NOVEL NEXT 31. Ambush and Aura Training
A dozen goblins came around a bend in the road, one slightly larger than the rest. They walked swiftly, looking side to side, searching the edges of the path.
Miu started it. Arrows sprouted from faces of three of the goblins in as many seconds. Eloisss struck next, sliding into the middle of the pack and ripping the throat from one, while slicing into two others at the same time.
It was over in seconds, except for the larger goblin, who leapt back and pulled a horn to his mouth and blew. Another arrow bloomed red in his throat, cutting off the note. He didn’t go down though, just dropped the horn and drew out a long knife, then lunged at Eloisss.
The lamia slithered forward, easily parrying his clumsy attack and cutting him apart. She turned, already drenched with blood.
“Eloisss, you’re awesome, but is it possible to kill goblins without the gore?” Bonny stepped onto the path, the fairy still sitting on her helmet, holding onto her ears. “Triage!”
None of them were injured, as expected. Only Eloisss even got within melee range, but her skill, armor, and hardened scales protected her from most anything the goblins could do. Only exhaustion during a sustained battle, a heavier weapon, or someone with much higher skill could possibly hurt her.
“Was horn a warning, nya?” Miu retrieved her arrows and looked over the bodies for anything useful. The only weapon that wasn’t a club or crude spear, was the knife the biggest goblin had used. It wasn’t great, but she took it anyway.
The fox yipped and ran ahead at Miu’s question, presumably checking for approaching goblins.
“Probably. We shouldn’t stay. How far from the other battle are we?” Bonny checked the bodies for spirits while asking, but only found one coalescing near the biggest goblin. She grabbed it. That made six, counting the five from the battle at the cat Clowder.
“Closse. If more come, we sshould lead them back toward The Oak.”
They continued along the trail, slower, waiting for the fox to return. When she did, they moved off the trail and waited.
The band of goblins was much larger, about 20, though Bonny didn’t stop to count them. There was an obvious leader again, this one riding a boar, in addition to being bigger and stronger.
Miu started again, shooting from cover, killing two and injuring one before they could react.
When the goblins turned and charged, they retreated, Miu continuing to shoot. Eloisss cut down the first few to reach her, then slid sideways and back, retreating without turning away.
The boar riding goblin stayed near the back until about half of the others were down, then pulled out another horn and blew it, a long note. He dropped it and charged at Bonny.
Eloisss intercepted, converging with, and disemboweling the boar as it ran past. It stumbled and threw the big goblin to the ground.
Kanae assisted Miu, by appearing among the remaining goblins and confusing several of them, who turned and started attacking the others.
Bonny retreated, periodically casting triage, to make sure no one was injured. Not sure what else she could contribute.
Eloisss again made short work of the leader, now that he was dismounted.
They grabbed the scale and a knife from him, while Miu retrieved all the unbroken arrows she could find. Then, after verifying none of the others had anything of use, they set off to the west, leaving an obvious trail.
“Create Water!” Bonny cast the tiny rain cloud on Eloisss, to try and rinse off some of the blood and gore.
“Why? Issn’t there ssomething usseful you could do insstead?” Eloisss was not impressed.
Bonny smiled, then giggled, at Eloisss’ expression, taking a moment to relieve stress. Even though she wasn’t killing anything personally, the death and hostility was depressing.
Kanae stood and shifted into a larger version of the fox. She had wide hips and a pudgy belly, clearly not as physically adept as Eloisss or Miu. Her breasts were roughly the same size as Bonny’s, with larger areola, that poked through a large white patch of fur covering her chest. The fur on her legs and arms was black and her three tails were tipped in white.
“Use aura. Bonny.”
“Oh, you are so beautiful, Kanae. You should change more often.” Bonny’s face lit up and she hopped over to hug the fox.
Kanae blushed and shifted back into the smaller four legged form before the bunny got there.
“Hey, that’s not nice.” Bonny pouted while Eloisss and Miu laughed at the exchange. “Use my aura? Isn’t it just on?”
Bonny felt for her aura, sensing that her allies had the courage and loyalty buffs as well as the lust debuff, though it wasn’t hitting them hard at the moment. Probably because of the distraction. Healing was also in affect, and … purify. Bonny moved over near Eloisss and looked hard.
The blood was clotting and washing off under the drizzling rain faster than it should. “Hey, I think it’s working.”
“Sshe meanss intimidation, Bonny. On the goblins.” Eloisss distracted her from her examination.
“Oh, right. Uh, just try pushing it out? Make it stronger?” Bonny thought and tried to cycle her mana like Kanae showed her. It started flowing along a similar internal path, but was very weak without guidance. “Ok, I think I can do that. I’ll have to stay closer to the fight, is that ok?”
"Yess. I will watch you.”
Finally agreed, they settled on a hill, above a thinner section of forest and rested. It would give Miu some range and force the goblins to climb to meet them.
It didn’t take long before another group about the same size as the last found them.
Miu took out about a half dozen and injured several more before they got within Eloisss’ range. Bonny stood and cycled her mana, trying to push the bubble out, inflating and imagining the goblins as insects to be crushed beneath them.
Several of the goblins froze in place, one dropping to the ground. Eloisss slid through them on the way to the leader, leaving them disabled or dead.
Miu and Bonny moved forward. Bonny using a couple of them to cast “Sacrificial Restore!”, before Miu finished them off.
The leader threw something at Bonny before engaging the lamia, after which he didn't last any longer than the previous boss.
Bonny was holding the shield in front of her, but not really paying attention when a clank and vibration reminded her that this was dangerous. The goblin had thrown a knife and she had gotten lucky.
They again retrieved the leader’s knife and scale, as well as Miu’s salvageable arrows, and retreated again.
They repeated it several times, moving closer to The Oak throughout the later afternoon and into evening. Sometimes they had small bands, sometimes slightly larger than the second. Sometimes they blew a warning and sometimes didn’t. Several times, two small bands converged on them at the same time, with multiple leaders.
Bonny continued exercising her aura, sometimes grabbing a goblin to refresh their stamina and exhaustion, but the hours of semi-constant conflict was wearing on all of them.
“Moving slower than last time, nya. Maybe hour left. Less if we run.”
Bonny looked up to see the full moon rising. At least they would still have light. They crouched in a thicket at the top of another slope and waited for the next group.
When it arrived, it was several times the size of any previous band. The goblins stopped at the foot of the slope and looked up.
The leader this time was a huge boar-person. He wore clothes made of uncured boarskin and had 6 inch tusks protruding from the corners of his mouth. He rode the biggest boar she had ever seen. One hand and half of his forearm was red and scaled.
