Taking advantage of the environment

Until now he had planned everything as a hack and slash despite the warnings Mariela had given, killing many to level up, but nevertheless, seeing the difficulty that the goblins posed in the village or behind the tunnel defenses, he realized that he had to change tactics. It was true that Ikky was in theory a player of a higher level than the rest, but not even being a combat machine, which would be true, it would be easy to kill all those monsters.

Attacking the barricade was out of the question, jumping in the middle of the village was more absurd, and facing at least 2 big cats was certain death. He was in an impossible decision.

At that moment Ikky concentrated on analyzing the ecosystem of the cave and its dynamics. The goblins had not isolated the cavern, possibly they depended on the water source, nor had they taken it over by shielding it or making a parapet, which made me assume the superior strength of the felines that also depended on that water source.

Beyond that was the fact of the exit at the end of the darkness, the fact that there was a latrine there could mean that they sent patrols to that area to prevent another adventurer from entering through the cave, but that it was nevertheless an area far from the main nucleus of goblin activity.

He had not found bones or remains of goblins in the different tunnels, so the feline attacks had to end with the bodies dragged towards the burrow, which also fit with the behavior of a small pack, and with the other tunnel that he had left to explore.

To unblock the situation the only thing that occurred to him was the game of breadcrumbs, perhaps it worked like in the giant's tale.

Although it was not a spectacular number, in the tunnels there were the corpses of the fifteen goblins he had faced so far. More disgusted than anything else, he dragged them all out with his ax and, acting bravely, cut off their heads and arms.

He dragged one of the mutilated bodies as close as he could to the barricade without being discovered, and continued placing bodies and pieces of them until he reached the tunnel crossing where he presumed the felines would come.

To provoke the situation a little more, from the ledge he threw the heads of the 15 goblins into the center of the town, soon screams of rage echoed among the shops. He did not stay to watch the spectacle, and ran with a few goblin arms to the tunnel of the big cats. He did not have to go far, leaving goblin arms every three or four meters, when a roar was heard that made his hair stand on end. He ran back, throwing me through the tunnels without worrying about the noise he made until he reached the ledge again.

With his heart in his mouth, beating like crazy, he waited for luck, there were no footsteps or signs of the feline chasing him, he hoped it would entertain himself with the first corpse. From his position about 12 meters above the town he could see a large group of goblins heading towards the barricade. Chaos broke out shortly after, shouts of fighting could be heard in the tunnels, he would like to say that Ikky was brave and that he joined the brawl attacking with his spear left and right, but it was not like that, he stayed still calmly waiting.

The roars of various beasts resounded, even some kind of lament that seemed to come from some goblin, from his position he could see how the barricade crumbled when one of the felines jumped on it, in the town the few that remained came out to repel the attack, he could see how the claws and teeth of the feline destroyed the goblins that he found in his path.

It was like a large panther, with grey fur, but unlike the felines seen on land, this one had a larger, rounder head with a huge mouth with two rows of teeth. The tail ended in a sharp point that also played its role in the massacre of goblins. Likewise, on the feline, which was surrounded by a good number of humanoids, wounds soon appeared, the wounded beast retreated. That was the moment when Ikky decided to get off the ledge, sliding down the wall a few meters and jumping the last 6, to end up rolling on the ground when landing.

He looked inside the first tent, an old goblin looked at him perplexed, but before he had time to even scream the spear pierced his chest, where Ikky thought his heart would be, he looked around the different tents performing the same operation, it was dirty, unpleasant, or even cowardly, but he did it, when he ran out of weak victims to kill, he looked at the place where the fight seemed about to end near the shattered parapet. The feline was slowly retreating with an ugly wound on one paw and another in one eye. But, the group of defenders in the village were not much better off.

With all the stealth he could muster, he positioned himself behind the 6 defenders who, although wounded, were facing the beast.

The closest one didn't see him coming, suddenly the attack came from behind, piercing his chest from side to side (after a bit of practice Ikky had learned to retrieve the spear to prevent it from getting stuck inside the victim's body).

As his body fell forward, the bewildered heads of 5 goblins looked at the wounded man. The feline didn't need much more distraction to jump and almost tear the face off one of the goblins. A female goblin with a short spear managed to stab the beast's stomach, though she couldn't stop its teeth from ripping its neck apart.

Ikky stabbed the spear into the side of another goblin, who, unwilling to fight even if the wound wasn't fatal, crouched on the ground in a fetal position holding the wound. The blow of a stone axe echoed off the shield, Pablo pushed with a shoulder charge with the shield forward, as he had learned to do during his fights in the tunnels, pushing the goblin back, which luckily for Ikky, tripped the last defender who was further back.

As he stabbed one of the goblins on the ground, the feline's jaws clamped down on the leg of the other goblin who remained standing. Perhaps in what was his first brave reaction in his life, the goblin did not let himself be killed without a fight and repeatedly stabbed the feline's face with his short knife.

The spear hit the feline in the neck, this leap back freed the exhausted goblin who hit his head on the ground, knocking him unconscious.

With one leg injured, one eye missing and multiple wounds, the landing was not as "feline" as the monster expected, losing balance and falling on his side, giving Ikky the opportunity to advance with the spear in front and thus managing to wound him again before he regained his upright position. With another swing this time the weapon pierced one of his hind legs.

Although he couldn't gain momentum with his wounded paws, he did manage to hit the shield with his claws, three slits almost cut the shield into pieces, and his strength was enough to push Ikky back a couple of steps.

With the advantage of the spear's distance, and with the beast's fatigue, wounds and lack of mobility, a game of attrition began, throwing, retreating, throwing, blocking, throwing, retreating, blocking, throwing... The wounds accumulated on the feline and little by little he lost strength, an attack pierced his chest... he fell exhausted... but Ikky didn't trust him and literally left him like a sieve to make sure he was really dead.