The scene was rather dramatic if Daron did say so himself, fires consuming the buildings(huts) around him, a large and muscle filled opponent(a goblin) on its last legs, and him a mage with a weak body(a literal bunny) out of mana, and forced to face this formidable foe, mano a mano, hand(clawed) to hand(pawed). He would have to pull out all of his skills(Horn Strike) and use all of his training to come out on top!

IN DARON’S MIND...

Goblin Chieftain: “oh respected opponent! With your wits and intellect, you have outsmarted me! But it wasn’t enough, without your mana, you have no way of defeating me!”

Daron: “hmph! If you truly believe that, then why are you shaking”

GC: “Igh!? You noticed that!? Well no matter, even if my body is betraying me, I will defeat you!”

D: “You fool, your instincts are telling you that you’re no match for me, yet you fight? I must say I respect your force of will, but enough talk, now we fight!”

NOW BACK TO REALITY

Running at him, the Chieftain thew a punch towards him. Maybe it was because he isn’t used to fighting with his fists, or because he was forced to punch down towards a smaller opponent but the Chieftain wasn’t able to keep his balance while punching. So Daron who quickly sidestepped leaped forward while using Horn Attack. His horn glowing, Daron stabbed it into the Chieftain’s chest. The Chieftain wasn’t new to fights though and tried to use his falling force to twist his body out of the way of the attack, making what would have been a deep gouge wound, into a ragged cut that had a steady stream of blood seeping out of the wound.

To do so the Chieftain had to fall onto the ground, leaving him open to another attack, this time Daron attacked his leg, getting him in the thigh and tearing a hole in it, he even heard the bone snap. With a swipe of his hand, the Chieftain forced Daron to retreat.

The Chieftain was breathing heavily, his body charred and broken, it didn’t seem like he could do anything, however, Daron’s encounter with the snake king had forced him to relearn a lesson he had already knew, that a cornered rat is dangerous. However, unlike the snake king, the goblin Chieftain had little love for his subordinates and dashed towards the exit. The phantom bear behind him morphing into a phantom wolf. The Chieftain’s muscles deflated back to their usual size, but his body grew leaner and quicker. Now making him faster than Daron, even with only one leg.

But luckily, Daron’s mana had regened enough for a FireBolt. The bolt of fire steaked forwards, intent on striking its target, and hit him in his good leg, sending him tumbling to the ground. Maybe giving in to his fate, the Chieftain turned to Daron, his eyes constantly shifting between anger and fear. To think such a powerful goblin, who leads over a hundred others, would cower at the sight of a rabbit. It was almost enough to make Daron pity him, but the elf he kept in his hut was more than enough to dissuade him from that.

Now that he had killed the Chieftain, he should get going, while he would like to stay around and grind some more, he was out of Mana and he doubted he could take two standard goblins right about now, so he began making his way to the nearest wall, intent on burrowing out from there.

________________

“Darn it! There’s way more than the estimated number! I’m gonna kill that scout when we get back!”

The man with the heater shield now had his handsome face in a deep scowl. He had to balance blocking the attacks from the multitude of goblins around him, while also getting a slash out now and then, so to keep the goblins away from his companions. Right now their formation was a weak one, where he was in the front and Vorus was on the opposite side. And in between, them was their rouge Bale, who was striking out at anyone trying to get in through the sides. All to protect Sera who was in the middle, sending WindSlash after WindSlash, draining her mana pool at a dangerous rate.

___________

They had just got to the village, two goblin warriors were chilling on top of the walls over the gate. Hiding in the bushes they confirmed their plans.

“Sera can you get them both with a WindSlash?”

“No, they’re too far apart for that”

“Ok, then you take the one on the right, while Bale will take the one on the left, then Vorus will take out the gate, we rush in after him, ok?”

“““Ok”””

Bale grabbed a stone off the ground, pulling out a sling he began spinning it. While Sera raised her staff towards the guards. After their leader lowered his last finger, Sera and Bale acted, one launching a stone, the other shooting a bolt of green wind. Both hit their targets knocking them from the walls.

