NOVPUBHe and the [Bard] girl Seren galloped across the city streets towards the place where the Lance was fighting. They were holding on for now, but he needed to give them some breathing room so that they could take a moment and let Cid make a plan. He wanted these potions to give them victory, not just create a momentary advantage.
He ignored the six goblins that were sneaking their way towards the center of town. There was a limit to the amount of trouble six goblins could get up to in a city full of humans, even if they did have weird Classes. He could wrap back around and take care of them later. His Lance needed him now.
"Are there any songs that you’re especially good at? Don't worry about needing to match the atmosphere, I just need something you can actually play," said Brin.
"Ouch," said Seren.
"Well?"
Seren began to play, right there from horseback with Brin's arms going around her to hold the reins. Despite the jolting movement of the horse, she didn't miss a single note and her voice was confident and clear. "The legend of the Cobalt [Knight] and tales of valor these, when he fought across the Asha land and saved the Pyranese..."
She stopped, and pretended to tune her lute.
"That was great! Why didn't you start with that?" asked Brin.
"It's not exactly [Bard] music."
Brin shook his head, confused. "All music is [Bard] music. What's it called?"
"You really don't know?"
"I've never heard it before in my life."
"It's from a pretty popular movie series," said Seren.
"Oh. That explains it. I don't watch a lot of movies."
"Really?" Seren twisted around in the saddle to give him a questioning look. "I thought with your... um, you know... that you of all people would... you know."
"I don't," said Brin.
Was she saying that she'd already guessed that he was an [Illusionist] and so he should have a lot of movies stored up? Because he wasn't that kind of [Illusionist]. Not by choice; he didn't have all the Skills he needed for that.
Well, whatever, he could work with this. It sounded like she knew the theme song of a children's adventure show. Even in his old world, there were the classically trained musicians who learned Bach and Mozart, and then there were people who just picked up the instrument and taught themselves how to play Seven Nation Army, A Thousand Miles, or the Star Wars theme.
"Perfect. As soon as we set down, start playing," said Brin. "Don't worry about anything you see. I'll protect you."
Seren hugged her lute. "I can't play this in front of a bunch of [Knights]!"
"My guys are ridiculously immature. They're going to love it," said Brin.
"Thanks," Seren said flatly.
Brin focused on creating glass. He didn't want to give up his chandelier glass so he had to summon everything he wanted to use for projectiles. He settled for summoning glass golf balls and filling them with explosive energy. "Store, Explosive Energy! To Shatter into Hurtful Knives."
His Mana pool was near the bottom, so he put everything he had left into them, creating what amounted to seven live grenades. He pushed his Mana in until he thought he was completely spent, and then pushed again, getting those last few drops. The complete Mana loss made him dizzy enough that he almost lost control of the horse and he sort of dazed out for a second. All at once the Lance was in front of them, fighting a quick but controlled retreat.
He fumbled into his bag, opened the bag and pulled out the Mana potion with numb fingers. He drank.
Life poured into him as soon as the first drop hit his tongue. He could feel it moving down his throat imbuing him with power. It was like if he'd just been a paper cutout before and every part the liquid touched turned to flesh. It hit his head first, moving up his sinuses and into his brain, then down his throat and into his stomach before spreading out from there.
Just like that, his Mana was full again, but that wasn't all. He got a message.
You have slightly expanded your Mana pool.
What in Solia's name did you give me, Sion? He was never going to be able to pay him back for this.
He dropped down from the horse a little closer to the front line than he'd intended, but the potion had messed up his timing. Seren climbed down as well, and Brin's chandelier glass morphed into a shield to block two rocks thrown her direction. He sent the thread controlling it a mental command to keep doing that; it should stay near Seren and protect her.
She started to play, and already her emotional control was much better. [Inspect] told him she'd gained four levels. He missed how easy levels had come back in the early days. She sang courage and strength into the song, and Brin only had to ease it a little, to guide her away from giving the men specific instructions. They knew their jobs better than her.
