Woodfall

Another hour passed before they reached the outskirts of the first Village on their way out of the Forrest. Woodfall. The first thing everyone noticed was the silence as they got closer and closer to the Village. No sound of Carriages, horses or other animals could be heard. No chattering, not the opening or closing of doors or windows. Nothing which would indicate the presence of people in this village. This put Knut, Irena and the Refugees on alert and Liz came from the rear to join up with the rest of them to investigate while Brandon and the Refugees would wait outside the village until they return.

"Okay we must investigate this. It is unclear what happened and there could be an ambush waiting for us. So don't let your guard down. I will scout ahead while Knut takes the front line. Valeria, you will stay close to Irena at the rear to protect her from potential pincer-attacks. But when need be, you are free to move as the situation demands it. Irena your on-support duty." Liz explained the plan in a hidden spot near the entrance. "Shouldn't we move around the village and see what we're able to spot from there?" Knut asked.

"Well we are already at the backside from the village. Most travelers would come and leave through the road to Tervilla, so going around the village could potentially take away our surprise advantage." "Hmm, I concur. Additionally, we don't have much time to waste. Our rations are running low, and the Refugees need professional medical care." Irena added.

"Hmph... I guess you're right. We'll go with your plan then Liz"

"You okay with this Vallie?" Irena asked gently.

Valeria nodded vigorously

"Yes! I'm ready to hit some meanies!"

All nodded one last time in agreement and Liz vanished inside the Village. A few minutes later the rest of the group made their move and entered the village. The village was empty. Just as the missing of noises had indicated there was no one there. The first few steps they took they all looked carefully around, determined to spot any dangers which might await them. They came across the first houses, all of the doors were open and many of the Windows were in shatters. There was also the scent of blood in the air, and they soon came across blood stained parts of the gravel road and near or on the desolate houses. It was a gruesome sight, and one could only imagine the slaughter which must have taken place here. But they found neither corpses nor body parts laying around.

The group had left the first three rows of houses behind and were heading towards the center of the village, arms at the ready. Suddenly Liz came with fast but silent steps towards them. "Ya found anything Liz?" Knut whispered once she was near them. Liz nodded "Yes. Goblins. In the chieftains House. Around 8 of them" "Goblins ya say? Mere Goblins couldn't wipe out a whole village like that. Especially not Woodfall. Many adventures here to hunt in the Forrest. Anything else?" Liz shook her head "No signs of anything or anyone else"

Irena looked a bit troubled "These must be scavengers then. But that doesn't mean that Goblins weren't part of the attack. To pose a threat to Village like this, there must have been at least 300 hundred of them, including hobgoblins and probably a few trolls"

"Well, I propose to exterminate the remaining Goblins as fast as possible and get news to Tervilla and the guild" Liz suggested. "Ye ya're right" "I concur" "Me too! Let's hit 'em real hard!" Valeria was all fired up. "Okay let's plan this out...

After discussing on how to move forward, they quickly followed Liz who led the way.

Liz told them that they had no sentries and thus approaching the Chieftains House wouldn't be a problem. A few minutes later they arrived at the village center. It was an open space and some remnants of small, market stalls were scattered around the roughly 20x30 meter marketplace. On the head of the marketplace stood a building which was quite a bit taller than all the other buildings and was made mostly out of a grayish-blue stone. Most other buildings were either completely made out of wood from the nearby Forrest and had thus a dark brown color. Some more luxurious ones had stone elements and were half-timbered houses.

The sturdy wooden double door was open, and voices could be heard coming from within. "Sounds like they're having fun! But they sound so funny..." Valeria mumbled. "It's a demonic tongue. Only Goblinkin speak this abhorrent language" Irena elaborated.

