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  A clear bubble of magical force appeared around me, completely blocking the path, and cutting off the unengaged hobgoblins from their friends. I faced the four enemies, trusting my goblins to handle the other five at my back. Although I did try to monitor the battle’s progress, occasionally throwing glances back to keep up with what was happening.

  “Divide and conquer,” I mumbled. Phase two.

  The plan was for Vrick to hold back a bit, to let the goblins fully engage, before adding his own unique touch to the skirmish.

  I caught a glimpse of him tackling a hobgoblin that had two goblins crawling all over him. The hobgoblin was busy trying to dislodge a goblin clinging to his back when Vrick jumped on him. Adding his own momentum and brawling abilities, Vrick half grappled, half shoved the hobgoblin to the cliff’s edge. The goblins jumped off the unbalanced hobgoblin and with a final shove threw him off the cliff. His scream ended a few seconds later with a wet splashing noise.

  My goblins didn’t even bother to look down on their handiwork and scurried over to help their brethren.

  Four down, eight more to go, Vic declared grandly.

  The four warriors in front of me had recovered and were attacking me. Luckily, because of the narrow path, only two of them could attack at one time, but even that was a lot for me to handle.

  Hobgoblin’s Axe hit Mana Shield for 14 damage. 12 mana drain

  Hobgoblin’s Sword hit Mana Shield for 16 damage. 14 mana drain

  Those two hits drained me of 30% of my mana points.

  Glancing behind me, I saw my warriors were in a tough battle, the hobgoblins’ physical superiority was becoming evident as they recovered from the surprise attack and fought back. Two of them managed to un-grapple themselves, gaining room to draw and swing weapons. The hob lieutenant tore away one of the goblins clinging to his legs and threw him bodily over the cliff. Then he reached for his huge axe as he targeted the next goblin.

  The tide of battle was shifting. Despite that, Vrick, along with three other goblins, threw another hob off the cliff.

  Vic reported.

  Hobgoblin’s Axe hit Mana Shield for 13 damage. 11 mana drain

  Hobgoblin’s Sword hit Mana Shield for 15 damage. 13 mana drain

  Damn, 50% MP down… It was time to go on the offensive.

  One of the hobgoblins in front of me had two spears sticking out of him and his health bar was at 60%. I cast a Drilling Arrow, using a few extra seconds to charge it up. As soon as the magical dart was fully charged I launched it at him point blank.

  Drilling Arrow hit Hobgoblin Warrior for 22 damage

  Damn, so close. That dropped his health down to 15%, but didn’t put him out of the fight.

  Behind me the battle was still going strong.

  Vic, what’s happening behind me?

 

  I stole a look behind me. Some of the goblins were facing the warriors, barely dodging their weapons while the rest were held off by the lieutenant.

  They wouldn’t last long this way.

  “VRICK,” I shouted, “Ignore the leader, concentrate on the warriors.”

  Vrick didn't bother to reply, instead he gave a few quick commands to his warriors.

  Vic reported.

  None of this bothered the hobgoblins in front of me.

  Hobgoblin’s Axe hit Mana Shield for 10 damage. 9 mana drain

  Hobgoblin’s Sword hit Mana Shield for 16 damage. 14 mana drain

  Vic intervened

  Thanks for the update, I replied sarcastically, I’ll get right on it.

  I cast a standard Drilling Arrow at the heavily injured hobgoblin, doing just enough damage to finish him off. The warrior behind him took his place. I had only 25% of my mana pool left.

  Vic informed.

  I threw another glance behind me. The nine goblins easily overpowered the last two hobgoblin warriors, and were throwing them over the cliff. But then the lieutenant charged, and my goblins found themselves overmatched. The heavily-muscled hob swung his huge axe in sweeping arcs, effortlessly killing two of my warriors, while keeping the rest at bay. Just as I had used the narrow path to my advantage, it now enabled him to keep my forces from surrounding him.