Brin floated his prepared grenades up over his head to get a good fire line that wouldn't hit his Lance in the back. With a full Mana pool, it was encouraging how easy simple tasks like that became again. He pushed another spell onto them, this one for motion. ""
There was a loud thump, and a line of goblins slumped to the ground in front of the Lance. It would have been more satisfying to see a spray of blood and limbs, but his magic wasn't that good yet. Still, the screams of pain and rage of the many goblins who'd only been wounded.
"Make us some room, Hedrek!" Brin shouted.
Hedrek set his stance, and then used [Knight's Charge]. He blasted straight into the oncoming horde, smashing through every goblin unlucky enough to get in his way. When he stopped, he was completely surrounded except for the bloody trail leading to the Lance. The goblins moved in to take advantage, but that was their mistake.
For the rest of the men, fighting in formation is where they really shined. When they could trust their fellows to watch their backs, that let them concentrate on doing their specific job.
Hedrek was different. Hedrek alone and surrounded was Hedrek unleashed. He didn't need to worry about accidentally clipping a friend with his wild swings. He didn't need to worry about cornering an enemy, targets were in every direction.
He swung his greatsword and goblins died. This time, there really was blood and limbs flying into the air.
"Let's go! We've got to get to Hedrek!" shouted Cid, and ran forward, his Lance at his side. Brin moved to fight with his spear as well, though he needed to keep near Seren in order to control the glass he'd left to defend her.
He fought the goblins at the front and when they began to fall back switched to projectiles and his lasers. He wouldn't have another Mana refill so he had to be conservative, only shooting glass at the goblins who looked likely to take advantage of one of his men's openings. At this power, his laser couldn't do more than blind the goblins. They were surprisingly resilient against blindness and often kept fighting, relying on smell and sound and their fellow goblins to guide them where they needed to go. But blinding a dozen goblins one after the other did a lot to sow confusion.
The goblins retreated, and by the time the Lance got to where Hedrek was, the goblins around him had already fled.
"You did it! You drove them back!" said Seren.
"Not for long," said Cid.
The [Chieftains] had never stopped screaming at the goblins to keep attacking, and already they were turning the cowards around and forming them up again. Goblins' natural fear could only override the [Chieftains’] control for so long. They'd charge in again and again, as often as it took.
"Shall I continue to pick them off?" asked Anwir, an arrow already nocked to his bow.
"Oh, that reminds me. I have something for you. This is the bow the assassin was using," said Brin.
Anwir's eyes went wide as he took the bow from Brin, but he hesitated before putting an arrow to it. "I'm not sure if I'll be as accurate with a bow I haven't practiced with."
"I'll have you hold off regardless," said Cid. "They'll surely rally and attack again, but no need to give them reason to speed things. Time is on our side."
"They're coming back?" Seren looked around fearfully. "Where's everyone else? Why is it just you here?"
"We aren't completely alone. There are some soldiers scattered across the alleyways and side streets, but apparently they've decided to leave the main thoroughfare to us," said Cid.
"So what's the plan?" Brin asked.
"Fight until the people of Canibri rally to join us," said Cid.
"That's not a plan!" Seren said.
Brin ignored her and fetched out the other two potions, handing them both to Cid. Cid took a look at the Potion of Stamina and then handed it to Hedrek. Hedrek peered at it and then shook his head. "I've got plenty more in the tank."
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"It's better in your hands," said Cid.
"No way. This is your day to be the hero." Hedrek pressed the potion back into Cid's hands, not giving in until Cid took it. Cid sighed and handed Hedrek the Potion of Dragon's Breath. "Use this when Brin gives the word."
Hedrek grinned and took it. "Now this is more like it."
"Very good," said Cid with a nod. "Now I must ask: why the girl?"
"Brin never stops picking up girls wherever he goes," Brych chimed in from the side.
