Chapter 76: His Little Secret

News Around The World

Oil Expected To Reach $250USD Per Barrel

Salt Shortages Expected

Temperatures Drop As Air Pollution Plummets With Shipping Lanes Closed

Garbage Dumps Under Assault By Xothican Scavengers (Animals And People)

Demand For Medical Professions Likely To Fall Over The Years With The Advent Of Healing Magic

VVVVVV

A loud ringing noise went off inside the APC that Tom drove. Yang jumped in his seat at the sudden noise.

"What in the Abyss is that?" Yang exclaimed.

"My phone, er, communicator," Tom answered. "Just a sec."

Tom picked up the phone and answered, "This is Everett."

"Everett, this is Major Wayne from Skysign," the voice on the phone said.

"Oh, hello, Major. Something I can help you with?"

"Actually, I'm calling to report to you that we may have found another Elemental."

Tom slammed on the vehicle's brake. He quickly stepped out to everyone's surprise.

"Who?"

"Her name is Tuilene Morbus. She's apparently the daughter of the Morbus royal family."

The girls stepped out of the vehicle to check on Thomas.

"Wait, I don't understand. Why would she switch sides?"

"She apparently hated her family. We were able to confirm that she spent the last several years working under the alias the Liberator."

"You're shitting me."

"Not only that, she killed most of her family during her escape. Only her older brother survived."

"Oh, man. You're serious?"

"Tuilene also offered us a lot of Intel on the Zokot Kingdom. It's going to take us weeks to get through it all."

"Where is she right now?"

"She's still with us at the embassy. Answering some questions of ours."

"Should I teleport back now? Pick her up?"

Wayne sucked in air through her teeth. "We still have questions for her to answer, and we'd hate to interrupt your current mission. Anyway, she looks exhausted. I don't think it would be wise to bring her along on your mission at the moment. You can meet with her when you get back."

"Alright. We shouldn't be too long and be back around five."

"Understood. We'll take good care of her until then."

"Alright, thank you. Bye."

Tom hung up his phone.

"What was that about?" Amber asked.

"The Skysign embassy may have just found an Elemental," Tom said with a wide smile.

"Who?" Vivian jumped at the statement.

"It's apparently the daughter of the Morbus family."

"What?!" Reia exclaimed.

"According to the Major, Tuilene worked under the alias of Liberator."

"Oh..." Sylmae muttered. The name Liberator is fairly well known due to their activities against the Zokot Kingdom. "She's Liberator? My goddess..."

"She has now defected to our side."

"When do we get to meet her?" Tala asked.

"As soon as we get back from our mission," Tom answered. "I can't believe we found an Elemental so soon. Let's finish this quest as soon as possible so we can head back and meet her."

"I've don't really know anything of the Morbus daughter," Sylmae mused aloud.

"Considering that she apparently killed most of her family on the way out of her country, neither did they."

"She killed her family...?" Tala asked.

"She might be really dedicated to her cause," Tom suggested. "We won't fully know the situation until we speak to her."

"The sooner we finish this quest the sooner we can talk to her," Vivian said.

"Exactly. Let's get back into the APC and kill these goblins."

As they got back into the vehicle, Yang leaned forward and asked, "What was that about?"

"Our people may have just found another Elemental," Tom answered. He turned the vehicle back on and it moved forward. "We're going to meet with her as soon as we finish this mission."

"Ah. Congratulations. How many more do you need?"

"After the new one?" Reia said. "We still need six. Six and we can take down Hastur for good."

Yang smirked. "The sooner the better."

"We're coming up on the mountain," Sylmae announced. Her eyes spotted the foot of the steep mountain. "And I see a cave."

"That's where they will be," Yang said.

It took several minutes before the APC arrived at the mountain. It came to a stop and Tom turned its engine off and everyone stepped out. Yang went towards the cave entrance and checked the ground.

"This is the place, alright. Now goblins usually operate in two shifts. Half are active at night and half during the day. With no guards outside the cave, I can only assume that the day group went up to scavenge. We'll need to hurry and eliminate the night group before they come back."

Just before Yang could enter the cave, Tom grabbed him by the shoulder.

"We can explore this cave much safer and faster," Tom said. He turned towards the APC and looked in the back. Tom came back with a metal suitcase. "One of a bunch of gifts from the UNDF."

