Chapter Two: The Goblin Horde, Part Four

The party found another hole in a cave that split into two ways. They decided to camp at the fork in the cave and started a fire. They laid Ledias on the ground and covered her in a blanket. "What happened to her?" Phil wondered. The elite soldier crouched by Phil.

"I don't know, but at least she's okay," the elite soldier spoke, her voice clearly female. She placed her hand on his shoulder. Ledias was breathing normally and her body was fine. She was warm and her wound was fully closed, but her clothes were ripped in the middle, showing a lot of skin. Her body was still young and small. Ace flew in with Sorvex. They were panting hard.

"Where's Slayer?" Phil asked. Ace fell on the ground with Sorvex in his claws.

"We left him to hold back the slime, but we heard an explosion in the distance. We're not sure if he's all right," Ace reported.

Ledias coughed and opened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was a huge javelin entering her stomach. She had vague memories of the clouds, but she wasn't sure if it was a dream or not. She slowly sat up and looked around. "What happened?" she asked.

Phil hugged her with tears swelling at his eyes. "Thank god you're alright," he said, ignoring the pain in his hands from the holy hair.

She blushed and her face turned red. "P-Phil!?" She was flustered and pushed him away. "I'm alright now, so you don't have to be so teary eye about it." She smiled softly. Her clothes suddenly fell down and her whole body was exposed except for her lower half. She screamed and covered herself with the blanket. Phil smiled and gave a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad you're alright," he said. Ace came over and handed her a long sleeve woven with armor. It was covered in chain mail around the elbows, neck, knees, and at the side of the waist. Iron plating layered the chest, shoulders, legs, and back. The shoulder pads were decorated with wings, making her look like an angel. The wings were enchanted and allowed her to fly for a time and can be used 10 times. After she flew a certain amount of charged, she'll need to recharge over with certain materials. Some of the white iron platings were decorated with gold on the edges and gems on the corners. Ace also made a hand made eye piece made out of magical cloth from a special dragon. The magical eye piece allowed her to see if anything was tampered with curses, spells, or magic.

Ace was surprisingly good at making clothes, armor, and accessories. She gratefully took them and put them on. Ace also gave her a magical skirt. The skirt would float if it came in contact with water and let her float safely in the water. It would also slow her velocity down if she was falling from a high place.

She put them on and twirled around in a circle. The skirt swung around, dazzling in the light of the flame. The gold and jewels reflected the light. Her dazzling now white hair shone in the dark. "Thanks, Ace." Ledias said to Ace, bowing. Everyone's jaws were dropped. The only thought going through their mind was, why are Paladins so hot?!

Slayer entered the "camp" with ash rested on his face, and a crazed twinkle in his eyes. Cyprus was also with him with a goblin kissing her shoulder, blabbering nonsense words of love. Justin Time understood what the goblin was saying and gagged. "Slayer! Cyprus! Are you guys alright?" Phil asked. He mostly cared for Cyprus, not Slayer.

Slayer coughed and wiped his face. "Man I'm good, I'm just… pho, you know?" He glared at Ace and spat on the ground. "But you should've seen what Cyprus did," he said and pointed to her. "This dude guy right here seduced a, I kid you not, small goblin army and had them fight the slime, shit was so crazy… I'm still a little creeped out by the one getting all physical with her but hey, if she wants it alive then I ain't really got a choice, ya know what I'm saying?"

The goblin cuddled close to her arm and didn't let go when Slayer tried to pry it away. "Oh well, we'll deal with that later," Phil said. He got up and looked at the fork in the cave. "Hey Ledias," He turned and looked at her. "Are you able to keep going?"

Ledias nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I can." The elite soldier approached her with something bundled in cloth. "My name is Ichigo Rose." She bowed and her mercenaries followed. "For saving my life earlier, I present to you a great sword that was made from the javelin the ogre had." She unbundled the blade and revealed a large blade that was huge and sharp. It was basically the head of the javelin with the hilt of a sword, but it was just as effective.

Ledias received the gift with gratitude and bowed back. "Thank you," they both said in unison.

