[h3]Ghost Party[/h3]
[quote=System:Danny]
You used Monster Analysis II!
---Goblin---
Goblins stand between three and three-and-a-half feet tall on average, and while their physical strength isn't to be underestimated, they are much like human children. However, their natural cunning and viciousness is far more vile, and while they can use tools they have a limited intelligence. They tend to form savage tribes with little in common save for the constant drive to survive, and a lack of emotional control that causes them to do whatever they feel necessary to satisfy any primal craving they happen to feel at any given moment.
---Analysis Complete!---
[/quote]
As Danny's Mana Orb formed, growing brighter and denser as he activated its second rank, the goblins began to hesitate. They couldn't see Jason as he floated towards them, full of malice, but watched with wide eyes as Danny stretched the Mana Orb out between his hands. The magic felt surprisingly malleable in the Poltergeist's hands--but keeping it in the shape he had chosen felt like holding a rubber band at full extension. He had to constantly exert an effort to make it keep this form, and the simple cylinder he had created felt as fragile as a flourescent light tube.

But the goblins didn't balk for long. The one holding the spear rushed forward with a cry and tried to stab the small, pale creature before him. Danny swung the "mana stick" to try and block whatever he could, and when the two clashed there was a slight smell of burning wood and an electrical crackle in the air. Danny's shaped spell shattered like glass in his hands, tiny particles of light scattering all around him and quickly dissipating. But it had still knocked the goblin backwards, and he examined his spear for a moment to see that it had been slightly damaged by the exchange. The goblin holding the net began to twirl it, ready for a throw.

Cold like ice passed through its body, and its breath caught in its lungs. The goblin let out a choked gasp. The world went black and white, and Jason once more stood face to face with a goblin in the misty world in-between. As Jason's form shifted between man and slime, an unstable hand clenched towards the goblin. A sparkling trail was drawn from the monster to the ectoslime as Mana Drain activated. The goblin screamed; in the real world, it shook its head and began backing away as it jerked and thrashed.

"Sumpin's got me, sumpin's got me!" it began to cry, distracting its bretheren for a moment. Danny might have a chance to get off an attack if he was quick...

Jason's telepathy sent a loud, echoing wail through the monochrome void, and outside the goblin screamed too and began flailing in the area where Jason floated, even though he couldn't see the spirit. Like pushing away a leaf floating on the water, the contact between them was broken. Jason felt almost as if he were knocked off balance, and would have to pull his ethereal form together again before he could make another assault.

The distraction lasted only a moment. Whatever Danny had done in that short time, now the goblin with a cudgel charged forward and swung hard at the Poltergeist. That thick tree limb looked like it would hurt at least as much as being hit with a baseball bat, if not more...