Zeke pulled his vest around his broad shoulders and well-built arms, the leather was thick and stuffy but well fitted as the result of some minor adjustments he added after yesterday's test run. Subsequent to the vest were the vambraces and shin-guards which had been repaired with a second layer of leather sewn on top, the extra thickness improved the defence and the weight was barely noticable to Zeke's endurance. With the most awkward armour equiped he happily slid his feet into the bog hide slippers and tied off the ankle strap with an excited gusto. Next were the various sheaths that were carefully filled with their appropriate weapons, four metal daggers, one metal sword, three well-balanced javelins and the last weapon, a used and abused red-tinged branch, soaked in the blood of goblins. His club was his pride and joy, and today, it was about to submerge in the glorious deaths of more goblins.
Zeke eyed his club lovingly. A somewhat frightening thought emerged from the back of his mind. 'I hope it doesn't turn into a demonic avatar of nature's fury, hell-bent on sucking blood', one Scarlet Ent was enough for Zeke. Well maybe it wouldn't be too bad if it was just goblin's blood, but a normal branch was just as good in Zeke's expert hands.
Now armed to the teeth with his many tools of death, of both physical and magical, Zeke set out on the brand new trail, leading to the stream while avoiding the territory of the Scarlet Ent. He noticed a few patches of unusual dead grass had encroached further into the healthy greenery, the Ent was spreading out, slowly. Given a couple of weeks Zeke may have to widen his path to avoid any nasty roots that decide to spring to life and attack passerbys. For the meantime, he should be safe.
By staying on track and without being distracted by the ever-changing flora and fauna, Zeke made it back to the 'goblin stream' in record time, a little less than 30 minutes, all the more time to hunt. When Zeke felt as if he was approaching the stream, he left the marked path to approach the goblin hunters from further away, he suspected that the numbers would have been increased again.
The good news was that the goblin mage with the fancy staff had returned with his entourage of several sword goblins. Now Zeke finally had the chance to swipe the staff for himself. There was more good news too, the number of low-leveled hunting goblins still stood at about 40 or so, a force easily dispatched.
The bad news was that 5 very distinct, more ferocious goblins were present. They were bigger, badder and had a yellowish tinge to their skin, their height reached Zeke's chest and their arm muscles bulged out of their skin. Much like Zeke they all had a set of bog armour and a club, although, their clubs were a proper 'metal head with a smooth wooden shaft' club, unlike Zeke's club-shaped branch. If there was ever a time to upgrade his favourite weapon, it would be now.
Zeke winced in empathic pain as one of the yellow gobs in a far-off group slammed down their metal club on a bog's snout, the poor thing's mouth was crushed instantly. The lower-leveled green gobs swarmed over the writhing bog and finished it off to be harvested, the yellow gob just picked it's nose with disinterest, as if they bog was no threatening than an ant.
To be fair, Zeke also possessed the arm power to one-hit a bog with a club to the face, but for a goblin, it was unprecedented!
Zeke hoped that the insane strength of the yellow gobs was counter-balanced by an abysmal lack of agility and intelligence. At the very least, they looked just as dumb and ugly as the smaller greenies. He imagined that fighting all 5 high-leveled gobs at the same time would result in defeat, so the tactic would be the same as always... divide and conquer. And after he cleaned up here, their home would be next.
Zeke stealthily advanced along the treeline to the most isolated group, which wasn't saying much as they were all wary of an attack. This particular group was of 12 low-goblins, 3 archers, 3 spearman, 6 rogues and 2 high-goblins. They were crowding around what Zeke could only assume was the corpse of one of the verdant plant-rhinos, due to the sheer size of the corpse being obscured by the cackling goblins. One of the high-goblins was nursing a bloody arm, the other was unscathed, but both were laughing in a deep grumbling voice.
"HAHAHAHAHA, WE KILL BIG PLANT" the uninjured one said. Confirming the creature killed.
The ability to verbally communicate indicated a higher intelligence than regular goblins, bad news for Zeke.
"PLANT HURT" the bloody one answered, clearly not as happy as the other, his arm was most likely broken, great news for Zeke.
"PLANT EASY" disagreed the healthy one. "PLANT HARDER THAN MANS, MANS LIKE BUG"
The injured one cracked a evil grin of agreement at the mention of Zeke's race.
"GOBLIN STUPID, HOBGOBLIN NEVER DIE, KILL MANS FAST"
An evil smile of Zeke's own creeped to his lips, they were about to find out just how outclasses they were. Even though the hobgoblins weren't aware that Zeke was listening, the taunts had undoubtably undercut Zeke's ego, making him stop at nothing to kill the hobgoblins. After all, killing goblins was his life's work, all two weeks of it, no one was better at goblin extermination than he.
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Zeke channeled his anger into two regular fireballs as he strode from the bushes, one in each hand, totalling 22 out of his 53 mana. The bright blue fire would've given away his position anyway so strolling out of the bushes was the best option for giving him a clear shot. Fortunately, the clueless goblins didn't even see him brazaenly walk out.
He launched both fireballs at the grouped-up cluster of 12 low-leveled goblins by the dead rhino, he wouldn't use magic on the hobgoblins, no, they weren't worthy, they would suffer his trademark club treatment.
Magic is a beautiful thing, its a force that defies logic and laws alike... its also very useful for eliminating large numbers of small fry, for example, the 12 green goblins that had just been washed over by a wave of muted blue flames and were all scrambling around on the ground to put the undying flames out.
