------ Slip Hero Chapter 10 ------

Author's notes

Took one month longer than I planned.

A little something called Metal Gear Solid 5 happened when I built a new computer...

yea...

------

“Niya is very good at pacing her mana. She built up this skill as a healer for Yonas and his company of adventurers that spend long periods in the wilderness. Kordi, on the other hand, has demonstrated very precise skill at healing specific damage which means less mana is used.” Farl speaks their rationale for assigning me to the goblin warlord hunt.

“He’s still a kid, something I would rather avoid.” Barkel grumbles.

“This is our best option if we want to form a group that can break through the screen of goblins between us and their warlord. If it’ll end up take something like half a day to walk there, our healers will need endurance.” Varrel replies.

“How much endurance does he have Pakt?” Yonas asks.

“Well… I have seen Kordi maintain regular healing for half of a day. This was the case during the last attack.”

“That is… hn, I can see why he has been chosen.” Yonas replies, his eyebrows raised.

My exhaustion is catching up again as I realize just how long I have been up and about. Varrel might have noticed it when he says, “He should get some sleep then, the rest of you will prepare what you need.”

“As I stated earlier, I will pick out ten skilled in skirmishing, Yonas will bring three with him for forward scouting, Arga will bring five experts in being our vanguard force. With two healers and one guard we will have twenty four.” Varrel continued to announce as he paced to the other side of the table.

Making his way back to the other side he adds, “twenty four is too large of a group to go undetected; however, we will have the power we need to breakthrough the warlord’s guards.”

“That all?” Arga asks.

“Yes.”

With that, Arga rises and quickly takes his leave, some of the others begin to rise and follow. Esken quickly attempts to pursue before Varrel steps in.

“Esken wait.”

She gives Varrel a different look than usual, her expression appears more agitated than usual.

“I will need you to command Calbin’s defenses. Arga is the most experienced mercenary here, he is the best pick to lead a vanguard and I cannot afford to place you into the group when we will be attacked again.”

“Right…” Farl adds in from behind Varrel, “With night upon us we can expect another attack.”

“It should not be the warlord’s attack, but if we do not make a serious attempt to defend there will be no point in this plan.”

Eskan stays quiet and looks away for a moment.

Varrel waits a moment before he ends the conversation.

“Then, I will inform the ten who I will bring as skirmishers, get some sleep when you can.”

As Varrel leaves the room, I take another look at Esken, her face is more determined now even if there may be a bit of frustration visible. She appears to know how important her task is even if she wanted to be in the Vanguard.

Maybe there is more behind her reason for wanting to be in the vanguard.

“You should get some sleep Kordi.”

I hear Pakt say to me from behind as he places a hand over my shoulder.

I certainly feel like falling over; however, walking is not a problem yet.

While leaving the room I realize I did not say anything to Pakt, like “good night” or something. My exhaustion must also be the reason for my forgetfulness so, I make my way directly to the bedding I was sleeping in before I ended up trying to nap in a snow filled shelter.

My consciousness fades quickly after I lay down and my mind becomes blank like an endless void.

Within what feels like an instant I pull myself out of bed the moment I hear the sound of goblin roars shatter that deep sleep of mine.

“Easy there Kordi.” a voice from the room says.

My eyes focus and adjust to the room’s darkness and I make out the figures of a few men resting on the other beds. There are three other beds in this room, the one who spoke to me is sitting up while looking through a crack in the window.

The faint light from the night sky reveals enough of his features that I can tell it is Arga.

“hnnn… what?” I ask, groggy from waking up, Arga normally stays in the mercenary building.

“It will be easier to gather everyone if we are in the same building. Glad we didn’t wake you when we entered, good to see your senses are sharp enough to not sleep through a goblin attack completely.”

“I’d still like to get some sleep.” one of the men in the room points out.

“Sounds like it is a small attack, the militia will hold it back.”

“Doesn’t make it any less noisy.”

“Try and keep quiet, I don’t need any of you sharing whispers all night. It is our responsibility to rest as much as we can before morning. If you can’t sleep, just lay still in comfort.”

Arga’s command left the room quiet, there is no awkward silence though, the noise outside is providing enough noise that I notice little of the others rustling in their beds. Once they found a comfortable position the room became still.

Outside I can see in my mind what is happening outside, rushed steps along the packed snow trenches tell me where militia are gathering.

The sound of war cries from goblins tells me how great their numbers are, which is not as loud as it has been before. It is a lighter attack, something I can feel more at ease about.

Occasionally I make out the sound of metal striking metal. This means most of the combat is done at range so, only a few encounters are entering into a melee.

While drifting back to sleep, I find that focusing on the battle sounds has helped me recover from some anxiety. Odd as it sounds.

I know people are being wounded or even dying; however, I had nearly been out of mana. There is little I can do out there for now.

Some mana has recovered, not enough to really heal the injured from this attack. I will need to keep to the plan and reserve myself for the coming morning.

My thoughts on the plan only raise my anxiety again, I will have to focus on something else again.

The sound of steps outside, the dull roars that grow more quiet as the attack wears down, the crackle of the small fire’s coals draws me to sleep.

My dreams must also be in sync with that as I find myself in a snow field among bodies half buried in snow. I cannot easily tell what kind of bodies they are; however, ahead I see the figures of an army approaching.

Drums beat as it marches.

Closer they come, louder and louder.

Too loud.

“Shit! Get up, get ready, we need to move now!” Arga’s orders shatter the dream.

I pull myself up from my deep sleep as my heavy body works itself to start itself back up.

The others quickly pull on their leggings, shirts, and pile on their armour, which consists of the usual thick wool coat under leather, fur, and metal. The metal plates all give off a dull silver-like shine of iron or steel.

With only my bronze cuirass I am the least protected, which will be fine if I don’t get attacked. The other three men in the room are likely some of Arga’s selected vanguards. They give off a more professional feeling than the militias.

I can guess that Arga pulled them from the Kainran mercenary company he belongs too; however, there are too few here for the full vanguard group.

While following them out of the room in a hurry I can see more people from the rooms next to us leaving into the hallway. I do not recognize most of their faces, especially in the dim light.

The faces I do recognize are people who I had worked on or I have seen them running around outside somewhere.

One of the people I healed before notices me in the hallway and smiles. When I healed him before he was wounded by an arrow while patrolling in the woods. He was particularly focused on getting back out there and chose to leave once the wound was closed.

Being the shortest one here I am hurrying myself to keep up with the pace as everyone makes their way through the hallway, down the stairs to the main hall.

Once there, instead of going into the dining hall the crowd begins to stop in the entrance hall. It is slightly larger than the dining hall. From the dining hall, servants are quickly bringing out some food supplies packed into bags.

Having a meal or two on hand during a six hour plan would keep us from getting hungry.

I find myself being the last one to get a bag of food because I am surrounded by taller men and women geared up in armour and equipment.

