Chapter 156: Tier 1 vs Tier 5

Eldrian was glad seeing that it had worked, yet he could not take a moment to appreciate it. Focusing so much on Vivian had certainly placed him in a bad spot, scrambling he barely managed to dodge the attack from the goblins knight. Losing his sword in the process.

Before the goblin knight could deliver its next attack, Terlas offered some support to Eldrian. Forcing the goblin to dodge and giving Eldrian the time he needed to recover his greatsword and actually stand back up.

As soon as he did Terlas moved his attention back to Vivian, leaving Eldrian to fend for himself. Eldrian quickly learned that this goblin knight was far stronger and faster than those he had fought before.

Eldrian was not without some tricks, he firstly used Accelerate to help him keep up with the goblin. Then he started using Floga to try and block the goblin's sight. It was the only spell he could actually cast while so flustered.

He quickly found that it did no damage, yet even so it did cause the goblin to flinch when he threw it at its face. This only worked twice, but it gave Eldrian the time he needed to recover.

The tide of the rest of the battle had started stabilizing. Instead of all the goblin knights beating on Cephaphyr, some of them broke from the group. Only the shaman, who Cephjaphyr would not allow to leave, and two others staying to stop Cephaphyr from moving towards the rest. Them keeping Cephaphyr busy and stopping him from helping the others, instead of the other way around.

The three goblin knights this freed up were quickly stopped by Sabrea. Who, along with help from Terlas and Margit, managed to keep them from moving past her.

Terlas also took the time to offer support to Vivian when he saw a good opportunity. Quickly managing to hit the goblin she was fighting in the leg. Bringing the two to almost an equal level.

Vivian was too tired to take advantage of it, and the crippling of one of its legs caused the goblin to no longer be faster than Vivian. Often even stumbling its attacks, allowing Vivian more room for error.

Eldrian was so absorbed in trying to not die that he missed all that was happening around him. He might have recovered thanks to Floga, but this did not mean he was on equal ground with the goblin knight. He only barely managed to dodge all the attacks directed at him.

Ducking under a wide swing, he returned it in kind. As he swung the greatsword he let go with one of his hands, only leaving the other to try and guide it as it went for the goblin.As it 'flew' he took out the arming sword from his inventory and thrust forward, aiming for the goblin's stomach.

The goblin did not realize what was happening, not until it felt the sting as the sword pierced its stomach. Having only focused on countering the greatsword coming for its neck. It had struck hard at this sword, causing Eldrian to lose grip from the shock.

Eldrian did not care for having lost it, he quickly stepped back. Pulling the arming sword out as he did, knowing that it was better to do this. Or this was his thoughts since it would cause someone to start bleeding out.

Unfortunately for him, the goblin knight was not a normal goblin and certainly not a person. As soon as the blade was removed it used a skill to increase its own healing. This was not immediate, but by the time it attacked again, the bleeding had stopped. The hole was still there, but it did not do much to weaken the goblin.

Dammit, how could I forget about healing!?Eldrian cursed as he quickly jumped back to avoid another wide swing.As he did he realized something, the goblin had no finesse. It was only attacking in wide powerful attacks, never feints nor smaller attacks.

For a few seconds, Eldrian was forced to focus on defending again, not managing to use this knowledge to his advantage. Until he managed to dodge an attack just right, the goblin being unable to return it before Eldrian would be able to strike.

Eldrian though did not strike at that moment. Rather he stored the arming sword and took out a longsword he had. It was not great, only Tier 3, but it would allow him more control.

This took just long enough for the goblin knight to recover, but now Eldrian had a longer blade. Not as long as the goblins, but much better than the arming sword. This made it far easier for Eldrian to defend. He was still being forced to defend and retreat, but now he had some time to recover after each blow.

This did not do much, other than give him just enough room to assess his situation. Causing him to realize that he would not be able to beat the goblin through normal means. He also felt he would soon become too tired to act, a factor he started hating in the game.

In real life, one would be able to move even if they were dead tired. Especially when not doing so meant dying, yet once his stamina reached 0. What would happen?

This thought caused Eldrian some great confusion and almost lead to him making a mistake. Wondering if he would just stop like an idiot when it hit 0. Or if he would still be able to move.

As Eldrian was worrying about this with his spare energy, looking at his stamina drop below 10 points, he suddenly felt a refreshing feeling envelop him. Giving him strength and energy, his stamina quickly shot up to full too. His HP also recovered, only his mana staying at the level it had been.

Eldrian did not dwell in his thoughts, once he realized that he had been buffed he went full out. His speed increased by at least 40 or more agility, his strength by the same amount.

This was so large a buff, that while he was still weaker and slower than the goblin, the amount was small enough for him to actually make up for it through technique. True his technique with a sword was not really good, but it was better than the wild style the goblin had.

This allowed him to also split some of his attention from the fight. Not much, but more than simply looking at his stats.

On the next attack, Eldrian did not dodge nor lead the attack to pass him, instead he blocked it. Locking blades he slipped a few feet back from the momentum, but he did not break. Focusing all his strength into maintaining the lock, Eldrian cast Frost Needle from a point-blank range. The spell forming below their blades.

Eldrian did not focus much on the spell, only casting it at its most basic. As such, it shot forward as soon as it finished forming. Once it hit Eldrian could feel the goblin trying to pull away, but he would not allow this.

Pushing forward he kept casting Frost Needle. Only controlling the spell to form at different places, the first had been at the stomach. The next was at his left leg, then right. As soon as the third struck Eldrian could feel the goblin starting to lose strength, motivating him to push even harder.

Blades still locked Eldrian formed the spell at his heart. The goblin sensing danger finally gave up the contest of strength to avoid the spell. Allowing Eldrian to move his blade freely as the goblin dived sideways.

As the goblin jumped, Eldrian managed to get a nice attack onto one of its arms. Almost cutting it off at the elbow. If he had had Gray, the magical greatsword, he certainly would have managed to cut the arm off.

Retreating the goblin looked for help, finding that none was available. The other goblin fighting Vivian having been killed recently, while the three fighting Sabrea all had far more severe injuries than itself. The buff from Floyd and support from the others really had changed the course of their fight.

It's next thought was to run, naturally, Eldrian would not allow this. Especially since its only viable option was past Vivian who was out cold on the floor. Eldrian hoped that she was just unconscious and not dead. Floyd being next to her relieved his thought largely, yet he did not want to risk the goblin hurting her on its way out.

As soon as it tried moving to them, Eldrian charged. As he did he also cast Frost Needle, sending the spell towards the direction the goblin wanted to go. Forcing it to stay away from them, or get it. Eldrian kept casting it until he managed to lock blades with the goblin again. Most of his mana spent due to this, causing him to become light-headed.

Even so, he kept fighting. Now able to contest equally with the goblin, it only able to use one of its arms. The other still largely damaged, it had focused its healing on its legs first.

The goblin was not willing on locking blades with Eldrian again. Pulling away so fast that Eldrian could not even form his spell. But the goblin had not gotten away without a cost, Eldrian had managed to fully claim its arm, and as it was trying to recover it was killed by an arrow.

Eldrian looked at the arrow in the goblin's head in surprise, feeling like that was a very anticlimactic end to their epic fight. A second later as the goblin fell to the ground as Eldrian received a system message.

[50 400 XP gained]

[You have leveled up!]