Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

A wave of human, dwarven, and occasional elven bodies rushed forwards towards the remaining goblin soldiers. Unlike just about everyone else who was wearing heavy armor I did not join them, instead I circled around to the left side of the fight while my hands were performing the hand signs for several Tri Earth Bolt spells that slowly accumulated around myself.

As I was moving towards this superior position to avoid any friendly fire one lone goblin soldier noticed me and started running towards me with a stupid grin on its face. Given that smile I quickly concluded that it wasn’t the smartest of the bunch and I directed my conjured earth bolts towards it before I made any decisions.

I didn’t see any other dangers within my peripheral vision anywhere near myself so I fired one bolt towards the goblin soldier as a test, the bolt struck its chest plate with a loud clank and left a small hole that the goblin didn’t even register. Thankfully it wasn’t as well protected in the other parts of its body, such as its legs and arms.

My next bolt went towards its leg and struck firm in its left thigh which was followed by a third bolt into the other thigh. The sudden pain and force of the two bolts caused the goblin soldier to trip and fall while screaming out in pain. Not one to waste an opportunity I ran forward towards this goblin and conjured up a small dagger with my geomancy in my right hand. When I was close enough I reached for the goblins head and lifted it up exposing its neck just enough to stab my dagger forwards into it and quickly kill it.

Dropping the dying goblin I started running again to make up for the time I wasted and get into a good position that left me with a line of sight to the goblins and avoiding any friendly fire with my own allies, this required me to practically stand up against the stone wall that made up the cavern and cast my spells from there. From that position I used my tier one spells to wound and occasionally kill goblin soldiers whenever I had an opportunity.

Soon the fighting stopped and the goblins were no longer fighting or exiting from the cave, while none managed to reenter the cave to warn whoever might be inside, I doubted that they didn’t hear all the fighting and screaming.

Suddenly a voice could be heard originating from the inside of the cave, it was a foreign language that I wasn’t familiar with and based on the concerned expressions of everyone else as we all looked around frantically no one else did either. What I did know was that it wasn't the goblin language that was mostly just growls and grunts.

Suddenly several figures exited from the cave, all goblins wearing very heavy armor that was unlike anything else I had seen before down here. There was only a single goblin that wasn’t wearing this heavy armor, instead it wore a dark robe of sorts that was a bit of a surprise to me. Though there was some distance between us I noticed something around its neck that reminded me of the white wooden totem that I took off a dead goblin down here.

Reaching into my dimensional bag the magic within it brought the wooden totem to my hand. Holding it within my hand I saw it was clearly the demon warlock I remembered, but what I saw around this robed goblins neck looked very similar to the totem and the demon. Before anyone saw what I did I quickly placed the totem back within my bag and turned my attention back towards the goblins and what they were doing.

I could see that everyone was tense at the current situation as the goblins just stood there motionless, all the members of group one were eager and ready to jump into the fight while those in group two including myself were more interested in watching the situation unfold.

With little warning the armored goblins suddenly raised their large squared shields creating a wall with them as the robed goblin started chanting something in an unfamiliar language, not even the comprehend language spell could translate it.

Almost like it was rehearsed everyone in group one started their attack on their new targets, those with melee weapons started running forwards in a semi cohesive formation while those with magic and ranged weapons tried hunting the goblin soldiers from afar. While some of the goblins buckled slightly under fire they managed to remain steady until the fighters arrived before them.

Citro was in the very front of this weak formation and using his shield as a bludgeon he swung it and knocked the shield of the closest goblin soldier away leaving an open target for his short sword. With a powerful thrust of his sword Citro aimed for the right shoulder of the goblin that carried its own weapon, he aimed for the small exposed gap in the armor at the joint which his sword pierced easily. The nearby goblins started to panic at the sight of their formation breaking which resulted in the nearby goblins losing their grips on their shields or something else happening which left them vulnerable. The only good thing happening in their favor was the spell their leader was casting finished.

In the savage language of the goblins the one in the robe finished its dark spell and from the end of its staff it unleashed a dim red projectile, the projectile was around a meter in length and streaked towards Citro like a star. As the goblin saw its target freeze up for a moment at the sight of such strange magic it started to grin. ‘*The most powerful enemy of ours will die, and its allies will follow it as my magic will obliterate their very life force.*’

But just as the bolt was a few inches from Citro a small inconspicuous clear orb clouded with the red projectile and it fell apart into smoke and disappeared, though that red smoke wasn’t completely harmless as Citro coughed and had to catch his breath after accidentally breathing some in. Two of those within group one who were close enough to Citro had to help him back and away from the fight, when he was a decent distance away that nobody would consider attacking him they left and returned to the fight.

Seeing his spell fail spectacularly the robed goblin gritted his teeth. ‘*They have someone who can cast powerful magic on their side. Where is this spell caster? I must find them and stop them before I can steal their knowledge for myself.*’ The robed goblins' eyes darted across the field for anyone or anything that stood out, eventually his eyes rested on the members of group two who were standing out of the way.