I check inside the bag quickly, some bread, dried meat, nuts, and roots to eat along the way.

“Not a lot of time to prepare this morning, the goblins moved first. Everyone should know their position and role when we recruited you earlier. The only difference is how we go about it.” Varrel spoke out.

“Yonas,” He says turning to Yonas.

“Right, well… we’d planned to go through the south woods, but if it is where this attack is coming from then we will end up having to fight our way through their front line.” Yonas begins to say.

“I’d recommend going out the north east gate.” He continued, “But, I can tell there is a smaller attack from the north, we’d brush past that on the way out.”

“So, we fight through them… would we have enough members here to do that?” Someone in the crowd asks.

“We could jump down the other side of the hill.” Doore suggests, stepping out from behind the crowd, “While part of the defense we checked out how likely the goblins could scale Calbin’s hill from the other side, it is too steep for them to bother but all the snow fall makes it a safer drop down.”

“Right, we can do that, at least while it is still dark outside.” Yonas comments.

“Then we will do that, gather up on the hill and bring some rope just in case.” Varrel orders.

The crowd begins to move to the exit, strapping their boots on right before leaving. I am one of the last to leave, Pakt and Niya stayed behind to wait. I feel a little bad making them wait; however, I also did not want to push through the crowd to get my boots.

Varrel had stayed behind along with Doore, it seems Varrel was interested in talking with Doore.

“I take it you are in Arga’s vanguard then?”

“Yup, I can handle myself with a sword in a fight, and I am better at using magic in a fight than setting up traps anyway.”

I had not seen Doore in his combat gear before, he wears a dull iron cuirass over his chest like many of the other mercenaries; however, he has a large arm guard that is made of sithril for his left arm.

Encrusted on it are two gems near the wrist end. My guess is that the arm guard acts as his main magic tool.

“Then your magic power will be useful.” Varrel finished before he move to the exit.

As the Doore follows Varrel out the door I hear Doore say, “Well, I hope I don’t have to blow it all at the beginning.”

I struggle a little while getting my bronze cuirass equipped, if I did not have a lot of wool and a fur coat layered underneath my body it would be too large to fit. The others are all very accustom to gearing up, I could tell from how quickly they did it that strapping their equipment is a regular routine.

Leaving last feels a little bad on my part; however, the narrow trench paths mean we have to stick to the right side in single file to allow others to pass in the other direction. Pakt takes position behind me as if to make sure he will not lose me.

In order to reach the hill behind the manor we slept at we have to take the path leading past the temple to the west gate. The snow is still piled high between the buildings making it difficult to take a shortcut.

While walking past the temple and turning to the west gate I can see the northern defensive line taking position.

In the dim light of the setting moon part of their faces is illuminated; their breath is clearly visible against the deep black sky. Beyond the ridge of snow they are using as cover the distant sound of drums grows closer.

Within the sound I can make out the faint noise of goblins almost chanting instead of howling. The difference in this alone has made everyone tense, they know this attack will be different.

Ahead, our group comes to a stop and begins to take out flat oval wood and leather woven disks. These items are snow shoes, the leather straps are used to bind each to a foot, distributing the weight of a step over snow.

This will prevent their feet from sinking into the deep snow.

The problem is, I do not have any.

Pakt also does not have a pair himself but he waves me to come close to the gate.

Stacked near the gate are spare weapons, arrows, and crude snow shoes we must have looted from goblins.

“Better than nothing.” He jests as he pulls out a pair for himself and I.

With a closer inspection I can clearly tell these were made with crude skill yet there are some parts of the woven mesh of branches, sinew, and leather that has used better material and skill to strengthen parts.

I can guess these were quick modifications the militia made.

Strapping these on takes a little time as I had bound my hands in a lot of cloth for warmth making it difficult to tie the straps tight.

Niya comes over and kneels down on one knee. She easily removes a thick mitten from her right hand to help bind the leather tighter.

“It would be bad if the loose binds sprain your ankle in the woods.” She comments gently.

I do not get a chance to reply when I turn around to face Niya, the group is already making their way up the steep hill.

The same route I took while chased by a goblin. The path itself has been buried in a few feet of snow now.

My first few steps are clumsy in these shoes, especially while climbing out of the dug out trench. There are a few packed steps the others made while climbing out I was able to use.

Once on the deep snow the shoes works very well and it does not take long before I am walking at a normal pace. The rest are walking up the hill at great speed. In order to keep up I pick up my own pace into a fast walk. Running seems out of the question with such wide traction.

I had been feeling cold once I was outside, my eyelids were even feeling like they would freeze shut from the air. The winter chill worked its way through my clothes quickly enough that I was close to shivering.

However, if I learned one thing while training on the Calbin hill it is that being cold is impossible when going up it. I trail behind the group’s fast pace as we reach the hilltop quicker than expected. The snow covered the difficult terrain making the climb rather smooth.

When I made it to the top Varrel and the rest were already done scouting out a place to drop down, the steep slope on the other side is still too sharp to walk down so, they found a few ropes.

These ropes must have been placed recently, tied onto posts pounded into the snow. The weight of the post seems enough to keep the post in place.

Yonas is the first to go down, he uses a rope to slow his descent as he slides down the steep hillside. The others being to follow, taking turns to use the four ropes available. Arga and some of his mercenaries have a little trouble, they look like they have heavier equipment. THe extra weight makes them slide down much faster.

With a little caution I approach, almost everyone else has descended down the steep hill. From the ledge the drop is far, the darkness of night makes it even more foreboding. Yet I grab the rope tight and begin to walk off the edge.

From what I had observed, everyone would take a step off, this foot would slide down the snow until enough packed underneath their snowshoe that they slowed down. Then they would take another step to speed up.

The rope should prevent me from falling forward. With that in mind I take a step off the the edge.

My snowshoe’s heel catches the steep slope first so, I do not feel quite like I am falling. The speed that I drop down is fast enough the blood almost rushes to my head.

As the snow builds up under the show I step forward with the other foot to slide down on that shoe while the other leg rises up.

I quickly slide my hands along the rope, ready to tighten my grip if I feel like I will lose control; however, it does not take long before the slope becomes shallow and I slow to a halt.

With a quick look around I find myself at the base of the hill’s steep slope, there are a few of the group members around. Most of the group down here have moved into the woods while Arga’s vanguard members and Varrel are among those waiting at the base.

Pakt and Niya finish their descent with the remaining group shortly after.

“Move into the woods, our skirmisher screen is in place.” Varrel orders.

He makes his way into the woods, there is a figure waiting ahead who appears like Yonas. Navigating in the dark woods would be impossible for me, I cannot see the landmarks well enough to find my way.

As I tail along I can notice a few silhouettes in the darkness against the snow and trees moving along at our pace. It would make sense for the skirmishers to space out enough so that they can still see the main group.

The sight is still a little unsettling, I would not be able to tell friend from foe in this situation. I can feel at ease that I am a healer so, I should not be in a situation where I may attack a friend.

