26 Unpleasent Encounter

The first lifeform walked towards the second.

"It's now official, the allegiance between the races is now broken." said the first lifeform heavy heartedly.

Silence followed her words. The second lifeform stood with eyes closed, deep in thought.

"It was obvious from the start that they were merely baiting us out of the control we held." Said the second lifeform, voice thick with apathy. He had known this from the start when he had first heard of their allegiance.

"But," he continued "at least now we have a bit more space to move around in. Is there any news of any conflicts yet?"

"Not yet, but I doubt they're far off."

"What about villages? Any of them set up so far?" asked the second lifeform.

"Luckily so. Currently 30 villages have been set up, but it has only been a single day since the mission was unlocked by the wide population so we can expect far more." Answered the first lifeform, a hint of joy hidden deep in between the layers of worry in her voice.

But the hint of joy didn't last long as the second lifeform revealed his worry, "I don't worry about the villages. But I do worry about tier twos… Depending on what race the tier two is, they could sweep through whole Camps…"

Both of the lifeforms felt suffocated, all the advantages they had were now gone except from one, which meant that they couldn't provide extra help to the Humans. But it wasn't all gloom as the last advantage they held was also the most important one, the one that meant that Humans couldn't lose their allegiance to the Hu no matter what.

The first Hu then began fiddling around on her device, sending reports to the headquarters as well as searching through the functions they had left. Despite having given up the control powers, they still had the base functions.

These were simple functions without great power. However, it wasn't as if they couldn't become powerful though. Any of the races using these functions at the right moment could easily turn the tables…

****

Jayesh's feet thundered through the forest, around him three others.

For this full-scale raid, the group of 23 had been split into rough groups of 4, each group balanced instead of being specialised.

Around Jayesh right now were two other guys, both with balanced builds. The last member of their group was a dainty looking girl who specialised in dexterity. She had a short sword the length of her forearm but no shield, which went to show how much she trusted her dexterity. Jayesh himself was equipped with a slightly larger than forearm length club with metal spikes at its head and a tower shield that he was virtually dragging along as he struggled to keep up with the other. His high constitution meant a high stamina as well, but he couldn't contest the speed of the others.

In the distance, he could hear screams and roars. He then heard a blaring blow-horn deep within the Forest; it was now certain that the Goblins knew off their raid. Not too long from that, he began seeing bobbing green heads in the distance. Following the multiple Goblins were several Wolfs…

Having learnt their lesson from the last battle, the Humans no longer desired to stay still as they instead charged. Jayesh pushed himself to take the lead, while the others followed him, all ferociously roaring as they engaged their enemies.

"ARRGHHH"

Jayesh ran forwards while lifting his tower shield up, and just in time as he felt a shock run through half his body, a Wolf having leapt onto his shield. He managed to lift his shield despite the Wolf on it, before whacking his club across its skull. He wasn't sure whether the Wolf had died, but nor did he have the time to check as another Wolf leapt at him.

The battle around him was just as intense as one of the guys barely skirted a set of snapping jaws, before rolling past another. There were about 8 Wolves in total who clashed with this group. Following them were 12 Goblins…

It was certain that things were about to get bloody!

Having dodged three claw strikes in a row, the girl attacked in response as she danced with her sword. No longer was she dainty as she kicked and roared as she fought, spittle flying out, closely followed by blood.

The Wolves were having a hard time as they found it hard to hurt these Humans who were already well battle-hardened, but that was another matter as the Goblins finally arrived at the scene. No longer was it a 4vs6 but rather a 4vs18.

Seeing the large influx of enemies, Jayesh whacked the Wolf he was fighting towards the side, before charging into the midst of the Goblins.

"TITAN'S TAUNT", he screamed out his skill, allowing his teammates to fully utilise the taunt.

About nine of the enemies instantly rushed Jayesh, unable to control themselves as their bodies felt an intense urge towards the barbaric Silver giant.

His teammates quickly used this to their advantage as they rushed past their combatants, before massacring the taunted enemies. It was as easy as cutting through butter as cold blades rapidly shed burning blood.

