Rue observed the group of goblins as they walked about the forest gathering mushrooms and small plants, occasionally digging up some root vegetables as well. They had dedicated guards but they were not the special variants she had seen back at the camp, just high leveled [Hob Goblins]. They were escorting the smaller and lower leveled goblins. They had more of those pointed weapons that the humans used against her, they extended their reach far past where she could retaliate. If she was to defeat them, her fire would be a necessary tool. She would have to use it sparingly, however, for as much as her fire reserves had grown, it was not something she could use constantly.

She was currently making sure to stay several dozen meters away from the party at the minimum. Using the heavy undergrowth, bushes, and thick trees to stay hidden. She used her long and flexible neck to observe without showing her rapidly growing body.

Just as she was considering leaping out of the bushes to charge the group, one of the gatherers popped out of the bushes nearby. She had not seen them approach and as the goblin reached down to pick up an especially large white mushroom they glanced up at the bushes and froze. Rue met the goblin’s gaze, not having enough time to retract her head and remain unseen. The goblin's pupils dilated, and it began to open its mouth in a scream.

Rue burst from the bushed, ripping the small shrubs from the ground and leaving furrows as her claws dug into the soft loamy soil. Her jaws clamped down on the goblin's shoulder and most of its torso, many of her fangs digging deep into flesh and muscle. The goblin let out a strangled wail, much quieter than a scream but audible to the other goblins nonetheless. Rue quickly raised a front paw to further disembowel the goblin fishing it, but the alarm had already been raised.

As she released the goblin letting it crumple to the ground an arrow came flying out of the woods from one of the hunters. Rue moved her head out of its path and the stone-tipped stick bounced off her chest scales with a thunk. It stung but would leave no lasting damage. Rue fully turned in the direction the arrow had come from and charged the bow-wielding goblin. It was a few dozen meters away in the less dense part of the woods and only managed to loose one further arrow at her. It went wide, disappearing into the dense undergrowth. Rue crashed into the goblin, her huge weight and the small frame of the goblin causing it to be be flung into a tree with an audible crack. Her jaws had missed in her frenzied charge and the goblin began wailing, clutching its leg and trying to crawl away from her. She bounded over to it and with a quick snap of her jaws crushed its neck, shaking to make sure it was dead.

While occupied with dispatching the goblin she felt a sharp pain low on her side as a long and sharp object penetrated the softer scales near her belly. She let out a snarl as she turned to see one of the larger goblins holding a spear, currently embedded in her side. Not wanting to turn to gore him and risk him holding onto the spear she released a gout of flame that bathed him head to toe. The goblin screamed and released the spear, rolling around on the floor as he tried to save himself from the flames. Rue reached carefully around with her head and gripped the spear, sliding it from her side. It had been driven in nearly a foot into her belly, it hurt a lot and blood flowed freely from her wound. It would stop soon but she had to be more aware of her surroundings when fighting groups like these.

It was that moment that more goblins came running to check on the screaming and roars, they came from the trees and bushes, and upon seeing her raised their weapons. With each goblin only being about four feet tall and the few hobs being the size of humans the huge four-meter-long dragon they found near a still burning corpse sent most of them running. 3 of the 4 smaller goblins turned tail, dropping their gathered food and running for the camp, the two hobgoblins and one small goblin stood there, terrified but not willing to back down. Rue broke the silent spell by rushing forward, targeting the smaller goblin first to remove him from the battle. Her jaws clamping down over his head and her fangs digging into his chest finished him in one bite. He was so small she could fit half his body in her mouth. The wet crunch and growl of satisfaction broke the other goblin out for their defensive stupor and they both split up to flank her two sides.

She turned to the one with the larger weapon, a huge, long spear, like the one she had just been stabbed with. As she began to turn to face him, the goblin danced to her rear, avoiding the snap of her jaws as his spear glowed a vivid purple. It blurred through the air and thunked into her hind leg, the scales slowing the progress of the spear before the purple aura flared and her scales parted before the blade. She felt the spear sink in, grating against her bone and she let out a roar of fury, no longer trying to be subtle.

