Raine leapt to the side. But it was too late to avoid the blow, and the spear struck his shield. His arm went numb. The goblin tried to stab him again, this time aiming at his face.

Shit. Raine jerked his head out of the way. The spear missed. But he was now in a terrible position, with no way to counterattack. The goblin swung its extended spear horizontally. Raine could only tuck his chin and grit his teeth. The spearhead hit the top of his helmet and glanced off it. He stumbled, but he quickly shook off his dizziness and thrust his spear at the goblin’s leg.

The monster had overextended itself to hit him. It was still retracting its own spear when Raine’s reached it. The spearhead went through the goblin’s gambeson and stabbed its thigh. The goblin cringed in pain and retreated. Just as Raine was about to press the attack, he saw the sword goblin rush at him, holding its blade level to the ground to try to skewer Raine.

Argh, try to kill one, and the other interrupts. Raine hurried out of the way of the sword goblin. As soon as it passed him, he attacked. While it turned to face him, he thrust his spear under its shield. The goblin tried to lower its shield and block, but it was too late.

Yes! The spear pierced the goblin’s gambeson and stabbed its stomach. Eyes wide, the goblin dropped its sword and shield and grabbed his spear. Instead of trying to pull it out, it just held on tightly. Raine tried to yank his spear out of its grasp, but he couldn’t.

He shot a glance at the spear goblin. It was charging at him.

Shit. Let go, bastard. He kicked the goblin in front of him and tried again to pull his spear back. He still couldn’t get it out of the goblin’s grasp. He shot a glance at the spear goblin. It was moments away. Okay, fuck this.

Raine let go and shoved the dying goblin at its approaching ally. The spear goblin leapt out of the way, and Raine flung his dagger at its head and rushed at it. It covered its face with its shield.

Raine rammed into it. He came in at an angle, avoiding its spear. The monster stumbled back, and he pursued. The goblin hurriedly thrust its spear at him. He tried to block it with his shield, but the spear went over it and shot at his shoulder.

A wave of panic flooded over Raine. He wanted to move out of the way, but there was no time. The spearhead met his gambeson. The edge of the blade ran along his shoulder. Raine didn’t waste time seeing how bad the damage was. He stepped forward and swung at the goblin’s face. The goblin leaned back, dodging the punch, and thrust its spear at him again. But with the goblin’s awkward posture, the thrust was slower and weaker than the last one. Raine avoided the spearhead and grabbed the shaft. He yanked it. The goblin didn’t let go and stumbled forward.

Raine’s shield met its face. Its grip on its spear loosened, and Raine ripped the weapon out of its grasp. Then he hit again and again with his shield. He didn’t care what it struck. Sometimes it was the shield. Sometimes it was the shoulder. Sometimes it was the face.

The goblin stumbled around and tried to run away and call for help. But there were no other monsters to help it. Kayden was fighting the goblin that had gone after Edgar. Ava and June had just one elite left to kill.

Raine bashed his enemy’s face with the spear, and the goblin fell to the ground. Raine tossed aside his shield and held the spear with both hands to stab the monster in the chest.

Then it was dead. Raine leaned on the spear and tried to catch his breath. He was exhausted. And it was hot under his armor. He wanted to throw off his helmet and dunk his head in cold water.

He looked toward Edgar. The goblin Kayden had been fighting was dead on the ground, and Kayden himself was wiping blood off his sword. June hurried to Edgar and passed him a healing potion.

“Good, we’re all alive,” Ava said. She held a metal rod as long as she was tall. With her free hand, she pulled her sword out of the chest of a dead elite goblin. She tossed aside the rod, and it disintegrated while she picked up her shield.

“You look spent,” Cecily said from behind Raine.

He looked back at her.

“Yeah,” he said. “RPGs have it wrong. Goblins are goddamn hard to kill.”

Then her gaze went to his shoulder, and her brows rose. “Hey, you’re bleeding.”

Raine looked. There was a slowly growing patch of blood on his gambeson. Shit. We don’t have bandages, right? So, a potion?

It took a moment for him to realize he had another option.

Here goes nothing. Although he didn’t know how much good it would do, he put his left hand over his injured shoulder and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes. His hand felt a little warmer. That was about it. 

The effort made his breath grow labored once more.

He stared at his shoulder. The patch of blood was still growing, but it seemed like it was doing so more slowly than before. Excitement and relief danced in his chest. It’s working. Holy shit.

He kept his left hand over his shoulder and used magic again. When the warmth in his hand disappeared, he felt like his legs were about to give out under him. But the bleeding stopped.

He didn’t think he could stay standing for much longer. He sat on the grass.

Cecily tapped Raine’s shoulder.

“Here,” she said, passing him his dagger, hilt-first.

“Oh, thanks.” Raine wiped the blade with his sleeve and sheathed it.

“You know, it was a bad idea to throw it. You didn’t have another weapon on you.”

