Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

Lyra looked to the crowd that albeit was silent, it was clearly anxious. “Both Citro and I will be joining these two attack forces to help prevent any loss of life and deal with the warlords.”

The crowd settled down at this statement, Lyra could even hear a few people say to their friends “We’ll be fine with them”.

“The two locations we believe the warlords are at are located at opposite sides of the cavern that we have explored. Both locations show signs of digging and we do not know how large their numbers are. So I expect you all to listen to your commander’s every command as it will be in your best interest.”

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Arthur thought back to the day before as he marched with his teammates, he thought about Lyra’s speech in particular and how both she and CItro will be taking the lead of a force each. Arthur looked up at Citro who was leading the team, only hoping that Citro was a competent commander and a skilled fighter.

‘I would have preferred Lyra to be my commander but you can’t always pick and choose what happens. Even then she went to the larger camp so she most likely wants to mitigate casualties by killing goblins before they kill anyone else.’

Arthur also thought back to Cassia telling him what a demon is. “A demon is a creature that comes from deep underground. We don’t really know how they get out but it usually involves evil gods that want to see large amounts of chaos destruction. There are three major categories for demons that define their major abilities. You first have the brutes, they are very powerful physical fighting machines that rely on their physical capabilities. Then you have the succubi/incubi, most of their danger comes from their illusion magic that they can use to alter the perception of their victims. And finally there are the warlocks, warlocks are powerful spell casters that use almost exclusively combat focused magic.

Arthur sighed. ‘Her description was quite... scripted and she probably doesn't really know what they are like, I can only hope they don’t encounter one of those things.’

After an hour of marching the team led by Citro arrived in close proximity to the camp of the second warlord. Everyone put out their torches or magic and hid amongst the large tree-like fungus to watch what the goblins were doing.

They saw a group of goblins rush up to a taller goblin that wore the best armour that they could see. The armour was made of actual iron unlike those of his subordinates who at best had either bronze or copper based on the colour, even then most wore leather. Arthur could not tell at this distance.

The group appeared to be telling their superior something important that clearly angered him that resulted in him stabbing his subordinate several times with his spear.

The other goblins were clearly scared by this display of needless violence quivered in fear as the leader shouted commands to his subordinates. He yelled so loud that even Arthur could make out a few of his words even at such a distance. It was something along the lines of “If you return to me without their dead bodies or die trying I will kill you very terribly”. It likely sounded far more intimidating in the goblins language.

Seeing an opportunity to strike while the goblins' morale was low, Citro spread word to the team leaders who in turn told the rest of their teams.

“I don’t suppose we will be getting a better opportunity than now.” Hambel whispered amongst the group.

“No, I don't think we will.” Arthur felt it was a bit risky but it was their best shot to break the enemies chain of command before they could mount a proper defence.

Within a few minutes the entire team was in position ready to attack. The first attack would be with everyone that was either an archer or a mage. They would all launch their strongest attack in a volley to deal a large amount of damage to the goblins visible and allow the melee fighters to get close without getting hit.

Arthur was placed in the mage/archer group due to his hydromancy skill reaching level ten allowing him to conjure water from the moisture in the air or with just mana if he needed too.

The mages and archers were up on a giant tree fungus to give them a clear line of sight to the goblins. Upon seeing a torch light up off to their right they all let loose their strongest attack. Arthur poured more than half of his mana into a water whip resulting in a large shard like form of water that sailed through the air. Unfortunately for Arthur his aim still needed work so instead of going through the skull of the highest ranking goblin he instead hit the right shoulder through a gap in the breastplate and the vambraces. The wound wasn’t very deep thanks to the leather he wore underneath but it was enough to cause him to drop his weapon.

Several goblins were killed in the initial barrage and the ones who were either not targeted yet or wounded were demoralized. Without a formation they were unable to form a proper defence against the attack, and with the melee fighters joining the fray they stood no chance.

