Joseph whistled upon seeing the hobgoblin's corpse, his eyes wide with a mixture of surprise and admiration.
'Yikes. Those young ones are quite strong,' he thought inwardly, his mind racing with the implications.
As he and his party cut their way through the goblin horde, Grant raised his staff, a transparent circle of rune-like inscriptions glowing on its surface. A magic circle.
"Pillars," he shouted, his voice carrying above the din of battle.
Rrrrrumble...
The ground shook as multiple earth pillars rose from the ground, tearing the goblins in their way.
The sound of screaming goblins and crunching bone filled the air as the pillars burst forth, sending goblin bodies flying.
"Everyone get on those pillars!" Grant shouted, his voice urgent.
Joseph, Grant, Viona, and Jessica all leapt onto the pillars, their feet thudding onto the earthen surface with a dull Thud-Thud-Thud.
As they jumped from pillar to pillar, they occasionally attacked the goblins, conjuring different spells that killed the creatures in the vicinity.
The sound of explosions - Boom! Boom! - and screams filled the air as they moved through the pillars.
Suddenly, a chill ran down their spines. Without hesitation, they all jumped back, their bodies arcing through the air.
Boom!
Immediately, they jumped off, the pillar they were just standing on was blasted to bits.
The sound of the explosion was deafening, the force of the blast sending them stumbling backward.
Just flying above the destroyed pillar was the shaman, holding its own staff and pointing it at Joseph and his party.
The air seemed to crackle with malevolent energy as the shaman began to chant, its voice rising to a frenzied crescendo - "Aaaaahhhhhh!"
As the shaman hovered above them, its grotesque face twisted in a snarl. Its pointed ears folded back in disgust, and its beady eyes blazed with malevolent intent.
Joseph smirked, brandishing his sword with a flourish. "Thanks for saving us the trouble of having to go over to you."
The shaman's expression darkened, its face contorting in rage. "You filthy humans," it hollered, its voice like a rusty gate.
"You dare challenge me!" It raised its staff, and a magic circle with purplish runes etched on it hovered above the staff. "Clavis Et Umbrae!"
As the shaman spoke the words, a bright light illuminated the sky, casting an eerie glow over the battlefield.
Suddenly, Joseph felt a shiver run down his spine. He wasn't the only one - Grant immediately cast wind magic, lifting Joseph and the others from the ground.
Whoosh!
They were lifted into the air, just as the ground erupted in a frenzy of black spikes.
BOOM!
The spikes shot up, skewering everything in sight, including the goblins. The sound of screams and crunching bone filled the air.
Joseph's eyes darted towards Lucas and Katherine, and he heaved a sigh of relief as he saw them hovering in the air.
Fire spewed out of Lucas' feet as he lifted Katherine's body in a princess carry.
Lucas' face was set in a grim mask, his eyes wide with shock and near horror as he gazed down at the carnage below.
Bodies of goblins were torn apart, their limbs severed, and their torsos ripped open. The ground was slick with blood, and the air was thick with the stench of death.
At that moment, all of them - Lucas, Katherine, Joseph, Viona, Jessica, and Grant - had the same thought: 'Had that hit me, I would be dead by now.'
Their expressions hardened as they looked towards the shaman.
The other goblins were no longer a pressing threat. This shaman was.
After all, out of the nearly two thousand goblins that had gathered, only about five to six hundred remained.
The rest had been killed by the shaman's attack and Lucas' and the others' assault.
The battlefield was a charnel house, and the shaman was the one responsible.