Bog Standard Isekai-Chapter 38Book 4.

Brin's horse Nobility knew without needing to be told that now was the time to put every ounce of strength in his body into running as fast as he could. Even so, Nobility and the other horses were unable to make any ground against the unnatural speed of the goblin horde.

They drew ever closer. They'd given up on yelling out the three words they knew for the chase, but Brin could still hear their snarls and panting even with his natural ears. They'd catch up any second. He needed to do something.

He split his mind. The half that was already working on distracting the larger army was relegated to a smaller portion of his mental power as he added three more to make a total of five split minds. He had each of his free minds make twelve directed threads, and each of those were ordered to make caltrops out of glass, one at a time, and then toss them out to cover the field behind.

A wide stream of glass caltrops popped into existence, littering the ground, and almost immediately they were treated to the howls of pain and outrage as the goblins crossed them.

Brin felt his Mana drain until he had less than half of it left. He ordered all his minds and threads to return; he'd need all his creativity and intelligence if he was going to get his Lance through this.

He risked a look back. The [Chieftain] had caught on quickly and ordered his army to spread out to lessen the damage Brin could do with his traps. They moved up on the sides so that when they caught up to the Lance they'd be totally surrounded.

That gave the Lance an opportunity; now that they weren't grouped so tightly, the Lance could whittle down their numbers. Cid saw it at the same time that Brin did and called an order, "To the left! Cut them down!"

The Lance wheeled to the left and charged into the nearest group of goblins. Brin didn't have time to get anyone in the right order, but it didn't matter. Everyone rushed through the loose goblin pack, striking out with borrowed stone spears. Desperation fueled their strength, and they killed or wounded the monsters left and right.

Only Anwir wasn't where he was supposed to be. He tried to keep moving straight to give himself distance between him and any goblins so that he could pepper them with arrows, but the pursuers in the middle ran quicker than he expected.

A seven foot tall goblin with a stone axe reached him first. He threw his weapon, hitting Anwir's horse Courage on its hind leg.

Horse and rider fell to the ground, but then in a feat that Brin was sure no natural horse would be capable of, heavily wounded Courage jumped back to his feat and dashed off again, without his rider.

The huge goblin leapt onto Anwir, grabbing with hairy fingers as if to tear the knight to pieces with its bare hands.

Brin turned to go back for their archer, but somehow Hedrek was already there. He cut the goblin in two, and then leaned halfway off his saddle to reach down and grab Anwir. He pulled him into place behind him and then rode off again.

The next few goblins skidded to a stop, not wanting to be the first to reach Hedrek before more of their number had caught up. That gave the Lance all the opening they needed. They regrouped behind Hedrek who took the lead.

The goblins clumped up again, the [Chieftain] probably deciding that losing a few more goblins to caltrops was better than giving an opening to the entire Lance, and Brin had to admit it was the right decision.

Brin's Mana pool would run out before the horde did. He could make another hundred or so caltrops, but then he'd be out of Mana, and it wasn’t like the caltrops killed the goblins. It barely slowed them down. He saw the three dozen or so goblins who'd stepped on his traps strung out behind the rest of the horde licking their wounds. Literally licking them in most cases, and already some of them seemed recovered enough to limp along behind the rest.

He needed the rest of his Mana illusions. He went through the motions of making a thin glass bottle that glowed an ugly green and tossed it behind his shoulder, but he didn't know if that would fool anyone, not with what he had planned.

When the bottle hit, he cast Mirror Image on each member of the Lance, creating an entire second Lance going a different direction. He didn't want to waste the attention or Mana to make all the real knights invisible, so he settled for a screen. He projected an image of uninterrupted, empty fields onto a long flat plane, covering the Lance.

Against someone really perceptive, it would never work, but it was good enough for the goblins. They chased the spectral Lance, which always seemed to go just a bit faster every time they almost caught up to it.

Brin hoped the real Lance would be too focused on riding forward to notice what he'd done, but he didn't regret using his powers. He'd already decided that keeping his secret would come second to the safety of the Lance.

They rode onward, relaxing their pace a little bit now that they were away from imminent death. The goblins kept chasing the illusion, and the Lance members started to cast confused glances in that direction. Brin was tempted to shut off the illusion now, but didn't. They needed every minute he could give them.

