In only a sed, the [Goblin Raid Leader] had arrived to her. Natalie pivoted, his dagger passing through where she'd been standing a sed prior, and she retaliated with a kick, her hammer too slow and cumbersome to catch him in the close-quarter angle. But even the quicker movement couldn't reach him in time. He stepped sideways and sshed a sed time. This one, Natalie couldn't dodge. The bde scraped across her stomach, drawing a bright red line. He pulled baatalie grunted as she heaved down her hammer in an overhead swing, but metal met oh as it impacted with a whoomph. The speed difference was going to be a problem.

  She swung in the dire the [Raid Leader] had gone, f him to abort his attack, scrambling backward to avoid the low, wide arc of her hammer. While he was tough, fast, and deadly, the goblin still reized Natalie's on as the threat it represented. He might be a stronger level three than normal, but he didn't outmatch them by that signifit a margiill had to respect her.

  The series of exges had allowed Jordan and Malice to recover, which meant the [Raid Leader] now faced off against three of them rather than two. Maligaged his attention first, throwing a flurry of punches, which he batted away, defleg the martial artist and following up with an elbow into her stomach. As Malice keeled forward, a dagger desded, aimed for her back.

  But Natalie took advantage of his overextension: her hammer seared sideways, a fully charged swing. She almost pitied him. Fighting outnumbered was an awful position to be in, where it was nearly impossible to keep track of everything.

  Natalie's first direct blow nded, and the goblin staggered from the impact, his attempted backstab on Maliterrupted. Shogly, though, he only stumbled a few feet before spinning and fag Natalie again. Natalie's arms, meanwhile, were ringing with the impact: it'd been like she'd swung her hammer into a metal wall.

  A rogue that could absorb attacks like that?

  What the hell was this thing? It was easily on the same footing as a dungeon boss. If not stronger.

  The goblin danced backward as Malice reengaged him, avoiding her series of punches and kicks. In several long bounds, he had left her far behind, already dozens of feet away—and with his bow drawn again. Arrows poured out almost faster than her eyes could track: three had uhemselves toward her before she reized he had evehed his daggers.

  Natalie activated [Hunker Down]. gs filled the air as sharp metal tips smmed into her, deflected by the invulnerability-granting ability. Malice, for her part, spped two arrows away, but grunted as a third embedded into her shoulder—which she promptly ripped out with a howl that Natalie couldn't tell ain or excitement. Probably both.

  Jordan, again, had gone missing, slinking away betweeo set up her devastating ambush, bidiime for an opportune moment. At low HP and g the [ of the Scapegoat], she had to be very careful with her es.

  Just as Natalie was thinking that, an arrow from her left streaked forward and smmed into the goblin, cutting off his rapid-fire barrage—which had obviously been a skill of some kind. Jordan wasn't an [Archer], but she carried a bow around and was more than a fair shot.

  Rather thaaliating against Jordan, the goblin slung his bow over his bad redrew his daggers. [Hunker Dowivated, and Natalie rushed forward, a few steps behind a howling Malice. A thrown gnce over her shoulder showed that Ana, Sofia, and Liz were still ing up their half of the goblin raid. It hadn't been all that long. Against an enemy of this caliber, exges happened fast.

  The three of them re-engaged. A series of traded blows ehe goblin almost too fast to catch—even for Malice, who had a quicker, more dexterous style than Natalie.

  But sensing an opening, she activated [Illusion]. That ability was best used sparingly, to force a surprise blunder, especially sihe mana cost wasn't negligible. An illusory image shimmered inside of herself, her body, imitating a swing of her hammer ing from the left. Iy, she came from the right. The goblin was already off-foot: he couldn't dodge back, healie's timing. He had to choose a dire to parry the blow.

  He guessed.

  He guessed wrong.

  Natalie nded her sed direct strike. [Valentine] crushed into the green-skinned monster.

  Even as the goblin staggered sideways, Malice smmed into him, arms ing around his waist and promptly dragging him to the ground. She wrestled with the creature, avoiding his daggers—and the melee scuffle bought Natalie an opportunity. Spinning [Valentine] around in her grip, she brought the opposite face of the hammer to the forefront of her swing. Then smmed downward.

  ***

  Duo. Land successful strikes in quick succession with alternating attack faces ter a stunning effect.

  ***

  Malice threw herself out of the way right in time; Natalie had trusted she would, though had aimed so colteral would have been minimized if not.

  Hitting an oppo directly was ohing. Smming down onto them like hammer meeting anvil was another. Especially with appropriate charge-up. Dust and dirt flew sideways in all dires as the force of the attack pummeled into goblin, squashing him into the earth.

  He still didn't die though. Incredibly, she didn't even hear bones break. Shog as that was, Natalie had been prepared. The goblin y dazed on the ground, [Valentine]'s special ability stunning him. She sidered ying into him with downward swings of her hammer, but she had a new special attack that utilized a stuer than anything else could.

  She stepped bad started eling [Smite].

  Malice delivered a few harsh kicks into the goblin's ribs, but retreated quickly—more venting her annoyahan anything. Because causing too signifit of damage during a stun would break the effect: Jordan couldn't simply stab him in the fatil he died. And of any single blow, a heavily eled [Smite] would do by far the most.

  Holding her hammer forward with both hands, she called the spell to life. Mana surged from that inexplicable tainer inside of herself, gathering at the tip of her on, a red-pink vortex growing in size. She had only tested this ability once, and only a quick el: the minimum length of one sed, si was a huge mana drain, and she had been wanting to save the resource for real bat.

  The goblin started to stir into sciousness at the t of five, so Natalie released prematurely. A huge of beam of pink-red energy burst forward, engulfing the creature on the grouh bed where the n of light touched. [Smite] kept erupting bright, pink, hot energy for nearly a full two seds before it finally started to taper off.

  Of course, impressive as the light show had beeher Malior Jordan deyed in following up. This was too intense a fight to simply stand there and gawk at Natalie using the fshy skill at close to full strength for the first time. As soon as the light cleared, Jordan smmed her dagger down at his face. Malice started kig him.

  Not just that, bck pilrs of void light slithered out of the ground, Ana joining the fray. Three of the tentacle-like appendages sprouted and promptly began wailing onto the staggered [Raid Leader] with impacts that shook the ground. Both Jordan and Malice had to disengage from the flurry of magical attacks to avoid getting caught as colteral damage.

  For a sed time, Natalie admired Ana's strength upgrade. She wondered if even [Smite] could match that ridiculous output.

  As Ana's spell slowly faded, the dust and dirt thrown up from her attack settled, revealing the goblin's form.

  It wasn't a pretty sight. The st of its HP had definitely disappeared sometime during Natalie's [Smite] or Malid Jordan's follow-up—so Ana's tentacles had crushed it into almost unreizability. Its corpse was mangled.

  Her shoulders sagged in relief.

  Finally dead.