Ogre Tyrant

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 07 – Underprepared and under-siege – Part Two {Rewrite}

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 07 - Underprepared and under-siege - Part Two {Rewrite}

I had a little less than three hours before the raid would begin. I hurried up the stairs to Nadine and Clarice’s room, shrugged off my pack and then pulled out the sewing kit. Hoping that Nadine would understand, I appropriated her bedroll and began visualising the outline of the necessary cuts I would soon make on the quilted fabric.

Encouraging Toofy to practice her counting song, I set to my task and did my best to keep an eye on the remaining time. Working quickly, I sewed together a padded tunic and cap for Toofy to better protect her from the weapons of the other Goblins. I also made padded caps for Nadine and Emelia since they didn't appear to have helmets of their own and some protection would be better than nothing.

Assumedly, the town and the adventurers were considered too poor to warrant an armour shop. I supposed it sort of made sense, depending on the type of armour, but I had always been led to believe that cloth armours were actually rather cheap. The fact that the majority of the adventurers in town were using variations of the padded cloth armour combined with boiled leather reinforced that assumption as well.

With just under an hour remaining, I tried to think of something I could do to improve our chances of survival but came up blank.

Heading downstairs, I was surprised to find that Kirk and Rose were both wearing padded cloth and leather armour. They also had weapons strapped to their sides and a number of crossbows laid out on the bar alongside a truly staggering pile of ammunition.

Nadine was downstairs as well, helping Kirk stack the majority of the furniture against the walls to block the windows. I decided to help and insisted that they should leave at least one table free for emergency medical treatment purposes. It was far easier to work on someone while standing than kneeling. Similarly, I filled three of the large tubs and four of the buckets with water and brought them into the common room, just in case.

Nadine gave me a curious look when I presented her with the padded cap I had made for her, but she accepted it gratefully all the same. All the more so when I pointed out that it would help keep stray hair and sweat from her eyes while fighting the Goblins or administering treatment to the wounded.

There was apparently some good news on that particular front. Nadine had negotiated and finalised a deal that secured the alchemist’s entire stock of mana potions on a provisional basis for the duration of the raid. She would also be compensated for serving in the role of triage for the duration of the raid, rather than by the number of spells cast and wounds tended.

Jacque, Clarice and Emelia were waiting for me outside, which gave me a chance to give Emelia the padded cap.

“Where did you find a gambeson in Toofy’s size?” Clarice asked curiously, taking a closer look at Toofy’s padded armour.

“I made it,” I confessed, keenly aware that it was a pretty rough-looking product.

“Really?!” Clarice looked even more impressed, “Where did you find the materials?”

I shifted somewhat uncomfortably and scratched the bridge of my nose, “Ah, I may have ruined Nadine's bedroll,” I confessed.

Clarice didn’t seem to immediately understand, but then she took a closer look at Toofy and began to laugh, “Oh this is too good!” Clarice crowed. She quickly rushed inside the inn and returned a few moments later with Nadine in tow, “You have to see this!” Clarice kept insisting.

“I don’t see what is so...IS THAT MY BED ROLL?!” Nadine demanded.

Toofy grinned and gave a demonstrative twirl to show off her new armour, completely misreading Nadine’s mood.

“It sure is!” Clarice confirmed before snorting with laughter.

Jacque was similarly entertained, chuckling quietly as she watched the drama unfold.

Even Emelia was shyly smiling from a short distance away. Although she was at least polite enough to hide it behind her hands.

“Sorry,” I apologised, “But we didn’t have any coins for materials or time to make it from scratch. I thought that maybe you wouldn’t mind so much given the circumstances.”

Nadine turned her attention to me, clearly wanting to say a few choice words but restrained herself through an act of will.

“It’s just, well, everyone else already has armour to help protect them, except for Toofy. I already saw what those wild Goblins were capable of and I didn’t want to leave her unprotected. I am sorry for ruining your bedroll, but I just didn’t see any other way,” I explained helplessly.

Nadine gnawed at her lip for a moment, glancing briefly at Toofy and then releasing a deep sigh, “No, you are right. I overreacted,” she conceded, “Besides, I can just buy another one after this is all over. Sorry, Tim.”

I just nodded awkwardly, I didn’t think Nadine had anything to apologise for. I was the one who had destroyed her property without permission. In hindsight, I really should have asked first.

Unsure of what I should do at this point, I just waited around with the others outside the inn and watched the timer countdown.

[All defensive wards and transportation portals will now be deactivated for the next 24 hours.]

