Lord Of Goblins

Everyone took Rogga's announcement differently. Gozzag sighed, Ban grinned savagely, Rogga kept his attention on the incoming hivelings, Gul was shuddering, Molg was praying, Jag, the most average looking of Volker's party, was gripping his spear tightly, while Volker took a few deep breathes to steel his nerves, before he grabbed a horn from his marching pack and blew it, grabbing everyone's attention.

"What was that for!?" Yelled Rogga.

"I was letting the other groups know that we encountered some hivelings so they can come and help us deal with them and others that may follow them later.".

"While letting more of the bugs know where we are?" asked Rogga while glaring fiercely at the greyborn.

"Fun fact, hivelings have short hearing. They do have other ways to send messages, but from what our kind discovered throughout all these years is that it takes time for other hivelings to receive them. Rogga, do you sense anything new?" Volker asked the Burga.

Rogga sniffed the air and his ears twitched "From the bugs? No, they're just standing there, but I can smell their aggressiveness from here and some weird smell? Bah, who cares. The important is that they look like they're going to attack once they're done with whatever they were doing and it seems you're right.".

"He's right? About what?" Ban asked before the distant sound of horns entered his ears.

Volker smiled in a way, imitating Lev "All right men, prepare formation. We'll take on one of those monsters while Gozzag and the rest take on the other. Is that acceptable?".

Gozzag shrugged "Suits us just fine.".

"What? You want us to fight?" Asked Gul.

Volker looked at his friend "Yes. Do you have a better suggestion?".

"Let's run for it." Gul suggested in a worried tone.

Ban laughed "Run away? Sorry, kid. I'm not into the habit of running away from bugs.".

"Not to mention that from what we've seen from the past months, they're faster than us. I'm sure that once we try to run they'll abandon what they're doing and chase after us, and you can bet that they'll catch us unprepared before we regroup with the others. Even if we throw away all our equipment; only our Burga friend would be able to escape." Gozzag said while pointing at Rogga causing him to snarl.

"I'd never run away!".

Ban laughed "Nobody said you would, buddy.".

"Why not? No offence, but wouldn't that be the smart thing to do?" Gul asked while nervously eyeing the two Dekas and the Burga.

Gozzag frowned, slighted by Gul's accusation. "If we wanted to do the smart thing it'd be leaving at least two of you bogeys behind to feed the beasts. You should thank the gods that both Ban and I are capable of taking down one of these hivelings by ourselves and that Rogga is a Burga. It doesn't matter if you call abandoning your companions to save your skin the logical thing to do or cowardice, in the end, they take such an act VERY seriously. But if you do want us to escape then would you like to volunteer for a special role?" Gozzag ended while glaring at Gul causing him to lower his head.

"N-no sir... and I'm sorry...".

Gozzag sighed "Just watch your tongue, kid. And instead of wasting our time talking, why don't we prepare ourselves?".

Volker patted Gul on the back "He's right, Gul. This isn't the time for idle chatter.".

"I-I know it isn't, but I just want an alternative, you know? I don't wanna get killed and eaten by giant bugs...".

"Who does? Sadly, we don't have a choice but to fight." Volker responded matter-of-factly.

Gul was confused as to how his friend was calm but noticed that the tips of Volker's ears were constantly twitching. Something that he knew happened whenever his friend was afraid. He wanted to ask why he was putting on a show of bravery but saw how the other two bogeys weren't in a much better state than him.

'He's trying to keep everyone calm, even though he's in a bad shape himself.' Gul thought. Well, if we can't run, then we can only fight. Gods, I hate fighting…".

"Well then, let's show those bugs that we're not easy prey." He said in false bravado, receiving a smile from his friend.

"Let's." Volker replied before ordering his men to prepare. It was going to be a tough battle.

…

Everyone prayed for aid from their respective gods while they waited for the hivelings to arrive. The two Dekas prayed for a valiant battle, the Burga for a worthy hunt, and the bogies for protection against the blighted beasts crawling towards them.

