I took stock of the group of monsters casually headed our direction. I lowered the garage door half way to cut the amount of light that fell on our group. They were close enough that I could finally read the levels of the goblins and their mounts. The two with the short swords were level 5, The archer types were level 6 and the shaman rider was level 7. That one was clearly the leader and would be the first one I put a bullet in. The oversized coyotes they rode were average of level 6.

I began detailing my plan to my party in a low voice. “I’m going to stay here and lay down fire. Alyssa, I need you to get hidden and take out targets of opportunity. Hit ‘em from the back or side. Can you do that?”

She smiled then melted into the shadow of the garage before my eyes. A second later she reappeared behind me and tapped my shoulder. I smiled back. That’s actually pretty badass. Then she melted again and I saw her pop up behind the corner of the apartment building that sat at the end of the garage, black hatchet in one hand and buck knife in her other.

I looked at Johnny and he seemed to be watching the girl with no small amount of pride. “I assume with your class you are primarily a support type. Healing and protection type magics?”

He nodded still smiling “The spirits are with us.”

“Alrighty then, I’m gonna hit them when they reach that apartment building Alyssa ducked behind.” I tapped the rifle in my hands and smirked “I think you’ll know the signal to attack.”

The goblin rider group was now approaching the intersection on the other side of the building where Alyssa waited in the shadows. The monster group was certainly in no hurry and tended to allow the sniffing searching of the coyote mounts to guide them on their patrol. I heard Johnny begin to chant something in Navajo quietly to my left. I brought my rifle up to my shoulder and sighted in on the Goblin Shaman riding at the back of the group when I noticed the air above the Goblin patrol was starting to condense in deep dark clouds.

Old Johnny’s chant was gaining in volume and he ducked under the garage door and walked onto the road in plain view of the patrol. I cursed silently What the hell!? “Johnny!” I hissed still crouched in the shadow of the garage door with my sights locked on the patrol. The patrol stopped as Johnny stepped out into the three lane road. His walking stick now had a faint green glow on it and his chant was reaching a crescendo as the clouds roiled and churned over their heads. The coyotes snarled. The Shaman looked above them and studied the sudden darkness over his head then began his own chant. Archers nocked their bows and took aim. The sword goblins urged their mounts forward, the claws of the coyotes dug long furrows into the asphalt as their feet slipped on the smooth surface failing to find purchase and propel themselves forward

They made it all of 10 feet before Old Johnny’s chant finished. The air between Johnny and the patrol stilled for half a breath before a blindingly white-blue bolt of lightning struck the Shaman squarely in the chest. The spell building on the Shaman’s staff faded as he was blown from the back of his mount, which in turn briefly stiffened in electric shock as the bolt grounded through it. Another bolt of lightning struck between the archers and they loosed their arrows harmlessly in opposite directions. Their mounts leapt instinctively away from the lightning strike The two that had started to charge lost control of their mounts as they too twisted instinctively away from the attack to protect their hind quarters.

One of the swordsman slipped from his coyote and hit the ground near Alyssa’s last position. She appeared from the shadows hatchet already descending and sank halfway into its neck, she followed with a knife strike to it’s chest for good measure then faded back into the shadows.

A final bolt of lighting struck one of the archers but it was clear the energy of Johnny’s attack was finally spent. The archer that was struck dropped the arrow it was in the process of nocking stunned but not defeated. Johnny calmly raised his free hand and a green wall of energy deflected an arrow that was fired from the remaining archer.

I activated CONTROLLED BURSTS and went to work as Johnny took up position behind a tree next to the road. I focused on dropping the coyotes guessing correctly that they were the greater threat. The dead sword goblins mount was up, charging, and snarling towards where Johnny had taken cover. A five round burst struck it in the face and chest, the impact tripped up it’s advance and it tumbled sideways in the road, tried to right itself and caught another burst in it’s flank and stopped moving.

A pair of arrows sank into the wall near my face and I shifted my fire to the archer gobs that had split up to create space so Johnny couldn’t catch them both with anymore lightning. One circled wide and the other was brushing up against the building I knew where Alyssa stood in the shadows waiting for another opportunity. So I gave her one and dumped another burst into the riders mount. It was kind enough to open its maw wide and caught a bullet through the roof of the mouth that splattered it’s brain through the top of it’s head into the face of the rider.

The archer fell backwards off the now dead coyote with an almost comical look of surprise. Then the surprise was mine as it managed to turn the fall into a backflip and land on its feet. It reached for the quiver on the coyote’s hip for another arrow when Alyssa appeared behind it, her hatchet whistling for its neck. It hastily brought its bow up to block her attack. The bow shattered in its hands but spent the energy of the strike and he ducked as her knife hand came around from the opposite side.

A knife the length of its forearm appeared in its hand and lunged towards Alyssa’s mid section. She jumped back arms wide and body bowed in the middle. Her knees locked and she landed awkwardly and stumbled having lost her fighting stance to avoid having her guts emptied on the ground.

CONTROLLED BURSTS ran out and I activated STEADY SHOT and fired two rounds at the archers back. One struck it in the shoulder and fowled it’s attack, the other hit it square in the ass and it reflexively reached back to check it’s backside and snarled at me. Alyssa dove in for another attack when my focus on her fight was painfully broken by the arrow that sprouted from my left shoulder. I spun back behind the wall of the garage and two more arrows punched into the sheet metal on either side of my head so I quickly slumped lower trying to make myself as small as possible.

Goblin Archer Cavalry hits you for 32 HP!