"Is that true? He literally picked me up, you know," said Seren, who was close enough to hear their entire conversation.
Brin glanced at her and then shifted so that his face wouldn't be visible from where she was standing. Then he made a silence bubble around himself and Cid. "At her level, the small boosts she can give us will hardly offset the distraction she'll cause, but..." Brin let the silence spell drop. "She's excellent at motivating the citizens, and I'm hoping that we can use her to draw more of Canibri into the fight."
Cid peered around him to say to Seren, "Welcome to the war, miss. I'll use you well."
"Th-thanks," said Seren.
"Now, how about another song? Something appropriately epic, I should think," said Cid.
"I want to hear that song she just played again," said Brin.
Cid looked a bit puzzled, but said, "Oh, yes I suppose that's fine, too."
"Sir, we're seeing movement," said Brych.
The goblins' leaders had stifled the retreat, but they weren't calling the goblins forward to attack again. Instead, five of the [Chieftains] began speaking, making guttural sounds that couldn't really be called words but which had a rhythmic quality to it. They lifted their staves up and down to the beat, like orchestra conductors.
"They're casting," said Brin. "Last time we saw this it was an increase to speed, but expect anything."
The center of the [Chieftains'] attention seemed to be ten goblins, each of them taller than average. The shortest was five feet and the largest was a whopping eight-footer, but what really made them stand out was levels. Each of them was somewhere between 35 and forty. Elites.
"It makes sense," Cid said softly, noticing the same thing Brin did. "They'll send champions next. They don't actually have the numbers to overwhelm us, not if the city bands together. They need to frighten the people into scattering. If their champions can kill Canibri's champions, namely us, I have no doubt that it will work."
More soldiers had arrived, and a few people from the city armed with what weapons they had, but they hung back from several streets down, watching. They'd join the fighting, if victory looked likely, but no one wanted to stand at the front and get slaughtered in the first wave.
That was a knight's job.
Without prompting, Seren began to play again. Since it was the same song again, he was able to do more to accompany it. One thing he'd learned traveling with the Lance this whole time was that they really liked the brass section. Horns and trumpets, those were the instruments that should be playing for heroes. He added that along, making Seren's Saturday morning cartoon song sound more like an imperial march. He put drums in as well, because he liked drums, and if he was going to listen to music, he wanted something to get his pulse going.
He split off a mind to help Seren control the emotional power, and then put his full attention to the fight ahead.
The goblins had perhaps unconsciously adjusted their own chanting to the beat of the music, and that small addition put the song over the top from good to awesome. He could tell the Lance liked it too. They were getting a chance to be the heroes from the stories they loved as children, and Brin couldn't help but remember that childhood hadn't been that long ago for any of them.
The [Chieftains] chanting stopped and the goblin champions stepped forward. Brin quickly sent commands to the Lance, giving each of them a target. [Battle Sense] told him who to pair against who. Two of the goblins in primitive wooden and stone armor were assigned to Aeron and Govannon, who both had their best weapons against armor. A slow-looking giant he assigned to Anwir, hoping the [Squire of Arrows] could take him down before he got to them. He assigned Cid and Hedrek to the two highest-leveled, and then parsed out the rest. The goblin he would face had two studded clubs and a mouth full of rotting teeth, but he practically vibrated with eager energy.
The goblins roared. The music played. The champions charged, and the knights-at-arms stepped forward to meet them.
The effects of the magic were impossible to miss. The goblins were faster, tearing across the ground with impossible speed. They were tougher, too, and Aeron's arrows hardly penetrated the giant's hide. He ran without slowing and from the looks of things, Hedrek would be taking on two of the beasts at once.
The first goblin reached Rhun, who'd also run forward with his greatshield and side-sword. One swing of the goblin's stone axe revealed that they were also impossibly strong. Rhun blocked, but the blow staggered him to the side where he nearly missed the follow up. Against someone whose Class focused on defense, that was no mean feat.
