It was easy for Kegan to gain enough distance from the goblins to be safe. The elites didn’t keep chasing him, and instead stayed close to the goblin broodmother.

The path up the rest of the rest of the mountain offered lots of clear views of the trail ahead, and the trail behind. Which meant he didn’t really have any more ambush options.

Kegan decided his best option was to just head towards the village and warn them. He set off at a sprint and quickly left the goblins far behind.

Kegan was getting a weird sense as he headed towards the village. The forest felt different from last time. At first he thought it was just that there wasn’t a path of destruction to follow. However, as he crested the final hill that should lead to the village he knew something was different. There had been an ancient oak that had fallen down and offered a memorable view of the village valley. It wasn’t there at all.

As he looked down into the valley the village was also very different. Instead of two dozen houses and a pit around the village, there were about four dozen buildings, a wooden palisade ringing the entire village, and a ditch on the outside of the palisade. He didn’t know what to make of these changes, but his goal hadn’t really changed. He continued towards the village at a sprint.

As he came up to the village there was a group of about a dozen men in leather armor and heavy furs standing around outside the entrance to the wooden palisade. They carried an assortment of weapons: bows, spears, clubs, and short swords (that kegan had never seen before).

Their conversation stopped and they looked at Kegan as he came closer. They were eyeing Kegan’s bone and leather armor with a bit of curiosity. One of the men with a short sword, and leather cap stepped forward and addressed Kegan.

“Hail there stranger, what brings you to Wood Haven?”

“There are goblins coming down from the mountain, I came to warn you before they attack the village.”

The man gave a little chuckle

“Ha, the goblins won’t dare attack us here.” He gestured to a spot on the palisade. Kegan hadn’t noticed it before but there were rotten heads sitting on a wooden spikes. One of the heads was large and looked like the remains of a goblin broodmother, six other heads were smaller and seemed about the right size for goblin elites.

The man he continued speaking while Kegan was still looking at the rotting heads.

“But, if you have seen the goblins we could use your help tracking them down. They tend to spoil the game in the forest if we leave them alone for long. This time of season we always get a group or two coming over the mountains, so me and the boys were just getting ready to go check the pass.”

Over the next half hour Kegan waited with them as the rest of the men gathered. Kegan introduced himself, and the man who had spoken said his name was Tanzeeb, but most just called him Tanz for short. Some of the last men to join were carrying enormous spears. The spears were longer than two men laying down, and were about as thick as Kegan’s palm. Each spear was being carried by two men.

Once everyone had gathered they drew blades of grass. The men who picked short straws stayed behind. In total, about three dozen men set out from the village, and a dozen stayed behind.

Kegan talked more with Tanzeeb on the way back. The village was named Woodhaven, it was two generations old, Tanzeeb’s grandfather had been part of the group that founded it. They had come from a neighboring village of Valleyforge. Tanzeeb said all of the metal weapons and metal armor had been made there.

Kegan told Tanzeeb about his cabin on the other side of the mountain range, but this had been confusing Tanzeeb.

“Wait, am I hearing you straight? Are you saying that in just the past month you moved to the valley, built a cabin, and then killed a couple hundred goblins all on your own with just the weapons you carry with you?”

“No, the cabin was already there and ..”

“I thought you said you built the cabin?”

“Yes, I did, just not in this life, one of my past selves built it.”

“Ah, ok so one of your ancestors built it.”

“I don’t know this word ancestors, it is only me in the valley.”

“Your mother and father … did you know them? Who raised you?”

“I have lived in the valley for as long as I can remember, and no one else has ever been there with me.”

“How did you learn to speak then?”

“I spoke with the spirit, and if I ever forgot too much the spirit would place knowledge in me.”

“The spirit … I thought you meant the village shaman, is the spirit not a person?”

Kegan was interrupted by a young looking man that shared a strong resemblance to Tanzeeb.

“Dad, we wanna know how he killed all the goblins, who cares who the shaman of his village is. He must be the greatest warrior in all of the glades if he killed that many goblins.”

Tanzeeb frowned at the younger man, and cuffed him on the back of the head. “Don’t be interrupting your father like that, boy.”

Kegan began answering the boy anyways, he felt much more comfortable talking about how he had killed off the goblins. Tanzeeb didn’t have as many questions during these stories, and only ever interrupted him to tell him that he was providing too many unnecessary details.

The stories lasted all the way until they reached the pass and quickly found the goblin tracks. The goblins were not heading towards the village. They were heading deeper into the wilderness.

