Frank moved his staff into a ready position, facing the goblins. It wasn't much of a competition, now that he had a weapon. Two of the green things approached from each side, the third stood back. These were larger than the tutorial ones, he observed. Probably adults. That meant they'd be a bit smarter, a bit stronger. Their lack of clothing and weapons indicated they weren't higher ranked. They were small and unarmed. Three would pose a threat if Frank had no weapon, or if he was injured, but neither situation was the case. The two advancing charged him, the third throwing a stone, which sailed straight towards Frank's chest.

Frank let it hit his gambeson, the padding completely shielding him, and then swung out, dispatching both the goblins with blows to the head. Then he dashed forward, a few steps and a lunge all he needed to smash in the face of the final goblin. Unlike in the tutorial, they didn't just vanish. Instead, the last one dispatched, they all started glowing, blue motes of light rising off them until they faded into nothing. Frank relaxed at the sight. If the bodies started disappearing it meant the whole group of them were out of commission. If they hadn't that would indicate one or more still skulking about. Knowledge of a system message suddenly tugged at the corner of his mind. He focused in on it and it appeared before him.

Goblin Scouting Party defeated. 30 EXP awarded. 25 EXP to Frank. 5 EXP to Bill.

There was an implication in the name given to the trio of goblins. A bad implication. Frank looked over to Bill.

"You see that shit, Frank? Fucking beamed 'em right back up to the mothership." Bill said, staring at the spot where the first goblin had been struck down. "Fuckers must have a base nearby. We should get out of here."

Bill got up tenderly, but with Frank's shoes, he was more mobile. Frank thought about the health potion in his pack, eventually deciding to hold off. If they ran into any more enemies, he'd consider giving it to Bill so they could book it out of there. No high hopes for Bill, but Frank was never the type to leave someone to die. He couldn't play nanny, but he could give someone else a chance to fend for themselves.

Frank grabbed his pack, slipped the straps around his shoulders, and starting walking for a response. Bill fell in beside him, the pace Frank set deliberately relaxed in consideration for Bill's feet. His quarterstaff rapped the ground in time with his stride. This was a trick he'd learned from a retired vet early on the first time Frank went through this. Something to keep rhythm, and it becomes easier to walk, the tedium of travel becomes just a little less. Frank idly wondered what that old man was up to. He probably wouldn't see him, having ended up in a completely different place than before.

It'd probably take 5 hours at this pace, without breaks, to reach Redstone. Frank hoped that Bill had managed to increase his vitality and constitution at least a little bit when he'd finally decided to deal with his system messages. They both were silent as they trudged on. At first, Bill looked lost in thought, perhaps spinning more nonsense in his head, but gradually, that was replaced by a scowl. Frank, for his part, just trudged along, aware of his surroundings and aware of Bill, but not thinking about them, focusing on the periodic sound of his quarterstaff rapping pavement instead.

Bill made it a full two and a half hours before Frank stopped, his meditative walking broken by the observation Bill was struggling to continue. When Frank stopped, Bill immediately threw himself down, laying on his back, and kicking off his shoes. "My feet fucking hurt. Fuck." Bill stared up at the sky, squinting. "Fucking pile of shit this is. No cars for hours in either direction. Redstone must be in the middle of fucking nowhere." For some reason, the crashed vehicles they regularly passed hadn't factored into his thinking.

Frank just shrugged and sat down, pulling more water out of his pack. One bottle to Bill, one for himself. His eyes rested upon the health potion and he thought about it for a moment, before closing up the pack and tossing Bill the water. If it was someone saner he probably would have just given them the potion. But in the back of his mind, Frank couldn't help thinking it'd be wasted on Bill. It pissed him off. He was thinking like David, all rationally, cost and benefit carefully weighed with as much dispassion as a human could muster. He hated it. Even though he would have died so much sooner if David hadn't made him do it. Doing the thing that felt morally right in the present was easy, assuming you valued doing good. You never felt bad, But it was lazy. David had called it cowardice.

The fact that logic and reason told him that saving the potion was the better long term call didn't make it any less shitty feeling. He'd known Bill for three hours and had already decided he wasn't worth expending that resource on. And of course, he wasn't going to tell him that. Instead, Frank would walk with him to Redstone, acting like he had no way to help. Then Bill would be laid up for days until his feet healed, and that would be that. Bill would lose crucial time before things went from sideways to upside down, and Frank was making that decision for him now. It'd been easier when someone else was making the decisions when Peter and David called the shots. Frank stewed in silence after finishing his water.

He had planned to sit for half an hour, then travel half the remainder, then rest again, then get into town. The extra rest and slow pace were in consideration for Bill. The goblins didn't like his itinerary though, it seemed. A single head, then two more poked through the brush. One of them fixed its eyes upon Bill and Frank, and it shouted something, startling Bill into a sitting position. Frank immediately stood, gripping his quarterstaff tightly as the number of goblins exiting the woods and heading across the ditch towards him went from three to seven, to nine. To his great unease, the final three all had weapons. Two of them had simple clubs, and they flanked a larger goblin, obviously the leader, who wore a simple cap and a loincloth, and carried a spear twice as tall as him. Frank reacted by breaking into a run towards the goblins, deciding to do his best to take out a goblin or two before they got over the ditch. Bill, for his part, started putting on his shoes.

The first Goblin rushing up the ditch met the same fate as the three Frank had disposed of earlier today. The quarterstaff smashed into it while it was scrambling up the side. The others reacted by falling back into the ditch, out of the reach of his staff. The goblin leader made a guttural yell and the other five unarmed goblins started moving further down the ditch, away from Frank. The leader and his two flunkies rushed towards Frank. The strategy was clear. Two groups, Frank could only stop one from climbing the ditch. The other would get onto the road and then flank him, or maybe just rush Bill.

He only had a moment to make a decision, but the experience allowed him to act efficiently. "Bill, get up. The big one is using tactics." Frank shouted to him without looking, before moving along the ditch in the opposite direction the five goblins had walked towards. Bill got up and ran after him, wincing. The goblins all crossed the ditch, then moved towards Bill and Frank. The three wielding weapons led, and Frank took the short moment he had to hand Bill his pocket knife, till this point in his pants pocket.

Then the first three were upon them, and Frank started swinging. First at the leader, forcing him back to keep the spear at bay. The other two advanced in the gap this creating, and Frank stepped back. Bill looked at a loss for what to do, holding a pocket knife but facing three weapons with much more range. He decided, probably wisely, to just wait slightly behind Frank. Two club-wielding goblins swung in simultaneously. Frank avoided one, stepping away from the ditch and towards the road, using his staff to block the other and then smashing it with the backswing. He got it in the arm, a crunch indicating he'd shattered bone. It shrieked in pain but held onto the club with its remaining good limb, and the leader recovered and made to stab at Frank, forcing him back. During the short exchange, the remaining goblins had caught up.

"Jump across the ditch!" Frank called out as he made a big defensive swing of his staff to range out the goblins, before taking his own advice. His increased strength and agility made the jump simple, and he landed cleanly across. Bill followed with surprising immediacy, reacting immediately and jumping himself. But he didn't make it all the way across, instead landing on the side of the ditch. He fell forward, which was better than collapsing back into the bottom of it. Still, he ended up with everything below the shoulders prone along the ditch wall, the breath knocked out of him. The goblins saw this and wasted little time in charging as a group.