Turning the street corner away from the dungeon, we watched as a stream of people rushed down the road. Some smoke was steadily rising a short distance away, before a loud crashing rattled the nearby buildings.
"Well…maybe a herd of cattle got loose or something," Dirx chuckled nervously. "I mean just because everything sounds like a—
The goblin was interrupted as something huge suddenly landed there on the streets, sending an explosion of splinters, glass, and stone flying in our direction, with some of the rubble halting only feet from us. It was an entire house that'd just flown onto the road.
"Nope, it's definitely the boss," Krissy sighed.
"Well let's hurry. My dad is being a prude, but I don't want anything to happen to him," Lyka said as she held me in her land and looked to my corn body. "I know he'll trust you eventually, Master."
The 4 of us hurried on towards the source of chaos, where we kept passing numerous townsfolk who were fleeing from whatever was causing the destruction. More rubble was flung overhead, crashing into buildings and further damaging houses. Approaching the bell tower in the middle of town, we nearly collided with a group of 4 copper-armored soldiers, their spears raised and a rounded shields in their other hands as they marched forward. Following them, I spotted the mayor and his accompanying guards, who were cowering back as another crash rang out. The bell atop the tower continued to ring furiously.
"WHERE IS HE?" a deep, scraggily voice demanded, followed by the sound of something else being smashed. "I CAN SMELL HIM! I KNOW U HERE, PUNY DIRX!"
Reaching where Soundov and his men were standing, my cockroach's eyes would have blinked in disbelief if they could. Stomping around in crude, torn burlap shorts, was an immense, lumbering, light-grey goblin that towered over most of the surrounding buildings. His eyes a deep yellow, his fat, flabby body was shirtless, and a long, wispy white beard flowed down from his pointy chin, and some giant bronze earrings seemed to be stapled into his sharp ears. The ground shook as he walked, and in his unkempt, clawed hand, was what looked a giant wooden bat, but upon closer inspection, I could see that it was a stripped tree.
"D-dammit," Soundov cursed as he watched the giant swing his "bat" into another house, completely shattering its upper floor into an explosion of splinters. "A-attention, goblin! Please leave our town immediately, or I'll be forced to deploy the full force of the mighty Franturro army against you!"
The remaining townsfolk and surrounding guards were shocked that the mayor was addressing the danger personally. The hobgoblin merely smirked, before spitting off to the side and wiping out another building with a swing of his weapon.
"BRING ME DIRX, OR I TURN HUMAN VILLAGE TO DUST!" the lumbering creature demanded.
"That's it, launch the assault," Soundov whispered to his guard, who retrieved a long, wooden whistle from his pocket and blew it.
Following the high pitched blare of the whistle, a chorus of marching footfalls echoed down the end of the street. Lyka and the goblins leaned forward to give me a view of a large formation of soldiers stomping towards the hobgoblin from behind. Their copper armor glistening beneath the afternoon sun, they all wore bucket-like helmets of the same material and raised their iron spears as they advanced. A few dozen of them at least, the organized phalanx yelled as they charged forward. In front of the goblin, a thinner line of maybe a dozen troops fell into formation to cut the monster off.
"FOOLS! FOOOOOOLS!" the hobgoblin roared as he turned and swung his giant bat towards the soldiers in the rear.
While the men were too far to be physically hit by the weapon, the sheer power and force that the giant put into it seemed to create a sort of wind canon, an invisible concussive blast that slammed into the armored soldiers like hurricane-force gales. The neat formation was shattered as the troops in the front were knocked off their feet and flung backwards like ragdolls, where their entire momentum shattered as they fell against one another and clumsily scattered along the ground. In panic, the row of men in front of the hobgoblin lunged forward and chucked their spears at its giant body. Most of them fell short, but at least two of them stuck into the creature's left leg.
Howling in pain, the giant goblin turned on its heel and swung its bat towards its attackers. I felt bad for these poor bastards, as they were actually hit by it and sent flying high into the sky with a gruesome cracking sound, with bits of their armor falling to the ground after them. Trembling, Soundov looked mortified, as did his guards who he quickly ordered to now charge the goblin themselves. Thankfully, Dirx and his sister finally stepped in.
"Hey! Hey, boss-man! Here I am!" the portly goblin exclaimed as he pushed past the crowd and appeared before the giant at the end of the street, with Krissy following.
"DIRX! WHERE ARE MY FLETCHLINGS, DIRX?" the hobgoblin asked angrily.
"Gogrin, buddy, I meant to get ahold of you sooner, but we were arrested and put in the dungeon, see," Dirx explained. "Now admittedly, I don't have your money, but if you give me—
"I MISSED THE WHISKEY WAGON THANKS TO YOU!" Gogrin complained. "I GOT SO MAD THAT I COULDN'T PAY, SO I SMASHED HUMAN SALESMAN!"
"B-but that means you got free whiskey, right?" Krissy asked nervously.
"YES, BUT NOW NO MORE WHISKEY MAN!" the hobgoblin growled. "ALL DIRX FAULT! YOU PAY ME 1000 FLETCHLINGS A CYCLE!"
"Can't your dad bribe him to leave?" I asked Lyka through a kernel link.
"Ew, pay a goblin?" Lyka sighed. "But yes, Daddy is pretty well off. I'll ask."
Soundov's reaction wasn't too far off from his daughter's when she yanked at his cloak and whispered my plan to him.
"Pay a goblin? That'll ruin my reputation!" the mayor argued.
"Sir, please, you might not have a choice," I attempted to explain telepathically. "He just wants money, just pay him to get going. Otherwise you might not have a town left at this rate."
"Demon!" Soundov yelled upon hearing my voice in his head. "When will you leave my daughter alone, vile spirit?"
"Dad, we don't have time for this," Lyka cried as Gogrin began to stomp towards us.
Trembling under the shadow of the lumbering creature, the mayor scoffed as he set aside his pride and spoke up to the goblin.
"Listen here, hobgoblin! I am prepared to provide you a sum of money if you leave immediately!" Soundov proclaimed.
Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Gogrin knelt down close enough for us to feel his hot, sour breath.
"NO."