Andrew sat bolt upright. The sky was just starting to brighten with early morning glow. He could see the faint outline of Kalan keeping watch at the edge of camp.

It's almost time. Today is the day. We're going to help some people today. We're going to kill some monsters today. We're going to be one step closer to grabbing everyone and getting the hell away from these things. This is a big one. I can't believe I thought I was going to be tired. I don't think I could get back to sleep if it tried.

His thoughts were interrupted by a drawn out snore from a bundle nestled in the wagon.

We should probably get moving soon.

Shelby didn't mind the early wake up call. As soon as they were all ready, they were headed towards the ambush point. Shelby broke off from the group to keep watch on the camp, while Andrew and Kalan got dug into their positions. Once they confirmed the road was clear Andrew ran out and refreshed all the circles. It barely cost him any mana to get them back to a workable state, though he was careful not to push so much in that they were visible from a distance.

Kalan was almost invisible in the grasses on the opposite side of the road. Andrew would never have seen him if he didn't know where to look. He had to move a little farther out than they would've liked to stay hidden, but it was within their expectations, probably.

Shelby didn't return until they were already all set up. She was moving quickly.

"They've left. They're still a ways out, probably ten, twenty minutes behind me. I think there are three prisoners, and there are only five guards this time. They might actually be running low on fighters, so good news I guess. I'll be up on the hill, I'm going to start shooting as soon as the first one hits the circle." Shelby said, then rushed off to her position uphill.

Yeah Yeah, all according to plan, except we planned for six, not five. This is honestly better. Gotta get ready, as soon as they hit that circle, it's go time.

The next ten minutes felt like hours. Andrew crouched in the bushes behind a tree, waiting for any sign, any sound, that would let him know they were coming. Eventually he reached his limit, peaked around the corner, and froze.

There they were, coming around the bend. There were five of them, one in front, four behind, three prisoners in between. Something was different though, the one in front, he had threaded veins of Red all up his chest and arms. It seemed to settle into his neck and down his back, but Andrew didn't have a good angle on him.

Shit. Shit, okay. I really hope that guy gets caught in the first circle, otherwise we're in trouble. A goblin with those powers took ages to take down, I don’t even want to think about how hard it's going to be to take on a hobgoblin with similar abilities. Okay, fuck.

It was at that moment that the giant wolf passed by Andrew's tree and stepped into one of the circles. Andrew shook off his distraction and leaped up out from the bushes, just as an arrow lodged itself into the chest of the threaded hobgoblin. It didn't seem to see Andrew, and charged up the hill towards Shelby's position.

Thank fucking god.

It ran right into one of the other circles he laid down earlier. Andrew barely had time to register this before he was charging right into the crowd of four hobgoblins, who were drawing weapons. His spear was out, and his shield was ready. He was on one of them before they were ready, it's sword was barely out of it's sheath. His spear dug into- and through it's thigh. Andrew pulled the spear out and then quickly started backing off, raising his shield.

These guys are no pushovers, and they must have been expecting us.

Arrows pinged off his shield before he made it halfway back to the tree line. He could see Kalan poke up from the grasses, but didn't allow himself to focus on it. There were four more arrows sticking out of the weaved hobgoblin, who was making disturbingly fast progress through the binding circle. Andrew's attention was brought crashing back to the present as another arrow pinged off of his shield.

Okay, this changes things a little, shit. Four on one, I was hoping Shelby would be able to distract two or more, but I guess there is only five, so I’m left with the same amount. Shit, who came up with this fucking plan?

His thoughts were interrupted by the screeching of metal. Andrew's backpedaling took up so much of his focus, he stumbled as he peered over the shoulder of his nearest attacker to see one of the prisoners rip the chains off of the back of the cart and wrap them around the neck of one of the nearby archers, much to the detriment of the other two prisoners chained behind him.

Holy shit that guy is huge. Okay change of plans, might get a little more support than I thought.

As fireballs crashed into the second archer, the first of the two hobgoblins pursuing him with swords finally caught up to him, unfortunately they were far from the first of his hidden binding circles. He raised his shield and desperately fended off the blows, and was unfortunately reminded of how little he had practiced his close combat skills. It was all he could do to keep the sword of one from breaking through his guard. He was keeping up better now, before he had no hope of keeping one of the hobgoblins from breaking through, now he only worried about their strength and skill, he was more than fast enough to keep up with one.

I guess all those dex stats I've been getting have really paid off. If I survive this, all my stat points are going into dex, I'm going to become the mother fucking flas-

The second hobgoblin caught up, and now he was truly on the retreat. Spear, shield, dodge. He was faster, but there were two of them, and he simply couldn't keep up. He didn't even have time to think about the other two hobgoblins, and he was supposed to fight them in the original plan.

I really underestimated how hard it would be to fight two people at once, shit that one almost got me, oh shit that one is going to--

His train of thought was interrupted as one of the blocky hobgoblins swords crashed into his ribs, under his spear arm. It didn't break the armor, but he knew instantly it would leave a nasty bruise.

