The Alpha team leader, a fighter named Bardok, raised his hand to halt the combined teams. They'd positioned themselves at the edge of the forest, just visible enough that the goblins would spot them but not so close that they'd be immediately overrun.

  "Remember," Bardok said quietly, "we're bait. Make them commit, then fall back slowly. Don't let them separate us from each other, and watch for that warlord. Anyone below Level 10 stays clear of it."

  Arin's core pulsed with apprehension as he stared at the massive hobgoblin warlord. Level 12 meant it was three levels above him and had the experience and power to match. If it targeted him directly, survival would depend entirely on evasion and luck.

  A horn blast echoed from the goblin encampment, it sounded harsh even from how far away it was. Goblins poured from the structures, forming rough ranks with surprising speed. Arin counted at least forty visible, with probably more inside the buildings. The warlord stood at their center, its massive sword resting on its shoulder as it surveyed the approaching adventurers.

  "Here they come," Kelsa said. "Defensive positions, remember the plan."

  The goblin charge began with a roar of voices and clashing weapons. They came in a wave, smaller goblins in front with larger warriors behind them, moving with coordinated purpose that confirmed Arin's worst fears. These weren't mindless monsters, they were trained soldiers following orders.

  "Hold!" Bardok commanded. "Let them close to fifty yards, then hit them with ranged attacks!"

  Archers and magic users prepared their strikes, waiting for the goblins to enter optimal range. When they did, a devastating volley struck the charging force. Arrows found eyes and throats, magical bolts exploded among tightly packed groups, and several goblins fell before they could close the distance.

  But there were too many, and the charge barely slowed. The front ranks crashed into the adventurer line with brutal force.

  Torvin took the impact with his shield raised, the collision sending shockwaves through his armored form. Goblins swarmed around him, trying to find gaps in his defense, but his warhammer swept in lethal arcs that kept them at bay. Kelsa fought beside him, her sword a blur of controlled violence.

  Essa stayed back with the other healers and support casters, her holy symbol already glowing as she prepared to keep the front line alive. Arin flowed to the flank where three goblin scouts were trying to circle around the main fight, exactly the role Kelsa had assigned him.

  The scouts saw him coming and readied their weapons, but they didn't understand what they faced. Arin's gelatinous form flowed around their strikes effortlessly, and his acidic nature made short work of exposed flesh.

  [+11 Mass]

  [+8 Essence]

  [+10 Mass]

  [+7 Essence]

  [+12 Mass]

  [+9 Essence]

  The brief fight left Arin with better essence reserves, now sitting just over half capacity. He needed to keep absorbing fallen enemies to maintain his effectiveness throughout what was clearly going to be a prolonged battle.

  The main goblin force pressed hard against the adventurer line, but Bardok's teams held firm. Years of training and experience showed in how they fought, each adventurer supporting their allies while maximizing damage output. But the goblins had numbers, and slowly, inevitably, the adventurer line began to give ground.

  "Fall back!" Bardok ordered. "Controlled retreat, maintain formation!"

  The two teams began withdrawing, step by careful step, keeping their line intact while continuing to fight. The goblins pursued eagerly, thinking they were winning, and more poured from the encampment to join the chase. This was exactly what the plan called for, drawing them out where the flanking force could hit them.

  Then the hobgoblin warlord entered the fight, and everything changed.

  It moved with terrifying speed for something so large, crossing the battlefield in great strides. Its sword came down in a devastating arc that caught an Alpha team warrior across the chest, the impact sending him flying backward with armor split open and blood spraying. The man hit the ground and didn't move.

  "Warlord's engaged!" Bardok shouted. "Silver ranks, on me! Everyone else, maintain distance!"

  Three adventurers moved to engage the warlord, all of them Level 10 or above based on how they moved. But even three-on-one, the hobgoblin held its ground, its sword meeting theirs with bone-jarring impacts. The warlord was strong, skilled, and experienced in ways that made it a match for multiple skilled fighters.

  The battle descended into chaos as more goblins joined the fight, pressing the adventurer line from all sides. Arin found himself constantly in motion, flowing from one engagement to another as goblin scouts and flankers tried to break through. His essence slowly climbed as he absorbed fallen enemies, each one contributing to his reserves.

  [Current Essence: 128/180]

  Much better, though still not at full capacity.

  The repeated use of his abilities would drain it quickly if he wasn't careful.

  A goblin warrior charged at Essa's position while she was focused on healing an injured adventurer. Arin intercepted it with Charge, the burst of speed closing the distance before the goblin could strike.