"I'll lake Lily to your home, if you'd like," Ichigo suggested. "I know that you may not trust us after what you've seen us mercenaries do, but I will vow to protect her with my life and let her reach her destination safely." Ichigo said with certainty. Ledias turned to Lily and Lily nodded. Ledias then turned to the mercenaries and gave them Lily.

"Quick question, but do you know what happened to the baby?" Ledias asked, worried.

"The truth is that Commander Timber did throw the baby off a ledge of the side of the mountain, but she was caught by an elderly couple, the female had long black hair and the man had short blonde hair." Ichigo explained. "The carriage they were riding had the word 'Wolf' branded on it."

"Those are my relatives!" she exclaimed. She was overjoyed that the baby survived to see another day. She really could grow up and survive in this world.

Ledias waved goodbye to the mercenaries and Lily as they traveled across the cavern to exit. Rami left with them, complaining about how he wanted to stay with them longer.

Phil put out the fire and lifted Sorvex up from the ground. "Let's get a move on," he said. Everyone gathered around him with their gear ready. Ledias already equipped her greatsword and was ready for battle.

"So here's the plan." Phil grabbed a crystal and drew on the floor. "We'll split into two groups." He drew the fork in the cave and made dots to show the groups of people. "Me, Slayer, Justin and Cyprus will go to the left. Ledias, Sorvex, and Midnight will go right. Our main mission is to find the villagers and leave, so let's hurry."

They split into their groups and went their ways. Group A has Phil as its leader and everyone else following him. Group B has Ledias as the leader and everyone following her.

Group B entered the right tunnel. It was a small cramped space that gave Ledias anxiety. The more they pushed forward, the smaller the space was. They finally reached the end of the tunnel as they were greeted with a huge stench of death and feces. The cavern was dark and damp. A huge river stretched across the floor, but when they approached it, it smelled horrible. The place had actual trees growing fruits everywhere and dirt was the floor, not stone. Not a single stalagmite gem was in this place.

The group walked along the "pathway" and made their way to a light they saw in the distance. As they approached the light, they found tents and benches clumped in the back. A campfire barely lit the tiny camp with an empty pot above it. People huddled around the fire and looked up at the ceiling in fear. The party approached them with caution. "Greetings. I'm Ledias, a Paladin and these are my comrades. Are you all from Nightstone?" she asked. One of the villagers nodded and put his finger to his lips, telling her to hush. He then raised his finger and pointed towards the ceiling.

The party looked upon the location where the finger has settled to find a dark abyss of a roof that has no end. Or so it would appear that way as the supposed darkness began to shuffle and distort, revealing small eyes of red far above the party, an almost endless sea of a million red eyes flashed before them before being consumed by the darkness of one another's wings… an impossibly large group of bats have taken refuge. Underneath the party laid the bones of an uncountable amount of prey and guano.

"1,567,896…" Midnight muttered under his breath. He hasn't spoken for a while, but they knew how his voice sounded like when he spoke.

"You don't mean that…" Ledias started to speak, but she looked up once more as some of the bats noticed them. The ones with good ears heard them speak and stared them dead in the eye. At first only one squeaked, then another, then hundreds, then thousands, and soon enough the whole cavern was shrieking. The horrible noise made some of the villagers scream and made their ears bleed. The cave shook as the sound echoed across the walls. The sound was so loud that it carried the vibrations out of the caves and into Nightstone. Mercenaries covered their ears and and yelled at each other in confusion. Ichigo looked at the caves and worried about the adventurers that she had acquainted.

The bats started to swoop down by the hundreds and soon thousands, flying at the adventurers and civilians. "Get them out of here! I'll distract the bats!" Ledias commanded. Sorvex and Midnight nodded as they gathered the villagers in a straight line out of the cave. They grabbed the villagers by their collars and dragged them to the exit which was a minute away. The villagers saw the adventurers leading the way and followed them. Soon enough a huge line of villagers were heading towards the cramped tunnel. The bats saw the large amount of people gathering next to one another and dived towards them, but stopped mid dive to marvel at the smell of absolute perfection.

