Chapter 18: Evolution?

The commander stood clutching his broken arm as he faced the leader of the Goblin hoard.

"Die Kobold scum!" The Goblin yelled, lifting his club to deliver the final blow.

Vatt didn't look away, deciding to face his end with dignity and honour.

However, Kolu appeared before him, stopping the Goblin leader's attack with his sword, clashing with equal strength.

"Get back Vatt, I'll show this scum the true power of us Kobolds!" Kolu yelled, finally getting involved in the battle.

The Goblin pushed forward with its club, pushing Kolu away before swinging the club down towards his head.

But, Kolu wasn't the chief of the Kobold for nothing, easily blocking the Goblin's attack before returning one of his own.

The Goblin was taken aback by Kolu's strength, but smiled regardless, happy that he could have a proper fight.

Blake was back on his feet now, having recovered from the Goblin's attack, standing with Nev to the rear of the battle.

"Come on, Drak, we need to do something!" Nev shouted, wanting to get stuck back in the fight.

However, now that Blake was on the outside of the battle, it gave him a new perspective on things, being able to calculate and come up with a plan.

"That's it!" Blake yelled, getting a strange look from Nev.

"What?" Nev asked.

"How didn't I see it before?" Blake said again aloud, feeling like an idiot.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Nev asked again, confused that he was just standing there talking to himself while the others were fighting.

Blake could see that the Goblins were still held at the gate's natural choke point, with only so many of them being able to break through thanks to the natural defences the dungeon provided.

"Nev, hand me your spear!" Blake asked, getting a strange look from him.

"Why?" Nev asked.

"Now Nev!" Blake yelled again, not having time to waste.

"Alright, here," Nev said, reluctantly handing over his spear to Blake, not happy about it.

System, scan the rocks hanging from the dungeon ceiling and tell me their weak points. Blake said to his system, waiting for its response.

[Scanning now...]

The system finished the scan and identified the weak parts of the large Stalactites that were handing over the gate of the Kobold village, showing Blake as it marked the weak areas for him.

"System, use the thread ability," Blake said, shooting spider thread out of the tips of his fingers as he wrapped it around the spear before he took aim at the Stalactites.

"What the hell is that?" Nev asked, watching as he wrapped the spider thread around his spear, shocked that he could do something like that.

"Another time, Nev," Blake said, taking aim before charging forward with perfect form and throwing the spear as hard as he could.

The spear flew through the air before it crashed into the largest stalactite and stuck into it firmly.

Blake gave his spider thread a good pull, seeing that it would hold his weight before jumping up it and climbing it like a rope, placing his sword between his teeth before he did.

Nev watched as Blake climbed the thread, wondering what the hell he was up to before he turned his attention back toward the battle, watching the others struggle against the Goblins.

Kolu and the Goblin leader were trapped in a heated battle, with commander Vatt on the ropes and Surge down and out for the count. Kolu being the chief of the Kobold's prided himself on his strength, being able to muster and rally the men around him to fight harder, knowing that their leader was with them.

The Goblin leader did the same for his forces as they continued to pour in through the gate, ramming and crashing against the defending forces of the Kobold, trying their best to hold them back.

Kolu blocked a flurry of impressive attacks from the Goblin leader, who was able to move his giant club with great speed and skill.

However, Kolu deflected the last attack upward, pushing the Goblin leader off balance, allowing him to land a clean slash down the Goblin's chest, cutting through the monster's thick chest muscles and drawing blood.

"Arghh!" The Goblin cried out in pain and anger, looking down at its own chest to see the blood trickling down.

Kolu smiled before he twirled his sword and took another stance, taunting the Goblin with a wave of his hand for it to come and attack him again.

The Goblin leader's eyes slowly changed from yellow to red as his anger took over. Veins started to bulge around its neck, chest and arms before the creature started to grow larger, with steam erupting from its shoulders and back.

"W-What is going on?" Kolu asked, shocked as he watched its transformation.

Blake had now reached the top of his thread where the spear was stuck in the stalactite, giving him a good view of the battle below, quickly noticing what was going on with Kolu and the Goblin leader.

"What's happening to that Goblin?" Blake asked, watching as it grew larger.

[Answer... The Goblin is evolving.] The system said.

"Evolving? No way, can they do that?" He asked still with the sword between his teeth.

