Kaio POV
'I liked this guy.'
[He vaguely resembles the last knight captain. Even their appearance is similar.]
'True, maybe they were related to some degree. After hearing about the relative's death, he came here to avenge him, but he encountered a dedicated young man who survived the tragedy, and after being moved by his will, he only gave up personal revenge to let the young man who almost lost his only father have his chance. It wouldn't be a bad plot.'
[A little predictable, I'd say.]
'A classic. And classics are like that because people like them. And so...'
[No, you can't help it any more.]
'Aaaahhhh because they're already having to deal with a horde of undead goblins in addition to the regulars. I don't think they deserve a little help to sweeten the situation even a little.'
[You were the one who created the Goblin Shaman Necromancer specifically for this day. Don't complain now, besides, you already gave them a helping hand by eliminating most of the Baron's forces and the order of mages.]
'Boo!' (˃͈ દ ˂͈ ༶ )
But it's true, my initial idea was to have just Grumpy with a few hobgoblins as helpers, about 2 actually, like a classic introductory RPG. Then I thought: "why not do something that will prepare people for the next stage?".
Then came the idea of a Necromancer so my "challengers" would feel more "comfortable" facing reanimated corpses. But a Necromancer goblin isn't very common, while a Shaman goblin is more usual, so I used the fusion circle and created the Necromancer Shablin.
And no, it's not a typo or anything like that, he really is a standard goblin but with the dual role of shaman and necromancer. And even so, he's bigger than a regular goblin, don't ask me how he came out.
'Hey Sys, what do you think of their progress so far?'
[... Stable, but easily broken by external factors.]
"Well, I just hope they realize this before it's too late."
I "said," looking at the screens showing the moons. While Andreas, Connor, and company were fighting near the village, Banor and a few others went to warn the Baron's small army with the mages. At the same time that Poh arrived and started having fun with them, Andreas had thrown the explosive ball at the gate, and, amazingly, Poh heard it.
They'll either defeat the goblins and reach the portal before Poh arrives, or they'll just repeat what happened last time. But now I can't do anything to help?
'You guys better hurry up.'
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POV Max
–Persistent pests!.
I ended up speaking after decapitating the 4th reanimated goblin. Only a few minutes must have passed, maybe not even that, since they arrived here, and I've already had to cut the same goblins 5 times before managing to land critical hits on their head and neck.
The annoying thing is that, even when I decapitated them, sometimes the head remained attached to the body. And shortly after, the goblin with tattoos further back would release some kind of dark Aether in the form of a wave that regenerated the damaged part, and he would get up again. He's been releasing this dark Aether at 10-second intervals.
'Does that wretch have an infinite reserve of Aether?!'
Of the wall of goblin corpses we're fighting, maybe 15 at a time, we've only definitively killed 7 so far.
'And the worst part is that they keep increasing in number, both the flesh puppets and the normal goblins in between. While we're getting more and more tired.'
Cut, defend, cut, cut, retreat, cut, block, retreating cut, advancing block, cut, cut.
My body almost moved automatically against the goblins, but I slowly felt the fatigue catching up with me. But I could still concentrate on the fight and even a little on my surroundings.
My idiot brother with the shield was abnormally quiet; usually, even when defending against the goblin attacks, he always ended up saying something stupid out of nowhere. But now he was calm and focused on defending against the blows of the meat puppets, and the goblins further back who were throwing stones, pieces of wood, and even pieces of some meat puppets.
Anna and Cali were a little further away but with the same efficiency as us. Cali parried and defended the blows while Anna eliminated the meat puppets and goblins that came closer.
Our frontline group only had 3 more people responsible for the front line, while further back, Lord Piqval's 2 mages and the "heavy assault group" were attacking from a distance.
Even with the Aether improving physical capabilities and reducing fatigue, it still accumulates; this was obvious on the faces of those besides our usual group.
'We need a way to retreat and let them rest a bit, but taking anyone out now will only make things more complicated.'
At that moment I thought of this:
–EVERYONE ON THE GROUND NOW!!!
Andreas' voice could be heard by everyone, perhaps even at the other attack points. I, Mav, Anna, Cali, and the other 3 immediately either found our bearings or threw ourselves to the ground. At the same instant, a wave in the shape of a cut passed over our heads and decapitated all the flesh puppets in front of us.
Neither we nor the goblins behind understood what had just happened, but they didn't have time to think. Following the cut, arrows rained down, killing most of them; some unscrupulous ones used their friends as shields, while others used the corpses of the flesh dummies, but still emerged with arrows lodged somewhere in their bodies.
I managed to recognize at least 8 of the arrows that killed the goblins, and they had come from the same archer.
–Guys!! Get up, we have to go now!!! – We heard Connor shout, running towards us but looking like he was going to stop.
– Go? Go where, Connor?! – Cali asked, not taking her eyes off the road ahead, her staff ready to crush skulls and limbs. With this brief respite I'm sure I heard Mav say quietly: 'If they used the staff to crush heads, why are their fists red?' But I decided to ignore it.
–Let's go straight to the snake's head and kill the goblin that keeps reanimating the bodies!!! – He said, already passing by us.
–Huh, but wasn't that—
–No time to explain!!. Let's just hurry before he reanimates them again!!. You three stay here and help Mr. Andreas and the others keep the goblins from interfering with us. Take this!!. – He said it all in one breath and pulled out three small bottles, slightly larger than his middle finger, from inside of his camouflage cloak with hood.
–Heee???. Ah, understood, good luck.
One of Mr. Piqval's few helpers made an obvious face, as if he wanted to understand things better, but when he saw the bottles, he understood that it wasn't the time for questions. Connor gave him the 3 small bottles and continued forward without looking back.
I didn't even need to look to realize that the other 3, just like me, were already following him towards the tattooed goblin.