Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn felt the dense Mana all around him as he trudged along through the open field. The grass was weighed down by its own weight so it only reached up to his hips. The wind was clearly visible in snaking lines among the greenery. Walking through the thick grass and thick Mana gave the impression that it was more difficult to move than it actually was. It was like having the expectation of wading through shallow water only to find that one’s feet moved effortlessly forward.

Moving fully into the Tier 5 Region brought equal parts relief and trepidation. There had been no more encounters with rogue trap portals or mysterious beasts that could camouflage themselves from his Divine Sense - that he knew of. They were also lucky to avoid any encounters with higher Tier monsters or beasts on the backend of their journey through the Wilderness.

The Wilderness was a wildcard. It was more likely that they would run into generic Tier 4 and 5 creatures, but there was always the possibility of something much more terrifying randomly appearing. The Tier 5 Region was populated almost exclusively by Tier 5 creatures, though the occasional Tier 6 could be found in the deeper areas as well as along the border to the Tier 6 Regions.

Coming out of the Wilderness was a relief that they wouldn’t run into any more tentacle monsters or have a bad random encounter, but now they had to worry about the hordes of Tier 5 goblins spoken about universally in the journals they had read about the Upper Region. The goblins were nomadic for the most part, and for some unknown reason they liked to separate into small bands that broke up into groups of twos and threes to wander around the countryside.

There were mentions of goblin settlements in the deeper areas led by the hobgoblin variants, but those large groups with the Tier 6 leaders were never found near the border to the Wilderness. There was no explanation given, but Reivyn didn’t really care why it worked that way. He was just happy that it did.

He wasn’t worried about running into a singular Tier 6 monster. Their Party could handle such an encounter, especially with the Honor Guard still following along. The problem with Tier 6 hobgoblins, though, was that they were always surrounded by hundreds of Tier 5 goblins.

The goblins in the tribes headed by hobgoblins were semi-sapient. They seemed to have their own culture and politics from what was read in the records, but they became uncontrollably bloodthirsty in the presence of humans. Some of the reading material mentioned witnessing warring factions of goblins, but if the humans watching were ever discovered by even one goblin, both sides would halt their hostilities to chase down the intruding humans until the bloodlust wore off.

Reivyn was much more confident in fending off small bands of twenty or so goblins as opposed to several hundred. He would reserve judgment until after first contact, but he was pretty sure, especially with his parents along for the expedition, that they wouldn’t need to resort to building a temporary fort to successfully fight off a roving band.

Reivyn kept his eyes on the horizon as they walked through the open field. Keeping his focus on the distance allowed him to view everything that happened between him and his focal point. The trick was to not focus on something closer than the absolute distance, because it was much harder to catch something beyond focus than something out of focus inside the range of his vision.

The open plains stretched before him for miles. It was deceptively empty, but goblins were short. If he had to guess, Reivyn would assume there were hundreds of goblins in his vast field of view if the grass was just shorter. It almost looked like waves in the ocean as the wind blew the grass.

Off in the distance, Reivyn could see rolling hills, and even further, the tips of mountains far, far away were visible above the hills. There was no telling how far away those mountains were, so he couldn’t judge how tall they were. From the context of how they seemed misty from the atmosphere, Reivyn guessed they were still incredibly far away.

The plains weren’t completely open. There were still little copses of trees, though nothing he would consider a forest, or even just the woods. Off to the side, way in the distance, there was a long line of trees that hinted at a forest much larger than anything they had found in the Wilderness. The distant mountain range continued beyond the forest until it disappeared behind the line of trees.

It wasn’t just grass that swayed in the wind. Splotches of color decorated the landscape. Reivyn wasn’t much of a botanist, so he couldn’t tell whether any of the colorful flowers were on any kind of useful plant or not, but he would probably secure some as presents for his sisters to experiment with. They wouldn’t get much of a bonus for working with Tier 5 materials for simple crafts that didn’t refine the materials in any meaningful way, but it was an opportunity for them to play around with new things.