Liz placed a finger above her lips and signaled them to be quiet now. Knut and Valeria placed themselves next to the entrance. Small stone stairs lead up to it, so the room for fighting was rather slim. Irena stood near Valeria but next to the staircase, so she had to look up a bit to Valeria. Once everyone was in place and had their weapons ready, Liz moved through the Doors. A few moments later, a Cry of pain from a Goblin could be heard. Seconds later the seemingly idle chattering from inside the building ceased and cries of aggression could be heard. Then swift steps towards the entrance. The angry voices of the Goblins became louder. Liz jumped out of the door and over the staircase and landed with a roll on the ground of the marketplace. It was pretty showy and a highlight of Liz's acrobatic talents. Her crimson red scales sparkled under the Sun shining from above. Now two Goblins charged out of the building and their whole focus was on Liz who held her daggers in a defensive stand and dark red Blood dropped from the tips. As soon as the two Goblins had left the doors behind, Knut and Valeria seized their opportunity. Knut swung his giant Warhammer like an executioner from above. A stern expression on his face. The hammer connected with the Goblins head. Or rather merged. Without losing speed the hammer penetrated the head and stopped only short before the torso. Needless to say, the head exploded from the sheer force of the hit and Goblin-blood and remnants of the head and its inside splatter everywhere and Knut's steel plate was muddled with blood.

Valeria used at the same time a horizontal sweep. And the black blade went effortlessly through the neck of the Goblin. The expression on Valeria's face was almost blank. The body seemed to have forgotten that it needed a head and managed to take another step before collapsing and sliding down the stairs. The following pair of Goblins was prepared and instead of focusing on Liz, they kept their guard up and faced the sides of the entrance. Knut tried to hit his Goblin with a horizontal swing, as if to smash him back the way he came. But this time the Goblin managed to meagerly dodge the Bone-shattering strike. But during this stumbled towards Valeria and into the Goblin coming out next to him. They both went down and luckily for the other Goblin this sudden drop saved his head from a similar fate than his predecessor. Not only that but he fell into the surprised Valeria, who lost her balance and dropped down the stairs into the arms of the waiting Irena. "Shit, that went badly!" Liz shouted. Knut tried to readjust his balance, which was off, due to the force used in the missed strike. While the two Goblins who were laying on the ground tried to get up, the next pair of Goblins came out of the building and targeted Knut with their steel short swords. To evade the blows Knut dropped of the staircase as well. But due to his heavy armor he lost balance and landed on his butt.

Now the Goblins had some breathing room. The four Goblins, which were alive, moved down the stairs and tried to attack Liz who was standing alone in front of the stairs. Meanwhile two more Goblins with short bows and cocked arrows appeared behind the doors.

Two of the gobbos reached Liz a bit earlier and swung their swords wildly at her, but she managed to dodge one strike and blocked the other with her left dagger. But before she could counterattack the other two Goblins reached her and managed to force her into a defensive position. But Liz managed quite easily to evade all their blows but wasn't able to effectively counter attack.

「Grappling Roots」Irena casted her spell and the two Goblins flanking Liz were quickly entwined in thick, sturdy roots coming out of the ground.

"Val! Take care of the archers! Knut! Help Liz!" Irena instructed. Both nodded and quickly moved to their respective destination. Valeria was quick and was going up the stairs with rapid speed. The two Goblin Archers loosened their arrows in a panic. Valeria managed to dodge the arrows without losing tempo and reached the now defenseless Goblins.

"Argh...!" A moan of pain could be heard from behind. But Valeria needed to focus on the task at hand. The Goblins tried to retreat back inside. Valeria swung down her black sword and cut one of the archers from left shoulder to right pelvis thoroughly in half. The other Archer had managed to put some distance between them and loosened another arrow at her. Valeria was occupied and noticed the arrow to late and could only dodge partially. The arrow grazed her shoulders and a bit of blood started dropping out from it. Valeria's expression hardened and a ferocious glimmer appeared in her purple eyes. At this moment she looked not like a cute little Dragon girl but like a ferocious beast ready to shred any opponent to smithereens. She dashed forward at the Goblin who was frozen by fear and cut of both of his legs with one strike of her sword. The Goblin screamed and Valeria glared at him with cold eyes and ended the screaming with a thrust inside the open mouth. Her sword easily went through the back of the goblins head and into the wooden floor. Valeria sighed and her anger quickly faded. She pulled out her sword and checked quickly on her left arm where the arrow had grazed her. The wound was already fading, and only small traces of her shining red blood remained on the healed skin. She rushed back outside and saw that the fight was already over. The two Goblins which had been targeted by Irena's magic were laying on the floor with thick roots covering their body. The roots around their neck and the bluish-white tone of their usually green heads quickly gave answer to their cause of death. Another one had fallen directly in front of Liz and had received a fatal stab with one of Liz's daggers to his right eye. The last one was a few meters away and the middle of his body seemed to have been relocated further than the rest, it was a gruesome sight. Liz was just sheeting her daggers while Knut tried to remove his breastplate. "Need a hand?" Irena asked gently. "Ye, thank ya. The arrow struck my back and now there is a pretty dent in my armor"

