WW Chapter 94: Never So Simple (Patreon)

The conversation about magic immediately died as Basil’s warning echoed over the column.

“Basil!” Ezra shouted. “You watch the east while we take the west. Make sure nothing’s flanking us!”

“I’m in command here,” the Pseudo-Knight laughed, and Ezra knew that the whisper of air that gave the response carried his commanding officer’s words to his ears only. Even so, Ezra felt a blush climb up his neck as he recognized that he’d just unthinkingly given a command to his direct report.

He was saved from any further embarrassment, though, when Basil appeared over the nearby hill, running from the west. His silhouette flashed forward to be near the rest of the column as he called out, “I’ll watch the east, as Ezra said. There should only be this single group of goblinoids nearby, and they appear to be under the command of two orcs. Five bugbears sighted as well, with at least thirty goblins. Ezra, you’re in command of anything happening on the west. If I need assistance on the east side, I will say so.”

He didn’t say anything else as he jumped on top of the carriage, which was reinforced and more than capable of holding his weight.

“All you heard the man,” Ezra shouted as he drew his axe, strapped his shield to his arm, and stepped to the side of the marching column. “Everybody spread out to cover the entire broadside of the column. Prepare yourselves for combat, make sure the horses stay calm as we pull the wagons together. We don’t want anything bolting.”

Every soldier got into position, most of them holding spears, though Tula, Patrice, and Quinn each held a sword and shield, and two of the more experienced soldiers carried a sword and warhammer. Ezra stepped into the center of the formation, glancing left and right to make sure that everybody was prepared.

There wasn’t any more time to prepare themselves as the swarm of enemies burst out of the brush cover high up on the hill the road skirted past. At the top of the hill came, just as Basil had warned them, a squad of about forty enemies. They all carried crude shields and rusty, low-quality weapons, though the most surprising thing was the breastplate that each of the orcs wore. They had huge shields, each one nearly the size of a door, as the massive creatures led the charge down the hill.

“Two of the bugbears are staying back,” one of the experienced soldiers reported, a man named Omar, who was also the sword-wielding soldier.

“Pilar protect us,” Luna breathed. “They have bows.”

Just as she said, it became immediately apparent that the two bugbears that held back were carrying massive longbows. The creatures, with their unnaturally long limbs, drew the strings back and let loose the first pair of arrows. Both went wide, flying overhead to slam into the next hill, but the monsters nocked the next shots as the goblins, orcs, and remaining three bugbears closed in.

“Clear out the front ranks as fast as possible,” Ezra shouted, ignoring the creatures’ strange actions. “Once there’s an opening, Patrice, you’re with me to take care of the archers.”

That was the last command able to be heard clearly as the battle started. With every one of the fighters an Adept, with the exception of the Pseudo-Knight Jhas, singular goblins were no problem. Outnumbered three to one, every spear-wielding Adept could kill at least one before another got within arm’s reach. The inhuman squeals of the monsters filled the air as the trained soldiers dealt death on every side without issue. The orcs and bugbears were a measure of concern, though.

Ezra considered himself fortunate enough to be close to one of the bugbears. He cut through two goblins with quick slices of his axe, the first decapitated and the second disemboweled. The bugbear, using its long limbs, tried to stab a spear at him, but he ducked as he angled his shield to let the strike scrape above him.

The bugbear pulled the spear back, trying to get at Ezra’s center of mass, but he pushed a small amount of aura into his legs to speed himself up. He closed in, staying closer to the monster’s body than its spear’s head could get. One clawed hand tried to reach under the edge of his shield and haul him into the air, but Ezra twisted with the lifting arm. The claws, made for ripping through flesh, caught the edge of his shield, but Ezra went with that lifting motion to slice his ax into the bottom of the furry beast’s gut.

Blood and entrails splashed out of the creature as Ezra continued his attack until his axe’s head lodged in the monster’s ribs. It roared as it started to fall, and Ezra kicked it in the chest before stepping forward and slamming his axe’s head into the base of its neck. The weapon didn’t quite get all the way through its spine, but it was deep enough for the body to go limp.

With fourteen Adepts and one Pseudo-Knight manning the battle lines, Ezra was far from the first one able to deal with the squad of monsters in quick succession. Jhas especially was a terror with a broadsword held in both hands. He started on one edge of the battle line, and started cutting his way in as he dealt with his own enemies in efficient chopping blows. As Ezra looked up and down the line, he saw two arrows fly mostly true. Both flew towards one of the soldiers as they fought against an orc, so the bugbears’ targets were fairly obvious.

The soldiers closest to the orcs finished their own fights and closed in, making sure to offer a line where any wounded could stap away from the most dangerous fighting. Most of the goblins were already dead, and with the number advantage gone, it was only a matter of time before the goblinoids were all killed.

Jhas was nearly all the way to Ezra, at that point, so Ezra looked at Patrice standing nearby.

“Ready?”

She nodded once, and they both rushed forward, shields held high as they closed in on the shooting bugbears. One goblin tried to get in their way, but Patrice’s sword stabbed forward and caught the monster in the mouth. The blade stabbed out the back of its skull, and she whipped her weapon to the side as the corpse fell.

