CHAPTER 8

#Note: The chapter name is a bit of a spoiler so I’ve put it in the bottom of the chapter.

*BOOM*

The fire bombs exploded right above the place where the goblins were gathered. The large amount of flammable liquid that was stored inside, being releases, made it look as if it was raining fire to the goblins.

For a moment, the goblins froze where they stood, looking dazedly at the fire that was raining down on them before they reacted.

The goblins all desperately tried to get out of the covering range, pushing and pulling at each other to escape first, but many were still drenched in the burning liquid.

The goblins that escaped breathed out sighs of relief and looked towards their brethren whose bodies were currently covered in fire, and were screaming and running around as they tried to put out the flames.

They bumped into others during the process, which spread the flames to the others as well.

“AHH!! AHHH!!” 5 seconds… 10 seconds… 20 seconds. The screams of the goblins that were covered in fire continued to ring out.

The goblins that were waiting for the fire to die out were shocked as they came to a realisation that the flames weren’t going to die on their own, at least not anytime soon.

The reaction of the goblin shaman was especially amusing. It first stared wide eyed at the rain of fire and was enraged upon seeing his brethren being covered in flames. It had planned to wait for the fire to die out and help the wounded goblins before finding the intruders, but little did he know that this fire was different.

When it realised that the fire wasn’t being put out even after so long, it panicked at the thought that the over 20 goblins covered in the flames were going to perish.

Many goblins had already died and the ones that were currently in this place were all of them, if so many of them died just like that, it would deal a big blow to their group. There were also the intruders that had not shown themselves yet.

Soon, all the goblins covered in fire either died because of the burns, or through suffocation.

Right then, Yimso gave the signal and the two mages in the party revealed themselves.

Immediately after showing themselves, they fired a mana arrow each and targeted one of the hobgoblins protecting the shamam.

The hobgoblin didn’t have the time to react. The two arrows were much faster than the mana arrows they shot out before, crossing the distance of dozens of meters in an instant and piercing the hobgoblin in the neck and chest.

Even if it didn’t die immediately, it wouldn’t be long. Though the hobgoblin was wearing chainmail, it was still pierced through by the arrow as it punctured its lungs.

This was the improved version of the normal mana arrow.

SKILL: (1) [SPIRALLING MANA ARROW] (1)

-INCREASED SPEED

-EXTRA PIERCING DAMAGE

-IMPROVED VERSION OF MANA ARROW. CASTING TIME: 3 SECONDS

MP COST: 150

The hobgoblin’s death shocked the shaman. He looked towards the direction that the arrows had come from and the two mages immediately caught his attention. It glared at the two mages and started shouting out commands at the underlings.

The over a dozen remaining goblins immediately roared and charged towards the direction of the party. The two mages immediately started gathering their mana in their fingers and marking their targets in their head.

A second later, bullets made of mana were being continuously shot out from their fingers. Yimso and puvi too revealed themselves and charged at the goblins from two sides.

The group of goblins suddenly flanked from two sides while being rained on by mana bullets from Titus and Hikivi were thrown into confusion.

The goblins started attacking the two melee classes while the rain of bullets finally stopped, having taken the lives of 5 goblins and wounding the others.

Yimso was pushing away the goblins that pounced on him with his shield and slashed at them with his sword.

One of the goblins, finding an opening, pounced on him from behind right when he pushed another goblin that had pounced at him from behind.

The goblin bit him on the shoulders, blood spurting out from the wounds.

Yimso lifted a hand to grab the goblin, and threw back it into the crowd.

“Shit.”

He checked his HP and it was at ‘525/800’ after being barraged with the attacks of the goblins for only one minute. But his HP suddenly recovered by 250 points and the wounds on his body recovered at a rapid pace.

The mages had just recovered his mana with potions and started supporting them.

Titus cast a heal on Yimso, while Hikivi used a whip to smack a goblin about to pounce on Puvi, then making use of the whip to lash at the ground, making the goblins back away which gave Puvi the opportunity to drink a healing potion.

