1.35 Should’ve Brought Horses
"We really should have brought horses," Master Tosk said matter-of-factly.
A code-phrase, the goblins were near! The apprentices subtly readied themselves for a fight. Alar slipped a feathered hand into his pouch, Nora kept a tight grip on her warbow but kept it slung across her chest.
Vicktor tightened the grasp on his staff, trying to sense the world around him as he walked, trying to ignore the sound of his companions as they walked between the large trees. He tried to slowly gather the ambient mana in his staff, overcharging both himself and the staff.
A few moments passed as the party continued their walk. His heart beat loudly, each pulse seeming to drown out something in his peripheral senses. The awareness of his lack of awareness licked at his mind but he couldn't place where the wrongness was.
"Who goes there!" The voice was like tiny grains of rice tumbling onto a war-drum.
Master Tosk stopped, with the apprentices staying a short distance behind him.
"A diplomatic envoy from humanity, in particular the City of Allium, we seek to discuss a trade agreement." Master Tosk projected his voice, but did not raise it. "What fellow sapients do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"
"Fourth sub-chief Xethrai of Clan Toa-ti, Second Tier Chosen. You will leave, humans, you are not welcome here." The coarse voice spat the word 'humans', the noise echoed around the trees, Vicktor thought he knew where it was coming from, but something was making it difficult.
"Forgive me, Xethrai, is Chief Re'at still the Chieftain of Clan Toa-ti?" Master Tosk seemed displeased, but not overly worried.
"He still rules." The gravelly voice seemed unhappy about this.
Master Tosk clapped his hands together. "Marvelous! I'm not sure of your itinerary, but please let him know we will be walking the whole distance, likely arriving tomorrow afternoon."
"What if you don't make it to Toa-ti-Cua? I wouldn't want to waste my clan's time if the human's envoy got killed before they could make it to the village."
It was an obvious threat, it would have been comical if it tumbled out of a bard's lips. From the hoarse ugly voice making it however, it was genuinely unnerving.
Master Tosk, however, did not change up his tone at all. "One last chance for you and your seven compatriots to help us out, or we will be on our way. There is no need to build walls between our peoples, we will reach your village just as the sun begins to set."
Another code-phrase, Vicktor let the charging of the ambient mana grow to the point where his staff was glowing visibly blue. Nora shrugged the giant warbow off her shoulder, while Alar grabbed a turret from his bag and let it fall to the ground, the mechanism whirring to face a point where the voice seemed to emanate. Vicktor wanted to try some of his newly practiced inscriptions, but with eight enemy combatants, the fight was going to get complicated fast.
Vicktor, once he realized a fight was inevitable, would have assumed that the ambushing goblins would have had some signal to attack. A blaring horn or beating of a drum like in the legends and stories.
The quiet stillness before the battle was broken when Alar's turret suddenly whirled to life, rotating to face directly behind them...
Vicktor flared his intent, draining the ambient mana stored in his staff. Instantly, thin dirt walls raised from the soil beneath the humans and hardened, shielding them from the view of the forest. The walls grew inwards, protecting them from an arched shot or lobbed bomb. The four of them could still see each other in the dim light.
"All chosen, one tier-three, two tier-two's, and five tier-one's", he said quickly as three loud thuds struck the walls of their shelter.
The noises didn't face their master, "I can handle the big three non-lethally, you guys get the others, they have a healer, so you can be rough."
A louder thud came from the wall near Master Tosk's head, Vicktor could feel footfalls of two goblins out in that direction.
Master Tosk's palm began to glow with white light, he pointed at the spot, slightly below waist height. "Hole!"
A half foot wall unhardened and fell to the ground, revealing two sneering green faces. Master Tosk moved faster than Vicktor had ever seen anyone move. Closing the distance to the hole faster than a blink, Master Tosk placed his glowing palm against the hole.
The roar of the flames nearly drowned out the two screams... nearly.
After a moment, Master Tosk withdrew his green palm, no longer glowing. Vicktor sealed the small hole without needing to be asked. The two sets of footfalls he had heard earlier were still, but he could still hear heartbeats.
Master Tosk didn't hesitate this time he held up both palms and light jumped from them to the dirt floor, filling the room with light. "Two openings there and there." His voice was direct, and quick.
He lowered his voice to a whisper, "wait until after they shoot, then Nora and I will run out. Alar drop your other turret and fly up to the canopy, no higher. Vicktor, traps and walls"
They nodded. He held up a hand, as the two lights grew into images of Nora and Master Tosk. Then he yelled far too loudly and with far too much fear in his voice.
