Triple Strength

70. Fighting Retreat: Wiremu

About a half hour before dawn, Lieutenant Aaren appeared on the wall and loudly said, “In one hour, we will make a fighting retreat to Jern with the wounded. We hope this will draw out the Chief and have 100 of our best and all of our affinity users prepared to take him down. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.” He then went back down. He could have told us which affinity users were active. Was the Captain up? He was the most experienced one here.

We were all prepared as well. Skavt was in charge, and the Guards were very nervous. She set some basic priorities but mostly asked them to guard our backs, and if we dismounted, they were to guard the horses. The Archer she put under me, and I said the priorities were the Shamans and the Chief. We mounted up and waited.

At the appointed time, the gates opened, and the Vanguard marched out behind shields. It looks like they were going for a rectangle formation with shields surrounding them. Three layers of fighters, then the wounded and non-combatants. Ten people wide was wider than the road, but I guess they would change formation after the worst of the fighting.

Goblins started in from all sides. When the first Shaman appeared, the Archers immediately targeted them. The first one went down under an overkill of arrows. I think the Sergeants thought it was a waste as well. My Hearing Aid picked up a lot of shouting about keeping to their target areas. We were in a copse of trees quite a way back. Even then, we were getting intermittent attacks.

The last of the Army left the Gates, and they were making steady progress. Then masses of goblins started swarming in from both sides. I was starting to think the Chief had some intelligence. All down the line, intermittent soldiers threw something into the masses, charging them, and a series of explosions happened. I hoped they kept some of those Alchemical mixtures for the Chief fight. The shield wall was holding, although injuries were starting to happen. The archers were still trying to target the Shamans, but it wasn’t easy, as they were only a bit larger than the standard goblin and looked the same. They were mixed into the swarm and were starting to have an effect.

The Army discipline was good, but getting splattered with Death Toxin will always ruin your day. There were surges of water and fire and wooden and rock spears. I think I also saw a swarm of insects from a Summoner Shaman. No sign of the Chief.

Suddenly there was a mounted charge from the open gates of the camp. They aimed to the left of the bait. The charging soldiers were their attack group and must have spotted the Chief. Skavt had us move in that direction as well. This was the first time I had seen a massed cavalry charge, which was impressive. The front was five wide, and when they cleared the gates, they spread out in an arrow formation and kept riding over everything in their way. One or two would go down occasionally, but goblins were vulnerable to a charge.

Sharmans, however, were not vulnerable when they saw them coming. We could see the Chief now; he had two Shamans with him and a swarm of goblins. I think the Army was planning to ride right through them if they could. We were now side on to the charge and moderately busy with stray goblins ourselves. Skavt kept us moving closer at a trot. She and Oske were our point, and Tāoke was on Oske. The Twins were on either side of her, and then the Army. Ört, the Army Archer and I were riding behind Skavt and the twins as I was in an Archer role.

I could see the army nearing the Shaman's range when suddenly, a strong gust of wind knocked all the Goblins, except the Chief, off balance. Air affinity would set the gust going and let it blow, giving it a longer range than others. This let them pound in closer. But the Army didn’t just stop there. Immediately following the wind was a fireball aimed at the Chief, obviously trying to stop him from using skills as long as possible. The Chief ducked, but it did stop him from using his Skills, and the fireball caught the goblins behind him. It was a good bit of coordination, obviously preplanned and worked right up until a line of rock spikes appeared in front of the five in the lead, taking out the horses at a minimum. They obviously had no counter for him, which meant the Captain wasn’t awake.

I yelled at Skavt, “Get me down there, and I can counter the Chief.”

That got some puzzled looks from the Guard, but Skavt just signalled our own charge, and we were off. One of the advantages we had was that all the attention was on the army, not on us. I was riding behind Najprej, next to Ört, who was riding behind Skavt, and I had a Guard warrior on the other side, which was the outer edge of our formation.

I saw the remaining Army charge smash into the main body of goblins, and a bunch of explosions were centred around the Chief and the Shamans. One of the Shamans was water, and one was death. The Death Shaman did not reappear after the explosions, but goblins and army alike were blasted with water and a massive quake. I now thought I was being a bit too ambitious when I said I would try to counter the Chief, but I had to do something. Several goblins lost their heads for no apparent reason, I am assuming an air blade of some sort, but it was stopped dead, hitting a rock wall in front of the Chief. Two objects were lobbed over the wall and then burst into flame over the Chief, who yelled in anger. From our position on the side, we could see the Chief and the ground aflame and continuing to burn. Kelda has been practising. The Chief had started this fight in a bad way, with only one arm and severely damaged armour, and I suspect internal damage as well.

