As we continued our journey, the scenery around us changed. Things started out quite densely vegetated, with a lot of ferns and roots covering the forest ground, but went to grey and brown soon enough from nothing but dirt.

Trees were still aplenty, there was just nothing growing anywhere in between.

We took it as a sign we might be nearing our goal. Nira took to the skies to observe our surroundings. She came down as quickly as she went up, shortening her time exposed. Once safely on the ground again she spoke.

“We’re getting closer. I could see a large clearing up ahead.”

“Any idea how many goblins we’re dealing with here?” I asked.

Nira shook her head. “Couldn’t see.”

“Does it really matter, though?” Velariah smiled. “You just plow through them anyway.”

“You forgot about the trolls,” Seralyn added.

I nodded. I hadn’t quite tested my new weapon on trolls yet. I knew it was enhanced with three piercing enchants, which should help out against their tough skin, but I didn’t know how well.

“If anything, we should get through this methodically,” Draco said, “As we usually do.”

“Agreed,” I said.

The issue here was that my threads could be seen from a mile away due to the lack of vegetation. I think that forced us into a very specific fighting style.

“What were you thinking, Draco?” I asked. “Try to have me take out the trolls, while you deal with the goblins? Maybe have Seralyn help me out?”

“That does sound like the way to go about this, yes.”

“Keep in mind, I have no experience with trolls yet. They are on a whole other level than goblins.”

“You’ll be fine,” Velariah reassured me. “Just keep running and don’t let them hit you.”

“Heh, thanks for the advice.”

The elf grinned in response.

Nira jumped back on my behind and I handed her my spear once more.

“Draco, you better make sure to protect Nira out in the open,” I said.

“As I had planned,” The lizardman replied.

We had planned our strategy, but experience told me that in actual combat, changes would have to be made on the fly. There was no doubt in my mind that I would end up killing a few goblins as well. Whether it was with my new polearm, or my shield blades, or even my legs, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue as long as I didn’t lose sight of my task during all this.

Ah, the advantages of four eyes…

I had to admit, all this armor had me feeling a lot more confident. I would just have to be careful with the trolls. Their weapons of choice would make any armor a non-factor, after all.

Good thing I was fast… and flexible.

We slowed down in our approach as we focused on our surroundings. If we could take out any scouts before they warned the others, we would have a huge advantage in the element of surprise. My shock value was not to be underestimated.

We found one, which Seralyn quickly, and most importantly, quietly, took out with an arrow to the face.

After that, it was a short walk to their ‘village’, which consisted of a bunch of dirt huts with leaves for roofs and a couple of huts made of branches that looked like the big bad wolf could just blow them over.

It was quite pathetic if I had to be honest.

We laid low a fair distance from the village in order to observe the figures that seemed to not have any idea danger was this close. I only observed one troll from our position, and he was sleeping near a campfire with a pot hanging above it.

The other green figures going about seemed to be mostly goblins. Here and there, a few hobgoblins went about their business, which seemed to consist of cutting down trees and skinning some animals they’d caught.

“So,” Seralyn said quietly. “We hit them hard and fast. Any objections?”

As crude as her ‘plan’ sounded, it could be quite effective. Especially with the lack of trolls from what I could observe, this could be easier than expected.

“How many goblins are we looking at here?” Velariah asked.

“If I had to guess,” Seralyn replied, “about fifteen from what I can see, but their camp extends in the other direction, so there’s no easy way to estimate.”

“Elania, could you rush through, kill what you can kill, and return to us with an estimate on their numbers while we attack the front?” Velariah asked.

“You sure you want to go about it that way? Doesn’t sound very methodical to me.”

“It doesn’t matter. Whether we attack the front together or do it this way, they will all be alerted. Better do as much damage as we can with a charge so their morale is impacted as much as possible.”

I had to give her that. Allowing them to rally without suffering casualties in the rear while that could be avoided was a bad thing.

I nodded. “Alright.”

I fastened my helmet once more as I prepared for my charge.

“El?” Velariah asked softly.

I looked at her.

“Stay safe.”

“With all this armor?” I chucked. “I think I’ll be fine. Thank you.”

I appreciated her concern but it looked a bit cliché to do this in front of the others, so I replied with nonchalance.

I just hoped I didn’t jinx it.

“Right,” Seralyn continued. “Let’s do this.”

She nocked an arrow and took aim as Nira hopped off of my rear.

I had to admire her confidence in being able to hit a target from this distance. I think we were a good hundred meters or so out.

I removed my scabbards and handed them to Nira. Velariah unsheathed her sword as well and got ready to charge. I took a deep breath and looked at the white-haired elf.

She nodded.

I nodded back and started my charge, Velariah running behind me as fast as she could with Draco and Nira in tow.

