NOVEL NEXT Chapter 63: Goblin necromancy
The goblin horde slowly marched towards the hamlet. Their menacing and unintelligible chattering becoming louder and clearer as they drew nearer, as they stormed out of the forest. Their numbers gradually reached and quickly surpassed one hundred.
The people of the hamlet could be seen running down the streets, panicking. Led by Roger, they slowly made their way to the meeting spots.
Meanwhile, at the border of the settlement, the protectors readied themselves and advanced gradually towards the horde before they arrived.
|| Defense mission has been triggered ||
Details: Defend your territory from the goblin horde
Reward: 3,000 XP, 3 Wheel Tickets
Penalty: 3 levels would be deducted
"Nice." Ragnar shut the mission details and continued moving onward.
Beside him, Noah, Kendrick and Old man James advanced, eyes glaring at the goblins with hostility.
As the goblins drew closer, Ragnar activated his inspection skill. The goblins were of varying levels with the weakest on sight being around level 4 while the strongest he activated his skill on was a level 7 goblin spell caster.
Recalling the few fights with the goblins, Ragnar deduced that the stronger goblins were at the back of the horde. Probably hiding in the forest and stalling.
'Once we are done slaying these weaklings, the level up from them would make me strong enough to kill the others.' Ragnar thought.
At that moment, the goblin hordes came to a halt after a loud scream came from the back, proving Ragnar's theory.
As the goblins came to a halt, their bloodlust eyes lingered on the four men advancing towards them, coldly.
Another shout escaped from the back of the horde and afterwards, all the goblin warriors let out a loud battle cry and advanced.
The spell casters and archers ran behind them. As Ragnar watched them, he noticed some of the archers readying their flame-tipped arrows.
He could already tell what their aim was and a frown quickly adorned his face.
"Attack!" He barked at his allies.
They gripped their sword and with amazing speed and rock hard courage, they stormed the goblins.
The sound of dozens of goblin footsteps and the battle cries of the three measly human reverberated.
Very soon the little distance was closed and the clash began.
Old man James and Kendrick fought side-by-side. The blade of the old man revealed the strength he had kept hidden. His moves were refined and filled with grace. His stance stable, a deep contrast to the feeble act he had put on ever since.
'Am I dreaming?' not too far away from the scout and old man duo, Noah who fought back a couple of goblin warriors wondered.
He had only ever seen old man James fight this hard. It was during the goblin horde five years ago. After that fight, old man James was badly injured and could not fight properly.
But here he was, fighting alongside the same old man, not only was he healthy, his strength was much more than what he displayed five years ago.
On the other hand, while Noah and the rest focused on taking down the goblin warriors, Ragnar charged through their ranks and targeted the goblin archers and spell casters. Who were marching behind the goblin warriors, they had spells and arrows ready to fire at the hamlet, with a single aim of burning it down.
"I cannot let that happen!"
Ragnar barked as his blade tore through a disoriented spell caster.
His voice and the death of the spell caster drew the attention of the other long-range goblins.
They halted their charge and placed all their focus on him. Drawing their arrows and chanting their spells.
The next second, the sound of arrows and spells howling through the air, bombarded Ragnar's ear.
Fortunately, his agility was enough to quickly move out of his position. And with high perception, he intercepted the attacks with no difficulty.
He lunged at the group of archers who were about to refill their arrows.
He arrived before them. Their actions were disoriented at his charge. Few of them even losing grip of their arrows and simply staring at him helplessly.
Not caring for their useless emotions, Ragnar took them down.
"Leave some kills for me!"
Roger barked as he joined the battlefield. He had successfully left the people at the meeting spot. Now he could focus on increasing his combat abilities by killing those ugly goblins.
Nevertheless, once he joined the battlefield, he was surprised to witness the performance of Noah.
"Outstanding." Were the only terms he could describe them with.
Roger inferiority complex kicked in. Depressed and down, he clenched his blade and began battling with the goblins.
The clangor of weapons and cries of monsters and humans became the only sound that could be heard.
|| You've slayed 1 goblin, XP +43 ||
Ragnar tossed the corpse of the last goblin archer on the ground, increasing the size of the heap of goblin corpses around him. His gaze slowly moved on to a group of goblin spell casters watching him with fear, anger and bloodlust. A devilish grin appeared on his face.
The spell casters let out a troubled shriek and began moving back. But it was too late.
Ragnar was already on to them before they could even budge from their positions.
Nevertheless at that moment.
QUAKE!
The ground ahead of Ragnar began to quake.
His eyes widened. "Those f*ers! They are nearby just as I thought." He complained.
The next split second, several sturdy earth chains struck out of the ground, there were almost a dozen and they all lunged at Ragnar with unnatural speed.
Ragnar gritted his teeth.
He dug his feet in the ground, applying all his strength before leaping backward, creating a small gap between himself and the chains.
The chains clattered back on the ground and began retracting slowly back to their origin point.
The previously targeted goblin spell casters' fears were now filled with relief. They began charging up another round of spells to fire at Ragnar.
Ragnar's eyes furrowed as he observed the bushes around him. He couldn't catch any glimpse of the mysterious goblin spell casters who had activated the chains.
"For one, they are very good at hiding!" Ragnar gritted his teeth.
"CHEE!"
Several hauls of spells including fireballs and rock spikes darted at Ragnar's position.
But Ragnar was already prepared. He latched on the corpse of a goblin, using it as a shield to block the incoming attacks.
While the attacks clashed with the goblin corpse, he called out his golems.
The two stone golems appeared. Their faint blue veins glowing under the dim evening.
"Charge!"
The golems charged towards the group of spell casters.
Defensively, another round of spells were shot. But the golems tanked them without a single effect on their movement and vitality.
Once the golems appeared before the goblins, with a single command from Ragnar, they began smashing the goblins to meat pastes.
|| Your stone golem has slayed 1 goblin, XP +51 ||
|| Your stone golem has slayed 1 goblin, XP +66 ||
While this was going on, Ragnar turned his attention to the bushes. His gaze sharp and chilly.
He gripped his sword and began marching towards one of the suspicious areas.
As he drew closer, the previously gentle bush, rattled.
"Got you!"
Ragnar began charging towards the bush at an insane speed.
Behind the bushes, a group of goblins with entirely different build and appearance from the others could be seen.
They were about five feet tall. They wore black tattered robes and held long crooked sticks. They were a total of seven of them hiding behind that particular bush.
As they spotted Ragnar, their eyes grew weary.
"CHEE!"
"CHEE!"
Communication was held amongst them. The next moment, the seven of them began speaking at the same pace and rhythm. They were chanting.
Hearing their voices, Ragnar knew exactly what was going to happen the next minute, or so he thought.
Ragnar decreased his running pace. He began charging forward with caution, awaiting the ground to quake at any moment and chains to shoot out and latch at him.
But none of that happened. Something else took place instead.
Ragnar heard the sound of rapid footsteps advancing towards him from behind.
'The golems should've taken care of all the goblins that could attack me from behind!' Ragnar panicked.
He cautiously tilted his head backwards and to his biggest surprise, a group of dead goblins, each of them with their wounds revealed, were rushing at him with insane speed. Amongst the charging goblins were headless ones and even those with gaping holes in their chest and abdomen.
Their lifeless eyes sparked with an unnatural red light.
"What the..." Ragnar was slack-jawed. "There are goblin necromancers too??!"