What felt like minutes after eating I not only went to sleep but woke up as well. I did not really need much sleep, anyway. Because of the time difference it was probably only just now getting late in the evening even though it was more than four hours since supper.
In this world, though, the time was currently around two or three in the morning. Since I was one of the main players on the approaching party, I should not be woke up until it was time to move out. Apparently, it was time to move out.
Climbing down the rocks even in the near darkness of midnight was a slow but simply task to the bottom where the hillside became proper soil the others were all gathered up and ready. There, Jack reiterated our plan of going up to the highway to catch a changing shift unawares and potentially take out two patrol groups before retreating. This task was something he and his men would be handling.
The job set aside for me was to wait about fifty yards back from their intended confrontation area and when the goblins finally organized a proper chase I was going to cut off their advance. Originally, I was going to be on the confrontation team and shooting while retreating. Now that I had two revolvers and a bigger gun, I was given a more advantageous position.
If my position ever became compromised, which Jack emphasized heavily was a physical presence within thirty yards of my position and no less. He even said that someone my age has plenty to live for, letting the group know that I was more than just younger than HIM. I was dying inside last night.
Unless the body of goblins chasing us was too small, we would all be running straight back to camp with a brief meet-up at the halfway point. If the pursuing goblins were too small, not as many as half of the remaining speculated numbers after the confrontation, we would make a last stand at that position defending my gunfire until my rifle drum emptied.
If I actually had to empty a fifty-round drum on less than half of the enemy, I would be ashamed of myself.
Reassuring myself that dominating the contribution would be beneficial, I simply follow along behind the hushed warnings and jokes from the bodies ahead of me. Even as an F rank I had decent low-light vision which allowed me to pick my way casually through the shrubbery. It was this CASUAL pace that allowed the others to start getting further away from me.
By the time I caught up to them they were on an area shaded by a dozen or so tall and spindly trees growing close to one another. The ground here was level from rock debris or some formation underground, making it possible for trees to grow on the otherwise rocky and dry terrain. This was the halfway point at which they would wait for me to catch up.
The terrain here was steeper than the ground leading to the settlement from here, so our pursuers who had already chased us roughly a quarter of a mile would be slowed more than us by the sudden ascent. Goblins were around three-and-a-half or four feet tall, their legs were so short that this incline might as well have been tall stairs to them. I could catch a quick breath while the others caught a head count.
Creeping up from here, though, was slow going. The walls of the village were not much shorter than most trees and in clear enough sight and light that everyone could make out dark gray-green bodies moving atop the light gray and white log walls. Most of our armor colors did not match the scenery, but dawn had yet to even break yet.
Our dark brown and similar leather armors were dark enough to match the clay-richer areas of the soil while the sun was still under the horizon.
My destination was a small borderland between a couple of acres of tall grass and random rocks from the development of the road. My position was around seventy yards away from the highway and more than a hundred yards away from the front side of the village walls. From here, I could easily disappear from the short goblins in the grasses that varied between chest and shoulder heights.
Jack and his team took up a position almost fifty yards ahead of me and twice as close to the highway. However, they were spread out among several small boulder piles where they would not be seen from the wall. From there, a single swordsman could go out and attract the north highway patrol group to the rocks where the rest of the team would ambush the patrol group.
The goblins still on the walls were the ones who would raise the alarms and gather together to give chase.
If the leader here had a threat-worthy level of intelligence, the goblins would stay and wait to chase in numbers. If not, whatever scattered numbers at the gate and ends of the walls would come running at us like a thin herd of cattle. My entire drum would be completely wasted on top of the revolver ammo I spent covering their initial retreat.
Time seemed to crawl slowly by as we hid in out respective places. When the patrols finally started coming out again, the wall guards would change positions. At that time, the only people on this side of the people should be sentries who just woke up and sentries who needed to sleep.
It took until half an hour after the distant horizon veiled thinly by darker gray clouds showed the first signs of true light. Half of the crystal clear and clean sky was divided by gray morning sunlight and midnight blue darkness when the first patrols started moving once more. I was almost too busy having a religious moment with the sky to notice.
My teammates, on the other hand, were already in positions and ready to make their darting moves. I craftily took a few steps back and to the side of where I was originally. While waiting, I had slowly paced a trail twice my own breadth to show where the ground was safe to run through the grass at.
The trail only ran halfway through, so anyone who ran down it would disappear into the grass, but I would eventually lead the goblins through the same thicket of meadow. I had already memorized the size of my lane of fire and the nearest few obstacles to either side. This or that noise from this or that direction would mean I could shoot ahead of or above those rocks or hillocks while running away.
When the youngest member of Jack's team, a swordsman named Gabriel, ran out behind the patrol squad in a two-second forty-yard dash. The two goblins dressed in layers of improperly cared for animal skins at the back went down under three swift slashes of his common longsword. The first was spread across both of their bellies, one dropped to a kneel from the disembowelment but the other was simply pushed forward and aside from behind their arm.
The one who stumbled away was slashed a second time down from its ear to its ribs. Riding the momentum from this attack, Gabriel spun back around and backhanded sliced the first goblin across its chest when it tried to stand back up. Even with a few layers of low grade animal hides, their sword cut two heavy blows across their E grade body and they fell to the ground from the crippling pain and injuries.
