Adimir was sitting in a wagon with the head guard and the head merchant. He was called there to discuss something for reasons he wasn't told, but he had a hunch that it had to do with the fact that he managed to predict the goblins attack, and stop the direwolf cavalry before anyone realized they were coming with only one other mage.

"So, mage. Your name is Adimir correct?" The beastkin guard captain asked.

"Yes. That's my name." Adimir replied wondering why they'd call him here.

They hadn't defeated the goblin hoard yet. So, it couldn't be to reward him.

"Enough stalling Rolaf. Just get to the point." The fat merchant reprimanded the guard captain named Rolaf impatiently.

"Of course. Adimir can you explain a bit on how the spell you used to detect the enemies?" Rolaf inquired.

"It's quite simple. I'm able to detect living creatures within 1600 feet. If I want more details, it shortens the range. I won't go into specifics on how I got it to work, however." Adimir explained to the two.

"That's fine. Can you try and detect the leader of the hobgoblin hoard? Hobgoblins typically follow a powerful warlock when they get around the size we're facing." Replied the guard captain. Adimir placed his hand on his chin while mulling it over.

"I can certainly do that. What's your plan?" He answered, before asking his own question.

"Once we know where the leader is we're going to form a volunteer squad to go behind enemy lines and kill the leadership of the goblin hoard. If we do this, we'll be able to cause enough confusion to have the remains of our forces here at the camp to rush in and wipe them out after a bombardment with all the mages and archers we have on hand." Rolaf answered.

"I see. Not a bad idea. If I find the leader, I want to go with the squad to kill the leader. They'll need me anyways to be able to find them in that camp after all." Adimir said.

"That's fine with me. I was planning on asking you to go anyways. You should go get a meal for now. If you can find the hobgoblin lord, we'll attack under the cover of night." Rolaf acknowledged. Adimir nodded and exited the wagon. He then went over to the center of the camp where several large fires were lit. At these fires, the caravan’s chefs were cooking in large man-sized pots. Before he could go up to get a serving however, he felt someone tap his shoulder.

Turning around to see who it was he was delighted to see that it was Tauna and Mira. Tauna offered a wooden bowl with porridge in it.

"Here you go. We already got food for all of us and were just waiting for you to arrive. Now you should eat up and recover your energy." Tauna told him with a smile. Adimir thanked her and took the bowl. When they went to sit down and eat, he was peppered with questions right away.

"We saw you enter the wagon with the head merchant and the guard captain. So, do you know what's going to happen?" Mira asked him getting right down to business as usual.

"Yeah. I'm going to be using a new detection spell I invented to locate the leader of the hobgoblins. If I find him, they're going to be forming a small volunteer squad to go and kill the leader during the nighttime. When they head out, I'm going to go with them." Adimir explained to them. Tauna cracked her knuckles.

"Well, I suppose we'll be bashing in some skulls tonight!" She declared with a savage grin. Adimir looked over at her with a confused expression.

"You guys don't need to come with. I'm going alone." He corrected her. Mira put her hands on his shoulders drawing his attention over to her.

"Now Adimir what type of teammates would that make us if we just let you go out and risk your life without us? Now we are coming with whether you like it or not. You had our backs when we fought the ogre. Now let us have yours when we face those green bastards." Mira countered.

Adimir felt a warm bubbly feeling in his chest and broke into a smile.

"When I went to become an adventurer, I never expected I'd find teammates who would risk their life so quickly." He admitted.

"Well get used to it kid. We're going to be stuck together for a long time! And I plan on repaying you for saving our lives with that fancy fire spell on our last mission." Tauna chipped in patting his back.

"Who do you think your calling kid? I'm over 30 years older than you." Adimir objected playfully.

"You forget the fact that elves your age are still considered children even in the eyes of us shorter-lived species." Mira intervened.

"Yeah what she said!" The wolfkin girl agreed. Adimir merely shook his head with an amused smile and busied himself with eating. As soon as he finished, he closed his eyes and sent out a directed mana pulse towards the hobgoblin encampment as he began searching. He didn't need to search long however as a magic aura matching that of his own former master was found right on the first pulse.

He couldn't stop the frown that was growing on his face.

"What's wrong? Did you not find the leader?" Mira asked assuming the worst.

"I found him. It's just that this guy has easily four to five times the amount of mana I have. Easily enough mana to overwhelm several battle mages. And to make things worse, he is in the center of the goblin hoard. So that's several hundred hobgoblins and goblins to fight our way through. Then on top of that, he has several mages with him who have twice the amount of mana as me." Adimir replied. Tauna whistled with an amazed look on her face.

"Sounds like we have our work cut out for us. I hope the others we're going with will be strong enough to get through. Us included." Tauna spoke her thoughts out to the rest.