‘*Them! It must be one of them! But there are far too many for me to determine which one it was with all these other ones trying to stab me and beat me with their weapons. I need to focus on using quicker spells until I see who it is.*’ Instead of the more powerful and larger red projectiles the goblin switched to smaller and less dangerous projectiles that were around the same size as the bolt spells that Arthur was so fond of.

The situation was making me feel anxious, I noticed the similarities between the magic that this robed goblin was using and the magic the dark mages that killed me were using. Something about it was insidious and dark, almost like it was sentient and was gnawing at the back of my mind ignoring the distance between us.

Thankfully I didn’t need to feel this for long as Citro soon returned to the fight, he had a bright red colored potion which he drank at the first opportunity that appeared to heal most of the damage he received from that dangerous spell. With his renewed strength he rushed forwards with his shield and sword charging forwards around to the side with the intent to flank the heavily armored goblins.

His target was the right side of the formation created by the goblins, while they had somewhat recovered their positions and stabilized themselves without Citro pushing at their weakest points it all fell apart once he rejoined the fight. The first to die was a goblin on the right most side of the formation via a short sword through the small visor into the head. The only two to notice this sudden change was the goblin directly behind the one who died and the one directly next to it.

The goblin in the second line was carrying a spear that it was using up until a few moments ago to attack from behind it ally, now it was forced to try and use the spear to try and keep the powerful enemy and the other mercenaries from getting close enough to become a threat to both itself and its nearby and now exposed allies.

With a loud shout the goblin tried to both scare off Citro but also alert everyone else of what was happening. “*Death to you vile surface dweller! We will not be defeated by lesser beings!*” While this did alert everyone else nearby including the robed goblin of the nearby threat it did nothing to scare Citro who didn’t understand the goblin language.

Instead Citro darted forward with his sword ready to strike like a coiled up snake, the goblin spear carrier while still shouting thrusted its spear forwards towards the upper left chest area of Citro. Instead of blocking the strike with his shield or allowing the hasty strike to be blocked by his armor Citro instead did something different, he raised his shield and angled it just enough so as the spear struck the shield it also slid across the face as Citro pushed forwards. Citro was able to use this to push the spear off to the side allowing him to close the distance as the spear hit a nearby goblin surprising it.

Without hesitation thrusted his short sword with as much force as he could muster towards the right arm or the goblin which was its dominant arm. With a loud squeal on pain it fell backwards allowing for Citro to pass the armored lines of goblins and reach the robed goblin who was casting all the dangerous spells.

Though it could not be seen by anyone due to the helmet, but Citro was smiling as he stared down the robed goblin who took a few steps back in surprise at the sudden change. “*How can this be? Our master has blessed me with such powerful magic, I cannot fail him or I will be bound to suffer by burning eternally.*” The robed goblin pointed its staff towards Citro and channeled his magic through it to cast more and more of the red magical darts aimed directly towards Citro. Raising his shield up Citro rushed forwards with his sword at his side intending on killing the robed goblin as soon as possible.

When the red magical darts struck the steel shield Citro was carrying it left small dents from the impact though they weren’t strong enough to punch through. Instead Citro was the one to land the first blow in this exchange when he slashed towards the goblin’s hand that was holding the staff.

Blood started dripping from the deep open wound and even small parts of bone were visible, instinctively the robed goblin dropped the staff and walked backwards while its body trembled in pain. “*Damned surface dweller, you will never manage to defeat the master even if I am defeated! He will summon my very soul to defeat you if he must!” The robed goblin shouted between his haged breaths and his few remaining spells.

Citro did not waste any more time and quickly stabbed the robed goblin in the chest leaving its robe stained with blood, when he was certain it was dead and not some sort of trick he decapitated it and tossed its head towards the middle of its still living allies.

The heavily armored goblins had started to sustain some heavy losses with the small breaks in their formation by Citro’s hand that were further pressed by the mercenaries under his command leaving only around ten or so alive out of the twenty that were initially alive.

The first goblin to notice the severed head of its leader shouted out in surprise after it stepped on while trying to avoid a spear through its eye. The other goblins didn’t have much time to look but they understood it wasn’t a good thing as it distracted their ally long enough to experience a second spear strike that actually hit this time.

Slowly but surely with Citro attacking from behind the remaining goblins slowly all died off in a pile of their own allies. It was an interesting thing to watch, a group making a last stand and slowly losing hope until they were all slaughtered like animals to be exact, but I still had a feeling gnawing within my mind, something that made me uneasy. ‘Must be the demon and that magic I saw that robed goblin using, I never saw anyone else use magic like that aside from the dark mages that killed me. I wonder if that is something significant, when I have an opportunity I should ask around the mages guild about it.’

Before we could leave for the second cave that everyone but me thought contained a second goblin warlord group one had to take its time in looting anything of value from the cave and the soldiers stationed outside it. The first thing to go was the weapons and armor the goblins carried, when that was all accounted for they started looking through the cave for anything else that might be valuable. They ended up finding several uncut gemstones of various sizes and shapes in what they all thought were the personal quarters of the robed goblin. I personally didn’t understand what made each so valuable but it was certainly something that made everyone else in group one very happy.

I spent the time with everyone else in group two near Lyra who I started a small conversation regarding the strange red magic.