The two hobgoblins watched the living fire pyres screaming their heads off in awe, in their defence, the magic flames did have a knack for being both wonderous and dreadful in tandem. It looked as if Zeke's magic was an unknown weapon to the goblins, the few messengers that escaped Zeke yesterday never witnessed them personally, so the forces here were ignorant of it.
Zeke was all to familiar with the star-struck feeling the flames bestowed upon its watchers and flawlessly used the distraction to draw a javelin, wait for Aim Lock to activate, and hurl the crude stick at the back of the uninjured hobgoblin's head. At the distance of 20 meters, the chances of hitting the mark sat at about 95% if Zeke's practice proved true.
All the hard work paid off as the stone tipped javelin penetrated the exposed yellow neck at bewildering speed, knocking the goblin forward in a sudden lurch and causing it to howl in pain. Of course he knew that a single javelin wouldn't be enough to kill, even if it hit right in the back of the head, but Zeke was still utterly disappointed when the downed hobgoblin ripped out the projectile and a big chunk of flesh as it stood to it's feet. Such a shame it didn't hit the vertebrae and paralyze it, or at the very least, stall it for longer than a measly two seconds.
Roaring out in pain the hobgoblin returned the spear in Zeke's direction, it's throwing form and aim were poor, the javelin didn't even land in the same universe as Zeke which made him internally giggle. The broken armed hobgob had already started their war-charge the instant his friend got hit, club raised high into the air, ready to swing down at a moment's notice. The second followed behind in a similar fashion soon after throwing the javelin pathetically.
The sight of two hobgoblins charging in one's direction was intimidating to say the least, Zeke contemplated expending the rest of his mana to kill them instantly, but he managed to fight the temptation, knowing he may need it later.
Drawing a second spear Zeke hastily threw again, not using Aim Lock this time as it wasn't necessary, and hit the closest hobgob in the broken arm, making him cry out and stumble away.
"Harden" Zeke shouted as the second charger drew near at terrific pace.
With all his might Zeke met the charge head-on and smashed his club at the speeding head, it was convenient to have the goblin's head at arm height, it made the perfect target. The crimson coloured branch thunked with great satisfaction into the ugly yellow head with a round-house strike, the force of the blow knocked-out and floored the running monster, it's face skidding on the soft grass for a meter or so. But, the hobgoblin too, had managed to land a powerful strike, right into Zeke's exposed ribcage where his raised arms didn't cover.
Zeke reeled to the side, unable to breathe, his whole body wracked with pain, a few broken ribs for sure. Before he could even recover his breath, the other goblin was upon him, battering the back-turned goblin slayer with it's metal club. What little breath Zeke had left was then fully exhaled as he crashed to the ground. The next strike the hobgob aimed was directly at Zeke's head. Zeke only barely noticed it and jerked to the side with all his agility, he then gave a weak kick to the goblin's head as clumps of dirt showered his face where the club landed.
With a second to compose himself Zeke released his grip on his club and unsheathed two daggers, opting for a grappling match where his shorter weapons could cut and slice freely. He repeatedly slashed viciously at the hobgob's good arm with a vengeful wrath. The goblin sharply jabbed Zeke's belly and rammed it's shoulder into his sternum, pushing him back a bit, but paying dearly as Zeke ignore the attacks and continued the onslaught of stabs. The hobgoblin was reduced to a bleeding mess in a matter of seconds.
As Zeke got tackled by the impaired goblin, he plunged a dagger straight into it's right eye. He sensed the hilt make contact with it's face and then he rocked the handle back and forth, making a mess of the brain on the business end of the lethal blade stab. Zeke felt all the life of the hobgoblin instantly drain away as he pulled the dagger from it's victim and the goblin collapsed.
Level Up!
You've reached level 9
+3 Attribute Points
+ Rogue Class Earned
Rogue has reached level 1
With a hearty kick he rolled the body away as he took stock of the surroundings.
One hobgoblin was still unconscious in the grass, eight normal goblins were dead on the floor around the rhino cadaver, four more were splashing around in the stream as they tried to sooth the torment of the magically induced burns. As Zeke expected, just a javelin's throw away, was an angry mob of 30 green gobs, 3 hobgobs and one mage gob. Some were swimming through the stream, others were running at full pelt to where the corpses of their comrades laid. Zeke had only seconds to act untill another fight began.
"Blood Regeneration" Zeke said as he moved a hand to the now one-eye-less hobgoblin.
"Avarice"
Nothing.
He then quickly picked up the goblin's discarded metal club as he rushed to the other hobgoblin, crushing it's head. He was abandoning the much-loved wooden club, but he would weep for it later when he wasn't in a war zone.
"Avarice" he repeated.
+ 4 strength (52)
It was unfortunate, but there was no time for the other goblins.
Zeke ducked to the floor when a ball of yellow flames hurtled pass where he had once been crouching, erupting the trees at the end of the Fireball's destination in amber fire.
Zeke shot the mage an angry sneer as he jumped back to his feet to avoid another Fireball that was launched soon after.
"How much fucking mana does it have? to shoot so willy nilly?" Zeke cursed.
With a renewed vigor, Zeke ducked, dived, dodged and danced from a further six fireballs untill he scrambled into the safety of the trees. The situation was looking a little bleak, but from here, outrunning the pursuers would be easy... not that he intended to. This wasn't going to be another retreat from Zeke, no, he had concocted a nefarious plan from the moment he arrived and was eager to act on it.
Zeke slowed down his speed as he jogged through the shrubbery, allowing the goblins to maintain a safe distance and still keep up. He laughed out loud as he imagined his plan playing out in his mind while bloodcurtling screams of anger were screeched in his direction.
It was a little underhanded, but...
It was about time to pay the Scarlet Ent a little visit, with some guests of course.