The last to survive was the commander and with his wound and lack of a weapon Citro had no difficulty in beheading him with his short sword.

The mages and the archers climbed down the fungus and regrouped with the rest of the team to enter what was likely the warlord's wannabe throne room.

Citro picked up the spear that the highest ranking goblin held. It was made of iron but it wasn’t actually refined, more like it was formed out of raw iron ore. ‘They must have a mage that is very skilled in geomancy to do something like this. I can only hope that the geomancer is not also the warlord.’

Citro noticed that someone had wounded the commander with magic and approached the mages and archers asking who did it. “Excuse me, which one of you was it that wounded the goblins commander.”

“I did sir.” Arthur raised his hand as he walked up to Citro.

Citro handed Arthur the spear of raw iron. “Here take this, you earned it.”

“But I don’t use spears.”

“Then sell it or give it to someone else, it's yours to do what you wish. You disabled the commander after all.”

After a short rest outside the entrance of the cave and no goblin counter attack Citro rallied his platoon and entered the cave with them in tow. The cave was dark and only four people could stand side by side, resulting in a formation four people wide.

Several people carried torches or used magic to illuminate their soundings as for some reason there were no light sources. There were a few of those glowing crystals that were in the rest of the fortress but these ones were dark, most likely they were out of whatever they used as a power source.

After about two or three minutes of walking the platoon entered a large open room where they could spread out. They couldn’t see most of the walls but they expected the goblin warlord to be somewhere nearby.

The whole time Citro was remaining vigilant but so far he hadn't seen anything. Suddenly the crystals on the walls all started glowing illuminating the entire room. Most of the room was empty but at the very end was a large obsidian black creature, the creature was roughly eight feet tall and had a very slim body bearing a resemblance to a stag with a cloak made from rock sediments that were layered like scales. The resemblance to stags was even more apparent with the head that also had two large antlers.

As Arthur looked at the creature he could feel his body, mind and soul all in unison begging him to turn around and run away from that thing. ‘Is that a demon? What sort of vile being released that thing down here.’

The rest of the platoon also felt the same fear, but their training allowed them to keep their resolve and focus. The demon quickly raised its hands and brought them together, this caused the entrance the platoon came from to be blocked off by the surrounding rock trapping everyone inside.

“Its a warlock!” Citro shouted, drawing his short sword and raising his shield. “Mages and archers stay out of its line of sight, everyone else swarm it and don’t give it a chance to use magic on us!”

As if the demon could understand what Citro said it took a boulder and formed it into a large staff that it could swing with ease given its size.

The fight itself was unlike anything Arthur had experienced at this point. He rushed behind a boulder while all the melee fighters ran towards the demon. They were led by Citro and the three leaders of each of the teams that formed the platoon, Aelia, Saturio, and a heavily armoured dwarf who wielded a warhammer. Behind them was everyone who had a shield who were followed by everyone else.

The archers and mages including did their best to lend support but the demon used two floating shields made from stone it took from the walls of the room to protect itself and with every swing of its staff it knocked members of the platoon around, a few were not even getting back up. Arthur didn’t know if it was because they were dead or if they were just knocked out.

The situation wasn’t looking good for the platoon but the demon wasn’t doing all that well either. The mana cost to actively maintain two shields made of stone wasn’t cheap, and needing to constantly move them around and repair them after they took damage made it only worse. Eventually it needed to stop using one of its shields, but at this point it had taken out a good third or so of the invaders so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Right?

That wouldn’t have been all that much of a problem if Cito and the team leaders were not all still standing.

When the mages and archers saw the demon drop a shield they launched a volley of attacks. The demon had to use its remaining shield to block all the attacks or it would suffer a lot of damage, it wouldn’t outright kill it but it would have been long before it happened afterwards.

Unfortunately the four leading the charge made sure to take the opportunity and strike as hard as they could. Although the demon did block both Aelia and the dwarf’s attacks Citro and Saturio were each able to land a solid blow.