Alisson didn’t know what to expect at Edringrad. The village was most likely being raided, and if his earlier ambush didn’t already give it away, it was most likely the result of goblins.

Celis and him, both mounted, sped forward down a road toward Edringrad.

“What are we supposed to do about the village then?”

Celis called from behind him.

“We go in, get what we need, and leave. We have no business in saving this place.”

Celis didn’t respond, and he couldn’t see her countenance. They’d probably arrive at Edringrad after the pillaging was mainly over, he’d expect that him and Celis would have to creep into the village, bypassing any goblins, and find a storehouse of sorts.

Before Alisson could think any further, into view came a figure laying across the ground a good distance away. Alisson promptly leaned back on his stallion, the horse slowing and Celis’s mare doing the same.

Alisson tilted his head. It seemed to be some sort of village girl. He gave Celis a flick of the head and continued down the road, though in a much slower, more cautious, trot.

“Who are you? What happened?”

Alisson asked in Firdu from atop his horse, slowly approaching and infinitely wary of some sort of trap. The village girl’s leg was cut, and blood was soaking through her long and shabby clothes. The villager looked up, with a pained expression.

“Ba-, Bandits?”

Alisson nervously glanced at the blood covered Celis, she hadn’t put her cloak back on because it would’ve gotten dirty as well.

Alisson shook his head.

“No. We are not bandits. We were just killing goblins is all.”

Alisson gave a little motion to Celis, hopefully easing the villager’s worries of all the blood.

“Ah…”

After giving another wary glance at Celis, the villager looked back up to Alisson with a gulp.

“My village, it’s, it’s being attacked. I managed to grab my little sister and escape but, they ambushed us and we were separated…”

With that wound, it’s evident that she didn’t make it too far away from where they were attacked, I’d imagine more goblins are in the area...

“What kind of goblins did you see? How many were there?”

Alisson asked, at the very least he could preempt some intelligence.

“…I, I don’t know a thing about monsters…but, there was at least a hundred that attacked the village, and about a dozen ambushed me and my little sister.”

It was as Alisson feared; Edringrad was most certainly going to fall, that, or it already had. No common village can stand up to such numbers of goblins, and with those hobgoblins Alisson fought…there was most certainly higher-ranking goblins present. The goblins were smart enough to have forces around the village, making sure that people like Alisson and Celis wouldn’t interrupt their attack, and to make sure that nobody would escape, like this peasant girl and her sister. Going by that fact, their nest must’ve been close to warrant such a large attack on a village; no goblins would be brazen enough to march around the continent like human armies to attack towns, they were always local.

“Where was your sister taken to? Rather, did you see what direction they went?”

Alisson asked. If there was, he could bet the goblins nest would be one of them. Alisson wanted to avoid such an area.

“Y-yes…” Through a sputter of pain, the peasant girl continued, “There’s a part of the forest, no one ever comes or goes from.” She lifted her hand, and pointed right past Alisson.

“…Behind us?”

The peasant nodded.

Tch. The peasant's sister was proabably taken to their nest. If its behind us though...That complicates things. We could very well ride on Edringrad as planned but, if that’s a nest, I don’t want to be squeezed in between a goblin raiding party and their reserves at the same time…

If Alisson’s little hunch was correct, then that nest could be housing more goblins, goblins that could periodically harass them from behind. Considering that the matter of extracting supplies from Edringrad was looking up to be a delicate situation, Alisson didn’t want to have to deal with any surprises.

Thinking back on it…the reason we were ambushed…we were probably encroaching on their nest…goblins wouldn’t be so bold as to spread there forces so wide; that must of been their defense force for their nest, hence the presence of hobgoblins.

On that train of thought, the picture became much clearer to Alisson. Him and Celis had inadvertently killed off the goblin’s rearguard without even knowing it. Such an act opened up a great many deal of possibilities, if Alisson had more men, say a single company of his 51st, he’d be able to effectively slaughter the goblin presence for kilometers around thanks to the current environment.

Regrettably, that was not the case. He had two able bodied fighters, himself and Celis, and a single objective, attain supplies from Edringrad, which may or may have been be currently infested with marauding goblins.

Alisson clenched a fist. That nest was wide open. And if he didn’t deal with it whilst it was vulnerable, it be a pain in the neck for the rest of their time in the area around Edringrad.

“Celis. Stay with the horses here, draw any goblins that try to follow me, I’ll be heading to destroy their nest. If I don’t come back, or if you meet too many goblins, our fall back point is where we were attacked earlier; If all hell breaks loose, we’ll meet back up at Menton. Understand?”

“Yes master.” Celis nodded briskly.

Alisson swiftly disembarked from his mount, and melted into the undergrowth of the nearby forest, sifting through bush and shrub alike, in deft silence.

…

It hadn’t taken long to reach the place him and Celis were ambushed, from there, Alisson scanned the area as best he could. He was no ranger, but he did the best he could to stay within cover, and downwind; for goblins always had their amazing sense of smell for detection. Nekomata had of course better smell than a human yes, but it was no match for say a dog or in this case, a goblin. After a few minutes of scouting the area from where the goblins had emerged from, Alisson’s nose pricked with disgust, and he knew he was on the right track.

