Hal surveyed the scene and found her assessment painfully correct. The koblins were losing, badly. But they weren’t being slaughtered. They gave ground willingly, which Hal realized was a smart move. It stretched the goblins out, forcing them to battle the koblins in small pockets rather than in a fierce, tight melee at the entrance as they had.
And the koblins were retreating - tactically it seemed - to allow the last trickle of freed koblins to join them before the bottleneck was completely filled with enemy goblins.
Elora pulled back the bowstring to her chin and let fly another arrow. It took a nearby goblin in the eye, shattering the obsidian disk on its mask. It fell just behind Hal. “You really are hopeless without me,” she said with a taunting laugh.
Elora fit another arrow and fired into the goblin horde, leaving Hal to finish off the one she’d laid low.
Hal spun just at the goblin was getting up. It brandished the knife it had intended for his back at him threateningly. That familiar curl of flame ignited in his belly. Had the goblin found its mark it likely would have killed Lurklox who was still clinging to his back.
Hal stepped in, heedless of the danger, and batted the small dagger aside. He cut two gashes into the goblin’s leather armor. Purple blood began to seep from the rents in the armor.
The goblin lunged at him with the dagger, Hal barely managed to bring his blade up in time to parry it. “Uplander doom is near-soon!” the goblin cried and rushed in with a flurry of vicious stabs.
The [Goblin Bandit] uses Goblin Rush.
Hal saw it coming. Something about it seemed to beckon to him. Hal stepped into the strikes, batted two of the five aside, and bore the brunt of the brutal pierces as his already tattered clothes bloomed with spots of crimson.
You take 38 points of damage.
Gonna feel that in the morning.
It had hurt less than he expected. It was still excruciating but it was somehow tolerable in a way that Hal couldn’t quite put his finger on. A glance at his HP showed him still over 50%.
Hal staggered into the opening left behind by the attack and carved with all his might into one of the small gashes he had made. The goblin shuddered once, twice, and exploded into a series of small puffs of sparking smoke.
You defeat the [Goblin Bandit].
You gain 100 Experience Points.
You absorb 10 Goblin Essence.
You learn Goblin Rush.
Lunge forward, launching a frantic series of critical attacks.
School: Beast Magic.
Type: Physical (Slashing).
Family: Goblin (Beastmen).
MP: 35
BP: 3
Strain: 2
Damage: 25
Your Sword Skill has risen to Level 4.
+1% Sword damage (+4%).
-0.25% Sword durability loss (-1.0%).
Your Parry Skill has risen to Level 2.
+1% Parry success (+2%).
-1% Parry stamina cost (-2%).
You obtain:
[Goblin Mask]
7 [Silver Gobbiecoins]
[Iron Dagger]
Hal placed a hand against a bleeding wound. He shut his eyes for a moment and focused. Even with his eyes shut he could see his HP, MP, and SP. Aside from HP, the other two were full, with SP hovering around 80%.
He remembered using assimilation back in the prison with Ashera, at that point it had been an unconscious thing. Now, he tried to conjure it again in an attempt to convert his SP into HP and heal his wounds.
You use Assimilation.
You recover 38 points of HP.
You consume 84 points of SP.
Hal swooned and staggered back.
It had wiped out nearly every ounce of SP he had. He could feel an intense itching sensation as the stab wounds sealed up and closed.
A quick look confirmed his suspicions. Moving the stained cloth aside, Hal saw fresh, pink skin where an open wound should have been.
That’s useful.
He quickly set Goblin Rush as a spell. Luckily, it worked. It seemed the restriction to setting Beast Magic spells once a day didn’t apply to new spells.
<“If you’re done admiring yourself,”> Elora’s party communication easily cut through the clang of metal on metal around him. <“I think you should get on with this plan of yours. You do have a plan, don’t you?”>
Hal nodded, then noticed she had resumed firing into the crowd of goblins and couldn’t see him.
<“Yes, I do. Get down from there and head to the rear of the room. We’re going to retreat.”>
<“You first, I’m not leaving without you, Hal.”> Elora hopped down, stuck the three-point landing, and began to fire wildly after she stood up. There was a heavy arc to each shot so that each arrow fell among the goblins like rain.
Among all of them, Elora’s Ultimate was nearly full. Every time her bow twanged and an arrow hit its mark, the golden glowing bar filled a little more until it filled completely before Hal’s eyes.
It flashed briefly and then continued to give off a pulsing golden glow.
Hal turned his attention back to the battle and cupped his hands to his mouth. He shouted for the koblins to fall back to him. A few heard him and were quick to obey but many others at the front couldn’t disengage or hadn’t heard him.
Hal hurried to the nearest koblin, calling them forward rather than to retreat. He lobbed a Bomb Toss into a cluster of goblins. It wasn’t enough to kill them, but he smiled as the damage sowed chaos among the goblin ranks, buying time for his koblins to retreat.
Not only that, but the damage had increased to an average of 24, up from 15. Increasing his INT seemed to have a stark effect on his Beast Magic.