Then we were there and ploughing through goblins. Skavt had aimed Oske directly at the Chief. This meant Najprej bowled over the Water Shaman, and I know Rocky’s hooves broke something, but we weren’t stopping now. Oske caught the Chief dead centre on his horns. One horn hit a hard piece of armour and spun him, but the other pierced just below the rib cage, and Oske lifted his head, so he left the ground. He faced Scavt and got a face full of Venom from Tāoke and a spear thrust in the neck from Skavt. Then Oske lowered his head, and he slipped off the horn, and Oske trampled over him like the Bull he was. Then Ört rode over him, and the Sergeant bringing up the rear also went over him. He was left lying broken on the ground, and Kelda blasted the place with fire, and she didn’t hold back. It looks like I don’t need to counter the Chief after all.

Skavt kept us going, although it was no longer a full charge. She then started to turn Oske. The goblins were starting to scatter with the Chief and Shamans down. One of the officers yelled to form up to go and help the main body of troops. Most of the soldiers recognised Oske from our previous stay at the camp, and we were greeted by many. Oske was the hero. We are not sure yet who got the Monster Kill, but in the Army’s eyes, Scavt and Oske were the heroes of the day. Of the original one hundred, less than fifty soldiers formed a new line. The ten or so soldiers who had lost their mounts and were OK formed a group on foot to fight off the stragglers and went looking for survivors or to finish off any, not quite dead, goblins. Skavt had us join the end of the line, and the officer started us back at a trot toward the main formation of troops. As we got closer, we started picking up speed, then we were at a full charge, and this time we were all hitting the back of the goblins. We split into two groups, and a group swept down each side of the main column raising cheers from the embattled soldiers. The goblins scattered, and I spied several Shamans doing the same. I tagged one with my Longbow Skill, but it wasn't a kill shot.

The Army took the time to assess and sort the wounded. Skavt also had us stop for a while. I checked my Status, and Monster Hunter had levelled. Very few other Skills had gone up except Riding, which was now Journeyman. I wasn’t offered the Riding Class like Tabitha. I guess it is not my thing. Triple Shot went to Apprentice, and there were some other minor rises.

Ört was very surprised to have a Monster Kill in his Status. We figured it must have been his horse which landed the killing blow on the Chief. Skavt was a bit miffed at not getting it, as she and Oske did all the damage. The new damage anyway, not the damage still healing from the explosion.

While Ört had Monster Lore, his basic Class was Forrester, and that was not a prerequisite for Monster Hunter, so Monster Hunter was not available to him. He did get a Specialisation open to him called Forrest Guardian. It was a top-tier specialisation and gave a special Skill called Forest Aura. It seemed a lot more flexible than Tabitha’s aura as it could project a sense of peace and calmness or fear. It probably was not as powerful as Tabitha’s Intimidating Aura, but he was overjoyed as he often tried to calm patients. He said at Journeyman Level Forest Aura could also be used to alter the Pain Resistances of others within the Aura. That is, he could alter them both up and down. He went off to help with the wounded and practice.

The twins and Skavt all had various level increases but nothing startling. I met Kelda, and we had a good conversation. She was now recognised as a full Lieutenant in the Army. Previously she was a Special Lieutenant, which meant something like a Trainee, especially for the Affinity Users who thought they were Special but couldn’t do the job. Lieutenant Aaren had not survived the charge against the Goblin Chief, so she was now in charge of what remained of her Platoon. She now had no one over her to direct her training. She was only responsible to the Captain or, in this case, the senior Lieutenant.

A weary and wounded group arrived in Kulle, but we arrived victorious. There were still a lot of roaming Goblins and several Shamans out there, but the biggest threat was dealt with. The Jern Guard Commander relaxed the threat level, releasing us Mercenaries. The Army was going to spend a few days in Kulle before heading back to Hrothgar. They might send another contingent to help mop up, or they might not. That was up to the command in Hrothgar.

The Caravan Master reformed the wagons that wanted to go to Jern, and we would leave in two days at dawn. Tabitha had had a quiet time in Kulle, watching from the walls. She called it boring. I did find out she had been joining the other musicians in the Tavern and performing in the evenings. I went to see her the night before we left, and she was getting good on the Lute and helped in the singing a couple of times. I recognised her use of the Distract Skill. It was very, very good.