It was only a matter of time after he had their scent. Alisson quickly homed in on its origin, the winds were favorable to him in their direction, easily guiding Alisson.

The sight he came to however, was not pleasing.

At the side of a hill, was a small hobble. There was one large tunnel, most likely the main funnel of transportation for the goblins. He stood tense before this tunnel. The air was quiet; for as Alisson had already guessed, the majority of the goblins were out and about, raiding or patrolling.

That meant that only three types of living creatures were in the nest. The first and most important was the goblin leadership, or at least, most likely. High ranking goblins did not crave for battle and pillaging as much as their riled up and naïve younger cousins, no; their highest concern was themselves. For good reason, a high ranking and intelligent goblin was an immense asset to all goblins in the area, most chiefly in the leadership department, though they could also prove a valuable fighter if the tide called for it. So, most likely, there was at least some semblance of goblin leadership still in the nest.

The second type of creature, were the youngling goblins, ones that were too young to fight. Alisson need not worry about them; he’d kill them along with the rest of their kind.

The third, and least important, were any captured humans. Though this was the issue requiring least action from Alisson, it stole away the most attention in his mind. He knew very well what he’d see in the nest, and he was not so weak a man as to be scared off by it, though it still bothered him deeply. For that, Alisson steeled his mind. These were no fratello of his, he shouldn’t bother worrying himself with anything of this sort.

Even so, the sight which was before him still tugged at his heart. Pinned against crosses, their wrists and arms bleeding, their bodies bare to see, were two female humans, hung like ornaments at the entrance to the nest.

They were blindfolded, and thanks to Alisson’s stealth, they hadn’t heard him either, even though he was naught meters away. A disturbing sight, one which Alisson denied himself from seeing, shutting his eyes the second he neared. With Enhérejär nowhere to be seen in his sheath, and with an exhale of air, Alisson stepped forward, finally prepared to meet the coming pestilence.

As his foot reached the ground in front of him however, he heard the crunch, the all too familiar snap of a cervical fracture. Not one, but two; for Enhérejär had once again acted without his will, and ended the lives of the two humans. He knew it was both his standing Sidonian orders and his own morals, but Enhérejär was proving more and more autonomous. Perhaps Enhérejär was just as disgusted and disturbed as Alisson was; an evident matter, for the snap of the humans’ necks had seemed ever so slightly more powerful to Alisson than they normally were.

Pushing the thought of the defiled humans aside, Alisson continued forward, Enhérejär streaming into his sheath. Feeling the absence of light on his eyelids, Alisson finally cracked open his eyes, to be meet solely with the black of the tunnel.

Completely zoning out of his morals, his mind quickly shifted back into its peak, solely logical, thought process.

His present concern was now vision. Once again, although Nekomata had better sight in the dark than humans, it was nothing compared to goblins. Light spells were Alisson’s first solution, though in Alisson’s opinion, it caused more problems than it’d solve. Yes, he’d be able to see, but he’d be essentially a walking beacon; all the goblins in the nest would know exactly where he was. In this labyrinth of tunnels, that the goblins knew and had built themselves, Alisson didn’t want to fight the entire residence in such a cramped and unfavorable environment.

So, Alisson decided to rely on his other sense, the best the Nekomata possessed, one that rivaled that of wild animals.

With a short flash of blue, atop Alisson’s head and at his hips, his manifestation of his true self took form. Unlike previously, his ear had finally healed over, and he was back to his peak vitality. The two ears atop his head twitched sensitively at every sound around. This was Alisson’s card to play, the goblins wouldn’t see him coming, they wouldn’t hear him, and hopefully they wouldn’t smell him either; but Alisson, he’d be able hear the unprepared and lax movements of the unsuspecting foes.

He drew Enhérejär, and strode forth, his ears twitching, and his tails mesmerizingly twirling around each other.

For the next few minutes, Alisson crept deeper into the nest, his footsteps silent with thoroughly unmoving blackness before him. He could barely make out the twists and turns of the tunnel, but he managed to navigate unhindered with the slight vision he did have. There may have been fake ends and secret paths in the tunnel, but Alisson was word for word completely in the dark about such things. Although he heard no scampering and breathing yet, he could see himself being attacked from two sides at once due to such false ends and trapdoors. Goblins were not too intelligent, but that didn’t mean they could make effective traps and ambushes.

As Alisson continued on, he soon heard multiple pairs of scampering claws upon the rock of the tunnel. They were heading for him. Alisson quickly and silently hugged the wall next to him; the goblins wouldn’t be able to hear or smell him thanks to his stealth yes, but they could still see just fine.

As they neared, Alisson’s ears twitched as he heard the beating of their hearts. There was three distinct sets, a number that Alisson could handle just fine.

