As the hail of arrows came raining down, Lowen shouted out:

"ARROWS LOOKOUT!!"

Arrows tore through the air coming quick and fast. Lowen grabbed Roland by the waist and threw him behind him, but his small frame wouldn't be enough to shield Roland completely. So with his Snake Fist technique, Lowen repeatedly punched, slapped, and caught arrows that flew toward him, in the end, he destroyed nearly 30 arrows. This, however, was not enough to protect any of the soldiers, looking behind him, none of them remained.

With the inscription tattoos, Clovis and Bren we're basically impervious to these regular arrows and were left unharmed. Clovis looked back at his men behind him and felt his stomach twist in anger and sadness. Every single one of these men, every single one of these soldiers that he had helped train, that he had fought with, ate with and bled with, were all dead.

Roland quickly felt over his entire body checking for any wound and injury but to his surprise, he didn't even have a scratch on him. looking at the small child in front of him, he was thankful that Lowen had saved him. As he struggled to his feet, he saw out into the forest. There he spotted a large group of humanoid creatures moving toward them. As the large group finally exited the forest and came into the clearing, Clovis, Lowen, Bren, and Roland were all surprised to see hundreds of short green goblins. The most surprising thing, however, was the goblin leading them all. Roland's mind quickly flashbacked to just over a year ago to that goblin that had caused so much pain and suffering, this goblin leader and that goblin from the past was one and the same.

Roland quickly tried to summon his energy but immediately faced a mental backlash and felt pain within his mind, as though someone was stabbing him with dozens of needles. Roland had exhausted himself completely of magic and tried to force it and because of that, he suffered for it. Roland could only point out angrily at this leading goblin and yell.

"You, why are you here? Why have you come?"

The goblin saw the four remaining people and a large smile stretched across his face. He looked at Roland and waved his finger teasingly.

"Tsk tsk tsk it's been a while, Roland, had I known you were so injured at that time, then I would have destroyed you already. It's too bad you've used up all of your magic, hahaha."

Lowen, Clovis, and Bren looked at Roland with a bit of confusion but hearing this conversation, Lowen began to understand. Roland grit his teeth in fury and again yelled out.

"Don't you worry about my magic, I will soon have more than enough to kill you. After all my villagers that you killed that night, you will truly suffer for it."

The leader of these goblins began to shake his head back and forth.

"How many villagers do you think I killed. Though I did need a few of them to learn your language better, hahaha. "

Before the conversation went any further, the goblin leader lifted up his hand and signaled his archers once more. Again, hundreds of arrows came raining down but because the number of people was so greatly reduced and we're now concentrated in one spot, these hundreds of arrows came flying in a clustered bunch. Bren and Lowen once more protected Clovis and Roland, after this volley of arrows fell, Lowen said.

"Bren, protect these two, I'll go deal with him."

Bren gave a nod of understanding and with that Lowen was about to rush toward that goblin leader, when suddenly, Roland stopped him. Grabbing Lowen's wrist, Roland was almost dragged forward by Lowen's momentum but Lowen quickly stopped, Roland grabbed something from his chest pocket and forced it into Lowen's hand. Looking down, Lowen saw that it was a simple piece of paper with a few words written in ancient magic, it was a talisman. Roland quietly whispered a few words to Lowen.

"This is a talisman, to activate it, simply say the words "Silence Activate" and then within 50 feet of it, all will be silent."

Lowen looked at this talisman and a bit of fear crept up on him, he had been in such a hurry, he had completely forgotten that this was the goblin that could take control of you. Somehow using his voice, he can take control of your mind and give you commanding orders that you must follow. Lowen held the talisman tightly in his hand and gave Roland a nod before he once again rushed forward. As he raced forward, he quickly came upon the goblin leader and yelled out...

"SILENCE ACTIVATE!"

The Talisman in Lowen's hand glowed and the air instantly became quiet. Within the surrounding 50 ft, nothing could be heard. The goblin leaders smile only seem to grow when this happened. Lowen slashed out with his family sword but as his sword came slashing forward, a wall of earth suddenly formed in front of his blade and blocked it. Because Lowen had used so much strength and energy earlier, his blow and speed were greatly reduced, otherwise, it should have been quite easy for him to cut through this wall. Following that, three large earth spikes came out of the wall like three powerful spears and struck at Lowen's chest. Lowen had no time to move out of the way.

*Boom Thud Boom*

But Lowen swung his hammer like a force of nature, breaking them all away. None of the three spikes were able to pierce him, they did, however, force him back. With a spin in the air, Lowen rebalanced himself and landed on the ground. The talisman Roland had given Lowen didn't last long and its bright glow quickly dimmed. The power of this talisman within only a few seconds was just about done. The one responsible for the earth wall stepped out from behind his leader and smiled viciously at Lowen. As Lowen stared at this ugly little goblin, he could see the goblin mouthing the words weakling. Lowen grew furious and once more rushed at the goblin leader and just as he closed in again, once more a large earthen wall formed in front of him this time instead of spikes coming from the wall, they came from the ground below, shooting up towards Lowen's feet. Lowen had no choice but to kick off of the wall and distance himself far from this goblin earth mage. Lowen quickly retreated back to Roland's side and asked for another talisman but to his surprise, Roland shook his head.

