Chapter 67

 

Morning of Day 14 since entering the gnome’s warren;

One word puts the fear into all our hearts as we see the first one come through the small dwarf door. And everyone the small creepy evil soldier’s wicked smile as it’s on our side of the door!

“Goblins,” one of the gnome elders says near us as we were wondering what they were. He’s cursing partly in our language and partly in gnomish. They have a lot of racial slurs for goblins that won’t go directly into our language.

The gnome lieutenant is near him. I hear them discussing it.

Damn it...

Really? That’s what goblins look like?

They do match the description, but in mythology goblins seem to be portrayed as these wimpy push over creatures. These look extremely fierce and cunning, though still small. The intensity of evil and depredation in their eyes and on their faces makes me not want to under estimate them. Also they move so quick and are completely ruthless. Nothing about them is afraid to move.

This particular one streaks across the courtyard to dodge arrows and soldiers trying to slash it. It didn’t last long and is killed off by a dwarven axe wielder. But its disturbing that it got on our wide of the fortifications.

“But which clan are they?” The lieutenant says back in the language enchant. He wants to go to the front line but he’s fishing for clues from the elder on anything that might help him fight back.

“I’m not familiar with goblin heraldry unfortunately. I think it reads as ‘Spitting Rock Clan? Sorry I’m not more well versed in their factions,” he shrugs.

“Is it political then to not admit you are right about goblin heraldry?” I muttered under my breath. Of course I didn’t say it to the others so they didn’t hear me.

“Dang. I was hoping you didn’t say that,” came back the reply as the two are talking to each other.

“They’re the new move-ins to that old cavern right?”

“That’s what the scout said last year. But was he thorough? We thought nobody was left in there, but this is a sizable force.”

“I doubt it. It was an old cavern abandoned from plague hitting it hard. Anyone who goes there would be aware of the superstitions and that would make them reluctant to scout a new goblin community. If you thought you would get infected with sickness by scouting a territory how would you do the job without being overcome with fear?”

“Eh?! Goblins?” Asakura exclaims. She tugs at my sleeve.

“What? Are you sure? It seems this world, has a lot of weird creatures huh,” Rina is also confused seeing it.

“Don’t get close to them. We need to find out what we’re dealing with first,” I warned her.

She nods very seriously. “I wasn’t going to…” she shakes her head.

“Are there really such things? I know that’s what they said, but it can’t be right?” Asakura asks.

“We survived orcs. We can survive this,” I said to her, patting her on the back.

Yumi remains silent. She’s very skeptical about a plan of action. It’s good that she’s not in charge. “No, no, no, no! This can’t be happening! I don’t want this!” she’s holding her head now in her hands. I didn’t realize Yumi was in this fragile state. Has always being the first on the front line because of her shield ability made her feel trauma?

I’d better talk to her later about this.

Yumi is buckling on some homemade knee guards. It’s a good idea. I wish she’d said she had such things. I would have wanted to see if we could replicate the same invention for the others. But it is her personal property so I can’t complain.

The others are also getting their weapons ready. I still wish we had some kind of armor system.

“Shit! Why do we end up with so much trouble Shun?” Rina asks me with wilted expression.

“We’ll get through it,” I stated simply, but I was wondering how in my mind.

“What do we do Shun? Do you have a plan?” Asakura asked me. She patted me on the back. I think I liked it. If we weren’t in such a shitty position I would have returned the action and have been able to appreciate it more.

“We get ready to defend ourselves. We stay alive and stay together, and we don’t separate from each other as a team,” I countered.

“Let’s just hope the dwarves cut them up first,” Yumi says thickly.

Somehow the dwarves aren’t doing as well as I thought. Actually that may be the problem. Everyone thinks the dwarves are going to fix this somehow.

Already there’s more than one goblin! And they are trying to come through en mass! The dwarves moved up to stop them, but combat has already started.

We’re shocked to see our first look at goblins. They surge through the door on a scampered like half crouch run using both their feet and legs. They seem very agile and quick. They also look very impressive, yet strange and bizarre. They also didn’t quite look like the strong and large orc fear mongers that we’d seen, and not only the differences in appearance were apparent, but their posture was completely different too. They tend to like have a leaning forward gait to them, and their hips don’t rotate the same as humans do, when they move. Their shoulders also swing wide and different, possibly because their bone socket joints are different from humans somehow. It doesn’t mean they aren’t coordinated or balanced however.

