That wasn’t good. I discussed the coming strategy with Tobias. I asked Tobias if it was normal for goblins, wolves, and ogres to be working together and he shook his head. The chances were good that a stronger command type monster had arisen in the area and had started to mobilize the lower ranks into effective units. That showed strategy, intelligence and will, not a good combination when it came to monsters.
“Tobias. I suggest we set up a fort right here. We are not likely to exit this forest tonight and I need time to set up a decent defence against ogres.”
An attack on us was almost certain after the direwolf scout spotted us last night. Tobias called the team together.
“Shane, you start on the defences. Cortez, when Shane finishes get the horses sorted and the wagons stowed. In the meanwhile, help Aliz and I to pick up whatever remains of the adventurers and we can find and put them together. Shane could you store them for us?”
I nodded.
“Hana and Corey, stand on guard and be prepared for any surprise attack.”
I started to build a circular surrounding wall with a radius of fifty meters. The wall had a tapered thickness; one meter at the top, extending out to four meters at the bottom and about four meters high. The taper was on the outside of the wall the flat end inside. I didn’t expect the monsters to debate the reason as to why I did that, they would just find it extremely convenient to get over the wall. Which was exactly what I wanted.
How did that old poem go, ‘Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly?’
I needed as many monsters as possible to come in. The outer wall was central to my strategy. Having Ara on our side made for a powerful engineering support. She was able to model the civil work for me and give me wall specifications so that I didn’t needlessly waste time on non-functional constructions. Following the completion of the walls, I created a simple tower seven meters in diameter and twelve meters high. The first six meters were going to be rock-solid foundations and for the rest of the tower thick walls with a top floor. There would be a spiral staircase running along the inside of the tower walls and that would also help strengthen the structure. I placed archer slots at various point down the staircase. It was a quick but effective construction.
When I made the tower, everyone except Cortez and I had to be on the top level. To save time I had everyone stand on the centre spot where the tower would rise. As the construction of the tower raised up out of the ground the team on the top rose up higher and higher. At the lowest level, before the solid foundations were to start, Cortez brought the horses and cart in with my help and I sealed up the hole behind me, only leaving some archery holes along the staircase. If I died, they were going to have an awful time getting the horses out of there because there would be no door. Cortez was able to climb the internal staircase to the top. I raised the construction for another six meters with solid rock-hard earth. Around the tower was an empty moat five meters deep and five meters wide. My last act would be to fill the moat with water. I thought that I was starting to get better at making towers after all the practice of late. I had another little surprise for the first arrivals to the moat.
Around the outside of the moat, I started creating a network of holes. After I closed them up again, I called the team to pull me up to the top with a rope. In no time, I was on the top platform behind the battlements.
I slowly released water from my transfer storage into the moat until it was full. We just had to wait for the evening. No one was expecting to camp for the night, but Cortez did make some dinner while we all waited. No one ate much because we weren’t that hungry, but I suggested that I store the remaining food for later if we were hungry.
As if on cue, thick clouds rain dumped a deluge on us, and it started to get dark. Lightning and thunder sounded around us and in briefly lighting up the terrain in muted sepia tones.
“Go figure, straight out of a manga novel.”
No one understood what I said, and no-one bothered answering as we sat with our backs against the weather side wall. We all wore waterproof coats with hoods, so no one would get wet, but we still huddled next to each other for warmth. The first monsters appeared on my presence sense.
On my heads-up, there were number of amber dots around the tower that corresponded with the fifty or so holes I filled in earlier. I created a field of landmines surrounding us. Goblins reached the outer wall and started climbing over.
“Hana, fire the first set of flares.”
With three stokes Hana sent flare arrows flying into the air. Those arrows turned into bright flares, using gravity, air, and light skills they hovered in position while lighting the entire world up. The flares would only last for five minutes at a time because the high winds buffeted the arrows around. That required the arrows to spend more EE to keep from moving.
The end effect was a view of a field of goblins running towards the moat and more that were literally throwing themselves off the outer wall to get to us. To my left I saw a picture in the flare light I’ll never forget. Corey with her bow fully drawn, on her right Tobias slightly crouched with his shield protecting Corey from any arrows that might come her way. Aliz protected Corey’s left with her sword drawn and a light shield. Cortez stood behind them while looking over Tobias’ shoulder, his staff held slightly behind him as if afraid of accidently hurting someone with it. They were the Red Sparrows, all family, all friends and together in that battle.
