Thanks to the map Half-Elf Scout provided us upon her rescue, our progress through the ruins sped up tremendously. Traps, dead ends, and even the occasional tree root which had pierced through the ruin walls after centuries of neglect were clearly marked on the incredibly small yet detailed map, allowing us to avoid them with ease. Despite using a leaf of all things as her canvas, I must admit the xenos' attention to detail was impressive. Of course, I didn't dare voice my opinion out loud. I especially made sure not to point out how Jurgen had taken it upon himself to make a map of his own using the few remaining pieces of his own journal I gave him during our first week on this backwater planet.
The path two Eldar led us through took us down deeper and deeper into the depths of the ruins, making my palms tingle at the very thought of what potential nightmares we were marching towards. I had explored a number of goblin dens during my time on this planet on account of Goblin Slayer's tendency to hunt the sadistic little buggers exclusively and the only other nest that came close to feeling this large was the treehouse we had burned down a month prior. I could already tell these ruins were larger than that old stronghold had been before Goblin Slayer burned it, and nearly me, to ashes. There were hundreds, if not thousands of goblins in that natural fortress, so I was expecting to encounter similar numbers in the ruins.
My pessimistic predictions were the only thing that kept me running out of the ruins as fast as my legs could carry me from what we found at the very bottom of the goblin nest.
"Emperor's Bowels!" I cursed in a hushed whisper after taking a quick peek over the balcony railing we were situated beside into the subterranean courtyard several floors below us.
There had to be no less than five hundred goblins underneath us ranging from the common child sized variety to even a Champion or two, all of them sleeping in a disorderly mess with their weapons ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. The two xenos in our party had been so absorbed in planning out the remainder of our route that they hadn't noticed any of the greenskins below us until my outburst, but when they did spare the army below us a glance both of the alien women paled at the sight of so many goblins gathered in one place. The others didn't take the discovery much better, although they managed to hide their nervousness well. Apparently our employers didn't expect to encounter so many goblins in one place. Only two of our number were unfazed by the hostile xenos presence below us to no one's surprise, both Jurgen and Goblin Slayer exuding an aura of suicidal confidence which I was ready to reign in at a moment's notice.
"I don't think I have enough ammo for all of them." My aide calmly informed me as he checked the charge on his power packs, not that such a trifling matter could wipe the smile off of his face at the sight of so many hapless greenskins ripe for the slaughter in his eyes.
"It won't be a problem." Goblin Slayer said, as if he already had a plan for dealing with a few hundred goblins at once.
Knowing him, he likely did have such a contingency prepared no matter how impossible it would have been to pull off without collapsing the ruins on top of us. After adventuring with the boy for some time, I knew he was not above using such idiotic and dangerous tactics. Still, seeing as how the grimy adventurer was the only one of us who seemed to have an idea of how to proceed, any suggestion he proposed would be better than blindly attacking everything that looked vaguely green.
Excluding Lizard Priest, of course.
"It sounds like you have an idea of how to deal with these goblins, Goblin Slayer." I hummed thoughtfully, feigning confidence through the mind numbing terror I was experiencing, "Mind filling us in on it?"
Goblin Slayer turned to me and nodded, before directing his attention towards Priestess beside him.
"You said you learned a new miracle a few days ago, right?" He asked the girl as her staff rattled alongside her trembling form.
"Y-yes. I learned how to cast Silence after our last quest together." She stammered, straightening herself as she answered.
"Yes, that might work if we are quick enough." He muttered to himself.
"Quick enough?" I wondered aloud, thinking of all the ways that time and noise could play a factor into any of his plans.
I was barely able to stop myself from shouting at the armored idiot when the realization hit me. "You want us to go down there and kill all of those goblins one by one while they are still asleep!?" I snapped at him, careful to keep my voice down while chewing him out for wanting us to risk our lives attempting a hopeless task.
"Yes." He replied, seeing no possible way that his plan could go horribly wrong, unlike myself.
"That has to be one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard." High Elf Archer gasped in utter disbelief, mirroring my own disdain for his idea.
"Hold on a second long-ears, the boy might be onto something, "Dwarf Shaman told her as he opened the alcohol filled gourd we had shared yesterday and swished it around to check how much he had left.
"Watch your tongue, dirt muncher." Half-Elf Scout shot back.
I waved a placating hand in her direction to shut her up as diplomatically as possible before their bickering drew any attention to our party. To my surprise, the self-proclaimed hybrid kept silent and didn't bother trying to curse me out despite the previous Mon-keigh comment from earlier. If anything the lady looked bashful at having been told to stand down once she realized how she was behaving in front of the person who unintentionally saved her life, and although the look on her face filled me with disgust, I didn't dare risk losing what rapport I had with her by crushing whatever fantasies she was entertaining. Instead, I was far more focused on what one of our spell casters could do to make Goblin Slayer's plan far less lethal for us than it currently sounded.
