The winter cyclops howled,its body drained the heat from its surrounding freezing the moisture in the air,as it moved,and became more active crystaline ice formed a type of armor at certain points around its body they were like sharp Spears that would penetrate those that came near.
The frozen wing thunder moth who took on the appearance of a mix between an owl,and a moth with ram like horns also had its unique special abilities,for one it could make itself virtually weightless allowing it to fly across the sky with almost zero effort,another ability was the generation of lightning,the list did not end there but included a high picthed caw that dazed most opponents,a special defensive ability that made it so that when it was in danger parts of its body would completely harden becoming the colour of hardened crystalised ice,the ability was called frost petrification.
Now combine the petrification,and lighting generation with its natural silk this combination alone allowed it to mummify its opponents,the ram horns displayed on its head were also not for show as it would ram into its opponents showing no mercy.
The qualities of both monsters were directly shown in their battle if not breifly before the frozen wind thunder moth retreated.
As before the moment the frozen thunder moth approached near the entrance of the winter cyclopses cave, feeling its territory had been threatened this cyclops immediately awakened causing the temperature to drop even further.
Its red eye glowed in the pitch darkness of the cave entrance, before spotting smaller creatures running away from the Giant moth.
At this point to it the moth presented an opportunity to satiate its hunger while simultaneously sending a message to other predators warning them to not trespass on its territory.
On the other hand the running children became a bonus prize a delicacy it had never seen before a sort of cherry on top,something it was curious to try out.
It immediately fired its beam attempting to slow the children down as the sheets of ice increased,so that the owl could not escape it threw large chunks of stone before jumping at it corking back its arms as it reached the moth hitting it with its hands.
The moth sensing danger petrified itself at the impact points before the hits landed then released huge amounts of lightning that went as far as reaching the running Darian,Galahad,and Benjamin who narrowly avoided these attacks.
Benjamin taking light of the situation screamed in a joking manner as sheets of ice fell down the slope due to the intense battle between Giants.
An avalanche fighting Giants,Spears of lightning ,and the adrenaline of running were what caused Darian to finally scream in frustration,and possibly fear due to the situation meanwhile Galahad stayed as calm as possible with hints of frustration showing through his facial expressions.
As he ran at one point Darian was in a haze,temporarily slowing down it was as if he was stuck between two worlds,its said that snow,and high adrenaline could cause one to remember vivid memories.
This was the case for Darian he remembered,a vivid scene of himself sitting on his father's lap while watching a movie,in this movie soldiers ran for cover as enemy artillery rained down from the sky as the brave men pushed forward Darian smiled a bit in melancholy as he fell down,then pushing himself off with his right leg breaking through the haze.
An arrow was drawn,and released unleashing a powerful kinetic force cutting through the air the air as it moved.
Eventually landing on its targets piercing through multiple Goblins forcing their stomachs to collapse killing them instantly.
Standing around a huge host of corpses were Annabeths group one firmly formed by her tight knit group of friends consisting of her childhood friends namely Anastasia,and Amy.
Annabeth sighed her hands on her hips," we've been tracking their trail ever since they first attacked us dont you think its time we stop,and head for more formidable creatures that'll hopefully get us quality points".
" Dont forget get less ugly,or repulsive ones as well",Anastasia added,Amy laughed before gettibg serious," and here I thought you two were the brave ones,I just cant stand Goblins after what they did to my cousin,I hate! them,I hate! them", she cried out.
" If it were up to me every Goblin in the world would be extinct,we cant let this opportunity slide to find the nest,and stop them from reproducing.
"So killing them the moment they spawn in ",Anastasia replied," Exactly!!",Amy answered back with fanatic joy.
" Common guys whats their to he afraid of all three of us are capable,and not only does any have royalty in her blood her Dads a great hero you know it must run in the family".
Annabeths hung her head low as she said bitterly," "used" to be a great hero thats what you mean,you know the days after the norn wars back when the entire Country was still reeling from the after shocks of the war,and vampires lacked a weakness to the sun,its been decades since then".
After these bitter words were said a somber mood crept up,a moment of clear silence completely took over.
Anastasia quickly restarted the conversation by asking an educated question," normally Goblins are creatures born without females in their ranks,in the olden days they were said to be hermaphrodites,but eventually devolved to just be males,but gained a 100% success rate of inpregnating any humanoid mammal,that being said my point is how were they able to survive in great numbers for this long".
Amy shuddered to the thought before spewing it out," has the academy been sacrificing innocent young girls to keep these numbers up", she then quickly, and tearfully held her cheeks.
" wow wow dont get your head in a twist sister,it could be old evil women if that let's you sleep at night".
Annabeth had a grumpy expression," Anastasia that's not funny we shouldn't wish that on our worst enemies,it's too cruel".
Anastasia replied," well I just did,and it seems to me you have that heroic blood after all,but my point still stands theirs no point in making unfounded assumptions,or any assumptions without any evidence".
"I agree",Annabeth replied," specifically on the last part not anything else",she said seconds later clearing up her intentions.
Annabeths fingers rubbed her chin in thought," you guys haven't brought up the biggest issue,and that's potentially facing evolved Goblins,if it's a higher order nest we could be facing a few ".
Anastasia was in thought before adding," Goblins are creepy,and filled with trickery their should be a bunch of traps set around their nests as for their evolutions I'm not really familiar with them".
Amy chuckled feeling her long locked knowledge would finally pay off she stood up ,and spun on one spot before pointing to herself,"And that's why you have me,I'll explain it all without any bias".
