The Female Fighter rushed forward and launched a flurry of kicks at the goblin standing in front of Lin Yun. Unfortunately, only the first kick struck the goblin's arm, making him stagger. Relying on his small build and unsteady movements, he practically rolled and crawled out of the way of the Female Fighter's second kick. And unfortunately, because the Female Fighter had charged in, her center of gravity was unstable, so kicking twice was already her limit.
Seeing how ferocious the Female Fighter was, the Goddess Priestess hurriedly asked, "Um, Mister Silent, do you need healing now?"
Lin Yun glanced at his own health, then at the Female Fighter beside him. An arrow was still stuck in her shoulder, which was covered in blood. "Take this woman back for treatment first. Don't use Divine Magic. I'll fall back with you in a moment." As he spoke, Lin Yun once again stepped in front of the Female Fighter.
"Okay." Hearing Lin Yun's words, the Goddess Priestess quickly nodded. She went forward, grabbed the Female Fighter, and pulled her backward. Hmm, it seemed she had at least learned how to treat wounds before. Gritting her teeth, she said to the Female Fighter, "Please bear with it." Then she abruptly pulled the arrow straight out of the Female Fighter's shoulder and took out the Ningshen Flower Lin Yun had previously given her. However, because the treatment required some time, the two of them would be unable to rejoin the battle for the moment.
Just then, the young warrior finally found an opening to charge forward. He rushed straight up to the goblin, arrived in front of it with a charge, and brought down a shortsword. Hmm, perhaps the distance he had charged was a little too long, because he was panting heavily. As he charged in, his hand trembled, and before he could even strike the goblin, he dropped his shortsword.
...What the heck, little bro? Did you come here just to make us laugh? Lin Yun looked at the young warrior with a stiff expression. Fortunately, his helmet concealed his face, so no one saw it.
All he could say was, How impressive. I gave you the perfect chance. You could have landed a handsome finishing blow without any problem, but you actually... You actually dropped the ball. That's really something.
The moment the sword fell from the young warrior's hand, his face flushed red. The Female Fighter, who had nearly been hit by the reckless charge, shook her head. She did not even want to comment on him anymore.
Meanwhile, Lin Yun swung his arm and once again smacked the goblin with his staff.
D20+2+2=12, hit.
The goblin had originally intended to dodge Lin Yun's staff, but the young warrior had blocked it, causing its body to pause for a moment. This allowed Lin Yun to barely land the blow on the goblin.
D6+2+1=5
The struck goblin finally collapsed. However, as it fell, a flicker of light could be seen accompanying the glow of the Lantern Staff.
Four goblins had emerged from the depths of the cave and were charging toward Lin Yun. Behind them, the outline of a huge black shadow had also become visible. Clearly, it was the Giant Goblin Lin Yun had been on guard against all along.
There was no need to worry about the Female Mage, who was currently shutting down emotionally. As for the Goddess Priestess, she had spent a little time, but had finally bandaged the wound on the Female Fighter's shoulder. At least it would not suffer any more serious damage, and the bleeding had stopped, allowing the Female Fighter to rejoin the battle at any time.
"Retreat for now." Seeing that the Giant Goblin had appeared, Lin Yun did not hesitate. He grabbed the young warrior beside him, turned around, and started running.
"Eh?" The young warrior looked completely bewildered, but his legs subconsciously followed and began running as well. The only problem was... his shortsword was still lying back there.
"Eh? All right." The Goddess Priestess and the Female Fighter, who had just been ready to rejoin the battle, stared blankly at Lin Yun and the young warrior as they ran away. They were somewhat surprised, but the smooth progress of the battle had filled them with confidence in Lin Yun's command, so they followed him and started running too. As for the Female Mage, who was still shut down emotionally—well, at least she could still run.
Goblins had short legs, but they were not slow runners at all. As for the Giant Goblin, it was even larger than a human and counted as a Large creature. Although it looked rather clumsy, it was not slow when running. It was even faster than those goblins.
He had originally been slowly walking along behind the short-legged goblins, but when he saw Lin Yun's group daring to run, he hurriedly tried to charge after them. However, as usual, Giant Goblins used goblins as bait and cannon fodder. Because he was accustomed to following behind goblins, he was blocked by them this time.
Not very intelligent, he angrily grabbed the two poor goblins in front of him and threw them away. They slammed into the wall. Although they suffered some damage, they did not die.
