Lukart was surrounded by many goblins on all sides. He was covered in blood all over but he was lucky that most of it wasn't his. Most of the goblins that were around him were dead too so the fight was looking up for him.
He had skillfully dodged attacks and struck down the goblins that had been too slow or had left themselves open. He in received many blows in return so his leather armor wasn't in good shape. He had to use his amulet many more times during his fight just to stay ahead and not die.
Though the leather armour was cheap and not as strong as metallic plate armour, it was light enough for Lukart to dodge attacks and take light blows.
This was all until the hobgoblin decided to join the fight. Lukart had managed to kill five of the remaining 7 goblins when the hobgoblin decided enough was enough.
It had already lost so many goblins in this one hunt that it no longer made sense to simply watch from the sidelines. It led a sizable village of about 40 goblins. Most of them were young so losing this many would make it hard to run the village in the near future.
It picked its rusty iron sword and rushed towards Lukart that was about to kill the 6th goblin. It slashed at his chest putting the full weight of its rush into the strike.
Lukart saw the approaching hobgoblin and immediately put his spear into a blocking position.
'Whatever a stone sword of this goblin can do to me is noting compared to what this thing would do,' Lukart thought as he braced for impact.
Shing!
The sound of a sword cutting through wood was heard throughout the nearby forest. Lukart was surprised by the force behind the strike as he was thrown backwards.
The spear shaft luckily absorbed much of the force preventing his arms from being broken. The goblin that was fighting Lukart took this chance to rush towards the shaken Lukart with its stone sword.
Lukart was still dazed by the blow and wasn't able to react in time to the strike. The goblin thrust it deep into his chest, or at least it tried to before a barrier formed around his leather chest armor.
Lukart didn't let this chance go as he used one of the ends of his broken spear like a dagger and stabbed the goblin through the eye, killing it on the spot.
The hobgoblin was angry at this sight since it had lost another minion so it charged again towards Lukart.
It prepared for an over head strike with all its strength. Lukart had the appraisal skill and had found out earlier that the leather armor could do two things. It would block one lethal attack to the chest and increased the healing effectiveness of magical items.
Now that first the effect of the armour was gone and he now had to face the hobgoblin's attack. He would have to some how survive this attack from a monster far above his ability.
He waited for a fraction of the second as the blade of the hobgoblin finally came downwards, then dodged to the right.
Shing!
Thud!
He managed to to dodge a fatal blow but not unscathed. A horrified look appeared on Lukart's face as his eyes locked onto what had fallen to the ground.
A left hand was there, holding half a spear. It was his hand. Laying there on the ground.
Lukart raised his hand slowly only to see and empty stump. He had trained for years but he was still a child. There was only so much a child could do against such monsters.
He at first couldn't feel the pain due to shock but it quickly rushed in after a second.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,"
----
Miss Aiko was watching over Lukart from the beginning of the whole test. She was told to let them get used to how harsh the wilderness was so she brought them out into the forest.
From the the moment they were pushed off the cliff, she was helping them from the shadows by killing any monsters that the two couldn't handle. She slowed their fall using wind magic and proceeded to take out the wolf pack that had noticed them fall.
They weren't really powerful but they had much better teamwork than goblins. If the two boys had fought with the wolves instead, they would have been killed without putting up much of a fight.
Once they were dealt with, she continued to watch over the two and was disappointed by how relaxed they were taking this. She taught them to never let their guard down, even after finding shelter or else they'll regret it sooner than they'd think.
As she was internally sighing, she noticed a hunting party of a few goblins approach the area where the boys had decided to stay. She decided to let them through and notice the cave the two boys were in.
She started to smirk as she began thinking of how the two would immediately panic. She would then swoop in, save them and take them to the village for the night. Not after an earful of harsh remarks of course.
She watched as the goblins sent a scout to check out the cave and was inwardly beginning to decide on which lecture to give them. However, she was taken out of her thoughts when she noticed a much stronger monster entering the area.
She reluctantly got up from her hiding place in the trees and went to chase away the new threat. It turned out to be a Pine Bear. They had a thick hide and razor sharp claws that were the size of 10 inches.
The reason they were called Pine Bears not because they lived in this pine mountain forest, but due to the hundreds of porcupine like quills that covered its mane. They could shoot them like projectiles and they were each about the length of pencils.
It wasn't something that the two boys could even dream of fighting since it was a complete rank above them. The two boys were now barely rank 1 due to their awakening but the bear was a rank 2 monster. Miss Aiko was a rank 3 so she could take it on single handedly but it would take a while since she wasn't really taking it seriously.
'Why would this oversized porcupine come this way!' Miss Aiko thought as she she leaped from tree to tree as she approached the bear.