Amy made two pretentious coughs building anticipation before she spoke seriously, and calmly," from what I was able to remember from the books,I've read on the topic,Goblins can have a litter of up to seven,and in 10 litters only 3 to 6 will be evolved Goblins,these Goblins are born with mutations that either makes them smarter,stronger,more skilled or increases their status in the nest".
" from what I can remember,Goblins have multiple mutations a Goblin an Orc which are bigger, taller, stronger,faster,slightly smarter variations of the Goblin species,when they awaken unique abilities,they are reffered to as orc knights".
"Warlock Goblins innately have high skill in summoning,necromancy,and alchemical magics their also considered smarter than orcs,but are shorter,and mostly retain their goblin appearance they have a high probability of awakening a unique ability,and growing further into Orc warlocks something very rare".
"Goblin kings are normally the second largest in size being incredibly smart compared to normal mages their intelligence leans more in them being tacticians,and long term planners.Their true strength is that they are innately capable of telepathic communication,through this they can subjugate members of their own race,while also having a 100% probability in gaining a unique ability each also have unique appearances, and are masters in transformation magic".
"Although that's only the normal evolution path,if a Goblin manages to live for atleast 50-100 years,or kills enough living beings this can also trigger an evolution".
"Because of the close Genetic ties orcs,and trolls have to Giants they can possibly evolve into Goblin Oni or a Goblin troll".
"if its the former they gain superior strength compared to normal orcs but the downside is that they are less intelligent,more irritable,and have a lower possibility in awakening unique abilities".
"if its the later they become extremely slow thinkers they are the biggest Goblins with a dense body giving them the second highest durability,although faster than normal Goblins when sprinting they lack motivation, and are the laziest".
" An interesting fact things about Goblin Oni,and Goblin trolls is that they are naturally infertile".
" I see", annabeth said while sitting on a pile corpses made of Goblins,"well I think we should head to the nest stake it out for a bit,if its a massive nest that means theirs a higher chance,of these evolutions,meaning we retreat if the opposite is true we destroy it,and if theirs a sign of any innocent human lives we should try to save them".
Anastasia nodded," Its best for us to not bite more than we can chew".
Amy sighed,"as long as we're getting some sort of vengeance for all the families destroyed by these Goblins".
Annabeth had a calm expression as she explained further," right now the natural conclusion is for us to track down the nest,amys abilities are much more suited for this,as for scouting,Anastasia should take the lead".
" Agreed",Amy,and Anastasia said in unison.
Later on as they walked through the woods green symbols appeared around Amy's eyes,as her eyes glowed with green transparent light the surrounding forest animals up to 10 were immediately taken over,and possesed,these animals were made up of wild birds,feral saber tooth hunter cats.
And lastly a giant female spider after taking control of these creatures Amy could see through them,using the spider queens control over lesser spiders,and knowledge of the area Amy began tracking down the Goblins nest,she also observed interesting scenes of fellow students walking,and instantly vanishing,which was an interesting sight.
Using this method the group successfully found trails from injured Goblins,and those of normal Goblins carrying carcases of dead animals to the nest.
Using the knowledge of the animals in the area large,and small the team managed to successfully not trigger any of the Goblins traps,Soon the group found a large crater with a steep slope like a cliff near the edges,on the craters interior circumference opposite the group stood a huge cave entrance as if it was once used to force through a creature of Gigantic size.
All three fell to the floor as Annabeth signaled,Anastasia with a hand gesture,understanding the assignment Anastasias shadow suddenly enlarged,then elongated until it detached itself from her then covering a huge distance with incredible speed entering the cave successfully.
Within the cave the walls radiated a green hue,although the entrance was huge the further one went the more the wide path became thinner,it was likely that when this huge creature was forced through the Goblins forced the cave to become narrower,the narrow path was the not the only change as more piles of bones could be seen on the sides the more one went in.
When the shadow went through,it saw a group of atleast a thousand Goblins indicating a medium sized nest,the Goblins dug holes,or lived in small huts some curled around in a ball sleeping on elevated stones.
as the shadow went deeper scenes of sleeping Goblins,scratching their behinds covered in blood or other fighting for food were seen,at the centre was a large hole that spiraled for about a 100meters within were about 50huts spaced across but as the shadow percieved most were empty,at the bottom were great statues of orcs in knights armor,protecting another cave hole,the inside of the hole radiated a strong mana creating a barrier,the shadow being unable to directly go through,went into another shadow appearing inside of the room.
And inside was a Gigantic spider corps about 40meters tall surrounded by tree vines,cystalised tree sap,and crystals with an array around it.
It seemed to have died long ago but its body,and its bodily functions preserved through some weird method it would not be too outlandish to think this spider had been mummified.
The shadow heard cries,these cries completely blew open the case indicating what this spider were for.
Below the spiders stomach at its centre were four Goblin warlocks,one took a baby Goblin out from the spiders slimy sack,placing it somewhere else,sensing a foreign presence one of the warlocks turned to face the shadow but the shadow had already left by that time.
In a matter of minutes the shadow returned to Anastasias body,this entire time she had been looking through the shadow so she had gained knowledge on all that it saw.
This entire time Anastasias body was in a state of panic,and nerves her shadow being captured could result in vast troubles for herself,and the scenes of these ugly Goblins the smell of feces were all relayed on to her,having her shadow far from her for so long was also taxing causing her face to become green with nausea as she vomited.
The two girls held their friend by the shoulder helping her recover,when Annabeth quickly asked the most pressing question.
" what did you see".