It didn’t take them long to find a suitable ambush spot. They found a wide trail that cut through the trees. It was wide enough that five or six goblins could stand shoulder to shoulder. With thick almost unpassable undergrowth that lined both sides was perfect to hide people in and stop the goblins from flanking. The undergrowth and the trees were more packed together here than anywhere else he had seen so far. All these factors made it perfect for their plan.
As the trail reached a bend it thinned. The trail continued to thin out to the point where Thomas could barely walk straight forward, it opened to a small clearing with a pond. Allowing Thomas to make it to the pond and any goblins that were to close behind him be funneled. Preventing him from getting overrun with numbers.
It was perfect, when they would chase him, they would get clogged up at the narrow part and bunched up for the ambush team. When they would spring the ambush Thomas would cut his way down the path to cause even more confusion. Well that was the plan if nothing went wrong.
Abigail spoke up after they decided this was the ambush spot saying “Let’s make this even better Tristan can you raise walls on either side of the path? The underbrush will make it hard for them to get around, but I would like a strong wall to keep our sides safe. Build it in a way to funnel them even more, so we don’t get overwhelmed.”
Tristan responded “Yes, I can do that. I am guessing you want to leave openings so we can actually ambush them?” Abigail nodded in response. They went over in detail exactly what she wanted.
As Tristan got to work Thomas made sure his path to run was clear so he wouldn’t get tripped up on anything. Trimming back some underbrush so he wouldn’t get snagged as he ran. It would be tight, but he felt confident he could do it at a full run.
It didn’t take long for Tristen to finish what she wanted. The walls were obvious, but Abigail said the goblins wouldn’t even notice. The walls covered the wide part of the path slightly narrowing towards the entrance. Tristen put a few openings so they could spring in from the sides when it was time. It was simple and easy but made it considerably safer for everyone. As soon as they killed the ones trapped in the ambush, they would only need to worry about them coming from one direction. Well besides the thin path Thomas had to run but that would make it only a few, if they even made it around to that side.
Finding a fallback position was harder, after two hours, they managed to find a decent hill. If they got chased to the hill it would give them the high ground and allow them to throw techniques without issue. It also had clear path behind it if they needed to make another retreat. It was solid defensive location that hopefully wouldn’t be needed at all.
To make the position even better Abigail asked Tristan to raise some walls to make it even more defensible. Tristan even made a four-foot-tall stone wall at the top; it only covered the side that they would most likely be fighting from, slightly curving around. Tristan explained to Abigail he didn’t want to deplete his mana to much before the upcoming fight. He informed the group that he would need at least an hour to get closer to being full.
Deciding it was the perfect time for a break since it was already getting later in the day they ate lunch. It wasn’t a lavish meal, but they ate what they all had on hand. Making sure not to be actually full before a fight, Thomas only ate sparingly. He knew from experience that fighting with a full stomach wasn’t easy or fun to do.
As they headed back towards the ambush spot Abigail pulled out a cloth and bottle from her storage ring. Pouring the clear liquid over the cloth she spoke to Dawns Horizon. She said “Here, rub this over yourself and equipment as best you can. It should eliminate most of your smell, so the goblins won’t notice.” As she said so she handed Tristan a cloth. Who gave it a sniff before asking “What is this stuff?”
It was Steven who spoke up “it’s an alchemical compound that eliminates smells. Not that difficult to make, normally you would want to wash your clothes and yourself in it as thoroughly as possible. It will work fine like this though.”
Tristan shrugged and did as he was told, followed by the rest of Dawns Horizon. Abigail meanwhile produced a new cloth and did the same to herself. When they got to the ambush spot Phillip and Steven went to one side of the trail and disappeared behind the undergrowth. Tristan went to the other side and did the same.
Abigail motioned for Thomas to follow her down the path a bit away. She spoke to him in a low tone, “I have a feeling he is going to try and hit on me again while we wait. Never mind that, so all you should have to do is get the attention of some of the goblins. You decide how you want to do that. Just make sure when they are chasing that you allow them to get close enough to stay interested. Any questions?”
