1.32 – The Lone Defender

Enemy Slain: Goblin Warrior – Level 12

Dark Strike II: 9 seconds.

Tempo I x1: 6 seconds.

Jaws of Defeat: Minor increase to defense/magic defense from Resilience and Ward.

Stonewall Tincture: Major Resilience scaling applied to physical defense. 30 min.

The goblin hadn’t even hit the ground before another took its place. Two more clambered up the carts, each brandishing a spear and shield. Rika leaned into an oncoming axe, taking the blow on her heater shield. One spear glanced off her shoulder, the armor absorbing the strike, and she ducked the second spear.

A quick, sideways chop with her axe parted leather and flesh. As the goblin warrior in front of her reeled, she grabbed it by the throat and tossed it at a goblin that crested her makeshift barricade. They both tumbled down the other side in a tangle of limbs and broken bones.

Rika reached up with her axe and hooked the spear goblin’s shield. With a heave, she pulled the goblin down from atop the cart. She caught the goblin on her shield, then shoved it off to the side and sent it plunging into the ravine. The kill notification popped up a moment later when it hit the rocks below.

Another goblin warrior, also level twelve, pushed through the gap in her barricade. Rika cracked the warrior’s skull with the edge of her shield, sending it to one knee. She buried her axe into it before kicking her victim into the warrior pushing through behind it. Claws and weapons scraped against the wooden carts as more goblins climbed the far side of her barricade. At least it was slowing them down.

As more goblins pushed through the gap, or tried to clamber over, Rika cut them down nearly as fast as they came. By now she’d maxed out her Tempo stacks, and each swing of her axe saw another kill notification float up in her mind’s eye. The pressure just below her ribs steadily grew. She inched closer to her next level up with every kill, and the kills came quickly now that she’d settled into her rhythm. March forward to the drumbeat of victory, indeed.

While it could be hard to tell the passing of time when in the thick of a fight, she knew how extended battle felt. Her arms burned. Her legs ached. The thunder of blood in her ears as she killed again and again had only grown in its insistence—yet the odd reddish light remained the same.

Nightfall came swiftly in the mountains. She’d learned that well enough on her first days. It should be dark already. Rika buried her axe into a goblin warrior’s chest, then drove its corpse back into the next warrior coming through the gap. As the whole press of goblins forcing themselves through stumbled, she struck out with a Shield Slam. While they picked themselves up, she turned, glancing over her shoulder to check the sun.

It hadn’t moved. Still in the same position it had been when she’d set up her defense, it remained hovering just above the peaks behind Canyon Falls. It was hard to say for certain, but the only difference was that it seemed an even deeper red than before. Like the last dying embers of a hearth. Rika fought down a shudder and an unnatural chill at the odd sight, and turned back to the task at hand.

“Chryson,” she said, falling back into her pattern of chop, shove, repeat. “What’s going on with the sun? Does the quest do something to the passing of the day to night?”

“I… I don’t know.”

Rika couldn’t help but notice the uncertainty in his words as they filled her thoughts. An uncertainty that seemed as alien as the reddened, unmoving sun. The idea that Chryson—a being formed of knowledge itself, according to his telling—could be so uncertain disturbed her. What could be unknown to a shard of divinity granted life by the Watchers themselves?

Any further thoughts on the matter faded as a new notification popped up beneath the nameplates of every goblin warrior within Rika’s view.

Ferocity – Bolstered by the presence of an elite of their kind. Average increase to damage.

A greater goblin had arrived. Which meant her job had just gotten a lot tougher. At least she was in about as good a position as she could be for its arrival.

Rika separated a nearby goblin from its head, refreshing her Tempo duration. Let it come. She’d faced greater goblins enough times now that she knew their tricks. She knew what it would do, and she knew how to handle it. Unlike before, she’d go into this fight relatively fresh, and with as much of an advantage as she could have, given the circumstances. The greater goblin finally came into view, wading through the press of its smaller kin as it approached. It shouted and goaded the others forward, but that only served to push them into Rika’s waiting storm of axe and shield.

Greater Goblin (Elite) – Level 15

Wardriver – Grants Ferocity to all goblins and goblin-kin present in combat.

Ferocity – Bolstered by the presence of an elite of their kind. Average increase to damage.

Figured there’s be another one close enough to give it Ferocity. Nothing could ever be that easy, could it?

Rika worked her grip on her axe and her shield and let the bastard come to her. She wasn’t abandoning her barricade, not with a greater goblin bearing down on her. She had her skills ready. She had plenty of time left on her Stonewall Tincture, and all her other buffs were active. And she still had Erik.

So far, the fight had been fairly one-sided. Erik had just been hiding behind a nearby garden wall, watching and waiting for his time to actually do something. That meant he’d be wholly fresh, and that his active skills were all ready, too. Let the fuckers try to Stun her. Let them do whatever they thought they could. She’d faced all their kind and come out not just alive, but stronger than ever.

The greater goblin bearing a hammer and shield stepped through her barricade and beat the familiar rhythm of its Taunt ability.

Exactly what she’d been waiting for.

The Taunt took hold, and Rika surged forward. There was no sense in resisting it. No sense in holding back. If the greater goblin wanted everything she could throw at it, she’d give it exactly what it asked for.

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

Shield Slam I: 30 seconds.

Tempo I x10: 6 seconds.

The greater goblin reeled back as her Tempo-enhanced Shield Slam shattered its guard. For an instant, they locked eyes as Rika raised her axe, and she saw the certainty of death flash across her opponent’s face. Black, rolling power curled off her axe as she activated Dark Strike.

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Dark power tore through the greater goblin’s flesh, searing it like fire and sending an eruption of jagged black spikes up into the red and fading light. A deep gash opened on its chest, and bone cracked beneath Rika’s axe as she punched through its ribcage. The greater goblin pulled back its hammer, readying the big slam they’d used on her to such good effect back in the caves.

Rika flipped her axe around so the spike faced out, a trivial adjustment given her improved Finesse. She drove the spike into the creature’s armpit. It howled and dropped the hammer. Rika kicked the weapon off into the ravine.

She hit the greater goblin again. It tried to shove her back ineffectually with its shield. The creature was too injured, too weak, to really break through her own boosted defenses. The Stonewall Tincture had plenty of time left, and her Jaws of Defeat buff wasn’t dropping anytime soon, either. Rika was tougher than she’d ever been, and she’d stay that way for a good while longer. With a swift kick, she shattered the greater goblin’s knee. It went down, and she split its skull open with another Dark Strike the moment it became available.

Enemy Slain: Greater Goblin (Elite) – Level 15

Congratulations! You have reached Level 14!

Name: Rika

Class: Dark Warrior (Basic, Rare)