From Millfield Village, the hunters were led to the site where the livestock were killed by the goblins and tracked the goblins west, after taking a look at the tracks left by the goblins, it was so obvious that even your average peasant could follow. It seems that goblins do not put much stock in covering their tracks.
We made our way west to a rocky and sparsely wooded area. We stopped at the treeline and waited as the hunters went ahead to follow the trail of the goblins and the dead livestock they dragged back.
While we were waiting, everyone was waiting for the hunters to report back, a watch was posted as the men rested and checked their equipment again.
After close to 2 hours, the hunters came back with their findings. They had to dodge around 30 goblins that were out foraging and hunting in small groups. When they followed one of the returning groups, they found a crack in the side of a hill that the goblins were going to and fro.
Dad turned to his men who were listening in on the report and asked, “So what do you think lads, 50 to 60 goblins?”
One of the knights, Sir Ector, spoke up, “Seeing that there are 30 goblins out and about in the same area, confirms the presence of an evolved goblin, so aye, I would say that's about right.”
Dad nodded and said, “Alright, seems easy enough. Let's do this by the book, corner and kill them, Tristan, take 10 men and handle the left, Emrys, 10 men to the right, and the rest of us will push up the middle to the nest. Each of our groups will take a hunter as a guide.”
With that said, they broke off to muster the men into their teams. Not knowing what to do and feeling kind of useless, I asked Dad, “Sooo, what is our role?”
Dad looked at me and chuckled, “No need to be so anxious Luke, today you are just here to observe.”
“That's it? I thought I would be taking part in the subjugation mission.” I asked.
Hearing this, Dad’s eyes became sad, “Son, I know it has been hard for you ever since taking your first life when the assassins attacked. Even I had sleepless nights when I took my first life, but don't be so eager to spill blood, even if they are pests that need to be purged. I have seen many good men turn into monsters when they get too used to killing. I do not want that to happen to you.”
I look down as I recall the nights I would wake up with a cold sweat while I was recovering from my long-term aura usage. Eventually, I was able to rationalize that those assassins were targeting my family and had it coming, so fuck them.
After a few seconds of silence, I told Dad, “It's fine Dad, it's not that. I just feel… useless, while everyone around me is working.”
Dad just pats me on the back while chuckling, “Nothing to feel useless about son, you do not know what you are doing, so you are here to observe and learn. Nobody is expecting you to join in the subjugation right now. In fact, it would be dangerous for you and the people around you if you joined. So far, you have only learned how to fight on your own, but in massed combat, you must learn to fight with others beside you.”
I already kind of knew how to fight in formation from my hobby in my previous life, but I kept my mouth shut. Who knows, a world that employs massed melee combat a hell of a lot more often than they did in my previous time period might teach me a thing or two.
Soon, the 2 knights and their men broke off from the main group on foot to engage the goblins on the far left and right. We gave them a 10 minute head start to get into position and start their attack before the main section led by the remaining 2 knights made their move.
Spread out in a wide line, were groups of 2-3 men with the knights moving between them, all while me and Dad was some distance back to observe as we closed in on the goblin nest approximately 1km away.
After some time, we started encountering goblins which were promptly and easily dispatched, and after seeing the goblins in the flesh for the first time, I understood why. They were just a bunch of ugly meter-tall skinny humanoids who were armed with pointy sticks as spears or shorter sticks that were used as clubs. Most of them did not even have a loincloth and were just walking around with their dangly bits flopping around.
As we encountered more goblins, I noticed that they would mostly attack if they had numerical superiority, so if the group of goblins did not notice that the grouped-up men had other groups nearby, they would attack. If they noticed the other groups, they would always run away.
The other thing I noticed is that all the goblins we encountered were male. Were all the females back at the nest to be used purely as breeding stock?
Eventually, the crack in the hill came into view and Dad leaned over to whisper to me, “If anything goes wrong and you need to defend yourself with magic, try to do it with circle magic while people are watching.”
As I nodded, I saw goblins retreating into the crack from not only our direction but also from the left and right, no doubt the work of the other 2 teams that were sent out.
When the last of the goblins entered the crack, the men at arms formed a shield wall encircling the crack with crossbows pointed at the entrance. Soon after, the left and right teams rejoined us and joined the shield wall, and the knights reported back to Dad.
After studying the entrance, Dad asked Sir Lucan who was decked out in half-plate armor to scout the entrance. So after grabbing his shield and changing out his long sword with a short sword, he entered the crack with a lit torch.
Sir Lucan entered the crack and after a few seconds of disappearing into the cave, there were sounds of goblin screeches, soon followed by the sounds of stones pelting off wood and metal echoing out of the cave.
Soon after, Sir Lucan exited the cave backward with his shield up, when he was well clear of the cave entrance he reported his findings, “After going in for a few meters, there is a right bend that narrows to the width of a single man, not much ceiling clearance either. The goblins were using that choke point to throw rocks at me.”
Dad thought about it for a while then said, “Going in single file for them to wack us on the other side is not an option. So if we cannot go in after them, we make them come to us. Get some men to gather some dried leaves and branches, we are going to smoke them out. Get the hunters to climb the trees to see if there are any other places besides here where smoke emerges, there may be other exits the goblins can escape from.”
After the leaves and branches were gathered at the cave entrance, Dad turned to me, “Turns out there is something you can do for this mission. Help light that pile and use wind magic to blow the smoke into the cave.”
As I nodded and went to light the heap of dried plant matter, I heard Dad say, “Ector, Emrys. Guard my boy, the moment a goblin pokes its head out, grab him and run.”
As I was flanked by the 2 knights, I purposely used hand gestures to cast a 0th circle fire to light up the bed of dried leaves, followed by a 0th circle wind to blow the smoke into the cave.
After a few minutes, the sounds of coughing started echoing out of the cave, and after a few more minutes, a shriek that sounded more guttural than the other goblins sounded out of the cave, that guttural shriek was echoed by a multitude of other shrieks.
The moment we heard that, my escorts did not even bother to wait for a goblin to show its face and picked me up before running behind the shield wall.
This is when the action begins.
Thanks for the story, I'm betting on a shaman.