5.10

“Strategy and tactics are two different things. Tactics are oriented towards short term practical steps to resolve present issues, while strategy is the overarching direction the general or leader wishes to take their army or empire. Tactical victories could lead to strategic victory but just as likely cause a loss.” - Excerpt from ‘The Ebb and Flow’, by Chancellor Checkov of the Western Empire.

As Noam dodged an arrow, he remembered that sneaking up on something in the dark, that could also see in the dark, was a lot harder than normal.

Hence why he was now getting shot at from every direction while his opponents were still nowhere in sight.

“Should’ve brought a shield,” Celigarn muttered with a dim red glow.

“Stop talking,” Noam replied as he hooked his swords. “Your glow’s just revealing where I am.”

He let go of the left blade, throwing the two hooked blades upward, twirling his arm, he began spinning the blades above him like a whip or lasso just as the arrows arrived.

The spinning blade deflected most of the arrows, providing valuable cover as Noam considered his next action.

The goblins could clearly see him, even when he couldn’t, so they had better darkvision, ‘and most importantly,’ he thought as an arrow thudded just a few metres from him, they had to shoot upwards if they wanted to maintain that advantage. Shooting straight caused the arrows to fall just short.

‘And secondly,’ he thought as aura moved to his legs, ‘they have a mage that outranges all of us.’

He suddenly blasted off, magnetising the blades so that they wouldn’t unlink from the sudden movement.

An interesting thing with Swift Strike was that it was very generous with what is considered a ‘strike’, from speeding up a weapon attack, to his punches, to even something as say, striking the ground.

Noam’s feet hit and pushed off the ground far faster than normal, he almost lost his balance at first, but he quickly adjusted.

Moving like a blur, he sighted the goblin mage in mere moments. His blades trailing behind him in halberd mode, he appeared between all of them in the span of a breath. The goblin mage threw up her staff, but she was too late. Noam slammed a foot into the ground, rapidly breaking as he transitioned his furious momentum into a twirl. The halberd spun around with him, a bloody dance as a dozen bodies were cut in half.

The eyes of the goblin mage stared uncomprehendingly, her severed torso weakly spasming as it fell to the ground. Her mind caught up to the fact that she was dead and her eyes slowly glazed over as Noam fell ass first to the ground, legs cramping from the aura use.

He wiped some blood off his face, “I think I’ll call this move, Spinning Whirlwind.”

“Redundant,” Celigarn replied, its glow deepening as blood fell on it, “a whirlwind already spins. I say, Bloody Whirlwind.”

“Too edgy,” Noam replied instantly, “how does Ripper Whirlwind sound?”

“The Whirlwind bit is too simple, how about Red Night’s Waltz?”

“Eh, too much of a mouthful, but we’ll workshop it…”

Utoqa followed the pack of soft skins. These were smarter soft skins, wearing metal hide to make up for the fact they were soft skins.

The small green hunters were prowling the location, flickering just outside his senses. The Batuaqa were smart hunters, far better at working as a pack than most packs he’s seen.

Utoqa’s seen a few exceptions, the hunters of his old tribe, the roving hives of the Hard Shelled and the duo of the blue horned, loud soft skin and the mushroom wood skin.

He heard the whistling of arrows and turned towards them.

“Arrows,” he warned as he covered his eyes.

The soft skins were slow, not noticing till an arrow took one in the eye. Panicking around him, they covered their heads, shields coming up in an instant.

“Where are they firing from!?” the captain soft skin yelled. Utoqa knew the difference between a captain soft skin and a normal soft skin, captain soft skins wore unnecessarily colourful hides and feathers. Probably a display of mating like the summer birds.

“There,” Utoqa said, pointing towards the darkness. The soft skins really needed to better their senses. Utoqa was still baffled on how they survived as a tribe.

“Can you See them, Reginald!?”

“Aye!” one of the soft skins replied with glowing eyes, he raised a magic stick, the object glowing with blue fire before its energy escaped in three twisting arrows. They exploded above, creating bright orbs of light. Revealing the locations of the green skins.

“Volley! One time!”

Streaks of glowing arrows fired from their magic sticks. Obliterating the other pack.

Utoqa cocked his head, perhaps they were not as bad as he thought.

The captain soft skin turned around, “How many charges do you all have left?”

“One!” the mage yelled.

“None left.”

“My wands out.”

“I still have one more…”

Crafts which only have a set amount of usage, Utoqa was familiar with these, though he doubted he could Scavenge something worthwhile from their sticks. The soft skin called Reginald had interesting eyes however…

“Do you have anything that can be used at range lizardfolk?”