While inside the woods, the pine trees block out much of the little light from the stars and moon. Walking in these conditions would be difficult if I was not in snowshoes, the white snow is easier to find while avoiding the rocks and logs that contrast against the snow.

A quiet tension builds up as we move forward at a fast pace, the sound of my breath and the snow being pressed under my weight deafens my ears a little. I do not know how well they can hear in these conditions, it may be something they have adapted to.

My eyes mostly track the ground before me, with Niya just ahead, I follow her tracks. Pakt follows from behind. The path weaves between trees and climbs over snow covered logs, occasionally a creek flows in our path.

Most of the water is frozen with the exception of a small current that comes from deep under. I have to be careful to step over it so my shoe does not get stuck inside. Those ahead have already marked it out by stomping around it to make it easy to see where to cross.

Along the way a dark stain in the snow catches my eyes to the right. A fresh koblin corpse lays dead nearby. I can quickly tell it bled out from the throat after an arrow pierced through. The arrow is still buried in its neck.

We must be in a hurry if they have not removed their arrow.

To my front, the main line begins to signal with their hands. The signals I do not know; however, the group begin to hug the trees and snow covered ground more, reducing their visible profile. I am pretty short so, I am mostly concealed.

I notice a screening hunter making a gesture, the main group then adjusts our path. We must be avoiding detection by doing so.

The patch changes take us through trees and bushes, the trunks of the trees have mostly become covered in deep snow. The bushy pines above the snow are difficult to move past, I mimic some of the actions Niya takes to move past the branches.

If I were to just push through, much more noise would be made and snow from the other branches would fall. The others take care to move the branches as little as possible, once they pass, they carefully let the branch move back to place.

Doing so is actually very difficult, I am surprised they can do this so fast. The branch pushes back strongly, at first Pakt would close in behind me and grab the branches so I could clear the tree without losing grip on the branch.

I squat down low and pass underneath a branch, taking advantage of my size to just avoid it. The pace ahead of me is picking up a little forcing my legs to come close to a running speed. These snowshoes do work very well in this deep snow, I feel almost like I float over the snow.

Without these shoes I would be buried neck deep in the snow from a single step.

My heart beats faster as I follow Niya’s figure, her equipment is much the same as what Yonas and the other hunters use. Leather, fur, and wool layered together. The most noticeable difference is that she does not carry a bow and quiver.

While I can see a dagger holstered to her hip, Niya carries a long wooden staff with rings of silver. Most likely the silver rings are sithril, slid into place along the staff to create a simple magic tool.

From what I know of magic tools, the different rings may have some kind of staging effect, or they could just be a cheap way of making a magic staff without lots of sithril. I do not know enough about casting magic through multiple tools to tell from a glance.

I take notice that the beating sounds from my heart may be off beat, interrupting myself I focus on the pattern.

I do not feel the beats of my heart in the same rhythm, instead, the off beats come from a distance. To my right, where Calbin’s southern field is. We have begun to flank around the building force of goblins to the south.

My stomach grows a little tense at the thought of what must be before the southern field.

To my front, NIya comes to a stop along with the others. With a hand signal they lower themselves down into the snow to conceal themselves.

Pakt places his arm on my right shoulder and forces me down.

I would have dropped down on my own, maybe I was too slow?

“Stay quiet.” Pakt whispers to me.

I know that much, I think to myself.

Sounds of brush rustling come closer, from where I am I can see the rustling vibrate up to the tree tops knocking the snow from the pine branches.

Huffing sounds in the distance grow closer as a trample of feet prow through the snow, kicking up a veil of misty snow. I cannot tell how many there are; however, from the left I can hear what I can only guess is a group of goblins running by.

They are about twenty meters away, far enough that they should avoid spotting us if we stay still. Once their sounds begin to fade into the distance the group rises back up to continue at a faster pace.

I had managed to catch my breath during the down time but now I have to run to keep up with the group. My breath quickens to fuel my legs. The cold air against my throat quickly begins to hurt and the wind from my speed chills my eyes.

There is less care for disrupting the branches and snow among those in front of me, they simply swipe the snow off or duck out of the way, grazing the pine branches.

I start to get annoyed by the snow that lodged itself around my neck when Pakt pulled me down. It has melted from my body heat and has made my collar wet. As more snow is knocked around, it piles up around my neck and shoulders. Partially freezing, partially melting.

My cold throat and eyes do not help me feel any better, piling onto the tension of running towards a large force of goblins.

We stop again, without dropping low this time. Their hand signals quickly relay information between each other. One of the distant hunters draws his bow and takes a moment to pause before loosing the arrow.

We move again, passing the remains of three goblins. A simultaneous attack between three hunters stuck arrows through the goblin’s throats. One of Arga’s vanguard mercenaries has finished wiping his blade after finishing the goblins instead of waiting for the arrow wound to do them in alone.

Without stopping, I continue behind Niya, each of my breaths clouds itself in front of my face. The moisture from my breath has begun to crystallize itself around my eyelashes and bangs.

I am tempted to pluck some of the small bits of ice from my eyes; however, my hands were also covered in some snow from earlier. I would just end up wiping more snow onto my face.

Beyond another pine tree the group has come to a quick halt again. The difference this time is we are not taking cover.

“You think they found our trail?” Varrel asks.

Yonas had turned to face Varrel at the head of the group.

“They probably caught wind of the scent of blood, there are many tracks in the snow since the last snowfall was in a few days. We will have time to get more distance, we only need to find where the warlord is now.”

While catching my breath I finally catch some sounds from the woods, the drums still beat in the distance. The sound of howling from behind is new, probably what notified Yonas that the goblins are on alert.

Listening to the sounds a little more I correct myself, it is more like Koblin howling. I am not exactly sure how I can tell them apart, the Koblin howl just seems to be deeper than the goblin’s shrieking wails.

I figure that the Koblins would be more likely to be patrolling around anyway, hunting any of our hunters sneaking around and causing them problems. Yonas and his group are certainly very experienced in this area.

Though, we do not stay in place long enough for me to catch my breath. I do not seem to be the only one breathing heavy, in some twisted satisfaction I find a few of the others breathing heavy. Pakt included.

My sense of navigation may also be poor inside of the woods; however, I can tell we are turning our course to travel more south west. Probably towards the sound of drums.

Yup, I can hear the drums ahead now.

I had to pause my breath to catch the sound, while my mouth was closed I swallowed some saliva to moisten my throat.

This pause was already too much and I have to breathe heavier to make up for it.

Now my throat is dry and becoming sore again.

I would, under normal circumstances, not want to run towards a goblin army.

But thinking about how uncomfortable this run is makes me want to arrive soon, just so I might be able to catch my breath.

Warm my throat.

Dry my neck.

Pluck my eyes.

Vent my coat.

I continue to talk to myself, almost so I can goad myself to keep going and even as a distraction.

