"I need another fucking drink!" yelled an obscene man at the table.
A young woman rushed over with a jug of mead and poured the man his drink. While she was pouring, the man grabbed her ass hard and pulled her towards him.
"Why don't you warm my bed tonight, sweetheart," he leered.
The girl tried pulling away but found it impossible with the man's strength.
Just when she thought it would get worst, someone grabbed the man's arm and pulled hard, causing him to groan in pain.
"How about you let the girl go before I break it for you," said Jess as she came to the girl's rescue.
"Alright, alright, you fucking wench," muttered the man as he caressed his arm when she let go.
The rest of the mercenaries in the small bar just looked as Jess walked away with the girl. None of them wanted to fight her since she had some strength to back herself up. Only the leaders of their small mercenary group could contest her prowess.
Jess checked up on the girl and told her to head back to the kitchen and have the bartender serve them their drinks. She left since she couldn't stand these people anymore. It had only been a week since these bastards arrived with the rest of their lot, and all they did was sit around and harass the village people. They couldn't really force the village people to do anything they wanted, since it was in their contract to protect them from the goblins, but nothing said they couldn't be assholes and try to convince some of the women to have sex with them by offering bags of gold.
To make things worse, no goblin groups have attacked the village to at least have them do their jobs for once. It's as if the damn things were working with these mercenaries.
She soon arrived at the village chief's house and spotted Jason taking a nap on his living room sofa. He had been kicked out of his own room to have it given to the leader of the mercenaries.
She walked up to him and kicked his side, "Wake up, Jason, we need to talk."
Jason woke up startled and soon realized it was Jess who had woken him up.
"Ugh, Jess, can't this wait till morning?" he groaned as he forced himself upright.
Jess just glared at him, "They tried it again, this time it was the young girl Claudia, for fuck's sake, Jason, how long are you going to let these jesters stay here?" she asked him, letting a little bit of her anger leak out.
Jason looked down at the ground before he spoke, "Look, we haven't been attacked by any goblins so far, they won't cross the line since the contract will kill their leader who signed it. We just need to put up with it for a year, and they'll leave." He explained.
Jess just looked at him in disbelief.
"That's exactly what I'm saying, the goblins haven't ATTACKED. Before these goons showed up, the village was raided on a daily basis," Jess said while pointing outside.
"Then it's working, I don't know. I only care that the village is safe. Please, I just need you to be patient with this situation. It will get better," he said as he gave Jess a pleading look.
She couldn't look him in the eye anymore, "Look, something strange is going on. Goblin hordes don't normally act like this, they harass places and then send a full small army. The fact that they are just gone, and plus I don't know if you noticed, but there is barely anything to hunt in the forest now. It's as if something had scared not only the wildlife but also the goblins away. If we don't figure out what did this, these bunch of undisciplined morons won't be of any help to us at all," said Jess as she expressed her concern.
Jason just sat there thinking; he then looked at her. "What are you thinking of doing?" He raised his brow in curiosity.
She looked at him with a serious look, "I'm going to go deep into the forest and find out what we're dealing with before its too late and we'll all end up dead."
Jason was about to ask her not to go, but she interrupted him.
"Before you say anything, I already made up my mind." Jess picked up a pack she had prepared beforehand and started walking towards the door.
Jason stood up, walking up to her to try to block her way, but she shoved him aside easily.
"I'm going with you then. What if you run into trouble out there?" he asked, but Jess just chuckled.
"You'll only slow me down, and someone has to look after the village while I'm gone. If I don't make it back in a week, then I died, and you should have everyone evacuate the village. If I wasn't able to stop whatever is causing this mess in the forest, then these idiots won't save you either." The door closed, and she was gone before Jason could say anything.
He decided to do some paperwork he was behind on since he now couldn't go back to sleep. He just hoped she would come back safe.
Outside of the village chief's house, a hidden figure watched Jess walk away and soon disappear once she jumped the wooden palisade surrounding the village. Once he knew she was gone, they walked toward the village bar and approached a certain group playing some form of card game with money involved. They leaned down to whisper into the ear of the man with the most amount of money on the table.
"She's gone, heading towards the forest to investigate something about the goblins, one week," he told the card playing man.
"It's about damn time that woman gave us a chance. Tell the boss we can start the plan. We'll only need four days, and we'll be long gone by the fifth," he said confidently.
He then played out his hand, and the rest of the men groaned as he collected his winnings.
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Blood, bones, and bodies covered the forest floor. The air reeked of death for the goblins. They had been mercilessly killed by the Automaton sentries while they were out patrolling their borders. One small goblin with its feet mangled was dragging itself away from the carnage, hoping to make it back to his clan to call for reinforcements. What he got was a spear piercing the back of his head and coming out of his mouth. It was a quick kill, one that the Automaton barely cared for.
It had been a few days after the siege at Vulcan's fortress, and he had amassed a little more than 800 sentries. He had lost some sentries and he tried hitting them.with the stims, but they were too damaged. Still, with those numbers, he sent entire platoons of sentries hunting the goblins, making them know he wasn't one to mess around with and to thin their numbers.
He had found out the whereabouts of their main camp when he let a goblin, whom he dubbed the 'Judas goblin' since it would lead him to where the rest of them were hiding. He wasn't surprised; it was a massive gathering of the little bastards. Hundreds of wooden tents covered in pelts covered the large cavern. More of the giant abominations were seen walking around helping move things.
Once he knew the location of the camp it was time to head back. He had a plan on how he would deal with them in one swift hit.
Vulcan was working out his plan of attack at the base, but he was still able to see through his sentries that they had come upon a hunting party of goblins at the nearby river. They were using their weapons to gather wild fish for food since it had been getting hard to find any wild game. Vulcan knew that if the horde couldn't feed itself, they would migrate to a new area.
So, he worked diligently to bring his idea to reality before they moved. He gathered another nearby sentry platoon, and together they would finish the creatures off faster. Some of the sentries dived into the water to add another angle of attack.
One of the goblins had finally caught a fish after many attempts. It was showing off its catch, but it slipped through his grasp as he held it up. It splashed back into the water, and the clumsy goblin searched for it underwater using its hands, desperate to get it back. His nervousness of losing his prey turned into fear when something strong grabbed hold of his arms in return.
For a second, he tried to pull back but was brought underwater by force. The rest of his goblin companions looked at where he disappeared below the water as it thrashed and splashed. One of the hobgoblins ran over to help him, thinking he just slipped on a rock and was just being clumsy again. He too was grabbed by the legs and pulled under. This soon started becoming a pattern with every goblin in the water. They soon realized something was attacking them in the water.
Now that they had their attention on the river, none of them thought of a surprise attack from the forest line. Out came dozens upon dozens of the sentries. They were slashed and stabbed from behind. Chaos unraveled as they couldn't understand how the golems had appeared out of thin air. With two surprise attacks hitting them, only a few managed to survive, and they were grouped up on. Every goblin, regardless of if they were a grunt goblin or a strong hobgoblin, was fighting ten sentries at a time. It was a hopeless scenario for them, and it shortly became quiet again as the last one was struck down.
Vulcan was admiring his work when he saw movement within the tree line through his multiple sentries' vision. It seemed whoever it was had seen his carnage and tried to escape. The thing didn't count on him already setting up a tight perimeter so no one could escape. The thing came into view when it ran into his sentries encircling it.
For the first time, his mind went blank as he found who it was. It was something completely unexpected: a human girl in leather armor. She had pulled out her short sword and a hunting knife and brought them up together in a fighting stance.