Aliandra “Let’s go,” Ali anded in Draic while stepping down into the dripping tunnel. Her iion of a dramatic exit was somewhat marred by nding knee-deep in a muddy puddle and stumbling before one of her Kobolds caught her.

  Ugh, this stinks, she thought, as the reek filled her nostrils and the icy, stagnant water soaked through the bottom half of her pants. Her Kobolds immediately arrayed themselves around her as she spshed her way through the brand-new river el they cut through the rock – the bined effect of her Destru and Seri’s water magic – stabbing the occasional Toxic Slime that still crawled through the mud.

  I’m going to need a bath after this. Or better yet, find a ing spell I learn.

  Seri followed, and to Ali’s amazement, she dragged the entire dregs of the ke behind her, water, slimes, and all.

  The rocky tunnel was far wider than the hole she had excavated with her skill, dirt and rock washed away by the torrent, leaving a swiftly flowing river that cut through the middle, joining up with the a riverbed outside that they had seen from so high above. Water dripped stantly from the rock above, leaving Ali drenched by the time she emerged from the base of the cliff and onto the battlefield below the town walls. She sidestepped the waterfall of sewage that poured out from far above, giving it as wide a berth as she could while trying not to ioo deeply.

  Below, Goblins scrambled about in total disarray, their temporary fortifications smashed to kindling and washed away. The entire eastern fnk of the Goblin horde was now a vast pin of mud and sludge, and hundreds of Toxic Slimes slithered and wobbled around attag Goblins indiscriminately. Gigantic boulders jutted out of the ground, impaled there by great force, debris that had been bsted out of the rock fad into the horde.

  Ali sucked in a ragged breath, shaking her head slowly at the unbelievable age. She had expected some sort of damage, but this wholesale destru was far more than she could ever have hoped for.

  “Hey Ali,” Malika called out as her friends came running over to join her.

  “Shall we attack?” Mato asked, ever eager for bat.

  “Let’s wait for Seri,” Ali answered, gng back dowuo where the Gnomish mage seemed to be casting something. Something big, if the surge of her distinctive mana was anything to go by.

  Seri emerged from the dark, slimy tunnel with a bright grin on her face. All the remaining water flowed out in her wake, following her in much the same way as a puppy.

  If a puppy was a few thousand tons of nasty water filled with dangerous slimes.

  The water shivered, piling up higher and higher as it began to rotate uhe swirling influence of Seri’s cobalt-blue mana. It spun, faster and faster, emitting a low whistling noise rising to an unfortable howl. Ihan a minute, she had created an enormous waterspout, and her cheerful, mog ughter rang out across the battlefield as she began to direct her creation with dramatic gesticution of her arms.

  “I think we just keep the Goblins away from her a her go wild,” suggested, eyeing the t n of water with obvious astonishment. As they watched, a Toxic Slime was flung out of the waterspout, s across the battlefield to bounce like a squishy rubber ball and slither away.

  “Ok, let’s go,” Malika said, and Mato shifted into his Bear Form leading the charge out into the field. There were Goblins in disarray everywhere, but they were mostly Sgers, and they went down easily to a couple of bloiece.

  Nearby, Ali spied a sed group of adventurers, simirly engaged with the green-skinned Goblins, but beyond that, the battlefield flickered and sparkled with potent aating cshes of magic. Mages and archers lihe battlements firing down over Ali’s head, while somewhere toward the ter of the battlefield – he Myrin’s Keep south gate – a truly epifrontation of light and mana sho.

  “Bugbears!” shouted, snatg her attention back to her immediate surroundings.

  Three monstrous Goblinoids charged toward them with all the momentum of their two-and-a-half meters of densely muscled, pte-armored bodies. Their thick brown or ochre fur stered to their bodies by mud and water, and the creatures looked all the more furious for having been drenched. Fearsome roars filled the air as two Bugbears leapt high above their panions, muscles straining to draw back their gigantic ons, while the third spun his giant spiked fil in a whirling flurry of sharp steel and brawn.

  Ali summoned a barrier and crouched behind it, feeling a chilling touch of fear. Mato charged the whirling Bugbear, smming into it with an enormous roar and crash, while Malika leapt into the air and kicked both airborne Bugbears before they crashed to the ground amid a cacophony of steel, strikes, and shouts.

