Earth Tactics Advance: Volume 1

by Scottie Futch

  During the exchange, the hobgoblin's weapon moved like it was possessed. It would seem to attack in a straight forward manner but at the last moment, just before Scott would have countered, Arrkle would shift his footing and thus the angle of his assault. Not only was the beast stronger, he was more practiced at using his blade in this sort of battle. The tactic did not always work, but it scored hits often enough that Scott's hit points dropped by a serious amount in that one turn.

  However, it was now Scott's turn to make things happen. He opened by using his flame strike coupled with his burning soul. The badly telegraphed overhand strike was easily blocked, but the intense heat of the flame generated caused the hobgoblin to flinch slightly. Scott rammed his shoulder forward in order to take advantage of the opening, and succeeded in knocking the beast off balance, but not over onto his back side. Hilariously, he was frozen in place with one foot in the air, his arms flailing.

  Scott slipped to the side opposite the beast's blade and unleashed a powerful fireball strike to the monster's unprotected leg. Arrkle was knocked off his feet by the sweeping strike, but while he fell toward the ground in slow motion, a powerful fiery explosion sent him flying into the air once more. He flipped end over end before slamming into the ground.

  Movement and speed still available, Scott relentlessly pounded the bastard's unprotected back with as many attacks as he could before his turn came to an end.

  It was Frank's turn to take a beating after that. The first of the three goblins circled him briefly then struck at his unprotected back, a common and useful tactic. Frank, unlike the goblins, was not agile enough to counter an attack from behind. He was speared hard in the back, and lost a large amount of hit points. The spear head punctured his light armor and broke one of his ribs. Surprisingly, he was sturdy enough to avoid being penetrated deeply.

  Thus began a torturous time for Frank. The goblins tormented him by moving in a slow circle. First one of them would move to his back side and attack a few times. It would then move away a few steps to end its turn. The next two did the same. By the time they were done, Frank's health had dropped well below half and was bordering on critical. He, like so many others, was highly vulnerable to attacks from behind.

  Frank grimaced as several status windows popped up showing his current wounds. He had received a moderate bleeding effect and a severe injury status. His stats had dropped. However, not one to be put down that easily, Frank pulled out a bottle of healing water and chugged the whole thing. It took three moves due to the fact that it had three doses, but his wounds healed right before the eyes of the annoyed goblins.

  He did not have a lot of speed and movement, at least not compared to his opponents, but it did not matter. They had done something he had hoped that they would do. They had drawn close together.

  "Whirling Cleave!" roared the massive law enforcement officer before he spun in place, his axe out horizontal to his body.

  The goblins each tried to block, dodge, or counter as the brutally whirling axe came their way. Unfortunately for them, their agility meant little when the attack leveled at them had an area of effect capacity. They could avoid some of the damage, but the gust of wind that sent them flying away like leaves caught in a tornado was unavoidable with their level of ability. The hapless monsters were knocked back several feet and would have to expend precious speed and movement to come after him again. Frank, for his part, opted to expend the rest of his movement by stepping back a few steps. He wanted to make the bastards work for their dinner.

  The siege battle tactics continued after that. The six goblins responsible for the vine growth reached out simultaneously and gripped the vine line in unison. They were quickly dragged toward the wall at great speed.

  The fast moving goblins reached the top of the wall not long after. Cheers of triumph roared from a dozen goblin throats, but those cheers turned to booing sounds when half of the wall-climbing unit was blasted off the wall by rifle fire during the next defender's turn. The other three were knocked off just as easily as the gunners turns continued, proving that goblins might be smarter than ghouls but their tactics were not exactly fool proof.

  The goblins that could still move screamed out obscenities and kept trying to breach the wall, but there were few of them and their idea of breaching the wall was to basically run toward it since they had nothing else that they could do.

  Arrkle began his turn by exploding upward, his face redder than before. "Meat not hit back!" snarled the hobgoblin before he brandished his great sword.

  "Goblin not take bath!" snarked Scott. Arrkle, however, was not impressed by his awareness of such common knowledge. Instead, he lunged forward in a professional looking attack that was faster and more aggressive than Scott could deal with completely. The broken blade slipped off his armor and rose upward to cut a heavy gash in his cheek. Blood spurted outward into the air like he was principally comprised of a heavily shaken soda

  Arrkle slammed his shoulder against Scott, then unleashed a series of highly focused and aggressive strikes that culminated in a hard horizontal slash. The brutal strike tore through his armor and cleaved a gash in his abdomen that fell only a little short of disemboweling him. Blood spurted from within the newly cloven seam in his armor, the flesh underneath a heavy mass of blood and rapidly forming bruises.

  The arcane slayer, having never taken such damage since the earliest battles, cried out in agonizing pain. Several window screens popped up showing status effects earned by the brutal assault. His injuries had worsened once more. If he survived, he would have new scars to add to the collection.

  Scott growled once it was his turn. He took out the healing water he had gotten from Frank, and downed it in one go. He would not have too many more turns at this rate. He needed all of the strength that he could muster, now.