*****

Gobgob and his trusted elite warriors watched as their lesser kin approached the great plains and began depositing prepared supplies just inside the edge of the tall grass. Gobgob had given considerable thought over the years to how he planned on wiping out the human nest and had settled upon a rather simple yet effective plan. Fire, Gobgob would weaken the humans with fire before assaulting their nest in force. The smoke and crazed biters would do much to weaken the humans in preparation for his eager warriors.

Lowering his spear to signal the beginning of their attack, Gobgob smiled eagerly as the gathered piles of wood and dried leaves were set alight and began spreading into the plains. Even if the fires themselves did not spread to the walls or buildings inside of the human nest, the smoke would make it much harder for the humans to watch his minions' movements.

Once the plains were well and truly ablaze, Gobgob signalled for his minions to begin their advance in the wake of the fire. Driven by the breath of the dark god itself, the flames rapidly approached the human nest while leaving Gobgob’s minions largely unharmed.

“CHICHICHI!” Gobgob screeched commandingly.

Gobgob’s loyal warriors shifted nervously and made room before their chieftain.

There was a screeching howl from the forest and a few moments later a larger and drastically stronger biter scurried out of the forest and obediently laid itself down by Gobgob’s side.

Unlike the wild soft biters of the plains, Gobgob had raised this biter to be stronger and faster than its kin. It was largely the reason for his ascendancy as chieftain all those moons ago. The large biter had made it easy to eliminate his rivals and seize the staff of leadership from the old chieftain.

Climbing onto the biter’s back, Gobgob dug in his heels and took a firm grip of the biter's fur with his left hand to avoid falling off its back.

After a couple of moments, the large biter stood itself back up and snarled intimidatingly at Gobgob’s warriors. Although it was even less intelligent than they were, the large biter understood that its position in the hierarchy outstripped their own and would tolerate no rivals.

Gobgob observed this exchange dispassionately. If any of his warriors were foolish enough to stand up to the large biter, then they were either too stupid, ambitious or strong to be of use to Gobgob anyway. Gobgob tolerated no rivals either.

From his higher vantage, Gobgob could better watch the progress of the weakest Goblins in the wake of the fire. It would not be long until their path of attack was secured and the attack could begin.

Gobgob grinned in excitement, the wrinkles of his face parting to reveal cracked and broken teeth as he cackled in anticipation of the bloodshed soon to come.

*****

The town was blanketed by smoke and was making it difficult for some of the adventurers to breathe. Thankfully, Kirk and Rose had been somewhat prepared for this eventuality and quickly began distributing wet folded squares of cloth for everyone to wear over their mouth and nose. I wasn’t certain how much it would reduce the effects, but for most adventurers, it seemed to be enough.

Curiously, I hadn’t felt the effects of smoke inhalation myself, but I still tied on an outlaw-esque bandana around my mouth and nose, just to be sure. Toofy took my instruction to only breathe through her nose in stride and seemed to be fine with just wearing the wet mask as well.

The gates to the town were now firmly shut and a large thick plank of wood barred it from opening again. From what little I knew of Goblins, I assumed they wouldn’t be able to break through the gate without the help of the Orcs since they were just too small and weak. However, I also knew that Toofy’s strength was not, well, Strength, but her Agility and proclivity to climb just about anything and everything in sight when given the opportunity.

So it was with great reluctance that I began rather foolishly scaling the outer walls of the inn towards the roof. The inn was easily the largest building in town and I would be afforded a decent view of the plains from up there, that is, I would have been under more optimal circumstances anyway. Kirk had assured me that the roof would support my weight, but I was still incredibly nervous. Toofy had insisted on coming with me, so I had to be fast to make sure that she didn’t breathe in too much smoke.

Clambering up onto the roof, I cautiously made my way to the highest point and braced against the brick chimney for support. As I had expected, the plains were awash with fire and smoke. However, upwind of the smoke, I could occasionally make out small shapes scurrying across the open ground towards the town.

“There! There!” Toofy screeched excitedly, pointing into the smoke near the closest section of the wall.

Quickly concentrating where Toofy indicated, it took me a moment to realise what I was looking at. The Goblins were all descending into a large hole in the ground a short distance from the wall!

Unsure of exactly what I should do, I decided that passing along the information was probably a good start. ‘THE GOBLINS ARE TUNNELLING UNDER THE WALL!!!” I shouted as loudly as I could while pointing in the direction of the Goblins hole. Unfortunately, my sudden outcry did not have the effect I had hoped for.

Most adventurers had been unaware that I was on the roof of the inn to begin with and couldn’t see through the haze of smoke. Other adventurers became panicked and began running around like headless chickens, spreading panic and disrupting the few who were moving to investigate my warning.

Toofy hurriedly climbed onto my back and I began making my way back down to the ground as quickly as I could manage. Unfortunately, I didn’t seem to be quite fast enough. Before I was even halfway down, I could hear cries of pain and frightened shouts for reinforcements. Opting to just fall to save climbing down the final floor, I managed to keep my feet under me and hastily strapped my shield to my arm.