  Vic prompted

  It didn’t look like Vrick and his goblins could handle the lieutenant, despite their advantage in numbers. To make matters worse, the three hobgoblins warriors in front of me found their pace, and were effectively tearing down my shield.

  “Vrick,” I shouted, “switch!”

  The clever little guy understood my meaning immediately. Motioning toward me he shouted “Go Go Go!” The seven goblins swarmed around my shield, their smaller bodies allowing them to pass where their larger cousins could not. I turned to face the lieutenant, leaving Vrick to handle the remaining three warriors.

  The lieutenant gave me an evil smile, swinging his axe in large threatening arcs. Now that I was facing him, I got a good look at his weapon. It was a huge, double bladed greataxe. The steel blade looked heavier than I was.

  I didn’t like his attitude, so I hit him with a Drilling Arrow, giving him his first taste of damage in the battle, and wiping the arrogant smile off his face.

  Drilling Arrow hit Crog for 10 damage

  He snarled at me, exposing his long, sharp incisors, then he raised his axe over his shoulder and charged. Barreling into me he used his momentum to deliver a devastating strike. I saw it as if in slow motion, his axe struck my mana shield and passed through it, then continued the swing to graze my shoulder.

  Crog’s Greataxe hit Mana Shield for 35 damage. 31 mana drain. You take 2 damage

  That hit drained almost my entire mana reserve. I was left with only six MP, the next hit would destroy my shield. I was in serious trouble.

  Behind me Vrick and his boys were not doing so great either. They’d managed to throw off another hobgoblin, but lost two more of our own warriors.

  I couldn’t count on them for support, I had to defeat Crog on my own. Somehow.

  The lieutenant circled me, swinging wildly with his axe, forcing me back. I stepped away from the ledge, with him closing on me, until my back was to the wall. Literally. There was no way I could throw him off the cliff now.

  I didn’t want to use my last Drilling Arrow just yet, but my only other weapon was the Totem staff. I tried hitting him with it, but he contemptuously parried my attack and landed another devastating hit on my shield.

  The Greataxe crushed my underpowered shield, shattering it. Its momentum barely reduced, the axe plowed into my torso.

  Crog’s Greataxe hit Mana Shield for 32 damage. 6 mana drain. You take 25 damage

  Pain exploded from my ribs, making me stumble, my health bar plummeted to 52. With that wound I felt the, now familiar, rage building inside my chest, enabling my Blood Wrath ability. Starting to panic, I unthinkingly activated the skill.

  A line of force erupted out of my finger, directly at Crog. The ray hit his body, but to my chagrin Crog took the hit with ease. The blow had a force of over 800 Kg, but the hobgoblin only had to place one leg back to absorb it and regain his balance. Recovering effortlessly, he continued his assault.

  I had no more mana, my hit points low.

  Frantically I tried to think of a way out of this mess, but Crog didn’t let me have a moment. His axe came down at me again. This time the axe blade slashed diagonally, cutting deeply from my shoulder to my stomach, sending w
aves of burning agony through my body.

  Crog’s Greataxe hit you for 31 damage

  I could feel Blood Wrath charging up again, but what good would it do?

  I only had 21 hp left. If only he did a bit more damage, I thought desperately, I could have hit him with doubly charged force.

  Crog lifted the axe high above him, preparing for one final earth shattering hit. I was cornered, there was no way to run and there was no way I could block. Behind him I could see my goblins throwing off the last of the hobgoblin warriors. They would not be able to reach me in time to help, Crog started his swing. I cringed, waiting for the unavoidable death blow.

  Vic exasperated voice sounded in my mind

  As Crog's axe plunged toward my head. Vic’s cloak-like body shifted, flowing past either side of me, reaching with several tendrils toward the coming attack. His tendrils wrapped themselves around the axe and Crog’s arms, and pulled. The axe’s trajectory shifted, barely missing me, and hit the cliff face instead, showering me with gravel. Vic’s mass continued to melt and shift around Crog, the last tendrils leaving my body and wrapping around Crog’s arms and legs, restraining him. A few tendrils even reached up around the hobgoblin’s face, blocking his view.

