Despite the huge change in appearance being quite noticeable, what caught most of Daimon's attention about the hobgoblin is the fact that he could see battle aura flowing through its body.
Previously they certainly faced two goblins which could use magic, but that didn't mean they were actual mages, the goblins were classified as magic beasts instead of a rational race, not because of their low intellect.
There are many races who aren't exactly smart but more instinct driven, primitive would be the best way to describe them, some subspecies of lizardmen for example.
And yet they are considered a rational race for the simple reason that they can learn and use multiple spells as well as manipulate mana, the goblin mages Daimon faced previously were only able to use one spell, ice spear and earth shield to be precise.
Though it is classified as a "spell", it is more like a deluded version of an innate ability, those goblin "mages" can't manipulate mana, for anything than to cast the spell they know, meaning they can't reinforce their bodies with it or anything else, they are a one trick kind of thing, because they only have a set of mana circuits for that spell and that's it, naturally before making them go extinct mages did some research to see if they had any valuable property, needless to say but the result was no.
Even magic beasts whose forms are really far from being humanoid, get stronger bodies and flexible innate abilities when they aren't intelligent, and after unlocking wisdom they can learn proper magic, like Karmandi for example.
The goblins on the other hand at most can overcharge the spell to make it stronger, just like what the one that shot the ice spear did, to compensate for that, it was wearing that cloak with camouflaging properties though, and that made it different than the goblins of which Daimon knew about
Anyway, the hobgoblin in front of Daimon was different than anything of which he has read about, the race was still within the records he read before, but this one was… a knight and considering the different sets of mana circuits Daimon could see in its body, it was a proper knight with the capacity to manipulate battle aura and use martial arts.
That being said, it was still only an early stage Knight Lord, but that made the situation go more astray from what Daimon's know, than previously, because the hobgoblin opened its mouth and… talked.
"Two middle and one early stage Knight Lords, I tell you what, tell the women to please me and I'll leave your group leave", the voice of the hobgoblin was quite human-like and its attitude was even more so.
Because as it talked, it snapped its fingers and five more goblins came out from the door, for the first time, a defense type goblin appeared, it was still the size of a ten year old human child, being shorter than the hobgoblin, but it was wearing full body metal armor, not to mention it had a tower shield, that one stood in front of the hobgoblin as if to protect it, there wasn't any flaw between the joints of the armor as it was even wearing a chainmail below of it.
Then there was a goblin wearing a black mantle and wielding a dagger in each of its hands, in other words it was an assassin type, the other was a long range type, but the bow was replaced for a cross bow.
Out of the remaining two, one was a mage with a wood staff, similar to the previous one Daimon killed, and the last one was quite strange, it looked like a mage, but it didn't use a staff, instead it had some weird tattoos on its body.
"What do you think of my personal guards, they might be still low ranked, but they are at the pinnacle, having attained the rank of champions, and I Lord Roney am the one who commands them", proudly said the hobgoblin.
"So, this is what happens when they gain individuality, not impressed, they are pretty much as idiots as others", casually said Sarah as she threw five needles with each of her hands.
The needles produced whistling sounds for a change, the needless moved fast enough to not be seen with the naked eye, but the sound produced made it possible for the goblins to actually predict from where they will come.
That being said, the one with tattoos growled and then a light symbol which resembled a shield, appeared above the head of the defense type goblin, its tower shield shone and then a red semi-sphere covered the group, followed by gusts of wind acting as a second layer.
The needles pierced the wind protection as well as the light protection produced by the defense goblin, but by that time, their trajectories had been altered enough for the group of goblins to not be hit, in fact the ten needles were stuck in the shield of the defense type goblin.
As the protections dispelled, the smug face of the hobgoblin was revealed, the assassin goblin had disappeared, while the goblin with tattoos which now was revealed to be a support type, as it casted a defense boosting spell, was dancing, the one with the cross bow was standing behind the tower shield wielding one, pointing its weapon at Sarah.
While the hobgoblin was standing behind of them, his battle aura was leaking out of its body, as it looked at the crazy girl with raw lust.
"Now, I was going to take it easy with you two if you behaved, but I take back my words, after I'm done with you, you will beg for death".
'Wow, a third rate villain who likes to monologue, this was so prepared for an idiot like Adam', thought Daimon as he pointed at the ground ten meters away from Reyne, shooting a line of white light from his index finger, piercing a certain tile.
"Arhgghh!!!", a beastly scream came from ground, Daimon raised his hand making the ground crumble as the assassin goblin which was now being pierced by its neck through the white ray that was still connected to the tip of Daimon's index finger, be forcefully dragged out.
