Chapter 7: Baxborn Woodlands
As the group marched into the woods, an eerie feeling appeared in Abium's heart.
It was a feeling of being watched by multiple malicious eyes. Memories of the past goblin incident appeared before Abium's eyes as he stepped into the gloomy woods while avoiding the poisonous vines and plants.
He remembered when goblins encircled the group inside this forest and started to feel something was off about this incident.
'Are these goblins monitoring us? But I never heard of them making planned night raids like this, though.' He furrowed his eyebrows.
'Did someone orchestrate this attack?' A thought appeared in his mind.
He didn't sense anything abnormal in the past and thought it might be due to his lack of skills. But now, he perceived many eyes were watching them from many areas.
Goblins!
'Unlike normal ones, these goblins appeared to be well-organized.' He thought.
Goblins were monsters with bright green skin, pointy ears, dull-witted, war-mongering, but were so skilled at ambushing and night raids. Their intellect might be less than humans, but they were always small and grotesque, mischievous, or outright malicious.
Sometimes, a hybrid could appear among the goblins called Hobgoblin, and its strength could even rival against tier 3 warriors. Hobgoblins were larger, stronger, a little bit smarter than normal goblins, and more menacing form of goblins.
They appeared to be around 1 meter to 1.5 meters tall, and their skins were more robust than some stones and were difficult to kill.
When the last golden light dimmed, the darkness shrouded the whole forest. At the same time, the escort group managed to find an open grassland in the woods and then began to clear the surrounding vines and plants for camping.
'It's a perfect place for an ambush.' Abium sighed as he glanced at the small open area shrouded by dense trees.
Once camping began, everyone rushed to do different works. Servants began to make food while soldiers started building tents and lighting campfires. The heat from the campfire seemed sucked into the frigid air before ever reaching their hands.
The soldiers added more wood and poked it with long sticks. It seemed to die a little as if unsure of itself, unready to devour the new offerings. It licked at the new logs like a nervous kitten and sent feeble sparks to die in the air.
But after a time, it found its confidence and grew until the heat warmed them, orange flames celebrated with their wild flickering dance. It would have to last through the night. Someone would have to stay up and nurse it through the darkest hours, guard it, feed it.
Abium watched that fire dancing in the air and silently gripped his sword tighter in case anything happened out of the ordinary.
At that moment, he also looked at the right side and saw a few elite soldiers were building another tent a hundred meters away from their own.
But unlike the normal one, that tent appeared larger and seemed to be made of high-quality leather. Abium even saw a strange invisible layer that wrapped the tent, and it seemed to be protecting the tent like a forcefield!
'A magic item, huh.' He smiled bitterly. At that moment, he noticed that those elite soldiers were not even doing their guarding work properly and appeared relaxed.
That was the difference between a noble and a commoner.
'First, I need to solve the current problem.'
Abium managed to escape from these goblins in the past due to some dumb luck. But this time, he might not be lucky like in the past.
He could fight against three elite goblins and kill them with his current strength.
But if he were up against a Hobgoblin, he would end up in an awkward position because of Hobgoblin's tough skin and large body.
Also, Hobgoblin would outmatch him in agility and strength. Although he had rich experience in fighting and swordsmanship, his chance of winning against Hobgoblin was meager.
'Due to the Wisdom Tear potion, my soul also has enchanted a little. With that, I could keep my mind calm during the battle and find one or two weaknesses of the opponent.' He nodded inwardly.
Abium had two advantages against that monster. First was his mastery over the sword arts, and the second was the intermediate sword aura.
While thinking, he sat on the ground near the servants' tent and quietly watched everyone's movement like a hawk.
Minutes turned hours as Abium began to notice that everything went quiet, and most of the soldiers went to sleep except for some guard duty members.
Suddenly, he turned towards the right side, locked his gaze on the faraway tent, and noticed a difference.
Unlike before, no invisible layer appeared around the tent.
Instead, he noticed that the whole area appeared eerily quiet over there.
No, Abium saw movements near the silk carriage and frowned.
'Are they leaving already? So, they knew about the ambush but decided to put the commoners as scapegoats, huh?'
Soon, the carriage slowly moved into the opposite side woods and disappeared from there.
'They finally left.' He breathed out a sigh of relief.
After that, he looked up at the evening star, which hangs in the southern sky, and thought it must be around 11'o clock.
There was absolute stillness, and no air stirred the grass or leaves. No clouds were drifted in the sea of dark sky above. Millions of stars were blinking and seemed to be waiting for a play.
No water dripped or flowed. Not a sound heard either close at hand or in the far-off distance.
Even his breath seemed to die as soon as it left his mouth.
It was a weird sort of tranquility, and his senses became heightened.
He felt like the prey, even though there was no predator. It was as if the world was encased in a cocoon, a bubble, and there was no way out.
Abium stood up without making any noise and walked inside the servants' tent.
He quickly took dry pieces of bread, which would be enough for a few days, including a water pouch, and stored them inside his leather bag. Then, he clutched his iron sword and got ready for any sudden attacks from the goblins.
Suddenly, he heard a shrieking noise from outside!
He hurriedly removed the tent cloth and peeked outside. At that moment, tens of poisonous arrows flew from different directions and rained on a soldier who stood on guard.
Swoosh! Swoosh!…
"Argh!" A pitiful cry woke everyone up from their deep sleep!
Immediately all soldiers walked out of their tents and looked at the wounded soldier. Soon, everyone became shocked as they saw that the injured soldier had already become motionless!
Multiple arrows had pierced all over his body, and his facial expression showed that he died without knowing how.
"Careful! Enemy!" A veteran soldier instantly shouted and unsheathed his weapon.
Then, the other soldiers unsheathed their swords the next instant and vigilantly looked at the nearby woods.
Meanwhile, a few of them took out the fire sticks from the campfire and lit the nearby areas to make the surroundings brighter.
Gegege! Gege! Gege!
A series of strange noises soon came from those woods.
Soon, little green figures with ugly faces ran in their direction.
"GOBLINS! RUN!" A servant boy cried out in panic.
Following his scream, other servants and soldiers started to become anxious.
But before the situation could worsen, a middle-aged warrior with gray hair grabbed his sword and directly slashed the normal goblin, which ran in the front towards their direction and spoke coldly,
"Screaming won't help you, Harry. Pick a sword and fight." Claude scolded the boy and signaled the experienced soldiers to prepare for the battle.
Meanwhile, Abium blocked the upcoming arrow with his sword and slashed at the goblin that ran in his direction.
'I've no choice but confront the Hobgoblin now.'
He knew that if he made a mistake, Hobgoblin would butcher him in an instant. Still, he decided to take a gamble. As for why he was risking his life for some commoners?
It was to get some trusted aides.
If he obtained a noble status in the future, he needed trustworthy soldiers. Although he could buy slaves from slave merchants, it wouldn't be easy to purchase warrior slaves. Moreover, there was also a high chance of betrayal. Even though there was a slave collar to restrict their movements, it wasn't wholly safer.
'Also, it would be worth protecting these poor souls than saving some arrogant punks.' He muttered under his breath and soon frowned.
At that moment, nearly 100 goblins appeared from the woods one by one; following them was a hobgoblin with a wicked grin on its face.