Ferick was done holding back. This was just a little village with some stone walls. The fact that it took several hours for that bastard Pumus to raze and take the soul eater was an affront to the power of his god, Hipag. He knew it would be his shield that brought glory to this battlefield in Hipag’s name.

When Ferick was summoned, he brought half of his enhanced vat Goblins with him. These Goblins were more fierce and had helped him secure victories all over the Deep Caverns. The outcast Dwarves taught them battle tactics and the value of armor early on in those days. All of that was before they dug their way further into the Deep Well. Everything changed when the old mole woman came. Now Ferick found himself changed from the vats and no longer fearing the sun. He hefted a large tower shield with obsidian plates in the shape of diamonds at each corner angled inward toward the center. At the center of the shield there was a painted relief of Hipag’s holy symbol. This shield was with him through all those battles and would help him win the day today as well. Ferick believed all these surface dwellers were soft livestock, waiting to be conquered by the hoard.

“Burn the buildings. Leave them nowhere to hide. Tonight we feast on pink skins,” Ferick commanded to his armor clad goblins.

They nodded and set themselves to task. The defenders of the village pulled back once the wall fell. The fighting had now spilled into the streets. Ferick noticed there was one human at the front slaying the regular goblins with some fancy sword work. That would be his example today. He would cow that one and force the rest to surrender. He unhooked his double bladed battle axe and picked up the pace.

Amanda stabbed another Goblin through the heart. The ghost blade passing through the body with no resistance. Due to it’s special properties she had to modify her fighting style to compensate for the knife’s tendency to effortlessly move through solid matter. Sometimes she wondered if that was what life was like for Deacon. After killing another enemy and coming around the corner of a building, she noticed some leather clad goblins lighting torches and dispersing from a section of fallen wall.

“They are going to burn the buildings,” she muttered to herself not knowing if she could catch them all beforehand. She then took off running to catch up to the first one she saw. It was about to smash a window and hurl the torch in when she threw a dagger and watched as it bounced off the vest of it’s target. The Goblin looked down and turned it’s head just in time to see Amanda sink the ghost dagger through it’s helmet and down into it’s brain. The goblin dropped along with the torch. Amanda scooped up the torch and thrown dagger, then went looking for more.

Ralph looked like a one man army back up by several Deep Dwellers trying to hold the main street from the rushing goblins. They were all pretty weak, but they just kept coming. He checked his stamina bar cursing that he didn’t consider the lesson he kept trying to teach Deacon. He’d been overexerting himself and was down to forty percent stamina. The lesson was simple, use as little energy as possible to maximize the time you can fight. If he didn’t show up to rally the defenders this place would have been in worse condition. There would be skirmishes in all directions and they would have lost people to attacks from behind. They already had to give up the first two building nearest where the wall fell as they retreated. This way they could funnel them down the road toward them.

He pulled his sword out of the latest combatant when he heard loud thumping like something heavy was running. Ralph spun his sword into a defensive stance, handle pointed up and blade pointing diagonally at the ground across his body as battle axe clanged into the flat of his blade. It pushed Ralph back several feet from the force of the strike. But he was still standing. It was the Orc they witnessed arrive on the sand map. He easily stood about six-feet-five-inches tall with reddish-green skin, yellow pupils against gray sclera. The monster was bald and had traditional Orc tusks jutting out of his lower jaw. Ralph thought he struck an intimidating figure with his large tower shield and battle axe. In the time Ralph had to steady himself from the blow he noticed the big Orc only wore a leather breast piece, loin cloth, and shin guards. The rest of his skin was exposed. It leveled it’s gaze at Ralph and said something he didn’t understand.

“Same to you!” Ralph barked back.

The Orc’s shield began to glow with an ominous black-green energy that emanated from the symbol on the shield then seemed to flow out around the outer edges. Ralph had no interest in finding out what that was and pressed his attack. Swinging his enchanted blade at the Orc only to have his attacks clang against the shield. The Orc planted his feet and shot forward like a charging bull smashing into Ralph and pinning him to the wall of a nearby building. Blood gushed from Ralph’s nose and was drawn into the energy encircling the shield. Ralph lost the grip on his sword while he was taking gasping breaths, body going limp sliding between the shield and the wall to the ground.

The big Orc spun around and bellowed at the defenders getting the attention of two Deep Dwellers battling some Goblins. They race toward him weapons at the ready only to be cut down with one swipe from his axe. Then he just stood there and began to chuckle.

