Mastery Is Earned

“Captain! Captain!”

“What is it?” The main force halted, and Dario looked back.

A young soldier hurried over, supporting the trembling old man. “He says he’s willing to guide us to the quarry!”

Dario paused. He studied the old man, then the soldier, before asking, “You’re volunteering?”

The old man still looked afraid, but his expression was resolute. “Yes! I’ll take you there. I won’t run away again!”

Dario laughed and gave the old man a pat. “You don’t need to do anything but show us the way. Understood? Leave the fighting to us.”

After handing the old man over to Dario, the young soldier returned to Graypine Village as ordered to continue protecting the survivors.

Guided by the old man, the others continued following the goblins’ trail. This made them even more certain that the abandoned quarry was the goblin tribe’s true lair.

Raymond put on his coat of plates and iron helmet. Henk remained bare-chested, his massive body and exposed canines making him look like a ferocious monster.

Six town guards and nine mercenaries were divided into three squads, each consisting of two guards and three mercenaries. The squads spread out around the formation. Raymond, Henk, and Dario held the center, commanding the group while protecting their guide and the physician. The remaining three guards and one mercenary formed a scouting party and moved ahead.

The twang of bowstrings and the hiss of arrows suddenly came from up ahead. A moment later, one of the scouts signaled to Dario that they had eliminated a goblin patrol.

Dario returned the signal, then looked at Raymond. “These goblins really are no ordinary group. They even have patrols.”

“Up ahead. The quarry is just up ahead.” The old man pointed forward.

Even from a distance, they could see an enormous depression that stood out from the surrounding terrain. It looked like an open-pit quarry.

Two scouts remained ahead to continue observing the area, while the others returned to Dario’s group. With a wave of his hand, Dario called in the squads spread around them as well.

“Captain, we’ve confirmed that this quarry is the goblins’ lair,” one of the scouts reported. “We took a quick look from outside and saw more than thirty goblins. We can’t tell how many more are hiding deeper in the mine.”

Another soldier added, “There’s a broad, gentle slope on the eastern side of the quarry, wide enough for shield bearers to form ranks and advance straight down. There are stone stairs elsewhere, but they’re extremely narrow. If we hold the exits from those stairways, we can wipe them all out!”

“What? We’re attacking immediately?” a startled mercenary asked. “Aren’t we going to wait for the main force? There aren’t many of us. How can we possibly fight that many goblins?”

“We are the main force.” Dario glanced at him, then turned toward the scouts. “How many arrows and bolts do you have left?”

“We brought thirty each. One hundred twenty between the four of us,” a scout replied.

Dario nodded. All four scouts carried ranged weapons, giving them a combined total of one hundred twenty arrows and bolts. With the terrain in their favor, surrounding and killing the goblins was not impossible.

“The shield bearers will advance down the eastern slope. Everyone else protects their flanks. The archers and crossbowmen will take the high ground above the stone stairs, cut off the goblins’ retreat, and provide covering fire. We’ll drive them back into the mine and burn them alive!” Dario decided. He pointed to the old guide and the physician, then at one of his soldiers. “You stay here and protect them.”

“Yes, Captain!” several soldiers answered immediately. The remaining soldiers and mercenaries, however, exchanged uncertain looks and said nothing.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author’s consent. Report any sightings.

“Well? Do you have objections?” Dario asked coldly.

One mercenary gathered his courage. “Captain, who’s going to stand at the very front?”

Dario grinned and tapped the hilt of his sword against the shield in his left hand. “My brothers in the town guard and I, of course! We’ll hold the front. You protect the flanks. Understood?”

“Yes, Captain!” Raymond shouted first.

With Raymond taking the lead, the other mercenaries gradually joined in, though their voices lacked enthusiasm.

Dario could tell their morale was low. He drew a deep breath and looked at the group. “I’m no great speaker, and I don’t know what else to say. But I do know this: blood for blood! Before we departed, the Sheriff authorized double rewards for this operation. The bounty for goblin ears is doubled! Every member of the town guard taking part will receive an additional four weeks of pay! And whoever kills that one-eyed goblin gets another twenty silver. That last reward isn’t coming from the town guard. I’m paying it myself!”