"Well, I'm sure we will find a way through them. We have to find a way through them if the caravan is to survive this after all. The archers have already started to run low on ammo, and we have only managed to take out a fraction of the enemy." Mira commented.

"It's an all or nothing gamble. Let's just hope that we're lucky." Adimir concurred. “I’m going to go tell him that I've found the leader now. See you guys later." Adimir told them before heading back to the wagon he was in earlier. He found that Rolaf was standing outside the wagon waiting for someone. Upon spotting Adimir he beckoned him closer.

"Have you found him?" The guard captain couldn't hide the eagerness inside his voice.

"Yes, I did. He's a powerful one and in the center of the goblin hoard. He won't be easy to reach but you have my team the hellhounds who are ready to step up to the challenge. There are only three of us but we will fight like there are 30 of us." Adimir answered while standing up a bit straighter when mentioning his team.

The news seemed to disturb the ox beastkin quite a bit as his shoulders slouched slightly. When he heard that Adimir and his entire team were still willing to go his spirit visibly recovered a bit.

"Good. I'll go and start gathering volunteers. The plan still remains the same. We attack tonight." Rolaf told him before walking away gesturing for him to follow. Adimir followed along as they climbed up onto a wagon. The guard captain then began to call for people to stop what they were doing and turn their attention to him.

"Everyone I have an announcement. This young mage here is named Adimir. And he has managed to locate the leader of the goblin hoard." Rolaf began and gestured to Adimir when he mentioned him. "If we can kill the goblin hoards leader, they'll become confused and divided, and with how goblins and hobgoblins are they'll even start to fight each other. When that happens, we can attack with our full force and destroy them when they're at their weakest. However, there is a catch. The enemy leader is surrounded by their army. No one will blame anyone if they don't want to go on this suicide mission to kill the leader. But this young mage who is practically a child has already volunteered to go! Not just him but his teammates as well!" Rolaf said to the crowd with his voice growing more fervent as he went on.

"They only number three but they still are willing to do more than put their lives on the line but face certain death for the sake of saving this caravan. Now, what does that make us adults if a child and two people have more bravery than the rest of us!? I ask of those who are brave enough to join this mission to cut the head off the snake. If you are one of those brave souls, please step forward now." Rolaf finished his impassioned speech.

Adimir watched the crowd for any signs of the crowd being inspired by the speech the guard captain just made, but much to his disappointment all he was met with silence. And anyone he tried to make eye contact would turn away with an embarrassed look on his face. He couldn't blame them, however. They managed to kill several hundred earlier, but the enemy still had more than double their current forces. However, a single shout disturbed the silence.

"We will!" Two familiar girls stepped forward. Tauna and Mira walked out of the crowd with determined looks on their faces.

"We already said we wouldn't let you risk your life without us Adimir, and we meant it!" Mira declared shooting a fierce glare towards the crowd of indecisive people. But that wasn't the last disturbance as another green-skinned figure stepped forward.

"I've known you for less than a day, but I would rather die meeting my enemies head-on than cower and wait for them to come and kill me," Bjorn shouted while stepping forward.

As if this was the trigger another person a guard stepped forward.

"It would be an honor to die alongside brave warriors like you all." The guard affirmed. Soon dozens of guards, adventurers, and even civilians stepped forward. Soon enough over 80 people, a full third of their fighting force was now gathered with resolved faces. Rolaf looked at the volunteers with a hint of pride.

"I'm glad you have all decided to join the mission. We will attack the enemy tonight under the cover of night. Once you succeed in killing the hobgoblin leader, I will lead the other 200 guards we have to attack the enemy. Tonight, we will emerge victorious!" Rolaf shouted as the crowd of volunteers shouted their agreements as their fighting spirit soared to new heights.

When Adimir was about to get off the caravan wagon he was stopped by Rolaf. He shot him a questioning look before the beastkin shoved three small clear bottles filled with a blue liquid. The third, however, was glowing.

"Take this Adimir. These are some mana potions I purchased from one of the merchants. I decided that I'd give you these two mana regeneration potions and this mana fortification potion. The regeneration potions will only recover a small amount of mana and the fortification one will increase your mana capacity by 25%. They are only low grade, but I still hope that they'll be of some use to you during this battle.

"Thank you. We'll succeed. I swear it." Adimir responded to him as he took the potions with his resolve strengthening further. He went to meet up with his teammates while formulating a plan to increase their chances of victory. Just when he arrived to where his friends were three figures walked over. They were the reptaurian shaman, Claratte, and Bjorn.

"What do you guys need?" He asked them politely.

"Claratte told us about how you come up with crazy ideas to make the impossible possible. Do you perhaps have any such ideas now?" The reptaurian inquired. Hearing their reason for coming over Adimir was unable to suppress the devilish grin that crept onto his face.

