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Yes, the hobgoblin shaman's hands are on fire, but goblin magic is similar to our runic magic, meaning that his hands should be coated with the concept/aspect of fire, it should not be able to harm the user… unless…
Motherfucker! It is using actual fire! Which means Instinctive magic! I kept my guard up as I continued kiting the hobgoblin shaman around, but this time instead of generally sensing the mana around the hobgoblin shaman to watch for any spells forming, I concentrated on inspecting the mana directly going on on the hobgoblin shaman's body.
And what I saw somewhat intrigued me, the hobgoblin shaman was using mana somewhat similarly to the way aura users use aura, but that was just a surface observation, if only I could touch it, then I could understand more of how this hobgoblin shaman was doing what it was doing.
As I dodged out of the way of the latest attack, a Spark and Earth Bullet hit the shroud of mana surrounding the hobgoblin shaman, and while the Spark spell dissipated before hitting its target, the Earth Bullet hit the hobgoblin shaman, but at a much reduced speed. The hobgoblin shaman snarled in annoyance but kept its attention on me.
I turn to see Henry and Arabella with four dead goblins at their feet and chucking spells at the hobgoblin shaman, and when I look around to find my fellow front liners, I saw that they had just finished gutting the goblin the hobgoblin shaman left behind and were charging at the hobgoblin shaman.
"Dave! Sam! Stay away, it is too dangerous! Range attacks only!" I shouted, making them stop in their tracks and seem to take my word for it as Sam said something and they ran somewhere.
As for me, I am just waiting for an opening, it has got to exhaust its mana soon at the rate it is throwing at around.
And speaking of mana, why is it not casting any ranged spells? It can't be that stupid.
That was when I looked at its eyes… they were bloodshot, and it was foaming at the mouth like it was going rabid. I can only assume it has gone berserk and not making the best of decisions at the moment.
But I can say the same of myself, I now realize that I have been so caught up in the fight that I have been grossly underutilizing my magic, even if I am restricted to second circle spells by the rules.
So let's resolve that.
As the hobgoblin shaman rushes me once again, I cast a gust of wind at the ground in front of me, kicking up a cloud of sand in the hobgoblin shaman's direction and I step to the side as the hobgoblin shaman bursts out the sand cloud with an arm held in front of its face.
That is when I strike. I charged in and thrust my sword at its torso, and the tip of my sword stuck into its side maybe an inch or so before it was stopped by something hard, most likely hitting a rib.
The hobgoblin shaman, blinded by the sand blown in its eyes, swiped in my direction, and I had to roll to the side under a bunch of fiery claws, as I scrambled on the ground to flank the hobgoblin shaman, it was following the sounds of my scramble and swiping at me.
After I scrambled in almost a circle around it, I took a chance and jumped at the hobgoblin shaman, but not with a sword, but hand first.
I grabbed the upper arm and with skin contact, I used my mana senses for all it was worth. And what I saw stunned me for a moment, as I could not help but stop and metaphorically stare at what the mana in the hobgoblin shaman was doing, this answered quite a few questions I had.
But this distraction cost me, as I was fascinated with the internal mana of the hobgoblin shaman, the hobgoblin shaman used the provided opening to throw a blind punch at the idiot (me) who was holding on to its arm.
With that blind punch, first came a fist-shaped flame that slammed into the standard-issue breastplate and I felt a hot flash, but the breastplate tanked the damage well enough. Immediately after that, came a a much more physical fiery fist slamming into my breastplate, and I felt and heard a crunch that was very… internal.
That punch threw me away from the hobgoblin shaman as it continued throwing blind haymakers. When I landed, I tried to regain the breath I lost when I got hit in the chest, but I was unable to, and when I looked down at my chest, I saw the reason why. My breastplate was caved in and literally pushing into my chest.
With my lack of breath, and knowledge of a dangerous enemy close by, I panicked and fumbled as I reached for straps holding my armor to my body.
When I finally loosened the armor enough for the caved-in portion to not push into me, I managed to take a pained breath, just in time to see an extremely pissed-off hobgoblin shaman with only one eye open stalking toward me.
As the hobgoblin shaman got closer, the barrage of spells increased, and I could see Dave and Sam ignore my warning to stay away as they charged toward the hobgoblin shaman.
I stuck the tip of my sword on the ground and pulled myself up as my armor slid off me and took a stance to defend myself. And as the hobgoblin shaman was just a few steps from me, I saw the flash of steel at the hobgoblin shaman's neck, and after taking three more steps, the hobgoblin shaman collapsed to the ground and its head rolled away from its neck.
I looked around to see where that attack came from, and when I looked at my teammates, they were also trying to do the same. When I looked at the assistant instructors, they all seemed at ease, relieved even. It was not until I looked back at the corpse of the hobgoblin shaman that I noticed a metal-toed boot next to it, and attached to said boot was Instructor Greyham… how the hell did he appear in front of me? Was he the one who killed the hobgoblin shaman?
Instructor Greyham then looked down at me then turned to look to the stands, "Due to the participant losing his armor and the hobgoblin still being combat-effective, I have deemed the trial too dangerous to continue. Thus, the team fails the trial." he then turned to me and gave me an apologetic smile and said to me, "Better luck next time."
My teammates clearly heard this and had looks of disappointment on their faces as they joined me and we made our way back to the stands. But hey, at least we still walk away with the prize of a Mana Steel weapon of our choice.
My teammates perked up at the reminder of that and I sweetened the deal by offering to do the enchantment myself, I warned them that it would most likely be basic enchantments and now here near as mana efficient as Professor Bixby's enchantment, but Dave and Sam readily accepted while Henry and Arabella graciously declined my offer.
After some closing words, we were herded back to the carriages, and by the time we were riding back, the adrenalin from the earlier fight had left my body and I fell asleep on the carriage ride back.
***
After the last of the carriages left the Arena for the Royal Academy, only Instructor Greyham stayed behind, and from one of the tunnels, the Capital's Arena Master, Theo Ferrimen walked up beside Greyham.
"I heard that was an unexpected surprise in the Pit today." Theo said as he looked at the rear of the last carriage leaving.
There was a grunt from Greyham as he replied, "Yes… that hobgoblin shaman… it was a young one, it should not have been as powerful as it was, what I saw it do today could only be pulled off by hobgoblin shaman of much more advanced age. This needs to be investigated. Because if this is what I think it is, it is bad news… very bad news."
Theo returned the grunt with a nod, "I know the adventuring team that delivered the hobgoblin shaman. I will bring them in for questioning and send you a report of what I find."
With that, they nodded and Greyham mounted his horse and left.