Roy thought for a bit about Robb’s suggestion. “It is not too bad of an idea, but let’s have the meeting with Marth and the others first. We need to plan out for tomorrow properly.”
“Sure, let’s do that.”
As the two were going back inside the house, they bumped into Lorenz who was going out.
“Hey, Roy. Take care for the night, I’ll be going back home.”
Roy was surprised by the young boy's statement. “Wait, you sure about that? It’s dangerous out there.”
Lorenz shook his head, “Don’t worry, I’m an awakened now, I can take care of myself. Plus, it’s already crowded in here. If I join too, the only place I might find to sleep is on top of a little kid.”
Roy thought for a few seconds before saying, “If you’re going there either way, do you mind having a little company? I’ll ask Jack and his group to go with you.”
“Sure, why not.” The young boy shrugged his shoulders. “The house is pretty big anyways, will be lonely if I went there on my own.”
Roy found Jack talking with Marth and some of the members of his group. He gestured for him to come outside and talk.
“Jack, do you mind taking your group and staying with Lorenz at his house, I need someone to look after him. You can hunt there too.”
Jack had a surprised smile on his face. “Do I mind going to a place where I can actually get to fight goblins and not just walk around the same empty streets? No, of course I don’t.”
Roy chuckled at his friend’s comment. Jack’s mentality had changed drastically from before the apocalypse, and Roy was in a sense happy about that.
“So, we’ll be going there now?” Jack asked, eagerly looking forward to starting his hunt.
“Yeah, but before that, listen to me. When I was fighting around the marketplace, I found these weird blue goblins that are stronger than normal ones. Their stats should be around A.”
Jack nodded at Roy’s words. “They shouldn’t be a problem in a one-on-one, but fighting many of them will be hard.”
“Yeah, so keep an eye out for them, and don’t get yourself surrounded,” Roy explained. He then paused and looked at Jack with a serious expression. “Also, I know you’ve been fighting with your group for the whole day, but it’s just that—one day. Don’t drop your guard.”
Jack snorted and shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’m not stupid. I’m not gonna be duped twice.”
Roy smiled warmly at his friend’s resolution. “Okay, I trust you. Have fun hunting, but don’t overdo it.”
“I don’t wanna hear that from you, you maniac,” Jack retorted.
As the conversation finished, Jack called over the members of his group and explained the plan to them. Soon, they took off along with Lorenz towards his house. Roy then invited Marth and the rest of his crew to the room upstairs. With Jaimie no longer unconscious, everyone was able to sit down on the bed. Only Robb was an exception as he stood next to the door with no interest in joining the conversation.
“Okay, let’s start with a recap of what we did today.”
For the third time this day, Alfonse recounted his group’s encounter with the ogre with an exasperated voice. The rest of the group took their turn to give a summary of their hunts while mentioning any interesting or dangerous fight.
“Good, since only Alfonse’s group had met an ogre today, I guess they were rarer than I thought.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Actually, we did see one,” Marth interjected. “It’s just that it was at the far end of the street and it didn’t notice us.”
Roy frowned, “Where did that happen?”
“Around the far end of the village,” the knight captain replied. “Of course, this is to the south.”
Roy nodded at Marth and kept this new piece of information stored in his brain. He needed to scout that location with Robb when they would go ogre hunting later.
“Okay, now for tomorrow. First of all, Lorenz has agreed to give us lances and spears. He is also going to forge the spikes we need to trap the red bear. The work is going to take two days.”
Marth thought for a few seconds before suggesting, “We need to have people protect him while he is working, or else it’s gonna be dangerous.”
“Yeah, I agree. Should I keep watch over him with my group?” Alfonse asked.
“We will have a rotation,” Roy replied. “We can’t have a group just standing while the others are hunting. The gap in power is gonna show in just a day or two.”
Fred nodded, “So, how long should the rotations be?”
“Six hours,” Roy immediately responded. “Also, I want all of the plans that we talk about here to stay between us. Only when it is time for your group to rotate do you tell them where you’re going.”
“Why, you think there is a mole in our groups?” Fred asked, confused.
“No, not really,” Roy replied. “It’s just that as we save more villagers and we grow, the risk of getting someone like that increase. And if we’re not careful about who we tell our plans, we might end up regretting it.”
The knight captain added, “I agree with Roy on this one. It’s better to expect the worst and be surprised than to expect the best and be disappointed.”
Marth’s words added more credibility to Roy’s. The knight captain had served in the military for decades, so he knew a thing or two about war.
“I think that’s enough for today’s meeting, let’s stop here. You guys can go rest now, I’m sure you’re tired.”
“What about you? What are you going to be doing now?” Alfonse asked Roy, already half-expecting the latter’s answer.
“Gonna go hunt with Robb. It will help me digest all of that meat I just ate,” Roy answered seriously.
Alfonse couldn’t help but cover his face and shake his head. “You absolute murder maniac. How are we supposed to go rest while you’re going out to hunt?”
Fred laughed wildly, “Well, I’m starting to feel slow too. I’m sure that killing a goblin or two would put me right back in shape.”
“Okay then, let’s go.” Roy smiled and stood up.
The group made their way out of the house before splitting up. Robb and Roy went south, towards the direction where Marth had seen an ogre last. After half an hour of searching and killing two dozen goblins each, the duo finally found the prey they were looking for.
“Let’s go up the roofs of the houses and sneak up on it,” Robb suggested.
Roy nodded and the two quickly climbed the wall of one of the houses and jumped from one roof to the next without making any sound. The darkness of the night served as a veil to cover their silhouettes, with only the moon slightly illuminating them.
The two quickly reached next to the growling ogre. Each step the giant monster took left a small crater as a footprint, and the club that it lifted on top of its shoulder almost reached Roy’s eyesight as he stood on top of a roof.
“On the count of three. Three, two, one, let’s go.”
With Roy’s signal, the duo pounced at the monster with their swords. Roy cleanly slashed through the ogre’s bulging traps striking at the back of its thigh on his way to the ground. Robb, on the other hand, cut through its arm from the shoulder to the elbow.
The beast roared in pain as it fell on its knees, but neither Roy nor Robb were ones to waste an opportunity. They immediately piled on top of it with one strike after the next. As the wounds accumulated and its blood formed streams on the road, the ogre clenched its club and swiped the two with all of its might.
Roy jumped back to dodge the attack and looked at the beast in front of him. Even through its injuries, it stood back up with a red aura covering its body. With an ear-deafening roar, the ogre charged at the young man with a speed that didn’t match its size.
Roy rolled out to the side, barely dodging the monster’s attack. He quickly stood up and focused on the ogre, who was also standing up after crashing into a house.
Without any hesitation, Roy charged toward the monster at full speed. However, just as he reached its range of attack, he immediately came to a stop. The ogre’s club barely missed Roy’s chin, but just the wind that it generated left a cut on his cheek.
With the monster’s body now unprotected, Robb dashed past Roy and stabbed the ogre through the stomach. He then twisted his blade before slashing its belly open.
The monster fell on its knees with its guts and intestines falling out from its wound. Robb finished his job and slashed its neck open.