1.17 – Goblin Stronghold I

Dark Strike I: 12 seconds

The eruption of Dark aspected power and the spray of blood were accompanied by a panicked shriek as Rika’s first opponent fell back, opened from shoulder to belly. A follow-up cut finished it off.

Enemy Slain: Goblin Forager – Level 4

As Rika stepped over the corpse, a building pressure just formed below her ribs. As soon as she focused on it, the answer came—experience.

“I thought I only got experience after the fight,” she said as a crude iron axe clattered off the metal boss on her shield.

“Only in discrete encounters such as the ambushes you suffered,” Chryson said. “Normally, you’re awarded experience for each kill. Level ups can, however, be delayed until after combat, at your discretion.”

“Why would I ever want to do that?” she asked, stepping into a sweep and leaving a deep wound on the goblin in front of her.

“As you increase in both level and grade, the process of leveling up will become more… disruptive.”

By now she’d lost track of all the little asides she’d tucked away to follow up on later.

Three shining metal streaks flashed across her vision, and three daggers buried themselves in the throat of a nearby goblin forager, the work of Kriztan’s Rapid Shot ability. Rika finished it off and tried to ignore Kriztan’s gloating smile as he rushed by her. She’d seen the thing coming and would have dealt with it on her own. While Dark Strike may have an agonizingly long cooldown—twelve seconds was forever in a fight—it wasn’t as if she was defenseless in the meantime.

She shoved back another goblin forager, sending it sprawling to the ground right in front of an awaiting Vilmos. His axe flashed as he swept out with it. He buried the bearded head into the skull of the goblin he’d already been fighting, and the one Rika had just shoved his way split open down the chest as well.

The effects of his main active skill, Cleave. Rika would be lying if she’d said she wasn’t jealous. Not only did it let him strike at two enemies at once, but he could also use it twice as often as she could use Dark Strike.

With the two goblins now laying dead at his feet, a furious cry went up from all the nearby goblin foragers and skirmishers. A collection of half a dozen level four through six goblins rushed Vilmos. The work of his class features, Forceful Presence. Every strike he landed on an enemy drew the attention of other nearby foes.

“I guess that’s what a good Bastion is for,” Eric said from nearby. He waved a hand in Vilmos’s direction, and the Defender was surrounded by a softly pulsing, nearly invisible glow. Eric’s Mend skill began slowly working on the countless wounds Vilmos was already starting to collect as the six goblins fell on him in a frenzy.

Enemy Slain: Goblin Forager – Level 5

Rika had to admit they were working well together. It had only been a few minutes at most, but already half the ambushing goblins lay scattered around the abandoned camp. Most were dead, and those that weren’t would bleed out soon enough. Blood spattered Rika’s shield and sword, and while her attackers had slipped past her guard several times, Erik had dealt with that easily enough. Even against twenty of the little bastards, Rika couldn’t deny having a party was a massive help.

Most of the goblins focused their attention on Vilmos. He stood firm, relying on his armor and his high resilience to withstand whatever the goblins could dish out. His second active skill, Shield Pummel, often left its victims dazed for a few seconds. Easy prey to an attack from any of the party.

Much to her chagrin, Kriztan had proved himself a capable fighter, too. He flitted around the edges of the melee, tossing daggers at the goblins’ backs. The thrown daggers usually landed in devastating locations—kidneys, the base of skulls, eyes, and the like. His Hunter’s Mark ability made such attacks far easier for anyone to land, although he usually only used it on his own targets. Any time he caught the attention of the goblins, he’d just run behind Vilmos while Erik healed him up.

Rika herself fought far more recklessly than she was used to. Erik healed any wounds she took well before she felt at any risk. The extra Resilience she’d gained with her level was enough to keep her going, and Vilmos was even more durable than she was. Not to mention their armor, either.

Before much longer, the camp fell silent. The last of the goblins fell, grasping at the daggers bristling from its ruined eye sockets. As Rika cleaned off her blade, Vilmos approached.

“Good work,” he said. “That’s an impressive skill you have. Reservations aside, you did well.”

“Thanks,” she replied. Not exactly the glowing praise she might have preferred, but she didn’t think Vilmos was the type, anyway. Nor did she really care. Any misgivings he might still have about bringing her along seemed to have been put to rest, which was all she’d really wanted. She couldn’t care less about Kriztan, and she wasn’t sticking around after this quest, anyway.

