Chapter 21: Ch 18 – A battle of endurance

“Haaa…. With this last one, how many goblin and orc groups did we defeat? Isn’t it the tenth?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t count… But I think it was more than ten?” Answers Ricard.

After the first battle, we continued the dungeon invasion and found more groups of goblins and orcs. The further we go, the more orcs and goblins we find in each group. But even with the numbers increasing, Ricard and I are still in good shape. This really seems to be a farming dungeon.

We have been repeating the same procedure for quite some time already. Ricard takes the front and I cast spells from behind. I managed to capture a few more orcs, now I should have five orc bodies. Maybe some goblins too if the Kidnapper captured them during combat, I’m not sure.

“Oh, here they come again! It’s twenty goblins and six orcs this time!” Says Ricard from the front. It’s four goblins and two orcs more than the last pack.

Ricard’s champion rushes to meet the enemy head-on, followed by the two specters. And another battle starts again.

From the repeated battles, we’ve found that the best timing for me to cast Chain Lightning is when the majority of goblins have around half HP remaining. In this way, the damage dealt to both goblins and orcs is maximized with the Shared Voltage triggers. It leaves most goblins stunned, and the damage from the excess damage is accumulated into the orcs, which leaves them at less than 1/4 HP. Low enough for Ricard, the specters, and the skeletons to finish them easily.

So I wait until most goblins are at half HP and cast Chain Lightning. When the lightning shots from my hand, Ricard turns around to look at me and shouts.

“Noooo! Shit! It was too early! There are too many enemies in this pack!”

And sure enough, when the Chain Lighting and the extra lighting jumps from Shared Voltage disappear, there’s still a few goblins doing fine, and what’s worse, not a single of the six orcs is stunned.

Since I generated so much aggro by dealing that amount of damage with a single skill, the orcs and goblins set me as the target. Ignoring the frontline, they start running in my direction.

“Ahhh! Somebody save me!” I shout, imitating a feminine voice the best I can. It’s not like I’m afraid, but I always wanted to find a situation where I could shout it.

“Grrr… Kill me! I’ll never surrender to you!” I say towards the running orcs. Again, with feminine voice. “I’ll rather die than suffer this humiliation!” I always wanted to say this too.

Ricard and the specters try to stop as many orcs and goblins as possible, but even with this, three orcs and two goblins are coming my way.

“Time to earn your keep!” I say to the Demonic Followers.

As soon as the first orc gets close, the three of them pounce on the orc. At the same time, I join the fray with my staff and by casting Cold Blasts.

The first attack I receive is from a goblin. It triggers the Lightning Shield and a blast of electricity shots towards it, leaving it stunned. I have mercy and kill it with the staff, so that it doesn't suffer.

Soon, the rest of goblins and orcs reach us, and a chaotic melee unfolds. The melee is going pretty well, because we overpower them one on one. But there’s a problem: one of the Demonic Followers is being attacked by two orcs, and both have the Bloodlust skill activated because they have less than half HP.

I try to open a path by furiously striking with my staff. As soon as I have enough MP, I cast more Cold Blasts. But by the time I reach the siamese that was alone, the elf half has already died.

Which causes the Demonic Revenge skill from the dwarf half to trigger. A dark aura slowly spreads through the dwarf half, until it completely hides its original appearance. Its stats rise to double its original amount. It currently has more Strength than me without the champion’s buff.

The siamese starts attacking furiously. With the buff and the damage reduction passive, it deals more damage to the orc than the damage it takes in return, even taking into account the orc’s Bloodlust skill.

“Wow, first time I see the skill working, and it’s stupidly powerful! It’s a unit that costs 20 cp but it is dealing the same damage as a 200 cp unit right now!”

Once the siamese kills the first orc, it immediately switches target and starts attacking the next one.

The Demonic Revenge only lasts for five seconds, and you may say that it’s a very short time… But in the middle of combat, five seconds are a lot. By the time the five seconds have passed, the siamese has managed to kill the two orcs.

