Chapter 10: Preparation

The putrid smell was nauseating almost comatose inducing. Scitus turned off his sense of smell and to his surprise the moment he did, the others relaxed, as if the smell had disappeared. Sure enough, Robin telepathically communicated that his sense of smell was gone. Scitus reluctantly turned his sense of smell back on knowing it would be an important sense for the goblins.

Scitus and the assassin knights spread out to the small hills all around the area. The goblins were foolish enough to place their camp in an area where the enemy had a higher ground in nearly every direction. Once the assassin knights found their individual spots, they began to observe the camp.

The camp was small, consisting of about 25 tents all evenly spread out forming a rough square. The perimeter was protected by sticks that formed a fence with two main entrance ways. "Creative," thought Scitus. The sticks were just tall enough to block goblins and their purpose was only to warn the others of a break in. Its effectiveness was possible because of the encampments small size.

The few guards that patrolled carried clubs and other simple blunt weapons, though every now and again a goblin held a bow with him. towards the evening, several goblins collected meat from one of the many tents and placed it the small open area near the center of the encampment.

The first to eat was a certain goblin with purple skin. He appeared cleaner than the others held a staff about his size in his left hand. Beside the goblin was the ogre king and a black goblin. The Black goblin at second. When the black goblin finished eating, the purple goblin nodded his head. At this gesture, the goblins began to fight for the meat, beating each other from the large pile of meat. “why are they fighting? There should be enough for all of them.” as if to answer his question, one of the goblins was Succesful in taking huge chunks of meat with him, more then he alone could eat, and quickly entered one of the tents near the center of the camp. The goblin came out a few moments later with only a single piece of meat for himself. Around half of the other goblins did the same while the other half simply ate their meat as soon as they obtained it.

"purple goblin, come town?" Scitus asked Robin who at that time was on the opposite side of the camp near a small rocky hill with only two trees to shade him. Telepathic communication had already become vital for transferring information. The best part of it was, “Yes, he attacked us with fire magic.” The ability translated his thoughts more clearly, there was still some hiccups because goblins weren’t used to complex thoughts but it was a significant improvement from the ordinarily long gestures and short sentences.

Darkness slowly claimed the land and marked the rise of the moon and her children of the night. The patrol, which in the morning was twenty-five strong, was reduced to ten as the goblins headed to sleep.

“find Thomas, Cecilia, come back” Scitus ordered and was met with a firm nod from all of them. Robin quietly ran towards the encampment as he firmly commanded, “I’m charge now, and there is no room for mistakes!!!” the others shivered at Robins sudden change in personality. He had become more forceful, perhaps because it was no longer practice, they could afford to fail anymore. Scitus nodded to himself, feeling the Robin was the right leader for the unit.

Scitus quietly moved backwards, hiding himself deeper into the wooded area and closed his eyes once he found a suitable hiding place. “divine sight,” he whispered to himself as suddenly his ordinary vision was replaced by a large landscape below. He could now see the entirety of the camp despite being nowhere near it. Scitus grinned, knowing that this ability would make things many times easier.

Yuki and Arisa arrived from the west side, quietly and gracefully high-jumping the fence and with precision instruction from Scitus, they avoided being spotted by the patrol. The moment they had trained for had arrived and Yuki wanted to redeem herself for the mistakes she made during training.

Beyond even that was a deeper emotion, it wasn't redemption just for the training but for the mistakes she had always made. The mistakes that cost her parents lives, the ones that costed her brother's arm, and even when she lost him during the last goblin subjugation it had been her fault. For that reason, she had trained every night every moment she could to repay her mistakes and repay the kindness that the foreign goblin tribe offered her. If it were not for Maximus and Robin, she would have died back then. She thought with all her being, that this was the time to repay them for all their kindness.

Beside Yuki, was Arisa who understood the pain of losing a parent. She had lost her mother to a goblin that relished in murder, it was a goblin from her very tribe. Arisa was special, different than other goblins, for Arisa despised being a goblin, and despised other goblins in kind. She was special because she was hurt by goblins and saved by a human. To her fortune, Scitus had been the second human she had ever met, consolidating her love for humans. Her hatred for other goblins had died over the years but completely trusting them was difficult for her so when she saw Scitus fall from the heavens she was filled with glee and hid it poorly from her fellow goblins.

The two quietly peeked into each tent and said nothing to one another until suddenly a strong smell hit them. it wasn’t awful, and it wasn’t pleasant but somehow, they felt it had a tinge of malevolence. The large poorly made tent held only a single person, a purple goblin. They had reached their destination. The two nodded to each other and quietly proceeded forward as their steps became unnaturally quiet.

To the east were Bison and Nell. Bison was perhaps the second most fierce fighter after William, so he was glad to have been placed in a different team. Bison felt that for the past five years he had chased Williams shadow and Scitus had given him the opportunity to escape that fate and become a true shadow. Though his ambition was large, he was truly loyal to Robin and had hoped to follow Robin one day and now his dream had come true.

His partner was Nell, a young goblin whos only desire was peace. His kindness was well known even among other tribes through his complete history was a mystery. Nell, like Arisa, was one of the four young goblins that didn’t follow Robin during the uprising.

The two quietly searched the tents near the center, quietly avoiding the guards that walked around and searched for the storage tent. Robin had put them together because he knew the two would work well together, as Yuki and Arisa would.

To the southern entrance was teal, a quiet and stoic goblin. Few people know of his past, for and his parents were from a foreign tribe. His parents were the only ones willing to cross the desert to the Oasis, the rest of his tribe remained in the deadlands. Out of the six, he fit the assassin persona the most, from his quiet grace to his stoic silence that could intimidate weaker goblins. He was alone in his mission for Robin thought him skilled enough to be alone, In terms of silence, he was superior to even Robin and only lacked his combat prowess and leadership.

