Risha fell asleep as soon as her body touched her bedroll, the many evolutions taking its toll on her body and her mind.
The next morning, she watched as the village and its spiders departed. She’d only been evolving the goblins in these villages at the request of the Snow Spider, but still, they all looked different from when she first arrived.
Her eyes rested on the orcs. They were covered in furs to hide their appearance, but they were the only family with two children. Goblin mothers had much larger batches.
The orcs turned to look at her party, and one of the little children gave her a small wave. She tilted her head, then decided to wave back.
Continuing on without Tya would be hard, she’d been incredibly useful in convincing the villages to move, but Lia would hopefully be able to pick up the slack in the next village, since she had children in both of the villages that were left.
Risha watched until the last of the villagers disappeared into the forest, then she turned to the four remaining hunters, Lia, and the Snow Spider, all of whom waited patiently with their things packed.
“Lead the way Moko.”
At her words, they set off. They were getting higher in elevation and the cold continued to be felt. Thankfully, Lia was able to start a fire for them as they overnighted in a small glade. They arrived at the forth village on their list the next day.
Some of the villagers were hesitant, but with the convincing of one of Lia’s sons they eventually agreed to move and their group continued on to the last village, one hunter down.
When they got closer to the village, something immediately started to feel wrong. It was completely silent.
They set up camp some distance away, then Risha and Moko continued ahead on their own.
As they got closer, Risha’s sharp eyes picked up more and more details. Blood lined the walls, and corpses lay where they’d been slain. It couldn’t have been more than a day since the destruction. Risha and Moko pulled up before entering the village.
Fury filled Risha’s voice as she took in the carnage. “Check for survivors, or whoever did this.”
Moko nodded, before disappearing into the snow. Risha activated her own [Hunter] ability, her presence disappearing as she carefully stepped into the desecrated village.
Whatever did this to the goblins used weapons. Some of the bodies still had arrows in them, while others had spears wounds.
When Risha arrived at the pits, she found curled up spiders, most of them murdered in the very burrows they’d created for hibernation. They likely hadn’t even realized the attack was coming until it was too late.
Moko found her in one of those pits, looking at an entire brood halfway to adulthood that had been killed.
“Moko found a trail and a body.”
Moko led her towards the body of a humanoid creature covered in fur. She’d never seen one before and neither had Moko. It was slightly larger than an unevolved goblin, and its face was pointed like a wolf’s. Many goblin arrows pierced its fur, having killed it. Moko motioned for Risha to follow and led her to a trail leading into the forest. He pointed towards some prints. “Those are goblin tracks.” He pointed towards some more tracks. “Those are wolf-creature tracks following them.”
Risha took a deep breath, then spoke. “Grab the others. Have the Snow Spider carry Lia. We need to move fast if we want to catch them. I’ll move ahead.”
Moko nodded, then headed back towards their party.
Risha immediately started running. Her [Hunter] ability following the tracks now that they’d been pointed out to her.
It wasn’t long before she came across more bodies, a few goblins and wolf-creatures dead in the snow.
The tracks continued. She stopped for a moment to string her bow, then followed.
On the edge of her hearing, she heard howls. She didn’t know what the creature was, but she assumed it was the furry creature that had attacked the village.
She crested a hill, and had a full view of the two parties. A large group of forty or so goblins hurried through the snow. Wolf creatures, maybe fifty in total, hounded them from three different angles towards a fast moving river.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Risha drew back an arrow, steadied her aim as she followed a wolf-creature. Then let loose.
The arrow landed true killing one of the wolves in the middle of its pack. She drew another arrow, and shot another one.
The wolf creatures started to slow as they realized they were being shot, creating space for the escaping goblins.
The other hunters reached her position and joined her in firing.
The wolves quickly realized that they were being shot and moved to cover, but it gave the escaping goblins time.
Risha turned to the ice spider with Lia riding on top of it. “Ride to the goblins and guide them towards us. We’ll buy time.”
The spider set off, Lia holding on for her life. The hunters continued to fire at any wolves that stepped out of cover, but were quickly running out of arrows.
A howl sounded out from near them, and Risha quickly pulled her dagger out to slice through a wolf that had snuck on them. Four other wolf creatures appeared at the same time, but the experienced hunters quickly delt with the ambush.
