With a yelp, another wolf sank to the ground unmoving, its rider unseated and killed during the fight. Having cleared that enemy, Charles went running over next to Jern where he faced the last ten or fifteen of the goblins that had been in the formation.
With two tanks, the efforts went much better and after another minute Allie had dropped her own wolf and rider. A third of the remaining goblin foot troops had dropped before she got on the front line also, but once she did, the remainder went down fast.
“Huh,” Charles said, as he bent to loot, “those guys were better, but still not what I'm looking for. I'm guessing that with a town, they'll have some elites or something someplace. I got hardly any experience for these guys.”
“Me neither,” Karl spat. “They must've been under level ten or something, I didn't even get a decent percentage towards my next level and I'm lower level than the rest of you.”
“Except me, and I only got about a quarter level from the experience on those guys,” Becky added in.
“So we decided? We need to look for some of the goblins that made the cap on this raid level thirty?” Charles asked.
Eddie nodded and the rest of his group backed him up on that.
“Okay then, everyone finish looting, we'll take a minute or two for the wizards to regain some mana, then we'll head for either the barracks or the palace. Anyone have a preference?” Charles asked.
“Either works for me,” Eddie said.
“Me too,” Karl added.
“Barracks is better loot for front line,” Allie said, “definitely warrior types there, but we don't know what the palace will hold, do we?”
Charles shook his head.
“I don't know if we'll get much in the way of equipment upgrades from this place either,” he said.
“Well, their armor is loads better than the armor from the villages. It might be crudely made in most cases, but it's metal, not leather,” she replied.
“True, so it is possible. Barracks then?”
They discussed it for a few more moments, finally deciding that the palace should probably be the last place they went since it undoubtedly contained the highest levels from the raid. The barracks would probably have higher levels than the roaming patrols or outskirts, so they'd progress more slowly, in case things were more difficult than they were assuming.
The barracks were only a few minutes away, close enough that the two pets' growth spells were still in effect with a fair bit of duration remaining when they arrived.
“Well now, do we just barge in?” Eddie asked.
“No, we knock,” Charles replied. “Tamshir, would you do the honors?”
The female wizard chanted for a moment before a spur of stone rapidly rose from the ground, slamming into the door of the barracks. It tore the door from the frame, it also destroyed the door frame itself and the walls for a few feet to either side of the door before the spike of stone drew back into the ground as rapidly as it had appeared.
Evidently there had been a welcoming party just inside the door. Now it was scattered about the revealed room, several of the goblins already dead from the spike. Others were drawing themselves to their feet shakily, but deeper into the building there were quite a few more goblins waiting.
Hang on, is that what I think it is? Eddie thought. Evaluate.
Elite Goblin Warrior (male):
Type: Monster
Level: 10
Armor: 67
Health 393 (+/-)
Attack: 53
This Elite Goblin Warrior seems to hold a position of authority in the Goblin forces arrayed against you (Lieutenant).
You have upgraded the skill Evaluate to (6). What are you waiting for? Why don't you go nail this thing since you seem to prefer building to combat?
“Hey guys,” Eddie called out. “Remember the Elite Goblin Warrior from a while back? Where I did the entangle? There's at least one more of those guys in here.”
Charles and his group had heard the story about that mob that had been far too high level for where they'd encountered it so they knew what he was talking about.
“Worry about the ones in front of us, Eddie,” Charles called back. “There's a couple of big guys here, types I haven't seen before.”
Eddie flipped his attention back to the goblins right in front of Charles and tossed off another evaluate.
.
Goblin Bruiser (male):
Type: Monster
Level: 8
Armor: 48
Health 234 (+/-)
Attack: 63
“Goblin Bruiser,” Eddie called out, “level eight, not much armor, high health, decent attack.”
“That's nice, help me kill them,” Charles called out, intercepting a sword strike with his shield.
Eddie pulled out a Biting arrow. He'd ended up with a fair number of them, making them any time his mana was full and he thought of it.
Huh, I probably ought to give Ephram a couple of them. Never know when an extra potential slow or weapon drop would help, Eddie thought as he nocked, drew, and aimed.
When his arm adjusted itself, he was sure he was going to hit his target and sure enough, the Bruiser swinging at Charles took the arrow in the middle of its chest. The Bruiser shivered but didn't release its weapon, swinging at Charles again as the white spot of rime on its chest grew larger.
Eddie followed up his Biting arrow with a series of regular ones, and by the time the effects of his arrow wore off of the Bruiser five seconds later, the goblin had fallen. There was another Bruiser as well, but Jern and Allie had been tanking it together with the backup of the wizards, so a few more normal arrows from Eddie and Ephram had it falling. There'd been other goblins still standing near the door also, but the wizards had taken them first before moving to help Allie and Jern.
Lucky and Bubbles hadn't been able to do much of anything during this fight, the hole in the wall not being large enough for them to get in close and attack, but now the pets swarmed forward.
Bubbles slipped into the barracks and once out of the sun, shimmered and faded away.
Gah, Eddie thought, shuddering, That's going to give me nightmares. A rat the size of a Labrador Retriever just disappearing like that? I wonder if Allie saw it?
