บท 54: Goblin Cave, Part 1
In the forest, northwest of the city of Geldern, one of the most hated and repulsive creatures was under attack.
A horde of Goblins erupted in absolute panic when sharp stones started to rain from the sky. And that was not even the worst of it. Fireballs were flying in two directions, setting up walls of flame on both sides of the cliff, preventing any of them from escaping.
Even if any Goblin managed to run through the flames without getting chared to the bone when he came out on the other side, a single Stone Bolt was enough to end his struggling.
Gerald was just standing there, using his Repeating Fireball, shooting it first on the left and then to the right, and then to the left again. The Stone Shower was quite effective, even though he had a few difficulties controlling so many objects at the same time.
He sent them hurling down about twenty at a time, usually in a small group, to take out multiple Goblins at once. Some of them attempted to use the old carriages as cover, but a single Fireball quickly burnt those hopes to ash.
After the first panic, the Goblins quickly became enraged and their bloodthirsty nature awakened. All of those that were left breathing charged Gerald at once. It showed just how useless their decision-making was.
All of them, every single one, running in a straight line toward a mage that uses Fire magic. Gerald almost laughed when he saw that. He commanded the rest of the Stone Bolts to descend behind him and then he just sent them forward.
Wave after wave of Goblins was mowed down like dried grass, and the few that managed to squeeze through were quickly stopped by a Fireball to the face.
The fight was quick and messy if it could be called a fight at all. In less than five minutes around fifty Goblins were either dead or dying, not a single one was left standing in the open.
Gerald breathed out, but he didn't dare relax yet. He went from one Goblin to the next and cut off his head and then the tail. He stored the tails in one of his pouches that he got specifically for storing hunting trophies and it was specially coated so it wouldn't leak.
The job was quite disgusting but necessary. He couldn't risk any of the Goblins getting away by faking death and each tail served as proof of a kill that could be exchanged for ten silver coins each. Considering how many he killed here, that was quite a good amount of money.
Gerald was slowly working on the Goblins when he spotted movement from the corner of his eye. Without even thinking he shouted, "Unmoving Boulder!" Not even a second later an arrow came flying at him at an insane speed.
Bam!
The arrow collided with Gerald's forehead and knocked him down to the ground.
"Uugh…" Gerald felt the impact of the arrow and it hurt quite a lot. Blood slowly started trickling down straight into his eye, as he struggled to get back up.
The impact was strong enough to pierce his magic-enhanced skin and even scrape his skull. Apart from that, he received a concussion and was currently not in a good state of mind. He struggled to get up, but as soon as he was standing, he felt his head spin and he kneeled back down to stabilize himself.
At the same exact moment, he heard the sound of an arrow flying just above his head. He barely dodged the following shoot by pure chance.
He quickly rolled to the side and then did an awkward jump and rolled forward. Another arrow came flying and just missed his ass.
By this time Gerald somewhat cleared his dizziness and quickly cast a heal on himself. He stood up and started running away in an unpredictable pattern.
Many arrows came flying and a few of them barely missed him. He was desperately running to the forest to get some cover and at the same time, his mind was desperately working on a possible counterattack.
Unfortunately, he didn't know who, or what was attacking him, and even if he did, he had no time to look back and assess the situation.
The archer was extremely accurate and he quickly adapted to Gerald's way of running. Every time Gerald changed direction, he would slow down and then stop to turn. The time window was small but just enough for the unknown archer.
"Aah!" Gerald screamed as an arrow found its target and pierced his back where the shoulder blade was.
The Unmoving Boulder provided quite a good protection on the surface, but it was not made for blocking arrows at a close range. Besides, some arrows were even made to pierce metal, so what could a slightly magically strengthened skin do.
He gritted his teeth and continued running. Another arrow came flying and impaled his thigh before he managed to hide behind a tree.
He was breathing heavily and his whole body was shaking. The adrenaline was flooding his system, making all of his senses heighten.
Gerald took out a few Healing Potions with his shaking hands and drank them all at once. He also took out the Swiftness Potion and Greater Mana potion and emptied them in a flash.
He then grabbed the arrow at his back and gritted his teeth while pulling it out. The pain was immense as the arrow was stuck in the bone, but he managed to remove it. He quickly cast a heal on himself to stop the bleeding.
Next, he pulled out the arrow from his leg and cast another heal there. The hole was almost fifteen centimeters deep and was extremely painful.
He barely had any time to breathe before he heard someone coming. He poked his head from behind the tree trunk and saw a weird figure running toward him.
It was almost the height of a grown man, but the proportions were way different. It was a humanoid, but the legs were much shorter and stocky, the upper body was way larger and it had a quite short neck and a small head.
Apart from that, its body was covered with fur, and it had an ugly face, with giant teeth poking out at the sides of its mouth.
"A Hobgoblin?" Gerald guessed and cursed, "Damn, I should have known. Such a big gathering of Goblins would, of course, they would have a leader."
The Hobgoblin was wearing a full suit of armor, a mixture of leather and iron. He had a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. He carried a sword on his hip and a blttleaxe on his back.
Even with all that gear weighing him down, he was still quickly approaching. Gerald could already see the bloodlust in its eyes.
He did not hesitate any longer, he gripped the Fire Sword tightly and cast his spell, "Repeating Fireball!"
Woosh! Woosh!
The balls of flame flew out one by one in a straight line. But the Hobgoblin was quite agile and he quickly dodged the projectiles by either rolling under them or by simply moving out of the way. He was quickly approaching and Gerald was getting more nervous by the second.
The Hobgoblin now knew exactly where Gerald was hiding, so it took the arrow, nocked it on the bow, and shoot with extreme precision. Gerald barely had enough time to pull back his head to save himself from getting a hole through his skull.
His enemy was already dangerously close and his Fireballs were not effective. Just hiding in the corner will never bring forth anything good so he decided on a different strategy.
He threw all caution to the wind and ran out from his hiding spot behind the tree. The Hobgoblin was now quite close already, just a few meters away. It was a distance too short for the bow, so he just simply discarded it to the side and took the battleaxe from his back.
They were now just two meters from each other, both running forward with no intentions of stopping. The Hobgoblin swung his battleaxe in a horizontal motion, aiming at Gerald's chest.
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