"It's here. Griguek. I can smell it."
The goblin keeping a watch on Bane whispered to himself as it wielded its spear. Bane glanced at him only for once to confirm but turned away and gripped onto his dagger.
Sometimes it was hard to figure out what a goblin meant by their words. Their common sense was certainly not something Bane had grown used to yet.
'Perhaps it is danger sense skill that he is using? I have to buy that later on if I want to grind.'
He didn't know about the goblin walking beside him, but at least he could smell nothing but the stench of hordes of goblins with himself being one of them.
"Grruugh!"
That is when he heard it. Even without danger sense he couldn't have missed out on the angry roar full of vitality.
A forest bear made its appearance. Or perhaps it had always been here and the goblins walked directly into it. Were the goblin scouts looking out for such a creature when they had set out?
It had a brown fur with long green hair protruding from its back. It had sharp fangs that could tear away and uproot mid size trees and a huge body to bulldoze anything that comes in its way.
"Fuck!" Bane cursed his bad luck.
"Isn't this too much?"
He was sure that he couldn't hunt something like this with his current body. It wasn't just about being newly born, rather it was simply of a different class!
Bane could have hunt something like this, if he had prepared traps from beforehand and he got super lucky, but..
"There is no god damn way!"
Bane felt like he was throwing away his life over nothing.
He was prepared to run.
But surprisingly all the goblins around him raised their weapons instead.
"Griguek! Griguek!"
'Wait, wait? You all want to die?'
Bane pondered over it a moment as he looked around for the goblin shaman.
'Come to think of it, we were heading straight towards the prey if I were to trust the scouts. Could it be that this forest bear is the prey?'
Bane was having a hard time believing it. He had assumed it to be just a random unlucky encounter but that didn't seem to be the case. Even the self proclaimed supervisor of his was one of the first ones who raised its spear to fight.
"At least pick something of your own size, dammit!"
Bane gritted his teeth. He wasn't sure how this was going to go, but he gripped onto his dagger waiting for a possible opportunity.
'Just in case...'
Bane smeared the poison provided to him by the goblin dwarves on the daggers. Bane had fought with many goblins in the past and he somewhat knew it already, but most goblins fight with poisoned weapons. Needless to say that even with such poison these weapons hardly pierced human armors to be a threat.
'The only time they don't use poison is when they are attacking women. Tsk, despicable as always.'
As Bane took cover in the sidelines the goblins charged to the bear like a wild stampede.
But it wasn't looking much helpful.
The goblin shaman cast its enhancement spells to strengthen the horde against the monster but even so the goblins were swept away with just a swing of the forest bear's paw.
Those goblins that were in the front were already brawling with the bear. And those at the back kept rushing on sweeping past Bane to reach their dooms.
But even so Bane was finding no way of escape as the goblin archers had surrounded the bear on all sides including Bane himself!
Bane wasn't being shot out but he wasn't able to escape either without bumping into trouble.
Bane was at a turmoil at what to do. He had never been part of such a large scale monster tribe and he didn't know the inns and out either... it was his first day after all.
'Should I kill some goblins and make my way?' Bane thought but he immediately shook me head. 'No... in this case they are still comrades, and I am not sure if I would be able to survive their agro if they were to turn to attack me.'
Bane was crushed on all sides by a huge crowd of goblins.
A crowd of humans when it surges was enough to bend steel. A crowd of goblins was no better.
Bane felt that if he didn't become prey to the forest bear, he would die because of the goblins instead.
"Ugh"
Bane tumbled but was somehow able to regain his balance with his thin green legs. Shoulders brushed against Bane on either side.
Bane was pushed from behind as the goblins kept rushing. They were all moving the same direction and Bane was surely standing like a rock against their flow. And surely such a rock was doomed to be crushed against a fast flowing stream.
Bane understood that better than anyone else.
The crowd was slowly pushing him to a direction he didn't want to go.
'Turning around is dangerous. I might die by being stampede alive.'
The goblins were light in weight compared to any other monster. But one cannot guarantee life after having hundred of them run over you, when your own body isn't that different from a goblin either.
Bane turned around at the large forest bear.
Their were several spears and arrows stuck from his body all dripping with poison.
"Does this thing have poison resistance?"
Cause if it had, then it would be just a massacre.
"Appraisal"
Even if Bane knew it was no use but he still tried it out of habit.
*Race: Forest Bear*
'The appraisal can only do so much this level.'
Bane squinted his eyes.
The bear was overwhelming even now against the goblins.
'But it is still, getting a bit sluggish... poison might be working after all.'
Shadows reigned from the sky delivering even more and more dripping poison. The spears hurled at its body got stuck in its toughened bones.
It things continued at they were, the bear was sure to fall down at some point. But would the goblins last till then? No one knew.
Bane looked left and right. There were still goblins all around him mindlessly charging. Even those that fell only got up with their injuries only to charge again.
What was there motivation to go so far? Bane had no idea. But one thing he knew was that if his mind was also that of a goblin, he would have been charging along with them to his doom.
'With so many distractions available I can easily avoid any attacks.'
Bane saw some sliver lining of his situation just to convince himself.
And if the goblins really were wiped out before the bear the falls, Bane might have an easy way at escape too unlike the current crowd he was in.
Bane charged towards the forest bear.
For the first time the sturdy rock that was standing firm against the stream moved and merged with the flowing river of green skin.
As the green stream rushed towards the bear, it bent forward and swept its paw thrashing all that came in its way. The goblins were swept left and right while those that came in direct contact with their claws had their bodies ripped apart.
The goblin shaman leading such an army continued to cast light heals along with its comrades to heal whatever little help it could provide the soldiers.
For some it was just barely enough allowing them to get up again grasping their weapons. But for those who had already crossed river Styx, there was no hope. It was a suicidal charge.
Bane crept among the group which was behind the forest bear. Such a group didn't know that they were at the most advantageous position among all the others. But Bane being a former human made use of it like anyone else.
The forest bear attacked any goblin that came within its sight.
So, attacking from its blind sight was definitely the safest option for Bane.
Bane's goal?
It was to get a few stabs of the poison hoping that it would work towards his survival.
He leaped into the air and stabbed the dagger in his dominant hand right into the bear's torso.
"Eat this."
The dagger skill that Bane had certainly helped in landing a clean hit. The weapon, blunt as it was, was still able to pierce its hide and get stuck in its bone.
But sadly, Bane didn't get an opportunity to even pull the dagger out.
Perhaps attacking its weaknesses might have prevented such a situation. But in a moment of crisis with a storming crowd pinpointing and landing a clean hit there was neigh impossible.
There were so many things in play.
Trying to stab its eyes? Bane would have to approach it from the front considering its large structure and going from the front would be but a death sentence.
"Grrr"
Stuck with a piercing pain in the back, the bear turned around only to sweep all the goblins behind him into a bloody mess. They who were at the most advantageous position now had it as bad as the others.
Flesh and blood of their comrades flew in the air as they smeared faces screaming a war cry of grunting and swearing.
"Griguek!"
Bane jumped off the beast in just the nick of time leaving his blood soaked dagger behind.