Tom opened the suitcase on the ground and inside was a quadcopter drone and a large controller with a screen on it.

"What is that?" Yang asked.

"We call these drones," Tom replied. "It's a machine we can fly and see through. This model is extremely special as it's practically silent. Watch."

Tom activated the controller. The screen turned on with the UNDF emblem appearing on the screen. Text then appeared on the screen.

DRAGONFLY ACTIVATING...

DRAGONFLY ACTIVE

Tom pressed a button on the controller which caused the drone's rotors to spin. The drone quickly popped out of the suitcase and hovered over it by a couple feet. The controller screen switched to the drone's view. The screen showed the drone's camera looking at Yang.

"Check it out," Tom said as he tilted the controller to Yang.

"Incredible."

"Now let's take a look in the cave."

The drone flew into the cave. Once the drone got a far enough into the cave, the video feed switched over to infrared. The image was now black and white. Any heat source came across as either white or a multitude of grays.

"I'm not seeing any diverging path in the cave."

The drone continued do the rocky corridor until it reached a large area of the cave. Inside they saw a couple dozen heat sources from sleeping goblins. Two goblins were huddled around a campfire and were cooking meat on a spit. Upon closer look, it was obvious that it was a person's leg.

"Oh, goddess," Tala muttered.

The drone did a sweep of the cavern and found no other routes. It was a dead end. The Dragonfly rotated and found a mound of meat. It was a mix of creatures and people.

"Ugh," Vivian groaned in disgust.

"Vile, vile creatures," Yang muttered under his breath. "I think we've seen enough. There's sixteen goblins in there."

"Yes, we have," Tom said as he pressed the recall button on the controller. He placed the controller down and said, "So here's what I'm thinking. We stealthily go in. Amber will set up a treant near the entrance to act as a sentry to warn us if the other goblins return. Tala will cast Invisibility on all of us. Sylmae will take point since she has the highest Perception here. She'll watch for any possible traps. Once we reach the large cavern area, Sylmae will take out the two guards. With them dead, we'll kill the sleepers. One stab through the eye. Quick and quiet."

"I like that plan," Yang said.

"Then we're in agreement," Vivian said.

Amber walked over to a nearby tree and gestured with her hand. The tree shuddered and then came to life. A mouth and eyes formed and the creature pulled its roots out of the ground.

"No, no, no," Amber cooed to it like a child. "I need you to root yourself and pretend you're a tree."

The treant nodded and rooted itself into the ground and went motionless. It was indistinguishable from any of the surrounding trees.

"Incredible," Yang muttered. "I have heard of the capabilities of the dryads, but seeing it is something else."

"Sure is," Sylmae agreed.

"Okay, now you, Tala," Amber said.

Tala raised her staff and soon a shimmer appeared on everyone. Since they were all in the same party, they could still see each other.

"Okay, we're good," Tom said. "Let's go."

They entered the cave by twos with Sylmae and Tom in the front. They did everything they could to reduce any noise from their foot steps. The armour suits that Tom's team wore had a type of padding on the feet that muffled foot steps. Yang had fabric foot wear that allowed him to sneak.

Along the way, Sylmae found two alarms. Both were a trip wire that was connected to bones. Both traps were easily disarmed to allow them to go down the tunnel without any problems. They quickly reached the cavern where the goblins lived.

Sylmae got out her bow and sneaked forward a little and nocked two arrows. She aimed at the two goblins that were eating the leg. Sylmae released her bow string and the arrows flew forward. The two arrows went right through the goblins' heads. They were both instantly killed. The two goblins fell over and landed on the ground with a soft thud.

Your party has gained 55 EXP

None of the other goblins had their sleep disturbed by the sudden deaths. Tom signaled the others to go ahead to kill the others. Tom kept Tala close to his side as her abilities are not good in stealth situations. Everyone else split up to kill the goblins.

Tom crouched by the first goblin. He took out his sword and, in one swift motion, grabbed the goblin by the mouth and stabbed it through the eye. The goblin was only able to shoot open its eyes and jerk in place before it was stabbed through the head.

Your party has gained 25 EXP

The others followed his lead and went with quick stabs to the head. They went through the goblins one after another with the others being none the wiser. After five minutes, the last of the goblins were killed.