“We need to move.” Moko said, and Risha nodded.
All four of them started running towards the goblins and the spider, quickly meeting up with the small creatures. They stared up in awe at the High Goblins, but they didn’t have much time as more howls echoed through the forest.
As they ran, Risha activated her abilities on the goblins. Unfortunately, a full half of them were too young to evolve and the weapons they carried were too small for their evolved forms. Still, the evolved goblins were able to pick up the younglings and double their pace. She’d picked combat evolutions for every single one, knowing that doing anything else would be foolish right now.
Risha kept an eye on the rear, firing the occasional arrow at any fur she saw.
Multiple creatures died to her arrows. She got two levels before she was down to her last two and she stopped firing.
Risha eyed the surviving goblins, then turned to the snow spider that was easily keeping up with their pace.
“Run ahead and set up a spot for us to fight with your webs.” She yelled at the spider. She looked up to the shaman riding her. “Lia, shoot fire into the air when you’re ready and we’ll run to you.”
Lia nodded and the spider took off, easily tripling their speed.
They kept up their pace, every hunter conserving their last arrows as the wolves slowly closed in.
Risha felt the seconds drag by until she saw a ball of fire explode in the air. They started running towards the spot.
Risha used her last two arrows on wolves that tried to corner them towards a different direction, and eventually they saw the snow spider, who guided them through two trees and away from her invisible webs.
The goblins turned around, their backs to a large cliff as they prepared to make a stand. Risha drew her sword, preparing to use it for the first time. She ran through every movement that the overseer had made in her mind. She’d been practicing from her memory of the fight, but practice wouldn’t be the same as the real thing.
Hunters drew their knives and handed any extra weapons to the newly evolved High Goblins.
It wasn’t long before the wolves ran into the webs the snow spider had set up. Anything caught started to freeze from the strange webs and those who weren’t were forced through a narrow gap, where they met the High Goblins.
Risha’s sword flashed, reflecting the light of the snow as she blocked a spear and sliced the head off of one of the wolves. Another one quickly replaced it as they fought in the snow. Howls, the screeching of the snow spider and the roars of the goblins filled the world with sound as the white snow turned red from blood.
Risha’s armor saved her from many blows as she fought viciously, unable to give any ground. She felt a cut on her side as a spear made it past her armor, and she ruthlessly cut the throat of the offending wolf-creature.
Her gaze caught on a larger specimen, its claws glinting with goblin blood, and its muzzle extended far more than the others.
It turned its gaze towards Lia who was shooting fire from behind the goblins. It got on all fours and ran towards her, but Risha refused to let that happen as she drew her dagger and threw it into the leg of the creature, making it stumble.
She was there a moment later, her sword deflecting off of the claws of the creature that was a full head taller than her.
It growled, its claws coming at her in a flurry of attacks that Risha struggled to keep up with.
The wound in its leg thankfully slowed it, allowing Risha to keep some distance as she stabbed and slashed with her sword. Her movements weren’t as skilled as the overseer, but she still understood the basics of the weapon, and the wolf started to sport several large cuts along its side.
Risha was late in dodging a blow and Its claws raked along her arm, removing the chitinous armor that used to be there.
Risha refused to lose, and her pace quickened until her sword sliced through the stomach of the creature. It let out a loud howl as it collapsed to the ground.
The other wolf creatures hearing the death of their alpha howled, and started running.
Risha breathed heavily, many of her injuries stinging as she looked over the surviving goblins. She’d gained another two levels from the fighting putting her at level fifteen.
One of the hunters that had accompanied her was dead, and seven other goblins were beyond saving.
She found Moko with a bloody knife in his hand, glaring hatefully at a dead wolf that had managed to get to one of the children.
“Moko, run ahead and see if you can catch up with Tya. We’ll be behind you.” Risha said, everyone’s gazes turning to her.
Moko nodded, then started running. Risha considered sending the Snow Spider with him, but she didn’t know if there would be another attack, and they wouldn’t have survived this one without the webs of the spider.
“Let’s move.” Risha said. No one argued with her, as they picked up the injured and the children. The final hunter led the way as they moved as fast as they could after Moko.