1.27 – The Best Laid Plans

Rika moved. Her ambush ruined and her approach discovered, she advanced on the goblins to grasp for some shred of momentum in her favor. Facing down two of the greater goblins would have been bad enough, but the shaman was a concern. She’d no idea what it was capable of. Whether she wanted to or not, she was about to find out. Legs pumping and intent on making it to the shaman and dealing with it quickly, she dodged through the forest of stalagmites and pillars. Just as she reached the open space where her three foes waited, one of the greater goblins beat its shield.

Taunt (partial): 3 seconds (duration and effectiveness reduced by Mental Redoubt II).

Her blood roared as the Taunt took hold. She could hold back, she knew. She’d done it before, but resisting the Taunt came with a cost—she couldn’t really focus on anything else. For the next three seconds, she had two options. Either she could hunker down and defend, or she could attack the greater goblin.

Rika surged forward.

The last thing she needed was to let these things dictate the flow of battle. Dealing with one greater goblin had been challenge enough. Despite her extra level, she wasn’t under any delusions that this fight would be like the others in this death-pit. One mistake, and both she and Erik were dead. It was time to see what her Dark Warrior class could really do.

She let the Taunt pull her toward the greater goblin. The rush and thrill of fighting had never been sweeter than at that moment. As her axe shone in the orange glow of the goblins’ fires, her entire body sang like a plucked string, thrumming out a single note in a song of coming carnage.

Shield Slam I: 30 seconds.
Tempo I x1: 6 seconds.
Taunt (partial): 1 second (duration and effectiveness reduced by Mental Redoubt II).

The heater shield broke through her opponent’s guard. A rising swell of hot-blooded fury drove her ever forward. She lifted her axe and readied a Dark Strike. If she’d only known letting the Taunt wash over her would be like this—that giving in to the siren’s cry of the skill would be so damn sweet—she’d have done so long before. Her axe fell as the Taunt ticked off. The tide of exultant rage pulled back, and she was sorry to see it go. But as the Dark aspected power curled around her axe like enshadowed flames, she put her returned clarity to good use.

Dark Strike II: 9 seconds.
Shield Slam I: 26 seconds.
Tempo I x2: 6 seconds.

The now-familiar eruption of dark energy blasted away from where her axe dug into the greater goblin’s shoulder. It roared at her, shoving her back with its shield and readying a strike of its own. The crude, but worryingly large, axe it held cracked against the face of her heater shield. Neither that hit nor its shove caused her to lose her Tempo stacks.

She bared her teeth in a wicked grin and threw herself at the goblin once more. Ducking another swing aimed at her head, she slammed her own weapon into the meat of the greater goblin’s thigh. It twisted, blood pumping and flowing down its leg as it brought its shield around. Before Rika could press her attack, the second goblin arrived.

This one had a massive, two-handed sword. The blade cut a whistling arc through the dim, torch-lit cavern as it fell. Rika brought her shield up once again. The force of the greater goblin’s blow drove her down, nearly dropping her to one knee. And just as she kept her feet, she kept her meager two stacks of Tempo once again.

While she remained aware of how dangerous this fight would be, she saw her path. If she could maintain her buff and just keep blocking the goblins’ attacks, she’d eventually overwhelm them. Already she’d done far more damage to the greater goblin with the axe and shield than she had the last time she’d fought one of these things. As long as she was careful, didn’t overextend, and kept on the pressure, she could do this.

Dark Strike II: 5 seconds.
Shield Slam I: 22 seconds.
Tempo I x2: 6 seconds.

The axe-and-shield goblin circled around to her left, and the two-hander goblin readied another strike. She still had a few seconds on both her cooldowns. But that didn’t mean she was helpless—far from it. Rika punched out with her shield, driving the metal rim into the two-hander goblin’s elbow. Then she followed up with a strike at its ribs with her axe.

Dark Strike II: 3 seconds.
Shield Slam I: 20 seconds.
Tempo I x4: 6 seconds.

The shield goblin charged her at a hobbling run and crashed into her shield first. The cavern tilted sideways, the flowstone floor pitching up to meet her as she barely manage to keep her feet. All around her, stalagmites and stalactites reeled and spun. Her gut plunged as a status effect appeared next to her other notifications.

Dark Strike II: 1 second.
Shield Slam I: 18 seconds.
Stun: 3 seconds.

Well, that answered whether these two could Stun her, at least. The two greater goblins advanced on her, each taking a position on either side of her, and creating a gap through which she could plainly see the goblin shaman. The goblin shaman grinned that ugly, toothy grin, and gathered an orange mote of flame in its hand.

She could really use a heal right about now—but none came. All she could do was watch as the two greater goblins maneuvered into position, and the goblin shaman thrust its burning hand toward her. The mote streaked across the cavern’s gloom, trailing embers that floated to the smooth stone floor where they sizzled to nothing against the damp stone. Then it struck.

The firebolt hit her square in the chest. Heat and pain exploded from the impact. Her armor seemed to do little against the magical attack, but at least she had her Ward stat of twenty-five. She also had over half her Resilience—also at twenty-five—applied to her magic defense too, thanks to her Balanced Defense class feature. It still hurt like hell.

Stun: 1 second.
Chirurgeon’s Touch I: Wound status effects reduced.
Stun removed.
Enduring Heal I: Minor regeneration applied.

Better late than never, she supposed. With control returned to her limbs, she backed up. Getting flanked by those goblins was a death sentence, so she needed to ensure that both stayed squarely in front of her. Although she’d lost her Tempo stacks, at least both her active skills were ready again. And it didn’t look the shaman was healing the fighters, either. Silver linings and all.

“Kill the healer,” the shaman called.

The two-hander turned, heading to the edge of the clear area dominating the center of the cavern. Rika shot a glance in that direction, but couldn’t see where Erik was. There was no way he’d last for more than a moment against that thing. But she couldn’t really afford to turn her back on the other two either. Especially now that she knew the shaman could toss fire spells at her.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Fuck it. She turned her attention to two-hander goblin and put her trust in Erik to rise to the task. Just leaving him to fend off that greater goblin clearly wasn’t an option. Either he’d let her die and follow a few moments later, or he’d keep her alive enough to deal with all this.

“Hey, pig-fucker!” she yelled as she pumped her legs and surged across the few yards of open cavern floor that separated them.

At least she’d gotten its attention. Orders or no, it clearly respected her enough not to leave her at its back. As it turned, it swung the two-hander in a wide arc. She caught the attack on her shield and lashed out with a Dark Strike as payback.