HP: 600/620

Seriously? That’s all? Didn't even break my armor?

[Hobgoblin Level 32]

I might have more vitality than I thought. I'm probably approaching this wrong, I need to be more aggressive. I can take a couple hits from these guys. I hope.

Andrew's arm came down, trapping the blade in between one arm and his chest. His spear poked out ineffectively, but he brought his shield around to strike the attacker in the face with as much force as he could. It's edge caved in slightly as it bashed into the hobgoblin's head and knocked it back, releasing it's grip on the sword trapped in his armpit.

The other hobgoblin took the opportunity to swing at his head, Andrew dropped to the ground and the sword deflected off the top of his helm with an echoing clang that made his ears ring. He braced himself and pushed his spear up and under the chest piece of the hobgoblin. He was shocked at how easy it was as his spear pierced up and through the hobgoblin. He had to let go of the spear as the body it was attached to fell and he couldn't afford the distraction the weight brought as the other hob recovered from his last blow.

It kicked at Andrew as he was getting up and knocked him back and onto his back. Andrew scrambled backwards, shield raised as he pulled his hammer from his belt. The hobgoblin advanced on him, drawing a dagger with one hand, and attempting to pull his shield away with the other. As it kneeled down to strike Andrew swung out with his hammer and struck the Hobgoblin's elbow with a sickening crack. It maintained it's grip on the dagger, but the stab scraped weakly off of his chest piece. He swung wildly out at the hobgoblin on top of him, hitting his arm, side, chest, eventually a hit connected with the Hobgoblin's head and it stumbled off of him. He jumped to his feet and kicked the hobgoblin over before bringing his hammer down twice more on it's head. It stopped moving.

He looked over at the other hobgoblin, and was sickened to hear it's strangled wet breathing as it struggled to pull the spear down and out of it's chest. He finished it off quickly and left his spear where it was for the moment. Taking deep breaths he glanced around to see how everyone else was doing.

HP: 580/620

The threaded Hob was a literal pincushion. There were more arrows than he could count sticking out of it's nearly frozen from, and yet it was still struggling to reach the edge of the circle, and there were still more arrows landing on his body. The other two were handling their fights quite well. The prisoner managed to tackle his opponent from behind and pull them both to the ground. He was covered in blood, but was holding the hobgoblin down with the assistance of the other two prisoners, using their connected chains to restrain him.

Holy shit that guy is huge though, should've brought more guards. I know levels exist, but I wouldn't be surprised if that dude could hold the hobgoblin down alone.

Kalan was dealing with his hobgoblin just fine. It's armor was scorched and it sported several new red angry burns across it's face and body. Kalan was circling it from a distance, shooting bolts of flame at it and stabbing out with his burning sword whenever it got too close, the hobgoblin looked half blind at this point and Andrew had no doubt Kalan had that fight dealt with.

Andrew took a moment to pull his spear out of one of the dead hobgoblins before jogging over to the struggling hobgoblin being held down by the chained prisoners. Up close there could be little doubt that the massive prisoner was doing most of the work keeping the hobgoblin pinned.

[Hobgoblin level 36]

Absolutely ridiculous.

[Carter Level 14 Savage]

Insane, this dude has to be half the level of one of these hobgoblins, how the fuck was he able to restrain one. I really, really hope he ends up on our side, Savage seems like a kinda sketchy class though, and how did he reach level 14 in a mining camp? Not important right now, he's already a huge advantage in a fight.

"Keep holding it down, I'm going to finish it off. I would get away from it's head area too, if you can" Andrew said, circling around the hobgoblin and eyeing a gap in it's armor around the neck.

A grunt of recognition was all the response he got as the prisoners struggled to reposition, as soon as he had an opportunity Andrew stabbed his spear down and into the throat of the hobgoblin. It took three stabs and a kick to the face before the hobgoblin stopped moving entirely.

Andrew looked up and checked on the others. The Weaved hobgoblin was laying in the dirt three feet from the binding circle, not moving and filled with more than half of Shelby's arrows. Kalan made eye contact with him as he extinguished his sword and pulled it out of the chest of the hobgoblin he was dueling.

"Who the fuck are you guys?" Said one of the prisoners who was desperately wiping blood off of his face with the baggy rags they wore.

He was scrawny, far more so than his companions. He was last in line in the prisoner chain and easily contributed the least to holding the hobgoblin down. The other two seemed content to let him lead the conversation though, and took up protective positions slightly behind him.

"I'm sorry, that came off as a little aggressive, but I don't know what's going on here. Uh, I guess thank you for saving us, but, seriously, who are you guys? You look human, You're human right?" He said, looking less and less sure of himself, the more he spoke. "I mean humans from earth, You're not going to enslave us right? You know about the Avengers and junk right? Doing the super hero thing right? I just, I'm sure you're here to help. You definitely got us out of that one, so, thanks. I mean you don't really look like superheroes so if that's not your thing then that’s fine. You did mean to help us right? Oh man, wait are we next? Were you waiting for us? What's going on? How much did that armor cost? Where did you get it? Can I get something like that? Was that guy shooting fireballs? That’s super cool. How do we get these chains off? You're going to take these chains off right?"