  Several precious moves were spent while he healed, but he only needed a few. It was time to go all in and see what the red bastard had left in him. Burning kaiser blade at the ready, Scott decided to unleash his strongest abilities in a series of powerful strikes.

  He shocked the bastard with a lightning bolt when he blocked the first strike, and then used flame strike to make him flinch from the heat and light. It was a small opening, but it was one that he fully intended to capitalize on once more. His kaiser blade rocketed upward in a short, brutal, arc that tore through the hobgoblin’s chest armor and put a manly cleft in its weak chin.

  Scott kept on the move. He aggressively struck out, and finished his attack sequence with a fireball that blew the beast backward, and followed it up with bone-crushing overhand strike that slammed down with enough force to shatter another large section of the beast's armor.

  Frank watched carefully as the goblins took their time attempting to circle him once more. They were wary of his attack now that they knew that he could actually injure them. However, they had more than enough speed and movement to get back into their previous attack pattern.

  Once again, he fought for his life against three monsters that were each equal to or greater than his own level. Unlike Scott, he did not have a laundry list of abilities and special equipment to even the odds. All he could do was endure until he found a chance to strike.

  Badly injured once more, and bleeding from several places, Frank panted for breath. He eyed the goblins then growled low. "Guess you don't learn!" he snarled, before he unleashed his whirling cleave ability. The goblins were sent flying back once more, but this time he did not move away. He rushed toward the closest of them and then leapt into the air at the exact right moment. "Wood Splitter!"

  The axe that he held high overhead flared with bright red light, and he struck the fallen goblin with incredible force. The strike lived up to its name in part. The chest of the goblin was split open, but the result was more like an overripe melon that a piece of wood. Its body blew apart in a gory display of absolute aggression as the force of the blow continued through the beast, rending it completely asunder.

  Frank glared hot
ly at the remaining goblins. He could do nothing else that round due to using up so much stamina, but he made his point. His goblin tormentors were not as safe as they believed.

  The remaining goblins decided to take up a different tactic. Going over the wall from the front would be pointless due to the guns. The siege goblins came up with a firearm counter-strategy. Two fallen siege goblins remained in place where they fell previously, while the other four used their turns to run parallel to the wall so that they could search for a way to allow their team mates to enter from a different side. The crossbow goblins rushed forward as fast as they could while collecting the vine rope to keep it tight.

  And so the battle continued for several turns. Goblins challenged humans, in some turns the goblins came out on top, and in others the humans kept them back. The two melee warriors were both terribly injured at this point, but then so were their opponents. Only the goblin army posed a problem still.

  Goblins, goblins everywhere, for two turns they ran for the walls with no heed nor care. Rather, some of them did. A few of the more intelligent ones ran along the walls to find a place where they could try to climb over without getting shot.

  The goblin morale was dropping fast due to the fact that the boss was still engaged in battle, and one of the three bigshots in the group had been torn apart in a single exchange. The fact that the other two looked as bad as the human that they fought did not help.

  A few goblins made an attempt to get back to the top of the wall, however. Those attempts largely failed, but by a combination of stealth movements and climbing on each other's shoulders a handful of the remaining goblins began to get over the wall on the far side of the area. They had finally realized that there was no one defending the house, and they could climb over out of sight of the tower.

  The gunners were forced to split their attention several ways at this point, but there were only three guns. The goblins that had gotten over the wall, knew their job. They had to kill the gunners or open the gate. Looting would come afterward.

  Several of the ugly little bastards made a mad dash for the tower during their next turn. They were fully intent on climbing up and doing mischief. However, more than half of them were torn apart in a hail of gunfire as the group of gunners in the tower began their moves.

  Back on the other side of the gate, Frank was on his last legs. He had used the last of his healing potions already.

  He had fought three of the stronger goblins for a while until he'd killed one of them, but now the remaining goblins were far more wary of him. They only moved in close enough to strike once, and then moved away as far as they could. Each them was higher in level than he was and that mattered a great deal when movement ability was factored into the situation. They were whittling him down. He was nearly done.

  The truth was that even though their levels were similar, their stats increased faster than a human’s stats did. Each of them was a deadly adversary for Frank in its own right. They had only been toying with him until his wood splitter strike landed. Now it was a deadly game of cat and mouse, except there were two cats and they each had spears.

  It was not until Harley directed the gunners to stop worrying about the goblins coming over the wall that things changed. All three of them turned their focus to those outside the gate. They could not hurt the hobgoblin, but the goblins attacking Frank were a different story. Unlike Scott, no one was certain of whether Frank could easily tank shots from a firearm without being injured. Since the goblins chose to separate themselves from Frank by a reasonable distance each turn, they were now fair game to receive attacks of opportunity from the gunners.

  The rifleman unloaded five full shots into one of the goblins facing Frank. Its body jerked and spasmed heavily as the bullets slammed into it with great force. It was not killed by the attack, but it was heavily stunned.

  Harley finished it off with a series of full automatic burst shots, and Rosa was left to unload on the third. Several of her shots missed due to distance and accuracy issues, but the remaining goblin felt the pain and knew its days in this world were numbered now that its prey had reinforcements.

