Callum knocked a goblin off the wall and back into the enclosure before swiftly pivoting towards another goblin that had managed to climb over the wall and was charging in from the side. He knocked the goblin to the ground before quickly finishing it off with several stabs.
The entire time he was doing this, Callum tried to keep the chanting Witch Doctor in his peripheral vision. The swirling mass of snow made it nearly impossible to see that far; thankfully, he didn't need to see the goblin, just the green glow of its magic.
Inevitably, the snow around the Witch Doctor shone a sickly green color just before four bolts whizzed towards Callum. He had been watching for them, and quickly ducked behind the snow wall.
Callum saw all four bolts harmlessly pass through the area he had just been fighting in. He felt relief since he wasn't sure if the bolts could track him or not. Callum glanced at his debuff timer one more time.
"Hmm, 15 seconds . . . good enough for me," Callum said as he began limping off towards a treeline he couldn't see through all the mist and snow.
Callum walked backwards to ensure he didn't get stabbed in the back. As he expected, several goblins charged at him through the gloom; they didn't pose a danger to him and he quickly dispatched them.
His pace picked up as the injury to his groin finally healed, although the
Callum heard the barricade by the enclosure exit crack open and a mass of goblins started to stream out. They didn't go far before they milled about in confusion, due to the poor visibility. That was, until something grabbed their attention.
"Hey, pansies, I'm over here!" Callum yelled as he violently waved his arms
The horde of goblins promptly charged at him, just as he intended. He slipped into the treeline as he kept up the yelling and screaming; he wanted more goblins to chase after him. It just meant he could kill more of them.
The dungeon might have taken away one of his tricks, but it was powerless to do anything about the weather outside it.
The goblins swarmed into the forest and promptly started going off in random directions as they attempted to locate their prey. The various trees, snow banks, and the swirling snow left them confused about where to go.
Callum's
The goblins wouldn't live to regret the day they chased him into his territory, they were too strong for him in their tunnels. But out here? Out here he was death incarnate; he would be the ghost in the mist!
Callum quickly chased after the group of goblins nearest him, while talking just loud enough to attract their attention; the wind and the snow deadened his voice.
"Looking for me? That's ok, I'm looking for you as well."
The five goblins were quick to run towards Callum. Both sides silently clashed in the unnaturally early darkness; no outside party witnessed the savage battle between the goblins and the man. It wasn't a fair fight, but Callum was soon looting the dead.
He was outside of the dungeon and had to loot the hard way, he also knew that dungeon creatures gave significantly less XP outside of their dungeon. If he wanted a Beast Core, he would have to cut the corpse open to expose where its heart would have been.
Outside of dungeons, adventurers had to count on their own knowledge to salvage any drops; like goblin ears. Otherwise they'd be left with scrap meat that was often poisonous to eat, especially goblin meat.
One look at the loincloth clad goblins promptly convinced Callum that three coppers wasn't worth the trauma of trying to find where they hid that little bit of coin. He moved on after completing as much looting as he was willing to do.
No songs would be sung, but an unbowed hero walked away into the gloom. Callum quickly started following the snowtrail another goblin party had recently created.
"Hey dung coated bastards! I'm over here," Callum yelled once more.
He heard some goblins chattering ahead of him and quickly moved in that direction; he continued to yell out loud as he hunted for more goblins.
Because he was out of combat, his health and stamina bars rose at an increased rate; this allowed him to attack each party more aggressively.
In this manner, Callum quickly eliminated three more isolated parties of goblins. He moved back towards the enclosure when finding the next party proved to be too difficult. Sometime during all of this, the
He reached the clearing next to the dungeon and found various goblin groups drifting back towards the cave. He charged at the nearest group of them, all the while he yelled his head off in order to attract the rest of the goblins.
This goblin party contained two Goblin Skirmishers and three Goblin Warriors; Callum smiled viciously when he realized he could finally wield a bow of his own. He fearlessly waded in amongst the party.
Callum made full use of his increased speed to trample two of the warriors before him, his bloodsoaked spear flashed in the brief flare of a
Unfortunately, due to the incoming throng of enemies, he wasn't able to properly loot the fallen goblins; but he did retrieve what looked like the better bow and two quivers of arrows.
He had also accomplished his main goal, and provoked yet more goblins to chase after him. While he retreated, Callum glanced at his debuff and tried to gauge how long it would take him to return to the warmth of his cave.
'Cold: -15% stamina regeneration for the next XX:XX:XX; 43:14 remaining until effects worsen.'
Luckily, it wasn't too cold out, despite the wind and the snow, so he had plenty of time to run down some more goblin parties before he had to make it back to his cave.
_________
A hulking form crawled out of a burrow dug into a snowbank and put its nose to the wind. The Dire Wolf smelled the scent of bad meat carried upon the wind, it would investigate. The wolf considered the valley part of its territory.
The wolf silently ran through the mists as it followed the scent of the bad meat towards its origin. The number of scents it was picking up were too few for a great hunt, but it could just be the start of one.
The wolf had to know whether this was one of the isolated incursions the bad meat were prone to make from time to time, or if it was something greater.
The wolf stopped and sniffed the air once again, the shifting winds were spreading the scents out in an unpredictable manner. The wolf could not figure out which direction to go in.
After a short time examining the scents, the wolf realized that the bad meats were spread out all around it. It loped towards the closest group as it tried to figure out the bad meats' behavior. Their actions made no sense.
Spreading out was part of a great hunt, but the numbers were too small for it to be a great hunt. It was very puzzling and the wolf did not like unsolved puzzles in its territory. Great hunt or not, the goblins before it would soon die.
A grey mass pounced out of the darkness and bowled a very surprised goblin to the ground. The wolf did not bite and only used its paws to bat the hapless goblins around; the Dire Wolf called this creature bad meat for good reason.
Once the four goblins were eliminated, the wolf stopped to read the scents once again. It soon smelled a different scent that had remained hidden under the much more odorous bad meats, the strange one was here.
The wolf snorted when it realized that the strange one's scent was in the middle of all of the spread out bad meats. It chuffed as it darted through the falling snow.
Of course the strange one was here, it was likely to blame for the strangeness of the bad meats' actions. The strange one was also aptly named in the young wolf's mind.