I’ll wait for them to pass, and then strike with Enhérejär…

Enhérejär was not omniscient, in fact, Enhérejär was blind on its own. Enhérejär piggy-backed off of Alisson’s own senses for its sight. Such a thing was unique to Enhérejär in the realm of Legendary weapons, it was all in thanks to its unorthodox mode of operation, it needed to know exactly where the enemy was just as much as Alisson did.

The goblins closed in, and they would’ve ran right past Alisson if he hadn’t done anything. Though of course, he wasn’t going to let anything get behind him, especially in this closed space. With the clench of Alisson’s fist, Enhérejär shot out, and with a dozen of its slivers each, it impaled the goblins in a crescendo. Alisson could only slightly make out their limp bodies, now pinned to the tunnel wall. Alisson unclenched his fist, and Enhérejär returned to him, reforming in his open hand. The bodies slid down to the ground with a few thuds.

Alisson quickly continued on through the nest.

He soon came to a side passage, and upon further inspection, it seemed to be some sort of storage room. Alisson casted a single and dull mage light so he could see the contents of this storage room. If there was food, then Alisson’s overall objective would’ve been solved right then and there.

When Alisson saw the few miscellaneous goods in the small compartment, regrettably there was no food but, there was something one step down in value, something that sparked a devious idea in Alisson’s head.

Three small pots of oil lay across the floor, ripe for use.

It’s like Eclesia…

Alisson smirked. This oil was most likely the result of the goblins’ pilfering, as by the distinct human pottery, but Alisson was happy to use it in the goblins stead. He could use this oil to burn the nest, and deny certain areas if the goblins did catch wind of his presence.

Alisson didn’t waste any time. He hefted one of the pots of oil and backtracked, pouring a line of oil as he walked. He got to the goblins that he’d earlier killed, and doused them with the oil. He then backtracked all the way to the entrance, using the rest of the oil on thoroughly dousing the walls and floor.

Now empty, he placed the pot down gently. This was an amazing stroke of good fortune. With this new addition to the picture, Alisson quickly rethought his plan:

Advance into the nest. Line everything with oil. Save any undefiled prisoners. Kill the rest. Escape, and let the smoke suffocate them.

Alisson returned to the storage compartment, and to his surprise, found another vein of good luck, there were two small flasks of oil. These were not going to be useful in the overall effort to smoke the nest, but Alisson nevertheless clipped them to his belt. He had matches; Alisson could toss a flask at a goblin and then follow it up with a match, then, voila, goblin barbeque.

Alisson grabbed a second oil pot, and continued on. With this newfound oil, he’d be able to simply flush out the goblins, he wouldn’t need to traverse all the way to the deepest parts of the nest; in this enclosed space, smoke would choke them out. Alisson’s oil drizzling advance came to a halt when he spotted yet another side tunnel. He gently placed the pot down, and strained his ears to listen.

Heartbeats. He could hear at least a dozen overlapping hearts, belonging to what, he couldn’t distinguish. He brought Enhérejär up at the ready.

Given the enclosed space, he felt a long rapier wouldn’t do much good…

Enhérejär.

Enhérejär clicked into a short and thick sword, with a beefy handguard. Enhérejär couldn’t make itself smaller, but it could make itself more compact. Alisson, prepared, strode forward silently. As the walls on either side of him opened up and expanded into a cavern, he heard the squeals of goblins, and rushed footsteps. There were three goblins in front of him, and they had spotted him.

Alisson heard the whistle of a swing, and rose Enhérejär on instinct, blocking either a club or a sword, he didn’t know. Judging from the feel of the strike on Enhérejär, Alisson roughly extrapolated where the goblin’s body was, and swung for himself. He felt torque, and then the satisfying crunch of Enhérejär cutting through flesh.

Another swing, Alisson stepped to the side, evading it, and swung with Enhérejär in the same motion, bisecting whatever had rushed him so brazenly.

There’s one left…

He heard one more, directly in front of him a few meters. Just why wasn’t it attacking? As Alisson stepped forward, his question was answered, with pain. The twang of a loosed arrow sent a shock through Alisson, but before he could react, it struck him, right in his left thigh. He felt blood heat and warm his skin.

Stowing the pain, Alisson sprinted forward, and stabbed forward. A miss, but Alisson quickly adjusted himself, and swung widely in front of himself; and feeling the tear of flesh, relief flooded him.

That was a close one…I didn’t expect a bow in the dark, stupid me.

Just as Alisson’s body were to relax though, he heard light steps behind him and the high pitched howl of a goblin as it leapt at him. On instinct, his tails rose and wrapped around whatever was attacking from his behind. Alisson turned in a blur, and saw what he’d caught, it was a young goblin, it had a large rock in its hands.

Sneaky bastard.

The youngling rose its hands, and tried to free itself with its rock, but Alisson was quicker. His tails tightened around the goblin. With a crunch, the goblin went limp; Alisson’s tails had collapsed its ribcage. He tossed the lifeless corpse away like a piece of trash, and turned back to the rest of the cavern. He’d earlier heard many more living things and he could feel them as well, so what were they?

