> Iron Rank Bounty: Goblin Scouting Party around Forest's Edge

>

> A Goblin Scouting Party has been spotted in the deep grass around Forest's Edge. Aura gauges indicate a group of at least 10 bronze ranked goblins led by a single low iron goblin.

>

> Threat to the City has been deemed low and task has contracted out for completion to the IAG.

>

> Task: Verify the location of the Goblin Scouting Party and eliminate all goblins.

>

> Reward: Standard bounty per confirmed goblin kill. Looting rights. Bonus for any intelligence of value retrieved.

Keira scowled and crumpled up the bounty notice into a ball before tossing it into the knee height grass near the city gate.

"Hey, we still need that!" Aya yelled as Jun manifested a bowl shaped barrier to scoop the ball of paper up and bring it back to her. It was a new trick she'd figured out with her barriers, though the only use she'd found for it so far is picking up things from a distance. Plucking the balled up paper out of her barrier, Jun smoothed it out while Aya lectured their scout about tossing important team documents.

Keira had her arms crossed under her breasts as she scowled. "What do you mean 'we still need that'? We only formed a team yesterday, we're bronze rank, and that's an Iron rank bounty! I'm not letting my brother risk himself on a suicide mission!"

"We've been assigned that bounty! We either do it, or we turn it down and Arwen and Professor Galimund fail us." Aya stared the taller girl down.

"There's no way this is alright! We should just go back to the Guild Hall and have them change our bounty. There's no way the guild would let him assign a brand new bronze team an iron ranked bounty!"

"Professor Galimund is the Vice Guild Leader and was there when we registered. There's no way he doesn't know what bounty Arwen assigned us. Bounty assignments are a core function of the guild hall, they wouldn't play games with that process. If our Professor was going to stop it from happening, he would have stepped in before we even got there."

"Still, this has to be another of the crazy elf's tests. What if they're just testing our judgment? Making sure we can judge when we're taking something beyond our ability?"

"If it's a test, it's a stupid one. This is a bounty assigned as our very first one as students and new members of the IAG, chosen by a veteran adventurer for us. Refusing this bounty is asking us to go directly against both the Academy and the Guild. If that's a test, it's a test to see how willing we are to disregard a decision made by veteran adventurers and guild officials sending us on a dangerous assignment. If we try to get an easier bounty, we might pass a test, or we might be failed out of the guild and the Academy program." Aya stared Keira down.

"I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I can't afford to fail out of the Academy," Michael said with a frown. "My family sacrificed much to send me here."

"Same here," Aya said.

"...failing would dishonor us and our clan..." Cian added quietly. Keira grimaced at her brother's statement but nodded.

"I'm a scholarship student... I don't have any family...besides Shiori," Jun motioned her Master laying on her shoulder. "What are the chances this is a test?"

"Like I said, assigning us an iron bounty as a test makes no sense. The job of an adventurer is dangerous and there's always the risk of something stronger than us showing up. Testing us to see if we'll take something on that we were explicitly assigned or ask for reassignment is stupid. If we ask for a new bounty closer to our level, it might come off as good judgment, or it might come off as cowardice. Doing the bounty either shows we're lacking in judgment, or we're willing to work hard. Any option that has us doing any kind of bounty is a risk to our lives, so this being a test makes no sense."

"You should do the bounty, kitten. It will be good for your growth. Besides, goblins are only dangerous in large groups. A single iron ranked one is barely a threat."

"I think we should do it," Jun said, surprising Aya and the others. "While it's not recommended that new bronze rank teams take on iron rank bounties, the guild rules permit it. When they showed us the bounty board, the guild staff said that we shouldn't take iron bounties, not that we couldn't or wouldn't be assigned them."

"I agree with Jun," Michael said slowly. "Goblins are swarm type monsters. Even at higher levels, they are far weaker than other monsters. Their threat comes from numbers and intelligence. A single iron rank goblin should only be about equal to the average bronze rank adventurer unless it's a mage."

"...I will do it..." Cian said quietly.

"Fine, since my brother is going, I'll do it too."

"Well then, lets start looking for this party. They had to have come from the Forest, so I think we should get to the Forest and move along the edge until we find a trail. Agreed?" Aya asked. The party nodded or made sounds of agreement at the plan. It was simple, but it made sense.

