Chapter 103 Moving Through The Underground City
The many houses of the city were a couple of meters away from the wall and they needed to first get down from the towers before attempting to climb on one to continue towards the center of the city. They first checked the area around the tower to make sure that nobody was around to see them.
After making sure the coast was clear they make their way down. The hard soil of the dungeon crunches a bit as they step on it. It seemed like the outer area of the city was luckily not inhabited by a lot of goblins, a great benefit to them as it made sneaking in much easier.
Looking around they check the houses nearby, they were a bit further away from each other compared to the ones deeper in the city but jumping over from one to another was still possible. They make their way towards one of the smaller houses nearby, there was a bigger one right next to it and they planned to climb on the small one first and then get on it.
The house was only 2 meters tall and climbing on it was a simple feat for everyone. Before doing that however they made sure to check both of the houses, it would be quite bad if there were goblins inside that spot them. Getting spotted so early in such a manner would be quite embarrassing, not to mention that it would destroy any chance for a stealthy approach.
It wasn't as if they couldn't simply bulldoze their way in, they could definitely do that. It was simply the fact that they would spend a fair amount of mana and stamina to do so and they wanted to preserve as much before facing the final boss.
The houses were almost empty, there was only 1 hobgoblin sleeping in one of them. He was quickly dispatched by Shadow who sneaked in. Taking care of their final worry they climb up both of the houses and observe the area around them, trying to figure out the best path to the city.
"We can go on the right first before moving in a straight line until we get to that flag there, it will serve as a good landmark for orientation. As the hobgoblins are quite active in the area ahead of that we should go to the left and circle around them before continuing forward. For the final stretch, there is, unfortunately, no other way than going full frontal." Wolf tells everyone while pointing at distant buildings to explain where exactly they were going. The path he wished to take was of course much longer than going straight, but as he said it was going to be much safer.
Everyone nods in agreement before moving. The city streets only had torches for lighting and since they were a couple of meters in the air it would be quite hard for hobgoblins to spot them. Of course, some houses also had torches on the walls, small balconies, and even on some rooftops. Luckily Wolf was able to control the fire from a couple of meters away and could extinguish them.
Extinguishing the torches would definitely draw some attention, but they would already be far away when somebody comes to check it out. They would only find a torch that for some reason extinguished, with the hobgoblin's intelligence they shouldn't really suspect anything from that, simply lighting the torch on fire would be the extent of their action, at least that was what everyone hoped for.
Even if they suspected something, however, it would mean nothing as they shouldn't need a lot of time to reach the center of the city and the boss building. They were going to show themselves when they get close to it anyway.
The plan was going great so far. Jumping from building to building did produce noise that would draw some attention to them, but most hobgoblins would simply take the noise as nightly adventures of other hobgoblins. It happened sometimes so it wasn't weird for the other goblins to simply ignore the sounds of them landing from roof to roof.
They were halfway there when something happened. As they were jumping on the roof of yet another house Wolf, Reign and Shadow were waiting for Tank to land.
Crack!
Tank lands and the roof suddenly cracks beneath his feet. He looks up to Wolf and Reign in shock as the cracks widen and the roof collapses. They all fall down in the house as hobgoblins get attracted to their location by the loud noise. Looking at the house from the outside the hobgoblins were scratching their heads in confusion as to what happened. Houses collapsing wasn't an everyday sight for them.
Beast and the others were looking down with worry on their faces, the fall wasn't bad enough to hurt Reign and the others, but looking at the hobgoblins that were starting to form a crowd around the house it quickly became evident that they were going to have to fight now. Stealth was no longer an option in this dungeon.
Beast draws his arrow, ready to fire it at any moment while Greenie looks down with a vicious look on his face, his stomp will be able to deal great damage to the hobgoblins located there.
Wolf and the others emerge from the debris, looking around they immediately find out about the situation while one hobgoblin coughs right next to them. It was the unlucky owner of the house that only now noticed them, he screams loudly while other hobgoblins from the outside manage to spot them from the open parts of the house that worked as windows.
Beast fires his explosive arrow while Greenie jumps down with all his might. Reign and the others take out their weapons and get ready for a fight. Ronny and Cameron were on the backs of the two wind wolves that Beast had just summoned.
Bam!
The explosion immediately throws the crowd into confusion as a couple of hobgoblins die. Greenie finally lands on one unfortunate hobgoblin with his shattering stomp, the hobgoblins body explodes into pieces immediately while the rest of the power shakes the surroundings, making the other hobgoblins unstable.
Reign and the others emerge from the house and start attacking, organs and body pieces could be seen flying around as they mercilessly tear apart the confused hobgoblins. Lightning flickers around, shocking hobgoblins and making them unable to defend themselves while a fire burns the bodies of the ones unfortunate enough to get caught up by it.
Without any words, they take off. Beast follows them on Blackie's back with the other two from the rooftops. The wolves were very nimble and it was an easy job for them to jump from roof to roof. Their big size however was the reason they didn't use them earlier, not to mention that not all of them could fit on their backs.
They quickly lost count of how many goblins they had killed, hundreds were coming to their location, swarming the streets and trying to block their way. They were fearless in their attempts to stop the party from getting to the center building, they were acting as if they were possessed by something with their bloodshot eyes.
Reign remembers the person that used the woman's body to fight Beast and anger flashed through his eyes, it seemed that that person had something to do with the hobgoblin's strange behavior. He probably wasn't controlling them, such power should be beyond their current levels, it seems that he simply manipulated their souls in such a manner that they had undying devotion towards him or another hobgoblin.
After a couple of minutes of constant fighting Reign and the others finally arrive at the center of the city. The hobgoblins suddenly stopped, they looked at them with fury in their eyes, but they moved no further than their current position.
"Seems like they're not allowed to get closer to the building, it seems our enemy is quite the warry type to even guard against his own race," Wolf says while swinging his sword and wiping the rest of the blood from it. Little bits of flesh were stuck on it as well which made him narrow his eyes in annoyance.
"Doesn't matter, he's going to die anyway," Reign comments with a calm voice as they all slowly make their way to the huge building in front of them.