Each tree was older than every nation on the Centrolian Continent, tracing its age back to the very creation of Ethyria itself. Sunlight peaked through the countless leaves of the titanic trees, gracing the earth with patterned light. Eiserne Forest stood tall like a thousand titans in battle formation. Birdsong and the whispers of gale wind were ambient in Eiserne Forest, giving a sense of relative peace and calm.
Alas, the calming forest of giants was interrupted by foul tribes of goblins. The forest became an active den for the small greenskins, who have kept a tight grip on it for two years now.
The Eiserne Forest was an important strategic location—a natural defence against potential attacks from the Holy Lumin Empire. In response to these goblins, the Teutonic Empire sallied forth one regiment of its army to reclaim the Eiserne Forest. But what could a mere thousand conscripts hope to achieve against the teeming and numberless hordes of goblins and foul beasts at their tame? As a result, the regiment's colonel sought the Volunteers' Guild for help. Many an adventurer came to the Eiserne Forest—naturally becoming a common area for experienced E-ranked and fresh D-ranked adventurers. Despite a two-year effort, for every goblin slain, two more would take its place.
The party was among many who came to the Eiserne Forest. This would be their third goblin hunt.
They followed the usual path from the military encampment where they were dropped off until it ended abruptly, leading to where the true dangers of the forest lay.
On dangerous excursions such as these, Ira was tasked with scouting ahead to make sure no danger caught the group by surprise, and so that he could come back and inform the group of said danger to make an opportunistic ambush.
"I'll never understand how Ira can just disappear like that," Alaric questioned.
"Well, he's a rogue; it wouldn't make sense for him to not to disappear like that." Stoiarck shrugged.
"...True, I guess."
"Hey, Stoiarck," Alaric whipped his head toward the red half-orc, catching him off guard.
"Huh?"
"Tell me, and tell me true: how does someone get all that muscle?" Alaric studied Stoiarck's body. Even though Stoiarck was clothed with a tattered brown cloak and hood, his large build definitely stood out.
"Uh… Well… Eat your red meat," Stoiarck didn't know what to say; he'd always been pretty large. "Well, other than that, I am Orcish, Alaric. So I'm just naturally as big as a human. Sorry." Stoiarck dipped his head apologetically.
Alaric made a sound that was audibly a mixture of a groan and a sigh, "I need to get bigger, man, a hero has a strength worthy of the gods!" He proclaimed, puffing his chest out.
Stoiarck tilted his head slightly in question.
"Yeah, heroes don't talk too loud as to get their party killed in a forest full of goblins." Julius popped up beside Alaric.
"Ah." Alaric caught himself. "My bad, Ser Julius," He said, bowing his head in jest.
"Yeah, you guys gotta seriously keep it down, I'm trying to do my job here." Ira appeared between the three.
A mixed noise of surprise came from the three in unison.
"For fucks sake, please don't do that ever again," Alaric said, his heart pounding.
"I'm mainly talking about you, by the way, you alcoholic paladin."
Rosa and Julius snorted, trying to keep in their laughter, while Alaric gave a blank expression.
Ugh, get me out of this party—Alaric thought.
Stoiarck and Kaelrith ahead and watched the three, waiting to keep moving deeper into the forest.
"Man, Ira, just get back to—" Alaric turned back to Ira, "Aaaaaand he's gone." He sighed.
***
After walking deeper into the forest for another fifteen minutes, Ira popped back in front of Alaric.
"Goblin patrol ahead, five of them."
"Fucking—" Alaric was caught by surprise again, but Ira covered Alaric's mouth with his hand.
"Julius, we can ambush these five; we can take them right now."
The party was situated on the top of a small ridge, while the goblins were at the very bottom. They had the high ground advantage. The goblins were wielding steel weapons, two wielding an arming sword, one with a spear, and two with knives. All of them were in basic leather armour and loin cloth. Not only were they outmanned, but they were also outgeared.
"Alright, perfect. Alaric, move in up close with Kaelrith, Ira, look for any opportunities to take them from their rear, whilst I, Stoiarck, and Rosa will stay on the high ground here, giving support." Julius commanded. "Unless Stoiarck needs to come up to help you guys, but that's situational… You guys can attack when ready. I trust your judgment, Alaric." Julius added.
