Not even five minutes had passed since the warding glyph was cast. A violent screech cried out from the dark forest.
Both Viane and Mei let loose arrows. Mei's shot streamed into the blackness, Viane's followed a moment later as she finished an incantation.
"Locus alia saecularia. Sagittaer egi muniae emipaer vo remae!"
The goblin shambled into sight. A single arrow stuck in its flesh just above its knee. Blue-stripped fletching marked it as Viane's.
Mei audibly made her disappointment known.
The dark-skinned creature snarled at us, baring two rows of red stained teeth. From its stature alone it wasn't very intimidating, barely rising to a child-like height of two feet—what did give it a menacing aura though, were its pitch-black eyes. Peering into the dark orbs sent a chill down my spine. The torches around the camp barely registered, with only a faint hue reflecting back within them.
Viane muttered something inaudibly to Mei whose posture froze, dread spread like wildfire across her face.
Julius and Aisling had already positioned themselves between the monster and the rest of the party.
Mei called out to them.
"That's a greater goblinoid, called a trow. They're more sadistic than any lesser goblin could ever be. Watch your moves carefully."
"It has an immunity to physical attacks. We'll have to rely on magick to take it down."
Viane followed up with a disheartening warning.
Physical immunity took out half of our party's damage output.
With another soured snarl, the goblin charged at the two defenders.
Julius completed casting his defensive barrier, and our party was enveloped in silvery light, as Aisling charged to meet the spirit.
Hailey and I both cast our own party buffs.
» YOU ARE AFFECTED BY A PROTECTIVE BARRIER
» YOU ARE AFFECTED BY AN AURA OF LIGHT
» YOU ARE AFFECTED BY ARCANE BRILLIANCE
» YOU ARE AFFECTED BY FORTITUDE
Aisling's shield made contact with the monster—but the expected shield slam phased right through the creature.
That's more than being immune to physical attacks!
"What kind of physical immunity is that!?"
I cried out to Viane for an answer.
"It's a forest spirit, only the living or items imbued with spirit magick can harm it."
What in the Aether is spirit magick? What about other kinds of magick?
She drew her bow once more, casting the same incantation as before. The arrowhead glowed a soft gold.
The arrow flew across the camp and hit the creature just below her first one. A direct hit to the kneecap. It fumbled a swing at Aisling, giving her time to recover and form back up with Julius.
I took the moment to perform an appraisal on the goblin with OMNISIGHT.
- - - - - - - - - - - - {TARGET} - - - - - - - - - - - -
[TROW]
HEALTH: (0 / 0) | STAMINA: (0 / 0) | MAGICKA: (1832 / 2000)
» ACTIVE EFFECT: ENRAGE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
An ice lance sailed past me towards the goblin. Both Aisling and Julius leapt forward after it, their swords glowing from weapon imbuement.
The jagged mass of ice made contact with the trow squarely in the chest. It impacted as if hitting a wall, shattering onto the ground leaving almost no visible damage against its target. Only a tiny point drew a single drop of… some sort of spiritual equivalent of blood.
I glanced at the arrows sticking from its legs and saw the same greenish ooze seeping from the wounds.
Both guardians faltered their attacks, trying to halt their advance as the creature was mostly unaffected.
Aisling came to a stop a few feet ahead of Julius, and within striking distance of the trow.
Her higher momentum became a curse as the trow countered. It pulled a wicked looking dagger from its side—stabbing Aisling in the leg.
Simultaneously, thorny vines spread through the clearing. They raced to each of us, wrapping around our feet and snaking up our legs.
» YOU HAVE BEEN IMMOBILIZED.
» YOU ARE AFFLICTED WITH CRIPPLING THORNS.
Both Aisling and Julius, were affected worse than us. The closer proximity causing the effect to be more potent. The two of them lost their footing, flailing towards the ground.
Aisling tried to maintain her balance by leaning against her shield but the vines wrapped around her hands, ripping her grip away and pulling her down.
"Flames that burn beyond the veil, burn away these gross vines and set me free, Fireball!"
Rias disappeared in an explosion of flames as she finished her peculiar incantation. The cloud of smoke slowly wafted away, revealing that she was still entangled by the thorny trap. Wispy trails of smoke emanated from her charred pants.
Playing with the blade in its hands, the trow squared up with Aisling and cackled wickedly.
"Gonna… open you up! Gonna… splatter! Blood! My grove—cover it with blood! Your blood!"
"Gaaah!"
The dagger pierced her skin just above the hip. The trow dragged the blade down in a jagged horizontal slice.
"Bleed! Die for me!"
I struggled against the bindings that immobilized me, my blade couldn't cut them, so I tried to focus my magicks on breaking free.
The creature brushed its hand across Aisling's wound and rubbed her blood across her own face.
"Red! Rage! Covered in blood. Bloody grove. Bloody elf."
Aisling managed to grab a short-blade from her waistband, thrusting it into the monster and delivering a wound to the heart—which would have been fatal to any mortal being, but it had no visible effect on our spiritual assailant.
Mei and Viane continued to struggle against the creeping vines as they snaked their way around the two girls legs.
Both elves drew back arrow after arrow.
Viane was now casting her incantation on both her own and Mei's weapons.
Staggering their shots, they prevented the trow from pressing its attack on Aisling.
