"First, we need to stick together, going to fend them of bit by bit. Retreating into the cave while reducing their numbers.
You got to work with me here, else we might have some trouble."
She noticed how fidgety Mikael became, staring at the growing crowd of waiting Goblins.
"Man up, they are still just a bunch of Goblins, nothing more than small fry."
She hit the cave walls with her unsheathed sword, the bright sound echoing around them.
"They can't effectively use their numbers in here, so our chances are better. And for the missing leader, we just have to watch our back. I trust your feeling on that."
He looked at her for that last statement. This hearing from her meant she acknowledged his ability to some degree.
'Else she wouldn't have taken this mission solely with me.'
He moved his neck, letting it crack and held his hammer calmly.
"I'm ready when you are." he said, already seeing her slingshot loaded.
"If you are or not, now is the time for a slaughter."
The stone left her weapon, hitting the head of a creature without having the same penetrating power like usual.
"Weird, I know the distance is greater, but this should still leave a wound to some degree." she mumbled, examine her sling.
They heard the excited cries from the monsters, some uselessly throwing rocks in their direction, rolling into the cave.
"Have to use my new toys then."
She loaded one of the heavy metal pellets in her sling, drawing the rubber back as far as she dared, and let loose.
The weight of the pellet produced a high noise when flying through the air, and the result came up immediately after.
No grand blood splatter or exaggerated moves, just a falling body of a dead Goblin.
Its brethren looked down at it, pocking probing with sticks and gazed angrily towards Sophia.
"Hah, got your stupid life blown out! Dog sons of Levitan!"
'Do you need to provoke them?... Guess so, we can't stay in here indefinitely.'
Mikael thought, looking back down the dimly lit cave, a nagging feeling in the back of his head.
'Like someone is watching, waiting for the right time.'
Meanwhile Sophia had killed another Goblin, but now they began to disperse more mostly leaving her line of sight.
"Ugh, this is so not typical. I don't like they use logical and useful moves." she scratched unnerved her shoulder, trying to walk forward a bit to see if some Goblins still were near.
"The last one." her sling shot, and a body rolled down from a small slope, sounds of angry Goblins next to the entrance.
"That's the last one, the others are now gonna hide." she walked back to Mikael, his hammer in hand and walking with hesitating steps down the cave.
Sophia followed him, tapping on his shoulder as he was immersed and not responding to her voice.
He flinched, looking at her with the hammer raised.
"Calm down" she said, her hand on his weapon.
"What makes you so anxious?"
"I think someone is watching us, but it is only a feeling, and here is no one. Like the Tusk Stalker back then."
Mentioning that, Sophia turned more serious.
"Then we should always keep a wall to our back. Not that I want to get jumped on.
In her mind the scene where Leon got ambushed was playing vividly. Although her combat awareness was good, she didn't think she could've taken on the strike.
"We don't now when or if these things come in, waiting for something or heck if I know. But certain is: they are impatient."
She saw from the corner of her eye a head peeping inside, and in a second she drew her sling, but the Goblin already retreated.
Dissapointed she lowered her weapon sighting depressed.
"You got an idea? My strategy would be baiting them in here, and hoping whatever lurks in the shadows shows itself either never or when we can fight it."
"Then let's stick with that. My plan would only be running straight out, possibly getting overrun outside and opening our rear for pursuers."
"But for now it seems like these Levitan spawn won't come in here, at least not on their own." she took out some provisions, stuffing a bread in her mouth.
"Either we wait alert, or stay calm and collected. I opt for the latter." Mikael followed her example, also beginning to eat his dry food.
Hours past, and apart from occasional glanced and another dead body by the entrance nothing happened.
Since they were up quite early and worked most of the day, both of them got tired, physically and mentally.
Especially Mikael who had constantly a piercing feeling on his mind was taxed.
"Doesn't look like they attack when we are awake." Sophia said in a low tone, beginning to spread out her blanket, the entrance still in her line of sight next to a wall.
"Even if I am against it, we need to sleep. And you should take a rest first."
Mikael leaned on a wall, eyes only half opened and still vigilant.
He looked at her sleepy, not objecting.
"Not sure if I can even sleep like that."