I’m running low on mana…no more mage lights. I need to conserve just enough mana to use my barrier spell in an emergency.

Alisson reached into a small pack on his collarbone, and withdrew a small match, with a practiced motion he struck his pauldron with the match, igniting it. Though the match was weak, it illuminated the area fine enough.

The sight he saw had the same unpleasantness as the one he saw when he first entered the nest. There were about ten of them, all in the same state as he’d seen previously but of varying age and cleanliness. There was one however, that was still clothed. One still figure lay across the floor directly in front of him; it seemed those goblins he’d killed had been in the middle of something.

Good riddance then. Enhérejär.

Alisson knelt next to the limp body, inspecting it as he let go of Enhérejär so it could do its business. She was indeed just fine, though she was unconscious, she most likely feinted some way or the other.

Well, it’s better for someone so young to remember as little as they can from such an event.

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Alisson lifted the limp body with one hand, like holding a sack of potatoes. As he did, he heard the crunches of numerous necks at once, and Enhérejär returned to his free hand.

The area now relatively safe, Alisson backtracked all the way outside, and placed the lifeless girl against a tree, a safe distance from the entrance. Returning to the nest, he grabbed the third pot of oil on his way deeper. He used the rest of the second pot of oil dousing the most recently cleared chamber; all of the corpses would serve as fine kindling for plenty of smoke.

Finished with his machinations, Alisson lifted the third and final pot, and continued deeper, still drizzling a line of oil as he went.

I can’t say that I’m not nervous a single spark or ember will set this place ablaze but…

Alisson’s thoughts trailed off, and he pushed his own safety out of his head.

Alisson came to a fork in the tunnel. His ears twitched. The left road was silent. The right however, he heard the beating of many dozens of hearts as well as the scratching of numerous claws. From the scratching, the right tunnel perhaps led to a nursery of sorts.

That’s a lot of kindling…

Alisson was about to turn right but, a new sound funneled into his ears. He heard crashing, and stomping, it was the footsteps of something heavy. If Alisson had to guess, a few hobgoblins were running down the tunnel on his left.

Tch! Shit! Times up, I’ve been had!

Alisson gave the pot of oil a hard throw straight into the right tunnel. Turning, he withdrew a match, struck it against his pauldron, and tossed it in after the pot of oil. He’d just began his sprint when he heard the crack of the pot down the right tunnel. A split second later, light rose and blazed behind Alisson; the fire had begun.

If I’m lucky, my pursuers will get caught up behind the fires…

That turned out to be wishful thinking, for after a few seconds of sprinting, the thundering footsteps of his pursuers did not slow, they didn’t even falter.

Alisson ran as fast as he could; behind him was a few large goblins of indeterminate rank, and behind them, a blazing fire. Alisson could run up to bursts of thirty-five kilometers an hour, but even then, the goblins behind him, terrifyingly, only seemed to get louder.

After a couple minutes of sprinting, Alisson felt the light of day splash across his face, and turned on his heel.

I’ll have to use the last of my mana to collapse the tunnel and lock them in! It might not be enough though…

Alisson rose his hands on impulse, but reconsidered immediately when he remembered the dismal amount of mana he had left. He backed up, swallowing hard. He had no choice; he couldn’t fight three hobgoblin ranking opponents or higher at once; he’d already figured out as much in the battle earlier in the day. Before he could turn tail however, his pursuers came into view. There were six of them. Three normal sized goblins, two hobgoblins, and one that emanated a completely different feeling.

This last goblin was draped in a bright red cloak, and had numerous skulls and furs upon its body. This was something higher ranked than a hobgoblin. The party of six goblins stopped at the edge of light and darkness within the tunnel. The lead goblin, the one that had the size of a hobgoblin and was draped in red, rose its arms with a vulgar smile.

N-no way! That’s no normal hobgoblin, that’s a shaman!

It was preparing to cast magic, and for that, it was classified as a shaman. Goblin shamans were known to be the only beasts that could cast magic. As bad as Alisson being blown to smithereens right then and there seemed, for him and his Enhérejär, it was an amazing opportunity;

He didn’t need mana to collapse the tunnel if he could use the shaman’s.

He rose Enhérejär as the shaman leashed a cocktail of spells at him; some were human and familiar but most seemed to be designed by the shaman himself. The spells soared at him, and Alisson was completely unmoving, as if he were willing to be blown apart. As the spells were naught two meters away, he turned on his heel, like a dancer, with Enhérejär extended. A curious sight unraveled. As Alisson spun, so too did the spells, they seemed to have been caught by Enhérejär, and they followed in its wake. After Alisson completed his turn, he gave Enhérejär a flick, and like that, the spells had turned completely around Alisson, and back at the tunnel.