The fight went as one would expect a fight between 16 year old and a fully grown man. The bear wasn't an easy opponent but Miss Aiko was able to handle it without even so much as a scratch.
It took a while but she managed to beat it up enough to make it run away in fear. She didn't want to kill it since its dead body may attract more wolves which she would again have to get rid off.
'That should take care of that,' she thought as she stared at the retreating Pine Bear.
She quickly turned and run towards the cave where she left the boys. She found dead goblins and she was impressed by the fact that they had gotten rid of the whole hunting party.
She decided to look around but then she noticed foot prints leading away from the cave. There were multiple that belonged to goblins and they didn't belong to the hunting party of goblins she let pass.
A feeling of fear and worry started to grow in her stomach as she started sprinting while following the tracks. Since she was a rank 3 warrior, she was able to cover the distance that took the boys a long time to cover in just a few seconds.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,"
"Lukart!" Miss Aiko recognized the voice of Lukart as he screamed in agony. Thanks to his scream, Miss Aiko was able to find him immediately. She began running straight towards his location while ignoring any bushes and dodging trees in her path.
She entered the clearing only a few moments after Lukart let out his pained scream. She noticed all the dead goblins strewn around and she internally cursed at herself for making such a blunder.
The hobgoblin lifted its iron sword to prepare for a final strike but Miss Aiko reacted faster. She threw her spear mid run, without slowing down one bit, and it flew towards the last remaining goblins.
Boom!
Boom!
Crash!
The spear flew and hit the only remaining goblin. It left a large gapping hole in its bodies then it turned mid air on its own. The spear made a sharp turn and flew towards the hobgoblin that finally noticed the incoming projectile.
Even though it noticed the incoming spear, it couldn't really do anything since the spear was so fast that the hobgoblin was only able to see it after it had slowed a bit after hitting the remaining goblin. Even then it was more like a blur than an actual an actual image.
It struck the hobgoblin in the side and threw it a large distance before a tree broke its path. The hobgoblin was instantly knocked out by the heavy strike but was still alive.
Miss Aiko didn't even spare the hobgoblin a glance as she rushed towards the still crying Lukart. She quickly analysed the situation and noticed that his hand was severed.
"I get distracted for just a few minutes and all this happens!" She yelled as she picked up his left hand and began inspecting his body.
He had a lot of smaller wounds on his body that weren't really life threatening. She knelt by the Lukart, who was now doubled down in pain and pulled out what looked like a scroll and a deep red potion.
She grabbed his left arm and forced severed hand back onto the stump while injecting her mana into the scroll. The scroll unrolled itself and a complex magic circle began to glow in an ocean blue light.
Lukart's arm began to reconnect at the severed point with the blue light coalescing around the centre of the wound.
"Here, drink this." Miss Aiko said as she held the deep red potion towards Lukart's mouth. She was impressed that he was even still conscious let alone alive after fighting 7 monsters that were supposed to be on his level.
It was normal for awakened people to be able to fight 3 or 4 monsters that were within their level range. This only held up till Rank 2 when the strength and abilities of beasts started closing the gap with other races.
Humanoid races were superior in the weaker levels due to techniques and spells that were tailor made for the three starting classes. Even a crafter class could fight and win against at least 2 goblins with some training.
So the fact that Lukart was able to hold his own against 7 goblins at the same time and survive a strike from a hobgoblin, a Rank 2 monster, was quite rare and showed that he had great potential.
'Seems like Grant's son has some talent. He isn't even good with a spear, imagine if he had a sword.' Miss Aiko thought as she watched Lukart drink the Recovery potion.
His hand was successfully reattached to arm and he was beginning to finally calm. His consciousness was beginning to fade since this was his first time healing such a terrible injury.
The Spell Scroll only enhanced his body's regeneration and made it possible to heal at unnatural rates. It also neutralized poisons to a certain level. The problem was that it always took a lot of energy, whether in the form of mana or stamina.
The Recovery potion was able to restore his stamina gradually so he didn't pass out immediately, but the sudden drain made him feel drowsy. Miss Aiko looked at him with a pitying gaze then stretched out her hand.
Her spear flew from the terribly wounded hobgoblin, leaving it to bleed out. She was entirely serious when she attacked the hobgoblin so it was even a surprise it was still alive.
She caught her spear in one hand and looked around one last time. A frown came up on her face as she looked at the scene around her.
"Only other set of human foot prints look like they are running away. Tsch, never took that Winsor brat to be the kind to ditch his friend," She said as she bent and picked up the now unconscious Lukart.
She hoisted him on her shoulder and cast a spell on herself to increase her speed.
'You abandoned your friend for dead, may as well do the same to you. I was only paid to look after Lukart anyway.' She thought as she left the clearing with a terrifying speed.