As predicted, the battle started with the setting of the sun. It seemed the monsters were hasty to get the job done because they didn’t wait for total darkness to fall first. Perhaps they felt overconfident of their superior numbers, wallowing in their premature celebration of an impending victory, a faulty assumption we were about to correct.
On the rooftop I’d piled large rocks to about man height, strategically around the edges of the roof as cover from goblin arrows.
There wasn’t a particular strategy on their part, all the monsters simply rushed the mesa en masse, from all directions. Standing clearly above the goblins, eight ogres carrying heavy ladders loped along amongst the goblins. From my vista I could easily notice the distinctive loping gait of the ogres. Four ladders headed our way from four sides, each long ladder carried by two ogres. The ladders looked roughly made, fashioned from the trunks of sturdy saplings bound together with plant vines.
I didn’t have time to dawdle. According to Ara the first ogres to reach the mesa with their ladders would be on the collapsed entrance side. I set up my anti-ogre weapon. I called it the ‘Tigre’. Yeah, the others didn’t get it either. There were two on the ground in front of me, the others placed similarly on the other sides of the mesa.
How to fire a ‘Tigre’ you ask? Nothing to it really, just point the device at the ogre’s chest, bulbous end facing the target. Then pull the trigger on the handle followed by an almighty pop, like a cork on a champagne bottle, and the device barrelled towards the ogre’s large body.
The only problem was when I tried that, nothing happened. The ogre saw the Tigre coming, picked up its free arm and fended the bomb off with an irritated swipe of its arm causing the bomb to fall to the ground like a babington shuttle. I couldn’t believe how quick that ogre was with its hand which made me appreciate just how fortunate I was to dispatch the last two ogres I managed to surprise.
“Huh?”
By that time, I already loaded the next Tigre, ready to go. Then I aimed it lower, towards the ogre’s abdomen to make it more difficult to deflect. The launching pop sounded followed by a massive explosion that lit up the entire area in a heat wave that rolled upwards. Perhaps the darkness exacerbated the effects of the explosion but even I never expected a detonation on that scale. When my eyes finally recovered their night vision, I caught the image of a partly carbonised ogre slumped on the ground with a massive section of its midriff missing. The explosion also shattered the ladder the ogre carried, leaving the other bewildered ogre of the pair still holding onto the remaining part of the ladder. In the explosion’s afterglow, hundreds of goblins stood transfixed by the unexpected cacophony. The remaining ogre suddenly decided to beat a hasty retreat. Suddenly, another huge, unexpected explosion wracked the area. I watched in fascination as the explosion launched goblins into the air like ragdolls.
Did Ara just make a joke? Back to the present, the ogre was barely still alive but if it survived, let’s just say after that battle it would need a large wheelchair. The surrounding area lit up with small brush fires started by the second explosion, which allowed the archers to better see the surrounding area.
“Okay everyone…”
Hollered Matheus’ voice above the goblin cries.
“Light up those bonfires.”
To provided us with light we needed as darkness fell, the archers lit up torch arrows we made as part of our preparation and shot them into premade piles of wood below. I chuckled as one of the fighters from Vascillius’ team winced when the fires flared up so beautifully. The sacrifice of his alcoholic beverage to our survival was deeply appreciated although I think he would have preferred to use it differently. The other ogres didn’t take long to recover from the previous explosions and once again started moving towards the mesa.
“Shane, we need those ogres down!”
Shouted Matheus over the din of goblin calls, although I already lined up another ogre into my sights. Boom! And another one bit the dust. Looking for the next target, I ducked behind a rock pile to avoid arrows raining out from the night sky. Luckily my air scan could detect missiles trajectories that Ara displayed as red lines in my view. I literally had a second or two to move before the arrows hit.
“Hana, take out those goblin archers.”
In quick succession she nailed two goblin archers that seemed to be more accurate in their aiming than the others. Hana’s help gave me the break I need to dispatch another ogre before I realised the next two were going to make it to the mesa before I could reach that side in time.
