The next morning I woke with the sun and saw the rest of my team already awake. I quickly packed up my gear and got ready to head out after a quick breakfast of oats.
“All right, let’s head straight in. I think we should avoid any of the patrols we can until we make it about five miles in.” Gary said once we were all gathered together by the edge of the Bloodfields.
“Why bother avoiding them? We can take them out easily at this point,” Aaron asked while we made our way into the dense forest.
“I’m not sure how long it will take us to get 10 miles deep,” Gary explained. “I just figured the sooner we got far enough into the fields the sooner we could start looking for an Awakened hobgoblin or Warg.”
“Fair enough, works for me. I’ll scout ahead for now,” Aaron said before he jogged through the trees ahead of us until we lost sight of him. The next few hours passed by slowly as we hiked through the dense tree cover. We passed by a few patrols and ended up killing one large group of six goblins and three wargs about 9 miles in.
“That was the first time we’ve seen goblins with leather armor like those,” Aaron commented as he searched the bodies. I had noticed that during the fight as well, instead of dirty rags, this group of goblins was outfitted with crude strips of leather.
“All right, let’s slow down and move in formation from now on,” Gary said after we looted the bodies. “That adventurer mentioned said we’d see patrols from the villages ruled by Awakened out here.” I nodded and moved closer to Gary and Zack in the front while Aaron and Gabrielle moved behind us. We slowly made our way deeper into the bloodfields and I noticed that the dense tree cover started to get more sparse with occasional clearings in the trees.
“Stop,” Aaron said quietly from behind me. Everyone stopped moving and stayed quiet as we studied ahead of us and listened. I heard a faint noise in the distance ahead of us but it was too far to see through the trees.
“I’ll scout, stay hidden,” Aaron whispered and moved quietly towards the noise ahead. The rest of us moved to crouch behind a nearby tree that was easily large enough to hide all of us. A few minutes passed and I started to feel worried and did my best to ignore it.
Eventually, Gary cleared his throat and shifted which caused everyone to look at him since we were all crouched near each other without moving. “Should we keep waiting?” Gary asked quietly and I almost jerked back in surprise. I expected an order more than a question about what we should do from Gary when we were in a combat situation. The group had naturally fallen into his command and we trusted him to do it well.
“Let’s move,” Gabrielle said decisively and Gary and I nodded in support. Gary stood and led us out towards the direction Aaron had moved in. He still moved quietly so we didn’t rush forward despite us all feeling the urgency in the situation. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since he left but I estimated it was around half an hour. We walked through the dense forest for another few minutes before we saw a large clearing through the trees. There were smaller patches of dense forest throughout the clearing but I could see that it was a massive area. We moved to the edges of the treeline carefully until we crouched near the front to look around.
“A patrol, there,” Gary said quietly while he pointed to a group of six goblins and two wargs far to the left of us. They walked slowly through the clearing along the edges of the treeline as they scouted the area.
“There’s a large copse of trees in front of us that would let you see the center of the clearing. I’m sure Aaron went into there to scout, then saw the patrol coming along the treeline.” Gary said confidently after we all studied the monsters in the distance. “If we strike once they reach this position whatever is in the center of the clearing won’t be able to see.”
“Aaron’s been alone for a long time,” Gabrielle commented quietly. I nodded worriedly, I thought Gary was probably right that Aaron was in the copse of trees a few hundred meters ahead of us but he could still be in trouble over there.
“He could be in trouble, or maybe he’s fine,” Gary said after a moment. “Let’s move to that treeline, if the patrol sees us they’ll follow us there. If Aaron doesn’t find us immediately after we get to cover, we stop to deal with the patrol. We’ll find him after, if necessary.” Gary stated and met each of our eyes for agreement. Everyone nodded seriously and I started to jog beside Gary with Zack and Gabrielle behind me. We crossed the first half of the clearing before I heard a shout from behind us. I knew without looking that it was the patrol and I immediately sped up. We sprinted the rest of the distance to the trees before I turned to face the sprinting wargs. They were still a good distance away and the goblins were just behind them.
