Lord Of Goblins

Lev and Volker have finally reached the expedition site. Shouts, curses and laughter filled the place as the crowds of bogeys who came from different walks of life were awaiting the arrival of their goblin overlords. Some were excited for the chance that they might keep some of the lower quality materials and artefacts found in the lower levels while others were dismayed as fate forced them to join what they thought would be a journey towards their death.

While Lev kept a stoic expression as he searched for his men and kept an eye out for danger, Volker was baffled by the sights he was seeing. It was his first time seeing so many commoners and nobles beyond the wall as his parents always kept him away from seeing the previous expeditions even when it was his brother's turn to join one two years ago. They feared that he would be targeted by the fouler members of society and would be manipulated by them since, despite his intelligence, he was quite naive and gullible. If he wasn't forced to join the expedition this year they wouldn't have allowed him to be here, they're already furious that he decided to join Lev's band.

He kept looking at the mishmash of outfits ranging from the white tunics and shirts of the commoners to the fancy attires of the richer nobles decorated with slightly uncommon jewels and fine metals.

Lev, on the other hand, was just merely curious as he found them unimpressive. To his eyes, though the quality of their hemp and leather clothes wasn't bad, it wasn't something that would impress him. He also felt that behind this facade of joy and excitement displayed by the more boisterous of the conscripts, there was a tense air filled with fear and worry. In the end, even dreamers and fortune seekers are like just everybody else in that they don't want to die.

Instead of gawking at a bunch of strangers, Lev thought it would be a better use of both of their time if Volker helped in locating both Lev's men and Rak's. Both groups decided to join together early on to deter other gangs. Most were not stupid enough to do anything right before the expedition starts as it would make a convenient excuse for the goblins to toy with them, but the world isn't lacking in fools.

"You really should pay better attention to your surroundings, Volk," Lev advised Volker as they kept walking with Lev making them walk near the leftmost wall.

"Um, why is that sir? It's not like Vyrga or any of the other gang leaders are gonna harm us.".

"Oh, really? Tell that to the people stalking us.".

"We-we're being chased…?" asked Volker hesitantly as he never noticed anything weird.

"Yes. We're being chased and don't look back, things might take a turn to the worse once they realized that they've been found out. Considering that they haven't done anything so far, I'm sure that they're waiting for something or someone. I believe that there are more ahead and they're trying to either block our way or surround us. It'll be better to…".

Lev stopped talking as he suddenly felt a murderous intent gazing at him from his right so he immediately ducked avoiding an arrow before turning and coming face to face with its owner. In the end, he found a greyborn that he thought shouldn't be here as he looked younger than Volker, glaring at him and trying to knock another stone-headed arrow to his self-bow.

'Guess this is who they were waiting for… This must be Heimo.' Lev thought as the boy corresponded with the image he had in mind. He was one of Vyrga's youngest disciples and was really close to the late Gelmar. He's also one of the few greyborn who know how to use a bow and due to his talents and contributions, he's one of the two primary candidates to succeed Vyrga in the future. It was known that though he seems as if he was the nicest of Vyrga's elites, looks can be deceiving. It is a known tale that all it took was one order from Vyrga for him to slaughter not only his target but also his entire family.

After Vyrga took over the man's territory, Heimo killed everyone including the women and children despite Vyrga wanting only the man and the eldest sons dead. When Vyrga asked him why he did that Heimo just shrugged and replied that despite it being distasteful it was a necessity as even if the children didn't want revenge once they grew up, the mother, grandmother, grandfather, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces might bring harm to them in the future if fate allows it, it was better to be a merciless pragmatist than a merciful fool.

He was about to tell Volker to get ready, only to see that he threw his marching pack on the ground and took a combat stance with both his shield and spear ready. This caused Lev to smile 'Looks like he's learning.'.

"Are you alright, sir!?" asked the young lad nervously.

"For now, calm yourself it's time for battle.".

Volker nodded and took a deep breath, his expression immediately changed from the previous nervous one to a wary and guarded one "I'm ready.".

Suddenly a robed man pushed his way through the nearby crowd and charged at Lev with his knife in hand, only to have his face slammed by Lev's marching pack. As the figured staggered backwards, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen as it was penetrated by Lev's spear.

The crowd screamed in shock and terror as they saw Lev slam the stunned thug with his shield while pulling his spear from the robed man's guts causing his entrails, which were entangled on the spear, to spill on the ground. The crowd then moved aside to give a wide berth to the combatants not wanting to get harmed in the process.

"Back off!" Yelled Volker, causing another robed male bogey to avoid getting too close. Once Lev gave a quick glance at the robed man, he saw him gritting his teeth trying not to scream as he moved back with a limp bleeding from a wound on his t.h.i.g.h.

"Arrow!" Lev yelled causing Volker to block an incoming arrow with his shield.

Lev immediately spotted another one pushing his way through a group of three while approaching him from the left side. Lev immediately glared at him and pointed his spear at the figure "Don't even dare.".

The figured backed away waiting for more of his companions to gather before committing to an attack.

"How many are there?" Asked Volker with his spear pointed at the attackers, ready to take the life of any assailants.

