Piles of leather were sorted through and organized, revealing a mismatched and eclectic range of items. Some pieces were wholly unsuitable, and some items were available in far greater quantities than required, creating the impression that these supplies were collected by simply gathering everything available and dropping them off.
The better items were reserved for the frontline fighters. Metal helmets were reserved for them as well, but special emphasis was placed on protecting the fighters from their feet to just below their ribcages, where they would be most likely to be injured.
Kostas and Michayla were equipped along with their squads, before anyone else, to ensure that they got the best fit possible, and then the front rows followed. Kostas seemed happy with his equipment, which he capped off with a leather apron that hung over his armor and reached below his knees, acting as a second layer. He insisted that he wouldn’t fight without it.
His metal helmet matched Michayla’s, though she was equipped with a proper brigandine instead of an apron.
The rest of the militia spent some time trying things on, but there was still a large pile left over. A large pile that presented an opportunity.
“F Squad, G Squad, move the rest of these things to that corner,” Svan ordered, pointing to the rear of the warehouse. “Floaters, line up!”
Sven already knew exactly who he would call up, but he still made a show of inspecting everyone nonetheless. “You all heard what was said about returning this equipment. Costs will be deducted. Well, we can’t carry all of this extra, uh, ‘armor’, with us. That means some of you must stay behind here to guard it. Any mistakes on your part will cost everyone, do you understand?”
There were faint murmurs of agreement, some more enthusiastic than others.
“Everyone still gets paid the same. Now, six of you can work in pairs to cover eight-hour shifts, or even better, four-hour shifts with eight hours off. If I pull you out, you’ll be staying behind.”
Sven pulled out six militiamen to stay behind and watch over the excess equipment. They were all the worst fighters. None of them had nearly as much training time as most others, but one even had hearing problems severe enough to make sparring difficult, while another had some kind of stomach virus. Both had already been noted down for the healer to take a look at once they arrived.
The rest received tents and water skins, along with a few days’ worth of food rations. There wasn’t much else included in their supply drop, with things like cooking utensils or camp making equipment being conspicuously absent. A surprising number of them also had to be shown how to setup the tents, despite how open they were, which only highlighted the origins of the militia.
Two days wasn’t nearly enough to get everyone ready, but they continued to drill regardless. All of the better fighters acting as floaters were directed to the center, which was expected to be under the most significant pressure, while efforts were made to simulate casualties so people could get used to plugging the gaps.
And then it was time. They would be traveling for two days before facing any goblins, so there was no grand ceremony or speech. Everyone simply lined up with their things and then marched out through the town.
Yaric realized their mistake just before lunchtime.
“These guys are going to take longer than two days,” Yaric pointed out, pointing to groups clustered around their squad leaders. A few people were already complaining about blisters, but most were struggling with chafing from the ill-fitting armor.
“There’s nothing anyone could do about that,” Sven said. “No one can get used to armor like this in two days. They’re just going to have to grit their teeth.”
“A lot of them aren’t very fit, either,” Lauren sighed. “We focused on weapons training. They’re passable with those halberds; I mean, they should be able to rotate in and out to last through a fight, but they aren’t going to be marching like this for very long.”
“Maybe we should slow down when we get close,” Li Na suggested. “Let them recover a bit.”
“We do what we can with what we have,” Sven said.
Yaric’s prediction turned out to be correct, as they fell far short of their goal when evening came. At this rate they would need to march for part of the third day before arriving at their destination.
The camp was also a bit of a disaster. Not having any proper equipment didn’t even make a difference, as there was simply no way to train the militia in time. There were no defenses put in place, and no proper camp organization. It didn’t matter right now, since there was no danger to defend against, but the future was another matter.
What would happen if this militia got called up a second time? This mission might not require a camp, but future jobs might. And if they simply set up scattered tents as they were now, things might go disastrously.
Yaric couldn’t handle it. The habits they formed now would likely stick with them into the future.
“No, pull up your tent. Listen, everyone!” Yaric pulled everyone’s attention before continuing. “Stop getting settled for the night. We’re going to help you organize a proper camp. Or at least, a better camp.”
That got the other three up and moving, and they soon had the outlines of a camp mapped out, along with predefined areas for each squad. Most of the militia grumbled and complained, but Yaric wasn’t prepared to compromise on something so important.