“Found their trail,” Kriztan called from the far end of the camp-turned-battleground. “Not as if they tried to hide it. Old stream bed leads to a gully. That’s where they went.”

Kriztan kept scouting ahead, while Rika and Erik fell in with Vilmos. The gully Kriztan led them to wasn’t the sort of place Rika wanted to find herself. Not with what she’d seen of goblin tactics. Every single time they’d faced goblins so far, it had been an ambush. This was the sort of terrain that would massively favor those tactics, and they were walking right into it. She said as much to Vilmos.

“Kriztan’s got a keen eye. He should spot anything lying in wait.”

She didn’t bring up the fact that he’d failed to spot the previous ambush. Turned out she hadn’t needed to worry.

A few moments later, Kriztan came rushing toward them at a full sprint. About a dozen goblins followed him down the gully, and horns sounded further ahead. Once Kriztan had leaped up to the rim of the gully above, and drawn a pair of daggers, Rika got a good look at the oncoming foes. The one in the lead had a shield hastily fashioned from boards lashed together and with nails protruding from the face. It wore a banged up suit of ragged armor, fashioned from leathers and scrap iron plates. Like the foragers earlier, it carried a roughly made hand axe.

Goblin Warrior – Level 6

Goblin Warrior – Level 8

And so on. Another twenty or so came down the gully, screaming shrill war cries and brandishing a motley assortment of roughly made and poorly maintained weapons. But the lowest levels among them were six, and Rika spotted one or two level nines. Vilmos stepped out in front of the group and hunkered down behind his shield.

The lead goblin glowed red in all the places where Rika had learned counted as weak points according to Kriztan’s Hunter’s Mark. Three daggers slammed into it, but the goblin warrior kept charging. Screaming fury and blood, spittle flecked off its grimy yellow teeth. Vilmos slammed his shield into it as soon as it reached him. That, at least, stopped its charge. An instant later, he was surrounded. Erik used Mend on him, and two of the closest warriors, each level seven, turned. Rika stepped in between the goblin warriors and the party’s support.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Dark Strike I: 12 seconds

The goblin warrior took her attack on its shield. While it did stumble back, it countered far more quickly than she was used to from these creatures. Its axe hit her armor, stopped by the metal plates riveted onto her coat. She still winced at the impact, though. Without Erik to fix her up, that sort of blow would end up giving her a nasty bruise, even through her armor and thick padded shirt.

“Fuck,” she grunted as the second one slammed a crude hammer into her shield, nearly forcing her to one knee. Her best guess is they had at least twice the Might score of their weaker skirmisher and forager kin. Not to mention their clearly superior Resilience, either.

“You assume correctly, Miss Rika,” Chryson sang, his musical voice somehow floating above the din of battle. “These foes are significantly more dangerous than the ones you’ve faced before.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Of course. Most enemies come in a number of varieties. Stronger variants, such as these goblin warriors you now face, are far tougher than their weaker cousins. They do, however, give out proportionately greater rewards should you manage to defeat them.”

Rika used her sword to beat back one of those frenzied messes of swings from the axe goblin, while pushing the hammer goblin back with her shield. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew it was a maneuver that would have been impossible for her to manage before she’d gained her class, without the benefit of her Finesse and Might stats.

As the axe goblin finished its frenzied combination attack, she saw an opening. The dark purple anti-glow wreathed her blade, and she struck out. Past the goblin’s shield, the tip of her sword caught it between its collarbone and neck. It reeled back in pain, and a dagger slammed into its temple. Two more daggers followed one after the other, and at last the thing fell to the gully floor.

Enemy Slain: Goblin Warrior – Level 7

In front of her, a faint aura of power shone around Vilmos, rising like steam from a hot bath. She glanced up to where Kriztan stood, slightly wobbling as he experienced the same surge of power from his own Oracle. In the upper corner of her vision, the unobtrusive and ghostly display of their levels both ticked up to five. While Kriztan was safe for his moment of distraction, Vilmos was getting absolutely pummeled.

Erik tossed another Mend at him, and thankfully no more goblin warriors peeled away from Vilmos. Rika shoved back the one in front of her, then kicked it in the knee while it was off balance. It went down, but caught itself before going fully prone. She took the opening.