“Hahaha! A lv 3 40 cp unit (technically two, one unit each half) has managed to kill two lv 7 100 cp units! And they are one of the strongest 100 cp units in melee!” Even if they were at half HP when the battle started, it's still a ridiculous feat.

The most ridiculous part is that the Demonic Swarmer isn’t a unit designed for dungeon invasions, because both its AI and skills are for defending the dungeon, especially in the mushroom areas.

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The battle finishes. By the time I manage to kill the remaining orcs and goblins, Ricard has also killed the rest.

“Fiuu… I need a short rest. Out of MP, and both me and my mobs need some time to recover HP. How are you doing?”

“Well, I could still go. But if we take a break I’ll top-off my HP, EP and MP. So let’s rest.” Says Ricard. “I also need to take care of my junior!”

Is he ever going to stop treating me like a noob? Because I’m not a nob anymore! And it’s getting tiresome…

 

After enough resting, we resume the dungeon invasion. We are now reaching the end of the straight canyon, and we can see a turn in front.

“Get ready, because from here on, the serious part starts.” Says Ricard.

“Serious part? Didn’t you say this was a farming dungeon?”

“And it is, but after this turn the dungeon’s difficulty increases. You can say that the previous part was just the tutorial.”

“Well, if you say so…” I’m not very convinced. But I don’t want to go back, so the only option remaining is moving forward.

“After the turn, we’ll encounter a wooden palisade with watchtowers. I need you to take care of the archers stationed there with your spells. Do it as soon as possible, because the goblin archers use elemental arrows and my specters aren’t very suited against them. If left alone, both specters are going to die pretty quickly.”

“Huh… Ok!” He is the dungeon expert, so I’ll follow his orders for now. And I haven’t admitted him as my superior, ok!? I need to make sure, so you don’t get confused! 

Immediately after turning, I can see the wooden palisade with the watchtowers. And sure enough, there are goblins on top of them.

“Let’s go!” Says Ricard as he starts running towards the palisade. There’s a gate in the middle, protected by several more goblins and orcs. I follow him from behind.

As he gets close, the goblins and orcs rush forward in an unorganized mess. Meanwhile, the goblins from the watchtowers shoot arrows from the top.

Until now, the specters were mostly ignoring the physical damage from all the attacks, and the little damage they took was restored with the Draining Touch skill. But now that the arrows have elemental damage, every time one strikes a specter, it takes a significant amount of damage. Every time, I can see a chunk of their HP bar going away.

*Bwoooooo!* An enemy is blowing a horn somewhere. I can’t see it from where I stand.

As Ricard, or should I say the BaldSage?, keeps the ground units busy, I follow his orders and attack the ranged goblins.

I cast one Cold Blast after another. Chain Lightning isn’t suitable here because the goblins are far from one another, at most two of them in the same watchtower.

Unlike what happens with the elfs, which usually fall from the trees once immobilized, the goblins stand on flat ground, so they don’t fall. It takes between two and three Cold Blasts to kill each goblin.

*Bwoooo!* The horn sounds again. *Bwooo!* After the third time, the wooden door opens and a lot more goblins and orcs pour through it, immediately joining the fray.

“Hahaha! Come! Come to me, you weaklings! I’ll exterminate you all, and your souls will feed my legions!” I hear Ricard shouting while surrounded by all sides in the huge melee.

There’s so many enemies that some of them slip through the frontline and come in my direction. But there are two Demonic Followers to protect me, and the enemies come alone, so it’s not an issue. When a new enemy reaches us, the previous one is already dead. When one gets close enough to us, we jump on it like voracious hyenas and swiftly ‘eat’ it.

By the time I finish killing all the goblin archers, there’s already a mountain of corpses near the gate.

Still alive, Ricard’s champion keeps killing everything in its sword’s path. With almost every strike, a new corpse is created. And with the help of the Soul Feast skill, he and his undead are recovering from the wounds suffered during the battle.