Finally agreed upon a course of action, the 5 adventurers and Shiori started down the main path from the city, keeping their eyes open for any tracks or things out of the ordinary. Jun's nascent [Tracking] skill kept alerting her to signs of other people that passed through and the occasional small monster or creature hiding in the tall grass along the road, but none of them attacked the group. The only fighting they saw was close to noon as they walked along the edge of the plains and the forest, when Keira stopped the party and threw a stone she'd grabbed from the roadside into the grass. With a loud roar, a large furred creature that looked like a cross between a rabbit and a bear lunged out of the grass towards them!

Cian had immediately produced his spear and moved to stand between the party and the beast as Keira dodged back, a dagger already in each hand. While it was a dramatic improvement over the twins rushing ahead the day before, it proved unnecessary as Jun's hastily cast snare dragged the creature to the ground and Aya beheaded it with a well placed blade of water. The creature turned out to be a bronze ranked Grass Bear that Michael said was reasonably valuable. At the healer's insistence, the group stopped for lunch while he and Keira worked together to skin and butcher the creature. The meat was put into sacks that Keira had thought to bring and the hide was quickly rinsed with conjured water before all of the loot was shoved into Jun's bag.

After they had eaten, the party had moved on with Keira a few feet in the lead. Despite having Shiori on her shoulder, being so close to the Forest again filled Jun with anxiety. She'd only gotten out of there a month and a half ago and still remembered the goblin hordes, fighting for her life to hunt, and that hulking beast that had hunted her. Even though Shiori had saved her from the beast and the goblins, and she was sure her Master would have stepped in on their hunts, she knew that she wouldn't always be able to depend upon Shiori for protection. Shiori had said as much, that one day she would have to stand on her own.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

So despite having her Master with her, Jun didn't let down her guard, keeping her head on a swivel and watching for the slightest thing out of the ordinary. That's what saved her life.

A glint of afternoon sunlight on something metallic in the trees at the edge of the forest was the only warning she got before more than a dozen bow strings twanged in unison from less than 100 feet away as black shapes streaked for Jun and her group!

Acting on instinct, Jun's mana moved at the speed of thought, flooding into her [Barrier] spellform as a bright pink barrier formed between the group and the archers ambushing them. Arrows clattered against Jun's snap cast barrier like rain on a tin roof as the archers launched volley after volley at them. Unlike with the spells she'd blocked before, her mana shifted barrier didn't strengthen from the impacts and she had to reinforce it with mana from her pool.

"Group upon on Jun!" Aya barked. Michael and Aya moved to either side of her as Keira stood slightly forward with Cian between the group and the forest. Instead of his spear that would be next to useless against archers, Cian now wore a large rectangular shield on his off hand and held a short spear. Shiori hopped down from Jun's shoulders and hovered at the back, seemingly unconcerned.

With the party grouped up, Jun pulled her barrier closer in, the magical energy growing denser as it covered less area. The drain on her mana lessened, but still outpaced her regeneration.

Aya held her hand out as a ball of flame manifested and drifted out beneath the gap between the barrier and the ground. Once it was past the barrier, the spell bloomed into a fiery dart that raced for the tree top, igniting the canopy in flames as guttural voices screamed out in pain. Several wriggling, burning forms fell from the tree to crash amongst the roots with loud thumps. "That was only 3 of them!" Aya yelled out. It wasn't all of the archers, but it was enough to end the rain of arrows slowly wearing down Jun's mana. Instead of the constant volley of arrows, her barrier only had to block random shots that were just enough of a threat that the group was pinned in place without cover beyond the barrier.

A guttural war cry echoed out from the brush and a dozen goblin warriors charged the adventurers. Their clothing was crude leather that wouldn't protect them from much more than the elements, but their weapons were fine steel swords and axes. Snarling, the goblins quickly closed the distance.

Jun split off 2 new tendrils of mana, feeding each of them into her spellform for [Arcane Snare] to conjure twin ropes. Under her mental command the ropes shot out and wrapped around the ankles of two of the charging goblins, pulling them to the ground. As they went down, Aya conjured several water blades to shoot off into the goblins, though most were parried, destroying the spells. One unlucky goblin misjudged his parry and Aya's spell bisected him. That was all the time the group had to foil the charge before the warriors reached them.

Cian sprinted forward, his shield held out as he charged and smashed into the lead goblins, trampling one into the ground and knocking four back. The other four charging goblins split around Cian, charging for the rest of the group with cruel looks of anticipation.

Keira blurred forward as she launched herself at the two on the right and began to dance around their strikes, her daggers darting in and out to score superficial hits on the two goblins. Aya conjured a gust of wind that pushed one of the remaining goblins off balance, while Michael charged in. The healer backhanded the haft of a goblin's axe as he darted to the side, then closed in on the diminutive figure with a brutal left jab that snapped the goblin's neck. As it fell limply to the ground, Michael disarmed the other goblin that had been knocked off balance by Aya's spell, and a brutal body blow caved in its chest. Keira's opponents both fell as one of her daggers ripped through one's throat and the other sunk deep into the other's back.

