The two groups clashed. Yet, just like Theo saw many times in his former run on life, it was nothing like the cinematographers of his original life would like to show in movies.
There was no grand charge on either side, filled with screams, clear-cut and majestic music. There was no silence either, for how could there be when hundreds, if not thousands, of feet all crushed the ground below them at the same time?
In movies, battles were pristine, clear, and organized, all for the sake of elevating what little gore would be revealed, elevating its weight and then projecting it over the rest of the battle the camera would conveniently ignore, too focused on the main characters to give the rank and file any chance to show off.
Yet, as Theo watched down from his branch, the uneven battle below felt like the complete opposite of what he used to watch on a big screen.
The goblins' ranks didn't pass the test of their short, fleeting charge, breaking all over the place before the two sides came to blows.
Just like horses in an actual cavalry wouldn't be so eager to throw themselves right at the many spears sported by the enemy formation, the goblins, despite all their savagery, had no wish to jump straight at the monstrous and deadly cats before them.
And so, right as the most cinematic moment of the two groups clashing came to be, the whole picture turned messy in a hurry.
The line of the goblins broke, with some trying to escape the lunging bloodfangs while others froze in fear of the certain death ahead. Those who charged ahead, however...
Rather than a battle, it quickly turned into a hellish massacre.
The bloodfangs were too fast, too strong, and, for their opponents, way too tough.
Their skin, which Theo's spear pierced with relative ease, proved to be too much for the few hits that the goblins scored on it in the ensuing mess. On the other hand, however, the bloodfangs' slams, leaps, and bites all carried enough strength to cleave the feeble goblin bodies in two or just bite through their skin, flesh, and bones alike.
Still, for how majestic those beasts looked to anyone watching, when they were out fighting, their majesty turned into a messy show of simple gore.
The bloodfangs would slam their paws, cutting several goblins with their sharp claws, only to then crush one or two more with their stomp, claiming several goblin lives with each attack while already biting at the next and just… shrugging off the strikes of clubs or thrusts of simple, crude spears that the goblins tried to retaliate with.
The difference in strength was simply too much for the goblins to overcome, even when relying on their overwhelmingly greater number.
This joke of a fight took a turn only when the bogbears entered the fray, charging straight through the ranks of their lesser cousins, caring not for all the poor goblins they literally stomped into the ground on their way to where the fighting was taking place.
Those ape-like, furry, human-sized goblins carried their spiked clubs with confidence befitting that of a mutated hobgoblin, caring not for their safety or the lives of the goblins around them.
When they swung their weapons, however... hardly any bloodfang was stupid enough to risk taking the hit with their own, rather delicate flesh.
Out of all seven oversized cats in the battle, only one ended up unlucky enough to eat a hit, likely due to stumbling on its hind left leg, only for the sharp spike on the bogbear's mace to carve out a considerable chunk of flesh from where it connected to the poor cat's body.
Even a hit like that wouldn't be something that the bloodfang would struggle to regenerate, but...
In the heat of the battle, there was no time or room for it to retreat to let its wounds close up.
Sure, it jerked to the back, even going as far as to bite down on the goblin and then jerking its head at its neck, throwing it at the two approaching bogbears...
But for the agile monster like the bloodfang, when faced with the goblin horde, an immobilizing strike like that was pretty much a death sentence. And when a swarm of goblins rushed to poke their weapons into the existing wound while their bigger, furry cousins eagerly showered the poor cat with follow-up strikes, the pack ended up losing the first out of its seven members.
'That's most likely the one I speared before,' Theo thought, carefully watching the proceedings, ready to intervene at any point.
For now, everything was going according to plan. He managed to sic the apex predators of this part of the borderlands against the oversized nests he wanted to hunt down. But if either side would end up losing too decisively... Then it would be Theo himself that would have to come down from the tree and finish the remaining side off just to claim his score!
And so, he kept on watching, mana bristling in the palm of his hand, ready to transform into whatever spell he deemed fittest for the occasion.