The moment I appeared in the village, the goblin’s reaction was utter panic. They had not heard me coming and were scrambling to get into their huts to arm themselves. The commotion woke up the sleeping troll, who was hit with an inherity-empowered arrow in the head. It blasted a hole the size of a fist in his skull when it exploded, instantly killing him.

I was ready to take him out with my polearm, but instead shifted my attention to the goblins that were in my path. Most of them were still unarmed, which meant I could disregard any possible retaliation. Not that they could do much against me in the first place…

I almost felt sorry for them.

My polearm’s blade easily severed limb from body, and even torso from legs, as I carved a path through their village, leaving a trail of bodies and screams in my wake. The few goblins that did get close to my torso were either trampled under my strong legs, or dismembered by my blades… and then trampled by my legs.

This body was just too strong.

I switched my polearm to my right side as I approached a new troll who had reacted to the commotion. Unfortunately, he was in time with his swing, which forced me to step aside to dodge it. My blade, however, still managed to nick his neck after he brought his mace down.

I felt the impact and noticed distinct troll blood on my blade as I continued onward. I ignored the creature, knowing there was no way he could catch up, and cleaved through several more goblins as the huts and panic flew me by.

Several small arrows were fired at me, which all were deflected by my armor. I believe one of them impacted my spider abdomen and remained there, but I paid it no heed, knowing it did zero damage.

I ran into another troll who did not seem as prepared as the first one. He brought his mace down too quickly, and I swiftly changed my path so that I would pass him on the other side, while altering my polearm’s position so that it was on my left once more, and ran past him as fast as I could while aiming low.

After passing the troll, I reached the end of the village. I was surprised that there were only three trolls about. It led me to believe that several more weren’t in the village at the time.

I had counted about a hundred goblins, of which I’d probably killed a good number. I’d say twenty or so.

While the remaining eighty may pose a problem to my allies, I was certain that a few had already fled as they saw me taking down a good number of them on my own.

As far as I could tell, there were about ten hobgoblins mixed in that number as well.

I turned around, intending to take a large number of goblins out once more so that the others wouldn’t have to deal with them all at once. I was certain they would be able to take on quite a few on their own, though.

Seralyn alone would be able to take on quite a few before they could even get close.

As I turned, I could now clearly see the damage I’d done to the troll. One of his legs had been completely severed by my attack, and the other was hanging on by a literal thread.

I had aimed for the legs, knowing I could get through them more easily than the torso, but looking at this… I think I would be fine targeting higher up.

This troll was as good as dead.

He was still screaming in pain as I ran past him to continue my culling.

The goblins seemed to be more coordinated than I had expected. Instead of running in all different directions, they grouped up with spears at the ready. I could see one goblin shouting words in incomprehensible language behind a group of them.

He looked to be some kind of higher-up. From the short duration that my eyes were centered on him, I could see he wore two daggers that each glowed with a distinct color, one red and one white. The daggers were connected with a chain behind him.

As I approached the group of goblins before him, he extended one of the daggers and a fireball came flying at me.

The attack had been preceded by an obvious action and, as such, I was ready to block whatever was thrown at me.

The fireball impacted one of my shields and I carved through the group with my polearm. Each impact from a goblin sent a small shockwave through my arms as I held on to the weapon. After feeling six impacts, I switched my weapon’s direction once more and cleanly cut the torso from the legs of a goblin that was unfortunate to stand in my way.

A ball of white was fired at me from my rear, and I ducked to avoid the impact. It flew past me, regardless. The attack would have missed, even if I hadn’t done that.

I started nearing my companions, who were locked in a battle of their own. The goblins were too split up for them to worry about anything, though. Several goblins lay dead at my position already, having been killed off by Seralyn’s arrows.

Velariah didn’t have any issues with dealing with whoever came near her. Her sword made quick work of these green-skinned creatures.

We reached each other, and Draco, Nira, and Seralyn approached us as well. Another arrow was fired, which I saw killing off a lone goblin that was still approaching us.

“I counted about a hundred, killed about thirty to forty,” I quickly stated. “Two trolls beyond the first one. One was left bleeding, the other is bleeding to death.”

“Only three trolls?” Draco asked in surprise.

“Exactly what I thought as well.”

I turned around and observed the goblins scurrying around their village, still trying to recover from my shock charge. None of them seemed to be approaching us for the moment, but I imagined we’d better not leave them untouched for too long.

“We should be on the lookout for reinforcements,” Velariah suggested, to which each of us nodded.

“In the meantime,” She continued. “Let’s get this so-called stronghold cleaned up.”

I took that as a cue to start another charge.

I ran through the village once more. Most of the goblins that remained were now properly armed.

I shook my head.

These poor souls should have negotiated when they had the chance.