Utoqa shook his head, a gesture of denial he learned, “Nothing that can be used more than once.”

The soft skin tsked, “We keep moving! Swap to your baton if your wand is used! Someone tend to Faleesi! Reginald, Lizardfolk, keep an eye out!”

They continued moving, though shortly Utoqa saw something ahead.

“Urrgh…” one of the soft skins ejected their stomach contents as they passed the bodies, what a waste.

“So this is what happened to the guards in the back…”

“Check if anyone is still alive!”

Utoqa doubted it. The bodies of soft skins and goblins alike were strewn around, the soft skins mostly had arrow wounds, hitting the chinks where their metal hide didn’t cover, some blown off limbs that might’ve been magic. The green skins, however…

“Does your pack use swords?” he asked, looking at a goblin body bisected in two.

“What?” the soft skin captain said as they checked the wrist of a corpse, “No, they’re too unwieldy on a train. We stick to short-range stuff.”

Then the soft skin with a heavy sword that wasn’t heavy was nearby. “One of the Plated was here,” he tried to recall a name. Annoying that the soft skins used names that weren’t descriptive of them, like Utoqa, He That Thinks Too Much. “Tai,” he finally recalled.

“Are they the healer?”

“No,” the lizardfolk answered. “That would be…” he paused, then pointed in front of them “...the green-haired one.”

Ahead of them, the soft skin with a heavy sword that wasn’t heavy and the soft skin that was a healer of wounds slowly stepped out of a train carriage that was still standing.

“What the… Darcy, Percy and Gavial, check the rest of the bodies! Rest of us go forward!”

Cautiously, they began moving in the dark. Utoqa looked around, and sensed two presences on the roof of the train carriage next to them, recognising them, he simply extended an arm as the two small mushrooms jumped off and landed on him.

There were a few glances towards the wisps, but they were quickly gone as they recognised Dustin’s likeness in them.

“There they are!” one of the mushrooms exclaimed as they crawled onto his shoulder.

They slowed as they neared the duo. Celine had the cloak which had no smell covering her head, Tai held her weapons at rest, but Utoqa recognised the tautness of a predator before the strike.

As he looked around them, he saw a short green skin standing at the entrance of carriage, holding a blade to the throat of another soft skin.

“There are three more people inside,” Celine said with a soft voice.

Utoqa could see figures moving inside the carriage, this was one of the open ones, with seats to each side instead of rooms. There was a clattering sound even further back, and Utoqa sensed that the short hunters were moving things.

The green skin with the blade spoke up in Common, its voice shrill and filled with malice. “Take an’oder step and he gets it!”

The soft skin captain tightly gripped her magic stick. “They’re robbing the train while holding us here…”

“What’s on the train that they could want?” Tai quietly asked. Utoqa saw that her hand hadn't moved from her sheathed weapon.

“Not sure, but definitely something big if they hired us on,” the soft skin captain said, gesturing to their magic sticks.

“Anyone know a sleep spell?”

The soft skin who made the lights shook his head, “No, fuck I knew I should’ve taken that elective.”

Celine shook her head as well, “Nothing I can do.”

“Wait,” Tai said, “didn’t Dustin say he has a sleep spell?”

Celine turned towards him, more specifically the wisps, “Yellow, Greenie, I need you to tell Dustin that we need him here…”

“... need you to tell Dustin that we need him here…”

An interesting bonus from Analyse, though sound wasn’t transmitted through Observe, Analyse allowed me to essentially lip-read after a few initial failures. I probably can’t lip read myself or things without a mouth due to obvious reasons, but for the more humanoid types, it was rather useful.

Which gave me an annoying glimpse into the situation at the back. “It appears that our friends are in quite the bind,” I said to the two guards left here.

“What happened?” one asked, Jannice was it?

Jennice

What a useful ability.

“Hostages at the passenger carriage,” I replied, “goblins are holding them there on the threat of the hostages’ life. Can’t move, can’t fight, it’s a stalemate unless someone goes in and rescues them. Which I may be suited for.” Utoqa had a sleep grenade in my finger, but it doesn’t seem like he’s mentioned it yet. Was he saving it for something?

The man tsked, “Then go, we can hold the place down here. You say your mushrooms explode?”

“Yes,” I answered, “proximity sensors based on the mycelium webs you-”

I paused as three figures stepped into my vision.