Two arching lines lit up on my heads-up. The first was Ara’s blue projected firing curve line and the second green line was mine. As I moved the Tigre in the direction of her line, I watched my arching green line moving around until I matched it as close as I could and fired in a parabolic curve into the air, over the heads of our fighters. A resounding thump and a large voluminous flame roared into the night, silhouetting the human fighters on the edge of the roof. A red dot on my heads-up disappeared, indicating a kill shot.
I could swear Ara enjoyed the action more than I did. As I dispatched the next ogre, two of the last remaining ogres made it to the mesa wall, their ladder hitting the side with a dull, sickening thud. My stomach turned as I realised that we just dropped a defence level.
Hana’s backlit silhouette released a shot at one of the ogres that just positioned the ladder hitting it directly in the eye, causing it to grab its face while hollering in pain.
Just at that moment, the first goblin made it up the ladder. Before it could climb off, and arrow pierced its head and it fell screaming into the mass of goblins below. The goblins cackling din overwhelmed my senses as I realised the eighth ogre attempted to climb the ladder. Now I understood why those ladders were so heavy, the ogres intended to climb the mesa.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
I couldn’t fire my Tigre because of the ogre’s proximity to our fighters.
A red circle appeared in the air above the ladder in my heads-up and I opened the transfer storage overlapping that red circle. With a roar that sounded like a massive dump truck releasing its load, a mass of heavy rocks fell on the climbing ogre, crushing it and smashing the ladder it climbed along with any goblins below. Another red dot disappeared as I leaned over the mesa’s edge to view the results of my work, a pyramid of rocks lay there like a funeral pyre and the wooden splinters of a ladder poked out of various places.
One of my preparations for the battle required me to collect piles of rocks into a transfer storage. One of those piles I just released on the unwitting ogre and my focus shifted to the ogre with Hana’s arrow in its eye. Since their ladder plan failed, taking the mesa by force wasn’t a viable option and the ogre beat a hasty retreat towards the line of trees.
Ara’s simulated red circle appeared in the sky above the retreating ogre. She naturally compensated for the movement of the running ogre and the red circle moved slightly ahead of my target. A roar of cascading rocks could be heard in the distance after I opened the transfer storage and the last red ogre dot disappeared off my airscan.
Following that, all that remained were the multiple goblins vainly trying to climb up the walls of the mesa. By then our archers picked them off after mopping up the last of the goblin archers. Goblins had an unfortunate habit of congregating whenever they gathered in large numbers. I called it the herding mentality, perhaps it gave them a sense of security. Regardless of the reasoning, they corralled themselves so nicely I used my remaining EE to rain piles of rocks on any group of goblins. Of course, I never collected that many rocks, but nothing stopped me from reusing the same rock piles on the ground.
Out of the darkness a huge roar sounded from under the treeline. The sound of retreating goblins faded into nothingness until silence remained. From my vantage point on the edge of the mesa I got a strong feeling I was being watched. My heads-up Airscan showed two red dots standing there. For some reason I felt the hostility emanating from them, one of them didn’t feel like an ogre.
I suspected that one was the commander of the monsters giving me the evil eye. Eventually the red dots started moving away.
“Yeah don’t run now you little bugger. I’ve got a little farewell present for you.”
I wanted them to get the message clearly. Mess with me and die. They were quickly heading out of range. A hyperbolic curve appeared on my heads-up as I quickly fired one of my remaining Tigre’s off the hip. With a pop I stared into the darkness as my air sense skill picked up the quickly receding warhead. A distant fireball erupted and after a few seconds one of the dots disappeared.
“Got you!”
I shouted. Imagine my disappointment when I realised I didn’t hit the commander but the remaining ogre. A roar erupted from the darkness and the red dot moved too quickly for me to track it further until it left my range. When I turned around I realised everyone in the team looked at me.
“What was all that about?”
“Oh that? A little parting gift to their commander I think. Unfortunately, I just missed him.”
That night we slept uneasily. I knew that we missed a bullet. That goblin commander made the mistake of including me in that group and that tipped the battle in favour of us. The little sleep I did get, was troubled by unease. Early the next morning, before sunrise, Matheus woke me up for my guard shift. I joined him on the roof for a few minutes as he talked with me.