He could see the shaman’s surprise and terror for a moment, but he cared not to indulge in it. The spells impacted not at the goblins, but at the tunnel’s walls, and the entire entrance began to shake and quiver with pressure, within any matter of seconds, the tunnel would give way. The shaman glanced around at the shaking entrance, and saw what Alisson had done. With the fire catching up into view right behind the group of goblins, all of them started a sprint out of the tunnel. For a moment, it seemed that they were going to completely avoid Alisson’s trap. However, Alisson still had mana left, and he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity.

“Obice!”

A blue film appeared before the goblins, and they crashed against it, dumbfounded. They were locked in, there was no escape for them. They started to bang and punch the barrier spell with fire rising at their feet and rocks loosening and falling from above. They would’ve been able to break it given ample time but, their clocks had just run out;

The cave collapsed, and they disappeared from Alisson’s view. If the rocks didn’t kill them, the suffocation of the smoke would.

…

Man…Alisson’s such a softie. I’m pretty sure he did a total one eighty just to risk his life for this random peasant’s sister. Those are my thoughts as I see Alisson dive through the undergrowth, disappearing from my vision and fading away in sound. I wait a moment, then hop of my horse, walking over to the village girl. I kneel to her and extend my arms.

Alisson probably didn’t tell me to heal her to conserve mana but, I have plenty…he won’t notice. Alisson can be scary too, I really don’t get him.

“Heal: 1st Tier.”

As the foreign syllables leave my mouth, and a blue aura emanates from my hands, the village girls eyes open wide in surprise.

“W-what are you…”

She mumbled, eyeing my hands over her leg.

“It’s a healing spell.”

“A-ah.”

The peasant clearly didn’t understand what that was, but I didn’t bother explaining.

…You know, she does have a good rack, I could explain the healing, and then say I need to check the rest of her body for wounds…and then from there, I could -!

No! Not the time!

“S-so, who, who are you?”

The girl asked nervously. Wow, for once I’m having a conversation where I’m not the one who keeps on stumbling on their words. I’m not going to tell her anything though, if I said I was Alisson’s sister or slave, and Alisson said something different when he got back, that'd be a problem.

“None of you’re business.”

The girl let out a murmur of acknowledgement, still on edge at my presence. Well, I am covered in blood, so I’m not surprised. I think the best thing to do when you have your pants down is just to act like nothing's happening, I’ve found that response usually prompts everyone else to go along for whatever reason…not in that specific situation of course!

Well, lucky for me, I’ve never not been decent in the sight of anybody. The most exposure I’ve gotten is when my roommates Oda and Ukuri saw me only in a bra and panties because they didn’t knock first. I didn’t really care, but oh man, they fell all over themselves swearing apologies…thinking back on it, they were pretty scared of me, huh? Well, I wouldn’t wanna piss off the quiet one either, but the thing is, I’m a lot looser than my strong silence gives off. I suppose a quiet person is dangerous, since you don’t know what they’re thinking of…but being that quiet person, I’m pretty sure I can attest to thinking of either the most mundane, or the most disconcerting thoughts; never in the middle, always at the ends of the spectrum. If someone could read my mind, they’d either be mildly bored, or bewildered by what odd thing I’d be thinking of.

With the healing spell coming to a close, I stand, looking off into the forest, about to continue my train of thought when the girl speaks out.

“My, my wound is…”

Yeah, don’t get used to it buddy.

“You’re all fixed up.”

I say. I realize that maybe I speak far too in monotone, maybe that’s why people find it hard to approach me, or my deafening silence, or my scary glares, or my no-context antics…

I must look pretty menacing, a little girl staring off into the forest like I’m actually focused on something; ha, no. I didn’t want to have eye contact with some stranger, even eye contact with Alisson makes me feel uncomfortable, but at least with him its bearable.

Silence drags on, awkwardly. I’m used to at this point…is what I’d want to say, but really, even after three decades of this crap, I’m still put off by it.

Alisson sure is taking his time. It’s already been about twenty minutes since he left.

My nose suddenly pricks. That stench, I’ve smelt it before…I scan the area, with narrowed eyes.

“Is, is something wrong?”

The village girl asks nervously. Too focused on the surroundings, I don’t bother answering. I hear rustle of leaves, and then, the twangs of two bows. I step to the side, the two arrows missing their marks by orders of magnitudes. Yep, of course I’d be attacked when I’m alone…

I hear more rustling, and in total ten goblins pour out of cover, including those two archers that fired at me. Ah, so that’s why I could smell them before hand, they tried to stretch out and encircle me, but their numbers are too few, so they only managed a half circle.

“Stay put.”

I say. Those archers are going to force me to close the distance, whether I like it or not, and so I prepare to meet the goblin charge head on, tensing forward.

“You’re seriously going alone…?”

The peasant asks with concern behind me. A few goblins? I should be just fine-!

I launch of my front foot, surging toward the eight charging goblins head on. It doesn’t take long for me to close the distance; I draw my baselards from my wrists, cutting a goblin in half in the same action.

With enemies so close to me, I need to be like Alisson, I can’t be bogged down; I need to pick some off, and then change position.

