63 Into The Forest
The journey through the forest was rather… peaceful if Del had to say. So far, there wasn't any ambush from goblins or any dangerous forest creatures. Still, it might take a long time to go through the forest since the road was rather bumpy.
"Holy damn it, what a bad road this is," Cassandra commented as her body bounced up and down on the chair of the car.
"Well, yeah, I feel bad for Cole, though," Del commented to Cole which had to keep his balance while standing on the car.
"Nah, mate, I'm fine," Cole said.
"Alright, if you say so, still, keep an eye, alright? Don't be distracted with the bumps," Del said.
"Sure, don't worry about me," Cole answered.
The car didn't have any hard time traversing the bumpy road though. It might move up and down, but it was still rather manageable. There wasn't any mud hole on the road since the bumpy road itself was actually a gravel road instead of a dirt road.
Looking left and right, there wasn't any goblin in that forest, or they were there but their green skin hid them among the greeneries on the forest. Del had no idea, but it would be good if Del could find one of them.
"Cassandra, about goblin, do you have any tips and tricks about dealing with them?" Del asked.
"Well, kill them all," Cassandra said.
"Kill them all? You sure that's a tip?" Del asked.
"On a more serious note, a horde of goblins is the most dangerous type of goblin if you don't have any crowd control spell. Thinking about it, fifty goblins at once are really the most usual number of goblin crowds," Cassandra said.
"FIFTY???" Del responded in surprise.
"Yup, they will usually attack in a horde, that's why they are dangerous. One goblin is very easy, two of them are a joke, fifty of them? You better be casting your spell or you run," Cassandra explained.
"Damn, well, luckily, I have my machine gun," Del said.
"Yeah, your machine gun is both a crowd control weapon and an armor buster," Cassandra said.
"I agree with that," Del said.
Del looked at the road in front of him. Suddenly, there was one goblin in front of him. Logically speaking, Del would run over him. However, there was a way better solution than just running the goblin with his own car. The solution was on the roof of the car.
"Cole, shoot that goblin!" Del shouted.
"Roger that! Eat this!" Cole pressed the trigger of his machine gun and the goblin's exploded into small pieces just power of that barrage of .50 BMG rounds.
The goblin disappeared and Del continued driving through the forest. However, as he drove, he could hear a bunch of footsteps from the back of the car. Cole turned the turret around and he immediately started firing his machine gun.
Del looked at the side mirror of the car and he found that goblins were running after them. Del hit the gas even harder once he noticed those goblins. Cole continued firing his machine gun until it drained all of the ammo inside of the ammo box next to the machine gun.
However, Del suddenly pushed the brake pedal of his car as there was a boulder that was blocking the road. In front of the boulder was another horde of goblins. Del was looking back and forth, there was no way out, and squashing the goblins wasn't an option to be entirely honest since the car was a car, not a tank.
"Ah, fuck," Del said as he grabbed his machine gun and opened the door of the car.
Del switched the safety of his machine gun off and he fired it at the goblin horde in front of him. Cassandra got out of the car as well and fired a barrage of ice spikes in the direction of the goblin. Del shredded the goblins with his machine gun.
"Damn, where are they coming from?" Del asked as he fired his machine gun.
"We are literally entering a goblin's lair so goblins are expected," Cassandra said calmly as she fired a barrage of ice spikes at the incoming goblin.
The barrage killed ten goblins at once. However, the goblin retaliated. The archers on the back of each goblin's horde were firing their bow in their direction. Del took cover by entering the car again while Cole ducked from the turret.
Cassandra cast another spell, "[Group Strike Mode: Blizzard]!"
A bunch of ice spikes flew in the direction of the goblins, killing them instantly. The arrows flew to the car and bounced off from the metal plating of the car. Cole peeked out of the turret again and he started shooting his heavy machine gun again.
Del got out of the car. He grabbed a package of C4, opened it, and attached a blasting cap to it. He threw it in the direction of the goblin. The C4 attached to the boulder and Del blew the boulder up. The fragmentations from the boulder also killed the goblins in front of them, but one of the fragments also wounded Del's legs.
"Ah, shit, my legs," Del looked at several scratches on his legs.
"Mate, are you ok?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just keep shooting them," Del said.
Del didn't bother to check his wound. It did hurt, but if it didn't limit his mobility then it was most likely to be a non-lethal wound. He reloaded his machine gun with fresh ammunition. He continued engaging the goblins.
"DEL! COVER ME, I WILL PREPARE SOMETHING!" Cassandra said as she dashed back into the car.
"Prepare what?" Del asked.
"Just do you thing, relax," Cassandra said.
Cassandra opened her grimoire. She began chanting multiple spells at once. [Progressive Mode: Condensing] [Progressive Mode: Subzero] [Progressive Mode: Depressurization]."
Suddenly, the temperature around them got colder. "Oy, Del, get inside the car!" Cassandra shouted. Den ran inside of the car and Del closed the door of the car. Cole had dropped down from the turret of the machine gun.
Five minutes later, he suddenly saw that the glass in front of him started to freeze. The temperature around them started to drop as well. Right now, the inside of the car was as cold as Aldea Mountain. "Damn it, what kind of thing that you used? [Magical Program: Local Thermal Manipulation]."
The air inside of the car got a little bit warmer. "Now, let's wait until the effect of the spell to subside. You could freeze to death outside."
"What the hell did you do anyway?" Del asked.
"Well, I freeze the air around us, practically, making an artificial blizzard. Still, this spell is really costly in terms of magical energy," Cassandra explained.
"How much magical energy does that spell consume?" Del asked.
"Around 100,000 Magical Energy, I think," Cassandra said.
"100,000??? That is like ten times my total magical energy," Del said.
"I'm called the Ice Queen for a reason," Cassandra said.
Del nodded, "I see." That would explain why Cassandra always used an ice magic spell or anything that was related to something cold. It was her expertise after all. However, there was something that bothered Del, something about her affair with Internal Security.
"As expected as a contract worker of Internal Security," Del said.
"Well, I won't talk about what I did with IS, but let's check the situation outside," Cassandra said as she opened the door and let the cold air entered the car.
The forest was dark for some unknown reason, maybe because of the clouds that Cassandra formed to make a localized blizzard. However, the goblin was all laying on the ground from the extreme drop of temperature. All that was left was to kill them all.
"Alright, let's finish them [Offensive Spell: Superheated Fireball]." Del made a large fireball and threw it in the direction of the goblin.
The fireball that Del threw was hot enough to melt something with a low boiling point. Once he threw that fireball, the body of the goblin that had been frozen immediately shattered from the extreme change of temperature.
Del continued chanting his fireball until all that was left were fragments from the bodies of the goblins. He felt accomplished after he killed all of the goblins that ambushed them. Still, it left him questioning, why goblins ambushed them? It was something unusual even though they were literally inside of a goblin's lair.
However, the question was answered quickly enough by the appearance of those people that were standing right where the boulder was before.
