Chapter 39: Hobgoblin(2)

Alex POV~

It was my first time seeing a Hobgoblin. I have to say it resembled a fictional character from a comics book that I used to read during my childhood. Lean and tall build with an elongated nose with pimples on it. It’s a face only its mom would dare to love. The resemblance didn’t end there. Its hands were long enough to reach its knees. It wasn’t entirely green, a little grayness mixed in.

All it need was a hoverboard to complete the look.

I stopped thinking about it there. It would only dampen my mood by thinking of the past. I wish I had my smartphone with me now. I would have taken a few pictures of this thing. Although I hated to be active in social media, I had this hobby of taking pictures of anything strange I would come across in my everyday life. This Hobglin was clearly one of the stranger things I have seen so far.

What drew my attention was a cluster of dimmed red lights with black outlines decorating its chest. Those were different from the heart’s light I usually see. They were tinier, but the brilliance was brighter. Moreover, they had these strange black outlines around them, which confused me. I discreetly looked at Cathie and saw a look of understanding and graveness on it. I wished I could ask her about it.

She had an idea of the origin of those small dots.

[I will kill you all!]

Letting out a roar, it suddenly started attacking. The orcs whom I arranged to stand at the front lines were the first ones to endure the burnt of the damage. It was fast, and its strength was frightening. Within seconds it had already taken care of the front line orcs arranged by me. These orcs were the ones who fought against the goblin lord’s mutated army. And yet, they were easily defeated and thrown around like toys by this weak looking goblin.

Suddenly a green fireball, the size of a basketball, slammed itself into its face. It exploded upon contact, resulting in a knockback. The source was none other than Cathie, the mage.

[Hot! Its hot! Kill! Kill!!]

It already looked less intelligent, now Cathie’s attack had made it go deranged. It chanted ‘kill’ like a mantra for a while, and then raised its arms high before giving out a bloodcurdling roar. The roar was strange as it made me feel panicky. My head spun like how it would feel after coming down from a long merry-go-round ride. Then the feeling quickly passed, but my body became lethargic. My physical actions slowed down to the point that even a simple hand-movement became an effort.

You are stunned.

Your movement speed will be reduced by 40% for the next three seconds.

I got the reason soon after. I was actually stunned!

Since the day I discovered this system and learned about its mechanics, I tried my best to recall everything related to games. It took a bit of effort in my part as I stopped playing since the final year of my college. This stun held quite a meaning in those games. However, I had never expected to see it used against me.

After exactly three seconds, the effect vanished together with the restrictive feeling I had. While I was lucky, the orcs standing at the front weren’t as much. They were stunned for a time longer than mine. As for Cathie and Leah, apart from mild disorientation, they were perfectly fine.

While we were recovering from the stun, the hobgoblin didn’t remain idle. Since Cathie was the one to attack, it had set its sites on her. But to reach her, who stood all the way in the back, it had to cross through the walls of orcs. It couldn’t overpower so many orcs in this short time frame. Before it could even reach Cathie, another fireball landed on its face. The flame exploded and send it flying once again.

Since I had kept my Infrared Vision activated, I was able to see the whole process of how the magic acted. From the moment it was conceived in Cathie’s palm to when it exploded, I observed every change on it. Ultimately, although I couldn’t see or understand the rules behind fireball’s creation, I was able to see how it worked after leaving her palm.

I couldn’t see Cathie’s magic in her body. It was too bright, almost blinding. Had I not averted my gaze when I did so, I would have probably gone blind. Aside from that, the fireball piqued my interest a lot.

[Hot!! Hot!! Kill!! I will Kill!!]

Boom!

After eating one more fireball, its anger reached a new height. It slammed its long hands on the ground, creating a spiderweb crack on it on the obsidian floorings. Then it set its red eyes on the repeated offender, Cathie, and snarled in anger. I had to say, it looked quite pitiful.

I aimed my index finger at the creature and whispered, ‘Cast Illusion.’

Cast Illusion is successful.

Target Hobgoblin will be under your influence for the next six seconds.

Note: Due to the target’s racial status being a few levels higher than the host, a suppression of 70% applied to all skills. This suppression will remain in effect as long as the target is aware of the host’s existence.

Note 2: Conversely, all the skill effects of the target will affect the host by an extra 30%.

Note 3: No suppression for the host’s attributes.

ADVICE: Avoid getting discovered by your target.

The six seconds passed very quickly, but I was still in a daze since the moment this notification appeared. It was already been a month since I came to this world, but this was the first time I saw something like this. Suppression! What did this mean? I couldn’t understand its meaning. Then I recalled a term called ‘level suppression,’ where if a person of lower-level attacks someone of higher, their attacks and defense will become weaker.

It looked like the same thing happened to me as well. Then again, if it was the case, then why did I not get this message that time when I attacked those humans? I couldn’t make heads or tails of anything. Then there was this new addition to my system, Advice. Although it was a good thing, I was still unsure why it appeared.

“Little Imp, pay attention!” Suddenly, I heard a feminine shout before a soft hand pushed me back. Coming out of my daze, I saw an orc was flying towards where I stood before. Then I looked at the person who pushed me. It was none other than Leah. I looked at her gratefully, before facing the orc that was laying on its body impression pit. If I continued to stand there, I would have heavily injured. I shook my head and threw all these worries to the back of my head.

Now wasn’t the time for them.

The hobgoblin was rampaging around, throwing these strong orcs who withstood goblin lord’s zombie soldiers like they were toys. But from the number of wounds around its body, it was clear which side was on the lead. Orcs were using the rotation strategy I taught them during the war. Due to this, they were able to easily stall the monster in its place. Meanwhile, Cathie was attacking it from a distance resulting in the wounds.

Even still, the defense of this monster was really frightening. Even though, the orcs were attacking whenever they got the chance to, the only visible damage on its body was from Cathie’s exploding fireballs. It was simply too resistant to the orcs’ damages. No wonder, the goblin lord was unable to defeat it even with the help of two hundred mutated adult goblins.

Aside from him, who could hurl chemicals, the rest of the goblins were all physical attacking types.

“This is bad! The orcs weren’t able to do any damages at all now. Sis, what is happening?” Leah, who was standing in front of Cathie, questioned her with a worried look. I also stood close by and was able to hear their conversation. I paid attention to them and listened attentively.

“That’s normal. It is one of the racial abilities of Hobgoblins. By spilling the blood of their target on their body, they will able to increase their defense temporarily. Judging by the number of orcs wounded by it until now, I daresay, even you wouldn’t be able to injure it.” Cathie said seriously with a solemn look on her snow-white face.

I was surprised. Then a sudden epiphany hit me as I recalled the weird fighting style of the hobgoblin. No wonder it was fighting so recklessly. I was observing it since the beginning of the fight. It was going from blood with its every hit. If it didn’t succeed in one try, it would pursue that target until blood falls on its hands. Even if it got wounded in the process, it didn’t seem to care about it much. Now, I was able to understand why it was so.

It just wanted to increase its endurance power. Now that it had become durable enough to shrug off the orcs, the pressure on it had lessened a lot.