The roar shook the air and made the goblin release his spear and curl up on the forest floor, hands clamped over his ears and blood running down his cheeks. Rue was about to finish him off when she felt another impact strike near her neck, from the other side of her body. The weapon failed to find purchase on her scales and slid off. She turned to see the other hobgoblin looking up at her with determination. It jabbed forwards towards her head with the spear, Rue swayed her head left to evade the blow and tried to bite back at her aggressor. He kept making measured jabs towards her face, with her vulnerable eyes, juts dangerous enough to keep her from making a solid attack towards him. The reach provided by the spear meant she would have to commit to a charge to get past it.

With her attention from the goblin to the front, she felt something take hold of the spear in her hind leg and viciously rip it from her flesh. She let out a snarl and reflexively turned to see the hobgoblin bleading from his ears but grinning and gripping onto a spear, it was coated in her blood. Rue let out a roar, not enhanced by her roar skill but as a challenge, the roar was followed by a torrent of flame that consumed the goblin whole. She kept up the torrent for a few seconds making sure he would be burned to a crisp. She felt another jab to her neck, this one catching in between the protection of a few scales and leaving a small gash on her neck.

This one was still alive, he was very irritating. Rue raised her neck high, using its flexibility and reach to keep it a few meters off of the ground, and flapped her wings, leaping at the same time she propelled herself towards the goblin. In the face of her huge bulk and momentum, he braced himself, pointing his spear towards her, with her front paws free she batted the spear aside in her charge, the goblin having sacrificed the maneuverability of his spear to brace it in the ground. She crashed down on him, gripping his right arm In her jaws she pressed him to the ground and ripped him to shreds. Her teeth and claws did not stop until there was little more than a bloody paste on the ground.

Rue’s back leg gave a sudden ache as she placed more weight on it. The spear wound was deep, and her leaping attack had placed too much burden on it, ripping the wound wider. It was now leaking blood at a steady rate, but not life-threatening. Rue turned to look at the perpetrator, no longer on fire but burned and melted the goblin lay on the ground. Its spear was still aflame, having been discarded and the goblin had suffered horrific burns but was still breathing. It took wheezing gasps of air like every breath was pure agony. Rue stalked up to the fallen goblin and rested a paw on its chest. The goblin had no face, no eyes, but its head twitched as if to look in her direction. For causing her so much pain, a quick death was not deserved. Much like the dwarf’s future demise, she would make it as painful as possible. Slowly she pressed down with her paw, restricting its breathing until it stopped twitching.

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Gagarex watched in nervous anticipation as a screaming goblin tore through the bushes, heading in his direction. Him being one of the few shamen standing this close to the edge of the camp, and therefore one of the most important goblins in the area it was only natural that he would come to him. The poor fool had probably discovered a stone wolf or maybe even a grey bear, terrifying for the small goblins but it would be a good hunt for the tribe.

“Monster…huge…dead”

Gagarex couldn’t make heads nor tail of what the panting and the flustered goblin was saying.

“Calm yourself, show me some respect by speaking clearly” He admonished the young goblin, he couldn’t be letting the young ones walk all over their betters.

The goblin took a large breath and straightened himself from his wheezing position.

“Sorry Shaman, some beast, huge, red, and scaly attacked our gathering party, it had some sort of roar skill and it was huge, at least five of me long.”

A huge red scaly beast, that was new. No such beast was recorded in the beast tablets, if the beast was confirmed they would have to inscribe a new tablet.

“Where are the other goblins in your party?”

