The bulk of the goblin horde which had gathered in preparation to overwhelm me through sheer size and number of weapons I'd need to deflect in order to stay alive was splattered all across the hollow alcove we were gathered in courtesy of the frag my malodorous aide threw in their midst. A shower of blood and limbs washed over me, but it did not deter me from diving towards the few remaining greenskins that had managed to survive, my chainsword raised and ready to cleave through as many of them as I could take out in a single blow. Four of the vile little creatures fell without having seen who killed them, and another three perished before they could regain their bearings.

The majority of the goblins blocking my escape were either dead or desperately wishing they were, leaving scant opposition between me and my escape. For perhaps the first time since I arrived on this backwater planet, I no longer had to put up any airs so as to avoid tarnishing my ill-gotten reputation. I could, for the first time since becoming a full fledged commissar, run for my life without worrying about anything other than the horrible creatures trying to kill me. If my life hadn't been in imminent danger, I might have thought of the whole experience as relaxing. Unfortunately, my opponents were Slaanesh worshiping xenos. Letting my guard down would have cost me my arse, amongst several other orifices.

There were only ten snotling sized goblins, two hobgoblins, and the irate champion between me and my salvation courtesy of Jurgen's parting gift, a far cry from the dozens that had been celebrating mere moments earlier. The smaller xenos were still cowering in fear from the explosion that had claimed the lives of their comrades and the hobgoblins were eyeing me wearily in case I tried throwing out another explosive towards them. Only the champion dared charge me, but I quickly put an end to that by firing off a hastily aimed lasbolt at its legs, blowing off a chunk of flesh from one of its knees with a lucky shot and tripping the massive goblin before it could reach me.

With their boss wounded and howling in pain, the hobgoblins bellowed out an angry roar and ran at me, swinging their crude wooden clubs with little care as to who or what they struck, smacking them against the ground and pulping a few of their smaller relatives in the process. I parried the first hob's attack and disembowled the second one before it could react in time. Without its ally to back it up, the first hobgoblin was unable to pull its weapon up in time to block my chainsword as I brought it down towards its skull. The greenskin did try to raise up an arm in a feeble attempt to ward off by blow with the thick knot of muscle wrapped around it, but all that did was prolong its suffering as the teeth of my chainsword took a few precious moments longer to end its life and nearly deafen me with its death throes.

With the main threats blocking my escape route dealt with, I bolted away from the remaining goblins hoping I could outrun them and find the exit to the infested treehouse I had found myself in before Goblin Slayer figured I managed to escape on my own and tried to burn down goblin nest while I was still trapped inside it. I wouldn't put it past the dense fool to attempt something so rash, as not only was it the safest thing to do, but it is exactly what I would have done if I were him. The odds of him managing to find the exit without my help on his own was slim, but with Jurgen assisting him, having no doubt memorized the route to safety as both of us had turned into a habit during our long careers, I couldn't afford to waste any time frakking around.

I could hear the thunderous, staggered footsteps of the crippled goblin champion and the shrill cries of its underlings as they pursued me through the abandoned eldar refuge they had claimed for themselves. There were far more voices joining the tide of green that was no doubt trying to close in on me, likely the more attentive goblins who heard their leaders pained howls arriving just in time to join in on the chase and eager to have something to kill. The extra motivation that these goblins gave was enough to keep me from slowing my pace as I rounded corners, fired a few lasbolts into the occasional goblin that managed to somehow get ahead of me, and deflect a stray arrow or two as I fled for freedom.

By the time my salvation was in sight my lungs were screaming for air and legs begged for a moment's rest, but I did not ease my pace knowing that I was so close to cheating death once again. That proved to be a mistake, as I was so focused on the small crevice I had used to climb into the fortress that I didn't see the faint shimmering of the immaterial wall guarding it until I crashed into it face first.