For the time being, however, the battle raged on.
Enraged by the fall of one of theirs, the bloodfangs grew even more vicious than before, mowing down the goblins like some sort of grim reaper.
At first, they ignored the bogbears, patiently culling the goblins around themselves to open up some more room for maneuver. Mere minutes later, however, the bloodfangs' tactics changed.
With enough space created around, they... left one of them alone, a prime target for bogbears to swarm and then club down with their maces.
The poor and seemingly randomly selected member of the pack wasn't going to make the task any easier for its opponents, constantly running away from their approach, circling around them, rushing forth and then retreating, all in a bid to stay clear from the encirclement efforts of the bogbears—now joined by one of the goblin's chiefs.
A moment later, however, a smudge of black flashed across the area, only for the goblin chief to vanish from the group, pounced upon by the heaviest of the bloodfangs and then tossed out of the group, only for the rest of the pack to pounce down on it as soon as it fell to the ground, clawing and biting at it until they literally tore the poor, noble-class goblin into literal pieces.
Then, the whole process repeated, with the nimblest of the pack running around to herd their opponents into the perfect position for the rest of the pack to slowly pick off the toughest of the opponents, quickly driving the number of the bogbears down to five, four...
Then, the second of the cats fell, pierced straight through its skull by a javelin thrown from one of the goblin burrows.
"RAWR!" The pained cry soon escaped the throats of the remaining five cats as they threw themselves back into the fray with even greater viciousness than before. And at this point, with their numbers actually triumphing over the bogbears, they just each picked their target, leaving the nimblest of the pack to keep the nearby goblins at bay, allowing its brothers and sisters to challenge one bogbear each.
Deprived of the strength of their number and now facing an overwhelmingly stronger opponent, the bogbears soon fell, each pounced upon by the bloodfangs.
Three of them died on the spot.
The fourth, however, was saved when yet another javelin struck another bloodfang with the force of a cannon.
This time, however, rather than piercing its head, it struck low at its hips, crushing whatever bones held the rear of the cat together and rendering it perfectly immobile.
With its opponent thrown off its body, the last remaining bogbear quickly rose up, caring not for the several carved, bloody lines marking its furry flesh, only to take a desperate swing with its club… and crush the bloodfang's skull with it.
Finally, the culprit behind those spears emerged from his burrows, a chief goblin with several more javelins sticking out of a bucket he hung off its hips while carrying a comically oversized, slightly curved blade in its massive, troll-sized hand.
"SCREEEEE!" The goblin chief screamed out and pointed the tip of its sword at the remaining four bloodfangs...
Only for a fresh wave of goblins to suddenly emerge from the nest's main cave, quickly swarming up the clearing and filling all the gaps the bloodfangs worked so hard to create.
"This is my cue again," Theo muttered to himself, finally adding structure to the raw energy bristling in his palm before collapsing his fingers down on it as if he was closing a fist before reaching to the back... And leisurely tossing his hand forth, as if he wanted to throw some sort of a ball or stone right into the middle of the goblins' ranks.
The goblin chief and the leader of the bloodfang pack brought their eyes up, clearly sensing something, tracking the path Theo's spell took through the sky... all the way to the point where it fell to the ground and, for an entire second, did absolutely nothing.
'Boom,' Theo thought, raising his hands to his ears, closing his eyes, and opening his mouth.
BOOM!
The outer shell of Theo's spell cracked on impact. In the following second, the cracks expanded, further compromising its integrity, only for the critically condensed air inside of the shell to finally overcome its shackles and explode all of its energy outwards.
*********
Sorry guys, I had great plans for this novel but after writing it for quite a bit I've realized that those plans... They were a bit too big. If I want a novel on this site to work, it clearly has to be simpler and more straighforward.
So, rather than putting even more hours into this already failed project, I'm moving on to something else.
Thanks for sticking up with this story and I hope you will find something else to enjoy your tea evenings with!