having returned to the camp, all three of them were scolded by Sam like bad behaving school children. Not just because of their wounds and recklessness, but also because they didn’t take him with them.
At least they were almost punctual for the reactivation of Grace Period.
Ryland had taken up Dave’s role as the person beating Max to activate Grace Period, which Dave was more than grateful for. He had hated their method of activating the shield from the beginning. Just the thought of his friend getting beaten almost unconscious was sickening.
Not even wanting to watch it, Dave walked away from the rest of the group to his training place. It had become more than just a place for training to him during the last few weeks though.
He spent so much time here, the little clearing felt almost like home. Of course, their whole camp was kind of their home, and he felt safe here, more than that, he felt like he sort of belonged. But this little spot Dave used for training, where he knew the placement of the trees by heart, where the ground was trodden down by his countless steps, and where there was one tree, slightly bigger than the rest, charred on the outside by Dave’s Spark Skill, cut by Dave’s spear and blades, witch sight always sat Dave at ease.
Yes, if their camp was his home now, than this was his room. A place to retreat and relax, as well as grow.
Sitting back against the old charred tree that Dave suspected was actually an oak, just like the ones on Earth before, Dave opened his messages. He hadn’t had the chance to really test out his new Skill yet, the goblin fight not having been a good fit for it, but at least he had gotten quite a few level ups.
The never fading feeling of joy overcame him, as he saw the level up notifications.
*Congratulations, your Spark Skill has reached Level 10.*
*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Skill has reached Level 13.*
*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Mastery Skill has reached Level 12.*
*Congratulations, your Spark Skill has reached Level 10. New paths for Spark have become available.*
You may add an additional effect to Spark:
—-- Warning! This will be the last chance to add an additional Skill effect before Soul Weapon reaches level 25.----
Distant Thunder, Uncommon - Minimal damage increase against opponents the same rank as you.
Dazed, Uncommon - Your Spark attacks can cause a slight stun effect on opponents the same rank as you.
Quick Feet, Uncommon - Slightly increase movement speed by 1% after hitting an enemy with Spark.
Dave read those options carefully, each of the additional effects was good. Great even. All of them were uncommon, which as always was a nice extra for Dave, and all of them seemed useful. He had to think twice carefully because, as with his other upgrades, he would only get to choose an additional effect again at Skill level 25. If the slow leveling speed of his other Skill was any indicator, it would take quite some time.
Just straight up more damage was nice, but Dave prefered utility over brute force. Partly because the damage increase was said to be minimal.
But also because his fighting style was more about evasion and speed anyways. If he were a DnD character, he would be Dexterity based. He chuckled at the thought.
Two options left on the table. He could double down on the movement speed buff, or he could add a stun effect.
Unsure what to do, Dave got up and walked around the clearing a little. Stun effects were always great in video games, and it would fit perfectly into his fighting style. If he could even slow his enemy with Spark, most wouldn’t be able to escape his blades.
On the other hand it would only work against opponents of the same rank as him, so it wouldn’t help him if he fought Sunkast or Marekiel again. But the extra 1% Movement Speed wouldn’t either.
In the end he decided to go with his gut, and choose the stun effect. Being even faster would be nice, but being able to stun or slow enemies wouldn’t just make it easier for him, but also for his friends to finish them. After the goblin slaughter he had to think a bit more along the lines of teamplay.
Satisfied with his choice, Dave laid down on his back and stared into the sky. The sun was closing in on the horizon, throwing a few shades of orange into the sky, but it was still dominated by the bright baby blue it held all day. It was getting late, but Dave still had a bit of time to kill.
As Dave watched the few single clouds drifting through the sky, his mind wandered. Over and over he replayed the scenes of today in his head. His mind switched from slashed throats to smoldering corpses. He replayed entire exchanges in his head, the sounds of dying goblins, and the feeling of his spear passing through them as if he was merely cutting through butter.
There were moments when he was disgusted. Appalled by how easily he wracked havoc among them, how casually he took lives. Bixby had told them the Spawn created creatures weren’t real beings, merely created by Mana. But does that mean they also didn’t feel? Weren’t they just as conscious in the end?
The voice in his mind that kept telling him these things was a small one. It was distant, and grew even more so every day. Dave could still remember the first few nights after the Nodefox den when he had been plagued by nightmares or couldn’t sleep at all. Slowly but surely his mind had hardened though. The rational part of his brain knew it was all necessary, but that didn’t stop the nightmares back then.
In the beginning, killing three or four Nodefoxes, he wasn’t even sure how many anymore, in pure self preservation, kept him up for nights. Now after going out of his way to hunt and kill 28 goblins, most of them on his own, he knew he would sleep like a baby. Wasn’t that even more scary?
On the other hand he appreciated his coldness. Dave knew he needed to level and therefore kill to not be killed himself. That was the dark game of survival he now lived in.
That’s also exactly why he kept replaying the moments from today in his head. He forced himself to look at them and think them through again and again. Not to see his emotional reaction, but because he needed to analyze them.
There had been one moment in the fight where he would’ve almost taken a fall, rung down by all the wild beasts around him. On the ground against the goblins, he wouldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds. He couldn’t allow himself to make such mistakes. After the third or fourth replay in his head, Dave felt the disgust fading even more. By the fifth he found almost a dozen small things he could’ve done better.
He kept going until he was somewhat satisfied with his learnings. By then he could think about the events in a completely detached way, he could still feel the sensation of impaling one of the goblins, but he had no emotional reaction attached to it anymore. Dave hadn’t found one major flaw that almost brought his end, but he had found lots and lots of small things to improve. That had to suffice for now.
He had grown truly cold over the last few weeks, a fact that scared Dave deeply. At the same time he was a little proud of it, he was becoming a real killing machine, like so many of his fantasy heroes had been. Was that really worth sacrificing his humanity though? His feelings were conflicting to say the least.