Kapitel 24: Here they come
Damn those guys are persistent. I had hoped that ai could draw the first group away easily by using my speed. They had a shield-bearer wearing that heavy armor so I'd been fairly certain that they couldn't catch up to me.
How should I have known that one of the mages had a spell that allowed the shield-bearer to speed up?
Now I'm being chased by those lunatics. The goblins with me are already dead and only managed to buy me a few seconds. Every twenty seconds or so I have to dodge a fireball from the other mage.
Does that guy ever run out of mana?
Edward's breathing technique is my greatest boon in this situation and has allowed me to survive by sprinting for nearly two minutes now.
However, despite my effort to keep some distance between us, the thief is right behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a flash as he tries to stab me with his dagger again. I managed to dodge safely before but it seems that this time my luck has run out.
The short blade enters through the skin on my back and rips into my stomach from behind. The result is a stomach-shredding agony which makes me stumble and fall.
The thief pulls back and jumps over me to avoid being tripped by my body. I'm already in enough pain to put me out of commission but then a burning sensation hits me and my entire body screams in agony.
That son of a gun mage hit me with a fireball. The suffering I go through gives me a very good understanding of why Jade agreed to set ambushes. Fireballs hurt way more than they should!
That's my last thought before my senses fade and I enter the darkness.
<They are made of fire, you know. Obviously, they'd hurt like hell. Every part of your body was on fire!>
But those fireballs look so small! How do they do so much damage?
<They are condensed, albeit not very much at this level so upon impact their coverage expands a bit. But enough of that, brace for impact because you're about to be respawned.>
Tendrils of milky white starlight grab ahold of me and despite there being no point of reference I can tell that I'm moving at ungodly speeds. The tendrils disappear one after another until only one is left. This one reminds me of a thread that connects to things and is pulled taut.
The strange but interesting experience is brought to an abrupt halt as I see the end of the thread approach. There is nothing visible at the end of the thread and it looks like it's just suspended there by some invisible power.
The moment I reach that point I feel like I'm pushed through a membrane and shoved into a case.
Then the nausea hits me like a train and I face plant into the floor of the dungeon. My thoughts are in disarray and I feel like throwing up but I vaguely realize that I'm back in the dungeon.
<No time to feel like dying, figuratively speaking that is. You need to get up and join Jade so that you can finish off the second group before the first one arrives.>
My vision is spinning and my body protests against even the slightest movement I make. It's not painful like when I was dying but feels more like my body just did a ten-hour, high-intensity workout without resting even once.
Despite that, I force myself to stand up and wobble forward with an unstable gait.
Thankfully, the discomfort recedes with every second that passes and my vision has already stabilized to the point where I can see the fight ahead after turning the corner.
The situation's actually looking quite good for once. Jade is stalling two of the swordsmen while the other two are desperately trying to defend the healer against the armed goblin horde. Ten goblins have already been slain but the remaining ones are going at it even more fiercely.
The fact that the healer is kneeling on the ground looking like he has a migraine tells me that he must be out of juice and won't be healing anyone anytime soon.
Currently, all the adventurers are facing their backs to me so I quickly draw one of my miniature javelins and throw it. One of the swordsmen fighting Jade is hit in the back and his attack gets disrupted enough for Jade to swipe his legs with a tail whip.
Then, I draw my daggers and rush over to the healer. The swordsmen guarding him might have noticed me but they are kept occupied by those ten goblins. Scratch that, now there's only nine of them.
The healer stands up and flails his wooden staff in my general direction but I hardly feel threatened. I slip past his weak flailing and stab him into the heart. He looks at me with incredulous eyes before gasping for breath and collapsing.
Learning from last time I keep my attention on what's happening behind me while stabbing the healer and indeed one of the swordsmen turns and slashes at me. Since I was paying attention and knew that this attack might be coming I easily evade to the side. Before the swordsmen can pull back I grab his arm to stop him from quickly recovering his posture. The goblins wildly swing their weapons and wound him so badly that I doubt he'll survive. The other one also gets swarmed and we have another mutilated corpse.
Jade is still busy strangling the last swordsman standing. The one I hit from the back is already lying in a pool of his own blood.
<Congartulations on killing this party of six. You received a tremendous amount of EXP and gained two levels. Just a small heads-up, the first group will arrive in about twenty seconds.>
We still have nine goblins but no more traps. Hopefully, the mages are running low on mana.
I can already hear their footsteps approaching, here they come!
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein