As soon as the first rays of Sunlight hit Ljus, Arkevh and Donovan already stood in front of the counter. Geared up for their first mission. Arkevh felt a weird connection with his staff once again, he could not point out what it was though. After the Darkingstone incident his wooden staff broke into two, so after the war Donovan bought him a new one, consisting out of metal and with an amethyst at the top, to make it more durable and channel magic more efficiently.
Waiting for Nolan to come back to the counter with the Bulletin board, Arkevh lets his view ponder through the Tavern once more. He was able to see the two Warriors from yesterday. They sat at one of the tables and drank some beer and sometimes seemed to glance towards them. If Arkevh wasn’t mistaken the man seemed to have a hint of interest in his face, maybe he had realized who Arkevh and Donovan were. Even if not, that made Arkevh more happy.
Arkevh also eyed Donovan again, he still thought about what he told him yesterday.
Was there really no way to escape his fate? Could he just leave somehow. At Least the guild could be a good way to get a clear mind from this for the time being, he hopes at least.
He gets thrown out of his considerations as soon as he feels a heavy clap on his neck, caused by an iron glove.
“This is still your Idea, you chose something?” Donovan asks, slightly annoyed.
Arkevh needs a while to figure out what happens and looks up again, Nolan already stood in front of them and prepared the bulletin board. It was a typical wooden board, in which multiple Nails and Ankylspike stingers held various pieces of paper.
“You can pick everything with normal nails, it marks Tasks for the Iron and Bronze ranks so you should be good to go.”, Nolan explains with a smile and goes through his beard.
Arkevh things for a while and goes through the letters, that all had a short description on them. The tasks ranged from delivering crystals or plants, ore for a smith or helping hunters at their work: everything seemed to be pinned on this wall.
One task however especially peaked Arkevhs interest. One of them seemed to be about a goblin problem that haunted a local village. This seemed to be the most urgent task and he probably could get Donovan's approval as well. After that he could still do the other tasks but for now this seemed the most interesting. The Tasks also seemed to be located in the Forest of Yor. The Forest close to Helgria he always wanted to venture deeper in.
“I pick the Goblin one.”, Arkevh explains and points towards the bulletin board.
“The Goblin one?”, Nolans questions but then seems to remember as he snipped and picked off the letter from the board.
“I remember. I always consider marking it harder a lot of it has changed since the first letter. I got even more letters since this incident first occurred. Guards are positioned there but it seems like they can’t find the Source of the attacks on Farsen. So your task would be to stop the attacks that have been happening for a month already”, Nolan explains and gives Arkevh the Letter with more detailed information.
Donovan glanced over the magician's shoulder, which wasn’t really hard looking at their one feet difference.
“500 Silver Coins in pay is a lot. That means the people need our help immediately.”, Donovan explains.
“If you say so we should Hurry.”, Arkevh replies to Donovan who nods in agreement.
Nolan considers once again scratching his beard.
“Well i first thought that may be a Silver task by now, but looking that its you two who pick this task i trust you, just so you know most of the pay is from me Knight”, Nolan smiles.
“Doesn’t matter.”, Donovan answers and turns around, making his way past some armored man that looks puzzled by the view of a Holy Knight in an adventurous guild.
Before Donovan could say anything Arkevh follows as fast as possible leaving the Tavern on the way to aid the people in Farsen.
Leaving the gate towards the northern roads Arkevh looks at the letter once again.
“The Attacks seem to come from the north of Farsen.”, Arkevh reads.
“The Northern parts of the forest? That is a long way.”, Donovan considers.
“Should we go straight through the forest?”Arkevh asks.
“No we shouldn’t, there is more than Goblin in that forest i know it, you will have enough time exploring it as soon as we arrive in Farsen.”, Donovan explains and leads the way following the road to the north.
“Are you going to the Banquet and the ball next week? It's one day before I return to the church. I would like to see you there.”, Donovan explains.
“I know you are not the biggest friend of those masses of people but maybe you want to try it once, they are surely some attractive ladies as well.”, he continues and claps Arkevhs shoulder.
Arkevh turns red for a moment and tries to shrug it of immediately,
“I think i can join.”, Arkevh answers and gives Donovan a light smile.
“Great, looking forward to it.”, Donovan exclaims while Arkevh lets his view ponder over the plains once again.
From time to time more and more farms popped up next to the roads and often enough they came across some carriages bringing fresh wheat and flour towards Helgria.