Three goblinoids, tall, straight backed and muscular, hobgoblins most likely, the evolved variant of goblins. One carried an ornate bow, pointed right at me, the other two melee weapons, I caught a sword and board before I was moved. An arrow embedded itself inside my shoulder, knocking me off balance as I fell down. Darren caught me and dragged me inside before another arrow thudded on the metal.

Derrick

Thanks for the correction.

“Three hobgoblins just stepped inside my vision range,” I explained, “bow, sword and board and one other I couldn’t catch.”

“I See them,” the woman said. I barely registered the brief hum of power. “They’re the fuckers who attacked the front of the train! They’re just standing there, haven’t made another move.”

She flicked her wand, “Do I shoot them?”

“Not yet,” I answered. This didn’t make sense.

“I’ve been giving them a chance to attack me but why only now?” I asked. I was very literally a glowing target, why haven’t they moved in to kill me until that moment?

“Maybe they’re waiting till they gathered up?”

“No,” I replied, grabbing the arrow shaft, trying to pull it out, groaning slightly as I did, “*hnng*, the attack itself is suspect, that was a bow user, they could’ve made an upward shot and hit me at a far further range. Scoring more damage on me and without warning me like that. No, that shot wasn’t meant to kill me. Are they still doing nothing?”

“Aye,” she replied, head just popped out the window.

“Then what the hell was it for?” the man asked, grabbing the arrow and my shoulder, before yoinking it out, scattering some clotted blood.

“A warning,” I said. “One of them is a melee and he hasn’t moved in yet. That attack wasn’t meant to hurt me, but to-”

I paused as a thousand things went through my head.

“Genius,” I said.

“What?” the man asked, “They’re goblins, how smart could they-”

“Shut the fuck up Darryl,” I replied.

“My name is-”

“That act wasn’t meant to kill me, they don’t intend to attack us at all, not until we make a move.”

“What?”

“The current situation is favourable to them,” I said, “so long as they keep the fighting forces in stalemate, they can get their real goal, the train’s cargo.”

“There are currently two major forces active on our side, the guardsmen who just joined up with Tai and Celine, and us. That action was meant to tell us that if we move, then they will attack us once we’re outside of our defences, or breach and kill the passengers here while no one is defending them. Forcibly stalemating us.”

I doubted my ability to face off against three hobgoblins, even if I was could reasonably damage all of them, their combined disruption and the innate teamwork present in all goblinoids, combined with the fact I would not be playing from my strengths, meant a straight fight would be disadvantageous to me. I’m not sure how having two others on my side would help this, but their stats weren’t that much better than Noam’s, indicating low level, with them I’d say the fight was a coin flip. But why did they opt for revealing themselves? If they knew we would be moving, then they could take us out en-route without warning, avoiding this song and dance. Unless…

“There is good news,” I said, “I believe they doubt their ability to take us out in a straight fight, or don’t want to risk themselves.”

“Huh?”

“You two are trained guardsmen correct?”

The man nodded, “Yeah, but we mostly deal with unruly passengers and citizens. Fighting against monsters is technically out of our job description.”

“Their mage was taken out and rather easily too by a single person, so there is a good chance they’re wary of our combatants. They don’t know our abilities, so instead of risking themselves to find out, they want to drag this out until they fulfil their objective anyway.”

They win the long game, so long as their goblins move the cargo, then their objective is complete. Risking goblins in fighting was something they would much rather avoid.

“However, that bodes ill for the hostages,” I said.

“The green skins will kidnap them won’t they?” the man asked, “To make sure we don’t throw a counter-attack on them?”

“Not sure,” I replied, “I believe they will, but will release them somewhere to divert the inevitable rescue op.”

The woman, who had been quietly listening up till now, spoke up, “Then is there anything we could do- Ahh!”

The other guard dragged her down, just as I stood up, a Rot Sporage in my hand-

“False alarm,” she hurriedly muttered, “sorry for that… The wind picked and I got surprised.”

The man tsked, “Fuck, you had us worried!”

Wind… “Shit!” I poked my head out of the carriage, breathing a sigh of relief as I saw that the hobgoblins haven’t moved. They didn’t realise that I just lost an advantage. Not yet.

“Is there still anything we could do?” the guard continued.

I shook my head, “Unless either of you has a Message spell, I can only think of moving by their plans. My best estimate is that a fight with all three of us would be a coin flip, one side has to resolve the stalemate to move to help the other-”

I paused as someone appeared near the hostage group.

“Oh. Nevermind then," I said, “We don't have to worry about that side anymore.”

Noam just joined the guard squad.