Ten direwolf riders overtook the goblin foot soldiers and arrived at the moat first. The first unlucky ones hit mines and exploded with flashes and massive bangs. The others quickly became targets for our archers who were using exploding arrows. They were particularly effective on the wolves. By then the screeching hoard of about two hundred and fifty goblin foot soldiers caught up, setting off the remaining mines.
All the monsters stopped at the moat, shields up. The few remaining wolves retreated preferring to keep out of range of the archers. They seemed to be waiting for the ogres. Ten massive ogres about four to five meters high arrived over the walls with massive rocks under their arms. The rocks no doubt to either throw at the tower or fill in the moat at some spot. Although we were high up, heaven only knew how high those blighters could throw those rocks. I would only give them a little time to get closer, I had a special plan for them. But in the meanwhile, I intended to have some fun. Hana launched another salvo of flares as the rain, thunder and lightning continued.
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“Aliz!”
I called, pointing to the grenades on my belt. She nodded smiling. She pulled a pin out one of the four grenades and threw it into the hordes of goblins below. A clang sound followed where the grenade hit a goblin shield then rolled off onto the ground. Seconds later a muffled thud sounded a shock wave hit us and crop circle of six goblins lay on the ground either motionless or moaning in shocked pain. A cheer broke out from our team.
Aliz didn’t need a second invitation, she threw all the grenades at various spots inside the hoard around the tower and similar crop circles ensued. I handed Aliz my four remaining grenades seeing she was having so much fun. The goblins had no idea what was happening and started running around in panic, some even ended up pushed into the moat. Not being the best of swimmers the goblins that fell in the water with all their light armour sank like stones. Hana and Corey took their time and started to pick the goblins off one by one in the chaos. By that time the incoming ogres met the outgoing goblins midway, but the fleeing goblins suddenly realized they couldn’t get over the outer walls. It was time for me to destroy the ogres.
A transfer storage opened above the closest ogre. More specifically it was the same storage gate I once used to store the rock Mr. Papadopoulos spent so much time working on. The ogre was aware that something was different stopped and looked up at a black hole forming above it. There was a ‘shwoosh’ sound followed by a massive rolling thunder that even we felt in the tower. A large pyramid of loose rock replaced the ogre. I closed the transfer storage.
“What the…?”
The team gasped next to me. In front of them about eleven meters away a large pyramid of rock stood. I still had more rock to go. I was about to go the next round when Hana stopped me with her hand.
“Wait!”
She notched an explosive arrow and launched it at the chest of the nearest ogre. We heard a dull thud as the arrow hit home and the ogre keeled over onto its face. Hana repeated the process for each ogre that approached, hitting all but two of them because they were out of range. The last remaining trolls started panicking and retreated but were each squashed into insignificance by massive amounts of rock.
The goblins, also panicking at the surprise loss of the ogres were running for the walls, unsuccessfully trying to escape.
“How about we put these monsters out of their misery?”
I asked the team. But they looked a bit shocked.
“Hana, more flares please…”
I pointed to a place in the sky halfway between us and the outer wall where most of goblins fled. Four meters off the ground, a large black circle opened, and a massive tsunami of water released onto the ground. Within a minute the water filled the area inside the outer walls up to a depth of four meters, drowning every goblin and direwolf.
Our tower stood like an island in a sea of water surrounded by stone columns. Water stopped flowing over the walls as the transfer storage closed. It looked like a scene out of Noah’s ark with the sea, thunder, and lightning.
There were no following attacks and we stayed on top of the tower that evening. The poor weather eventually cleared as the stars made an appearance. Later I opened a small hole in the outer wall to start letting the water slowly out. I wanted just enough water to keep us safe for the night.
“Well... it’s a crying shame you know?”
I became aware of Tobias standing next to me.
“What is?”
“Ogre hide is pretty valuable.”
He said looking at the three stone columns. Hana’s action now made more sense, she wanted to preserve the hides and tusks. I couldn’t hold my laughter in.
“Next time I’ll leave them for you to sort out.”
“And leave all the fun to me?”
