The people in the village cheered after the guards, sensing their approaching victory under the royal flag of Isdis’s knights.

****

“Hum,” Lydia mumbled, standing outside the front gate, leaning on her sheathed sword.

“You don’t look well,” Isdis, who stood beside her, asked.

“This isn’t a place for a princess to stand in.” Lydia looked at her with a smile.

“Don’t change the subject. The volley was bad?” Isdis smiled, “Even if I’m a princess, I will respect the opinion of someone more experienced than me.”

“It’s not about that. The volley was perfect.” Lydia sighed, “It’s just there are a lot of goblins. I didn’t expect any to show up, considering we sent Arad to their nest,” 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝑙.

It also clicked in Isdis’s head, “Arad cleared a giant nest. How could mere goblins escape from him? There were a lot of them, and some slipped. It doesn’t seem that way with those numbers.”

The two looked at each other, “Those aren’t the goblins he’s smoking out?” Lydia asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s pertinacity strange. I will send some rangers after him to check it out. Thanks for the warning,” Isdis ran back behind the gate to send some knights after Arad.

Lydia smiled, “It’s rare to see a royal listening to their soldiers,” She looked forward at the second wave of goblins, this one had some hops mixed in, and the numbers started to look scary as they blotted the forest.

“Over two hundred goblins and about fifty hobs showed up!” A guard screamed, “Fire two waves of arrows, and let it rain death.”

Lydia looked above the gate. Seeing Jack standing on the battlements with the four knights with him, all smiling.

“Sir Jack! Should I pull it out?” One of the knights said with an excited smile, holding the tip of a steel wire in his palm.

“No, should I pull mine?” Another one smiled.

“Don’t! Let’s wait. I’m sure there are bigger waves coming after this one.” Jack giggled, glaring at the battlefield with a nasty gaze.

Lydia sighed, “Haa! That face, he’s going to blow it sky high,” She smiled, “Traps are really strong if you can set them beforehand.”

Arrows fell from the sky, and the second wave got quickly cleared as goblins’ blood filled the plains, staining them red.

***

Arad finally found the goblin nest, seeing two goblins gawking at the entrance, sighting. He smiled and walked out of the bushes.

“Hoi! How are you doing!” He waved his hand to the goblins.

The goblins jumped in fear, glaring at him, “Hoomaaam!” One of them cried, pulling a wooden spear and aiming it at Arad.

CRACK! It was at that moment that the goblin felt it, Arad wasn’t a human.

As monsters, their senses have adapted to perceived danger, and they could tell if they are facing a losing battle.

The two goblins froze in place, crying in goblinoid, “We’re unlucky, another lizard king,”

Arad glared at them, wondering how to scare them all the way back to the village.

“Damn it!” A goblin cried, rushing at Arad swinging his spear.

CRACK! Arad kicked the goblin in the head, cracking its skull open as he pulled his sword. “It’s simple to kill everything. I feel sad for everyone else, but they won’t be fighting anything tonight.” He rushed deeper into the goblins’ cave, massacring anything in his way.

****

Back in the village’s makeshift medical house, the elvish man was getting treated for his wounds and scars. “How are you feeling?” The woman healing him said with a worried smile. Elves are known to be picky and haughty.

The elvish man smiled, “I feel better, thank you,” He smiled, surprising her for a second.

She smiled, “I thought you would get angry,”

“Anything feels better after goblins,” He sighed, closing his eyes on the bed. “Can you let me take a short nap,”

The woman stood and walked out of the room.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” A voice came from the window, and the man jerked back to life.

He looked to the side, seeing Eris standing at the window with a smile. “I heard the soldiers saying they sent a single man to the goblin hideout, this isn’t what I asked you to do,”

“It wasn’t my fault, that stupid princess did it.” The elvish man growled.

Eris sighed, “What should I do? You alerted the whole city and the elvish woman is now in the middle of the whole armed garrison.”

“I can still make it happen, just let me go to them one last time.” The elvish man cried.

Eris smiled, “You don’t have to do that,” she waved her hand.

****

After five minutes, the woman returned to the room, “You have medicine to eat before sleeping. I hope you aren’t asleep yet,” She opened the door.

The woman blinked twice, but there were no traces of the elvish man. “Where are you?” She approached the bed, only seeing a pile of white dust.

****

“Fire! Fire!” Aella shouted at the guards around her, aiming her bow at the hordes of goblins appearing from the forest. “Fire at will!” She shouted again.

“We’re firing as fast as we could,” one of the guards replied to her.

^It’s strange, Arad won’t let this many goblins toward the village. If I know him well, he would try to kill them all. Did something bad happen to him?^

****

Lydia could see the goblins’ numbers growing out of control, she looked above the walls at Isdis. “What happened to the rangers? Any news about Arad?”

“They should have reported to me ten minutes ago, but I didn’t get any reply,” Isdis shouted back so Lydia could hear her.

Lydia looked at the hordes with a worried face, “Something is off,”

****

Aella kept aiming and aiming until her fingers got tired. She retreated to the back lines to drink some water and rest for a bit. There were over a hundred archers on the walls, certainly losing her three or four arrows won’t hurt for a few seconds.

“Here is some water,” A woman handed the jug to Aella.

“Thank you,” Aella smiled, taking the jug from the brown-haired woman. “I didn’t see you here before,”

Eris smiled, “I just came to help,” She smiled.