Caelus Online

20. The Second Coming of Robin Hood

As the goblin started to rush towards them, Astaria began to cast her first spell. Ignoring the first two goblins, she raised her staff to cast [Lightning], the bolt hitting the third goblin, instantly killing it as it crumpled to the floor.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 0.1% xp gained. 20% skill point xp gained]

Astaria moved on to cast [Fireball] at the next enemy, quickly glancing over to check on Ben.

Ben had shot two more arrows, the first one missing its intended target and hitting the goblin behind it, and the second impaling the first goblin's leg, making it stumble.

Seeing that the first two goblins were fully focused on Ben, Astaria finished off the fourth goblin with her [Fireball] that had completed channelling in the short time, and she started to circle around to the left in order to gain the attention of the remaining three goblins.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 0.1% xp gained. 20% skill point xp gained]

[+1 skill point]

Letting loose a [Mana Arrow], Astaria completely destroyed the fifth goblin's shoulder, causing its now disconnected arm to drop to the floor. The goblin, now in immense pain, started screeching like a banshee from the pain.

Now fully gaining the last three goblin's undivided attention, Astaria continued to move her position to cast [Earth Spike] as the goblins reached her. With a slam of her staff two earthen spikes erupted from the ground, both piercing the two healthy goblins in the head and causing their bodies to hang from the spike, completely limp before it crumbled apart.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 0.1% xp gained. 5% skill point xp gained]

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 0.1% xp gained. 5% skill point xp gained]

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The last goblin who had now picked his spear up with his left hand, charged at Astaria with its enraged and pained screams only to be met with the end of her staff slamming upwards into his chin.

The goblin landed on its back dazed from Astaria’s attack, giving her the chance to glance back over at Ben who was using the Rangers [Shotgun] ability. [Shotgun] shot a single arrow that multiplied as soon as it was loosed, spreading out in a small cone. At Ben's level, the skill only created 3 arrows that all hit the first goblin from point-blank range, instantly finishing it off.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 0.1% xp gained. 5% skill point xp gained]

Using an evasion skill similar to the one that the mages class used, Ben created some space between him and the second goblin, letting loose an arrow that generated illusory ropes as it hit, binding the legs of the goblin.

Astaria seeing that Ben was handling the fight without issue, casually swung her sword which easily decapitated the dazed goblin as she looked back to watch Ben finish his fight. Ben had taken a step closer to the goblin to ensure he did not miss, then activated his [Charged Shot], taking a few seconds to let the arrow gain power as it started to glow, then letting it loose straight through the goblin’s skull.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 0.1% xp gained. 5% skill point xp gained]

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 0.1% xp gained. 5% skill point xp gained]

Astaria walked over to Ben who noticed her presence as she got closer.

“Not too bad.”

Hearing her words, he finally looked up from the goblin at his feet, meeting her eyes and bright smile.

“Your use of skills without needing to shout them aloud is perfect, and you followed the suggested guide to the letter. You just need to work on your accuracy, but that will come with time.”

Straightening himself up while clearly pleased with himself, Ben responded.

“Yeah, it’s taking some time to get used to using a bow. As you can imagine, it's quite a big change from using a submachine gun.”

Bending down to start looting the goblins, Astaria let out a chuckle.

“Yes, I can only imagine your disappointment at not being able to spray and pray. On a side note, let me loot the corpses, I have 500 more luck which has given me a crazy drop rate for items.”

After hearing Astaria’s words, Ben retracted his hand that was about to loot a goblin and watched as Astaria quickly moved around.

“Wow, so I assume that Fortuna gave you a blessing then?”

With a hum, Astaria replied.

“Yes, I think just about the only helpful thing that came from our meeting. That and that she calls kebabs, skewers, not that the revelation means much, mind you.”

With a scoff, Ben shrugged.

“Well, I wonder what your patron airhead would make of donor kebabs, do you reckon they have such superior foods for the end of a night out wherever the gods reside?”

Looting the last goblin, Astaria split the loot and transferred Ben's share over.

“Probably, they have superior drinks in the form of ambrosia, so what’s not to say they developed the ultimate drunk food.”

Shaking his head, Ben pondered the matter.

“Well, we have thousands of years’ worth of suffering and turmoil trying to produce the peak of human drinking food, while the gods likely don’t even have to worry about hangovers with their ambrosia.”

Also now falling into thought, Astaria stared at the same spot as Ben while holding her chin.

“This is true, the gods do have it easy… wait, why are we even taking this topic so seriously? We should get moving again.”

With a shared laugh of realisation, the two resumed their trip across the forest, each step making Astaria grow more anxious as the worry of facing her friends grew.

Explaining her situation to Ben was one thing, she had known him far longer than most of the group and was much closer to him since he spent most of his free time around her Manor. The others however were a different story.

Ash was the person she had known for the longest time out of the group, having become fast friends with their shared love of playing FPS games. He was innately indecisive in social situations; however, his gaming sense was second only to her having been a close rival and a perfect teammate.

Tyrell and Russel were both close friends who had met Astaria at university. Tyrell was an easy-going guy, he had a good sense of humour with his comments occasionally sending the group into uncontrollable laughter. Tyrell was also exceptionally skilled in playing MMO’s, having previously been widely regarded as a top-rank damage-based Paladin.

Meanwhile, Russel was a little more reserved, but always partook in anything the group would do, becoming a fixture in the group before anyone realised. However, since returning to the past he had not spent that much time with everyone so had yet to properly integrate himself. His gaming experience was quite average, mainly playing sports and FPS games casually.

Lastly, Roxanne. She had been a fairly close acquaintance that Astaria had originally met online. She was quite playful, enjoying teasing people, but was truly trustworthy. After joining Astaria’s past guilds, Roxanne had quickly grown close with Ash and her, becoming her go-to person for any sort of subterfuge. After meeting in real life, Roxanne started to spend a lot of her free time with the group, eventually becoming a regular sight whenever everyone met up. She was also quite skilled with FPS and MMO’s, not falling far behind Ash.

Thinking about the personalities of the four, Astaria could only think of the worst case that kept playing out in her mind.

Feeling a hand resting on her shoulder, she looked over to see Ben with a concerned expression.

“You’re starting to freak out over meeting everyone, right? I can see it on your face.”

Seeing Astaria give a slight nod, he continued, rolling his eyes in slight exasperation.

“Honestly man, you gotta stop overthinking things. I don’t think they will give two shits that you are now a girl. Yeah, there will be the ‘what the fuck’ moment when they confirm that it is actually you, but we have already talked things over. I explained what you told me about the whole time travel thing, and confirmed what Fortuna had apparently explained to them, so I believe that everyone will accept things quite easily.”

Taking a breath, Ben removed his hand before speaking again.

“Although I don’t know Russel quite as well, you have always had a good sense for people and should have more faith in that. Like me, they won’t be all weird about it.”

Letting out a deep breath, Astaria gave a brief nod at what Ben had said, realising that if there had been an issue, he would have already mentioned it.

Feeling a little less apprehensive, Astaria and Ben continued walking, making light conversation between silencing groups of goblins. They eventually found themselves at a cleared camp on the rotation the others were on, so they navigated their way along the designated route. After a short time walking, they began to hear the sounds of the goblin screams they made while fighting.

Now that they had caught up to the others, they waited at a decent distance away to avoid lowering the other's XP gain.

Standing and listening to the sounds of the fight, they could hear the brutal noise of a loud and wet splat followed by a small ringing sound coming from a dark ball that was slightly visible through the trees.