  Bound from head to toe, Crog lost his balance and fell, landing on the ground at my feet.

  He struggled powerfully against Vic’s hold, I could see strands of Vic’s purple tendrils stretching to their limits, tears appearing in them. Vic bought me a moment of respite, it was still up to me to finish it.

  Free from the onslaught, I found my bearing. I knew what I had to do now.

  Pulling out my dagger, I cut my palm, adding a shallow wound.

  I felt the powerful rage in my body intensify in response.

  I bent down and put my palm in line with Crog’s head. He had already freed one arm and was clawing at a piece of Vic wrapping around his head. Tearing the obscuring mass away from his face, all he saw was a goblin’s outstretched hand in front of his eyes.

  I smiled at him, “Goodbye Crog” and activated Blood Wrath, aiming at his head.

  A tremendous pushing force, erupted from my finger. It hit Crog’s forehead at point blank. Crog’s head snapped back at the ground, hitting it with a sickening CRACK! His skull split open against the hard stone, and that was the last of the invading hobgoblins.

  I found myself sitting on the ground, exhausted.

  Finally, it’s over. I thought numbly.

  I tried to stand but the adrenaline that sustained me through the battle drained away. My wounds throbbed and ached, demanding my attention. My head was spinning and I barely managed to remain sitting upright.

  Crog’s body lay in front of me.

  Wearily, I retrieved one of the healing potions Bogan gave me and downed it. Relief washed over me, as my wounds closed. I was back to 75% health.

  Getting back to my feet, I surveyed the now peaceful ambush site, and headed over to check the rest of the group.

  Out of the twelve goblins, only Vrick and two warriors were still alive. Vrick was laying on the ground, critically wounded, a sword stuck in his chest. I glanced at his icon on my display, his health bar was nearly empty, and he was suffering from a Bleeding debuff. Removing the sword would probably kill him.

  “God damn it,” I swore.

  I only had one healing potion remaining, but I couldn't let Vrick die. The goblin proved his worth a dozen times over during the battle. My experiences had taught me that good assistants were hard to find. In or out of the game.

  I pulled out the last healing potion and gave it to Vrick, who downed it, making his health bar jump back to maximum. I was waiting for that to happen, and drew the sword from his chest, inflicting 10 points additional damage.

  “Now if you’re finished resting,” I grinned at him “how about you get off your ass so we can get back to work?”

  Vrick looked at me with gratitude, then smiled humorously. It was the first time I saw him do that.

  +600 reputation with Vrick. Current rank: Friendly

  Everyone was injured to a degree, myself included, but there was no need to tend the wounds. Our hit points would regenerate soon enough.

  Crog’s body was still entangled in Vic’s partially torn purple mass. As I watched, the mass shifted and slithered off, reshaping. But instead of forming Vic’s goblin body, it grew several tentacles that crawled over the body, their finger-like tips probing his face.

  What are you doing? I cringed as one tentacle penetrated an ear.

  Vic hesitated

  The tentacles kept probing. Then a tentacle entered Crog’s mouth, and another wormed up his nose. I felt bile rising, making me want to turn away from the sight.

  Vic said excitedly.

  His body flowed through the tentacles and disappeared completely into Crog’s corpse.

 

  I approached and looked at the dead lieutenant’s body.

  His eyes snapped open.

  I jumped back with a yelp, grabbing my staff. The hobgoblin rose into a sitting position and started laughing. “Ha Ha, oh man, you should've seen your face.” he growled out in a brutish voice, though his words were clearly Vic’s. “Here, let's do that again!” He promptly laid back flat on his back, closing his eyes again. The bastard was still grinning.

  “Cut the crap Vic,” I muttered, embarrassed. “What did you do?”

