Adimir watched the enemy die pitiful deaths in their attempt at a raid on the caravan. "Gelidis ventus!" He shouted and with a grin on his face as he watched a blast of wind with inch long ice shards crash into the hobgoblin sending it flying 9 feet while shredding its flesh. The vile creature gurgled as blood gushed from the various wounds on its stomach, chest, and neck. It soon died from the large amount of blood it was losing. Adimir turned to see how his allies were doing and saw Tauna using her shield to smash the skull of a knocked down Hobgoblin, while Mira beheaded another. Bjorn worked with several caravan guards to finish off two other hobgoblins. They had been traveling for nearly seven hours, and Adimir was on the brink of casting a shock spell on Tauna for her endless rambling when the caravan was suddenly attacked by a group of 30 hobgoblins who were armed with various rusted weapons and wore nothing except loincloths. But despite hobgoblins being just as large and as strong as humans, unlike their lesser goblin brothers they were no match for the well-armed 50 or so armed guards that were waiting for them. Add onto the fact that there were several spellcasters other than Adimir and that they all released AOE spells right at the start of the conflict easily half of the monsters were wiped out before they even engaged in battle. "Well, that was easy," Adimir said to the other three mages beside him. "Right? I at least thought that if they were brave enough to attack, they must have had some shamans amongst them, but I guess not." A beastkin mage standing next to him cackled. "Indeed, they were not very wise hobgoblins. But goblins, in general, are a very short-sighted species." A reptaurian shaman in tribal feathered garbs concurred. “Goblins aside was that ancient language I heard young one?" A female elf mage asked Adimir with an intrigued look on her face. "Yes, yes it was. My family has been using ancient language for our magic for several generations." He answered, his chest filling up with pride. "Really? That's amazing! You're so young yet you already show such potential! I'm practically green with envy!" The elf exclaimed. "She is correct in that regard. I never expected to see one of your tender age to be so capable." The reptaurian added. "Alright, alright. That's enough magic talk! There's a couple people with some injuries that could use a bit of help." Tauna interrupted the four mages. The pain of being a mage. There's always something that needed attention. After healing a few jagged cuts, and rib fractures Adimir went back to his team. "I have to say that was surprisingly easy. It really is convenient to have dozens of armed people backing us up during a fight." He said to his teammates. "Right!? There were over 30 hobgoblins, but we still beat them down pretty easily!" Tauna replied grinning. "We didn't receive a single death on our side of the fight too. But it's still too early to say for sure that we won't run into any significant trouble." Mira chided. "Seriously Mira!? Why did you have to go and raise such an ominous flag like that! I really hope that some monster stampede doesn't come along and attack us now..." Adimir yelled while slouching his shoulders dramatically. "Um excuse me. What exactly is a flag?" Bjorn asked with a puzzled look on his green face. "It’s when someone says something that triggers an alarm in the grand system of the universe, and then the universe throws some big and more often than not dangerous event their way," Adimir explained with a grimace. "I really hate them." He added. Bjorn's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as he began to ponder this new knowledge. Meanwhile, inside a forest, less than twenty minutes’ walk away from where the caravan was a hobgoblin riding a wolf the size of a horse arrived at an encampment of hundreds of goblins, hobgoblins, and other various monsters. It had just arrived from watching the one-sided slaughter that had taken place at the caravan when the suicide troops were sent to attack them. The hobgoblin rider quickly dismounted its wolf and rushed towards a large tent which had two hobgoblins wearing half-plate armor standing guard outside the entrance. The two guards crossed their pikes in front of the entrance to the tenet, and after a minute of incomprehensible chattering between the rider, and one of the guards it was finally let inside. The inside of the tent had five individuals inside of it. Three of them were goblins who had robes decorated with animal bones and all wielded a gnarled wooden staff. The other two were hobgoblins. The most eye-catching of them was a hulking goliath of a hobgoblin who was over seven feet tall and wore an assortment of shabbily put together plate armor. The other hobgoblin was only five feet tall and had on a fancy blue robe, and an iron crown with various precious gems decorating it. The wolf rider began to speak in the garbled language of the goblins. Once the hobgoblin finished speaking it quickly left the tent. The hobgoblin wearing the crown started to bark out orders to the other goblins that were in the tent. Upon receiving their orders, the goblins in the tent. Outside the tent the goblin army started to stir and began to march towards the caravan.

