Rei ran towards the swamp at full speed, followed by the other goblins. Rei in fact could be considered very fast and strong by the goblins and the only one who could match Rei in terms of strength among the goblins was Gaburu, but he still would lose as Rei was smarter than him, making the other goblins respect and envy him.
At the movement, Gaburu was beside Rei while the other goblins were behind them panting and huffing, as they tried to catch up to Gaburu and Rei, but to them, it seemed almost impossible.
Soon they reached a place near the swamp which divided the forest.
The so-called swamp was a weird mixture of a normal swamp and a river. It basically flowed just like a river, yet it was a swamp in reality.
The waves of the swamp were a bit fast. Without any actual support, a weak goblin would just end up washed away, but they had already set up a plan for it.
On the other side of the swamp, some goblins arrived and had bows and arrows in their hands. They had a stronger rope too. They attached the rope with the arrow and then pulled the string of the bow.
The arrows shot toward the trees at very high speed and pierced them only by a bit.
The goblins on this side then untied the arrow and tied the rope to the trees. On the other side, the goblins too tied the other end of the rope.
"Everyone! Cross this swamp with the help of the rope.", Listening to what Rei said the goblins tightly grabbed the rope and then entered the swamp.
The first one to do so was none other than Rei, and he expected Gaburu to come right after him but surprisingly Gaburu just stood there looking at the goblins crossing the swamp.
Gaburu at that time grabbed an arrow and place it on his bow, pulling the string.
'Wait! Don't tell me…' Rei inwardly screamed as he increased the speed at which he was trying to cross the swamp.
He soon reached the ground on the other side and then looked back once again only to see that Gaburu was still in the same position, but just a second later he left the string. The arrow disappeared and reappeared on a tree on the other side.
A long rope was attached to it, and as soon as the arrow pierced one of the trees, Gaburu quickly grabbed the rope and then tried to cross the swamp, but sadly as soon as he tried that, the arrow was pulled out of the tree.
'Is he a fool!?', Rei asked himself, confused at what Gaburu was doing.
-"Look who's talking."- Lucas said, finding the situation somewhat funny.
Goblins had very poor strength. The strongest to strongest goblin just barely passed the minimal strength required to use a fine Bow.
That was the reason goblins were given very weak bows, which required the user to have very less strength. The arrows shot by such kinds of bows could barely pierce any wood, much less an entire tree. Needless to say, even now, the arrows only pierced the trees by a bit if anyone fired.
Thus, it was impossible to cross the river just like that.
To make the attempt successful, some goblins were required to be present on the other side of the swamp so that they could tie the rope to the trunk of the trees. If they did that, they would be able to cross easily and therefore, with the plan, some goblins were mixed with Baramun's slaves who acted like spies!
Rei shook his head as he sighed and looked at the fool, but it seemed like Gaburu didn't have any intention to stop.
"Damn it!" He screamed as he started to shoot arrows. This time the arrows weren't attached to ropes and seemed like the only purpose they were shot was to vent frustration.
"You fucker! Stop wasting the precious arrows! Shooting them continuously won't increase your strength!" Rei screamed as he looked at the fool wasting arrows.
Even if these bows and arrows were weak, to goblins they were still precious, and had a lot of value, and currently seeing Gaburu wasting these precious arrows, Rei had the urge to beat him to death. He wasn't the only one with this urge as the other goblins too shared the same feeling.
However, before any of them could actually go and stop him, disaster struck!
As Gaburu was aimlessly shooting the arrows, one of them pierced right through one of the many ropes that other goblins were using to cross the swamp.
"Shit!", Rei cursed as he looked at the rope that was sliced. He quickly grabbed the rope and then chucked it toward the ones who were in the range, while the unlucky ones flowed away from there due to the moving swamp.
"SAVE US!", they screamed, but Rei could only see them flow away as they sank.
"What are you doing!?" Rei screamed looking at Gaburu, who didn't even have a single expression of guilt.
He seemed to be a completely different version of the goblin Rei once knew. The goblin Rei knew was very kind toward his comrades, but now he had pushed some of them to the door of death.
Rei couldn't contain his anger, as he felt he would explode anytime soon but he then controlled himself as he inhaled and exhaled deep breaths.
While Gaburu created all this chaos and mess, Rei knew that he had to focus.
If the mission fails, then his head would fly first!
"Now is not the time to get distracted…", Rei focused as he murmured this to himself.
"I don't wanna die. I just wanna see them again.", He mumbles under his breath as he remembered about his brothers and sisters and that we are probably waiting for him to return. He had to survive, no matter what, not for himself but for his brother and sisters, and thinking this he controlled his anger and then looked at Gaburu with an emotionless expression. At that moment, a hint of deep red light appeared in his eyes.
"Gaburu…", just as this one word escaped Rei's mouth, it immediately sent chills down Gaburu's spine.
"…"