“FUCK THAT HURT!” I cursed as I ripped the arrow from my shoulder.

I leaned out of cover and assessed the situation once again. Alyssa was now being pressed back by the goblin archer and the still mounted remaining goblin swordsman but she was holding her own. The other mounted archer was attempting to keep myself and Johnny pinned by the garage. Johnny was throwing up some kind of barrier and deflecting the arrows that came his way. I checked on Alyssa again and even though she was fighting two opponents she had somehow gained the initiative in that fight. She can’t keep that up forever, gotta get rid of this archer.

“JOHNNY! CAN YOU HELP ALYSSA WITH ANOTHER LIGHTNING BOLT!?!?

“TOO MUCH ENERGY, TOO LONG TO SUMMON!”

SHIT!

I fired a few more rounds at the mounted archer and disrupted its rhythm. It snarled something at me in a language I didn’t understand then the arrow in it’s bow began to glow. I stumbled backwards realizing I didn’t want to be anywhere near that arrow when it came out of that bow. I rolled behind the wall as the arrow rocketed towards me. It burst through the sheet metal wall behind me and I felt the heat wafting off the arrow as it buried into the cement of the driveway opposite me. Then it exploded showering me in chucks of cement and leaving a 5 foot crater in the maintenance bay. I looked above to see the head sized hole that formed above my head, the jagged edges still glowing from the heat of the attacks passing.

Two can play that game.

“SELECTIVE AMMO: EXPLOSIVE! SELECTIVE AMMO: EXPLOSIVE! SELECTIVE AMMO: EXPLOSIVE!” I stepped out from the garage and fired three times. STEADY SHOT was still active and my stamina was slowly draining, fortunately SELECTIVE AMMO used mana to charge one round per activation with different effects. Since this fucker wanted to blow me up it only seemed fair I blow him up instead. And the hor… err… coyote he rode in on.

The first round caught the coyote in the jaw and removed it completely in a shower of blood and bone. It gurgled a weak protest and sagged it’s head in pain as my second explosive bullet struck the goblin on its back in the left shoulder. The explosion removed the arm attached to that shoulder and flung it across the street to land in someone’s front yard. As my eyes followed the offending appendage I thought I glimpsed some curtains moving in one of the windows of the house the yard belonged to but my vision didn’t linger. The last round smashed into the goblins face and actually penetrated the bone before exploding. The combined force of both explosive bullets sent what was left of the four foot goblins body tumbling to the street. The coyote gurgled a weak whimper as blood poured out of what remained of its lower jaw. Johnny walked over and struck it in the head with his walking stick, putting the beast out of it’s mercy.

I turned in time to see Alyssa appear from the shadows behind the other archer and decapitate it from behind. Before she could celebrate her victory the last mounted goblin seized her distraction and his coyote snatched her up by the leg and shook her like an oversized chew toy. She managed to tense and curl her body before it tossed her free. She soared back first through the window of the apartment building and a moment later we heard her crash through the front door on the other side.

“CHECK ON HER, I’LL TAKE THIS FUCKER!”

Johnny nodded and moved quicker than I had ever seen him move before. The goblin rider began to move for him and then I fired a normal round that struck him in the leg. He scowled at me and I barked back “I’M YOUR OPPONENT!!”

The gob sneered at me and then dismounted his coyote and drew his short swords and waved them at me in a challenge. Ain’t that cute, he thinks he’s something special. I pulled the trigger on my rifle until I heard the click of the firing pin striking empty. The little gob recoiled from the attack then charged when my weapon went dry. I let my rifle swing behind me on it’s sling and drew my pistol. The gob was only 10 meters away now and rapidly closing the distance. Oddly I noticed that his coyote did not join the attack and instead stretched and layed down to watch the exchange. It looked strangely like a dog that had been punished for pissing in the house.

As I brought my pistol up to activate MAG DUMP the goblins eyes went wide and it’s advance halted suddenly as a shadow wreathed hand came up around its neck. In the same moment the tip of a knife popped out of its open mouth and a bloody and battered Alyssa appeared gripping the goblin in its final death throes. “Fucking throw me through a building you little FUCKER! FUCK YOU AND YOUR DOG!” Then she wrenched the knife out of the back of it’s head and stabbed it in its spine a few more times.

I smiled at the girl “Is that anyway for a lady to talk?”

She glared at me for a moment then smiled. I chuckled and looked around at the carnage and began to laugh. Alyssa joined in shortly and we laughed for what seemed longer than the fight actually lasted. Then we looked over at Johnny who was petting the coyote’s muzzle and leaning in and whispering something in Navajo.

“Ok, how’d he manage that?”

She giggled again and then told me “When that gob fucker challenged you his dog came to hunt us down. Johnny just looked at it and smashed it in the nose with his stick and yelled NO! BAD BOY! The ‘yote growled and he hit it again and shook his finger at it and yelled NO! again. It then… submitted to him.”

Then we got the notification I had been waiting for.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR FIRST QUEST! YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED 1000 EXPERIENCE AND GAINED THE TITLE “QUESTER”!

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR FIRST ‘OPTIONAL’ QUEST! YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED 500 EXPERIENCE AND GAINED THE TITLE “OPTIONS” x 1

CONGRATULATIONS! OPTIONAL QUEST DEFEAT OR AVOID GOBLIN COYOTE RIDER PATROL COMPLETED.

You chose to defeat the Goblin Coyote Rider patrol. Your party has been awarded 1000 experience, 500 UMC, and 1 bonus reward for each member.