Saito could feel his blood jumping inside him due to excitement. He used almost all of his strength in that punch and yet the Goblin just took it head on with his own and didn't even flinch a bit but smiled just like him.
Both of them backed away to their weapons and took them from the ground. Everyone thought that they would clash with their weapons once again but to their surprise, Rou threw his weapon to the side while Saito sheathed his blade.
Now, both of them took their fighting stance. Rou had a normal stance while Saito also went with the basic combat stance. Since they had height difference, Saito couldn't pull any tricks or special moves on Rou.
Rou made the first move and pounced at Saito. Saito also threw his fist at Rou. Both their fist collided once again and this time, it was Max power. *BOOM!*.
That impact sent a shockwave stronger than before and made the ground crack. Rou and Saito started to exchange a barrage of punches. Rou used all his strength in every punch while Saito also gone mad and punched him with all he had. This duel turned into a street fight, only on a different level of street fight.
Rou threw another punch towards Saito stomach from below. Saito used his right palm to block it and unexpectedly, that was a faint and the real punch cane towards his face.
Saito the fist using his left hand and grabbed Rou's fist gave him a judo throw. Rou landed on the ground head on. Everyone thought that's the end of the fight but Rou still got up. "HAHAHAHAHA! Human! That was good! Now come at me with everything you have or I'll have your head!" Rou said. Rou then launched himself at Saito with his fist coming at him like a meteor.
Saito wanted to tackle that punch head on but something inside him told that he would break a few bones if he did that. Rou thought that Saito would face him head on but Saito moved a bit to the side at the last second and grabbed Rou's hand then gave him a ride in the air and slammed him down on the ground.
*BOOM!*
That impact send another shockwave and evoked dusts from the floor like an explosion. The dust cleared and everyone saw Saito still standing with beats of sweat dropping from his forehead while Rou was lying on the ground unconscious but his face still had a satisfied smile.
The Goblins looked at each other and then started cheering, "YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!". The Iron Guards then knelt on the ground with one hand on their chest. Vik was surprised to see this turn of event. Minos asked, "Hey Vik, what's going on? Why are they on their knee?".
Vik just smiled and said, "Well it seems like Saito just earned their respect". Minos was surprised along with Lily, who was just going along with the atmosphere.
Herjar appeared behind them out of nowhere then said, "Hoooo, earning the respect of the soldiers huh? That's General material standing over there". Vik and Minos laughed, "Yeah right, him being a General? Don't make me laugh" Minos said but Vik didn't comment.
Herjar said, "Who gave us commands when we were fighting the demons in Frogwell?". Minos then stopped laughing and started thinking. Saito did gave them commands when everyone were unable to think but he still kept a calm and collected mind. By looks, he seems like a normal weird Mercenary but what's hiding in the inside, they don't know yet and they are sure to find it out.
Rou finally regained his consciousness then sat up. He looked around and saw his men surrounding him like he just cane back from death. "What...happened?" Rou asked while rubbing his head. One of the Goblin said, "Captain! Your awake! That human knocked you unconscious but you still made him sweat like His Highness said! Your awesome!". The rest of the Goblins also said words like that and cheered him up.
Rou looked at Saito and went on his knee, "Samurai Saito, you earned both my and my battalion's respect! No matter what help you need, we will help you to show our respect!" he said. The Goblins all went down on knee again then one hand on chest.
Saito smiled and said, "And you can say the same for me Warrior Rou, I'll help you in anything if I can" Saito bowed his head. Rou nodded his head and looked towards Vik, "Your Highness, if it's alright with you we can depart tomorrow morning".
Vik didn't say anything back. He was after all, reluctant to leave his friends. Vik looked towards Saito for help. Saito just sighed and asked Rou, "Rou, can we come as well?".
Rou turned towards Saito and said, "You are all his Highness's friends right? You were also invited to come". Vik was dumbfounded and then he asked, "Rou, what do you mean by that?".
Rou pointed himself and said, "Did I forget to say it? Both King and Queen told us to bring his Highness's first ever friends with him back home for them to meet". The Iron Guards all face palmed, this guy forgot to mention the most important part.
Vik then asked, "Then they all can come to Goblinia with me, right?". Rou replied, "Yes your Highness". Vik then looked at Saito with a happy face and Saito just smiled.
Vik turned towards Rou and said, "Then we will depart in the morning". Rou nodded, "Yes your Highness, we will get ready for the departure right away!". Rou turned towards his men and said, "We move at dawn! Get ready! And you can have free time till the first light! MOVE!" he sounded just like a drill Sargent and it worked, the Goblins ran around to pack their food supplies and other stuffs.