************************************************************************************************************* Adimir was currently testing out one of his newest spells. By now the caravan had traveled into a hilly area, and no longer had a clear flat view in all directions. So, he was taking inspiration from sonar technology to create a detection spell using mage eyes as a basis to make up for the terrain disadvantage. The basic explanation for it was that by sending out a small amount of mana in a 360-degree wave around him he could use the mana signatures that it hits to send back information on the type of mana that his mana encounters. The reason he started to make this spell was because of the raid earlier. If they had known they were coming he and the other mages could have prepared more powerful spells to wipe them all out in melee combat. So, he figured that if he could act as an early warning system the caravan could guard themselves against potential monster attacks, and get a nice bonus in the process. In order to do this, however, he needed to focus entirely on his spell with how complicated it was. So Adimir was currently sitting inside one of the armored wagons and was trying out the first version of his spell. "Unda vita deprehendatur." As soon as the final word was spoken a wave of mana flowed out of Adimir for a distance of 50 feet. Through limiting the information, he received being on life forms only he was able to lessen the overflow of information considerably, but despite that Adimir’s mind was overwhelmed by the information coming in from not only animals, but plants, fungi, and bacteria as well. This overflow of information caused an intense burning in his head. Causing Adimir to bend over and nearly blacked out from the pain. Quickly he cut off the connection to the spell gradually allowing him to recover from the spell. "Hey, kid are you uh alright?' Asked one of the passengers in the wagon asked. "Yeah yeah. I'm fine. Just a failed spell." He replied to the concerned person. He hadn't taken into consideration that the spell would automatically include things as small as fungal spores, and bacteria when he cast his life detection spell, but now that he realized it, he couldn't help but want to smack his head at the sheer stupidity of not taking such things into account. Mana particles were far smaller than something like bacteria, and those microscopic things were living beings too. It's most likely the fact that previous attempts made by others to make life detecting spells failed because they couldn't figure out that there were countless microscopic organisms in the air surrounding us. If they had then caravans like this most certainly would have made use of such a convenient spell. Adimir began editing the spell once again and set the requirements to life forms with the intelligence level of a dog. Now with his newly finished spell, Adimir once again attempted to cast the spell. "Unda intelligens vitae deprehendere." He chanted, as another wave of mana rushed forth from his body 50 feet around him. This time the flow of information was much more bearable as he was able to get an accurate number of animals, and people around him. The number was shockingly 127 people, and 6 horses. The area he had covered was only 1/5th of the total caravan, but there were still over a hundred people detected by it. There truly was quite a few people in this caravan. "Hey, Adimir how's your spell going?" The feminine voice of the elf mage he was talking to earlier suddenly pulled him from his thoughts. He looked up to see the curious face of the brunette elf and sighed. It was Clarette again. Ever since he announced the spell, he was going to attempt making she's been bugging him ever since. Earlier when he questioned her upon this, she answered that she was actually a magic researcher and that she was only doing the caravan job to earn some money to fund one of her future projects. So naturally, when he told the others he was going to make a new spell she got interested in what it was. "Almost. I just need to test out the range limit. If it reaches at least 3000 feet, then the prototype version will be done." Was his reply as he closed his eyes to concentrate. Before he could, however, Clarette's voice interrupted his work again. "So, your detection spell. Do you really think you'll actually succeed? Numerous mages have tried to make such a spell in the past, but they've never succeeded." She inquired with a doubtful look. "I know I can do it because I'm privy to in-depth knowledge of the world that only a few others have. Now can you please stop interrupting me so I can concentrate?" Adimir replied coldly. Clarette offered a sheepish smile and raised her hands up in mock surrender. Now without any pesky flies bothering him, Adimir went back to focusing his mana to send out another mana pulse. He shaped and thinned out the small amount of mana he sent out to the maximum which extended the range but lowered the amount of information to the number of individual lifeforms. This time he reached 1500 feet. So far there was nothing of noteworthy interest that he could immediately spot other than the 598 people that were currently in