“Arrows!” Basil’s warning came, and Ezra and Patrice both were ready. The projectiles slammed against their shields, but were far from enough to pose any significant threat with so much heads up. The monsters weren’t firing frequently enough to fire again before the two Adepts arrived, so Ezra looked forward, watching as the panicked, furry creatures glanced at each other, then dropped the bows in their hands as they drew cudgels spiked with iron nails. They threw themselves into battle, and their lives were summarily ended with flashes of steel and stone.

Ezra used a bit of extra aura to whip his axe in a circle and decapitate his bugbear with a single strike. The sharp, heavy air extended half a meter past his weapon, and the beast’s thick blood sprayed as the headless corpse flopped to the ground.

Patrice, to the contrary, was much more delicate and precise with her sword work. Her stone-attributed aura let her take a heavy blow on the shield without bending. In response, her blade sliced between the monster’s ribs and into its chest. She twisted the blade as she pulled back into her stance, and blood started to course from the corners of the creature’s mouth as it coated its fur. Its breath gurgled, but it tried to strike once again.

The blow was slow, she didn’t struggle to fend it off and plant her sword’s tip in its throat. Again, as she withdrew the weapon, she twisted her wrist and opened a massive wound through the creature’s neck.

It flopped to the ground, dead, and Ezra returned his attention down to the soldiers, some twenty meters downhill. There, nobody seemed to be seriously wounded, though some were moving somewhat gingerly.

“Thank you for trusting me,” Patrice muttered as they made their way back towards the caravan.

“You were close and your aura’s stone attribute is good for making sure that you were safe on the charge,” Ezra answered. “It would be stupid not to trust you to take them out.”

She nodded and simply followed along as Ezra jogged to see how everyone was. Seeing that Jhas was investigating a couple people’s wounds instead of hurriedly healing, obviously nobody was too poorly off. With his pulse calming, Ezra made his way directly towards Basil, who still stood on top of the carriage. Before he got too close, Basil called out, “Did you grab those bows? I wanna take a look at them.”

Ezra mentally cursed himself as he realized he absolutely should have, but before he could turn to go, Patrice slapped his back.

“I’ll get them,” she shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. You give your report.”

Ezra nodded, smiling his thanks, and hurried onward. The carriage had windows, but it was equipped with wooden slats that could be pulled across the glass in case of danger, which were still closed to make sure the two brothers were safe inside.

“Everything all right in there?” Ezra called out.

“Just waiting for the all clear,” Hector answered.

“You’re clear for now,” Basil called from above. “I’ll let you know if I see anything else.”

The protective barriers immediately started opening, the wood slamming down into the body of the carriage once again as both brothers welcomed the return of natural light. Ezra was about to climb up onto the carriage when Basil hopped down.

“My apologies for giving you a command,” Ezra spoke first, saluting. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“Technically, it was a little bit of a screwup you had there,” Basil agreed. “I don’t care, but remember, we’re in the field. Chain of command is me, then you. Moving forward, if I turn over command to you, give me whatever commands you want, until then, wait for what I say. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then we’re fine. It was a good thought, anyways, because I’m a better scout than anyone else we’ve got. Having me keep an eye out on the other side was good. That’s what I was going to do anyways.”

Their conversation was basically over as Patrice came close. She carried both of the bows as well as a quiver of arrows and handed them over to Basil. He took one of the bows in hand and experimentally pulled on the string. He grunted with a hint of effort as he drew it fully, looking up and down the shaft as he slowly relaxed the weapon.

“It’s not high quality,” Basil reported with a critical eye, “but it’s not bad. I could see a hunter using this to kill deer or even something bigger. Maybe not quite as nice as what we give our archers, but it’s much higher quality than everything we’ve been seeing until now.”

Patrice stayed nearby, but Basil gave her a look, so she bowed and walked away. Then, Basil gestured for Ezra to stand closer to the carriage’s door, where he sighed.

“You said something to the Duke and Dominick about the Dragon Wilds, didn’t you, Ezra?”

Basil’s question, levelled at Ezra out of nowhere, took him by surprise. “Yes, sir.”

“I don’t know all the details, but you were saying that aberrant goblinoids might be something more than that. I’ve been on a scouting expedition, seeing what I can see inside the Wilds without fully crossing the mountains. I think you’re right.

“I saw something flying that wasn’t draconic. It was weird, something gray, but I didn’t see anything more clearly than that. It was big, though, and that it was flying around the Dragon Wilds without being a dragon and without issue means that it’s strong. Dominick asked me to tell you that the north isn’t saying anything to us while the south and naga have said that they’ve seen more goblinoids coming around, but said nothing about aberrants.”

“Why are you telling me this right now?” Ezra asked. 

“Because I think that this isn’t the first time that we’re going to have to fight goblinoids,” Basil answered. “This should have been a safe journey, but it might not be now.”

Ezra let out a long, slow breath as Basil turned his attention to Hector. “It’s up to you. Do you want to go back and get more people to escort us? Or do you want to press on?”

The heir to the Duchy of Brayton didn’t hesitate to shake his head. “If more goblinoids are coming around, then soldiers are needed here to make sure the civilians are safe. Now, we just need to go as fast as we can. Our people need more protection.”

Basil nodded like that was what he expected, and the caravan jolted back into motion as he stepped back and called out a command. Ezra found himself grinding his teeth, but could only follow along. 

How often would these fights occur, if it was just a few hours outside of the capital that they had their first run in?