“Gabrielle, try to place a wall of flames on the goblins when they get here to separate them. I’ll focus one warg and Zack will get the other, move to support when you can, Eli.” I nodded quickly and cast Barkskin on all four of us before taking a position a few feet behind Zack and Gary. The wargs and goblins had slowed and they now walked together with the wargs towards us. They screamed and charged forwards once they were only a few meters away. I watched Zack engage one while Gabrielle sent a fireball in front of Gary. I figured Gary would finish that one with Gabrielle’s help so I dash forward to attack with Zack.
“Fortress,” Zack cast right before the warg jumped at him. A steel shield rose covering the area in front of him and the warg slammed into it. The wall fell and Zack slammed his mace on the wargs head. Two of the goblins stabbed at Zack with their spears and I parried one away with my shield while I stabbed for its chest. I noticed the goblins were all larger than the ones we had seen in the past, but they were still far from the size of a hobgoblin. The goblin jerked back after my spear stabbed halfway through its chest and I was immediately stabbed in the thigh by another goblin behind it. The spear penetrated through my armor but only scraped on my skin and left a shallow cut.
“Thornbolt,” I cast quickly at the goblin who stabbed me. My spell went fully through the goblins head and I quickly turned towards Zack. Gary had Gabriel sending fireballs at one while he fought the other carefully.
“Incoming!” I heard Gary shout and I glanced back to see Aaron running through the trees towards us with goblins following him. I cursed and turned to help Zack finish off the two goblins so he could help me take the other group after.
“Thornbolt.”
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“Thornbolt,” I cast twice as I couldn’t save essence when our lives were on the line right now. My first shot hit one of the goblins behind the head and sent it to the ground while my second only hit the torso of the last goblin. Zack quickly took advantage of the distraction and bashed it on its head.
“Meteor!” I heard Gabriel shout right before a blast sounded behind me. I turned with Zack and rushed towards the seven goblins who were staggering back from Gabrielle’s spell. I saw Gary finishing the last goblin he had been fighting and joining Zack and me in front of Aaron and Gabrielle.
“No essence for the wall of flames,” Gabrielle said in a rush.
“I’m out,” Aaron spoke quickly right after she finished. The goblins seemed to be gathering up now and preparing to rush us again. Aaron sent an arrow at one of the goblins but it turned its head in time and only received a large cut along the side of its face.
“Charge,” Gary charged at them just before they reached us and stabbed us once through the head. I quickly focused on the two heading towards me.
“Thornbolt,” I cast at one and then rushed at the other one swiping at me from the other side. I moved forward and caught the swipe with my shield and tried to stab at the goblin's chest. Another goblin hit me from my side before I could react and pierced through my jerkin just below my ribs. I gasped in pain and shuffled back as quickly as I could to create some distance between me and the two goblins in front of me.
“Fireball,” Gabriel sent a spell into one of the goblins rushing towards me and sent it shouting and falling back. The other goblin raised its spear to stab at me and I weakly lifted my shield to block it. The thrust sent me crashing to the ground in agony even as it hit my shield and it tore the wound in my side. I looked up to see Gabrielle fighting the goblin carefully with her short sword and my shield that she picked up from my side. I tried to focus on standing up to help but my side hurt more than anything I had ever been through before.
“Drill shot,” Aaron sent an arrow through the goblins skull as Gabrielle kept it distracted and facing away from him. I looked around in a haze to see that all of the goblins were still and everyone was still standing.
“Eli, are you ok?” Gabrielle asked worriedly after she knelt next to me and looked at my bloody side. “How much essence do you need to cast rejuvenation?”
“I don’t think it went too deep, but it seriously hurts,” I said slowly as I layed back on the grass. It felt like waves of pain were shooting through my side and I clenched my teeth as I focused on my essence. I had a little less than a quarter remaining, so I only needed to ignore the pain for a while. “A few minutes until I can cast,” I said before I tuned them out and focused on the essence inside me. It swirled around my core and I could feel the essence slowly growing as I drew it in from around me, somehow. I meditated on the feeling until I had the essence that I needed.
