Beginning Phase One

After wishing the samurais "happy hunting," Rydel took off at top speed and became illusory.

"Now what Master?" asked Brunar.

"I think ya both know what's next," answered Maynard. "Don't get yourself killed and pay attention to your surroundings. The guards are poisoned right now but don't let that get to your heads. This time we don't know how many goblins we'll face but we'll be trying to hold them off till we get Jack's signal. That's when we go all out, got that?"

"Yes Master," the young samurais replied together.

"Good, now both of ya draw your swords and follow me." Maynard jumped out of the empty vein with a massive leap, not caring to use any stealth at all.

Brunar did the same as his master, jumping out of the vein with some heavy yells and grunts upon landing. Unlike his fellow disciple and his mentor, Troni leaped out quietly, landing behind the others to keep from becoming the main target.

The moment that all three had revealed themselves, a couple of goblin sentries caught glimpse of them. Those goblins were unsure of what these three figures were and why they dared approach the goblin city. They contacted their captains but were surprised by the news they received.

Among the goblin guards, there were rumors about a few outposts being destroyed. Not many believed them due to the rumors being less than a day old, but it spread like wildfire, nonetheless.

When the goblin sentries received a response describing the losses of many outposts, the sentries were startled. Then the sentries were enraged after hearing that the three samurai were behind it all, along with a few other intruders.

Not wasting any time, the sentries let out deep, gargled howls. The howls were easily heard by Maynard's group, but they didn't so much as flinch. Following the gargled howls, the sounds of dozens of gargled whines and cries pierced the air.

The samurais looked ahead without hesitation. They didn't approach with great speed, wanting the goblins to come and meet them on the battlefield.

On high alert, the goblin guards readied themselves and prepared for battle. The wall had a unique design; It was like someone had taken an inflated inner tube and cut it clean in half. There were two gates, the outer gate, and the inner gate, and within the confines of the wall were goblins scrambling to get in formation.

When Maynard's party was about a quarter kilometer's distance from the city entrance, the outer gate swung open. Thanks to Rydel's investigating, Maynard had a decent idea of how many goblins there were living within the wall, but he was still amazed at the first wave of goblins that charged towards them.

"Are ya ready?" asked Maynard.

"Always!" yelled Brunar, throwing any thoughts of shrinking back to the wind while Troni gave a simple nod.

"Good, then show these pestros who's boss!" Maynard showed a delighted smile to the approaching goblin hoard. "If ya encounter anyone above lv. 25, make it known! And if ya need to take a potion, just do it, no need for my permission."

The goblins had ugly expressions on their faces, and not because of their natural ugliness as cave goblins. Their expressions were a mix of discomfort, unease, and savagery. Within the past hour, they had all realized they were poisoned, but it was too late to make excuses and chicken out of orders.

Taking notice of the goblins' strange movement patterns, Maynard's blades began to glow red. "This is a thank you to Rydel, for weakening our enemies before things had even started!"

With a wickedly fast cross slash, a "Bloody cross" went airborne and connected with the goblin wave before it could break up and try to dodge the samurai's attack.

"Aaaagghh!" the goblins hissed as over a dozen were made into mincemeat by the first attack of the battle.

Seeing Maynard's overwhelming strength, the goblin captains leading the charge focused on Maynard, intent on stopping him from performing more destructive AoE (Area of Effect) attacks.

Happy to pull the attention of the more powerful foes, Maynard smiled wide and shouted, "Come! Your fallen brethren failed to prove themselves worthy of my blade, and you'll join them soon enough!"

Maynard ran further ahead, creating some distance between him and his students. That way the higher leveled goblin guards wouldn't get much of an opportunity to attack Brunar or Troni without leaving an opening to strike.

The first collision happened when the three goblin captains banded together to face Maynard. Normally, two would charge him while the other would target the two weaker samurai but being poisoned and witnessing Maynard's strength proved to them that they couldn't afford to play around with the mature samurai.

Brunar's single blade also began to glow red in anticipation of the many goblins before him. With Maynard showing off and attracting the big fish, why wouldn't he want to prove his strength and carve into the wave of goblins?

Troni stood at the ready, still near Brunar in case he met someone too strong for him to handle.

Thanks to their master keeping the strongest goblins occupied and having no one to protect or split their attention, the young samurais faced the goblins with no fear and katanas at the ready. The bulk of the goblin guards were around lv. 15 and the occasional goblin guard was at least lv. 20.

The common goblin guards would bubble around Maynard and the captains, doing their best to avoid any collateral damage. In a matter of moments, they finally reached the two young samurai.

With the goblins fighting partial paralysis, they left many opening that trained swordsmen would easily take advantage of. A clash would only last one or two blows before a goblin would fall unless a goblin above lv. 20 met Troni, in which case it would last an additional two hits for Troni to redirect it towards Brunar for the killing blow. They avoided using any skills when possible, making sure to keep their stamina in check.

Maynard wasn't having it so easy, unlike his disciples. The three goblin captains were clearly affected by the poison, but them being higher leveled and stronger also meant that they could more easily fight the partial paralysis. They didn't leave Maynard too many openings and forced him to truly fight.

"Ya pestros! That the best ya got?" taunted Maynard, getting wilder and wilder as the 3 v. 1 continued.

The originally confident goblin captains were beginning to feel the pressure. They had assumed that they could at least hold Maynard back, if not slowly overwhelm him. But amidst their fight, Maynard would do something crazy like charge another "Bloody cross." When the captains would guard and prepare to receive it, Maynard would launch another airborne cross into the wave of goblins surrounding his students instead.

One goblin captain shouted in common, "Coward!"

Maynard laughed as he drank an elixir like it was a shot of his favorite brundy. "Hurry and call the other two captains. If ya don't call them soon, ya won't have the ability to cry for help."

Startled that Maynard knew about the two remaining captains still within the walls, another captain replied in broken common, "We no need them! We kill you now!"

All three captains readied an offensive stance as they surrounded Maynard, each one wielding a shortsword, which looked like a greatsword in their goblin sized hands. Letting out a screeching battle cry, the three shortswords glowed muddy green and swung sideways toward Maynard in unison.

Licking his smiling lips, Maynard chuckled as his katana glowed red in response. Maynard vanished from the center of the goblin captains, avoiding the three attacks completely.

Caught off guard, the captains were dazed by the change in the initiative, till one captain heard a whisper from behind him.

"Sudden death." Maynard slashed twice from behind the unlucky goblin captain, once across the upper thigh and once across the back of the neck.

The goblin captain had no time to respond or mutter a word as both his neck and left leg were cut cleanly through. After the blades exited the wound, the goblin captain's left leg toppled to the ground. Losing support so suddenly, the rest of the captain's body tumbled to the left, but his head fell to the right, completely severed from the captain's torso.

"Ya going to call them or not?" taunted Maynard, who lunged at the remaining two captains without pause.

The remaining captains had fear in their eyes as they each retrieved a contact crystal and attempted to summon the remaining captains. As they did so, Maynard became more ferocious, not wanting to waste a single moment of weakness.

Busy warding off the strikes from Maynard, the goblin captains were unable to concentrate and contact the other two captains.

"Ya think I'm going to just let ya call them? Ya missed your chance the first time I asked," laughed Maynard, who was reveling in the thrill of battle.