Brin kept a few threads to watch over his Lance and help where he could, but he needed his own focus for his own fight.
He sent careening spears of magic at the goblin as it ran forward, but the goblins' speed was equal to the challenge. He swatted a few away and dodged the rest. Brin chose a spell that couldn't be dodged and sent a cloud of bullets. The goblin put his arms around across his face and ran straight through them, not slowing. He shone the laser in the thing's eyes, but the goblin closed them and the same amount of power that he'd used to kill lesser goblins didn't even pierce this one's eyelids.
Then the beast was on him. Brin fetched his chandelier glass back from protecting Seren and used it as a shield to block the first strike. It shattered, but Brin was already putting it back together. He ducked a swing from the other club and stabbed the goblin's stomach, but he didn't have enough leverage and the spear stuck in the monster's hide only an inch deep.
He jumped back, using the glass of his armor to pull himself faster, and narrowly avoided a scissor-cut strike with both clubs.
He launched forward again, striking out viciously with the chandelier glass now as a floating spear, and with his Bog Standard spear thrumming with as much violent energy as he could pack into it. [Battle Fury] had doubled his stats and his whole body sang with power, moving him faster than he expected and putting more power into his swings.
When the goblin blocked, he had to parry with deflecting blows so that Brin couldn't blow straight through him, but it held on. It fought with more skill than he'd ever seen from a goblin, using complex strikes and counter strikes.
Brin summoned a spear of glass and launched it from behind, but the goblin dodged right in time. Brin threw up a couple Mirror Men, but the goblin kicked the cobblestone road hard enough to break off shrapnel to shatter both glass copies. Impatient, Brin pumped a stupid amount of Mana into his laser to try to overpower the goblin with pure heat.
The goblin's skin started to char and burn where the beam hit it. Rather than panic, the goblin produced a very shiny, reflective rock, one that had been stuck in his club and used it to block the laser beam. The beam bounced off and struck Aeron, causing his armor to start glowing red, though the [Squire] didn't seem to notice, too focused on his own fight. Brin did not like how smart some of these goblins were.
This was taking too long. Brin needed to finish this fast, and help his Lance. Rhun was getting battered around like a toy, but seemed like he was holding on. Hedrek was batting his goblin around like a toy, but the goblin hung on with similar tenacity. Meredydd's fight was going nowhere. He was outmatched on sheer fighting prowess, but every time the goblin managed to tear a rent in his armor, he just passed his hand over it and fixed it again. Cid used [Knight's Charge] to put his sword straight through the eye of the goblin he'd faced, and was now working on slowly cutting apart the giant that Anwir ought to have faced.
Even as he watched, a goblin got a lucky hit that shattered Brych's gauntlet and broke his arm. A goblin slapped Cowl's weapon from his hands and punched him into the ground. Cid used another [Knight's Charge] to appear in the nick of time, plunging his sword straight through the goblin's heart, but he was out of the fight now, too. With superhuman perseverance, someone could fight after one use of [Knight's Charge], but two was too much.
Was it time for Cid and Hedrek to use the potions? No. They still needed those for later Brin just needed to get through this stupid goblin already and go help his Lance.
The music swelled. Seren had gotten to the end of the song, but she kept the theme going, repeating the chorus again and again, and Brin could feel in the Wyrd that she was pouring her whole heart into it.
No. It was time to stop trying to kill this goblin, and just kill it already.
He split his mind, giving three other minds full permission to use his magic. The rest of his mind was quiet and small, barely enough left to control his body, but he didn't need that much. His body remembered what to do.
He launched himself at the goblin, spear flying. He struck with quick blows, giving the goblin no time to regroup or recover. When he pressed too hard, the goblin got an opening to swing into his side. Brin grunted, accepted it, and kept fighting.