  I’m ok? Ali looked up, bewildered for a moment before realizing that none of the monsters were actually attag her and the titanic csh of brawn and steel was happening nearly teers away. She shuddered, wing from the unfortable blend of selfish relief and horror for her friends triggered by the sight of the sheer violend brutality unfolding before her – a meatgrinder of thumping steel, fshing fur, furious roars, and blood. So much blood! I would have been pulp.

  “Shaman first.” ’s calm voice peed her surprise, and she looked past the ochre-furred moo find she had even missed the fact that oblins were approag from the back, behind the Bugbear vanguard.

  helpfully pointed out the target with a tracer of light fired from his bow. Behind the chaotic melee stood a Storm Shaman with a zigzag of white aint across his left eye and cheek, easily reizable by the sparks of lightning that leaked from his ented shield and mace. He stood with prideful arrogance, surrounded by Skirmishers and Sgers who were beginning to lob rocks at everyone in sight.

  Shaman – Goblin – level 18 (Lightning)

  Fixing the shaman in her mind as the primary target for both her minions and her spells, she began.

  “Attack,” she anded, sensing her rogues reag to her iion with eager anticipation through Martial Insight as they charged into the fray. Bloodthirsty creatures. She eled mana into Are Bolt, lobbing the small glowing missiles over her barrier to arc across the battlefield. Immediately, the stohrowers began to pepper her barrier with the plinking and crag of high-speed pebbles and rocks.

  The weaker Goblins ingly hid behind the powerful Bugbears and the shaman, making it difficult tet them. Instinctively, they picked on the weaker or more dangerous targets. In her case, she had just advertised to the etlefield that she was a mage, and so now she was the foany of their attacks, even though ’s brilliant arrows still peppered the Goblins stantly.

  A surge of painfully bright mana flickered through the shaman.

  You have been cursed with Lightning Vulnerability. -126 to Resistance vs Lightning magic.Curse – Duration: 1 minute.

  With a blinding fsh and crack, the battlefield lit up with the shaman’s Lightning Bolt attack. Splinters flew from Ali’s barrier as it cracked down the ter. She flinched reflexively, but somehow her barrier still stood firm iermath of the powerful burst of lightning magic. The shaman gaped at her, clearly unimpressed by her tinued existence.

  At that moment, the shadows shimmered ominously behind the shaman and all Ali’s rogues appeared, shiny daggers fshing in cert as they stabbed deep. The Storm Shaman dropped almost instantly from the synized attack. Phew. Ali breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Go help Mato and Malika,” she instructed her rogues, direg them to the csh of furious grunting, fur, cws, and steel that surrounded Mato. With the most dangerous Goblin out of the way, she turo her Kobold Fire Mage standing beside her. “Kill those stohrowers.”

  “Yes, A Mistress,” the Kobold hissed through his teeth, breathing out a small puff of bck smoke as his mana fueled his fire. With a wicked gleam in his eyes, he unched his Fireball into the midst of the Goblins. The near-instantaneous detonation threw out a tremendous explosion of angry red fme that sent half a dozen of the hapless Goblins flying. He cackled wickedly and began summoning another Fireball.

  Ali refreshed her personal barrier, and summoned her sed over in the melee group, trying to learn how to interrupt the attacks of the Bugbears.

  Iermath of the Storm Shaman’s death, Malika punched a huge Bugbear in the side of his head, causing it to colpse with a dramatiging as the whistling heavy fil cttered to the ground. The pressure eased up dramatically, so Ali poked her head up to gaze around at her surroundings. Shaman, she decided. She sprinted over to destruct the higher-level Goblin shaman’s corpse, not b with the smoking remains of the Sgers that y strewn about it. The lower-level monsters would simply take time to destruct, time she didn’t have for the paltry amount of mana they would be worth.

  Several of the mages and archers high upoown battlements had obviously noticed their attad were ying down supp fire from above, creating a dizzying flurry of mana fshing and spells detonating. Burning arrows that sizzled and spat, yellow bolts that hissed and crackled, discharging sparks into the ground – and anything unfortunate enough to be nearby. Squalls and blizzards of ice that sprung up and froze everything in a teer radius of impact, leaving piles of snow on the ground, only to be vaporized moments ter by rog bsts of heat and fme. Off in the distahe epic magical battle in the ter of the field was raging ever stronger, showing up as a chaotic jumble of magical energy and power that Ali couldn’t even hope to untangle.