Rushing in the direction of the wall, I could see that Jacque and Clarice were already engaged in a pitched battle against more than a dozen Goblins. The other adventurers who had come ahead of them were already desperately staggering away in retreat, bleeding from multiple wounds and barely standing upright.

My sudden appearance had an immediate effect on the Goblins and overwhelmed adventurers alike. The Goblins instinctively shied away from me for a handful of seconds, allowing the adventurers a much-needed opportunity to withdraw. Similarly, the adventurers, while frightened by my sudden appearance, were thankful for the reprieve.

Toofy slid off my back and began swinging her sling.

Jacque, who had almost definitely known I was coming, didn’t even glance back in my direction once as she proceeded to rapidly bludgeon four of the startled Goblins to death in rapid succession with the stave of her wooden spear.

Clarice, although a little surprised by my sudden arrival, followed Jacque’s lead and beheaded one Goblin and amputated the right arm of another at the shoulder.

Somewhat distracted by the ruthless displays of violence, by the time I reacted the Goblins had rallied and pressed the attack again.

Fairly confident that the Goblins could not hurt me with most of their weapons, I knew that finding their point of entry into the town was a higher priority than avoiding minor damage. So with that thought firmly in mind, I grit my teeth and pushed through the ranks of the Goblins and towards the wall.

Not that I had any experiences from my life on earth to make a direct comparison to, but shoving my way into and through the unruly ranks of the Goblins was what I imagined it would be like to work at a particularly unruly daycare facility. That is, if the children were all carrying weapons and trying to kill you.

As I had hoped. Thus far, none of the Goblins seemed strong enough to deal any actual damage to me, accomplishing little more than tattering my already ragged pants. This meant that it was the sling throwers like Toofy that I had to watch out for, after all, they had been the only Goblins to actually hurt me since I arrived in this world.

This was my actual reason for wanting to locate the hole. If I could stop the sling throwers from getting into the town, the chances of my survival would increase dramatically and I had to assume that everyone else's would as well.

Glancing over my shoulder to make sure that Toofy, Clarice and Jacque were alright, I was relieved to see that another four adventurers, as well as Tobi and his pet Shady had joined the fray and were managing to hold the Goblins back and avoid being overrun.

Turning back to the wall, I saw another wave of Goblins suddenly appearing from beneath a large patch of bushes. I hadn’t noticed the bushes earlier from the rooftop due to the smoke, but looking at them now, it was pretty obvious that they didn’t belong here. So far as I knew, there was no vegetation larger than the grass permitted within the town limits, for what I assumed was for precisely like this one.

Battering my way through the fresh wave of Goblins, doing my damnedest to ignore their shrieks and cursing, I swept aside the bushes and revealed an admittedly small hole. Only a little larger than the Goblins themselves, the hole would only allow one Goblin at a time to climb up into the town. In fact, I was currently staring back at one such Goblin who was halfway through climbing up the hole at this very moment.

I needed to plug the hole somehow to stop the Goblins from climbing out. Glancing briefly at my shield, I quickly dismissed the idea and moved closer to get a better look.

“EEEK!” The Goblin in the hole shrieked in terror as the walls of the hole began to collapse.

That had been completely unintentional, but it solved my problem. I was so heavy that the poorly dug hole began collapsing when I got too close to it.

The Goblins still fighting the adventurers behind me began to panic and scatter, perhaps realising that they were doomed without fresh waves of reinforcements.

Seeing that things were still very much in hand, I aggressively stamped my foot over the collapsed hole and the nearby ground to make sure that the hole would stay closed for at least a short while.

Unlike the other adventurers, Clarice and Jacque did not pursue the fleeing Goblins, instead escorting Toofy as she dashed over to my side.

“Tim see?! Tim see?!” Toofy demanded excitedly, pointing back to the fallen Goblins of the failed incursion, “Toofy kill five sausages!!!” She cried ecstatically while holding up her left hand and wiggling her fingers and thumb.

I wasn’t sure whether I should be proud, horrified or amused by Toofy’s demonstrated potential. On the one hand, this was a matter of life and death, and Toofy was just defending herself. But on the other, she really seemed to enjoy it just as much as the Goblins and adventurers had. I was glad that her communication skills from learning to count were working, but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I started teaching her. And yet, despite the carnage, Toofy referring to the fallen Goblins as sausages was pretty damned cute and I couldn’t help but smile a little in spite of myself.

Jacque was less amused, “I think this was meant as a distraction,” she said coldly, scanning the nearby area, “Did you see anything else while you were on the roof?”