"Lowen, that was my only one, who could have thought that we'd run into this situation. If I had more, I would have used them when the alpha was howling but even then I didn't use this one just in case but for us to actually need it, this really is the worst case scenario. Lowen, we have to leave here immediately."

Lowen nodded his head agreeing with Roland. if the stories about this goblin were true and he was to take control of Lowen or Roland, the resulting situation would be catastrophic. Lowen looked at Clovis and Bren and told them it was time to leave. Bren had grabbed Clovis and Lowen was just about to grab Roland but it was already too late. The talisman had completely run out. The goblin leader looked at the four humans that were about to flee and shouted towards them.

"Whoa whoa whoa, who said you can leave?"

The goblin leader then pointed at one of the people trying to flee and again he shouted.

"You there, put that man down and then kill that boy and Roland!”

Bren immediately dropped Clovis to the ground, turned and lunged at Lowen and Roland, shocking them all. Bren repeatedly struck at Lowen and Roland, Lowen had to, again and again, move Roland out of the way as he intercepted Bren's strikes. Lowen's body was incredibly tough but there was no way he could receive a swipe to the body from Bren with his metallic gloves. Lowen with all of his strength and his magic sword could barely pierce through the wolf's back but Bren with the hooks on the end of his gloves had repeatedly torn off large pieces of flesh. Bringing his sword up, he fended off Bren repeatedly. Clovis had no idea what was going on, suddenly his uncle out of nowhere started to attack Lowen. Clovis quickly shouted at his uncle in desperation.

"Uncle stop, what are you doing? They're our allies. Hurry up and stop, we must flee from here, uncle are you listening? UNCLE!!"

Clovis continued to shout at the top of his lungs but no matter how loud he got, Bren seemed to no longer be able to hear him. Once again the goblin leader made a signal with his hands but instead of arrows, this time, hundreds of goblins rushed forward with swift speed. The four were now surrounded on all sides by goblins but Lowen had no time to deal with them as he was too busy defending himself from Bren. The goblin leader saw this and was highly entertained but he still had his goals to accomplish.

"Brethren, take that man."

A dozen or so of the surrounding goblins went for Clovis. In Clovis's weakened state there was nothing he could do. They quickly grab him and began to carry him off. Lowen had wanted to step in but if he lost focus for even a moment, then that was his life. Clovis desperately shouted for his uncle's help.

"UNCLE, PLEASE HELP ME, UNCLE, UNCLE, THEY'RE TAKING ME!!"

Still, Bren ignored him and continued his attack on Lowen. If that wasn't bad enough, suddenly the surrounding earth began to rise up forming a dome, they were becoming trapped. Roland yelled out.

"Lowen, we have to go now, if we don't, then we'll be trapped and killed. Please, Lowen, hurry, we have to leave now."

With the odds completely stacked against them Lowen had no other choice. Circulating his ki and pushing himself, Lowen grabbed Roland by the waist and with his shadow steps, jumped over the surrounding goblins and with the swing of his hammer broke through the growing earth dome. With his fastest speed, Lowen raced off in a completely random direction, behind him Bren quickly followed in Pursuit.

Dashing through the forest, weaving between trees, hopping over creeks, streams, anything, and everything, Lowen with Roland in his grasp ran through the forest with his fastest speed. Behind him, Bren continued to follow. Lowen had used up so much of his energy but at the same time, so did Bren. Lowen had no time to regather any of his ki energy, so the further he ran, the slower he started to become and with that, Bren began to gain on Lowen and Roland. At first, they were about 100 ft away from each other but as time went on that gap closed to 80, then 70, 60, 50. Lowen's mind raced with thoughts as he continued through the forest, he suddenly spotted a large boulder at least 30 ft around and an idea struck him. Racing around the boulder, Lowen suddenly came to an abrupt stop, throwing Roland down, Lowen held up his hammer and waited. Not even a second later Bren came running right around this large boulder and appeared right in front of Lowen. Lowen controlling his strength, swung his hammer with all of his speed but not all of his power. Bren had no time to defend himself and was struck directly in the face.

*Wham*

Lowen hit Bren right in the chin and with his precise control over his strength, he knocked Bren unconscious. Bren's body flew up into the air and his eyes rolled to the back of his head, he was out before he hit the ground. Lowen and Roland both sighed in relief. Sitting down, they both breathed as though they just ran a thousand miles. Lowen breathed this way because of how much work he did and Roland Breathed like this because of how much fear he felt. He shouted at Lowen.

"How could you throw me like that, you nearly broke my ass when I hit the ground."

Lowen was so out of breath though, that he completely ignored Roland's remarks.

Seeing that he was being ignored, Roland wanted to be angry but after just escaping with his life and the only reason being that Lowen had saved him, Roland could only sigh.

As the two leaned their backs up against the large boulder, they both thought about the turn of events that had just taken place. Roland looked at Lowen and said depressingly.

"Now things are finally starting to make sense. The wolves being pushed out of their territory, the food disappearing from the forest, that huge number of goblins. It was them, it was all because of them, this was all caused by that one goblin but what I don't understand is why he wants Clovis. You saw it right, they weren't attacking him, they were taking him."

Lowen rubbed his chin in thought before he asked.

"Is there something we don't know about Clovis? Could he be important or something? Is he a noble and we just don't know or is there something else we're missing?"

Roland shook his head.

"Just when things start making sense, again I'm thrown for a loop, I don't know, I just don't get it."