I come to realize I would be a bad hunter in my current state. My attention is everywhere except my surroundings, maybe I notice a log sticking out from the snow. These things are just little disruptions as I tail behind Niya, hoping she pays all of the attention for me.

My body is also a mix of hot and cold, the wind against my face and throat chills me to the bone while under the thick wool, silk, and bronze around my chest I can feel sweat building up.

If only I could evenly balance myself out.

Maybe I could with magic, something to try.

Or wait, it might not work since my body prevents magic from activating inside itself.

Unless it thinks it is a healing or buffing magic.

But what I want is heat magic to move around my body heat.

Thinking about it, I could heat the air I breathe in. Or would that be a waste of mana I will probably need.

I think I will need the mana for healing.

If I need to, I could just wrap something over my face to trap the warm air leaving my mouth, so new air coming in would be warmed a little. The only problem I can think of with that is the moisture from that breath will stick and freeze the cloth quickly.

“HWRaaaaa...!”

A shriek snaps me out of my thoughts.

The cry dies down as if the goblin that made it had its life drained out from it, probably its blood.

The noise, however, seems to have alerted more attention. Our formation has already taken point, changing positions to ready itself.

I can now hear the sound of the drums without holding my breath, we are close.

Our hunters screening us begin to fire arrows into the woods which are followed by the cry of a goblin.

I would say that we are now at the edge of the goblin army. It does feel a little more spaced out than expected, maybe this is normal for their army formation.

It is pretty disorganized.

We cut through the woods towards whatever awaits us, passing wounded goblins we are too rushed to finish. They moan as we pass, trying to muster the strength to do something. These goblins are mostly buried in the snow they fell into so, I worry little while running past.

The snow here is very packed in most places, many have moved through here in the past few days. I can even see some blood stained snow along the way in a few spots, whose blood it is I do not know.

I would hope it is not mirt blood. There is no way I can tell, nor would i want to stop to contemplate it anymore.

To my right, one of the hunters ducks out of an arrow’s path.

I should keep my senses focused on my surroundings.

But it is really hard to do when my throat feels like it is bleeding.

It shouldn’t be bleeding, just very cold and inflamed.

I cringe as I attempt to compose myself.

Getting so spaced out is helping to keep me from being nervous about all of this, or maybe my nerves are showing themselves differently by focusing my attention all over the place.

Either way, the running, the cold, and the goblin threat are wrecking my attention span.

It would be dangerous if I do not notice something, like that goblin head sailing off to the left…

I quickly notice Niya stopping, ahead of her the vanguard has just clashed with a small group of goblins. The first casualty on their side was just decapitated, its body just finished falling into the snow.

The blood from the goblin’s severed neck squirts trails of blood as its heart still beats.

“Crush them!” Varrel shouts as he leads through the vanguard.

He quickly moves into range of the next goblin who attempts to thrust its spear into Varrel’s chest. However, with quick movements, Varrel lunges under the spear’s point while simultaneously swinging down with his own sword.

The goblin’s forarms fall into the snow.

“Aaaaahh!” The goblin screams before Varrel’s swing moves upwards, hitting the goblin’s right armpit.

The swing cuts through the shoulder at an angle that the blade passes towards the goblin’s jaw. In the time it takes to blink, the goblin lost the rest of its right arm and half of its head.

In contrast to Varrel’s powerful cuts and swings, I notice Arga leading the attack along side of Varrel. Arga’s moves are less swift yet, his strikes have a brutal power to them.

When a goblin charges into Arga’s range, the goblin’s bronze sword is parried by Arga’s shield. His sword then thrusts towards the goblin, it is blocked by the goblin’s own shield.

However, Arga slides his blade down while his sword hilt is raised up. His raised arm reaches over the shield’s edge, allowing his sharp pommel to strike the goblin’s eye. The goblin reels back in pain from this blow, opening up the opportunity for Arga to strike the goblin’s jaw with the edge of his shield.

The goblin wavers from the stunning blow, its attention is drawn to its right side where the shield strike came from. This moves its opening to its left side again, Arga is quick to drive his blade through the goblin’s left armpit into the place where its heart beats.

Arga pushes the goblin away with his shield as he draws his sword from its body. Falling to the snow, the goblin quickly loses its life from such a wound. Arga moves onto another foe, leaving the goblin for dead.

I look to Niya again to observe what she is doing, it may help give me an idea what I should be doing in this situation. There is a lot of action around us, much is just out of sight through the woods. It is safe for me right now but I do not want to fall out of position and get into trouble.

Niya is keeping her distance at least twenty paces behind the vanguard as they continue to sweep through the scattered goblins. This distance should be close enough for her to respond to any need for her healing while being protected.

Over my shoulder I find Pakt is vigilant over the rear, which appears clear for now. So long as we keep pushing through at this pace we should be safe from being surrounded.

Looking back at Niya she is also checking both sides, while our flanks are protected by the group’s hunters, these hunters are spread out to conceal their positions. Goblins can easily run through their screen.

This screen is effective enough right now, I spot a pair of goblins running through the woods when one is struck down by an arrow. The second goblin raises its shield for protection; however, another hunter must be hiding in that goblin’s blind spot because another arrow strikes it where its shield does not cover.

If the goblins are this disorganized we should be able to push our way through until we find their warlord.

Niya waves over to me as I trail behind her.

Ahead of her is one of the vanguard mercenaries, he is a little grumpy. Most likely from the arrow in his shoulder.

“Couldn’t dodge it.” He grunts.

The wound might not be painful yet if his adrenaline is numbing the pain.

“You’re good at fixing these wounds up?” Niya asks me.

“Yes,” I reply, “Do you just want me to heal the internal damage after removing the arrow? I can seal it completely if you want.”

“Start with the internals then.” She answers, I can tell she was a little caught off guard by my question.

Not many healing spells can target specific areas, advanced healing spells are normally the only spells with that kind of ability.

I approach the mercenary who kneels down, I could only reach if he did that, allowing me to grasp the arrow. Fortunately it is not barbed, I can easily pull it out and the mercenary does not have to suffer much pain.

Barbed arrows take much more effort to remove and also to clean up and heal.

With my surgical healing magic I mend the internal damage the arrow has done to his shoulder muscles and blood vessels. I look over to Niya before stating, “Done.”

She raises an eyebrow and replies, “I guess you can seal it up then, you're faster than I thought.”

I might be a little more bashful at the compliment if I wasn’t winded in the middle of a goblin infested forest. I quickly mend the mercenary’s skin to seal the wound up, he won’t need a bandage.

Though I would like to try and clean the wound in the case the arrowhead was very soiled, I do not have the medicines on me for it.

Thinking about it, some hot tea would be great for my own throat.

I snap out of my thoughts as Niya continues to follow after the vanguard, I had better keep up. Pakt is at least keeping me covered.