“Nope, simple, be fast and look tasty. Lead them here and we kill them. Clean up after our ambush and repeat. Just can’t let myself be eaten.” he said with a half-smile and a chuckle. He knew this was ridiculous situation but hopefully it would be worth it. Maybe after this quest he could ask Abigail for a few more training sessions.
She smiled and with a light push said “That’s about it! Be safe. Now get going.”
With a nod Thomas headed back to the goblins. The reality of what he was about to do settled in, he was going to be actual bait for a horde of monsters.
What the Nine Hells was he thinking. Well too late now he already agreed and is going to follow through with his choice. The fear was still there, slowly rising in his chest as he got closer to the monsters.
Getting close to the clearing Thomas stopped to calm his rapidly beating heart. Taking the fear that was building, he crushed it and let his confidence take over. All he had to do was be faster than the goblins. Taking a few deep breaths and truly accepting that this was his path he chose he was ready.
After getting his mind right he crept forward to look at the horde. They were exactly how they were when he saw them previously.
Exhaling one more time he got ready, he let the mana spread throughout his body in his strengthening technique. Keeping it as controlled as he can to limit mana loss. He knew that doing it slow and controlled greatly reduced how much mana was wasted. Once it was done, he was ready.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Picking up a loose rock off the ground, Thomas stepped out into the open throwing the rock with all his strength at a lounging goblin. Some of the goblins noticed him and looked absolutely confused at the sight. When the rock slammed into the head of the goblin making it screech in pain and quickly die, all the goblins and hobgoblins reacted.
Thomas yelled with his mana infused lungs so all of them could hear him “COME AND CATCH ME LITTLE GREEN BASTARDS!”
Like a wave they turned and started running towards him, fast but not fast enough to catch him. Especially with mana running through him. Waiting for a split-second Thomas bolted making sure to keep his pace slow enough to not lose them. Checking over his shoulder he realized that there were at least fifty goblins but no hobgoblins behind him. Picking up the pace a bit more to hopefully lose a few more of them. It was a tedious balance of keeping them chasing him but not getting close enough for thrown objects to hit him.
In less than three minutes the ambush spot came into view, putting on a bit speed to pass it. Thomas only slowed in the narrow part making sure to not trip, he made it into the clearing. Pulling out his sword and getting into a solid stance Thomas was ready. When the first goblin burst through the opening Thomas stabbed it through the chest and kicked it off his blade.
It flew back from the mana reinforced kick, its body hitting the goblin behind it causing it to fall backwards. Half stepping forward to fill more of the opening he heard the ambush start. The rumbling of earth techniques and swishing of water cutting through the air was accompanied by the sounds of screams from the goblins.
Thomas didn’t have time to pay attention because of the stream of goblins pushing towards the opening he was in. Doing a small half lunge forward he pierced the one still under the first one he killed. Resetting Thomas swatted away the spear the was thrusted towards him, causing it to break but forcing him to take a step back. The goblin whose weapon he broke leaped towards him, with a fast swing of his blade taking it in the chest. His blade cleaved through flesh and bone almost causing the goblin to be cut in two. The force of the strike causing it to land on the small pile of the other two he killed already.
The next two goblins were holding clubs trying to stand shoulder to shoulder moving towards him. The narrow path wasn’t making it easy for them as they advanced. Staying behind the now thigh high pile in front of him, waiting to see what they would do.
Goblins aren’t that smart so when they tried to charge him, he wasn’t surprised when one of them tripped. Making the other one stumble as well. Thomas, seeing it was time for him to make a move, leapt over the bodies. Bringing his sword down as he did so. Cleaving the goblin in two, without pausing he finished off the one that tripped.
Having some breathing room Thomas looked down the path. At least five more goblins were in front of him, but they weren’t looking at him. Instead, they were looking at Tristan that was moving towards them.
Seeing the opening Thomas finished the fight, a well-placed stab to the heart made three of them fell. The narrow path did not allow him to actually swing his blade. At the same time Tristan was finishing off the last two. They stared at each other for a moment before Tristan just turned around and walked back down towards the ambush spot.
