Chapter Two: The Goblin Hordes, Part One

Another night surrounded them as a week already passed after Riley's death. The child that was an orc was sleeping next to Ledias. The little girl had no memories of who or what she was. She couldn't even remember her own name, so Ledias decided to give one to her. She would be part of Ledias's family. She named her Lily and gave Lily her last name, Wolf. She did the same thing for the baby and named her Josephine after her mother and also gave Josephine her last name.

Ledias now had two new people as part of her family. Since she couldn't bring them with her on her adventures, she decided to send them to her parents house with a letter. "Be safe," she told them as she gave them the folder piece of paper. Lily nodded as she placed the letter in her pocket. She was carrying Josephine on her back with a straddle that, again, was made by Ace surprisingly well.

Two mercenaries accompanied them on their journey. They were trustworthy comrades that Phil knew. She waved to them goodbye as they traveled down the mountain in their carriage. "They're good kids, aren't they?" Phil appeared behind her. Ledias's spine tingled from the surprise.

"Hey Phil," she greeted. "They are good kids, and I pray that they'll grow up to be strong and proud."

Phil smiled. "They're like your own kids," Phil teased.

She blushed. "They're more like my siblings," Ledias replied.

"You did great though," he complimented. Her face became even more red than before. Her face felt hot. Phil noticed the redness on her face and placed his hand against her temple. "Do you have a fever?" he asked. Her heart couldn't handle it. It was beating so fast and hard, it felt like it would explode.

"Hey Phil, we got another mission from the Queen," Sorvex called. He saw Phil and Ledias in some awkward position and stopped talking. "Woah, there, jumping the gun, aren't we?" Sorvex said.

Ledias's face was a s red as a cherry. "I-it's not what you think!" she yelled, waving her arms frantically. Phil smirked and took the chance.

"She's right, it's not what it looks like," he said with a smile. Ledias looked at him in admiration. "The truth is that we're dating," Phil gave an evil grin.

She uppercutted Phil in the jaw, nearly dislodging it from its original place, and sent him flying. "Stop giving people weird ideas!" she yelled furiously. She walked away covering her red face.

"Are you okay? Also, what was that?" Sorvex asked. He offered Phil a hand and Phil took it. He got up and rubbed his jaw.

"I'm fine, I was just messing around," he answered. Her punch really rattled him. If she was being serious, his head would've popped off. "So what were you saying about a mission from the Queen?" Phil asked.

"Ah, yes." Sorvex dug through his pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Here's the letter she sent. Apparently someone sent a report about the girl being an orc and turning human. She wants us to investigate this and try to find out which of the orcs are humans, and which aren't. We should also see if there are any villagers that went to the caves for shelter."

Phil grabbed the envelope and opened it. He scanned through the whole thing and came up with a theory in his head. "The girl was the goblin queen, but when she was defeated, she became human. I think it's the same for all 'royalty' in the goblins. The villagers may be in danger if we don't get to them on time," he said while walking out of the bar. His party was sitting outside, preparing for another adventure. They had apparently received the news too.

Ace, Cyprus (who was now sober), Slayer, Ledias, Justin Time, and Midnight gathered by the fire. Phil and Sorvex joined them. "Ready?" He asked. They all nodded their heads. A mercenary came behind him.

"I have a 'gift' from the Queen for you," he said. An half-ogre came from behind him. "Since you have lost two man in this expedition, the Queen compensates your losses with this soldier here. His name is Rami." the half-ogre approached the party with a hefty great axe strapped to his back. He raised his hand to greet them.

"Nice to meet you," he greeted in a deep voice. Phil stood up and shook his hand. Rami's handshake was strong and firm. His hands were rough with scars and calluses.

"And to you as well," Phil replied with a smile. "Okay! Our mission is clear, let us traverse!" The team got on their carriage and headed towards the cave where the goblins came from. A group of mercenaries followed them and other groups of mercenaries went to find other openings in the cave.

It was going to be a couple of hours till they reached the caves on horse and carriage. Most of the party slept but some party members did experiments with their items and abilities. Ledias became more aware of Phil after he teased her. When he's nearby, she'll notice. She unawarely became more immune to Phil's Sneak Attack over time.

Phil was experimenting with the oil he had in his backpack, trying to see what he could do with it instead of just lighting it on fire. He couldn't find anything, but he did have a theory that if he froze the oil and compressed it, it might be able to be used as a grenade.

The party members and mercenaries reached the entrance of the cave. It was a dark, cold night with thunder booming in the distance. A storm was coming. They needed to get done with this mission quickly or else the caves may flood and the villagers would drown.

"Let us not waste another moment, we march onwards," Phil told everyone as they got out of their carriage. They stored all their gear in their packs and tied their horses to the trees and placed extra food and water in front of them just in case the mission would take longer than expected.

They entered the cave with torches lit. Five mercenaries followed behind them. Slayer and Midnight held the torches while the rest of the party had their weapons drawn out. The mercenaries covered their rear as they entered the caves.

Their steps echoed through the stone walls. Water dripped from the ceiling, sounding like a gunshot instead of a water pellet when they landed. "I heard that goblins kidnap females and rape them," Ace claimed out loud.

Ledias turned pale. "I-is that true?" she asked, gripping her sword tighter. Even though goblins were small and weak, she still feared them because of the rumors that she has heard. Her mind was a bit more scattered than the others, so she was more vulnerable.

"Boo!" Phil yelled at Ledias as he approached from behind her. She shrieked and punched him, but he dodged the punch this time. They all laughed.

