I was quickly joined by Tolio a few seconds after I got into the woods and we fell into an easygoing pace with the ranger choosing the best route to leave little to no trace.

It actually worked somehow, our plan, thanks to mostly to that scary Sheila woman. Not someone I want to have as an enemy, she is way too intimidating to even think about it.

What I was thinking mostly while going back was the fact that I didn’t manage to even reach the tavern-like building. I was secretly hoping to use the coins I got from the adventurer during the den invasion to buy some food.

Goblin stomach was strong. Eating raw meat was easy, just barely annoying enough to make us cook it over fire, but unlike my peers I had cravings for better tasting food and having the chance lost was a downer.

Soon after we reached the camp the group surrounded me, waiting for the news.

“So, their leader was gone on some trip and was not there so there was no talk on that side.” I started talking and decided to cut dramatics short, at least this time, seeing as Tolio was still angry about going the diplomatic route. “The Oni leader wife was helpful enough to give us a location they deemed dangerous. I believe as long as we clean it ourselves, they will let us stay without problems.”

“Huh, did not expect this to go that well. After I saw that blue guy shooting at you, I was half-expecting you to die there.” Added Tolio with just a little bit of venom in his words, which I took as a win.

“This place, how is it?” The elder asked with his usual calm.

“A grotto or something, to the north of the Oni village.”

“Hmm, sounds good so far. Did they give some insight on what we have to take this place from?” The elder asked, his voice cautiously positive.

“Yeah, something about a razorbear? No idea what that is.”

Zia, Tolio and Zol winced visibly.

--

Turns out Razor is a subtype of beast and monsters, just like the Horned ones. Tricky to kill and incredibly common in the woods we live in as a natural mutation of regular beasts.

Horned subtypes, explained by both Tolio and the elder, are magical beast with enhanced bodies beyond normal. Usually big, mean and hard to kill.

Razors on the contrary are not magical so their body parts are not as useful to create stuff. They are more violent and way more territorial.

Razorbears are close to the apex of trouble the natural world can throw. Capable even of fighting off magical beasts, it explained clear as day that we were utterly and truly...

“Fucked, we are fucked.” Said Tolio with his usual bitterness after explaining his share about beasts. “Humans might as well just kill us themselves. Shitheads probably do not want to get their hands dirty.” He fumed while walking left to right.

Me and Tika were probably the ones more confused by the older goblinoids reaction. Knowing how much, even the elder, had talked about the dangers of the beast it made me think that bears are very capable and scary creatures no matter the world.

“Can we at least see the place? Maybe we can trap it somehow?” I said, trying my best to find a way.

“It is possible. The old-old den had a group of scouts capable of such thing.” Zol said.

“And they are dead now.” Tolio spat at the elder words, looking at him defiantly. There probably was some story between those two that I was missing, but I was not asking about that anytime soon.

Tika raised her hand “Let us rest first, we can figure it out tomorrow.” She said softer than her usual tone, her eyes turning slightly to the side, pointing at Zia’s resting form, already sleeping.

The pregnancy was almost kicking in full force and soon she would be forced to stay sleeping most of the day, or so I was told.

--

We slept until midnight before we sat around the camp. Tika and Zia were talking, the younger one happy to absorb the older wisdom.

Tolio had a permanent scowl now, and of all of us was the one more irritated at the whole situation, specially having to deal with the oni.

After a while, the elder handed everyone some fruits and we ate in tense silence.

“We should check the place at least?” I half suggested, half asked.

The scout scoffed “Sure, better to know where those tailed fuckers want us to die.” He spat and stood up getting ready in seconds and walking into the forest without waiting for us.

The elder cleared his throat or growled, it made no difference to goblins anyway. “His training group in the old den died to a group of razorwolves.”

Yes, that about explains why he reacted so harshly to the news. It also explained a bit his paranoia. He was a lone survivor, he was also the one in charge to send the newer groups of hunters into the woods, which in turn also made him the one to receive the broken surviving goblins.

I nodded solemnly and readied myself. Soon we were already travelling towards the grotto, Tolio leading the way but keeping certain distance to us.

--

At some point during our little trip, Tika forgot all about the tension and with the intense curiosity of the young started asking questions, bombarding all of the older goblins.

The elder and Zia did their best to explain what little they knew about the razorbeasts, but it was Tolio the one that kept answering most questions. His anger easily gave way to the scout trainer he actually was deep inside.

“The claws are what makes them stupidly dangerous.” He explained “Almost impossible to break and so sharp they cut even through metal armor. I heard only dwarven metal is strong enough to not be cut instantly.”

Tika kept asking other stuff. How long the claws were? Did their bites were as dangerous? And so, on a so forth, but even the veteran scout knowledge didn’t have all the answers.

“You have seen the-”

His explanation was cut short, his eyes opening in surprise, panic and a lot of fear as he saw something behind our group.