"You wouldn't happen to have some way to make sure our targets won't be getting up anytime soon, would you?" I inquired, hoping it was either that or he was hiding some ancient Squat archeotech or weapon in one of his pockets that could do all the work for us.
"I know a spell that can put all of those goblins down there to sleep, but unless we have a way to keep them quiet as we go around killing 'em, it won't do us much good." He said, fixing his eyes on Priestess before asking her, "How long do you think you'll be able to keep your miracle up, lass?"
"I'm not sure. Ten, maybe fifteen minutes?" She told him, failing to inspire any confidence whatsoever with her uncertain answer.
"That'll probably work if we do a little leg work beforehand." The Squat hummed, knowing full well he wouldn't be the one risking his life down there with us, "Me and the lass will need to stay up here so that way we can make sure none of those nasty little buggers down there give you any problems while you do the dirty work. You'll need to get up close so you have enough time to kill most of them, but not too close that you get caught in our spells as well. We'll need a signal from one of you once you're ready for us to work our magic to avoid any accidents."
As far as hastily assembled plans went, that wasn't one of the worst I've ever heard. It was certainly far better than Goblin Slayer's usual method of 'go in and kill any monsters we come across' that Priestess, Jurgen, and I had grown accustomed to. I wasn't entirely sold on how we were going to signal them once we were ready to do our part considering the risk of us also falling asleep alongside the goblins we were meant to kill, but thankfully I had an idea already in mind to help out with that.
"Jurgen, you wouldn't happen to still have any spare comm beads on you?" I asked him, recalling how instrumental they had been in preventing a massacre during our mission for Frontier Town Governor.
"Of course sir. I brought along one for each of us." He said, before frowning slightly at the two elves we brought along with us. "The knife ears probably won't be able to use them though."
"Ah, yes, the elves' ear shape will be a problem." I quickly interjected before either High Elf Archer or Half-Elf Scout could protest against what I hoped was a slip of the tongue from my aide, "We shouldn't need more than one for each group, but it probably wouldn't hurt to have everyone who can use them to have one for the remainder of our quest."
My aide dutifully distributed the communications devices he had thoughtfully brought along to all of us, even the xenos once I nudged him to do so to prove neither of us were lying. The two Eldar graciously returned their comm beads once they discovered they would not be able to fit them inside their ears, although not without sending a venomous glare towards my aide who had enough presence of mind not to comment on it this time.
With the barest of plans as our only hope of completing our mission without casualties, our party split up into two groups and I reluctantly joined the one that would be risking life and limb if anything went wrong.
"Alright, we're in position. Let's get this over with." I announced over our comms.
It had only been a few minutes since we left Dwarf Shaman and Priestess to carry out the most important part of our plan. Half-Elf Scout graciously volunteered to stay behind and guard them in case any other goblins out on patrol just so happened to stumble upon them while the rest of us were away, leaving me with one less xenos to watch out for. I had my doubts as to the womanly xenos' capabilities given the circumstances we had found her in, but I had bigger things to worry about, namely how best to kill a few hundred goblins as stealthily as possible. Chainswords weren't particularly renowned for their ability to tear through the enemy silently. Neither were lasguns or meltas for that matter.
Dwarf Shaman and Priestess explained to us earlier that we would need to work quickly and quietly because not only would we only have a few minutes to work, but making any loud noise would run the risk of reawakening every single goblin while we were in the middle of purging them. While the small fry might not pose too much of a danger, the Champions, hobs, and other evolved forms of local greenskin varieties would surely overwhelm us in their current numbers.
That left me and Jurgen unable to use our typical weapons, which while disappointing to say the least, didn't mean we would be entirely useless. Every goblin resting in the underground courtyard carried a weapon, and as they likely wouldn't be in any state to do anything against some light theft, neither of us were particularly worried about our weapon situation. Jurgen in particular seemed entertained as he anticipated the ironic deaths we were about to inflict on our unwitting opponents, a sentiment I found myself looking forward to as well once I grew tired of crushing xenos skulls with my sturdy standard issue Imperial Guard boots.
"Good. Here we go girly, you're up first." Dwarf Shaman said, his voice coming in crackly over our comm beads.
Lizard Priest, Jurgen, Goblin Slayer, and I quickly turned off our comm beads once we heard the Squat make his announcement while High Elf Archer took her own precautions by covering her ears with her hands as best she could. We had been warned previously that there was a small chance that hearing Priestess' miracle over our comms might affect us as well, and as none of us wanted to end up deaf while we were in the middle of a goblin horde, we acted accordingly. From the base of the stairwell we were hiding in, we had a decent view of the horde beginning to stir awake as the faintest whispers of Priestess' voice reached them. I watched Jurgen line up a shot on a goblin shaman who realized something was amiss and prepared to alert its vile brethren before a glimmering mist descended onto the courtyard and the xenos collapsed like a cheap puppet with its strings cut. A few other goblins who were also stirring awake suffered a similar fate and I had to hold back a snort of laughter as I watched one goblin who had chosen that exact moment to relieve itself fall face first into its own excrement.