I thought back on what I had seen and looked back at the small number of Goblins that lay dead nearby. “I saw maybe hundreds of Goblins headed towards a large hole outside. But for only this many to have come out already...It doesn’t make sense.”

Jacque frowned, “You're right. They almost definitely have more holes or are in the process of digging them. We should fall back to the inn and gather some of the other adventurers to help look for them.”

Clarice nodded, “If the Goblins are going to use a tunnel to invade the foothold, we need to make sure everyone stays in sufficiently large groups so they can at least weather a surprise attack long enough to receive help. If we let the Goblins pick us off one by one, it's over.”

More than willing to defer to their expertise, I followed Clarice and Jacque back to the inn and the other adventurers involved in the skirmish did the same.

Many of the adventurers were now standing around or worriedly pacing in the main street of the town. I didn’t quite understand why more of them hadn’t come to help when the Goblins were discovered inside the wall. As we passed one of these other groups, the explanation became obvious, they were afraid.

It wasn’t much of a surprise really. Most of the adventurers were young adults like me and some of them were even younger.

Who in their right mind would willingly rush off towards danger to help strangers?

Clarice didn’t seem nearly so understanding, glaring contemptuously at those who had simply watched from afar without providing any meaningful assistance.

Even though the four of us had all managed to avoid injury thus far, I could still empathise with Clarice’s position, I wasn't overly thrilled with the other adventurer’s behaviour either. I was pretty scared too, but I was still doing my part.

Seeing the Guild manager Gilbert exiting the inn, I immediately stopped and kept my distance from him. Conversely, the nearby adventurers all began surging towards the man with demands for an explanation.

Clarice decided to stay by me and Toofy, but Jacque began determinedly shoving her way through the gathering crowd and was by no means gentle about it.

I could see that once Jacque reached the front of the crowd, she leaned in close to Gilbert and began explaining the situation to him.

Gilbert’s mask of control slipped for a moment and I could see how afraid he was of the news Jacque had given him. But to my surprise, he regained his composure and began exuding an aura of authority and determination.

“SILENCE!” Gilbert cried stiffly, his voice only muffled slightly by the wet cloth tied over his face.

The effect on the surrounding adventurers was immediate, causing them to become quiet and still.

“All adventuring parties with three or more members are to partner with another party and form a group of no less than eight people! You will then take a position in front of one of the foothold’s storefronts and await further instructions! Those who do not have a party or lack sufficient members are to gather in front of the Guild office!” Gilbert’s loud commanding voice carried up and down the street with ease, noticeably reducing the nerves of most of the frightened adventurers.

All too keen to increase their numbers and secure a greater sense of safety, the various adventuring parties quickly teamed up with one another. Unsurprisingly, the higher levelled and better-equipped adventurers joined forces with one another in preference to their weaker colleagues. Similarly, it was these same adventuring parties that quickly claimed the positions closest to the inn. Whether it was to better receive Nadine’s healing or to take shelter in the sturdy building was unclear.

Jacque ignored the frantic requests of other adventurers to join their party or to team up, instead pushing back to us through the crowd. <Can you see Tobi? We need his cat!>

Since I was taller than anyone else around us, it only took a few moments for me to find Tobi and Shady amidst the crowd. <There.> I pointed over in Tobi’s direction, unsure if Jacque could see what I saw.

Jacque nodded and began pushing her way through the now-thinning crowd. After a brief exchange with Tobi and what I assumed was his party, Jacque pointed back over to me and extended her arm to Tobi. A few seconds later, Tobi’s group information was added to my peripheral vision alongside the others, signalling that he had joined the party.

Tobi and his previous party quickly began making their way over to Clarice, Toofy and myself while Jacque began carefully regarding her surroundings.

“Thanks for letting us be a part of your group,” Tobi smiled nervously.

The four other young men and women nodded determinedly in agreement, even though they were obviously intimidated by me. Judging by their equipment, they were not nearly so well off as Tobi, so their gratitude was very likely sincere.

I nodded, “Did Jacque tell you why?” I asked curiously.

Tobi shook his head, “She just said something about needing Shady’s Synergy, I think.”

That was interesting.

“Woah!” Tobi exclaimed, “Are you serious?!” He looked up at me incredulously, “How does your party have so many Synergies?!”

Shady seemed quite pleased with the situation, tensing his muscles and flexing his claws inquisitively.

Before I could reply, Tobi slapped himself on the forehead, “Oh of course! Duh! Monsters!”

The members of Tobi’s previous party gave him inquisitive looks, “What do you mean?” One of them asked, “How many synergies does Shady have?”

“Like, seven!” Tobi crowed excitedly, “And pretty much all of them are combat-oriented too!”

