Before I could shout out a warning the ranger was already stabbed, once in the back and a cut against his hamstring.
"Hex1, kill that hobgoblin! Hex2, bring me that ranger! Mina, I need you to provide cover fire for my puppets! You three prepare to defend." My puppets bolted to the ranger, Mina hesitated for a brief moment, at that moment the ranger rolled away from the hobgoblin and pulled out a dagger at his waist to defend himself and the hobgoblin rushed him.
They exchanged blows but the ranger took a cut to the ribs before he could pull away from the hobgoblin, an arrow flew right past the hobgoblin's face making it retreat forcing it to retreat back.
Giving my puppets enough time to enter combat, they may lack skill but they neither bled and lacked a sense of fear, they couldn't suffer a fatal blow unless their cores were broken or if a goblin could destroy the skeleton made from dark iron. Which I highly doubted they could achieve.
Hex1 pulled her long and short blades from the sheathe and went after the hobgoblin, Hex2 grabbed the ranger and dragged him back towards me. The ranger was bleeding badly but he wouldn't die from the wound but the bacteria from those unwashed blades of those filthy creatures. I called the priestess over to cast cleanse while beginning my close wounds and a minor heal spell.
My cast time had been cut by a quarter thanks to the blessing, once I felt a warm wave flow from my hand into his body I sensed his wounds and led my mana to the wounds. They began to close up on the surface while I let my energy put his flesh back together, the stab wounds were easier but the cut hamstring would take time.
I let my energy go, the hamstring isn't life-threatening, so I turned my attention back to the battle the hobgoblin had an arrow in its thigh, my Hex1 was slashing wildly at it while it was pinned against a tree. The warriors and the assassin were struggling but the fire mage completed her spell. Six spheres of fire shot off and chased the archers down and lit them ablaze, even if they dodged it would turn around and hit them in the back.
"Hex2 go and assist Hex1." The archer stood up and aimed at the hobgoblin, loosed an arrow, which struck the hobgoblin in the shoulder. The creature was still blocking blows but it was only a matter of time before it fell. "Mina, assist the ranger and cover the melee fighters."
With them both firing nonstop the melee fighters felt the pressure ease slightly, Hex2 rushed the hobgoblin and put its blade right through the hobgoblin while Hex1 decapitated it a moment after. 'Hell yes my puppets are great and they aren't even finished!' I was happy to see my puppets completing their task. I ordered them to help finish up at the frontline, with everyone helping out it would be over soon.
Hmm, I might be a healer, but that doesn't mean I can't get my own hands dirty, never know if someone breaks my puppets I will have to defend myself. With my cane in hand I walked toward the battlefield, the girls from the academy tried to come with me since it was their job to watch my back but I waved them off.
As a goblin hopped over a bulwark I whipped my cane, I had been practicing in the fields with both settings during weapons practice and I had been able to activate the whip at will, the cane detached and struck the little green creature in on the forearm, leaving a tiny green hand on the ground.
I tried for a horizontal sweep next since I wasn't too close to the others. It was certainly more productive as it cut him in half, 'man this thing was sharp', after that I retreated back to the group who gave me a strange glance, "What? I wanted to test it out and I might have to protect myself at some point and might as well get used to it now."
The earth mage spoke for the group, "No dear it's not that, your weapon was created by a forge master. Not a lot of people can afford to beat goblins to death with basically a mountain of gold."
Woops, guess my dad went a little overboard with the gift, I shrugged at the earth mage and continued to watch the battle. When there were only a few goblins left the warriors had me call off my puppets and let the three girls from the academy have a turn, they did well though after their first kill they only threw up for a few minutes.
I received quite a bit of exp enough to get to level 1 and nearly get to level 2. Meaning goblins were somewhere between levels 5-10 hobgoblins might be higher, though this was still on the surface and we already had quite an incident. A hobgoblin on the surface was bad news, that was a raiding party that we took down, if there had been another hobgoblin then we would have been in real trouble.