He spoke so quickly Andrew didn't have a chance to respond until he took a breath, even then he had a hard time dealing with the slurry of questions pouring out of his mouth. The two behind him looked almost apologetic.

"Wait wait wait. Yes, we're humans from earth. Yes we're here to help. Yes I watched the Avengers, no we're not superheroes, and we got lucky with this. Right now we want to help everyone trapped in that camp get out, can you help us with that? I made this armor myself and I won't be able to make any more until we deal with the camp. We do have weapons we can give you, and that guy was definitely throwing fireballs. " Andrew said as Kalan wandered past him and to the front of the wagon, where he began rummaging around for keys.

"I mean yes, of fucking course we want to get everyone out. Are you kidding? That’s what I was talking about just before they carted us off this morning. You really think you can pull it off? There are a lot of them and they have weapons and big wolves and everything." The skinny man asked.

"Yes, but we need to work really fast, right now. We're trying to maintain the element of surprise, so we need to clean this ambush up right now. Help us out here, we're going to throw the bodies into the tall grass over there, then we're going to raid that cart for everything valuable and get the fuck out of dodge. We won't attack the camp for several more days. You ready for this?" Andrew said, looking over the other two prisoners. "We have bandages for the big guy too, we should treat that cut soon. It should heal pretty fast, but better safe than sorry."

The big one had to be nearly seven feet tall, and covered in muscle. He had shoulder length black hair that was matted and dirty, and hung around his head. The normally baggy prisoner's uniform he wore was strained, bloody, and ripped in several places from their earlier struggle. He had one hand pressed to a bloody gash in his side.

He finally spoke up.

"Yes, we will help you. These things, they are not good people. They hurt people. They deserve to die. Give me a chance, and I will return this favor. They will pay for what they've done. The people inside are good people. We should get them out. I have taken wounds here before, this one is not serious, but I will accept your help."

"I'm in too, though, I'm not sure how good I'll be in a fight. I'm a quick runner though, so maybe I can be a distraction or something? Unless they have arrows I guess."

Andrew had thought the last prisoner was a young boy until she spoke. Her hair was cut short and she had an athletic build, despite her short stature. She seemed to shy away the second he turned to her, despite having spoke first.

"Well then welcome to the crew! We'll get introductions over with once were safely away from here but we have some work to do first. Kalan's bringing the keys over, he'll get you guys unlocked in just a second. Next thing to do is strip the hobgoblins armor and toss the bodies in the tall grass over there. Think you can get started on that after you're all bandaged up big guy?"

"My Name is Carter Williams."

"Alright yeah, Carter, bet you can throw one of those nasty ass hobgob corpses plenty far, so yeah, anyways, we'll get you bandaged up, strip them down, fill the cart, take the cart away with us, hide the tracks, and get ready to go after the camp. How you feel about that? We'll have a couple more things to go over once we get there, but I figure that covers the important parts." Andrew said.

All he got from Carter was a nod, The skinny one gave enthusiastic agreement, and introduced himself as Tyler Lang, the woman gave a quick nod before introducing herself as Bailey Wright.

Alright, well that went well. Better than expected all things considered. Three prisoners saved, one big scary fucker on our side in a fight, and nothing worse than bruises for our people. Hell of a success all things considered. Now we just need to make sure we aren't caught.

They got to work quickly stripping the useful equipment off of the hobgoblins and tossing them into the back of the cart. Tossing the hobgoblins into the tall grasses was a little ambitious, but he was a great help in picking them up and hauling them out to where they wouldn't easily be seen. The cart was carefully disengaged from the wolf and it was left inside the binding circle as they dragged it and their ill gotten goods down the road and to a path that would take them back to camp. Andrew led Carter and Tyler with the cart, while Kalan Shelby and Baily stayed behind to try and erase the signs of battle they left behind, then follow the cart tracks and try and erase those too.

Anyone following the cart would likely know something was up pretty quickly, as the wagon wheels would just disappear from the road at random, but they hoped it would slow them down, and at least not lead anyone directly back to their camp.

Along the way Andrew opened up his log to see if anything changed.

[Hobgoblin Level 32 Defeated]

[Adaptive Weapon Mastery lvl 4-5]

[Hobgoblin Level 33 Defeated]

[Hobgoblin Level 36 Defeated]

[Additional experience granted for assisting others to defeat enemies]

Not a lot. Weapon mastery is nice, but no levels and no stat gains. I guess the fight wasn't very difficult though, all things considered. I imagine this leveling thing is going to start slowing down until we run into something nastier. Not the worst problem to have all in all.

The group was making good time back to the Camp. Carter seemed content with the silent walk back. Tyler seemed to be putting more effort into staying quiet than pulling the cart. Andrew was just thinking, and planning.

In small groups like this, we can safely thin out the hobgoblin numbers. But sooner or later they're going to catch on. I don't know if we have enough time here to wait for another caravan to leave. We're going to have to do something a little different I think.