16 ATTACK!!

We all gather at the edge of the encampment. Everyone is armed to the brim and ready to charge at the drop of a hat.

Matt taps a finger on his staff while Alcon is bouncing up and down, like a boxer staying loose for a fight. Natalia stands in the middle, twiddling her thumbs.

Bernadette is the only one standing still, both of her hands stoically resting on the butt end of her axe while her eyes traced the tree line. Ian's in the middle with Natalia, talking nervously and cracking terrible jokes.

I try to stay relaxed, but a knife still finds its way dancing through my fingers. However, I'm not nervous at all.

(Is that...anticipation? Excitement? I don't know, but my heart is racing.)

When we finally see the goblins peek their heads out of the forest, everyone bristles and raises their weapons.

Some of the people at the front even take a few steps forward before the goblins duck back into the forest.

A few of the archers take shots at the retreating goblins, but none of their arrows reach the nearest tree, much less the tree line.

(What a waste of arrows. Seems like those were scouts, so the main force should be coming soon.)

I turn towards my party and, other than Bernadette, they're all back to what they were doing before. Bernadette is standing at the ready, he axe hanging loosely in her hand.

Trying to think of something to say that could calm all of our nerves, I nervously clear my throat.

Luckily, I don't need to say anything. Unfortunately, Alcon's the one doing it for me.

"When are those cowards going to attack? This is fucking stupid! The only thing you need to worry about in a battle is attack Attack ATTACK!!!"

He bellows the last part into the sky. Everyone else in our makeshift army looks around in confusion, then charge.

I face palm.

"Seriously Alcon?! The goblins aren't even...here…"

Right as I say those words, dozens of goblins step out of the woods.

As soon as they see the army charging, they shriek and rush forward to meet them.

Everyone in the attacking group returns the goblins shrieks with their own mix of courageous shouts and shrill cries.

(How did he...wait, that doesn't matter right now. We're being left behind!)

"Lets go!"

We all start running towards the goblins. At first we just run independently, but quickly flow into our battle positions.

At this point, the fighting has started

(Wait, what are those? From what I've read, goblins arent that big!)

Behind the line of goblins, six large figures lumber out of the trees. While the goblins are more of a mud green, these larger monsters are closer to a moss green color.

"Dammit, they never said anything about this!"

I mutter this under my breath, but Natalia overhears me.

"What was that?!"

Only taking a split second to decide, I choose to give them a rundown.

"Okay, everyone listen up! We don't have time to stop, so keep running!"

After I've determined that I have everyone's attention, I continue.

"From the looks of things, the goblins have orcs with them. They're a distant relative to goblins, but the important thing is that they're much bigger.

"That makes them harder to fight. However, we have one advantage over them. Orcs have next to no intelligence. They're almost as dumb as Alcon."

Everyone laughs, even Alcon. He must have thought I was just joking.

"They're slow, but make up for it in their monstrous strength. Taking a head-on attack from them is basically suicide. Their muscles also act as natural rubber-like armor, so go for vital spots like the knees, armpit, and neck. Cutting their tendons also works. Got it?"

I get a few grunts in response and hope that they were grunts of agreement.

After a pause, Alcon speaks up. As soon as I see him getting ready to talk, I prepare myself.

"Just wondering, how much is an Orc kill worth?"

Now everyone face palms.

By the time we get to the front lines, the other party's have already killed a few goblins apiece.

I glance over at a group fighting an Orc right now. Their tank charges up, swinging his sword and stabbing at the orc's body.

Reacting like an insect had bit it, the Orc raised a meaty hand to swat away the pesky 'mosquito'.

Luckily, the mage in the back saw this, and barks an order. The tank quickly jumped back, narrowly avoiding the orcs meaty fist.

He takes a defensive stance, looks in the direction of his mage, then attacks again with an entirely different strategy.

(That mage must have given him good advice. Seems like he's one of the smarter ones.)

While I'm distracted by the other party's battle, Alcon and Bernadette have clashed with our first two goblins.

While Bernadette seems to be taking her time and analyzing her opponent, Alcon just continually attacks, not giving his goblin an opening to attack.

The only thing it can do is desperately block and dodge.

While Alcon and Bernadette are occupied, a goblin slips by on Bernadette's left, directly toward me.

Taking a deep breath, I reach up to my shoulder and loosen my sword from its sheath.

Waiting for the perfect moment, I smoothly slide the blade out, trace a perfect arc, and make a deep cut slanting across the goblins torso.

Desperately, it grasps at its stomach in an attempt to contain the flood of blood and guts.

I quickly remove it's head. As the corpse collapses to the ground, its innards spill past its limp hands.

At one point, this would have disgusted me. However, over the past few months I had gotten used to gore.

I replace my sword in its sheath and turn to the two at the front.

"Alcon, Bernadette finish up! We've got more company!"

In response, Alcon impales his goblin. After yanking his sword out, he kicks it into another approaching goblin, then proceeds to impale the next one while it's on the ground.

Bernadette jumps to the right and swings her axe in a big arch, chopping off the goblins rail thin arms.

It screeches loudly in pain before she brings her axe up again and buries it halfway through the goblins skull.

The rest of the goblins see this and start backing up.

With a roar, Alcon charges into the horde of goblins, swinging his sword left and right.

(What is that idiot doing?!)

As expected, six goblins run past him and toward Bernadette.