Surrounded by the shieldbearers all 6 monsters start to glow white, with blue sparks zapping up and down their bodies. Their tails emit the most light and their eyes glow a shade of sky blue.
"SOLAR CAST SHIELD ON EVERYONE! STELLAR SHADOW BIND!" - Ian
Solar stands still as she looks at all the shieldbearers surrounding the monsters. Speaking in her mother language she begins casting shield while next to her Stellar does the same casting shadow bind.
Below the glowing zebras, a black shadow envelopes them, spreading out until it covers all the zebras. As the shieldbearers glow yellowish-white, small child-like hands stretch from the abyss grasping onto the zebra's neck and legs. Noticing the danger all the zebras' tails flung white stars in random directions. Hitting the frontline as well as damaging the small black hands that hold onto its brethren.
Stellar's skill gets canceled but it did make the monsters cast their spell earlier than normal as the number of stars emitted was less than before. Noticing that the attack has stopped, the shieldbearers push forward, enclosing the circle more while the goblin archer shoots arrows at the monsters.
Kingston runs towards the group as the dirt below him slowly travels up his leg, enclosing his body in dirt armor. Stellar and I follow closely behind as push through a gap made by the shieldbearers, entering the encirclement.
Stellar disappears the moment she comes inside while Kingston shouts aggressively, garnering the attention of the monsters and making them kick their hide legs towards us. The both of us dodge the attacks while stabbing at the monsters, weaving through the monsters until we reached the other side.
By polearm did not penetrate through the barrier however, the once transparent barrier had become more visible and small thin cracks could be seen. Not letting a second go to waste, Gibing jumps over the shields and brings down his ax on the closest monster cracking the barrier even further and with their small bodies, Ken and Kaede tag team the same monster. Their weapons damage the barrier and with a stab of my polearm, we broke through that monster's defenses.
"DODGE IAN!" - Kingston
Hearing Kingston's cry I leap backward as a lightning bolt flashes in front of me, hitting a shieldbearer on my left, leaving his shield with a black burn mark. I glance to my right to see, Kingston attacking two different monsters while Stellar appears above them slamming her knives into the barrier, breaking a monster's defenses, and letting Kingston stab the monster in the neck before taking a back kick from another zebra.
I grit my teeth and focus on the monster in front of me. Ken had cut off one of its legs while Kaede pushes him out of the way from another monster's lightning bolt attack. Gibing switches target and pushes towards that monster attacking the barrier aggressively until it gets pinned between Gibing and the shield wall. With David on the other side brutally bringing his ax down on the trapped monster its barrier breaks, revealing the exposed body.
I grip onto my polearm and attack the initial monster, stabbing towards its body and penetrating its flesh. It violently reacts and tries to attack me with its tail only to be attacked by Kaede as she stabs her spear into the monster's neck. Finishing the monster, I stab it in the eye, piercing through the back of its head. Its body loses all strength and it falls onto the ground. One down.
I glance around at the battlefield and see that Kingston and Stellar were having a hard time. Since most of the weapons couldn't break through the barrier, the goblins and shieldbearers were either tanking a hit for Kingston or distracting the monster for Stellar. Kingston's dirt armor had worn off and he was attacking less aggressively while Stellar was focused on dodging the white stars and lightning bolts. With the two of them handling 3 of the monsters it was to be expected, however, with me joining the battle their burdens were lessened.
"Stellar stealth. Find an opportunity to break the barrier. Kingston support me. The rest attack the moment the barrier breaks down." - Ian
Stellar nods towards me, dodging a kick from a monster before disappearing into thin air. Kingston parries a kick with his spear while I run up behind him, jumping into the air and stabbing downwards at the monster's back. The tip of my polearm sends cracks into the monster's barrier and with one fluid motion, I somersault forward, swinging my polearm around me slashing at all three barriers at once.
Right behind me were Ken and Kaede who followed up on my attack on the monster that targeted Kingston. Ken's ax hits the belly of the monster breaking its barrier while Kaede stabs into its body with her spear, enraging the other 2 zebra monsters. Noticing the behavior change, Kingston grabs Ken and Kaede, flinging them behind him as the other monsters pounce onto Kingston.
In the nick of time, a yellowish-white glow envelopes Kingston as he uses his spear and shield to defend against the attack. With the monsters distracted by Kingston Stellar appears above them once again, stabbing both of them with her knives breaking their barriers before backflipping off them.
I active Enhanced Agility and dash forward in between the 2 monsters attacking Kingston, piercing one of the monsters through the neck. I let go of my polearm and grab the two knives around my waist and jump up, stabbing the other monster in the eyes. Both monsters collapse on the ground and Stellar finishes the last monster after it had become an echidna from the many arrows the goblins had fired at it.
On the other side, I see Gibing, Gyumi, David, Frank, and Solar finishing off the last 2 monsters as well, and with that another successful fight. With a cheer and some laughs, I pick up the loot and regroup with everyone.
During the week, we search for monsters while taking a route that was more or less in a straight line towards the cross on the map. Along the way, we encountered lots of monsters. Including bigger packs of Crinzanna, Zivotinja the zebra monsters, Ombidia the bison monsters, Ijagu the jaguar monsters, Xabaril the boar monsters and the biggest threat we faced was a Roc.
It happened as we were getting closer to the mountain range. Ken noticed that there was a large shadow approaching us fast so in preparation for it we went into the phalanx formation but the large shadow passed us and nothing happened. That was when I thought about looking up and to my surprise, a giant bird was soaring the skies above us.