  “Oh, this is awesome.” Vic-Crog answered wildly. “I just learned a new skill, the second one I got in this fight.”

  “Really?” I raised one brow. “I didn’t know you could learn new skills. What are they?”

  “When I grabbed and wrestled this stupid puppet,” he pointed at himself, “I got the Grab skill. It allows me to better grapple enemies, just as I did when I saved your ass. And I just received this ‘Possess corpse’ skill. It occurred to me that a dead puppet is just a vacant puppet, and I was able to access ‘its’ controls.”

  The walking corpse raised his arms triumphantly and uttered a satisfied growl. “This feels amazing, with a little practice, I would be able to control dead bodies longer as the ‘Possess corpse’ skill level increases,”.

  I could see the potential of such skill. “That’s really amazing Vic, so you can access the full power of this hobgoblin?”

  “Err… not exactly boss,” Hob-Vic replied regretfully.

  “I can access skills and abilities that are connected to race or physical state, like his ‘Powerful’ skill which makes him stronger than the standard hobgoblin. But knowledge-based skills are locked. So I can’t use his Axes skill, for example.”

  His eyes rolled around completely in their sockets, like he was looking at the inside of his head, it was eerie.

  “However, I do seem to retain my own knowledge-based skills. I can still use Grab, while dear ol’ dead Crog here didn’t have this skill.” He chuckled.

  “Not bad.” I said in approval.

  “Oh, one more thing” Vic added. “I can also view his log history, though the Possess Corpse skill limits how far back I can access it.”

  “Hmm” I stroke my chin. “I can see how that could be useful. Anything interesting in particular?”

  Vic was silent for a long as, I assumed, he reviewed over the logs.

  “That’s strange, it says here that Crog received a magical message just before the fight. It reads: ‘H90-2GO,’ weird eh?”

  I mulled it over for a moment, what the hell is H90? It sounded like a robot name from Star Wars.

  I shrugged and let it go. It’s not that important now anyway.

  I looked at the field of battle. The ground was strewn with the bodies of the fallen; six dead goblins and two hobgoblins, we threw the rest of them down the cliff.

  “Search the bodies,” I ordered my troops.

  The hobgoblins
used heavy falchions. Counting the one I drew out of Vrick’s body, we now had two. Crog’s axe was large and heavy, and of excellent quality.

  High quality, Greataxe

  Description: Greataxe meant to be wielded by both hands, of excellent craftsmanship.

  Type: weapon, two handed.

  Rank: standard

  Durability: 77/80

  Damage: 15-28

  Too bad it’s not magical.

  Then again, none of the goblins were strong enough to wield it.

  It should make an excellent source of good quality steel for reforging, I reasoned.

  We also retrieved a few dropped battleaxes and two sets of hardened leather armor off the bodies. Vic removed the armor his possessed body was wearing on his own. They were too big for any of us to use, but we could dismantle them for crafting components.

  We also found 13 gold coins and two other items.

  “Take a look at that,” growled Hob-Vic.

  He produced a map and a small orange glass item from his belt. The glass item was an alchemical grenade, but one unlike any I’d ever seen. I Analyzed it.

  Cursed Fire grenade.

  Description: An alchemical grenade that burns with unholy fire.

  Rank: magical

  Effect: unholy fire burns for 10 seconds. 10 damage per second.

  Cool.

  But why would a hobgoblin lieutenant need such an item? Wouldn’t a normal Fire Grenade be just as effective? Not to mention easier to procure? This kind of grenade would be useful against a celestial, cold-based being, but it’s not like the hobgoblins were going to fight something like that, right?

  I unfolded the map next, it depicted the surrounding area. It showed in great detail, the mountains, the forest to the south, and named plains that were to the west. There were two spots marked on the map. One looked like a large city beyond the mountain ridge further to the north, the hobgoblin’s settlement probably. The other mark was our clan’s cave.