"Remind me again why we didn't prepare an ambush?" Jag asked Volker while shuddering on the left side of the formation. It was a loose three-man formation consisting of Jag, Molg, and Volker with Gul a distance away to provide support with his sling. It was shaped in the form of a reverse arrowhead with Jag on the left, Volker on the right, and Molg in the centre.

Volker glanced at the man "There are few creatures that can ambush a hiveling and our kind isn't one of them.".

"Great. Just great... And do you think these weird wooden spears will actually be able to kill them? Wouldn't our normal spears be better?" He said with his gaze switching between his usual obsidian headed spear that was lying on his shield and the weirdly shaped one in his hand. It would've been a normal spear made of hardened wood if not for its detachable barbed head that had a rope tying it to the spear's shaft. After the battle against Gelmar, Lev equipped his men with two additional spears, the current one made to mainly be used against hivelings and other large beasts and a shorter spear whose main purpose is to be used as a ranged weapon. The reason it wasn't used by Lev and Volker before was because it would've left an opening if used in close range.

"As long as you make sure to aim at the thing's weak points - the ones barely covered by its shell.".

"Sorry, but I haven't been paying attention when you and the boss were cutting up those things and poking their insides. I prefer to keep my lunch in my stomach.".

Volker sighed "You're saying it like we were playing around with the things. It made me sick but we needed to see how they-".

"They're here!" Rogga roared breaking their conversation.

Everyone gazed towards the direction the Burga was pointing at to see two giant forms emerging from the distance and charging towards them while causing multiple disturbances in the tall grass as multiple small creatures fled out of their way.

Volker shuddered but took a few deep breaths calming himself "Everyone, prepare yourselves! Gul, load the sling and wait for my signal!".

"A-alright!" He yelled before he loaded a lead shot into the sling and begun the first rotation.

Volker tightly gripped his spear and prayed despite him being a sceptic towards things he can't see with his eyes.

"Oh Zeja, if you exist please guide our weapons and make this a flawless victory." He muttered as he took deep breaths while keeping his eyes on the two incoming giants. His breath calmed as he could see from this distance that they were common workers and one of the smaller ones. If each party took on one and his plan worked, it could end in a flawless victory - at least one with minimal losses.

He gave a quick glance towards Gozzag's party and could see him and Ban ready for battle with each wielding an iron-headed axe and a round iron-banded shield. He couldn't understand why they chose a fragile metal like iron instead of bronze, but it wasn't the time to ask. He turned his gaze towards Rogga who was a distance away wielding two bronze-tipped javelin in both his hands, prepared to make them fly and pierce through their foe's shell and embed in the soft flesh below.

He returned his gaze towards the approaching hivelings and once they were a mere hundred meters away, he roared "NOW!".

Both Gul and Rogga launched their own attacks at the same time, each grabbing their foes attention as the creatures separated and charged towards them.

According to their plan, the formation was in the way of the worker, preventing it from reaching Gul. Molg braced himself as the creature slammed into his shield causing him to almost fall backwards but he managed to keep himself on his feet albeit being dragged forward as the thing pushed ahead with its mandibles trying to take away his shield.

"Please! Take care of this thing already!" He whimpered as it kept dragging him left and right trying to remove the infernal piece of hardened wood and occasionally hitting it with its front legs.

"We're trying but it's not giving us a chance!" Jag yelled before he blocked a kick from the giant insect when he tried to approach it.

"Hyuguhyuguhyugu!" It let out a shrill chirp from its abdomen before it tried to turn and slam Jag with it.

It then tried to lunge at Volker, but he immediately slammed his shield into its head, disrupting its attempt before thrusting his spear towards its right eye only for it to miss and strike chitin.

It grabbed the sides of his shield with its front limbs and attempted to climb on top of it to crush him with its weight so he quickly let go of the shield and rolled to the left. He then rolled once again as it followed him and tried to bite his torso. He kept evading the hiveling's attacks as it locked onto him considering him the weakest of the bunch while ignoring the rest as their wooden spears, in most cases, wouldn't be able to penetrate its armour.

