Chapter 11

We woke up feeling great after completing our first contract. We were excited to get started on another contract. We got dressed in our equipment and made our way down stairs. The maid brought us out some breakfast. We had a pleasant meal and talked about what kind of contract we would take today. We decided that if there was one available we would do a monster hunting contract. Herb gathering had gotten interesting yesterday, but we would rather know a fight was coming beforehand. With breakfast finished we headed out to the adventurers guild to pick up our next contract. We walked in and headed straight for the receptionist. We walked up to her and asked if there were any pewter contracts and she replied. “Yes, we have two available right now. The same rat killing contract from earlier and we have a group of goblins around a small village that need to be dealt with.” It didn’t take much thought for me. We had already talked about the kind of contract we wanted to take. “We want the goblin contract.” She wrote down that we had taken the contract and gave us all of the information we would need to complete it. We walked out of the guild and headed back to the Inn. We needed to grab our gear before we headed out. We also needed to resupply. We had used a little of our supplies while on the last contract and I wanted to be prepared if we were away for a long time. We went inside and grabbed our gear. We went back downstairs and told the Innkeeper we would be gone for a while. She told us she would save our rooms for us. With that taken care of we found a nearby store to stop at and pick up some extra supplies.

After that we made our way towards the city gates. It would be more than a day's travel to get to the small village. This trip could be done in only a few days or it could take more than a week. We had to hunt down a group of goblins that had been attacking the village. We were to find where the goblins were coming from and to put a stop to them. We would be moving in a similar direction to the one we had taken for the last contract. So we headed north across the bridge. We kept on the same path that we had taken for a few hours and then we took a branch road towards the east. We walked until midday and stopped for a break and to have something to eat. With this contract we were not in that much of a hurry so we could afford to spend a few minutes resting. We each had a sandwich and kept walking. This was a well traveled route towards the east many caravans came this way to get to the Capital. We had seen quite a few merchants head back the way we had come. We would have to stop and camp tonight. The village was pretty far away from the Capital. I hoped that we could make it before night time tomorrow, but it may take us until the morning after that to arrive at the village. We walked until just before night time and set up camp. I cooked us some stew for dinner and we had some bread with it. After supper we sat around the fire and talked. We were both eager to get into some more action.

On our travels we had had our fair share of encounters and the more we could take out the better as far as we were concerned. With night time creeping in it was time for bed. Sora would sleep first and then I would sleep after being up for about half of the night. We were getting closer to where we knew there was some monster activity so we needed to be on guard. I sat on a log and watched the fire burn. Every once in a while, I would add a new log to keep the fire going. The night passed by without issue and I woke Sora when it was my turn to sleep. I went to sleep as soon as I laid my head down. I was awoken by the first rays of sun and the smell of cooking bacon. Sora was at the campfire working on breakfast. While she cooked we chatted about the plan for today. We would try to walk through the whole day and hopefully make it to the village tonight and if not we would get there sometime that next morning. We ate our breakfast and then set out down the road. We were in a heavily forested area so the walking was pleasant. The trees kept us covered from the sun and the well traveled road made walking much easier. These main roads were well maintained by the kingdom because they allowed the merchants to enter the Capital more easily. While walking we looked around to see if we could see any sign of activity from monsters in the area. We had a long way to go to get to where the monsters were but it was good to make sure they had not spread out from the area we knew they were in. Fortunately we didn’t see any sign of them as we walked. We didn’t stop for lunch. We just ate as we walked. We walked until nightfall. The village had to be nearby but we didn’t want to push it too much. We stopped for the night and set up a campsite. We made a quick meal and then Sora went to sleep. I took the first watch and then woke her up. I went to bed and Sora then took her place where I had been. I woke up and Sora was making oatmeal. We put away all of our gear and then headed for the village.

It only took two hours for us to come into sight of the village. We made our way into the village and looked for the largest building. The village elder lived in the largest house and would have more information for us. Before we could make it all the way to the building an old man came out to greet us. “Hello there, I assume you are the adventurers that are here to rid us of this goblin plague.” I replied. “That would be us. We have been tasked with tracking down and killing the goblins in this area.” He said. “We have some limited information on where the goblins may be located. Most of the sightings and attacks have been to the north east of the village. We've even had a villager be killed by the monsters. We also have a few villagers that were attacked but managed to get away.” He also handed us a small drawn out map to show us where the attacks had taken place. We told him we would set out right away to hunt down the goblins. We left the man and made our way towards the north east. It shouldn't take more than an hour to get to the first location. We would check out all of the locations and then start looking around for signs of the goblins' activity. We walked through the forest while searching for the signs of activity. We made it to the first location. This was the sight of one of the attacks. There were still signs of the ground of the villagers and goblins that had been here. Though from the signs on the ground we couldn't tell where they had come from. We continued to look around but to no avail. So we headed to the next spot in hopes we could find more information. Much like with the first sight there were signs of the struggle that had occurred but no sign of where the goblins had gone. We walked through all of the points on the map but none of them revealed any more than any of the others.