“Actually, I have one that'll make the odds turn to our favor. I just need you and Clarattes to help to make it possible. Here lean in and listen to my idea." Adimir told them as his teammates and the other three leaned in to hear what he had to say.

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It was now night. The 80+ volunteers were assembled at the back of the barricade and were ready to depart. Out of the civilians, six mages specialized in medical treatment and volunteered as combat medics. Adimir gathered those six along with the other two adventurer mages to aid him with his plan. They were all currently marching towards the enemy encampment when he finished telling them the plan.

"Will that really be enough to close the disadvantage in numbers?" One of the medic mages asked him with a concerned tone.

"Of course, it would. I've seen countless battles and with a spell like that even an army made up of plebeians would be a terrifying force to deal with." Interrupted the reptaurian who was now looking at Adimir with a degree of admiration.

"What he said. Now you guys make sure you focus on that while shaman guy and Clarette focus on making stones. With this plan, we'll steamroll the enemy infantry." Adimir told them with a confident smile.

They now could clearly see the figures of the hobgoblin army and were only 200 feet away. By now the goblins were beginning to notice them and were gathering together to charge.

"NOW!"

The furious cry of a child's voice resounded across the field, and a dull yellow glow began to emanate from the various people from the caravan.

The people looked at themselves and each other in mute shock at this sorcery. Soon however the gentle warm feeling began to fill them with bravery and wiped away all the remaining bits of doubt and fear they had. Without their fear holding them back the people raised their weapons up into the air and charged with furious battle cries as they charged the goblins. The goblins, on the other hand, were frozen in confusion and fear at seeing the obviously fewer enemies start glowing and charge at them fearlessly. One of the hobgoblins raised up a pike and issued its own war cry and pointed at the charging humans.

However, before it even finished its cry a sharp whistle briefly heard before its head exploded and its body collapsed to the ground. Upon seeing one of their own comrades who died for no explicit reason at all the other hobgoblins began to feel fear creeping into their souls. Soon the whistling sound started to pick up again and dozens of goblins and hobgoblins no matter how strong their armor began to get torn to shreds by a storm of tiny stones. It only lasted less than a minute, but it had already killed dozens of the hobgoblins, and before they even had time to feel relief at the unstoppable rain of death ceasing before the glowing people slammed into them.

Adimir watched with what bordered on sadistic glee as the people who were glowing quite literally tore straight through the goblin hoard like a hot butter knife through butter. No matter how hard they fought the volunteer fighters never tired, and any minor injury they sustained didn't slow them. Whether it was a twisted ankle, a bruise, or a small cut they all began healing rapidly in seconds. Unless it was a severe wound they would just keep on fighting.

Because of this Adimir noted the panicking hobgoblins and goblins didn't have time to formulate a proper counterattack before they managed to penetrate and slaughter their way through over 100 of the enemy. By now the goblins were beginning to order themselves and started to fight back. They easily had two to three goblins per volunteer fighter, but one of those volunteer fighters fought with the might of two to three men. All the while Adimir and the other mages walked in the center of the enraged hoard of people.

One of the medic mage's mouth gaped open as he watched their weaker army hold its own against one many times its size.

"Once again you've shocked me with another terrifying spell. Who knew that combining a few simple spells into one larger AOE spell would have such a terrifying effect." Claratte complemented Adimir. His grin only grew when he heard her.

"Minor injuries can greatly weaken a soldier even if it's just a sprained arm or just a nasty bruise. But if you had a spell that would automatically heal your allies of minor wounds and stem the blood flow of severe wounds then you have an even more powerful army. Then add the fatigue recovery to keep them from tiring out and the bravery booster and you get a spell that could turn an army of pheasants into a force that could keep up with trained soldiers." He bragged while watching the carnage.

"Yes, but the flaw is the mana drain. Even after using up all our potions that we had available to us we can only keep this up for a few minutes at best." The reptaurian stated solemnly.

"A few minutes will be all we need to complete our mission. Now let's push forward. Tauna, Mira watch our backs." Adimir acknowledged before giving orders to his teammates. Taking advantage of the deadlock between the two armies the three mages and two warriors began to force their way through the goblins while the six other mages remained behind to keep up the support spell.

"Take this scum! Hahaha! What a power high!" Tauna exclaimed while eagerly seeking out fights whenever a hobgoblin knowingly or not got near them. With a mere swipe of her mace, she was able to quite easily crush bones, and quite often killed her foes in one or two hits because of this. Mira, on the other hand, took advantage of not getting tired to dart around and shred apart hobgoblins with numerous speedy swipes. Because of these two's efforts, only the shaman was needed to use combat magic to help clear the way.