I fell on my back wondering what in The Emperor's name I ran into as I saw the first of many goblins leap at me, their beady little eyes glimmering in the faint light the phantom wall provided almost as brightly as the gnarled daggers they clutched in their hands. The sight of so many greenskins trying to pounce on me jolted me back to my feet in an instant, and I desperately started hacking away at the sea of Chaos tainted gretchin that assaulted me as I kept my back pressed to the impenetrable wall to ensure I wouldn't find a poisoned blade stabbed into it. As terrifying as the horde of goblins was, the largest xenos that tried to leap at me were smaller than my chainsword and far less sturdy, making it almost too easy to mow them down as quickly as they ran at me.

The only problem that came from my strategy was the growing mound of corpses at my feet that made it difficult to keep my balance, making it necessary to push forward into the mass of greenskins so as to prevent myself from getting bogged down by the dead. I imagine if anyone had been there to see me, cutting my way through the tide of ravenous xenos baying for my blood like feral Khornate Berserkers if they didn't know how daemonic those traitorous heretics truly were, they would have been awestruck by the very sight of me. Of course, they would have also needed to ignore the frantic screams I let out fearing for my life or the manic look in my eyes as the oncoming goblins wouldn't stop as I feared for my life, but considering how often I managed to look like a hero despite all the evidence to the contrary, I doubt I would have had anything to fear in regards to my reputation.

I don't know how long I had been cutting down greenskins, nor did I know where all of the frakking vermin were coming from. All I knew is that something wasn't right when the goblins finally stopped flooding towards me with reckless abandon. Much like their stronger, tougher, and inconceivably smarter relatives, the orks, a goblin's survival seemed to be an after thought so long as they thought they had a chance of winning a fight. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, there seemed to be at least a few that had enough sense to look at the mountain of corpses I had made and think twice about joining the pile.

Then I noticed something float down in front of my face. I reached out my hand to catch it and, to my horror, discovered it was a small piece of ash.

Turning around to see what laid behind the immaterial wall, I was horrified to see a raging fire emerge from the wooden walls behind it. Apparently the light I had noticed earlier had not been coming entirely from the impenetrable wall, but rather the rapidly spreading flames that had been eating away at the ancient fortress from the outside. It seemed that Goblin Slayer and the others had not only made it out, but assumed I would have found another exit instead of rejoining them at the same hole in the wall we started our assault from. There was no way they would have believed me to be dead because Jurgen, as trusting in my abilities as he was resourceful and filthy, would have refused to believe a couple hundred goblins would be enough to take me down. If only he wasn't so damn faithful that he believed I could escape an enemy fortress as it burned to ashes around me!

As if The Emperor thought things hadn't gone ploin shaped enough already, the goblin champion that I had hobbled earlier strode out of the gloom with a murderous look in its eyes, wielding its enormous club as a crutch right up until it entered the ring its underlings had created around me. It didn't take an Inquisitor to realize that the xenos fully intended to duel me after having humiliated it in front of the small army it commanded, and as much as I wanted to shoot it in the foot again and start looking for another exit, I was hit by a stroke of genius.

Orks, although brave, could have their morale broken no differently than that of a poorly trained Imperial Guard conscript. I had seen plenty of greenskins flee for their lives once a battle had turned into such a lost cause that even those insufferable brutes couldn't find anything worth fighting for, and flee for safety while I, and by that I mean the men and women underneath my command, took their time cracking off potshots as soon as the xenos turned their backs to us. While I doubted the snotlings or hobgoblins would be quick or smart enough to run for an exit instead of any place they could hide from me after overpowering their vile master, I had recognized a sadistic intelligence in the champion that I had rarely seen from something that wasn't daemonic in origin.

It was a longshot, but if I could somehow beat the champion in such a way that it would flee in terror from me, there was a chance I could follow it out of its nest before the old eldar stronghold collapsed on top of us. Relying on the scarce intelligence that the greenskin possessed was a risk, but so was mindlessly ambling throughout the dark bowels of this fort in search of another exit. Following the defeated champion to safety was my best chance of survival now, which wasn't saying much, as I could already see the flames scorching the wood behind the immaterial barrier preventing my escape reaching across and filling the air around me with thick, black smoke.

