CHAPTER 24
Seeing the human charging directly at them, two of the goblins unleashed a constant, crackling stream of lightning toward Grey.
He reacted instantly, raising his hands high to summon his magic.
"Earth wall!" he commanded.
A massive slab of dense Earth surged up from the ground in front of him, serving as a perfect insulator that blocked the electricity from reaching his body.
'Good thing they aren't intelligent enough to realize that lightning is naturally weak against the Earth,' he thought with a confident smile.
He quickly dismissed the earthen shield and crashed into the center of the goblin duo.
Seeing the human so close, they frantically thrust their spears toward him, the tips sparkling with lethal energy.
Without wasting a single second, Grey shaped the Earth around his hand into a rugged glove, allowing him to snatch the shaft of one goblin's weapon mid-thrust.
For the second attacker, he launched a small, concentrated fireball directly at its face.
As the creature recoiled from the heat, Grey pivoted, reshaping the Earth gauntlet on his hand into a jagged, elongated spear that plunged into the goblin's skull, killing it on the spot.
Before he could reposition, five more goblins swarmed toward him, while the remaining five engaged Randin.
'Well, this distribution is quite unfair, but who am I to complain?'
Two of the goblins discharged three quick, successive bolts of lightning while the others dashed toward him with their spears leveled.
The lightning bolts meant for Grey crashed harmlessly into another summoned Earth wall.
However, as he avoided one of the physical spear lunges, he wasn't fast enough to dodge the second; the jagged tip cut through his clothes and buried itself deep into his side.
Before he could retreat, the spear lit up with a blinding glow.
Grey was violently electrocuted on the spot, his muscles seizing and leaving him completely vulnerable.
His blood began to drip down his side, soaking his tunic, while his face twitched uncontrollably in agonizing pain.
The remaining goblins closed in for the kill.
They raised their weapons, which were already humming with power, and prepared to fire three lightning bolts each toward Grey,
who was still pinned by the first spear.
Relying on sheer instinct, Grey managed to lift his hand just in time to cast the one spell that could possibly extricate him from this predicament.
"Aerius!" he roared.
A massive burst of pressurized wind erupted from his palms, the force of the recoil tearing him away from the tip of the spear.
The sudden movement allowed him to narrowly avoid the stream of lightning bolts that streaked through the air where he had been standing only a heartbeat before.
Instead of hitting their target, the lightning bolts crashed into the goblins themselves.
The discharge stunned the creatures, leaving them twitching and unable to move as they were electrocuted by their own magic.
"Time to finish you all once and for all," Grey wheezed through the pain.
He lifted his hands, which began to burn with a brilliant, orange glow.
"Explomb!" he shouted.
A torrent of fire poured from his hands and slammed into the five stunned goblins.
They were engulfed in flames for a brief moment before the secondary effect kicked in; a series of violent explosions erupted around the group, burning them to a crisp.
Exhausted, Grey collapsed to the ground.
He looked over at Randin, who was still locked in a desperate struggle against the other five goblins.
The dwarf's armor was covered in deep scratches and dents, looking as though it might shatter at any moment.
He was clearly struggling to deal with the overwhelming lightning attributes of their spears.
"I need to quickly regain my mana so I can help him before he dies," Grey whispered.
He forced himself into a weak cross-legged position to begin meditating.
As he started siphoning mana from the surrounding air, a sudden, sharp pain lanced through his mana core.
The core began to shake violently, vibrating with a volatile power that made Grey's heart tighten and his muscles turn stone-cold and tense.
"Darn it! What is going on? This feels exactly like the time I first tried forming my mana core. What is happening? This… this… this pain is excruciating!!!" Grey screamed the final words into the air.
The agony became too much to bear; he lost all control over his limbs and slumped to the ground unconscious, his body still racking with tremors.
…..
Meanwhile, Randin was locked in a grueling, high-stakes battle against the remaining goblins.
Narrowly avoiding a lethal thrust, Randin attempted to strike back with his own blade when a jagged lightning bolt suddenly streaked toward his face.
Quickly, he hoisted his heavy sword up and utilized the flat of the blade to block the electric discharge.
After rapidly dropping his guard back down, Randin was unfortunately met with a brutal hit from a spear-wielding goblin, sending him skidding across the rough, rocky terrain.
Then, another one of the goblins discharged a bolt of lightning that slammed into his chest plate, though the reinforced armor held firm.
Randin was about to reposition himself for a counterattack when a guttural, agonizing shout erupted from Grey's direction.
Quickly glancing toward the boy, he saw that Grey had fallen completely unconscious, even though his own group of opponents had all been reduced to ash.
'What happened to him? Why has he suddenly lost consciousness? Darn it! I truly need his assistance right now, and he chose this moment to pass out,' Randin wondered inwardly.
He swiftly side-stepped a spear thrust and then slammed his sword onto the goblin's wrist, cleanly severing its hand.
Then, he drove his knee into the goblin's face, sending the creature tumbling backward in a daze.
Randin was about to give chase to finish the job when a lightning bolt struck the ground directly in front of his feet, effectively stopping his momentum.
As he spun around, a spear butt caught him in the temple, throwing his helmet off his head.
A follow-up bolt of lightning landed squarely on his torso, but the internal insulation of his armor managed to protect his heart from stopping.
Swinging his sword in a wide, desperate arc around him, Randin managed to slash one of the encroaching goblins away.
Just then, the earlier goblin that had lost its hand returned to the fray with murderous intent.
Randin managed to dodge its reckless attack and sliced its head off cleanly, leaving him to contend with only four more determined foes.
The dwarf had been so focused on that single goblin that he almost forgot about the positioning of the others.
As he turned his head, he saw three distinct lightning bolts converging toward his unprotected skull.
With the incredible speed at which they were traveling, he was certain he would be struck within seconds—and there was no one left to save him from such a grim fate.
But just as the electricity was about to make contact, a massive Earth wall suddenly erupted from the ground in front of Randin.
It blocked his vision entirely, but more importantly, it absorbed the lethal bolts of lightning before they could reach him.
"Don't worry, I got your back!" a familiar voice shouted through the chaos.