Vines of glass swam up from the ground, growing from the remains of previous attacks. The goblin stepped over and around them deftly, but it had to be difficult while fending off strikes from Brin's main body.
Spears of glass flew in from odd angles. Not all of them had the power that Brin would like, but they cut the goblin, making him slick with blood, and distracting him further.
Almost by accident, Brin stabbed the goblin in the heart. His opponent missed a single block, and Brin's spear slid in, nice and easy, and that was it.
You have defeated: Goblin (38)
Brin's blade and his magic turned their attention to the remaining goblins and his Lance. He saw Brych dragging Cowl away from the fight, though the Directed Thread he'd had watching informed him that Cowl was breathing and would likely recover. Cid was still standing, but only barely, and he watched the fighting, trembling hand holding a sword. Rhun and Hedrek were standing side by side, fending off three of the goblins. Anwir had finally been cornered by his giant and was jumping around trying to avoid the brutal swings, too quick for something that size. Aeron had joined him and was attempting to help, but the giant was just too fast, even with the both of them together.
He wasn't sure if the Lance would've pulled through here without him, but that was a moot point. First, he gathered up fifty pounds of glass that he'd summoned during his own fight and pulled it into an old classic: He made a kettle bell.
He swung it by the handle, pushing it with both physical and magical strength, and flung it at the giant. The kettle bell struck the giant goblin in the back. It knocked him to the ground, where Aeron quickly finished him off with a slice to the throat.
Now Aeron was free to join Hedrek and Rhun, and Anwir could let fly with arrows again. The three remaining goblins saw the writing on the wall. They used their enhanced speed to flee back into the horde.
Seren's song ended mid-sentence. They waited in silence, catching their breath. She was the first to speak. "That's it. They're running."
"They'll be back. They'll keep coming back as long as it's only the ten of us guarding the road," said Cid.
He was right. The soldiers and citizens who'd gathered nearby were still only watching. They wouldn't join unless they had the numbers on their side, and from the looks of things they were still outnumbered.
It was pathetic. They were all [Battle Bakers], [Cutthroat Cobblers], [Knife-wielding Nurses] and [Bloodletter Bartenders], but here when there was actually fighting to be done, they all stood and watched. Everyone wanted to be a warrior during peacetime, but they suddenly forgot all about it when that meant putting your face within swinging range of a goblin’s stone axe.
"Or rather, the eight of us now," said Cid. He spoke with remarkable composure, considering that Brin could tell that he was barely able to stay standing.
"Nine! I can still fight," called out Brych. "Brin, can you bind my arm in place with glass?"
Brin did, assigning a split mind to it, while calling the rest of them to return. He put hand on Seren's shoulder. "Ten. We've still got Seren here, don't we?"
"Ha..." she said, not quite a laugh. It had the sound of a laugh, but sounded like despair mixed with resignation. She looked tired, like she'd been at this for days. There was a scrape on her ear, and another on the back of her hand. Probably shrapnel from one of Brin's spells, but he didn't think she'd noticed.
It didn't look good; his Lance was great for champions, but they'd fall to numbers. He could even the odds for a while; his Mana pool was still fairly full, but it would eventually run out. So would those potions.
It was actually worse than it looked, too, because he was now noticing reports from his Invisible Eyes. The small group with a [Chieftain] and five [Blood Gatherers] had reached the town square, where everyone was grouped up trying to get to the tunnel leading out of the city. They'd begun doing what their Class suggested and gathering blood. They'd killed dozens of people before the crowd had fled, completely unopposed even though there were only six of them, and now they were working together to use the spilled blood on some kind of ritual. Brin had a bad feeling about it. He needed to get over there.
Brin [Inspected] Seren again. She was level 20 now. It would have to be enough. 𝓃𝓸𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
"It's time. Sing. I'll amplify your voice and make sure every ear in Canibri hears it. Call out to the people. Tell them they're needed. Call them to stand and fight. It will all come down to you now."