I wrapped my scarlet commissar's sash across my face to act as a makeshift air filter with one hand and brandished my chainsword, thumbing the activator switch as high as it would go. My weapon took a little longer to rev up to top speed than I would have liked it to, likely slowed by the thin, wiry muscles of its previous victims gumming up the chains until they were eventually flung free. Even so, when my chainsword did finally roar to life with all the life the machine spirit within it was willing to let me borrow, it felt exhilarating to see the spectating greenskins take a few steps back after remembering what the weapon had done to their kin laying dead behind me. The champion faltered too, but quickly answered the violet gnashing of my chainsword's teeth with a ferocious howl of its own and charged towards me in a fit of rage.

It would have been all too easy to blast a hole in the champion's head as it approached, but in order to escape the death trap this den of xenos had become, I couldn't kill my enemy quite yet. Instead, I had to withstand the goblin's attempt to crush me and deflect its powerful blow, going against everything my body was telling me to do. Rather than plunge my chainsword straight through the greenskin's heart, I gave it a glancing blow to its side which allowed my weapon's teeth to tear straight through its crude armor like it was made out of paper and bite through the flesh that laid underneath. The champion didn't make a noise as it received my counter attack, instead attempting to swat me away with a back handed slap to create some distance between us.

I responded to its sluggish attempt to cast me aside by scoring a deep gouge in its arm, exposing the bone inside but failing to cleave through the limb entirely. The champion cried out in pain and dropped its weapon, seemingly lost in rage after having been wounded so grievously. That didn't stop it from trying to crush me with its bare hands, apparently failing to learn how disastrously that would go for it despite the fresh wound I had inflicted upon it.

The massive goblin lashed out at me with a flurry of punches and kicks that wouldn't have looked out of place in a few of the drunken brawls I had been forced to break up amongst the regiments I had served with. Each time it tried to break me with its large, clawed fists I made sure to land a shallow cut on whatever it tried to hit me with in the hopes of tiring the monstrosity out so it would reevaluate its decision to fight me and escape with its life intact. If anything, each piddling wound I gave the champion only enraged it further, forcing me to back up as it grew more and more desperate to triumph over me. Despite moving faster and putting more and more strength behind every strike, the champion failed to hit me as its growing fury only served to make it that much more predictable and easier to evade as a result.

It didn't take long for the champion to be covered in more injuries than clothes as I wore it down, and sure enough, after lopping off a few fingers on each hand, it had finally started to slow down with a look approaching hesitation growing on its face. I didn't assume the goblin was going to back down quite yet after trying to get itself killed in a childish fit of rage, and was soon proven correct as the beast dashed towards the closest of its subordinates. It grabbed onto as many as it could fit within its meaty hands and hurled them at me like they were stones and not the dumbstruck greenskins struggling to figure out why they were now careening straight towards me.

I dived out of the way to avoid being crushed underneath the goblins hurled at me, dodging out of their way just in time. I didn't see what happened to them when they collided with the barrier behind me, but judging by the wet noises I heard as I scrambled back to my feet, I doubted I would need to worry about them any more.

Seeing me avoid one handful of goblins did not deter the champion from attempting to throw more of its underlings at me. If I didn't know any better, I would have guessed the massive brute was actually enjoying itself as it hurled handful after handful of screeching greenskins at me in a desperate attempt to kill me. The vast majority of its subordinates were not thrown anywhere close to me, requiring me to take a step or two away from one of the closest goblins that came hurling at me at the most to avoid being smacked by them.

Only the oblivious hobgoblin it threw at me was able to cause me any problems. Whether by luck or by some primitive cunning on the champion's part that required the brutal deaths of dozens of goblins to come to fruition, I found myself unable to move out of the way of the hundred kilogram blob of hardened muscle that was thrown at me. It was nothing short of a miracle that the teeth of my chainsword were able to slice through the stomach of the hob before it collided into me, leaving the two haves I cleaved apart to sail past me harmlessly while its innards draped over my back making me look like an eldar slaver after visiting a defenseless hive world.

The champion looked at me with an expression of pure, unfettered terror after I had sliced through its latest ally. Wanting to capitalize on the first flicker of fear I had seen on the brute, I cried out WAAAGH once more and charged the goblin, waving my chainsword in what surely must have looked like a comical impression of an Ork that I was grateful no one of any importance was around to witness.

