Wandering Agent
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Chapter 158 Island Inhabitants
🕑 Added 2022-07-12 23:18:10 +0000 UTCThe noise that emitted from the brush around us was a wild war-scream. Birds in the nearby trees took to wing as the forest began to move. In the moment it sounded the yellow eyes that had been looking at me flashed and leapt from the brush at me.
Glen didn't specialize in speed, but he was a physical type magic user regardless, and his reaction time put my own to shame. In a flash he stood before me, the blade in his hand having swept in a glittering arc.
Dark blood sprayed and at his feet fell a small green figure, cut across from shoulder to rib-cage. The goblin had a small shell bladed knife in it's hand, much like the others who were pouring out of the nearby woods. Child-sized figures jumped and hollered at the men who struggled to react in time.
In the first few seconds they caught us by surprise and managed to land blows on several of the sailors. Their knives were made only of shell or sharpened rocks and so on their own weren't too dangerous, but the ambush had been well lain and injuries were taken. As their blood dripped from nasty looking cuts and slashes though the men responded.
Each sailor was well above the strength of one of these little pests and with a single kick or strike could cause significant damage. Their own blades and clubs smashed heads and parted flesh as the crossbowmen took their aim and pulled.
"Back to the riverbed!" I yelled as more of the little green menaces began to move our way, evident by the rustling brush.
We poured back into the creek bed as more and more of the goblins made their way out of the woods, but now that I could see there were more options. I brought up my hands and sang into existence a stream of pure alcohol, igniting it mid-air. It wasn't massive or anything but as I sprayed the burning liquid across the tree line it gave even the goblins pause.
Using the fire I made walls to either side of us, enough to slow our enemies and make them pour in from more controllable directions. The sailors gathered around me and kept the monsters at bay while Glen charged in at the oncoming tide. Even without his armor he was still a tank of a man and more than capable of cutting down the goblins like grass before a scythe.
With this tactic there wasn't much real danger to us. Individually none of the little beasts were a real threat. Their numbers were our problem, and the possibility of being swamped by the creatures the main threat. It took a full five minutes for us to hew through their numbers, leaving perhaps fifty or so of the things dead around us.
"What the hell are those?" One of the seamen asked as we tried to catch our breath.
I looked down at one of the goblins, for they could only be described as such. Each green skinned individual was around three feet tall. They had overlarge head with pointed ears. What did surprise me a bit was that while almost all of those here had only a loin cloth a few were clearly female, the small bound lumps on their chests the most obvious indicator, as well as what looked like expanded bellies. It seemed that the Earth idea that these creatures bred like wildfire might be true.
"Goblins," I answered the man after giving them a brief look over.
"What are those?" Glen asked.
"They breed fast and are weak. I've only ever heard stories." Some of those stories, particularly about what they did to captives sent a shiver up my spine. "We need to get back the boat, and quickly.
"Fall in then, I'm leading, Alana, you're just behind me. You lot make sure they don't come from behind." Perhaps Glen wasn't their actual commander, but none of these men were foolish enough to question the orders of the trained knight.
The dry bed that had been our road on the calm walk up into the woods now echoed our footsteps as we fled down it. I felt some joy at the fact that we seemed to miss any more attacks as we made our way back to the beach, but perhaps we'd managed to drive the horde back for now.
The workers tying up the trees we still needed to float out to our vessel looked up as our wedge burst back onto the sands. There were looks of surprise at our speed before a few of them noticed the weapons drawn or the hard look on the warrior's face. The carpenter, as the leader of the work team quickly moved up to us.
"Get the men and the wood, we're leaving as soon as possible." Glen didn't even let him speak before laying down his orders. "Where are Dras and Selene?"
"They went that way down the beach." The carpenter pointed to our left, and the footprints there were easily visible. A few hundred feet down large rocks broke up the landscape.
As the sailors prepared and Glen started to give our orders the aforementioned pair of mages came sprinting into view. Selene was leading as a panicked Dras turned and loosed a veritable firestorm behind him. The high-pitched screams that followed his display of power led to only one conclusion as to their pursuers.
I moved after Glen in a hurry, trying to get close enough to be of use while still close enough to the boat to make a quick getaway. The crewmen on the other hand took up defensive positions while a few of the workers began tying off the logs. Sailor's hands nearly blurred as ropes were secured to the needed lumber and said logs were group thrown out into the water.
