In the forest, on an unkempt road, a moderate force of forty goblinoids was marching along the overgrown path, the sound of their footsteps scaring the wildlife away.

Most of the soldiers were dressed in ashen coloured garbs sharing a red eye sewn either on the shoulder or the back, showing their allegiance to the fledgling goblinoid nation, with the most noticeable difference being their equipment.

Amongst the marching grey soldiers, there were two individuals in different outfits. The male greyborn was wearing a similar tunic as the rest but his armour was more detailed and of better quality while his helmet had two short straight horns jolting out near the crown. The female green bogey was wearing a thick brown robe, covering her body from the chilly fall wind.

Orva groaned, with chattering teeth she asked. “Why did you have to drag me along on this damned journey?”

“You’re an expert in both magic and ancient languages; why wouldn’t we drag you with us?” Volker asked the girl back with a smirk.

“If you wanted someone knowledgeable with languages, then you should’ve got that damned blue clown instead of someone who is actually busy. I’m sure no one would mind if he was the one freezing over here.” Orva growled.

Volker whistled in surprise. “You really hate the guy, don’t you?”

Orva’s forehead puckered as she answered. “He’s a pompous ass. He can get the job done, I admit, but he’s full of himself.”

Volker shrugged. “I’ve seen some of Gerwyn’s works, he might be a braggart but he’s no slouch.”

With a roll of her eyes, Orva interjected. “Doesn’t change the fact that so far he only fixed a few of the city’s rune channels and he’s happy with himself while I’ve been deciphering the orb that transmits power to those channels. The fool has the potential to achieve great things but is wasting it away with some dumb events.”

“Dumb events?” Volker asked, confusion written on his face.

Orva chuckled as she recalled Gerwyn’s shenanigans “He used to host events about what he’d do once he wins the elections. Try telling me those weren’t a waste of time.”

“Can’t say anything about that.” With a mischievous smile, Volker replied.

They continued their discussion in a bid to make this trip less monotonous. And as time passed, they finally found traces of their goal. Recent remains of the masked creatures.

Volker, Orva, Grasha, Rapha, Raban, and Lev gathered at the site and saw the bloody remains of a party of the creatures.

“What in the world happened here?” Volker muttered to himself, staring at the half-eaten remains of one of the creatures. It’s mask was broken allowing everyone to finally see what lay behind its mask. A young bird-like face.

Lev knelt near the corpse and touched its arm. “It’s still warm, it wasn’t long before it was attacked.”

And If it’s dead, shouldn’t it have turned to dust? Lev thought to himself before glancing on the remains of its mask and outfit. They look different, more elaborate. And I’m sure the ones that attacked us didn’t have feathers.

Lev stood up and turned towards a few nearby squad leaders he ordered to be nearby. “Find any footprints. If there are any survivors, find them as soon as possible!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” They saluted before going on their way to fulfill their task.

After that he glanced at those Volker and the others. “Volker, Rapha, gather your men, you’re coming with me. Once we find a trail, we need to find at least a survivor or two as fast as possible.”

“What about us?” Grasha asked after covering the corpse with a cloth while Raban was looking at another body. That one was missing its arms and legs.

Lev grinned. “You two are also coming with me. The same goes for Orva.”

“Great, just great.” Grasha grumbled under his breath whilst shuffling his feet towards the third wagon in the supply convoy, among its charge was his axe.

Orva tapped her staff on the ground. “Let’s get this over with and go home already.”

Lev shook his head in disapproval. “Not yet, first thing’s first, we’ll need to find one of those creatures and then secure the route.”

Lev heard the shout of a returning scout and from the looks of the scout’s face, he found their trail. With a vicious smile Lev spoke. “Excellent, let’s go find some masked bird people.”

With traces of the creatures found, orders were given and the forty strong force halted in their steps and changed their route.

Along their way more and more traces of the creatures began to appear, to the point that crude scattered tools and objects were found.

“What happened here?” Lev muttered as he saw the remains of what seemed to be a large camp. The place was ravaged and corpses of the creatures were hung naked on the nearby trees with a symbol carved on their stomachs.

Some soldiers vomited as they found the eaten remains of a mother hugging a headless child.

“This is horrible.” Volker said after ordering the men to look around for any survivors.

Raban looked away from disgust at the sight. “Horrible isn’t even enough to describe this.”

“I’d call it barbaric.” Grasha added.

Rapha covered the dead mother and child before turning to the two greyborns. “What do you think did this?”

Volker looked at what seemed to be giant hooved footsteps. “I honestly don’t know.“

Rapha snapped her fingers. “You’ve sent some scouts to search the area before we arrived, didn’t you receive any sort of information?”.

With a shake of his head, Volker replied ”I haven’t received any intel yet. They are a little late.”

Lev tapped his glaive on the ground grabbing everyone's attention. “Grasha and Raban, gather the soldiers and clear the nearby parameter and take caution.”

“Do you think we’ll get attacked?” Raban asked.

Lev nodded. “That’s probable, who knows what might happen. Maybe whatever attacked the creatures will decide to come back to see if there are more of them.”

As the duo left, Lev turned towards Rapha. ”Go tell Orva and all the shamans to gather in the centre of the camp in case whatever caused this massacre returns then gather your warriors and guard the rear of the camp in case of an ambush.”

Rapha silently nodded and went to do her task.

“Volker, recall the scouts back so we can decide if we should retreat or continue. We need all the information we can get to come up with proper countermeasures for this before we proceed.”

Volker saluted and proceeded to grab a large curved horn from his belt.

Vooooooooom.

“Aaghhh!”

But just as he was about to blow it, another horn followed by a loud scream echoed from the woods.

With wide eyes, Volker immediately tucked the horn and roared. “Prepare for battle!”

Everyone went into defensive formations with Lev standing behind the third row as they peaked into the woods.

Footsteps could be heard.

All the bogeys’ ears twitched and their eyes widened as they felt three sources of dense magical energy coming towards them.

Three gigantic figures emerged from the forest. Their grey gaunt figures were almost as tall as the trees and their arms went past their waist to reach their knees. The ears on their deer-like heads fluttered as their red eyes stared at Lev and his men.

The two groups eyed each other before many of the soldiers turned towards what’s strapped to the giant abominations’ chests. A strap of leather that tied wicker cages to their backs and inside those cages were Lev’s target, the masked creatures, bloody and unconscious.

One of the three giants raised a large green-tipped spike and the bogeys felt magical energies going towards the spike’s tip before it was thrown at them.

Before they could react, three bogeys, each from a row, were killed.

The creature roared and it and its brethren charged at the bogeys.

As Lev readied his glaive, he could hear similar roars coming from far in the back but they were silenced by a series of fiery explosions.

He could spot two more of the things attacking Rapha’s side but one of them threw its cage and was now rolling on the ground whilst covered in flames while the other was hit by a ballista’s bolt in the chest, slamming it to the ground. The creatures fled from its broken cage.

Lev grinned, Guess that side is taken care of.

“Ready for battle!” Lev roared and his men followed.