Ch 51 – Target Acquired

"Village Chief! Where's the Chief?" A man stormed into the main hall, surprising those inside.

"Gram?! He's still coming. What the hell is going on?" In fact, oddly enough, a single man was the only person in there. He'd come here to write his report on the results of today's hunt, and also on the general progress of other duties around the village.

"They came back, Jacob! The men we sent to scout came back!"

"The hell do you mean? Aren't they supposed to come back only one at a time with news about the Goblin site?"

"That's the problem... They are moving, hundreds of them!"

"What?! Here?! We got to ring the bells!" Jacob jumped up from his seat, ready to dash through the doors at any moment.

"NO! Not here! But Hundreds of them! Almost a thousand!"

"What the-" Instead of feeling relief, Jacob became increasingly worried. Even if they were moving away from the village, this didn't mean they wouldn't come later. Rather, the sheer size of the goblin horde was unheard off in decades.

"My men, what's the emergency? Varni went to call me like the world had turned upside down. Jacob, why do you look white?"

"It's... It's better if Gram tells you, Chief. It's pretty bad news."

"What now? Are the animals gone again?" The chief answered half heartedly, he already had too many things to deal with, including his son somehow sneaking into the group that left earlier.

"Worse... The goblins, they left their Den. All of them at once."

"What!? Goblins never do that. Is this proof Johnathan was right after all? Are they coming this way?"

"No, thankfully they seem to be going the opposite direction, towards the mountains."

"That's great news, then... It buys us time to prepare for when they come this way."

"The problem is the number of them..."

"How many? We talking one hundred? one fifty?" Both Gram and Jacob stared blankly at him for a second. A tear began forming in Jacob's eyes as he realized the sheer unreality of those numbers...

"... A thousand."

"What? I don't think I heard you right. Did you just say-"

"A thousand. I said One Thousand goblins."

"May the God of Fate have mercy on the souls of us worthless mortals..." With shaky hands, Johnathan pulled himself a chair and sat down with both hands on his head... This was not something he ever expected having to deal with in his life. A Chief position was just supposed to keep him busy and fix the problems around. He'd never signed up for such a war.

And he didn't even know... that the squires came back before even half of the goblins had left the den.

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"Oh Come on! Another fucking corridor, when is this gonna end!?"

"Shut the fuck up, now!" Gahan pulled Garth sideways onto him and whispered aggressively in his ear, while staring to the end of the corridor in the distance. "We found the bitch."

"What!?" Garth, surprised, once again spoke.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU MORRON!"

Garth gripped his neck, pushing him and himself unto the wall to the side of the passage. He watched as the Hobgoblins deep inside, near the girl, turned to check the noise they heard.

"She's not alone, don't make a noise! Do you copy?!"

"Y-e-e-s" Garth squeezed an answer despite having his airways strangled by Gahan.

"Good, now, walk slowly."

While clinging to the wall, Gahan slowly moved forward, taking extreme care not to kick any of the loose small stones on the ground.

Garth, however, had not noticed them.

"GHA-!" He forced his own mouth shut after almost screaming. A pointy rock had pushed itself straight through his wounded foot, piercing a nerve. His whole leg was burning, but if he made too much noise, he'd probably be killed by Gahan. It was at this moment that he realized the damage done by the bugs to his boots. To be precise, as he lifted his foot up, and pulled out the stone that was embedded in it, he could now see that, despite him feeling no pain, there was no skin left, only red, bloody flesh.

'Fuck!' He cursed in his own mind. There was no telling how bad the damage was and when the strange anesthetic effect would lift. If it happened during a fight... He was as good as dead. Sweat dripped down his spine. He could feel a droplet on his nose as he stared down towards the ground trying to not imagine how much It'd hurt.

"Phew..." He sighed relieved, as his foot made contact with the ground without causing any pain.

"What are you doing!? move!" Gahan whispered.

As the pair moved further through the path, Garth was finally able to see what Gahan was so weary of. The girl, weirdly dressed in something he'd never seen before that looked like a shirt and nothing more, was being guarded by a trio of Hobgoblin Shamans.

'Was she captured by them? I guess it'd be more of a punishment to let her become breeding stock for the goblins...' While his mind had pointless thoughts, he overheard a murmur coming from Gahan.

"Shit..."

He stared back towards the room, only to see dozens of goblins making their way in front of the girl. Neither knew why this had happened, but there was little they could do now.

"Let's go!" Gahan said, ignoring the previous caution, as he darted towards the room brandishing his bastard sword. Garth ran behind him, a maddened smile in his face.

"It's time for hunting that bitch down." Was the last thing Garth heard before his mind went blank and his vision became completely painted red.