67 Hunters Return

Their return to the castle was not as glorious as many in the hunting party thought it should be.

Few were left in the castle to celebrate their accomplishments. Half of the small population had joined in on either the hunt or in the clean up crew, and most of the rest were on lookout duty or performing other jobs like cutting up firewood.

The lack of witnesses to their success didn't ruin the hunters' mood, they simply took matters into their own hands.

They built up a large fire outside and began cooking choice bits of meat over the roaring flames; Callum asked Esteban the Aeromancer to create a wind spell to deal with the large plume of smoke coming from the fire.

A similar long lasting spell was constantly in effect over the castle's chimney, that all of the fireplaces were funnelled into. It filtered most of the larger particles of ash out of the smoke and dispersed the smoke cloud; it wasn't perfect, but it made it difficult to identify.

Amarok wandered around the impromptu mid-morning feast and received a lot of attention for his crucial contribution in the hunt: he was lauded by some, petted by others, and fed prime cuts of meat by all.

'At least everyone seems to have gotten over their fear of Amarok,' Callum thought to himself as he tore into a haunch of piping hot meat that tasted great, even if he didn't know what he was eating.

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Callum ducked behind Boren's raised shield. He heard a meaty thunk as the blow he had ducked struck the shield without any visible effect.

He was about to dart back around and strike his own blowthermopylae when a mental thought from Amarok reached his brain. In response, he went down to one knee and leaned forward slightly; Callum heard something behind him and braced himself.

Something heavy crashed into his back and he was almost sent sprawling onto the ground.

"Aaaaaoooooooh!"

Callum looked up and saw Amarok flying over his head and into a closely packed group of goblins. Unlike Callum, these goblins had not noticed that Amarok was going to leap onto them; they would have been too weak even if they had guessed Amarok's intentions.

They were sent crashing to the ground. Their dense formation only hindered their attempts to resist falling, their limbs were tangled and they were buffeted from more than one direction.

Callum ignored the scene as he moved over to stop the flanking attempts of another group of goblins, led by one of their Goblin Champions. Callum's axe whistled through the air and snapped the spear that an overconfident Goblin Warrior had tried to block with.

The goblin only had a split second to realize the enormity of his mistake before his head was sent flying into the air.

"Callum, we need you at the wall!" Ravi calmly ordered, his booming voice cut through the din of battle that echoed in the large hall; the party was fighting the final boss on the second floor once more.

He raced over to the crumbling ice wall that was shielding the group from the incessant barrage of missiles and spells from the goblins' ranged forces. This time, Ravi had directed Osmar to place the ice wall across the front and the melee fighters were holding the flank.

Callum used <<Long Reach>> to take down a Goblin Brute whose head poked over the wall. The biggest danger though was the widening gap that appeared in the wall, Callum placed himself there.

His presence alone didn't deter the goblins who were eagerly trying to push through.

Alea was off to the side and sent shot after shot into the mass of goblins with her lackluster ranged weapon. With her help, Callum held the gap against wave after wave of goblins; the growing pile of bodies in the gap helped to reseal it.

Unfortunately, the goblins continued to climb up the wall in some places, and they tried to open up new breaks in the wall in other places. And that was when Callum's summoned creature was dispelled after taking too much damage.

'Weak trash,' Callum thought to himself when he felt the severing of his connection to the warthog.

The situation was looking grim, and Callum prepared to activate his <<Rage>> Since the party's situation was worsening. However,since Goblins' only real advantage was sheer numbers, they were gradually losing that advantage as they were running out of their numbers.

Another <<Long Reach>> struck down another goblin trying to make it over the wall.

"Fall back! Back to the tunnel!" Ravi shouted.

Immediately, the rest of the party started to fall back to the tunnel that brought them into the room. Callum hesitated briefly and toyed with the idea of ignoring Ravi's command, thereby forcing the rest of the party to stay in the fight.

In the end, he bitterly fell back.

Callum had agreed to Ravi's leadership and had previously promised that he would follow the party leader's commands in the dungeon. He still thought they could win this battle, but he also thought it might lead to him being kicked back out of the party.

The party reached the tunnel, and Callum was the last to join them.

Boren and Callum fought a rearguard action as the party traveled deeper into the tunnel. The goblins seemed energized by their victory and threw themselves into the fight with even more aggressiveness.

"Alright, that's enough! Zosen's Pass, we hold them here!" Ravi's voice once more rose over the din and racket of battle.

The tunnel was just wide enough for both Boren and Callum to effectively fight side by side, together they effectively held the goblins back.

Osmar sent magical attacks into the packed goblins, even Ravi joined in with his weak offensive magic; although he conserved most of his Mana for removing debuffs, such as poison, and healing.

Alea and Amarok occasionally darted in to finish off weakened goblins, before they pulled back to give Boren and Callum the room they needed to fight effectively. When Alea wasn't darting in, she peppered the goblins with small poisoned bolts.

For several hectic minutes, they battled the goblins along a narrow front. Without the ability to bring their numbers advantage into the fight, the goblins rapidly fell under the party's relentless attacks.

"I think they've had it. Osmar, I need you to push them back," Ravi ordered.

Callum only saw Ravi's weak attack bolts whizz past him. He was close enough to feel the buildup of magic as Osmar took the time to build up a powerful spell; he soon recognized the telltale signs of the slight gusts of wind.

He was already dropping when Ravi yelled out, "Drop, drop, drop!"

The close confines of the tunnel multiplied the effect of the spell. There was an explosion of sound as each and every goblin was picked up and flung back into the hall. Callum felt himself sliding forward and knew he was about to join the goblins.

The wind was threatening to pick him up and send him flying down the tunnel, his arms scrambled around for something to hold onto. One of his hands found Boren's own searching arm; he was in the same predicament as Callum.

They held tightly to each other's arms, but they continued to slide. Callum dropped his axe and clawed at the ground.

'Oh, shit!' Callum thought to himself as he locked eyes with Boren; their bodies were slowly and inevitably pushed further into the center of the maelstrom of wind and chaos. Callum felt something grab at his ankle.

He looked down and saw that Amarok's jaw was clamped onto his ankle and he was straining to pull the two back from the effects of the spell. Alea and Ravi were slower to respond, but they too grabbed at the legs of both Callum and Boren.

The spell suddenly cut off and the wind immediately stilled.

Callum was sure that the whole ordeal had been over in a matter of seconds, but it had seemed to drag on for several moments. He would have continued to lay on the floor and collect himself for several minutes, but Ravi spurred him back to his feet.

"We're not getting paid to lay around, we still have goblins to finish off!" Ravi yelled as he, a lightly armored backline healer, personally led the charge into the hall.

Callum picked himself up to follow Ravi, but couldn't find his axe anywhere, or anything else he could use as a weapon. Everything had been blown out of the tunnel and into the hallway

"Osmar, that damn axe better still be in one piece!" Callum roared as he drew his trusty hatchet from his belt and raced down the tunnel.

Finishing off the goblins proved to be a piece of cake after that. Most of the goblins had already been killed off before the wind spell; the powerful winds had battered the survivors. Fortunately, Callum located his axe and it was mostly intact.