However, one of the Giant Goblin's hands seemed to have used too much force. The goblin caught in that hand had most of its shoulder crushed and collapsed onto the ground, waiting to die.
Because the goblins had blocked it and wasted some of its time, the Giant Goblin, despite being several points faster than Lin Yun's group once it started running, only reached Lin Yun from behind after they had already covered some distance. Then, holding a huge stone ax, it prepared to hack Lin Yun down.
At that moment, Lin Yun suddenly turned around and shouted at the Giant Goblin, "Fall."
The goblin, which should have been raising its huge stone ax to strike Lin Yun, froze in confusion. Then, following the momentum of its charge, it fell forward and happened to bring its head right in front of Lin Yun.
Lin Yun had known long ago that this Giant Goblin would definitely be much faster than ordinary goblins. Although goblins were fairly quick runners, according to the Dungeons & Dragons calculations, Small creatures—those with roughly the same build as goblins—generally moved twenty feet per round. Medium humanoids moved thirty feet, which was also the goblin's speed. As for something like a Giant Goblin, which was an outright Large creature, it moved forty feet.
So the Giant Goblin was truly fast. On top of that, Lin Yun's group had been some distance ahead, and the ordinary goblins had hindered the Giant Goblin. The two goblins being thrown aside caused the other two to shrink fearfully to the side, allowing the Giant Goblin to charge forward in one burst.
Lin Yun had not expected this development. He had only wanted to separate the Giant Goblin from the main group for a little while, but he had not expected this Giant Goblin to suddenly become such an outstanding teammate—and a true team killer.
As for facing this Giant Goblin, the original work had already given Lin Yun a hint. Although Lin Yun had not had enough time to make a rope, one of the spells he had prepared today was called Command. This was a first-level spell. As long as the target failed its Wisdom save against Lin Yun's spell save DC, it would be affected.
The spell save DC was the base ten plus the spell's level, then plus the caster's key ability modifier. Since Lin Yun was a Priest, that meant his Wisdom modifier. In other words, the save DC for this Command should have been fourteen under normal circumstances. Of course, that was under normal circumstances. Although Lin Yun had not chosen the human option that granted an additional feat and had instead chosen the human option that increased all attributes by one, as a level-one Priest, he still had one feat available.
After browsing through more than three hundred feat options, Lin Yun chose this one. All he could say was that it was a victory for his obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
This was a special feat that could only be chosen during character creation. It counted as half a background feat and was called Spellcasting Genius. It increased both Lin Yun's spell attack rolls and the DC of the target's saves against his spells by two over the normal spellcasting ability. In other words, Lin Yun's Command save DC should have been sixteen.
Quite clearly... this Giant Goblin brother had failed its save.
With Command, you issued the target a one-word command, and it would do its best to complete it at the earliest opportunity. You could choose from the following commands:
Come (Approach): During the spell's duration, the target moved directly toward you as quickly as possible. It did nothing except approach you, and this movement provoked opportunity attacks as normal.
Drop: The target dropped everything in its hands and would not pick up anything it had dropped until the spell ended.
Fall: The target fell prone. While prone, it could act as normal, but suffered the corresponding penalties from being prone.
Flee: During the spell's duration, the target moved away from you as quickly as possible. It did nothing except move, and this movement provoked opportunity attacks as normal.
Halt: During the spell's duration, the target remained where it was. It could not take any actions, but it was not helpless.
Since Command only required a verbal component, Lin Yun did not even need to make a casting gesture or use any spell materials. He only needed to simply shout the word "Fall" to complete the spell. It was extremely convenient.
Even after falling, the Giant Goblin still tried to attack Lin Yun. It swung its huge stone ax toward Lin Yun's feet, intending to cripple him, but unfortunately, Lin Yun had anticipated this and jumped over the strike. Hmm, it felt just like jumping rope.
Moreover, while they were running, Lin Yun had already told the others about this plan. So when they heard the Giant Goblin fall, everyone turned around and began attacking it. Even the young warrior, carried by the momentum of having just jumped at the sight of the Giant Goblin swinging its huge stone ax, leaped directly onto the Giant Goblin. Was this truly what one would expect from a Dexterity-focused warrior?
Holding the other shortsword he had just drawn from his waist after Lin Yun explained the situation, he stabbed it into the back of the Giant Goblin's neck. At least this time, he was not quite as embarrassing. The shortsword sank deeply into the back of the Giant Goblin's neck, dealing it tremendous damage.
Before you continue