Camp Assault

As I barreled through the foliage and launched myself into battle, a feeling of adrenaline-fuelled clarity overtook me. Shit. Was I really doing this?

I had never been prone to violence. Not that I couldn't fight or get rowdy when things demanded it, but I'd always felt in control.

This was different. I was running, actually running towards the enemies, and the exhilaration that flooded my senses as the sword gleamed in the sun was intoxicating. Like being the first one in a bar to punch another idiot's face. Shatter an empty bottle of alcohol on someone's head. The feeling of being the one starting shit for once and not having to hold yourself back.

Or maybe I was just that reckless. An idiot. Like Jeremy.

Everything seemed sharper, clearer, like my body and mind were operating on a level they'd never achieved before. Before I knew it, my feet had brought me right in front of the first of the goblins. Its expression was one of surprise; I assumed it hadn't yet accepted that the prey had turned predator. 

I didn't give it the luxury of understanding. My blade came down in a wide arc, cleaving through its outstretched arm with a wet crunch, and in the same savage momentum, tore through the side of its skull.

A terrible screech filled the air, but the intensity of it faded along with its consciousness until both died in the dirt.

The burgeoning goblin's blood licked my feet.

I looked down at it. 

And just like that, I'd killed something. Not by accident. Not in defense. But because I chose to.

Because I could.

My grip remained steady throughout. No shaking, no quivering. I wasn't frozen. It had barely felt real; my senses had registered nothing but an instinctive, visceral response. 'Fuck me…' I thought, trying to make sense of the rush.

The remaining creatures seemed shocked by what had transpired. Their leader, if there was one, wasn't present to steer them in one direction.

One of them shrieked louder than most, as if to try and command his kin to charge at me—

An arrow buried deep within its eye, cutting its life short.

I watched the monster tumble back, a spurt of blood shooting forth.

From behind me, Oliver and Theo charged in as well. Within seconds of Jeremy's kill, they engaged the goblins, both clumsily wielding daggers.

Their strikes weren't clean by any measure, but they were enough to distract the little green things long enough for me to plunge in.

Another goblin, then another. As the sword bit into flesh and sinew, the world around me was drowned out by the simple urge to dispatch the enemies in front of us.

I used the reach of the sword to keep distance, the length of its blade to slash and cut, the point to skewer.

It had been terrifying to take that leap. I didn't know if I would die. Probably didn't even cross my head. Yet now that I had done so, and lived through that initial burst of danger, I was possessed by a feverish need to see the rest of them on the ground.

"Fuckin' hell." Oliver exclaimed as she managed to stab one of them through the throat. The creature spat blood and toppled forward, limp. Theo, on the other hand, had managed to kill one that got a bit too close, but in a way that looked almost comical, like the monster had just decided it was tired of living.

Oh—there was another one?

I snapped my hyperfocused eyes towards a goblin that tried to sneak away by climbing up a tree. I shifted, leaning forward to explode in speed, yet I didn't have to. I heard the sting of Jeremy's taut bowstring, and when I blinked, the goblin was pinned against the tree by an arrow embedded right through the head.

The tension left me as soon as the last enemy was dispatched.

The adrenaline that had driven me faded quickly, leaving me feeling a little lightheaded and weak.

We'd done it.

I glanced at the girls and found myself chuckling as the excitement and danger passed. We had all gotten through unharmed. Well... almost. Theo did look a little bruised. Oliver seemed unhurt. Jeremy—yeah, Jeremy was alright too. Her expression looked positively gleeful, her eyes bright.

"Are you okay, guys? That went... smoothly. For what we're supposed to be capable of, at least." Jeremy said.

A little too smoothly, in fact. Were goblins really that pitifully weak or were we that capable? 

"Could be worse, I suppose." I chuckled, a sound of genuine amusement bubbling from my chest despite the adrenaline slowly draining out of my system.

"So, is this going to become our 'thing'? I'm not saying I'm against it, but damn, I can't say I expected us to take the role of 'goblin slayers' today." Oliver added with a tired yet pleased smile on her lips. She was staring at her bloodstained hands as she spoke, her mind seemingly running a mile a minute with the same realization I'd had only a moment ago: that I didn't freeze.

"Yeah, I know." Jeremy said. "If things keep up at this pace, I can't wait to see what's in store for us tomorrow." Her words carried a hint of her trademark mischief.

"Knowing our streak, we'll end up running into a dragon and dying before the day is over." Oliver sighed.

"I don't know if we'd die that quickly, though it would hurt real bad. You'd see a shit-ton of gore. Imagine having your arm bitten clean off." Jeremy chuckled. "Then your torso would be sliced off from your lower half."

