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One Dungeon to Rule Them All
Chapter 39: The Night Raid

Chapter 39: The Night Raid

The axe is huge, with blades twenty inches wide, the head alone weighing over twenty kilos easily. The handle is six feet long, reinforced with an iron coil that is rolled all around it. Looks menacing and evil.

And it feels so good holding it in Rocky's hand, I feel his urge to swing it, to cut and kill something. Anything.

I go to a tree with a trunk over a foot in diameter. Poor tree. Standing so tall, proud, and pretty. I swing high and wide and the axe goes straight through it. So clean is the cut that the tree still stands there for a second before I bring it down with my hand.

All that power pleases him so much, he can’t help but chuckle with a monstrous laugh. I let him do it till I see all the dwarfs slowly starting to take steps back, obviously scared and not knowing what is to come next. Some rub their necks not sure if their heads are safe there. I can’t blame them.

But I take full charge of Rocky telling him to hold his horses and that I let him have fun tonight with goblins.

We tie the sword behind his back, and with the axe over his shoulder, we head out.

It's dark by now. Whitehead and the pack are scouting in front of us. And we have air support from LightsOut above. I left spiders and little Oollie to hold down the fort, especially now that I have the dwarfs helping me.

By now I know the goblins have an exceptional smelling capacity, so I tell Whitehead to pick the approach to the camp going against the wind, hoping they will not pick on our scent before it’s too late.

As I'm getting there, I understand the first problem that I may be facing. I was planning to function as a team. Ordering Whitehead and his pack to drive the goblins to the trap where Rocky could unleash hell on them with the help of LightsOut. But that would require Bonding with all of them, the kind I currently do not have.

And I make a mental note that I need to improve my bonding rate ASAP. Maybe this fighting can do just that, if we do not screw it up and die.

That also makes me think. If I'm in Rocky and I die, what do I do? Go into LightsOut? What if he is too far away? Or dead himself. Whitehead then.

Let's hope we do not get to that.

But thinking about death makes me cautious. And I decide to stop advancing on the camp once Whitehead confirms we are twenty minutes away from their camp.

We advance quietly for another few minutes, and then I tell everyone to stop.

"Master Dwarf, their camp is just down that hill where there is that fire burning," I say.

"Yes, I could smell their fires for a while now" he answers me, sniffing the air still and frowning with disgust. That kind of surprises me and takes me back, making me scratch my head a moment. But I say nothing. Better that way.

"There are a few scattered trees here to give us a cover. We will set the trap here. Your archers can go in the trees. Hopefully, I'll bring them in this way. Rocky, you will stay here behind the biggest tree trunk. When I come back, you start swinging. Just make sure, you do not hurt any of our friends. And… If... I'm not back, something must have gone horribly wrong. And then, you better just go back home."

"We will wait for you here,” Master Dwarfs says, padding on my belly, unable to reach Rocky’s chest or shoulder. “No need to dwell in dark thought now, lad. It will all work out, you'll see. Just bring them here, and we'll give them hell."

"Stay safe," I say and offer him my hand.

He shakes it readily. "You too."

"Rocky, while I'm not here, you will listen to Master Dwarf. Do you understand?"

He growls but nods his head, and I sincerely hope there won't be dead dwarfs before I am able to come back.

I go inside Whitehead and tell him there should be no growling. No noise. Silent kills.

And when I say it's time to run, to run through the forest, leading them to Rocky and the dwarfs. He understands it before I have to say it.

We sneak slowly, and I smell them before I can see them.

There are two guards in the tree, hidden, watching the sky. Archers. Their backs are leaned against the tree, rope tied over them, pointed away from the camp.

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I reach for LightsOut and tell him to circle high above the camp so the darkness would hide him. Come at the trees that have a rope tied over their trunks, but come from the camp side. Tell him to wait for my signal. And I tell him when the time comes to attack and strike as fast as silently as he can.

A beak through the neck would be best. They would just spill blood, and would not be able to scream and raise the alarm.

But there are two of them. I look through Whitehead's eyes, searching for more, but I still see only two of them. Two trees opposite each other with a small goat path leading between them to the camp. Smart. And I have only one eagle. What do I do? Rocky could come, throw a boulder on the other one, and knock him out. But that would be too much noise. I miss him having a bow and arrow.

That's another thing I need to correct. Next time, next time. But now... Do I trust that one of the dwarfs would be able to nail one goblin? I do not know. Have not seen this bunch fight yet. It's a lot to ask for. So...What if I just wait? It's late, They have those ropes tied over them because they will spend the whole night there. No way they won’t doze off.

So we wait. But I can't wait forever. What if Rocky and the others leave? I send a message to Rocky to wait. Our bonding is too low I cannot feel any of his senses. But I know he still gets my message.