She took a stone from the ground, playfully tossing it up, saying:" If you need to get knocked into sleep, I'm always ready."
'I would straight believe it.'
"No thanks, I'll try to get some rest."
He sat next to the wall, uncomfortable but so he can jump into action should the need arise.
'The feeling won't go away.' he felt after closing his eyes for some time.
'Every other time this aura like sensation wouldn't last long, but now it is there constantly, weak but still present.'
He slid into a half-awake like state, not sure if he dreamed when felt something moved or it was his imagination.
He jolted awake instantly, startling Sophia who was just cleaning her sword.
"And what happened now? Nightmare?"
He looked at her confused and weary, his pupils jolting warningly towards some distance away, into a path that lead into a smaller cave they cleared before.
Sophia nodded, not turning her head to see for herself. Aware of her lack of perception, she trusted Mikael, who himself wasn't completely sure.
She crept closer, leaning towards his ear and whispered:" I guess they wait for a opportunity, like when we both fall asleep or get briefly separated. Sadly these things are more patient than their kin, so we have to lure them."
Seperating, Sophia said out loud enough for potential listeners to hear:" As you are already awake, can you keep guard? I'm tired myself, have to look after you as well. Stay ready, even if you are new to this."
'Do they even understand our language?'
Her speech was accompanied by visible body language, her waving the arms and gesturing her tiredness.
"Pretent to fall asleep. Trust me." she whispered as she assumed a similar position as Mikael.
'Do I even got a choice? But she has the experience, not me.' he shrugged, laying his hammer on his shoulder and leaning on the wall again.
Another hour or so elapsed, and he changed from standing to sitting, weapon on his lap, head leaning a bit to the side.
He slowly closed his eyes, and his chin sunk into his chest.
'I hope you are awake.'
Her sleeping was convincing, and not even Mikael could tell if she was awake.
He suddenly felt the presence fluctuating, as if a stone was thrown into a lake and produced these weird patterns.
'What is that?'
He could then hear the tapping sounds of claws hitting stone, suppressed voices that Goblins made quietly echoing between the walls.
He lifted his eyelid slightly, and Goblins in the double digits came sneaking through the entrance.
The weird feeling tho got lesser, as if the distance grew. Sophia who was a bit closer to the entrance was the first target the Goblins acquired, flenching their small claws and crooked teeth.
Before the first could grab her, a sword penetrated the neck, seperating the spine from the head.
'Hidden under the blanket, how uncomfortable she must have hidden it.'
He thought, another Goblin who didn't registered his kins death also getting killed by a fluid motion.
Their group had separated, so half of them came towards Mikael who sat opposite to her a few meters away.
Not seeing the slaughter beginning, they closed in, only to see their target jumping up.
Mikael huffed as he lifted his hammer upwards, hitting the closest on the chin and breaking the neck.
'Good that they have weak bones and are so small.'
The body fell backwards, caught by another Goblin who was too close to evade the uplifted hammer that stroke down from above.
Its eyes seemed to plop out, the force squishing in the head and killing his second target.
In the stone illuminated cave Mikael saw that they had to tell each with around ten enemies. Also separated by a wall of flesh, they had to rely on themselves.
'No time. To worry about that. Now only getting out here alive counts. They are weak after all, so said Sophia. Weak.'
He held his hammer in one hand, having injured another Goblin to his right by breaking the arm, but that creature still attacked him, wanting to hold his arm to keep the weapon in place.
"Keep away from me, shitty creature!" he blurted out, drawing out from his back the knife and ramming it into its head.
He felt for the first time how it was to actively penetrate through bones and flesh, and it reminded him as if he trusted into a piece of meat.
'Well, it's just that, meat.' but his attack conveyed a feeling of taking a life more than the hammer did. But he had resolved himself previously, so he just jerked out the knife, ignoring the pieces of brain matter that came out with it and stared at the next monster that had already stretched out its thin arms, about to hold onto his scalp.
It managed to dig into Mikael soft head skin, and a bit of blood flowed down his ear.
But he didn't panic, even as the warm stinking breath hit his nostrils, making him feel sick.
'Oh no you don't. This is where the fun begins!'