I have to weave around the goblin bodies left dead by the vanguard, the snowshoes are too cumbersome for me to jump over the bodies. I also would not want to jump a corpse, especially if the goblin may still have some life left in it.

The number of goblins dead in our path has grown as we are encountering more resistance. I have not heard any horns or calls by the goblins so, I would guess that we are getting closer to our target.

My running pace is slower at least, I can catch my breath a little while the vanguard is forced to slow a little whenever they fight.

While the beating drums grows greater I catch the beat pattern.

One - two - three.

One - two.

One - two - three.

One - two.

This beat is catchy enough that I find my feet matching the pace.

One - two, dodge the goblin corpse.

One - two - three, I look to my left and right.

One - two, and I wait for the beat to repeat.

But it does not. The woods become a little eree without the constant drumming.

Niya and the others look like they noticed this as well, their pace slows a little in response. I can hear a little better without the extra noise of snowshoes running through the snow. From what I my ears hear there continues to be some skirmishing between the hunters and the goblins.

However, the silent drums is a sign that something is going to change.

My suspicion is answered soon enough, after only twenty paces forward I catch sight of some goblins in bulky equipment.

Most goblins are wearing furs and leathers with some harder pieces of protection covering their head and chest. The material is usually cheap copper, the patches of green rust gives that away.

These bulkier goblins are most likely well armoured.

I see the armoured goblin approaching through the woods, it partially conceals itself to keep in mind that we have hunters in the area who would prefer to kill the goblin from afar.

From behind another tree I can spot a second pass between some bushes. They do not have any snowshoes on, yet their feet are not sinking much into the snow.

I look around to find that the snow is mostly packed down. Littered around me I can find bits of wood, twigs, and other debris. This could be a staging area for the goblins to gather for their attack.

From my memory, the goblins would send a wave or two at the beginning wearing snowshoes to pack the snow down for their main attacks. So, the armoured goblins are not hindered by the snow if they keep to the packed areas.

Our skirmishing tactic comes into action, an arrow from a concealed hunter draws an armoured goblin out from its cover, its new cover is not concealed against another hunter’s line of fire.

When the second hunter fires an arrow the goblin makes a run towards our clearly visible vanguard. Because the goblins rush in without waiting for the other goblins to get into position the vanguard easily take the goblin down with combined numbers.

Whatever armour the goblin has on will not help when facing multiple opponents.

I watch another armoured goblin make a charge to support one of the now dead goblins.

It is first met by one of the mercenary vanguard, who uses his shield to charge into the goblin causing the goblin to stumble back.

A skirmisher close by manages to fire an arrow into the goblin’s thigh. The armour covered much of the goblin’s vital parts; however, the armour did not cover the lower part of the goblin’s thigh.

Flinching in pain, the goblin becomes an easy target for the mercenary who thrusts his sword blade in the gap between the goblin’s helmet and collar armour severing much of its throat. The goblin had attempted to protect itself with a counter attack but the mercenary covered his attacking arm with his shield.

I move ahead more to where Niya is behind a dead tree that has fallen over but the nearby trees had caught the dead tree at an angle. It provides some concealment as we observe the fighting for when we are needed.

Orange light catches my eye, I spot the silhouette of a merc in the vanguard who is wearing a robe under his metal armour. It is Doore Sithrin, finally fighting seriously.

I have never seen much magic used in combat, behind Doore I see the remains of a goblin, partially scorched with a little bit of smoke rising from its corpse. Doore must be using fire magic.

When an armoured goblin rushes towards Doore he guards with his sword and brings his armoured left hand in to strike with his protected palm. However, instead of a normal strike, flames burst out between the two.

The goblin rears back creating an opening. Doore pressures the goblin further with a swing of his sword. As the goblin falls over, Door strikes down with his left hand onto the goblin’s visor.

“HWRAAAA!”

The screams from the goblin echo loudly before quickly dying out.

As Doore rises up from the goblin I can clearly see the snow around the goblin is melted, steam rises from the scene as the popping sound of the goblin’s blistering skin lightly cracks.

He cooked the goblin from inside its armour. If you can’t directly cause magic to boil the target, just heal the nearby surfaces instead.

I quickly think about whether there are any protective measures against that before I notice Niya advancing ahead. There are still only armoured goblins pushing towards us from the front.

As we continue forward I notice one of the group members tangled in melee. He manages to deal a lethal blow to the goblin through an opening in his chest armour; however, the goblin returns a blow in its dying breath striking at his leg.

The man cringes from the blow and limps backwards a few paces. His protective gear had prevented the goblin’s sword from cutting into his leg.

Niya is already on the move to check on him and I rush to follow.

“How does it feel, better not be a broken bone, I can’t heal that quick enough.”

The injured man grits his teeth and replies to Niya, “Doesn’t feel like a break, still hurts.”

I kneel down next to the man’s injured leg and apply my hand to where the blow was struck. With my mana I get a quick feel of the wound, the bone is only bruised. THough, it seems like a painful bruise, the goblin hit hard.

“No breaks, I won’t heal much of the surrounding damage, just the parts close to the bone that must hurt the most.” I state.

“I did not realise you could feel with your mana to such a point.” Niya comments.

“I have had lots of practice since I arrived.” I reply.

“Thanks kid.” The man replies, he pats his leg twice and does a quick hop.

“Good enough to not get in the way.” he adds before he collects his bow and continues towards the fighting.

I had not seen him using the bow in melee so, I guess he threw it aside when the goblin drew too close. The goblin armour must be difficult enough to shoot through that they can get in closer.

I push onward, tailing behind Niya.

“Shit, we got black armoured!”

One of the skirmishing hunters nearby shouts out.

I catch the sight of a black figure pressing its spear into a tree, no there is another one of our hunters pinned against the tree. The spear is pierced through the hunter’s heart.

The black armoured figure turns to look over its shoulder.

Our eyes must have met, from this distance I cannot clearly make out what is under its visor. We must be standing over ten paces apart after all.

Then a chill comes over me, I can almost feel the mana collect into the black armour. It is made with gobite giving it magical properties.

In the corner of my eye I catch Niya prepare her staff in a guarding posture.

In an instant the black armoured goblin begins to close distance, too fast to be any normal running. In fact, it does not even bob up and down as if it is in the air.

It is in the air, I can see it is closing that ten paces in a single bound.

I spent too much time staring, the black armoured goblin is so close now the amount of time that passed should have only been a second or two.

The goblin’s spear begins its thrust as a figure bounds in between the goblin and I.

Clang!

The spear is deflected, I could even see a few sparks fly out.

In front of me I now find Pakt is facing the goblin, he intercepted the attack with the same kind of speed as the goblin.

“Hraa!” Pakt grunts as he strikes out with his shield.

The black armoured goblin pulls back quickly; however, Pakt surges ahead to keep within range. Thrusts from the goblin’s spear dart out while Pakt dodges and parries them to maintain his pressure.

Both are moving at speeds not normal, it must be magic enhancing the muscle’s power.

