Hearing the footsteps, both of them quickly hid in the bushes. Out of the cave came over a dozen goblins, two goblin scouts and another goblin warrior. They looked at the dead goblin warrior and archer, before the goblin warrior shouted, and the goblins immediately got into a tight battle formation.
'I can see why they are so dangerous now.' Xavier thought as the two scouts advanced ahead of the small troupe, searching every bush for them. Xavier started to sweat as he wondered what they should do. The scouts were about to find them any minute now and as long as the warrior was around, the goblins were like a trained military unit. Just as he was going to attack one od the scouts, an arrow soared through the air towards the warrior, but he dodged, and the arrow struck a goblin in the neck.
"Greee!!" The goblin warrior shouted and the goblins rushed towards where Maria was. Both Xavier and Mickey dived out of the bushes at the same time, and quickly killed one of the scouts.
"Go!!" Xavier said and Mickey quickly rushed after the goblins who were chasing after Maria. Now left with a scout and a warrior, Xavier gripped the spear in his hand. The scout had a rusty dagger in his hand, while the warrior carried a beaten looking bronze sword. The scout was the first to rush towards him, and Xavier had to admit, the scout was pretty fast. The scout swung it's dagger rather skillfully, forcing Xavier on the defensive. When he saw the warrior charging in as well, he quickly pushed off the scout and ducked under it's next strike before sweeping it's legs with the spear, and stabbing it in the abdomen.
He quickly jumped backwards as tje warrior swung it's blade, but even with his timely dodge, he still got a shallow wound across his chest. Gritting his teeth, Xavier pulled out his daggers and lunged towards the warrior. The two of them exchanged blow after blow, with neither of them gaining the upper hand. Xavier could tell he was faster than the warrior, even if it wasn't by much, but the warrior was more skillful, expertly deflecting and dodging his strikes.
'Now I know why these guys are called warriors.' Xavier thought as he was sent skidding across the ground, as he blocked a sword strike with his daggers. Both he and warrior were panting as they have been fighting for five minutes straight. They circled each other, looking for an opening and devising strategies in their minds.
'Maybe I should stop trying to get a killing strike and whittle down his HP instead. I mean, it's not like he can heal so fast that the small wounds won't pile up right.' Xavier thought, and then then the warrior charged in. The monster swung it's blade fast and hard, forcing Xavier to block, but unlike before he was pushed off his feet. As he rolled across the ground, the warrior chased after him, and he quickly did a few backflips and got back onto his feet, only to be greeted by another strike.
'Upping the intensity huh. That will drain your remaining stamina, but...I might actually die if this continue.' Xavier thought, as he was slammed into a tree. The warrior didn't let up on it's assault, and came with another swing, that almost took Xavier's head off, but luckily only took a few strands.
He rolled across the ground, exhausted, but he knew he couldn't stop for a second, and turned around to attack the warrior. The warrior only just managed to pull it's sword out of the tree and swung around widely. Xavier jumped over the sword just in time, and threw his dagger towards the warrior from above. The dagger stabbed into it's shoulder, causing it to roar in pain. Xavier's back slammed into the tree due to the ill timed jump, and he fell on top of the warrior. Xavier quickly wrapped his arm around the warriors neck, as he tried to bite it with it's sharp fangs, and pull his arm off it, but with a dagger in one shoulder, one hand wasn't enough to pull off Xavier's hand.
Xavier stabbed his dagger into the goblins chest, and as it slowly die, continuing to struggle, he pushed it off and sighed in relief. He wanted nothing more but to rest, but he knew the fight wasn't over, and quickly pulled out his daggers, and looked over to where the rest of the goblins were. He could see Maria firing arrows relentlessly with tears in her eyes and a tense look on her face. Mickey was at forefront, fighting against the goblins, and his body was littered with scratch marks.
Xavier sighed, before dashing towards the goblins to help his friends.