We stopped for lunch after searching through every location the elder had told us about. It was odd that there was this much activity but no sign of where they had gone. Sora and I talked it over while we ate. We tossed a few ideas back and forth. We decided on setting up an ambush. We would set up our tent and make it look like we are staying there for the night. When it got dark we would sit in the forest a distance away and hope that the goblins would come out and investigate. It would show us where they had come from and hopefully we could take a few of them out before they could escape and alert the rest of the group. We waited for the sun to go down and then crept into the woods to await the arrival of the goblins. If they didn’t show up tonight we would just have to search the forest until we found a sign of where they were. The night passed by slowly. We had almost given up on the idea of the goblins coming to investigate our campsite, but then we saw motion from the far side of the clearing. A group of three goblins snuck out of the woods and made their way over to our tent. They began routing around our bags. We heard the sound of them eating our food. We crept towards them in the dark. Both of us had already drawn our swords. We had hoped that leaving some of our supplies in our bag would distract them so that we could sneak up on them. We got within striking distance of the goblins. We each picked a side and plunged our swords into the closest goblin before either of them could react. They each let out a scream that frightened the last goblin who turned around and tried to attack me. We were ready for his attack. Sora and I blocked his attack and each went in for a slash nearly cutting the small goblin in half. With these three taken care of we rounded up our gear and headed off in the direction the goblins had come from. We also made sure to collect the ears as proof that we had killed them. The goblins had left quite the trail on their way towards us. They must be cleaning up after themselves on their way back from an attack. Because the path they took to get to our campsite was very clear.

We followed the path for what had to be over an hour and felt closer to two. We were wondering when we would finally come across something when we found a group of small huts around a large campfire. There were five huts in total with one hut being larger than the rest. That must be where the leader of the goblins lived. We saw a group of five goblins sitting around the fire eating and drinking. We didn’t know how many goblins there were. Though with the amount of huts here there could easily be twenty or so here. It was shocking to me that the villagers had never made their way close to this camp. It was rather far away from the village at least a five hour walk but to hide this from them was outside of my expectations. We had to come up with a plan to deal with this massive group. We couldn’t take on a group this large. Not with just the two of us. I could think of a couple of strategies that may work. We could each sneak into one of the huts and systematically take out every goblin quietly while they slept. This had a high probability of blowing our cover if one of the other goblins came across us while we were in the middle of killing the sleeping goblins. They could alert everyone and then we would give up the element of surprise and just have to fight our way through anyway. Though if we could do it quietly it would save us the trouble of a straight up fight. The other plan I had thought up was that we could set all of the huts on fire and hope we killed enough of them in the blaze that we could then come through and clean up the remainder. This one also had the down side of instantly revealing that we were there. Though it could possibly take out a large number all at once without the worry of a random goblin compromising our location. We talked it over for a while weighing the pros and cons of each strategy. We ended up going with the fire plan. We would each take a few torches. We would light them once we got close to the huts and then we would each set one on fire and then make our way to the next. Hopefully being able to light all of them on fire before we were spotted. After they had found out what was happening we would run for the forest and use hit and run tactics to whistle down the remaining goblin members. I had also noticed that while we were discussing our plan a much larger goblin had come out of the central tent. This had to be the leader of this group of goblins. This may complicate things a bit. With a leader present they would be more organized and may put up a better response to the fires we may have to rethink our current strategy.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

After thinking it over some we would wait till all but the night guards went to sleep and then we would sneak into the tents and try to assassinate them one by one. This strategy had a large chance of going wrong but with the leader being here the fire strategy really didn’t seem plausible. After an hour of waiting all but two of the goblins had made their way drunkenly into their tents. We waited a little longer and decided this was the time. We each made our way towards a different hut. We choose the ones on the opposite side of the guards. We didn’t think it would matter much that the guards were chattering drunkenly. I made my way into the hut and saw seven goblins sleeping inside. It was just an open space with a pile of pelts and old cloth lying in a pile on the ground made up like a bed for the goblins. I snuck my way towards the closest goblin. I slipped my dagger from its sheath. I placed my hand over the goblin’s mouth to keep it from uttering a sound. With a silent slice I slit the throat of the first goblin. It was easy, the flesh split like butter under my dagger. I made my way cautiously through the room taking my time one by one to kill the goblins while they slept. Unexpectedly I didn’t manage to wake any of the goblins while I went about my bloody work.

