“Giiiaaaaa!”
Instead of making both of our lives easier the goblin screamed, raising its spear towards us as it commanded its subordinates to attack us. A circle lit up beneath me as I got ready to fight. If you want it this way. “[Fiery Wings].”
Flames shot out towards the goblins riding towards us, clashing into them and burning both beast and master. But for any goblin that fell, any beast that tumbled over the floor another pair came from behind. I raised my voice to get the attention of the soldiers.
“You two stay back!”
“But we can fight too!”
“Can you do anything against level fifty monster?” At the question the soldiers went silent.
“[Arrow Rain]!” Sarah shot an arrow at them which quickly split itself over and over before turning the goblins into hedgehogs. Then Alice shot forward, standing in front of us and intercepting any that managed to get close enough.
The bodies started to pile up while we fought back, blood flowing out of them forming streams flowing into the bog. But little by little fatigue accumulated as attacks hit us causing wounds to appear. Slowly we were pushed towards the water, a grin appearing on Keii’s face as he got sure that he succeeded in hunting down the nemesis of their empire, while he commanded more and more to encircle us.
I burned another few goblin before I let myself fall back, standing next to the soldiers, the water behind me. Seeing how I stopped casting spells they fell in despair, believing that I had run out of gas and we would soon be finished.
“Haha, I guess our luck wasn’t good enough. To die even though we were saved from that first horde.” I looked over to the flame demon. No, he wasn’t a demon. But that power isn’t anything a human could have…
I slapped him on the back, getting an annoyed stare from him. “Sorry to pull you into this. You three only wanted to save us.”
“It’s still exactly going as planned.”
“Even if you say that…” The woman is taking more and more hits and the girl is nearly out of arrows. This is the end. “Let’s at least take another few of them into the grave.” I pulled out the grenade I got from the commander. Just as I wanted to pull the pin the mage grinned widely.
“Just as I was thinking about what I should throw!”
He snatched the grenade out of my hands before I could even react, pulling the pin and tossing it lightly past us, making it fall into the water just a few feet away from us.
“What are you,” before I could finish my scream my friend pulled me down toward the ground to shield me from the explosion. As it resounded I readied myself for my death. But instead of an explosion and metal shards, instead of a splash of water normal when something exploded beneath the water something else came.
A terrifying, ghastly, unworldly shriek.
“Kiiishaaaaar!”
These things are really fast when they try to eat something, just like babies. It definitely has to hurt if that exploded in its mouth. With the shriek the battle stopped, everything coming to a halt as they all turned towards the water. Even the grin on their leaders face twisted itself as he started to grimace, staring at me, asking me what I have done.
“I gave you the chance to leave.” Tentacles shot out of the water, making the goblins turn tail as they tried to run. “Now it’s the slaughterhouse. [Firewall; Modify: Prison of Flames].” Flames spread out around us, trapping us between a death through burning and a death through the monster of the bog.
I jumped aside, tumbling over the ground before another blast of air lifted me up once more when a tentacle collided with the ground I just stood at, making everybody stop in their movement. Slowly the tentacle lifted itself once more, a sticky paste of flesh and fluids stretching from the ground towards it, remains of the goblin that stood in front of me. Like a starting signal everybody started to move once more as it snapped.
Keii commanded its beast to rush at me, wanting to kill quickly to stop my spell and escape. The other goblins instead started to panic, struggling to evade the tentacles without attacking back, afraid to anger this thing even more.
But this didn’t stop Alice as she rushed over to the soldiers, swinging her sword upwards as another tentacle came crashing downwards onto them. With a gust of wind her sword passed through it. Heavily it crashed onto the ground as its remaining part rushed back, black blood gushing out of it.
Another shriek rang out but I focused my attention on the goblin before me. “[Flame Shield; Modify: Concentrate, Multiple]!” I created multiple barriers, focusing their strength on a small area in front of the spear. Still it destroyed one after another, only stopping shortly before my heart, the last barrier cracked but still holding.
He prepared for another strike, pulling his spear backward, but I didn’t give him the time to strike back as a Fireball came into existence between us, exploding and pushing both of us away. I flew backwards, water splashing around me as I landed in the bog. Not good! “Alice!” I shot out a Flame Whip. She looked towards me, quickly pulling me away when the whip coiled around her sword just in time as another tentacle passed beneath me.
I landed beside her, struggling to stay standing as the force of her pull was still trying to move me. I set my arms aflame as I struck them into a warg, diverting the energy into it and coming to a standstill. The beast however flew backwards, taking its rider with it as they both crashed into the Firewall.
“It’s a bit late to ask but are you really sure this will work?” Alice asked me worriedly as she cut through a warg.
“Trust me, I’ve done this before.” I spread my mana into the surroundings.
“How could you have done this before!?”
An arrow flew past me, piercing through a goblin I didn’t noticed behind me. Using a goblin as a foothold Sarah jumped over towards us.
“I swear when we get out of here I will make you tell us everything.” Sarah called out.
“It’s just a little bit of magic manipulation. Reversing the effect.” I spun around, weaving the mana into a three-dimensional spell circle.
“That doesn’t sound like a little!”
“Enough, get ready to run.”
Alice swung her sword in a wide arc, making the goblins back away and give us some space. Sarah instead slung her bow over her body, rushing towards the soldiers and pulling them towards the one place no one wanted to get near. The bog.
“Original Magic, [Frozen Fire; Modify: Field of Frost].”