Following the short distance to where the ambush took place. It was clear that they killed at least forty of the goblins. The goblin bodies were everywhere, hacked apart, a literal massacre was the only way he could describe it. It was so packed full of the green corpses it was hard to even walk.
Checking around he didn’t see any more goblins. It was oddly silent which made him feel even more on edge. Standing there for a few seconds just observing his surroundings. Listening for any sound that didn’t belong. It took him realizing that the others were just cleaning their equipment for him to accept it was over.
Taking a deep breath to let some of the tension out, finally Thomas released his strengthening technique. Quickly checking his core, he realized it was still relatively full. A quick glance over himself showed that he didn’t get injured. He knew from experience that adrenaline can mask injuries, always good to physically check yourself.
Abigail voice brought him out of his observations she said “Good haul, we got probably around fifty of them. Any injuries?” receiving a no from everyone she continued, “The next group will probably be larger, so we need to be careful. Move these bodies into the brush and clean up some so we have clean footing.”
Moving all the bodies and severed limbs was honestly one of the more disgusting things he had done. It was so disturbing that he almost lost his lunch. He didn’t know if he was lucky that after a while, he was numb to the whole situation. The only reason he could keep his cool was because of one quest he took before, he had to do work in the sewers of Les. That place was a different kind of disturbing but the things he found in those tunnel still haunt him. It took an hour to move all the bodies and Steven used a water technique to wash away some of the blood.
Abigail spoke up again saying “Alright it’s already past noon, we need to finish this before nightfall. So, we will try again, Thomas this time try and get some of the hobs to follow. Anyone have questions?”
Thomas cleared his throat and asked, “if there are stragglers or some scouting trying to find the group we killed, what should I do?”
Abigail replied, “Kill them, if you get overwhelmed retreat here.”
With a nod Thomas headed back to the tower.
On his way there he spotted a total of three goblins during the entire journey. He killed one of them but the other two were walking away from his direction, he left them alone. He considered himself lucky that more weren’t looking for the missing group. Thomas assumed it was them being lazy since it was daylight out.
When he made it to the clearing with the tower, he peered in. The sight that greeted him was utterly confusing. There were at least two hundred goblins there now. Thomas tried to spot where they came from so he could try and report it back to the others. So, he laid down to try and stay out of sight as he watched for any explanation.
Finally, he saw at least ten more come stumbling out from a small hut that looked like it was built into the side of the hill. The goblins looked like they were just woken up, the problem was the hut was way too small to hold ten goblins. A creeping suspicion started to grow about this entire situation.
Thomas was starting to believe there had to be some sort of cave system under the tower. That meant they had no idea how many goblins were actually present. Which is a problem, he still felt like needed to confirm that he was right.
Sliding from the undergrowth Thomas tried to get a better angle on the hut. Creeping along as quickly but quietly as possible, luckily the racket the goblins were making was loud enough to drowned out any sound he was making.
Finding a better location to look from, he peered back into the opening. This time Thomas had a straight on view of the hut. Unlike before he didn’t see more come out, but he saw a handful head towards it. He saw that they were better dressed goblins compared to the normal loin cloth or straight nude ones. They headed inside the hut, the darkness concealed what happened inside. So instead, he waited to see what would happen.
After less than three minutes he got as good of confirmation as he could get, a large number of goblins came pouring out. There were at least thirty that came out. There was over two hundred Goblins in the clearing at this point. An idle thought made Thomas wonder how the hell the leader of this horde fed them all. Not like it was a concern of his. What was his concern was making it back to the group and letting them know.
He crawling back out from the undergrowth to go back and tell them what he saw. Once free he got to his knee, keeping his eyes locked on the massive horde.
A screech came from behind him, spinning around on his knee he was greeted by a spear coming towards his face. Falling back and grabbing the spear and yanking caused the goblin to trip towards him. Letting go of the spear he grabbed the flailing goblin by the neck, planting a foot on its chest and using its momentum to flip it over him sending it flying.