Before I was more than thirty paces down the beach a second group of goblins started out from the riverbed, screeching and baring their teeth like madmen as they came. At this distance my best attack was the old reliable scream. With a deep breath I released the magic on them. It always surprised me how much that particular spell had grown from the minor stun it was in my childhood to something that could stop a group and drop them on the spot, but I was never unhappy for it. I guessed somewhere around thirty of the green skins fell to the ground clutching their ears in pain.
While Selene had no issues Dras tripped on his way back and fell face first into the sand. Any other time it would have been funny, but now it was nothing to laugh about. He didn't stay there long though as Glen quickly reached them, not bothering to wait for the wizard to pick himself up. My friend was hoisted like a bag of flour and carried back to the boats.
As we all made it back and pushed out from shore I could see a few of the fastest of our enemy's tribe making it's way towards us. With three casters though we quickly dealt with any who got too close.
We were still a bit out of breath as the packed dinghy made it to the ship, the logs dragging behind in the water. The sailors had rowed like there was no tomorrow and as we finally made it back to safety looked ready to collapse.
"Anyone hurt?" the captain yelled down to us, his eyes still scanning the shore.
"Few minor injuries, but we should be able to deal with those," Glen answered back, the rest of us too shaken to say anything.
As I was helped back onto deck I could see the twins looking at the shore.
"What in the world are those things?" Leah asked, which was odd being that she was our expert on flora and fauna.
"Goblins," I answered her.
"Something you've seen before?" She looked genuinely curious. "They're humanoid, and with tools, probably intelligent, can they communicate?"
"I've only heard of them, never seen one, and while they can communicate they're supposedly really vicious and stupid." I didn't want to tell her that I'd only seen and heard of the fantasy varieties from Earth, and then not too much.
"That sounds like prejudice Alana, though I suppose at this point we really can't talk to them, not after you guys messing them up so bad."
From our distance I couldn't see too much of what the little green jerks were doing, but nobody could miss when one particularly old specimen moved onto the beach. You could tell his age because of his faded color, almost grey, and the way his skin seemed to sag even at this distance. He was very obvious because of the way all the others fled from in front of him, and the many feathers and decorations both on his loincloth, and the small staff he carried.
"Oh, an elder, perhaps they do want to talk," Leah said, looking hopeful.
As if to deny her fully the ancient goblin raised one hand and began building a fireball above it. All of us were quick to react and start setting up our shields, so when the flaming projectile shot towards us the boulder sized ball of flame died. The crew was shocked, as well as some of my team, myself, less so, but it was what it was.
"What are you idiots gawking at!? Get the rowboat and the logs!" Captain Tom screamed at his momentarily frozen crew.
As quickly as we could, which as a sailboat was not all that fast, we got moving. The old goblin wizard kept pelting us with projectiles, but to no avail. With as many casters trained as well as we still had there was nothing the creature could do but waste his mana. He continued until we were well away from the island, and out o his range.
Leah was excited, blabbing on about how discovering a new species was huge, and how we'd need to mark down the location in case we could get another boat out here for a deeper investigation. She even interviewed a few of the sailors for details on the goblins, what they were using as tools, their height, strength, any noises they made. I really appreciated her hard work, but it was seriously annoying after a bit. Eventually though she got caught up in drawing them in a little notebook.
I was providing us with wind for the next couple of hours and used this as a good way to get my fellow bard to leave me be, only for her to come back when I took a much needed break.
"You said you'd heard of them in stories, could you tell me where you heard those? Are they in some book or another or did someone in particular tell you about them? Were there any other details?" she rapid fired at me as soon as she realized I was not actively casting.
"I don't remember all of the details, but in some of they stories they reproduced really fast and if they caught women they..." My look told her all it needed to and she grimaced.
"Oh... well. Any thoughts on why they attacked us then? Did you guys stumble on their settlement or something?"
"No idea, maybe we got deeper into the woods and got near it or perhaps they decided that since we weren't spending the night on shore to go for us this time. Frankly I really just never want to go back there again."
"I'll make notes. Maybe there's some information on the elven continent about them, there was nothing in any of the bestiaries I know of, I'd have remembered something like those."
I leaned back internally thinking that we could not possibly get there fast enough for me as I watched the carpenter work. He had the logs up on the main deck and was carefully shaping them to form more masts for us. They were the last we'd be getting for awhile since everyone agreed going back to the island was out of the question.