Guard duty was much the same, though they did at least arrange a simple schedule of one hour per shift.
The next day was much the same. Marching with frequent breaks, followed by setting up a small camp with minimal defenses. This time, however, Lauren called everyone forward before they could go to sleep.
“Tomorrow you will face your first goblins,” she began. “You all know they are small, and you’ve all been training against small targets. But there’s a lot you don’t know about how they fight.
“Goblins are closer to civilization than most creatures are. They form villages, have tribal leaders, and even use a system of ranks to command their troops. Unlike us, they can’t be reasoned with in any way. There’s no negotiating or communicating with a goblin. People have tried. Every interaction is met with a full-on assault, every single time. Expect them to do everything they can to kill you, because they will!
“The first goblins we encounter will be patrols and lookouts. Most will retreat to warn others. Then we will face the first satellite tribes. These are villages that form a protective perimeter and create an early warning system for the rest of the villages.
“That will be your opportunity to wet your blades. The fighting will be tough, but it will only be a small portion of the goblin infestation. It’s the last fight you must worry about, when the rest of the villages come together to fight as one.
“All goblins will try to fight besides others, and never alone. That doesn’t mean that they will fight as one, though. Goblins tend to form small clusters that attack in waves, with elders and more experienced warriors at the rear to direct them. Our main strategy will be to use the wall we’ve been practicing, combined with a slow and gradual retreat. Let the goblins throw themselves on your weapons. Close ranks and cut them down, giving ground as you do so the dead don’t pile up in front of you.
“We’ll do our best to take care of any ranged attackers, but there are only four of us. It will be up to all of you to look out for one another. If someone gets hurt, pull them out. If your section becomes the focus of the attack, hold your position. Breaking formation will only get your friends killed.
“You already know that goblins will mostly be armed with stone axes and wooden spears, so focus on the ground in front of you. Thrust and reset as quickly as you can. If everyone holds their position, everything will be fine.
“Two of us will be on each flank, both to keep the goblins from surrounding you and to use magic to thin their numbers. Don’t forget that there are only four of us, though, and we can’t do your jobs for you.
“Focus on keeping your formation and staying alive. Everything else will come.”
“What if they also have magic?” someone asked, causing a stir.
“Goblins don’t have access to magic,” Lauren replied. “There is a related species that you might be thinking of, but we know those are not present.”
“How?”
“If they were, they would have done your jobs for you. All of the species related to goblins hate each other.”
“Why are we killing them if they’re so similar to us?” someone else asked.
Lauren hesitated. “They’re only similar in that they have very basic civilization. But they will always, always try to kill you. We don’t know if they’re able to communicate with people or not, or if it’s ever occurred to them; either way, they never even try.”
“Imagine if you had a neighboring village,” Yaric said, trying to help. “Similar to you, but much more basic. Only these people are like rabid dogs, they bite anything that isn’t infected like they are. Anyone who comes close is attacked. They refuse to talk, they never show any quarter, and they launch constant raids against everyone nearby. This village simply wants to kill and destroy anything and anyone who isn’t like them. Can you leave them right on your border?
“I’m not saying it’s easy. The first monsters we encountered were kobolds, and they’re just a step down from goblins in intelligence. Kobolds look like two-legged lizards, so they weren’t as hard to fight. They’re so different from us that killing them just isn’t the same as something like a goblin, but you’re going to have to come to terms with killing them, and fast. You can’t hesitate. Just try to remember, they’re the ones invading your land and threatening your friends and family, and they’re the ones who can’t coexist.”
Yaric wasn’t sure how he felt about the shouts of approval he received. There was a certain level of bloodlust that he simply wasn’t expecting, especially when it was coming from people who were personally about to do the fighting. It was something that could help them survive, however.
Lauren gave a long description of goblin skirmishers and their tactics, but she focused on things relevant to their fight. No one in the militia was particularly affected by goblin scouting or message relay systems, but they were going to be directly facing the attack waves goblins favored, and the tendency for goblins to always attack whoever was closest could create a lot of pressure in certain circumstances.