  [-5 Essence]

  The impact crushed the goblin's ribcage, and Arin quickly absorbed it before moving to the next threat. This was what he was good at, protecting his party members and eliminating threats before they could become critical dangers.

  The horn blast that signaled the flanking assault came from the east, loud and clear. Gamma and Delta teams crashed into the goblin force's exposed side, catching them completely by surprise. The coordinated attack threw the goblins into confusion, their organized assault fracturing as they tried to respond to threats from multiple directions.

  "Now!" Bardok roared. "Alpha and Beta, forward! Push them back!"

  The adventurer line surged forward, no longer retreating but advancing with renewed energy. Caught between two forces, the goblins began to break. Some tried to flee, while others fought with desperate fury, but their coordination was gone, and with it, their advantage.

  The hobgoblin warlord recognized the danger immediately. It disengaged from the Silver rank adventurers and began rallying its forces, trying to restore order through sheer force of will and violence. Several goblins who tried to flee were cut down by the warlord itself, an object lesson in what happened to cowards.

  But the tide had turned. The combined adventurer force was too much for the goblins to handle, even with the warlord's leadership. Slowly but steadily, the goblin lines collapsed.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Then Arin saw something that made his core pulse with alarm. A group of five goblin scouts had broken away from the main fight and were heading back toward the encampment at a run. They weren't fleeing, they were going for something specific.

  I N C O M I N G, Arin formed quickly. F I V E S C O U T S H E A D I N G T O C A M P

  "Let them go!" Kelsa said. "We can't break formation to chase them!"

  But Arin's instincts screamed that this was important. Those scouts were moving with too much purpose, and they'd left the relative safety of the goblin force to run back to the encampment. They were either retrieving something or warning someone.

  Without thinking it through, Arin made a decision. He broke from his party's position and flowed after the scouts at maximum speed, using his gelatinous nature to move faster than any human could run. Behind him, he heard Kelsa shout his name, but he was already too far away to stop.

  The five scouts reached the encampment and split up, with three heading to different buildings and the other two moving toward a large structure at the rear. Arin followed the larger group, his 360° vision tracking all of them but focusing on the ones that seemed most urgent.

  The large structure's door burst open, and what emerged made Arin wish he'd listened to Kelsa.

  Another hobgoblin, this one even larger than the warlord, stepped out into the daylight. But this wasn't a warrior. The creature wore robes marked with strange symbols and carried a staff that pulsed with sickly green energy. A spellcaster.

  [Hobgoblin Shaman - Level 13]

  Level 13. Higher than the warlord, and magic users were always more dangerous than straightforward fighters. The shaman's eyes found Arin immediately, and its lipless mouth curved into what might have been a smile.

  The goblin scouts scattered, leaving Arin alone facing a creature that could probably kill him with a single spell. He'd made a terrible mistake, and now he was going to pay for it.

  The shaman raised its staff, green energy gathering at the tip, and Arin knew he had seconds to act. Fight or flee, those were his only options, and fleeing would let the shaman join the main battle where it could devastate the adventurer forces.

  Arin chose to fight.

  He activated Stealth and flowed to the side, hoping the shaman would lose track of him. The spell launched where he'd been standing, a bolt of energy that hit the ground and spread in a pool of corrosive acid. If that had hit him directly, it would have dissolved a significant portion of his mass.

  [-3 Essence per minute]

  The shaman turned, tracking him despite the Stealth, and Arin realized it had some kind of magical sense that could penetrate his invisibility. The creature was already preparing another spell, this one even larger than the first.

  Arin had one advantage though, he was fast and small. He flowed toward the shaman at maximum speed, using Charge to close the distance before the spell could complete.

  [-5 Essence]

  He slammed into the shaman's legs, trying to knock it down, but the creature was heavier and more stable than he'd expected. The impact staggered it, disrupting the spell, but the hobgoblin recovered quickly and brought its staff down like a club.

  The strike caught Arin squarely, dispersing a chunk of his mass and sending pain signals through his core. He'd never been hit that hard by a physical weapon before, and for a moment, his cohesion wavered.

  [-20 Mass]

  The shaman raised its staff again, and Arin knew the next strike would finish him. He was outmatched, outleveled, and alone against a creature that was far stronger than he'd anticipated.

  Then an arrow sprouted from the shaman's shoulder, followed by two more in quick succession. The hobgoblin shrieked and turned to face this new threat, giving Arin a moment to recover.

  Peck stood at the encampment's edge, his bow drawn and another arrow already nocked. "Need some help?" The young ranger called out, then loosed another shot that caught the shaman in the arm.