They don’t seem like the fodder troops that video games and other things make them out to be, I again see. They are fierce thinking, and independent warriors.

At first I didn’t believe these were goblins either. It was self denial about a bad situation, and also that they weren’t as pathetic as I wanted to them to be.

Not only are they more impressive than I thought they would be they have strange light green colored skin. But it’s not a putrid dark fleshy green like stories portray it to be, it’s more of a pale and light healthy looking green or gray, at least on some of them. Then there are the strange almost reptilian eyes that have a strange stare to them. They don’t look as ugly as I thought they would. They even look whole degrees better than orcs.

They seem to have elongated and lanky limbs and skinny trunks with strange barbarian like ornaments of feathers and paint all over. They are also only a bit taller than dwarves but also much shorter than humans by approximately the same degree. Of course their limbs are much slimmer than humans by quite a bit, almost emaciated in nature.

Even while some are taller than dwarves they look like the dwarves could stomp them, plus the dwarves are way better equipped in strong, shiny metal gear with hardly any skin showing. But the goblins make up for it in numbers.

I study them moving about as they are attacking the dwarves relentlessly on the front of the skirmish line down below us.

Their chest plates are cleverly done but something from a vivid nightmare. They seemed to commonly use a woven mesh of bones sewn together to make a structure that will prevent them from being stabbed through the bone mesh weave. There are even a few with parts from giant beetle carapaces. It goes from their shoulders and neck all the way to their black colored loincloths which have some kind of red paint markings for military order and ranks on them.

This marking system on their clothes and armor bits is somewhat similar to the orcs, but unlike the orcs these seem more detailed and well built in their equipment. Goblins have a sort of torture and military industry it seems. I wondered if the only things they could make were hunting and military oriented.

Some of them have made shoulder plates out of bits of human skulls. I didn’t think it was possible either, but with altering the skulls a bit they seemed to make it work. It works in promoting fear among the gnomes I see. They’ve brought sewing flesh and bones together to new meaning.

The orcs would be jealous. I never thought I would ever see such things in my life.

They are so fast surging through the door that I’m very impressed. Wow they are fast.

Within five seconds more than ten of them have somehow skittered through the front door and more are pouring in by the second.

“Wow they are fast,” Yumi cried out.

“Ah, now I get it. This was a trap from the beginning,” Asakura says in awe.

“What? What do you mean?” I asked.

“They let the dwarves close in to try and get through the gate. The dwarves think they won through by skirmish, but it was a setup from the start! They probably had this set up for weeks or months to shadow the next caravan in and steal a march in from behind,” she explains.

If Asakura said it, it’s reliable logic.

“So it really is an invasion? This is scary shit!” Rina wonders. She’s now terrified. Suddenly now the others are becoming terrified too because of what she just said.

“We’ll deal with it,” I said quickly to get control of the situation.

“Shun, do you think the activity of the orcs and goblins is related to each other?” Asakura asked me.

“You mean are they teaming up?” I asked her to clarify.

“Yeah.”

I pause thinking about it. It’s very possible. But I don’t want them to get paranoid and think the wrong ideas. So I settle for a halfway point. “Ask me that after this battle is over. We’d really need to interrogate some of them to confirm,” I stated.

“Y-you’re sure? We can’t fight an army of goblins? Didn’t we already pay the price against the orcs?” Rina asked.

I nod slowly. “We’ll figure something out. We’re not just going to let them eat and kill us. We’re also stronger than we were a few weeks ago when all hell broke loose. We can do this,” I said with a lot of hate. They made me remember our first day on this planet.

“Yep. And we’re right in the middle of it. This is the worst thing that could happen fighting underground is so much worse in the darkness that never goes away,” Yumi says in response.

Eh? Shoot, that was kind of a good point huh?

We’re not very good at aiming with our rock throwing at this distance without hitting the dwarves. So range support is out. At this point it’s possible things could still get contained.

Recklessly the goblins have done a suicidal charge already tried to push back the dwarves to allow for more room for their brethren to get in the front gate. It’s crazy how they were running onto the dwarves’ weapons.

