[Axi’s POV]

I sit surrounded by goblins. This is strange, actually. I mean, they are the same as me; they look the same, but I’m different. They are stupid, but I’m not. It’s strange. I feel like something else. Like not a goblin, only a usurper in a goblin’s skin.

I take a look at the town’s walls. Someone had to work a lot to create those big walls. Actually, the human world is so different. The wall is rather normal, I think. Everyone wants to defend themselves against threats. But the fields… there are no animals here. Just… plants. I eat some grain Smag told me humans eat. They are fine, but it’s annoying to chew them. They are small. I sigh.

I would rather be there, with Smag and Anastasia. But I can’t. I know I won’t be able to fight, and they will need to save me. It’s annoying. It’s stupid. I’m angry at myself. I’m just stupid. My head is stupid.

I could take back my old core, but I know it would be more useful with another goblin. I don’t really deserve it. I can still move soil around, so it’s not a big deal not to have a core and mana pool.

I sigh again. I just need to wait now for them to return. My thoughts are interrupted by something flying near me. I look over and notice an arrow in a nearby goblin’s head. He falls down, and another arrow hits another goblin. What? I grab my ax and search for the archer.

“Grab your weapons!” I shout. They are wounded, but not dying. Goblins scramble to defend, and I notice a group of five humans in the distance. They sneaked through grain fields. They are pretty noticeable now. The archer shoots at me, but with so much distance, I sidestep and dodge. The rest of the humans start to charge at us.

I grip my ax. Can I fight? No, I can’t. This… I’m going to die again. So stupid. I look at my ax. It’s not much different from what I had before, but compared to the new Smag’s weapon he looted from adventurers, it’s primitive crap. I have been only using it to chop trees.

The humans are upon us. Goblins have no chance. I just stare like an idiot. One of them attacks me. I see a sword coming from above, coming to claim my life.

I hear the sound of a clash. I deflected? He attacks again, and I deflect again. Why? Why now?

I get it. I start to laugh. Humans look at me funny. I get it. I was afraid of death. Now, I know I will die. I don’t have my old strength. There are five of them, and the goblins around me are practically all dead. Three of them are escaping. No, two. I see an arrow sticking out of the third goblin. I’m going to die. Again. There’s no point in fearing the inevitable.

Humans attack me again, but this time I counter. I deflect and step forward, using a shorter distance to chop the human. He grunts in pain, and his friend attacks me from behind. I use earth magic to shift the ground beneath that guy, and he trips. The enemy before me tries to raise his guard, but I hit his hand and deliver a hit to his face. He dies. His friends shout. I don’t care.

Another guy attacks me with fury in his eyes. His sword is aflame. I parry and step back, trying to cushion the blow. This one is stronger. An arrow strikes my arm. Not good. Two remaining warriors attack me from behind. I use magic to shift the soil beneath the guy before me and jump forward, hitting the idiot in the process. He bleeds now from his side, but I have a stab wound from one of his friends.

The guy turns back and tries to attack me, but I throw one of the bags lying around at him. He slices it. I take the chance to attack him, but the spearman covers him from behind. I can either take a hit and kill fire warrior or back off. I back out. A burning bag lights up another one, and a small fire starts. The fire warrior doesn’t care, though, and attacks me.

I’m wounded in one arm, and he easily overpowers me. In the end, I just lack strength. I take a step back, then another. Archer stopped firing some time ago, probably mindful not to hit his teammates. Two remaining humans flank me. I try to defend, but the ax is a weapon for attack, not defense. One wound. Another. Fire mana flows from the sword into my body, burning it from inside. It hurts.

One human pushes my ax to the side, and another stabs me in the chest. Then, a flaming warrior swings at my head.

[Smag’s POV]

Axi fighting is a strange sight these days. I’m not fated to ponder too long, because just a few seconds later, one of the adventurers cuts off Axi’s head. Damn it! Axi is dead again. It’s not a big problem. I can bring her back. Again. She doesn’t need more trauma, but she will be back, as long as I can find her soul.

I jump down from the wall, breaking both legs. I just push my still-high vitality mana reserves, and I can run a few seconds later. I’m not totally fine, but I'm fine enough to fight. I need to find Axi’s soul before it drifts away. It’s fine for now; it couldn’t drift too far, but each second it could be farther. I can’t spend the whole day looking for it around town.

The adventurers are not pleased by my charge and move forward to face me. Damn it! An arrow flies my way, but I duck. Too far, asshole! I prepare Vitality Clot, hopefully, I can kill one of them just with that.

