Chapter 27: Wolves

Squelch!

The spear was pushed further within the kobold. Making it come out the other end. The kobold gripped the spear and looked at the enemy in front.

It was a hobgoblin. Wearing light armor and that signature helmet, it pushed the spear deeper into the kobold.

This hob-goblin was, of course, one of the younger hob-goblins that were born about two months ago. Since the gremlins were made, the newly born hobgoblins have been growing. As such, these past few days, they have been of use for something else other than guarding the portal.

The kobold, who now had a spear shoved into its interstines and other essential organs, felt hopeless. It knew that it was never getting out of an injury like this. The end result would be death, no matter how it saw it.

Admitting the pain and the blood flowing out of its mouth, the kobold looked at the younger kobold. But unlike how it was a few moments ago, the younger kobold no longer struggled. Its head had already dropped, and its lifeless body lay on the ground. Above it was Gremlin with the knife in hand. It opened its mouth and licked the fresh blood on the knife. Tasting the new prey beforehand And from its expression, kobold blood didn't seem to taste that good.

The kobold felt regret; it was bad enough that it got itself killed, but it also brought the little kobold with it. It seems like this is the end. So at the end of its life, the wolf did what most creatures would do when cornered.

"Awoooooo!"

The kobold raised its snout and did a wolf-like howl. A howl so loud it could probably reach far within the forest.

But as the child heard it, he ordered as quickly as he could.

"Kill it quickly."

The hobgoblin did as told and pulled out the spear as fast as it possibly could. Blood splashed, and some pieces of organs spilled out. But even so, admitting the pain and terrifying horror, the Kobold never stopped howling.

Puchi!

It was only after the spear was stabbed into its neck that the kobold stopped. And then they finally dropped.

But the damage had already been done. From afar, the child could hear them through the gremlin's very sensitive ears.

""Awoooo!""

Multiple howls sounded throughout the forest. The child could not be too sure how many of them there were, but he was sure that there were at least 10 of them. And if these ten were as strong as the kobold they have just killed, then things would not be good. After all, to kill just this one, he needed at least two hobgoblins. And the biggest reason they won was because the kobold was distracted and ambushed. With the two hobgoblins, the best they could do was chase the kobold away.

This was because, against a kobold, a hob-goblin would end up losing most of the time. True, with a shield, a hob-goblin can defend against rock attacks from kobolds, but that was just about it.

Defend.

That means that they could not land a hit against a kobold, no matter how much they tried. The kobolds were too fast, and the hobgoblins were too slow. Hob-goblins were stronger, but that didn't mean a thing if they couldn't land a hit.

So if what just happened to the kobold was anything to go by, then the child would need at least two hobgoblins to fend away one kobold. Meaning at least 20 hobgoblins were needed to defend against the kobolds. But that's a problem because...

"I don't even have more than four hobgoblins in total."

This meant that, at least at this moment, the child was not capable of fighting the kobolds at all.

So what was he to do in this situation? After all, from what he could hear, as its last and dying words, be kobold had called other kobolds. Soon enough, they should surely arrive. How many there were was not certain, but he was certain that he couldn't beat them. For now, anyway.

"A retreat is not shameful."

As such, the child decided it would be better to run from the kobolds. But as he has seen from the one he just killed, it shouldn't be easy.

From his observations, the kobolds also seem to have a superior sense of smell. Meaning they could probably track them down no matter where they go. So it would be best if they could find something to get them off their tracks. While at the same time not revealing their home base, aka the portal. Otherwise, the portal may be attacked. Spiraling the situation into a dungeon defense.

And the child didn't want that.

So he started ordering the goblins to the scene. There were about six goblins in total. Three goblins, two hobgoblins, and one gremlin He first ordered the gremlins to grab the backpack that was thrown away by the first goblin.

Under his orders, the gremlin poured out everything in the backpack. The items ranged from darts used by the gremlin to bear traps that were about to be set and some poison bottles. With all those dumped out, the gremlin went over towards the little kobold and stuffed it in the bag.

Lcukily, the kobold fit in the bag. Although it was a tight fit, it should hold long enough. With that done, the uninjured hobgoblin took the bag and swung it on its shoulder.

While the Gremlins were doing that, he ordered the axe-wielding hob-goblin to cut off the head of the older kobold. The kobold did as told, and with a 'Swoosh!' the kobold's head was detached from its head. He then ordered the hobgoblin to hold on to the kobold head and not throw it away.

The three goblins, on the other hand, were ordered to smear themselves in the blood of the decapitated kobold. At first, the goblins were against doing such a gory thing, but under the gremlins urging, they did so unwillingly.

One must know that although the gremlins were smaller than the goblins, the goblins have long developed a fear of them. Five days of watching these little creatures take down creatures more than two times bigger than then have humbled them wholly. Even the hobgoblins now treat the gremlins with more respect. But for the dumber hob-goblins, it was mainly because of the great cooking skills the gremlins have shown.

With all that done, all the necessary preparations were done. All the goblins followed the child's orders and spread out.

As for why the goblins weren't moving together, this was because the child figured that a battle against the kobolds would not yield any good results. So he decided to spread out the goblins; this way, the kobolds may be forced to spread out themselves or focus on one goblin.

If they spread out, each goblin will have an easier time running from them. But if they focus on one goblin, the other goblins are most certainly assured of survival.

But of course, the main focus wasn't the mere goblins but the two hobgoblins. One had a kobold head, while the other had a complete kobold corpse. Whichever one arrives, it will help the child further understand the enemy.

Of course, the full corpse would be better than the head; that was why the child ordered the only goblins to leave with the spear.

And just like that, the chase that would bring about a war began.

...