“Shane. You saved us from certain death in this battle. Hadn’t it been for you, we wouldn’t have made it with the force of numbers they threw at us. I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to pay you back for this, but I hope somewhere in future we can do something for you.”
“Yeah, don’t sweat it. I was doing it to save my own ass too.”
He sat quietly with me for a few minutes and then asked,
“Would you consider selling one of those Tigers to us?”
“No.”
He didn’t look surprised. I didn’t correct him and tell him it’s called a Tigre.
“Ah, I didn’t think so. Thought I would try anyhow. If you ever change your mind, let me know.”
I didn’t answer him. There was no way I was handed that sort of explosive power to anyone. Heaven knew what wrong hands it would land up in. He headed to bed and left me on watch, looking at the rising sun. A huge mess waited for us in the morning light. About an hour later, Matheus brought everyone together in the cave to talk.
“Right. Here’s the latest report. The four scouts we sent out this morning reported seeing no monsters in the area and we’re assuming all the monsters have vacated now. I recommend two things; firstly, we gather as many kill confirmation parts as we can and secondly, the faster we move out of here the better.”
I didn’t offer to open the cave. Matheus knew as well as I did, that if I opened the mouth of the entrance, it would never be the same secure location again. When I collapsed the roof, I inadvertently widened the passage roof which meant any ogre could in future fit through that entryway. It effectively nullified the effectiveness of the original entrance. Besides, opening it would only invite hostile monsters to move in after we left. Best to keep it closed.
For that reason, we shifted operations to outside the cave, having cleared out anything of value still in there. Collecting valuables up was just as laborious. It took us a good part of the morning. The only blessing were the storage rings I handed out to the rest of the folks. As a result, we could gather a lot more goblin subjugation rewards.
I was tasked with investigating the piles of rocks I left behind because there were a lot of goblin remains still in them. We wanted to see if we could extract evidence of the rewards out of those rock piles. With earth skill I quickly realised we would take weeks to delve into that mess. I reported my finding to Matheus and requested the remains of the ogres while I was at it.
“Oh, well that’s a pity. Unfortunately, we can’t waste time here to deal with those. If you want to take those rock piles and bodies with you, feel welcome. Besides, the cost of sorting that out those rock piles back home could easily make you break even anyway. As for the ogre bodies, we can’t carry the bodies and we don’t have enough time to take the leather, so they’re yours as well.”
Since Vascillius didn’t have a problem with me keeping them either, I simply went around storing the rock piles in the same transportation storage. The issue came up with the ogre subjugations. Between us three leaders, we decided that the other two teams would claim the evidence of the kills, Hana and I would have their tusks. After some of those wonderful explosions, some of the ogre’s only had partial tusks. One ogre was still buried under one of the rock piles I stored. In that case I offered to give them the subjugation proof, or money when I finally retrieved it.
When we calculated or the totals together we ended up with one hundred and eighty-six dead goblins a few others with no subjugation proof available. Eleven of those were goblin leaders with earrings. That worked out to a total of 3500 silver coins, or thirty-five small gold. As for the eleven goblin leaders, 275 silvers and the eleven golden earrings would be split amongst the people. Since we were twelve people in all, I was willing to opt out of the earrings, using the excuse of the money I would make out of the rock piles later as my payment. That meant for the goblin subjugations, each person got 314 silvers, 58 coppers each. That was a whole forty-four nights of accommodation in Shimmerstal. It didn’t amount to a lot, come to think of it, but for such a large subjugation party it wasn’t a bad haul. Besides, that was above and beyond what the Harpies and Smashing Owls would claim for their quests, and the storage rings I gave them to buy off their silence. It was no wonder they were happy for me to keep the tusks as rewards. Hana asked the obvious question.
“Hey Shane, just how much is an ogre tusk worth?”
When I appraised the tusk, it came to 150 silvers each, depending on condition.
“150 Silvers per tusk.”
I could see Hana doing the mental calculations. We had twelve whole tusks and ignoring the partial tusks, came to eighteen gold.
“How much are those rings each worth?”
“A hundred and fifty small gold.”
“Please stop handing out those rings for nothing.”
Was all she said. Such harsh admonishment in so few words.