A tall, enormously muscular hobgoblin stepped out behind Elenda. A leather loincloth and a small satchel were his only clothing, revealing his scarred, sculpted physique. Humanoid skulls were placed on his bare shoulder, held in place by clamping their upper jaws onto him. His right eye was missing, a menacing red light gleamed from the empty socket.
My Dangersense was screaming like crazy.
I can’t! I shouted back at him. I haven’t recovered enough mana.
Barska looked at me for a long moment. I got the uneasy feeling he was reading me like a book. Then he smiled. It was a confident, maliciously evil smile.
“So you are the Totem Tika keeps talking about. I was starting to wonder if you really existed. Tell me, how did you gain the title Dark Totem?”
My mana pool was filling steadily, currently at 98 points, around a quarter of my maximum. I had to stall more.
But at his mention of Tika, rage washed over me again, everything went red, and my blood pounded in my veins.
“Where is she?!” I demanded in fury. “What have you done to her?” As I spoke, I conjured Drilling Arrow, the two darts hovering at my hand as a threat.
Barska didn’t seem impressed. He chuckled. “For a goblin, she has demonstrated an admirable, but infuriating, resistance to my questioning. So I gather she is your mate. How lucky for me. Prisoners talk much more freely when they have seen me lavish my special attentions on their loved ones. ”
Hearing him talk so casually about torturing my Tika, increased my mounting rage tenfold. The feelings I had tried to suppress for so long stirred again, violently, stripping my control away.
“You’re dead.” I informed him, in cold hate. 120 mana should be enough to finish him off.
My anger overwhelmed me, I ignored my senses screaming danger, and threw all caution to the wind. This bastard had to die.
He grinned, as I channeled my mana and reached out, intending to crush his mind and will. My mind reached his, and I gasped in surprise as my will was violently repulsed, sent reeling back as if I’ve been mentally slapped. Until now, my mana sense had shown the mana flow of other living things as glowing blue energy. Barska was different. He appeared to my mana-sense as an incandescently bright figure of angry-red energy. My mind was swatted away by that swirling molten-red barrier, leaving me faltering and off balance.
I was beginning to have doubts about being able to win this fight.
Barska was still grinning at me, undisturbed by my attempt. “So you want to challenge me, little Totem? Very well, I accept!”
He stalked forward, his warriors parted hastily to make a wide opening for him and then closed back in around us.
Barska faced me from the other side of the circle, spread his arms out like a gunfighter and closed his fists. His jaw clenched, and his eyes narrowed in a scowl, as if preparing to make an extreme effort. His entire body began to swell, the over developed strong-man muscles growing even larger, straining and quivering. The blood vessels in his neck and limbs engorged, visibly standing out from under his skin, repeatedly bifurcating in patterns across his body. It was as if he was fighting against a tremendous internal pressure. With what looked like a tremendous exertion, Barska began slowly bringing his arms up. His body swelled even more, beyond what seemed possible for flesh and blood. It looked like he was bringing his arms up in a boxing pose, both fists in front of his face. As his arms drew closer, a deep red light emanated from them. He was clearly struggling as the glow became brighter and brighter. With a last tremendous effort, he moved his hands in, until they finally touched, obscuring his face. The glow of his red mana intensified and became bright enough to my mana-sense to light up the entire camp in menacing shades of red. His entire body was now shaking with exertion.
I watched the display of power in astonishment. Suddenly, with a sharp movement Barska spread out his arms releasing the red glow, causing it to spread over his entire body.
The glow hurt my eyes. I disengaged my mana sense only to discover that he was glowing red even to normal eyesight. I was beginning to doubt my chances of winning this thing.
The aura around Barska was fading. No. The sullen red glow wasn’t fading away, it was becoming thicker, compressing, transforming into a covering of solid red matter from head to toe.
Barska gave me an eerily confident look as he completed activating the strange power. The solidified red light continued to mold itself around him, a crimson transparent shell.
The material extended down his legs past his feet, lifting his body as the limbs became longer. When the change finished, Barska legs were encased inside the larger, more massive, transparent red, hooved lower limbs of a large demon. His arms were similarly armored in the red outer shell, adding to their length and girth. The fingers ended in vicious looking sharp talons. On his back, the matter gathered into two lumps that grew as more and more of the red material concentrated into them. Then, simultaneously the two lumps sprouted, spreading outward and becoming large, bat-like wings.
The transformation complete, Barska stood before me with all his might. A hobgoblin inside a nearly three meters tall transparent winged demon-form shell made of red energy.
I clenched my teeth. He’s your sworn enemy, remember?
Barska looked at me with a sneer. “I believe you said I am dead, right? So let’s find out if a goblin Totem can match the awesome power of a hobgoblin Demonic Channeler. I will teach you to respect your betters.” His wings furled and then unfurled with a thunderous clap.
He took a step toward me, his hoof made cracks in the hard ground as it came down, and left a noticeable indentation in its wake.
I took a step back. Oh Shit.
I looked at my two still hovering Drilling Arrows with uncertainty. During his transformation, I had powered them up to their maximum, but would it be enough to damage the hulking beast in front of me?