Your party has gained 365 EXP

"That's the last of them," Reia said.

"I have to say that was the easiest time I've ever had taking out goblins in a cave," Yang said as he pulled out his dagger from the last goblin. "We just need to take out the other half."

"I could use my drone to check the surrounding area," Tom suggested.

"Then I guess we're done in this dank cave," Vivian stated. "You get any drops, Tom?"

"Just some random crap," he replied. "Bad swords and daggers. I'll probably sell it in Skysign."

"Let's head out then," Sylmae said. "I can't stand the smell of blood in here."

"It's best we burn the bodies and remains," Tala reminded. "We don't want some other monster to move in here."

"Good point," Tom said. "All of you can go ahead, I'll just quickly help Tala here."

The others went ahead and Tom and Tala used their fire spells to burn the bodies. It took minutes for them to pile the bodies and to set them aflame. The two walked away from the pyres with their arms linked.

"Good thinking about the bodies, Tala."

"Thank you."

"So it's just about five more days until the Magic Tournament. Getting nervous?"

"You know, I thought I would, but I'm not. The last time I entered the tournament, I was immediately knocked out in the first round. When you're up against nobles with high grade education in magic, you don't have much of a chance. This time will be different. I spent the year on the practical usage of magic. Not to mention the knowledge you humans have on the elements."

"Don't forget helping kill Mordiggian," Tom reminded.

Tala giggled. "That too. If I can handle a fight with one of Hastur's most trusted underlings, I can handle some spoiled nobles."

"Aren't we bold?"

Tala flashed him a bright smile. They looked ahead to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The two walked out to see everyone waiting for them.

"Now we can locate the other goblins," Yang said.

Tom got the controller for the drone again and launched it into the air. He guided it upwards until it was fifty feet over the forest.

"Okay, I'm just going to scan the area- Oh..."

"What?" Reia asked.

"I see them and they are heading this way."

Everyone looked at the controller's screen and it saw the goblins heading towards them through the trees.

"Twenty of them," Yang quickly counted. "Considering their speed, they aren't aware of our presence. So we set up a little ambush."

"Amber make some more treants. Everyone else find a hiding place and wait for my signal to attack." Tom activated the drone's return to base function.

They all prepared their ambush while they waited for the goblins to return to their cave. Unbeknownst to them, someone else was watching. The small eyeball creature that followed them hovered over the area. The creature was a created creature known as the spekh. The creature had no sense of self and was directly controlled by its creator: Hastur.

Hastur sat on his throne with a circular disk that displayed what the spekh saw. The creature glanced over to the approaching goblins and then back to Tom's group. Hastur tapped on his throne a couple times as he watched the goblins approached Tom's position. The goblins got near attacking range of Tom's position. Hastur raised his tentacled hand and the image of the display turned red in colour.

"Tom there's something above us," Sylmae said over the suit's comms.

Tom looked up and saw a portal. Unlike the city portals, this portal resembled a purple whirlpool.

"What the fuck is that?" he thought out loud.

Everyone looked up and saw the same thing.

"Oh no," Tala muttered. "It's a spekh portal!"

"A what?"

"Spekh are creatures made by Hastur. They can form portals to launch objects or enemies."

The goblins ahead became aware of the event in the sky. They all yelled out in alarm.

"There goes our ambush," Yang cursed.

The goblins ahead saw the APC and immediately charged forward to check the status of their cave. At the same time, a large black and red vertical structure fired from the spekh portal towards the ground between Tom's group and the goblins. The structure resembled an obelisk. Reddish aura radiated outwards from the structure. The portal evaporated into a gray cloud and the spekh was gone.

"What is that?" Amber asked.

"Tom, we need to destroy that thing right now!" Tala yelled.

"What is it?" Tom asked.

"I've read about this obelisk. It's Hastur's main weapon in every war he waged. It severely powers up monsters within an area and causes them to go into a frenzy state. Look!"

Across from them, they all saw the goblins grabbing their heads in pain. The red aura now surrounded their bodies. Their muscle mass increased as the power of the obelisk flowed into them. Several of the goblins evolved into their next stage of their evolution. A couple of hobgoblins and one hobgoon. The treants that Amber summoned also reacted to the obelisk. They pulled themselves out of the ground as their bark darkened in colour. The leaves in their branches browned and then fell out leaving dead branches.