Donovan seemed to realize Arkevhs interest.
“First time seeing Caravans from Helgrias granary?”, he asks
“No not the first time, I just realized how many farms are needed to feed all those people.”, Arkevh answers, pointing at a multitude of fields and windmills in the distance.
“Indeed that is why a lot of Guards and sometimes Holy Knights look over those fields.”, he explains and looks back towards the road, seeing something approach in the distance.
“Someone please help us.”, a farmer yells out with the remains of his breath as he almost collapses before the two. He breathes heavily and tries to calm his body, without much success. He trembles and falls into Donovan's arms who helps him to stand up again.
Still in shock he wipes away his sweat and brown greasy hair from his face and starts to apologize.
“I-I apologize sir but-”, he starts but gets interrupted instantly
“Come to the point, I see you need help, don't waste the time of all of us. .” Donovan replies cold.
The farmer gulps and looks at Donovan and Arkevh for a while. He was covered in a brown ripped up tunic and by closer inspection Arkevh realized the wound on his fur trousers, still bleeding and caused by a kind of blade. The farmer hobbled towards them after all.
“Goblins! They came out of nowhere and attacked our farm close to the forest.”, he explains and points further north, his arm shaking. Whatever it was overwhelmed the farmers and left them in shock.
“I was able to flee in hopes to find help, they need someone to assist them.”, he says, still ringing for air.
Donovan eyed the farmer for a while, his eyes narrowed to slits as he heard the term Goblins but after some time he nodded looking at the farmer's wounds.
He looks over to Arkevh for approval who nods as well. He was here to help the people of course so he approached the farmer and Donovan.
“Can you show me the wound, i can try to treat it.”, Arkevh explains and points towards the cut.
“S-Sure.”, the farmer says, sits down slowly and starts to roll up his trousers.
The cut indeed seemed to be caused by a blade, probably a shortsword like Goblins often carried it, something Arkevh was able to heal before the wound infected itself. Slowly he puts his palm on the cut and closes his eyes. As the palm reaches the wound it glows in a yellowish colour and slowly starts closing the wound, as Arkevh opened his eyes the job was down and multiple beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. This was one of his most useful magics, healing for smaller wounds created with light magic, an opposite to his fire and dark magic abilities.
The farmer looks at his wound incredulously and touches his leg to be sure, after that he smiles at Arkevh in gratitude.
“I don’t know how I can thank you.”, the Farmer says.
“You don’t need to thank us, he helped you already. Hurry up and get more help from the guards for the rebuilding. When they arrive we have already saved your farm from the Goblin attacks.”, Donovan explains and looks down the path. There was some smoke coming from close to the forest, this should be the farm, the farmer described.
“I’ll do my best.”, the Farmer says, salutes and stands up again, surprised about the effects of the healing magic, he trembles a bit but then catches his ground. Continuing his way towards Helgria, while Arkevh and Donovan made their way to aid the farmers in danger.
An awful stench of burned wood and blood entered Donovan and Arkevhs noses as they arrived at said farm. The farmer was right, an awful attack occurred close to the forest. The Windmill and two of the tree farmers' houses were set on fire, the fields vandalized and burned. The well in the middle of the property transformed in a scene of horror. Multiple Bodies of the Helgrian Guards were stacked around it, ripped from their armor and weapons, cut throats and stabs in the head, ripped away their life in gruesome ways. A few feet away however lay a bit of hope, not everyone was dead. Blindfolded workers, handcuffed, where leaned towards a carriage and carried on to it by an ogre.
After loading the carriage with a human woman he turns around and looks at Donovan and Arkevh in surprise.
“Still more of them?”, he asks and glances towards the guards he and his men have killed, those two fools will end up like them.
“Boys there is more blood to spill for you.”, the ogre laughs and like a summon his goblin companions reveal their ugly frights.
Goblins were known to be chaotic in nature but also unbelievably smart, those once however seemed only barbaric and far from an intelligent species like most Humanon. The green face of the only four to five feet high creatures was complemented by their long pointed ears that all possessed black earrings. In general Goblins liked to decorate themselves with gems or other trophies of their professions. These Goblins however decorated themselves with bones, little skulls, scalps and pieces of skin all on their ripped leather armor. One of them was one feet bigger than the others, he was covered in a dented iron armor and revealed his sharp and rotten teeth that were placed on his bleeding teeth ridge.