Within moments of his skill use, Jayesh found himself bloody but not injured. Around him lay several corpses, quite a few downed by his own club. In the distance he could see the girl chasing the last enemy, a Goblin who was smart enough to understand the odds of this fight and thus turn tail.

Despite their win, the 4 then began trudging deeper into the Forest. The reason why only Jayesh and the girl had used their skills was all because of the number of enemies they would be facing; it was fair to say that they had hundreds of enemies to first pass before even reaching the Goblin Camp. This had been the reason why the previous raids had failed, purely due to the number of enemies that began popping out.

Within minutes of fighting the first set of monsters, Jayesh's group found themselves against 30 more enemies. Each of them, now sticky with blood, raised their weapons once more before charging the Goblins.

It was going to be a long day…

****

Quite a far distance away from Jayesh was Stanis, who was completely covered in darkness. He was quite a spectral sight as he ran through the sun-lit Forest, one second invisible within the shadow of a tree, the next visible as he dashed through the light.

After the raid had started, the Camp had been split into groups before marching into the Forest. Stanis had easily slipped away from his group, much to their dismay. He could hear countless shrieks and screams and howls and cries within the distance, all of which added to the atmosphere as Stanis moved with greater speed and vigilance.

His face was cold as he traversed the Forest, using Scout and Sense during dangerous moments to evade collisions. It wasn't as if he couldn't fight the enemies, rather that he didn't want to be caught up in any large fights as he desired something far greater than just a bit of experience.

And yet despite his mercy, fate still demanded him of blood as he occasionally found stray Goblins, such as the one that was in front of him right now. Well, perhaps it was wrong to call them strays and better as sentries as they stood regular distances from each other, monitoring their surroundings.

Stanis didn't know what they were on the look for, but he doubted they would be pleased to see his appearance nevertheless.

And so he acted fast every time he saw one of them, causing them shock as they saw a phantom sprinting towards them. However the Goblin Stanis was currently rushing towards was clearly an experienced one as its shock quickly dissipated, the Goblin swiftly executing a defensive stance with its short-sword.

All of the Sentry Goblins were far stronger than the average Goblin, brawny rather than scrawny. They were at least at the level of the large-Wolf riders and were equipped with thick, leather body-armour as well as a short-sword and a knife.

The one currently in front of Stanis was clearly a cut above the rest of the Sentries as it swiftly jumped over Stanis's first strike, before cutting his second strike down, causing the spearhead to stab into the ground. It then followed its advantage as it shot forwards with its sword, forcing Stanis to drop his spear and fall back.

However, the Goblin wasn't just going to throw away its hard-earned lead as it increased its stride, causing it to be a metre away from Stanis within a second. It was as it was about to slice his head off that Stanis's arm came flying towards the sword. The Goblin sneered as it laughed at Stanis's foolishness, before swerving its blade around so that he would cut himself.

Stanis, on the other hand, was grimacing as he gripped the blade with his left arm, before pulling the Sentry towards him. The Sentry, now fully off guard, fell right into Stanis's arms as he head-butted it, before whipping out his sword.

A sword swipe and *thump* later, Stanis cast the darkness off his left arm as he looked at the damage. Across the palm was a bloody ridge, although not a deep one to his relief. The blood coming out of the wound was just as red as his red claws.

It was as he was distracted by the pain that he felt a sweltering heat just around the corner, to which he lifted his head, only to see a fire-bolt metres away from him, shooting closer every second he stood there.

Unlike last time, Stanis didn't have enough time to react and only managed to hastily roll under the raging flames. Even then his left arm was hit, the flame adding to the pain and burning his dark-orange skin bright.

As he rushed to gulp down a health potion, he heard a manic cackle not far away. A few trees away from him was the tall, slim Goblin who had shot the fire-bolt at him during the last battle. It had a menacing smile plastered over its face, which only widened as it saw Stanis's pained expression.

This wasn't going to be a fun fight…