“OOORRRAAA!!!”

Screaming, Vorus charged the gate, pulling out his greatsword, he swung it in an underhanded slash. Due to being a barbarian, Vorus’ Str stat was quite high, so the door flew back into the village, a deep gash where the sword landed. Quickly rushing out from behind him was their leader, who scanned the interior.

Looking at the inside he had a bad feeling, but he also has a job to do, so he ignored it. Quickly finding more goblins, coming out of their homes, he charged the nearest. Slashing out with his sword, he formed a fatal wound on the unsuspecting goblin.

“Let’s finish this up quick! Before they can form up!”

Following his lead, the others moved with him like a well-oiled machine, killing gobs left and right. But as they got deeper, he finally realized what was off. There were too many houses, instead of the scattered spaced out huts, these were orderly and close together. But if there are this many houses, then the number of goblins would have to be several times more than they thought!

Looking around he finally noticed it, they were surrounded.

“We have to get out! There were more than we expected!”

Screaming this the others snapped out of their battle trance, and their eyes widened as they realized the gravity of the situation.

________________

And so we return to the present, surrounded and desperate.

“I’ll open a path”

“Bale?”

Bale dashed out daggers flashing, faster and faster as if he had made some sort of breakthrough. With his daggers now seemingly more like flashes of light than actual metal, he cut down goblin after goblin. However, to get these deadly results, he ignored everything else, wounds now covering his body.

But this made a chance, he had done what he said, he opened a path for them.

“GO!”

Shouting that the others nodded in response, well other than Sera. Sera was crying, breaking down where she stood. Bale leaned in and kissed her. Sera’s eyes opened wide as she was snapped out of her thoughts.

“I love you. Vorus!”

Sera’s mouth opened as if to say something. But before she could, Vorus picked her up in one arm dashing together with their leader.

“He he he ha! HA!HA!HA!”

Starting as a low chuckle Bale began laughing his head off, a smirk on his face as he cut goblin after goblin. A sword pierced through his heart. A fatal wound, but even then he kept swinging when his vision swam, even then he kept swinging.

As his vision cut out, it was replaced with memories…

His life was like most who grew up on the streets. Joined a gang, and learned how to steal, learned how to kill… but he didn’t want that kind of life, so after he saved enough money he left that town, that slums. That’s where he met his current friends, newly minted F ranked adventurers. Those were the days, they had fun on each quest, no matter what it was, coming home to the guild, collecting their coin, and drinking the night away. Hitting on barmaids, he could still remember Vorus’ face when his drunken sloppy flirting convinced the girl he liked to sleep with him. It brought a warm smile to his face.

Then she joined… Sera. They had just become E ranked and thought it would be good to add some magic to their roster. A naive thought to be sure, magic casters weren’t that common, and were quite valued, so why would one choose their little band of misfits, but Sera did.

It was love at first sight, then second, and third. The way she smiled, the slight shyness she always had in her voice even when talking with those she was close with, everything! They had agreed not to go after her, so as to not break them up, but how could he resist. And she liked him too!

They started dating, and he found out more about her. Like how she’s the only daughter of a baron, who ran away from home because she hated the type of life she was forced into. That shyness I mentioned earlier? Ends up that was trauma from how she was taught ‘a lady is quiet and proper’ when she was little. As they talked he also found out how she hated fighting, she became an adventurer because other than her wind magic, she had little other skills she could rely on to make money. And when she saw them, laughing together in the bar, she thought she wanted to be a part of that, so she applied.

He asked her to marry him, talking about how they could retire, that he could become a hunter in a village, and they could live a happy life together without any fighting, and she said yes! This was going to be their last quest, the money would have been enough for them to start a new, but it seemed that wouldn’t happen anymore. That was ok though, they would take care of her, he knew.

It was a miracle he was able to keep fighting this long after his heart was destroyed, so it was no wonder when he collapsed, a smile on his face. His last thoughts being of the woman he loved.