Ledias noticed that they weren't just normal bats people see now and then, they were vampire bats and they fed off of blood of any animal or being. If they smell or see blood, they will charge at it at top speed. Ledias wasn't sure what she was doing, but she knew that it was for the greater good. She pulled out a pocket knife she had and cut off the tip of her pointer finger. She gritted her teeth in pain and quickly wrapped her finger in bandaids and cast Aid. She only spewed a quarter pint of blood for a few seconds, but that was enough to gather the attention of all of the bats in the cave.

All 1.5 million bats came charging at her at once. She raised her buckler shield, but it was no use. The force of her getting hit by 1.5 million bats is equivalent to being hit by a 60 pound cannon. The force of the bats sent her flying to the walls. She coughed out blood as her back slammed the wall and several of her ribs cracked. The bats were hungry for blood, and they sensed more blood transferring to Ledias's head, so they launched themselves at her hair. The moment they touched her holy hair, a huge flash of light shined through the whole cavern. One after the other that touched her hair were instantly evaporated into ashes. Soon enough, only 750,000 bats remained.

The bats flew back and became wary of her. Most of their kind have been turned to ash by their food, so they became cautious of their supposed prey. Ledias fell to the ground from the wall and nearly passed out. Blood kept dripping from her mouth as she coughed. The bats became even more blood thirsty, but they held back and hovered above her planing on how to drain her of her blood without touching her. Ledias stood up and wiped her mouth. She saw the last villager escape through the tunnel and Sorvex waving at her. She smiled and looked up at the bats. "I win."

Strength laced through her legs as adrenaline pumped through her veins. Three holy spells were cast onto her: Bless, Heroism, and Shield of Faith. A bright white, yellow and blue aura surrounded her as the spells were cast. Her body moved as fast as the most athletic person in the world. The bats chased her down at the same speed, even faster if compared, and they were already at her neck, trying to nip at her veins. Phil suddenly appeared at the tunnel's exit and held an oil jug and a torch.

He poured oil into his mouth and spewed it at the torch, causing a huge cone of flame in her direction, so huge even a dragonborn would be impressed. Shield of Faith took effect as she ran through the flame and through the tunnel. The bats funneled through the cramped space as they tried to bite her more aggressively than ever before.

At first it was only a hundred bats that were set aflame, but when they funneled through the tunnel, the fire spread through all the bats until all 750 thousand bats were set ablaze. The heat in the tunnel was so intense that it felt as if she would melt alive, intact, her armor did smelter a bit, but it kept its shape. Phil and Sorvex were running with Ledias as the demon looking bats chased after them, with not just the bat being their problem, but the heat itself. Ledias was far ahead, Phil not so far behind but slowly declining in speed, and Sorvex gasping and panting as he regretted not exercising during his vacation.

As they exited the tunnel they saw Slayer out of the corner of his eyes with a huge stone. "Hurry up dudes!" he yelled as he started to cover the hole with the stone.

"I can't believe that you're actually doing something useful for once," Ace said impressed. He was holding a child in his arms who was unconscious and was wrapped in one of Ace's handcrafted blankets. It looked like they found the king of goblins.

"Don't care dude, just get a move on before I let it all fall on you." But little did ace know…. slayer did care. "Awww shit here they are…" he said as he slowly fell to the floor like a statue. His legs and arms turned stiff with cramps. The bats came flying out into the light while burning to a crisp. They all dived towards Ledias while shrieking in panic, but before they could reach her they all turned into ash and scattered to the ground.

"Look's as cool as winning, but I think healing me would be so much more rewarding," Slayer spoke with a whine, still stiff due to his cramps. Ledias approached him, still bruised and cut from the bats and herself. "Yep, that'll do." She put her hand on his leg. "Thanks doll, I knew you were a keeper since the day I first saw you-" She stretched his cramped leg without any time to stop her. Slayer screeched in pain as his leg was uncramped, but it was in tremendous pain.

Ledias took out a piece of paper and wrote in an extremely messy manner. "Here's the bill for your treatment," she said with a smirk and dropped the paper on him.

"Not...funny…." he whimpered.