  That must be crazy to see up close. Those high levels py a different game…

  The muearer sloshing roar of a demented waterspout kept her from getting too distracted by the flict among the higher-level csses off in the distance. As she watched, it swept up terrified scrambling Goblins, sug them up into the vortex, to be flung out at great speed, just like the stant barrage of Toxic Slimes unched from the waterspout at every opportunity. The Goblins, however, did not seem to be built to survive a crash nding.

  The shrill shrieks of Goblins alerted her to a fresh Warband rapidly bearing down on their group. This is going to be a long day. We’re not even finished with this lot, yet, she thought, eyeing the approag Sgers, a pair of elite archers, and a whole pack of howling Timber Wolves. Ali readied her minions, sending the rogues into the shadows before the new group spied them. She arranged her warriors up front while her mage began to cast another Fireball.

  A brownish, shivering missile shot into the oning Warband, hitting a Sger with a loud spt and a screech as the poblin cartwheeled away with his head stu a Toxic Slime. A peal ht, near-maniacal Gnomish ughter greeted the sight. Seri might not be killing many herself, Ali realized, but the mayhem she represented was definitely a huge boon.

  Also, a giant bea, she thought, eyeing the oning Goblins.

  The Goblin Archers and Sgers dove for cover behind partially broken wooden fortifications and began shooting. Arrows and stones ricocheted off her barrier with sharp cracks. A sizzling swoosh shot by, and her Kobold’s Fireball detonated out among the pesky stohrowers, ripping through the flimsy wooden defenses with a loud thump and a bright surge of fme. Iermath, far fewer screeg Goblins scrambled to their feet amid charred remains, gobs of burning fme, and smoking grass.

  Ali crouched behind her barrier, blog a rain of flying rocks, and at least one flying slime, while she destructed a Bugbear to recover mana. By the time she returo the a with a sharp flurry of her Are Bolts, Mato and Malika were already ihick of things, r and kig. The elite archers fanned out, creating distance, while the Timber Wolves fnked Malika and Mato, pinning them down in the ter of the melee. All around the edges of the pitched fight, the Sgers and other stray Goblins joined in as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  Perhaps it is natural for them. Weak as they were individually, Ali could see why the Guildmaster feared them in rge numbers. Goblins cooperated in battle as easily as breathing. And even though most of the Sgers were single-mark monsters, within their Warbands, and with their notorious bonuses froup fighting, they seemed to punch far above their level.

  “Attack the archers,” she anded. Her rogues snu, but somehow, as soon as they got close, the elite Goblin Archers immediately withdrew, sprinting around and leading her Kobolds on a merry chase.

  “They have high perception,” said, unleashing a volley of arrows at one of them. “Maybe use ratacks?”

  “Ok,” she answered, frowning. It was easy for to say, but all her Kobolds, save the mage were melee, and Fireballs were easy to dodge if you saw them ing from far away.

  “Help with the Timber Wolves,” she instructed, sending her and tues, halting their fruitless rushing about in their attempts to reach the archers.

  A tinuous stream of arrows and assorted magic bolts rained down from the battlements behind them, keeping many of the lower-level Goblin heads down. “Fireball that group,” Ali anded, “and then use Firebolt on the archers.”

  Her Fire Mage just grinned as a wave of heat emanated from his Fireball.

  Gng at the steady stream ht white arroicked the same target was shooting and unleashed her bolts. This will take a while.

  With their rategy, they began to make progress. Detonations of fme and the hail of supp artillery from the town defenders whittled away at the entreohrowers, while Ali and – supported by the occasional red sizzling Firebolt – picked off the elite archers o a time.

  Without even a moment for a breather, Ali suddenly found herself engaged with yet anoblin Warband. She followed her usual approach, destrug every nearby corpse to fuel her stant mana ption for her are magiy time she ran low, she destructed an armor piece oblin to keep going, but she was beginning to get a headache from the tinuous mana use and the tration required to manage multiple barriers and targets simultaneously.

  Beside her, had to take frequent breaks, tossing down blue mana potions like dy. The roup of adventurers had withdrawn a while ago, tapped out. At some point, she was dimly aware of the whistling waterspout colpsing in the background, and tellio retreat to recover her mana.

