The goblin turns around and recoils at the sight of me. I guess he wasn't expecting a three-meter long murder snake that looks like it bathed in blood to be behind him. To my surprise, he quickly calms down and nods towards me.
"I'm Guy, nice to meet you."
Guy, what a fitting name. He's just an average guy, aptly named Guy. For some inexplicable reason, I find that incredibly funny. I'm even tempted to laugh out loud.
Guy awkwardly scratches the back of his head and shifts from one foot to the other. He must be nervous about working together with me.
Based on Guy's body language he just heard the same message as me. I open the dungeon map and find both our positions on the first floor of the dungeon in a cavern that is so far off from the entrance that we won't be found for a while. Both of us are represented by a small avatar look-alike.
And there is a flood of red dots coming in from the entrance. I count at least a hundred but there are still more coming. They split into teams ranging from four members to twelve. I wonder why they give us an opportunity by lowering their numbers? They could just mob us, couldn't they?
So they are under time pressure and can't afford to take a lot of time why not just close all the passages to the next floor?
Shitty rules.
"Okay let's just go ham on them. I'll kill them all!"
"Jade please calm down. We can respawn but we should avoid letting them notice that we do. Instead of charging in and dying over and over, we should ambush the smaller groups first to get some levels."
He points at his gear and I have to admit that he seems more prepared than me. I really wanted to let off some steam by all going in but when he puts it like that...
I try to take deep breaths and stop thinking about how delightful it would feel to go squeeze the life out of something right away.
"We'll do it your way then."
"Thanks for trusting me. I think we should focus on the groups of four first. Hopefully, the bigger groups lose some members to the dungeon in the meantime."
His reasoning seems sound. As Guy walks off into the cave systems I slither along behind him. We set up an ambush in the cave we think one of the groups will soon pass through. Guy has also collected a small group of goblins.
"So what's the plan?"
"They enter, I throw my mini javelins, they are lured into the traps, and then you approach them covered by the charging goblins."
"Where are those traps you speak of?"
"I've yet to set them up. To be honest I have no experience with traps so I'm not very confident in their effect."
He walks a little further down the cave and starts to dig some holes into the ground. The stuff he excavates is dumped to the side and used to secure a rope close to the ground across the cave. How does his shovel work here? The floor is made of rock!
Humanoids can use tools. That's indeed a great advantage of their kind. Guy returns after digging his ditches and we wait.
We don't have to wait long for the group to approach. Thanks to my thermal vision I'm the first to see them. I nudge Guy with my tail.
"They're here."
"It's so damn dark in here how do you see?"
"I have a skill called thermal vision."
"That's strange, I swear I have better vision in the darkness but I didn't get a skill for that. Whatever let's focus on taking these guys out first."
The group of adventurers cautiously advances and when they are about to reach the trip rope Guy set up, the armored goblin throws the first miniature javelin.
The javelin doesn't manage to do any damage since the shield-bearer blocks it with his shield. Seeing a shield-bearer makes me think of Thomas and rage boils up within me.
The party notices that they are under attack and try to rush forward. The one at the back raises a staff and a sphere of light appears floating slightly below the cave ceiling. Too bad that it's too late for that. The shield-bearer trips over the rope and falls. Getting up in that heavy armor wouldn't be easy. The other two who appear to be swordsmen jump over the rope and directly into the pits Guy dug.
The mage looks a little panicked. The light sphere floats above him and perfectly marks his position. Before he can take cover a miniature javelins whistles through the air and sinks into his shoulder. Mage robes suck at defense.
The mage's concentration is interrupted and the light sphere disappears again returning the cave to darkness. The goblins storm forward and try to climb over each other to reach the adventurers first. I also lunge after them ready to find an opening and exploit it.
The swordsmen have cleared the ditches and are preparing to welcome the goblins with their blades drawn.
The shield-bearer is still trying to stand up but he seems unusually slow. Meanwhile, the mage is sobbing like a child. He foolishly yanked out the javelin and now his wound is bleeding profusely. What an amateur!