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The ogre was the complete opposite to the goblins. He was double the size and his gray skin was decorated with multiple tattoos showing axes and clubs. He wore nothing besides a loincloth out of fur and demonstrated his love for weapons by grabbing his giant wooden club that was placed next to the carriage.
The armored goblin looked at the ogre, even though he controlled the goblins the ogre seemed to be the culprit behind this whole operation.
“Dorkon, cor firos levak hesan.”, the goblin explains to his leader, who laughs again.
“That means your soldiers and I can have better training, those farmers and guards did not fight well.”, the ogre replies in the human language, other than the Goblin.
“H-Holyknight”, the Goblin general answers in human language this time, but gets grabbed by the ogre and thrown towards the front, right into a sphere of light Donovan shot towards the ogre, killing the goblin general instantly.
“Ya wimps attack now.”, he yells to the other goblins.
“Instead of plundering the few coins those farmers had, you should have guarded the entrance, the workers and women are worth more on the orc market.”, the ogre continues in anger and steps towards the two.
Arkevh looks at the scene in disgust, there were people on Ljus that were able to cause gruesome crimes. But why, why were they in need of enslaving others? He heard about the orcish mines that lived by their slave workers, but he never imagined that something like that would happen so close to the capital.
“Arkevh, get your stuff together.”, Donovan wakes him up as another sphere of light hits the ogre, with no effect.
“I take care of the goblins, you need to look for the ogre, my attacks can’t really penetrate his magic armor”, he explains and leaves him alone facing the Goblins and blocking their arrows with his shield he quickly draws from his back. Leaving Arkevh to face the ogre.
Donovan was right, after Arkevh fired a little fireball as a test it just disappeared in a ball of smoke as soon it hit the ogres body. However he was able to feel it, this magic was nothing in comparison to the orc shaman they faced in Darkingstone. It was an amateur shield created with the Aura of protection easily overheated with enough attacks. Before he could do anything however the club of the ogre tried to crush him. The weapon rushed towards his face with murderous intent but missed its target as it ducked down. Another hit missed as Arkevh jumped at the side, now the ogre was in the perfect position.
Arkevh points his staff at the ogre and it starts to glow red, releasing a surge of little fireballs flying towards the target. They all hit the target creating a sound reminiscent of a hammer hitting on a piece of metal, resulting in an angry growl released by the ogre as the smoke of the projectiles faded away.
“Ya wimp! Forgot how to fight up close, have you?”, the ogre exclaims in anger and looks at Arkevh who takes more steps towards the road.
“Have you forgotten how to make a decent magic shield?”, he counters with a smile.
The ogre lets out another scream and raises his club which starts to glow in an orange colour, as it hammers to the ground it suddenly creates more and more stone spikes on the ground that make their way towards Arkevh at rapid speeds.
Arkevh jumps to the side once again, however this time the spikes seem to follow him and pierce his left feet ripping through his boots. Not being able to hide his pain Arkevh lets out a scream and grabs his staff tighter. He looked at his boot, the rocky spike did not entirely penetrate through his feet but still cut deep enough to immobilize Arkevh.
Arkevhs looked up once again, Donovan seemed to still fight against the goblins, around ten of them tried their best to hit the Holy knight, even if something hit him, it just got blocked by the armor. Arkevh however did not have that protection and the ogre knew that. His three types of magic were not really good to create shields like the earth magic the ogre possessed. So he needed to overwhelm him with attacks instead of focusing on defense.
Again the ogre hammered on the ground and another wave of spike made their way towards Arkevh. Arkevh tried to get away from the hit but he failed. Under the pain in his feet, he tried to hobble away past a burned wooden plank. That was not enough, the spike would also pierce through the wooden plank and then hit him instead.
However Arkevh was wrong as soon as the Spikes hit the wooden plank they indeed pierced through it but the spikes just disappeared. He looks at the ogre again, his face still in anger, something happened. And Arkevh found out, as soon as he raised his hurt leg and looked where the spikes pierced his feet. There wasn’t anything stuck in it. The spikes disappear as soon as they hit their target!
“Ya Bastard.”, the ogre yells and hits the ground three more times and follows the spikes that race towards Arkevh to finish this encounter.