Teal, quietly searched each tent before seemingly disappearing into the shadows. He was Robins second in command and was the robins most loyal follower. When the uprising began he was the first to pick up a stone and when it ended he was the first to drop it.

Teal silenced his steps to an unnatural degree and although he was moving much faster than the other groups, he made less sound, even the wind was more noticeable than him. A goblin guard was patrolling his area, Teal spotted the goblin and entered one of the many tents, it was dark his dark vision hadn't fully grown yet but with the utmost confidence, he pretended to sleep and waited for the guard to pass by. Teal quickly left the tent in search for captured goblins tent, he had already passed two but none had Cecilia or Thomas.

To the north was Robin, the leader of the unit. Scitus deemed robin as a born leader, perhaps inherited from his father. Robin had always admired his father who he deemed the greatest tribe leader for whenever there was a crisis, even other tribe leaders would ask for Max's wisdom. He had saved countless goblins in the past, from kobold invasions to human subjugations and even Goblin tribe warfare. His father was the one with the idea to cross the vast desert, and the one to move to the east side of the oasis and the one who made that odd deal with the Red Witch. It was he who had managed to convince the tribe to summon a god for he knew his own shortcomings and wouldn’t be able to protect everyone forever. Robin still remembered his father's words after the red witch had left, “Son, we” Max had said while clutching his heart and raising his other arm to the sky. To goblins this meant one of to things, we will die, or we will rise. A gesture usually only shown to boost morale during war.

Robin, like teal, was moving abnormally quietly as he thanked Scitus for defeating him before being able to harm his father. Robin thought himself foolish and still too young to truly lead like his father. "I nearly killed my last living relative." He thought as he checked every tent in his area.

As complicated thoughts rushed to his mind, his concentration was suddenly disturbed by an awful stench.

It was a slave tent. Within it dwelled a horrible stench, like rotting corpses, the smell was horrid and petrifying. Robin’s heart sunk, in that strange darkness, he only heard the silent screams and the sound of skin slapping against flesh. Robin held his instincts to help, he knew that this wasn’t the place. He knew this because of the human hand that lay next to him, it was skinny and malnourished. The arm was attached to a young woman whose only distinctive feature in the darkness were bright ocean blues eyes; She told a very clear story, terror, absolute unending terror at the sight of Robin. Robin swore she would have clawed his if she had the strength but all that left of her was half dead corpse with once beautiful legs long since withered for disuse.her eyes filled with terror at the sight of Robin. Robin closed the tent and continued his search.

The terror in her eyes was all too familiar to Robin. Deep down Robin was happy, no, relieved. In all of Robins memories, he had never met a lustful goblin who didn't prefer human women, her terror meant Cecilia's safety. But another part of Robin was torn because he remembered a similar face on the woman he once loved. A goblin girl who died long ago. What he would do if he could turn back time to that day. Though they were human, he didn't wish that fate upon anyone but his mission was more important than his emotions.

The sound of his skull hitting pure muscle rose through the small pathway. Robin stopped in surprise and froze. In his moment of sorrow, he failed to pay any attention to his surroundings and was met with the mighty Ogre king towering over him. As his daze faded he could finally hear his king.

"Get out! Get out!! ROBIN!!" But Robin's feet were plastered to the ground as if they were nailed there. The ogre king picked up the large club the lay near the entrance of a tent. Robin, not even for a moment closed his eyes. Just as he was ready to run the ogre king moved his club, Robin jumped back; but the ogre king didn't make an attack. Instead, the ogre king pointed to a particular tent not far from Robins location.

“Make quick. Not time” The ogre king quietly said under his breath and began his patrol. Robin released the air in his lungs. Robin quickly moved to the tent the ogre king pointed to, his legs a bit stiff from the fright.

“Robin, you okay?” The calm voice of Robins god called out. “yes.” He responded, only steady because it was a telepathic thought.

Robin entered the tent, a powerful stench hits his nostrils, but a different stench than the one before. This stench was a natural one, that of those who cannot care for themselves or use the bathroom properly. As Robin stepped in. hands grabbed him from out of the darkness, they pulled him in, causing Robin to fall to the ground.

“Shh.” The goblin shrouded in darkness whispered, a moment later a guard’s steps could be heard just outside the tent. The moment lasted longer than Robin would have liked, partly out of fear but partly because of the strange soft mass that Robins head laid on.

“I, look, Cecilia, Thomas.” The goblin nodded in the darkness.

The goblins knew who Robin was. Thomas had told them about him. The goblin who leaves no one behind. Even if Scitus had not made the suggestion himself, Robin would have gone alone, even if it meant death. The memory of leaving his mother to die by a human's hands was too much to bear. Since then Robin had made many suicide missions, sometimes successful and other times not, but every time he had survived and had come back stronger. Teal and his father and mother were one of the people Robin was able to save, and so is Thomas. Thomas did not entirely trust Scitus but he believed in Robin.

“Thomas say, danger, run now, ” The response came down the chain. Although it was too dark for Robin to see, he still hadn't inherited dark vision though he had low-light vision, there were 20 goblins all chained to each other and placed in the ground by a stake planted in between every goblin.

“God, plan. ” Robin responds, in another short while a response comes back.

“Really!?” excitement resounded within the mediator’s voice, after all, he too was a slave. Goblins knew the power of a god, all monsters wanted a god to worship, but none took monsters as subjects.

"we, make, plan, be back." Robin whispers into the goblin's ear."

“We, save all.” Thomas responds.

“We save all.” Robin speaks softly and left the tent.

“All, return.” Robin orders his unit. As he regained his composure and easily escaped the camp.