Chapter 7 Day One, Part 7. Battle with ogres.

- My name is Galbireth, - their leader introduced himself, - the son of Goristiel, from the clan of oak, and master of the sword.

- My name is Gorhest … iel, but it's better Gor - I wasn't thinking when I called myself by the name the client gave me. The name is too unusual for an elf...

- These are Dirthiel and Dertiel, sons of Tyramiel, from the ash clan, – my interlocutor pointed to the archers, – the master of the bow and the ranger, respectively.

- Mortiniel, son of Desersintok, – the hand went on, to the second swordsman, – from the Birch clan, a swordsman, but he is also familiar with magic.

Yes, this is a promising unit. The Birch clan is famous for its strong and more numerous mages than the rest, and among the archers and warriors, they often have mages. The mage-warrior is quite a powerful combination. They are limited in their power and the number of spells they can cast, but they benefit from surprise. Sometimes, the Minotaur, confused in the last second before its devastating attack, loses to an ordinary warrior, who managed to summon 'roots' and then perform several successful blows.

- Ogarine is the pearl of our group, Master of Life and Grand Master of Water. She is only at the beginning of her journey as a wizard, but I am sure she will have a successful future in this field!

The Wizard of Life and the Wizard of Water are a common combination, but here is the Grand Master. Very unusual for a unit introduced on the first day. And given such a bonus barrel of honey, the fly in the ointment should be appropriate.

- Is Lenimiel also a mage? - Immediately indicated his future increase. If only she were a druid. At the beginning of the game, she was very fancy.

- Yes, she is a master of life, but her spells cannot be used in battle. She is a pleasant and impressionable girl….

- I see … And this is Timuel from the BigHole clan, and the green one over there is the Tooth.

- Bigtooth, my name is Bigtooth! - The goblin was outraged at the disparagement of his name, forgetting for a second that he belonged to the hated but tasty elves.

- Yes, BigTooth, Big … As I understand it, you accepted my plan since you introduced yourself?

- Let's discuss it again, Gorhestiel. So that there will be no questions as the plan is fulfilled.

~ You have been offered a task: Free elf from the clutches of the ogres.

Destroy the ogres or steal the captured elf Lenimiel from them.

Lenimiel must not die.

Reward: The troop of Galbireth, the son of Goristiel, will join you.

Penalty for refusal: You will be attacked by a troop of Galbireth, the son of Goristiel.

Penalty for not completing the task: The attitude of the light elves will deteriorate.

Additional task: No one is allowed to die.

Reward: Improved attitude of the light elves.

Punishment: no ~

- Let's not discuss this further, let's do an exploration. You have all been there; can you describe the area to me? - And laid out in front of myself the garbage I had collected earlier. - These will be trees, and these will be stones, and now we will create the relief with the earth.

The boys quickly understood the idea and the whole group participated in the construction of the layout. Even the shaman showed where which stone, and where which passages. And for a goblin, he is really smart. I'll have to figure out how to leave him. He could be useful. And yes, he is funny….

After ten minutes of discussion about positions and actions, our squad was ready to move on. As the discussion progressed, I checked everyone's parameters and found that Galbireth had a skill in archery and, as an elf, automatically shoots well. But since it wasn't a core skill, he shot slower than twice and with much rarer critical hits. I gave him my starting bow. But I left myself an upgraded bow that I bought for real money. Moreover, I forced Ogarine to put on my starting leather armor. Since it was believed that I was not wearing it, and according to the game mechanics, it adjusted to the size of the first owner. A little, but still an armor point, will not be superfluous.

After thinking, I hung the sword behind my back and added the starting sword in the same place. Of course, I don't have the double sword-wielding skill that I could get if I took the sword art book from the dragon at the beginning. But I do have real experience of fighting with dual weapons. I will wield them without skills. The game mechanics took real-world preparation into account, which I felt was very fair. If you have hand-to-hand combat skills, you can deal with a schoolboy several levels above you, who has pumped skills but no actual combat experience. This has been my secret to successfully leveling up many characters. Practical combat experience with game mechanics in mind, improved by several years of attending virtual simulators. I was never afraid of training, and there was plenty of time for it.

