The group silently entered the underground cavern, Matt providing illumination as a fireball hovered in his palm and provided them with enough light to spot the signs carved into the rock walls. For some reason, the goblins had drawn an X on any tunnel that wasn't part of the main path, all of them either leading to dead ends or winding into distant passages that lead to random places, often with far smaller tunnel walls or even sheer drops.
The group explored many of the X-marked passages as they plotted and schemed along the way. Admittedly, it was mostly Patch doing the plotting and scheming, but the others also occasionally chimed in.
The idea was quite simple. Since there were too many goblins to face head-on, they would use the winding tunnels to their advantage, certain paths being too narrow for multiple people to pass at once, allowing them to funnel the enemy to them in a steady stream.
It seemed that they got lucky with killing those goblins, as none of the others came through the tunnels while they scoped it out.
"Alright, we stick to the plan," Patch said, all of them nodding as they all split up, Matt and Patch going down one passage while Jonny and Lue moved further back into the tunnel, slipping into side tunnels off the main path. As for Lewis, he rolled his shoulders and grinned.
Time to break some heads.
Lewis started walking towards the main cavern, a grin plastered on his face, for what was to happen next.
Lewis had never delighted in violence, having been on the receiving end plenty of times; he didn't wish to inflict pain on others, but killing these green creatures didn't bother him in the slightest. For starters, they were a monster race that would attack them on sight and had already killed someone, but the real reason he smiled was due to the rush of power he felt as his muscles tensed and contracted.
After a lifetime of powerlessness, true freedom and strength became intoxicating, and he would gladly kill these creatures to ensure he survives and grows stronger.
He had deactivated his boosting spell when the fight was over, so its cooldown should have ended by now, especially with that last level up increasing his toughness and recovery speed, but he didn't activate it right away, preferring to wait for the right moment.
Since these goblins seemed to have only invested points in speed, their bodies could be broken with his normal strength alone. The boosting skill would primarily help him sharpen his mind and senses as he enacted his part of the plan. The main tunnel leading to the wide-open cavern was more spacious than the rest and offered no cover, so he didn't even bother to move stealthily; instead, he ran right for the closest group of goblins gathered around a bone and fur hut, the goblins bashing away at the obsidian stones and carving them into shape.
He broke out into a sprint, the sound of his loud footsteps being masked by the general noise of the working goblins, giving Lewis time to reach the first group of carvers and unleash carnage. The creatures called out in surprise as his fist and blade cut them down without mercy, his aim not as precise as in previous fights since he had yet to activate his boosting spell, but any damage he dealt was either lethal or debilitating regardless. The goblins were all sitting in a rough circle and were entirely unprepared for him, so despite them having an edge in speed over him currently, most failed to react in time.
You have slain Goblin lvl 3 (+1 TP)
You have slain Goblin lvl 4 (+1 TP)
[...]
You have slain Goblin lvl 3 (+1 TP)
None of these goblins was above level four; these creatures definitely seemed weaker than the others, but their shouts and cries had attracted the attention of the entire goblin tribe, all eyes turning towards him as fifty goblins charged Lewis with a chorus of battle cries, the goblins waving black daggers around, making for a rather intimidating sight. But Lewis tried not to pay them much attention, instead using this brief window to focus on his mana detection and locate any spellcasters among the goblins.
Almost immediately, he found what he was looking for: a potent source of fire mana building within the goblins' ranks. It felt different from what he had sensed before, like the magic didn't really have a structure but was simply being charged up, like water filling a bottle. But he didn't have time to dwell on it further as the first goblins had reached him, their daggers poised to strike. Time was up; Lewis activated spiritual alignment and moved.
However, he didn't move towards the small goblin army, instead turning tail and running back out of the chamber, the speedy goblins right behind him. Despite how strong he had become, there was absolutely no way in hell he was going to stand his ground against more than fifty angry green goblins with blades strong enough to cut him with ease, despite his increased toughness. He was just a distraction, as Lewis is the only one of the group who could outrun these quick gremlins.
The creatures seemed emboldened by his retreat, not realizing they were being baited as they entered the tunnels and were immediately forced to slow their movements, forced into the tighter quarters. Lewis was still keeping an eye out for that buildup of fire mana he had sensed, but the goblin responsible seemed to be somewhere in the back of their ranks and wasn't yet visible to him.
After several of the goblins had run past some side tunnels, a sudden fireball appeared out of nowhere and engulfed one of the creatures in an instant, the goblin shrieking as it thrashed around, the momentum of the horde coming to a halting stop as they looked around in confusion, a sword appearing from the other side as Patch emerged from the opposite side, his blade clearly decapitating two of the creatures before they could react.
With the first dozen goblins to enter the tunnels disoriented and confused, Lewis stopped running and came charging back, his blade piercing flesh and severing necks as he slaughtered the creatures, several goblins dying in moments, the rest bumping into each other as the goblins blocked up the tunnel with their bodies, the ones at the back unaware of what just happened.