The assassin goblin apparently could move underground, an earth type innate ability of some sort, the moment Daimon's attack pierced its neck, the insane amount of pain made its ability be nullified, so Daimon made it break through around three meters of hard solid rock with its own body.
As a result, besides the fatal scorched wound in its neck, its limbs were twisted beyond recognition, and it was bleeding from practically all its body, as an assassin type the thing naturally had a low defense after all.
Daimon didn't say anything, the assassin goblin turned into ashes and then his image flashed, as he appeared right next to the hobgoblin, whose pupils contracted like needles.
The shield goblin tried to activate its ability, but the shield suddenly melted in its hands, courtesy of the poison in Sarah's needles, next the mage pointed its staff at Daimon.
This mage's ability was more flexible than the previous ones, but it was still a single spell called Wind Current, it summoned gusts of wind that then could be used to both attack and defend.
Earlier it was used to defend, as the wind not only interfered with Sarah's needles, making them produce sound, something which the crazy girl was angry for, as she had trained so that her needles don't produce any sound while moving at high speed.
And now, it was about to summon the gusts of wind in a straight line to blow Daimon away, or that was the plan, until the staff suddenly became charcoal, forcing the mage to let go of it, and burning its hands on the spot.
"Urghrghh!", the mage screamed because the skin of its palms came off along with the staff, naturally the spell it was casting was cancelled as it lost its focus, luckily for it, it didn't have to suffer much as its head burned, killing it on the spot.
The goblin with cross bow had reacted and it actually managed to shot a bolt at Daimon, but the thing was hit by a needle which pierced it, nailing it to the wall at the other side of the room.
"Grruughgh!", the crazy girl who had appeared on the air above the goblin with the cross bow, threw three needles, one to take care of the bolt that was shot at Daimon, and two to pierce the eyes of the goblin, resulting on the thing letting out a guttural scream before dying.
All the previous happened in a fraction of a second, just at the same time as Daimon whose hand was now wielding a sword made out of white flames, was slashing at the hobgoblin.
Speaking of the hobgoblin, the guy played its last resort on the spot, which made the defense type goblin, suddenly appear in front of him, while the tattoos on the support goblin shone, making a light shield symbol appear the defense type goblin, while a sword light symbol appeared above the head of the hobgoblin.
"I have full reign over my champions, even if they can't follow your movements, I can!", shouted the hobgoblin as it unsheathed its sword, using a wind based accelerating martial art and a drawing sword technique at the same time.
The idea was that the white flame sword of Daimon, bounced on the defense type goblin which was buffed by the support type, then the hobgoblin who was using its best technique, even adding an attack buffing effect to it, slashed him down.
But the result was quite different, the white flame sword, easily cut through not only the defense type goblin, but the sword of the hobgoblin and then the hobgoblin two, producing a perfect half-moon wave of light, as the enemies were slashed in half horizontally.
With a little "thud", the now severed upper bodies of the defense type goblin and the hobgoblin fell to the ground, as for Daimon he absorbed the flames back into his body, luckily, he had learned how to just partially release some of the energy in the Comer Sword, to prevent wasting energy while still obtaining the huge destructive power of this martial art he created by himself.
Oh right, in case you are wondering what happened to the support goblin, its left side was charred, while the right side had some needles piercing the vital parts.
"I killed it!", said the crazy girl as she pointed at her needles.
"My attack landed first", calmly said Reyne, the palm of her left hand was still releasing some heat as the bright orange light on it, suggested, she had to put in a bit more of effort because Sarah's needles would have connected before her attack, if she didn't, solely because the physical strength of Sarah was as crazy as her, and she used more of it in a try to get the last enemy.
And as a result, the two girls were now trying to claim the kill, Daimon killed three of the enemies, those two who killed one each at the same time and then immediately rushed to finish the remaining one, but actually tied.
Daimon inwardly sighed, but he didn't scold Sarah, she was actually angry since she had to leave Adam go earlier, she understood the reason but that didn't mean she was fully okay with it.
Surprisingly she had cheered up thanks to Reyne in a sense at least, leaving that aside Daimon casually stomped on the chest of the hobgoblin who was playing death, making its bones produce creaking sounds while the hobgoblin vomited blood.
"W-Wait, you can't kill me, otherwise my father will… arghhh!", before it could finish speaking, Daimon applied a bit more of strength and the ribcage of the hobgoblin exploded, surprisingly not even a drop of blood managed to stain Daimon, as there was a thin layer of battle aura covering him.
"Third rate threatening", he mumbled as he walked towards those two, who seemed to had finally reached an agreement that they attacked at the same time, declaring it a tie.
"These ones were easier to deal with~", casually said the crazy girl, for a change Reyne totally agreed with her, and in an even rarer case, Daimon did so too.