The other adventurers looked surprised, “Woah! And one of those is that overpowered recovery ability isn't it!” One of the young women asked excitedly.

Tobi nodded, “But I can see now that that ability isn’t even the best one! With these abilities, I bet Shady could take down even high-rank Orcs with no problems!”

Throughout this exchange, Toofy had somewhat shyly taken to hiding behind me and peeking at the strangers from around my apron. An interesting development, considering that she could probably take them all on in a fight and still come out on top.

Glancing back at Clarice, I could see that she was scowling somewhat while staring at nothing in particular. She was probably a little sore about not being able to use the Shadowcat’s Shadow Step ability since she had no mana. But that raised an interesting question.

Could we use the Shadow Step Ability or other Racial Abilities if we had a nearby source of mana to draw on instead? Like maybe using a manastone from a dead monster like a battery?

Theoretically, it seemed like it should work. It was basically just the same thing the ability was doing anyway so far as I could tell. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any mana stones to test that theory with just at the moment, so I left it as something to try later.

A sudden outcry from down the road drew me from my musings. Watching the group of adventurers beginning to panic, I could only assume that another pack of Goblins had made it inside the walls.

“We going?” Clarice asked, but was clearly prepared to accept my decision either way.

I nodded, “Let’s go,” I agreed and motioned for Toofy to climb onto my shoulder

With Toofy ready, I began hurrying over towards the slowly retreating adventurers.

We barely reached them before the small horde of Goblins did. With Tobi and his friends left to support the floundering adventurers responsible for this area, Clarice, Toofy and myself crashed into the Goblins before they had the chance to gain any momentum.

Toofy had leapt off my shoulder and onto the roof of the nearby building, her vantage point giving her a prime position to attack with her sling without allowing her landbound cousins the opportunity to readily retaliate.

Clarice was content to follow in my wake, sweeping her sword in deadly arcs that cut down any Goblin foolish enough not to immediately back away in retreat.

For my part, I clumsily swung my morningstar back and forth on my right side while buffeting with my shield on my left side. I honestly felt quite silly and if it weren't for the deadly circumstances, I wouldn't have been surprised if someone laughed at me.

“Hole! There!” Toofy pointed emphatically at a large incredibly conspicuous bush near the wall, releasing a stone from her sling that crushed the skull of a Goblin that had begun crawling out from beneath it.

Pushing forwards, I swept aside the bushes with my shield and began stomping my heel near the edges of the hole. Just like the first, there was a Goblin already part-way up the hole staring up at me in terror as the hole began to collapse. Glancing over my shoulder as I busily worked at filling the hole, I could see that Clarice, Toofy and the other adventurers now had the situation well in hand. Our initial assault dividing the attention of the Goblins had proven fatal and it didn’t look like any of the Goblins would escape the melee alive.

Just as I was about to shift my attention back to the hole, I was very nearly blinded as a sudden explosion of light on the nearby rooftop caught me unawares. The flash of golden light burned into my retinas and was accompanied by Clarice shouting excitedly, “HELL YEAH! LEVEL UP!”

Having now quite thoroughly sealed the hole while blindly trying to keep my balance, I had to wonder if anyone else had as much of a problem with that particular part of the class-level mechanics as I did.

Quickly rejoining the group, I let Toofy jump down off the roof and onto my shoulder again. From what I could see going on around the town, it was obvious that the Goblins had more than a few holes they were using to break in. Most, if not all the groups of adventurers were actively engaged in fending off the small hordes of Goblins streaming in from the direction of the town's walls.

“Oh, shit...” Clarice swore.

“Poop!” Toofy agreed sourly.

In addition to the Goblins using clubs, there were now more than a few of them using slings from behind the battle lines.

It was obvious that the less experienced adventurers were no match for the onslaught and would soon be overrun if something wasn’t done to change the situation soon.

“We need to help them regroup at the inn,” I decided. I might not be a master of strategy, but even I could figure out that losing so many of the defenders so early would not be good. Motioning for Tobi and the other adventurers to follow, I rushed towards the closest group of besieged adventurers.

*Crunch*

My morningstar struck an unfortunate Goblin’s head with enough force to rupture it like a rotten melon, spraying the other Goblins with blood, brain matter and broken bones.

As if taking it as their cue to flee, the small Goblin horde turned and ran, crashing into their approaching reinforcements.

“Fall back to the inn!” Clarice roared and she followed up my charge with a brutal cleaving blow that cut down a pair of Goblins.

Toofy was trailing behind Clarice and opportunistically slinging stones into the Goblins who attempted to hold their ground. She had no shortage of ammunition since she had begun scavenging stones from the other Goblins.

Tobi and his friends joined the charge behind us to keep the pressure on the Goblins while I pushed through their ranks to cause as much chaos as possible.

