I stabbed forward, shuffling along, and using my naginata as a spear for a few minutes, stabbing and deflecting the goblins’ crude attempts at fighting.
The dirt and exposed rubble of the passageway suddenly gave way to a roughly broken hole into a large stone hallway, and the last few goblins backed away and ran to the right. I shifted forward, finding that the left led to a solid wall of collapsed masonry, but the right…
The goblins were clearly visible as they backed away, but they weren’t running randomly. Halfway across the room stood a group of twenty larger goblins. Each of them wore cobbled-together armor, but they carried real weapons: swords, flails, one even had a giant cleaver. They were waiting for us, and that wasn’t the worst bit.
Standing behind them were two other goblins. One was easily the biggest in the room and wore what looked like a complete set of armor, carrying a hammer and shield. The other goblin was wearing a black robe with its hood up; a single sickly white hand was all that emerged from the garment’s protection and it clutched a wand threateningly.
I jumped down and moved into the room, the others of my squad following me and spreading out, until even Bob had shoved through, dropping down to stomp up to my side. I noticed that Flux and the other two Mer were nowhere to be seen, and Oracle was staying out of sight behind Bob, and I grinned at the thought of the surprise to come for the nasty creatures we faced.
I checked my mana as both sides eyed each other coldly. I was at a hundred and four stamina out of a hundred and eighty. I had three hundred and sixty HP out of four hundred, and at the lowest, of course, was my mana at one hundred and twenty-six out of two hundred and thirty.
I stepped forward and called out to them, the previous silence of the room broken only by the crackling fires dotted around, and the panting of the retreating, smaller goblins.
“Where are my people?” I asked, and there was a long pause before the hooded goblin spoke up in a harsh voice.
“What people?”
“From the ship,” I snapped back, looking around the room. I needed to delay as long as possible to let my mana recover, but…the room was lit by scattered fires and contained what looked to be old stone benches. Piles of rubbish were carelessly strewn about, but there were no cages or bodies visible. At the far end, a doorway led out of the room, and I could see more fires reflecting off the walls down that way.
“You come here for food?” the goblin asked and then cackled. “You come to be food!” it cackled, raising its wand, and firing a bolt of solid darkness across the room at Bob, making him rock back with the force of it. He’d already lost several bones from his plated armor, and I could see rib bones exposed by the impact. He dropped by nearly ten percent of his health, or structural integrity, or whatever it was…
“You’ll pay for that, my son!” I bellowed at the creature, running forward, the rest of the team following me. “Kill that fucker!” I roared.
“Oracle! Keep hidden behind Bob and charge up a big lightning bolt; I want that fucker dead!”
“On it!”
I sent gratitude to Oracle, aware that she’d hidden when we entered the room. I got her response mixed with a sense of glee, as I knew she loved using that damn spell.
I ran forward, seeing the armored goblins spread out to take our charge. I felt, as much as saw, the others spreading out behind me, and as I picked my target, I felt the cold rage building, I’d been focused before, but now? Now I needed control, as I could hear other goblins shouting in the distance. I gritted my teeth and tamped my anger down as hard as I could.
I lashed out with my naginata, beating the nearest goblin’s =sword aside, jumping and spinning into a kick that snapped its head back and sent it reeling. I’d used the impact to push myself back and blocked a mace strike from my left. Jian was there in a second, his right sword slamming into the mace as well and driving it further aside to free up my weapon, even as his left-hand sword stabbed deep into the goblin’s unprotected side where its armor didn’t cover. I heard another blast of magic and a cry of pain as someone was hit with the dark magic the goblin mage was firing, and I gritted my teeth again, determined to end this fight as quickly as possible.
I swept across to my right, hooking the base of my naginata between that goblin’s legs and pulling it off its feet. Bob took advantage of the gap to stamp forward, one huge foot ending that goblin’s worries in a permanent way. My first target staggered back toward me, glaring past a broken, bloody nose, and growled, about to attack, when Oracle appeared from behind Bob, lashing both hands forwards at the mage.
At the last second, the armored goblin leapt in the way, its shield absorbing the spell and making the goblin scream in rage and pain.
The sudden unexpected addition of Oracle caused the goblins to freeze for a second, one which Arrin, Stephanos, and Miren made the most of, all firing on the mage who cowered behind his protector.
Both arrows clattered off the shield harmlessly, but the firebolt was aimed better. It slammed into the armored goblin’s leg, blasting him back
