Chapter 36: Too close
Leya’s sword carved through the air in a vicious horizontal slash that caught the goblin across its extended arm.
The blade didn’t just cut, it froze. Ice crystals spread from the wound like a plague of cold, racing up the creature’s arm and across its torso.
The goblin’s movements became sluggish and jerky as the supernatural frost invaded its nervous system, turning its own body into a prison of ice.
But Leya’s moment of vengeance left her vulnerable. The second knife-wielder, demonstrating cunning that belied its primitive appearance, rushed forward and slammed into her back with its full body weight.
The impact sent her stumbling directly into the path of the shield-bearer’s massive shield.
The reinforced wooden shield caught her square in the chest with bone-crushing force, lifting her completely off her feet and hurling her backward through the air.
Leya’s body struck a tree with a sickening thud that sent bark fragments raining down around her.
She crumpled to the ground in a heap, her weapons flying from her hands to land several meters away. Stars exploded across her vision as she struggled to draw breath into her traumatized lungs.
Meanwhile, Mitch found himself in his own desperate struggle.
The two shield-bearing goblins had trapped him in a deadly pincer, their massive forms creating walls of wood and steel that seemed to close in from both sides.
A knife-wielding goblin had attempted to join the fray, but Mitch’s quick thinking and quicker reflexes had eliminated that threat with a perfectly placed mana ball that reduced the creature to bloody remains.
The remaining shield-bearers pressed their advantage, forcing Mitch into a purely defensive stance.