Looking around Jhon was able to see several injured players and some goblin bodies piled up next to the barricade.
Soon he approached the group that was speaking in the center of the room that consisted of Arthur, Karthas, and Mudshaper.
"We don't know where they can come from because of what we need- Ah Goblin, how is the situation in the south tunnel… wait, Jhon? You are alive?"
"Karthas, before exploring the collapse we heard something approaching, it turns out that it was the three of them"
"Three?" Hearing AWellInformedGoblin, Mudshaper and Karthas looked at the south tunnel only to see Firstflower and Moneybag who were using their essence to heal the wounded next to Strawberry.
Understanding that Slayer had died, Karthas sighed, and looking at Jhon he asked him what had happened
"It was the goblins, ten minutes ago they started attacking us, it seemed they wanted to capture us or force us into the mine"
"I see ..." Hearing that Karthas began to think.
Seeing this Jhon let Karthas alone and took the opportunity to ask AWellInformedGoblin what had happened, which Arthur explained to him.
…
Watching Slayer's group enter the tunnels, the rest of the group began to reinforce the entrances with some rubble and stones from the surroundings while conversing in whispers.
"Pss, hey, hey Goblin, what's the plan?"
Dropping the stone he had at the entrance to the tunnel, AWellInformedGoblin looked at Strawberry as he steadied his breath " What? Oh, I suppose to reinforce the position and explore, be ready when the second group arrives and all that so we can advance to the interior of the mine"
"Only that?" Strawberry answered a bit annoyed "That's like 3 hours of boredom, if I knew I would have offered to go instead of Moneybag"
"Yes I know, but we have to do it, we need a place to rest and leave the loot before returning"
"I just hope that some goblin appear before that, I need to farm some essence, I only have 62 left"
"Tell me, I only have 10"
As they continued talking they returned to work and after ten minutes they soon heard a scream from the north tunnel.
Coming closer to see what it was, they saw Nor heal himself holding his bleeding head "Damn, that bastard..."
Seeing nothing in the tunnels Splitbullet got closer and looked at Nor as he asked what had happened.
"That bastard, I was placing the support when a goblin came around the hall and when he saw me he threw a stone at me and ran away"
Understanding that there was nothing, the group relaxed and went back to their own business while Karthas thought and seeing Baguette told her to tell the rest of group 1 to come back
"He escaped so that means he had more friends, the goblins will now know that we are here so it is most likely that they will come soon ..."
Hearing that the group got excited they began to prepare their weapons.
"Finally, some action"
"I was already getting tired of moving stones"
"hehe, tell the ones in the group one to hurry up if they don't want to miss out on the fun"
"Seeing this, Karthas nodded at the great morale of his companions but still keeping a cool head he thought and after a few seconds he headed towards them."
"And there he goes again"
"shhh, first listen"
"Do not underestimate the enemy, we do not know how many may come, even before the campaign the mines were infested with goblins so now we do not know their numbers"
"Plus we need to call Slayer and his group before the goblins find them."
Listening to Karthas, the group remembered and worrying a bit about their companions, they decided to send two players to bring them back.
"Remember, they were supposed to start mapping the mine from the southern part all the way, so look around that part first."
With that, FasterOne and Mudshaper leave the entrance through the south tunnel to look for Slayer's group while the rest prepare for a fight in the north tunnel.
So slowly two minutes passed and to the surprise of the group the first thing they heard did not come from the North Tunnel but the South one.
Leaving two players covering the North tunnel the rest of the group ran to the other side of the room and from the shadows they saw Mudshaper bleeding from the head running as he carried FasterOne.
"Damn, damn, damn ... Guys over here, behind us comes a big group"
Seeing this, Karthas quickly organized the players over the rubble into a line and helping him to climb the rubble brought Mudshaper to safety.
"Old mud, what happened?"
"Those damn goblins, we ran into a patrol, it was fortunate that they were as confused to see us as we were, so we had time to escape"
As they spoke, a group of six goblins appeared at the edge of the light.
Hearing that, Strawberry approached Mudshaper, and seeing that she could not heal him since they were still in combat she took a cloth from his backpack and bandage Mudshaper's head as she explains to him.
"You're still in combat so hold it for now, what happened to Faster?"
