Spirit Taming

Chapter 43: Goblin Battle

The trees looked as if they had been scratched and beaten over and over. Clark knew this was part of the goblins marking their territories into his wars between tribes. However, it added to the ominous presence the goblin cemetery possessed.

Calling it a cemetery was hard to believe. The large stones that broke up the would be forest were all that made it seem to be a cemetery. Other than that, it was a somewhat battered forest. Some patches of grass were torn away where the goblins had battled it out.

"The materials from those three goblins are ours. Weaklings like you won't need them. You can't even earn them." Crim started to growl but Clark silenced him with a single glance.

Maria and Ralph stayed silent as well. Antagonizing Allen was not the right move. It was impressive that even Ralph had managed to pick up on this. Unfortunately, Ralph didn't hide his face which showed pure annoyance at being told this.

"What? Are you angry? You should be. That pig you have isn't even worth cutting up for bacon. The young masters' ember lion could beat it with just a few seconds." One of the lackeys attempted to usurp dominance over Ralph.

Unknowingly, this gave Clark the last piece of the puzzle he needed. If Allen had an ember lion, that meant that Crim and he would need to fight a fire type monster. One known to be strong but not too fast.

"Good job Ralph, now I know what we are dealing with." Ralph didn't fully understand what he had done right but took the compliment. Maria did catch on though. She felt that it was a definite advantage.

The pulling on Clark's shoulder that filled when they were following the older students was what he had been waiting for. Devi had returned and Clark could perfectly understand what he was trying to say.

"Be ready. Up ahead there are some goblins fighting. These idiots will attack them and we can try to get rid of them or split them up. We can always backtrack here to meet up if things go poorly."

It wasn't much of a plan. They didn't know what the situation was exactly, just that they would encounter goblins. Yet, they did know that the lackeys would rush in to fight and show them their strength. That was the opportune time to separate the young master from them. Just that alone was already a major lead.

Almost in cue, the group heard the snarling high pitched goblin battle. Rocks being thrown and Woden branches being used as spears came in to sight. One group of wrinkly green goblins had covered themselves in mud. The others were covered in what appeared to be a red clay mix.

They fought amongst themselves while the third years started to stifle their laughter. "Look at that. They are wide open for easy targets. You three go in and get more trophies. You stay here. You are still too weak to do anything"

Keeping their classmate back was actually better for Clark's plan. It separated Allen and isolated him with someone that couldn't help in battle. "It's time. I'll set things up."

With Clark's signal, Ralph repeated his boar for the charge at the hamster. Killing it first was the only way that they would avoid the potential pit traps it could quickly make.

Leaving the two red bobcats to the goblins would work out better. The chaos that Clark was going to promote would cause them to perish along with their tamers. "Devi, attract them here."

There was no doubt that the lackies would "accidentally" allow a goblin or two to get close to Maria, Ralph, and Clark. It was to be expected with their attitude toward the three of them.

Just as the two bobcats and earth hamster were sent out, the goblins turned toward them as if they had been hit by something sharp. If anyone had looked carefully, they would have noticed the bite marks appear from nowhere.

Fighting between each other had stopped between the goblins. They saw potential food sneaking up to them and charged. The red and green goblins rushed at the two red bobcats while the earth hamster dug underground.

"Ralph, as soon as they let one goblin pass them go after the hamster. I will get the goblin to attack Allen. That should split them up." Clark acted quickly to assign the task. He would be splitting from the group as well.

"Devi, bite Allen and scare him in to running away from the goblin." Devi heard the soft whisper from Clark. He had rushed back to Clark's side to be ready for anything.

One of the lackeys stepped to the side leaving an obvious gap with Clark in perfect line of sight. Right as the goblin in red clay rushed out toward him, teeth marks appeared on its Forearm. Devi was baiting it.

With the sharp jerk to the right, the goblin saw Allen. It changed targets to the annoyance on Allen's face. However, when Allen raised a hand to summon his ember lion from his taming space. Unfortunately, that was not part of Clark's plan.

Devi bit hard in to Allen's arm causing blood to spurt out. The jagged tooth marks left behind paired with the spine chilling spiritual damage cause Allen to leap back. In his mind, he had been attacked by a goblin that snuck up on him.

For years, Allen had guards or those paid to protect him. The meat shields had never failed him, he had told his father this more times than he could count. They were disposable so that he would remain safe in a position of power, but this time he was hurt.

Seeing Allen rush away with a high pitched scream, Clark let Crim deal with the goblin while pursuing Allen with Devi.

Vicious growls escaped from Crim which terrified the goblin. It could tell that a beast of higher standing than it was right in front of it. Crim didn't hold back. He lept upon the goblin and dig in to it with his closed. He treated it like a personal scratching post.

The goblin was frail and weak. Resisting attacks from sharpened sticks was a tough achievement. Against Crim's claws, and the goblin fell in to blurry shreds. The best part was that Crim knew that Clark cares less about saving the body for any class credit. So Crim started to swallow piece after piece of the goblin to advise as nutrients for a larger body.

Meanwhile, Clark realized that Allen was a surprisingly fast runner. It was only by the squeals of fear that he was able to pursue Allen. However, Clark could only hear him through the trees, they had lost sight of others. Even Clark's other classmate had been lost in the chaos.

"Why did garbage like you follow me? Huh? Worthless trash. Even your family didn't want you." Allen found that Maria had managed to follow him. His adrenaline had kicked in helping him ignore his hurt arm. He instead directed his frustration at Maria.

Maria was looking around, slightly panicked. She thought that she had followed Clark closely as he had told her. "What? Looking for that idiot who hasn't learned to follow the powerful yet? He won't come to save you. I'll get praised for erasing a smudge like you." Allen saw an opportunity to get rid of Maria and wanted to take it.