There was also a lot of internal discussion when Lauren covered the weapons the goblins favored and, more particularly, their effectiveness against basic leather. The fact that leather was highly effective against axes with stone heads was met with cheers, even though Lauren made sure to emphasize that the impact would still be transferred, even if the stone edge was unlikely to get through their treated armor. Clubs were a different matter entirely, making most of the militia sober up. And flint-tipped spears fell somewhere in between, though they were guaranteed to be shorter and therefore have less reach than the halberds everyone was equipped with.
A few people seemed to think that they could focus on goblins with the most dangerous weapons. Yaric and the others knew better, but they also knew that it wouldn’t matter, as everyone would fight whatever was in front of them when they were in the heat of battle.
Nervous conversations carried on into the night. Sven did nothing to stop them, as he felt that silencing everyone would do more harm than good. Sometimes it was good to have a release for your nerves.
The following day was far more somber. Everyone made sure to double-check their makeshift armor, and every squad ran repeated tests to make sure they were located correctly.
Then they set off, marching toward the area with the infestation.
Several small woods dotted the area, but much of this land had previously been used for grazing. There were rolling hills covered with grass, and small streams frequently crossed between them. There was another familiar sight, however, and it sent chills down Yaric’s spine.
Faint lines of smoke rose from several locations.
Most of those would be the small satellite communities, but somewhere in the middle would be the main village, with the bulk of the population.
“Stop here,” Yaric ordered. No one hesitated to stop and drop their bags right where they stood. Much of the ‘armor’ was simply wrapped leather, which constantly shifted or unraveled, so many people took the opportunity to rewrap or tighten whatever they could.
“What is it?” Lauren asked.
Yaric glanced up at the militia before answering. “We need to decide where to fight. Flat ground or downhill. Obviously having goblins run downhill at us is out of the question, but we can slowly retreat backward if we’re on flat ground, or advance downhill if we have the height advantage. A big enough slope will clear out dead goblins naturally, and it will slow their attack waves if they’re coming uphill.”
“But we haven’t trained them for that,” Sven pointed out.
“No.”
“I think it has to be flat ground,” Li Na interjected. “They’ll break formation otherwise.”
“It’s less risky,” Lauren said, agreeing with Li Na.
“Will we even get to choose? Their scouts have probably already seen us. They’ll be the attackers, not us,” Sven explained.
“That’s why I asked the question. I was thinking about getting everyone set up and ready, and I’ll go ahead and get their attention, then draw the goblins back to us.”
“How many of them will chase just you though?” Li Na asked with a skeptical look on her face.
“I don’t know. How many goblins would you send if someone started throwing fireballs into your village?” Yaric asked in reply, drawing a smirk.
“Dunno. Can the dragon puppy hit a village?”
Settling on the idea was pretty straightforward. They wanted to give the militia the best possible chances, and picking the battleground would go a long way. Even better, they could be ready and waiting for the goblins when they arrived, with Yaric giving them a short warning as well.
The ground on the other side of the next hill seemed ideal, so Sven and Lauren began setting everything up and explaining the situation while Yaric ran ahead.
This wasn’t a scouting mission. Yaric didn’t intend to sneak in unseen; he intended to be as visible as possible, and he wanted to get as much attention as he could.
Still, the four scouting parties he came across only had four to six goblins in them, and they all immediately turned and ran for the nearest village, which just happened to be the direction Yaric was already headed in. Wiping them out was almost trivial.
The nearest satellite village was situated on top of a small hill, giving good visibility all around. Despite this, they obviously relied very heavily on their scouts, because Yaric made it all the way down the opposite hill and into the ankle-deep stream at the bottom before there was any sign of being spotted.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Then the screams and shrieks began.
Yaric raced up the other side, making for the wall of stakes that marked the outer edge of the village. He began lobbing fireballs the moment he was in range.
Dozens of incendiaries arced over the wall, followed closely by a few explosive fireballs for good measure. Two more were sent into the wall itself before Yaric turned to run.
This time he was halfway up the other side when the intensity of the cries rose yet again, and Yaric looked over his shoulder to see a horde of goblins streaming out of the gate and down the hill, their axes and spears waving above their heads.
The little goblins were fast too, far faster than Yaric had expected, and he found himself being forced to use magic to keep ahead. He didn’t need more than the occasional augmentation for a few seconds, but it still took him by surprise.
He also ran into two more scouting parties, though these two were heading directly for him instead of away.