As Keira, Michael, and Aya dealt with the stragglers, Cian ripped through the remaining five. A well placed kick to the trampled goblin's skull finished it off before it could get back up, and Cian's shield brutally smashed another back into the ground where his sword punched through its chest. The warrior ducked behind his shield to avoid a hastily aimed arrow as he closed with the third, bisecting it with a backhand slash. The fourth got in a lucky slash that skittered across Cian's chain covered thigh, and he returned the favor by stomping on the goblin's knee and burying his short sword in the goblin's throat. The fifth tried to tackle Cian to the ground but the weight and strength disparity were vast as the goblin comically bounced off the man's arm. His massive hand seized the goblin by the throat and a loud pop rang out as he snapped the goblin's neck. Retrieving his sword, Cian retreated back under the cover of Jun's barrier as arrows continued to bounce off his shield.

Everything was white and colorless, a loud ringing filling Jun's ears. She couldn't feel her body, but her head felt fuzzy like a bad hangover. Was she dead again? Jun idly waited for the screen confirming her death to pop up, but instead, someone's voice echoed out of the blank whiteness.

"Get up kitten, the fight's not done."

Jun groaned as she blinked, the blank white void fading as she did. As the ringing in her ears stopped, she could hear a guttural voice yelling, and then she felt her mana tendrils holding the two warriors snap. Pushing herself upright, she saw that her barrier still held, the pink spell construct covered in dancing yellow sparks. Her team was in rough shape. Aya and Keira were lightly dazed and getting to their feet, but Michael's ears were leaking blood. Cian was the worst off, the cloth under his chainmail lightly smoking and scorch marks clearly visible on the bottoms of both of his feet. Jun felt a wave of relief come over her as Michael's amulet started to glow, though as Jun's aches and pains faded, Michael visibly sagged.

"We can't take another hit like that," Michael croaked.

Jun glanced beyond the barriers to see the two snared warriors pushing themselves up as a larger goblin in finer clothes snarled at them. Three more goblins holding bows pointed at the adventurers surrounded the larger one.

"I'll handle the mage, Jun take the archers, Keira the warriors," Aya barked.

Keira glanced between the rallying goblins and her brother down on the ground.

"The only way he survives is if the goblins don't," Michael said tiredly.

Keira nodded as she pulled two new daggers from her sheathes. "Keep healing him." Keira turned to face the remaining goblins.

"Jun, when I say so, snare the archers and drop the barrier."

"Got it." Jun slowly pulled mana from her barrier, feeding it into new tendrils that she fed into her snare spellform. As if sensing the change in mana, the goblin mage turned and stared at the adventurers before he barked a command, the archers drawing their bows back.

"Now!"

Jun flooded her mana into her [Arcane Snare], manifesting several ropes around the goblin archers. Seizing them by their arms, Jun tugged their aims off as they released. A howl of pain filled the air as two of the arrows slammed into the dirt, and the third punched through the goblin mage's ass as Jun dropped her barrier. Keira darted off in a blur as she engaged the two surviving warriors. Jun's ropes pulled the three archers together brutally, their heads slamming into each other with hollow thumps as they were tied together by her spell.

With the goblin mage distracted, Aya quickly cast a trio of spells. A blast of fire rocketed towards the goblin mage but dissipated as the mage angrily slashed with its arm. A shield shimmered into existence and shattered alongside Aya's water blade. As the goblin raised his hand back up with a backhanded swing, a stone spike stabbed up between the mage's legs, impaling it through the groin and head.

As the goblin mage died, Keira sank one of her daggers into a warrior's kidney, taking a brutal slash to her arm from the other warrior. Instead of flinching away, Keira savagely ripped her dagger out of the goblin and kicked his body into the warrior that wounded her, sending them sprawling in a tangle of arms and legs. Not wasting the opening, the scout slashed her dagger into the wounded goblin's chest and darted away, her left arm dripping blood and barely hanging on to her weapon.

As the last goblin pushed his comrade's corpse off of him and stood, a sword came spinning end over end to sink impale it through the heart, knocking it back down. Keira looked at the impaled goblin as it sagged to the forest floor, then turned back to where the throw had come from to see Cian sitting with Michael propping him up.

"Kill thief!" she screamed.