"What did you sense?" Iris asked Kia as she too began to scan the slowly rolling lush green plains around her. 

 

"Lots of small creatures ahead." The girl stated as she stood up ready to do battle with thick black fog materializing swiftly between her slender fingers.

 

"Remember, humans can see us." The risen reminded the undead mage.

 

  The pair sudden movement gained the attention of the few surrounding humans idly riding their large mounts while reminiscing about the home only a few days in front of them.

 

"Hey Naka, do you see this, the elf finally stood up?" A blue mask with few slushy green streaks pointed at the two foreigners. "Oh, and the girl moved too?"

 

"O my, you are right." A surprised woman's voice sounded from behind a pure black mask. "I wonder how on the spirits can they sit still for multiple phases at a time. My butt hurts from even thinking about it.” The woman readjusted herself in the saddle. “Doesn’t the elf look troubled?”

 

“Meh, she always looks like she had bitten into a sour fruit. I wouldn’t bother myself with her.” The male shrugged his shoulders before resuming eating the leather-like strip of black meat.

 

“Are you sure? I am pretty sure she casted some kind of protective spell.” The human female pointed at the tall figure surrounded by a weak orange halo and a bright fireball slowly orbiting around her waist.

 

“Y-yea?” The man turned again toward the elf before stuttering his uncertain answer watching the elf and her slave swiftly make their way to the front of the caravan, toward Ruu and their clan’s shaman.

 

“Did something happen, I-Iris?” Ruu swivelled his body backwards toward the elf and her short human companion while steering his mount forward. 

 

“There are hostile creatures in front of us.” Iris reported to the mountain of a human champion.

 

“Impossible, spirits would have alerted me.” A cold, confrontational voice reached the risen’s ears.

 

“Like the last time? Weren’t you just complaining to me again that the spirits are not responding to you?” Ruu frowned at his fellow human as he raised his fist causing the caravan to magically stop. 

 

“Because they are angry.” Kasheng hissed at her fellow human before stealing a glance at the elf.

 

"Maybe they are angry at you. My ideas are currently paying their dividends. Surely that means the spirits are on my side, wouldn't you agree?" The tall warrior waggled his pointing finger in the air as he boasted to the annoyed shaman with a small smile.

 

"Mmmm?" Iris looked down beside her and saw Kia tugging on her fingers while pointing at the grass beyond the two pointlessly arguing humans.

 

"I would focus on the task at hand." She voiced her mistress's silent command before walking past the humans. "How many are there?" She asked while readjusting her glove. 

 

"Too much interference," The girl answered after a lengthy pause. "Maybe fifty?" The elf saw the mage's pale face pucker into an ugly unsure pout.

 

  Iris scanned the horizon filled only by the knee-high grass softly rippling in the wind, concealing whatever the undead girl had sensed. She suddenly sensed the ground under her feet soften before hardening again into a rock-hard surface. "?" She jumped away from the strange spell before seeing the grass around them melting into steaming green puddles of goo before being covered by a thin glass-like layer.

 

"Didn't I say no necromancy?" Iris frowned at the Kia, who better have a good answer for the elf staring at the certainly not benevolent and acceptable school of magic.

 

"That's not necromancy though?" The confused mage explained to the unconvinced hoplite staring at the malevolent spell.

 

  The magically expanding clearing covered the area of fifteen meters around the girl before stopping. Iris watched as the grass began to move more than its gentle sway as dozen small paths got closer to the perfectly circular killing ground.

 

  A large hooked nose parted the grass before small dirt green sparkless eyes met with the risen causing it to stop. The creature fell onto the hard glass-like ground squashing its large nose as another creature bumped into the first. 

 

[Inspect]

 

[Stepp Goblin Tracker Level 19]

{A subspecies of standard goblinoid}

 

 

"Goblin with a class?" Iris thoughtlessly said aloud as she watched the blue-skinned goblin with patchy green hair covering its body struggling to stand up.

 

  An ice-blue blur flew beside Iris without waiting for her to move, piercing the second goblin's face and causing its body to fall onto the unlucky first. A high pitch warcry suddenly rose from every direction as rocks and crudely made javelins arced their way toward them.