I’m sure the Adventurer’s Guild will have a primer on useful resources to look out for in the outpost we’re headed to, Reivyn thought as he scanned the area. We’ll have to remember to stop by and pick one up. Getting natural treasures for Kefira’s Bloodline is the main purpose of the excursion. It wouldn’t make any sense to just wander around blindly.

They knew the main treasures they were looking for to activate the next Level of Kefira’s Bloodline. Other than Reivyn, others required a buildup of a specific type of energy with a catalyst to transform the energy through their blood. Reivyn was unique in that he could just convert different types of energy into Experience to dump into his Bloodline.

They could stock up on a multitude of lesser treasures from the Lower Regions and then top it off with the right catalysts, but that wasn’t ideal. The quantity required to achieve the necessary power levels and purity would take considerably longer than if they used higher-grade materials from the start. Other than looking for the catalyst, a Tier 5 material, they were hoping to fill as much of the necessary deficit with other Tier 5 treasures as much as possible.

The energy would start off purer, would be more potent, and would take less time to metabolize. It was a win-win. If they didn’t gather enough treasures, though, it wasn’t a big deal. That wasn’t something they were worried about, though. As Ameliyn had mentioned, they were fully expecting to get more than necessary for everyone else in the expedition to use as well.

The leader of the Imperial Army squad fell back to the Party. He pointed to the mountains in the distance.

“Our destination is at the foot of those mountains,” he said. “It’s far enough away from any concentration of monsters or beasts while still being relatively close to resource-rich locations such as the mountains, the forest, and a river that runs through a sort of valley between the rolling hills and the mountains.

“It’ll take another week or so to get there at our current pace, but will probably be at least double that once we start running into monster encounters.”

“Thanks,” Refix nodded his head. The squad leader nodded back and made his way back to his squad.

Just as Reivyn turned to speak to his father, a piercing shriek sounded out from the grass nearby. It was just out of his Divine Sense Range, so he quickly looked toward the disturbance. He wasn’t surprised in the slightest by what he saw.

A pair of goblins hopped up above the swaying grass and snarled at the approaching group. Despite their group consisting of nearly 50 people with their Party and the Honor Guard soldiers, the two goblins fearlessly charged at the group.

Another couple of shrieks sounded out from different directions nearby. Again, Reivyn turned his head toward where the sounds came from, this time to the left and right of where the first pair of goblins popped up from. Another two groups of goblins hopped up into his sight, another duo and a trio.

More and more shrieks cascaded out from the epicenter of the first two goblins that screamed at them. More and more goblins popped up in a semicircle radiating out from in front of the group.

In less than ten seconds, many small groups of goblins popped up, totalling over thirty little monsters. Most of them were responding to the various calls, but they all immediately focused on the group of humans and charged at them with zero forethought. ŕãΝỔΒƐŠ

“Honor Guards, cover the flanks!” Refix called out. The two groups of Honor Guards in front and behind moved to the sides. Refix motioned to the Party members to take their positions, and the Honor Guard soldiers compressed their lines to cover the flanks.

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The goblins didn’t wait to meet up with each other in order to make use of their numbers. They were fast, but they weren’t coordinated. They came at the group of humans piecemeal.

Kimberly and Refix stood in the front next to each other, weapons at the ready. Teilon hovered just behind the two, peering over Kimberly’s head at the oncoming goblins. I stood next to Serilla with my sling loaded with a stone I had acquired during the journey. Any time I saw a smooth, round stone, I would pocket it as ammunition. Serilla had her sword out at the ready. Finally, Ameliyn and Kefira stood next to each other behind us.

The first two goblins reached the front of our formation and leapt at Refix and Kimberly. Refix swung his sword overhead and smashed it into the goblin’s head. Kimberly twirled away with her combat dance while stabbing the goblin in the gut. Teilon was there to slash it across the throat with his dagger as it stumbled to a halt.

Well that was anticli… Reivyn began to think. His thoughts stopped short, though, as the two goblins didn’t go down.

Refix’s sword only pierced the top layer of skin on the goblin’s head, but it didn’t cleave through the bone like Reivyn expected. The goblin shrieked once more and lunged at Refix with its claws. It swung viciously back and forth, but Refix deftly evaded the strikes. His sword was still connected to the goblin’s head, stuck in the hard bone of the goblin’s skull.

