Chapter 12 – Lurking Shadows

Pran swiftly neared the shield lying on the ground while sheathing the dagger in his left hand. And as he reached it another arrow was already nearing him. Without showing any panic or hesitation he moved the sword into the line of the approaching arrow and used the flat to slide the arrow tip to deviate its trajectory to the side while kicking on the edge of the shield to flip it towards his left hand.

As the arrow went past Pran's right shoulder the shield on the ground was already close to his left hand. And as he was about to grab it his danger sense suddenly picked a very faint killing intent behind him. Without any delay, he tilted his body to the left side using his weight while he used his right foot to tap on the ground to rotate his body on his left foot. As Pran did that he lifted his right hand and using his body's rotation slashed behind him while he was also able to grab the shield with his left hand. Suddenly his sword collided with something metallic.

Clang!

The force of that collision made him take three steps back while the attacker also took a few steps to its back, and Pran was able to see the perpetrator's face. It was the Shadow Goblin.

The Shadow Goblin shook his right hand and then lifted it to its lips and licked his shining metallic claws and showed a toothy grin, and suddenly jumped back to the shadows.

Pran's heart was racing and he knew that if he did have his danger sense due to being in multiple life-and-death battles he would have died right now with his back pierced by the sharp claws of the shadow goblin.

Shadow goblins are not considered very dangerous on their own, but if they are in a situation where they can ambush and strike you, they become one of the deadliest foes. And in a cavernous prison like the one he was in, could be deemed terrible. Sure, many torches were burning on the walls because even though goblins, hobgoblins, and even blood trolls had traits similar to low-light vision, they still needed some light to make use of those traits, but shadow goblin's visions were different, similar to heat vision but of higher quality and didn't need any light to identify their target and attack them.

"I should have brought some flash bangs," thought Pran. "They would be really useful in this situation." Shadow goblins were tricky opponents, but an intense burst of light could counter their abilities. However, as the saying goes, "There's no use crying over spilled milk." Pran pushed the thought aside for later and once more focused on the battle that was about to begin.

But in his heart, Pran was unhappy. If reinforcements had arrived just ten seconds, no, even five seconds after he killed the blood troll, he could have gained a significant amount of experience and leveled up. He would have also regained his stamina and health to their maximum levels. Unfortunately, he was attacked before he had the chance to reset the battle state, he was once more engaged in a new battle. And to make matters worst, now he had not only had to fight the reinforcement, but he also had to be vigilant about the shadow goblin lurking around him, waiting for any opportunity to strike him.

Pran tightly gripped his sword and shield and charged directly at the approaching group of hobgoblin riders and goblins. He cleaved at the hobgoblin rider on his right side and noticed another arrow swiftly approaching him.

Swish!

As he cleaved, Pran moved his left hand, holding the shield, before his chest to deflect the arrow and make it fly over his head. The targeted hobgoblin was now very close to his sword, but it swung its glaive in a semi-circular motion from left to right, trying to bisect Pran.

Meanwhile, the hobgoblin on his left side thrust the short spear in its left hand directly into Pran's stomach. The giant wolf it was riding opened its mouth and tried to bite his left leg. To make matters worse, three javelins were also flying towards him, thrown by the goblins still some distance away from where Pran was.

The situation was looking grim for Pran but he was neither worried nor flustered. Instead, he bent his legs and directly went on his knees and bent his back backward, and slid forward on the ground while his sword collided with the hobgoblin's glaive and sparks flew from that impact.

Clang!

Screech!

Due to the collision between his sword and the hobgoblin's glaive in a crossing manner, Pran's back was pushed more towards the ground and was barely touching it, effectively reducing his height even more, and making the other attacks that were targeting him to either miss him or fly above him.

Three seconds ago.

As soon as Pran attacked the hobgoblin he knew he had made an error, but in that instant, his brain started to work rapidly on a way to get out of this dangerous situation. And just as his sword was about to hit the hobgoblin he came up with this method. It was a bit risky but was still better than jumping upwards. Because even if could dodge the two hobgoblins and the giant wolf's attack, he would have to deal with the three javelins, and if was even a tiny bit slow then it would hit his leg, and then it would put him in an even more disastrous situation.

He decisively choose the sliding-on-ground option, as if he knew that if he followed this through his chance to come out unscathed was very high. He trusted his feeling and went through the plan and did manage to dodge the attack, well his leg armors were a bit scratched due to the rough floor, but it was still better than being maimed.

Prest time.

Pran was almost at the end of his slide and before he stopped he exerted strength in his right leg and moved it forward and was in a kneeling position. As he was about to stop he used his kneeling position by putting strength in his right leg once more to jump forward toward the incoming goblins that were still recovering from the shock of witnessing their target escape those attacks.

Let alone the goblins even the blood troll who was in the process of knocking another arrow was also stunned, and couldn't believe its eyes as to how Pran escaped everything. Even the goblin's mages were astounded by this scene and stopped casting. And it was unknown what the shadow goblin was doing.

While everyone had stopped in their track after witnessing the scene, Pran had already landed before the goblin who was the frontmost of the charging goblins, and everyone heard something cut and then falling on the ground.

Slice!

Thud!

The goblin before whom Pran was standing suddenly split in two starting from the head to crotch and fell to the ground. Seeing that, everyone jolted awake from their stupor and screamed angrily once more and targeted Pran, intending to tear him apart, limb from limb.

The seven goblins closest to Pran lunged toward him with spears, swords, and clubs, disregarding their own safety, while the goblin mages once more started casting something, and the blood troll finished knocking the arrow onto its bow. By this time the giant wolves had also stopped and turned around and started to move toward him. Still, there was not a single clue as to where the shadow goblin was.

Pran exerted strength in his left foot and moved back a few steps avoiding the goblin's charge but suddenly his danger sense picked up a very faint killing intent behind him once more and all the hair on his body stood on end and he knew that the shadow goblin has made its move.

Pran knew he was a tad bit late and wouldn't be able to dodge the incoming attack nor will he be able to avoid the hit, so instead he used the weight of the shield in his left hand to rotate his body by moving the shield in an arc to the back and trying to intercept the incoming attack in hopes of using the shield to take the brunt of the attack.

Screech!

The shadow goblin's razor-sharp and almost metallic type claws came in contact with the shield and swiped over it as if metal was scraping metal. By then Pran's body was halfway through the motion of rotating and from the corner of his left caught the shadow goblin's other hand targeting his left shoulder as if it also knew that its initial attack would not be able to do damage.

"Crafty bastard!" Pran gritted his teeth and didn't have the time nor was he in a position where he could bring the shield back to defend himself from the second attack, so instead, he countered it by swinging his sword toward the shadow goblin in hopes of scaring it away, or the very least damage it with it.

The shadow goblin noticed it but showed a toothy grin as if mocking Pran and saying, even if you manage to hit me once, you will still be injured and I have more on my side to deal with you. But it still moved its left arm slightly.

Clang!

The sword and the claws collided once more and sparks flew again, but this time there was a slight difference. Due to the awakened position, Pran's sword was in an awkward potion and even though he managed to negate most of the damage, the shadow goblin's claws still manage to swipe on his left shoulder inflicting a flesh wound, from which blood started to slowly trickle because if he hadn't managed to do that his left shoulder would have been heavily injured if not outright severed.

The shadow goblin was not unscathed either; Pran's sword had left a light slash on its stomach, and grayish blood oozed from the wound. Snarling in anger, the shadow goblin narrowed its beady golden eyes and moved back toward the shadows. While Pran fell to the ground and rolled to the side and quickly got back on his feet and came to a decision and moved towards the hobgoblin riders to intercept them.