They keep a formation waiting for me to deliver myself. I come closer and notice their mana shields. One is too good for me; one is fine enough; but the last one is rather shabby. I stop just outside their reach and shoot the Mana Orb and then the Vitality Clot in quick succession. “Fuck! Another mage!” He screams, and I just jump forward, as if to end the job. His teammates move in to assist, but I clash my sword against the enemy swordsman and then slide to the side and disengage.

I run to Axi’s corpse. There is the highest chance of finding Axi’s soul. Archer fires again, and this time the distance is way shorter. I try to dodge, but the arrow still nicks my skin. Hopefully, no venom, but with my new vitality perk, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

There are souls around, but not Axi's. Hers looks stronger. My Soul Perception has a rather short range—only around a dozen meters. I run to the side and start to make a circle.

“What the fuck?” One of them asks, looking at my strange behavior. They are occupied, though, with their teammate, as I think he dies. I was lucky with that Clot. Another arrow, this time striking me in the shoulder, even with my dodge attempts. I rip it out and use some vitality to fix the wound.

There it is! Well, it’s in the archer’s direction. I rush forward, but two remaining melee fighters move to intercept. Damn you! I just want to recover Axi’s soul!

I prepare another two orbs. I shoot them just as they are about to attack me. It’s not going to work, but they don’t know that and dodge. I take the chance to grab Axi’s soul. Got it! Arrow flies and hits me in the guts. I actually jump back, rip the arrow, and fix the wound with vitality. That’s some serious injury, and I don’t have enough mana to fix it now. Just bandaging it up so I can fight is enough. On the other hand, I create a mana structure to house Axi’s soul for now.

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Now… I just need to deal with adventurers. The swordsman goes first, with the spearman slightly in the back. Swordsman is going to be the tank, Spearman the controller, and Archer the damage dealer. In an ideal world, I should kill the Archer first, then the Spearman, then the Swordsman. They are not going to allow me to do so easily. Swordsman attacks, and I go to the side to place him between me and the archer. Spearman tries to block me, but I’m stronger with my buff on.

The swordsman's skills are way better than mine, while my stats are probably similar, even with buffs. Damn. This guy must be one of the platinum adventurers. I block one of his strikes, and he moves to the side, giving the archer a clear shot. I waited for this as well. I swipe my left hand and throw a small dagger. I smile as it hits the archer. He hadn’t expected that, plus he wasn’t in a position to dodge or block; he was just trying to shoot an arrow.

Swordsman takes the chance and cuts into my arm to the bone while pouring fire mana into my body. This is going to cost me quite a lot of vitality. Good thing the archer left the dagger intact. He seems to know it’s not smart to remove it generally, but that’s not true now. That dagger is coated in venom. I didn’t make it; I just milked a snake in the forest. The archer tries to help, but goes pale instead. This one should be out. Now, I need to kill the spearman. I’m not sure I can kill the swordsman on my own.

I suddenly feel a signal, ringing like a horn's blow. Yes! Lieutenants perk! The damn Strategy perk is not as good as advertised and has only a few hundred meters or so of range. This means she is close. I just need to stall now. This signal means she can help me.

Both adventurers continue, and I’m taking a few small cuts. My left arm is burned, and I don't have spare mana to recover right now. Good thing they don't rush as well.

“I’m going to kill your family next.” I threaten them, then use their surprise to deliver a strike. The swordsman blocks.

“I don’t know how you can speak like that, but you are going to die today, monster.” He speaks with venom. That was worth a shot. Too bad I’m nearly out of mana. Hopefully, I just need to wait a bit. An arrow strikes the swordsman in the neck. I look over and notice Anastasia who somehow sneaked close enough to shoot precisely.

The swordsman moves his hand to the neck and falls to his knees. “No!” The spearman rushes to his side, but I don’t dally and attack him. Anastasia shoots again and hits the spearman in the back, and I finish him off.

“Is that Axi?”

“Yeah. She died again. I have her soul. So? Is it a success?”

“Yes, but I need healing.” I look over. Two hobgoblins carrying heavy packs with my loot are coming over, together with two hobs with Anastasia’s loot. Three more hobs are following as well.

“As do I." I siphon the remaining vitality of dead humans and give it to Anastasia. Now that their souls have left their bodies, there's no problem sapping their vitality, though it's dispersing quickly. This should suffice for now. "Let’s get out of here, and fast.”

[Diego's POV]

“Mr. Governor!” I groan. It’s very early. I normally sleep at least one more hour.

“Do you really need to wake me up?”

“Yeah. Just go to the next room.” My wife mumbles through her sleep.

“It’s an emergency! Goblin horde is attacking!”

“Which village?” This guy really likes to shout. I need to create some proper procedures for emergencies and determine which ones are important enough to wake me up. It’s not like we can save that village anyway.

“They are in town! Here! You need to stop them!”

“What?!”

