Ok, you want plain English: Robin is gonna be dead. D-E-D. Dead.

Don Geovanni, Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

It was quiet. Too quiet…

Well, the group behind Greyson was just not talking, apparently scanning back and forth through the undergrowth constantly on the alert. It had been this way for the past ten minutes or so, and even Eli was starting to notice the tension with the group. While she had been humming to herself and keeping to Grey’s side, having decided she wanted to walk again, she looked up to Grey.

“They look sad, could Eli sing them a song? Singing makes me feel better.” Eli asked after tugging on Grey’s hand to get his attention. At this, Grey scooped Eli up and spun her around in a massive fly hug.

“That my dear, is a wonderful idea. Just make sure to keep your ring on for now.” Grey said while laughing and setting her back down. The delegation had tensed slightly at the duo’s sudden action and were now equally a bit bewildered at their interaction.

Seths felt a growl growing deep in his chest at this. He quickly scanned the foliage around them again before making a decision.

“Victor, go five paces out to the right of the trail and make sure nothing is coming from that way. Johann, the same to the left.” Seths hissed out through clenched teeth at what he considered his combat whisper. Both beast-kin gave sharp nods of acknowledgement and broke away from the group. It was at this point that Eli was set back down on the ground and started skipping over to the group. She made her way over the various roots and small plants that hadn’t been too compacted down on the small game trail, stopping next to Ashling. She then spun around on one foot and began to walk along side them before looking up at Ashling. Eli gave her a bit of a shy smile and then proceeded to start singing.

Her voice was very low at first and built up a bit more until the entire group could hear it, even if they didn’t have higher than human senses. The tune was just a bit of a nursery song that Eli knew from her time at the orphanage. She hadn’t been allowed to sing there but had always watched the other kids as they sang their way through the morning chores. It was one of the things that she had always been envious of the other kids for and now she was able to. A real smile started to play across her face as she began to sing in earnest now.

“SHUT UP! YOU STUPID CHILD, ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US ALL KILLED?!” Seths roared out far louder than Eli’s singing had ever been. Immediately, Eli shut up and looked up at the very large and very angry bear-kin that was nearly frothing at the mouth with anger. Her face only conveyed the look of shock at his words before her bottom lip started to tremble ever so slightly. A slight sniff could be heard and the waterworks stated to form in her eyes.

Before a single tear could drop however, Grey was suddenly right in front of her and wrapping his arms around her in a comforting hug.

“There, there. Nothing to worry about. The big bad bear is just grumpy that you can sing so much better than him.” He comforted her with words and just started to ramble nonsense to her.

For their part, the delegation looked upon the scene slightly stupefied. Hadn’t Greyson been well over twenty meters ahead of the rest of the group? Also, not a single member of the party had seen anything like a man moving past them. Had he just teleported over to her? Used some other kind of magic they didn’t know about? Ashling looked up from the two to glare at Seths.

“Did you truly have to yell at the child?” She asked in her own hushed whisper.

“I’m sorry Voice, but we are not yet out of danger. Had I let her continue, it could have heralded our doom here.” He responded slightly defensively while not admitting to anything specific. Ashling did not looked pleased at this, but after their past week of travel, she could also understand his point.

“That’s enough from the peanut gallery. We wouldn’t have been in any danger if you had just accepted the fact that Eloise here wanted to try and cheer you guys up a bit. I get that it was hard, but so help you, if you ever raise your voice at Eli again like that, I’ll end you.” Greyson’s voice came out in a very flat and icy tone. While none of those assembled knew anything of this man, to a person, they all felt the chill promise creep up their spines at his oath. He still hadn’t even moved from comforting the girl, and yet all but Johann and Victor, who were too far to hear the conversation, felt the instinctual need to fight or flee from an overwhelming danger.

“And this is just great, your shouting has apparently been heard.” Grey continued on while standing up and looking out to the front left region of the forest.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The delegation stiffened at this.

“What do you mean?” Ashling asked a bit too quickly, showing her nerves.

“Well, it seems like we have about sixteen or seventeen creatures like the ones I found you with now making their way over to us.” He said matter of factly, causing the rest of the delegation to pale, or whatever their races equivalent of this was. Ashling’s tails jumped side to side quickly in agitation as she looked at the man still calmly discussing this as if were nothing to worry about.

“My scouts haven’t found any signs and you expect me to believe this?” Seths glowered at the human before him, a small snarl forming along his muzzle.

“Believe it or don’t it doesn’t change the fact that we have maybe a minute before they are here.”

“FORM UP! PROTECT THE VOICE!” Seths bellowed out, breaking any hint of discression. The other guards quickly formed a protective circle around Ashling. From the sides of the trail, Victor and Johann also came back to form ranks.