They rode straight towards the public house, and Brin could see that the villagers had put the time they'd bought to good use. Men and women were digging a trench and using the dirt to make a mound in a square surrounding their little fortress. Others were pulling down more houses to make stone walls on top of the mounds. What little wood they had was being sharpened into stakes to further slow down the goblins.

Only about three quarters of the wall was finished, though, and the goblins were already growing tired of the fruitless chase and turning back towards the town. That flickering black shape was back, turning them back towards their true purpose. Brin was starting to hate that thing, whatever it was.

Cid found the [Cunning Man] first. "Can you see to our horses?"

Somehow, Courage had his way back to the group, but he wasn't looking good. If this was Earth, he'd say that horse was bound for the glue factory. Even here, he didn't think anything could bleed that much.

"I can," Omhar said without hesitation. "But you'll need to bring them into the public house. They'll be safe there, and it's the only place I can work without interruption right now."

Brin didn't have to guess why Omhar would be willing to give up some of the limited space in the public house to ten huge warhorses. As long as the Lance's horses were there, the Lance had no choice but to stay and defend the town.

Well, the joke was on him. The Lance had never planned to run away and save themselves in the first place.

"Good," Cid said. "Then heal Courage here, if you can. The rest are in little danger."

Omhar called a group of boys over to guide the horses, and Cid called after him. "Start bringing your people in as well. I won't have a mad scramble at the entrance once the goblins are upon us."

Omhar paused and turned. "If we don't finish those walls--"

"The walls are as finished as they need to be. Leave the rest to us."

Brin watched, as one by one the workers left their places on the walls. Confused and scared, they filed into the public house until only the Lance was left. Brin couldn't help but think that a few more bodies out here might not be the worst idea. Was Cid certain they didn't need the help? He couldn't complain in front of the men. If the purpose of this was to project confidence, then Brin couldn't undermine that by asking questions.

Instead, he made a plan. He made a glass copy of himself, pushing a wasteful amount of power into it to make it quickly, and then inspected his Mirror Man for detail. It looked good from a few feet away, but up close you could tell it was made of glass.

"What's this?" asked Cid.

"Goblins can count to ten. Well, actually I'm not sure if they can. Either way, this is a decoy," said Brin.

"And why would you need a decoy?" asked Cid.

"I have another one of those invisibility potions," said Brin.

"How convenient," Cid said flatly.

"I had in mind to sneak over and kill their leader."

"So the decoy is to take your place while you’re gone. Bold of you to assume that goblins can count to ten. And why wouldn't Brych be more suited for this task?" asked Cid.

Brin scratched his neck, in the sweaty spot between his helm and armor. "Honestly, I think I'm sneakier than Brych. He'll make a better [Knight] that he did a [Rogue]. No offense."

Brych rolled his eyes. "No offense taken to the nicest thing anyone's ever said about me."

Cid bit his lip. "I know what you're thinking, but things aren't as hopeless as they seem. There are what, a hundred and fifty left in this group? You've never seen Hedrek go wild. If you and the rest of the men can handle fifty, then leave the other hundred to me and Hedrek."

Brin shook his head. "I believe you! This isn't a suicide mission. It's just that if something goes wrong, I don't want to look back on this and know that I didn't do all I could."

"And you're sure it has to be you?"

"It will be better if it's me," said Brin.

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Cid met Brin's eyes and stared for a long moment. Finally, he nodded. "Then I'll trust you. Go."

Brin snapped Self-Invisibility in place and then started running, realizing only later that he'd forgotten to pretend to drink a potion. Was he possibly the worst [Illusionist] ever?

He ran, feeling oddly free. He was alone against impossible odds, with nothing to lose but his own life, the way it should be. He didn't have to keep an eye on anyone but himself. Yes, he did still have an Invisible Eye watching over his Lance, but he didn't need to.

The goblin horde approached. As they got closer, he raised his hand dramatically even though no one could see him, and cast his first wave of Mirror Images. He peppered them in with the goblins, scattering them through the horde.

His Mirror Images shouted and waved, some screaming, others laughing. The laughing seemed to be the ticket; it really unnerved any goblins nearby. Some fled in terror while others lashed out wildly against the illusions, striking their nearby comrades.

Brin began to laugh in earnest, spreading the sound of evil laughter all throughout the horde. The entire army went crazy.

They ceased their approach and rioted, goblins yelling and running in every direction.

A large, sharp shout rang out over the din, and the group suddenly quieted. Another shout, and all eyes turned to the [Chieftain], who was using some ability to grab their attention. Even Brin found it hard to look away.