Both were visible from some distance, just as he was, so there was no surprise or ambush, but he was forced to draw his sword once again.
Yaric was so used to fighting either well-trained arcanists or creatures he had no business facing that he almost hesitated when he blasted right through the first squad. It was almost easy to forget that their real danger was in numbers, though even small groups were deadly if they were fighting people like those who made up the militia.
Not bringing signal arrows was an oversight Yaric wouldn’t make again, but he did have other means. Drawing close to the battlefield, Yaric concentrated while running, and once his spell was complete, he unleashed it on a random tree in a small copse he was running by.
CRACK!
Lighting flashed across the small gap, casting brief shadows that instantly disappeared once again. The crack seemed to echo through the hills for a moment, though it only made the cries behind him rise in intensity once again.
Yaric crested a hill and saw the militia on the flat ground opposite, already formed up and arrayed against the horde of goblins behind him. Sven and Li Na were on the right flank, leaving Lauren on the left. Goblins tended to go for whoever was closest, so Yaric headed directly for the center of the line.
A simple augmentation spell let him leap clear over everyone’s heads, and he headed for the left flank the moment he landed on the other side. Goblins were already charging toward their line.
Lauren smiled the moment she saw him approach. “Had to make an entrance, didn’t you?”
“Hold your positions!” Sven shouted. “Get ready to start a slow retreat! Just like we practiced!”
Many of the faces Yaric could see were pale or sweaty. More than one halberd was shaking slightly, the small movements of the hands being amplified by the length of the polearm.
Then the goblins were on them.
Shrieks and excited chitters were met by the pointy ends of the halberds. The second row actually had the most challenging job as they worked to keep the axe wielders at bay while the front row stood their ground against the advancing horde.
Two people were already down and being pulled back, with three quarters of the goblin force yet to join the fight.
“They aren’t trying to go around yet; cover me,” Yaric said, glancing only briefly at Lauren to make sure she’d heard him.
Yaric started launching explosive fireballs as quickly as he could. Not into the lines of goblins engaged with the militia, but into the more densely packed force holding back. Thinning out that force would keep them from adding any more pressure on the militia, or at least reduce it.
More fireballs joined Yaric’s from the other side, along with the occasional shards of ice. Yaric also found that blasts of wind could be surprisingly effective at breaking up waves of attackers, particularly when the wind traveled down the entire wave, and said attackers were small, lightweight goblins.
A loud shriek from the rear got the entire remaining force of goblins moving forward, this time in the worst possible way - as a single unit.
“Full step retreat!” Sven shouted. The militia began retreating at an increased pace, lessoning the speed with which the goblins collided.
The militia were getting tired. At least one fighter had their halberd ripped from their hands, and more than a dozen were wounded. The rate of injury was high enough that keeping the injured ahead of the retreating formation was becoming a problem, and the mass of goblins was beginning to overwhelm the line.
“Do you have any special arrows?” Lauren asked, also sounding out of breath as she picked off any goblin that tried to move around the line. With the mass currently facing them, that was a lot of goblins.
“No,” Yaric replied. Lloyd hadn’t given them back.
“Can you change that air spell to something flammable again?” Yaric asked.
“We’re too close!”
“No, no explosions. Just something flammable. But more importantly, something that can reach down the entire line.
Lauren seemed to catch on almost immediately. “Give me a moment. We’ll have to start here.”
Yaric continued to throw fireballs into the horde while swinging his sword with one hand. He’d already found that cuts were far more effective against the small and fast goblins.
“Ready!”
Lauren launched a blast of wind at the closest goblins, and Yaric jumped next to her to unleash his own spell.
A stream of flame joined the wind to create a torrent of flame, far more powerful than any two fire spells combined. Yaric’s spell already contained fuel, but Lauren’s was nothing but fuel, and it was created under far greater pressure as well.
Lauren shifted the roaring firestorm down the line, moving slowly to ensure that the goblins would at the very least be severely injured. They were moving out to try and get parallel to their line when a second stream of flames joined the fight from the other end and also began moving across.
Several people in the militia began flinching away from the flames as they drew closer. The heat was simply too intense, but there were still many goblins standing right in front of them. They had it worse than the militia, though not so much worse that they weren’t able to keep fighting.
