"He's coming up on your left!"
"Yeah yeah, I see him!"
Alcon runs off to intercept a goblin trying to attack Matt and Natalia.
As their blades clash, I run to the front and take on another two of the charging goblins.
Rolling to the left, I narrowly avoid a hatchet as I pull out a knife.
Next is to deflect an oncoming sword strike, which I follow with a round house kick.
My shin smashes into his jaw and he flies back. I turn to face the goblin that had retrieved it hatchet.
It swings to take my head off.
I duck under the blade, then lunge forward from my crouched position.
My knife is buried in the goblins chest, then stabs into his throat next as I hook his leg with my heel.
His falling body weight pulls my blade out of him as I scoop up his fallen hatchet with my free hand.
I turn back to the other goblin who had lumbered back to his feet. The hatchet flies from my hand and hits squarely between his eyes.
His body collapses to the ground, like a puppet that had its strings cut.
Surprised by how easy the fight was, I look down at my hands and squeeze them into tight fists.
'I got a LOT stronger after leveling up.'
Alcon starts chasing after a fleeing goblin, but I call him back to the party.
As he walks back grumbling, I think back to why we're in the middle of a corn field at midnight.
******
After our night at Wyverns Head, we got some sleep then headed to the Guild building.
When showing me to the dorms, Burch had told me that war hadn't broken out yet. He said that before it did, it was the responsibility of us newbies to grow stronger and earn money on our own.
Which is why we're now standing in front of the massive building, to look for a job to take on. Burch said these are sometimes called quests. Shortly after walking into the lobby Alcon ran to the bar while the rest of us searched the board, eventually finding this.
[ Help Save Village From Goblins!
Our village is been attacked and raided by
goblins! After weeks of fighting back
numerous people are missing, we are
exhausted, and our food is depleted! Please help!
Reward: 10 silver pieces & any loot found with Goblins ]
The quest reward was decent and we all agreed to mostly sell whatever items we found the goblins with.
After arriving at the village, the elder filled us in on more details and provided us a temporary living space.
After three nights of staking out, we finally intercepted a group of goblins heading for the village.
I'm brought back to the present by Alcon's stomping foot steps coming to a stop.
"I'll follow him. Hopefully he leads me back to their base."
Everyone nods.
"Sounds good. What should we do in the meantime?"
It doesn't take me long to find an answer to Natalia's question.
"Keep watch around the village. There might be another group on their way and we don't want them to get to the villagers while we're away."
Natalia gives me a nod, then everyone heads back. I can still hear Alcon and Matt bickering as I turn to the forest.
I extinguish the fire that I created to illuminate the area. Taking a deep breath, I focus on a clear image in my mind.
"Nightvision."
Immediately, the shadows of the forest disappear. It almost seems to be the middle of the day except everything is illuminated by the red light of the moon.
I can see the trail left by the goblin thanks to Burch's training and the fact that it took no care to hide anything.
I set off, being careful to not make any noise that might alert the goblin.
A few minutes later I catch up to the goblin and follow him the rest of the way to the cave. I stop him before he can reach the entrance and quickly deal with him.
As I approach the mouth of the cave, the wind blows towards me and I silently gag from the putrid smell.
It's a mixture of rotting meat, unwashed bodies, and feces.
Having gotten what I needed, I return to the village, making sure to leave a trail only my party will notice.
As I approach the village, I whistle a tune and Bernadette and Natalia come around to welcome me. Surprisingly, Bernadette is the first to speak.
"Well?"
"A cave, about a twelve minute walk from the village. I set up a trail that we can follow to get back to it."
Natalia smiles.
"Good work. Let's go let the others know."
After a brief meeting, we decided to enter the cave around the middle of the next day.
Alcon is walking sneakily in the front, Natalia's in the middle, and I'm covering the rear. Matt and Bernadette volunteered to stay outside, since we needed a group to intercept any goblins that might escape.
It was dark in the cave so I sent some will-o-wisps, essentially little balls of fire, floating out around us.
An added bonus to the will-o-wisps is that I can send them flying at something and make them explode. Unfortunately they don't deal that much damage, acting mostly as a distraction.
So far, we've only run into a few goblins, nothing Alcon couldn't handle by himself. Unfortunately, one of them got away, so now they know we're here.
Every corner we walk around I brace myself for an ambush.
Natalia is shaking, either from anticipation of the cold. I have one of the will-o-wisps float a little closer to her.
It seems to help a little, since she turns around and gives me a smile. I smile back just as I sense that something is off.
I move one of the will-o-wisps in front of Alcon.
As soon as he stops walking, I can hear heavy breathing ahead of us. Natalia and Alcon give me confirmation that they can hear it too.
I move up to the front, Natalia creeping alongside me and Alcon behind us.
"They're up ahead."
"So we charge right in!"
"No, that's a dumb idea. If the goblins have a competent leader, then they probably have archers covering the entrance. As soon as someone steps through they're dead."
We talk in hushed voices so they can't hear us. Natalia speaks up.
"We have to do something, no point in a stand still."
"If we could send in some form of decoy then that would work best. They'll shoot at the decoy, then probably rush in to finish it off. While the melee goblins are up close, the archers can't fire since they'll probably hit their own warriors. After we take care of the first wave, we use their shields to guard ourselves."
"And if they don't have shields?"
"We use their bodies."
Natalia seems disgusted by the idea, but Alcon looks excited.
'Creepy.'
"By the way, can you guys make a mud or dirt double?"
"We both have earth magic, so should be able to."
"I can't."
Natalia looks at Alcon with surprise.
"Why not? That's one of the first earth spells I learned."
"Because that's for weaklings. I can use one earth spell, and it's for attacking!"
I want to strangle him right now, but restrain myself. Forcing myself to calm down, I wrack my brain for any more ideas.
"Okay, I can send in a Fireball spell to blind them. As that's happening, Natalia will send in the decoy, or at least create it in the doorway. The archers will shoot, we'll attack, and go from there. Sound like a plan?"
They both nod, and we all quietly move by the entrance of the room.
"Fireball!"
"Rock Clone!"
Natalia and I send out our spells. A ball of fire arches into the center of the cavern and explodes as a human shaped mass of rock bursts out of the floor.
There are no twangs of bow strings being released, only shouts of surprise. Alcon bursts into the room moments before I can stop him.
With a sigh, I rush after him to find that there are no archers, only about five goblins with clubs that are basically tree branches.
Alcon and I crush them in less than a minute. As I fling the blood from my new sword, I take a second to appreciate it.
It cut through the goblins like they were tissue paper. The light from the will-o-wisps sparkles off the dark grey blade, making it look valiant.
Fabron had rewrapped the handle in black leather and did it in a way so it would fit my hand better.
I return my sword to it's sheath and turn back to Natalia and Alcon.
"There weren't any archers."
"There could have been."
"Well there weren't! We should have just charged in!"
I take a deep breath to calm myself down before responding to Alcon.
"It's important to be cautious. What if there were archers? What if they had goblin spell casters?"
"Those are what ifs! The fact is that there weren't, and-"
"Shut up! Both of you! You're acting like children! Let's kill the rest of the goblins in the cave, then you can finish your argument!"
Alcon and I both snap our mouths shut. He's still glaring at me so I flip him off. Natalia eyes us suspiciously, then turns around.
"Let's make sure to search this area later. There might be supplies here that we can give to the village or sell."
Natalia makes note of this as we walk to the back of the room and continue on our way.