the caravan. "I've succeeded in clearing up the overflow of information and extended the range to 1500 feet." He announced while opening one eye. He watched Clarette's mouth drop open in shock and begin to open and close as she fumbled to speak but failed to come up with anything to say. He couldn't help but grin at this amusing sight. Perhaps he should consider inventing some random crazy spell to shock her again while they were on this journey. Adimir mustered up a bit more mana and sent out another pulse. This one reached 1600 meters only before dissipating. However, what he detected this time made him frown. There was a force to the west of over 200 strong heading towards them, and what was worse was that there were still more streaming into his range spells range. He opened his eyes and hopped out of the wagon and started speed walking towards the head of the caravan. Clarette noticed his change in behavior and began following him. "What's wrong? Did your spell pick something up?" She asked urgently. "There are more than 200 lifeforms heading our way. I can't tell what they are and what their goal is, but it’s probably nothing good." He answered. Upon arriving at the lead wagon where the merchant who was directing the group was at, he immediately called out. "Excuse me! Mister!" A pudgy man in his late thirties in an expensive robe leaned out to look for the source of the shouting. When his eyes landed on Adimir's small frame his eyes narrowed. He opened his mouth to say something, with his face showing irritation before he spotted the staff he was carrying and his pointed ears. Realizing that he was most likely a mage he cleared his throat and spoke. "What is it mage? Is there a problem." Adimir noticed the annoyed look that had first appeared on the merchant's face but paid it no mind. "As a matter of fact, there is. I was using one of my spells to scope the area around the caravan because of the terrain blocking everyone's eyesight. But I detected several hundred life signatures heading towards the caravan." He informed him speaking in a serious tone to emphasize what he was saying. Upon hearing the grave news, the merchant's face went pale. "Is what you say really true?" He asked again. This time looking to Clarette. "It is. What do you suggest we do?" Adimir confirmed. Clarette hesitated for a moment as she had not used the spell, but she had sensed the mana that went through her and could not deny the possibility of such a spell being used. In the end, she chose to nod in agreement with Adimir statement. The merchant was now panicking slightly and called over to one of the guards. "Get the head of the guard and tell him that there are hundreds of enemies coming towards us!" He cried out before ducking back into his wagon the guard he called went to complete his task the moment the merchant told him. Thirty minutes later the caravan was stopped, and all the wagons were rearranged into a circle formation. The head of the guard an ox beastkin was currently barking out orders to the guards, and adventurers. "I want all of our mages and bowmen to get on the wagons and prepare to fire the moment the enemy comes into view. All melee combatants will be placed inside and behind the wagons. All non-combatants get in the center of the formation. Anyone who is able to fight to join the guards and adventurers in their positions." The orders from the beastkin were well received and everyone started to rush to their positions. It seemed Adimir noted that the guards had a certain confidence when going to their positions. They most likely have taken part in large skirmishes before and weren't panicking because of that he assumed. The hellhounds went to the west side of the wagon along with the four spellcasters, and ten other adventurers. Out of the near 600 people who were in the caravan only 200 were guards, and a further 150 of them were capable of fighting. While they were getting the wagons in formation Adimir had taken the chance to send out another mana pulse and discovered that the true force of their enemy was over 800 strong. More than double the full fighting force the caravan had available.

"How many will we be facing?" The gruff voice of the guard captain asked him. Adimir turned to look at the 6-foot frame of the beastkin. "More than 800 of them sir. They'll be arriving soon." He responded. "If your information is true then this will be a difficult battle. You're sure they're coming from the west?" He said with a deep frown. "I'm sure of it. Do you believe in our odds?" He couldn't help but ask him. He was only a simple otherworlder and didn't have much combat experience. He didn't have 100% confidence in winning this fight but believed they stood a chance, but he still wanted to hear the opinion of someone with more experience. "So long as the enemy doesn't use strategy, and only mindlessly attack we may stand a chance." The guard captain replied.

Soon an immense wave of green loomed the horizon and poorly made patchwork flags with three claws scribbled on them were raised into the air. The enemy had arrived, and instead of being the mindless monster horde they were hoping for they instead had to face a relatively ordered army.