"Who knows-" Lev was interrupted as he an arrow slammed into his shield "Who knows, just make sure to never let your guard down. Even if you hear some of our guys shouting, don't let your guard down!" He continued as two more robed figures approached from his front. They tried charging at the same time only for one to get speared through the head, while the other was shoved with the shield and when he tried to turn around it, he screamed as he was stabbed in the eye with an obsidian knife that Lev kept as a sidearm.

Another four approached making the crowd move even further away as it wasn't their fight and they realized that none of the guards were trying to stop it, this was definitely not a mere fight.

It was getting harder for Lev and Volker to push them back, and Lev could see a look of satisfaction on Heimo's face. A look that disappeared when Lev took out a horn and blew it startling both the robed men and the nearby crowd.

More horns were blown throughout the vicinity and Lev's men started gathering in the area causing the robed men to hesitate as they contemplated between either finishing the job as this was their best chance or retreat to avoid causing a bigger scene which will not only attract the goblins but will lead to some of them getting killed by Lev's men. The assassins decided to leave as they weren't professionals who worked for Heimo so they didn't need to stick their necks out to him as the reward he promised wasn't enough for them to go through all this trouble. It was better to quit on this task and find a better target, there were many other bogeys that want other bogeys dead.

"So much for avoiding attention..." Lev grumbled as he saw them mix between the crowd. When he turned his gaze back to Heimo's location, he saw that he also left the area.

"Are you ok, sir!?" asked one of the ten men who arrived once he approached the duo.

"If you were a moment late I wouldn't have been alright! Where were you? I believe I asked you to gather and keep an eye out on the entire vicinity to prevent such events from happening." Lev told the man with a deep frown plastered on his face.

"Sorry, sir, but we were baited by Vyrga. A few moments ago it looked like that there was going to be a fight between Rak and Vyrga and as you know Vyrga has about three times the number of men so we interfered to even the odds…"

"Leaving you unable to cover the whole area allowing Heimo to set his trap, is that right?".

"Yes… Thankfully captain Jem decided to leave some of us nearby in case you came." The man replied.

'Jem, huh…' Lev thought back to the cautious middle-aged man he assigned as a captain. Back when he made the three-man formation he chose a captain for each formation. Among the captains, Jem was the oldest and the most experienced in combat as he was once the second in command for a gang ruled by a man named Dagga. Dagga was known to be many things, daring, ambitious, wise, just, and loyal. Making him popular among his men as he kept everything fair and never targeted those who didn't deserve it. Alas, as with all good ambitious men, he was betrayed and killed by the greediest of his followers.

After Dagga's death and after they fulfilled their last assignment by hunting down the traitors, the group started falling apart until it eventually collapsed.

After the collapse, Jem kept switching between different groups including Rak's but always left as he didn't find in their leaders the qualities that he was looking for. He eventually gave up his search and chose to live as a regular miner until recently. It seemed Lev reminded him a lot of Dagga so he chose to get his hopes up for the last time and joined his band. For the time being, he not only showed great skill and discipline, he also showed strategic prowess as he was also one of Lev's advisors when he was coming up with the plan to take down Gelmar.

"looks like I found my third-in-command…" Lev mused before focusing on the waiting soldier.

"Can you forgive us, sir?" asked the soldier nervously breaking Lev out of his thoughts.

"That will depend on how you handle this task. Gather the others and take six of them with you to check the parameter for any more surprises! And make sure not to fall to any ploys this time!" Lev ordered.

"Sir, yes, sir!" The man replied before heading off to fulfil the task.

Lev looked at the crowd and yelled "Alright folks, the show is over! Better get ready before the goblins arrive!".

This caused the gawkers to continue on their way as Lev was right. There were more important things to do.

"Now that they're gone, why can I ask a question, sir?" Asked Volker.

"Does anyone ask an answer?" Lev replied.

"Ask an answer…?".

"…It's a joke. Everyone asks for a question or for an answer, but nobody asks an answer itself in the form of a question.".

"I honestly don't get what's about that, sir.".

Lev sighed "Never mind. Now, what did you want to ask?"

"Why didn't you blow the horn earlier?".

"I thought our men would arrive earlier so I wanted to keep it a secret. Yes, if they asked properly they would've known from the men that we released that we used horns to commence an ambush, but they wouldn't have known that I supplied the majority of the men with horns and that we can also use it to send signals and messages until much later, at least until they try to attack us while we're separated. If they tried to hunt us down on scouting missions, we'd know when a group was attacked and commence a counter-attack immediately but now they might think up of some countermeasures.".

Volker shrugged "The only countermeasure I can think of is if they find out which men have them and take them out first. But how in the world will they do that? That needs them to take out multiple men at the same time and we all know Vyrga's men aren't that good. The only thing they can do is set traps and ambush us, but how will they be able to accomplish that in a short time?".

"We'll see. It's better to be cautious… And a word to the wise; never underestimate your foes, they can surprise you."

"True. We'll think of it on the way, sir, but don't you think we should go meet with the others? It's better to join them early and think of a way to deal with Vyrga." Volker asked Lev.

Lev nodded "Let's go then. We also need more info from Rak about the other gangs joining this expedition.".

And so they joined with the remaining four soldiers and continued on their way towards the gathering spot. In the end, the other six soldiers joined them once they finished searching the area and they managed to reach the rendezvous point safely.