"You're a jerk!" she was frustrated. In the dark, more laughter echoed. "Oh shut up!" she yelled where she heard the laughter. Light filled the end of the tunnel where she heard the laughter. Shadows licked the wall where the light reflected from the smooth stone walls. Something was there, mimicking their laughs.

She turned around and looked at the mercenaries. "That wasn't us," they claimed. They walked to the opening and found…

Arrows flew at them as they entered the lighted area. Goblins and orcs were everywhere. Some were at high ledges, shooting at them with arrows. Most were on the ground with some orcs. What really stood out was a single large ogre in the middle of the cave. It seemed similar to the last one they fought. There was at least 20 of them, including the ogre.

"He's of my kin!" Rami pointed. "I'll talk to him. I am civilized, so he must be too!" he said before walking up to the ogre, extending his arm in friendship while speaking some jumbled mess of a language that could only be described as "ogre".

"We should probably save him," Phil said. They all nodded and charged. Everyone went to deal with the enemies on the floor while Ledias went up to the ledges. It was challenging at first because she didn't know where or how to get up, but one of the goblins tried to stab her from above. She took the chance and lassoed her flail mace around the goblins neck and with all her might, launched herself up, nearly dislodging her left shoulder.

She unsheathed her long sword and swung at the goblins. There were three on top with bows and daggers. The first two in front of her drew daggers and pointed them at her while the last one in the back pulled the string on its bow. They all screamed at her in what she has come to know as goblin. She yelled back and shoved her sword in the chest of the closest one. She then kicked its corpse towards the other two and tackled them off the ledge, having them fall to their death. After she killed them, she laid down on the stone ledge and healed herself.

As Rami continued conversing with the slowly approaching and confused ogre, Phil and Sorvex shot the goblins and orcs with their arrows. They took down four in total, but 2 goblins chased after Phil.

"I see that you haven't learned your lesson yet," he said to the charging goblins as he tripped them and got both of them to stab themselves as they fell.

Justin Time ran into the middle of the battle field and took a deep breath and yelled, "Stop! I yell in a posed look." The goblins within the cave were never going to fall for such a simple trick, but the ogre, however, startled from the loud noise, flinched and smacked Rami to the wall whilst whaling. The ogre unfastened his tree trunk, crudely fashioned into the shape of a club from his hip, and charged at Justin while maintaining the wail. Ace however was faster as he flew in and grabbed Justin out of the ogre's range.

"Thanks, I thanked in a posed look," Justin Time said as he flew through the cavern with Ace.

"Domf menfion If," Ace struggled to say due to his mouth being full of Justin's shirt.

Midnight muttered an enchantment under his breath as magic traveled up to his finger tips. Light green liquid formed around them as his fingertips glowed light green. The green blob compressed into a ball of bubbling green liquids. He pointed his finger towards the ogres face and yelled, "Release!" and the spell Acid Splash was sent flying forwards, hitting directly in the face of the ogre. The ogre screeched and swung his tree around him, knocking all who once stood by him away into a premature grave.

"Well, that helped!" Sorvex chuckled. He pulled out a second dagger and Sneak Attacked the ogre while it was still blind. He went towards the calves first and sliced them open. Phil went up and poured oil into the wounds and lit them up with one of the torches they had. The ogre screamed in pain as the oil burned his exposed tissue. He fell on his rear as he attempted to swat away the adventurers to no avail. The mercenaries kept providing cover fire by constantly shooting arrows from their longbows.

The ogre yelled again and started to chuck its dead comrades towards the mercenaries, the third body he threw managed to hit one of the archers square in the head, knocking him down and ripping his neck halfway, causing him to bleed out. Suddenly a loud yell echoed the room as Ledias jumped from the ledge, her dislocated shoulder finally healed, and dug it deep into its neck, also casting Divine Smith and ending the Ogre's life once and for all.

They both tumbled to the ground. Ledias rolled as she reached the floor and nearly tripped as Phil caught her. "Good job," he told her. She nodded. Sorvex screamed in the back, for within the cracks of the ground laid a slime of a blackened pigment. The ground where Sorvex once stood cracked as the ground was nothing merely than ice covered in dust. The ice cracked and he fell in the water with the black slime.

"Sorvex!" Phil yelled. They all ran over to the now flowing river that lead to a waterfall at the end of the tunnel. The mercenaries came behind with rope.

"Grab on!" one of them called. Sorvex tried, but the current was too fast and he slipped. Rami also came from behind with a huge bruise on his face.

"What's going on? I just saw Slayer dueling a goblin," Rami said as he pointed at Slayer going at an intense duel with a goblin with Cyprus cheering him on. He was always late to everything. He was almost left behind actually.

Ace pointed at the wall that was near the end of the river and next to the waterfall. "That wall called your mother a wench," Ace yelled.

Slayer jerked his head and stared at the wall with a fire in his eyes. He pushed the goblin aside and charged at it, leaving Cyprus and the goblin behind. "WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MA?!" he yelled as he slammed his thick skull into it, sending lines and cracks throughout the entirety of the wall, causing all that was loosened from the great blow to come crumbling down.

The pieces of the wall fell into the river and crushed the slime as it neared the end of the river.

Sorvex was lucky enough and didn't get his leg crushed by the wall. Ledias grabbed Sorvex's hand and pulled him up. He coughed and spat out the dusty water. "Thanks," he told her. Slayer looked upon the destruction he brought to the wall.

"Holy crap I'm a god, like…. I must be, who else could just headbutt a wall like that and just… freaking destroy it!" he laughed to himself. The goblin, seeing the destruction, ran away. The party had already moved on, following the river downstream, leaving him behind. "Yo, hold up for me!"