The gnomes are cheering seeing them die, but then I see the trouble.

But the problem was how fast they were coming in. The rate of new goblins coming in was faster than the ones dying, which is a major red flag too. They also seem to be able to roll in almost on top of each other with pretty amazing agility and training.

You can’t do moves like that without a lot of practice; and because I realize that my stomach has a lurching feeling. It’s amazing how many of them are getting through. Many of them die right away but they’ve opened up more room for goblins behind them to move in. It’s like they are trying to see how many dominoes at the same time, they can pack in at once.

They probably drugged their own people much like the orcs were doing to not have fear of dying on the first wave. They are trying to not cut each other up while pushing each other against the dwarves. The dwarves are now reacting badly because they are being pushed while it’s cutting down their swinging room. Ironically the goblin bodies have slowed the dwarves’ ability to react.

The gnome elders are screaming out orders frantically to try to get the breaches sealed as they realize what a bad situation this is. But it’s too late for that. Within a minute the dwarves have changed formation to a semi-circle and are chopping at the growing pile of goblins. They are relentless in their fury to crush the goblins. Their weapons are heavy too, and can crush limbs in one shot.

What surprises me too is that the goblins don’t die easily. They even sometimes seem to be able to take a few mortal hits before crashing to the floor before getting stomped on by the dwarves booted feet. We see the dwarven commanders barking commands, and holding their lines together. The dwarves are the only force that is doing any good right now for the allied group against the goblins.

Underground warfare is way more hellish than above ground, I realize, while sweating.

But none of them can reach the hole in the gate down at the bottom of the bowl shaped courtyard. It’s a second problem waiting to happen. And the gore mess in the front skirmish line is steadily getting bigger by the second.

“Ah no way! There’s more of them!” Yumi points at the big hole that the spiders had made in the gate slightly further away and high off the ground. This big hole is about ten feet up above the dwarf door. We can see goblins dropping in from above as well from the hole there. One by one they drop down safe falling to the floor and then rolling into the fight, going after both gnomes and dwarves. But the dwarves are too short to be able to fight against the hole in the gate which is now working against us, in addition to the dwarf door being open.

Dang it, there are now two small fronts, which will very soon become one big front.

The other gnomes are throwing javelins at the hole now to try to hit anything coming through it. But they also have to be careful of friendly fire and to not hit the dwarves in the cross fire nearby. The gnomes seem to like to throw the javelins in like pools of ten or more to try to go for maximum effect.

Sometimes they spear a few goblins and even kill them, but some are just wounded. There is also so many pouring in through the hole that the goblins are in danger of trampling each other alive. It’s crazy to watch it happen, just like a leaky sink faucet they are going in.

We can see the dwarves weapons flash with both speed and power as they are trying to cut down the goblins as fast as they can. It’s labor intensive. They are better at parrying and blocking the goblins, but the goblins seem to focus on agile quick attacking and overwhelming with numbers. I am still impressed though, when I see a dwarf can parry and choke a goblin with one hand because of their strength, and then with the other hand parry a second goblin.

“Shun what do we do?” Asakura wonders.

All the sudden I hear and feel Rina tugging at my sleeve and she whispers, “I’ve got to pee Shun.”

“The hell? We have priorities,” I hissed at Rina. “Just wait. We have to fight back, but not in a way that will suicide us. We can’t risk going to the front line. They’d just try to kidnap you girls,” I added.

“I don’t know. They look pretty tough. They also seem faster than humans,” Yumi says dourly. She’s pulled out her energy shield again and already moved into position to provide cover for us.

“But are they faster because these are like shock troops or because all of them are like that?” Asakura wondered.

“If they are faster than people we may have our work cut out for us. They are still a biological organism. Biological organisms can be killed,” I said.

“I don’t know,” Yumi answered worriedly.

“Hey bro, don’t you have some kind of secret bad-ass-ness hidden away? Maybe you can share it with us,” Rina seemed to be expecting me to solve this again.

“By the way I still have to pee,” she adds quickly.

“You’re wrong about that,” I said.

Despite denying she shakes her head in disagreement.