Hearing that, Mudshaper lowered his pain sensitivity a bit from his menu and sighed "Bad luck, when the goblins saw us running they chased us while throwing rocks at us, they only manage to hit me only one as the rock bounce off a wall, but the boy was hit directly … How is he?
Finishing bandaging Mudshaper and hearing some rocks hit the barricade Strawberry rushed to check on FasterOne but seeing his condition she could only sigh "Nothing, it's too late"
After that Strawberry left the body aside and approaching the barricade next to Mudshaper they asked Splitbullet what had happened while they kept his head down to avoid the stones that came from the darkness
"Nothing, they are just in the dark attacking us"
"Why don't they come closer?"
"I don't know, but if they were closer to the light I could try to shoot them ..."
Hearing that Strawberry poked her head a little to observe the situation and seeing some shadows move in the dark she thought and whispered to herself "{It seems like they are waiting for something}"
Hearing that and after a few seconds, Karthas realized something and began to run to the other side of the room.
"Arthur, Nor, with me quickly"
Hearing this, Arthur understood the problem and followed Karthas, leaving a confused Nor who followed behind them.
Without looking if they had followed him, Karthas approached the pair that were guarding the north causing them to turn to see what was happening, but before Karthas was able to warn them, a rock was thrown from the depth of the tunnel killing one of the players.
Seeing this the three members took cover behind the barricade while Arthur approached the two players who had been hit "Shit they manage to kill Loopstar, Gron are you okay?"
Understanding that he could not do anything, Arthur left Loopstar, and approaching Gron he checked him "Yes Arthur, luckily it was nothing serious"
Seeing that Gron was fine, the group focused again on the tunnel where they heard several footsteps approaching, understanding that they were under siege, Karthas told the group to take positions and looking at Gron who was still bleeding spoke.
"Gron, go with the others to be patched and come back, also tell Splitbullet to take cover on those rocks in the center of the room and to focus only on shooting the goblins that pass the barricades"
So following Karthas's orders, Gron ran to the other side of the room, and seeing the group taking cover behind the rubble he approached Strawberry asking her to bandage him while he told Splitbullet what Karthas had told him.
Hearing that Splitbullet, although confused, went to the center of the room from where he got a good overview of the situation.
Continuing like this for the next five minutes, the players held the position by throwing back the stones they received from behind the rubble and attacking each time a goblin climbed the rubble which after getting injured, retreated.
When the goblins saw that their prey presented too much resistance and when they began to receive injuries and some losses, they decided to retreat.
Getting a break, the players after a minute without hearing or receiving any attack relaxed, and seeing that they were no longer in combat state they decided to use their essence to heal themselves and revive the two fallen.
"Damn, they will pay me for that"
"Take it easy Loop, it was bad luck"
"How come no one told us that goblins had slings?"
"So far we have only encountered worker goblins."
Making sure everyone was okay, Karthas gathered the group and looked at the south tunnel sighed before addressing the rest of the group.
"Well as you saw, the first battle did not go as well as we expected but it was not so bad, but now we need to decide our next plan of action"
"The first thing is to assume that Slayer's group was KIA, it will be difficult for them to get through those goblins if they find them"
"The second is the number of enemies we face, we can assume that those goblins will not give up until they finish us off"
"So our options are to try to hold out or withdraw to wait for the second group"
Saying that Karthas looked at the group and after asking their opinions, the group began to discuss their next step.
"I think we should stay"
"If we stay they will outnumber us"
"I think we should retreat, those goblins when wounded retreat so we cannot farm any essence for now"
"But if we withdraw, wouldn't it be more difficult to enter the mine later?"
"It would be the same if we end up dying here"
Thus arguing for several minutes, the group decided to temporarily withdraw so they picked up what they could but as soon as they start walking they began to hear some rocks move and feel a slight tremor.
"An earthquake?"
"Hey, isn't it dangerous for us to be here?"
"It's okay, the mine is reinforced, what surprises me is that the developers implemented something like this"
Waiting for the tremors to pass, the players remained in the mine but after several seconds, the tremors increased in intensity and looking at the exit they could see how dust began to fall from the roof of the tunnel
"Damn it, the way out. It's going to collapse "
Not knowing who was the one who screamed, Nor started running to the exit, seeing that Karthas screamed to stop him but Nor was not able to hear him and when he got halfway, the exit began to collapse.
