Chapter 39: Goblins

Karl kept them moving south toward the edge of town, even when he felt the occasional pull of exertion, as Hawk took out lone Goblins that had been hiding in town. He was not happy about the situation, as they smelled terrible and were inedible to him, but there was the promise of Iron Tusk boars in the distance as soon as he found and eliminated them all.

"They really prepared a brutal test for us today. Hawk has found five more wandering Goblins so far, and we're still not to the larger pack of six. Take out whichever ones you want when we arrive. Your spell is slower to cast than Rend, so I will let you lead off the attack, and then I will keep them from getting to us.

How are you doing on the multiple missiles' effort?" Karl asked.

"I can still only control two at a time, but once I get the spell started, it should be much faster to send the next volley. Are there any awakened rank Goblins in the pack?" She replied.

"According to Hawk, they're all Common grade followers, there is no sign of a stronger leader. The Elite who came here first likely dealt with the stronger foes and then left the rest, or they ran and came back." Karl replied.

Karl caught a glimpse of flames in the distance, on the outskirts of town, and put a finger to his lips to signal silence from here forward. The goblin camp was loud, preparing for something, and they didn't even have a guard out when Karl led the way to the edge of the clearing where they had set up. Once they were close, he crouched, getting low to the ground so that his uniform didn't stand out quite as badly, and did his best to move silently.

It was clear that there had once been many more Goblins here, but presently only six remained, easy prey for the two Elites.

Dana focused and put a pair of Magic Missiles into the back of two of the goblins near the fire pit, while Karl took out the one closer to them. Then he aimed for the one who reacted the fastest, and another who was trying to run.

Dana got the last of them in the back, and Karl rose to his feet to go make sure they were really dead. There would be nothing worse than having what they thought was a defeated enemy come from behind and ambush them, but as he made his way through the camp, Karl immediately began to regret moving in for a closer look.

He had forgotten what Goblins eat, which was mostly the flesh of the villagers they slaughtered, and the stench was overpowering. But after motioning for Dana to stay put for the moment and watch for reinforcements, he checked all the bodies, giving them all a quick stab with a pilfered goblin sword before moving back to their hiding spot.

"They're finished. Let's move back into town and take care of the rest of the targets, then we can kill the pigs and have some lunch before waiting to see what else we are supposed to be doing here. I think that this should be it, but I was expecting a bit more guidance." He explained.

"So was I. When they said that there wouldn't be much of a chance that we would be meeting the other students, I didn't think that they meant we wouldn't even be in the same town. What does Hawk say about the situation?" Dana replied.

[Nothing else is moving. I even went up high, and there was nothing else around but the pigs. I even stopped at the houses, and there was no sound of heartbeats or movement inside. Does that mean that we're done, and we can have lunch now?] Hawk replied, hopefully.

[Meet us before we go deal with the pigs. There is an awakened one there, and it might not be safe for you to go alone. Who knows what sort of ability he might have.]

The wild Iron tusk Boars were happily rooting through the town's garbage pile when Karl arrived, with Dana right behind him and the Hawk circling overhead.

The largest of them was Hawk's target for lunch. It was newly into the Awakened rank, and gave off a sense of power that Dana recognized long before Karl did.

"It has magic. I'm not sure what, but it can use some sort of magical spell." She whispered.

"Alright then, we ambush it. All three of us at once will attack the largest boar, and then we will deal with the others. How is your stamina holding up? Have you rested long enough since the fight with the Goblins?"

Dana nodded. "I held back, so the expenditure wasn't nearly as high. I am ready to fight."

She moved to Karl's left, then climbed up on top of a small stone shed and lay on her stomach to get a good angle of attack. That should keep the boars away from her for a moment, until they could knock down the wall, but she wasn't so high that she would get hurt jumping down.

[Hawk, your dinner is served. Attack the big one when Dana does, with as much as it takes to kill it. I will deal with the others.]

Dana fired a pair of Magic Missiles into the Awakened boar, and six streaks of [Rend] came down to meet them, converging on its neck as the beast reared back to block the missiles with its tusks.

Then Karl attacked, throwing Rend attacks into the closest two boars and moving forward to attract the attention of the remaining three. They were all close to Awakened in power, and their hides were beginning to toughen, but it wasn't enough to keep his attacks from penetrating.

Then Hawk arrived, sending out two more attacks into the back of the charging boars, while Dana targeted the last survivor, a greedy one who hadn't stopped eating as soon as the others had.

"Well, that was anticlimactic. I thought that it was going to be a much harder fight." Dana noted.

"Don't jinx it, we are still not back at the Academy. But I will cut up these boars so that Hawk can get a fresh lunch, and we will bring them back with us."

How he was planning to do that was a mystery to Dana, but after Karl pulled a textbook from his coat for reference before beginning to butcher the pigs, she assumed that he had some actual plan.

Then, the first of them disappeared, just vanished in front of her eyes, and Karl moved on to the next.