The Assassin

Sir Beryl, at first, rejected this idea with a fierceness and almost would have refused to let me do the challenge at all until Lana herself started getting upset and brought up how her Aunt Mara had given our hunting trip her blessing, Did Lady Mara know that we would attempt the survival challenge together? Of course not, but we still had her blessing.

Because there were two of us that would double the number of goblins, hobs, and mixes coming out I made Lana promise that she would run out to the meadow after the first half of the first round. This not only helped to reassure Sir Beryl but also helped me to relax a little. I did not doubt that I could survive a solo challenge with my current abilities since it would only be fifty-five of either species even at the end of the mixed round but two people doubled that number.

One hundred and ten goblins in the tenth wave of the first round would be too much to trust having Lana off of the bench. It was not that I doubted her, it was that I knew her. Even if she was starting to get her old energy and drive back like while traveling to Sierra, she was still just a kid who lacked proper experience and training. Canley, at least, had proper training!

At first, when two goblins came out of the tunnel, I lured one off to the side and punched it to death using the fanged right glove of my armor and the clawed knuckles of my left glove. Lana, though, was not allowed to draw her sword but instead had to practice taking evasive actions. It was hard at first and after three awkward steps and hops she finally took a solid hit to the hip.

As soon as she started going down after taking five damage I was by her side, unleashing a sustained torrent of icy air and moisture on the goblin for several seconds until it was frozen solid. Then I front kicked the statue in the face and the entire thing shattered. It cost almost forty MP but it was satisfying.

Holding out my hand to help Lana to her feet as the next wave starts coming in, I say, "You'll get the hang of it, eventually. The point is to move yourself as little as possible so that when the enemy misses and keeps moving in they remain perfectly within the reach of your weapon while regaining their composure. A quick flick or shove and its over."

"As little as possible, quick counter," she agrees while pulling herself up to her feet, reaching for one of the daggers she had cast for herself at her hip instead of the larger and stronger Galvanized Elder Bokuto over her shoulder. This time, I just ran up and beat down three of the four goblins coming out of the tunnel. Then I left the last for Lana to evade.

Lana did much better this time, taking her time in measuring the reach of the goblin's swings while matching its advance step for step with small retreats. Whenever the goblin would get in too close, though, she would lash out with the rounded pommel of her long and slender poniard-like dagger to bluntly strike the club away from her body and unbalance the goblin. Instead of going for a finish, though, she would just lightly slash the back of the goblin's neck for about twenty percent of its health bar.

When she finally killed her first full health goblins without taking any damage, I started jumping and clapping and cheering like an idiot to celebrate even as the third wave started coming in. Provoking the group of goblins by shouting at them, I simply ran in and used St Elmo's Fire to stun and steadily damage five of the six goblins. The sixth walked up and started pummeling me with its club but by now I was not even pushed by its flimsy attacks- especially in my current armor.

Pretty much as soon as the others were dead I just snatched the goblin up by its wrist and slung the short creature out to the side toward Lana. The goblin lost a few percent of its health to being thrown but that did not stop Lana from walking up and kicking it up to its feet for almost ten percent of its health. Then she had its aggro.

Since the rounds in which she would be allowed to fight were coming to a close, Lana took more time tiring out this goblin over the course of a few minutes before finally slashing its hand to make it drop its club. Once the goblin was disarmed, Lana sheathed her own dagger and punched it three quick times in the face for five percent of its health per hit.

As soon as the third first landed on the goblin's already swelling nose, Lana turned her body and leaned into the blow for a follow-through that send the goblin stumbling backwards. Even with the fangs and claws augmenting her gloves and bracers, Lana did not attack with all of her Strength to avoid killing the goblin too quickly, practicing the different hands I had shown her in three-jab cycles that each ended with a staggering follow-through.

When she had performed each of the five simple strikes that she had learned today, the goblin had less than ten percent of its HP remaining and looked like a mess. The claws and fangs of her gloves had shredded the goblins face and gouged out its eyes, all but removing its nose entirely after having ground it away under her hands.

Now, though, she simply stepped back and then lunged forward into a wild haymaker that struck the goblin in the side of its head with enough force to cave its skull in a bit.

"What the hell have you been teaching that girl?" Sir Beryl bellows from the meadow after witnessing the savagery that I had instilled in m'lady. "I've seen guard recruits who were too scared to put their hands in a goblin's face and you have this girl mutilating these poor cretins! What if I asked for leave and told Lay Mara about what you've taught this sweet lass?"

"She'd say she watched me teach her," I reassure him with a dismissing laugh as the fourth wave begins. This time I drained my mana down to almost a fourth of everything I had left using Quick Quake to entrap the eight goblins cautiously exiting the tunnel. Then I spent half of what remained freezing the ground around them.

