Chapter 9 - Hunter & Prey

The sun's gentle rays brushed against Kazimir's closed eyelids. The warm sunlight let him know of the beginning of a new day. Kazimir went around and woke up all the goblins to follow him in the morning exercises, and they do their best to mime his breathing meditation. Once everyone was warmed up, the groups are once again split into two; adults were sent to work on crafting and construction, the children were going to accompany Kaz to learn hunting and martial arts.

Walking into an open part of the village, Kaz had the young goblins check their gear. The bows and arrows would be used strenuously in their exercise menu for the day. To start, everyone lined up in a flat area. Obie helped the kids follow Kaz through physical strength-building exercises for several hours to begin their workout, they also spent the time practicing and learning new techniques and making sure everyone remembered group tactics and archery.

When the sun was high in the sky, Kaz called for everyone to have a quick meal break. He gave them a half an hour to eat and rest as the young goblins were exhausted after the morning exercises. Once everyone was refreshed, Kaz lead the group into the forest, saying they will experience a quick hunt. He wanted them to practice tracking and archery on living creatures. The youngsters shot beaming looks at hearing their next activity. Although some were anxious, everyone followed Kaz eagerly.

The young goblins were walking while gossiping noisily, tightly holding onto their bows. The way they acted showed that they had already forgot the basics of stealth that Kaz showed them that morning. Getting irritated, he lightly admonished them, telling them to pay attention to the surroundings and to only communicate with hand signs.

The goblins proceeded to walk quietly with their bows at the ready. Kaz had already determined that they were accurate archers, as eight out of ten shots would find their target within thirty yards. Following along with Kazimir and his instructions on how to watch the forest, the hunting party quietly made its way through the forest.

Very quickly, Kaz noticed the tracks of a heavy, four-hooved beast. He waved his hand around and the goblins formed up in a loose circle, looking outwards and watching their surroundings, peeking at Kaz occasionally for directions.

In the loose formation, everyone tracked the prey. Low whistles would come from different youngsters to alert the party as the goblins caught sight of the tracks. After enough time had passed for the sun to change positions in the sky, Kaz saw a hunched over figure digging under a large tree.

This animal was as big as a truck. Its moss green fur was broken up with rust colored stripes. Several tusks could be seen protruding on each side of its large snout in uneven lengths. It looked like a giant forest variation of a boar. He would call it a Forest Boar for its green hide.

While the boar was digging up something from under the bush, he signaled the goblins silently. Moving as quietly as possible, the goblins surrounded the Forest Boar. Bows at the ready, everyone aimed down past the tips of their arrows at the boar.

Kaz drew out his two-sided blade, holding it behind his back. He signaled the goblins again, the order a simple 'Hit it as many times as you can!'

*Fashhh~* Arrows covered the boar's body. Before it could even react, a second volley was already hitting it's hide. Now that they were given the order to shoot fast, the youngsters gave it their best, the accuracy had gone down, but each goblin was able to empty their quiver before the boar even recovered from its pain.

Kazimir had become worried, the boar was raging about, knocking down everything in its pain. A few of the youngsters were hurt by falling trees, but luckily it wasn't anything serious. The boar now looked like like a hedgehog with its back covered completely by arrows, but it wasn't going down.

<Cease fire!> Kazimir yelled out in the Goblin language. He threw the double blade like a spear, putting all his strength into the throw. Its tip went into the side of the boar with ease, the sharp blade stopped by the hilt from going in further.

Kaz lunged unto a full speed sprint before even confirming the sword hit its target. He got close to the boar but jumped back right before he reached it.

*Crack, crack, crack.*

A wall of thorns erupted from within the earth. Crumbling earth and growing vines with thorns on them crackled as they rose up between Kaz and the boar. Kaz jumped out of the way and barely avoided running into the wall.

The boar rose up into the air screaming, it was lifted into the air by a flat earthen platform with thorns growing out of it. The ground looked like the natural version of barricades with razor wire running across it.

Kazimir dodged around as thorny vines were whipping at him at incredible speeds. The boar was bleeding, but it stood on top of its hill, breathing roughly and looking down on Kazimir. As it targeted Kazimir with the thorn whips, its wounds were slowly healing: The sword and arrows were slowly being pushed out of its body.

Kaz was getting frustrated. The whips couldn't catch him at the speed they were moving, but he wasn't able to get closer to the boar since he was bust dodging. He gritted his teeth and caught an incoming whip. He gripped it tight, causing his palm to be cut by some of the thorns. Pulling hard, the thorn covered vine was ripped free from the earth. Kaz lashed the vine and wrapped it around the handle of the two sided blade that was still stuck in the boar's hide.

Pulling on the vine, Kaz launched himself right to the side of the boar. As he flew, the boar tried to raise earth spikes to impale him, but they came up too slowly to get him. Kaz let go of the vine and grabbed the two-sided sword. His momentum carried him with the sword, cutting a large cut across the beast's body. Twisting the handle, the two blades were separated from one another. Kaz started dancing around the boar, sharing the same platform.

He slashed open dozens of cuts as he danced around vines, flying rocks, and the Forest Boar's tusks. The animal was getting frantic, it was screaming and screeching in rage and pain. Blood was starting to pool around the boar, it was starting to move slower and react more stiffly. As Kaz cut the boar some more, he realized that the vines and earth stopped moving; which gave him breathing space.

Feeling that this was an opportunity, Kazimir reconnect the two blades and swung down the combined sword with all his strength and a two-handed grip on the handle.

*Schwing* With the sound of the air being cut, the boar's large neck was cut through almost to the middle. The Forest Boar stopped moving, already on its last legs. Kaz swung the blade three more times to completely decapitate the huge monster. Its whole body collapsed with a loud thud.