Despite feeling like the biggest frakking idiot on the planet, bar one spikey haired spear wielder, and unquestionably looking the part as well, my act had the desired effect I wanted on my opponent. The champion was soon dripping with fright at the sight of me, its loincloth dripping with something else for the same reason, and let out what I could only assume to be a scream of unrestrained terror as it dropped it's club on the ground and fled from me. What few goblins hadn't wizened up to what its boss was using them earlier for ran away from me too, each one of them being careful not to run off in the same direction as the massive goblin in case it found itself in need of something else to throw.

I wanted to let out a sigh of relief at how my insane scheme managed to work out, but found myself inhaling a mouthful of smoke as I tried to do so. Upon a quick glance behind me I found that the immaterial barrier that had been blocking me from freedom had vanished, allowing the fire and the thick cloud of smoke it had created to wash over me as the flames desperately sought something else to consume. Not wanting to end up like the pile of corpses that were steadily being consumed by the roaring fire, I started running after the goblin champion in the desperate hopes that I could keep up with it in the dark tunnels of its nest. Although my vision in dark places was far better than most due to growing up in the undercity of one of the Imperium's many hive worlds, there was a limit to how far I could see and the nearby smoke certainly wasn't helping things.

Thankfully, it seemed the injuries I inflicted on the goblin champion were not as superficial as I had believed them to be during our fight. I quickly caught up to the vile greenskin as it limped along, the xenos' cries growing louder as it caught sight of me and struggled to outrun me. I let it keep a decent distance ahead of me, not only to avoid backing the monstrosity into a corner like it had done to me, but to also act as an ever present reminder of why I needed it to show me the way out of the burning eldar fortress in case it was ignoring the fires which had already started to spread deep into the abandoned structure. I could even see ash in what little moonlight I could see as I chased the greenskin past the courtyard I had originally found it in.

I hounded the champion for what felt like an eternity, chasing after it as it fled up and down dilapidating stairwells, across a couple of branches acting as bridges, and even through a couple of rotted out walls at one point. No matter what the xenos tried, I did not let up my pursuit as losing it would have spelled my imminent demise as the fire consuming the tree continued to build in intensity. For a brief moment, I feared that I had made a horrible mistake in following the creature in its near mindless desperation to get away from me.

Could I have made a mistake? Was following this barbaric abomination what would finally spell my doom after almost a century on the frontlines dodging everything He on Terra could throw at me? Dying alone in a fire chasing a fleeing enemy certainly wouldn't have been the most ignoble way to go out considering I did manage to create the perfect distraction to save a kidnapped prisoner and spare my allies the fate I feared I was soon to face.

It was just as I was starting to consider the idea of pleading all of my shortcomings and sins aloud in a prayer to The Emperor, and since there were quite a few of them I didn't think for a moment I would be able to finish them all before arriving at the Golden Throne, when I suddenly realized the goblin I was pursuing was once again running towards a doorway shrouded in moonlight. Unlike the first several times when it had happened, I was under no illusion that I was in the tree tops or approaching the alcove inside the fort once again. What the greenskin and I were running towards was the exit I had been looking for, and I wasted no time in exerting the last of my strength in reaching it before something else could screw me over and trap me inside the burning tree.

I increased my pace so that I was within striking distance of the champion, only a few dozen meters away from the safety I sought after, something the hulking goblin did not fail to notice. Likely thinking it wouldn't suffer too debilitating of an injury in its attempt to ward me off, it lazily swept its thick arm at me to create some distance between us. I watched the deep wound I inflicted on the greenskin sail over my head as I ducked underneath its arm and swung my chainsword at its legs, rending a deep cut in the back of its left leg and toppling the beast over once again.

The goblin screamed out once again, its pained roars almost sounding like some sort of language if such a creature could comprehend the intricacies of such a thing, but I paid it no mind for I was seconds away from escaping the burning tree. It was only when I drew closer that I saw the last thing I wanted to see at that very moment.

