Mourzuk and Frand were two meters apart facing each other bare handed.

When Nathan signalled the start of the fight, Mourzuk lunged at Frand, he started with a quick punch in the face, which Frand effortlessly parried. But when he tried to counterattack, Mourzuk evaded with weird moves.

Sometimes they would grab at their wrists, to draw their opponent in before punching, aiming for the face, only to be either deflected or evaded, sometimes they would kick only to be blocked by their opponent’s knees, or sidestepped

The fight was clean and ordered, unlike the usual dog fight Nathan was used to see the goblins perform

Looking at them Nathan was smiling calmly, but in his head alarms of panic and confusion were ringing continuously.

‘ Wut ? How can they be this good ? No way, no way, no way. It looks like a martial art demonstration ! Well Mourzuk fighting style is weird ya ? Looks a bit like Jackie in the drunken master. Is Ip man a thing here ? I know this is the effect of their marks … but isn’t it a bit too broken ?

I mean, yeah Mourzuk is bit of a veteran, with his advanced age and all but how the fuck can he evade without even looking.’

Nathan, still smiling, was sweating profusely looking at Mourzuk, who closed his eyes and was evading Frand’s punches and kick anyway.

‘Did he close his eyes ? Old men stop the bragging and do your job. Shit I’m jealous. Still Frand is very competent too. He have a hard time landing a hit on Mourzuk, but he is deflecting every hit coming his way. It looks like a stand still.’

Just as the thought came to his mind. He saw Mourzuk roll on the ground. When he stood up, he throwed some sand in the eyes of Frand as the hobgoblin was preparing a kick. Mourzuk grabbed Frand leg as the hobgoblin was blinded and drawn it in his direction. He followed those action with a violent kick in Frand plexus.

While Frand was on the ground, coughing as he tried to restore his breath, Mourzuk was standing proud, with a relaxed stance.

Still Nathan could clearly see the sweat flowing down the hobgoblins face.

Frand managed to stand up, but before they could resume their fight Nathan interrupted them.

“_ Stooop ! Mourzuk … What do you think about Frand’s mark ?

_ He did not lie boss ! I’m sure, no hobgoblin can fight like this after evolving without the help of a mark.”

Nathan Nodded at Mourzuk, before he turned to Frand.

“_ If you still want to leave, leave now. I will let you take your equipment with you, as promised.

_ Thank you.”

Frand did not stand on ceremony, he took his shield and weapons before walking away from Nathan’s group, as Nathan was looking at Frand back he thought

‘I hope we won’t have to fight in the futures … Not with this damned overpowered mark.’

When midday came the were ready to move back to the outpost, after a few long hours of march without eating, most of the goblins sprawled on the ground as they arrived, complaining about food.

Nathan laughed and organized a early banquet for them. As they were eating, Nathan could see Grom re-enact the scenes of the fleeing goblins, falling in to traps and dying pitifully. He also talked about how their only wounded goblin sprained his foot because he was laughing so much that he lost his balance and crashed on the ground beneath the tree were he was hiding.

Seeing his troops laughing and eating, Nathan couldn’t believe they were waging a war the day before.

After eating, Nathan walked around the camp, inspecting the defences while thinking.

‘ Now that I killed those hobgoblins, I need to strengthen the outpost defence, in case of retaliation, or to stop the greedy hobgoblins who developed the same love for plunder as me. Or only just so we can sleep peacefully. I made a big move, now I must prepare myself for consequences …

Maybe I could take example on the Roman camps of old, like how Cesare built his defences in preparation for the siege of Alesia’s , I remember seeing a plan in my middle school history books. Aaah the advantages of a perfect memory, I may not be a badass when I fight, but at least I can plagiarize whomst the fuck I want here… ‘

As Nathan decided to plagiarize decisively and cheerfully everything of use from his old life, he started to run in the direction of Mourzuk tent.

But he abruptly stopped when he saw Stevie looking at a spear made with a metal tip that was thrown about with the rest of the spoils of war.

He patted her on the shoulder, before taking out the spear from the pile and giving it to her as he resumed his run without a word.

When he arrived, he saw Mourzuk who was doing some weird poses, looking at his muscles.

“_ The hell are you doing ?”

Mourzuk nearly tripped, but immediately found back his balance as he heard Nathan.

“_ No- nothing I was just thinking about how good it is to be young again boss.

_ You’re not young Mourzuk … Just less old. Anyway, I want to talk about the outpost defences with you, I have a few things I want you to do tomorrow.

Mourzuk immediately straightened with a smile and looked attentively at Nathan.

‘This old goblin really love to talk about military stuff, in my old world he would probably be some king of military otaku who would brag about the time he saw an Apach helicopter … not the gender one, the real war machine.’

“_ Yeah, I want to raise the barricades higher, we will make some scaffolding for the goblins to stand behind, they will be able to fire arrows from as safe place. We will also surround the camp with a mound at least as tall as me, and then further their will be a hole, again as deep as my size, but two time as large as me. Then we will plant a stake field, pointing in the direction of the theorical invaders, come with me!”

As he saw Mourzuk looking blankly, he dragged him outside of the camp, explaining, with wide hand movements, what he wanted to be done tomorrow After an hour of explanation, questions, and answer. Nathan was fairly confident that Mourzuk understood exactly the new camp plans. He also told him to organize some goblins to make arrows reserves, before going to sleep with a peaceful smile.

Just as he was sinking in his sleep, his brain woke him up with a thought.

‘Should I also try to make bricks ? Yeah, even if I don’t use them here, at least we will be ready when the time come for me to build a city… let’s find Nubian tomorrow, and I need someone to go recruit goblins instead of me ….’

After an unknown amount of time, he finally managed to sleep as his brain calmed down.