"I suppose your rendezvous with Margothe could be useful. It always helps to have friends in low places," Lotte mused after Damian explained everything. Although due to what he was pretty sure was the Sword of Destiny's doing, the cut on his hand was hard to believe thanks to the lack of a mark and no blood being present.
They approached a camp where only a handful of people were lined up to join. A few had partial armor already and one carried a heavy looking metal helmet.
Damian caught sight of Arthorias again, noting that the man was probably only a year or two older than him. His armor now visible in the daylight had a faint small floral pattern along the edge in addition from the middle of the upper arms was a dark blue cape.
"Oh Hey Arthorias!" Damian greeted earning his attention.
"You three from this morning. I'm surprised, fancy meeting you here," Arthorias remarked casually.
"Fancy indeed," Damian snorted. Lotte kicked him in response and ignored his quiet 'ow'. At some point while they were walking she added bronze colored armour parts over her dress. As well as armor guards over her hands and lower legs, so the kick hurt slightly more than normal.
"I take it you figured out what you are doing and understand what your present goals are," Arthorias commented.
"Believe it or not I just want to understand what is going on, establish that it's not my problem and go home," Damian responded.
Lotte attempted to kick him again but he dodged. At Nico's curious glance she pointedly avoided looking at her brother.
"Believe it or not I didn't take you for the type to come through on a challenge. With that mentality I don't think anyone would," Arthorias said coolly.
"What? I couldn't just walk off even if I wanted to," Damian commented. "Besides I have a problem with ultimatums,"
While Arthorias and Damian talked Lotte chose to speak to the hunters' leader. He had dirty blonde hair resting on his shoulders with some grey streaks, likely from stress. Over his black clothing was a red overcoat with torn and burnt edges. Though some silver leaf pattern was still visible on it along the collar.
"So boss! We're here at the designated meet spot! What are we killing?" Lotte floated slightly towards the man in the red cloak. She scrawled her name on the paper to register as well as the join in date.
He regarded her with a disappointed expression. As if her presence irritated him in some way.
"The names Geowulf Sigismund. We're handling a goblin infestation. Goblins escaping from a demon portal are appearing in this village and the neighboring one, destroying crops." He said irritably.
"Aww," Lotte complained. "Goblins are like garbage in the demon food chain!" She facepalmed. Damian raised an eyebrow and deadpanned at her as if to say 'now who's dramatic?'
"Should be a piece of cake to handle a few pieces of garbage," Sigismund smirked. Lotte glared poutingly.
"Killing a few dozen goblins, highlight of my life, should be totes fun." Damian's tone dripped sarcasm.
"Welcome to the seventeenth faction of the Legion of Monster Hunters" Sigismund greeted jovially. Either missing the sarcasm or not caring.
Arthorias looked at them with an expression akin to silent amusement. Nico didn't look amused as he registered his name, noting Lotte had written down Damian's along with hers.
"Alright men these are the last of the new recruits! I am the Leader of this Legion of Monster Hunters. I have done so for four years! A record considering the previous ones are dead! Pick a tent but choose carefully; you will not be able to change tents once you have and you will be expected to earn your keep. Dinner will require all parties involved. Our mission begins at sundown. Understood?" He announced.
Most of the people Damian guessed had been a part of the legion for awhile responded audibly enough to make him wince. The new people he recognized looked blank and confused by the energy. Arthorias maintained a stern expression and did a strange salute. After which he bowed. Damian didn't get it but could guess the respect was there.
Dinner among the monster hunters was not nearly as impressive as dinner at the tavern.
The soup this time was a bit too watery, the vegetables were cut smoothly but there was so few of them, and the meat of questionable origin was a bit tough. Damian tried not to let the meal's appearance or taste bother him but even a little bit of hot sauce or salt would have made it better.
Yet, it was clear that effort had been put in and many seemed satisfied. At least Lotte hadn't "helped". The fold out wooden tables creaked. Not many people had seats so some were sitting on the grass but they seemed fine with it.
But it was considerably quieter with idle chatter among a small number of people. The chatter could have been pleasant but at least three people had something to say about Damian bringing a little girl with him to something manly like the monster hunters legion. Not even trying to listen to Damian admitting that Lotte wanted to come.
This also abruptly brought to Damian's attention that if women were present, they were disguised as men and were minding their business, presumably. Lotte immediately silenced them by making faces at them and mildly shocking them with electricity. The complaints ceased after that.