“Yeah,” he said with a wry smile. “I don’t know how to use it, though. If I tried to parry with it, I probably would have gotten my fingers crushed.”

Cecily tapped the dead goblin with her boot. “Whatever the case, you killed both. Nice.”

“Hey, we’re not done yet,” Ava said to everyone. “Cecily, Kayden, keep your eyes out for more goblins. Edgar, help June take the armor from the goblins. And Raine, help me gather the shields and weapons. Chop, chop. Let’s get to it, people.”

. . . .

Eight horses, eight people. Blake looked out the window and watched them head for the east gate. He let out a small sigh. It wouldn’t be worth the risk to keep Wrath, but it bothered him that Yasha’s team would be outside of Rialis for much of the Expansion.

“There they go,” Wang Yan said. “Here’s hoping they don’t lose the goddamn sword.” She went to the sofa and took a seat. She picked up her fountain pen and finished writing a letter on the table. Then she pushed the paper aside and leaned back in the sofa. “The Expansion should be in full swing by the weekend. What time are you going tomorrow?”

“Six o’clock,” Blake said.

“So you’ll be able to meet the teams from Xiyashi.” She frowned. “You know, they may be Rank A, but I’ve never heard of them.”

“Neither have I, but Xie Yong claims that both have great track records.”

“I’ve been thinking about what to do with them, but I still haven’t made a decision. I don’t want to waste free labor and let them hang around here.”

“Consider sending them to Irin. Just be careful not to give them anything too dangerous. Xiyashi would be furious if they died.”

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“I know. I’ve also thought about having them spend some time dealing with the goblins in Irin, but I’m considering New Annapolis as well so they can kill the occasional orc from Kanthil.”

“Then have them spend a day or two killing elites at Irin and send them to New Annapolis afterward.” Blake went to his desk and took his seat. He opened his notebook and skimmed his notes for what he had to do today. “And speaking of Irin, we should shrink it again once this Expansion ends.”

“A few Rank As are saying we should try to cut the whole thing down this year,” Wang Yan said. “If we do, obviously the surrounding villages’ economies would probably go—” She snapped her fingers. “Poof.”

“We should take our time with the decision. It’s not urgent.”

Wang Yan nodded. “By the way, aren’t there a few letters we should go through?”

“Yeah. None are that important, though,” Blake said.

He pulled out a bundle of letters from his drawer and looked through them. A few were from business executives and mayors. Most came from Hopkins members.

After passing a few to Wang Yan, Blake tore one open with a wooden letter opener. Just one page long, the letter was from the mayor of a small city near the Kanthil Forest. After a brief preamble, it said, “The number of orc attacks on the villages near Olkirk has been growing at a stunning pace despite the efforts of the hunters within the city. I estimate there are around 40 orcs in the Kanthil Forest near Olkirk. They have yet to act in coordination, but if a great orc were to lead them to raid the villages, we would be unable to fend them off with our current number of hunters.”

A table below showed an exponential rise in the number of orc attacks over the course of just two weeks. Blake scanned the letter for a date, which he soon found at the bottom: July 9th—two days prior.

Two Rank B teams should be enough. Sending Rank As would be a waste of resources. He grabbed his notebook and flipped to an empty page. He picked up his pen. Before its point met the paper, his hand paused. Even two Rank B teams would be too much. Maybe one Rank B team and a few lower-ranked ones.

He scribbled his thoughts onto his notebook. Then he closed it, pushed aside the letter from the Olkirk mayor, and tore open the next envelope.

. . . .

Raine dropped the stack of shields in his hands onto the ground, beside piles of weapons and armor. He bent over, leaning on his knees and panting.

“What’s with your stamina?” Edgar said. He was inspecting a javelin.

“I’ve had one too many donuts in my life,” Raine said.

“Goddamn donuts, always ruining people’s lives,” Ava said. She glanced at Raine. “Glazed?”

“I prefer Bavarian cream.”

She shook her head in disapproval.

“Hey, it makes a great, unhealthy breakfast with an iced latte.”

“You like starting your day by dumping sugar and caffeine into your body?”

“Yeah.”

“What a beautiful breakfast,” Kayden said.

Raine glanced back at the loggers. They had cut about fifteen trees now. They hacked at the trees at a far slower pace than before, but they were still making steady progress. Raine and his teammates had moved farther from them earlier and weren’t in danger of being crushed by falling trees.

June was digging a pit ahead with magic, and Kayden, Cecily, and Ava were watching the forest. Edgar and Raine had nothing to do.

Edgar slung his javelin quiver over his back and stared at the forest with a frown.

“Where are the goblins?” he asked Ava.

“The elites are probably trying to decide whether to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us, or wait and see if we leave after cutting down just a few more trees,” she said.

“I’m imagining a bunch of goblins in a dark cave, huddled in a circle and screaming at each other,” Kayden said.

“They probably have donuts in their hands,” Raine said. “Coffee-flavored for the mental stimulation.”