Once the adventurers had all disengaged and made progress back towards the inn, I motioned my morningstar to the next beleaguered group of adventurers and gave Clarice and Toofy a short head start.

Some enterprising souls had the tactical sense to begin forming exterior barricades out in the road to better obstruct the Goblins' projectiles and serve as a bulwark against the Goblin’s foot soldiers. Made from tables, barrels, crates, benches and just about anything else that wasn't bolted down, it looked quite a sight but was hardly impressive.

Thankfully, at least one of the better-equipped adventuring groups had similar thoughts to myself and was actively assisting other groups on the other end of the street to disengage and retreat to the inn.

*Thwack*

A rock struck and bounced off my right arm, shaving off a single HP. It was the fifth time I had been hit so far, so I was still fine. But the pain still made me flinch all the same.

Pushing the pain from my mind, I began charging toward the last group of adventurers. Two members of their group were already down and quite possibly dead despite their best efforts to protect them.

*Thud, Thud, Thud*

Three Goblins are caught by my shield as I plough straight into the heart of their group, they fall to the ground with dazed expressions and begin emitting red tendrils of smoke. I ignore them and focus my attention on healthier Goblins, leaving the wounded for Clarice or Toofy to deal with if necessary.

*Thud*

Another rock hit me in the back, coming somewhere from down the street. I didn’t have time to go looking for my attacker, so I battered away at the Goblins all around me instead. I wasn’t dealing much damage, but the Goblins were terrified of me. In fact, they were so scared of me that they kept backing away or dodging into the reach of Clarice and were cut down so quickly they didn’t have time to regret it.

This final group of adventurers didn’t need to be told what to do and disengaged as quickly as they could manage, carrying their incapacitated companions and rushing back to the barricades further along the street.

Curiously, the Goblins made few if any attempts to break into any of the buildings of the town, making attacking every human they could see their top priority.

Was this why all the shop owners and Guild staff had taken refuge in the inn?

If it was true, then I really had to admire their courage and pragmatism. Particularly in the case of the weapon shop owner. But I supposed to the Goblins, these buildings must all seem very similar.

*Thump*

Another stone struck me in the small of my back.

Damnit!

*Crack*

Turning suddenly in the direction the stone came from, I accidentally caught a Goblin in the side of the head with my morningstar. The Goblin’s body grew limp and spasmed weakly before sliding off the spikes and collapsing on the ground.

I could see the Goblin that had attacked me, he had climbed onto a rooftop and was preparing to sling another stone at me. Just as he was about to release the sling, a stone struck the Goblin in the chest and he tumbled backwards off the roof.

“No hurt Tim!” Toofy shrieked angrily, already spinning her sling again and locking onto her next target.

That Goblin was not the only one smart enough to take the higher ground, there were already dozens of Goblins jumping up and down on the rooftops of the town. Fortunately, very few of them had slings and ammunition. Unfortunately, in the haze created by the smoke, those few adventurers with ranged weapons of their own were hard-pressed to retaliate against the sling throwers, unable to differentiate them from the rest of the Goblins due to the poor visibility.

[Jacque has slain {Goblin: 1 } +50 Exp]

If it weren’t for the occasional kill notification with Jacque’s name on it, I would have truly doubted whether she was helping at all. I hadn’t seen her since we collapsed that first tunnel.

“Ow! Cheeky fucker!” Clarice swore, cracking open the head of a Goblin that caught her in the back with its club. Clarice cussed a lot when fighting, but she actually gave off the impression that she enjoyed fighting quite a great deal. Then again, Jacque had insinuated that Clarice enjoyed pain.

Damnit! Why was I thinking about stupid things like that during a battle for our lives?! Stupid, incredibly stupid.

I made an extra effort to push back the Goblins to give Clarice and Toofy time to disengage, “Head to the barricade!” I called out, more for Clarice’s benefit than Toofy’s. Fighting my way clear, I snatched up Toofy and began hurrying towards the barricades.

*****

Nadine hastily washed her hands in one of the large tubs of water Tim had thoughtfully left out earlier. Even though the folded sleeves of her tunic were stained with blood, Nadine was thankful that Rose had generously donated a thick cooking apron that kept the rest of her clothes relatively clean.

Carefully unstopping a mana potion, Nadine chugged the entire contents down and braced against the wall as she waited for the dizzying side effect to subside. It only took a few seconds, so Nadine was ready to get back to work quite quickly. “Next!” She called out, moving over to her operating table.

Emelia, who was serving as her assistant, had already wiped down the table twice to prepare it for the next patient. Once with water, and once with alcohol, as Tim had insisted Nadine should do it when situations allowed.