Refix simply kicked it in the gut while adding downward pressure on the sword. The wind was knocked out of the goblin while the sword dislodged from the skull and drew a line down its face, chopping its long, pointy nose right off.

The goblins ravaged by Kimberly and Teilon stumbled a bit from being off balance, but Reivyn noted there was hardly any blood coming from the wound on its neck. The slash from Teilon wasn’t enough to pierce deep enough into the flesh to cause any lasting harm. Kimberly retracted her spear, and there was a simple cut in its gut where the spear would normally have pierced completely through.

Kimberly frowned but didn’t stop to look at her spear or the wound. She simply twirled away to get a bit of space and launched another stab in the exact same spot. Teilon had positioned himself to the side away from Teilon so they boxed the goblin in, but the goblin didn’t care. It simply lunged at Teilon, turning away in time to prevent Kimberly from piercing deeper into the original wound.

The goblin swiped at Teilon, but Teilon just phased through the goblin and stabbed it in the back where its kidneys would be. Again, instead of piercing into the goblin’s body, the dagger was stopped at the flesh, only causing a little cut where the tip managed to slightly cut the flesh.

Reivyn launched the stone from his sling, empowering it with his Mana, and it smashed into the side of the goblin’s temple. The goblin crumpled to the ground, but Reivyn could tell it was only stunned.

Kimberly and Teilon were in sync with each other and quite experienced with this kind of combat, so they didn’t take their focus off of the downed goblin. They immediately noticed it was still alive, too, and they descended on the monster.

Kimberly stood over the goblin and stabbed down into the wound in its stomach over and over until if finally pierced into its body. Teilon held his dagger back-handed and did the same thing on its throat. He finally pierced the green flesh, and from the position of the steel embedded in the monster’s throat, he finally slashed across the windpipe. The outer skin of the goblin was tough, but the inner part of its flesh was susceptible to the attack.

The goblin’s claws came up to its throat as blood spilled out as it gurgled trying to catch a breath. More blood poured out of the gut wound inflicted by Kimberly, and the goblin slowly died, finally stilling as it bled out.

Refix meanwhile had exchanged several blows with his own little goblin, but he had the advantage in Stats and Skills that Teilon and Kimberly didn’t. He quickly adapted to the increased resilience of the little monster, and he slowly added wound after wound to the body of the green menace, slowly growing more skilled in inflicting more lethal wounds.

It was only a couple of seconds after Teilon and Kimberly downed their goblin that Refix defeated his own. There was no time to pause and consider things, though, as the next pair of goblins quickly approached.

Several other groups of goblins reached the flanking Honor Guard soldiers. They had more melee combatants among them, and they maintained their formation as they allowed the goblins to be surrounded. Reivyn could perceive their fights with his Divine Sense, and he witnessed how they fought. They had two of the soldiers fight them head-on while four others attacked it relentlessly from each side and the rear. They just kept stabbing and slashing at the unprotected hide fo the goblins, slowly wearing its natural defense down until they pummeled them to death.

Reivyn didn’t sit still while all of this was going on, either. He pulled out stone after stone from his storage pouch, infused it with Mana, and launched it at the various goblins rushing toward them. Most of them took a hit straight to the head and seemed to shake it off, but several were stunned like the first and collapsed to the ground for several seconds. This allowed more goblins to string along one at a time as they reached the Party, but it also meant there were more goblins grouped up together just a little ways away from them.

That was when Ameliyn struck.

Lightning from the clear sky began to rain down upon the goblins outside of melee range. Reivyn could see that the bolts of lightning weren’t composed of the Lightning Affinity, but they were instead created with the Celestial Affinity that his mother specialized in. They were white-hot and caused sizzling burns as well as shocking the bodies of the goblins so they were paralyzed in place.

Bolt after bolt flashed out of the sky like rain. A mini-tornado sprung up among the goblins, picking them up and swirling them around. The lightning stopped falling from the sky, but suddenly a web of Celestial Lightning formed within the tornado and continued to electrocute and burn the goblins.

