Goblin Lair

Alex awoke early in the morning, his team was one of several that would be launching an attack on a nearby monster encampment. From the intel, he received it would appear to be a large pack of Goblins. Though goblins were generally considered bottom-tier monsters, when grouped in large numbers they proved to be troublesome.

Even an elite like Alex would find it difficult to survive if he was to be surrounded by goblins with no escape route. Truly, he and Emily were lucky to survive their encounter at the University. By now Alex guessed the University would have become a goblin lair and would take a great deal of effort to clear out.

After arriving at the gates he noticed his team already there. Though he was not late this time, he did appear to be the last to arrive. Aside from his team, there were three others, one of them being lead by Captain Hunter himself.

The Captain was still wearing a police uniform, but now he was carrying the large two-handed sword that had been brought back with Gunnar's remains. Alex was curious as to what had happened to the weapon in which his team struggled to acquire. Apparently, it was seized by Captain Hunter and become his personal weapon.

Standing beside Captain Hunter were a group of men and women clad in police uniforms, apparently, his squad was solely comprised of the remaining officers. Due to the intel brought back by slayers, rifles had begun to slowly be phased out of use, and many of the slayers were currently equipping scavenged weapons.

After falling in line, Alex stood by and waited for Captain Hunter to espouse the plan he had come up with to eliminate the goblin menace. Captain Hunter waited until everyone had arrived before he began to speak. He cast his gaze upon the ragtag group of slayers standing before him and cleared his throat as he began to speak in an authoritative tone.

"As you are all aware by now, about 3 miles to the east, there is a large gathering of goblins which have taken root."

Many of the slayers nodded their heads as they listened to the speech

"They have already begun to expand their borders, if left unchecked soon they will threaten the very safety of this compound."

"That is why I have gathered you all here today, normally each one of your squads works independently. Today, however, your combined strength is needed to annihilate the threat which approaches our borders."

Captain Hunter pointed to the board next to him as he begun to move onto the tactics that would be employed by the slayers in order to slay the goblins.

"Each of your squads will approach the main complex in which the Goblins reside in separate directions. You will fight your way through the halls before converging on the center, where we suspect the leader of this horde to be."

"Once you converge on the center you will need to work together to slay the boss. Something I'm sure you're more than capable of handling. Any questions?"

The slayers chatted among themselves for a few moments before Alex raised his hand

"What exactly will your squad be doing?"

Alex had observed the operation's plans thoroughly and realized that the Captain's squad was nowhere to be seen on them.

Captain Hunter glared fiercely at Alex, the look in his eyes contained great wrath

"My squad will be taking care of any stragglers who may attempt to escape. Is that a problem?"

Alex shook his head in response, it would be unwise to agitate the Captain at this point in time, and he knew it. He was simply curious about what the Captain was going to do. After seeing Alex's response Captain Hunter gave his command to the group

"You have your orders, move out!"

With that said the platoon of slayers began to march towards their destination.

Some time had passed before the slayers arrived at their destination, after arriving at the location, the squads split off and approached the various entrances of the complex. Alex and his squad took the north entrance.

There were a few goblin sentries outside of the entranceway keeping watch for possible intruders. Before Alex could even come up with a plan to attack Cassie disappeared from her location and appeared behind the goblins, cutting their necks before they had time to react.

Blood sprayed like a fountain from the large gashes on the little creatures' necks, however not a sound could be heard from their grasping mouths as they bled out. Cassie wiped her daggers on the goblin's clothes and signaled for her team to move in.

The echoing thunder of gunshots could be heard from the other entrances, evidently, the other slayers were not as keen on stealth as Cassie was. However, it proved to be a boon for Alex and his team, as the sound of the conflict began to draw the Goblins in the northern wing to the other squads.

After Cassie cut the throats of the goblin sentries, Alex and his team rushed over to her position, gazing at the fresh corpses Alex patted cassie on the shoulder

"Well done"

Cassie did not even say a word, she simply turned away and entered the building, leading the team through the wretched halls of the goblin lair. Though the conflict at the other entrances had alerted the goblins of the attack and drew away much of their numbers, there were still quite a few within the northern wing.

Alex did not hesitate to unleash his full power. Though the squad was partied up, and dividing xp, he was still in fierce competition with Cassie as the two fought their way through the corridors. Alex threw his fists rapidly at the heads of the goblins. Each strike, crushing the skull of the little bastards.

While Alex and Cassie were fiercely competing with one another, the other members of the squad were more alert to their surroundings. Blood and bile stained the walls of the building, humans bones could be seen strewn across the floors. There had been a massacre in this building, just like so many others.

The team moved through the wing, checking every room for goblins, slaying everyone they could get their hands on with great efficiency. However, as they reached the end of the wing, they entered a room with a noticeably foul odor exuding from its entrance.

As they looked inside, the slayers were horrified at the scene. Dozens of naked women, who skin was glistening with a thick substance were chained to the walls. All of them had distended bellies as if they were visibly pregnant. It was apparent from the lifeless look in their eyes that they had become the plaything of the goblins in this wing.

This was not the first time Alex had seen such a wretched sight, he was instantly reminded of the poor girl he had granted a merciful death to within the University's dorms. He shivered at the thought of what these poor women had been through, since the fracture.

Looking at their wretched appearance Alex had a horrifying thought, what if Goblins reproduced with other species? It would certainly explain the scene he saw before his very eyes. While Alex was deep in thought, Cassie was struggling to contain the contents of her stomach. She had never witnessed such a scene before, and as a woman, she was having a much harder time coping with this reality, than the others were.

Alex noticed how distraught his team had become and closed the doors, sealing the room shut

"Let's go"

he stated coldly, as he began to walk away. Seeing his indifferent attitude enraged Cassie, who was still thinking about the situation of the poor women inside the room. She grabbed ahold of Alex's wrist tightly, digging her nails into his iron flesh as he tried to walk away.

"We can't just leave them here!"

Alex glared at her with a complicated gaze, it was clear he too was struggling with his emotions, nevertheless, that didn't prevent him from doing his duty

"We have a job to do. We'll let the Captain decide the fate of those women after we've killed every one of those little bastards!"

Cassie wanted to protest, but as she was about to she felt a hand on her shoulder from behind it belonged to Brandon. He had a grim expression on his face as he too struggled with what he witnessed this day.

"He's right Cassie, this isn't a decision we should make for ourselves. After we've cleared the building, the Captain will know what to do"

Hearing those words Cassie began to calm herself down. All she could do was channel her distress into wrath. She would not leave a single one of those goblin fucks alive! As for the women, it was like Alex had said, the Captain would decide their fate.