Chapter 25: Growth

9 days earlier:

Scitus had spent a large portion of the day teaching the ogre, now named Rey, how to count. He personally taught him, to Seresa's envy, so that he could learn the number of ogres in Rey's tribe. Finally, at the end of the day, he was finally given the number twenty-six, there was twenty-seven if Rey was included.

"I hurt ogre," Scitus explained to Rey that he would have no choice but to hurt the ogres if he were to have a chance at surviving in the case of attack, and he was sure they would attack.

This, of course, led Robin to take action on his own.

"gaH!!" William, frustrated at his own inability, continued to blindly punch Robin, who had been easily deflecting Williams every move. Unlike William who had trained in head-on combat, Robin and the Assassin knights had trained in how to avoid hits and to aim for weak spots with bladed weapons. Robin decided to train William in avoiding hits and at the same time ordered the assassin knights to train in the woods amongst themselves.

Sitting on the grass nearby was Thomas, who had been watching the entire thing, he wanted to learn how to fight in a way that didn't kill anyone, unlike the others, he wanted to be someone who could protect. He had been scared to ask Scitus for permission to do so, instead, he chose to observe the fighting styles of both William and Robin and form a style of his own, Using Williams incredible ability to withstand physical hits and Robins ability to deflect or even trip his opponents Thomas was quickly forming a form of combat all his own.

Thomas, like the rest of the goblins, was happy that Scitus was their god, ever since he had learned English he gained the ability to think further ahead, such as planning to incorporate the fighting styles of Robin and William, it felt as if his entire world grew larger, sensations he never knew existed seemed to be so clear because he had a word to identify them; he felt glad that he could think of protecting instead of hurting rather than just fearing blades because of his past.

Thomas, of course, was not the only one with immense growth. Juliet was also growing, Thoth had been teaching her herbs and when he couldn't help her, Hera would assist her. She had begun to learn the different uses of dozens of plants. She learned of a paralytic flower that once caused her family great strife and learned why her grandfather would always claim that a certain leaf he found healed him of his sickness. It wasn't magic or anything of the sort, it was what Thoth told her, biology. The word was still mysterious to her but she began to unravel the mysteries of biology little by little. She had even asked Scitus on a way to cure the common cold, and he responded that the technology for that is rather complicated because of the constant mutations the common cold went through. She didn't understand until Scitus told her in a simpler way. "Sickness is like you and me it changes so it doesn't die." He felt it an oversimplification, but it had helped Juliet further understand the nature of illness and injury.

"Why are we doing this?" Valentine asked as Juliet scrubbed his body with a smooth stone. There was no soap but she had collected water with the help of Thoth who made a makeshift wooden bucket for her. "Because you smell?" She answered, "Bad smells can lead to sickness." She, of course, knew that his smell was different than ordinary dirt and grime, but she hoped that cleaning him would help rid Valentine of his smell. She wanted him to live a normal life, Valentine smiled understanding this. He was falling deeper in love with her, it was true that he was still being viewed as a criminal by the other goblins and he couldn’t blame them. The only ones who didn’t seem to mind him, Apart from Juliet, were Robin and Teal, and of course Scitus.

Valentine had asked Scitus why he was being treated differently than the others and Scitus answered with words he never thought he’d hear, “We can all change and I saw you as someone who was on the path to change.” To goblins, when they commit a sin, they are never forgiven, there is never a way out, you will forever be labeled a sinner and your smell will be your mark. But Scitus gave him hope that he could change, that there would be a day that his body no longer smelled awful. That there would be a day that he could walk with Juliet and nobody would think poorly of her for choosing him.

Not far from Juliet and Valentine was Maxwell, who smiled widely and proudly. The goblins he had seen since they were children were become fine young goblins and making changes he never thought he would ever see. He saw children playing with their friends and mothers holding their children closely, the best part for him was that there was not a hint of fear anywhere in the camp. He remembered the days when they would struggle for food. Now everything felt warmer and kinder, the goblins could relax and do things that in the past they could only ever do a single day of the year and even then, it would only be for a short time. While he did enjoy watching his people in such glee, this was also his job, he was tasked with observing and making sure that there were no domestic problems, Scitus feared that there would be infighting especially for people among those who did not completely trust him. He had asked Maxwell to be a sort of domestic affairs officer, a person who assisted with arguments, Maxwell didn't know at the time but Scitus planned for him to be the first judge in the kingdom, he already had Maxwell reading laws that Scitus had put in place and laws that he was planning to enact when the population grew larger.

three days went by and new innovations in technology were made, Jute was one of these many innovations and with it were improved fortifications for the encampment, with Jute Traps were made and placed near the forest, and their first seeds were being planted on the fields. The process was tedious for many goblins who's jobs it was to plant a seed every set number of inches and it strained their back but when Scitus explained that it would become food for them, their motivation rose and their planting grew quicker.

The planting was tricky at first because Scitus wasn't familiar with many of the plants or which ones were best for planting but after reading several botany books he gained the ability to see the nutrients each plant took up and the nutrients provided to the earth. Armed with this knowledge Scitus was capable of making a poly farm that would never wither from land exhaustion because each plant provided enough nutrients for the other plant. Though what surprised him the most after learning about nutrients and minerals was when his divine sight allowed him to see the nutrients that the population needed.

