The Foolhardies 57 The Front Line

Wooden shields rose to meet our charge. Shadowblade spears pointed forward. But like the rest of the center army, I paid them no mind. To the thousands of us racing toward them, these enemies were nothing more than roadblocks to step over.

Adrenaline coursed through me as I lept toward the grey line of soldiers with my falchion raised in one hand. My shadowblade swooshed in a downward arc, cleaving through a battered wooden shield and into the unprotected chest of the ugly-looking hobgoblin holding it.

If that sounded too easy, well, that's because it was. My falchion had become what gamers would have called a cheat item. How? Well, Zarz had explained it to me sometime during the previous night.

He claimed that a formless shadow crystal core meant my falchion wasn't tied down by tier ceilings and could grow in strength as long as I kept getting stronger too. Having an iron arcane focus to channel the crystal's power into meant the shadowblade it formed now held iron properties. As iron was harmful to fairies, this improved the falchion's overall destructive force. Also, the instability of the core's output was what caused the continuous vibrations along the blade's edge. Like I said, cheat item.

Right now, surrounded as I was by enemies, I was thankful for my sword's highly useful upgrades. In fact, I'd go as far as to say these unique traits accounted to around fifty percent of the reason why I easily tore through the enemy frontline and pushed forward.

I slashed left and then right, hacking off limbs and breaking weapons like I was channeling Luca whenever he activated his Foolish Strength—and I kind of enjoyed it. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

The grin showing on my face as I ducked to avoid the swooshing of an enemy sword was matched by the exhilaration I felt inside the next moment as my falchion plunged deep into the bronze chest plate of the hobgoblin who'd just attacked me.

There was a satisfying snicking sound as blade pierced into flesh. Then the familiar iron scent that accompanied the blood dripping out of the wound I ripped into the hobgoblin's chest.

Quickly, before the dying fairy could topple over, I pulled the shadowblade out in time to parry the spear thrust of a second hobgoblin attacker who'd tried to skewer me from my left side.

I pushed its spear back with the flat of my sword while my left foot kicked out at the hobgoblin, unbalancing it long enough for me to swing my falchion around to slice at its armored front—and for the first time since I started swinging, my shadowblade was repelled by the metal plates in the hobgoblin's scale mail.

"You're different," I said surprised. Did I just stumble into an enemy officer this early in the fight ?

I gave my enemy the once over. My eyes took

It was a bald male hob with a rather large pair of tusks jutting out of its misshapen mouth. lt also had a tall, lean frame common to its kind. The hobgoblin wore a scale mail shirt and skirt that were the same color as the pale gold of my own chest plate. Even the spear he held in one hand looked better than average.

"Electrum tier scale, huh," I took a quick glance at the right pocket of my coat. There was a visible bright red glow pulsing rapidly underneath the slit opening. "Lucky."

I grasped my falchion in both hands and held it forward.

"Too bad for you... you're our prey," I said in a light tone that belied the words that accompanied it.

The hobgoblin turned its head to the side as if it were puzzled by my proclamation. It replied in a deep, guttural voice, "Our , you say... yet you stand alone in a sea of gray, surrounded by me and mine, just waiting to be cut in twine."

"Wow, I heard you hobs were eloquent speakers..." Regardless of how impressed I was with his rhyming sense, my grip tightened on my sword. "Something about you guys being the Fayne's best poets... so that might have a ring of truth to it, huh..."

The muscles on my legs tensed, ready to spring.

"But you don't know how to count," I said while shaking my head. "Unfortunately, I'm never alone nowadays."

The berserker's roar which was all too familiar to my ears broke through the noise of warcries and death rattles that hummed around me. In the next second, I caught a glimpse of Luca charging through the so-called sea of grey the hobgoblins on my left like they were bowling pins topped over by a raging bowling ball.

Luca's inelegant entrance caught the attention of the hobgoblin officer. He twisted his head right to see who was interrupting our banter—and that's when I pounced.

My right foot stepped forward and carried me within reach of my distracted enemy. I raised my sword high and then slashed in a forty-five-degree angle to the left that bit into the exposed neck of the hobgoblin officer.

His head didn't come clean off his neck as I imagined, however. The stubborn thing held on by a thick flap of skin. Still, the erstwhile poet was dead, and as its legs gave up and it toppled down, I sent my falchion's shadowblade singing sideward to finish the job it started.

To my left, I watched Luca hack away at the hobgoblins who stood between us.

His eyes as he glanced toward me went wide, "Dean!"

There was no need to yell my name in panic. I did say I was never alone anymore. This fact was made more pronounced by the firebolt that zoomed past Luca only to explode onto the chest of the hobgoblin that was on its way to stab me in the back.

The burning smell of flesh wafted up to me and made me think of barbeque heating over a grill.

I touched the golden bracelet around my left wrist and sent a mental thanks to Aura while wondering if she'd actually received it the way she usually sensed my emotions.

Another yell from Luca as another hobgoblin rushed toward me. This time from my front. Only, it was stopped dead in its tracks by a black arrow that had just pierced its neck.

My eyes followed the path it had come from all the way back to Thom. He was possibly a good thirty yards away, surrounded by his drow squad, all of whom carried bows of their own at my insistence.

Although I couldn't see his face clearly, I was certain he was smirking at me as if to say, You're welcome .

It was the right choice to ground them. I didn't need the drow flying in the skies and getting sniped from below. It was better that they used their own uncanny elven sniping talents to cover the rest of the Foolhardies backs.

Then, as if it didn't see how its friends died before it could reach me, a third hobgoblin came charging my way. Honestly, it was as if they were angry I'd killed their leader and were seeking vengeance on me. It never reached me though.

Luca arrived first while swinging his broadsword down onto the hobgoblin's back.

While he drove his sword down into the dying creature, I plucked their officer's head from the ground by its knife ears and held it up.

"Hey, Luca, did you see Edo?" I sent Luca a sideways glance. "I need him to wrap this thing up and put it inside our bag of holding for when we collect our reward."

Luca looked disgustedly back at me. "Eeew... you know we put food in there, right?"

"That's why I said I wanted it wrapped first," I argued.

Aura arrived in time to prevent any further banter.

I raised the head in her direction. "Look. Nabbed us an officer's head this quickly."

She answered my grin with her own sweet smile.

"Must be a line commander if he's this close to the front," Aura deduced.

"Yeah..." I agreed. "The tracker orb was a bright red. This dude's just a small fry."

I chose not to add that I too would have been considered a small fry by the orb.

"How much do you think he's worth?" Luca asked while pointing behind me.

I turned around.

A hulking figure in grey-tinted armor stalked toward us.

"Let's find out," I answered while patting myself mentally on the back. It seemed the bait has successfully lured the prey into our trap.

Chapter end