With an eye on the goblin force, Hal led a gathered group of koblins in a wedge pattern through the fray, ordering them to pick up any wounded they could along the way and those that couldn’t to arm themselves with fallen goblin weapons.
The koblins happily obliged and Hal quickly found himself at the frontlines where the casualties had been most severe. His heart sank to see all the still koblin bodies and the way the goblins hacked at them with glee or trampled them without care.
The curl of flame in his belly surged to a roaring fire.
Hal’s lip curled back in a soundless snarl and he cast Bomb Toss, chucking the fiery explosive into the thickest set of goblins. More than a few screams echoed as goblin bombs strapped to a few soldiers caught fire.
A rippling chain of explosions rocked the battlefield as one goblin bomb carrier after the other disintegrated everything within twenty feet.
As Hal rallied the last of the koblins to him, he became the focus of the goblin’s ire. They rushed his position, freely able to do so now that the koblins had all fallen back to him.
The first goblin to come across Hal was cut down by three different blades all striking as one, like shadows of his own assault they fell a fraction of a second after Hal’s stroke.
You cast Goblin Rush.
The [Goblin Skirmisher] takes 95 points of damage.
You defeat the [Goblin Skirmisher].
You gain 100 Experience Points.
Your Beast Magic has risen to Level 4.
+3% Beast Magic potency (+12%).
You obtain:
[Goblin Mask]
[Suit of Goblin Mail]
The goblin was dead before the last blade fell.
Hal was about to surge ahead, carried away by his battle lust, when a koblin hand grabbed at him. The rush of power from using Beast Magic was intoxicating. “Savior man-thing must quick-hop away!”
With only 5 MP left, Hal was grateful for the koblin’s interruption. He would have charged ahead into the goblins stupidly and without any more magic to throw at them.
Beast Magic’s dangers seemed more subtle than he first thought if they could influence his thinking like that.
Clearheaded once more, Hal bellowed out the order to retreat and along with the koblins, turned tail and ran toward the
rear of the cave. He could only hope that Sparkspox could hear or see them. It hit him then that he had no way to signal the koblin to light the fuse.
Better plans have fallen apart from less.
While the goblins recovered from their shock and Hal worked his mind furiously for a backup plan, any backup plan, a loud series of explosions rocked the cavern.
Stalactites dislodged from the ceiling and fell as deadly projectiles that Hal had to dodge and avoid as the floor shook with the force of the explosions.
Looking over his shoulder, Hal saw smoke and flame rising up the cobbled-together cells. Their support gone, most of the lower level blasted to ash, the great ramshackle mess began to tilt with unnerving slowness.
If the goblins noticed, they paid it no mind as they rushed headlong toward the bottleneck at the back of the cave. Another series of explosions shook the cavern, less than the first this time, quickly followed by a deafening clatter of splintering wood and creaking timbers.
The goblin cries were drowned out by the layered, repeating shimmering golden wind that wrapped itself around Hal as he Leveled Up over and over again. The prompts flashed, large and bold across his vision in a hail of golden, scintillating light.
Tucked away in the glut of prompts, Hal saw a few Level Ups for Elora as well.
All the koblins gave him a wide berth, staring at the strange man-thing that shimmered and glittered like a sparkling tornado in their midst. Briefly, Hal wondered if he could OD from the heady effects of Leveling Up.
Novice reaches Level 10.
You have 15 unspent Attribute Points awaiting distribution.
Your HP, SP, and MP are fully restored.
You absorb 160 Goblin Essence.
You obtain:
74 [Goblin Masks]
61 [Suits of Goblin Leathers]
56 [Suits of Goblin Armor]
44 [Goblin Helms]
2 [Gobbiebag Patches]
15 [Poisonflour Loaves]
20 [Gold Gobbiecoins]
45 [Silver Gobbiecoins]
97 [Bronze Gobbiecoins]
17 [Koblin Masks]
19 [Suits of Koblin Leathers]
13 [Koblin Helms]
13 [Suits of Koblin Armor]
4 [Ash Crossbows]
4 [Ironwood Crossbows]
4 [Shortbows]
[Repeating Crossbow]
32 [Rusty Shortswords]
40 [Rusty Daggers]
26 [Rusty Longswords]
2 [Steel Longswords]
[Simple Cloak]
9 [Adventurer’s Kits]
4 [Simple Packs]
2 [Locked Chests]
Hal’s light show ended, and the cave seemed darker and drearier by far. Quiet washed into the space left by his multitudinous Level Ups. For what felt like minutes there was nothing but the creak and splintering of wood as the whole mass of burning, smoldering wreckage settled into place.
If any goblins survived, they didn’t make themselves known.
When the dust settled, Hal realized a flaw in his plan. The explosion had just caused an avalanche aimed at the goblins. Who had been right in front of the main exit.
Seeing the devastation firsthand, Hal realized how much farther the wreckage spread. It had spilled out all over the cavern floor with only a small few gaps towards the rear of the cave sheltered by the bottleneck of raised stone.
Everywhere else – the entrance included – was strewn with sharp splintered wood. They had effectively barricaded the entrance.