There was only one way to find out. I launched the arrows at the red monstrosity while simultaneously commanding my dagger to fly straight at his neck. The arrows hit their mark, but instead of damaging him, the arrows were hampered by the red shell! They drilled and strained against it, burrowing deeper and deeper. One of the arrows hit the heavily armored chest, exhausted its charge on the red goop and disappeared, but the other managed to burrow through the thinner red armoring around Barska’s face, reaching his cheek and wounding it lightly before disappearing as well. Similarly ineffective, the dagger struck the red shell, above the heart, burying itself halfway through, then got stuck. I tried calling it back to me, but the material of the red shell spread over the dagger and held it firmly in place.
Mana Arrows hit Barska for 3 damage. Demonic Ward ignores 75 damage
I was so screwed.
Laughing at the superficial wound I caused, Barska held up his hand. The red glow around his closed fist became more intense and grew out to form a long, red spear, aimed at me.
I stepped back in apprehension, mentally yelling Mana Shield, just as Barska, lunged forward and thrust downward with the weapon. The spear burst through my Mana Shield like it wasn’t there, and stabbed right through me, its serrated tip bursting out of my back and embedding itself deeply into the ground behind me.
Demonic Spear hit Mana Shield for 50 damage. 43 mana drain. You take 62 damage
Bleeding Debuff gained: lose 10 hp every 6 seconds until healed
I stared in horror at the glowing shaft embedded in my chest. I screamed as the intense pain washed over me.
Barska stood there laughing, enjoying the view of my skewered body pinned to the ground. A moment later, the javelin evaporated. Without the weapon's support, I fell weakly to my knees.
This was crazy. Barska was way too powerful for a normal hobgoblin! What the hell was going on!?
I didn’t want to risk the distraction of a full Analyze in mid-battle. But fear and pain displaced the rage that has been driving me, and I finally listen to what my screaming senses have been trying to communicate all along. Far too late I get a good read on my opponent and realize something I should have from the start. This fight was way out of my league.
There has to be some way to defeat him! I thought desperately. With trembling hands, I retrieved health and mana potions from my belt and quickly downed them both.
Barska didn’t seem to mind. Still thoroughly amused, he let me have a moment to recover. The open wound in my chest begun to close and the bleeding stopped, though I wasn’t back to full health.
The minor mana potion was barely enough to restore the amount lost by that damn spear punching through my shield. I only had three minor mana potions left, each good for 50 mana. I needed to use them wisely, or I wouldn’t last long. I looked around me in a hurry, I have to find some advantage, there has to be a way to take him out.
When I brought my attention back to Barska, I saw his hands had transformed into barbed hooks. He looked at me with sadistic glee in his eyes. “I am going to hang you by your entrails next to your precious Tika.” Then he came at me with a rushing charge.
I turned and bolted.
“Look at him, my warriors. This is what goblins do best! They run!”
The hobgoblins laughed around me as I ran toward one of the watchtowers.
The supporting cross beams were low, but I had no trouble passing beneath them. I stood underneath the tower, between the wooden stilts.
“You think this will stop me?” Barska demanded angrily. “Do you think ANYTHING you do can stop me!?” He swung his arms dramatically in overhand attacks, revving them up, looking like an insane windmill. Advancing, the hooks in his fists came down on the heavy beam between us, blasting a storm of splinters and palm-sized wood chips into the air. The tower shuddered. Another hit, and the beam split apart, opening a gap for him to flail his hooks at me.
“Here you are!”
He reached in and started slashing at me with his hook, but I ducked and rolled to the side. His swipe hit another cross beam, and the tower shuddered again, and I heard it creaking ominously.
Aware that his warriors were witnessing his failed attempts at smashing an elusive goblin, instead of the expected easy triumph, Barska’s previously invulnerable ego was finally damaged. His fury grew as I continued to dodge or avoid his attacks. The confined space was an advantage for me and a liability to my opponent’s much bulkier form. The swings became even more powerful and uncontrolled, hitting more and more of the support beams and cross-braces, weakening the tower. Large pieces of wood from the tower’s high platform began to fall around us. I sidestepped a section of timber that came close to crushing me, while another piece bounced harmlessly off Barska’s red armor. There was only one beam left intact, it was barely keeping the tower upright.
The interior now clear of obstructing beams and timber, Barska tucked his wings and stepped into the little enclosure, looming over me. “I’ve got you now.” he growled menacingly.
I put my back to the last remaining support beam, and coiled my body, readying myself for the expected blow.
Twisting powerfully Barska swept his hook at me. I dodged and the hook struck the final beam. I rolled across the ground coming out of the roll in a long leap away from him, and out of the enclosure.
I stood and looked back. Barska stood there still in the enclosure, full of rage at missing me again. He turned, fully intending to hunt me down.
Then my impromptu little trap sprung, and the tower fell on him.
Large beams and heavy planks rained down and clobbered his shell-armored body. One smashed onto his head, dropping him to the ground, more planks and beams pounded into his prone body, burying him in wreckage. Only the lower half of one hoofed leg stuck out from the pile.