Standing there, impassively waiting for whatever fleeing monstrosities at the main entrance we had spotted earlier upon our arrival, was the very reason I had been fleeing for my life. Goblin Slayer stood there looking just as unperturbed as usual, and I wanted to shout every single obscenity I could think of at the very sight of that grime covered arsewipe for having come so close to condemning me to death in a burning building. It was only because my tortured lungs were so desperate for relief that I was unable to do anything but gasp for air as I made the final stretch of my journey that I didn't let him hear all the many, wondrous curses I had picked up during my decades of service within the Imperial Guard. As you can likely imagine, I had learned more than a few gems amongst the rank and file.

Luckily for the Silver Ranked adventurer, he wouldn't be getting to hear any of it today. No, I was going to save that rant for when I was no longer feeling like something that had been grilled on the end of a lasrifle.

I practically collapsed as soon as I passed by Goblin Slayer, not caring who or what saw me. While I ordinarily would have scanned the area around me for any potential threats before I let my guard down, I had gleaned enough information about Goblin Slayer that he was almost as paranoid about his own safety as I was, so I had little to fear seeing him without his weapons drawn as both I passed by him.

"Commissar Cain! Are you okay!?" A shrill voice called out at the same moment a familiar stretch assaulted me.

"I knew you'd make it, sir." Jurgen calmly stated as he stood guard over me while Priestess frantically looked over me, presumably believing I had been injured in some way.

"Please… it was… nothing." I panted, savoring every breath of clean, fresh air that I could.

I was about to address the other member of our party that hadn't bothered to say anything to me after putting me in mortal danger, but deprived me of the opportunity. "Priestess, you're up." He said, his eyes never leaving the goblin champion as it tried and failed to stand up on its ruined leg.

"G-goblin Slayer, sir!" She said, looking conflicted as she looked between me and Goblin Slayer, uncertain as to who she should attend to.

"Go… I'll be fine. I just… need to catch my breath." I said as I waved her away.

Yes, I would be fine. I could not say the same about Goblin Slayer once I got my strength back.

Priestess adorned that adorable look of determination I could only assume she thought made her look mature as she ran to Goblin Slayer's side to perform whatever task he required her for.

Raising the golden staff she carried in front of her as if it were some sort of catalyst, she shouted, "O Earth Mother, abounding in mercy, by the power of the land, grant safety to we who are weak!"

A familiar wall of light soon sprung up before me, the very same one that had blocked my escape earlier. Instead of separating me from my allies, this time it acted as a transparent wall between the adventurers and the goblin champion as it crawled to them on its hands and knees as the fires around it started to lap away at it. The greenskin monstrosity let out a mournful wail as it pounded its huge fists against the immaterial wall, each hand as large as a person and certainly capable of crushing both the armored adventurer and ecclesiarch girl at his side who flinched at every impact.

The goblin's attempts to break through the barrier grew increasingly frantic as the fire burned away at it, reaching a crescendo as the smell of burning flesh assaulted us. Feeling that it would be best to ensure the xenos scum didn't somehow break through the barrier, I staggered up to my feet with Jurgen's assistance and made my way beside the two adventurers as they watched the fire fully consume the dying greenskin. Jurgen and Goblin Slayer watched the xenos perish with what I could only assume to be a sick sense of satisfaction as they saw its limbs char black as it continued trying to break free. Priestess on the other hand looked ready to pass out, clearly still unused to burning her enemies alive or perhaps shaken that she had played a direct role in this goblin's impending doom.

I placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, feeling the light tremble that shook her disappear as she stared up at me in surprise. Tears were streaming down her eyes and, unable to find the words to comfort her on what was presumably her first kill, all I could do was give her a small smile to reassure her. That seemed to be enough to calm her down. She wiped her eyes and put on another cutely brave face as she watched the champion burn alongside the rest of us in silence, clinging onto me tightly and refusing to let go.

If she were a few years older and were a bit more 'grown up', I might have found the experience incredibly enjoyable. Instead all I did, all I could do, was stand beside the young girl since she clearly needed someone to support her.