Most avoid using it too much to keep their mana from running out; however, in a life or death fight between two enemies who both are adept at muscle enhancement both would go all out.

I had never seen Pakt use mana in a fight, I had assumed he used a little in small controlled amounts. While that is not surprising to myself since I regularly do such with my healing magic, most normal people rarely achieve a level of precision that they can make minor enhancements.

Here I can see that Pakt has gone through considerable training to be a warrior and any warrior worth the title has to be able to do this much or else conscripted militias would be all anyone would need in a battle.

However, after only a few clashed, the black armoured goblin pulls back enough that Pakt breaks contact to return close to Niya and I.

The mercenary vanguard along with Varrel have reached a point where the woods end. The trees had been cut down in the area ahead, fresh wood chips and branch debris tells it is recently done.

Varrel and the vanguard do not advance though, ahead of them I can find more black figures walking towards us from what must be their camp shelters made from the cut trees.

“Found the body guards.” Pakt says, his breath a little laboured.

“Now to find their boss.” He adds.

“I didn’t take you for much of a magic fighter.” Niya comments, still a little on guard.

“Not much of one, I learned a bit in the last few years but I can’t say much about my mana endurance.” Pakt replies while relaxing a little.

The goblins pull back to maintain their distance, black armoured goblins shout out at the regular goblins bringing them in line. Our hunters cannot pull them out one by one anymore.

I look over to where the one hunter I saw being stabbed by the black armoured goblin.

“Stay here Kordi.” Pakt orders, “We can’t risk being too exposed.”

“He’s right, those goblins do not have much mana to move around like that for long. So, they are going to either hit and run or build up and hit us all at once.”

Ahead of the three of us I can see Varrel, Yonas, and Arga exchanging a few words between each other. Yonas gives of gestures showing his concern, he probably does not want to become surrounded. His hunters work best on the move.

Arga and Varrel are close combat warriors, I can imagine they are more inclined to take on the goblins in melee.

My hope they decide something before the goblins amass more comes true. The three quickly come to a decision and split off, Yonas runs into the woods to rally the hunters, Arga and Varrel join up with the main vanguard force.

However, their number is only seven which seems like too small of a number against the rising number of goblin silhouettes appearing from the woods. Twenty, maybe thirty goblins are easily present with black tinted armour while there are over a dozen armoured goblins wearing brown colours.

“Is that black armour made out of gobite?” I ask.

“Hm?” Pakt replies as I catch his attention, “Probably not full gobite, I would imagine some parts are. The armour is mostly painted black bronze.”

“The black paint shows they are part of the warlord’s guard, well trained goblin warriors. Better than their common warriors.” Niya adds again.

“They are tougher, I can tell than much.” Pakt continues to say as he stretches his sword arm, “Get ready, we’re acting soon.”

Varrel is pointing to Doore, giving some orders. In response, Door kneels close to the snow to draw into the packed snow. The others in the vanguard begin to take off their snowshoes.

I notice Niya and Pakt also take theirs off so, I follow and remove my snowshoes. My feet are less encumbers now, the packed snow around here is solid enough we can move normally now.

Whatever Doore was working on finishes quickly, he must have drawn a spell onto the snow. When he activates it the snow ahead of him rushes out in a cloud towards the main group of goblins.

The vanguard use this screen to rush ahead, keeping pace behind the screen of snow. Niya and myself keep our pace up behind the vanguard.

As the snow wave passes through the goblin ranks, those caught inside it are a little dazed from covering their faces. The snow stuck to all it touched, quickly turning red as the vanguard takes advantage of the confusion to strike easy blows onto the goblins.

However, the black armoured goblins were not caught in the wave, instead they likely used mana to shield themselves from it and they break through to meet the vanguard in melee.

The clash is swift as both sides exchange powerful and quick blows, parries and blocks prevent much damage from being done to each other. Only Arga and Varrel seem apt enough to either overwhelm or out skill the black armoured goblins in this kind of fight.

I try to keep my own attention on my surroundings as well in case a fast goblin attack breaks through. Fortunately, whenever a regular goblin attempts to flank around us the hunters pick them off.

Yonas and his hunters are not as active as they were before, they are much more difficult to find in their concealment. A precaution they are likely taking to avoid catching the attention of the stronger and better armoured goblins.

Niya and I quickly respond to an injured mercenary, his shield arm had received some serious damage from an attack similar to to those inflicted by gobite weapons. The impact force caused internal bruising along the forearm.

“I will tend to the damage around the arm bone if you heal the rest of the arm.” I say to Niya.

I do not feel quite right taking charge of ordering who heals; however, I know my skill is best in this situation while I am certain her healing will work better to heal the general damage to the arm.

“Are there any breaks?” She asks.

“None, I would say that the impacting damage was absorbed by his shield, clothing and arm without reaching the bone. The damage mostly affected the meat and fat.”

“Still fucking hurts.” the merc adds, gritting his teeth.

I can sort of image why it would, the damage from the gobite weapons is done through vibrations. Soft tissue absorbs it while hard armour and bones amplifies it. The layer of wool in the shield and the wool coat helps absorb much of it leaving the rest to travel through his soft arm meat.

This rattles and breaks the elastic connections between all of the tissue, without those the flesh becomes like a paste.

To fix it, I focus on repairing these elastic supports, once done I can leave the rest to Niya.

Feeling the mercenary’s arm unsettles me, normally there is a degree of firmness when feeling someone’s body. However, damage from these gobite weapons changes the texture into something too soft.

It almost feels like holding a leather bag filled with a viscous fluid.

The nerves are mostly in tact, floating like the rest of the meat and tissues so, there is still feeling. From the mercenary’s reactions it is a very painful feeling, he grits hard with his teeth and breaths heavy.

After my part is done, his arm begins to feel firm again and his sense of pain is greatly reduced.

“Now you can do the rest, I am actually pretty bad at healing large areas at one time.” I mention.

“That is a strange flaw.” Niya replies with one eyebrow raised.

She sets herself to work, holding her staff in one hand while the other directs her magic on target.

I notice that she does not directly make contact with the injury, something I have seen the Calbin priests doing as well.

I do know that magic tends to lose effect over range, without certain properties in the spell’s casting to extend the range most magic will retain most of its effect up to a few feet. Then the drop in effect increases significantly.

So, Niya is only a foot from her target when healing. Her healing chant is simple as well, I have never learned how the chanting works. Meaning that I cannot determine what kind of effect her chant is giving the spell.

“Damn, we need to keep moving before more surround us.” I hear Arga say.

He approaches me and I can see he is nursing his arm as well.

Looking around myself, the black armoured goblins are gone, I think I can see a body of two wearing black armour in the snow; however, there are not as many here as there were at first.

Varrel is visible finishing off a regular armoured goblin that was crippled by losing its leg from a sword swing.