I took out my last remaining grenade, pulled the pin and shoved it between the pieces of debris, about where his head would be and then retreated from the coming destruction. The large BOOM blew some of the debris off and away, setting the rest on fire, leaving Barska’s body still buried underneath.
All the hobgoblins looked at me in shock. I grinned at them and conjured a double Drilling Arrow in one hand, while snapping my fingers with the other, calling my faithful dagger.
A moment passed, but the dagger hadn’t returned to my hand.
I looked at the pile of burning wood, where Barska had been buried, with my dagger stuck in his armor.
Uh Ohhhsh--
Then the entire pile shook.
The pile shook again, and beams of bloody red light leaked from between the debris. Then the whole pile was glowing a red brighter than the burning flames. The glow grew quickly into a miniature red sun. Then it exploded. I reeled away from the explosion, wooden shrapnel flying everywhere, injuring me, and the scattered hobgoblins.
I looked back at the epicenter of the explosion with dread. The remains of the tower were gone. Instead Barska stood there, his face livid with rage. His body showed numerous shallow wounds. His health bar was down by less than a quarter. Damn, still 80% health.
Why did I think of Vic as a ghetto black dude just then? I wondered idly as I wearily eyed my opponent. I had thrown everything that I had at Barska and barely made a dent.
It was time to pull back, recover, and later I would come up with a different plan to defeat his OP ass. I activated Mana Infusion and maneuvered to strategically reposition myself, at full speed toward the open gate.
“Shut up Vic”, I grunted. The path to the gate was clear, I was running straight for it, and once outside safety would be just a quick sprint to the treeline.
Agony exploded out from my chest and wracked my body in an unbearable intensity. I stumbled, losing all thought and control of my body, my head swirling from the pain. The sock lasted only seconds, I came back still suffering, but able to think. I looked down to find the cause, and almost fainted. A cruelly barbed point had burst from my chest, it was skewering me all the way through. Making it even worse were hooks coming out of the spear-head, points back and embedded deeply in my chest around the wound, adding to my traumatizing pain.
I’ve been spitted on a fucking grappling hook! I realized dizzily. Which meant...I looked behind me with rising dread. A heavy blood red chain trailed away from where I stood. My eyes followed the crimson links to their source: Barska.
Demonic Chain hit you for 52 damage
Impaled & Grappled debuff gain: movement is restricted
Glaring at me, part of his shoulder armor still in flames, Barska enunciated spitefully “You. Are. Going. To. Pay. For. That.” He emphasized each word as he hauled in an arm’s length of the chain, reeling me in like a trout caught on a line. Each pull blasted a wave of pain through me and cost a few dozen hit points.
Ending the pain was all I could think about. Just end the pain now. I would deal with getting away after. I thought about my trump card--the Outrider bracelet. My fingers inched toward the item in my inventory. No! I thought definitely. The high-level Celestial being summoned by the bracelet, could easily reduce Barska, his forces, and probably this entire camp, to ashes. Reason and logic prevailed. I was not going to waste a priceless, almost omnipotent, single-use item on a two-bit low-level boss! Better to die, respawn and grind some levels; then return for payback when I was much stronger. Much, MUCH stronger.
Barska heaved powerfully on the chain a final time, launching me excruciatingly into the air towards him, to fall in a tangle of sprawling limbs and blood-red chain links at his feet.
Through the haze of pain, I felt a large hand clamp around my neck and hoist me off the ground.
Barska held me up effortlessly with one demonically enhanced red arm, my feet dangling in the air. I stared hatefully at his face only a hand's breadth away from mine, clenching my teeth from the pain, waiting and praying for death to release me.
As Barska examined me, the chain and the grappling hook that still pierced my chest dissipated into red mist, and then disappeared. It was a relief for the thing to be gone. And bonus, with the hook gone, the gaping hole in my chest started bleeding profusely, and my remaining health points drained away rapidly.
Twenty percent… come on... nineteen percent… just a little more. I thought with a grimace.
Barska chuckled malevolently at my expression. “Oh no. You will not find salvation that easily, little goblin. I wouldn’t have gotten this far if I simply killed the leaders I’ve defeated.”
He looked up as Elenda approached us cautiously. “Tell our special guest why that is, my faithful advisor.”
Elenda moistened her lips nervously. The leader’s battle-form intimidated even her, despite being his advisor and chief minion. “Because when killed, leaders always return, appearing in their clan’s cemetery.”
Ten percent health left! Just keep talking you ugly brutes!
Barska nodded approvingly. “Good, then how do we get rid of this troublesome goblin permanently?”
“Ahh, we... k-keep him alive, until we find and destroy his cemetery.”
Five percent! I thought desperately.
“Correct! And that is why we can’t let you bleed to death, my friend,” He said in a pleasant voice. “Elenda, heal him.”
No! Only a few more seconds! I thought desperately as the Adept started chanting a spell. I tried using Dark Mana to deflect the spell, but it belonged to a different magic discipline, I couldn’t affect it directly. A soft golden light washed over me, and my wounds began to heal. The bleeding, fist-sized hole through my chest gradually closed. And the bleeding stopped, as I regained about 25% of my total health.
Life Reset: A LitRPG Novel (New Era Online Book 1) Page 64
