Liora’s POV

The village of the hobgoblins was more like a small fortress with a wall encircling it. About a hundred yards from the wall the trees were all cut down allowing for a clear view of the killing field. About every two hundred yards there was a tower manned by two hobgoblins and a fire pit.

Liora had been observing them with Paul for about an hour. She was close to growing bored of watching them, but Paul seemed to have endless patience when it came to issues of war and magic.

“Do you think you can sneak in and take a look around?” Paul finally asked.

“Yes.”

Liora could turn invisible to most creatures as well as walk through walls. Spying on the hobgoblins would be an easy feat.

As she made her way to the wall, she noticed a ditch dug in front of the palisade. The ditch was about two meters deep with spikes driven into the sides. With a light pull on her air tether she floated over the ditch and into the wall beyond. Still pulling on her air tether, she formed the rune to turn invisible.

The inside of the village was neat and tidy. The buildings were built in neat rows and the streets were square. From where she stood Liora could see a keep in the center of the village with another wall around it. Inside the other wall was a small fort. It looked made of wood.

Liora wondered if the fort was strong. She decided to test her connection to Paul. Before Alaric died, she could go about a mile away from Paul. A small pull of her shadow tether let her turn invisible and Liora started to make her way towards the fort.

As she looked around, Liora noticed a few hobgoblins. They were on average five-foot-six. They would definitely have a reach and height advantage over the three-foot goblins. Like their goblin cousins they were covered in brown fur, but unlike the scantily clad goblins the hobgoblins had good clothing on.

The hobgoblins had wolflike ears that twitched at every sound. The hobgoblin kept themselves in a constant state of readiness. Their faces were angular and sharp compared to the flat faces of goblins.

About halfway to the fort, she noticed another building. It was larger than the buildings around it. Other than the fort, it looked to be the only building she had seen that was more than one story. The outer walls were decorated with the skulls of their most impressive kills. Liora could make out the skulls of small dragons, giants, and other hobgoblins.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

While the rest of the town had been sparsely populated with only the occasional person around, this building had a rather large crowd. There must have been a hundred hobgoblins. She instinctively knew what the building was, a temple.

Still invisible she decided to creep her way forward and get a look at the temple. The gathering of hobgoblins told her these were obviously devout people. As she got closer, she could hear chanting.

In front of the crowd of hobgoblins stood a figure over six feet tall. He wore full plate armor and held a large mace. His eyes were a striking red color.

As Liora walked closer to the gathering the big hobgoblin raised his hand and shouted something. The chanting stopped and, in an instant, the was no noise. The lead hobgoblin turned his head and looked exactly where Liora was. She quickly checked to see if her invisibility spell was still in place.

It was.

She turned around to see if something behind her might have caught his attention. There was nothing behind her. More shouting drew her attention back to the hobgoblin. He pointed his mace at her and a bright white light overtook Liora.

She shouldn’t be there. This was a place of death and would be the death of her. Instantly she turned and ran. Pain radiated through her body. Dread poured into her mind. If she stayed here, she would die.

Liora turned back the way she had come and ran. She couldn’t see anything except the exit. The wall she had come through was straight in front of her. She jumped at the wall and phased though it. Once on the other side she kept running.

Finally, her sprint had ended and the fear of the hobgoblins abated. She looked around and through some bushes Paul caught up to her.

“What happened? Are you ok?” Paul asked.

Liora looked back the way she had run from. For a long moment she didn’t say anything.

“The hobgoblins have a cleric with access to holy magic.” She shook her head, “He is powerful.”

“Damn.” Paul said. “He must be powerful to be able to rebuke you.”

“It was not like anything I had ever felt before.”

“I can’t imagine.” Paul looked back toward where the village was. “If he is that strong, we can’t attack unless we have a greater living force. He would just annihilate our zombies and skeletons. Grag.”

“Yes, Master.” The small creature was breathing heavily. He clearly had a hard time keeping pace.

“We will ignore the hobgoblin village for now. Show us the location of more goblin villages.” Paul instructed.

“There are a lot of villages in the area, all within a couple days walk from Gravewell.”

“We will start with the closest villages first. We will have to be careful though, while we haven’t encountered many divine casters yet that doesn’t mean the small goblin villages won’t have any.” Paul said. “We should go check with Krelgr to see if holy magic is common among goblins, or if the hobgoblins are unique.”

Liora barely noticed the conversation. She looked down at her hands and could still see them shaking and blinking in and out of existence. For the first time in her unlife, she felt fear of nonexistence. It was a fear she would never forget.

When she got her hands on the cleric, she was going to kill him.