Alaric nodded in response. He tapped Kaelrith's shoulder, gesturing for him to move ahead.
Alaric and Kaelrith hid behind a tree of their choice, ahead of Stoiarck, Julius, and Rosa, whilst Ira disappeared into the forest.
Alaric peered from his tree.
The goblins were conversing while walking. They were about twenty-five feet away. They looked tired. Drained. Perhaps from being on patrol for too long.
He waited.
Waited until the right moment.
Then, one of the goblins, the one wielding an arming sword, reeled his head back slightly, scrunching up his face.
The goblin began to open his mouth and let out a yawn, raising his free hand in front of his face.
"HAAAAGGGHHH!!!!" Alaric screamed, heart pounding with sword and shield in hands.
The paladin ran downhill, with momentum on his side.
The goblins were caught off guard and whipped their heads toward Alaric in surprise.
By the time their weapons were up and ready to fight, Alaric had already slammed his arming sword into the goblin. Its steel plunging deep into the small shoulder of the goblin.
He took out his blade and drove the tip into the goblin's throat.
The goblin attempted to cry out, but it drowned in its own blood.
Kaelrith followed suit, his great axe held at his right.
He swung at the side of a spear goblin, crunching its body with his rusted great axe. The great axe stuck in the middle of the goblin's lower torso, its rust gripping on flesh like thorns.
Kaelrith ripped out his greataxe with slight tension, leaving the goblin's body nearly ripped in half, with only strands of flesh and sinew holding it together.
The goblin died standing.
Kaelrith knocked over the dead goblin with a push kick, grunting with anger.
Amidst the chaos, a knife goblin attempted to rush toward Kaelrith.
Kaelrith was unable to react quickly enough; his greataxe was too big to use at extreme close quarters. The goblin was directly in front of him.
In a split second, the goblin burst into flames, sent flying to his side.
The goblin screamed in agony, rolling in pain, trying to get rid of the flames.
Kaelrith walked over to the burning goblin and lifted his greataxe overhead, swinging down on the burning goblin's skull. Ending its misery.
Kaelrith looked to his rear and found Julius with his hand out—fresh from casting a spell.
They both exchanged a nod.
The two remaining goblins began to panic and flee into the deeper ends of the forest, but Ira reappeared and rushed after the two.
Ira threw a throwing dagger at one of them and hit them on the lower back, sinking it's steel into the kidney area.
The goblin fell over and let out a cry of pain, but was finished off by Ira's main dagger.
Ira immediately took the shortbow off his back in haste. and ripped an arrow from his quiver and steadily aimed at the final goblin.
Twhip!
The first arrow flew across the side of the goblin's head, grazing its ear.
"Tch."
Twhip!
A second arrow was fired, hitting the goblin behind its thigh, knocking it over.
Ira walked over to the knocked-over goblin to confirm the kill.
The goblin lay flat on its body with its arms sprawled out open, its knife still in reach.
The blood-elf crouched over to check on the goblin's pulse, extending his hand outward.
The goblin opened its eyes, grabbed its knife in haste and swiftly turned upright and slashed Ira across his face.
Ira jolted back in pain, landing on his behind and dropping his daggers in the process. Large amounts of blood were spilling out from Ira's right cheek.
The goblin walked over to Ira with knife in hand, cackling in a high gurgling voice.
Ira grabbed his dagger and tried to stand up, but the world began to tilt. Everything began to move in every single direction all at once. Ira felt nauseous. Unable to dictate his body on how to work. How to process anything.
Ira fell over as fast as he could stand.
The goblin, now in front of Ira, raised its knife high to plunge into Ira.
A large red man in robes rushed past Ira and shoved the goblin onto the dirt, and another large man followed suit.
"Hagh!"
A rusted greataxe slammed between the goblin's eyes, with brain and flesh flowing from its head.
Ira attempted to stand up again, but was halted.
"Hey! Just sit down!" An angelic voice said.
Ira plopped back down on his behind, and a blonde-haired girl greeted him on his side. She was out of breath, recovering from running a distance.
