The Land: Founding (Chaos Seeds Book 1) by Aleron Kong

knocking the
projectile to the ground.
     The distraction allowed Richter
to regain his feet and draw his short sword. He began to swing his blade with
an untrained, but furious barrage at the goblin chief. He had to hope that Sion
could occupy the bear. The boom he heard from his right followed by a roar of
pain and anger gave him hope for a respite from the animal. As he rained blows
upon his foe, it was clear that the poison had taken a toll. A particularly
heavy blow drove the chief down to one knee. Grabbing the buckler attached the
goblin’s right forearm, he pulled the chief forward off balance. The goblin
fell to an awkward stance on all fours, one shoulder higher as it braced the
buckler against the ground.
     The goblin chief’s prone
position offered Richter the opportunity he needed. With his stamina lowered to
30%, he reversed his grip on the short sword and drove the blade down through
the goblin’s back. The two feet of blade penetrated the chainmail covering him
and sank until only a few inches remained free. The red goblin shuddered and
then died.
     Turning to his right, Richter
saw Sion running from the bear. The sprite was quickly losing ground. Scooping
up the axe he threw it with all of his strength! The weapon was strangely
unwieldy though, and only struck a glancing blow. It did pull the bear’s
attention though, and it turned to lumber toward its latest aggressor. As it
hobbled its way toward him, it was clear that it had suffered damage, but also
was more than hale enough to still be able to cause him serious injury. Placing
his foot on the body of the chief, he attempted to pull his sword out of its
body. The sword was stuck fast in the body!
     At his current rate of
exhaustion Richter could barely muster the strength to continue. An arrow from
Sion struck the bear in its hamstring causing its leg to collapse. Richter
sighed in relief, the bear was only a few feet away when it dropped. Richter
drew his battered knife and prepared for a last stand as it continued to crawl
towards him. That was when he saw Sion lightly jump on its back and run swiftly
towards its neck. With a sharp jab, the sprite plunged his sword into the crook
of the bears neck and front leg. When the sword came out, there was a bright red
spout of arterial spray. As its lifeblood spilled on the floor, the bear made a
pitiful mewling noise and then finally collapsed.
     Feeling exhausted, Sion looked
to the up just in time to see a dark bolt of energy surging from the magician’s
staff. The only cover available was the bear’s body. Sion fell to place the
animal’s body between him and the hobgoblin. There was no great blast of force
like with the imbued arrows. Instead dark tendrils of magic crawled over the
bear’s body liquefying the flesh and causing large gobbets of meat to slough
off. Richter picked up his bow again, and shot an arrow at the mage. The
results were less than impressive. The arrow it bounced off an invisible
barrier surrounding the black clad figure. The red light on the mage’s staff
began to throb faster and with more intense red color, looking like lava seen
through basalt.
     There could not be much time
until the mage released whatever horrible spell he was building up to. Basic
rule of thumb was that the longer a spell took to cast, the more powerful the
result. This would most likely be no different. With no time to lose, Richter
knocked another arrow, giving his complete focus on Imbuing it with his mana. After only a moment it glowed golden. He released, and this
time the arrow maintained its shine as it streaked toward the mage. It too
struck an invisible barrier but the extra force added caused the hobgoblin to
stagger. Once it lost focus on the spell it was building, the light gathering
at the staff’s tip died. A second and possibly more important consequence, was
the hobgoblin grabbed its head in both hands and shouted out in pain. The
backlash from the interrupted spell must have been