 

"[Infernal Mirage]" The firefly orbiting around Iris slightly shrunk with each impact.  "That is definitely more than fifty goblins." Iris muttered as she saw goblins going passed her and attacking the caravan.

 

"Gya!" A brown-furred vermin chucked a spear at the elf before unsheathing a stone dagger and charging at her. 

 

  The elf stabbed the charging goblin in the torso before having to kick the goblin off as more of its kind burst into the clearing. One of the goblins managed to smash its dagger on the elf's knee, sending the shards into the air.

Dark oily blood dripped from the tip of the elf's spear as she stepped on the annoying goblin's chest trying to take off her shoe. Instead of fear the small round eyes stared back at Iris with a berserk rage before the vermin's roaring spark of life was snuffed out by her boot. Reading herself again, the hoplite swiped her spear in front of her at a goblin archer before cleaving him from shoulder to hip. 

 

  Not even a quarter of a bell passed before the conjured crystal under the risen feet was covered with a thick layer of blood as dozen of dismembered goblins lay scattered around the bloodied elf and the pearless mage keeping a fair distance from the incoming horde.

 

"HEHEHE!"

 

  Ephemeral laughter tolled deep in the grass as three flaming goblin heads locked onto Iris leaving long dark green tails behind them.

A ghostly green hand popped into existence with a large knife and stabbed the ground where the laughing head had struck the ground where Iris once stood. The remaining two missiles magically curved toward Iris, the first green head triggered her ward spell shattering it in an instant before being followed by another of its warped kind. The magical knife mockingly hovered above her knee as the maddening laughter dwindle before plunging into her flesh. A strange tingle travelled up her body, instead of pain trickling slowly into her brain an odd humorous mood took hold in her body as her body buckled. 

 

  Iris took a deep breath as the intrusive feeling was plucked out of her mind and she regained full control of her body. 

A white mist sparkled in the sun as it flowed between the risen's legs toward the direction where the goblin shaman was hiding. The mist crept into the grass causing the blades to snap from the lightest touch but the unhinged laughter continued to mock the two undead.

 

"Kia can you deal with the shaman?!" Iris shouted as she cut open another goblin and threw its still shrieking body at the strange spell taking inspiration from the Skulltaker trying to gain the girl more time.

 

  In a cruel turn of events, the goblin's body seemed to react to the spell as its body arced green lighting rapidly draining the wounded goblin into a dried husk. From between its horribly cracked lips, two cackling heads escaped before the goblin's mummified head separated from its body and flew toward the ground.

 

  The elf felt a protective spell being casted on her by the necromancer just as she rolled under the speeding ball of laughing green energy. As she thought she had dodged the shaman's attack she felt her body being pressed against the ground. Iris saw as the feint blue aura on her skin turned into glass and cracked when she felt the sharp pinch of the ghostly dagger sinking its edge into her back.

 

*Boom*

 

  Shards of the crystalized soil brushed against Iris's cheek as she was thrown into the half-frozen grass as the third projectile impacted the ground in a green festival of flame.

 

"Kia!" As soon as the risen could stand up she had called out to her companion amidst the black smoke and puffs of green flames.

 

  The soil ripped from the ground by the spell hadn't even stopped raining down as a mob of fiendish vermin surrounded the two. Four of the step goblins jumped the unprepared mage and began attempting to claw her long onyx black dress from her pale body.

Kia's deathly pale blue eye gleamed with power as she managed to free her right hand away from the goblins and close her fist.

 

"Gyaaa-!?" The four goblins abruptly stopped as their eyes became bloodshot and their limbs began to twist and turn in the most disturbing fashion.

 

  A noisy symphony of diverse snapping noises sounded from around the undead mage. Kia's fist remained closed keeping the goblins alive until her furious glare met with the amethyst eyes of the elf. The mage instantly hid her clutched hand away from the risen's eyes causing the goblin closest to her to choke on its own blood and cover her in the dark oily blood.

 

"Later." Iris snapped at the ashamed girl as she searched the devastated landscape around her for the goblin shaman.