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The [Chieftain] stomped over to one of Brin's cackling illusions and shouted at all the nearby goblins. He didn't use words, but the meaning was clear. This is a trick!

He reached out with his staff, possibly to demonstrate that it would go right through. Brin chose that moment to strike.

He was near the edges of the horde now, well within throwing distance. He took out a javelin, one of the nice ones that Kartof had given him, and empowered it with his best spell. ""

The illusion stabbed out at the same time that Brin threw the javelin. Somehow, the [Chieftain] sensed his impending death and dodged to the side. The javelin passed through where he'd been and obliterated a goblin standing behind him, detonating it as if it had swallowed a stick of dynamite.

Brin grit his teeth. He hadn't killed the [Chieftain], but that was still a success. Everyone had seen how dangerous his Mirror Images were, and now the goblins were scrambling to get away from them.

He walked through the horde, sending his illusions around to sew confusion and give him a path to the [Chieftain].

Brin chose the goblins about his own height, noting with satisfaction that he was actually tall for a goblin, and placed his Mirror Images right on top of them. The goblins nearby scrambled away from them, and then the confused victims tried to follow and get away from whatever they were running from, which made it all even better. More than once, the fleeing and confused goblins decided they’d had enough and struck down the unlucky ones wearing his face. The biggest goblin in the camp, a gigantic nine-footer, took particular delight in smashing every Brin it could find, not seeming to care that the Brin’s reverted to goblins when they died.

In the confusion, Brin had a straight path to the leader.

The [Chieftain] looked left and right with wild eyes, barking orders, but no one was listening to him. Brin pushed glass magic into his Bog Standard spear. From this range, he couldn't miss.

He stabbed, and the goblin leader dodged. He slashed, and it jumped backwards, avoiding the attack. Right, hadn't Brin learned this lesson against Zilly? If he couldn't see you, he'd trust his other senses. Better to let the enemy think he could see you.

Brin let the Self-Invisibility drop. The goblin's eyes went wide in shock, and he pointed at Brin, shouting, but the other goblins were past listening. Now, he was just one Brin among many. He struck, going through the standard set of movements, the first forms that Hogg had taught him, and the first thing that everyone practiced against.

Only, the [Chieftain] had never been formally trained. He was strong, somehow even stronger than Brin, but he was used to overpowering his opponents and didn't know how to handle someone who fought smart.

Brin stabbed, and he ducked out of the way. The goblin tried to grab at his spear, but he was already moving into a swipe. The [Chieftain] put his arms up to guard his face, but the swipe was a feint. Brin rammed his spear straight into the monster's stomach and out the other side.

He met the [Chieftain's] eyes and saw pure hatred. That was a fatal blow, but the goblin wasn't dead yet.

Brin turned himself invisible, but instead of flying at him in a berserker rage like he expected, the [Chieftain] started chanting again.

Brin grabbed a javelin with his free hand and stabbed the goblin’s throat. The chanting kept going, an otherworldly voice taking over for the mortal voice that could now do nothing but make rasping, burbling gasps. Brin pulled his javelin out, and then his spear. The spear was tricky, he had to put his foot against the [Chieftain's] chest to get the leverage.

The goblin kept chanting, and there was a look of triumph in his eyes. He was going to explode or something, wasn't he?

Brin turned and ran. He found a boulder jutting out of the ground and hopped over it and then crouched down behind, waiting for the inevitable.

The [Chieftain] slammed his hands against his chest, but it wasn't a gorilla dominance display. His fingers drove into his own flesh, and then just as Brin predicted, he exploded. The top half of his body instantly disintegrated into a red mist, and a shockwave flew through the camp. The wave wasn't something physical, however, and passed through Brin without harm.

You have defeated: Goblin Chieftain (35)

The shockwave didn’t affect Brin, but the goblins were another story. All of the goblins struck by the shockwave lost their fear. They grew more savage, teeth lengthening and claws sharpening. As one, their panic was replaced by anger and they turned a final time to the city. They didn’t waste time with shouts and calls to build up their anger. They charged, and this time, Brin could tell that no amount of distraction would stop them from getting to that town and destroying everything they found there.

Brin tried anyway, throwing copies of himself in their path. They swatted at them, proving that they hadn’t somehow found a way to see through illusions, but they didn’t let it slow them. Brin stabbed the passing goblins with his spear, scoring a deep gouge on one passing monster, but it kept running. Soon, they were all past him.