  The remaining goblin that battled Frank screamed as bullets tore through its body, catching the attention of the boss. The creature was surprised beyond words and did not even realize it was his turn until part of it had already passed. The beast regained his senses then hacked heavily at Scott in an attempt to vent his rage. His formerly professional movements had become a little sloppy after seeing that two of his lieutenants and several of his soldiers were dead.

  One sloppy overhand chop was all that it took for Scott, despite being heavily bloodied by his opponent, to gain the advantage. The announcer cried out, "Counter!" as Scott slipped to the side and whipped his blade around in a devastating arc that tore through the side of the mid-boss' neck. Hot red blood spurted free of its mortal coil. The beast screamed and attacked again, and felt the same stinging retort once more. The match was still too even, even with the beast's superior stats. So long as the monster was too angry to use his skills properly, he was little more than an angry whipping post.

  The beast shrieked as the pain of the counter attacks finally registered properly. Just as Scott had raised his weapon high overhead for a counter attack that would have surely been a killing blow capable of smashing in the skull of the red-skinned monstrosity, a bright red glow flared outward from its body. Moving with incredible speed, and undeniable aggression, it lunged forward and slammed its shoulder into Scott’s chest.

  The impact generated a loud cracking sound. A spider web of cracks appeared from the point of impact on his black beetle armor. Scott was sent flying back and fell heavily to the ground before he bounced twice. His weapon fell from nerveless hands and slid a good distance away during the shocking reversal of fate.

  The hobgoblin tried to press his advantage, but as the same fickleness of fate would have it Scott was just one step too far away to finish him off this turn.

  Scott spent over half of his next turn attempting to right himself. The struggle was quite real for the badly battered man, as his legs could barely support him. A few of his ribs were no doubt cracked along with his armor. However, he was not the only one in dire straits. Whatever the hobgoblin had done to him, a decent amount of it had been done to the hobgoblin well. The beast was barely standing at this point.

  His kaiser blade was out of reach for the moment, as he was uncertain exactly how much speed and movement he had left. Scott was forced to engage the hobgoblin unarmed. He moved to the creature's side and lashed his foot out at the monster's knee.

  Arrkle snorted at the easily seen attack and started a counter-maneuver with his blade. The monster realized far too late that his opponent's foot was not moving fast enough for it to be an actual attack.

  Scott stepped lightly around the expected counter attack in a singularly beautiful spin-move that placed him into the perfect position to lash out with a counter reversal! His palms slapped harshly against the monster's head from both sides. He clapped the beast's ears, while roaring loudly. Stunned, the beast was left vulnerable long enough to kick the back of his knee, ruining any possibility of a proper counter in the process. The creature’s leg buckled under him. He began to fall down with a cry of shock and pain, a cry that was soon strangled by Scott's arm snaking around his wind-pipe.

  Scott's turn ended with his arm wrapped around the monster's throat, and Arrkle unconscious.

  A goblin started to climb up onto the gunner’s nest atop the tower, but ran out of movement just in time for the next turn to start. He received a point-blank head shot from a rifle for his trouble. Its hideous face might have actually been a little more attractive with the extra hole that appeared just before it was sent flying downward. It landed heavily atop one of its companions on the ground below, adding insult to the equation.

  Another rifle shot rang out, and the goblin fighting Frank fell back with a neat little hole in its forehead. It had finally been brought down. F
rank panted heavily and focused his attention on the remaining monsters. He could not move again, but he could take stock of the area. Scott seemed to have the boss in hand, literally. "Is he strangling a boss with his bare hands?" asked the big man incredulously.

  All that was left now was batting clean-up on the critters running around. He smirked slightly, and waited. It was only a matter of time, now. The remnants were nothing compared to their leaders.

  Once the round ended, the next one came in with a whimper. Arrkle took massive damage due to being in a strangulation hold. He died ignobly before the end of his turn, choked to death by someone who had used his own technique against him. Scott silently thanked the smelly bastard for teaching him something he could use in the future, before he moved toward Frank's position at high speed.

  The remaining goblins tried to run from the bleeding warriors when it was their move. What chance did they have, even if their opponents were injured? Those blood soaked fiends were not men, they were minions of death stalking ever closer with each passing turn!

  Only a scant few turns after the boss fell, the last of the goblins were killed off. The battle ended with heavy injuries to the gate defenders, but no deaths. Harley determined that no goblins were left alive in the area, and so the survivors were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

  Loot was to be had. It was universally agreed that the stuff dropped by the monsters outside the gate belonged to Scott and Frank. The stuff inside was split between the gunners.

  Frank received various types of coins, a salvation crystal, and a goblin spear. It was a little less powerful than his axe, but it would be useful for someone else. He had no intention of being greedy when it came to equipping people who might one day help him protect his own ass.

  The gunners received a few types of coins, a couple of bloodstones, two rings, and a treasure box with rifle ammunition. There was also a Big Book of Professions. Everyone considered the ammunition to be entirely too convenient until the rifleman revealed that he had a skill that caused ammunition to drop sometimes regardless of the monster type. He’d chosen it over an attack skill with his rifle, and no one could fault him for that! With the exception of the type of guns Scott had found, every other firearm needed real ammunition.