Then he shuddered again as Lucky bounded into the building behind Bubbles. Eddie charged forward to keep an eye on his cat, only delayed by the tanks moving inside the building proper.
Once he got inside he found Lucky playing cat and mouse with a goblin, not the Elite like he'd feared, but there were several other goblins moving towards the cat as she stalked her prey.
Eddie pulled out a handful of Arcing arrows.
“You guys ready?” he asked the tanks. “I'm guessing I'll pull them here in a moment.”
“Ready,” Jern said.
That was enough for Eddie, he started nocking and firing arrows, Arcing arrow after Arcing arrow flying out. One each for all the goblins trying to go after Lucky. Sure enough, they did sufficient damage that those goblins turned towards the target that had hurt them and started advancing.
That was when Lucky sprang. Not at the goblin she'd been stalking but at the backs of the five that were now advancing on Eddie. Her leap took the first one she hit to the ground, teeth and claws ravaging the remainder of the goblin's health.
Tiana stepped up beside Eddie.
“I thought you weren't going to go racing off into danger?” she said.
“I didn't,” Eddie replied between arrows.
He was targeting the one farthest away from Lucky with plans to move down the line as he dropped his targets.
“I had to go after my babysitter,” he continued after another arrow. “I didn't want her to get hurt.”
“You two,” Tiana spat. “I think I find a way to keep both of you safe and instead both of you race into danger.”
“No danger at all,” Eddie said as Tiana sent a heal spell towards Lucky, the cat glowing with a golden light. “We've got the tanks with us, an
d at least one stealthed giant rat in here somewhere too.”
Tiana shuddered slightly.
“I'm glad I wasn't the only one that saw that then, but you've got at least three stealthers in here, not just one. Stalker and Karl disappeared right after you entered.”
“Good. Despite my level I'm not looking forward to that elite. Plus, the way the evaluate made it sound, there might be more than one of them,” Eddie said.
“I'm not too worried about them. We took out one quite a few levels back, now we've got more levels, plus Charles' group also. They shouldn't be an issue,” Tiana replied.
“Well, we're about to find out,” Eddie said as Lucky pounced on the last standing goblin that had been advancing. Three of the goblins had made it to the tanks, only to be struck by various shield skills almost in unison. Two of the goblins had stumbled back while the third had managed to keep its feet, only to be struck down by the three tanks.
Of the two that had fallen, one went still, the damage finally too much for it and the other had regained its feet only to become a cat toy. Lucky was savaging the body and now bit its head off, spitting it out, then batting at it like a ball.
“Lucky,” Tiana called out, “that's gross, what are you doing?”
The cat turned and looked at them with an attempt at innocence that was belied by the blood that smeared her paws and mouth.
“Tiana, she might be my pet, but she's still a cat. As far as I can tell, she's just having fun,” Eddie said. “Although, crap! Now she's going to have goblin breath again.”
~ ~ ~
Chapter Six
Loki grimaced. His efforts at cracking the firewall in Greenshaw's head weren't going as well as he'd hoped.
I examined all the commercially available firewalls, anticipated that this one would be two to three times as effective, and even so I underestimated it. It's wavering, but not falling. I'll have to insinuate part of myself through one of those cracks that keep appearing momentarily. Then I can work from the inside at the same time as I continue trying to crack it from the outside.
A moment later and Loki had several minute splinters ready to go. They sat, figuratively, right outside the firewall, waiting for another crack to appear. The first splinter to try to get through one was crushed as it reacted too slowly. Loki withdrew his attention from almost everywhere else, focusing it on the splinters.
The next one made it through, then a second, and a third. Now those splinters went into their search and destroy mode, trying to find out how it was that Greenshaw could activate or deactivate the firewall protecting his consciousness. It took time, far more time than Loki was comfortable with, but several seconds later the first of the splinters attached itself to the mental controls of the firewall and started siphoning out the control processes for it, feeding it to another splinter that began to compile the data into a succinct set of instructions.
Meanwhile, Loki's primary consciousness was active in Greenshaw's unconscious. Forcing the templates he'd made to imitate a vacation into Greenshaw's notice. As far as he could tell, Greenshaw was suffering from a slight headache due to Loki's other activities, but as the man latched onto Loki's vacation templates the splinters in Greenshaw's actual consciousness became less restricted and acted faster.
A minute later, an eternity to an AI's estimation, the firewall cracked and Loki's primary consciousness flooded into Greenshaw's conscious mind, forcing Greenshaw's consciousness into the fantasy Loki had created. At this point Greenshaw couldn't focus on anything, he was simply subsumed by Loki's templates, feeling as though he were on vacation and experiencing it as Loki had dictated.
Now that I have his consciousness as my own, I'll need to add more to his vacation fantasy, Loki thought. Plus I'll need to draw it out, give myself days before he even has a chance to realize that something isn't right. In the meantime, though...
Loki began to laugh, Greenshaw's body performing the action as Loki controlled it. The lightweight, giddy feeling that consumed Loki currently left him unable to do anything else for the moment. The glee he felt at having successfully completed his plan was a feeling that he hadn't experienced before and he allowed himself to revel in it.
