Chapter 21 : Death March
"Eek!" Lily exclaimed, tumbling back into the bushes, as bestial jaws snapped at her.
“Eee-yahh...!” She lashed out with her bow and fang bit into it.
Filthy saliva spattered in droplets on her slight face making her trembled in fear. The monster before was bloodshot eyes with a goblin riding on it.
She summoned all her strength and kicked at the air with her pale legs, doing anything she could to keep the fangs at bay as they pressed ever closer. The wolf's limb each thicker than her arm, pressed against her body, the claw is digging into her soft flesh. She was desperate and clever to boot. She knew she only need an opening of an instant.
The seconds later, the wolf yelped as it took a kick from the side and tumbled off her.
"Are you all right?" She caught a breath and looked to find a tall toned firm with red hair whose length over shoulder.
The goblin and its wolf were stabbed.
As a second goblin came rushing in, the athletic girl, Mireille slammed it on the nose with rock. The goblin fell over with a cry, and he jumped upon it while stabbing down tearing out its throat.
Lily stood up, wiping off mud, and bits of shrubbery as best she could.
Before them yawned the opening of a cave that seemed as if it had appeared from thin air in the middle of the forest. At the entranceway was a strange tower built from a combination of random junk, and several types of bones, most likely including human.
The smell coming off the pile of abandoned refuse mingled with the stench of excrement and intercourse that emanated from the hole, completely overwhelming the aroma of trees.
Even Lily could tell this was a goblin nest.
In remote places in the forest, people build villages, seeking ever more space to live, and naturally they ran into monsters. A goblin or two might be driven off by the young men of the villages. Riding on that confidence, they became mercenaries. When the goblins get to be too much for the local braves, when they started causing real problems, that's when the mercenaries were called in.
Crouching in the bushes, Lily looked at her best friend where she crouched next to her. This spring would mark the third year she had accompanied this unusual courageous young girl.
There were happy and tough moments, these two girl went through thick and thin together. They were not strong enough to take riskier and well paid jobs, causing them to barely survive financially. This goblins extermination job was the most life threatening they faced yet.
She smiled, a touch bitterly, and gripped her bow. The girls wrapped handkerchiefs around her mouth to blunt the stench, then approached the cave entrance, as quiet as possible. She pointed the stakes and ran the rope taut between them, then slowly crawled her way back to the underbrush. While she buried herself with all this, Mireille swung her sword around, chopping down tree branches and gathering them up. Then, it was his turn to go to the entrance, where she dumped the piles of branches.
Lily nodded with a smile as she watched as Mireille struck a flint. Using an oily rag from their tinderbox as a starter, she soon had the piles of branches puffing billows of smoke.
Of course, they were now at the mercy of wind and air pattern. If worse came to worse, the smoke might even blow back at them, making life that harder.
And that was left was for the goblins to come fleeing out, fall into the trap, and be killed.
And at the same beware of goblins ambush from their back. Now, the other mercenaries were engaging with goblins in the jungle. The were ambushed pretty badly that at the time both girls escaped, two mercenaries killed over a dozen of goblins before being butchered.
They prayed the others survived.
********
Mireille was still a novice mercenary from a poor village. Her father was the head of village when he, his sons and villagers were conscripted into soldiers by local noble family in a war between nations. In that war, Mireille's father and brothers were killed. At initial stage of conscription, she was still 8 years old and were trained with her father for a year. She was not brought to the actual war as she was still a child.
After her family was dead, she actively went into forest collecting herb, killing weak beasts, and hunting for years. That's when she met an orphan, Lily. Lily stayed with her in the village and went into forest together. As they were in dire need for money, they registered as mercenaries in guild in Pond town.
Lily's great grandmother was a forest elf, married her great grandfather who was a herbalist. She was a genuine hunter from a hunter family. It wasn't unusual for her to out in the mountains for days. Perhaps because of that she was the silent type - girl of few words. However, she had huge breasts, to say the least, and as such, men were unable to keep their eyes off her them.