Most of them lacked essential vitamins and dairy products as well as vegetables and fruits. They had only been eating meat after all. This scared Scitus a little because it meant that all of the goblins, despite their frightening strength, were weakened because of malnutrition. He wanted to solve this problem quickly, but he would have to wait for the crops to grow before his plan to improve the overall health of his population could be fulfilled.

“Master?” William interrupted his train of thought, “yes?” William was bruised all over, his eyes looked downward, making sure that they didn’t even look at Scitus’s feet. “Why did you teach me to fight like I do when Robin is so much stronger than me?” Scitus smiled and asked him to call for his unit and Robin’s unit.

The game was simple, The assassin knights would have to hold off The Spartans and if the Spartans made it to Scitus then it would be their win. William wondered what the goal of the exercise was, while Robin understood it immediately. William had begun to lose Confidence in his fighting style but he didn’t know that it had its advantages over Robin. The assassin knight would be armed with their blades, which were replaced with dull rocks, While the Spartans were permitted the long staffs or short staffs.

William ordered for two long staffs, these would be wielded by copper and silver who William saw as the most adept at using them, Two short staffs, as long as a short sword, were wielded by Gordon and jay, Finally Meralith would stay directly behind William and become his second eyes, she would block not only attacks coming onto William but the other four as well. She would wield two very short sticks that acted as knives and a short stick that acted as a short sword.

The game began with the sound of Seresa’s call “Start”

The six Goblins ran at the Assassin Knights. Robin smiled as he and his unit stood firmly in their place, While he knew Scitu's intentions he had no intention of losing on purpose. First came William with the downward swing of his short staff, Robin easily shifted its direction on to the floor, but as he did this Meralith was already using the short space to attack with a forward lunge. teal and Yuki tried to protect Robin but were met with two long staffs which forcibly stopped their wrists from going any further, copper and silver had managed to stop teal and Yuki's attack. Gordan and jay were about to go for the attack but before they can make contact, Arisa and Bison are already there to stop them, but Gordan and Jay don't bother looking at them because they knew, "aH?" That the longs staffs would protect them, using the same staff, copper and Silver, showed their brotherly bond, by easily tripping the original attackers and allowing the short sword team to hit them with their blades, effectively sacrificing themselves for Gordan and Jay. At this same time Meralith was closing in on Robin with her wooden staff, Robin Looked at her with an intense gaze, looking at her every movement and in doing so he forgot that William was also there, William pushed Robin to the ground, in the same instant Yuki changed her target to William and succeeded in Killing him, or would have if it was an actual blade.

"We lose don't we master," Robin spoke as he laid there on the ground. It was true that William, the leader had died, but in the instant that he was pushed down, and Yuki saved his life, Merlith had used her left hand to toss out her knife to kill Scitus. The goal for The Spartans was to kill Scitus and for the assassins, it was to protect him.

"Yes, they have succeeded in killing me. "

"You see William, The assassin knights are best used when no one knows they are there, and their ability to deflect attacks is in case they are discovered and if they are discovered it is usually the better for them to run away. Your team has a different purpose, your purpose to fight head on and to push the enemy forward. You are both valuable but in different ways." William had regained his confidence, His team had a purpose, it wasn't useless, Robin was teaching him deflection just to use as a separate skill.

"While you attack from the front, we'll attack from behind, even though we aren't together out there, we are still a team," Robin said Trying to encourage. William, William smiled in acknowledgment and hugged his unit.

"While we are here, I want to introduce you to three new units." This news took everyone present by surprise and even the ordinarily stone-faced Robin couldn't hide his shock.

"The first is the long-awaited Star knights, led by Cecilia." This unit would be a team of archers who would act as support and the first to attack in battle. "Next are the Shield-knights and Thomas will be the leader" William and Robin look at each other with a raised brow. They hadn't expected Thomas to ever join in the fighting, but Thomas had found his answer. He asked Scitus about a team that wouldn't attack but rather would protect others in battle. Scitus had given him a smile and told him that they could be shield bearers and be trained in submission. "Thomas will work heavily with you William, he will be there so that you don't have to worry about oncoming attacks because he will be your shield." The implications behind that were huge, William was using offensive as a sort of defense but if he didn't have to worry as much because of a potential attack he could spread his forces and protect a larger area preventing possible enemies from advancing, he had been worried about it ever since the goblin horde who he felt would have quickly overrun him and his team if they hadn't been careful. Even William knew that the only reason they won that battle was because of the goblin king's incompetence. "and the last?" Robin asked curiously as to who else could be useful to battle. "Perhaps even more unorthodox then the Shield Knights, these are the Moon knights. " Scitus introduces six goblins and their leader who was none other than Juliet. "She will be responsible for helping the injured and carrying them out of battle. She is here to prevent unnecessary deaths." Figuring Juliet had become better with medicine, he decided that she would become a field medic, the other goblins under her were not as well versed in medicine but they wanted to do it after Juliet helped them with their minor problems, they were so impressed that they wished to learn of the magic called medicine like her, thus Scitus formed the Moon knights a unit consisting of field medics.