Two swings come at me from either side of me, I can’t very well parry and riposte both of them at the same time. I evade one swing, lifting a baselard to block the other. Now in the clear, I stab the goblin who I parried with my free baselard. Capitalizing on his death, I blitz past his body, and slit a goblins throat before it could react.

Alright, that’s enough for me…time to break off and deal with those archers.

I dive, landing with a roll and continuing my momentum, this time toward the goblin archers. They loose their arrows, and I bob side to side in my run, easily evading both arrows. I sheath my baselards, I don’t need to be close to deal with such stationary targets.

Man, I really wish I could throw my baselards like boomerangs, ya’know, chop off a goblin or two’s heads and then it comes spinning right back into my hands…Yeah, I’m not gonna do that; I’ll just end up missing and it’ll get lost in the woods somewhere and I wouldn’t be able to find it.

I’ll stick with my straight-shot stilettos, thank you very much. I stop my run, and drawing both my stilettos, I throw them each in turn at an archer.

…one connects, killing a goblin. Oh well…good enough I guess…I raise my hand and launch off a Pictun spell, ensuring the remaining archer’s death. I turn, satisfied with my quick dealing of the archers, and draw my baselards once more. Man, what a nice little training session these goblins have set up for me, it’s almost too easy.

Alright, there’s six goblins left, all of which are in front of me.

Hehe…haha…haha! Dicing through flesh like this, when it’s this easy, its more sport than anything!

I surge forward. I’ll cut through them all!

The first goblin coming into range, I surprise him by keeping my speed, and passing right by its body. Right in its blind spot, I impale two baselards right into its side. Ther rest of the five are now completely around me, ha, I don’t even have to move to attack! I brute force my baselards out of the corpse, tearing through the rest of its flesh and exiting the body toward another goblin.

Man, its great that I never slowed down, even with my weak body, my momentum really multiplies my strength exponentially. And thanks to my continued speed, the goblin before me misses his swing completely, my baselards both fly for his neck. As my body passes his, my baselards cut through his neck, and the goblin’s head is sent spinning into the air. I turn on my heel and spin round the corpse, like a ballerina.

Four left.

I kick the corpse of my freshest victim right into another live goblin, stunning him. One goblin swings for me wildly.

Hrg…I could deflect or block, or coupe, or parry but…yeah, I really like blitzing a lot more. I jump up, and just barely manage to pass completely over the goblin who was attacking me. I land behind him, and swiftly strike at the back of his neck, killing him instantly.

Three left.

Another one leaps at me. Oh, you want a hug? I can give one;

I grab onto the corpse of the goblin I hopped over, still standing upright, and I bring it around, directly in the middle of me and the leaping goblin’s path. Stepping away, I let the goblin collapse on its ally’s dead body.

The one closest to me now, is shivering in fear. A disgusting creature like you deserves no mercy. Feeling sadistic, I decide to pull a feint on him, attacking in a wide and vertical swing, exaggerating and slowing it as much as I can. The goblin falls for it, obviously, and shakily brings its club up.

Awp! To bad so sad!

I twist my back, and in a flash, I twirl, my baselard completely disengaging. With the momentum of my little twirl, I swing forth, with both of my baselards at the goblin’s stomach. It’s cut in two as I pass by its body.

Two left.

Both of the remaining goblins are the ones I threw corpses at, so I’d imagine they’re not exactly too happy right about now.

While one goblin throws his ally’s corpse off himself, and the other scrambles to its feet, they seem pretty mad. I wonder how they feel right now, they just got a corpse shoved right into them, and then when they regain focus, all their friends are dead; the battles only lasted for a quarter of a minute after all.

Alright, I guess it’s time to wrap up my training session, goodbye-

One of the goblins throws its club at me, in a panic, I raise my hands to my face, and the club slams into my wrists. My grip loosens on a baselard, and it goes flying away.

Before I can curse in anger, the second one leaps at me, swinging wildly. I barely raise my baselard in time, and halt the goblin’s club.

Alright alright, I’m on the back foot but I’m still fine, I just need to-

The goblin who I blocked lets go of the club with one hand, upper cutting me right in the chest. I let out a gasp of air. It hurts sure, but I have armor, something like that shouldn’t damage me. I stumble backwards, trying to get some distance. The first goblin though, runs forward, picking up his thrown club, and rushes at me, swiping at one of my legs.

And just like that, I’m knocked to the ground.

The second goblin, now no longer blocked by my baselard, swings down, right into my exposed belly. I hear my armor whine in strain, and the wind is blown out of me.

As the first goblin raises its own club to beat me as well, as I see their vulgar smiles of victory, a stream of fire ignites through my veins.

These bastards! I, I, I’m not ending up a-

The first goblin brings its club down, straight onto my face. I raise my arms, and manage to absorb the blow into my gauntlets.

…I won’t let this continue, what if, What if Alisson were to see me beaten down like this…

…I’ll kill these bastards with my bare hands if I have to damnit! I clench my fists, seeing the second goblin bring down his club again. I’ll catch it, and I’ll pull myself up, and I’ll tear them both limb from limb-!