The group decided to take a rest. Many of them were breathing heavily, taking out waterskins to drink from, and eating pieces of dried meat. Kegan was a little surprised by this, the pace they set had seemed very slow to him. He asked Tanzeeb if they would be moving faster now that they had the trail of the goblins.

“Do you not tire Kegan?”

“Not at this pace.”

Kegan had meant his answer honestly, and didn’t understand some of the slightly angry glances thrown his way. One of the men that had been carrying a large spear spoke up, “If you ain’t tired, how about you carry this spear for a bit.”

Kegan nodded, walked over to the man, who stumbled back with an anxious look on his face. But Kegan just stopped, bent down and hefted the middle of the spear onto his shoulder. He adjusted it until it was balanced. It was heavy and sturdy, but Kegan had done weight training at the beginning of the month and he was pretty sure he could carry this for a while.

“I am ready.”

Tanzeeb laughed. “Haha, he showed you up Marshaun, next time don’t whine so loudly, and maybe you won’t look like such a fool.” A few of the others laughed at this as well. Marshaun seemed oddly unbothered by the insult, he simply shrugged and rubbed his shoulders, happy to be free of the extra burden.

They set out again. This time Kegan moved to the front of the group and set a faster pace to follow the goblin trail. He could hear some grumbling from the others, but Tanzeeb would loudly tell them that surely they couldn’t be having that much trouble keeping up with a man carrying half a tree on his shoulder.

The trail the goblins were leaving was starting to get harder to follow. They had veered down into the valley for a little while and travelled through the forest. It was easy to track them there, but after a few hours they had turned and headed back up into the mountains. The trees had gotten sparse, and there were more rocks than there was dirt on the ground. Kegan set the large tree spear down to examine the trail.

The group took the opportunity to take a break. Many of them sat down immediately, breathing heavily, other took out food and water to pass around.

Tanzeeb came up to Kegan. “Hmm, have you lost their trail?”

Kegan answered honestly “Yes the signs have gotten too sparse to follow, they aren’t using any of the well worn deer paths either.”

“No worries, I’m the greatest tracker in all of the glades. I can smell rabbit scat a mile away.” He then bent down to the ground and started making loud sniffing sounds with his nose. Kegan had seen wolves do this but he didn’t know humans could have such strong noses.

Tanzeeb got up off the ground and confidently pointed in a direction “The goblins went that way!” A couple of the men chuckled, and Tanzeeb grinned back at them. Kegan became suspicious “You didn’t actually smell them did you?”

“Ha! No, I was impressed you followed their trail for so long, but we know exactly where they are going. We set up a nice little goblin cave. We stick a rotting deer carcass or two inside of it, and the goblins fall for the bait every time. The cave should be up ahead.”

Sure enough the cave was only a short walk away. Kegan could see trails of old dried blood leading into the cave. Unlike the goblin caves he knew, this was just a single large hole leading almost horizontally into the mountain. Some of the rocks were also a strange bluish green color.

Once they got to the cave everyone started moving into action. The long spears were arranged in a semi-circle facing the cave. There were grooves in the stone that the spears fit into, and the grooves helped prop them up. The points ended a little high in the air, but as others moved in with smaller spears and shields he realized the large spears were just for the broodmother goblin.

Part of the group must have broken off right before they reached the cave, because they were now returning with armfuls of deadwood and brush that they piled up at the cave entrance. Two men were using flint and steel to start a small fire, it was another new metal that Kegan hadn’t seen before.

The dry brush and deadwood soon caught fire. The smoke was flowing into the cave. Everyone was lined up around the cave with weapons ready. Kegan joined the line next to Tanzeeb.

“Tanz, what happens now?”

“If we are unlucky, they all immediately spill out of the cave, crush the fire and we have to kill them the hard way. If we are lucky, they just hide in the cave and die from the smoke.”

It was hard to see past the fire and smoke into the cave, but Kegan could see the other side rustling and occasionally flaring up. Then they all heard a huge roar, the goblin broodmother. Immediately the rustling on the other side of the fire became more obvious. Another roar much closer to the exit, but it sounded muffled.

Then, without warning there were goblin babies flying through the air out of the cave entrance. Some of them flew past the fire, but most of them landed directly in it. Their bodies scattered the wood and flames. A few more volleys of baby goblins and the fire by the entrance was mostly out. Some of the baby goblins were getting up and running towards the line of warriors, but they were quickly cut down.

“Hold the line men! Once that big ugly mother goes down they’ll scatter.”

There was a moment where nothing happened and everyone was holding their breath. And then it was like a dam had burst. What looked like a wall of baby goblins came flowing out of the cave.