“Aaaah!”

“Let’s go!”

“Kill them all!”

The generous rewards instantly ignited the mercenaries’ fighting spirit, and even the soldiers became eager for battle. Seeing this, Dario strode forward. “Follow me! Let’s slaughter the lot of them!”

The group surged toward the broad eastern slope of the open-pit quarry. The scouts carrying bows and crossbows ran ahead to tell the companions still watching the quarry about Dario’s plan.

The open-pit quarry had been abandoned for years. The mountainside had been excavated downward layer by layer, leaving several broad terraces at different heights. Raymond and the others now stood on a wide ramp large enough for a cart. Several narrow stone stairways linked the terraces, and the archers and crossbowmen had already occupied their upper ends.

At the deepest point of the quarry, a huge tunnel slanted into the mountainside. The remains of hoists, winches, and rotting wooden scaffolds stood outside it. Abandoned work sheds, tool huts, and livestock pens overgrown with dead grass dotted the flat ground below.

The arrival of such a large force naturally alerted the goblins. One leaped onto a wooden crate and began shouting, trying to draw the attention of more of its companions.

Henk picked up a heavy rock and hurled it at the goblin. The rock struck it squarely in the head, knocking it to the ground with blood pouring from its mouth.

The battle began. Large numbers of goblins charged toward the people on the slope, brandishing their weapons. Most carried wooden clubs and spears, but many wielded kitchen knives, pitchforks, and logging axes freshly looted from the village.

Dario and his soldiers raised their shields and advanced slowly down the slope. From the high ground on either side, the archers and crossbowmen kept firing, suppressing the goblins, which lacked ranged weapons and could not fight back.

The slope was long, but with the ranged fighters providing cover, many goblins were struck before they could even reach its entrance. They fell one after another, and the growing pile of bodies obstructed those charging from behind.

Once they reached the bottom, Raymond and Henk moved toward the bases of the stone stairways on opposite sides, preventing the goblins from reaching the ranged fighters above.

Raymond cut down the goblin charging straight at him, spun aside from a wooden spear thrust from his flank, and drove his blade into another goblin’s chest in the same motion.

A furious roar rang out. Raymond looked up to see a big goblin, five feet seven inches tall, charging toward him with a large cleaver raised.

A big goblin was a goblin whose physical throwback into a Greater Goblin was not yet complete. Raymond had fought such a monster before. This one was clearly taller and stronger than the first he had faced, but it was still not strong enough.

Raymond stepped aside from the cleaver and advanced. His arming sword swept horizontally across the big goblin’s lower ribs, opening a wound with ease. As the creature recoiled in pain, Raymond circled behind it and gripped the weapon in both hands. He drove the blade into the base of its neck above the collarbone, angling it down through the chest cavity. Blood poured from the wound. The big goblin could not even finish its scream before its body went limp.

Raymond pulled the arming sword free, kicked the corpse aside, and casually flicked the blood from its blade. Another goblin charged without fear, and Raymond slashed its neck open with a single stroke.

Goblins were usually cowardly creatures that scattered at the first sign of danger and rarely amounted to much. Yet even against an organized human attack, these goblins suppressed their fear and continued fighting. Perhaps the Dragonblood Goblin was responsible.

“A... A Greater Goblin!”

The startled cry caught Raymond’s attention. He turned to see a Greater Goblin more than seven feet tall charging out of the tunnel. The ground seemed to tremble with each step it took.

But what truly alarmed Raymond was the piercing flash of red light deep inside the dark tunnel.

“Watch out! Move!” Raymond managed to shout before throwing himself aside.

Henk saw him move and reacted instantly, leaping to the side and landing beside a big goblin.

The big goblin seemed never to have seen a half-orc before. Whether frightened by Henk’s size or by his half-orc appearance, it simply stared at him for a moment without attacking.

Henk shot out his right hand and seized the big goblin by the neck. He lifted it off the ground and tightened his grip. With a sharp crack, its head lolled to one side and its body went still.

Henk flung the corpse away. It crashed into two other goblins preparing to charge and sent both flying.

A blast of dark red fire roared from the depths of the tunnel and swept past Henk. In an instant, it engulfed everyone on the slope and every goblin in its path.