"Tân crafangau!" Following the reptaurians guttural shout, its claws were engulfed in flames and it began to tear apart hobgoblins limb from limb as they progressed. Claratte expression was quite amusing with how it was turning a slight tint of green from the carnage surrounding her.

"Not used to the carnage of the battlefield?" He asked her.

"No. I told you I'm a researcher first and foremost! The battlefield isn't where I belong. If I didn't need the money for this job to fund my next project, I wouldn't have bothered taking it in the first place."

She replied sulkily.

"Hm. Well, chin up. We're nearly there." Adimir replied he wasn’t completely immune to the sight of such bloody carnage, but he has already caused his fair share of carnage and experienced it too, and ws currently in the process of getting used to it. Soon they reached a standstill in front of a dozen hobgoblins who were all over 6-feet tall and in half-plate armor. Tauna, Mira, and the reptaurian all stepped up in front of them to take on the hobgoblins.

"Is the leader behind them?" Mira asked him.

"Yup. You guys handle the guards. Claratte you support them any way you can. I'm going to go and handle the boss." Adimir said as he took out a glowing blue potion and chugged the entire contents.

"You sure you can handle him? You said he has four times your own mana right?" Tauna asked doubtfully.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be able to find a way to take care of him. You'll have your hands full facing those guys anyways. So just catch up when you're done okay?" reassured her.

"You heard the young one. ATTACK!" The reptaurian shouted as he charged the hobgoblins with his claws still on fire. Tauna yelled a wordless shout and charged with her shield raised with Mira following behind her.

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(Tauna's POV)

She was worried about Adimir, but she had faith in his strength. For now, though she focused all her unbridled rage upon the hobgoblins ahead of her as she charged shield up. Two of the hobgoblins with their own smaller shields stepped up to stop her, but they made a grave miscalculation in doing so. Tauna's fighting style focused purely on raw strength, and because of that, she grew into a warrior with great strength even by beastkin standards. Tauna crashed into the two hobgoblins sending them both reeling back onto their backs. Tauna ignored the two fallen hobgoblins as she knew her comrade Mira would take care of them.

Only a couple of seconds of her stepping past the hobgoblins she heard the whistle of blades flying and then death gurgles following them. A large smile spread across her face when she heard that. The hobgoblins who had their spears ready to impale her when their comrades stopped her were frozen in shock at her so easily knocking away their two fully armored comrades with such ease. There was a reason she was capable of holding off the ogre even if briefly. She stepped up to the closest hobgoblin and swung her mace down onto its armored shoulder as the iron screeched in protest as it collapsed inwards. Following that, a sickening crunch was heard, and its entire left arm was now unusable.

The hobgoblin reeled back shrieked in pain and stumbled back onto its butt. Tauna swiped her shield across its unprotected face shattering its skull while breaking the neck killing it instantly. By now the other hobgoblins had recovered from their shock and were all focused on attacking her. Two of them thrust their spears towards her left flank. She raised up her shield to meet both attacks head-on blocking them both. However, the third hobgoblin seized the chance to attack her from her unprotected side while she was kept busy. The hobgoblin swiped its sword in an arc aiming to claim her neck. But just in the nick of time Mira redirected the blow and slid her dagger into its throat. They didn't need words to work together after the months they've fought together.

Tauna pushed back the two hobgoblins while they retreated to keep out of her reach. Meanwhile, Mira was fighting with another armored hobgoblin. There weren't as many focusing on them as she had expected, and she was beginning to wonder why. Suddenly an armored hobgoblin went sailing over her head and crashed into the one Mira was fighting killing both from the blunt force trauma they received. This unexpected occurrence drew the attention of the two girls and the hobgoblins. "Well damn. I've lost all my confidence in my strength." Tauna mumbled. She was, in fact, talking about the reptaurian shaman. He was currently battling the remaining 8 hobgoblins single-handedly with nothing but his bare hands. He had one of the hobgoblins lifted up several feet into the air and threw him down onto the ground killing it and released a feral roar.

The hobgoblins were all standing back in fear from the reptaurians immense strength. They had tried numerous times to kill it with their iron weapons, but their weapons weren't strong enough to deal enough damage to its scales to actually make any life-threatening wounds. Because of this fact, he was one-sidedly slaughtering the group of hobgoblins without even using magic. Tauna looked back to the hobgoblins she was fighting which were distracted with the reptaurian.

"RAAAAA!" She yelled furiously and charged the two and started bashing them to unrecognizable piles of iron and flesh. A minute later and the three of them were done fighting, and Claratte healed up the reptaurian. "Alright let's continue and help out Adimir!" Mira shouted to them and charged towards the tent where Adimir entered. Before she could enter however she along with the rest of them were blown back by a gust of icy wind that decorated the ground with a layer of frost.