“Thanks.” They both thanked the mages.

“Let’s take care of them first.”

Titus said as formed some mana bullets, while Hikivi still held the whip. With all of them together, they quickly mowed down the group of goblins.

A few minutes later, the last goblin struck down.

Just when they had killed the last goblin, a ball of fire the size of a head shot at towards them. Yimso stepped out and blocked it with his shield. What was surprising was the after blocking the fireball, his feet slid back several inches.

‘The level of this fire ball spell must be much higher than Titus’.’ Yimso thought to himself.

“AAGHH!!”

Suddenly, the hobgoblin besides the goblin shaman fell on its knees as it screamed in pain. Its muscles and veins wriggled like worms under its skin and the hobgoblin’s body increased in size.

The goblin shaman had cast a buff on it.

It was a berserk buff skill that would greatly enhance the physical capabilities of the target, putting them in a frenzied state.

The increase in strength was temporary though, and the target would usually enter a weakened state after the effects wore off.

‘Here it comes.’

They thought as the hobgoblin charged at them with a sword raised high over its head.

Seeing this, Yimso stepped forward while positioning himself with his shield. The hobgoblin reached his position and brought down his shord on Yimso, who gave a loud bellow, activating battle cry and raised his shield to block the strike.

*Clang*

A loud clang resounded as sparks flew out.

Yimso gritted his teeth and pushed the sword back with his shield and followed up with a kick the hobgoblin’s chest.

The hobgoblin staggered back and suddenly sidestepped to the left, narrowly dodging an arrow from Titus. “Tsk.” Titus clicked his tongue upon seeing that the enemy had managed to dodge his attack.

While the two of them were taking on the hobgoblin, Hikivi and Puvi had currently reached the stone platform where the shaman was. Puvi was agilely dodging the fire balls shot by the shaman as he made his way towards the shaman. He was only 1o meters away from the goblin shaman when a fire ball hit him in the shoulder and was forced to retreat.

Hikivi, seeing this, struck out with his whip and wrapped it around the goblin’s staff and tried to pull it back.

He was surprised though, that not only did the goblin shaman not budge an inch, but instead, had almost pulled him over through his own whip which made him let go of the whip.

They awaited the counterattack from the shaman but it seemed to have gone insane, screaming madly as it held its head and a slight dark aura started emanating from its staff.

“Damn, that was close. Are you sure this is a goblin shaman we are fighting right now?”

Hikivi said as he wiped the cold sweat that formed on his brows. “Well, according to the system, it should be a shaman…. And it also used the fire ball spell.”

Puvi said with uncertainty. He too had been startled when he saw the shaman lift Hikivi from the ground with the whip, which would be difficult even for him.

This meant that the shaman had a higher strength stat than him.

He checked the shaman’s status again and was startled again by what he saw.

GOBLIN SHAMAN

TYPE: HUMANOID

LEVEL: 14

RANK: ELITE

HP: 1800/1200

MP: 3000/2200

STATUS: POSSESSED

“Well, what do you know? Who would’ve thought we would find a cursed item here?”

Puvi said as stood besides Hikivi.

“Hmm.” Hikivi nodded.

The goblin shaman’s strength was still fluctuating, and was unable to move from the spot. It would still attack if they entered its range again though, so they decided to deal with it together with the other two.

Over at their side, Titus and Yimso were almost finished with the hobgoblin.

“Raaaahh!” The hobgoblin slashed at Yimso with his sword again.

Yimso narrowly dodged it and swung his sword back at the hobgoblin and hit it in chest.

The hobgoblin was thrown off his feet and landed 5 meters away. Just then, Puvi, who had rushed over, viciously stabbed his sword into its chest, taking its life.

“Hey, you noticed that too right?”

Puvi turned towards Yimso.

“Mmm.”

He nodded as he gave the goblin shaman a glance.

“Hiki, Tito, recover your mana. Time for the ‘boss’ now.” Yimso said as he drank a potion and stretched himself.

End of chapter 8: Goblin shaman, and cursed item