This was a golden opportunity to train my warriors. These hobgoblins were simple mobs, far less dangerous than the group I had spied on last night. I issued orders rapidly.
“Warriors, to the front. Shoulder to shoulder, attack together. Bek behind them, support and heal. Move!”
The goblins obeyed my orders and reorganized themselves just in front of the Frozen enemy. The other hobgoblins had recovered from the surprise, one of them pushed past his frozen comrade to get into range of my warriors. The other two hobgoblins left the path, trying to flank us through the trees.
I targeted one of the flanking hobgoblins and used Dominate, spending 30 MP to make him my sock puppet. I turned him back and made him charge the other flanking hobgoblin, who was caught off guard and rammed off his feet by his comrade. They started rolling around in the undergrowth, fighting it out on the ground. That left my goblins a single convenient target to attack.
The hobgoblin who squeezed past to attack my warriors was one level higher and physically stronger than the goblins, but he was outnumbered three to one.
The two warriors kept thrusting their spears, stabbing him repeatedly. The hobgoblin was positioned badly for a fight, blocked from behind by his frozen comrade and hemmed in from the sides by the trees. With little room to maneuver he was only able to land a few feeble hits on my warriors, which were promptly healed by Bek. It took the goblin warriors less than a minute to finish off their first opponent, he went down with a surprised and frustrated expression on his face.
Meanwhile, the dominated hob continued harrying the second flanking enemy, and kept him from engaging us. The goblins moved to assist my dominated minion.
I forced the hob under my control to act as a Tank, standing at the front and absorbing his fellow hobgoblin’s attacks; while my goblins inflicted damage from a safe distance with their spears.
I didn’t make the dominated hob attack back, there was no reason to share good training experience with our next target. My warriors made short work of the already wounded, second hobgoblin, dispatching him with a few spear thrusts.
I released the dominated hobgoblin from my control. I could have made him stand still while the goblins worked on him, but no challenge meant no skill gain.
With an angry roar the now free warrior sprang to attack. A rage icon appearing above his head. I guessed he didn’t appreciate being magically controlled.
He attacked with ferocity, completely disregarding the wounds my warriors inflicted.
A wild swing of the hobgoblin’s axe snapped one of my warriors’ spears, and wounded the goblin critically. The hobgoblin roared in triumph and backhanded the other goblin, hurling him against a tree.
Bek rushed in to heal the fallen goblin, exposing himself to the maddened hobgoblin. The hob took the opportunity and smashed Bek with his axe, dropping the little goblin’s health down to five hit points.
Time to intervene.
I used Dominate on the warrior again. But it didn’t work. The berserk hobgoblin’s mana rejected me! His rage made him immune.
The raging hobgoblin, unaffected by my attempt, was preparing to deliver a coup-de-grace to one of my stunned goblins. I rushed forward desperately to take the damage instead. Lucky Bastard was with me, as my earlier actions had aggroed the hobgoblin and he was quite happy to direct his attacks at me. I was hit twice in rapid succession, for 38 damage, leaving me with 114 hp, more than enough.
I activated Mana Shield and ignored the rest of the incoming attacks. That gave my goblins the breathing room they needed to gather themselves. I used Heal Followers, healing them all for five points.
Heal Followers skill level increased to 2
Great, I cast it again, this time healing everyone for 6 points.
The goblin warriors took positions on either side of me. One of them resumed attacking with his spear, while the other drew a dagger from his belt. Two more quick hits, followed by a Drilling Arrow from Bek finally downed the raging warrior.
Only the frozen hobgoblin was left standing.
This experience had already proved invaluable, not just for the skill and level gains, but for the information. I learned that mobs that had already been dominated could resist additional attempts, making it harder, if not impossible to use Dominate a second time.
“Warriors, stand around the hobgoblin, don’t let him escape. Bek attack him with Drilling Arrows.” I ordered.
They moved to obey. Bek started launching arrows at the cornered enemy.
After Bek’s sixth arrow cast, the hobgoblin was reduced to 20% of his health.
Bek reported, “no mana left, Totem.”
“Well, that’s what Mana Drain is for” I grinned at him.
He thought it over for a moment. “Oh. Yes, Esteemed Totem.”
He leeched some juice from the hobgoblin using Mana Drain, then launched two more arrows and finally brought him down.
War Party Leader skill level increased to 2
War Party
Goblin warrior gained 1 level
Goblin warrior gained 1 level
Bek gained 1 level
We looted the bodies getting four axes, four daggers, eight travel rations, one steel buckler and surprisingly, two flasks of acid.
Their plain leather armor was damaged and too heavy to bother taking with us. The bodies slowly faded away after we finished looting them.
The fight wasn’t too tough, but forcing my goblins to fight head on showed me just how vulnerable they were compared to other mobs. In order to assure victory, they would have to outnumber an enemy of equal level by at least two to one, though a three to one ratio would be better.
There was a factor that could balance this disadvantage, the Breeder’s Hut. It gave me instant access to different classes of goblins, as long as I had the ‘fuel’ for it. If I had enough food, I could potentially summon complete armies in only hours. but I was still a long way from that goal.
Even then, the, theoretically, summoned goblin army would all be level 1 mobs, which meant they were more use as cannon fodder than as an actual fighting force.
I guess I’d have to find a way to level up my summoned troops, otherwise most enemies would make mincemeat out of them.
But that’s a concern for another day. For now, we needed to get back to the safety of our valley home.
The encounter taught me caution. We slowed our pace through the woods to a crawl, stopping to listen for potential threats every few minutes. I occasionally hid the goblins and scouted ahead on my own.
My cautious approach did save us from at least one more fight, giving us just enough time to hide before a much larger hobgoblin patrol crossed our path. There was no way we would have won against that group.
Our progress was slow, it was starting to get dark. We were over halfway there, but it was clear that we wouldn’t make it back home before nightfall.
We found a small crevice at the side of a large boulder and stayed there for the night. It was crowded and tight, but no hobgoblin could reach us. We ate some of the rations we took from the hobgoblins, as ours had run out the night before.
We went to sleep, a bundle of goblin arms and legs, all huddled together.
***
I woke up the next morning with one of Bek’s toes in my nostril.
After crawling out of the I checked the game map and saw we were only a few kilometers away from the valley. It would normally take three hours to reach, but I maintained yesterday’s careful approach. It was almost dark again when we made it back to the valley without any further incidents.
We moved quickly through the forested area of the valley, following the now well-traveled path leading to the camp.
Once we reached the forest clearing, I inspected the area for tracks, but didn’t find any indication that anyone had been there while I was away.
The absence of tracks was a good sign, but I wanted to make sure.
I cleared my throat, put both hands to my mouth and called out loud “Grilda!”
&nb
sp; A moment later a large white creature jumped down in front of us from an overhanging tree branch. The warriors raised their weapons at once, but I called them off, recognizing the Dire ape female I’d just called.
“Has anyone been here the last two days?” I asked.
She looked at me for a moment, and then grunted.
“Vic?” I asked my companion.
Life Reset: A LitRPG Novel (New Era Online Book 1) Page 34
