Lewis felt a thrill rush through his body as he sprinted back towards the group of attacking goblins, the wind whizzing past his face and the ground blurring beneath him, a testament to his newfound strength. But along with his significantly enhanced body, his mind was just as clear and able to know that he couldn't push too hard or he would unravel his body, the feeling akin to riding a speeding motorbike down a bumpy road with no jacket or helmet, a single bad move away from disaster.
Learning from his previous mistake, he didn't utilize his boosted mental power to better control the minute actions of his body, preferring to focus primarily on his general movements and running, hoping to avoid damaging his body as much as possible while in his strengthened state.
It only took a few seconds before he came barreling back into the main fight, all the other members of the party sticking to their roles as they attempted to slay the smaller goblins. A feat that appeared harder than expected, as these creatures were hardly the clumsy and uncoordinated beings depicted in fiction, three of the green monsters instead dancing around the two front warriors, using their smaller stature to their advantage and trying to bait them into slipping up and exposing their backs, the occasional arrow flying from the treeline to try and catch them off guard.
Meanwhile, the group was fending off a dozen more of the creatures as they performed drive-by attacks, the many goblins forcing the others to stick together in a defensive circle as the creatures rushed by with blades slashing, trying to inflict damage on the move, but never staying long enough or retreating to the same spot twice to avoid being caught.
It reminded Lewis of a net of bees, the creatures moving and attacking in unpredictable patterns but somehow never overlapping or getting in each other's way. It's almost like they had practiced this sort of thing beforehand and were scarily effective. Currently, only two goblins have been slain, one by an arrow to the neck and the other by Lue's daggers, the native american having caught one of them off guard by his formidable speed when it had tried to cut at him.
Many of the soldiers, including Patch, had several cuts all over their lower bodies from where the creatures had slashed them with their small swords, the weapons about the size of a large dagger and made of something other than steel, it appeared to be some sort of black crystalline material with a smooth texture, even the lightest scratch able to draw blood, the creature only needing to stay on the move as the cuts accuilated.
Matt was still protecting the group with his shield, having tried to hit the speeding creatures with fireballs, but the spell was too slow for it to land. It was clear that everyone was getting more and more frustrated by the speedy goblins, with Jonny's sword swings becoming wilder and less effective with every time he swung and missed, the creature cackling as they ducked and slipped out of the blade's path, running circles around the warrior and inflicting even more lacerations on his thighs and legs.
It seemed that this was what the goblins had planned: to whittle them down until they made a mistake, acting rashly to catch one of the goblins, at which point the creatures would pounce on the overextension and savage their prey, repeating that tactic until none remained. And it seemed their first target was a soldier that recieved a bad cut on his thigh that was gushing blood, the soldier one of the ones that had appeared very reluctant to use his system given weapon and had mostly just sat quietly while the others were testing out their new abilites, his sword flying in a crude arc and utterly missing the goblin that had just sliced him, his kneejerk reaction to the attack having caused him to step out of line of the group and left him brefly exposed while also injured, three goblins jumping at him with blades bared as the soldier realized his mistake too late and was beset by slashing blades of obsiden carving into his flesh, the blades stabbing deep this time instead of inflicting glancing blows, his leg giving out as a deep gash was inflicted, his face paling as another slit open his stomach in an instant, blood and intestines falling out from the soldier as he gasped, his eyes rolled up into his head as he collapsed.
Shouts and curses could be heard as the group's formation unravelled, and David, another warrior, ran to help the man, his sword swinging out in desperate motions as he tried to ward off the creatures who were already disappearing, running off in seemingly random directions without ever slowing.
The suddenness and brutality of the scene the warrior had just witnessed had shocked him severely, the man having rushed out before they could even notice, and had his stomach opened the next, the creatures moving too fast for them to keep up. "Medic," David called, looking back at the group where Lee was being shielded by Lue, but as he looked back, he realized he had just made the same mistake as the dying soldier, as two more goblins were rushing straight at him.
His eyes widened, and his heart clenched at the sight; the goblins were too fast for him to avoid. His blade wouldn't be able to swing at both, either, and the others wouldn't have time to reach him before they did, either.
But just as he braced himself for those blade daggers to peirce his flesh, a figure suddenly appeared, moving at a speed superior to that of the goblins, crashing into the first like a speeding car, his fist shooting out in a blur and impacting the knife weilding creature's neck with a siknening sound, its head lolling at an unnatural angle as it was flung sideways with it's head bent ninety-degrees. For the first time, the goblin's rhythm seemed to have been broken as the second goblin stopped running and started incomprehensibly as its dead friend and the new arrival. But it's moment of confusion cost it as a kitchen knife stabbed into its chest and pierced its heart, the last thing it saw was the wide grin of the man that had slain it before it could even react.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 2(+3 points awarded)
Lewis felt ecstatic at how easy killing these goblins was with his boosted strength, not even having needed to use his knife on the first one, spiritual alignment giving him all the power he needed to make quick work of them. Still, he hid a wince as he felt the bones in his hand groan from the pressure of his own strikes, his body struggling to withstand the power he was able to dish out. Luckily, he knew exactly what he wanted to spend these level-up points on, and it wasn't more speed or strength; instead, he opened his status window and assigned all three points to constitution, bringing it to 10.
