CHAPTER 32: WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!

"Lloyd! Where are you?!" Isobel shouted from... somewhere. She’d used her illusion magic to not only hide herself away, but also make it to where her voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere, making it impossible to track her by sound.

"I’m looking for you right now! Give me some kind of sign so I can find you, Isobel!"

"I thought you were a 5-Star Adventurer! You’re supposed to be able to track me with magic or something, right?!"

"I’m a Paladin, not a Ranger! We have completely different skillsets! I have an idea. Why don’t you blast the group here away with that beam attack again! You’ll take out some goblins and show me where you are! Literally killing two birds with, argh!" I shouted, cut off by the sudden onslaught of goblins. One had jumped on my right arm in an attempt to prevent me from using my sword. That, obviously, didn’t

prevent me from punching the creature away with my free hand. Flicking the blood off of my hand, I continued. "One stone..."

"I can’t! I’m too focused on keeping my illusion up! Clear out the goblins here, and we can meet back up!"

Left with no other choice, I did just that. It wasn’t like there were many goblins left around anyway. I cut through the goblins with ease, leaving me alone in the forest clearing with the dead goblins, my bloody sword, and the distant cries of the boss goblin.

"I’m here," Isobel called from behind me. I turned to find her absolutely soaked in blood.

Panicked, I seized her by the shoulders. "Isobel, what happened to you?!"

"I tracked the boss goblin," She admitted, a hesitant look on her face. "I wanted to prove to Lyra that I wasn’t weak and pathetic, but... There were two of them. I got overwhelmed and I ran."

"And the blood...? Are you okay?"

"I’m fine. Tired, but fine. The blood isn’t mine. I used my magic to make them fight one another. The smaller of the two stabbed the larger, but the illusion faded shortly after. Once that happened, the larger goblin who got stabbed charged me with blood gushing out of its belly and..." She gestured herself. "I couldn’t get out of the way in time."

"Isobel, I–" The ground shook once again, that distant roar significantly closer than it had been. "We can talk about this later, Isobel. For now, I need you to hide, okay?"

"I... I-I can help. I’m not an invalid. I can–"

The ground shook even more as a massive figure came charging from the forest.

"Isobel, hide!" I shouted, shoving her out of the way as the ten-foot goblin slammed a massive sword at her.

She thankfully managed to avoid the hit, which I caught with my own sword. I looked up at the creature who glared down at me with a savage look in its eye. The goblin wore oversized leathers and belts like an Adventurer, though I could only assume the clothes themselves were scavenged from the wastelands. The creature roared as we locked eyes, pressing its sword into mine with tremendous force. With a swell of aura, I batted the sword away and kicked the creature back a few feet, making distance between myself and the goblin.

If Isobel weren’t here, this battle would be easy. I’d use Inflict Wounds or a Divine Smite to kill the creature in moments. Because she was, though, those options were closed to me. Inflict Wounds may as well have been an AoE with how strong the shockwave of it was on impact. Divine Smite was no better, the most common result of its use being literal craters. It wasn’t like a simple sword slash or well-placed punch or kick was going to do it, either. No, this goblin was strong.

Unfortunately, the goblin wasn’t just going to wait for me to come up with any solutions. It gathered aura in its body, the effect looking like heat waves on the surface of the sun. I braced for an attack, which came in the form of the creature jumping a few inches off the ground and slamming back down. The result was what may as well have been a goddamn earthquake. I fell flat on my back, which the goblin took advantage of by charging me with unnaturally quick speeds, hammering a fist down on my stomach before I could even recover.

I blasted the creature away with an uncoordinated burst of aura, using the created distance to gather myself. The goblin sneered as it watched me stand to my feet, gathering aura to repeat the same technique. Prepared this time, I jumped in the air in time with the ground-shaking technique, gathering aura in my sword to parry whatever attack came at me.

Except, no attack came. The goblin had run off in another direction, but not mine. Was he running away? Why was he–

"Lloyd!" Isobel cried, the sound coming from the same direction the goblin had run towards. Ah, shit.

"Isobel! I’m–"

A smaller goblin jumped on my arm, followed by another on my opposite arm. More and more goblins piled on top of me as the roar of the boss goblin grew more distant with each passing moment.

I roared, fury boiling in my gut and escaping out of my mouth. As the goblins bit down on my arms and clawed my back, my mind was filled with one singular thought: get to Isobel by any means necessary. With that in mind, I dropped my sword, letting it clatter to the forest floor while I gathered an absurd amount of aura in my body. Isobel wasn’t around. I didn’t need to be mindful of aftershocks. I stretched my arms out as wide as they could go before blasting another uncoordinated shockwave of aura from my body, the sheer force of it turning the goblins to little more than blood sprays and dust. With them gone, I picked my sword back up, gathered aura in my legs, and launched myself towards the goblin boss.