The Way of the Future: Age of Machines(Completed)

Ambush

"Goblins!" One of the knights shouted out. 

The knights ran to form a circle around Artemis and Toby as the goblins emerged from all sides.

It was an ambush. 

"There's so many of them!" 

Indeed, they were. A hundred, no, thousands of goblins surrounded the group of twenty. 

They came out from their hiding places, behind the trees, bushes, a few trenches, while some merely stood in front of the road as if they were expecting the group to make their way through this road. 

"These goblins are smarter and stronger than they look," Toby said. 

The goblins, instead of wearing their dirty loincloths, now wore leather and Iron armor, a few had bandanas and leather gloves. They all wielded crude knives and short swords while others had crude bows and some arrows that were still sharp enough to kill. 

500 wouldn't be a problem but since there were at least thousands and all of them were armed to the teeth, the battle was evened. 

Artemis, however, was the deciding factor. 

He knew the inner and outer workings of goblins, their psychology, and habits. 

They also had a culture of their own, their culture was a barbaric one if put in human terms. 

But Artemis himself was taken aback by the sheer amount of coordination these goblins had against their eastern counterparts.

"A different kind?" Artemis whispered to himself. The goblins they are facing are smart and stronger than the ones he encountered back in the Great Isthmus Region, is it because there are different kinds of goblins in each place? Or someone might have strengthened them to an average C-rank like what he did to the goblins back in the Great Isthmus Region with cybernetic enhancements.

[I am detecting 30 thousand more goblins, no goblins or any other life signatures are detected within a 10 kilometer radius] Caitlyn said through his mind.

"Good," Artemis said out loud, confusing his men. 

Artemis then stepped out of the circle and confronted the goblins down the road.

They were confident but since they were savage creatures at best, their confidence could be used against them in the form of taunts. 

Artemis taunted the goblins down the road by waving his hands, gesturing them to come at him.

The taunt worked and the goblins down the road which numbered 4000 came charging at him. 

The other goblins, seeing that their brethren were now charging their prey, ran out of their positions as well with their swords drawn. The goblin archers then started firing volley upon volley of arrows with coordination. 

They acted more like a disciplined unit of an army rather than their commonly held image of just charging in blindly. 

Artemis then drew out his two energy swords and prepared to face the charging goblins. Seeing Artemis' confidence in his abilities, the morale of the knights and Toby went up.

"Shield!" Toby shouted as he and the other mages immediately chanted their magic. Then, a dome of magic protection specifically against projectiles like arrows that are magical or not, the protective dome then appeared above and around the position of the knights. The arrows were easily repelled as if they hit a brick wall. 

"Charge!" The knights shouted. With their magic swords drawn and shields up, they charged at the goblins who had by now passed through the magic shield Toby had put up.