“At least 2 dead that I saw, ripped to shreds, the party leaders stayed behind to face the beast, I don’t know of their success”

Gagarex waived the goblin and he ran off back to his home, he was a simple gatherer and not built for fighting the beasts of the forest. Fodder was good in a fight, but wasting too many lives would weaken the tribe. Should this monster turn out to be a true threat he would have to rally the tribe’s warriors to hunt the beast down, lest it keeps molesting their hunting and gathering parties. Before making a decision Gagarex walked back to his wooden hut.

From one of the small chests he kept on his desk he withdrew eight small wooden rods. The rods glimmered in the room’s magical light, the mana crystal's radiance glittering on the gem-inlaid sticks. These were some of his most precious equipment, handed down from master to apprentice for many generations. It was part of what made him special amongst the tribe.

Centering a large shallow wooden bowl on his table, Gagarex held the sticks lovingly in his small hands. He pulled mana from his center and let it flow into the sticks, The crystals began to emit their own faint light as the gems became saturated with mana.

“Oh, great God of the stone, show me and mine clan the consequences of our actions. What shall become of the tribe should fail to hunt the beast [Augury]” He murmured his question to the rods and let them fall into the wooden bowl, gentle as to not damage the rods. The mana inside the rods flared with his casting of the divination spell and the sticks fell in an unnatural tumble, some rolling up their fellows seemingly defying gravity and others falling far too slowly. Soon they came to rest in the bowl and he watched in worried anticipation as the mana turned to mist in the bowl, his heart sinking as the mist turned a vivid scarlet. The sign for Woe.

That was not good, it was likely that woe that powerful would mean the end of the tribe. This was not a battle to be fought lightly, if at all. Further readings this day would now be possibly unreliable. Whatever higher power or magic could see the ways of the world laid bare did not take kindly to being asked too many questions. The answer often still correct, but the more you asked the less reliable it became. If he had an apprentice, he could do a reading as well, but he had yet to take one. Just one of many regrets that he might never get to correct.

Well, the woe was so strong that he just had to take another reading despite the risks.

Collecting the rods once again he flooded them with his mana,

“Oh, stoic god of the stone, show me our path should we flee from this monster [Augury]” He kept it short in hopes of angering the higher power, less his questions be too many. Some of the mana shot from the rods as he let them fall and knocked some of his boxes and a plate to the floor. He furrowed his brows at the backlash, but the sticks still fell in their unnatural patterns. The fog rolled off the sticks, this time a mixture of crimson red and golden yellow. Both Weal and Woe.

He would not ask a third question, the choice was clear. They must flee and fight. He would argue to have the women and children along with the younger warriors and gatherers sent to one of the other caverns. The dangers were many, especially once leaving the well-tamed local forests and running deeper into the warren of caverns. The larger caverns were home to some truly powerful creatures.

Gagarex stowed his divining sticks and stood, with a deep breath he turned to his door, ready to face the tribe and try to convince them to send their families away.

He walked out of his hut, the wooden door swinging closed behind him to pure chaos. His musings and dark thought must have hidden the noise from him but when he listened the shouting of orders and clanging of weapons was thunderous. At the center of it all was the tribe’s leader.

Even in his dark state Gagarex had to admire the chief.

[Hobgoblin Chieftain Lv40]

He was truly impressive. The goblin was only as large as a regular hobgoblin warlord, and it was true that many Chieftains in the past had huge builds nearly double his size. What was impressive about their current leader was not his personal strength but his leadership. Any war party or gathering group lead by him worked faster, longer, and harder than should have been possible. Being of the magically inclined nature of his own skillset Gagarex appreciated the torrent of mana flowing around his leader as he invigorated the clan’s warriors with speeches of valor and courage.

The war leader must have taken the threat seriously, the goblin that had reported to him said there were other survivors as well. That they had assembled the war party without consulting him irked him a little. Usually he was consulted regularly on big decisions for the tribe. He set off walking toward the chieftain, he did not have good news. He knew not what was coming, and he knew not if they could face it. But he would try to recommend the best actions for the tribe and protect it to his last breath.