Henry stood in front of the cavern once more, his breathing steady, fully prepared to execute his new strategy.
He didn't hesitate. Henry exploded across the threshold at full speed, instantly angling his sprint hard to the left of the enemy formation. His goal was to completely bypass the massive hobgoblin and dive straight into the weaker spearmen on the flank.
The regular goblins couldn't even react in time. But the hobgoblin did.
Sensing the flanking maneuver, the massive beast violently pivoted and lunged, perfectly intercepting Henry just as he reached the leftmost spearmen. Henry had the momentum, driving his arming sword forward with devastating force, but the hobgoblin brought its broadsword up in a heavy block.
Clang!
Henry won the exchange, stopping the monster in its tracks, but the weapon bind had stalled his movement. That split second was all the regular spearmen needed. They rapidly boxed him in, thrusting their crude spears directly toward his ribs while his sword was locked against the Hobgoblin.
"Shit," Henry cursed. Realizing he couldn't break the bind in time to parry the spears, he improvised. He jumped, planting both boots squarely against the flat of the hobgoblin's locked broadsword, and violently kicked off.
The explosive leg press sent Henry flying backward through the air at a controlled speed, allowing him to cleanly disengage from the death trap and land securely on his feet.
Without pausing to breathe, Henry instantly shifted his focus to the spear goblin lingering furthest to the right. It was isolated from the pack and, more importantly, the furthest away from the hobgoblin's protective reach.
Henry ran across the cavern floor. The panicked goblin thrust its spear, but Henry completely overwhelmed it with his raw strength. He swatted the wooden shaft downward, using the flat of his sword to brutally pin the spear to the stone floor. In the exact same motion, his free hand whipped down to his belt, drawing his utility knife and driving it cleanly into the goblin's skull.
The monster dissolved into blue light, leaving Henry's knife clattering to the floor. Before Henry could reach down to retrieve it, the nearest spearman was already lunging at his side, and the furious hobgoblin was closing the distance fast.
Henry rapidly backpedaled out of range.
"One," Henry breathed.
'I am so much faster and stronger than these grunts now. I can afford to take risks with them,' Henry realized, confidence settling into his chest.
With that thought, he aggressively re-engaged with the hobgoblin, who charged him, flanked tightly by a second spearman.
As the grunt thrust its spear directly at Henry's chest, Henry didn't dodge or parry. He waited until the absolute last millisecond, then reached out with his bare left hand and snatched the wooden shaft right below the razor-sharp tip.
Refusing to let go of its weapon, the goblin was suddenly at Henry's mercy. Henry yanked the spear forward with bone-snapping force. The goblin was violently ripped off its feet, stumbling directly onto Henry's waiting sword.
"Two," Henry stated coldly as he ripped his blade free and ripped the spear entirely out of the dying monster's hands.
The hobgoblin roared in fury, swinging its broadsword in a lethal horizontal arc. Henry ducked beneath it and immediately began kiting the group. He sprinted in wide arcs from the left to the right side of the large cavern, refusing to let the hobgoblin pin him against the invisible barrier, thereby forcing the three remaining spearmen to constantly chase him.
After a few minutes of relentless sprinting, Henry's stamina kept him breathing relatively easily, but the three regular goblins were rapidly deteriorating.
They were panting heavily, their footwork turning sloppy and sluggish, though the hobgoblin itself seemed unfazed.
Still clutching the scavenged spear in his left hand, Henry made a split-second weapon swap mid-sprint. He tossed his sword to his left hand and gripped the spear tightly in his right.
He locked his eyes on the most exhausted goblin of the trio. It had fallen a good ten feet behind the hobgoblin and the other two spearmen, its weapon lowered as it desperately tried to catch its breath.
Henry abruptly dug his heel into the stone, stopped his sprint, and hurled the spear like a javelin with absolutely everything he had.
The exhausted goblin was far too slow to react. The heavy wooden shaft tore cleanly through its chest with a sickening crunch. The force of the throw was so great that the spear carried the goblin entirely off the ground, flying backward until the tip slammed into the solid wall behind it, embedding three inches deep into the stone.
The goblin hung there for a fraction of a second before dissolving into light.
"Three," Henry smirked.
He resumed his kiting strategy, running back and forth for another five minutes to stretch the remaining enemies out. Finally, his circular path brought him right back over the spot of his very first kill.