He ran behind, sending his eyes ahead to try to do something. He summoned a band of Mirror Images to try to direct a portion of the goblins away to the side, but that dark, flittering shadow appeared again.

It darted into his illusions and he felt a flash of Wyrd, something dark and sadistic. It had no argument except the desire to sink its teeth into his throat. That was enough for the Wyrd, his illusions were dispelled.

On the plus side, the clash of magic gave him a small glimpse into the magical effects going on. The [Chieftain’s] death curse had put some kind of empowering rage onto the goblins, and it had also imbued them with his final orders: to destroy the town. That black creature could use the Wyrd enough to alter those orders and control the horde more directly. He really needed to kill that thing, whatever it was.

He decided to save his Mana for when the goblins engaged his Lance. Distractions might work better when the horde reached the town and they had real enemies to confuse his duplicates with.

The goblins reached the town, and it looked like they were going to do exactly what the Lance wanted and bunch up at the uncompleted section of wall, coming through a few at a time. But right as they were about to reach it, the shadow thing flashed through their ranks and instead they slowed down and spread out. They started climbing over the walls, so that they would all reach the Lance at the same time. Of the original two hundred, only one hundred twenty were left, but if they all hit the group at the same time, Brin wasn’t sure if they could handle it. He could make the entire Lance invisible? But they’d already established that they weren’t going to run away to save themselves, and fighting while invisible was a liability unless you were used to it.

The Lance charged, running for the gap in the walls. With half the goblins now climbing over the walls, they had a short window to engage a smaller group, and they took full advantage.

Fully armored and without needing to worry about protecting their horses, they had no fear of letting themselves get completely surrounded, and on the ground they were able to use the weapons they were more familiar with. The first line of goblins fell immediately, but replacements quickly jumped into their place. More goblins converged on the group every second, but the knights stood their ground.

He saw the Lance split off into two groups, protecting both sides of the gap in the walls. Eight men fought on one side, and Hedrek covered the other half completely alone.

Hedrek was a tornado of destruction, and Brin felt like he was seeing the [Knight] for the first time. He wasn’t a delicate fighter. There was no finesse. He was as brutal and raw as the goblins themselves, the only difference being that he was armored and much, much stronger.

The big [Knight] laughed as he fought, swinging his sword at positively stupid angles that somehow always seemed to take off a limb or cut through a belly. He kicked, headbutted, and probably would’ve bitten if he wasn’t wearing a helmet.

Brin didn’t know you could punch a goblin’s head off until he saw Hedrek land a particularly good uppercut.

The other side had more trouble, but they hung on by fighting side by side and holding the line. There was a moment when Meredydd took a stone axe to the helmet and seemed like he was about to fall. Rhun arrived in front of him as if he teleported there and slammed the offending goblin onto his back with his tower shield, then defended against all comers while Meredydd gathered himself. It took Brin a moment to figure out how Rhun had moved so fast, but then he remembered Rhun still had his [Charge] Skil from his [Warrior] Class. It wasn’t as good as the [Knight] one, but it also didn’t have the stamina cost.

Brin finally caught up again. His first instinct was to go to the Lance, but he had needed to take care of that creature guiding the goblins first. He found it, flittering along the edges and threw one of his nice javelins. He was sure it was a hit, but the thing disappeared and the javelin blasted through the leg of a goblin.

He carefully followed the flitting, flying creature with his eyes until he was sure he had a good shot. He threw his second javelin, and again he missed. He was out of javelins. He’d already used the third one. Luckily the second javelin hadn’t shattered, so he summoned it back with his glass magic and kept looking.

There was a flash of rainbow scales, and then Marksi was there. He pounced, and a black shape solidified beneath his claws. He bore the creature down to the ground and Brin got a good look at it for the first time.

It was a black cat. Now that it had been pulled out of whatever concealment it was using, [Inspect] worked.

Name: Saberhagen

Race: Witch’s Familiar - Cat

Level: 40

Of course it was a cat. Marksi was going to be unbearable after this. The cat bucked with surprising strength and sent Marksi flying through the air, but he landed on his feet and turned to face his nemesis.

Brin lined up his shot and started pumping more Mana into his javelin, as much as it could hold.