Theo looked positively sick at the thought of either of us dying in that fashion, as if we were the very same goblins we'd just killed in that imagined encounter with a dragon. "C-Can we please change the subject?" Her words came out shakily.

Jeremy shrugged. "As long as there are no trolls involved." She laughed softly.

Theo visibly cringed.

"Yeah, that was definitely a low moment for us..." Oliver admitted.

xXx

We followed the trails, or whatever was left of them. We were treading too deep into unknown territory and I feared we might not find our way back to the lake; it was our safest bet for shelter, and the last known landmark that had actually felt like home.

The girls had been relatively quiet, deep in their own thoughts as our surroundings continued to unveil new, unexplored terrain.

I was still riding the high of our victory over the small band of goblins.

'Goblins', of all things. I was in some kind of fairy tale gone dark and we were kicking ass. I was in my prime.

But with that confidence also came the danger of becoming complacent.

I stayed on high alert for the entirety of our walk. We'd barely had a chance to settle after killing the goblin group before Jeremy had us all marching onwards, eager to locate their main camp, wherever that was.

It took some time to find, but the discovery of their base wasn't exactly the most welcoming sight. A clearing that opened wide open in the middle of the forest. At its edges were crudely built wooden barricades with sharpened branches sticking out every few yards or so. Inside the barricade, a dozen or so small tents dotted the camp's perimeter.

The center, meanwhile, was filled with a mismatched assortment of makeshift huts and crude, rickety structures that barely resembled shelters.

There was the unmistakable scent of burning, rotten things wafting from that area, along with a miasma of something more unpleasant.

It wasn't just the scent that made me worry—it was also the sounds.

I heard scurrying. Scurrying everywhere, almost as if there were more goblins in there than the bunch we'd faced.

We crouched low, using whatever we could find as cover.

"Seb." Jeremy whispered, pointing at a nearby hut.

There. A lone goblin had exited one of the shacks. It seemed to have just woken up.

Its yawns were obnoxiously loud, stretching and scratching its balls before relieving itself. Right next to a tent. I scrunched up my nose at the sight.

"Do we kill it?" Jeremy asked, eyes wide and twitchy, her smile showing she wanted nothing more than to do it. In fact, for a moment it was a rhetoric question for she'd already grabbed her bow and notched an arrow.

"Wait." I put my hand over hers. "Let's not give away the element of surprise unless absolutely necessary." " I said in a hushed tone.

She stared at my hand on top of hers.

Oliver scooted closer. "What's the plan?"

"We don't know their exact numbers, what they're collectively capable of if they swarm us all at once. For now, we simply scout. They look like the type to fall prey to overconfidence anyway." I responded. Then, I looked at Theo, and placed my hand over her shoulder to ease the obvious concern on her face.

After the first goblin went back into its tent, we kept observing the camp. If we were to attack the camp, doing so in broad daylight would have been an act of sheer stupidity, especially given that it would put us at a serious disadvantage if we couldn't maintain the element of surprise.

More importantly, I really didn't want Theo, Jeremy, Oliver, and I to die at the hands of these little green things. Like seriously, how pathetic would that be?

So, we skulked around, observing.

Goblins had come out to stretch, to pee, to do normal things, and to eat. There were some that had emerged only to take out bags of what looked to be the carcasses of dead animals—foxes, rabbits, rats—and then started roasting them. Others were sent out to pick mushrooms. Another few had gone off to fill large pots and barrels with water. Some carried firewood.

Some were just fucking lazy. Those were my least favourites. They were the ones who threw rocks and shit at the others to tell them off. They were in charge.

A quick tally revealed there were more than 30 goblins here.

The goblins were small, no bigger than four feet tall, yet their bodies seemed quite solid in structure.

"Seb! Look!" Oliver pointed somewhere at the largest hut we had seen so far. A goblin was coming out—correction, a big ass goblin was coming out. "A hobgoblin!"

"A what?" I whispered.

"Seriously?"

"What? Am I a walking encyclopedia on non-human beings?" I rolled my eyes. I did remember reading something about hobgoblins in the past. "Alright. I am aware of what it is. What do we need to know, Miss Bestiary?"

"They are bigger goblins." Jeremy elaborated. "Tougher, meaner, stronger. And dumber."

"Big surprise there..." Oliver snorted. "But that is the gist of it."

"Okay. So they're mini-orcs in a way. Noted." I nodded along.

"That hobgoblin..." Oliver trailed off.

"Doesn't have ears, yeah. He probably pissed some people off and had his ears sliced off." Jeremy explained. "Probably from an orc or an ogre."

Theo grimaced. "Is he their leader? He looks pissed..." She whispered.