With the hut now empty of life I made my way to the next hut. While I was slowly making my way over to the hut I glanced to the side and saw Sora making her way to the next hut as well. She glanced my way and gave me a silent nod. Symbolizing that she had also completed her grizzly task. Knowing that the odds were now much better for us I relaxed a little. This was going much better than I had thought it would. I went into the next hut and looked around to see how many goblins were in there. That's odd. There were only three goblins in this tent. Then a thought hit me. The three we had killed must be from this hut. Well that was a lucky break for me. I went through the room the same as the last. Slitting the throats of the goblins as they slept. I finished off the third and final one in my ten when there was a sound from just outside. The two guard goblins had come into the hut. Presumably to wake up these three to take over the guard duty. They were surprised to see me there. They let out a piercing shriek that could raise the dead. There was no way that we were going to be able to take the rest out from stealth. I had to kill these two quickly so that I could go help Sora. She may not have been able to kill all the goblins in her second hut.

There was also the lead goblin that I had to consider. He would surely head to the sound of the ruckus. I put my dagger away and pulled out my sword. The goblins rushed me in a drunken rage. This made it much easier for me to defend myself. I pushed one of them away and stabbed the other. Though I hadn’t had any formal training I was making up for that with this practical application. The one I stabbed slunk to the ground and I went over to one I had pushed over and slammed my foot into his head. It splatted like a melon. Bits of meat and bone flew everywhere. I didn’t have the time to worry about these two and made my way out into the open. I could hear the sounds of a fight in the hut Sora had been headed for. I also saw the leader making his way towards me. He didn’t look like he was overtaken with drunkenness. He walked steadily towards me. I walked towards him with my sword raised. The goblin leader had an old and rusted sword in his hand. It was dented and mangled from misuse. He charged at me with his sword coming down in a high arc. He was very large for a goblin. Almost the size of a man. I had heard of these before somewhere. I think they were called hobgoblins. They were much closer in intelligence to humans than their goblin cousins. It was after this first strike that he spoke. “Why you here human?” I was startled that the monster could speak. He wasn’t very articulate, but it was strange that he could even speak some of the human language. “I’ve been sent here by the adventurers guild to kill you all. You’ve attacked and killed some of the local villagers and I’m here to put a stop to it.” I replied to him. “You no kill me human. I kill you.” With that he seemed to be done talking. He hacked and slashed at me with no rhyme or reason. I blocked him as best I could while attacking him back. We were about evenly matched.

Neither of us seemed to be that adept at one-on-one combat but eventually he slipped up and I was able to pierce his guard and slash him across the torso. He backed off a little but the cut seemed to only enrage him. He cut at me wildly. He managed to cut me a few times lightly on my arm. It wasn’t anything too bad, just barely bigger than a scratch. He was wearing himself out and I finally saw him start to lag. With this opening I started a counter attack. I began slashing at him much like he had at me. I had better luck with my attack than he had with his since his strength seemed to be waning. I managed to land a few good blows on him. As I seemed to be making headway in the battle we suddenly stopped. A blade was sticking out of his chest. I hadn’t even seen her approach. She was covered in blood. It must not have been an easy battle for her but she managed to arrive at a crucial moment. The goblin leader slumped to the ground. She looked at me and said, “ Well that could have gone better but all and all we managed to kill them all.” I looked at her and said “ You may be right about that. Is that your blood or theirs?” She seemed to just notice the state of her appearance. “I’m not injured so it must all be from them. You on the other hand look to have been wounded.” With that being said she started cleaning my injuries and bandaging me up. They were only light wounds so it wasn't anything too serious. We just stood there for a while breathing heavily. It had been quite a battle for both of us. We did have to go around to all of the corpses and collect their ears. We would need to report this to the adventurers guild. A huge party of goblins all grouped together under the leadership of a hobgoblin. This was definitely something that needed some more investigation. We rounded up anything that the goblins had that was of any value to us. They had a little bit of coin hidden in the leader's tent. It only came out to thee bronze and four copper so it wasn't anything too great but we would take it. We collected some of the better looking weapons around that we could maybe sell. We decided that with all of the work done it was time to rest. Before we could do that we piled up all of the goblin corpses in the biggest hut and set it on fire. We moved away from the fire and went back into the woods. We set up a tent and our sleeping rolls. We really needed our rest. We decided that with all of the carnage nearby, anything in the area would stay away so we both went to sleep. Tomorrow after we had rested up we would return to the village and report our success and then make our way for the capital. For now we needed to rest. We had won and they had lost. We had completed a relatively difficult contract. Maybe this was enough to be upgraded to Iron rank. With those hopes in my heart I fell asleep with thoughts of advancement.