The real difference was further back, where almost every goblin not directly engaged with the line was now smoldering on the ground. Those closest to the center were still out of reach, and they were now spreading out once again, but the sheer mass of attackers was gone.
Three more minutes of intense and frantic fighting followed. The fighters were tired, scared, and close to panic, but the risk of total collapse had been averted, and only four more joined the wounded at the back. As bad as it was for the militia, it had been worse for the goblins, leaving them fighting more to take someone with them than to win the battle.
Yaric was used to the sudden changes in sound by now. Fierce clashes and desperate shouts were suddenly replaced by crying and pained moans. Some of the wounded were injured quite severely, and Yaric knew that their medical training was about to be tested.
Not that it would help everyone. Two were dead, despite Yaric’s promise to himself.
Both had fallen during the most intense part of the fighting, when the goblins had unintentionally formed a solid mass.
And this was just a satellite village.
Svan was already triaging the wounded while Li Na checked on those still standing.
“Floaters, move onto the hills around us!” Yaric shouted. “You can rest there, but your job is to watch for more goblins. Make sure you have a good view around us!”
The independent fighters split up to cover every direction, with a few looking relieved to get away from the cries of the wounded.
Yaric and Lauren helped Sven remove armor from those who were hurt, and once they were done, they helped him with the stitching as well. Li Na moved around the battleground, making sure that the lookouts were doing their jobs.
Water was handed around while the main force rested. Everyone was in shock to some degree, whether it was through injury, facing the goblins, or seeing the dead. The grand adventure wasn’t a game anymore. A few of the more industrious fighters were stamping out the fires that were spreading across the grass, as much to reduce the cloying smoke as to prevent the spread of the fires, while the rest sat where they had been standing and tried to catch their breaths.
They had an hour to rest before the expected shouts came. “Goblins! More goblins are coming!”
These were coming from slightly further south, no doubt from the neighboring satellite village. It was expected, as was the village to the north. Their arrivals weren’t likely to be far apart either.
“Form up!”
Contrary to popular belief, the recent battle experience didnot make things better for the militia. It would help in the future, once they had had the time to process and internalize everything they had experienced, but right now they had just been through a traumatic experience, and they knew they were about to go through that same experience all over again.
Three people dropped their weapons and started running.
“Form your line! The people next to you are relying on you! Their lives depend on you holding your position!” Sven shouted.
Pale and shaking figures moved next to each other, their bloodstained halberds clutched tightly.
“Check the person beside you, make sure they are okay! Use your voices!” Lauren shouted.
It took a few seconds, but people up and down the line began turning to their squad mates. Broken and shaky voices started talking over each other, with many checking people two or even three positions further. Everyone looked far more settled and determined after they were done.
Goblins crested the nearest hill, prompting Sven and Lauren to begin adjusting the angle of the line slightly.
Yaric and Li Na ran forward and toward each other. They met near the middle, and once they were in range of the goblins, they unleashed their spells together.
Glittering bolts of ice fanned out to pepper the oncoming horde, the wickedly sharp shards penetrating deeply. Rapid fire balls of flame detonated amongst the waves of goblins, throwing broken bodies into the air and knocking those further away onto the ground.
Yaric and Li Na both retreated as the goblins advanced, drawing them towards the center of their line, all while keeping enough distance that they would have time to move around the back to get into position on the flanks.
This time some lessons were learned, so even though the militia were more shaken than before, they still made several improvements to how they fought. The second row got involved right at the start, thrusting past their front line to hold the goblins back. No one lost their weapons this time, and the slow retreat went a lot more smoothly.
Things were still worse. The rush of adrenaline from the previous fight had worn off, leaving everyone feeling tired and weak. Now everyone was starting with some level of fatigue, and the second rush didn’t give the same boost the first had, though it did increase the feelings of stress, which in turn only increased the pressure everyone felt.
Fresh memories of seeing others get cut down was its own kind of motivator, however, and the militia fought fiercely.
The knee-high grass around Yaric rippled as Lauren sent out multiple wind blades, crouching low to keep them at waist height for the goblins. They both focused on causing casualties further back in the waves of goblins with the aim of creating obstacles. The last fight had seen waves unintentionally overlap to form a solid wall of attackers, and they wanted to disrupt the waves to ensure that it couldn’t happen again. Random piles of goblins caused small sections of each wave to slow down and break off as they advanced.
