Chapter 5 - Section 1: Long March

Hoogan was true to his word, and a legion of armed goblins was assembled outside the cave entrance awaiting the arrival of their Commander Satou, and Vice Commander Kurama.

Some were the original goblins summoned and then released by his own skill, while the majority were the goblins recruited from the tribes from the surrounding area.

Each was armed lightly with basic cloth clothing, modest wooden armour, and crude weaponry but for their purpose that'd be more than enough and if an elite unit is required they could be equipped later on.

Having arrived outside the goblins who'd formed a measure of organized ranks kept shifting around restlessly as they were stared at by Satou, and by proxy behind him by Hoogan who up till now was their leader.

<Command >:Form Ranks

Gigigi

With a single command, the goblins before him ceased moving about and made straight ranks with their spears all pointed straight up, now looking more like a professional army than a group of conscripted levies.

"We'll hopefully be back soon with your goblins, but I might leave some behind to form a detached colony in case we need them to further police the area, plus we can get them to do the same as you and absorb the other goblin tribes making it safer for the other races" <Satou >

"No worries at all Master, we were approaching our limits as I said before so you helping us form a colony would be most helpful, can't say they'll be safe if a large village is discovered by the humans, but such is the fate of goblins to be locked in eternal struggles with the humanoids, pay it no mind if the villages are destroyed" <Hoogan >

"mmm" <Satou >

"Kurama leader, we command you to listen!" <Kurama >

In the distance Kurama was addressing Satou's goblin army while pacing back and forth in front of the frontline, puffing her chest out and giving light orders imitating the powerful command Satou had established earlier.

[What a little cutie of a vice commander I have, I don't know if they'll actually listen to her, I might need to summon an epic to serve as her advisor whom the goblins would actually listen to when the time comes]

"Alright well we'd best set off with a force of this size even if we move to double-time it'll take a few days to get back to the capital" <Satou >

[If I make them run, we get there in about 2, but we'll lose some of our forces due to exhaustion which would make me a bad commander]

[Command] <March Double-Time>

Giving his order the legion before him shifted from their square formation into a column formation marching in cadence at a forced pace of a fast walk.

The goblin legion marched on, at its head was Satou who was walking on autopilot as he continued to go through the new changes to his minion system, and sorted through his other level-ups to see just how much things had changed.

Slightly to his side Kurama had taken up the position of the Column commander, this suited her except due to her height difference from the goblins her pace often caused the goblin's own marching cadence to falter since she'd take 1.5-2 steps for every one of theirs and since she was the model for the front line to follow it made it difficult for them, after the first few hours the goblins only matched her direction and not her steps.

From the distance as the goblin legion marched on the countryside villages who could see from a distance we were shocked that the kingdom's army was on the march, and why they were returning from the borders had the chaos from the Heros ended enough that they could return home, or had things gotten worse on the other side of the country where they were needed more?

Occasionally as they marched on Satou would leave Kurama in command while he'd run into the villages and buy up any Iron swords, and spears he could manage to find, and upon his return, he'd re-arm his goblin forces with them, but being outlier villages while they were happy to assist what they thought was the forces of the kingdom, they still only had at best a few spare swords and spears that could be sold as the rest would be needed to maintain their own defensive protection especially if their nearby military force would no longer be available to provide reinforcements.

Without knowing it the kingdom's own villages were aiding an enemy they didn't even know they were currently at war against.

While the pace to return to the capital was slower since the goblins were only common level and as such had agility and stamina values around that of regular lvl 1-5 humans and since the high-level pair couldn't just run as they did in a straight line when coming to the outskirts originally.

Additionally having to stop at least twice per day so that their forces could be fed, at first Satou provided the goblins with combat rations obtained from his skill but the minion system quickly informed him that doing so made his legion's morale plummet so instead he allowed them to hunt for meat in the forests they passed by with detachments going out to hunt and then rushing to catch up to the main force with their bounty.

Allowing such action was riskier as he could wind up losing some of his forces while they hunted if they'd encountered higher ranked enemies but the payoff by increasing the goblin's morale more than paid for it as their pace actually increased a bit, and their hunting efficient likewise rose as well as they become more accustomed to this style of mass movement.

And after only a few days of marching Satou could once more see the capital's walls in the distance as he sent his newly arrived Goblin legion to enter the forests and link up with his existing forces that should still be harassing the capitals knights and travellers.