"N-No!" Yang cried out. "No!"

Everyone looked to the source of distress and saw Yang was also holding his head in pain.

"I refuse it! I refuse it!"

"Yang, what's wrong?" Reia asked.

"I'm not a monster! I'm not a monster."

Tom looked back to the obelisk and launch a lightning strike at it. The attack took out a third of the width of the obelisk. Yang clawed at his head as he tried to resist the obelisk. The red aura surrounded his body.

"Why is the obelisk affecting him?" Vivian asked.

Yang accidentally tore his hood and revealed his head. He was a goblin with red skin.

"My goddess," Sylmae muttered. "Yang is a goblin."

Tom launched another lightning strike at the obelisk and took out more of the structure. The obelisk cracked around the points of impact and then toppled over.

"Obelisk is down," Tom announced.

Yang collapsed on the ground after he resisted the energy. The goblins across from them managed to recover from the upgrade and saw Tom's group. They raised their weapons and roared.

"Everyone to arms!" Tom yelled. "Tala, set the treants on fire. Vi, use your earth magic to create a barrier to prevent the torched treants from coming at us. Reia, soften up the goblins with your wind magic. Syl, assist her. Amber, give us buffs."

"Right!" they all replied.

Tala moved forward and raised her hands. Two pillars of flames spewed from her hands and combined into one giant stream of flames. She moved her hands to make sure that every treant was alit. Whatever the obelisk did to make the treants stronger, it also made them drier.

"I got you covered, Tala," Vivian said as she waved her arms.

A wall of dirt rose up and blocked the treants from moving towards them. Sylmae and Reia casted their own magic at the charging goblins. The goblins pressed forward against the magical attacks. Any semblance of self-preservation they had was destroyed by the red obelisk.

"They're suicidal!" Sylmae yelled out.

"Then let's obliged them," Tom said as he joined them.

The goblins reached their attack line to go into melee.

"Prevent them from reaching Yang, Tala, Amber, or Syl," Tom ordered.

The goblins jumped at Tom, Vivian, and Reia with their weapons raised. The three blocked their attacks and quickly pushed them back. This surprised the goblins and threw them off balance.

"Now counter," Vivian yelled out.

The three pushed forward and attacked the goblins while Sylmae and Tala stayed back to attack any goblins on the edges of their group. Amber had her attention focused on the now flaming treants. She swung her whip sword at the slow moving creatures. The whip sword cut through their branches and their sides while they burned.

"They're much tougher than the ones we faced in South Africa," Reia groaned as she blocked one of the goblin attacks.

"This must be the effect of the red obelisk," Vivian said as she slammed her hammer down on a goblin's head and turned it to mush.

"I can understand how Hastur managed to keep his side going for hundreds of years if he's capable of controlling monsters like this," Tom said as his sword went through the mid-section of a goblin. "These were just weak goblins."

Tom heard a growl over to his left. He looked to see the hobgoon flying at him. A knife came out of nowhere and went into his right eye. Tom stepped to the side and the hobgoon crashed into the ground where Tom was standing. He looked where the knife came from and saw that Yang was back on his feet.

"As weak as goblins can be, never underestimate them," he said. "I know I have a lot to explain, but we need to take care of these goblins."

Tom nodded and then stabbed his sword downwards on the hobgoon. The hobgoon gasped as the sword went into its gut. Tom pulled the sword out and stabbed it in again. He repeated the motion until the hobgoon didn't react to the attack.

Yang joined the fray with Reia and Vivian with his two daggers. He moved through the goblins like a tornado and cut at the vital points in the goblins such as arteries and tendons. Either Reia or Vivian would follow up with a finishing blow after Yang weakened them with precision attacks.

Tala assisted Amber by killing the treants with fireballs. The treants found themselves torn to pieces by Amber's whip sword and quickly burnt up by Tala's flames.

Tom whipped his hand up and fired a chain lightning that bounced between eight goblins that stunned them in place. Vivian launched them up into the air by causing the ground under them to explode. Sylmae aimed with her bow and let loose arrows at the flying goblins. Each arrow impacted the goblins in the chest. Reia finished them off with wind blades that turned the goblins into chunks of gore.