Sven and Li Na were able to get their fire stream going first, with Yaric and Lauren close behind. It wasn’t easy. Both flanks had to be secure, and then they needed to advance past the line of defenders in order to aim their streams down the line of attackers. All the while fending off the goblins that moved to attack them head-on.
Goblins were advancing in regular waves this time, reducing the effectiveness, but it still created massive casualties amongst the goblins already engaging, and it stopped those further back in their tracks, at least until the streams of flames shifted.
Then a faint whistle swept across the battlefield, followed by a loud crack. A cloud of dust exploded on the shield that Yaric had made mainly as an afterthought, the stone carrying so much force that Yaric’s shield shattered. Another stone whistled past his shoulder.
‘Slingers!’
Yaric threw up a second shield while still supplying the stream of flames to add to Lauren’s wind spell, then began trying to track the slingers down.
Another crack, and this time a small section of his spell shattered while the rest of the segmented shield stayed up. Half a dozen slingers stood at the back, all on his side of the line. Most were attacking the militia, and while they were undoubtedly causing injuries, no one had been struck anywhere truly dangerous – yet.
Yaric lined up his shot carefully and released his spell, sending his own stone back in return. His projectile was long and sharp, and it struck with enough force that it went straight through the goblin. The next spell struck as well, causing the remaining four slingers to focus their attention on him.
That suited Yaric just fine, as they couldn’t target the militia if they were aiming for him. Yaric just kept repairing his shield while firing back when he could. His priority was still to follow Lauren’s spell as she shifted her aim back and forth, stopping waves and clearing out large swathes of goblins as it went, but he had enough time to fire off another spell whenever Lauren focused the fire over a particular area.
The last wave of goblins began moving forward, so Lauren did as well, targeting those directly ahead of them. They went down in seconds, allowing her to turn her aim on the central goblins, but now from slightly behind.
Yaric and Lauren advanced as they could, with Yaric wielding his sword in his right and cutting down any goblins that approached from a bad angle. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to shift the torrent of flames in just any direction, not with the militia lined up to the side. Some goblins were in between themselves and the militia, which Yaric guarded against with steel.
They slowly advanced down the line. Lauren used the reaction from the militia to gauge how close she could get with her flames, while Yaric cut down those goblins that were too close, striking from behind as they passed. The militia was essential, as they pinned the vast majority of the goblins down, and they even inflicted significant casualties of their own, but it was magic that dealt the greatest blow.
Nothing stood in front of over ten meters of flames, not for long, anyway.
The end of the fight was just as sudden as before, but cries of alarm rose up almost immediately. One more goblin tribe stood atop the hills, this time slightly to the north. These goblins stood and watched the massacre of the final few goblins before turning around and leaving, no doubt heading to join the main force instead of pushing for a pointless battle on their own.
Yaric ran after them while the others tended to the wounded. He didn’t feel like the goblins were likely to turn around and attack anyway, but it would have been stupid to just assume they’d left.
Six goblins were lying on the top of the hill, spread out widely and trying to blend in with the grass. Yaric couldn’t leave them to report on their movements, so he unslung his bow, nocked an arrow, and got to work.
Scouts don’t tolerate enemy scouts.
Whisps of white, grey smoke still hung over the battlefield when Yaric returned, drying his throat and making him want to cough. Too much grass had burned the first time for any fires to get going, but there was already enough smoke in the air to cause a problem for the militia.
Sven was already getting the wounded ready for travel. They had to retreat to a safe distance for the night, and no one wanted to be caught too close at night.
Nineteen people had needed stitches, with twelve of them too wounded to fight. There was also one with a broken bone, and of course, the two dead.
‘At least no one died during the second attack,’ Yaric thought bitterly. He hadn’t known either of the dead, but that somehow felt almost worse.
They were each from the same squad, which unfortunately made sense. The sudden loss of one of their members would also make the others temporarily more vulnerable. Each of those squad members was now carefully wrapping the bodies in what had been their tents, taking special care to ensure that everything was secure.
It was a quiet and somber force that left the battlefield, led by fighters who were either carried or propped up, and two wrapped bundles that were each being carried on the shoulders of three squad mates.