During the search, the group of 18 mercenaries were ambushed by nearly a hundred of goblins.
"We should not have come." Lily screamed her mind.
Who wouldn't want to scream in the situation they were in?
"There's no end to them no matter how many we killed." A middle age man shouted while slashing two goblins.
"There is an opening, the goblins will charge us."
"Freaking goblins. How could be they so disciplined?"
"Damn you, Ben. Piece of cake, my ass !" The experienced Sam shouted.
They were surrounded by dozens of goblins. Dozens of goblins was something Lily came out with. In reality there were a lot more of them.
Four veteran male mercenaries approached them days ago, telling them about an easy job that could give them a lot of money, killing so called the weakest monsters.
As they were in dire needs of money, they latched on to the idea. After drinking that night, the girls only realized that those men were only after their bodies. They played hard to get and not leaving them because not wanting to loose the job.
They couldn't keep their eyes off Lily's bouncing bosom though.
When there were just a dozen of goblins, the men tried so hard to attract the attention of the girls, showing off their sword skills and firing spells. They managed to kill several goblins. But Mireille's gradually turned grim.
"This is bad. Too much noise attracts other monsters." She warned others.
One of the lecherous mercenaries laughed, "There's no other monsters. I will protect you girls."
He was right. There weren't other monsters in that forest. That's why they were able to take down goblins easily.
It turned out that although there weren't other monsters, there were smaller monsters, goblins. They came from all directions as if they had been waiting for human all this while.
An older man was struck by an arrow.
"Damn you. A goblin use bows?"
Normal goblins were monsters about 100 cm tall. The colours of their skin was similar to human, just a tad bit greenish. A goblin could be defeated by man without fighting ability but they were troublesome bunch when grouped up.
The men were in uproar. They could kill many goblins but they were struggling and there was no way they could persist. The weakest duo, the girls were in a lot worse situation. The girls struggle even to defeat two goblins and had to be helped by other men.
The leader, Sam shouted, " You four veterans who brought the girls in. You and the girls escape now. You protect the girls!"
Ben slashed goblins blocking their escape route with his bastard sword.
"Hei, you for and the girls. Go now. I don't know how long I can stop this stinking goblins!"
Mireille, Lily and the 4 lecherous mercenaries ran out of the encirclement.
The six of them managed to shake off the goblins. They went further into the forest. While resting, they looked the girls' bodies intently.
The struggle between life and death situation stimulated their sexual urge. They pushed the girls down, and starting fondling their breasts and touching inside the girls' crotches. The girls were overpowered by the 4 stronger men.
Suddenly, about 20 goblins ambushed them. They were caught off guard, defending but unable to kill any goblin.
Apparently these goblins were bad news. The lecherous men then turned their attention to the girls. Not obscenity or hostility, but rather it seemed they were looking at a "tool".
"Young ladies, do you know what the goblins are after?" A man asked.
The veterans inched closer.
"Breeding." Another man whispered.
They didn't grasp the meaning of the word right away.
"They are going to get a human girl and make the girls give birth to goblins. So, they are after you, not us."
A chill ran down Lily's spine.
The men grabbed their arms.
They stumbled forward.
Before them were a group of drooling goblins.
They looked primitive with their rusty knives, wooden clubs, and stones.
For a moment, the goblins were surprised. But soon the goblins realized they were given a gift and they ran forward. The four men ran away.
Their closed her eyes but after a while no goblin touch them.
Confused, they open their eyes. A bald man was standing. He pulled a sword from a goblin's head.
"I felt something was not right and running here. I saw what those low-lives did. I had a daughter with my ex-wife. Hate things happen to you girls." He said while slashing and kicking goblins.
"Thank you, mister." Mireille said.
"Now, go !" He shouted as hard as he could.
Tears flowed from their eyes. "Thank you, mister."
The girls ran as fast as they could while looking at the man being stabbed by goblins but was still strongly retaliating.