“Lady Andrea,” yelled a squire in the front of the formation. “There’s a bear three hundred meters to your right.”

“Don’t yell, you absolute worthless piece of shit.” She wanted to batter him further, however, the bear had already started its charge. “Emilia, guard the back,” she yelled as her lizard turned to face the bear. The other knight wouldn’t have a problem taking down this beast, but she wanted to show off to her little brother. She hit her lizard and it scurried towards the bear.

The bear continued its charge. Ten meters apart, it jumped with its jaws open, ready to bite off her head. Andrea used her heater shield to bash away the beast. Unlike magical skills, physical skills increased the user’s base strength, their reflexes, and their prowess with specific weapons. In her case she had the dismounted knight skill which increased her sword and shield strength; yet this alone wasn’t enough to kill a bear with a single strike.

The bear didn’t receive much damage. It turned to face Andrea once again. She kicked her lizard to make it charge. The bear went on its hind legs and used its massive paws to swipe at her, however she cut a deep gash in the bears paw with her blade. The bear lost its momentum, unable to properly land due to the deep gash in its right paw, it fell on its right side. Not willing to let this opportunity go she used her mounts explosive strength to thrust her sword through the bear’s skull. Blood pooled in the grass, and she pulled out her blade before it got lodged in the corpse.

She looked back to see her brother’s slightly horrified face at the sight of his sister, smiling, while covered in bear blood.

Andrea quickly took on a stoic look and went to clean her blade. She had forgotten that they came here to let Fergulino practice killing and not for her enjoyment.

When she sheeted her sword, she saw that her brother was now closer to Damon than before. Next time she should let Damon deal with the threat and swoop in to rescue Fergulino. There shouldn’t be anything too dangerous around here so there were no real risks.

A bit later they found a goblin nest. Since there weren’t any scouts, it shouldn’t be a large one. Andrea decided that this might be a good place to test Damon’s skills. “This is a small nest; it can only fit three people at once. Fergulino, come. Emilia, you too.”

“No, as his tutor I can’t let him go alone.” Interjected Damon.

“Fine, then let’s go, Emilia guard the exit.”

Emilia nodded and Andrea entered the cavern. She pulled out a short sword, her secondary weapon. Her armor would protect her from the goblins projectiles so there was no need for a shield. And she needed her other hand for the torch.

Damon did the same, well he didn’t have a torch. Fergulino on the other hand had a buckler shield and a short spear.

Andrea took the lead and cursed internally at her own proactiveness. Did she not want to see Damon fight and wasn’t this whole thing for Fergulino.

A few instants later Damon whispered. “Three goblins one hundred meters ahead.”

Andrea turned to him in surprised. She didn’t know if he knew wind magic, or if he had an item, however, when she saw his shining eyes she asked, “wait do dark elves have night vision?”

Damon didn’t have a reason to hide a racial trait, so he nodded. And since he still had to achieve his goal as a tutor he added, “Fergulino follow me, you will fight a goblin one on one. Andrea, stay behind and guard the rear.”

What rear? This is a goblins nest, not an ant colony. Well, I’ll watch since you’re just doing what I wanted. Andrea handed the torch to Damon who led Fergulino towards the goblins. She stayed a few steps behind.

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Damon turned to Fergulino, “I will dispose of two and prevent any reinforcements from coming. All you need to do is kill the last one.”

Fergulino nodded and clutched his spear.

When the goblins came within fifty meters of Damon they charged without restraint. Damon put his hand in front of Fergulino who stopped. When the goblins were five meters from Damon, he looked at the goblin to the right, an earth spike impaled it. He looked to the left and the same happened to the other. The last goblin raised its bat and swung down at Damon’s head. He parried the strike with his sword and kicked the goblin back against a newly formed earth wall. “Fergulino, it’s up to you.”

Fergulio walked towards the goblin and readied his sword. The goblin didn’t waste a second and swung its bat towards the boy’s chest. Fergulino took the full brunt of the hit with his shield. Although his technique wasn’t bad his strength was, and the blow made him grimace. However, he didn’t run back, but struck the goblin in it’s flank with his short spear. The goblin tried one last strike, however, when Fergulio blocked it, this time with much more ease, the goblin seemingly gave up as he sat down against the dirt wall and covered his wound. He looked lethargic and would no doubt bleed out soon enough.

Fergulino let out a sigh.

“It’s not over,” said Damon.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s still alive. Stab his right jugular.”

“What, that’s overkill.” He looked a bit pale.

“Then at least head to that earth wall.” Damon pointed towards another artificial wall behind the one where the goblin was bleeding out.

“Then I will.” Fergulino, anxious to finish this hunt walked past the goblin which was bleeding out and the ones which had been impaled through their asses. Blood flowed from their eyes, nose, and mouth. The smell expired flesh and of the biproduct of bowels grew stronger. If it weren’t for the dissections he would have already vomited, but then again, perhaps he wished he could vomit.

He now heard bats slam against earth wall from the other side. He instinctively backed away and ran into the impaled goblin. Its blood dripped onto his hair, but he had to concentrate on what would come next. The next thing he saw was a fireball launched towards, but then a quarter dome made of earth appeared in its way.

Andrea ran to his left. Damon who still held on to the torch took the left side of the passageway. Their composed looks unsettled him. That’s when his sister ran past the gap in between the cave’s systems wall and the earth quarter dome. Soon, the cutting of air, flesh, and bones filled the air. When the earth dome came crashing down, Fergulino saw a blood bath and two monsters standing side by side, the opposite half of their faces lit by a torch placed in the middle. One grinned the other looked on dispassionately into the dark tunnels. Perhaps demons were closer than he thought.

“Let’s go,” said Damon. “There should be more of them. I didn’t let you fight then because of the shaman. It has level two magic skills so it can be tricky if you don’t have offensive magic or higher-level martial skills.”

“Won’t there be more of them further in?”

Damon shook his head. “What is the use of a king if all his subordinates are dead. This one must have been the leader. There shouldn’t be any dangers left. Let’s go.”

Further ahead Fergulino noticed that one passageway had been sealed with the same earth wall as the one he saw before. Andrea looked at it and turned to face the continuous passage a few seconds later. Fergulino wanted to ask what they were hiding from him, the son of a duke. However, the two of them scared him, although he managed not to show it. Well, they wouldn’t be able to tell anyways since they were now walking side by side in front of him.

Damon stopped, “Fergulino, four more. This time you will fight two.”

“Damon, I will get rid of the others this time.”

“You don’t need to ask me, knock yourself out.”

She smiled, well not at him but the two new corpses in the making. This time Damon didn’t erect an earth wall. They seemed to have reached a dead end in the cave system.

Fergulino readied his short spear and buckler shield once again. He dodged the first strike, however, the second strike hit his leg. Fighting two goblins at once took too much out of him. He jumped back to avoid the third strike and to lurer one in. When the goblin chased him, he managed to counterattack and pierce the goblin’s throat. Now back in a one-on-one battle he faced the last goblin head on and killed it with a strike to its heart. He then went around stabbing their corpses to make sure of their deaths. His heart beat quickly and he stood on edge. He looked to his right and left, however, there weren’t any beasts coming his way.

“I think I’m just going to stay home and level up my skills. This is too much,” said Fergulino.

“Where did your pompous attitude runaway to?” asked Damon, “how are you going to cast any spells with such low mana. Killing beasts is a part of any magician’s training. Now, lets get out of here.” Damon handed the torch to Andrea who took it and stayed in the back while Damon led the way.