Not all of the goblins were caught up in the small tornado, and Kefira threw up a Space barrier on the other side of the closest goblins already reaching Refix and Kimberly again. The goblins that escaped the tornado suddenly looked like they were sprinting in place, barely moving forward. They didn’t seem to notice at all, though, as they continued to snarl and sprint at full speed toward the humans. The Space barrier extended in front of the entire group, giving the Honor Guard soldiers on either side much needed relief, too.

Refix, Kimberly, and Teilon repeated their earlier performance, this time with the expectation that their weapons wouldn’t immediately cause fatal damage to their adversaries. The combat went much smoother the second time around.

Serilla remained at the ready. Without express orders from Refix for her to engage, despite what she might personally think, she wouldn’t leave her position of guarding Ameliyn and Kefira. Reivyn could tell that she was a bit frustrated at not being able to participate. He knew that she could use Mana with her sword, but he had never seen her Cast any Spells.

We’ll have to add some sort of Ranged component to her repertoire when we can, Reivyn mused as he launched some more stones.

Reivyn continued to pull stones out of his storage pouch and launch them at goblin heads, but he also concentrated and used his ability to Multi-Cast to form a Plasma Orb. It flew into the sky above the goblins and began raining Plasma spears to accompany his mother’s lightning.

He noticed right away that his Plasma spears didn’t immediately kill the goblins like it did against the weaker humans he had fought against in combat. Instead the spears simply created cauterized cuts and burns on the goblins’ flesh.

He and his mother continued to attack the goblins still trying to reach them, and they eventually began to succumb to their wounds. Kefira paid attention to the melee combat and let the closer goblins out of her Space trap to approach the groups in a controlled manner.

After twenty minutes of combat, the final goblin finally fell to the repeated strikes of the Honor Guard soldiers. Reivyn’s Party were able to dispatch the goblins much quicker than the soldiers on either side, but they also had the advantage of powerful Magic. The Honor Guards were mainly melee and physical ranged type Classers.

Nobody was panting or exhausted after the combat, but everyone did take a moment to look around at each other once all the action was over.

“Well…” Reivyn trailed off, scratching the back of his hand. “I might have been a bit arrogant when comparing ourselves to the authors of those journals,” he finally said.

“Yeah, that was a bit of a wakeup call,” Refix nodded. “If we didn’t have your mother and Kefira to control the goblins and inflict damage on them through their particular brand of magic, I can see how it could quickly get out of hand.”

Ameliyn and Kefira looked at each other with self-satisfied smiles and struck a pose.

“Never fear. The girls will carry us through this ordeal,” Ameliyn said, throwing an arm over Kefira’s shoulder and pulling her in for a side-hug.

“Oh good,” Reivyn said, wiping invisible sweat from his brow. “I’m relieved. I’ll leave it to the two of you from now on.”

Ameliyn gave him an unamused look.

“You’ll be cooking your own dinner, too,” she replied.

A look of horror came over Reivyn’s face.

“No, no! I was joking! I was joking!” He frantically waved his hands in front of him.

“Your girl and I will simply be too tired to care about such trivialities as a nice meal,” Ameliyn continued.

“Noooooo!” Reivyn put his face in his hands.

Ameliyn smirked at her son’s antics.

“Alright, alright,” she relented. “I know you can’t get enough of your mother’s cooking. How could I call myself your mother if I deprived you of that?”

Reivyn stopped his fake tantrum and beamed a smile at his mother before hugging her.

“I know you love me.”

“Uh huh, and I know you’ll continue to try and keep up with me in combat. You’ll fail, but I know you’ll try.”

“Of course, mom,” Reivyn shared a look with Kefira and rolled his eyes behind Ameliyn’s back as he hugged her.

“And stop rolling your eyes at me!” Ameliyn admonished.

Kefira put a hand in front of her mouth as she giggled at Reivyn.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Reivyn said, letting go of his mother and stepping back.

“Sure, sure. Get back in formation.”

“Yes, mother.”

The others watched the interaction with a smile. Refix looked back and forth between his wife and son.

“We good?” Everyone nodded. “Alright, let’s get going. Only a couple of weeks to go to reach the outpost.”

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