It seemed they were doomed. A horde of screaming goblins was charging in from all directions. It had become a riot of clubs and angry faces, all jumbled up against one another.
Eric's arm was bleeding copiously with a constant throb assaulting his senses every time a blow landed.
Stumbling badly with Jin's leg, he just couldn't execute an exact movement without another struggle. Erica haltingly drew breath as the last vestige of her mana evaporated.
Two goblins were showing up for every goblin they eliminated. There was no winning by just tiring the goblins out.
But Dante's plan had developed no scruples about fair combat. A cold and calculating idea forced its way through the chaos. 'I can't fight them on my own, but I don't need to. I have an army ready to make. I just need the bodies.'
"Diana! Masha!" he yelled. His commanding voice broke through their furious fight. "Put your fire on the spot right in front of Jin! Don't spread it! Give me a stack of dead bodies!"
They couldn't take their eyes off him. Eyes wide open with surprise. He was asking them to concede their flank. It was ludicrous.
"Are you insane?!" Masha yelled back. She had barely dodged another swing of a club. "They'll wipe us out!"
"Jin! Eric! Hold that line for ten seconds, no matter what!" he sprung back to her. He ignored her. "Talia, patch any openings!"
Without a second thought, they obeyed. Their trust in him held them together.
Jin and Eric braced themselves, forming a wall of metal and strong will. With the remainder of her power, Erica engulfed the area with flames. A massive fiery wave swept over the goblins running straight in the center.
Meanwhile, Masha slapped the ground. From the same area, an army of sharp ice points erupted, impaling those wretched souls who got through the flames.
For a few cursed seconds, their wall broke. Goblins poured through the breached areas.
WHOOSH.
A club whooshed past Talia's head. So close she felt the wind. She immediately lunged, her foil stabbing forward at the new source of danger.
But the diversion worked. Jin and Eric now had a burning and frozen pile of at least twelve goblin bodies before them.
Right when he needed it.
"Now!" Dante shouted, stepping forward with outstretched hands. For the first time, he wasn't only an observer to the fight but entered the fight himself.
In came his powers: from the heart, not the head. Cold black energy was a wet shadow that settled deep in his chest. It felt like it wanted to devour him.
He called it forth, pouring it upon the pile of the dead.
The temperature of the air dropped considerably. The ground beneath the body darkened like a giant ink stain.
And with terrible noises, the dead goblins began to move. There were dozens of them.
Snap. Crack.
Their heads shot up almost immediately. Broken arms and legs dragged themselves upward.
Once small and black, their eyes now glowed an eerie dead purple. They were no longer goblins. They were no longer goblins. They were his tools.
Live goblins stopped. The shrieking died. Small shrieks of terror filled the air. They looked at the corpses of their dead friends suddenly animated by his dark power.
"KILL THEM." The words echoed darkly.
His new undead army thundered forwards, familiar with neither pain nor fear. One goblin smashed his club into a dead one and sent the thing staggering. But the dead one still lunged forward and clawed at its erstwhile buddy with the one good hand it had left.
In one blink, the battle changed: instead of a battle between a band of ten and thousands, it was a wild brawl of the living and the dead with his team as scythe makers.
"Now we hit back!" Dante yelled. "Concentrate on the spot!"
A second wind filled them. The team mounted a furious counter-assault. Jin fought beside one of the dead ones, using the empty tool as a shield against a strike, then spun to open the throat of another goblin.
Erica laughed darkly, unleashing her fire with no consideration. Without concern for hurting any of her allies, she targeted the field indiscriminately. His tools were expendable.
Masha froze a bunch of goblins stiff. One of the dead helpers simply plowed through, smashing their frozen forms into shards with brutal strikes.
Talia danced through the carnage, with her blade finding the throat of each goblin that dared to glance at the ghastly sight of their resurrected kin.
The goblins got scared by this dark magic. The full attack was too much. They lost their brave feeling. They let go of their weapons and ran in all ways. They screamed in fear.
"No ones left," Dante said. His voice was cold. "Find them and kill."
What came next was a big kill. His dead tools felt no tiredness. They chased the running goblins. His team killed any that stayed.
In minutes, the area was quiet. Only the sound of left fires and the hard breathing of the team.
The ground had bodies all over.
When Dante let go of his hold, his dead tools fell down. They became dead piles of meat again. The cost was small. It took a little of his energy. But the win was big.
He thought 'So that's how I let them go, but I did it by mistake. I need more control over my power. I need to find a way so they stay with me. Anyway, they were no use as they were weak and lost most of their arms and legs'.
When the rush went away, they stood with the dead. They had hurts and were very tired, but they won.
From every dead goblin, a bit of clean energy started to come up. It filled the air with a soft, shining mist. There were almost forty.
"The Goddess said how to get strong," Dante said. His voice went through the quiet area. "This is our prize. Take it in. All of it."
One after one, they paid attention. They pulled in the energy of the dead. The feeling was great.
It was a warm, strong flow that went through their bodies. It filled their lost energy and closed their small cuts and marks.
It felt like drinking from a spring of pure life after walking in a dry place.
They stood there for a long time. They let the power stay in them.
They had met their first real test and came out not just alive, but as better hunters.
This was their first take, and Dante knew it would not be the last.