“Hang tight. We need to look for the best opportunity to make a difference and still survive. We’re also not as tough as the gnomes and dwarves,” I said.

“True,” Rina acknowledged.

“But we need to help them right?” Asakura asked me.

“Yes, but the gnomes and the dwarves are accustomed to living underground. They know these tunnels better than we do. They also know where they can flee to, if they have to. We have none of that, so we have to pick our battles more carefully,” I said.

Asakura nodded.

They all are staying really close to me for comfort it seems. I’m surprised to find Asakura is holding my arm tightly again with fingers clutching my bicep. Normally I would think it felt really good, but now the timing is bad.

The steady stream of goblins going is not stopping. We have to do something.

We get our equipment ready but I don’t want us to rush to the front lines. That wouldn’t be good. I still don’t know how stable my condition is going to be.

Soon we will have to engage. I’m getting ready to give the signal. There’s still not a lot of room though, but if the gnomes keep dying the way they are, we will be filling in the open slots they’ve left on the front line.

Within another minute the goblins are all over the place filling every available nook and cranny. The gnomes are good at their pole arm team tactics but it’s not good enough. The goblin swarms have started to have to trample on their dead brethren. The goblin blood in the place is making parts of the floor slick.

The gnomes are covering the large hole, not the dwarves and they aren’t exactly in the same area because of how big the gate is. There isn’t a good way to reinforce the gnomes from this area. But if we don’t reinforce them soon then the dwarven formation will end up being attacked with more than one front and they could then start dying quickly.

I notice the gnomes are not even half as good at fighting as the dwarves are. The dwarven half circle formation has stayed constant and hasn’t been pushed back anymore. Except for the hole in the gate near it, it seems the goblins have been contained. But the part where the gnomes are trying to maneuver is in danger of collapse. With such a small team, moving in when the goblins are about to surge past allied defense lines is a tactical mistake.

The dwarves don’t have it easy.

As we watch, the three critically wounded dwarves are ordered by their leader to retreat up the trail towards us. They start marching our direction. They seem like they have to be forced to leave their comrades. It’s impressive to see such loyalty.

Again their leader barks at the heavily wounded to leave.

More human refugees from our group have arrived by now too, and have started to line the cover fire positions. It’s the event we were waiting for. I wanted to not be the only humans fighting here too.

“That traitor,” Rina scowls maliciously at them.

“What?” I asked confused.

Rina points, while Asakura’s breath stops in shock. She covers her mouth, “oh my. Why are they over there instead of with us?”

I can see Akira and Yuriko, but strangely they are with Saiya and a group of her bodyguards. As expected from what I’d thought about this situation Vira is with them, who gives me an apologetic look. Vira was with them originally so that’s expected. But the look she gave us implies she might be won over if we can build more trust with her in future battles.

They were supposed to be on my team!

Poachers...

Our team got recruited by someone else so easily…they are laughing and patting Akira on the back. They clearly intend to use him as their pusher and tank to fight their way through.

So cheaty…they lured him with their charms. I can’t compete with that…nor do I want to. He should have had more loyalty.

I’m trying to not grind my teeth in anger at what he just did.

Our attention is ripped back to the battle. By now the goblins have surged in and are forming more than one front. It’s rapidly spilled out of control. They are coming closer.

I’ve been reluctant to engage because I wasn’t sure if I’ve rested long enough. The combined mana regeneration rate of all of the different soul crystals is there though.

Do I risk it?

I try to concentrate and go over the feeling of making it surge and pulse within me.

It’s there. It feels strong. Like I’ve never felt strong with magic; it helps with managing the fear. I’m also a bit curious to see how well I can do now that I’ve grown a lot more.

It’s also like I can feel the heartbeats of the others. Of course it’s not that strong with Ayumi Sensei, nor with Fox Girl yet sort of…Fox Girl is resisting me so I don’t feel her emotion but I feel her power. Sunghee is felt more strongly however, since she’s thrown herself to me with her loyalty. It’s almost like I can feel her strength.

They said I was a type of summoner right? So that means I can summon them? Or just use an increase of power and mana pool right now? But while I try to feel out the right action I’m riddled with doubts.

I have to make sure I’m careful. If I use too much power then the manaburn may become a permanent condition.

That means…my options are…