“Rejuvenation,” I cast on myself immediately and ignored the annoying feeling it produced as I finally got relief from the burning pain in my side. I felt my mind unfog and I looked around to see the rest of my team sitting around me looking worried.
“Finally, that was scary,” Gabrielle said after I finished casting.
“Glad you're ok, Eli,” Zack said with a smile from where he sat leaning on his pack a few feet away. He was covered in blood and I could see where some of his armor had been crushed in a few spots around his torso. “That was pretty intense. What happened Aaron?” Zack asked and we all looked towards Aaron to hear what had happened.
“Well, I got to the edge of the treeline and saw the clearing. There was no one in sight so I moved to this copse of trees and headed towards the other side to see the center of the clearing. There’s a walled village over there with dozens of goblins on the walls and I could see a few hobgoblins too. I spent a couple of minutes waiting to see if I could spot something that looked like an Awakened monster but I didn’t see anything. On the way back I was ambushed by those goblins and a few wargs, I used all of my essence to kill the wargs then escaped back to here. Good thing you were all here, thanks.” Aaron finished his story and I was immediately glad that we came after him when we did. The fight was difficult but if all of us were together I think we would have done much better and might not gotten so many injuries.
“Glad we were here in time, Aaron,” Gary said with a nod and a smile towards him. “I think we should move out of this area and move somewhere defensible where we can camp for the night to heal up and plan for tomorrow.” We all nodded at his suggestion and I painfully got up with everyone else. It looked like none of us made it out of that fight without some injuries but all of us were able to move. There was no goblins insight and we moved back out of the clearing where we entered earlier. We hiked for another forty minutes before our pace had slowed so much that we needed to stop.
“Let’s set up here between these trees,” I suggested as we passed three massive trees that blocked all sites from three sides. Gary nodded and everyone moved inside and sat down our gear. I had already cast rejuvenation twice more on the walk back, once on myself and once on Zack who seemed to be the most injured.
“Let’s keep one person on watch at a time, hour and a half shifts,” Gary said after we all settled down to cook dinner. No one argued and I quickly ate before I worked on cleaning my gear and setting up my tent. I cast rejuvenation a few more times on every one since I took the first watch and no one objected to me casting it in their sleep. My watch passed quietly and I studied my status as I sat with my back to one of the large trees.
Eli - Lvl 3 Druid
Experience - 960/1000
Strength-6
Dexterity-6
Perception-5
Vitality-6
Spirit-7
Willpower-8 (+1)
Barkskin - Level 6\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 320\3200
Thornbolt - Level 4\20 Upgradeable
Experience - 220\1600
Rejuvenation - Level 3\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 430\800
The night passed by without anyone waking me up so I assumed no one saw any monsters overnight. I woke with the sun and packed quietly until everyone was awake and we gathered up over a breakfast of cold oats.
“So, yesterday was a hard fight,” Gary grimaced and stopped for a moment. “To say the least. That being said I don’t think we should give up on hunting here, with all of us together I think we can handle ourselves.”
“Agreed. We should all reach level 4 today as well, which will be a serious increase in our strength.” Aaron said with a grin. I nodded excitedly, I only needed 40 experience to level up, which would likely only be one or two of those larger patrols and stronger goblins.
“Yeah, I don’t want to leave here already.” Zack concurred and no one had any objections. We packed up and headed back towards the clearing we fought at yesterday and arrived without seeing anything. There were no patrols in sight and we crossed to the same copse of trees that we were at previously. We moved carefully through the trees and didn’t see any patrols or goblins waiting in ambush as Aaron found before.
“Damn, that’s a lot of goblins,” I said as I looked at the dozens of goblins lining the walls. Patrols were moving around the walled village and into the different copses of trees scattered through the clearing.
“We can see where the patrols are going and move to hunt them down,” Gary said after we all watched for a minute.
“I don’t see any other option, honestly,” I said with a shake of my head towards the village. “That just doesn’t seem possible.”