Chapter 36: Goblin Territory

The goblins only round passed smoothly, the small bodies were nothing compared to the massive shield in Stonewall's hands that would send them flying with the most basic skill in our tank's arsenal. Bash., an attack that adds the weight of one's shield to their base damage, was made three times as effective by the massive wall shield I had made. Goblin bodies FLEW when they ran up the middle of the tunnel.

I once again did my best to focus on spreading my damage rather than finishing the goblins I shot at. Sir Beryl had a point when it came to my level and Agility and I needed to watch my growth rate. If I ended up getting ahead of myself my character's sensitive stat build could be ruined in terms of endgame stats. I needed fifty Agility before level twenty-five.

Even when a full one hundred goblins came rushing out of the tunnel and into a shit storm of overlapping magical attacks, most of us were just leisurely waiting for the fireworks to end so that we could join the fun. When the smoke and dust and vapors from the magical barrage was over, roughly a third of the final goblin wave remained. Elder root equipment DID have a nice bonus to MATK stats.

The fact that we had coordinated their elemental attacks to work together did not hurt, either.

However, when the first hobgoblin warrior appeared I left my perch in an instant. My war cry at the time was the words, "Dibs," being yelled out as I jumped down with Midnight Hauntings in hand. The hobgoblin warrior had no idea what was happening when I landed on their shoulders and sheathed the entirety of my sword in their spine. Half of their health bar disappeared in a single move and they slumped down to the ground while paralyzed from my sheathed sword.

Drawing out the pair of Galvanized Elder Bokuto that Oleander had made for me, I start working on raising my Staff Arts and Swordplay levels by wildly wailing down on their head with the blunt backs of my swords. Five and six percent hits just whittled away at their health. When they were down to ten percent, though, I put the wooden swords away and finished the warrior by ripping Midnight Hauntings free of their back.

By the time I climbed back up to my perch the hobgoblins round was already starting. Luckily there were only ten in the first round and there were fed straight to our familiars. I did not even bother attacking, letting Ivana plant an arrow in each hob with their skills to drop no less than half their bars away. Then, in the second hobgoblin wave, we did it again!

Duck and Darkwing did not have the same active roles as the rest of us but the two of them would each pluck a body from the ground in every round and make sure they got their shares of the experience while hiding in the Elder Oak. I was honestly happier to have them than not have them. The two of them could easily kill twenty or more enemies in a single round and that was always helpful to us.

I finally ran out of arrows halfway through the hobgoblin round but at the end of that round I could take out my own stock of lesser arrows. They were not as strong as the elder arrows made by Oleander but they were still enough to make a difference when fired from a thirty-six damage bow from behind the enemies. Most of my hits were all stealth attacks.

Having four people armed with magical attacks was a blessing I did not think I would appreciate as much as did. Not just because of the heavy firepower they provided but also because Lil and Agnes were starting to lay down debuffs such as minimizing movement speed with the effects of ice and lightning or causing Damage Over Time with their basic fire attacks. Enemies who were caught on fire were blinded and enemies who could not move were sitting ducks for the owls.

When the time came for a pair of hobgoblin warriors to appear I struck once again, using a regular Midnight Fuller to silently drop down on the back and shoulders of one to once again sheathe my sword in a stealthy critical. I could imagine the combat notification I turned off would call these critical hits Spinal Taps or something of the sort.

Properly armed with Midnight Hauntings, I selfishly engaged the second hobgoblin warrior while the others rested their skills. The second hobgoblin warrior was already in the process of attacking when I got off of the first but they were aiming high for somebody standing on their comrade's body. All I had to do after stepping down was drop into a crouch and lunge,

Rushing by under their outstretched wooden spear, I slashed outward from the left to my right across the hobgoblin's knee before dropping to the side and rolling away. The warrior's knee trembled unsteadily as I came back up to my feet just a few inches away from where their other foot had stomped down at my low body. This time, though, I was jumping up their side using 360 Edge.

A pair of ethereal Geists appeared traveling up the hobgoblin warrior's ribs and shoulder after my spinning attack carried me up past their head with its momentum. The health bar in the air beside me dropped down to two thirds as the ghost blade finished splashing dark fluids up toward me. Then, I started falling as the hobgoblin warrior spun around to sweep their spear through the air.

A second 360 Edge while jackknifing my legs up above me kept me in the air and out of the way of the attack, laying down two spinning slashes about the warrior's face for twenty percent of its health before a single Geist ripped straight down the middle of their head to take them down to twenty-five percent of their health bar.

Landing roughly on my side as the hobgoblin warrior was forced back from the knockback of my attacks, I was back on my feet in an instant leaping through the air with yet another 360 Edge. And another. And even a third before there came an audible cracking from my shoulders, back, and hips.

The hobgoblin warrior was already dead by the time I hit the ground with one fourth of my health bar draining away, I had thrown out my back trying to play at being a ninja.

[Acquired Unique Title: Fool's Errand]

[+30XP]

[Fool's Errand: Uncommon. Active. For sacrificing yourself to ensure the safety of the people you call your own, you have been awarded the Fool's Errand title to show your foolishness is its own courage. Permanent 1% regeneration of healthy every three seconds and +20 Luck in the hopes of your survival when this title is equipped]

[Acquired Unique Perk: Spin Specialist]

[+50XP]

[Spin Specialist: For training your body to the edge of death of crippling yourself and surviving, you have begun realigning your spine and muscle structures to better support the fluidity, speed, and strength of chained spinning attacks. +10 Agility and +10% efficiency in 360 Edge and other spinning attacks]

By the time I finished reading the third round of mixed double waves had already started and I was still paralyzed on the ground. Somebody had cast a heal on the ground and my bar was full but I was completely stuck on the ground however, there was a flashing red and white stopwatch in the middle of my field of view that showed one minute ticking by.

