A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Eldrian and his party continued to tread through the caves in this manner. Killing all the small goblin parties they came across. It took them quite some time before they found a larger group.

Making sure that they did not show through the 'door' towards this room, everyone carefully looked inside of it. Having dispelled their light source as soon as they had heard some sounds. These sounds were not fighting, but rather the occasional metal hitting stone.

Inside the room, they all saw a large group of goblins, the largest so far. The room itself was spacious, but the bodies littering it and the goblins looting made it look cramped. Other than the entrance Eldrian and the rest were looking through, there were four more.

The goblins looting the others were all injured and they easily numbered over the hundred. Some flames from fire spells allowed the group to see inside. Surprisingly the goblins maintained these fires, moving the bodies of goblins they had already looted to provide it more fuel.

The reason for them doing this was not because they needed the light. Goblins could see just fine in the dark. Rather they were doing this because they wished for the light to shine on the things they found. Everyone knew that a rusty sword was much more valuable when it shined. If it shine only at some angles then it was not great. If it always shone, then it was great. While if it never shone then it was terrible, something even goblins would throw away.

'Should I run in?' Cephaphyr asked Eldrian, who actually considered it. He did not want to act just yet, this group being a bit too big. He was afraid they might be overrun. But he also could not allow them to simply group with another group. He had realized with time that there seemed to be at least three different groups.

The shamans and goblin knights of each group having some type of decorative piece to indicate which group they were part of. So far they had killed five goblin groups, through which Eldrian had gained this intel.

Looking in again, Eldrian scanned everything with observe.

A tier 5 shaman, six Tier 5 goblins knights, and around a hundred more normal goblins. This was far too many for them to comfortably take on. As he was pondering, he heard some footsteps echo through the caves.

A few seconds later he saw Vivian rushing into the room they were waiting at. Behind her were three more goblin knights who seemed to be part of the same group.

Eldrian cursed as he saw this, preparing Frost Needle. 'Go for that one.' Eldrian said to Cephaphyr, mentally pointing towards the shaman. Right as he said this Cephaphyr charged out, Eldrian right behind. Causing the rest of their party to be left shocked.

To make sure they were not discovered the rest did not look into the cave, allowing Eldrian to decide what they would do. Him acting without communicating with them was strange, something he had not done once before. Thus they knew something unexpected had happaned.

Eldrian and Cephaphyr stepping into the room did not cause a scene, most of the goblins focused on Vivian. Eldrian used this to his advantage, sending Frost Needle towards one of the goblin knights chasing Vivian.

The goblin managed to react just in time to look at the piece of ice flying towards it. As it tried to dodge, Eldrian manipulated the spell to follow the goblins' actions. Causing it to land true, in the goblin's chest. The goblin, while not dead, stopped running. Stalling to try and recover from the shock as the spell had pierced his chest.

Eldrian knew this was not enough, two more goblin knights were right behind Vivian and she seemed exhausted. But he could not do much more, the large number of normal goblins stopping him from just rushing over.

The shaman started reacting as soon as it saw the spell, but before it could cast its first spell Cephaphyr had reached it. Having jumped and soared over the goblin horde.

This forced the shaman to focus on defending itself, along with its six bodyguards.

Seeing that the shaman would not be able to cast spells Eldrian felt relieved, storing his arming sword and the small round shield he had been using into his inventory. Instead, he took out Gray and cast Drive on himself as he slashed at the nearest goblins who had not managed to react yet. Only a second or two had passed since Eldrian's first actions.

"Run!" Eldrian shouted as he slashed through the nearest goblin, cutting the poor fellow in half. He did not care, he only moved forward. Continuing to attack those nearest to him.

As his second attack landed the rest of the party finally caught up and reacted. Sabrea charged at the goblins to Eldrian's left. This simple act stopped the goblins from circling behind Eldrian while also stopping them from reaching those behind her.

Terlas was next, coming through the entrance he fired a shot directly towards the hurt goblins knight who Eldrian had hit. His attack causing it to falter even more, near death. Before he could finish it off, one of the other goblin knights reacted. Grabbing a nearby goblin as a shield he blocked the next arrows.

Margit reacted last, mostly due to the time she needed to cast her spell. As she entered the room she threw it out, killing around five goblins in a ball of fire.

On Cephaphyr's side, he was struggling to kill the shaman. He had no real way of attacking other than running someone over or ramming his horn into them. The shaman made sure to stay against the wall, stopping Cephaphyr from doing either. While the goblin knights were trying their best to land their attacks.

Cephaphyr had quickly learned that while their swords might not be able to cut him, their strength did manage to hurt him. Yet when he tried to focus on the goblin knights they would also act as cowardly as the shaman. While the shaman would then be able to cast spells at Cephaphyr, which really hurt. Far more than the hits from the knights.

'Great job!' Eldrian shouted to Cephaphyr as he jumped back to avoid the thrust of a spear. As soon as he stabilized his footing he went back in, killing some more goblins. Who, by now, we're becoming few in number. Less than thirty seconds in, the group all going all in to kill the weaker ones first.

His biggest concern had been the shaman and his extra knights, luckily it seemed like Cephaphyr was totally able to keep them busy. While he was not able to kill them, it was not required.

Vivian herself was struggling against the one goblin knight still free to attack her. If she had been in her best condition, or even half, she would have been able to easily kill it through far better technique and weapon. Alas, she was not even at a tenth of her best condition.

Luckily the spell from Eldrian and Terlas's follow-up had basically taken one of the three chasing her out. While Terlas now kept the other busy, but even so she was slowly losing ground and gaining more and more wounds.

Screw it! Terlas thought, taking out one of the arrows Cephaphyr had made. He had hoped to not use them, but he could see that if he did not, then Vivian would not make it. She was far past her limit, clearly too tired to even contend against one goblin knight until they managed to reach her.

As he fired that arrow, the goblin knight seemed to realize that something was different. Dodging to the side it avoided the attack, which caused the already injured one to finally lose its life.

Terlas did not let up, waiting for the right time when the two goblins aligned again, or when he could get a shot at the one only paying attention to Vivian. He waited for either of these to happen, so he could end their little fight.

Eldrian from his side managed to see what was going on, greatly relieved that Terlas had managed to help Vivian. Cutting into the last goblin he went from using Drive to Accelerate, rushing through the room to reach and save Vivian.

As he did one of the shaman's bodyguards saw this and realized that they would lose if he allowed Eldrian to come to the female's help. He rushed from Cephaphyr towards Eldrian, one less goblin knight not a big difference to Cephaphyr who was only struggling in killing them. He was not really taking much damage, though he would say that he took a great deal if asked.

Eldrian saw the knight charging at him, but he did not slow down. Believing a three versus two was better than a two versus one. Especially when there was also an archer helping the two.

Even so, he did not manage to reach Vivian. But that did not mean he would not do all he could to help. At the last moment, just as the new goblin knight swinging its sword at him, Eldrian dodged and cast Frost Needle.

The angle was far off and the goblin knight thought he had succeeded. This quickly turned out to be wrong as Eldrian's spell suddenly turned in the air, injuring the knight who had been blocking the arrows.

Completely caught off guard by the 90 degrees turn the spell had done.

Terlas, seeing this, reacted quickly to finish the goblin knights off.