"...Rosa…" Ira said lightheadedly.
"Just stay still." She commanded, as she studied Ira's face.
Ira's right cheek was burst open with a large cut, with flesh bulging out and blood flowing.
Rosa placed her hand over Ira's wounded cheek and began to channel her blessing.
"By Luminarch's gentle Light, let pain take flight, make wounds whole—in holy glow, I beseech thee: Healing."
Rosa's hand began to emit a warm amber light, soothing the pain in Ira's cheek and clearing his lightheadedness.
The wound stopped bleeding, and then it slowly closed over time as Luminarch's warm light shone over it.
"There…" Rosa said, wiping sweat off her forehead with the sleeve of her white clerical garments.
"It's gonna leave a big scar on your cheek, but hey, I think it looks cool. Makes you look like a scary battle-hardened warrior or something." Rosa commented, smiling slightly.
Ira brushed his fingers across his scarred cheek, feeling the slight bump of the scar with his fingertips.
"...Thanks."
"Can you stand?" Rosa offered her hand.
For a second, Ira hesitated, remembering the horrible feeling of the world spinning out of control.
"Yeah," He extended his hand outward, grabbed Rosa's hand and stood up.
He no longer felt the world spin any longer. Rosa's healing spell had worked.
"Ira," Stoiarck stood beside Rosa. "You stumbled back there. Are you all right?" The half-orc placed his hand on Ira's shoulder.
"I'm fine. Just shock is all…" Ira moved Stoiarck's hand aside.
"All right, guys, let's collect these ears and take a quick rest, around ten minutes or so. Great work!" Julius clapped his hands together.
Alaric unsheathed his knife and kneeled over at the goblin—whose head was smashed apart by Kaelrith's greataxe.
"Ugh, for fuck's sake." He muttered as he began to cut off the large pointed green ear.
***
The group set off again after their break, still on the lookout for more goblin patrols. Ira once again took on the role of the scout.
Rosa looked ahead of the group, trying to take a glimpse at Ira. She turned to Stoiarck, looking upward.
"Stoiarck," She tugged at the half-orc's sleeve.
"Huh?"
"Do you really think Ira's all right? I know Ira's only been with us for about a month, but I've never seen that happening, him just falling over like that as if he'd been struck on the head with a mace…"
"Well, he did say it was shock. Perhaps he wasn't expecting the goblin to just swing at him like that? Then again, he was pretty careless when he went to check out the body." Stoiarck scratched his chin. "In any case, I'd keep a close eye on him if I were you, don't want something like that happening again, especially in the heat of battle."
"...Yeah, I suppose so."
"Ah!" Rosa lit up.
Stoiarck's head reeled back slightly in surprise.
"He did seem better after I cast healing on him."
"...So?" He tilted his head.
"Maybe he'll no longer fall over like that if I bestow a blessing of some sort on him, or a minor healing potion could work too!" She claimed, eyes glowing. "Ah, but I'll have to learn a bestow spell from the Cleric's Guild first, heheh." She remembered, scratching her cheek with her index finger.
Stoiarck chuckled, "Sounds good."
"Shh!" Julius turned around to the cleric and half-orc. "Ira's spotted something."
Ira speed-walked toward Julius from ahead of the group.
"What did you see?" Julius asked.
"Goblins on the path—four of them. They have more armour than the previous patrol. Chainmail and rusted plate armour—not full sets, of course." Ira relayed. "You wanna take these guys on?"
Julius thought about it for a moment, his right hand on his chin with his left arm supporting his right arm's elbow.
"Yeah, it's only four, we can take them. We outnumber them and should outmatch them. We'll ambush them again, only this time we'll lead with ranged attacks." Julius said, "Ira and I will hit them first, and then Kaelrith and Alaric will charge in. Stoiarck and Rosa will be on support. We'll go ahead of them and wait in the bushes and trees. Wait until Ira and I fire upon them, got it?"
The party nodded in unison.
"Great, now let's move. Try not to make too much noise."
