As it turned out there wasn't much for Serin to worry about. It was eerie how calm the forest was. Far different from what she had heard of this place and she could only wonder what had changed.

It was another deviation from her exceptions of this land. However, Serin was somewhat thankful for this. Compared to the glaring sun that refused to go away, which only served to make her weaker it was a welcome surprise. Although, while the lack of monsters made her travels safer. It left a mysterious threat of the reason they were missing. Hopefully, one she would not be discovering any time soon.

Without evidence of monsters her guard started to lower and she found the risk of running to be acceptable. Whatever got her out this land the quickest. Tireless as Serin was now she made good time by being able to maintain a fast pace.

When the brief night approached she still had seen no sign of monster activity. She wasn't sure if she was heading closer or away from whatever was causing this. She once again summoned the same centipede dragon to speed up her travel for the short time.

For three days Serin travelled as such only coming across natural forest life like deer, rabbits, and birds. Until she had finally encountered something different.

Surprisingly it was the sound of humans. She couldn't quite make what they were saying, but she could here the distinct noise of shouts in the distance. It sounded to Serin as if thy were chasing something.

Regardless Serin was compelled to investigate. She began making her way towards the sounds slowly to stay under the detection of both the humans and their quarry.

Serin eventually reached a clearing where a meandering river lay in between the opposing tree lines. From the other side of the river she could hear the shouts echoing around as the human cornered their prey. It sounded as if they were getting closer, so she found some dense brush to hide in and waited.

She did not wait long before a group of goblins broke out from the tree line. The were seven in total. Four males frantically whipped their heads searching for a way to cross the river. They could certainly cross themselves, but behind them were three females cradling infants in their arms. This made a total of eleven goblins as one of the females held two babes in her arms. The mothers all cooed and rocked the babies to keep them from crying out and making their position known.

All looked exhausted and scared as the yelling humans approached closer. They chittered and screeched at each other in their crude language. With no obvious way to get the mothers across. They bundled together and started to cross the river. The males circled the females holding onto them to keep them from being swept away.

The river was not terribly deep for a human perhaps it would be just above waist high to the average human. For the short natured goblins though it was deep enough that the water level reached their necks. It was a team effort at they kept their infants above the water while simultaneously struggled to keep anyone from slipping. This effort was not something that could be rushed. As such eventually a human broke through trees and spotted the goblin family.

"Over here!" He yelled. "They're over here!"

The man was dressed in the light armor of a soldier, which was surprising to Serin. She was expecting see adventurers. There most be truly something significant happening in these lands to grab the attention of the some kingdom. The emblem on the soldiers tabard seemed familiar, but with her disjointed memories she couldn't recall.

The goblins screeched as they tried to futilely speed up. Five soldiers began running out from the woods. They quickly waded through the water. By the time the goblins had made it the shallows of the other side the soldiers had them circled.

The male goblins drew their primitive weapons. They were simple knifes fashioned from stone. The goblins snarled and hissed as they pointed and jabbed their knifes toward the soldiers. They kept a tight protective formation around the females.

The soldiers in turn jeered things that Serin was unable to make out form the distance. They drew their own swords and began to make use of their longer reaching sword to poke and prod the goblin defenders.

Serin's intention was to wait and follow the soldiers back to their camp. She would could then wait for the forty or so minutes of daily darkness to infiltrate and gather information.

That was her plan until one of the goblins made a suicidal dash towards one of the soldiers. The goblin was ran through with the soldiers blade, but it pushed on till its knife could reach the soldier. With a war cry the goblin began stabbing the man over and over. This caused chaos as a few other soldiers went to assist and the other goblins took advantage of this to press their own attack. The females took this chance to flee the encirclement and did not look back as they made their way into the forest.

Serin could only sigh as these soldiers faltered and scrambled to fight off the goblins. Nothing seemed to be going her way.

She was about to consider how to secretly help the soldiers when the wind blew towards her. She just happened to be downwind of the fighting and with it came the delightful stench of human blood. A hunger she had never felt consumed her and Serin lost all coherent thought.

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Kordin was sick of these goblins. First they had stole from their precious food stocks. Reducing the ration amounts to barely anything at all. Every meal left him and the rest of soldiers still hungry. Not to mention the increase in guard rotations to watch for the crafty monsters.

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For Kordin it was already terrible enough just camping in these blasted eerie woods. He hadn't slept hardly at all with this never ending daylight. The damn tents they had been outfitted with were so thin they could barely block the breeze let alone the sunlight.

Now he had to chase these goblins through the woods. Not only was he dealing with some of the worse insect bites he had ever had, but a rash had started after he brushed against some leaves while he was doing his private business.

He was done. This was going to be his last mission. When he returned he was going to pay off the rest of his contract to the Triven kingdom and go home to his parents. He was sure his mom would welcome him back. She never wanted him to join the army anyways. Kordin knew now he should've listened to his mother. His father certainly wanted him home to help in the tannery.

With his future goals settled he nodded. Now just to suffer another week and he would be finished with this scouting rotation.

It was then he heard, "Over here! They're over here!" With a sigh he broke into a run towards the call.

Let's get this over with, He thought.