Our task, after the goblin has seized the elf, is to provoke the ogres and force them to go out into the open space. Since the elves had not yet joined me, Gal commanded his group. And it should be mentioned that he commanded well. He sent both archers ahead to take position on the rocks. He stood with the bow to fire a few shots and then had the choice of either continuing to fire or exchanging the bow for a sword. Mortiniel and I were sent behind the rock stones, we were to hit the back when the ogres attacked. He placed the sorceress behind him, she had to work where her magic would be most effective depending on the situation. A halfling stayed next to the girl, his job was to help either the mage or the warrior, depending on the situation. Instructed several times, the goblin finally went to the ogres. Ogarine gave him additional stimulation. She just showed him her wand and said that she would give it to him as soon as they saved her friend, and he would not only be able to shamanize but also to do magic. So he will become the coolest of all the shamans she knows. The goblin was much more impressed than my warm and dry hole.

Everything began as planned. Dirthiel signaled from the cliff that the goblin had brought Lenimiel into the cave. Gal started making noise and calling for ogres, and Mort and I sat in ambush, ready to cut off the enemy's way back. The ogres were not long in coming and jumped out at the noise. Gal immediately yelled that he was going to chop them all into little pieces, and anyway, he wasn't afraid of such pregnant monkeys. Eh, the elves always had a hard time with insults. All four ogres charged at him. Gal grabbed the bow and fired two arrows in succession; three more each were fired by the brothers and two by me. The rocky ground beneath the ogres suddenly darkened and became wet, and the fiends sank into the swamp mud up to mid-thigh and immediately became perfect targets for our arrows. I didn't miss such a gift, and without hiding, I started shooting, trying to hit the throat or the eyes.

Everything seemed to go perfectly, but the first mistake was that I didn't pay attention to the most important thing. All the ogres had a rich, dark green color and dark horns covered with numerous cracks. The clubs they held in their hands were studded with metal rings…. These were no ordinary ogres but very, very pumped-up creatures. The ogres lowered their heads and covered their eyes with their hands. They paid no attention to the arrows from me, Gal, or the bowmaster, and only the ranger inflicted significant damage. Two ogres immediately charged back in my direction, and two continued on their way toward the warrior.

The second critical mistake was that I continued to fire from where I had fired, rather than running toward the ogres at the edge of the swamp that had been created, thus slowing the movement of these creatures. I shot all the way and didn't drop my bow until it was eight or ten paces to the first ogre. The nearest ogre, which had crawled out of the swamp, roared and charged at me with a sweeping stride. I drew both swords and lunged into the encounter to give myself an advantage in maneuvering. I swung to one side and caught the mace's movement in that direction then lunged to the other side with a quick spin on its axis. I ran at the ogre, struck him on the thigh, and left side with both swords. Despite his apparent awkwardness, the ogre quickly turned around, used the club momentum, and tried to catch me. A rush of air ran down my spine as the club flew nearby.

In the next few seconds, I whirled wildly, trying to dodge the angry ogre. There was no thought of a counterattack. Fortunately, I was not alone, but the ram-head forgot about the archers in the heat of battle, for which he paid with his left eye. I took advantage of his hitch and tried to hit the enemy with my sword, but miraculously rebounded from the blow. The Ogre, despite the arrow fragment sticking out of his eye, strenuously began to pretend to be a furious windmill. At some point, it was no longer possible to dodge, and although I almost escaped the blow, a grazing strike to the shoulder not only threw me back five steps but also took almost all of my health points. I rolled to my feet, cast Regeneration on myself, and rushed to the side. Pleased with the success, the ogre, who had forgotten all caution, rushed at me to finish me off. The archer did not miss this moment and immediately rammed an arrow under the armpit of the ogre and another one into the other eye. The ogre roared so that I got a message about a stun for ten seconds, after which I was already behind the ogre. He continued to roar and wave his club in all directions, trying to find me, making sharp attacks repeatedly. A few times, I dodged the swings, whereupon I thrust both blades into the kidney area with a sharp lunge. It looks like one of the blades caused a critical hit because the ogre even fell to one knee for a moment. However, in a second, he already jumped up and hit a backhand behind his back. It happened so abruptly that I had to leave the left blade in the ogre's body, otherwise, pulling it out, I wouldn't have had time to escape the blow. By the way, that was my third mistake. Are there too many mistakes for a professional? I relaxed. Of course, I couldn't know the ogre's parameters without determining the level of these giants in advance. Usually, agility is much lower in ogres than strength and endurance. However, even such a value is higher or close to mine because of the level difference.