The four of us stayed there until the champion fell still and silent, the barrier still holding back the champion's remains from the freedom it sought in its final moments even after the flames finally burned themselves out. Only then did I break the quiet that had surrounded our little band of misfits.

"Well done, Priestess." I congratulated as I gave her a pat on her back, nearly knocking the surprisingly light girl over by accident. "That was without a doubt the strongest goblin I had ever faced, and you managed to bring it down with only a couple of words. Looks like we have a hero in the making with us."

The girl blushed at my compliment and tried to brush it off. "N-no! I mean, thank you, Commissar Cain! But I hardly did anything to help!" She said, downplaying her achievement as much as I embellished it.

"Really? So that wasn't your barrier I saw an army of goblins trying to break through earlier inside the fortress?" I questioned, carefully leaving out my own feelings on the matter in an attempt to keep her from feeling guilty at having almost killed me since I had a strong suspicion as to who told her to put it there.

The girl's eyes grew wide as saucers at what I had told her although, whether it was because she was scared at having come so close to being swarmed by a horde of furious greenskins or having figured out why I was now glaring daggers at Goblin Slayer, I couldn't say why. Thankfully, the man I was half tempted to shoot broke the silence for us.

"So, they did try to follow us out." The foul smelling adventurer muttered.

"Yes, they did." I confirmed as a sudden worry overcame me as I looked for something I hadn't realized was missing until now. "What happened to the girl we rescued?"

"She's in the Trukk, strapped in, passed out, and waiting for us to get back to Frontier Town so we can treat her." My aide chimed in, confirming I hadn't nearly died for nothing.

"Ah, I'm glad to hear she's safe." I said in an attempt to sound concerned about her well being when I couldn't care less about her after what I had gone through.

"She'll be okay… physically, I mean." Priestess added, hesitantly adding that last part.

I nodded in agreement with her. The girl we rescued would live, but I wouldn't be surprised if she randomly disappeared without a trace one night like the two rookies I rescued with this same party on our previous assignment together.

"Good, so that means there will only be one person we need to worry about." I growled as I stepped up to Goblin Slayer, putting on the most intimidating voice I typically reserved when needing to hand out punishments for the various infractions the guardsmen under my watch got up to whenever I wasn't directly watching over them.

Jurgen made the wise decision to take Priestess with him to the Trukk upon hearing my sudden shift in tone and Priestess also thought better than to ask what I meant by that. There was no way she didn't see the ash covering me after my chase through the burning tree and she wisely followed my malodorous aide, preferring to put up with his unique bouquet rather than stick around to witness whatever I had planned for Goblin Slayer.

For the first time that I could recall, the armored adventurer wilted as I stared him down. It wasn't hard since I stood a full head and shoulders taller than him, and my impressive height added to the naturally intimidating aura my commissarial uniform gave me. Goblin Slayer looked almost like a child at the way he cowered beneath me, and I made the most of whatever fear he felt at that moment as I made my displeasure known to him.

"Would you mind telling me why you couldn't wait for me to return before forcing Priestess to put up that barrier?" I inquired, clenching my fists as I waited for his answer.

The adventurer let out a choked gasp as he struggled to find an answer. "Burning the tree was the safest way of dealing with the goblins." He told me.

"And you didn't think that I would have a problem with that since I was still inside the tree when you set it on fire?" I asked in exasperation.

His answer was blunt, but not unexpected. "No."

The same could be said about my response, which was a simple smack upside his armored head. I'm sure the others could have heard the clang of metal from the Trukk since I could definitely feel the impact all the way up to my elbow.

"NEVER DO SOMETHING THAT STUPID AGAIN!" I yelled at him as he clutched at his head. "Do you have any idea of what could have happened if I didn't follow that champion to the front entrance? Do you know who would have been responsible for getting another adventurer killed and needing to report it to Guild Girl?! Did you not think about what would happen, or were you so focused on killing goblins that you didn't care about what happened to anyone else?"

Goblin Slayer shuffled around uncomfortably in his armor, looking at his feet as if they somehow held the answer that he seeked, before finally responding. "N-no, sir. I'm sorry. I won't let it happen again."