As the club falls down toward me in slow motion, a flash of white soars overhead, slamming into the second goblin. I blink in confusion, and when I open my eyes, in the span of my blink, the first goblin has been impaled right through the head with the full length of a rapier.

It’s, it’s Enhérejär-!

I blink once more, and Alisson is in my vision. Three…he managed to kill the goblins in three heartbeats…

“Celis, are you okay!?”

Terror is plain on his face, I’ve only ever seen him with that rare expression back when he hit me too hard in training on accident. He pulls me closer, hugging me tightly.

“I’ll never leave you again. I promise.”

After a brief moment of shock, my mouth flutters into a smile, and I-

The smash of a club brings me back to reality. Fuck! I got distracted! I missed my mark! Gah, screw it!

“You son of a bitch!”

I leap up, surging for the goblin who just pummeled my thigh. I grab onto its neck, and pull the rest of my body up. I slip behind the goblin, and after a moment of grappling with its arms, I feel a satisfying snap, and it goes limp as its head shifts in an irregular way.

I toss the body aside, and set my gaze on the last goblin.

“You’re next!”

I howl, rage seething through my teeth with my spate of fury. A quick kick to its shin, and it's sent to the ground, its leg now snapped at an angle. I then descend on the goblin, throwing punch after punch at its face.

After long minute of pulverizing the goblin, I get back to my feet. I spit, wiping away some blood that was splattered onto my face. Its head was now only a fine pulp. I glance at my gauntlets, blood pouring down in cataracts from between my fingers.

“You, you were smiling…you were smiling when…”

The village girl’s mumbling is interrupted when I hear the rustle of leaves, and I whip my head to the side, full of adrenaline. I let out a sigh, and my body relaxes when I see who it is. Alisson. He’s carrying somebody by the scruff of the neck, just barely not letting their body touch the ground.

Alisson looks around for second, at all the fallen goblins.

“You’ve been busy.”

He says. I don’t reply. He walks over to the peasant girl. She’s still by the horses and collapsed, I’m surprised she didn’t run away. Alisson then tossed the body he was carrying over to her with a thud.

“Li, Lize!”

The village girl quickly wraps her hands around the body Alisson had been carrying. Alisson shrugged, and beckoned me over.

“Celis, I hope it wasn’t too much trouble watching my back?”

A sudden pang shot through my body, and I look away from Alisson, toward the ground.

…Should, should I tell him what happened? I swallow hard.

I don’t think I’ve ever said something that wilts my pride but, but, this is Alisson I’m talking to…I’ll shove my stupid pride down. That was a really stupid situation and attitude I had back there…I, I feel the need to expel my pent up knot of worry, that knot that until I became Alisson’s apprentice, had remained building and accumulating with my silence in my gut.

I take a deep breath, and look up squarely at Alisson’s eyes.

“I…I underestimated them…I was close to being beaten by, by only two of them…”

My voice wobbled and shook as I tried to get out these words, these unfamiliar, pity begging words. An array of emotions played out across Alisson’s face, he furrowed his brow with a frown at first, but then smiled with the tilt of his head.

“Yes, goblins are easy to underestimate, I’m glad you pulled through. Be sure to remember this, Celis, no opponent is without danger.”

I shakily nod my head, feeling a tremendous amount of weight being lifted off my body.

Alisson, with a slight smile at me, says quietly,

“I’m glad you told me, Celis.”

After a moment of looking up and down my body, he then chuckled, adding, “And for the love of Sidonia, please stop dousing yourself with blood, apprentice.”

He then turns away, clenching a fist. As he does, I notice something on his left thigh…a w-wound-!? Alisson was hurt!

“A-alisson.”

I stammer, almost shouting. Alisson turns back at me with a piqued brow.

“You’re, you’re hurt.”

He peered down to his leg, as if only now remembering he was bleeding.

“I suppose I am…”

What kind of reaction is that! I can only imagine how Alisson would react if somebody chopped off an arm of his, he’d just be like ‘Oh, I seem to be wounded.’.

“Alisson-! Let me heal you…”

I hurriedly say. Alisson’s brow furrows, and he looks away like he’s having some sort of internal conflict. Finally, with a sigh, he knelt down, neatly sitting on his ankles; apparently yielding to me. What exactly is there to decide about Alisson, were you gonna deny yourself healing or something?

Sometimes Alisson, sometimes…

I kneel beside him, casting a healing spell with both my hands. Alisson closes his eyes softly, taking his healing with dignity.

“So,” Alisson says, his eyes still closed, “You two villagers, what exactly is your plan now?”

The village girl jumps, and slowly turns her head at Alisson. The body she was cradling, the little girl Alisson had been carrying, seemed to have awakened as well.

“Your home has been razed, the rest of your friends and family have been killed, what do you do now?”

The peasant girl looked away.

“You’re both strong…can’t you save my-”

“Make no mistake. We are strong, but neither are we invulnerable or suicidal.”