Hani Al-Hamdani finished off three goblins with one swing of his jesters hat. This kind of work was beneath his skills. All his infiltration training was going to waste in open combat. He looked up to see some houses were starting to catch on fire. Before he could move to intercept the arsonists, he saw a huge figure moving at speed coming into his alley way and slamming a body into a wall. When he saw the sword hit the ground, he knew it was Ralph’s. That man was always swinging that thing around and practicing his draw technique. Hani returned his mind to focus on what was happening. In the instant he stopped paying attention the Orc had killed two Deep Dwellers. He knew he would have to step in. First, he would use Ignore Me on the Orc’s flank to mask his approach. Second, he would use the blades on his hat to hamstring the Orc from behind. That should slow it down enough that the others could take it out without exposing too much of his capabilities.

After initiating his psychic power Hani moved in to strike out at the Orc’s leg with a careful flick of the control bell on the hat. The hat began to spin like a discuss blade as it soared through the air toward the Orc’s leg before the tower shield spun to intercept the blow.

“Impossible, what Orc has access to the Uncanny Block skill?” Hani asked out loud in shock. That’s when he noticed that Ralph was barely breathing. He decided he could lead the Orc on a merry chase now that he had his attention. Hopefully that would give Tantus time to find and heal Ralph. The big monster seemed to think it was a good idea as it planted his feet and began to rush toward Hani in hot pursuit.

Deacon burst through the tree line arriving in a perfectly circular clearing. All plant life was within the boundary of the circle was dead. He didn’t know if Tantus’s lightning bolts could have done this. Looking up he could see half a mile of churned up dirt with Goblin corpses, arrows, and John Deer tractors littering the battlefield. He never imagined he’d be seeing one of those again. He was about to start running again before a little voice in the back of his mind reminded him that a battlefield was a huge font of soul energy. With that much soul energy he could use abilities like they were going out of style. What better chance would he have to really exploit his new Spectral Jump ability? Deacon began pushing soul energy into his legs and launching himself forward. He hit the ground running with every landing and started to eat up the distance toward the town while draining the areas soul energy whenever he touched down.

The back line of the goblins became frenzy of activity as Deacon landed amongst them. These loin cloth wearing, green skinned, pointy eared bastards some how destroyed the western wall. Deacon was currently channeling the Nether Plane and decided to use old faithful. Six spinning Ice Sickles orbited around him as goblin after goblin jumped at him in vain. There were defenders mixed in with the goblins as the defense of the village began breaking down. If that wasn’t the case Deacon could have easily wiped out dozens of these monsters with one Phantasmal Breath. He did the only thing that was prudent in this situation. He sent out party invites to everyone he could see. Cheers rang out as defenders started to heal from Deacon’s perk. Deacon then used the surge of noise to pinpoint the largest cluster of defenders and jumped. He dismissed the blades in midair as he landed amongst them. Then he turned on Ghastly Defense to help give them some breathing room. Only this time he focused the ability on the outskirts of his aura only. Anything already within would spared the check against fear. That meant they needed to clean out the current Goblins within. Several more Goblins attempted to enter Deacon’s area of affect but were rebuffed by the ghostly spirt guarding his aura.

“Let’s clean these up. I’ll keep as many at bay as possible. Anyone seen the rest of my party?” Deacon asked as Typhus materialized from one of the shadows.

He had several shallow cuts that were slowly closing, and he was cradling his left arm. As the last of the Goblins inside his range were dispatched as rocks began to be thrown from outside the circle of protected space.

“We were in real trouble there, boy. Where the hell have you been?” Typhus scolded although his eyes said he was happy to see Deacon.

“Long story, no time to explain. Where are the civilians? Did order sixty-nine work?” Deacon asked, his eyes searching the burning buildings and the fifty to sixty goblins that were now gathering outside his range. There were still people fighting outside of his patch of sanctuary. He didn’t have a good idea for getting to them when a leather clad Goblin stepped through boundary looking around confused.

“They are in the tavern, downstairs, but we have to end this,” Typhus said flexing his left arm, all the bleeding from his cuts now stopping.

“Ok, buy me a few seconds. I fought something recently that might help,” Deacon said beginning his Summon Soul ability.

Typhus snapped his whip around the neck of the armored goblin dragging it to the ground as it began screaming something he didn’t understand. He plunged his dagger into it’s chest and the body went limp.

Deacon quickly slurped up that soul getting a ten percent bump in soul energy. That told him it was an uncommon soul. He immediately used it to fuel the summoning considering the soul of the dispel ram alpha was rare and would cost him twenty percent soul energy. Green light began to coalesce next to Deacon as the Volkswagen sized ram bled into reality. The head bobbed up and down while its right front hoof pawed at the ground in anticipation.

“Kill all the Goblins,” commanded Deacon as the Dispel Ram’s horns began to glow an eerie blacklight.