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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 94
🕑 Added 2024-05-10 15:58:54 +0000 UTCAfter a few more teams did their goblin killing, all the teams were finally done.
As the Arena staff was cleaning up the gore and dead goblins from the Pit, Instructor Greyham once again stood before the stands full of students, some of them were clearly shaken from their first kill, and most of the fighters were a little bloody, fortunately, it was not their blood… mostly.
When all the students settled down, Instructor Greyham addressed us, “Well done students. For most of you, you have slain your first foe, and from what I can see, there are a number of you who have conflicting feelings about what you just did, it would be a good time to reflect and think if you want this experience to be a regular part of your future before you graduate. If you find yourself troubled and need someone to talk with, do not hesitate to approach the academy's counselor.”
After saying that, Instructor Greyham straightened up and lost his solemn attitude, “And with that out of the way, may the team with the best time please stand up.”
With that, all eyes were on my team as we stood to our feet, and the students around started clapping.
Instructor Greyham raised his hand and the students quietened down again, “Now that you are promised a Mana Steel weapon of your choice, you now have the chance to bring out the potential of the weapon. The reward for the next trial, should you accept it, is for your Mana Steel weapons to be enchanted by Professor Bixby Goldensprocket.”
This time, it was me and a few other mage students who got excited while my team had somewhat confused smiles on their faces.
This, I kind of expected. Dave and Sam are not mages, and I don’t remember seeing Henry and Arabella in Enchanting class. So I bestow some of my enchanting and blacksmithing knowledge on them.
I leaned over and whispered to my team, “This is a good thing, with the right enchantments, a master enchanter like Professor Bixby Goldensprocket may be able to bring something like Mana Steel up to the performance of Mithril, low-quality Mithril without any enchantments but Mithril none the less. In fact, the cost of Professor Bixby performing the enchanting is most likely many times more expensive than the sword itself, we should go for it.”
This news raised the eyebrows of my team’s mages and made Dave and Sam salivate at the prospect of owning something so expensive. In no time at all, we agreed to at least hear out what the final trial was about.
I then shouted, “What is the trial?”
Instructor Greyham chuckled at my question, “Good, at least you asked, there were some previous batches that accepted the trail without checking with me on his contents. You will be fighting a Hobgoblin and ten goblins. Do you accept?”
I have seen how goblins fight while a hobgoblin is in charge, and while I am confident in taking care of myself, when I turned to my teammates, they did not feel so confident about them. I then shouted back, “May we have some time to discuss this as a team?”
Instructor Greyham nodded and said we had two minutes, so I brought the team into a huddle, “Alright, the only question is if you really, really want to win the reward.”
They all hesitated for a moment before Arabella spoke up, “Is this not too dangerous? I have heard stories about how hobgoblins can turn an unruly mob of goblins into a cunning group of killers.”
To that, I answered, “Well I would not go that far, I would say that with a hobgoblin around, it turns the goblins acting like it is a free-for-all into a slightly more organized group with a direction and purpose.”
Then my team stared at me like I grew a third eye, “You fought a hobgoblin before?!”
To which, I shook my head, “No, my father brings me out on some subjugation missions to observe but never lets me participate, and I have seen a number of goblin groups, with and without hobgoblins leading them. But that is besides the point, we are running out of time, do you want to do this or not?”
After they looked at each other for a few seconds without disagreeing, they turned back to me and nodded, I nodded back to them and broke from the huddle. “We accept!”
***
I was once again down in the Pit with my team as I watched the Arena staff drag the unconscious goblins out. Once all ten goblins were out, two Arena staff walked into the Pit holding a hobgoblin the size of a full-grown man by its hands and legs.
But as the hobgoblin was put down to the ground, I noticed something off. Usually, all the hobgoblins I have ever seen were wearing some form of armor, be it scavenged gear from some unfortunate bastard, or even a roughly cut hide of other beasts, but I have never seen a hobgoblin wear colorful feathers and elaborate face painting. The only time I have ever seen that was on a… goblin… shaman… fuck… is that a hobgoblin shaman?
The Arena staff then came out with the weapons, they chucked a bunch of clubs in front of the goblins. But for the hobgoblin, the Arena staff brought out a special weapon for it. What they put in front of the unconscious hobgoblin was what I assume is a wand, but as I squinted my eyes, I realized the wand was a femur with some kind of small woodland creature’s skull affixed at the tip of said femur.
So… I can pretty safely say that this is a hobgoblin shaman. I quickly turned around and called for an emergency meeting before the arena staff woke the goblins and hobgoblin up.
“Alright, change of plans, you all see the hobgoblin there?” they turned to take a look and then nodded to me, “Well that is not just a hobgoblin, it's a hobgoblin shaman. A goblin shaman can already cast at our equivalent of third circle magic, and I am pretty sure the hobgoblin shaman can do that and more. So our plan of running for the wall so we only have to deal with a 180° arc of combat and waiting for them to come to us, is useless now. We are still restricted to not using aura and second circle spells, if we stay in one spot, will get bombarded”
With this news, they all turned pale, and Henry asked, “So what now?”
I turned to Henry, “Now, we treat this like any other battle, rush the mage.”
