Lucius retrieved his spear as he dropped back down from the air, hitting the ground running at full speed while desperately sucking in air to fill his lungs with a slightly pained expression on his face. He tried to stabilize his breathing in an effort to counteract the heavy burden placed on his body of using Flicker, but the immense stamina drain from the enhanced skill was truly exhausting.

  The hobgoblins around him noticed the mangled corpse of their slain companion tumbling across the ground, prompting them to immediately break ranks as they urged their mounts to flee faster, skittering away in all directions.

  “Cowards!”

  Lucius knew he couldn’t get them all—not until the sun set over the city, at least—but he was determined to make the hobgoblins pay as steep a price as he could inflict on them for the unforgivable sin of enslaving both living and dead human beings.

  He chose to pursue the two hobgoblins moving closest together not far from the barricade at the east of his position. The fact that one of them happened to be the strongest creature in the group was a bonus that only solidified his choice.

  As Lucius sprinted across the open field toward his next target, he caught sight from the corner of his eye of a brilliant flash of fire streaking through the air, it appeared to have come from the roof of the military headquarters. The beam of fire shot across the sky with tremendous speed, slamming into the abdomen of a spider before instantly erupting into a brilliant orb of flame.

  The spider mount was killed instantly, while the hobgoblin rider was blasted through the air like a ragdoll, crashing into a stall of food and miscellaneous goods at the outer perimeter of the tents. Items flew every which way as the body of the large hobgoblin finally came to a stop. The humanoid creature was clearly gravely injured, and as it struggled weakly to lift itself from the ground, a crowd of human civilians with clearly enraged expressions swarmed toward it, wielding various makeshift weapons above their heads as they screamed a battle cry while charging in.

  As the hobgoblin was brutally dispatched by the crowd of civilians, Lucius glanced toward the source of the magical flame attack. He spotted an older man with a thick white beard, wearing army uniform pants over his legs and a dirty white T-shirt over his upper body, instead of the standard uniform top the other soldiers wore. A camo hat sat atop his head, adorned with a silver oak leaf pinned at the front center—marking his rank as commander.

  The man held a massive green longbow that appeared to have scales running up the length of the upper and lower sections of it's shaft. The bowstring was a striking solid red, standing out vividly against the backdrop.

  Without nocking an arrow, the man's face turned red as he grit his teeth and drew back heavily on the bow, the muscles covering his body flexing intensely as he pulled tightly on the string with one thickly muscled arm—as he did, a long flame suddenly materialized before him.

  FWOOM!

  As he released the string, the magical flame blasted through the air, hissing from the strong wind blowing against the body of the fire, all the while casting a red glow on the ground beneath it as it passed by with impressive speed.

  As soon as the hobgoblins caught sight of the flaming arrow, they abandoned their attempts to capture more humans, a long low horn sounded off as the invaders began to retreat in unison, dragging their stolen prizes behind them.

  Lucius wasn’t about to let his prey escape. Gritting his teeth, he activated Flicker once more, his face scrunched up unpleasantly as he fought against the sudden swelling up of exhaustion in his body. The young man rushed forward at stunning speed to close the distance before it was too late. Another cloud of dust and dirt billowed up behind him as he tore across the open field, reaching the two retreating hobgoblins just as they finished scaling the barricade.

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  Using the Insectile Adhesion attribute of his boots, Lucius rushed straight up the side of the barricade with the same ease as the spiders themselves. Finally reaching the hobgoblins at the top, who where already hauling up the ropes holding their captives behind them. Lucius didn't hesitate to attack.

  You have defeated Hobgoblin Equitatus, Level 24.

  The young man channeled his anger into a Piercing Throw, his spear punching through the skull of the weaker hobgoblin closest to him. Retrieving the weapon in one hand, he dashed forward and grabbed the falling rope to keep the woman dangling in the air from falling back down to the hard ground beneath her.

  As he turned to finish off the remaining hobgoblin who appeared to be the leader of the nightmarish cavalry, his brows furrowed sharply. The cunning creature was staring directly at him, a bone knife pressed to the throat of the small boy clasped tightly in his monstrous arms.

  The child, no more than five or six years old, sobbed desperately for his mother, his bare feet kicking at the empty air below him as tears streamed down his dirt-streaked face.

  With a head full of knotted dark-red hair and large, jutting teeth, the hobgoblin sneered when he saw Lucius lower his spear. Its big, glowing green eyes squinted mockingly at the young human before it.

  The creature cocked its head back and let out a coarse, guttural laugh, thick saliva dribbling from its oversized teeth.

  Still sneering, the hobgoblin stepped backward, keeping its gaze locked on Lucius. It leapt back onto its mount, sitting in a backwards position facing the spiders abdomen to ensure the boy’s body remained between himself and Lucius at all times. One clawed hand gripping the reins, the other still clutching the child, the creature slowly began to withdraw.

  Lucius' knuckles turned white from how tightly he clenched his spear. His body screamed at him to attack—to ignore the risk and strike anyway. But when he realized he was still holding the dangling woman in one hand, he hesitated. He cast one last glare at the retreating hobgoblin with deeply furrowed brows before letting out a hard breath through his nose and stepping back down the front of the barricade.

  As he cut the net trapping his fellow human, his gaze swept across the battlefield. Only six of the hobgoblins had been slain during the attack, while the creatures had made off with roughly the same number of humans.

  Lucius narrowed his eyes as he looked over toward the gathering group of civilians, observing the joyous atmosphere spreading through the whole encampment. The moment the soldiers and civilians realized that six hobgoblins had been slain, they erupted into cheers, raising their weapons high in triumph.

  After making his way back toward the headquarters, Lucius met back up with Tiber and his men, still carrying an uncertain expression on his face as he questioned the man about the ongoing celebration.

  “What’s with the cheering? Maybe I’m crazy, but it felt like those hobgoblins got the best of us just now.”

  Tiber, caught up in the cheerful mood himself, grinned broadly as he shook his head at Lucius’ assessment.

  “You have to understand—most raids end with at least a dozen human casualties, and we’re lucky if we manage to kill even one or two of the invaders. Compared to that, this was a massive victory.”

  With that, Tiber turned toward the compound, gesturing for Lucius to follow.

  “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the commander.”

  Lucius followed him inside. The building was a typical dreary government structure, made even more depressing by the lack of electric lighting. They navigated the long hallways until they reached a large meeting room, which, thankfully, had a row of full-sized windows allowing sunlight to stream in.

  Tiber motioned for Lucius to take a seat before stepping out to inform the commander of their arrival. A few minutes later, the white-bearded man who had wielded the green-scaled bow during the battle entered the room, though the weapon was nowhere in sight. Instead, floating over his left shoulder, was a tiny green-and-red creature resembling a wingless, Asian-style dragon.

  Its scales gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight, and its flowing red beard rippled magically in the air despite the absence of wind. The creature fixed its red eyes on Lucius the moment it entered the room.

  As Lucius stared back at the creature, a deep, inhuman voice echoed into his mind—the same way Whisper often spoke to him.

  “Hmm. You smell familiar to my nose. You have bonded with one of my siblings, have you not?”