We discussed the change and decided to take a break while the ranger healed, we looted the bodies and retreated to the ambush site as it was safer than staying at the entrance I checked everyone for wounds, there were only a for cuts and bruises here and there and Travis had a cut on his face. Ignoring Travis I went to the ranger and began fixing his hamstring.
It took ten minutes to reconnect and heal the damage. Most people think healing spells do everything for you, and sometimes they can, but being a novice means you have to do things step by step.
As of this moment, I can't command my mana and think 'fix' because it wouldn't do much other than keep you alive until the energy ran dry.
Eventually, I could do that but I would need to cultivate my soul and body to a higher state and increase my level so that I would have enough mana. My soul could be used to determine the damage and how to fix it in the blink of an eye but it needed to be strong enough to feel other people and the world around me first, and my body had to be strong enough to house the soul or my body would decay away.
Travis continued to hassle me about fixing the cut on his face, after ten minutes of constant nagging I turned on him, "Travis, shut up about your face. You are fine, you were cleansed so you won't be writhing on the ground like a worm. I won't be wasting mana on such nonsense especially on cheapskates."
leaving the idiot I checked on the condition of Hex1 and Hex2. There were a few scratches and dents on the armor but no true damage seemed to have gotten through, I checked my pistol and ammo as well before stowing it away.
Once we had all rested we moved towards the nest, the entrance was still deserted, the assassin went in before giving us the all-clear, there was a stench in the air. Too many bodies and not enough space, we took it nice and slow, we only ran into one goblin pack but it was easy to get rid of as only two goblins were in it.
Pushing further into the cave system we marched on for nearly an hour and still no sign of any goblins, this was strange. I started getting a bad feeling, "We should pull back, something isn't right, there is no way a nest should be this empty." There were a few similar protests from the ranger but the vote was to investigate further, we moved along and I had my puppets take up defensive positions in the rear.
The mages along with the academy girls and I were behind the warriors while the ranger and assassin led the way through the dark cave. Luckily the priestess had a blessing to give us vision in the dark though it was limited to about twenty feet.
We eventually made our way to a crude entrance to the next level, it was a fissure in the earth with handholds. We made our way down, like the first level the second seemed to be deserted, there were bones and filth all about the cave. Small hovels lined the walls, living spaces for the goblins, there were strange markings on the walls and totems made of bone and beast hide.
"Did you guys hear that?" Mina asked out of the blue. I looked over at her, she was the only elf here and had better senses than most.
"What did it sound like?"
She thought for a moment, "Like rocks being scraped together but really slowly."
There weren't any large rocks nearby, 'oh crap.' I ran over to the fissure, the group followed me. I looked up to see the fissure was sealed, "we are totally fucked." I pulled up my tablet that had been recording my steps, I overlapped it with the map that showed the other nest entrances. We were about halfway to the center of all three nests, we would have to go to one of the other entrances to get out of here.
"Don't worry so much, I can unseal that rock!" our earth mage moved forward and began channeling her spell. As the boulder sealing our exit began to move we could hear cries of surprise and screeches of anger. Moving the boulder was a good idea, except the goblins started shooting slingshots and throwing rocks down the hole. We would be able to make it out as only two people could go up at a time.
A small horn blew from the level above, it was a goblin horn, another horn could be heard much further down in the depths of the second level.
We were surrounded.
I turned to the earth mage, "How fast can you build two stone walls down here?"
"Five minutes"
"Then you better get started, make it like a V leave an opening at the smaller end near us so a few can still get through.
Tavis interjected, "Why should we leave a hole so they should get through? That will just wear us out, just seal the cave and fight our way out."
Remus the actual leader of the party pulled Travis back "Because we can handle a few of them while if they break through a rock wall then we will face them all at once, and probably die. The women will be worse off than us so get into position or we will all die down here."
I gave a nod to Remus before turning back to my puppets, "Hex1. Hex2. Go up there and kill anything that moves." My puppets began climbing up the fissure while arrows, rocks, and other things I would rather not think about were thrown at them and deflected off their armor. A few arrows managed to break through the armor but my puppets pushed through, a few moments later I could hear the melee going on above us. Next was our turn, I hope my puppets would work quickly, or I might be taking a dirt nap.