Without further dey, they rushed in for the final battle.

  Natalie sent out a prayer of thanks that Malice held off on her signature howl, as she had promised. They needed as much of an advantage as they could get.

  With how many goblins were in the camp, Natalie didn't make it far before the first green-skinned creature spotted them, froze, and shrieked out a warning. Awareness of the ambush rippled through the creatures, all turning to face them. But those free seds were crucial—easily worth several kills.

  Havoc erupted through the camp, and Natalie took satisfa that they were perf the ambush this time. And the advantage of surprise couldn't be overstated. Before their enemies became aware of them, Jordan had slid a dagger into a throat, Sofia skewered ohrough the chest, and Ana summowo giant shadow limbs to crush two, three, then four of the weaker monsters deeper into the camp. Natalie even mao cate on her way to the boss, a half-effort swing that sent the creature flying—if not dead, then at least crippled.

  As enjoyable as those potent first strikes were, though, when the biggest goblin stood and turoward her, its veins glowing golden in a familiar way, Natalie couldn't stop a small thrill of intimidatioing through her. The monster had been sitting aing, hunched over, so she hadn't been able to accurately gauge its size. Now she could.

  Goblin. This thing wasn't a goblin. Goblins were small, wiry monsters with stringy muscles and sharp bones barely tained withihery skin. This one was nearly as tall as her and built heavier thahe bulkiest fighters at Tehe glowing veins snaking across its muscles only further set it apart. If Natalie hadn't known it was a goblin distorted by Greed, she'd have assumed it was something else entirely. A shre, maybe.

  No longer needing to worry about alerting the creature, Natalie [Ied] it.

  [Goblin Chieftain - Lv. 4]

  Level four. The Raid Leader had been level three. Seeing how Natalie was three herself, and the rest of her team two, this was going to be a hell of a fight.

  By the time Natalie arrived at the boss to sm her hammer down in a probing first blow, the goblin camp was in an uproar. The green-skinned creatures screeched and screamed as they ran toward their targets of choice. A portion came for her, Malice, and Jordan, but the bulk went for Ana's group. Probably because of the sheer damage those shadow maions were doing. Natalie's armor had a taunting effect, but massive damage was its own innate sort of taunt. Plus, maybe the majority had silently agreed to let the chieftain haalie's subgroup. Maybe they thought it didn't heir help.

  That theory was shortly substantiated. Her hammer smmed down toward the Chieftain's head, Natalie having wound up a running swing on the way over.

  And the chieftain spped it away.

  Natalie went careening sideways as her bulky on's momentum was redirected. It was shock more than anything that had her fumbling her recovery.

  A goblin had spped a fully charged attack of hers away with its bare hands? They'd already decided that this thing must be a strength-based monster and a higher level than the Raid Leader to boot, but that was just absurd.

  While she was getting trol of her on, Malice arrived. The wolfgirl sidestepped a forward kick from the chieftain, then dodged a follow-up grapple to deliver a hard punto the chieftain's side, followed by a sed and third. Natalie knew first-hand that Malice's blows had serious power behind them, but the chieftain didn't even flinch. She was forced to jump backward as a bad swipe passed through where she'd just been standing.

  Malice retreated, briefly, though she was grinning wide, eyes showing bloodlust. "This one's gonna be hard," she called to Natalie. "But he's big and slow. Take our time. Bleed him out."

  Unfortunately, there wasn't just the chieftain to worry about. After that first exge, the goblins throughout the camp had finished closing in on their respective targets. Natalie swatted away oh a low sweep of her hammer, then twisted out of reach from a dagger ssh. She retaliated with a kick, catg the goblin square in the chest and crag ribs. She would have fi with a downward swing, but the chieftain's attention had turo her. She was forced to scramble back, its fingers grazing her shoulder as it barely missed a grapple.

  The huge beast anting and wild-eyed, breaths ing in huge gasps. Not in the way of exhaustion, though. Rather, like an enraged bull, maybe. Or pure excitement.

  Natalie held the chieftain's attention while Jordan and Malice dealt with their own goblins. She had experience fighting martial artists, though she questioned whether that was a valid identifier, here. Yes, the chieftain punched, kicked, tackled, and used its body as a on, but there was none of Malice's gra the movements. Only pure power.

  But so much power. Natalie was forced onto the defensive, dodging and staying out of reach, and iwo instances she could sneak in an attack of her own, her hammer was batted away with ptuous ease. That nearly broke her morale ht. Her whole thing was being able to overpower her enemies, and here she was, fully charged swings being ignored. Just how grossly outmatched was she?

  She got her answer in the moment. Her third attack was interrupted not by being smacked away or blocked by a forearm, but instead by being caught. The chieftain grabbed the heavy metal block of her hammer with two hands and wrenched. Natalie stumbled, watg in horror as the chieftain shifted his weight, readying a kick.

  She was forced to abandon [Valentine]. Letting go, she flung herself backward, narrowly avoiding a blow that surely would have shattered her ribcage, if not killed her ht.

  Then the chieftain did something she hadn't predicted. It threw her hammer at her. [Valentine], massive warhammer or not, flew through the air with the ease of a skipping stone, and while Natalie tried to dodge, she was off-foot from the exge: not just being wrenched forward but then desperately dodging away from its kick.

  She mao get half out of the way. The metal block of her own hammer caught her on the shoulder. She spun twice before finding herself face-down in the dirt. Dazed, she forced herself up. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Malice had forced the chieftain's attention back to her. And thank the heavens she had, because grounded as she'd been, and sidering the creature's ridiculous strength, Natalie's life might have been at its mercy.

  She scrambled over to her hammer, ign the searing pain in her shoulder. Even that gng blow might have dislocated something. She rolled the joint, deg it was still funal.

  As she stood, she took in the rest of the battlefield. Sofia, Liz, and Ana had cut their way through the majority of the goblins, though there were still plenty left, which Sofia was occupying as Ana's magic tore through them. It would be another half-minute or so before the other half of their team could join against the real threat, which was ay in these sorts of fights.

  Natalie faced back to the chieftain, pulling her hammer up. Malice weaved between attacks, but while the chieftain was slow and lumberiive to its absurd strength, that didn't mean it was slow: Malice was hard-pressed to fend away its attention. Especially when it didn't o dodge her iurn: it ate her attacks easily, and each punch or kick risked her being grabbed and crushed ialiation. Jordan fared better, being a stealth-and-speed css, dodging in and out of the e while Malice occupied the beast. But even Jordan's dagger only drew thin red lines against tough, reinforced skin.

  Natalie made a decision. In most fights, she didn't use [Empower], because doing so ed a valuable, neive resource that should be prioritized for her perma adva.

  But this was obviously going to be an all-out fight. Life or death. It was time to spend resources liberally.