Chapter 23

The prospect of being killed by a horde of goblins was horrible, and Ash had a bad feeling in his stomach ever since they had heard about the fast-approaching goblin army. He had never seen a proper fight like this, where two armies collided, the green goblins he had fought were fast and violent. Whenever he tried to imagine the scene at the city gates, a green army rushing towards the walls fast and elf archers raining down arrows on them, he kept imagining the goblins just overflowing over the walls like rats. He didn't feel good at all about their chances. They were in the city hall now, it was under a very large tree which was magically grown according to Sarah, its base was wide enough so that a lot of people could huddle together underneath it, there were stairs made out of ropes and vines going to two more upper levels, although the top one was much smaller and there weren't too many people here. Ash and the rest were here looking out towards the city walls, they could see them but not too much clearly. There were elf guards here, but they were the younger and inexperienced ones since they looked as scared as the common citizens. 

It was jarring seeing the elves, a graceful and strong-minded race of people, looking scared like that. Sarah and Hailey were huddled together trying to get the device Farin had given them working. It was like a mirror, a little bigger than a human head, the glass looked way much whiter and softer though for some reason. 

"They are waiting for a reply from the other end, they have been sending messages," Maya explained.

"I don't like just standing here, not knowing what's going on," said Ash, the suspense was killing him.

"It's worse for us, trust me," said Maya.

"Do you think they'll hold them?" asked Ash.

"No," said Maya straight to Ash's shock.

"You are new with the whole magic thing I can tell, there a number of factors against us, first in fights with magic numbers don't matter, and I am not saying this in our favour, although most elves can use magic, just being able to use magic doesn't mean they are good, they aren't common real skilled magic users, it's harder to notice that when you have a good affinity like you, but it's not all easy going once you can tap into magic, otherwise elves woud have been ruling the continent, a good teacher, hard work, right atittude, so many things are involved in making of a warrior strong enough that they can make a dent in a war like this, otherwise they are just infantry soldiers, and there aren't too many great ones here right now, and another thing you might not have noticed is the shift in magical intensity, the air will be dense in magic if there are a lot og magic users around, that's why it is in the city, but as the gobling army approached closer you can feel it moving away, which means they have comparable if not more magic users among them as well, making them stronger and us weaker, when it comes to magic there are a lot of tricks like these involve," said Maya.

Just then they heard a loud blast and the ground shook.

"they have made contact, the goblins must have reached the walls, they will either use the shamans to through long-range attacks at the wall or hobgoblins to break through by force," said Maya. The noise was rising and it became a constant buzz in their ears as it travelled over to them. Even though they weren't fighting themselves their hearts had started beating hard and they were almost shaking. And that's when things went even bad. Another bang shook the ground right underneath them, everyone grabbed onto something to stay standing. Ash happened to lose his balance and had to hastily grab onto Maya to stay upright, he accidentally grabbed something inappropriate and quickly removed it, although Maya looked troubled. 

"I didn't mean to," he meant to say but she shushed him and looked down at the ground.

"It came from underneath us," said Maya.

"you don't think," said Ash.

"No, there are strong spells in place, ancient ones," said Maya, but she was sounding more and more doubtful. But their worst fears came true when accompanied by the next blast somewhere under the ground came screams from the ground floor. They all rushed down as the screams and loud noises became even louder and when they reached the ground floor, it was a sea of elves running here and there but among the white and yellow sea was a bit of green which was causing all the chaos. They saw that a hole had appeared in the middle of the floor, and the goblins were coming out of it. It was not too big for now, only a few had been able to come out, but some of them were trying to open their mouth as more goblins kept coming. The guards finally were able to reach the centre of the room through the crowd and they jumped in to fight the goblins, the archers rained down arrows in the hole. But as he had seen the goblins were like rats and small and fast and the elves were not used to fighting that kind of opponent so they were having trouble keeping them in place, resulting in several elves being dead already. This could turn into a bloodbath if they can't get the hole shut in time, but the goblins were already double in numbers since they had arrived on the scene. 

The archers on the trees were coming down after hearing the ruckus, but not fast enough. Ash's group reached the centre of the fight and Maya and the others rushed off giving them relief, Maya, Sarah, Hailey and a couple of others were the best fighters. Ash didn't have to wait for his chance, since there were plenty of goblins to go around. There wasn't much space to move in such close quarters but Sasha's new forms were made for this, at one point he was able to behead two goblins at once with a long-turning swipe. He felt the spark rise in his body much stronger and surer than before, it was like an animal which had finally started to think of Ash as its home. The elves were fighting hard, but this was a losing battle, they were just buying time, soon the goblins would be too much to handle, and they had to think of that in advance. 

"Don't spread out, make a circular formation and move towards the hole!" he shouted at the elves nearby him.

"Yes, follow me," shouted Maya taking head. This might allow the goblins to get past them but they would just have to rely on the younger guards who were further away to stop them. 

Slowly and slowly they made their way towards the hole, the fight was getting more and more intense, and now magical attacks were being thrown around, it was his first time seeing a fireball thrown by Hailey burn a goblin's face, but he didn't have time to stare. The goblins too were getting more skilled and strong. Their attention was on them, knowing their plan. 

They formed a wall of goblins between them and the hole, as Maya killed one of them another one just took its place, they were fighting on the defensive now, instead of offensive buying themselves time, to gather their numbers.