 

  A high pitch scream grazed the elf's left ear and as she quickly glanced at the source of the goblin screams three riderless terror birds charged through the grass like wildfire. Before she could process what was happening the birds had lunged at the grass and in a blink of an eye Iris could see limbs flying in the air.

 

"Wha-? Dead D-dead thing run run!" A goblin in front of Iris screamed as the flame in his eyes died down before a black spear tip properly extinguished the flame for good.

 

"Any more surprises for today?" The elf grimaced at the retreating goblins running away from the caravan and passing her. "Are you hurt?" 

 

She turned around and walked up to the necromancer.

 

"I'm not hurt." Kia looked up at the concerned elf standing above her.

 

"Are you sure?"

 

"Yes," The girl insisted before asking the elf her own question. "What magic did the goblin used?" 

 

"Kia," Iris rested her left arm on her hip and shook her head as she spotted the spark in the girl's eyes. "You are the expert on this, not me." Her answer clearly displeased the girl but she didn't have time to respond as the ground itself shook.

 

"Are you two unharmed?" The human leader rode his mount behind them casting a large shadow over them.

 

"Yes, we are unharmed," Iris replied to the human holding a bloody sword in his free hand. "I thought the unmounted terror birds would run away from you."

 

"No, they don't do that. These stubborn basterds rather die with us than run away, am I right?" Ruu ruffled the bird's feathers causing its large eyes to close in some sort of smile. "Also these lovely creatures fight goblins in the wide plain naturally and they go wild after some tasty goblin shaman meat."

 

"That is good to know I guess, will those birds come back, though?" The tall elf pointed toward the birds running through the grass toward the horizon.

 

"They do that sometimes. No matter how much you try you can get the wilderness fully out of a wild terror. You know, it gives the tamed ones a bit of character and bravado," The human spoke softly about the birds like nothing had just happened as the wind picked up dramatically causing Ruu's mount to turn toward the wind. "Don't worry they going to come back... tomorrow for dinner probably."

 

"Do you need us to do anything?" Iris asked the human wearing the white mask.

 

"No, I am going to check on others but you must be exhausted from fighting so many goblins so go and rest," Ruu answered, pointing at the clearing. "While I am talking to you that... golem of yours was extremely useful." He gave the elf a nod before steering his mount toward the caravan. "Oh, just in case something had happened. Our shaman has temporary problems with... doing her job properly. Do you perhaps know any healing magic?" The bloody hoplite glanced at the necromance, who shifted her eyes up searching for something in her memory before giving an unconvinced nod.

 

"In an emergency, you could try your luck." 

 

"Ahh, hopefully, I would not have to ask you for more than you already have done." The human kicked the bird's flank and sped away.

 

"Stupid birds." Iris heard the girl mumble under her nose as they got closer to the caravan.

 

"Why are they stupid?" She decided to bud into Kia's thoughts.

 

"I wanted to examine the goblin mage's body and they ripped it into tiny ribbons." The filth-covered undead mage glumly replied.

 

"Kia, Kia," The risen whispered the girl's name as she shook her head before tapping her shoulder, feeling an oily substance sneaking under her clothes. "Could you cast clean on us?"

 

"Blah." The girl stuck her tongue out in disgust before lightly shaking her fingers in the exact same dance the vampire's maid had shown her. In a tick, all the blood and filth on their bodies turned into light before disappearing into thin particles floating with the wind away from them. 

 

  As they walked along the wagons with new scratches made into them. Iris saw the golem standing beside the wagon siblings usually occupied which was missing one of its wheels with a mountain of goblin-beheaded corpses below its feet. A number of arrows, scorch marks and even teeth marks were scattered around its clay body. Given how not all the arrows embedded in the golem were of shoddy quality and the number of goblins with arrows in their backs. She would guess the humans used Kia's creation as some sort of distraction for a portion of the assaulting goblins.

 

  The elf helped the shorter undead climb smoothly onto the last wagon in the line before pulling herself up onto the wooden deck. Kia waited for her to sit down before gluing herself to the risen.

 

"Kia nobody saw you cast that spell- Kia?" Iris turned her body toward the girl trying to pull her hood up which had again slipped because of the strong wind. "Why are you smouldering?!" She stared at the girl from which white smoke slowly rose.