“We can’t fight the main force like this,” Lauren said quietly, her voice so low that Yaric almost missed it. “These two groups were a fraction of what they’ll face tomorrow, maybe twenty percent at best. How could they possibly face the full goblin horde all at once?”
“And they’re tired,” Li Na added, skipping up from behind. “None of these people are in any shape to fight tomorrow.”
“Maybe the fight isn’t here,” Yaric said, perking up. “The fight is back home with the nobles who arranged all this. We should take everyone back tomorrow and fight against the orders.”
“We can’t,” Sven replied sullenly. “Maybe that’s what we should have done in the beginning, before we left with these people. But those goblins are going to leave on a raid tomorrow, and they won’t stop until they have their revenge. If we leave now, it will just be some other town or village that gets massacred instead.
“And everyone here will face desertion charges. It’s not just capital punishment; their families will face consequences as well. Imagine how people would react if they left now and an entire town got wiped out by those goblins? It’s too late, I don’t see any options.”
“There’s always options,” Li Na insisted.
They continued walking in silence, just like the militia. It was comforting for a while, sharing the experience together, but someone in the militia eventually broke down and began sobbing, prompting an entire squad to leave the procession to help their squad mate.
Li Na kicked Yaric’s leg. “What’s the plan?”
“The plan? To stop the entire horde of goblins with just us and these guys?” Yaric snorted.
“Yeah.” Li Na stared at Yaric, looking like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“There is no plan.”
“Well we have to do something,” Lauren whispered.
“Get our whole class down here by tomorrow and we might stand a chance, but goblins don’t surrender once they start to fight. Tomorrow will be different. These people will be fighting to survive, not to win. And I don’t mean as individuals. I can’t see how they won’t all be wiped out, every single one of them. I’m not worried about casualties; I’m worried about whether or not there will be any survivors.”
“So what’s the plan?” Li Na asked once again, still staring at Yaric. “Our center did okay; we can probably rely on them. The rest need more help though.”
“They need a second militia made up entirely of arcanists,” Yaric said bitterly.
“So what’s the plan?”
Lauren wrapped her arm around Yaric’s and held his hand. “We have one night, and tomorrow we’re probably going to have to fight a far larger army of goblins, with the people walking in front of us. How do we do it?” she asked.
Sven was watching Yaric’s reaction as well. “Don’t look at me. There’s no conventional strategy here.”
Yaric stared at the ground while they walked, watching their shadows as they marched before them. The rhythmic steps were almost hypnotic. And the shadows never experienced danger, nor did they face insurmountable challenges.
“We can take the halberds from the people who are too injured and use them to cut stakes tonight,” Yaric offered. “It will be difficult with such long hafts, but a proper row of stakes in front of our front line could help a lot, especially against goblins.”
“That’s a start,” Lauren said, smiling softly.
“What we really need is a lot more spells. More than the four of us can cast on our own.”
“We don’t have that,” Lauren replied.
Yaric continued in silence for a few minutes longer. “Maybe we do,” he eventually said, though far more cautiously than before. “There are spells we could cast in advance.”
“Precast spell?” Lauren asked. “We haven’t learned that yet.”
“No, it doesn’t have to be precast. I mean fully cast. We can prepare the battleground much better than before.”
“How?” Li Na asked.
“Are you thinking of traps?” Sven looked just as confused as Li Na.
“Something like that. But that still isn’t enough. I mean, maybe, but we need to do everything we can. And that would mean I need to go ahead of everyone. If we’re going to do as much damage as possible, I need to attack them before they head out, and keep harassing them all the way back.”
“Why?” Lauren asked. “We can set everything up like you said, and we’d probably need your help.”
“No. We need to cut down their numbers, and the more we cut down before the fight, the less danger there will be to everyone else. And our preparations can be focused on the survivors.”
Lauren was walking stiffly beside him now, but she didn’t argue.
“And this plan can work?” Li Na asked. “Like, not just have survivors, but help most of them?”
“Maybe… I don’t know. It might not do much at all. We don’t even know exactly how many goblins there will be.”
“But it is a plan,” Li Na replied.
“Yes.”
“And it will roast goblins?” Li Na asked.
“Actually, yes.”
Lauren squeezed Yaric’s hand and finally looked up at him as they walked through the open grassland while the sun began to dip behind them. She only had one question.
“What do we do?”