Max lunged forward, activating one of his abilities, but not towards the tattooed goblin. He moved with his shield raised, towards the bonfire.
The tattooed goblin noticed this and, for some reason, panicked, creating spheres of dark Aether and sending them towards Max. They did practically nothing to him or his shield, except slightly diminish the bluish glow surrounding him.
When he was a few meters from the bonfire...
*Gyyyyiiiiiiuuuuuuuu*
The tattooed goblin let out a scream that none of us had ever heard a goblin make. As a signal, two larger goblins appeared from behind the cluster of huts we had just passed and lunged towards Max.
I didn't understand what the bonfire had to do with anything, nor why the goblins seemed so determined not to let Max reach it. But if they wanted to harm him, they forgot we were still here.
Activating my [Sharp Shot] skill again and combining it with [Rapid Shots], I fired 5 arrows towards the goblin wielding two small axes in its right hand.
The goblin on the left seemed to be a mounted goblin, but it was larger and had a wolf-like appearance with white and silver fur, wielding a spear. Usually, Cali was the one who dealt with the left, but this time it was Anna who took on the task.
With more strength than I expected from her small body, she took a slight step forward and threw the spear towards the goblin's head.
If for a hunter and archer the most idiotic thing to do is to openly fight prey without certainty of victory, then the most idiotic thing for a spearman to do is to throw their spear towards the enemy.
So why did she do that? A desperate tactic to eliminate the goblin? Of course not.
Literally on the last day before we began this new invasion attempt, Anna acquired an ability that no one had ever seen before, either inside or outside the Trial: the [recover] ability. This ability allowed her to recover an item she threw at an enemy, provided it wasn't damaged.
A very useful ability, isn't it?
And for that very reason, it had several restrictions. First, she could only use one item with this ability (the spear); second, it could only be used 5 times a day; third, if the thrown object was damaged or destroyed, it would take 1 week to assign a new one.
Even we couldn't understand how she acquired this ability; she said it appeared in her head after picking up a crystal of a different color from a goblin who also used a spear.
(Kaio: One little thing I forgot to mention, I added a random function on the first floor last week. It creates 5 enemies with random classes and rewards, but they are considerably harder to find and defeat. In short, the short girl with pigtails should have Halo as the protagonist.)
Of course, even with that skill, there's no guarantee of a hit (not even my [sure shot] guarantees that). And as such, the goblin mounted on the wolf raised his shield and managed to deflect Anna's spear, but this gave Cali time to get close enough to make a thrust with her staff/staff right on the wolf's flank.
The force sent the wolf and the goblin flying backward, but the wolf managed an acrobatic maneuver that, upon landing, put him directly in an attack position. And the goblin immediately responded, throwing a small hidden knife towards Anna, which Cali protected instantly.
With Max and Mav occupied with the goblin wielding two axes, and the girls with the mounted goblin, I had to deal with the tattooed goblin.
I fired three arrows, without adding Aether or any other ability, to see how he would respond. As expected, he created a shield of black Aether that deflected two and stopped the third, but I noticed that it passed through the shield completely. 'Quick to defend but with a not very strong defecation.'
If I add Aether to them I'll be able to win without much trouble. Thinking the same thing, the tattooed goblin raised a kind of rattle with feathers and fangs from somewhere, lifted it above his head and quickly lowered it, sending a burst of black Aether to the ground.
This formed a sort of cloak just above our ankles, but it didn't do much; we could still move, although I felt a little slower, or the goblins were faster.
With this advantage, I had to shift my attention from the tattooed goblin to help the others when necessary, especially Cali and Anna, who were fighting the mounted goblin, and those were already faster than the normal goblins.
We were stuck in this situation for a while; before I knew it, my arrows were running out. I think I only had 10 left in one of the quivers.
'This is getting really bad.'
The only positive point was that the goblins weren't receiving reinforcements, but even so, how many of ours must have already been injured or worse in the time we've been stuck here?
'And where is He?'
Since we arrived, I'd only seen him when he'd left the hut with those other goblins, where is it that—
*BAMM!!*
From the left came a loud bang, something we definitely didn't want to hear.
To minimize our losses, Mr. Andreas asked Mr. Piqval's wizards to make some emergency balls. These were a creation of the Marquis, designed to both confuse enemies and warn allies. When used, it created a loud bang and a cloud of smoke that confused the enemy, allowing allies to retrieve the wounded and escape to safety.
Mr. Andreas had one with him from a battle he fought with the Marquis and gave it to the wizards to make copies. It was also from this that they created the explosive ball that Mr. Andreas used to open the gate to the goblin village.
The point is that we should only use this if more than half of our forces were lost somewhere. In other words:
'We lost the left side.'
Seeming to understand the sound, the goblins let out a roar and intensified their attacks.
The goblin with the two axes coated them with a red energy that looked like Aether, but I felt it was a different kind of energy, and attacked with more ferocity. Sinking one of them into Max's large shield and repelling an attack from Mav with a single arm.
The mounted goblin raised his spear in the air, roaring at the same time as the wolf howled, and both were met by a bluish energy that cleared their wounds and then attacked the girls with even greater force.
The goblin broke Cali's staff with a single blow, and then the wolf made a beautiful stop that sent her crashing into the wall of one of the huts, leaving the path clear to increase its attacks on Anna.
I wish I could help either of them, but the tattooed goblin pulled a wooden stick from somewhere and attached it to the rattle. Creating a kind of strange staff, he spun and waved it in the air, accumulating black Aether at the tip and then striking it against the ground.
From the point of impact, a ripple of black Aether erupted, and charred hands began to emerge from the pyre, as well as from the ground. In mere instants, 5 bodies as black as coal, 5 pale skeletons rose, larger than the goblin flesh puppets.