"Circle around the rocks! Get to the other side quickly!" the head yelled to the stupor army. The yell shocks them of their catatonic state.
They obeyed the order, trying to get around the rock. However, the presence of goblins coming from the rocks stopped them, as the army battled against goblins.
"Hang in there children," the head exclaimed.
"We get there soon,"
-x-
When the goblins came out of the illusion, the party immediately headed to the fallen rocks, their backs behind them as they looked at the large number of goblins.
"This is the craziest plan you have come up with, Ian," Kell managed to say even in their current state.
"Do you have any better idea?" he retorted. When the bigger man did not answer, Ian huffed as he watched the large goblin's force looking at them.
He quickly realized what they were trying to do.
"They are toying with us," he said, the others did not remove their gaze from the goblins but still listening to what he was saying.
"They want us to be scared, to make us charged at them, so it will be easier for them to catch the girls," while he was not sure if he was correct, he believed he should be close at least.
"Then, what are we going to do?" Ana asked, her hands gripping tightly to her weapon, sweater forming rapidly from anxiousness.
"Calm down, don't let them get to you," he ordered. While it did not work as well as he hoped, at least Ana no longer breathing rapidly.
"We wait. Sooner or later, they will run out of patience and that is when they will attack us," Ian eyed the goblins carefully, waiting for any sign of them losing their patience.
"And when they did, they will charge at us, en-masse," as he said that, the goblins seemed to fidget, clearly growing more and more impatience with their inactivity.
Soon, one of the goblins growled before charging towards them. Lisa took her sling and threw it at the monster, killing it with one shot.
That spurred the rest of the green humanoid, all growling and yelling at them in their language. Without waiting any longer, they all charge at their party.
"Kell, Ana, Now!" the two fighters charged to the front, using Grand Slash and bisecting almost all the goblins at the front.
The two retreated where Fiona prepared her spell, Flare. The bright light caused the goblins to yell in pain, covering their eyes. Some even went as far as trying to dig out their eyes, making themselves blind in the process.
With many goblins incapacitated by blindness, Ian cast two Arcane Bombardment, the attack falling on the massive hordes and destroying a part of it.
With how close they were, he predicted he would manage to kill maybe 100 or more if he was lucky. But, he knew that was just a mere drop of the bucket. The goblins are 2000 or so strong. And they will need to pull a lot of miracles if they want to survive long enough.
"Flame Ground," Fiona cast another spell, one she managed to learn as Ian taught her how to cast a simple Fire. The spell makes the ground on fire, which will make monsters get burnt on their feet.
While it will not affect the monsters with thick padding on their feet, goblins, on the other hand, are more susceptible to such spells.
The monsters yelled in pain, jumping and trying to reduce the pain they were feeling. While they are distracted, Lisa, Ana, and Kell throw rocks at them, breaking their skulls and noses with well-aimed shots.
As for Ian, he spots his target, the goblin shamans. The shamans no longer cast the illusion so they could pay more attention to their party.
They already preparing to cast spells. Not planning on letting them succeed, he cast Multi Arcane Shot, the attack easily hitting the shamans, and even killing both the shamans and the goblins that tried to protect the spell caster.
"Keep going!" he yelled, hoping it would raise their morale and maybe be heard by the other side.
"Don't worry! We will get to you soon!" he heard a reply. Ian yelled, "Be quick!" before turning his head to the assembly of hobgoblins, all having a large club and some wolf skin turned into makeshift capes.
Without growling, the hobgoblins charged at them. Kell met their charge, dodging an attack before his thrust pierced through its head, while another slash but another hob's head off.
He jumped back as two hobs tried to club him. He returned the favor by taking out his spear and using the weapon's longer range to his advantage.
A thrust pierced between the eyes of the goblins while a swing of the blade easily cut off the neck of the monsters. A large swing then killed many more lesser goblins with ease.
As another large group charged towards them, Ian unleashed another Arcane Blast, destroying the coming monsters with ease and giving them some breathing room.
Lisa then peppered the goblins at the back, followed by Ian and Fiona as they targeted the archers who seemed intent on turning Ana and Kell into knockoff porcupine.
"We have to hold a little longer, they are almost here!" Ian shouted in the hope of raising their morale, so they would keep fighting.
The other members merely grunted as they kept on going, but slowly got tired. Seeing this, Ian cast another spell.
"Refresh," Refresh is a spell that makes the target gain their stamina back, allowing them to keep fighting. Indeed, Ana, Lisa, and Kell feel their fatigue being blown away.
They keep fighting, to make sure the spell he just cast will not be wasted. A loud growl resounded in the goblin rank, which made a large contingent of archers point their arrows at his party.
"Looks like the goblin chieftain wants to end us," Ian said before casting Shield to Ana and Kell. The archers then rained a volley of arrows upon them, but the Shield blocked them, saving their lives in the process.
By this point, Ian starting to get tired. The battle only lasted 20 minutes or so, but he felt like he had been here for almost a day. He prepared to cast another spell before a loud voice came from the side.
"We are here!" soldiers poured from the sides, heading in their direction as the main force battled the goblins at the sides of the road.
As the adventurers and guards began to make a dent into the goblins' force, the head with several adventurers ran towards them before giving them several potions.
"Here, stamina potions and mana potions," the head told them. Ian accepted the latter, gulping the entire thing as he felt his mana reserves being filled once more.