Chapter 122: Outnumbered

Eldrian started attacking right as his hand grasped the greatsword, giving a wide swing to allow himself some room. But the goblins did not care, they charged at Eldrian with no fear. Using each other's bodies as cushioning to allow them to get at Eldrian.

Eldrian felt a piercing pain in his leg even before his swing finished. Desperate he used Accelerate, an agility boosting skill that gave him a short-lived agility bonus of 20 points, basically speeding him up by 20%. This extra speed allowed Eldrian to dodge all the incoming strikes he saw, but this was not enough as he felt a new strike on his back.

As Eldrian felt the hit he was grateful for the armor Old Sword had given him, it had likely saved him just now. He also realized that he could not stay in the middle of all the goblins, as such he focused on breaking through the encirclement while Accelerate was still active.

Thanks to how uncoordinated the goblins were, with them even using each other. Eldrian managed to break through their little encirclement. Not stopping, he continued running until Accelerate ended.

10 meters, that is enough.Eldrian sighed with relief, quickly moving on to casting Frost Needle again. Shooting the spell at the front-most goblin. Causing those behind to trip of their comrade's body.

Smirking Eldrian rushed back in using Drive, a skill that gave him a boost in strength. Feeling the skill take effect, Eldrian slashed at all the upright goblins, the extra strength enabling him to continue his strike through a couple of goblins. While it did not cut through them Eldrian could hear bones breaking.

As soon as he finished this strike Eldrian retreated again. Both his mana and stamina extremely low. But the results were more than satisfying, Eldrian having killed 12 goblins. Almost halving their numbers.

Luckily none of them seemed to be able to use magic, which allowed Eldrian to really keep an edge, but he found that his mana was simply too little. Needing to stall for it to regen, Eldrian kept his distance and only attacked when he saw a good opportunity. Making sure to never let them come closer than half his sword's length.

Slowly he killed them one by one, while also leading them around. Eldrian found that he even had time to look at what else was going on in the battle.

On the other side, Sabrea was struggling greatly with the new wounds she had received. Seeing more goblins managing to cross the circle of fire that Evapius added even more pressure onto her, causing her to sometimes mess up and receive another wound.

Healing spells were quickly becoming less and less effective on her, her armor already having a few holes which were not there before.

Luckily Terlas was doing well against his goblin knight, managing to deliver many shallow wounds to the monster. Slowly draining the goblin of its strength, but Terlas knew that doing it slowly was not a good option. The goblin knight could use regenerative skills to simply recover, luckily he was not alone.

Ducking under one of the goblin's swings, Terlas got right up close and personal. Striking his dagger into the armpit of the goblin and maneuvering himself behind its back. From here he completely opened the goblin to Cadriel who had been waiting for a good shot.

She did not hesitate, letting loose her arrow as soon as Terlas's maneuver seemed to work. Her arrow struck true, piercing the goblin's chest and going straight through into Terlas's shoulder.

"That hurts like a bitch!" Terlas shouted as he pulled himself from the goblins, something which was far more difficult with an arrow connecting them. As soon as he was free Floyd cast a healing spell on him, stopping the bleeding and recovering most of Terlas's range of movement.

Most, not all. He could not longer use his bow and as such he dived right into fighting with Sabrea, offering her the support she had needed.

Even with all this the group's morale did not improve. If Andreas did not manage to kill the shaman soon, they would simply be overrun by the horde.

Eldrian though thought differently, feeling certain that the group would do excellent against the horde if only the goblin knights were no more. As such he shifted his focus, rather keeping his distance from the ten or so goblins who were still following him.

He had found that the goblins were brave and fearless. But they were not smart, even if he did not continue to fight them. As long as he did not run too far they would continue to case him, much like normal monsters in other games. Eldrian used this to kite them, not even trying to use this kiting to thin their numbers.

Instead, he led them away from where his spear lied and at the same time kept an eye on the fight with the goblin knights. Terlas's support had stabilized the situation, but it did not shift it to the human's side.

Doing this kiting paid off as Eldrian saw one of the goblin knights overcommit to an attack. While Terlas and Sabrea could not captivate due to the other goblin knights, and Cadriel due to Sabrea and Terlas being in the way. Eldrian could.

As soon as he had seen the goblin's attack fail, Eldrian had started casting Frost Needle. Sending it right as the goblin was about to recover, his spell hitting its back hard. Causing the goblin to stumble, something which the other goblin knights could not cover for.

This quickly led to a kill and the momentum shifting to the humans. Eldrian also realized from this that he could still use his Tier 0 spells. He had simply forgotten now that he had something stronger, but this mentality was wrong. Forst Needle was not a good choice against many enemies.

Eldrian did not have any spell which was actually good against a group, but he reasoned that Floga would be better. He could use it with less effort, less mana and more accurately. Having received this realization Eldrian started acting, using Floga to blind the goblins still chasing him.

This took less than a minute, after which he quickly ended their lives. As he wanted to rush to help to finish the last goblin knights, Eldrian finally saw the even larger group of goblins charging them.

Fuck!Eldrian cursed and instead went for his spear, knowing not to attack too enthusiastically this time. He needed to make his attacks quick and fast. He would also use Floga, but even so Eldrian doubted if he would be able to do anything against over a hundred goblins.

Luckily as Eldrian recovered his spear a massive ball of flame flew over the field of battle and set the entire center of the charging goblins on fire. Effectively stopping their charge.

Relieved Eldrian looked over and saw Evapius busy casting another spell. Seeing this Eldrian rushed the goblin knights instead.

With their mage back the group could focus all their attention on the stronger goblins. Eldrian having joined them fully tipped the scales, leading to the last three goblin knight's deaths.

...

A tired group was resting in a bloody field, the stench of blood acid strong in the air.

"What took you so long?" Evapius asked irritably as Andreas rejoined the group. Andreas looked the best in the group, having received no new wounds. This only added to Evapius's frustration.

"You try and sneak past thousands of goblins, while a shaman is looking for you!" Andreas counter.

Evapius grunted but did not say anything more.

Truthfully most of the group was simply happy that they had survived, but this encounter made them more apprehensive of what was next to come.

"Aren't these monsters a bit too strong? I mean this group had five Tier 4 goblins knights and a Tier 5 shaman. That should not be a common thing, yet we ran into it on the first day." Terlas pointed this out, massaging his own shoulder which was still sore from having been pierced by an arrow.

"Should we return to the army?" Floyd asked, he was the most vulnerable in the group. Having almost no real combat strength and this made him scared.

"No, we can't quit on the first day. I think we should rather set up a camp and from now on we must make sure to not be followed." Andreas spoke up, slightly calling to all the experts' pride.

After a bit more talk, the group determined that they would travel slower from now on. After looting the goblin shaman knight's they then set off in search of a nice place to set up camp. Even if they could travel at night, none of them felt up to it. Especially when if something went wrong it would certainly lead to their deaths.

Eldrian had also gotten recognition for his strength, the NPCs were all surprised at what he had managed. They certainly would also be able to do what he did, but not when they were at his level. They realized that Eldrian was far stronger than he looked and this caused their respect to grow.

Eldrian did not really know about the shift in the NPCs perspective of him. He was instead focused on looking at his free attributes. Accelerate added 20 agility points to him for 20 seconds and it had been really useful during the fight.

Drive did the same but for strength, but Eldrian felt Accelerate was far more worth it. Yet he also felt investing in spirit and constitution for more mana and stamina was needed.

This entire fight had earned him another level, having gotten over 15k XP total. This was simply an insane amount and force Eldrian into making a choice on his attributes. He could not sit with 25 free attributes and not use them.

Especially when he was going to face more and more fights.