It's not like Sarah was bluffing, in fact the goblins were more experienced and followed their roles perfectly, the problem is that now that there was a hierarchy with a rational hobgoblin above them, their priority was the leader, and the hobgoblin who was rational learned the fear of death.
In comparison, from Daimon's point of view, things would have been harder if the primitive goblin just kept getting stronger, instead of being replaced by hobgoblins who acted like coward nobles, but this labyrinth was prepared to fit a "hero's" needs, so it was understandable.
While Daimon and the girls smoothly advanced to the sixth room, without having suffered any injuries, things weren't looking as good for the other participants.
The group from the Ghoul side, who had easily reached the seventh room, without any problems, now entered the eighth room, just to be ambushed by hobgoblins wearing full black attires, resulting in a couple of them losing arms.
At Elliot's side things were worse, they just entered the fifth room, and since the number of doors diminished, they thought it was a resting area, they didn't completely lower their guard as they looked at the door all the time.
But they didn't expect that the moment when the door opened, a goblin with a mask and a mantle, who was stuck to the roof, ambushed them by letting itself fall from the roof and exploding, it was a suicidal attack, not only it temporarily blinded them, but they were attacked by a taller goblin who looked way more human than the ones they had previously fought.
The result was that the guy who was stabbed in the thigh before, lost that leg and while Elliot got rid of the hobgoblin, relatively easily, one of his teammates had now become a burden.
If it lost an arm, then its mobility wouldn't diminish at least, but it lost a leg, Elliot did have a potion that could regrow a limb on the spot, in fact he had three, which is saying a lot, considering the way outdated alchemy of Kerrol.
One was given to him by his father as his reward for becoming an Adjudicator, while the other two were gifted to him by Dorothy when he turned eighteen, meaning he was now an adult, the sword he was now wielding and the spot for the ruin were his gifts for becoming an Adjudicator, or at least that was the excuse she used.
The others were also descendants of relatively high ranked Adjudicators, and had potions that could regrow limbs, but the process will take at least a few days.
"Boss… I'll stay behind and wait for your return, more of those guys will appear in the next room so I'll be a burden for the team", said the guy who lost a leg.
The hobgoblin was quite agile and attacked them under the cover of its subordinates, Elliot managed to react in time to prevent it from killing anyone, but the attack landed on that guy's leg.
Elliot nodded in response as he patted the shoulder of the guy.
"Well said, don't worry, you'll get your fair share of the reward, take it easy and leave the rest to us", he said as he walked towards the next door followed by the other two guys.
The moment they left through the door, the thing closed leaving the guy missing a leg, alone, to sit in a corner of the room, or that was what he thought, they committed another mistake, by following the previous rule that the number of the room represented the number of enemies they had to fight.
In other words, they thought that the fifth room only had five enemies for them, including the hobgoblin.
"Ah, damn, the old man is going to give me a beating once I… aghhh!", as the guy was just relaxing, a skinny green arm came out of the wall behind of him and the dagger that was being wielded by the owner of said arm, slit the guy's throat.
The guy tried to keep his blood from leaving his body by applying pressure on the wound using his hands, he was at disbelief since he had a life-saving treasure on his body and yet it didn't activate.
Also, this was the first time he saw a goblin that could hide in the walls, just as the guy tried to take something out of his storage ring, he saw his hand separating from his body, and then a black clothed goblin using daggers appeared in front of him, before everything went dark.
"Kriiii!", the assassin goblin grabbed the severed hand and took the ring, as it shouted as if to declare its victory, then a green transportation array appeared below of it, making it disappear the next second.
The previous situation resulted in the first death on the participant's side, but there was someone feeling even more miserable than that right now.
Adam who had pierced through the rooms like a sword through butter, reached he sixth room, his expression was grim as he looked at the girl who was now accompanying him again.
"How the hell did you end up captured by that thing!", he asked in an angered voice, making the girl tremble for a second.
"I-I don't know, I directly appeared in a cage, next thing I knew is that I was being held captive by that green monster, luckily it said something around the lines of "I'll enjoy you in front of the guy with the sword"… luckily you were able to easily defeat it", said the girl as she smiled.
Normally Adam would be smiling back at her, while making it so the girl would fall for him, the problem is that he was being kicked in the balls by the smell of the goblin's blood that was covering most of the dress of the girl.
Not to mention his armor also had more stains than before, because the hobgoblin fought with him in close combat, of course he casually slashed it down, but he was splashed by the blood.
'Well at least she wasn't done in by that hobgoblin, guess she still has some use for later', thought Adam before saying.
"The others might be held captive in the next rooms, so let's speed things up, you just support me from the back", he ordered to the girl as they went through the door that led to the next room.
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