At first everything was going good they had the goblins surrounded and were wearing them down. Their swords gave them the superior reach and the goblin fighters didn't want to stray to far from the females.

That was when the others started to vent their grievances from the lack of food. Rather than going for serious blows they were just trying to inflict pain.

Kordin wanted to yell at them to hurry up and finish them off. Coming from a hunting village he knew not to toy with a cornered monster. Yet he also knew that if he ruined their fun it would be surely taken out on him later back at camp. So he clenched his jaw in frustration and kept his mouth shut

Then just as Kordin had worried one the goblins madly charged. Mayner was the unlucky one to draw the goblin's ire. It impaled itself on his blade and then released it vengeance wherever its blade could find purchase.

Two others went to assist breaking the encirclement. The other goblin fighters rushed to take advantage of the break in pressure. One went screeching as it charged him. Kordin found its aggressiveness to be overwhelming. The creature wildly swung it blade and it was all Kordin could do but stay defensive to block the quick blade. An infection from the nasty blade of goblin could mean he wasn't ever going home.

Eventually in its madness the goblin left a wide opening which Kordin didn't let pass. He pushed his arms with all he had and activated [Quick Slash]. The skill greatly accelerated his slash. His blade blurred and thud was heard as he managed to bisect one of the goblins arms. The monster screamed in rage and pain. Kordin did not hesitate and with another [Quick Slash] he beheaded the creature.

Kordin gasped in short breaths trying to recover from the successive skill usage. As his breathing slowed he began to take stock of the situation the others were in. They were still fighting the goblins, but had every intention to actually finish the fight now. Only two more remained. Apparently, the females had fled during the distraction as he didn't see their corpses.

Kordin looked further from the river shore to see Mayner was on the ground a short distance away. He was alive for now holding pressure on the worst of his wounds. Kordin found his chances of survival unlikely. With no healers back at camp he would surely die from infection. There was simply too many wounds.

He was about to start heading to join the others in slaying the two goblins when he spotted someone come out from the tree line. It was a dark skinned feminine figure dressed in a tattered black robe. They swayed as they walked as if drunk.

At first Kordin had no idea what he was looking at and he stared in confusion. No one besides them and the more fool hardy adventures should be out here. Let alone the skinny lass

walking towards Mayner.

Then all at once it hit him as it got closer or more details were evident. "Undead, behind!" He yelled. He knew the others couldn't really afford to take their eyes off the goblins they were fighting. So it was up to him to defend Mayner. He took off in a sprint, but then a darker idea started to develop.

Mayner was already a goner. He slowed his run to time up with the arrival of the undead. Kordin would kill the undead once it was distracted with the Mayner.

There was little Mayner could do. Kordin realized the man's wounds were worse than it looked like from afar. Infection wouldn't have chance to kill him before he simply bled out. Mayner weakly raised his arms to try to keep the undead away.

The undead simply knocked his arms away as it shambled towards him. It almost looked like the undead was going to embrace Mayner as it fell into his lap. However, the undead then began its unholy work biting deep into Mayner's neck ripping away flesh. The man was to weak to even scream.

Seeing this as his chance Kordin rushed forward sword ready. Another use of his skill would leave beyond exhausted, but an undead wasn't prey to underestimate. The undead went for another bite and just as it was tearing away from Mayner's neck Kordin struck with another [Quick Slash].

However, at the last second something changed about the creature. It seemed to suddenly become more aware of its surroundings. Kordin instantly felt a deep desire to retreat. It was too late though with his skill activated his blade flashed out in a blur and he was locked in with the momentum of it.

The undead unnaturally jolted. It wasn't enough to dodge the blade and it bit deeply into the undead's neck. It was nearly half way through to decapitating the creature, but now it was lodged inside. Kordin jumped back when he felt he couldn't retrieve his blade. Exhaustion washed over him with a heavy weight.

The undead touched the blade still in its neck. It seemed to shiver for a moment and then it tensed. Kordin prepared himself drawing his spare dagger. The undead opened its mouth allowing flesh to drop from it and screamed. It was both high and hoarse. The noise grated the ears and was unnaturally loud. So close to the undead Kordin's ears went ringing in droning hum.

Kordin clutched his ears as he kept one eye on the creature. It was doing something else now. By now Kordin's allies had stopped fighting to observe the undead. The goblins had taken that chance to flee away from both them and the undead. Kordin wanted to follow them away from this monster.

Momentarily he thought about grabbing his blade and finishing it off with another [Quick Slash], but with how exhausted he doubted his capacity to achieve such a feat. The undead brought its hands together and visible mana coalesced in between its hands to his shock.

"What's it doing, Kordin?!" He barely heard through the ringing.

"Cas--" he coughed out. "Casting!" Kordin not believe it. The undead looked like a type of zombie. Some low ranking undead and here it was casting a spell.

Is it some lich variant, he worried.

"Run," Kordin yelled as he turned to flee. However, it was too late.

There was eerie hiss behind him as the spell activated and then within a blink he was swallowed by a great wall of white fog. Drowsiness instantly weighed on his mind and the longer he was in the fog the heavier it became. He tried to fight it. He knew if he couldn't resist he would die.

Yet Kordin succumbed. He collapsed on the ground and went into a deep restful sleep.