Saito gathered his group then said, "Since we are doing this we need to report to the guild about the quest being completed by some other party before we can even arrive, so one of us should go to Frogwell and tell the guild about this and stay there since it will take a lot of time to catch up and no word to the guild about the Iron Guard or Vik's home because we don't know what kind of reaction they will have unless all of us are there, got it?".
Everyone nodded their head and Herjar said, "Then I shall go inform the guild since it will take me only half a day to reach Frogwell from here if I use my "Shadow Steps" and I can avoid monster too". It sounded meaning full so everyone agreed that Herjar will go to the City while they will stay at the first with the Iron Guard.
Herjar didn't waste anytime and departed right away and Saito told him to check up on those two girls and see how they are doing. Herjar nodded and vanished, just like that.
Since it is only morning, Saito and others decided to help the Goblins in their packing. At first they refused to be helped but they couldn't go against the prince's order. The Goblins didn't bring anything much other than the food.
After packing up they started the maintenance of their gears. The Goblins took care of their gears like it was their soulmate. Carefully cleaning and looking for any dents or any damages all the while without losing focus.
Minos treated the Goblins that felt sick. At first they were shocked and surprised when they learnt Minos was a Necromancer, but Vik guaranteed that he's not a bad guy so the Goblins trusted him and took treatment from Minos. And to their surprise, they all got cured from their sickness within a minute. The Goblins thanked Minos and more and more asked help from him and started getting along with him.
While Minos and Lily was getting along with Goblins using Necromancy, Saito was getting along with them on his own way using his methods. Saito helped the Goblins in maintenance and went out hunting to pass time with a group of Goblins.
The Iron Guards were very friendly when out hunting. Saito went out with at least thirty five Goblins with their armor on. The ones that came were shielded Swordsmen of the Iron Guard and Goblin hunters, who were scouts. This group were going out of the fort and Saito tagged along with them.
They were very open and talked a lot about their home and how high and mighty their army is and how impenetrable their defence is, just like how Vik boasted. Saito already got used to it and also got information about the so called Orc valley where hundreds of thousands of Orcs reside.
One of the Goblin hunters, who took the scouting part, stopped. Soon the rest also stopped with him and scanned the area. Saito and the rest of the Goblins all noticed them stopping and readied themselves for any ambush.
A Goblin hunter came to them and said, "We have a problem". Saito asked, "Can you tell us what you saw?". The Goblin hunter nod his head and said, "We found a human caravan setting camp ahead and......." he seemed not sure if he wants to tell him or not.
The supposed-to-be leader of the group came forward and said, "If you have something to say then say it". The hunter then said, "These humans are not normal humans, they are soldiers and they got elves as captives! We don't know the reason, it could be for slavery or prisoners of war and I'm not sure we should meddle with them because nothing good comes after meddling with humans, no offence master Saito". Saito nodded and said, "None taken and you are right about it anyway, nothing good seriously comes after meddling with humans, but that doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye when someone is doing something wrong right before your eyes! And are you all warriors? Aren't warriors supposed to protect the innocents?".
Saito evoked the warrior passion inside the Goblins. These guy are not just "Goblins" but "Goblin Iron Guards!", strongest and most toughest Goblins that live! And above all, they are Warriors! And warriors have their own pride. The Goblins all agreed with Saito and headed towards the human camp.
Saito and Goblins hid near the camp while looking at the soldiers. One of the Goblin said in a light voice, "Look! It's the Hydral flag symbol those shields have! These are Hydral soldiers!". The Goblins are now more than willing to kill these humans after learning about their identity because after all, Goblinia and Hydral have a bad relationship.
Saito also wanted to have a number with Hydral due to various reasons and he now got a golden chance, there's no way in Hell he will let this slip! He then scanned the camp and counted at least a hundred soldiers minimum.
He looked around and found the elves at the corner of the camp and most of the elves were female while males were separated from the females. The female elves had a ragged cloths and teary eyes.
The elves were tied to trees with twenty guards watching them. There was thirty elves as captives and Saito noticed some of the male elves wearing leather armor. The camp was set up in a clearing and carts brought by the soldiers were in the center and heavily guarded.
A hunter Goblin asked, "What shall we do? Should we sent word to the Fort and get reinforcements?". An armored Goblin said, "Yeah, we should ask for reinforcements because there is no way we can defeat this force with this number".
Saito smiled and said, "Nah, we don't need reinforcements, we can take them easily and return without a single causality". The Goblins were stunned by his words and thought, 'Is he an idiot?'.