Bullying the newbies (2)

I'm already within five meters of the pugilist but I wait to cast my spell. I don't want to waste mp to attack from this far away unless necessary.

I continue inching towards the pugilist. Then, when I am only about three meters away from him he suddenly reacts.

"Who's there?!!"

He begins to turn and I fire my spell while jumping backward. The pugilist's fist shoots out like a meteor and the ground where I stood gets indented by a phantom fist.

Meanwhile, the pugilist suddenly finds three spikes made of hard rock penetrate through his abdomen from different directions. As he moves blood gushes out like crazy and he seems pretty hurt.

I use the golden opportunity to launch three rock needles at his head in quick succession. Once they enter within a three-meter radius of him he immediately notices them and punches out. He groans as the movement further aggregates his injuries from the spikes that keep him in place and his punch is slightly unsteady.

The first two needles are brought off course by a phantom fist but the third one makes it through. The needle buries itself in his chest and causes him to vomit a mouthful of blood. Did it pierce his lungs?

The old man is pretty much neutralized. However, I stay cautious and shoot another rock needle at him. He locks onto me with his eyes and I get a bad feeling.

"Kids, run! This monster is too much for you. Get out of the dungeon and report to the guild, go!"

I want to be happy since the newbies are likely going to retreat but the energy converging around the old man scares me. The rock needle I shot just breaks when it gets close to him and I start to furiously retreat.

The old man is covered in his own blood as his muscles begin to swell. His average build turns into a two-meter bull and the spikes running through his abdomen shatter into pebbles.

I reach the end of the passage and round the corner through myself to the groundcovering my head with my arms. A second or two of absolute silence pass. Then... Nothing.

I cautiously stand up peek around the corner of the tunnel. The old man is still standing there with his buff body but the energy I felt is waning.

Sensing no further danger I approach with some caution to ascertain what happened. Did I leave the range of his skill or something?

The old man is clearly dying but when he sees me approach he grins at me. Something about him grinning when his entire chin and beard are soaked in his blood pisses me off.

"You might not be able to understand this but human intelligence will always triumph over the strength of monsters. My students are already gone, you won't be able to find them now."

He bullshitted me! He pretended to have some kind of final attack but he just wanted to buy time! For some reason I'm furious beyond measure.

Furious enough that I walk past him and switch to humanoid language as I stab him with my dagger.

"We'll see about that."

At my words his eyes grow large with horror but my dagger expels the last bit of life from his body leaving nothing but a corpse. His body deflates like a balloon and drops to the ground.

I had been planning to let those newbies go but some insane rage inside my heart makes me open my dungeon map and run after them.

Those newbies don't know the dungeon's layout and they get slowed down every time a monster comes across their path. They try their best to disengage all monsters along the way but again, they aren't exactly proficient judging by how much time they spend next to each green dot.

I catch up to them before they have even reached halfway to the exit. The healers are in the back which is a grave mistake since they are about as attentive as a half-blind ostrich with its head buried in the sand.

I run up from behind them and slash each of them with my daggers. They go down screaming as the blood gushes out of their wounds. Their own healing powers are forgotten in the waves of pain that assault their untrained minds. A healer forgetting to heal themselves is as comical as it is tragic.

The healers' cries of agony have meanwhile alerted the others. The swordsmen and I are closest so they immediately attack me upon turning. A bad decision considering that I'm running at full speed and they didn't properly take aim.

I leap over their diagonal slashes and reach down with my daggers mid-flight cutting into their throats. They fall to the ground coughing and bleeding as the blood is sucked into their lungs with every breath they take in vain.

I don't decrease my speed and keep running. Up ahead are the shield-bearers with the scouts and pikemen behind them. Seems they had enough time and clearance of mind to switch positions and meet me with a strong shield wall. They even have enough brains to keep retreating.

That's good thinking on their part but there's one little flaw in their logic. I'm not just a stronger goblin that hits harder. I can use magic and one that doesn't attack from the front but the ground.

As the shield-bearers rhythmically step back one of them suddenly screams and doesn't step back along with them. The shield-bearer in the middle has been run through by three spikes coming out of the ground. With the others not realizing fast enough, they have already opened a gap.

A gap I immediately capitalize on. I slip past the immobilized shield-bearer and dive through the gap between the other four.

The pikemen are too shocked to do anything so I ignore them for now and shoot two rock needles at the shield-bearers to the left. They both get hit to the back of the neck and collapse.

The pikemen finally get their bearing but by the time they brandish their pikes I'm already moving over to the two shield-bearers I just killed.