Meanwhile, the cat seemed shuddered and stretched. It grew, not all at once but in a grotesque, bulging manner, until it was roughly the size of a tiger. It didn’t dignify them with a roar. Instead, it flicked its tail, narrowed its eyes, and leaned down, about to pounce.

Marksi held his ground. He took in a deep breath. A very deep breath, so big that he had to use his transformation ability to grow his lungs and chest bigger.

The instant Marksi started to open his mouth, Brin understood what was about to happen.

He had flashbacks of a dragonling chasing a little red dot around the room. He remembered all those hours working on his device, with Marksi sitting on his shoulder, watching in rapt fascination. He remembered humoring his little friend by shining it straight into his mouth so he could taste the magic, heat, and light right on his tongue. He remembered Marksi killing those Fire Jellies, not getting a core but still feeling like he deserved one.

Brin’s invention was Brin’s invention, but Marksi had been there every step of the way. He understood it, in the way that only dragons understand things.

He also remembered the thing he’d learned from meeting Marksi’s mother. Dragons might not care about human speech, but that didn’t mean they didn’t care about language.

Marksi opened his mouth and said his first word. Brin understood it immediately despite never having heard it before.

A beam of stunning, beautiful rainbow light appeared all at once, covering the distance between Marksi and the cat. It burned a hole into the creature, and Marksi traced it wherever it tried to dodge, burning deeper and deeper.

When the laser winked out, Marksi lay down on the spot, exhausted. The cat yowled in pain and started shrinking again to its regular size.

Brin threw his javelin and blasted the cat into pieces.

You have defeated: Saberhagen (40)

Level up! 38 -> 39

+5 Strength +1 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +2 Magic, +3 Mental Control, +1 Will, +2 free attributes.

He ran and scooped up Marksi before any of the goblins noticed him. Carrying his little dragon under one arm, he turned himself invisible and ran through the mess of goblins to reach his Lance.

Now that there was no [Witch’s] familiar goading on the goblins, they acted like natural creatures again, and the effect was immediate. The wounded howled and ran, the little ones scattered, and the larger ones approached more cautiously. Brin ran past the Lance, deposited Marksi in the safest place he could think of, a ledge on the public house where a window had been, and then ran back to join the battle.

He took a spot next to Hedrek and fought with wild abandon, knowing that they’d already won. He had to duck under Hedrek’s wild, chaotic swings a couple times, but seeing the enemies fall beneath them made it all worth it.

He was having fun, he realized, and Hedrek’s laugh was infectious. It was probably stupid to let his metaphorical guard down, but for the first time today, he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to lose any of his friends here.

The biggest goblin had been hanging back until now, but chose that moment to finally step forward.

Rhun got there first. The goblin swung a stone covered tree trunk and Rhun blocked with his greatshield, though the motion flung him to the ground. Brych made a motion and put his hands on his knee. Aeron’s eyes widened, but then he nodded. He ran at Brych and stepped on his hands, and Brych boosted him into the air. Aeron flew through the air at the goblin and swung his mace with both hands, landing it right between the giant goblin’s eyes. The goblin died in one blow.

The rest of the goblins scattered after that, completely demoralized.

Cid wasted no time, and started shouting before all of the men had even realized it was over. “Cowl, I want you to check every single member of the Lance for injuries. I don’t care if they say they aren’t hurt, they might not feel it. Check with your eyes. And… Brin, will you stop that!”

Brin clicked his mouth shut against his laughter, which had started to take a hysterical tone. He was just so relieved.

Cid shouted, “We have no time to waste. In case you’ve forgotten, the largest group is still on the way!”

Brin knew all about that group. He knew exactly where they were, and how many. Where this two hundred had one [Chieftain], the group of seven hundred had thirty-one of the blasted things. There were giants, and a few riding beasts, and a couple goblins wearing strange, black armor that looked like wet tar.

He wasn’t afraid of that army because where one Lance might struggle to hang on, twelve Lances would triumph with overwhelming force. Brin pointed to the spot where one hundred and twenty knights from the Order of the Broken Stone was just then coming into view. Cid saw them, and his shoulders sagged in relief.

Maybe if their horses weren’t injured, they’d ride out and join them. As it was, Cid could do nothing but tell the Lance to take a rest. Their part in this fight was over.

Alert! You have advanced an Achievement.

Knightly (Rare)

You have risked your life to protect the innocent against superior odds. You have brought honor to your name and your Order. The martial Skills that will be offered to you in your next Skill selection have been upgraded.