“I’m sure they’re scarfing down those donuts,” Ava said. “Their delicious last meal.”

“Man, I want a donut now,” Kayden said.

“Timber!” a logger shouted from behind.

“Maybe one of the trees here has the goblins’ secret donut stash,” Raine said. “That’s why they’re attacking us.”

“Makes sense,” Kayden said. “By the way, Ava, what do you put our odds of getting attacked again?”

“Probably 20%,” she said.

His brows rose. “Really, that low?”

“It’s in that ballpark. We killed a good number of goblins without a single casualty. We’re very unattractive targets. But it’s possible another team will get attacked if they didn’t seem as strong.”

“That makes sense,” Raine said. “Everyone should be fine, though. All the teams seemed pretty solid.”

“Marco’s looked like shit,” Edgar said. “Weak.”

Raine smiled wryly.

Meanwhile, the loggers felled several more trees behind them.

“Last five trees!” one of the loggers shouted.

“Finally,” Edgar said. “This waiting around is unbearable.”

“It’s better than having goblins try to stab your face,” Ava said. “We’re getting paid to wait around. It’s great.”

“Hey, I’m still doing work,” Cecily said from ahead of them, staring at the forest.

“Watching the trees isn’t hard,” Ava said.

“It’s boring as hell.”

Raine offered to switch with her, and she immediately accepted. He thought it was great to be able to do nothing but stare at the forest. Plus, he didn’t want to leave someone bored enough to complain as a lookout.

With his spear in one hand, he watched the forest. His teammates spoke behind him, but he avoided joining the conversation to not lose focus.

At one point, he saw something move in the distance. He couldn’t see it clearly. It could have easily been nothing more than an animal or a branch swaying in the wind, but he still told his team about it. Kayden approached with an arrow nocked on his bowstring and scanned the forest.

“Well...I don’t see anything,” he said.

“Then it was probably just a squirrel,” Edgar said.

“Or possibly an elite who wants to sneak up on us,” Cecily said.

“To be honest, one elite wouldn’t dare to do that,” June said. “If the goblins attack us, it would be five or more elites together, with some normal goblins trying to get our attention with a frontal attack.”

“They aren’t ninjas,” Ava said. “They usually need distraction for successful ambushes.”

“Great. Ninja goblins would be horrifying,” Kayden said.

“No, they would be hilarious,” Raine said. “Imagine goblins watching anime and trying to copy the ninjas they see.”

“I say we preempt them and become ninjas ourselves. Ava, where can I buy a katana?”

It was with conversation like that that they killed the next fifteen minutes, waiting for the loggers to fell the last five trees. Raine stared at the forest the whole time. He expected another attack, and it didn’t come.

“Timber!” the loggers shouted. Five trees hit the ground.

“And we’re done,” Ava said.

“That was easy enough,” Cecily said.

“Easy for you to say,” Edgar said.

She shrugged.

June headed out of the forest to get Guard and Myu. They were just outside, since Jared had hired a villager to bring the teams’ horses.

“How much is all of this worth?” Kayden asked. He picked up a sword from the pile and inspected its blade. “I can’t even tell if this is a masterpiece or just an oversized knife.”

“All swords are really just oversized knives,” Raine said. Still watching the forest, he stifled a yawn with the back of his hand.

“Yes, just like a spear is an oversized toothpick,” Ava said. “Also, that sword’s mediocre.”

“So much for my dreams of finding a legendary sword by chance,” Kayden sighed, sheathing the sword.

“The whole pile is worth 1,200 vurs at least,” Ava said.

“Really?”

“Yeah. The mail shirt is in good condition. The gauntlets as well. The elites took half-decent care of their equipment.”

June soon returned with the horses. Raine and Cecily watched the trees while the rest loaded the weapons, armor, and shields onto the horses.

“You think the goblins would attack at this point?” Raine asked.

“It’s a good time to try to sneak up on us,” Cecily said.

“That’s the point of having you two keep watch,” Ava said.

Raine nodded.

“Fuck!” someone cried.

Raine froze. Then his gaze shot to the right. The shout hadn’t come from anyone in Stanbury’s team, but rather someone from the next team, which Raine couldn’t see because of the trees blocking his view. But he did see the team’s horse running away. 

“Well, shit,” Ava said.

Someone from Stanbury’s team shouted to Raine’s, “Elites! At least a dozen!”

They then hurried toward the attacked team.

“Raine, Kayden, lead the horses out of the forest and watch over them since you’re both tired,” Ava said, dropping the shield in her hands. “Everyone else, follow me.”

Raine grabbed Myu and Guards’ reins. He and Kayden stood there watching their teammates rush toward the attacked team.

Wait a second, Raine thought, his eyes widening. Now we don’t have the protection of an experienced member. 

“Hey, let’s get out of here,” he said.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Kayden said, quickly picking up the last items on the ground—two shields and a spear.

They hurried out of the forest, looking back every few moments all the while.