A high-level ogre was about my equal in agility. The archer who covered me understood this as well. Three arrows immediately penetrated below the knee, reducing the enemy's mobility threefold. After that, it became much easier to keep him with his back or side to the archers, and after about twenty seconds, the ogre fell to the ground with another arrow in his neck.

Without looking and ignoring the level-up messages that appeared, I looked around. Gal had only one ogre as an opponent, which the swordsman skillfully dodged. The excitedly screaming hobbit spun his slingshot to catch the moment to attack, and the little wizard derived something out with her staff. The second ogre of those who had gone in her direction lay motionless in a tangle of roots, bushes, and leaves. Mortiniel, who chose the same tactics as me and led the ogre to the shooters, occupied the ogre, who was also moving in my direction. Remembering that I had another spell in my arsenal, I instantly cast it, sending a swarm of wasps at the nearest giant. He immediately forgot about Mort, yelled so that pebbles fell from the mountains, and began feverishly waving his arms in all directions, further irritating the insects. Mortiniel decided to take advantage of the temporary sclerosis of the ogre and tried to slash him in the neck in a jump, but his luck left him. The ogre hooked him with his reverse movement of the club right on the back of the head, throwing the elf's body onto the stones. An arrow pierced into the ogre's eye, making him stagger, but it also brought him to his senses. Waving once again from the wasps, with a ragged look, the one-eyed ogre looked around the battlefield, and rushed into the gorge, towards the cave.

- Stop him! - Came the panicked voice of one of the archers.

I tried to jump out to intercept the ogre, but I didn't manage a couple of meters. He threw a club at me without looking. I jumped over the club but landed awkwardly, stumbling and almost plowing the ground with my nose. With difficulty keeping my balance, I ran after the ogre, who was more than ten meters in front of me. Gal ran past me. At the same time, I heard one of the archer brothers sliding off the cliff with rustling pebbles.

- Stop him! Stop, please! - A shout came from behind me.

Galbireth and I ran, breaking all the game's laws. Or at least it seemed like it to me, for the ground beneath our feet moved very quickly. We flew almost simultaneously into the twilight of the cave.

- No, don't touch the elf! - A goblin's scream came from the front.

- Argh! - The ogre's roar drowned him out.

- My warm Hole, my magic staff! I will not give it to anyone! - Roared the goblin hysterically.

What I saw then changed my idea of this cowardly and stupid race. The little shaman quickly jumped onto a stone, behind which a half-naked, frightened elf in only tattered rags pressed against the wall, jumped onto the giant's back without stopping, grabbed the horn with one hand, and with the other feverishly began to strike randomly with a small knife. The ogre roared something again and tried to hook the goblin, but the latter deftly dodged and stabbed the ogre in the ear with the cutter from the other side. But with his other hand, roaring with pain and blood loss, the ogre grabbed the goblin by the torso and threw him under his feet. Then he violently stepped on his spine. I tell, of course, that all this is a long time, but for all the time we have just overcome the cave, and at this point of the story, we just found ourselves next to the ogre.

Gal leaped over the enemy hand, slashed his neck with his sword, and landed behind his back. The ogre turned around after him, and I took advantage of his mistake, jumped on his back, and struck with the sword, plunging the blade under the shoulder blade. However, the ogre was already falling forward and dying from blood loss, so it was not necessary. After all, he had at least three bleeding wounds. The fight is over. We have won. Unfortunately, not without losses. But now I know that there are no cowardly goblins, only weakly motivated ones.