Similarly, Nadine’s sewing needles were cleaned in alcohol between uses as well.

According to Tim, it improved the sanitation of the materials, which reduced the chance of spreading diseases and infections. This directly translated into a higher level of treatment, which provided a greater healing effect from her Field Dressing ability. This was important, because the greater the amount of healing, the more likely it was that Nadine would earn greater amounts of EXP and get an adventurer back into the fight.

A pair of battered-looking adventurers carried their unconscious companion over to the table and laid him down on top of it.

Waving the two adventurers away, Nadine leaned in closer to take a better look. Unfortunately, it looked like another case of blunt force trauma. It was the tenth adventurer that had been knocked unconscious by a blow to the head. There was not much Nadine could do to treat injuries like this, which was unfortunate.

“Bandages, pain salve and a cold compress,” Nadine ordered, confident that Emelia would quickly organise the requested materials. Using one of the clean rags to clear the blood away from the swollen area of split skin, she then discarded the rag into the rag bucket.

After applying a liberal amount of the pain salve over the split area of skin, Nadine began binding two layers of bandage around his head. She then applied the cold compress and bound it in place with two wider layers of bandage before cutting the bandage and tying it off.

Concentrating on the wound, Nadine gently pressed her fingers against the bandages and activated her Field Dressing Ability. Nadine immediately felt the tingle of mana passing through her fingers and into the unconscious adventurer. Almost immediately, the bandages and cold compress began to glow with golden light. A couple of moments later the golden light began to disappear as the bandages and compress rapidly disintegrated.

[Nadine has healed a {Heavy Wound} +100 Exp]

“Oh!” Nadine was pleasantly surprised since the previous nine cases of head injuries had only managed to heal moderate wound levels for fifty EXP each. She wondered if perhaps it was because this particular adventurer had taken a much more substantial blow to the head than the others. However, Nadine did not have time to waste on thinking about such things at the moment and motioned for the two adventurers to take their companion upstairs.

If prior experience was any judge, that adventurer would not be waking up any time soon and Nadine had other patients waiting.

*****

I ducked into the inn briefly to make sure everything was alright and was glad to see that Nadine and Emelia were running a rather tight ship in Rose and Kirk’s absence. However, I did have a few words of advice for them all the same.

“Nadine,” I announced myself quietly to avoid spooking her while she was suturing a rather nasty-looking cut to a young woman’s thigh.

“Mmm?” Nadine grunted good-naturedly, without taking her eyes off her patient.

“You should designate a pair of adventurers to serve as orderlies, erm, helpers. There are a lot of relatively healthy adventurers here who are needed outside, but they are...stuck taking care of their friends until it is their turn for treatment,” I explained, “If you appoint a couple of people to keep an eye on the wounded, and even retrieve them from outside, it will free up more people to fight.”

Nadine paused for a moment and then nodded vigorously before continuing, “You are right,” she agreed, “I will get right on it.”

“You are doing really well by the way,” I encouraged her, “Keeping your mettle under pressure like this is a rare talent and important skill. Keep up the good work!”

I received a mixture of scowls and smiles from the wounded adventurers and their accompanying partners on my way heading back outside. No doubt some of them were terrified and glad for the excuse to take refuge in the inn for a while. While the majority of the smoke had cleared, it only made the Goblin slingers on the rooftops all the more dangerous and there were already a pair of dead adventurers lined up by the wall outside as a constant reminder of how deadly the slingers were.

Kirk and his wife Rose were currently hunkered down behind a table that provided some measure of cover for anyone entering or exiting the inn. Kirk was grunting, huffing and puffing as he drew back the drawstring of one crossbow after another before handing them off to his wife Rose, who would then load a bolt, take a steadying breath, rise slightly from cover, aim and fire at a Goblin slinger on one of the rooftops across the street, before quickly ducking back down again, setting aside the crossbow and beginning the process anew.

Toofy had been waiting behind the same table for cover and retrieving the stones the wild Goblins had been slinging at them to replenish her own ammunition.

They had started this raid with hundreds of crossbow bolts in reserve but were rapidly running out, now reduced to less than a few dozen at most. From what I had seen, Rose was a rather good shot and rarely missed in spite of the Goblin's naturally high Agility. Unfortunately, the Goblins' Racial defensive Ability was drastically reducing the lethality of the bolts that managed to hit them, only inflicting flesh wounds the majority of the time. To make things worse, the Goblin slingers were actively using the other Goblins as meat shields, improving their longevity still further.

Giving the pair of them a nod of encouragement, I grimaced somewhat as I saw the sheer number of Goblins assaulting the barricades. There were hundreds of them. Seeing Clarice in the thick of the fighting in an area where the barricade was weakest, I made that my destination. Toofy cautiously followed along behind me, cleverly using my bulk as cover from the rooftop slingers as she engaged in a brutal series of counterattacks and skirmishes of her own.

