Towers And Tieflings: ONC 2021 Longlist

4: A Hidden Advantage

Warning: Chapter contains action/violence.

Goblins descend onto the party like ants whose mound has been disrupted, intent on punishing whoever dared to disturb.

A fully-grown goblin sweeps up the little one from the tree, taking it away from its pile of stolen snacks and ushering the tiny creature away from the clearing. The adult, dressed in a filthy purple shirt, turns back to the rest of its group, and barks out something that Adam, Kohl, and Orianna can't understand.

"She's giving them orders to attack!" Seamus says, having learned "Goblin" as one of his character's known languages. "That one's probably the leader!"

The goblins swarm closer towards them, snarling and gnashing their teeth with their weapons drawn. One takes a swing at Kohl, who dodges with ease. Her counterattack proves to be both more accurate and deadly, but two more goblins take the place of their fallen comrade.

Seamus maneuvers to the blind spot of one of Kohl's opponents, taking advantage of its focused attention on the pirate. His dagger slides into the creature as if its insides were air; the body slowly starts to dissipate into pixels, allowing Seamus to pull his blade back out just as easily.

Throughout the combat, the halfling rogue attempts to listen in on the goblin leader's orders, hoping to give his friends some advantage. All of a sudden, Seamus yells, "Orianna, watch out!"

The tiefling wizard panics at the sound of her name, moving just enough so that the arrow aimed at her throat embeds itself in her shoulder instead. Orianna screams, the synthetic sensation of pain much more acute than she would've suspected. A crossbow-wielding goblin cheers from its perch on a tree branch, happy it managed to hit at all.

"Quick, cast 'Magic Missile'!" Adam's greatsword slashes across three goblin bodies as he advises his friend, all too aware of the fact that none of melee-users will be able to draw their ranged weapons at this point to help.

It was all up to Orianna to stop the goblins from shooting crossbow bolts through them all.

Her wounded arm useless, Orianna scrolls through her spell list with her good hand shaking. Luckily, she's able to locate Adam's suggested spell, and casts the simple single-target, automatic hit ability with relative ease. Magic rains down on her assailant like shooting stars, the sparkling streams of silver light causing immense pain on impact. Both the crossbow and the goblin hit the grass-covered ground with a thud, the latter dissolving into tiny blue fragments.

The tiefling wizard breathes a sigh of relief as her screen displays a notification about receiving some amount of experience points for her kill, happy she managed to contribute to the fight and hopeful it would soon conclude in victory for her team.

If only it would be that easy.

Surveying the battlefield, Orianna notices several more goblins scaling trees and taking aim, following their leader's orders. Seamus overhears this, translating for the team while he and Kohl take down targets and dodge attacks. Despite the two working well together to whittle down the enemy team, each is still steadily amassing injuries that Adam does his best to heal until his abilities are exhausted. They have no way to defend against ranged attacks, and face the very real possibility of death if too many hits are taken. Now that Adam's restorative powers have been used up, the situation starts to look increasingly grim.

Adam moves quickly to stop the oncoming onslaught, channeling the powers granted to him from his god in the form of an oath. He charges towards the goblin leader, his sworn fealty charging up his sword so that it pulsates with holy light, and decapitates her in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately for him and his friends, the death of the goblin's leader did not send them into the retreat the paladin had hoped for. Instead, the goblins frenzy, even more determined than before. The ground-level enemies fight harder, making more purchase into the battle against the party's melee fighters. Some even make a beeline for Orianna, who nearly loses her footing over a tree root trying to retreat to a safer distance. Seamus lobes a smoke bomb in the wizard's direction, hoping to help her disappear into the treeline. The goblins that were attempting to climb perennial plants find their footing on branches; they load their weapons, take aim, and fire.