She unleashed her Psi Blast against a knot of enemies, who all fell to the ground twitching. Richter walked towards the scout that Alma had downed. The goblin’s limbs twitched in a seizure. While he moved, his free hand developed a red glow, and he spoke another word of Power. Without looking back, he pointed that hand at the dark circle that had tripped the cursing goblins. Fire shot forth igniting the grease, and the goblins started screeching.
Richter smiled even bigger. He heard one burning fighter call for his mother in goblin-speak. The chaos seed took a sick pleasure in it. It was always satisfying to burn enemies caught in his Grease spell. He had started to think of it as his signature move, and lighting them up while not even looking… well, that was just all types of cool! A small piece of himself cried out that he shouldn’t revel in the death and agony of others. A larger piece of him didn’t even bother replying. It just asked for more blood. Richter was happy to oblige.
His sword fell once and then again on the downed scout. The damage from his blade was magnified by the critical strikes to the goblin’s face, not that there was even a face left when he was done. Turning quickly, Richter blocked a mace strike with his short sword, the elementum blade scoring deeply against the iron cudgel. The Disarm enchantment on the blade triggered, and the mace flew out of the fighter’s grasp.
Richter threw a gauntleted punch into the goblin’s face and found that he enjoyed the sensation. There was a slight “give” that was unique to teeth being forced down an opponent’s throat. The goblin took two steps back, moaning through its ruin of a mouth, and the chaos seed followed. Putting all of his strength into his swing, the elementum blade entered the goblin’s neck, kept traveling and exited the other side. A black fount of blood shot up from the severed neck and the fighter’s head raced his body to reach the ground first.
The Mist Village lord turned around, seeking another enemy and promptly took two arrows to the chest. His armor stopped the worst of the damage, but he was still flung backwards. He fell onto his back with a crash and a soft wumpf escaped his lungs. Instinctually, Richter rolled to the side. Right after, another arrow struck the ground only inches from his body. Goblins rushed at him, shouting.
Richter rolled twice more until he spun fast enough to use the momentum to get to his feet. As he stood, he saw three goblin archers taking aim on him again. That was right before arrows illuminated with blue magic struck all three. His boys had gotten back in the fight!
One goblin took an arrow to the face, and the explosion savaged his features. The goblin screamed, clutching at his face. The other three arrows struck the goblins in the chest and extremities. They weren’t dead, but they would be down for at least a few seconds.
Richter assessed the situation. Only thirty or so goblins were still on their feet. More were alive, but they were either screaming in pain, disabled, or both. Five of the sprites were engaging a group of goblins in hand to hand combat while Sion shot arrows as quickly as he could. The goblins were too close to the other sprites to use imbued shots, but they should still be able to win the day. That just left the nine goblins running towards him, screaming for his blood.
Richter used Analyze on all of them in quick succession. As always, he didn’t even need to read the information that was now available to him, he just knew. Because of that, he understood that he was facing three scouts, four fighters, and two grinders. More than that, he recognized one of the grinders as the one that was holding the body of the boy. The chaos seed’s lips pulled back in a snarl, and he readied his attack.
With a flick of his wrist, his elementum short sword left his hand and entered the earth, hilt sticking up. Richter downed a blue mana potion and started a dual cast. Green light surrounded his hands once again. Words of Power fell from his lips as the goblins got closer and closer. It was clear to all of them that he was casting a spell. The goblins all shared the same thought. The one thought melee fighters always had when facing a mage. They needed to kill him before he finished.
They were too slow.
The three second cast time elapsed and Richter’s mouth opened wide of its own volition. Invisible rings of sonic force shot from his mouth and quickly expanded. They flowed over the fighter that had only been eight feet away from him, and the goblin dropped as if he had been shot in the head. He fell to his knees holding his ears, mouth open in a scream that was silent compared to the mind-numbing screech of Richter’s sonic attack.
The chaos seed’s mana pool dropped by one hundred and three points. Every goblin within twenty feet and inside of a thirty-degree arc of his voice suffered from the attack, and many were deafened. Not all fell to their knees like the first fighter, but it still stalled their attack, as they blinked in pain. That was all Richter needed.
He closed his mouth and was about to start forward when a heavy dagger flew towards him and struck him in the shoulder. Richter knew which goblin had thrown it, but it didn’t matter because he blamed them all. The blade penetrated part of the way through his armor and stuck out of the meat of his deltoid, but he didn’t go down. Instead, making eye contact with the nine goblins before him, and with only feet of space between them, he pulled the dagger from his shoulder and cast it dismissively to the ground.
Blood continued to pour from the wound, decreasing his health by two points per second, but he barely noticed. Alma flew up to hover behind him, a golden glow suffusing her body. As Richter withdrew his elementum short sword from the ground and drew its moonstone mate from the sheath on his back, a golden disc appeared in the air, and a glowing fox jumped through. The chaos seed smiled at the now uncertain goblins with a wild gleam in his eyes. He pointed his elementum blade at the dagger thrower, and in clear goblin speak he said, “You’ll pay for that, my son!”
“Who in the hells are you?” one of the grinders shouted in guttural tones.
Richter just cocked his head crazily and said, “You can call me daddy.”
The goblins roared in anger and surged forward. The chaos seed ran forward as well, and hell came with him.
CHAPTER 33 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
The summoned fox fired a beam of pure golden light at Richter, and his wounds began to close. Seeing their quarry healing, the goblins squealed in anger. Three goblins led the pack, and the others followed right behind. With a mighty yell, Richter swung his elementum sword. A scout raised it rusted iron sword to block. There was a loud ping as the chaos seed’s superior weapon cleaved through the goblin’s blade and bit deep into the scout’s chest. With his other hand, Richter raised his Dense Moonstone Short Sword of Goblin Slaying. The heavy weapon was as good as a shield, sweeping aside the spear thrusts of the other two goblins.
Richter’s first victim fell, already dead from a cleaved heart. He swung his elementum blade down on the next goblin. It was deeply satisfying seeing the green metal bite deeply into the scout’s face. He was about to attack the third when a mace swing caught him in the chest.