"Is that's the last of them?" Sylmae asked out loud.

"I think so," Yang said as he placed his daggers into his Inventory. "I don't smell any more."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The fire from the treants moved over and caught onto some nearby trees. Tom sighed in frustration and said, "Vi, babe, could you use your earth magic and put out that fire before a forest fire starts?"

"Babe?" she repeated. "We doing pet names now?"

"I kinda thought we were at that point."

Vivian shrugged. "Alright. Babe's fine." She raised her hands the the earth rose up and consumed the trees.

Yang picked at his hood to find it was torn to shreds. Tom walked over and raised his hand. Within seconds, the hood mended itself and returned to its original state.

"Wh-What?" he muttered.

"Magical Repair," Tom answered. "I can fixed clothes, armour, and weapons. So are you willing to answer some questions of mine?"

Yang waved his hands to gesture "Might as well".

"Are there others like you? Sane goblins?"

Yang couldn't help but laugh. "Sane goblins. What a polite way to put it. No. I've been hunting goblins for years and I have never come across another like me. I'm an... outlier, I guess. A mutation."

"Why do you hunt others of your kind?" Reia followed up. "In fact, how did you even become an Adventurer without anyone knowing."

"The same reason you do. Goblins are vile. Me being one doesn't change that fact. As for how I became an Adventurer..."

"Ilena knew," Tom concluded after remembering that she recommended Yang.

"That's right. I met Ilena back when I was a bogey. The clan I was born to attacked a caravan that she was travelling with. When I saw the chaos my clan caused, something inside me awakened: A conscience. It seems like along with this conscience, I was born stronger. I can evolve and level up. With my new found morals and strength, I turned on my clan. It was a hard fight, but I killed every single one of them. With my clan defeated, Ilena thanked me by giving me a chance to live a normal life. She faked my identity and got me registered with the Guild. I've since dedicated my life to hunting other goblins. Now that you know this, what will you do?"

"Nothing," Reia matter-of-factly replied.

"Nothing?"

"None of our goddamn business what you are," Tom added. "You're on my side and that's all that matters."

"Well... Thank you. I really appreciate your discretion."

"In fact, if you are willing, the UNDF is looking to contract Adventurers to aid our forces against monsters. Goblins are a problem in many places and you would be given equipment, support, and be handsomely rewarded. What do you say?"

"You had me at goblins." Yang held out his hand for a shake.

Tom grabbed it and shook it. "Alright, then. Speaking of which, I've never seen a goblin like you."

"I'm a hemogoblin. Goblins go through many evolutions as they live and get stronger. We are all born as bogeys. We then become a goblin, hobgoblin, hobgoon, demigoblin, and then me; a hemogoblin. There are rumours of another stage known as a tengu, but I've never seen one."

"I really should brush up on more on Xoth's wildlife," Tom muttered to himself. The encyclopedia he received from Kara was very concise and did not go into the details of monster evolution. "Tala, sometime we need to go to the library."

"Aye," Tala replied.

"Yang, back in the fight, you were affected by the red obelisk," Amber said. "What happened?"

"I heard Hastur's voice," Yang replied. "Offering me power. It was like it was trying to worm its way into my mind. I resisted it with my whole being just to keep it at bay. As soon as you destroyed that obelisk, it went away."

"We can't have that happen again," Sylmae said. "You were lucky we destroyed that obelisk, but what if another shows up?"

"Yang won't be working alone," Tom said. "I can give the UNDF special instructions to immediately destroy any red obelisk in Yang's presence. I'll just make up some excuse."

Tom walked over to the remains of the red obelisk. "Is this stuff safe to take back with us? I think our scientists would love to analyze it."

"It should be safe," Tala answered.

"Good. I'm trying to be more cautious about picking up items I don't understand." Tom cautiously picked up a chunk of the red obelisk. It still had the carvings from its original form, but it did not glow with the red light. He tossed it into his Inventory.

"Since that communicator orb?" Reia reminded.

"Yup," Tom replied. "I think we're done here. We'll teleport back to the village and then back to Skysign to make our reports."

"And then meet with the Elemental?" Amber reminded.

"Yup. I'm really curious about this Tuilene."