With their numbers falling, the three men performed a fighting retreat as Matt launched fireballs into the group, the goblins all packed together and guaranteeing a kill with each cast, while Lewis stopped any of them from getting too close by cutting them down before they could reach the two others. Patch was not able to keep up with the goblins, so he mainly finished off the injured ones that Lewis would leave behind.
The three of them fought like this for half a minute, until their fighting retreat brought them to a cross-section of tunnels where Jonny and Lue jumped out, the two men engaging the middle of the remaining goblin group, the disruption making the creatures hesitate between the enemies behind and those in front, allowing Lewis and the others to swoop in and wipe the floor with the creatures, Matt's fireballs flying out constantly and Lewis's superhuman speed and strength meaning none of the front group survived as they killed their way to Jonny and Lue.
Once again reunited, the five of them had decimated three-quarters of the goblins in these tunnels when Lewis felt his spider senses tingle, a sudden shift informing him of the return of the fire mana he had sensed earlier, this time right in front of him.
Looking ahead at the final goblin group, he noticed one of them wasn't clutching a dagger but a wooden staff with a red ruby, much like the spell stone he had found on the corpse of that goblin mage. He instantly knew what was about to happen as he rushed forward at the staff-wielding goblin just as it leveled the instrument towards them.
"GET DOWN!" He called, activating [Anti-magic mantle] as the staff glowed a bright red, and a stream of flames erupted from the stone at the top.
His eyes widened as the fireball he had expected appeared in the form of a jet of fire that wouldn't just engulf him but everyone behind him as well. Even with his anti-magic mantle, there was no way to stop all the flames from getting past him.
In the brief moment he had before the flames reached him, with his mind whirling, he reached into his mana pool, noticing the flow of mana all around his body from his active skill, and pushed, forcing more mana into the spell, a feeling of resistance meeting him as he tried to force the skill to expand the size of his mantle. Fear gripped him as he pushed harder, his enhanced mind giving him just enough of an edge to overpower the restrictive feeling as he felt his mana gush out from him, expanding far beyond the bounds of his body as a dark cloud formed in his mana detection, blocking the entire width of the tunnel right as the flames struck, the scene like fire colliding with water, as the roaring torrent of fiery death was smothered and extinguished, the flames only lasting a few moments inside of his expanded anti-magic mantle before vanishing altogether.
Lewis cried out from the effort of holding such a massive anti-magic field around himself, the feeling of his body breaking apart as power gushed out of him at a speed and quantity beyond what he should be able to handle, a feeling like something deep inside of him was straining as he was forced to endure the flames, the heat reaching him even at the center of the anti-magic field, the fires more than enough to burn them all to death if they reached.
But just as Lewis felt his mana reach its limit and his cloud of anti-magic shrank, the flames also lessened drastically until they disappeared altogether, Lewis collapsing to his knees as he deactivated his skill, a feeling of utter exhaustion overcoming him along with a series of new notifications that he had been ignoring since the fight began.
Not yet, you can't stop now. Must keep going. He told himself, his mind screaming at his body to move as he shakily got to his feet, the ten or so remaining goblins looking at him with fear and horror as he rose, with only a few minor burns on his body that were rapidly healing into red patches as he grasped the obsidian blade and waited for the goblins to approach, not trusting himself to be able to stay upright if he tried walking.
But it seemed his massacre of their kin and the fact that he survived a hugely devastating spell seemed to make the creatures lose their courage as they backed up, refusing to approach Lewis anymore. Even the goblin mage was wide-eyed as he stumbled back, his staff having lost all trace of mana, the goblin not seeming to be able to recharge it right away. Lewis had assumed that the fire mana he had sensed was a fireball spell, but the spell stone they had seen couldn't hold mana, simply discharging it in the form of a fireball when a certain amount was fed into it. This goblin's staff, however, seemed to possess some sort of reservoir for the fire mana, as it acts more like a flamethrower than anything else, meaning it doesn't require the ability to shape the magic into a projectile and can just unleash the attuned mana by itself in a devastating jet of burning heat.
But right as the goblins appeared to be about to run, a fireball flew past Lewis and slammed into one of the creatures, Lue also appearing as his concealed form slashed down with an obsidian dagger and stabbed another. Lewis felt so spent that he could only watch as the others attacked with full force, the goblins turning to run away as the last handful rushed out of the tunnels. The group didn't follow, even as the goblin mage ran away, instead looking at Lewis when he collapsed to his knees again, breathing hard.
"Lewis, Lewis, what happened? Did you get burnt?" Matt asked, running over to his side and checking his body.
"No, it's fine; I just used a bit too much mana." He answered, trying not to move as he felt every muscle in his body ache, but what really scared him was that feeling of strain deep within him, what he assumed to be his spirit having been overdrawn. What concerned him was that it was getting worse, the feeling of holding something heavier than he could manage, and feeling his arms lose strength. If it was indeed his spirit, this was likely caused by his still active spiritual alignment spell, but he was afraid to turn it off, unsure if that would make this worse, as he would lose the boost it provided and weaken him significantly, while already feeling pretty damn weak right now already.
Feeling that weight within him deepen, he bit his lip and closed his eyes, deactivating spiritual alignment.