Andrew handed the first earth rifle over to Nate first thing in the morning. He wanted to try and get the second rifle done before lunch, and had fairly good odds. He already had the metal core and wooden stock from yesterday's efforts, all he had to do was assemble and inscribe them. It took him an hour to get the stock and core properly fitted and the earth accumulation inscribed on the palm rest of the stock. Around that time Andrew stood up to grab a cup of water from the nearby water barrel and walk around a little bit. He had spent all day yesterday inscribing the other earth rifle and he felt the need to take a stroll out of the courtyard to take a look across the grasslands towards the western tree line where they were anticipating the return of the scouting team. He stood there a moment, sipping the cool water and enjoying the morning sun as he idly watched the horizon for the moment. The camp was lively this morning, he could hear Bailey calling out to someone in the courtyard from her perch on the far rooftop and-

Oh shit that's the alarm. They're here!

Andrew dropped his cup and sprinted around the palisade wall, taking a moment to pick out the distant herd of green skinned goblins punctuated by raised wooden scaffold palanquins, atop which larger goblins wielded staves of bone. Each goblin had a distinct collection of bones on display across their bodies and decorating the thrones of the palanquin they sat upon. He raced into the hive of activity that was the camp. All around the courtyard people were throwing on armor. Those on watch who were already equipped were handing out sling staffs and little pouches of grenades. He could already see Tyler standing atop the roof on the eastern side of camp, slingstaff loaded with a special project of his own. The first stage of their defenses was already doing it's job. The goblins had to slow their reckless charge in order to weave their way though the randomly scattered binding circles. The large circles wouldn't hold up for very long if a bunch of goblins were to fall in all at once, but they didn't know that, and the few goblins that did were stuck firm. So they abandoned their trapped brethren to their fate and just went around. This bought them precious time as Tyler launched his special grenades. They were carved from wood and given mostly fire and air mana. They would produce a small intense fireball upon detonation, and Tyler was flinging them into little piles of scrap wood they scattered about two hundred feet from the palisade walls or so. They caught fire easily, and soon the grasses between the invading horde and the camp were alight with flames.

Andrew raced to get his armor on as quickly as he could, snapping up his own slingstaff and spear in one hand, shield and pouch of grenades with the other as he raced out of the gates of the camp and jumped from rock to rock to the top of one of the large boulders the giants had planted just outside of the walls. He set his spear down and loaded one of his five grenades. He waited a beat, charged the grenade and launched it into the growing cloud of smoke and embers forming across the plains. A bubble of swirling mist burst through the smoke, seeming to suck up and violently expel the clouds of smoke. Andrew's grenade landed amongst a cluster of others along the line of smoke, exploding and rupturing the misty bubble creating a chaotic mix of black smoke, dirt and swirling mist. A ball of white mana shot down from a nearby rooftop, catching an ember in the smoke wall and exploding into a ball of fire that left spots in Andrew's vision. He loaded another grenade and sent it into the fray, ducking reflexively as a beam of bright orange flame burst from the smoke and ignited a line in the palisade wall.

The wall of smoke exploded towards them in a single strong gust, filling the air around Andrew with choking ash and cinder. They didn't have any good countermeasures for this. He charged and threw his remaining grenade, calling out as he did so. "Set and retreat!" The thick smoke in the air burned his lungs as he sucked in a breath and dropped to one knee charging the battery rune beneath him with six hundred points of mana. Pushing it into the huge boulder as quickly as he could manage, holding a cloth in front of his face as the ashes around him stung his eyes. When he was finished he rolled off the boulder and began to sprint back through the camp. As he did so he pulsed more mana into a few circles carved into the palisade walls as well. The entire place was rigged to explode on a long delay, and was the only good piece of cover near their final battleground. Hopefully it would do most of their job for them.

Tears were streaming down Andrew's face as he broke through the cloud of ash, the occasional thud of bursting fireballs and air cannons, the clanking of armor, the screams of goblins, all echoed out from the smoke behind him as he ran. The walls and nearby outbuildings of the camp were entirely consumed by dense billowing smoke, the density itself was suspicious and as they ran for the nearby kalam grove Andrew turned to see that strong winds seemed to be keeping the smoke low and concentrated around the camp. He was one of the last camp members to reach the grove, and most were already safely below the dense grasses, having run ahead according to their defense plan. That also meant he was one of the few who saw the group of ten threaded hobgoblins that came rocketing out of the smoke, bigger than usual and armored head to toe in plate. A cloud of concentrated air mana blasted out of Po's arm and impacted the lead hobgoblin knocking him back and off his feet. The cloud exploded outwards on impact, bowling over several other hobgoblins. Those on the edges made it a few more feet before Kalan launched a fire bolt into the lingering cloud of air mana and the whole thing exploded with such force that Andrew felt it in his chest from a few hundred feet off.