Kaz watched his surroundings which were finally silent. The young goblins were awestruck at the fight they just witnessed. Obie laughed out in joy, which caused the entire hunting party to raise cheers at their victory.

Kaz sat against a nearby stump as he asked Obie to help the young goblins dismantle the Forest Boar's corpse and to prepare it for transport back to the village. While the goblins worked, he looked out at the forest to make sure there was no danger. The young goblins cut out what arrows they could from the boar's hide. Some of them even collected the thorny vines that were grown during battle.

When everyone was ready, the party started carrying and dragging the Forest Boar's carcass back to the village. Kazimir had already wrapped up his hand in a hemp bandage that he brought with him. The young goblins were chattering about the hunt, with many of them shooting admiring gazes at him. This time Kaz didn't discipline the youngsters since the hunt was already done, and they didn't need to stealth around for any more hunting.

As Kazimir and the young goblins got close to their village, Obie noticed something unusual about the atmosphere of the forest. He wanted to say something to Kaz but saw that the human was already darting his eyes around to find the source of what was so strange about the surroundings.

'There's no sound of birds or animals around here. Everyone, drop the meat and ready your bows!' Kaz calmly and clearly gave out his orders in Goblin.

The youngsters started getting nervous, but they took out their bows and notched their arrows. Some started seeking cover behind trees and the smarter ones even utilized the stealth techniques that they learned earlier that morning.

"Graaaargh! Gack, gack!" A Kobold jumped out of a bush and charged at a nearby goblin. Three of the closest goblins shot their arrows, and easily hit the Kobold. The charging Kobold dropped dead. Barking sounds arose from all directions. Kobolds started pouring in from all over the forest, charging at the Goblins and Kaz.

Kaz wielded a blade in each hand as he killed a few of the Kobolds, but most of the ambushers were brought down by the Goblins that learned archery these last few days: Even though it was the Goblins getting ambushed by the Kobolds, none of the Goblins received any serious injuries. In a few areas of the skirmish the goblins ran out of arrows, but they used group tactics to surround and only attacked the Kobolds from behind. The weak Goblins managed to avoid all head-on confrontations with the stronger Kobolds.

Kaz didn't have much to do in this fight. He was mainly observing and evaluating his students. A few of the Goblins were able to keep their cool, and with him giving a few simple directions, the fight ended without suspense. Kaz gave the Goblins a passing score, once again impressed with how quickly they familiarized themselves with skills.

After the fight ended, Obie looked through the Kobolds' gear, but didn't find anything interesting. The young Goblins once again picked up the Forest Bear meat and carried it the remaining distance to the village.

…

Once they were back at the village, Kaz congratulated everyone on the successful hunt. He also announced to the whole village the victory that they had over the Kobolds. He stressed that the Kobolds ambushed them too close to the Goblin village, and that it would be soon time to attack the Kobold base to protect the village for good.

While some of the adults were cooking, others explained the progress of the village. A few more small shacks were completed. The goblins ran out of wood planks midway trough the day, so the afternoon was spent on gathering more construction materials.

While Kaz was discussing construction plans with some of the adults, the younger goblins discussed their fight with the Kobolds while preparing more arrows. All of the youngsters were very excited about the next time that they would go hunting. They would even be happy to go and confront the Kobolds this very moment if Kazimir so much as asked.

After dinner, Kaz pulled Obie away from everyone else. He described the next weapon he wanted everyone to use: crossbows. Using resin, wood, and enforced string, Kaz demonstrated a simple trigger mechanism and how to make a grip and stock to improve accuracy. He also talked about repeating and automatic crossbows but mentioned that these designs would be left for the future.

…

That night, Obie was talking with his uncle.

<It was amazing! The kids were able to take down the Dog-heads all by themselves!> Obie was excitedly retelling what happened earlier. <And that's not even the best part. Look at this, I just made it!> He showed his uncle the rough crossbow that he put together.

Josz observed the crossbow as he listened about the repeating and automatic crossbow ideas.<I've seen similar weapons when I was a mercenary, but I've never heard about the repeating and automatic versions. This is indeed a powerful killing tool! Do you think you could teach others to make this?>

Obie nodded and replied, <Yeah, no problem! Kaz is a great teacher so I'd leave it to him, but I could help out if needed. He plans to teach the best shots as of tomorrow.>

Lightly closing his eyes, Josz said <I think you and the others are getting too attached to this human. Our village has benefitted from his knowledge, but remember that he is an outside in the end. We will acquire all of his skills and knowledge, and then we can push him out. Let's wait until he gets rid of the Kobold Shaman, and then we can ask him to leave.>

<...But why must we make him leave? Couldn't we officially make him a part of the village and that way we could all benefit from each other?>

<Foolish boy! He wields too much authority as it is, and do you not see how the others look at him?! If he stays here and keeps teaching the younger goblins, his influence will be too great! With him here you will never be the village chief!> Josz angrily scolds his nephew's carelessness. <I'm happy with the knowledge and strength he has given us, but at the end of the day he's but a human - an outsider!>

Obie hesitantly nodded at Josz's words as doubt still plagued his heart. After their talk ended, he wondered: would it be so bad, even if Kaz became the village chief? Everyone finally had enough food to eat, and the villagers were getting stronger every day. The young goblins were even able to kill large numbers of Kobolds today. Moreover; uncle himself said how valuable the knowledge of crossbows is and it should be some sort of secret, but Kazimir still shared it with Obie.

Obie's thoughts were in turmoil. On the one hand was his uncle and what he wanted, and on the other…