Chapter 69

Ash soon found out what these goblins were useful for, as actual moving pieces of a wall, their skin was even thicker than the hobgoblins, and they didn't have the same weakness as hobgoblins, their heads were even tougher like actual rocks. His sword had no effect on them at all, although they were slow to move around, the only attack which they had seemed to learn by heart they were pretty good at. Move too close to them and they would bow their head and launch themselves at you head first, this was a deadly attack and could bring down thick walls easily and they were pretty fast at jumping head first as compared to their other movements. But it was pretty easy for Ash to dodge them with his lightning step, it was only the first time that they had taken him by surprise and he had barely managed to dodge the large head coming straight at his chest, he was sure it would have caved his ribs in. 

They also worked pretty well together, when one of them failed to land his attack the other two would just stand blocking the path until the third slowly got up and moved back with the others and then they would repeat it all over again. Ash decided if he couldn't go up then he would go low, he attacked their legs next time ducking very low and slashing at their feet, it worked very well and they landed on their asses when they lost all the feelings in their legs due to blood loss. Ash jumped over them and headed for the shaman with the blue stone cane. 

The shaman noticed him approaching and then saw the fallen goblins behind them, he turned slightly towards him and from inside his robes took out a black scaly ball, he saw that the scales on the balls were moving as if the ball itself was a living creature and he found out soon enough. The shaman dropped the ball on the ground, the ball deformed and the scalls grew in size and moved apart and slowly a big black snake was in front of him.

It looked at him with its blue-slitted eyes and hissed with a long forked tongue that sprayed black poison at him, Ash jumped out of the way, and the couple of drops that fell on him burnt right through his skin and muscle to the bone. Ash felt like he was outmatched, the snake's reflexes were too fast, it was a predator and it had chosen Ash as its prey. Ash ran for its life, jumping right and left to dodge its poisonous breath. Ash made the snake circle around so that he didn't go far from the shaman, he didn't have to kill the snake first, maybe if he just killed the shaman the snake would go away, he just had a handicap now in the form of a big snake on his tail. 

But the snake was too fast and didn't give him enough time to attack the shaman. He was too busy running and dodging the snake and needed to create an opening. Ash saw a hobgoblin coming towards them, even though it seemed so shocked by the big snake coming towards it that it didn't notice Ash duck under his legs and jump on its back, Ash climbed the goblin's back fast and climbed over its head. The snake followed Ash and the hobgoblin couldn't do anything as the snake slithered up the hobgoblin spiraling around its body and reaching the head, Ash jumped high off its head just as the snake opened its mouth and took a great bite at the place where Ash was seconds ago.

Ash landed feet away near the shaman, the snake made to follow him but the hobgoblin finally was able to grab a hold of its tail and that's all the distraction Ash needed. He charged his sword with all the mana he had built up so far and threw it at the Shaman. But the shaman wasn't weak like the other ones he moved his cane in time and a weird shockwave came from it which blasted the sword back towards him, Ash had to quickly pour mana into his eyes to catch the fast-spinning sword without cutting his hand. It was still charged with mana and he was barely able to stop it from exploding by absorbing the mana back in.

Ash didn't have much time, the hobgoblin wouldn't be able to stop the snake for long. He decided to go close range with the shaman, but he didn't let him come close by sending another shockwave at him, it was like hitting an invisible wall hurling towards him. Ash again charged the sword with even more mana than last time and moved with all the speed that he had toward him. The shaman again sent another shockwave at him but before Ash could worry about it, he saw with the corner of his eyes the snake coming at him with its mouth wide open. Ash had no time to think he slammed the sword into the earth like before a single bolt of lightning flowed through the ground towards the shaman, the shockwave he had sent went over it and the bolt hit him in the legs and lightning flashed through all of his body. Ash didn't have time to move, the snake engulfed him whole and the shockwave hit the snake and it was blasted back rolling and smashing every goblin in its way. 

Ash was inside the snake in complete darkness he had managed to hold on to his sword but he couldn't do anything now as the snake rolled around and thrashed around inside its scaly body. The snake was not a living thing, it was some kind of construct, there were no organs and blood inside it was just made of hard scales. But then something changed and some light appeared in the darkness and then in a sudden burst the snake turned to dust and Ash flew out of the dust skidding on the ground like a pebble. 

The shaman must have died he thought and took a deep sigh and stood up, the serum Amyra had given maybe didn't work on new injuries because his back was hurting very badly but he endured the pain and stood up, he was going to sleep for days after all of this was over. The shaman he had killed was indeed doing something because where once the warlocks seemed to be pushing the other back, now suddenly they were slower and less powerful and he saw his side win. One by one Aria, Silv, and others took care of their warlocks. The shaman must have been providing some kind of support to the warlocks which was making them stronger. 

He ran to meet Aria who was wiping her sword clean of the blood of the warlock she had killed. 

"You look pretty deadly in that armor," he said to her and she looked up.

"And you look like you have seen the bowels of hell," she said and then she hugged him tight.

"We thought you were dead when we couldn't find you in the morning," she said.

"I heard you were captured are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, It was stupid, I went outside the city looking for you, thinking you might have been trying something stupid, It was that axe warlock he was even more faster then and I was caught by surprise but then Maya saved me," she said and then the rest of them gathered around. Maya came and hugged him too.

"I am going to make sure you are punsihed for the scare you gave me," she said.

"So the human lives," said Farin. Silv clapped him on the back.

"I saw you fighting, when you killed that shaman the warlocks became much slower, he must have been giving them his mana," said Akash.

"Yeah, but forget that, where is Gurg?" asked Ash.

"Somewhere in the back proabably like a coward, Why?" asked Aria.

"Because he was the one who attacked me and locked me up, you remember the ring we got from that shaman Maya, it was a message ring, he is colluding with the goblins and was probably responsible for the scouts and guards not seeing them in time," said Ash.

"I knew he was upto something like that, but all I needed was proof, now I can freely take his head," said Akash his eyes ablze with anger and so were the other elves around him.