Those lucky few hobgoblins who were on the edge of that explosion began to climb to their feet and Andrew readied his shield and spear. Those below would need a little bit of time to get ready, and they needed to thin the crowd out as much as possible before things devolved into close range combat. The wall of smoke loosened up somehow and began acting like regular smoke, billowing out and up from the palisades, lines of heavily armored hobgoblins parted around the camp and in their direction. Behind them he could see the massive shapes of four giant hobgoblins, threaded through with thick cords of green and red light, standing in line with a single lightly armored hobgoblin threaded with cords of blue.

Perfect timing.

Andrew ducked and covered his head, those around him hurrying to do the same as the boulders around the camp exploded with mana, launching huge splinters of stone flying out around them. A moment later the camp walls started popping, one after another exploding into flaming shards of wood. Andrew could hear little pieces of stone plinking into the dirt all around him and he turned and stood, getting only a brief glimpse of strewn hobgoblin bodies before a massive cloud of air mana shot into the debris, caught a stray cinder, and fucking exploded into a bright fireball that had Andrew's eyes blurring with tears.

He blinked the tears away to see several clumps of heavily armored hobgoblins who were on the outskirts picking themselves up off the ground and beginning to jog towards Andrew and the last of the rear guard. Another blast of concentrated air mana exploded between two clumps of hobgoblins, as Andrew threw a pair of his own grenades at another clump. There were four other clumps of hobgoblins rising, and as the smoke cleared he could see three of the four green-red threaded hobgoblins and the one blue threaded hobgoblin gathered and conversing at the far end of the field. They were close to outnumbering the hobgoblins now, the bare minimum they needed for this plan to work. Andrew threw his last grenade then turned and ran, scrambling down the rocky slope along side Kalan, Carter, Po, and Nate, the fastest of the bunch in armor. They ran their way through the maze of tilled roots, following a route they practiced twice a day for the last week. Andrew heard rocks clattering to the ground behind them as the hobgoblins followed them down the rocky slope to the kalam grove. They ran their way to a natural choke point, where they would be forced to fight in pairs of two on three separate 'bridges' to avoid the carnivorous roots, behind them lines of survivors were forming around the edges of those root pits, shields readied and speartips glowing silver with metal mana.

The first three hobgoblins recklessly slid their way down the rocky slope, two were on target, their feet thudding to a halt on firm soil. The third was not so lucky, sliding directly into a Kalam pit on the edge of the slope, the dirt collapsing out from under him as he fell into a net of wriggling roots which plunged into the hobgoblins body and began to wring it dry. It's screams died quickly, muted by the settling soil, and the group waited quietly as more hobgoblins dropped onto the surrounding paths of firm soil and began slowly advancing towards the group. Andrew waited, hoping to see the giant threaded brutes of the blue threaded one, but no such luck. The clumps of armored hobgoblins were getting too close, as soon as they came within a hundred feet Andrew called out another command.

"Shield your eyes!"

Andrew raised his shield and pulsed a wave of pure mana into it, closing his eyes behind the shield just to be sure. Kalan and Carter did the same from either side of him and three bright blasts of pure white light exploded out from their shields. Andrew could hear the hobgoblins crying out and everyone already knew what to do. Bolts of silver and white and brown light blasted out into the crowd of hobgoblins then exploded as bolts of fire followed quickly after. The clumps of hobgoblins were torn apart, some ran forward blindly with their shields raised, before plunging into a root pit, others hunkered down but were quickly overwhelmed by the onslaught of energy. They stopped when a wave of fire exploded out over their heads as the entire field of Kalam was set alight from above. The smoke mostly rose up out of the pit, but the temperature was steadily rising and ashes were drifting down all around them.

Two huge hobgoblins threaded with red and green light crashed to the bottom of the rocky slope and came sprinting directly at Andrew. The smoke and flames above shifted, twirling inwards as something passed overhead and launched a beam of explosive air mana down at them. Andrew raised his shield just in time, grounding his stance against the blast and seeing Kalan and Carter do the same. He turned and launched a blast of metal mana from the tip of his spear. It cut through the air and bunched a hole right between the ribs of the leftmost hobgoblin. It didn't flinch. A blast of fire and air mana followed and the monsters blew right through the explosions, barely skipping a step though sporting considerable burns. Andrew fired another bolt of metal mana, everything left in the spearhead. It went slightly wide, striking the hulking hobgoblin in the collarbone, this time it flinched, but shook it off with a roar and continued charging forward. Andrew saw a blast of concentrated air shoot up into the burning fields above and their muted cinderous glow exploded with bright light revealing the small packs of lightly armored hobgoblins lurking in the falling ash around them. They were surrounded.