Unlike Rose, Toofy did not appear to trigger the wild Goblin Underfoot defensive Racial Ability, so her attacks struck their mark far more often than not. Another point in her favour was that Brute Strength appeared to enhance her sling damage as well, often requiring only a single strike to a Goblins chest or head to immediately kill them outright. Then again, I was sure the sling did a deceptively large amount of damage on its own. After all, the Goblins were able to damage me with them, and that was something the Orcs with their larger muscles and weapons hadn’t been able to manage with any real degree of consistency.

The barricade had been condensed since its original conception. Instead of blocking off the entire street, the barricade had been brought back on both ends and closed over at about half the width of the street. Normally, this would be incredibly stupid, allowing the Goblins to assault yet another flank to apply more pressure on the defenders.

However, everyone had noticed rather quickly that the Goblins were all avoiding the tailor’s shop like the plague. As if they somehow knew about the existence of ‘the tailor’ and wanted nothing to do with it.

This didn’t mean that they could leave that flank alone entirely, but it did mean that they didn't need nearly so many adventurers to defend it.

Unsurprisingly, Tobi’s pet Shady was a killing machine, with so many combat Synergies it would have been disappointing if it wasn’t. I was pretty sure that it had gotten much larger since the last time I saw it as well. After watching Shady disembowel an unlucky Goblin with one swipe of his paw, I decided that just watching the battle was probably not a good idea.

*Thwack*

Stepping into the breach, I raised my shield just in time to stop a stone launched from a rooftop from striking Clarice.

Startled by the noise, Clarice rounded on me in surprise, “Don't scare me like that!” She demanded tiredly, panting heavily to try and catch her breath.

[Clarice - HP: 21/29 - Normal ]

“Go take a break for a few minutes, get something to eat,” I told Clarice after glancing at her HP. She was already somewhat injured, so it would be better if she took a few moments to recover before coming back to fight again.

Clarice looked like she was going to refuse, but stopped herself and nodded, “You’re right,” she agreed, I’ll be back after taking a breather.”

It was a little strange being able to have a quick conversation like that on a battlefield. If the Goblins worked up the nerve, they could easily have rushed us and swarmed through the breach. But for whatever reason, they hadn’t.

Clarice jogged off to the inn, leaving Toofy, myself and a few adventurers I didn’t recognize to hold it.

*Thwack*

Another stone ricocheted off my shield, but this time caught a Goblin's shin. The poor Goblin fell to the ground shrieking in agony.

Just standing in the breach seemed almost as effective as my active attempts at fighting, which was somewhat sad.

*****

Watching the battle take place from his cunning hiding place, Gobgob was not happy. Not only was he not happy, but Gobgob was borderline enraged. The Ogre was proving far more cunning than he had anticipated. Even with the outer defences of their nest breached, the Ogre’s minions had hastily erected new defences and rallied without suffering many, if any, casualties. All while Gobgob’s warriors continued to die without achieving much of anything.

This was not how the great reclamation was meant to go! The great prophecy had lied!

Gnawing angrily at his withered lower lip, Gobgob tried to think of how he could turn the situation around. There was no retreating now, if Gobgob allowed it, the other Goblins would kill him to appease their dark god. But it was already taking every one of his dwindling number of remaining warriors to keep the lesser Goblins in the fight.

“Gah!” Gobgob cried irritably, frustrated that the lesser Goblins wouldn’t ignore their cowardly nature and just rush the Ogre already.

Didn’t they know that this was all for Gobgob’s grand ascension?!

Gobgob was about to call out for one of his elite warriors when he noticed the large biter beneath him had stiffened and was scenting the air.

Strange, was it perhaps one of his rivals attempting to seize power? Or maybe one of the humans had snuck up on him?

It didn't matter either way since the response would be the same.

Gobgob rolled off the large biter and swung his spear in a sweeping arc that would easily hack down anyone foolish enough to have been sneaking up behind him. However, to Gobgob’s immense surprise, there was no one there at all. Unfortunately, the hissing growl coming from the biter's throat told Gobgob differently, only that now the enemy had somehow moved behind him again.

Gobgob repeated the attack again and was denied again when he found no one was there.

*Thunk*

Gobgob heard a meaty impact behind him and turned just in time to see a human female pulling a large short metal blade from between the large biters now separated head and neck. Somehow she had killed the biter in one blow.

Impossible! Impossible!!!

Gobgob turned to flee but the human female appeared in front of him again, hefting the blade in a practised grip.

“Gobgob, right?” The human female asked with a cruel smile, “I’ve been looking for you!”

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