Liz meanwhile walked up to Valeria, no kindness in her eyes. They were almost on par with Irena's death glare and Valeria took a step back, a terrified expression came over her face. "What were you doing?! If you can't manage to negate the arrows, at least shout a warning to your party members! These are the basics!" Liz was really angry, and Valeria looked even smaller than usual and her head and wings were hanging low. The ferocious beast from mere moments ago was nowhere to be seen, in its stead was a child getting scolded. A 'Click' could be heard from behind and Irena came over and appeared behind Liz. "Hey! Don't be so rude to little Vallie! She's a child you have to tell her gently! Not screaming at her." Irena scolded Liz and starred intensely at her.

"No. such a behavior is unacceptable in an adventuring Party! We have to look out for each other! If we accept such behavior then we can't trust each other when push comes to shove. And firm rules and proper reprimanding are important to raise a child" Irena did not step back and got even closer, their foreheads almost collided. "No! What children need is love and support. Not Needless scolding! It was her first time to fight as a group, do you really expect her to know how to fight as a party?!"

Liz didn't flinch "No. I expect her to show a minimum of concern for her party members." "You really think that a child can think about such things in a live or death situation?! Are you stupid?!" "Yes. I saw her expression. She was calm. She is used to such situations. This is not an excuse" As the two argued Valeria was still trembling. She really did mess up. She totally forgot that anyone could be in the line of fire. And she pondered about it and tears started welling up as the atmosphere was even more tense than when the fighting took place.

"But fine let's do it your way. You soft hearted 'Mother'. But if it fails, I'll do it my way and hammer the lessons into her head. I'm not blinded by her looks, unlike you." Liz tapped at Irena's chest with her index finger while ending the argument with her. "Hmh! You'll see the effectiveness of my raising techniques soon enough! You cold-blooded reptile!"

"Ya lady's finished yet? I think our little lassies got enough" Knut interrupted. Now without his typical steel breastplate. Below he wore a dark brown shirt, which seemed soaked with sweat and his very hairy body peeked out on the spots not covered. Liz turned away with a stubborn "Hmph!" And moved towards the Goblin corpses. Meanwhile Irena faced Valeria and her expression softened immediately. She got down to the crying girl and embraced her gently. "It's fine. Everyone makes mistakes and there is nothing wrong about it. As long as you learn from them. There is no shame in it" she patted her back and Valeria's crying intensified. "I'am so soww-wwyyy!" "No, no. It's fine, Knut is unharmed, just make sure to learn from this. I still love you. I always will! I promise. No matter what mistakes you make I'll be always there for you"

Valeria's crying ceased and only small, muffled moans left her lips from time to time. You're fine now? What is that on your shoulder, are you unhurt?" Irena asked with a bit of worry in her voice. She nodded weakly "Yeah, it's noting. Thanks" And Irena got up again.

"Let's move on. There is still the horde out there. Take the weapons and get back to the group" Liz ordered. Knut nodded and grabbed one of the steel swords. "Looks dwarven made... yes here is the mark of the Bronzhauer Clan. Pretty famous family in the Malleus Kingdom. This will fetch quite the penny. Probably took them from some adventures" Knut and Liz begun picking up the swords and carried them with their hands, while Knut used some strings to bind his breastplate behind his back and carried it like a backpack. "Let's go" Liz repeated and they silently made their way back to the Refugees and Brandon. Liz and Knut went ahead. Irena and Valeria followed Suit. Irena locked hands with Valeria and smiled at her reassuringly. After a few steps Valeria felt her mood lighten up and she regained her resolve. She sighed and left Irena and catched up to Knut.

"Hey...ehh... I am sorry... won't happen again, I promise!" Knut smiled at her "It's fine little lassie. I know you didn't do it on purpose." Valeria nodded. "Will your armor be okay?" "My armor? Gahaha! Of course! I am a dwarf! And any dwarf worthy if his name at least knows the basics of smithing. Fixing a dent like that is a piece of cake. But if ya want, ya may help me. Thy fire Magic might come in handy, what do ya say?" Valeria nodded enthusiastically "hmHM! I'll help ya out, promised!" Knut placed his right hand on Valeria's head and ruffled her hair as they walked along the empty streets.