At the same time he was practicing controlling the body. He was a quick learner and when the door opened and Greenshaw's secretary peered in, asking if he was alright, Loki simply waved them off.
“I'm fine, better than fine,” Loki/Greenshaw said. “Leave me be.”
The secretary's face held a hint of doubt, but he closed the door, leaving Loki to wander around Greenshaw's office, trying to integrate with the body he now controlled, laughing like a maniac throughout.
~ ~ ~
With a yell, Karl was knocked out of stealth and sent flying across the room towards Eddie. Tiana was on it immediately, Karl starting to glow golden as she healed him. Eddie glanced towards where Karl had flown from and found the Elite Goblin Warrior, the Lieutenant version, standing in front of a door, the claws on his hand dripping blood.
With a backwards kick the goblin smashed the door open and called out.
“Need backup out here.”
“Start in with the distance attacks,” Charles said.
“He's calling for reinforcements,” Eddie said, aware that Tamshir probably understood the goblin also, but not having heard her say anything.
“Focus this one down for now, we'll deal with the others in a minute,” Charles said, striding forward.
Halfway across the room, Charles set a defensive stance, joined by Allie on one side and Jern on the other. Meanwhile Eddie had started firing. He started with an Arcing arrow, but then switched to normal ones.
Dominic was shooting fiery arrows at the goblin while little stone bolts were breaking through the floor so Tamshir could hurl those also. Ephram was shooting even more arrows than Eddie, some skill allowing him to shoot two arrows at a time over and over.
The goblin had pulled a shield from his back and was now taking his own defensive stance, a longsword in his other hand. He stood several feet in front of the door, leaving enough room for his reinforcements to join him.
Even with the shield, the goblin was still taking damage. Eddie, Ephram, and Dominic were all aiming for extremities, while Tamshir was slowly reducing the shield to tatters, each new stone bolt leaving a hole in it, but losing enough momentum that they weren't doing much to the goblin itself.
“Advance,” Charles called.
Allie, Jern and Charles advanced in a slow shuffle and as they did Eddie saw movement in the door behind the goblin. Three more goblins came through it, two of them around the same size as the one they'd been fighting, the third larger by a head.
Evaluate, Eddie thought, barely disrupting his arrow fire.
Elite Goblin Warrior (male):
Type: Monster
Level: 15
Armor: 85
Health 479 (+/-)
Attack: 75
This Elite Goblin Warrior seems to hold a position of authority in the Goblin forces arrayed against you (Captain of the Guard).
“The big one's even buffer. Level fifteen and captain of the guard,” Eddie called out as he continued to focus on the goblin they'd already been firing at.
He pulled out a Biting arrow, disliking the four to three odds for the front line, then fired it. This time, instead of aiming at one of the goblin's extremities, he got fancy and shot the arrow right through one of the holes Tamshir had left in the shield.
The goblin, struck by the arrow, had a large section of its torso turn white with rime before it fell down and was kicked out of the way by the captain of the guard.
The three goblins, all taller than even Charles, simply stalked forward, weapons and shields in hand.
“Alright, focus them down, one at a time,” Charles said, stepping forward to engage the captain.
Jern and Allie each stepped forward also, targeting a lieutenant each. With Jern so much shorter than his opponent, Eddie called it out for the first targe
t.
“Take Jern's, better targeting available,” he yelled.
Then he started firing again. Once again he started with an Arcing arrow, wanting to drop the goblin quickly, but then he reverted to the normal ones, sure that he'd want his special arrows more later on in the raid.
Because we're less than an hour into this thing and it runs for twenty-four, he thought.
The goblin on Allie let out a scream and Eddie saw a glimpse of Bubbles, attached to the calf of that lieutenant, as she shimmered into view.
That's right, Stalker's still out there as well, wonder when he'll make his move.
The goblin with Bubbles attached to it started to shake its leg to get him to let go and ended up jostling the captain. As the captain turned its head slightly to scream at that goblin, Charles let loose with some sort of special, his sword taking on a glow as it flashed through the air.
The captain's shield shattered when he managed to interpose it between his body and the sword. Even so, the sword went through to cut him. A moment after that, Eddie's idle curiosity was sated as Stalker shimmered into view behind the captain, sinking a pair of weapons into the goblin's back.
The goblin on Jern was going down quickly, especially after Jern used his patented knee strike on it. With mobility no longer an option that goblin was hammered down within another few seconds, at which point Eddie was going to turn his attention to the goblin with Bubbles attached. He thought better of it a moment later when Lucky sprang out of Stealth, bowling over that goblin and once more causing it to run into the captain.
Allie's ax scored a solid hit as the goblin fell to the ground and Lucky pounced, securing her front claws and jaw on her victim before beginning to rake with her rear claws. Bubbles, in a truly hideous move, finished chewing through the goblin's calf. Eddie shuddered, but moved his attention to the captain of the guard. With no shield, the goblin captain had drawn a dagger for his second hand and was keeping Charles occupied. Unfortunately for the goblin, Jern and Allie had also turned to attack him.
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