As if summoned by my curiosity, another message window appeared.

[This is the process of realigning your body, you will remain immobilized until the process is over. If you die before then, not only will you lose ten percent of your experience since your last level but you will also lose the Spin Specialist perk. Do not get caught, Hack]

The others were calling out to me as I simply lay there without moving with hobgoblins and goblins walking passed me. The only thing I could think to do was just lie there with my eyes unfocused but forward as if I were dead. This lasted for about ten seconds before the last enemy had walked passed me without ever looking down while focusing on the noises of the others.

[Acquired Unique Title: The Opossum]

[+30XP]

[The Opossum: Rare. Passive. For surviving behind enemy lines by playing dead, if only for a little while, you have unlocked the possum title. If you could soil yourself to cover your still living scent, it would help. Permanent +5% less likelihood to be noticed while sneaking and +5% to acting or persuasion related skills]

Once the fighting started and I had forty seconds remaining, I tried to send a message telling the others to kite the final enemy until I could move but even sending messages by thought was not working. With more than twenty seconds remaining the next wave started and twenty of either goblins and hobgoblins started wandering through. I could only hold my breath and lie there.

Seconds ticked by like minutes as one greenish brown foot after another passed through my field of view or even trampled over my as if I was not even there. It hurt like an ungodly hellfire had been lit all over my body every time I was touched but all I could do was struggle to keep it together. The only bright side to this was that the timer never reset on me.

There was a moment when I wished I had died, one of the hobgoblins stopped and looked down at me and seemed to recognize me as the hunter, slayer, killer, massacre person from my titles. That hobgoblin stopped everything and took the time to directly kick my before pissing on my back.

[You have received the Goblin Territory curse, for three days while the scent of Goblin Territory remains on you you will receive a debuff of -10 charisma]

Finally, with ten seconds remaining, I was out from under the enemy and behind them as they finally engaged the front line. The others laid down suppressive magical attacks on the second wave group I wished I could have told them to save for the even larger next wave. However, Stonewall's Bash skill coupled with the insane damage of his shield would still be enough to splatter bodies in the next wave.

"I'M BACK, BITCHES," I cry out as the timer runs out and a sudden surge of electric-like energy flows through my body, driving me up to my feet as the next combat alert flashes. Since I had no time to climb back up to my perch, I simply drew Midnight Hauntings and Midnight Fuller while waiting to greet the oncoming wave of sixty.

Posing almost dramatically in a wide-legged crouching stance with Midnight Haunting extending forward and Midnight Fuller extended behind me. This was simply the pose that felt natural for what I wanted, it was the exact position of a fully extended 360 Edge while standing. "Show time!" I warn the others, letting them know they had a moment to rest.

As the first hobs and gobs started running for me in the middle of the tunnel, I leaped forward and into a 360 Edge that now did one-fifty-percent of my usual attack damage and kept pushing out three more spinning skills before my body started to creak and groan in protest. Over a dozen bodies lie fading around me, though, so it was still effective.

Geists were still ripping circles around my like swirling spirits, flaying the flesh of any enemy in their range after the initial enemy that triggered them had already died. After three different ghostly 360 Edge attacks faded around me the number of bodies had doubled and I no longer felt any resistance from moving away. I did not immediately start using 360 Edge again but I continued taking advantage of my combo that had risen nearly to one hundred from the crowd control skills.

The third wave of doubled enemies only lasted for a little more than a minute before all sixty of the bodies became shiny dust particles in the wind. "Woo!" I call out while using three 360 Edge skills just to slash my way up the earthen wall to one side of the tunnel and return to my perch at the very back. "Papi, if you don't clip that shit, you're fucking fire! I need to show that to my dad!"

"Oh, yeah, I definitely recorded that!" He assures me joyfully, reminding me that I had been cursed.

The next wave picked up soon after and I had no choice but unload the rest of my arrows while calling out the use of spells. Once the debuffs and damage were spread out throughout the crowd, I tightened the front line on the entrance of the tunnel and had everybody funnel the enemies into Stonewall's massive shield. The fourth wave ended just as quickly as my solo wave.

In the next wave, though, there were one hundred enemies and I had to start calling orders in more detail and to more than just our people. Since I had a hand in capturing most of them, everybody's familiars listened to me about as well as they listened to their actual owners. If I called Go's Missy act like a flamethrower turret while standing on Stonewall, she did it. If I can for Duck and Darkwing to snatch targets on command then they did it, too

Everybody was getting worn out by the end of that fifth wave and I would soon be running out of options. Normally I would be out their to relieve some of the pressure with a quick First-Aid to whoever was in reach while also managing my share of the enemies. This time, though, I was out of arrows and solely in a commanding position.

Instead, I jumped down into the tunnel once again with a pair of Hardened Hickory Bokuto to emphasize my limited knockback abilities even against twice as many enemies as last time. However, I was not simply going to stand right there in front of them. I waited halfway down the twenty yards of tunnel entrance and called out, "Stone Volley!"

Lil happily obliged, unleashing the shower of pelting rocks from the surrounding ground that she had been developing arduously in our events and confrontations. When I first saw this attack the rocks were half the size of my fist and usually a soft sediment that would burst on contact. Now, though, the rocks were bigger and more solid so they broke in large fragments instead of dust clouds.