I turned around as fast as I could and it was enough to see a giant bear-like form rushing from behind, so close that it made no sense for our senses to not have picked it up earlier.

The bear fur under the starry night was brownish with white streaks. Its claws each a foot long glinted with danger, not that its fangs were too much shorter. The creature was huge, making our group feel insignificant in comparison as it was taller than a horse and wide enough to make “Gortag the wide” look skinny.

The first thing it did was backhand Zia as she was the one in the back of the group. She flew away and impacted roughly against a tree, the crashing sound enough to push the surprise away from our minds.

Two arrows flew past me from Tolio’s short bow, hitting dead center on the bears chest and forehead. It only made the bear roar angrily at us showing no hint of damage.

The elder had a dagger in hand, but was second guessing himself. I decided to use my spear, fearing the claws of the beast too much.

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Tika on her part was using a loose hand to hand fighting stance, pretty much a less confident copy of what Zia used to hunt.

Before the beast charged and gained momentum, I decided to swallow my fear and push the offensive, which made at least the monstruous thing tilt its head. I guessed creatures simply cowered when it roared like that, instead of attacking.

My spear hit from the side in an odd angle and I didn’t feel it damage the bear at all. Immediately I had to duck under a bladed paw that spelled death. Then again and again, after the third evasion the beast was done with me and decided to push its whole body to the side, leaving me with no space to evade.

Instead receiving of the dreaded weight of the monster, it grunted in pain. On the other side both Zia, standing up with blood on her face, and Tika were punching the thing on its torso relentlessly for a few seconds before jumping back.

The only reason the slower, but stronger fighters didn’t get gutted was because Tolio was constantly peppering it with his arrows aiming at its face. I guessed the scout was aiming at the eyes but had no luck hitting them yet..

For his part the elder did his best throwing stones at it. They were not as effective as the arrows nor as accurate but it was enough to divert is attention and make it blink or snarl.

I tried my spear a few more times while jumping and evading around the bear. My heart was pumping, my senses getting sharper as adrenaline overloaded my mind. We were slowly winning, as long as it didn’t hit us and the girls kept sneaking their absurdly strong hits, we could do it.

A minute or so of fighting at the edge of the razorbear was enough for the beast to had enough. The monstrous cave dweller decided to roar once more while digging its front claws into the ground and raking them out, sending stones, earth and roots all around it.

I quickly used my cloak to cover my side. With no more than a couple painful strikes of stones I was pretty much unscathed.

Zia easily backstepped, the experience of years of fighting showing clearly on her movements. Tika for her part got the worst of the move, unable to evade in time she ended up with her back on the floor.

Time stilled, my mind going into overdrive. We were fucked and everyone knew it. The bear started moving in slow motion, bringing both front paws to stomp down on Tika.

I was moving already, my body painfully slow while my mind focused solely in the little girl that was about to die. For me it was no longer Tika the curious goblin, my mind had replaced her shape with my little sister, the teenager that rarely smiled.

In that moment I was pretty sure I was shouting something. I could hear everyone shouting too, but it simply didn’t register to me beyond static.

‘Ah, I guess this is exactly the same reason why I died in my world. I jumped without thinking trying to save a girl that somewhat looked like my sister.’ I thought, wondering at the same time just how fast can my mind go when pumped full of adrenaline.

I caught Tika in my arms and kept running. I felt searing pain in my back and pushed through it to keep running. Only after my legs ached too much to keep going finally, I did finally stop.

Tika was hugging me, crying. The whole group was close to me, but only Tolio got close to inspect me. Zia was puking and the elder was wheezing against a tree.

--

I got lucky once more. My backpack that was full of whatever nonsense I had been collecting since all of it started was enough to soften, just enough, the blow. Three deep gashes were now painfully streaking down my back.

All of it just an inch shy of cutting my spine.

Tika was actually hurt pretty badly; her right leg was smashed by several stones and her ankle bruised.

Zia was a tough goblin and just way too badass to be related to any of us. She literally got stabbed in the back by some tree branches, took them out, fixed her broken nose and still charged into battle. I’m pretty sure doing all of that while pregnant and probably malnourished deserves some kind of award.

Tolio had only a handful of arrows left and the elder was so tired he actually looked like a goblin a hundred years old for once.

All in all, it was a completely and utter defeat, the fact that we survived was both luck and sheer action movie star bullshit coming from Zia. The silver lining was that we survived against a monster that in all rights should have ended us instantly.

“How did that thing even sneaked on us?” I asked Tolio, but the whole group perked up.

“The wind.” He said as if that was a good answer. When he saw my confusion, he continued. “The wind was against us so we could not smell it. The bladed fucker also knows this forest better than us, so he sneaked on us. We got lucky he swatted Zia first, anyone else would die instantly.”