Their weapons couldn’t even reach me. With this new weapon of mine, even less so.

I cut goblin after goblin in half and saw their morale shaking as I carved another path. Behind me, Velariah and Seralyn did their own number on the goblins. Even Nira joined in the attack as she chased down a few goblins that fled the village and sliced through their bodies with her sharp talons.

At that, Draco joined in the attack as well.

I ran into the troll from earlier and noticed I had caused a wound in his chest. It wasn’t as deep, as only the tip of my pole sword connected with his body, but it was enough to cause blood to ooze from it. This time, I repeated the same action I did with the last troll.

I feigned attacking one side until he had no time to change his attack pattern anymore, before switching to his other side and attacking him from behind.

My weapon severed one of his arms and sank into his torso’s side until it was about halfway through.

I had to hold on to my weapon with the necessary strength but found it gliding through his body thanks to the curve that was in the blade. It left a deep cut in his back as well as I passed him, causing him to scream in pain and rage before he toppled over.

I had to have hit his vitals with that attack.

Nearby goblins, who saw me taking out a large troll without any effort, started panicking and dispersing. I only cut down a few of them as I was still trying to go through the village in as much of a straight line as I could.

I ran into the magic-casting goblin once more who seemed to have formed a new group around him. He didn’t look as confident this time around.

I sliced through a hobgoblin with ease before reaching his group once more. Another fireball was cast from his daggers, together with a ball of white, which appeared to resemble Velariah’s magic.

I dodged the fireball and blocked the holy ball with both shields, not taking risks, before taking another four goblins down with my polearm, since they’d neatly arranged themselves in a line, making it all too easy.

Ideally, I would have wanted to take out the caster, but I didn’t want to take unnecessary risks, either.

I continued on to the end of the village once more, killing off several more goblins. When I reached the end, I noticed the troll whose legs were all but gone lay dead. That made three confirmed troll kills.

I turned around again and continued my rampage. The goblin caster desperately tried to cast two more spells at me, but after his fireball, his holy ball seemed to fail, as his weapon glowed white, but no spell was fired. After blocking the fireball and cutting down the last of his guards, I turned around specifically for him and noticed him trying to flee.

As if that was going to happen…

My speed was too great for any goblins to get away.

I easily caught up to him and swung my polearm, removing his legs from under him. He landed on his stomach, and I decided to put him out of his misery as fast I could by beheading him.

I left him there to return to my allies. I’d have to look at his weapons later, they seemed like they could be worth something.

When I reached my party, they seemed to be slowly going through the village, picking off any survivors. The battle was already won.

Seralyn was out of arrows and picked them from the corpses that she passed, before instantly firing them again at the few goblins who were still trying to flee. Their morale was completely shattered.

“Well,” I said as I approached them, “that seemed to be an effective way of doing things.”

I referred to my shock value which had caused more than a few of the creatures to give up.

“You certainly left behind a trail of death in your wake,” Velariah replied.

“How many do you think got away?” I asked.

“Not too many,” Draco replied.

“I tried to get as many of them as I could,” Seralyn added. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t get them all.”

“A few escaped from me, as well,” I said. “What will we do about them?”

“I doubt there is much we can do,” Velariah spoke. “I don’t want us to split up. We don’t know if there are more trolls about. I would think there are more somewhere out there. I’d say the best we can do is stick together and try to comb the area a bit.”

I nodded. “Let’s do that, then. Let’s see if there are any survivors here, have a break, and then search the area, shall we?”

“Sounds good to me,” Velariah responded.

The others nodded.

Thus, we scoured what remained of the village. The only goblins we found that were still alive were those unable to stand and run due to the injuries that I’d delivered to them.

We finished them off and searched the huts for any more stragglers, but found none.

We took any valuables we could find, which turned out to be not a whole lot, but some silver coins here and there started adding up.

I made sure to collect the magic daggers that were connected by a chain and showed them to my friends.

“Quite an interesting weapon,” Draco commented. “I’ve not seen anything like it. Two elements you say?”

I nodded. “It appears to be able to channel fire and holy magic.”

“Should be worth a few gold then,” Seralyn said. “Maybe more than a few.”

I nodded. “I hope so.”

Velariah focused on the gruesome task of collecting goblin and troll ears together with Draco after we made sure whatever remained of the village was completely deserted.

They spent quite some time doing it as there was a large trail of bodies throughout the area. Seralyn collected all her arrows in the meantime.

An hour or so later, we converged in the middle and started a well-deserved break.

I cleaned my blades on some cloth we collected before sitting down with the others and loosening the strap under my helmet.

“Good job all,” Velariah spoke. “I daresay we did that about as well as we could have, even if a few goblins managed to escape.”

I nodded in response. “Nice job indeed.”