“Those black ones pulled back before they took too many losses, I expect them to come back with more soon.” He adds while approaching close to me, “Three of them tried to jump me at the same time, glad I only took a hit in the shoulder.”

“They probably thought the old one was the easiest.” Doore comments.

“Maybe.” He grins a little, “I can’t say they’d pick me out as the strongest when we have a shiny Ilowa knight.”

I begin to work on his shoulder when he kneels a little for me to reach.

“Being at the front left you too exposed.” Varrel adds, while wiping his blade.

“Normally they’d single out the guys on the flanks first. Guess these gobs were confident they could just break through, probably havn’t fought real mirt warriors before.”

“Now they will be on guard, huh.” one of the mercenaries sighs.

“They should head back to their warlord to report. Yonas! Track their trail, that should lead us to our target.” Varrel shouts.

From the woods Yonas emerges in a sprint with two of his hunters to quickly spot a trail.

“Blood from a wound, we can track them quickly.” he comments.

With that, the group picks up pace. One of the skirmishers catches up with us to tend to an arrow wound in his shoulder. It is a grazing wound that only hit the edge of his shoulder, the arrow was only stuck in the wool and leather he wore.

I quickly work to mend the bleeding, which I struggle with while trying to continue moving. Uneven ground proves to throw off my concentration, the packed snow is hard in some spots while still soft in other places.

“Goblin to your right Doore.” I catch Arga shout.

With a quick glance ahead I can see Doore’s figure sidestep to avoid a spear thrust from a black armoured goblin. The speed of the goblin’s attack tells that it is quickened by magic.

However, even with such speed, the goblin misses its thrust. Doore pulls back his left arm, behind him I can see the snow rising and flowing into shape. Doore’s evasion now leaves him at the goblin’s open left side.

With a quick motion of his left arm, Doore’s spell forms the snow into a solid spear of ice that skewers through the goblin’s armpit. The ice spear exits the other side of the goblin as the force of the spell knocks the goblin into a tree where it hangs motionless.

From behind Doore another figure appears in silver like metal armour, in a moment after a black figure appears and clashes. My eyes adjust on the silver figure, it is Varrel who noticed the second goblin attack and he came to intercept.

Two more black armoured goblins emerged from their hiding places but chose to withdraw again. Their positions were spread out to attack from different directions in an ambush.

I think that they are falling back to set up again and probably target someone else.

Maybe I will be the next target.

While the thought does worry me, the black armoured goblins seem to be focusing on our vanguard much more. The vanguard is easy to find and full of intimidating fighters.

“They really don’t like our vanguard.” Pakt comments, my own thoughts were similar.

“Most likely I would say that these goblins are out for trophies. Common goblins just kill, but the higher status goblins start searching for stronger fights. They take a trophy from their victory back with them.” Niya explains.

“It is quite the change in tactics, if you face regular goblins you will find they prioritize easy targets. The more ‘warrior’ goblins will instead prioritize the tougher enemies once they find them.”

Our pace has slowed down a little while Niya is talking. Because of the threat from the goblins it looks like the vanguard is more cautious about ambushes now.

“I thought these warrior gobs would try to fight one on one if they were after the honour.” Pakt mentions.

“These are personal guards for the warlord, I expect they are trained by their warlord to work together like this.” Niya replies.

“Have you faced many like this?”

“No, I have heard from old veterans telling stories of when they fought against strong goblin armies.”

“Must be one of the perks adventurers have traveling around, learning from others.”

“Well, it always seemed like a tale spun to warn younger warriors from becoming careless during battle. So, most who hear these tales are probably caught off guard by the change in tactics.”

“If we tell this tale to others will they also brush it aside the same way?” I budge in to ask.

“...”

Both Pakt and Niya pause their reply and glance at each other.

“If...” Pakt begins to say.

However, Niya cuts in to reply, “If even one person takes the tale to heart, it will be worth telling.”

Pakt shrugs a little before leaving the conversation as it is.

I hope that my question did not bother him too much, it seemed like a positive thing to say, suggesting we will have something to strive for after making it out of this.

But, then again, the tone may have been off. I did end the question in a way that sounded like no one would believe our story. Or, maybe Pakt is more concerned with surviving this. Because the drum beat is now silent I can hear the sound of goblins surrounding us.

It is still distant noise that assures me we have time to keep going.

Niya quickly twitches, catching my attention. Her head glances to her left side, as I turn to look there is an arrow plunging into a nearby tree followed by a splash of snow.

Then I catch a glimpse of a quick moving figure quickly dashing in a left and right pattern until hidden by a short defilade. I can guess the goblins are trying to get an idea of our formation and where they can next strike from.

Fortunately the hunters with us scared that one off. If they had not, I would have been unable to notice its presence like Niya did.

Maybe I am just thinking too much, distracting my attention from tracking the goblins.

Then again, I can look all I want, so far the woods around me are still.

Occasionally the quick movements of a goblin can be seen but it is always one of our hunters flushing them out of their ambush positions. The goblins must have as hard of a time finding the hunters as I am, their presence is very well hidden.

I notice an arrow shoot out from the bushes and when I look, there is no sign of anyone from where the arrow came from.

This could be the hunters hiding very well, or they reposition fast enough that by the time I determine where the arrow came from they have moved far enough away I cannot see them.

My mind continues to jump between what is going on around me and the deep thoughts I have about things.

Things is as best of a description I can give to what I find myself thinking about.

The change in skirmishing tactics after one of the hunters died comes to mind, the hunters were keeping a fast pace preventing them from concealing themselves. Now that our pace is slow they hide behind trees and in the dips between the shallow rises.

We pass the corpse of a black armoured goblin while I ponder on how the hunters move which changes my thoughts onto analyzing the goblin equipment.

I can tell at a quick glance the armour is mostly coloured black; rust patches cause most of the pain to chip away. The rust is green, indicating that the metal is mostly copper; yet, the unpainted parts of the metal show a different kind of copper.

It is not very amber and instead has a very silver colour to it. I am not familiar with a lot of the variations of copper alloys; however, there are some alloys where copper is melted in. If this is magic metal then I can see the gobite being processed in a way that the copper and sithril in the ore is kept together.

Mirts mostly process out the sithril, leaving iron and copper in the slag. It could be a waste but I think that working the metals together when they all have different melting properties is too much of an annoyance.

The clang of metal striking brings my attention back to my surroundings.

I do find it annoying that I cannot focus on analyzing the goblin metals or the hunter’s tactics; however, I feel a chill at the fact that I am being very oblivious to the threats around me.

There is not much I can do if I cannot see the goblins before they attack. I have no experience of being in this kind of situation.

I also feel a chill due to the slower pace, running so much earlier has left me sweaty and the slower pace makes my body cool off.

At least my throat is not as sore.

Again the clash of battle somewhere breaks my thoughts.

I cringe at how powerless I am in this situation.

Over my shoulder I can see Pakt is maintaining his guard over me, likely the reason why I am still alive. He is maintaining enough distance that he can dash in to cover either niya or myself.

