Chapter 29: Chapter 29 – The Siege at Krossa Manor (Krossa Mine XIII)

The stomping of hundreds of feet shook the building to the core before an eerie deafening silence erupted, signalling the arrival of the Goblin host. I turned to the caster, who had ripped a cloth he found in the rubble to pieces before wrapping them around the wounds that remained even after drinking the potion. I wasn’t sure if wrapping his wounds with that dirty cloth would do him any good, but I just let it be.

I felt calling him Caster every time could come across as annoying, “what’s your name?” I asked.

The caster groaned before grunting as if he was trying to tell me I should have asked this earlier, “Lanakis. Why do you ask?” He questioned before finishing with the final bandage.

“Like I said earlier, I’ll be keeping a close eye on you… in order to do that, I will need to add you to my party.” I finished pointing at the system orb that gleamed in its icy blue aura upon my wrist.

“Oh… you mean that.” He pointed at it, “to be honest, I have been curious about it since you first showed it… it would be great to learn more about this… magic.”

“Alright… just don’t get any funny ideas. I can take it away from you in case you start making shady moves. You’ll receive a prompt asking you to accept it… just hurry up.” I warned him. I really didn’t know if that would be the case, but I needed him to think I was in control. I sent him the request.

[Would you like to add Lanakis, Goblin Level 22, Spellcaster Class to join your party? <Y>/N]

Atreyu coughed before interrupting, “Get a move on! They’ll attack any time now! We need to make a quick visit to the hidden armoury to grab a few things.” He finished before grabbing his brother by the shoulder and vanishing through the cobweb-filled bowels of their once-abandoned abode.

Sparky got up, cutting his little rest short, and joined the brothers. I was starting to get the feeling he got along more with Atreyu than myself. That figures, they’re both a bunch of grumpy bastards with self-elevated egos so high they reached the clouds. Fucking jerks!

[Party: 4/6]

[Lanakis, Goblin Level 22, Spellcaster Class has joined your Party. Would you like to give your Party Member a name? Y/<N>]

Giving my party members nicknames was a cool feature of the system, but it was getting rather annoying now with it popping up all the time only for me to click no. I ignored the notification and motioned to Lanakis to get his ass into high gear and get a move on. The warrior who had come down earlier to give us the news had done so equipped with a torch, so he gladly led us through the dusty bowels of the old manor to the surface.

Once we arrived in the courtyard, Ronta and the others had their weapons drawn, waiting for the attack to begin. They were caught off balance when I emerged from the large hardwood entrance with the spell-casting Goblin. The bullish man looked like he was about to charge us with that giant sword, as if the caster had placed a mind-altering spell on us or something, but I put my hand forward to halt his stupidity from causing any damage to our plan. “Relax… he’s with us now,” I explained before shifting my gaze across the courtyard.

Most of the Goblin corpses had been piled up in the corner of the courtyard, and the ones that remained slept in pools of their own blood. Most of the human warriors that had made it this far had done so with minor injuries, but I knew that would soon be changing as the sheer size of the horde beyond the gate was starting to induce a loss of breath.

From what I could tell, we were surrounded with the bulk of the horde directly at the gate. There must have been at least two hundred in total. There were a greater number of larger ones who looked larger than the average human here, minus Ronta.

A large figure stomped and trembled the ground as it pushed the smaller ones out of the way to get to the front before another horn blasted through the air. Its height was greater than the one I had killed at Vern, but this one adorned a body filled with strangely sized pieces of iron that looked like they had been bodged up by a novice blacksmith. I was really starting to hope Lanakis could use that silver tongue of his to talk some sense into them, or we were surely going to be fucked.

Ronta approached me, “Some of them fucking Goblins you convinced turned coat and attacked us. Feg seems like he’s with us for now but the way he keeps twitching, it seems like he’s also having a change of heart… But I doubt that’s going to matter anyway.” He finished pointing at the horde.

“Alright. Just keep your men at the ready,” I commanded before turning to the caster, “You should get to it then.”

Lanakis replied with a quick nod and moved closer to the gate, he pointed the palms of his hands down to the ground casting streams of fire. The push from the spells was enough to lift him into the air. He vectored the thrust to move beyond the barricade and reduced its power when his feet crashed into the dirt directly in front of the chief.

Not bad! Now that sure was an interesting way to utilize the spell, one I hadn’t even thought of. I think it will be some time before I will be able to try such a feat, as my MP pool is still very small when compared to Sparky and this caster.

The chiefs greeted one another like old friends before the convening began. That’s when Atreyu and Artos emerged from the darkness of the manor and marched toward us with Sparky following in their wake.

The brothers were now geared in proper plate armour like the Knights of medieval times. Upon their breastplates were emblems that had been masterfully chiselled to resemble a pickaxe within a shield. This was a family crest of some sort and must have been common amongst the noble families of the human kingdom. Apart from the new shiny armour, Artos also held a gleaming sword that shimmered in the fading sunlight above us. It looked almost as good as the elven sword I had, but I thought mine was still better… but I may be a bit biased, I would need to hold it to see its stats for a fair comparison. Meanwhile, Atreyu also had two shorter swords wrapped around his hips, which looked like a great combo for the rogue ranger.

With the conversation between the chiefs getting heated, I thought it was the best time to get our stats back to where they should be, so I quickly pulled up the Inventory screen to do a quick count on the potions.