Henry stooped down without breaking his stride and snatched his utility knife off the floor. As the hobgoblin charged him, Henry whipped his arm forward, throwing the knife directly at the hobgoblin's lead foot.
Forced to protect its mobility, the hobgoblin aborted its charge and stumbled backward to avoid the blade.
That brief window of separation was all Henry needed. He pivoted and charged the final two spearmen.
The fourth goblin, dead on its feet, launched a lazy, exhausted thrust not at Henry's chest, but aimed low at his right quad. Henry simply leaped over the crude strike. As gravity pulled him back down, he landed both boots intentionally hard on top of the extended wooden shaft.
The sheer, sudden weight of Henry's landing nearly ripped the goblin's arms out of their sockets, violently disarming the creature as the spear clattered to the floor.
As Henry landed, he brought his arming sword down in a brutal, two-handed cleave, splitting the monster's head wide open.
Before the body could even dissolve, Henry kicked the final goblin's spear tip aside, grabbed the wooden shaft, and violently yanked the fifth goblin forward, driving his sword straight through its throat.
Henry didn't even have time to count.
Sensing the massive shadow looming over him, Henry spun around. The hobgoblin was already mid-air, bringing its massive broadsword down in a devastating, rage-fueled overhead strike.
Henry wasn't positioned to dodge. He brought his arming sword up horizontally, gripping the hilt with his right hand and bracing the flat of the blade with his left palm to catch the blow.
CRACK!
Henry gritted his teeth, a feral growl escaping his throat as his knees buckled slightly under the sheer weight of the strike. But his strength held the line. He angled his blade at the last second, letting the heavy broadsword slide harmlessly off to the side, and quickly skipped backward out of range.
"Four... and five," Henry panted, his chest heaving as the adrenaline surged.
The taunt seemed to push the hobgoblin past its breaking point. It abandoned all semblance of defense and launched into a frenzied, terrifying barrage of heavy strikes.
Still trying to catch his breath from the explosive exertion of executing the final two grunts and blocking that massive overhead blow, Henry went entirely on the defensive. For three minutes, he simply danced. He used the most minimalist movements possible, shifting an inch to the left, ducking a hair's breadth beneath a swing, parrying only when absolutely necessary, letting the hobgoblin burn its energy against empty air.
Eventually, Henry felt his lungs fully expand. His breathing regulated. And right on cue, the hobgoblin's frantic strikes slowed noticeably, its heavy, ragged breathing echoing through the cavern.
Seeing the beast finally redlining, a cold smile crept across Henry's face.
It was his turn.
Henry seamlessly shifted his stance. He planted his feet exactly shoulder-width apart, keeping his right foot slightly forward. He distributed his weight perfectly, staying light and explosive on the balls of his feet.
He unleashed a blinding barrage of center-balanced strikes. By keeping his blade tight and centered, his attacks were incredibly fast and perfectly controlled, forcing the exhausted hobgoblin to clumsily throw its heavy sword around to deflect the flurry.
Soon, the beast's utter exhaustion began letting strikes slip through the cracks, just like the weaker hobgoblin from the previous chamber. Fresh cuts and lacerations began to bloom across its thick hide.
Seeing the monster's guard crumbling, Henry went in for the kill. He opened his stance slightly, sacrificing a fraction of his speed to generate a heavy-hitting strike.
He stepped directly into the monster's center line and launched a Sinclair-style overhead strike.
The hobgoblin desperately raised its broadsword horizontally to catch the blow, but its arms were completely spent. The moment the sword met the hobgoblin's blade, the monster's guard instantly collapsed under Henry's power.
Henry reloaded the momentum, pushing the strike violently through the broken defense, and drove his sword straight down into the hobgoblin's skull.
The beast froze, the blade buried deep between its eyes.
Henry's own exhaustion suddenly hit him like a physical blow. His muscles screamed in protest, so drained that he didn't even have the strength left to pull his sword out of the monster's thick skull. He just stood there, gripping the hilt, his chest heaving.
Five seconds later, the hobgoblin's flesh finally dissolved into a shower of blue light.
With the sudden loss of the monster's physical resistance holding it up, the weight of the sword dragged Henry's exhausted arms downward.
His legs gave out completely. Henry collapsed onto his back on the cold stone floor, utterly unable to speak, staring up at the dark cavern ceiling as he desperately gulped down deep breaths of air.