When I see the bow in one of the guards slowly drop down as his hand suddenly relaxes, I know he is probably dozing and I tell LightsOut to attack the one to the right first. He does so quietly I only see a big shadow suddenly emerge behind the tree where the goblin is tied. I see a tree shake as he lands and then half a shriek, muffed.

The other goblin twitches and I see him open his eyes, but I make Whitehead growl loud enough that instead of watching what is happening to the tree ten meters from him, he tries to see where the growling noise is coming from.

"Attack from behind the other one, LightsOut, Now," I give him the order as I growl a bit louder, seeing the goblin lift a bow and put a shaft in the string, pointing it our way.

Then I stop growling and try to move silently behind the tree as a shaft comes down.

It lands but a foot from Whitehead's leg. Too close. But I start to squeal as if we got hit, and then finally get to move behind the tree.

"I got you, you stinking wolf!" The goblin yells at me, chuckling as if he won a grand prize.

"What are you talking about, guard?" some goblin behind the boulder up front asks.

"I just shot some wolf."

"Where?" the other guard says. From the way the sound is being carried, I know he is on the ground. And I tell wolves to spread around and be ready to attack. “You killed nothing. What wolf? I’ll believe it when I see it,” he growls as he starts to approach us.

It all happens at once. I see the goblin walk toward us. I see LightsOut's shadow and his feathers fly out and circle to attack the other goblin in the tree, see him not spotting LightsOut as he is hustling to put an arrow in the string and shoot at me. And I order my pack to attack the third guard from the back.

"Go for the neck and mouth," I tell them, then I sneak up to the guard, and see him turning left and right, a bow and an arrow pressed against his cheek. Then I hear a breaking of the branches and see the third goblin’s head turn to check on it.

I jump in front of him at the same time Millie, Willie, and Noseys bring him down from the back. I see how he drops the bow and arrow and goes for a dagger and I bury my teeth in his hand, taking most of his fingers off. I taste his blood. Realize, I'd rather eat turd than taste that again. But the pack does not get off his neck, severs his head almost, and he is gone in mere seconds.

I look up to see the blood dripping down from both trees and LightsOut pecking at something that might be the goblin’s tongue.

The night with a lot of images to forget.

But that was the easy part of the job.

With three guards down, we approach the camp carefully, keeping us out of the light of the campfire. There are a few of them sitting there around the fire. I count five. Can’t get them all. But, why should I go after them? There are easier and better targets. So, I tell LightsOut to come down, and I go into him, leaving the wolves with the instructions to just stay put and not move an inch unless they are discovered.

I know exactly what I want to do.

With me inside, LightsOut gets even more powerful and we pick a fallen timber. It's partially chopped, but it still weighs at least hundred fifty pounds. I take it high up, feeling it burn my leg muscles, and then when it’s about a hundred meters up, we drop it over the biggest and the nicest of the tents. I watch in excitement as it falls to the ground.

Hear shrieks, panic, confusion. See survivors emerge from the tent all splattered with the blood of the ones who got smashed as nothing more than bugs.

But then everyone gets out of their tents and starts raising hell!

What the hell have I done?

Just because it was funny, does not mean it was smart! I might have killed three or four goblins in there, but now they’re all up. What am I going to do now?

They have no clue what hit them, but I can’t repeat the same show again. Really need to give LightsOut some company, imagining what a dozen of eagles could do.

Everyone goes on high alert and I go inside the forest and tell LightsOut to fall back where the trap is as I go back in the Whitehead.

We sneak as close to the ground as we can, in the darkness. My idea is not to kill them all, just to grab one and run with him.

And I soon get a chance after two of the goblins head up to see what’s up with the guards they left.

These ones have swords in their hands, and I order Millie and Willie to attack the hand first of the goblin to the right while Nosey will go after his throat.

That leaves the one on the left for me.

We strike when they come within mere meters of us. It pays off to be in darkness with wolves' eyes.

I grab the left goblin by his right hand so fiercely I chop it off his shoulder.

He screams in agony, but I don’t care. That is the point. Instead of finishing him right off, I grab his leg and tear half of it off.

"See if you can run now, stinker!" I gnarl at him.

I cast a quick glance to see that my pack has made a clean cut and tell them to retreat while I’m finishing mine, trying not to think how he tastes.

Then something strange happens.

I see one of the tents coming down and a dozen of wolves come out, all their eyes on us. They are… even armored. Have protective shields on their head and chest, back. Smaller goblins with spears jump on them and they start to run after us.

Damn. I did not see that coming.

I tell my crew to run as fast as they can, hoping that we will make it to the ambush area before these goons catch us.