“Be ready now, we have incoming.” Seths told the men surrounding him.

Grey watched their movement with a bit of shock and grudging respect. While he may not like the asshole of a bear, he was an effective leader. He could see how they had survived as long as they had. It was at this moment that Grey realized that while he might not like the dick, he wasn’t yelling at Eli for no reason. He sighed to himself.

So now I don’t get to hurt him… Thank all of the gods above and below that I can vent at least.

“Eli, I want you to go hold onto Ashling’s hand for this. Take off your ring, and if you need to, make sure you don’t get yourself hurt.” Eloise pulled herself together and it almost looked as though she hadn’t been in the middle of a miniature breakdown. She gave Grey a quick nod, pulled her ring off and briskly walked over to stand next to Ashling.

Stretching his neck left and right until he heard an crack in both directions, Grey finally looked Seths in the eye again.

“Make sure nothing happens to them. Nothing should get past me, but better safe than sorry.”

“What do you mean?! Fall into the circle and be ready to assist us with our defense!” The bear roared at Grey. It was slightly more intimidating than if a normal drill sergeant or other officer would have shouted the order, but thankfully, Grey was under no illusions of what was going on here, and quickly dismissed the man.

“Listen, I don’t work for you, and I wouldn’t even if I had to. I was asked to bring you back safe, so just sit on your fluffy little ass there and I’ll be done in a minute or two. Beside, I supposed I shouldn’t hurt you, so these bastards will have to do for now.” As he spoke, Grey let two Viking swords form in his hands from his tendrils of condensed mana and gave them both a quick twirl of the wrists.

It was at this point that the first of the now apparently goblin group broke through the dense foliage fifteen or twenty meters in front of the group. Without breaking eye contact with Seths, Grey snapped his right arm out, letting go of the mana sword and sending it tumbling end over end at the pitiable goblin scout before it buried itself directly between the eyes of the green skinned smelly prick. The goblin’s head snapped backwards as the blade pierced through his head before the tip imbedded itself into the ground, holding up the gob in the shape of the letter d.

With this, Grey shot himself towards the oncoming force. His remaining sword took the next goblen in its right collarbone, splitting it down to its left hip. He launched himself at the next goblin that was just starting to emerge from the foliage and gave it a NFL worthy punt. The little asshole squeeled like a stuck pig as it flew through the air until impacting on a rather large tree. While the tree was bad enough, the broken stump of a tree branch made it all the worse, piercing through the goblin’s back before erupting from his stomad, leaving him impaled on the tree some ten meters off of the ground. Grey paused a moment to map out his next series of attacks.

During this pause, both Ashling and Seths looked down at Eli, having seem the speed and ferocity that Grey displayed. Questioning looks adorned their faces, screaming without a single word being spoken, “What the fuck!”

Eli just let one corner of her mouth twitch up into a bit of a sidways smirk.

“Grey strong” was all she told them.

From his point in front, Grey didn’t have any problems hear Eli and smiled to himself. It was time to really let loose for a bit and cow not only the goblins, but the delegation as well of who was really in charge around here.

Pushing off the ground with his front foot, Grey launch himself and the now more assembled of the goblins on their way for the group. His empty right hand puch a hole clean through the goblin’s chest . With his had still through this goblin, is twisted and they the soon to be corpse direct and the next closest goblin, crushing both bodies under the fore of the impact. The next two had their heads dislodged from their bodies with another swing and a backhand of the mana sword. Grey then formed four mana knives and threw them into the necks of the next four goblins, dropping them in a gurgling mess on the forest floor.

The final seven goblins, clusted together as if they were preparing to go into a mosh pit together. Grey let his mana sword evaporate into the afternoon breeze and lauched himself at the group. The first died by having his face crumpled in upon itself until it was only about two or three centimeters this. Grey launched himself up and cam down with an axe kick (a kick made by keeping the leg straight and bringing it straight down on the intended victim) that split the next goblin in twain. The next four fell from a spin kick that lobbed one a ways off and in the distance, and overzealous puch to the gut rupturing internal organs and finally from two simultaneous sword thrust to the throat with newly conjured mana swords. The only goblin left was one dressed slightly different from the others, making Grey believe that this was the groups unit commander or whatever the goblin’s called their leaders.

For his part, the commander looked around at the carnage strewn about and simply raised his makeshift iron blade. Grey let the creatur attack, caught the blade with one hand as it descended towards him, and then delivered a snap kick hard enough to the goblins jaw that his head snapped back instantly killing him. Grey took one more look around him to make sure that he didn’t miss any of the goblins and nodded to himself when he didn’t see or even hear of any other attackeers.

“Well that was fun. Now who’s ready for dinner.” Grey asked with a bit of smile back to the stunned delegation.