Our spirits lifted while on the top floor that night. I pulled out some barbeque bullfrog and rabbit as we joked about the lack of food variety. Cortez produced some alcohol and even lit a fire while we laughed at each other’s dumb jokes and antics.
We left the next morning after I collected all the goblin and ogre bodies, storing them for later. I also collected the rock piles deciding to sort out the ogres inside them later. I didn’t change a thing about the site. I wanted the monsters to remember that day. To have a memorial to their failure. I carved a large standard of my lion into the tower before leaving. There were no further attacks on us for the rest of the journey. Late the next day we arrived back in Obon and we headed straight for the guild. The guild had already closed but news of our arrival spread, and a group of anxious relatives gathered wanting to know if we had any news of a team of adventurers overdue on a similar quest. We didn’t say anything about remains because we needed to inform the guild first. We were the bearers of unfortunate news and there would be a lot of tears in Obon that night.
Since it was dark and there was nothing further to do, Hana and I headed straight to the inn. Cortez offered to look after the rest. They would unpack the wagon the next day. Haruhime didn’t waste any time pointing us towards the showers while waving her hand in front of her face. Ah nothing like a cold shower to come home to. I’d find a way to fix that in future. As tired as we were, we cleaned up as best we could and collapsed in the same bed together. Too exhausted to worry about protocol.
The next morning, we reported to the guild, and Hana and I made a turn at the Dryad only to find Karato and the old man waiting there to surprise us.
“What, how did you all get here?”
Hana asked Karato and Grenfell.
“You’re not the only one with skills. There were those goblins though…”
“Bwahaha!”
Both laughed at their own private joke, no doubt an incident along their trip here. And that was all they would say. Somehow, they were able to get through a monster blockade. Considering Karato’s background and the old man’s suspected military experience, chances were, it wasn’t much of a challenge for them.
“How much marsh-iron ore did you manage to retrieve at the end of the day?”
I dropped the remaining ore in the store at the back of the Dryad. There must have been well over twenty tonnes lying there.
“That’s a lot of ore.”
Said the old man.
“I only declared four tons on advisement from Tobias. Explaining how we managed to get more than that would have been troublesome. They might accuse us of lying.”
“Even four tons would be a lot.”
“Yes, but they overlooked it seeing it included one and a half tons that belonged to the adventurer team.”
Grenfell and Karato looked saddened when I told them about our experiences and the remains we found. I also mentioned that the guild told me the sponsor of the ill-fated expedition team was the mayor, Mr. Marset. Without a thank you he claimed the tonne and a half of marsh iron and gave nary a copper to the adventurer’s families. Mr. Marset, entitled within his rights to ignore the families according to the quest contract, would still have to be a heartless creature to ignore the number of affected families. Knowing him, he was only too happy to have made more money.
“Many of those adventurers were good folk. We personally knew some of them and their families are going to battle to make ends meet. Did any of the adventurers have insurance clauses in their contracts?”
“Mr. Marset opted out of the insurance and instead offered a higher reward on completion of the quest. The guild wouldn’t advertise a quest with those conditions, but the rewards must have been pretty high enough for those adventurers to risk it.”
In the case of death in a private contract, there are no rewards. Even if the goods are recovered afterwards. To add insult to injury, our team didn’t even get any reward for returning their ore. Something about that didn’t sit right with me. Karato looked seriously at me,
“Shane, would you mind releasing part of your quest rewards and allowing me to give it to those affected families? I’ll explain to the palace about it. Somehow I don’t think they’ll worry. I’ll sort your repayment out later.”
I nodded,
“It would be my pleasure. What happens to the rest of the iron?”
“Since you’ve completed the quest beyond even my expectations, I’ll let you decide what you would like to do with it.”
The successful completion of the Marsh Iron quest and the Obon resupply quest meant we already pocketed ninety-five small gold in total. Thirty gold for each tonne of marsh iron, making it sixty and then thirty-five for the Obon resupply. I even had a large amount of remaining Marsh Iron I could sell later. Overall, it made for an exciting adventure. In future, I decided I wanted to do something for the people of Obon. I wanted to change the dusty town into a vibrant place of life, where everyone would love to live.
I grabbed Hana by the hand.
“Come Hana, the morning’s still fresh. Let’s go out and do something interesting. I have a feeling we’re going to have some fun.”