  The shaman abandoned its focus on Arin and targeted Peck instead, raising its staff to cast a spell. But Arin was already moving, flowing up the creature's leg and wrapping around its staff arm. His acidic nature burned into flesh, disrupting the spell before it could form.

  The shaman tried to shake him off, but Arin held on with desperate strength. Peck's arrows continued to strike, each one finding gaps in the creature's defenses. The combined assault was too much, and the shaman's movements began to slow as blood loss and acid damage took their toll.

  One final arrow, this one aimed with perfect precision, struck the shaman's throat. The creature made a gurgling sound and collapsed, its staff clattering to the ground beside it.

  [+48 Mass]

  [+35 Essence]

  Arin absorbed what he could of the shaman, his mass and essence rising significantly from the powerful creature. Peck approached cautiously, his bow still ready.

  "That was stupid," the ranger said, though there was relief in his voice rather than anger. "Going after them alone like that. You could have been killed."

  H A D T O S T O P S H A M A N

  "Yeah, well, you did stop it. And I followed you, so I guess we're both stupid." Peck glanced toward the main battle, which was still raging in the distance. "Come on, we need to get back. Kelsa's probably furious."

  They moved back toward the fight together, arriving to find the battle in its final stages. The goblin forces were broken, scattered into small groups that were being systematically eliminated. The hobgoblin warlord still fought, but it was wounded and surrounded by Silver rank adventurers who were methodically wearing it down.

  As Arin and Peck rejoined their respective parties, Kelsa grabbed Arin with a grip that would have crushed a human arm.

  "Don't you ever do that again," she said, her voice tight with controlled anger. "You broke formation, went off alone, and could have gotten yourself killed. What were you thinking?"

  S H A M A N W A S I N C A M P L E V L 1 3 W O U L D H A V E K I L D M A N Y I F I T J O I N D F I G H T

  Kelsa's anger faded slightly as she processed that. "A Level 13 shaman? And you killed it?"

  P E C K H E L P D B U T Y E S

  "That... actually might have saved lives." She released her grip and took a deep breath. "But you still shouldn't have gone alone. Next time, you signal and we figure out a response together. That's what a party does."

  U N D R S T O O D S O R R Y

  The final goblin resistance collapsed when the hobgoblin warlord finally fell, brought down by multiple Silver rank adventurers working in coordination. With both their leaders dead, the surviving goblins fled into the forest, leaving behind their encampment and supplies.

  The cost had been significant though. Two adventurers were dead, at least six were seriously wounded, and everyone else was bearing injuries ranging from minor to concerning. The guards were tending to the wounded and securing the encampment, while the adventurers caught their breath and processed what they'd just survived.

  Master Torven moved through the aftermath, checking on parties and assessing the situation. When he reached Arin's party, his expression was serious.

  "I heard about the shaman," he said to Arin. "That was reckless, but it may have prevented heavy casualties. A Level 13 spellcaster in that fight could have turned the tide." He paused. "Still, breaking formation is not acceptable. Learn from this."

  Y E S S I R W I L L E A R N

  The cleanup and search of the encampment took hours. The goblins had been gathering supplies and equipment for weeks, including more pieces of guard armor and weapons. They also found prisoners, three farmers who'd been captured during raids and were barely alive but could be saved.

  The connection to the kobold mill was clear now. Someone was organizing monsters around Greengate, arming them, training them, using them against the town. This was bigger than random raids; this was coordinated warfare.

  As the sun began to set and the combined force prepared to return to Greengate, Arin checked his Status to see the results of the battle.

  [Name: Arin]

  [Species: Adaptive Slime]

  [Level: 9]

  [Mass: 243% of base]

  [Essence: 158/180]

  His mass had grown significantly from all the goblins and the shaman he'd absorbed, and his essence was nearly full. The battle had been costly, but he'd survived and even grown stronger from it.

  More importantly, he'd learned valuable lessons about teamwork, risk assessment, and the consequences of acting alone. Kelsa had been right to be angry; he could have died, and his party would have suffered for it.

  The journey back to Greengate was somber despite the victory. Two adventurers had died, and their parties walked in silence, carrying their bodies back for proper burial. The rescued farmers were weak but grateful, supported by guards who'd fought to save them.

  As Greengate's walls came into view under the setting sun, Arin felt the weight of what had happened settling into his core. They'd won a battle, but the war was far from over. Someone was out there organizing monsters, and until they were found and stopped, Greengate would remain in danger.

  The answers would have to wait though. Tonight, the town would mourn its dead, celebrate its survivors, and prepare for whatever came next.

  And Arin would rest, recover, and become stronger for the battles ahead.