While looking around there is a sense of growing tension between everyone. The packed snow becomes harder, a sign that there had been much activity here.

Litter from goblin camps now lays about, mostly stomped into the snow. Bones, bits of peeled or chipped wood, and other debris.

Ahead the shapes of tents becomes visible, pitched up with branches to hold the patched hide canopies the tents are placed near each other yet with no order in their placement. Light amounts of smoke rise from a few small fire pits.

Our vanguard takes the lead into the camp, much of the area is concealed by trees and bushes. The pines help shield the tents from being covered by too much snow. Most of the tents are small, someone would have to crawl into them but they fit well under the tree cover.

Even with the number of tents here the place is quiet, the morning sun is just starting to shine through the trees as it rises over the mountains. I cannot see how vast the camp is, though it certainly seems like it is host to a large number of goblins.

The vanguard weaves through the tents, checking inside each to make sure they are empty.

Arga holds his shield close to his body at an angle, read to deflect an attack from the tent. With his sword’s point he opens the flap of hide to see inside. The tent is too small to really hide much so, all he has to do is glance through the opening while keeping his distance.

I check over my shoulder to see what our hunters are doing, there is little brush in here to conceal behind.

The hunters appear to be moving in pairs now, one checks the front the other the rear.

If the goblins want to ambush this would be a good place, the tents clutter up what open space is available meaning I can imagine a goblin getting closer than usual if it hides itself right.

Yet, as we continue through the camp, the absence of an ambush is more disturbing.

Niya takes a quick look to her right, trusting her perception I check where she looks myself. Snapping branches are faint from that direction, there is even a tree branch I notice rustle and drop snow.

Then the noise quickly begins to move away.

From behind I catch a similar sound of footsteps slowly pacing alongside out group.

Then another pattern of steps catches my hearing.

More continue to come into my hearing range, they do not come closer and instead track us in a parallel route.

Pakt takes in a deep breath, as he slowly exhales through his nose the dense fog of his breath shoots down to his chest before rising up and fading away.

His face is also covered in small icicles like my own.

I take note of where he glances and how he turns his head. Pakt and Niya do not turn their heads much when checking their surroundings, they slightly twist their torso and head which is enough to allow their eyes to just catch what is directly behind them.

This also has the benefit of being less noticeable.

I can assume that turning too much tells an enemy where your focus is. Their small movements give off the appearance that they actually have a wider view around themselves.

By slightly twisting my own body and head I can tell it helps; however, the bronze cuirass I have on is very big. Probably not meant for someone my size even if it is one of the smaller armour I have seen being worn.

In order to fit the armour snug around my body I have a lot of wool packed in between the armour and my torso making it difficult to twist around inside. The result is that whenever I try to look over my shoulder I have to make a half step forward to pivot on, twisting myself with my hips more than my waist.

I certainly am telegraphing my direction but it had quickly widened the area I can keep track of. If I turn my body a little, my head and eyes can sweep the places I would not normally be able too.

This cuirass is getting in the way though. Not that I plan to take it off, that would be too risky if I were attacked.

The tents ahead begin to change, while looking around I can tell the area is a little more developed. Earlier the tents stood up to my chest, now there are a few tents I can see that are tall enough to stand inside.

Triangular tents that you could only really stand if you were in the center. The supports are small trees cut into thin logs that lean into each other at the highest point. Leather and fur is mostly used to form the walls.

I do spot simple designs dyed into silk cloth draped over some of these tents. Each is a little different, almost like an emblem, a few bear similarities. A few tents were built close to each other and they had an identical circle dyed into their silk cloth.

The emblems had a few marks and strokes that were different. There were always three strokes along the circle’s upper right, aside from that, inside the circle the stamps and markings were unique.

These tents were probably for a group of goblins, the differences may have been there to identify an individual’s tent.

While looking over the surrounding tents I spot a figure running between two distant tents. It is hard to tell what is out there in the maze of tents, trees, bushes, snow piles… there is a lot of stuff around here to hide around.

Calm air continues to flow through the camp, the inhale before the exhale, I can assume.

Frozen debris crunches under the weight of each step.

We come across an opening in the woods, a small opening. There are a few chopped trees lying about, the chips of wood scattered around tells me that these trees were being chopped into something small like firewood.

Before us, as we pass around a few of the tents in the way, I find a single and much larger tent. It is held up by a series of logs in at least eight places, the logs act as posts for a series of thin wooden supports that hold the leather roof up.

Hanging from the tent there are many decorations of bone, fangs, and other bits that show off the importance of this place.

The vanguard takes position a few paces from the tent, ready for a sudden attack.

Varrel seems to waste no time as he draws his mythril blade to unleash a strong blast of wind at the tent, tearing the leather cover off and blowing it into the distance.

Now exposed I can see a group of black armoured goblins in a close formation, they were probably waiting for us but it does seem odd they would be waiting inside.

While the snow and debris falls from the wind blast the goblins spread out their formation revealing a single goblin they were shielding. It wears noticeably better black armour than the others, it is not rusted while giving off the appearance of being made with much effort.

The distant footsteps around us also being to close in.

I quickly check to find more silhouettes are appearing around us.

Mostly brown armoured goblins come into view.

I take notice of a few black armoured goblins mixed in.

Their numbers grow to be at least two or three dozen.

Some close motion from behind startles me a little, at a glance I find some of our hunters have moved in closer. We are being pressed in now.

But our target must be ahead, that fancey armoured goblin should be their warlord we are looking for. I would guess.

Judging by Varrel’s focus on that goblin it looks like he will be aiming for that goblin’s head.

One of the hunters comes closer to Niya and I, his leg is injured by a pretty deep cut.

While we are not in combat I quickly work to mend the damage so he will be able to move around better. I focus on just healing the muscle damage and stopping the bleeding. I may need my mana for what is going to come.

After finishing I take a quick look ahead to find the warlord goblin leaning his head closer to one of his body guards. He seems to be saying something while gesturing.

The gesture begins to point towards me.

The bodyguard looks over at me.

Arga checks over his shoulder, his expression is hard to make out under his helmet.

Pakt shifts a little closer to me while twisting his sword to shake some circulation into his hand.

I get the feeling I am going to be in trouble soon.

------

I hope this chapter was not too disorienting, the time between each bit I wrote was significant enough I felt pretty disconnected from what I wrote a few pages ago. Which isn't bad from an editing perspective. I can re-read it with a cleaner view.

However, I do forget some of the things I was intending to put in for the later half while writing the earlier half. Like, I wanted to end this at the beginning of the warlord encounter but how the encounter happened and where it happens is really different from what I had in mind at the chapter's start.

Which is pretty normal stuff for most novelists, they put their work through a lot of revisions and make some pretty big changes. Unfortunately I did not have much time to polish the grammar and structure. =P

BTW, MGS5 is Pretty Good