Seeing the tunnel collapse, Nor turned around and tried to return but was soon hit by the collapse and buried under the stones.
And as if waiting for that and without giving the players any time to react, several footsteps were heard approaching from both tunnels.
Hearing that and knowing that they had no choice, Karthas motioned for the rest of the group to return to their posts.
...
"And after that, we put up with a couple more hordes while we wait for the guys from the second group to hurry up after reading our help message on the forums, that was more than an hour ago"
"Wait, wait. Why didn't you all just log out and wait for the second group?"
Hearing John's question, Arthur simply shook his head and AWellInformedGoblin replied.
"We tried, but when the first one disconnected, its body just collapse without disappearing"
"What?"
"Maybe it's because the game considers that we are in enemy territory or the developers are testing things, the point is that we cannot escape unless we die or the second group manage to save us"
Hearing this, Jhon sighed and when he saw Karthas he remembered something and approached
"Leader, I forgot but Slayer asked me to make this map while we explore, I don't know if it will be useful now"
Listening to Jhon, Karthas took the map and thanking him, but before they could continue they heard footsteps and howls from the north tunnel
Knowing what was coming the group prepared for another fight
"It seems they are only coming from the north this time"
"Is it me or do they seem more agitated?"
"Maybe they didn't like that Slayer collapsed part of the tunnel on them?"
"He did it again? {Sigh} I just hope the developers don't penalize us with anything else."
"Focus, they are here {FTTT}"
Hearing rocks fly overhead, the players took cover as they formed up and listened to the goblins advance.
Soon the first goblin appeared on the rubble, being slightly stabbed by one of the players who assumed that after being wounded the goblin would retreat as before but this time it was something different.
The goblin, ignoring his injuries, leaped from the pile of rubble onto the player who had stabbed him.
Being on the player the goblin prepared to hit him on the head with a rock but was tackled by Gron who with the flat part of his ax killed the goblin.
"Are you OK?"
Checking himself the player breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he wasn't hurt and looking at Gron he answers "yes ... yes, I think so, that Bastard didn't back down like before"
Going back to the line, the players kept fighting as several goblin bodies began to accumulate at their feet as well as their injuries and fatigue.
"Didn't they say they were smarter? So why are they coming to us like crazy now?"
"They want to kill us once and for all, that's why they don't care anymore"
"That it's better, let them come, at least that way I can farm more essence before dying"
Understanding that they did not have much left, the players began to attack more desperately trying to kill most of the goblins before falling, so little by little the players fell one by one until there were only 4 left, which were surrounded next to the collapsed tunnel of the exit
Seeing the wounded and exhausted players the goblins stopped attacking and just waited as they surrounded them.
'Finally, we will be able to finish off these humans'
'Thank goodness, I don't want to face them any longer
'Come on, let's get this over'
'Go ahead'
'You're kidding? Those humans are scary one of them bite Golli ripping his neck off before dying, I'm not getting closer to them'
With their backs to the wall, the group of players heard the goblins talking, and confused they looked at each other "What are they saying? Why don't they attack us?"
"I don't know, maybe they want to capture us?"
"Well, they will be disappointed"
Holding the stalemate for a minute, both parties did not move and before the players decided to charge they heard a goblin a little taller and in better armor than the rest speak.
'What is taking you so long?'
'Captain! We have them cornered '
'Cornered? Don't talk nonsense, those humans are practically dead, that one has part of his intestines on the outside, I don't even know how he can stay conscious'
"He seems to be their leader…I wonder how much essence it will give if we kill it?"
'But captain-'
'Stop wasting time and finish them off'
Watching the goblins tense up and readying their weapons, the players knew this would soon be over.
Looking at each other they nodded at each other and clenched their weapons they let out a scream and charged at the goblins to only after taking three steps be blown away by an explosion from the exit tunnel
'What?' "What?"
Confused by the explosion, both groups looked in the direction of the tunnel which was now open and from where dozens of steps were heard advancing
"You incompetent group, what you did was stupid ... But good job holding out until now, leave what's left to us"
From the dust of the tunnel, Yun along with several dozen players entered the mine and looking at the goblins Yun took out two daggers and spoke in the language of the depths 'And as for you… die'
…