In the end, Volker couldn't evade a tackle from the worker and it was on top of him. He tried to move away but it blocked his path with its feet. He stared at it in fear and it gazed at him with its cold compound eyes, acidic saliva dripping from its mouth onto the ground causing it to sizzle and melt on the dirt. He managed to retain his spear and thrust it forward towards the monster's right eye, only for the hiveling to block the spear with its mandibles, catching it, and snapping the shaft in half before throwing the broken parts to the side.

He shivered as it chirped and brushed him with its antenna 'I-it's all over… It can't end like this…'

When he saw it click its mandibles and was about to strike, he closed his eyes 'I shouldn't be here… I shouldn't die like this… I wanna live… Mr Gherm, Gul, guys, someone, anyone, help!'.

Suddenly a loud bang occurred and the beast screeched. Volker opened his eyes and saw the creature's strike didn't come, it instead turned its head to the left where he saw Gul in the distance.

"You like that!? How about another one!?" Gul yelled before hurling another lead shot towards the hiveling, hitting it in the thorax and causing a crack in its shell.

Using this moment, Volker quickly got up and ran away. The worker turned back towards him and was about to give chase, but it then shrieked as it felt a sudden pain from the right side of its abdomen.

"Got ya!" Jag yelled before pulling out the now headless spear and pulled on the rope while backing away.

The hiveling shrieked in both fury and pain while it wiggled its abdomen trying to get the alien object out but it failed as the barbs on the spear-point kept it in place. That pain was made doubled once it received Molg's spear to its thorax.

Seeing this scene, Volker brought out his standard spear and yelled "Spin around and tie its legs!".

The two bogeys did as asked and the hiveling struggled. It tried to cut the ropes but couldn't reach them even when it curled its body so it charged forward aiming to drag and tire the two bogeys so they'd let go of the ropes, but it couldn't maintain its balance as it kept getting pulled from both directions and once its legs tangled with the ropes it stumbled and fell on the ground.

As it was trying to untangle its feet and stand up, Volker charged towards it with his spear and stabbed it in the head.

The hiveling let out a terrible cry and thrashed around, but Volker kept hold of his spear and roared "Stab it now!".

Molg and Jag approached and stabbed it with their standard spears, one in the bottom of the head and the other in the middle of the thorax, causing it to struggle more violently, an act showing that it was a beast in its death throes. They then took out their shorter spears and stabbed it once again.

The struggling hiveling kept getting weaker and weaker until it eventually passed away.

"It's over…" Molg muttered exhaustedly before sitting down on the ground.

"No, it's not. We have to help Gozzag and the others deal with the other one." Volker said before searching for their companions. In the end, he found a shocking scene.

Molg rubbed his eyes before looking at the same scene as Volker "To me, it looks like they don't need our help.".

The hiveling was chopped off into multiple pieces. The head, along with the legs, was lying on the ground in a pool of bluish-green haemolymph. All of the dismembered body parts were covered with serious injuries, especially the abdomen which had more than six javelins stuck piercing through the shell.

Volker turned to their companions and found that though they suffered a few injuries, there weren't any serious ones.

"Nice job!" Yelled ban as he approached with a grin on his face.

"Thanks… Looks like you're alright.".

"Yeah. It was a good exercise." Ban's words caused everyone to flinch. Who would take fighting giant beasts as an exercise?

Gozzag also approached with a smirk "From the looks on your faces, I can tell what you're all thinking. But remember that these two were smaller compared to the norm and honestly dumber too. If we fought a weaker but smarter and less predictable foe, then I can assure you that nobody would be smiling.".

Volker nodded "Alright, now that's settled, can you ask Rogga if any more hivelings are coming?".

"We already did. Three more are coming but they won't be here before our reinforcements. They'll be easy pickings.".

"Do we know who's coming?".

"Hey, Rogga! Who was it again!?" Ban yelled.

"A few bogeys and a party of goblins! One smells like a female!".

Volker thought about the information 'Goblins that are actually doing something and are led by a female…'.

He rubbed his forehead "It's Rapha, isn't it?".

"Yup." Ban said with a grin.

"Wonderful…".