Instead of engaging with the rest of the squad who were just then taking their first steps in his direction, Gabriel turned and ran back toward the rest of his team as fast as he could while holding his sword safely away from his body. The others, who used his distraction to ground up together behind a single pile of larger boulders, were lying in wait for the goblins to come within their patch of rocks.
A little more than three seconds after Gabriel carefully jogged through their area at about ten miles per hour, the tankers stepped out with four-foot-by-four-foot square wall shields to intercept the enemy. Jack on one side wielding a long wooden staff ending in rounded hexagonal quartz heads and the second swordsman on either side of the tankers quickly dealt with the few sideline goblins from around the tankers.
Even though the goblins were capable of attacking over a four-foot obstacle, the tankers still lowered their shields on one arm to lower to the ground before taking out short handled axes with large crescent faces with their freed hands. These two human specimens could attack over a four-foot obstacle with greater speed and accuracy than the tallest goblin in the group.
Even from my distance, though, I could make out the gleam of metal at the end of spears and in handheld weaponry. Small though they may be, goblins had strengths comparable to the average healthy adults which meant the average mature goblin can bench between one-thirty and one-eighty pounds. Armed as they were, these goblins were to be taken seriously.
Warding off one or two blows apiece with thick metal bars studded to their sleeves over their forearms, the tankers carefully pick their chops one at a time to dispatch one goblin with every strike. Even though the swordsman and the older Jack could cut down or bludgeon goblins faster, the tankers were simply more interesting to watch.
They had more targets but somehow managed to find an enjoyable rhythm. There was one point where they both synced their short lines. Where one would sound like 'clang, clang, squelch' by himself, both went 'cla-clang, cla-clang, squel-squelch' with interesting visuals. Then a short moment later, the goblins were dead and they went back into hiding because of activity at the gate.
Now it was my turn to come into play. My first shot was the signal for them to run through the thicket and be out of sight until they reached the incline. However, only a handful of goblins were visible in the view between walls despite the numerous goblins once in the area. Then, after a minutes of multiple different heads popping out in small grounds, some number of goblins below twenty started 'marched' out with weapons drawn and at the ready.
They were in a loose formations with a few feet between each body in any direction so they had 'swinging' room as well as room to turn scaly tails and run away. Their marching speed was comparable to the average person's brisk walking speed, so I had plenty of time to debate when to shoot. I just had a few issues.
Walking in roughly evenly spaced rectangular formation might be accidental. However, all goblins wielded some form of civilized tool from hatchets to kitchen knives while the lead goblins wielded a proper spear with a broken short shaft or crude spear alongside some form of crude shields of smooth greenish stretched skins and wooden framing.
Walking at the same speed and distance in a grouping size and length that matched the highway all while being led by a team of spear-and-shield wielding goblins? That was not a coincidence. That was some level of higher leadership which meant this intentionally slow moving group was just a distraction.
If these goblins had someone really smart on hand, they would be trying to lead us into their own ambush like how we ambushed the patrol squad.
Because of these little facts, I was willing to wait as the goblins 'marched' thirty yards down the highway before turning and zigzagging off the side of the highway toward use. They seemed to be trying to provoke us into attacking or revealing ourselves somehow while vaguely side-winding back toward the village wall. I wanted to wait and see.
Similar to what I had expected, multiple upper bodies and heads with some weapons eventually started cropping up around the lower sides of the village wall opening. They really were trying to lead us into an ambush! By now, though, the bait party had already halved the distance to the village on their way back to the highway.
Luckily for us, all of the goblins were looking in different areas of our general directions while seeking out movements and sounds. More goblins were looking toward my grassy area than at the rocky patch of mesquite where Jack's group was hiding. They had no idea where they even were and Jack was actually peeking more than I was!
When the advance group of goblins returned to the safety of the village wall, they pretended to continue into the village only to circle back around from behind what was probably the ruins of a long but low bunkhouse.
The initial patrol squad of only goblins was down, but that was all the hurt we managed to put on the three digits from the report. If I had enough ammo between two revolvers to have picked off the bait squad, our trip would have been justified. However, this trip so far was starting to look like wasted time.
However, half a minute after the bait team returned, they returned with the reinforcements of more teams inside. Now, though, they were headed by one of the trollkin, a half-troll hobgoblin. Usual hobgoblins were between five and five-and-a-half feet tall, closer to below average adults. Ogres or the off-brand evolutions of hobgoblins were usually not much above seven feet in height on average.
Trollkin hobs are 'rumored' to be as tall as six feet but were rarely seen below five feet and six inches in height. Their smaller end shoulder widths were recorded around two feet. These guys were specifically big to the point where their goblins were stronger per average and the hobs could reach benching weights nearing three hundred pounds.
However, they were just as dumb as they were strong yet their goblins were following tactics? The only thing missing here were mounts to display their higher intelligence capabilities proudly. These goblins with tactics should be a lower D dungeon, not an E.
Sadly, scouting outdoor dungeons could not be done very thoroughly in a six-hour window. Three hours for a C rank was essentially getting to the village, setting up a naked camp, and resting for two hours. Six hours, though, was overall not enough to travel, watch, and travel again.
If the Bureau was lucky, this would be enough to pick up their method of shift change during the day or during the night.
Rumors had it that the C rank clean-up crews used by the Bureau to support C grade and up portal teams got paid enough that one man would sit inside monitoring a camera tower set up in a tree or on a hill in shifts after the initial scouting report, but these rumors pertained to C grade and above rated dungeons.
Upper grade portals, upper grade treatment.
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