"NOW!"
Vicktor dropped the walls at the two opposite points of there, softening earth falling to the ground in small brown clouds. The two false images jogged slowly from their cover, moving in a straight line.
Moments later, arrow shafts flew by the entrances on either side, piercing the copies.
Without needing a signal, the real Nora and Master Tosk darted outside, zigging and zagging across the ground.
Alar grabbed the other turret from his bag and tossed it outside. The mechanism rotated as it flew, following a target as it made a large arc.
The soaring turret began to fire, small blue projectiles flinging out into the forest. Vicktor felt a body fall to the ground as Alar grabbed the turret that was already out, using an underhand toss to throw it in the other direction. Once that one aligned on a target, it began to fire too.
Vicktor felt the vibration of a body hitting the ground around the same time as the somewhat familiar feeling of Nora's large arrows piercing into the ground. A terrifying shriek of pain came from near where the arrow impacted the soil.
Alar spread his wings and dove out the side that Master Tosk had taken, beating against the air as he quickly soared upwards, beyond the sight of the opening.
Vicktor couldn't feel anyone moving around him, so he ran out of the structure from the side that Nora had sprinted out of. He slammed the wall of the structure with his staff, causing the whole thing to collapse forwards in a haze of brown.
He took stock of the battlefield. Two goblins and their weapons were now covered in loose soil, their hearts beating rapidly as they moaned in pain as the dirt covered their burn wounds.
Two goblins were lying on the ground, bows fallen at their sides. Their armor seemed to be leather of some kind, it made it difficult to feel their heartbeats from this distance.
A still shrieking goblin woman was lying on her side, trying to actively bandage up a wound on her abdomen and back. Her legs lay unmoving and at strange angles.
Master Tosk seemed to be engaged in a fistfight with a dark green man. They moved incredibly fast as they fought between the huge trunks, the air rippled in waves behind Master Tosk as the beastkin moved, dodging the fast strikes.
The goblin landed a punch on a trunk, causing the bark to buckle, leaving a gaping hole in the side of it. The two continued their fight.
'Six accounted for, what about the other two', Vicktor's head spun as he looked for projectiles or persons.
"Vic! Behind you!" Alar yelled from hundreds of feet above, but still beneath the greenish canopy of the magical trees.
Vicktor dodged to the left and turned around, spotting the green-grey chosen clothed in brown leathers charging at him, wooden shield and small axe in their hand.
Vicktor pulled mana from his Ruakh and tried to make two workings, the mage trusting that Nora could handle the last goblin.
The soil moved in waves, centered on Vicktor and pulsing outwards, the ripples slightly burying the two moaning burn victims. It was mostly a diversion to keep the warrior back.
The goblin seemed unfazed, its greygreen face tightened in anger. It ignored the shifting ground as it ran towards him, far faster than a mundane human. When it got within twenty feet of him, it roared wordlessly, jumping towards him with supernatural strength. Vicktor rolled to the side, letting the thin slab of hardened earth fall away, revealing a cavernous pit filled with roots.
The short goblin cursed in a feminine voice as it fell, "Fuck you, human!" Surprisingly, there was no louder crunch as the woman hit the exposed roots.
'One less job for their healer' Vicktor thought grimly as he let the soil wash over the goblin. First smothering them, then hardening the soil around her everywhere except her face, allowing her some room to breathe while he checked on the others.
Alar was circling lower for a soft landing. Nora and Master Tosk returned to where the structure had been, both carrying a limp goblin by their throats.
Master Tosk yelled, "Alar and Vicktor, use your healing potions on the ones Alar hit, Nora, use yours on the robed goblin there", he pointed at the two burn victims, "That one is the healer."
Master Tosk walked over to the paralyzed woman and handed her his healing potion, "Drink this. It won't heal your spine, but it will heal your guts."
Vicktor and Alar quickly ran over to their respective former foes.
The smaller bodies were not in good shape, there were numerous holes in their chests, blood leaked out from their armor in small spurts, signs that the two were slowly drowning to death in their own blood.
The two conscious goblins swallowed the potions, but the two unconscious ones had to be force fed the yellow-green liquid, some was poured into the holes in their chest cavities.
Master Tosk dropped some ropes and chains from his dimensional storage and handed them to Vicktor. "Please tie up our new friends and collect their weapons, we need to decide our next steps."