“Ah…”

The peasant looks down, her eyes dark.

“I, I don’t know…”

She finally says, gulping.

“What do you mean big-sis?” The little girl in the older peasant’s arms pipes up, asking quizzically. The older one’s expression softens, and she parts her little sister’s hair with a smile.

“We can’t go back to Edringrad, Lize.”

The little sister goes silent.

“I suggest you two either move deeper into Caliphate territory, and head further west; maybe there you’d be fortunate to be picked up by a merchant caravan. Better to be a servant and alive than be dead yes?”

Alisson says. Neither of them reply.

“Though, I have another suggestion, but it may not be as safe…the Menton forest, you know of that place?”

Alisson asked.

“Y-yes. I do.”

“Well, there’s a spirit there. I’m not sure on how safe it will be but, I believe you’d be able to find safety there if she took you in.”

Alisson opened his eyes for a moment, looking down.

“I still don’t know what she was thinking when she attacked us like that.” Alisson muttered, evidently still taken back by what Sylph had done.

My healing spell finishing, Alisson stood.

“Whatever you choose, it does not concern us. Now, we must head out. If you wish to remain undetected by those fiends, then I recommend staying upwind, and within the undergrowth of the forest, stay off of roads if you can as well.”

After I’d grabbed my baselards and stilettos, and shook off some blood, Alisson and me left the pair in silence, they stared blankly at us as we rode off.

…

“There’s no one left…”

Celis said beside him. The both of them had found a relatively amazing position, a cliff outside the village perimeter from whence him and Celis could spy the entirety of Edringrad from. Thanks to some bushes, they were also relatively concealed whilst laying on their bellies, overlooking the burning village.

Though, most fires had died out by now. Most all houses were either collapsed, or burnt to crisp but yet still standing, like blackened skeletons. There were numerous corpses scattered throughout the village grounds. It seems like the lot of them had been dragged out of their homes and murdered. Not one corpse was female of course, for it seemed the goblins had done their business already and whisked away the women back to their hobble. Still, this village had value to the goblins, the meat of the men was a gold mine for them.

Unfortunately for the goblins, they weren’t the only creatures in the wild. Swaths of beasts, the white and sickly quadrupedal ones mostly, had inundated the streets, and had been locked in battle with the goblins since him and Celis had laid eyes on Edringrad. It was evident that these beasts wanted the meat of the corpses for themselves. Alisson would’ve never thought that he’d see a fight like this, but he already knew the outcome.

Yes the goblins were fighting off the beasts thanks to their weapons, organization, and sparse teamwork, but Alisson had just gone and annihilated the goblin nest; its entrance was collapsed and everything on the inside was charred. The goblins had no place to bring their meat back to, no place to recover, and no commander to give out any orders. They would slowly sap and wither away against the unrelenting tide of beasts that constantly poured into the streets. Alisson wouldn't be surprised if there was a Breach nearby. Though, upon that thought, he suddenly remembered the abbot’s words, back at the Saulicid Monastery, about the coming Blood Moons. Perhaps this was the day then.

The spectacle Alisson could see from the cliff was no matter however, he’d come here for a very specific reason; they needed more food if they were going to make it across the large expanse directly north of them without starving.

Alisson was in luck though, for goblins favored the freshly slewed corpses of their victims, and not say bread or grain, he was confident the goblins wouldn’t place much priority on such foodstuffs. With the goblins now fighting the beasts in the street for their meat, Alisson very much doubted that they were even thinking of bread or grain at this point; he doubted they had pillaged any such food from the village.

So, by that reasoning, the houses that were not burnt to a crisp, and the small storage sheds on the outskirts of the village should be housing what him and Celis were looking for.

The question was now how they’d obtain this food.

“What do you think, Celis?”

He whispered, still laying belly down.

“Either we try to sneak in, or we go in gun’s blazing.”

She whispered back. Alisson was glad to once again have someone by his side; Celis was looking up to be a more and more reliable teammate from her ability to handle herself earlier in the day.

“Yes, exactly my thoughts.” Alisson replied. “But I don’t like the idea of trying to hide and sift through such a chaotic battlefield, especially not with beasts and goblins, with their awareness.”

“Me neither…What if we created some sort of distraction?”

“I don’t know what we’d use…perhaps we could split up, and I could draw the beasts to me, whilst you pilfer what we need.”

“Unless you draw every single beast to you, Alisson, I don’t think I’ll be able to get through completely unnoticed…”

“Yes, that’s the problem, I wouldn’t want to try to bait an entire swarm of both goblins and beasts…”

“Then we go in loud then?”

Celis said, seeming a bit enthusiastic, jumping on the option.

“Maybe it’s our best shot…but fighting off so many enemies and searching for food, I think we’d get split up very quickly, I say we both take either ends of the town, if we go alone, we’ll be able to disengage and flee if the going gets too hot.”

Celis nodded beside him.

“Sounds like the best plan.”

“Alright then, it’s settled. We’ll ride in on our mounts, and uppercut each side of this struggle.”

***