“Arrows, arrows, exploding arrows suck!” Neil roared, though almost no one could hear him. After all, their ears were filled with a constant ringing from the large, large number of explosions. The team had braced themselves when the charging Hobgoblin arrived, with Lance making the snap decision to add high explosive options to his Never Ending Quiver. The note that it would require extra time to form arrows of multiple abilities was also discarded for now, while he kept focused on the fight.

The new high explosive arrows were powerful but had a tendency to explode long before they plunged into the body of an hobgoblin. The explosions threw the monsters around but did little damage, only knocking them off their rhythm and slowing them down enough for Yanesh’s own arrows to deal the final damage.

Once they actually hit the thin front-line, Lance found another problem with the new arrows he had been given. He could not fire them into the middle of the fight, having to arc the arrows up and over and hope that the explosive arrows would force the monsters back. It was because of this that he had switched arrow types, preferring the simple splitting arrows.

Unfortunately until new arrows appeared, he only could use the high explosive ones. Thankfully, they were not just notched different at the end, each arrow had different coloured feathers. It slowed him down a little, to double-check that he was drawing appropriately but better that than blowing up his friends.

On the front line, Neil had his head down and was swinging, sweat flowing from his body. Fighting the hobgoblins were much more difficult, since the damn creatures actually were nearly the same size as him and just as strong. He could only fight a defensive battle, keeping his shield in front of him, trusting in his armour to take the blows that slipped past his defence and smashing arms and legs that were in reach.

Swing, duck, swing, block, block, swing. Forcing himself to deep breathe, forcing himself to keep his shield up even as his shoulders burned and the impact of bodies and scrape of claws rang through the day. Tighten grip on the mace just seconds before he hit, letting the rebound wind him up for another swing.

Keep swinging.

By the other side, Sarah kept the monsters back with fast stabs and long sweeps, punching holes into bodies and physically moving backwards those hobgoblins that made it past her offense. Occasionally, she’d throw a full front kick into a monster, bowling others over.

Only to suffer for her lack of defense, as darting hands tore into legs and body, as they tore into her. But her increased regeneration kept her on her feet, the bloodlust in her eyes and the almost unending scream that rang through her mouth.

Even so, both Yanesh and Lance were helping her out as much as possible. The Pakistani healer-mage was spinning through his magic as fast as possible, triggering his spells the moment they came off cooldowns. Fire bolts tore through torso and impacted faces, buying seconds. Heals were distributed to patch wounds or provide much needed energy.

And Lance kept firing, skipping arrow heads between weaving heads and bodies.

Neil was the first to fall, slipping on splashed blood as he was pushed backwards by another attack. He went crashing down on his back, the monsters rushing forwards into the gap. Lance, behind the man fired his nocked arrow into the group, watching it plunge into the monster and then moments later explode, showering the two that had rushed past his targets with blood and bone in the back.

Immediately after loosing his arrow, he dropped the bow and swept out his sword. He charged forwards, intent on getting Neil space to fight. Only to see Sarah pushed backwards further, a hobgoblin impaled on her spear being used to push her back further as its counterparts braced themselves against its body.

Screaming in frustration, Sarah released the spear and stepped around the monster, throwing a massive right hook into one monster’s unguarded head. It crushed jaw and snapped the creatures head backwards, even as her scream of rage turned into pain as fragile fist bones snapped. The pain did not, however, stop her from continuing to punch the other monster as she pushed forwards, keeping the remaining hobgoblin on her side stuck behind her own opponent.

As Lance rushed forwards, he saw Yanesh gesturing with his hand, throwing a heal on Neil who was busy trying to deal with the monster on top of him. Then, he had no more time to pay attention for the two before him tore at his face.

And Lance learnt a hard lesson.

He had no deep skill with the sword. What magical learning the others had benefited from had improved his archery but he had only touched his sword a few times this day. These hobgoblins were larger, stronger and faster than the goblins he had beaten by sheer size and modicum of skill alone.

Wounds accumulated fast, the Ring of Protection having hardened his skin so that deep cuts only made shallow wounds. They appeared on his sword arm, his chest, his other arm that he sacrificed to stop a claw going for his neck. He fell backwards again and again, leaving Neil and the rest of the team alone. Blood dripped from his arms, his breathing grew ragged and realization that he might actually die flickered through his mind.

“No. Way!” Snarling, Lance chose. He took a strike to his side from the hobgoblin on his left and scurried in that direction, buying himself a few seconds. Getting his sword in place, he punched it forward, skewering the monster even as he tore at his chest.

Keeping close and spinning the monster around, he stabbed and stabbed again, only to fail to kill it. Pushed aside by his target, the other hobgoblin sprung forwards, swinging an arm that he barely managed to block. Bleeding heavily, Lance backed off again to run into the wall.

“Shit.”

Nowhere to go, no more tricks. Not even time to buy something from the Shop.