Large brown feathers fluttered in the wind as it circled us with a pure white belly and bright yellow beak. In a second it dived down towards us breaking our formation and separating everyone. With a loud screech, it started to attack the closest person which was me.
Its large beak punctures the ground as it aims for me but within the last week I had gotten stronger and I had acquired some helpful skill books from the monsters. I used Enhanced Agility and Quickstep to dodge to the sides circling the monster then slashing at the monster's left leg with Cleave. I acquired Quickstep from the Ijagu and Cleave from the Xabaril.
Quickstep (Active) - 1MP - The user quickly dodges in a direction without breaking momentum. Cooldown 30 seconds.
Cleave (Active) - 2MP - The user slashes horizontally. ( 15 dmg + 10% Strength ) Cooldown 1 min.
Once I had dodged out of the way, everyone had recovered from the initial impact and started to hunt the monster. I gave Kingston Cleave as well as Charge allowing him to retaliate the fastest. Right behind him was Gibing who also charged at the monster from a different direction.
The Roc responded by flapping its wings causing strong gusts of wings to blow at Kingston. David who had retreated in the same direction as Kingston initially, braved the winds and pushed forward with his shield. Behind him, Gyumi was gathering electricity and Solar was chanting, waiting for the moment the monster stopped its attack.
On the other side, Gibing had climbed on top of the monster charging up his attack at the neck. I gave him, David and Frank a skill book as well called, Concentrated Blow which we gained from the Ombidia.
Concentrated Blow (Active) - 5MP - The user charges up their attack for 5 seconds before releasing all of their strength in the next attack. The user can cancel the charge before 5 seconds but the damage would be reduced. ( 20 dmg + 10 dmg/s + 10% Strength ) Cooldown 10mins
Right next to Gibing was Stellar who had teleported to Gibing's shadow using Shadow Step, a skill dropped from the Ijagu and also the most annoying skill when facing them.
Shadow Step (Active) - 5MP - The user teleports to a shadow within 100m. Cooldown 10mins
She wielded her knives and ran up towards the Roc's head. Stellar jumped and flipped around, stabbing the monster in the eyes. She fell safely into David's arms as the monster stopped its gust attack and at the same time received a Ball of Light and Discharge from Solar and Gyumi. The goblin archers also provided some damage as they aim for the injured eye with their arrows causing the monster to bleed rivers of blood.
The monster tried to run away but with a timely attack by Gibing who had charged his attack to full, slams his ax on the monster's neck. He penetrated through the skill and damaged the monster greatly however, it wasn't enough to kill the monster as the monster used a skill similar to Kingston's Sand Armor.
Large lumps of dirt surrounded the monster creating a layer of dirt around its body. With its heavy body, it couldn't fly and instead launched blocks of dirt at us which hurt quite a bit if we got hit. After a long strenuous battle with the Roc we were eventually able to defeat it but only because it gave up its flight to fight us on the ground.
From it, we obtained a Roc Talon, a skill book, and 2 of the goblins had evolved into hobgoblins.
[ Roc Talon - A black talon with yellow streaks embedded into the talon. It is as large as a man's arm and can pierce flesh as if it were butter. ]
[ Eye of the Roc ( Passive ) - The user can focus their sight in a line, seeing things far away. The vision can see through weather conditions such as fog, heavy rain, hail but cannot see in the dark. ]
Name: Gopopo
Race: Hobgoblin ( Archer )
Health Points (HP): 50/50
Mana Points (MP): 10/10
Strength: 20
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 20
Dexterity: 30
Agility: 30
Luck: 10
Skill: Backstep (Active) - 2MP, Pinpoint (Active) - 2MP, Enhanced Sight (Passive), Weak spot (Passive)
Pinpoint (Active) - The user concentrates on the target allowing them to hit the target with the next attack. Can only be used when there is vision of the target. ( x1.5 dmg to the next attack )
Enhanced Sight (Passive) - The user can see further into the distance and can see slightly better in bad weather conditions.
Weak spot (Passive) - The user can identify the enemy's weak spot. New enemies' weak spot takes longer to find.
Name: Gewari
Race: Hobgoblin ( Assassin )
Health Points (HP): 40/40
Mana Points (MP): 10/10
Strength: 22
Vitality: 20
Intelligence: 20
Agility: 40
Luck: 5
Skill: Stealth (Active) - 2MP, Eviscerate (Active) - 8MP, Focused Mind (Active) - 5MP, Backstab ( Passive)
Eviscerate (Active) - The user stabs 4 times at the target with each subsequent attack after the first increasing in damage. ( First attack 10 dmg + 10% Dexterity + 5% Strength. Second attack 15 dmg + 10% Dexterity + 5% Strength. Third attack 20 dmg + 10% Dexterity + 5% Strength. Fourth attack 30 dmg + 10% Dexterity + 5% Strength. )
Focused Mind (Active) - The user's mind calms, allowing them to gather strength for the next attack. ( x1.5 dmg to the next attack )
Backstab (Passive) - Whenever the user attacks an enemy in the back they will do increased damage. ( x2 dmg)
With the evolution of Gopopo and Gewari, we need have 4 hobgoblins in our ranks, further increasing our groups' strength. Their new skills also portray different styles which add to the variety of attacks we can do as a team. As excited as I was to fight we need to recuperate our strength first. Resting inside a small cave at the foot of the mountain, we wait until tomorrow before exploring this new territory.
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