"You're damn right you won't." I grumbled. "Now, let's get the frak out of here before something else tries to kill us."

Goblin Slayer visibly tensed up at the mention of riding back in the Trukk, and I suddenly came up with a fitting means of getting my revenge on him.

"Why don't you go ahead and ride up front with Jurgen this time, Goblin Slayer. We don't want you knocking yourself out again on our way back." I said, smirking as I heard the rattle of his armor in response.

"I-I'll be fine in the back with the rest of you." He whispered, his voice quivering in fear.

"No, I insist you sit up front with my aide." I responded, putting an edge into my voice to make it clear I wasn't asking.

"But-"

"I insist."

Whatever fight the man had left him instantly fled the moment I used my usual tone when dealing with troublemakers, and he obediently took up a seat beside my aide without another word. For a moment, I wondered if this punishment was a little too harsh as Goblin Slayer had tried to jump out of the Trukk when he wasn't able to see just how much my aide liked to flirt with danger whenever he found himself behind a steering wheel. Then I thought about how nice it would be to sit in the back without anything or anyone to stink it up and how the adventurer almost burned me alive and I felt a lot less guilty about whatever happened to him.


The journey back to Frontier Town was mostly uneventful, and aside from the terrified screams of Goblin Slayer during the first hour of our ride (the man sounded far younger than I assumed him to be until then) we rode back in relative peace. Guild Girl was ecstatic to hear that we were able to save at least one of the Steel Ranked adventurers we set out to save, Jurgen filled out our paperwork as Priestess and Goblin Slayer said their goodbyes, and I was able to sleep in undisturbed until the next morning.

Oddly enough, despite my near death experience, I actually didn't mind going on a quest with Goblin Slayer nearly as much as I thought I would. It also appeared that I might be able to gain quite a bit of notoriety if I continued slaying goblins since nobody else wanted to aside from that armored lunatic. So long as I could curb some of his more extreme habits, I thought I might even be able to find myself enjoying myself during our adventurers. Slaying goblins certainly seemed to be far safer than what other adventurers hunted down regularly and it would prevent the Guild or Frontier Town Governor from recruiting me for more lethal tasks.

If only I had known the trouble such a decision would have gotten me into, I never would have agreed to go on another adventure with Goblin Slayer or Priestess again.


Special thanks to Tireless Traveler for beta reading this chapter!


Author's Corner:

As I said before, a goblin champion has nothing on our HERO OF THE IMPERIUM! It was a short adventure, yes I know, but one that was necessary to set up a party dynamic I want to expand upon moving forwards once the rest of the cast joins up in the near future. Speaking of which, there'll be another Intermission chapter coming up before the story proper continues. Trust me, you won't be disappointed... or find any Ork speech in it.


Comments:

W4ND3R1N6 R34D3R: Why i got same vibe on overlord whenever Ainz his servants

Probably because both Cain and Ainz are bullshitting their way to success with everyone none the wiser. Also, I really want to see a fanfic where the two meet now. The pants shitting terror Cain would be subject to as he bluffs his way into being Ainz's right hand man or even an equal with neither one believing they are really in charge while thinking the other is in control would be absolutely hillarious.

"Guest": You think that Cain will ever dicuss with priestess about the God Emperor and his worship and how it contrasts with the detites of goblin slayer's world.

I actually think Cain would do everything in his power to avoid this discussion as having it would remove any plausible deniability he could claim about misunderstanding GS's world's religions as a polytheistic form of Emperor worship. As anyone who doesn't worship Him on Terra is a heretic alongside those who condone such behavior... yeah, Cain really wouldn't want to get involved in that mess should the Imperium ever manage to find him.

drbaerarcho2008: I what words Cain will have to the more *eccentric* future companions of goblin slayer. Can't wait for him to try and cover up all the social faux pas he's going to inandvertently commit.

You won't have to wait for long. With that said, given Cain's opinions on various xenos races, abhumans, and amiable personalities; I think it is safe to say that there will be plenty of entertainment ahead.


Well, that's it for me. Thank you all for reading and I hope to see you again in the future!