Once dinner was declared over everyone was instructed to wait in line and turn in the dish, leftovers or not. Nico rested against a tree enjoying the skyline, no bowl present at all. Quickly and significantly less quietly everyone picked up spare armor, bows and arrows, spears, and sabre swords. There was an excited energy as everyone got ready.
"Don't worry Damian I got your back," Lotte reassured.
"Lotte I know this was your idea but night is coming will you really be okay?" He couldn't help but worry.
"Relax I got this," Lotte promised.
In the time it had taken for them to walk to a spot of thick forest greenery and scout for the mentioned problem, they were immediately thrown into fighting. Goblins were quite literally everywhere, launching slingshots with slime coated rocks and oversized acorns. Mobbing down various people by charging en masse in a direction. Some people holding spears and swords were able to get back up and over power the short creatures which barely came to Lotte's chest.
"So how do we kill these and are we really supposed to just kill them?" Damian knocked a few of them off a swordsman then held his disguised sword of Destiny aloft.
"Goblins are simple to kill but annoying because of their numbers. Originally they weren't harmful to humans and only exclusively problems to plant based mythical creatures. A Goblin's best feature is that they spread very mild poison that is easily treatable." Lotte explained. She charged her mana to power an effective spell.
"Still I miss an hour ago when all I had to worry about was whether or not I was getting on Margothe's nerves," Damian griped slicing the limbs of the goblins while others actually killed them.
"Damian I think we all miss an hour ago," Nico assured.
"Point taken! I blame Lotte for this," Damian decided. Fed up he tried to concentrate on sending the Sword's attack Peridot Curtain of Wrath's Poison. His results were less than he was hoping for, successfully killing five goblins when he'd been thinking he'd take down ten.
"Perhaps you need a serving of good old fashioned Ominous Positivityâ„¢" Lotte remarked slyly.
"Oh please don't," Damian deadpanned.
Lotte waved her wand. " We'll all survive this adventure! We have no choice!"
Thus those words everyone within thirty feet glowed light blue and seemed to get a boost in confidence and stamina. The archers and swordsmen fighting harder to kill the mass of goblins; the three mages in particular seemed grateful for the decrease in workload.
Though the effort had cost her as she wiped a bit of sweat from her brow.
"Lotte is there a reason why you couldn't have done that earlier?" Damian asked.
Nico stood by his side, using a spell that made a column of blue fire to burn two rows with twelve goblins each.
"I noticed you're not doing that much helping," an Archer commented in Damian's direction. He took out three goblins each with an arrow and Damian tried not to look offended.
A rather muscular looking swordsman grinned sardonically as if taunting Damian that he was more useful than him.
"Leave him be Rowan, he's a kid and a rookie at some point they all get jelly legged over killing." He snorted swinging his notably large sword and decapitating a few goblins.
Damian narrowed his eyes coldly. He gripped his sword. 'Just ignore it,' he told himself looking away. ' if they knew about the sword I'd suddenly be the most hated thing here even with the goblin problem.'
In the time no one was paying attention, thanks to the small breathing room the influence spell gave; a goblin charged at Lotte who was caught off guard. "Hang on a second where did Nico-"
"Move!" Nico appeared seemingly from thin air and pushed Lotte out of the way. Then yelped as he got impaled by the mace the goblin weilded. Damian whirled on the creature and sliced its head; as well as by accident its raised arm.
"Nico? Are you okay?" Lotte asked.
"I'm fine it's nothing serious, I can handle the poison on the mace," he reassured but avoided eye contact or looking up at all.
"Poison? Alright I'll trust you! Now- Sword of Destiny!" Raising it above his head, Damian swung the sword vertically. The goblins disintegrated as they were engulfed in a lime green cloud that folded with pleats similar to a curtain. Following them was the illusion that made the sword appear normal. It returned to its normal appearance as a black blade that had been split in half.
Damian tutted in disappointment. "Oh well I knew that would happen," he lowered the weapon.
"Oh that's what I'm here for," Nico hummed through a controlled breath of air and recast the Mirage spell making the blade appear to be a normal saber.
"I don't want to jinx it but..." Damian said smile falling in concern.
"No no. Someone else will do it for you," Nico decided, rubbing his side. Damian looked at him. Lotte opened her mouth to protest.
"Nico are you sure you're fine?" Damian asked.
Lotte looked at him and Nico nodded "It's fine, goblins are annoying but no human's died from goblin poison in almost 4000 years." He laughed.
Damian chuckled nervously until he remembered that Nico wasn't human.