  I guess regeion skills are super important for long fights, Ali realized, resolving to practice Malika’s meditation exercises more diligently. Hers was inve, requiring a steady supply of corpses or items to destruct. But while the supply sted, she wouldn’t o stop at all. Malika and her melee Kobolds seemed to be thriving off Mateion aura, none of them had yet exhausted their mana or stamina.

  At least she didn’t have to direct her Kobolds too closely. Mostly, their own battle ing and instincts had them making good choices. Except for him, she thought, eyeing her Fire Mage. He’s a little trigger-happy. She had had to stop him from fireballing Bugbears and Timber Wolves a few times, reminding him to use his precision Firebolt instead of the area damage spell, lest he hit all their allies.

  The Warband included a few Bugbears, and Mato immediately engaged with a roar. Ali was beginning to get used to the chaos of the battle, feeling something of a rhythm to the whole thing. She would destruana, and then focus on the most dangerous enemies, before mopping up the rest. Two things stood out clearly to her. Disting the random stones, she never had to defend herself against attacks from anything other than archers es, and her barrier was remarkably good at that. Mato is great at holding the Bugbears ihe sed thing was that her Fire Mage was brutally effit at clearing out the groups of stohrowing Sgers. Wheacked them with her bolts, they went down quickly enough, but she had to focus on them o a time, whereas her mage took out entire groups with a single Fireball. It was so effective, in fact, that she soon had him waiting arouween Fireballs tee his mana rather than waste it on Firebolts.

  It’s really an incredible spell. For the loime she had been terrified of it, but now that she could wield it otlefield, she was beginning to appreciate some of the strategy of area damage magic.

  As the minutes dragged out into hours, it became clear how the diverse nature of their group worked to their advantage. Much as he might dislike the idea, Mato henomenal tank. Malika darted in and out everywhere, catg anything that got away from him. called every ining group, easily pig out the most dangerous enemies from afar before they were even in range of Ali’s Identify. I’m sure he has a longer range. His light magic, turning every single arrow into an obvious streak of light, made coordinating their targets trivial.

  By now, the parallels with how the Goblins were fighting were being obvious even to her inexperienced eye. The Gobli in the Bugbears as shock troops and tanks, proteg the elite mages, shamans, and archers who attacked fre, all of them supported by the lower-level Sgers.

  Ali destructed anbear. As it dispersed into mana, her Grimoire appeared to the sound of an apanying chime. Ali instantly dismissed it. Nht now!

  “Ining! Three Bugbears and two Fire Mages,” ’s voice called out the numbers as anroup charged toward them, once again before they were fully finished with their current foes.

  Two mages! This is going to be hard.

  Ali left her warriors to help finish off the remaining Bugbear with Malika and Mato, direg all her rogues to attack the same Fire Mage. Both Goblin Fire Mages stopped at a distand began casting Fireballs. Ali cast her barrier and hunkered down, keeping her sed one ready while she shot off some Are Bolts, arg them high overhead to hit the lead mage – a wrinkled female Goblin with long scraggly gray hairs stig up from her scalp. Her rogues appeared from the aether stabbing in cert, but they were a fra of a sed too te, and both mages’ Fireballs shot off heading directly toward her. Immediately, she cast her sed barrier ih of one of the Fireballs and huddled down, trying to shrink herself behind her barrier. Using two barriers was all good and well, but they were individually smaller. An enormous explosion engulfed her further barrier followed by the sed Fireball hitting the barrier right in front of her and rog her with its powerful detonation. The shockwave tore past its edges, scorg her skin with the iy of the heat, but her barrier held firm against the onsught of fire magid the incredible resistance from Lydia’s tail protected her from further damage. Through the cracked barrier, she saw her rogues and ’s arrows taking down the first mage.

  The seage swirled his singed crimson robes and summoned fire again, but this time, he was clearly aiming at Mato and Malika – wholly disregarding the thick press of Goblin bodies her friends were practically swimming through. Ali threw up a barrier at her maximum range in an attempt to block the powerful spell. The screaming Fireball clipped the edge of her barrier and careened off to the left, exploding on the grouhe melee. Within the chaotic detonation of red fme, Ali saw Malika’s blue-white magic fsh several times as she healed herself and Mato, and Ali’s Kobolds, all in the space of a couple of seds.

  “Hobgoblin!” ’s urgent shout cut through her thoughts.

  Oh shit!

  timewalk