[Yes, many monsters in this world can evolve once they become strong enough.] The system answered.

Blake watched as the Goblin's body started to grow larger and its skin turned from a dark green to a deep red. Its teeth grew larger with both of its fangs growing and protruding out of its mouth.

[New monster discovered. Hobgoblin.] The system said, showing Blake the information on Hobgoblins.

[Hobgoblins. A Hobgoblin is the evolved form of a Goblin, taking on a much larger and stronger form than a Goblin. Hobgoblins are closer to the size of humans, and have a more developed brain than a normal Goblin, making them much smarter and that much more dangerous.] The system explained.

"This isn't good..." Blake said, seeing the Hobgoblin's new level on his display from above.

Name: ????

Race: Hobgoblin: LV 18

Health: 160/160

Stamina: 120/120

Mana: 5/5

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Strength: 28

Agility: 18

Intelligence: 10

Chief Kolu watched as the Goblin finished its transformation, seeing that it had become much larger and stronger. It had also become more human looking, now having long and thick black hair.

The Hobgoblin stood to its full height, causing all of the other Goblins around it to stop for a moment before they burst out in cheers, giving off a powerful battle cry.

All of the Kobolds were also watching, feeling fear set into their bodies at the sight of the powerful Hobgoblin.

"So what... You are still just a Goblin!" Kolu yelled, charging in with his sword raised, attacking up toward the Hobgoblins neck, hoping to land a critical strike against it.

However, the newly evolved Hobgoblin simply grabbed Kolu's wrist, now towering over him standing at 5 feet 4, while Kolu was only 2 feet 7 inches at best, looking like a child to the Hobgoblin.

Kolu struggled in an attempted to get his arm free, however, the Hobgoblin crushed his wrist with its powerful grip, causing Kolu to howl in pain and drop his sword to the ground with a clang.

"Chief!" One of the Kobold captains yelled out, not being able to bare watching as his leader was humiliated like this.

The Hobgoblin watched as Kolu finished screaming before it lifted him into the air by his wrist, pulling him closer to his face with a smirk.

Kolu could feel the Hobgoblins hot breath against his face as it spoke, not being able to understand its words.

"Looks like the tables have turned, puny monster." The Hobgoblin said before it threw Kolu into the air and kicked him in his chest, knocking Kolu flying like a ragdoll.

"Chief!!!" The Kobold captain yelled, trying to push passed more Goblins so he could get to his leader.

Vatt also watched in horror at the Hobgoblins strength as it defeated Kolu, the strongest of them.

"No... We can't win... Its all over." He said, still clutching his broken arm as he looked on in terror.

Meanwhile, Blake was doing his best to chip away at the large stalactites above the battle, linking his spider thread to each of them before he moved onto the next, finally on the last and largest one.

"That should do it!" Blake said, wiping the sweat from his brow before double checking his handy work and looking below him.

The Goblins had now pushed back the Kobolds, taking over the gate area completely as they tried to cram in as many of them as possible, forcing the Kobolds back with the increase in numbers.

"Kill all of them!" The Hobgoblin shouted, commanding his troops to attack as he smashed a group of Kobold warriors out of the way with his club, killing them with one blow before he charged ahead into the gates.

"If we don't stop them here the village will fall..." One of the Kobold captains said, not seeing any other way they could stop the Goblins now that Kolu had fallen.

However, above all of them Blake was about to hatch his plan, finally finishing the preparation as he looked down.

"Here we go!" Blake yelled, jumping from the stalactite he was hanging onto and swinging from the spider thread he had created like spiderman.

The spider thread was connected to all of the stalactites that Blake had chipped away at with his sword, leaving them hanging by a thread.

With Blake putting all of his weight into pulling on his thread while he swung from the stalactites, it was enough to pull them loose, dropping them down toward the battle below one by one as Blake swung for his life.

"We can't hold them any longer!" One of the Kobold warriors shouted, trying his best to defend against the Goblins.

"The village is lost!" Another cried.

The first stalactite suddenly crashed into the middle of the Goblin hoard, smashing into the ground as it crushed the Goblins under its weight, alerting the Goblins to the rest of the stalactites falling from above.

"Look out!" The Goblins squawked as more of the stalactites crushed the Goblins, causing the very ground of the dungeon to shake from the force, kicking up a huge amount of dust and debris blinding everyone to the after math of what had just happened.