Looking around at the rest of the squad no one seemed to be offering any other suggestions.

"Alright then, no objections! Guess you're in charge Mel! Right, shield users come up here with me, bow user stick with Mel, and polearms in the middle. Let's keep moving and see if we end up coming across any goblins." I beckoned to the other shield users I saw as I finished.

One thing nice about no one speaking up, regardless of the efficacy of Mel's suggestion, is that it meant everyone was just kind of going with the flow. It meant no arguing or infighting.

"In charge? W....wait!" Mel stuttered and we all chuckled.

For now.

I felt like our formation may have been the intended option by our knight instructor now that I think about it. The corridor we were walking down was wide enough for eight people abreast. Once you took into account our weapons and shields though, the five of us had just enough room for us to swing our weapons.

I'm glad the order went through all these tunnels and placed all these torches though. Despite being deep underground at this point we still had plenty of light with them being regularly placed along the wall.

We continued on for about an hour with nothing going on before we finally had a switchup.

We came across a path that branched off, identical to the one we were already in. We all stopped and gathered together to debate our path.

"You know, truthfully I would not think it matters in the long run guys. However, I am enjoying the straight path. Its a small thing but the instructor did say we had to find our own way back. That'll be exceptionally easy if we never take any detours." I suggested with a laugh. "Any suggestions everyone? Mel?"

"I ...I don't have a suggestion about the path, but if we have an unknown behind us, we should rotate a shield back here and a polearm to bring up the rear. If we could. Please" Melania was definitely a shy one. I wonder why she's taking this training?

"Anyone opposed to captain Mel's suggestion?" I teased. We really needed to break her out of her shell for as long as we were going to be squadmates.

"Ca...Captain!" Mel squeaked out and covered her mouth.

No-one else said anything though, so I just continued. "Alright, I'll fall to the back then, if a polearm user could hang back as well, that'd be great. Let's move out, straight ahead."

As I let the squad continue I noticed the three polearm users were just kind of eyeing each other trying to figure out who would fall back. I chuckled and tapped one of them on the shoulder as they passed, it was a young girl with a Halberd. She looked surprised for a second but nodded along and stopped walking. That decided we brought up the rear as the group continued.

Not even ten minutes later we had our first encounter.

Someone up ahead called out, "Incoming!" and suddenly I heard the mad scramble of claws on the stone floor.

"F...form up! Don't let any past!" Mel hurriedly squeaked out again, but even from my closer position to her could barely be heard.

I repeated her orders, but shouted it louder this time, and heard a shuffling from the squad in front of me. Hopefully they were getting into position. "We're back here if you need to fall back and rotate with any of us, just shout out if you do!" I added.

Suddenly from around the curve up ahead the claw sounds came into sharp clarity. I did a short jump to see what we were up against and noticed about forty or so goblins charging. I knew they were weak... but that seemed like a lot. We would have to see. The archers, Mel being one of them, suddenly had their targets in range and let loose some arrows. The goblins made no move themselves to dodge and 2 eventually found arrows in their heads. It didn't look like the arrows went through like with Bea's warbow, but two goblins stumbled and were then trampled by the rest as they ran in. Two more went down before the tide clashed with our frontline. They would have to be picky with their shots from now on with everyone else getting into action.

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Suddenly Mel's caution bore fruit.

I heard a scramble of claws from behind me as well and, turning to look see another twenty to thirty goblins approaching from the rear.

"In the back as well! We won't be able to rotate!" I called out. See Mel stunned I caught her eye and winked. The halberd user spread out to my left to help stem the incoming wave from the back.

As we clashed, I started off aggressive and went with a shield bash followed immediately by lashing out with my hammer. The shield absolutely smashed the goblins face in and he launched back into his friends. They really were really light. They felt like nine year olds. When my hammer connected with one it too exploded and carried on to the empty space where the one I hit with my shield was. Noting that it was even weaker than the ones from earlier, I made a mental note to try and swing a bit wider to take advantage of my weapon.

The halberd user was holding her own just fine as well. Her slash was cleaving through two goblins and sinking in to a third. These goblins were definitely easy for everyone to handle, the instructor was right. At that thought an arrow flashed by and took out another goblin.

Funnily enough the front line and those in the rear ended up finishing at the same time, and we just had a mound of goblin corpses surrounding the whole squad. As the last one fell, and I heard no more scuffling I sat down. I felt like I might not have a truly accurate sense of time due to being my first melee like that, but I thought it couldn't have been more than ten or fifteen minutes. Not truly tired, but I did need a break after all that. A few others of the squad followed suit and plopped down.

As I was breathing deeply from the ordeal, the smell hit. I coughed and hacked, caught by surprise from it. Looks like the knight instructor spared us this when introducing us to the goblins because I do not recall it from earlier. But I did still throw up then, so maybe it was there and I just didn't notice it.

The girl with the halberd eyed me before calling out "How is everyone? Any injuries?". Not hearing anyone speak up she sat down next to me as well, grimacing. From the smell I hope.

"Good call, checking on that. We should probably make sure to check after each fight." Nodding her way, I relaxed fully on my back. "Good job in the fight as well, you used the halberd very well, keeping goblins away from the archers."

She just stared stoically at me before glancing at the archers and closing her eyes.

Okay, the strong and silent type I see. Noted.

While staring at the ceiling I called out "Anyone know how long that took? I'm not sure I trust my sense of time."

Someone called out "It was not even half a bell I believe." And there were several mumbled agreements about that.

I jumped up. Good to see my sense of timing wasn't too off. "How about we go for either another bell or till there's another fight. Then head back?" More mumbled agreements sounded out. "Great, anyone still need a breather or should we continue?"

No one spoke up about needing a break. "Okay great, let's continue in the same formation then."

Everyone readied themselves and began walking and we continued on.

—----

We got in another fight before another bell passed. It ended up much the same, about forty goblins in front and twenty or thirty from the back. We still did not have any issues and no one was tiring. I kind of wanted to keep going. But Mel spoke up before I could bring that suggestion.

"Le... *cough*... Let's head back everyone. Do not rotate the formation as the numbers are staying the same on the direction. We may have further encounters on the way back so keep an eye out." Her voice got stronger as she continued on with her recommendation. No one objected and I caught her eye as she turned, and smiled at her. She blushed fiercely and looked down.

"Mel makes a great point guys, I was not even thinking that we would be attacked on the way back, but yeah it could happen. Then we might miss dinner, and no one wants that." I chimed and nodded Mel's way, then began heading back, assuming people would fall in step behind me.

They did, no complaints. I loved this squad.

—----

Mel was honestly a true prophet at this point because we did actually have two more encounters on the way back. At first I thought they were at completely different ambush points, because as we marched back I did not notice any goblin bodies. What was going on there? Glancing at everyone else, no one made to mention it. I thought to myself I have to ask Bella if she knew. Maybe this was a monster or dungeon thing?

At last we got back to the main chamber where the knight instructor was patiently waiting. It looked like we were the first to return. She glanced at us before staring back at the tunnels. As she did the bell rang out, and I couldn't help but think how accurate Mel's sense of timing was. Even if we returned just a moment early it may as well have been right on time.

We waited with the knight as the rest of the class began to filter in. Some took just maybe ten minutes or so to arrive, until finally almost a whole hour passed.

We were still waiting with the knight who was staring down one more passage intently.

I quickly glanced around. Was someone missing? Doing a quick count I noticed yes, we were missing one group. Doing a double I realized something that sent a chill down my back.

I did not see Bea's warbow sticking out anywhere among the squads.