Part 1

For Re-Estize Kingdom, the judgement day came. While the Royal Capital was left alone being convinced that they had one month to prepare, most of the country was being systematically destroyed with all communications between regions cut off. As such, the death came silently and without notice, leaving no chance for proper response.

Fate of Tanbel Village, a small village on the northern edge of Great Forest of Tob, was no different. Their first realization of the situation was when black smoke rose from the nearby Claiafer Keep. Militia was quickly assembled and, led by local adventurer, Felsi Ibriks, moved to assist the forces there.

As they were traveling on the road, they stumbled upon a gruesome scene. Several cavalrymen were turned into pin cushions with dozen arrows sticking out of them and their horses missing with only their blood left behind. Felsi tried to inspect the bodies, but was disrupted by horn blowing in the distance.

A small group of soldiers were running away from unknown assailant. When noticed, both groups nearly fired on each other. Thankfully, the intervention of the leaders prevented the friendly fire incident.

Before the militia could learn what was happening, their enemy was approaching. Seeing that he had no chance of escaping, the leader of the soldiers combined his force with the militia and braced for the fight with a surprising adversary.

Goblins were not far away, arriving at the scene to the shock of the militia. For those few that have met and killed goblins, they were just uncivilized mob, living in forest far away from society. These goblins, however were much different. Dressed in modified Re-Estize soldier uniforms coloured in red, they were marching in orderly fashion with professionalism uncharacteristic for goblins.

The two human leaders made an improvised spear wall and placed whatever archers they has behind them, firing immediately on the approaching goblins. Their opponents reacted the same way by placing a shield wall and so, the short skirmish started.

Less than a minute later, it was clear the humans were going to lose. Dozen or so men already fell with more wounded. Militia's wooden shields stood no chance against goblin crossbows. The few mages present among the soldiers perished immediately. Even the leader of the soldiers ended up with an arrow in his shoulder.

The only thing that saved them was sound of another horn after which the goblins started retreating. Not wishing to risk their luck, humans retreated with all the wounded they could carry, leaving the dead behind.

Less than 20 minutes later, the village was in uproar with the civilians helping the wounded as much as they could. Surviving militiamen and soldiers ended up on the watch duty for any approaching goblins.

Felsi and the village elder tried to figure out what exactly happened at the keep, but due to chaotic situation during the retreat, the information was all over the place. In the end, they waited until the soldiers' leader got medical care for his wound.

Half an hour later, the brunette man in regular army uniform with bandaged up shoulder arrived at the elder's residence to discuss what happened. He revealed himself as Sergeant Tolle Caldwell from Claiafer Keep.

Elder was the first one to spoke up. "So, what in the world happened out there, Sergeant?"

Tolle's voice was shaking. "N-not sure. One minute we were assembling to sally forth, the next hundreds of uniformed goblins charging on the keep. The last I know, the garrison is trying to hang on in there. Several groups were launched trying to alert the area. We barely managed to break through."

Felsi asked the obvious question. "Have you sent any horsemen ahead?"

Tolle shook his head. "No. I did hear some patrols never returned. It might be one of them."

Elder was concerned by the news he just heard. "So, now what? We have a well trained goblin army on our hands and our only safe spot is already under siege. It's only the matter of time before they reach us here."

Tolle tried to sound confident. "Surely at least one messenger will reach E-Libera. Until then, all we must to do is hold out. Is there any way we can fortify the village?"

Felsi's answer was negative. "We can try, but if they have the ability to besiege the keep, there is little we can do here." She took a deep sigh and then remembered something. "Well, there is one place we can try to survive this mess. The Playground."

Tolle was confused by that answer. "The what now?"

Felsi explained herself. "There is an old abandoned ruin in the forest east of here. Children often go there to play around and to pretend they are knights and lords and such. If there is any place potentially safe other than the keep, it has to be that."

The elder hesitated to answer. He thought about it deeply before asking: "How many people we have right now?"

Tolle's answered with defeated tone in his voice. "20 of us managed to reach, 8 wounded."

Felsi's answer wasn't any better. "10 of us returned back. 3 are laying wounded."

Another minute of silence passed before the elder spoke up. "Inform everyone to gather as little stuff as they can carry and tell them to evacuate to the Playground. Also, give weapons to anyone that can hold them and fight."

Both of them obeyed and left the room. Tanbel Village didn't avoid the disaster of the last war, with most of the young men of the village perishing on Katze Plains. The current militia was assembled from young women and few that managed to dodge conscription due to circumstances. Now even teens and old people received weapons so they could fight.

The village was fully evacuated by the sunset. As the darkness slowly set across the land, the column marched slowly into the forest. Once considered as village's backyard with trees and rocks in it knowing generations of Tanbel villagers that lived near it and often visited, now it looked ominous and threatening. It was as if danger could come from any angle or any bush.

In the end the threat came true. On their way a goblin patrol was encountered. Two soldiers together with Felsi charged forward while the rest escaped the scene.

It was time for Felsi to finally let loose. After throwing her buckler in first goblin's head, she charged towards the second one with her sword drawn. Knowing the armour's weakness, her swift motion chopped goblin's arm from below the armpit before thrusting the sword into its chest.

Third goblin tried to cut her down while pulling her sword out. Her clumsy defence stopped the attack at the cost of her blade breaking. Goblin seized the initiative and pressed on the attack, forcing Felsi to guard. The stress on her broken blade was beyond what it could handle and another fragment was broken, this time ending up in Felsi's eye.

As she reeled back from pain, her swordwork became messy, just swinging it to make the goblins stay away. One of the soldiers sacrificed themselves to slay the goblin. Felsi's adrenaline remained high to the point of nearly striking down the other soldier. After realizing there were no more goblins around, she calmed down and, together with the remaining soldier, stumbled around as they rejoined back with others.