I gulped. Zia and Tika were doing fine, just like any other goblin, their wounds started healing pretty fast. I noticed Tika’s was faster a bit faster, but It might have been my imagination.

“You think we could ambush it?” I spoke.

“The fuck we would do that for?” Tolio spat back.

“I got a plan. So? Yes, or no?” Sometimes goblins need a little bit of pushing to do things. It would be easier to simply find another place or do something that we knew could work. I also stood up to add a bit more intimidation into the mix just to make sure everyone got the point.

“Shit! Yeah, sure I can ambush that damned thing.” He said, crossing his arms defiantly but his usual bitterness edged down.

--

We moved a couple times after resting and cleaning our wounds. I had to carry Zia as she was already starting to go into goblin pregnancy induced tiredness.

Tika did her best to not look as if she was shaken, but she was not really that good at hiding her emotions. It was easy to forget that this was her actual first foray in the outside and everything so far had been smooth.

I had already faced death with the adventurers, delivered it during the invasion and escaped it from Gortag’s punishment. She had heard about it, but to feel your life about to end did leave you jittery for a bit, so everyone was understanding.

As understandings as goblins can be, we still had to push her to swallow the pain and walk with her damaged legs.

By the time the sun came out we made a little camp, which mostly consisted on a goblin pile and some clothes to hide us from the sun.

This time, everyone took proper guards, but unlike previous night's we excluded both Zia and Zol to let them rest.

After noon we finally felt rested. The wounds were still there, especially my back and Zia’s, but they were hurting a lot less.

When I checked my stuff, I found that most of my silks, leather bits and some parts of the metal armor were cut in pieces from the bear attack. Seeing the remnants gave me chills.

I didn’t bother to try and fix my cloak yet; it was something to do after beating down the razorbear.

“Zul?” Tika called me, her raspy voice but incredibly soft. “Are you okay?” She asked and it was incredibly hard for me to not think of her as my little sister anymore. Back on earth, every time I arrived beaten from the loan sharks she would ask that.

“I am okay. My back will heal, my things replaced, but your life is intact and I am grateful, because that, no one can replace.” I gave her my widest goblin smile and she smiled back.

Tolio clicked his tongue and walked away. The elder and Zia both were looking at me as if I had grown a second head.

Going back to my stuff to wash away the awkwardness I noticed that my spear tip was useless, the tip mostly blunt now.

--

That afternoon, after letting us move a bit with our wounded bodies I called everyone to the center of a clearing. I was standing tall and cloakless, only covered by my makeshift silk underwear. By my side a pile of stones that I carefully collected earlier.

“Alright I have a plan. We are going ranged to take down the beast.” I said quite resolute.

Tolio turned towards the elders with his face scrunched in a ‘what the fuck this little shit talking about’ face. They shrugged so I continued.

“I noticed a few things during our fight. My spear was useless, the arrows were useless and even goblin fist are wounded from how hard that thing was.” I pointed at the sore and bruised knuckles on the girls.

“Well, there is no need to put our life at risk to kill it if we can just rain attacks on it.”

Tolio eyed me, then the rocks. “You want us to throw rocks at it? That is your big plan?”

I plastered a mad smile on my face. “Yeah, that thing will go down so fast we will be napping at his grotto tonight.”

Both the elder and the scout facepalmed ‘Heh, they don’t understand just how strong our group truly is’.

“Tika, come here for a moment.” She walked towards me slowly and using mostly one of her legs. “Pick a stone and throw it as hard as you can at that tree.”

She did and holy goblin arms, what a pathetic throw that was. Her technique was awful, barely using her wrist and elbow and nothing else.

“Now look at me.” I took one stone, put it between both of my hands against my chest then raised a leg to increase the momentum of my throw to the maximum. Then I stomped down as I released the stone that soared fast and hit with enough force against the tree to be heard.

“Try it like that.”

And here is where my plan kind of worked too well. You see at this point I knew about Zia’s and Tika’s physically superior strength, but I didn’t truly understand it.

She mimics my movements, swallowing the pain of her bruises, throwing a fast ball that went wide and missed the closest tree, but impacted the one behind, and the one behind that, and stopped on the next one.

Everyone simply went wild. Seeing something like that? Was awe inspiring and goblin happiness is contagious like no other I had ever experienced.

We laughed, cheered and made fun of everything for a while, letting the stress slowly ebb away after almost dying the night before.

“Can I try?” Zia asked, more alert and giddier than tired for once. I nodded and showed her the form once more. I was still hardly processing that doing sports in school was actually paying back so much right now.

She took her fight stance with a rock in her right hand and effortlessly switched into the movements I showed and released the stone.

It hit dead center of the same tree I struck the first time; the difference was that the stone shattered and the tree trunk exploded.

When the tree fell and I was thinking that in this fantasy world Zia was the real protagonist I could hear Tolio deadpan “Yeah, I guess that could work.”