“Goblins are fighting on the streets!”

“Curses!”

“What?!” My wife wakes up as well. I jump out of bed and go straight for my armor and sword. I need to be armed to do anything. There are only a few guards in my residence anyway, so it’s not like I need to take command. The rest of the guards and soldiers are with their families in their homes. They are scattered over the town and are probably already fighting or will soon.

“Take my family to the basement and protect them. I will deal with it myself.” I order. Five 1st tier guards are not going to be a huge help. I move outside and notice the commotion. Most combatants are out of the city on the expedition. Few remaining are fighting on the streets, but I spot both goblins and human corpses lying on the streets.

I move. I notice three hobs walking. The first target. I move fast. They notice me and prepare to fight. I use one of my perks to rapidly dash to the side, slicing hob's throat in the process. Then, using its body as a cover, I move behind goblins and kill the second one with a well-executed stab. The third one finally notices me, and I attack. He blocks, but not well enough. I angle my sword better and stab it, killing it.

I have better stats than them, but I don’t know how big the horde is. I need to ration my stamina and mana. The traditional wisdom says they could tie me down if they had good teamwork. I'm only at the bottom of the 3rd tier; three fighters, one tier lower, should be enough.

I move through the streets, killing all the goblins I find. It's good for me that they are not in a formation. A group of ten or so hobs, used to fighting in formation, would be nearly impossible to kill without some tricks. At least not by me alone. I consider ralling forces but deem it unnecessary. After fighting for several minutes, it's obvious there are not many goblins around.

It takes me an hour, but the town is clear.

“Governor!” One of the remaining soldiers salutes.

“Have you found the witch?”

“No. We just regrouped.”

“We need to reestablish the chain of command. How many soldiers died?”

“At least ten, maybe around fifteen, but total losses are around one hundred, maybe a bit more.”

“I will patrol around the town. Get the boys and check how they got inside and what their target was.”

I move outside and notice a small camp in the distance. Mostly because there’s some smoke. I go there and notice the aftermath of a fight. A team of adventurers and goblins. Goblins had been wounded even before the fight. The witch must have left them out of the assault, but she didn't expect a team to find this camp.

I circle around the town, but there aren’t any goblins. I'm not very good at tracking, so I’m fine with just making sure there’s no big force waiting outside.

“So?” I ask the lieutenant.

“Priests are all dead. Goblins attacked the temple. The Adventurers Guild’s Treasury Room has been plundered as well.”

“This means it’s the witch’s work.”

“Mostly likely, sir. People noticed young women surrounded by goblins leaving the town not long after the start of the attack.”

I sigh. “So she escaped. Or just left after doing what she wanted to.”

“Should we try to pursue her?”

“No. This could be another trap. I’m not leaving the town defenseless, anyway. Let’s start cleaning. By the way, any signs of how they managed to attack us undetected?”

“All guards on the walls have been found dead. They didn’t die in a fight—at least most of them. Someone assassinated them. Goblins must have been trained for stealth operations by the witch. That’s what the boys say.”

“I didn’t expect that.” I sigh. I will need to retrain the guards. This can’t happen again.

“Send some people to the walls. We need to know if goblins are attacking again. I need to send some letters.”

The day passes, but neither Guild Master returns nor goblins attack again. On the second day, adventurers return. I move out.

“Governor!” Guild Master bows. He seems to know he is in the wrong.

“Did you succeed?”

“No. The witch was more cunning than I expected. It seems they somehow slipped by us and came here. Can I know what happened?”

“Sure. Goblins attacked the town. They somehow sneaked in during the night and opened the gates. Your Treasury was looted.” Guild Master pales.

“All priests are dead too. I sent a letter to the count. We will probably get some replacements soon. Anyway, you failed. You have taken adventurers out of the Fikeral and then left goblins unchallenged. That’s what I wrote to the count.” I say. I’m obviously not going to be the scapegoat. “I’m afraid you are no longer suitable as a Guild Master. As the governor of Fikeral, I revoke your position.”

“You can’t!”

“I do. I know the Adventurers Guild is pretty autonomous, but as a Governor, I DO have a right to kick you out. Especially after that. I already sent the letter, so don't expect anyone to come here and save you.”

“What about the witch?” He clenches his fists. He is furious, but he knows he is both weaker and less influential. Given his age and already meager chances to reach the 3rd tier, this is practically a death sentence.

As the governor, I suppose the situation is partly my fault. Our defenses were lacking. This needs to change, but I’m obviously not telling this to anyone.

“I’m placing one gold bounty on her. I’m sure the count will increase the bounty, probably to ten or maybe more. Your former bosses in the Guild may throw something as well. They took two of your mana treasures, so the witch’s forces are only going to grow.”