One of Mei's arrows struck the goblin in the hand, forcing it to drop the dagger. In response, thorny vines raced into the goblins other hand to form a spiky spear.
The goblin screeched in a rage, chucking the barbed weapon at Mei—
A brilliant flash lit up the battlefield and the spear was vaporized by Julius' SILVER BULWARK. Bright light washed over the party, dissolving the immobilizing vines.
Aisling scrambled along the forest floor towards Julius, clutching at her side.
The enraged trow pursed after her brandishing its sinister dagger once more, swiping it through the air in complete abandon.
She raised a free hand to defend against an attack—the blade cut deep across her fingers, severing flesh and embedding itself in a bony knuckle.
As Aisling cried out in pain, reeling her hand back to her body, a string of golden bolts exploded directly in the trow's face, sending it spiraling backwards.
» HOLY BOLT HITS, MINOR (57) DAMAGE TAKEN AS MAGICKA DRAIN
» HOLY BOLT HITS, MINOR (35) DAMAGE TAKEN AS MAGICKA DRAIN
» HOLY BOLT HITS, MINOR (51) DAMAGE TAKEN AS MAGICKA DRAIN
The barrage of fire I delivered had been charging up since Julius' holy spell had dispelled the spirit's magick.
Hailey had made it halfway across the clearing by the time my spells knocked the trow back. Her left hand glimmered with golden light, a stream of dense magick that connected to her staff.
I sprinted to their position, lobbing another HOLY BOLT in an attempt to disorient the goblin. Viane and Mei continued to assault the creature, taking advantage of the new gap in its defense.
Rias remained in the rearguard, but was channeling some sort of arcane spell that seemly imbued both the archers with a quickness effect.
In the corner of my vision, Aisling's status flashed rapidly.
- - - - - - - - - - - - {PARTY MEMBERS} - - - - - - - - - - - -
[AISLING]
HEALTH: (72 / 750) | STAMINA: (225 / 650) | MAGICKA: (515 / 650)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hailey reached her first, and poured the vast build-up of healing energy into her.
Aisling's health bar soared.
The jagged cuts along her abdomen and thigh sealed quickly, and the blood-loss from her wounded hand slowed. She contorted in an obvious discomfort but with her life no longer in a critical state she started to catch her breath.
"I'm sorry, Aisling. But this next part is going to feel much worse."
Hailey gently held Aisling's severed digits in her palm. They shimmered faintly—having been purified with priestly magick.
I tuned out the agonizing squeals, turning back to reenter the fight.
Our party was now firmly on the offensive. Any attack from the goblin was either deflected by Julius' shield and imbued blade, or dispelled by the barrier.
Another HOLY BOLT impacted, showering the goblin in a torrent of golden flame.
"Wraaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The creature let loose a furious cry. Bright red veins bulged across its skin and it seemed to swell in size, almost doubling to just under four foot.
Thaaaaaat's probably not good.
"Well, no doubt that's not a good thing. Is this little shit almost dead or what?" Julius disengaged, leaping back to where I was positioned.
"I was thinking the same thing. Defend me while I pull the damned thing's appraisal up."
- - - - - - - - - - - - {TARGET} - - - - - - - - - - - -
[TROW]
HEALTH: (0 / 0) | STAMINA: (0 / 0) | MAGICKA: (198 / 2000)
» ACTIVE EFFECT: ENRAGE
» ACTIVE EFFECT: BERSERK
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The trow's MAGICKA was now nearly depleted and it looked to have gained a new active effect.
An enrage status seemed like it would be self explanatory, so I didn't bother to try to appraise the effect earlier… but paired with this new berserking effect and the curve balls the creature had thrown at us already, I need to know everything I can.
- - - - - - - - - - - - {INSPECTION} - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ENRAGE]: [School: Nature]
Fills the caster with a maddening anger towards any attacker.
Allows the caster to ignore spells and abilities that influence aggression.
- - -
[BERSERK]: [School: Nature]
Causes the caster to enter a maniacal state in which their normal mental control is impaired.
Individuals affected by this spell deal multiplicative damage with their offensive abilities.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
That confirms it. Not good at all.
Since no values for its other stats were being displayed I assume it would die, or whatever a forest spirit's equivalent to death was, once we run the remainder of its MAGICKA down to zero.
"We're in the final minutes. A few more hits and it'll be out of MAGICKA. It's got a berserking effect, so try not to get hit."
"Heh. Let it try to get a swing in—"
A high-pitched whistle pierced the air.
The spirit whipped its head towards the sound's origin, the forest canopy above—an arrow appeared in its left eye socket.
The wound bubbled and steamed as if boiling hot.
"Wraaah! Sneaky elves, nasty elves!—Guugh?"
The trow shouted up at its unseen attacker but was silenced as a second arrow struck the spirit in the throat, exiting in a gruesome explosion of green blood and spirit matter.
It faltered, grabbing at its neck.
A third arrow lodged itself in the creature's forehead, and it slumped to the ground.
From the canopy, a man dropped down to the forest floor. A mop of dark purplish hair dangled in his face, descending down almost to the tip of his nose.
He quickly glanced around at the members of our party—revealing sharp pointed ears—before turning back to the hopefully deceased goblin.
"That's quite enough of that deranged spirit."
"…Arden?"
Mei's voice faltered meekly, and the man turned back around.
"Meiko?"