The group moved up the side of the path, getting ahead of the goblin patrol. Ira set up behind a large rock, whilst Julius set up behind a tree, ten feet apart from each other. Alaric and Kaelrith set up between Ira and Julius, with their weapons drawn, and Stoiarck and Rosa stood behind the formation behind a large mossy rock.
The goblins were nearly in the line of sight of Julius and Ira. Two goblins had chain mail, whilst the other two had worn and rusted plate armour—perhaps stolen from a dead adventurer. They were armed with spears and arming swords. The goblins were in the midst of conversation, without a care in the world.
Julius began to take out spell components from his pouch and mixed the ingredients in his palms.
Ira slowly took an arrow from his quiver, placed it on the shortbow, and pulled the string, training his aim on a chain mail goblin.
Just a bit more… Julius readied himself
Nearly there… Julius stuck his hand outward, aiming at the plated goblin at the front of the patrol.
Now!
"IGNIS!" Julius shouted.
A mana circle of orange and red formed in front of Julius' palm, and formed a bolt of flame, shooting towards the plated goblin at intense speed.
Ira followed suit, releasing the tension from his shortbow.
Twhip!
Fsssh!
Both hit their mark, with the bolt of flame burning through the goblin's plate armour and knocking the goblin unconscious.
Ira's arrow shot through the goblin's throat, knocking him sideways and causing him to choke on his own blood.
The two remaining goblins were caught by surprise, but quickly turned toward the direction of the ranged attacks and raised their weapons, ready for combat.
Alaric and Kaelrith rushed forward to meet the last two goblins in melee.
Kaelrith swung his great axe over his head, but it ate dirt. The goblin had moved aside, just barely, screeching in panic.
The goblin lunged towards Kaelrith with its spear, but Kaelrith quickly let go of his great axe and weaved aside, countering the goblin with a right punch to its face—using its own momentum against itself.
The goblin stepped back in pain, teary-eyed and nose bloodied, but still in the fight.
Alaric swung at a plated goblin—swords clashing together.
Clang!
The goblin parried, but failed to return an attack.
Alaric stepped backwards, making some distance between himself and the goblin. Alaric and the goblin circled, waiting for the next move.
"Waagh!" The goblin screamed, lunging at Alaric.
Alaric parried with his shield and thrusted his arming sword into the goblin's chest, breaking through the rusted plate armour and stabbing the goblin.
The goblin screeched in pain, jumping backwards.
Fuck, was that not deep enough?
Both goblins were still in the fight, but wounded.
All of a sudden, both goblins began to scream something in their tongue, as loud as they could.
"What the fuck?" Alaric muttered.
"Shit! They're calling for reinforcements!" Julius shouted.
In the distance, the rattling of armour and weaponry could be heard.
"Fuck they're too quick to react! They're already coming!"
"Alaric! Kaelrith! Forget those two, we need to go!"
"Huh?!"
Fwip!
An arrow flew across Alaric's line of sight as he was looking at Julius.
Julius fell backwards.
Alaric squinted at Julius, wondering what had happened.
"Julius!" Rosa cried out.
"Shit!" Stoiarck rushed to Julius' side.
Julius had been hit by that arrow. Just below the ribs. Julius' skin immediately shifted from its warm tone to pale, clammy skin.
"Fuck." Alaric began to sweat.
"Kaelrith! We need to go. Now!" Alaric shouted towards Kaelrith.
Just as Alaric and Kaelrith were about to fall back, the goblins began pouring into the battle site, one by one. One, two, three, four. Four goblins. All of which had chainmail.
Finally, one more had approached. One of a larger stature.
A hobgoblin.
The hobgoblin wore black plate armour and wielded a wooden club. It stood at around Kaelrith's height and had a strong build.
Fuckfuckfuckfuck, this cannot be happening right now. Alaric thought as the sweat began to pile up on his forehead and back. Each drop of sweat felt hot—like tiny needles sinking into his own skin.
Kaelrith picked up his great axe from the dirt, eyeing the hobgoblin.
"Shit. There's no way out of this, huh." Alaric muttered, breath shaky.
He lifted his shield in a guard, with his sword resting on the top in a fighting stance.
I'm not fucking dying here. Luminarch, save us.