"Yeah." Oliver said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

The goblins quickly parted as the hobgoblin walked past, almost as if they didn't dare look at him or impede him in any manner.

This hobgoblin in question was as tall as the average adult human and broader. Bedecked in better clothes as well, and a rusty but mean greatsword. I looked at my smaller sword for comparison and frowned.

"Hehe, feeling inadeguate?" Jeremy quipped. "It'll get longer when it needs to. Don't worry."

Oliver elbowed Jeremy, making her hiss in pain. Then she elbowed Oliver back, who proceeded to do the same. They started to push against each other, quietly, as Theo tried to calm them down, all in secret.

Idiots. All of them.

But then again... I would never replace any one of them.

...

We remained hidden and vigilant. When dusk started to descend, the goblins finally showed signs of winding down their day's activities. Fucking finally, we were getting bored. It didn't long before the goblins retreated to their own huts for some rest. A couple of sentinels were left for guard duty, something they clearly had no aptitude for, since they began to snooze right away.

For a bunch of creatures who seemed to be quite low on the food chain around here, they sure seemed overconfident. Their base was easily accessible, too. No hidden paths. No secret entrances. You just... walked to it.

Or maybe they had a reason to be overconfident. That hobgoblin could prove to be trouble, indeed.

After we had observed the hobgoblin go to sleep, and the two guards were confirmed to have dozed off, we decided to make our move.

"Come on!"

We approached, sneaked our way through the wooden palisade, then headed to a hut. Oliver grabbed the dagger we'd scavenged and made her way to a guard. The little shit was sleeping so peacefully on its stool.

"Hurry up, it smells like someone's been jerking off here." Jeremy commented, making a gagging face. "I can still smell that fucking stench. You can't?"

"Yes." Theo replied with a cringe. "This place smells awful."

Oliver rolled her eyes, but inwardly agreed.

And with a swift strike, the blade entered the base of the goblin's neck, cutting deep. The goblin convulsed once, then went limp, its eyes rolled back as life left them.

"One down."

"Alright. Onwards, ladies." Oliver gestured at the next guard with her bloody dagger, beckoning me, Jeremy, and Theo to join in. This one was a little farther.

One swift motion later, and the other goblin had met a similar fate.

"There. Easy enough, yeah?" She grinned, wiping her blade on the grass and leaves before putting it back.

"Who knew we had such killer instinct in us? Pun intended." Jeremy chuckled.

"We're getting the hang of this. It's scary how easy this feels, isn't it?" I added. We'd been moving from hut to tent to hut, dealing with the goblins one at a time in the most silent manner. The feeling was surreal. Here we were, killing creatures that were essentially sentient, sapient beings. But eh, fuck them.

"I know, I'm scared we might like it too much." Jeremy replied, but she seemed pleased more than scared.

"Alright, American Pyscho." I sighed. "Don't lose your marbles, though."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." She nudged me with the elbow as we made our way from another tent. There were three dead goblins inside. They weren't very tidy.

"I'd like to avoid crossing any bridges that have a danger of turning us into psychos." I retorted dryly. My sword cut a bloody path into the gut of another green fiend. I slashed sideways and ended its miserable existence by splitting its skull in half.

"Oh, shush." She nudged me.

We went to the next hut, and the next after that. This continued in relative silence, and the number of dead goblins had already started to outnumber the ones alive.

"Hey, so." Jeremy started, twirling an arrow between her fingers as if she was playing with a pen.

"What?"

"Do you think we'll eventually be able to use magic?" She questioned, tilting her head as we continued to move towards our next targets.

"Magic?" Theo echoed.

"Why, of course we will. I call dibs on lightning bolts. Or ice. Maybe ice bolts. Ice thunder?" Jeremy pondered out loud. "Ice thunder is epic."

Oliver stared at her with a flat expression. "I think... if you ever cast anything of the sort, I'll have to say your idea is just stupid. How are you going to combine ice and lightning together? Wouldn't that just be normal rain?" She added.

Jeremy waved a hand. "Pfffff, don't worry. It'll work somehow."

Theo sighed as we made our way from the next group of dead goblins and headed towards the next set of targets. "Can't believe you guys are bickering over this."

"You never know." I responded, my lips tugged into a wry grin. I couldn't help it, honestly, I found myself laughing internally, because of how ridiculous it all felt. 

We headed for the next hut, ready to continue our purge.

"I do believe magic will be real here. It just feels right." Jeremy added. Oliver nodded, the idea highly appealing to her. "We'll find some eventually."

And then, just as we quietly made our way in to further increase our kill count, we stopped abruptly, our eyes widening.

"Well, shit..."

There were no goblins inside.

Instead, three human women were bound together on the ground, their hands and feet tied with coarse ropes that bit into their flesh.