Heqht-jo did not thank the caster that had saved his life. That was the purpose of his lessers, after all, to serve and protect him. Instead, he walked forward. The powerful goblin pushed his guards roughly to the side and continued until he stood over the blackened remains of Pild-nac. The commander didn’t spare a glance for the other dead goblins. Their usefulness had come to an end.
The large goblin looked down at the traitor’s remains, and his breathing started speeding up. Each exhale came out louder and more forcefully as fury filled his black heart. They tried to kill me, he thought. They tried to kill ME! The accursed forest rats would pay for this! He would drink the blood of their children and cut the manhood from each male and the tits from each female! They would pay!
“Kill them,” Heqht-jo shouted at the top of this lungs. “Kill them all! Send for the others!”
Heqht-jo formed a war party under him, including the nine hundred goblins present as well as their mercenary allies. The commander couldn’t wait the hours it would take for reinforcements to come. Rage had taken hold of him. The commander decided to crush whoever had dared to attack him! His mouth already watered as he thought about tasting the bloody flesh of his enemies. He repeated his order, screaming his rage.
The horns of the goblin warband echoed out and the encampment boiled with activity. The commander ordered his forces to start moving west, the only way attackers could have entered the valley. The goblins started screaming with battle lust.
Richter looked at Sion and Damien with a sick grin on his face. It wasn’t precisely the carnage-filled result that he had wanted, but his gambit had still gotten the job done. “I have good news and bad news. I’ll tell you both, but we need to start running. Now!”
The sprites had heard the horns just as the chaos seed had, and they offered no argument. Sion cast Weak Haste on himself, and Richter cast the same spell on Damien. They all started sprinting, praying to make it back to the safety of their people. Alma caught up soon and cast Weak Haste on her master, increasing his movement and attack speed by 10%.
“What is the bad news?” Sion yelled as he ran.
“What is the good news?” Damien shouted at the same time.
Richter kept facing forward as he ran, but shouted his answer back, deciding to answer Damien first, “The good news,” he shouted back, “is that my plan succeeded, and they’re coming this way.”
“And the bad news?” Sion repeated.
“The bad news is that no matter what the fuck your perspective is, that was the easy part!”
The three kept running, pursued by the goblins’ horns, a bloodthirsty horde, and a commander howling for their blood.
CHAPTER 36 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
The three of them ran until they crested a hill a half-mile from the encampment. At that point, they turned and armed their bows. They couldn’t risk the goblins paying too close attention to the river bed. All three of them started to imbue their arrows, slowing the flow of mana as much as possible. The goal was not to kill so much as gain attention. Richter was pretty sure this would piss the goblin horde off and keep them from thinking. He was right.
The goblins at the front of the enemy warband squealed when they saw the trio of lights. Renewed horn blasts echoed through the valley. The three of them released, striking different targets. It seemed like all of them shared the same sense of humor because each arrow exploded against a horn blower. None of the goblins died, but it was still amusing hearing the horn calls cut off abruptly. Richter and the sprites shouldered their bows and started running again.
The chaos seed checked his map as he ran. Alma flew high enough to provide a clear view of the valley. Dawn had broken, putting the sun at their backs. It meant the sprites would be fighting with the light in their eyes, but it also meant that the western edge of the valley would remain in shadow. With any luck, the goblins would not detect the sprites hidden in the trees until the ambush was sprung. Richter dismissed Night Vision on all of them, and they kept running.
Alma was also able to see the escaped prisoners. They were strung in a line between the riverbed and the shelter of the trees. The most hale were close to reaching the relative safety of the trees. The sicker and weaker prisoners were moving much slower, though. Richter didn’t know if they would all make it before the battle started, but he couldn’t worry about it at the moment. Honestly, most of this attention was on what was going on behind him.
Richter was not a coward. Since coming to The Land he had fought demons, undead, a dark aberration and a twenty-foot tall rock monster with a serious grudge. He had felt fear but had still always done what was needed. What he saw through Alma’s eyes, though, made his blood run cold. A literal wave of enemies flowed across the ground behind him. For the first time, he knew, not suspected but knew, that he was facing something that he absolutely couldn’t resist by himself.
Close to a thousand bloodthirsty goblins were howling for his blood. Richter found untapped reservoirs of speed. He had never been so thankful for the conditioning he had received over the past months. His stamina bar had a max of three hundred and fifty points, and it was steadily falling as he ran. If he wasn’t already used to moving over uneven terrain for days at a time, though, it would probably have already bottomed out. Another horn blast echoed from behind. The three comrades kept running.
“They seem pretty mad,” Sion panted.
“It is almost as if… they objected… to us burning their house down,” Damien agreed with a grin.
“You guys… are so… insensitive,” Richter gasped. He had a serious stitch in his side. “Now pay attention… and make sure… you don’t set off… the boobytraps.”
“Boobytraps?” Sion asked in a strained voice. “What… fucking boobytraps?”
“The ones… I put… in the valley,” Richter said. “Didn’t… Yoshi tell you?”
“I have… been with you! Why didn’t… you tell me?” Sion gasped in recrimination.
“I knew,” Damien chimed in, smiling past the pain in his legs.
“Shut up!” the meidon sprite snapped in irritation.
Another horn sounded. The three of them pushed even harder.
While Richter ran, he kept his mind off of the certain death that was right behind him by dealing with his prompts. The latest notifications dealt with the experience he had gained from Alma’s psychic feast.
You have been awarded 1,432 experience (base 32,741 x 0.07 x 1.25 x 0.5) from Brain Drain against Level 8 the Goblin Scout.
You have been awarded 4,739 experience (base 108,329 x 0.07 x 1.25 x 0.5) from Brain Drain against Level 14 the Goblin Fighter.
…
The prompts continued to cascade. The first goblin scout Alma had drained was the least experienced of her prey. Each gave Richter several thousand experience points even with the 50% penalty. He read through them until the last prompt brought a wonderful surprise with it.