"They're all yours, m'lady," I say while drawing my own Midnight Hauntings and presenting it in a kneel right in front of the frigid goblins buried up to their chests in frozen earth.

Walking up slowly and casually while casting a smile and wave of her fingers over her shoulder toward the stupefied Sir Beryl hiding in the meadow, Lana walks up and gives me a more mischievous smile as she places her hand on mine under Midnight Hauntings' hilt and lets it stay there for a moment. She was definitely flirting with me and I could only keep my head mostly lowered to the point where I could barely see her face.

"No fun," Lana pouts, making me smile secretly down at the ground as her fingers finally close around the hilt of my haunted sword. Raising the heavy sword up to grip in both hands, Lana walks forward toward the struggling goblins and begins initiating her Slash skill. Luckily, her Strength was only in the twenties so even with my sword she had to hit twice to kill one goblin and succeeded in initiating Slash.

For her the skill had started at one-twenty-percent whereas I started with one-fifteen-percent but now hers had only raised five percent after initiating. If mine only raised by five percent then I would not really care because it was a simple skill I would really only use to one-hit weak mobs for cheap. However, I still hoped my boss would not have a stronger skill to lord over me.

When the next wave started after I sheathed my returned sword, instead of the transparent red framing of weaker enemies I received the full framing of a stronger opponent coming. However, at first, only ten goblins came out of the tunnel. As I was roaring to provoke them and trigger effects on both sides, though, Sir Beryl suddenly yells, "Lana, get out of there!"

His words were still echoing in the air when my mini-map suddenly pinged a new enemy appearing in the tunnel. It was a simply red dot like all the others but instead of moving cautiously like other goblin creatures affected by my titles and debuffs it was moving quickly. Real quickly.

Just a second after I noticed the moving enemy it was already leaving the tunnel, standing just under five feet tall and moving so fast that it was a dark green, pale yellow-white, and red blur of moving colors. Luckily, I was already aware of its approach and the direction it was coming from and quickly discharged two hands of electricity around me numerous bright arcs of blue and purplish electricity shot out from my fingertips in all directions, striking every moving body around me besides Lana as she retreated slowly in confusion.

There in the air just a few feet shy of stabbing me was a large goblin with smooth and symmetrical features that made it look almost human. Unlike over goblins, though, it wielded a long and curved ivory sword and wore what looked like ceremonial dress armor made of beaded bones and tusks and scales and anything else that could be used as protection. As well, on its head was a bright red beret that looked so out of place I could not look away from it.

Then it hit me, one of the higher powered goblin species in other games that were usually an early mini-boss. They were more often than not low in the defense and HP department, making them poor physical tanks. But they were a high-speed assassin or rogue style goblin character that was more worried about evading than tanking like I was.

"Redcap," I say by way of greeting after the temporarily stunned assassin drops to the ground while struggling with its spasming muscles. An attack that could drain an easy fifteen percent from the other goblins only drained a small notch of less than five percent from the redcap, though. As well, it only required half the time to force itself back up to its feet with an enraging shriek.

I only had a couple dozen MP left, little more than enough for maybe two big quick quakes, so I would have to play it safe from here. I had no healers or supporters and if I finished off the goblins it would probably only trigger the next wave even if the redcap remained. I had to handle this as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Snatching Midnight Hauntings up and out of its sheath, I lunge forward at the still twitching goblin and slash out while yelling, "Geist!" If I had hit, three ghostly blades would have cut clean through its primitive armor. However, the mini-boss assassin easily threw itself into a backward roll under my sword and out of reach while it recovered.

By now the other goblins were all getting back to their feet so I simply unleashed a hand of electricity in their direction twice to keep them all pinned down. Now, though, the redcap had recovered enough to go on the offensive, leaping toward me with a wild spinning slash not unlike my own 360 Edge. However, this attack was specific to their weapon, manipulating the inverted curvature of the crescent blade for hewing through unprotected limbs.

I simply hopped back and out of reach, letting the goblin land and leap once again before performing my own 360 Edge. If I did not have Spin Specialist to boost the speed of this skill, I would have probably had the same attack speed as the redcap and we would have hit one another. Thankfully, I had the faster skill and the first one-eighty pass swept their sword away before the completion of Midnight Haunting's full circle tore across the redcap's belly.

A full ten percent of its health was drained away with this attack, followed by almost twenty percent more when the previously summoned but delayed Geists finally took affect. Bleeding for the rest of thirty percent damage from my one attack, the redcap retreats to what it thought was out of my reach before slapping itself painfully hard in its nearly disemboweled abdomen.

His bleeding damage stopped in an instant and five percent of his health actually came back, showing that he had used some kind of first-aid type skill to make himself able to keep fighting. This guy was definitely going to prove to be a tough opponent and it would be a minute or two before I had enough mana to force another Geist.

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