The First Great Game (A Litrpg/Harem Series)

Chapter 251: There goes surprise

Mason hadn't exactly planned on 'sneaking', but he would have liked to at least gone unnoticed for a minute. Blake's constructs put an end to all that.

With the collective gait and volume of a small herd of buffalo, the five living statues lumbered behind and in front of their creator like sumo wrestlers in tap dance shoes.

Goblin eyes began to turn from every conceivable direction.

Mason picked up the pace. Even so, the sight of the players, nymph, and constructs suddenly in their midst, seemed to strike most of the goblins as so bizarre and unlikely, they didn't immediately panic or attack. They seemed to be looking for someone to explain or take charge, and likely assumed someone knew what was going on.

A goggle-wearing engineer finally stepped forward and inspected the group before raising a clip board wielding hand.

"Where you going? Er, who are you? Er, do the big bosses...wait. Tree witch! Tree witch! It's them! We're under attac..."

Mason put a Power Shot through the engineer's face.

"Time to run," he said, then dropped any pretense of ambiguity as he ran for the huge iron door.

Goblins were mostly scattering to get out of their path, the vast majority seeming like workers or maybe low ranking engineers who wanted no part of...whatever this was.

But more commanding voices were shouting, and spreading, and from the general chaos Mason could see other creatures trying to gain some semblance of control.

The players were close to their target, though. Only a single goblin stood at the gate, more like a scout than a guard. When he realized the players were charging straight at him he turned and vanished through what looked like a doggy door into the gate just as Mason's first arrow smashed into the metal behind his head.

"Shit. There goes surprise. Blake, Pliny, work on the door. Becky and Calypsa, you're with me."

He didn't bother commanding Streak, as the wolf already sensed what he wanted and growled. No doubt the goblins would get themselves together sooner or later to attack, but Mason sure as hell didn't have to make it easy.

A lightning bolt was tempting, but his arrows took mana here and that felt way more efficient than a burst. Honestly, the main temptation was the noise and racket the thing would make, but still, it didn't feel worth it. Instead he stopped and just started shooting arrows at anything that moved.

He especially tried to put arrows into non-obvious targets—into goblins huddled on the sides. Sure enough, the closest scattered, trying to get to the far end of the hall, scampering over each other as they fled and added to the general chaos. Streak went after them like a shepherd dog, driving a green flock away wherever he went.

Mason glanced back to see Pliny and Blake fiddling with the door and not looking terribly pleased. He was guessing that meant the key didn't exactly work as intended. Which was just super.

The goblin leadership also appeared to have rallied. Machines that looked like the robots they'd dealt with upstairs were being turned on, clacking themselves into a group. Engineers were arming themselves with a dozen different weapons, yelling at each other and seeming to decide who got what.

Metal screeched as what looked like a giant cannon was being dragged around to face the players. Mason supposed it should have been concerning, but he couldn't help but wonder if it might work to knock down a giant iron door...

He grit his teeth. "I'm attacking. Kill anything you want except that cannon, but keep falling back to Blake. Got it?"

Calypsa nodded and spun her spear, and Becky clutched her shield with a determined nod. Then Mason tossed his shitty goblin bow and summoned his Claws, and ran straight at the growing enemy forces with Streak on his heels.

* * *

Gouts of flame and various projectiles zipped and roared at Mason as he charged in at an angle. His target was the cannon crew, but he needed them to either load the thing and get it ready, or make it obvious how it would work. But also not shoot it at him. A fine balance to strike...

The engineers were panicking as Mason closed. Most ran behind the robots, but a flamer kept on shooting, and Mason ran through the flame and cut his attacker’s head off as Apex Predator dinged.

The robots shot a handful of their harpoons, which Mason dodged but at least one stuck into Streak. Mason considered Shared Pain, then the wolf shifted forms mid-run. He growled and seized the harpoon with his new, vaguely horrifying, mutant claw-hand, pulled it out, and threw it back at the robot.

The son of a bitch even hit. It didn't do much, but everyone took a moment to be confused before Streak dashed forward and jumped on the thing, riding it and clawing or biting at hoses and anything else not covered by the main structure.

Through their bond, Mason felt mostly the spirit of...fun. He stopped worrying about the wolf.

Instead he tossed some traps around the engineers for extra chaos, then turned and bolted for the cannon crew. The engineers seemed to predict it and followed him with a hail of projectiles.

This time they largely hit. Bits and pieces of metal slammed into Mason's skin, spraying with what he feared was blood until he realized they must have been filled with various liquids. Apex Predator was having a field day, swapping back and forth as Mason just ran on and reached the wide-eyed artillery loaders.

Mason wasn't exactly an expert on goblin-made cannons, but this one looked vaguely similar to a human equivalent. It looked like the shot was already loaded, and they were working on the charge. They didn't need four goblins for that.

He quickly cut them down to one. But he realized he was now increasingly surrounded, which apparently gave the goblins enough courage to attack.

From every direction the mob of creatures came at him with spears. Or shop tools. A wrench bounced off his forehead, a spear jabbed into his back. He spun and cut apart spear shafts, or knocked them flying from surprised creatures hands, whirling back and forth to hunt hands or heads.

The engineers clearly didn't worry about fratricide. More projectiles bounced, exploded, and zinged off everything in sight. A goblin doing his best to attack exploded as something went through him and splattered over Mason. The liquids didn't bother him, but the direct metallic hits were leaving gouges in his flesh. And they fucking hurt.

Still, Transformation was doing its work, and at this speed Mason expected they may never be able to kill him unless they brought something..

A boom roared and echoed through the hall as another cannon flared. Mason didn't even know where it was aimed, but he turned and threw himself at a small pack of goblins just as a gush of wind rushed over him.

A brutal force slammed through the goblins, spraying blood and limbs before spinning Mason as some projectile struck his left arm. It didn't even hurt, just went numb, but Mason didn't have time to assess the damage.

He hacked his way through the surviving goblins with his right arm before looking down. His left hand was missing, the arm severed at the elbow.

It should have frightened or at least disturbed him, he supposed. Though he accepted his current neutrality might be shock. He glanced out at the further cannon already reloading, seeing hundreds more goblins running down from the far side of the hall.

Despite the grisly injury, and the pain now starting to shiver up his arm, his practical mind was still in control. Apparently he'd underestimated the forces outside the boss room. He needed to withdraw, but not before he dealt with the cannons, or they'd just keep shooting at them huddled at the door.

He turned and smashed the cannon beside him, ruining the barrel before charging a lightning bolt. A few more projectiles struck him, but he saw blue shields sizzling now and realized Becky must have seen his arm dripping blood and ignored the usual 'don't bother shielding Mason' rule. He hoped she wasn't too freaked out.

The energy built and built but Mason didn't have time to correct if it wasn't enough, so he went for overkill. He waited until his mana was less than half before releasing, the huge build-up crackling with a thrumming crash as the bolt struck instantly.

Fire erupted with a blinding white light, and Mason's ears rang then quieted, the explosion strong enough to send him back a step even from a distance. He didn't bother to wait for the damage, instead running straight back for Streak and Becky, then towards the door.

This sure as hell wasn't over yet. And maybe worse waited through that door...