Arkevh knew what he had to do, he stepped on the ground with his feet again, which still hurted like hell and raised his staff up front. Releasing another three fireballs that all hit the spikes making them disappear. Arkevh continues with his counter attack by throwing his staff towards the ogre, who just grabs it midair and throws it to the ground continuing his stampede and raising his club to crush the magician.
To Darkons surprised however, he was not able to swing the club, his hands hand did not react anymore, they got weaker and weaker and suddenly he dropped his club next to the small and barren human, why could he not crush such a fly, he asks to himself not realising the hole in his head and the stretched out hand of Arkevh. Then he collapses, dispersing dust as he falls to the ground.
Arkevh takes a big sight as he sits down and takes his boots off, looking at his wound.
He was lucky, even though the blood stains were visible on the ground where he stood before the wound itself did not damage his bones. He puts his palm on the wound, stopping the bleeding and begins to heal it slowly, closing his eyes once again, healing needed a lot of concentration and the focus of mana, the live source that runned through everything. His healing stops abruptly as he feels a blade on his throat. Panic fills his body, was there a Goblin he and Donovan missed? He opens his eyes ready to die by the hand of a Goblin but just curses as he sees who held the sword at him.
It was Donovan.
“Have you learned nothing, I know your healing needs focus but you let your guard down way too much?”, Donovan explains like a teacher and looks at the body of the dead ogre.
“I trust you way too much then I suppose.”, Arkevh replies, resulting in Donovan shaking his head.
“Doesn’t matter now, how did you kill the ogre?”, he asks as Arkevh finishes the healing process, his feet still covered in blood.
“The Amethyst holds part of my Mana like every crystal, this connection allows me to cast some magic from it without needing to touch the staff.”, Arkevh explains and stands up still a bit unsure on his feet and looks towards the Humans, still blindfolded and handcuffed.
None of them was harmed, however he wished he was earlier, he could also save the life of the guards.
Donovan claps him on the shoulder once again.
“That isn’t your fault, it's because of the Goblins and the ogre, we did what we could do. Now let's free the hostages.”, he smiles at Arkevh, goes past him, cuts away the ropes and takes off the blindfolds of the survivors.
Arkevh takes care of the woman that was loaded onto the carriage and frees her as well, her brown eyes crossing his as her blindfold got removed. The middle aged woman stands up and looks down the carriage to the other five people Donovan saved. Without saying much she jumps down the carriage and hugs her daughters, sons and her husband. Happy to see them all well, then she turns to Donovan and Arkevh.
“We are in your deepest debt, how can we repay you.”, the Woman asks and looks around the farm. Almost everything was destroyed, the guards were killed and a big part of their crops were burned down as well, one house still being set on fire.
“You don’t need to repay us.”, Arkevh answers, resulting in the husband walking up to him and giving him a hug, his beard itching on Arkevhs face.
“So humble of you.”, he replies and looks at his farm, the joy in his voice suddenly dies out.
“But how can we rebuild that?”, he asks, devastated and looks at the damage the goblins caused.
“We can help you Martin.”, a voice appears from the road. As they turned around multiple farmers from the neighboring farmers appeared holding buckets in their hands.
“Lets save what is to save.”
In the evening Arkevh sits on the carriage, looking at his new set of boots a farmer gifted them. He was exhausted.
They helped the farmers control the damage on the farm until the man they saved on the street came to aid them further with more guards. Even a magician capable of Water magic was there to control the fire. Now however after everything was under control they needed to continue their way towards Farsen.
“You saw that, that is what makes us Human so special. Instead of Goblins, we hold together to save others.”, Donovan explains as he walks up to Arkevh.
Arkevh nodes and looked towards the forest, there were tracks leading deeper into it. He analyzed the carriage once again, it seemed to never possessed an animal pulling it, the ogre probably carried it around, easy for his massive strength.
“I think we change our Plan.”, Donovan sights. We can maybe follow the tracks of the carriage through the forest, there is maybe a kind of outpost there, I don't believe they directly bring them to skull mountain, especially looking at how far this is away.”, Donovan explains.
“I agree, let’s start tomorrow morning, so we can go as far as possible with enough sleep. Levin the man on the street offered us a place to sleep at his brother's farm.”, Arkevh explains.
“Understood and tomorrow we will probably reach the Goblin outpost near Farsen so we can save them from those Terror, they waited long enough for help.”, Donovan nods in agreement. Not investigating the Goblins further, under their helmets there was a symbol of an eye, sent by someone who knows the knowledge of the Watcher.