Elora came up beside Hal, tossing him an uncharacteristic grin. “Seeing as you’ve dealt with the goblin threat, how about I clear the way? The rear exit will take many hours to guide everybody through otherwise.”
Hal gave her a strange look. It would take a team of bulldozers to plow through that mess.
The Ranger winked at him playfully. A hint of a smile still tugging at her lips. She stepped lightly to the first pile of debris, rested one heavy boot on the mess, and drew her bow back.
Elora readies Ultimate: Empyreal Arrow.
Elora pulled farther back on the bowstring than he’d ever seen. Her arm shook with the effort.
The bow shone like the sun. The arrow she had knocked became solid golden light that thickened and doubled in size every second as the bar above her HP drained.
A warm wind buffeted Elora’s body, pushing dust and debris away from her in a ten-foot-wide circle. Hal raised his arm to block out the dust from getting into his eyes, watching the Ranger in awe. Once the arrow was as thick around as a young tree, she released it.
Elora uses Ultimate: Empyreal Arrow.
The arrow widened exponentially into a golden stream over thirty feet wide and at least as tall. It burned through the rubble like a match set to dry kindling. Everything it touched turned to ash and drifted away on tiny motes of light.
Even the heavy log gates the goblins had shut were vaporized by the assault. Daylight filtered in at the end of the long tunnel, barely visible all the way back in the cavern.
It was only then that Hal realized he had been holding his breath the entire time. “You have got to show me how to do that.”
19
As much as Hal wanted to be upset about Elora’s use of her ultimate, he knew his argument held zero weight. Her ultimate was only available recently and even though he would have preferred her to use it on the goblins, Hal understood the reality of it.
Such a flashy, ability would have garnered Elora a great deal of attention. And even if the goblins didn’t move out of the way, she would not have been able to get all of the goblins without also getting more than a few koblins.
He couldn’t have it both ways.
Hal let the sense of loss and anger bleed out of him. The memory of the koblin bodies still bothered him, though. At least the children hadn’t been harmed.
Any more than they already were, he thought with a pang of sympathy.
Elora looked… drained was the only word for it. She was sluggish in recognizing Hal and when he came near, she nearly collapsed against him.
Hal had his hands full trying to keep Lurklox on his back and now with Elora leaning against him, he couldn’t move without causing somebody to fall.
“That was amazing, Elora,” Hal said. His voice seemed to draw her back to full attention. Her blue-gray eyes were slightly unfocused as she looked up at him.
With a shake of her head, she managed to pull herself upright. Only then did she realize Lurklox was on Hal’s back. “Let me help.” Elora shouldered her bow and reached out to pluck the unconscious koblin from his back.
“Thank you.” Fear caused his heart to pound against his chest. Please be okay.
Though Lurklox wasn’t losing anymore HP, he was still worried that the koblin hadn’t regained consciousness.
Elora nodded, a look of sympathy on her dirty, blood-streaked features.
“Buffrix? Where’s Buffrix?” Hal called out, realizing now that he hadn’t seen the koblin since the pitched and frenetic battle. A look at his party menu showed him that the koblin wasn’t hurt but he couldn’t see him among the thinning smoke.
Despite the Level Ups, Hal was so tired. He didn’t have the energy to go looking for the koblin, not yet at least.
Finding a small rocky outcropping on the cavern floor away from most of the thronging children and koblins, Hal sat down and looked over his stats.
[Status]
Hal Williams
Level: 10
Discordant Stone: 376/55,000
Strain: 0/25
BP: 5/10
Classes
Novice: 10
Resources
HP: 130/130
SP: 135/135
MP: 150/150
Attributes
STR: 5
VIT: 5
DEX: 5
AGI: 5 (+1)
INT: 12
MND: 9
CHR: 1
Regeneration
HP/hr: 16.6
S
P/hr: 19.2
MP/hr: 22.1
Resistances
Fire: 0
Ice: 0
Wind: 0
Earth: 0
Lightning: 0
Water: 0
Light: 0
Dark: 0
Defensive Properties
DEF: 0
MDEF: 0
Insulation: 4
Monster Affinity
Beastmen
Goblin: 300%
Class Affinity
Chimera Knight: 70%
Thief: 65%
Warrior: 45%
Oathforger: 20%
Survival Skills
Stealth: 4
Darkvision: 3
Perception: 3
Investigation: 2
Combat Skills
Improvised Weaponry: 3
Sword: 4
Parry: 1
Magic Skills
Enfeebling: 2
Beast Magic: 4
Crafting Skills
Social Skills
Leadership: 3
Persuasion: 1
Hal’s heart jumped into his throat at the sight of his EXP.
Thankfully, he was spared a heart attack by a new prompt that rolled in, nagging him to examine it.
You have unlocked the Discordant Stone.
Upon reaching Level 10 Novice, the discordant stone is unlocked. This stone stores experience points so they can be utilized later. As Novice Level 10 is a requirement for any additional Classes, you cannot attain a higher Novice Level. Any gained experience is stored within the discordant stone.
Beastborne- Mark of the Founder Page 19