Immediately, a sense of solidity flooded him as his skin and muscles hardened, the strain he was feeling in his body fading, replaced with a new rush of power as he found his strength and speed rising even more, his body now able to harness even more of his spell's power as he was filled with a rush of power that sought to be released, his spell seeming to click in place inside him, like it had been porly attached before but was now more fermly inplace as it flooded him with its power.
Spell: Spiritual alignment has reached Level 2
Now overflowing with power, Lewis moved even faster than before, his body no longer seeming to strain under the weight of his speed as he dashed around the soldiers at the wide-eyed goblins that now hesitated as he approached. A few moments later, his fist shot out again, narrowly missing the creature as it unexpectedly ducked and slipped out of the way, but moved too slow to avoid Lewis a second time as his knife slid across its back and cut a wide gash diagonally down its back, the creature letting out a high pitched noise as it fell to the ground, Lewis bringing his foot down atop the screaming goblins head with enought force to crack its skull, its scream being cut short as it was pounded into the dirt, a kill notification confirming its death.
While Lewis was distracted, two more had tried to jump him from behind, but he turned and faced them before they could strike. One of the goblins leaped toward his face with its obsidian knife poised, while the other kept to the ground. But with his increased speed, not only could Lewis move faster, but his reflexes had also increased. With barely a moment's thought, Lewis ducked down, avoiding the leaping goblin, while he swept out with his leg, catching the other one in the side and sending it flying with some broken ribs, the creatures appearing to be made of fragile glass to him now, his body even moving fast enought to get back up when the leaping goblin had passed above him and slashed out with his knife, the airborne creature unable to react as the blade slammed into the side of its chest and cut a third into its body before Lewis felt the steel of his kitchen knife snap. He yanked it back, only to find himself holding the knife's black handle, the steel blade still lodged in the goblin's chest as it hit the ground, a kill notification appearing, but Lewis was more concerned with his broken blade.
It wasn't his best kitchen knife; that one was still stuck inside the body of that large rat on his apartment floor, but this knife had kept him alive until now, allowing him to reach the integration portal in the first place and allowing him to survive the wave of primavendy. It was hardly some fantastic weapon he had now lost, but he still felt a pang of sadness at seeing it broken.
Lewis knew he was still more than strong enough in his current state to fight these goblins barehanded; he had already killed one that way, and the one he kicked away was writhing on the ground with a dent in its side from where he had hit it. Still, he never wanted to be a close-range fighter, preferring to keep his foes at a distance, so he preferred the expedient nature of a knife compared to the drawn-out nature of fighting barehanded.
Suddenly realizing he had the perfect solution to fix this conundrum, he dropped the knife handle and grabbed the sleek black blade of the goblin he had just killed, giving it a glance before strawling over to where the injured goblin lay cluthing its side, swinging the bladed downward toward at it's head, the black blade sinking straight through its forehead, parting flesh and bone with an ease that suprised Lewis, the blade nearly dissapearing entirly into the gobins head. Luckily, he had stabbed with much less force than when he wielded his blunt kitchen knife; if not, the black blade might have fully disappeared inside the creature's head and would have been a pain to retrieve, like when he stabbed the goblin mage.
With his new dagger in hand the the momentum of the fight shifting, he rushed towards the closest goblin, the attacking creatures, realizing Lewis had already killed some of their own, they were wary of getting too close to him. He still caught up to another of the small green-skinned creatures, swinging his new blade and severing the goblin's head entirely. The remaining goblins immediately tried to run upon seeing that, but the group of soldiers weren't standing by idly as this all happened, seizing the opportunity to turn the tables as they slaughtered the suddenly uncoordinated and panicking goblin, Patch bysecting one while Lue slit the throat of another, the previously denfensively positioned group spaning out to encircle the creatures and cut off their escape route, systematicly slauthering the creatures.
In under half a minute, the tide had turned, and all the attacking creatures were dead. Lewis himself was unable to slay any more, but he wasn't too disappointed since he felt as though he was now the strongest member of the group with his new discoveries about his spiritual alignment spell. The fact that these goblins were all around level 5 means they provided decent experience and TP, he was already at 82% EXP to his next level, which he also planned to put into constitution.