It was the broodmother covered in baby goblins. All around her swarmed more of the baby goblins looking for an exit. She was moving fast for her size, but she wasn’t paying attention to what was in front of her. She ran headlong into one of the waiting spears, and a foot of the wood disappeared into her stomach as she impaled herself.

The baby goblins were swarming everywhere at this point, and the line of warriors was breaking and being over run. Kegan wasn’t accustomed to having help during a fight. He was having an easy time with the baby goblins, but he was the only one not getting slowly overwhelmed.

The broodmother was screaming in pain, and would die eventually, but Kegan was worried that ‘eventually’ wouldn’t come soon enough for most of the other men.

He stepped back from the line, and pulled a Javelin out. Tanzeeb saw him stepping back and shot him a look of anger and betrayal until he saw Kegan pulling the javelin out.

The broodmother was only ten feet away, and standing still. Kegan didn’t miss, and the javelin hit the nose and right eye of the brood mother. The broodmother immediately fell silent, and its struggling stopped.

The baby goblins near it started shrieking in fear and running away from the brood mother. Their cries were picked up by the other baby goblins and soon there was a stampede.

They ran in every direction away from the dead broodmother, including back into the cave. A few seconds later and most of the line was clear of living goblins.

As the noise of the battle and the goblins died down there were screams of pain up and down the line. The fighting had been short, but it had taken a brutal toll on some of the men.

Tanzeeb was shouting “Gather up, get behind the brood mother, if they come back out of the cave, they’ll avoid her.” The men followed his commands.

As the men gathered up Kegan could see that everyone had lived, but three men who were screaming the worst had their faces badly scratched up, two of them were holding their hands over a bloody and empty eye socket.

It wasn’t over yet, the goblins that had fled into the cave all seemed to come back out at the same time. Just as Tanzeeb had predicted they avoided the dead broodmother and flowed around it into the forest, avoiding the men huddled up behind it.

As the last of the baby goblins trickled out, Kegan saw what had chased them out: the five elite goblins.

They weren’t afraid of the dead broodmother, and instead they immediately charged the group of men. Two of them came around the left side of the goblin broodmother and the other three came around the right side. Kegan reacted instantly unleashing two javelins at short range as he closed with three of the elites coming around the right side. The first javelin was deflected, and the second landed in a goblin’s stomach. The bone armor stopped it from doing too much damage, but it also caused it to break off inside the goblin. The goblin was in pain but just threw the javelin aside. Two of these goblins had spears, including the one Kegan had injured, and the last one had a club.

As Kegan closed with the goblins he thought he heard Tanzeeb shouting his name, but he was too focused on the fight to hear him properly.

The spear came at his chest, he twisted to let it deflect while using his twisting motion to add momentum to the swing of his own club. The goblin with the club was swinging at the same time. They both hit each other, but Kegan’s swing connected with the goblins head, shattering its bone head armor, and its skull. While the goblin’s swing landed on his chest armor. The out layer of bone in his armor was pulverized where the swing connected, but Kegan’s extra padding saved him from further injury.

The spear goblin was jabbing repeatedly at Kegan’s armor trying to find a weak spot. Kegan couldn’t close the distance, and the third goblin was joining the fight. Kegan threw his club at the closer goblin to buy himself some room, and whipped out his own spear. The club connected but deflected off the goblin’s armor.

His own spear came out it and became a whirlwind, all of Kegan’s experience with the spear was flowing through him. He was anticipating their attacks and deflecting them aside while landing his own jabs into their weaker spots. One of them made a serious mistake by thrusting too low, and Kegan took brutal advantage of it by thrusting his own spear into the goblin’s eye socket.

The other goblin tried to imitate Kegan’s finishing move and thrust its spear at Kegan’s face, but Kegan used the haft of his spear to knock the goblins spear up in the air. With the spear out of the way, Kegan closed into the goblins space. He threw his own spear aside, and grabbed his dagger. The goblin tried to use its hands to defend from Kegan’s dagger and grab at Kegan’s arms. But Kegan had enough strength to overwhelm the goblin, and Kegan kept stabbing until he was able to get some stabs in vital areas, once the goblin was too weak to protect its face it was dead.

Kegan’s awareness expanded, and he noticed it seemed unnaturally quiet. He turned to look at the group of men, and they were all staring at him. Most of them had their jaws hanging open in surprise.

Tanzeeb broke the silence “Good gods Kegan, that was brutal, where the hell did you learn to fight like that?”