All of us waited a few seconds after the last goblin had fallen still before we moved out and started the tedious task of purging the hundreds of greenskins infesting this specific part of the ruins. Lizard Priest claimed our party's first goblin kill with his claws, cutting through flesh and bone with remarkable ease. He also claimed the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth kills as the rest of us were lacking proper weapons of our own to match his pace. Once the awe of watching the abhuman cut down greenskins as easily as a farmer cut down a field of wheat passed, I started picking my own targets carefully, stomping on goblins until their skulls were either flattened or visibly cracked open before moving onto another target while searching for an adequate weapon to speed up the process. Jurgen was mimicking my own process, although he did occasionally use the butt of his lasrifle to bash the brains out of some of the larger goblins when he felt like it. Goblin Slayer worked a little slower than the rest of us, lacking our strength with his slightly shorter stature, but I could tell from the methodical way he picked up a goblin's weapon and buried it into the owner's body that this wasn't his first time murdering a nest of slumbering goblins. I don't know how he would have ever managed to do this on his own and soon realized I was far happier not knowing. I stopped thinking about it altogether once my feet started to grow sore after crushing a few dozen goblins and I finally picked up a hefty looking rusted axe to make my work a little less strenuous.
I couldn't help but to notice after a while that High Elf Archer wasn't making nearly as much progress as the rest of us, and even though Lizard Priest was also starting to slow down once his initial bloodlust was sated, the Eldar hardly dirtied her hands unlike the rest of us and had barely killed more than a handful of greenskins by the time I made my way over to her. Once I was close enough to read the troubled expression on her face, I had a clear view of her struggling to pull the goblin fat caked onto her dagger off by hand a good guess as to why she was making so little progress.
"Having troubles?" I whispered to her, stomping the life out of another greenskin as she looked up at me with distress.
The Eldar winced as she took a moment to speak, "How do you do it?" She asked, her voice trembling as she spoke.
"I'm not sure what you mean. You'll have to be a little more specific." I told her, unsure of what it was she could have been trying to ask me how I dealt with my aide's natural odor or some other mundane aspect of my job I had grown used to over the decades. The girl had a tendency to whine about almost everything, after all.
"That." She said as she pointed to the bits of bone clinging to the bottom of my boots as I tried my best to clean them off and regain some traction before I ended up slipping on the growing pool of blood on the floor.
"This was supposed to be an adventure. Something to be enjoyed! Not.. not THIS!" The elf said, panicking like a new recruit only during their first campaign just realizing that the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer served a guardsman better as toilet paper rather than reasonable advice.
It seemed the xenos was having second thoughts now that she realized life outside of her people's craftworlds and dens of depravity weren't nearly as refined and peaceful as she was used to, as I had initially suspected. How typical of her kind. It took every ounce of my self restraint to not scoff at her.
I placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder before offering the first words I could think of that would help her grow the spine she was clearly lacking. "Then don't think of what we are doing as something that should be enjoyed, but as a necessary duty. Every goblin we slay in these ruins is one less greenskin that can terrorize not only your kingdom, but those of your neighbors. What we do here today might not be nearly as glamorous as the whimsical tales the bards sing about as they travel across the world, but it will be all too important to the people we will be saving with our actions here."
High Elf Archer stared at me as I rambled on with the first bit of meaningless inspirational nonsense that I blurted out as if it was something truly prophetic. If she too wasn't a xenos, I might have found her momentary awe to be encouraging. Instead, I did my best to send her off with a few final words before any goblins woke up while we were in the middle of purging them.
"We've already seen what these bastards would do if they could have their way with us." I continued, pointing up towards Half-Elf Scout on the balcony as she continued standing guard over our spell casters. "Let's do our best to make sure they never have another chance to do it again, shall we?"
"Y-yeah, you're right." The Eldar said, looking far more composed than she had earlier.
"Great. Now, let's hurry up before anyone accuses us of slacking off." I told her, burying my 'borrowed' axe into the head of a nearby goblin and trading it for the club it had been holding. I sighed when I heard the startled squeak the girl let out, but thankfully that was all the noise she made before getting to work like the rest of us.
The next couple of minutes passed by in relative silence as we continued cleansing the ruins. The only occasional sound we made came from either our weapons extinguishing the lives of whatever goblins were in front of us and their death rattles if our kills weren't clean. The other half of our party responsible for creating this gracious opportunity for the rest of us soon descended from their vantage point and joined us in the slaughter, save for Priestess who lacked the stomach for committing such violence herself and patiently waited at the edge of the growing pool of blood that was starting to cover the floor.
By the time our spell casters' Silence and Stupor had finally worn off, there was not a single goblin left alive. What felt like a thousand greenskins had been wiped out in under ten minutes without a single injury amongst us, quite the incredible feat given how few of us there were. I'm sure if it hadn't been for the quick thinking of Dwarf Shaman and, to a lesser extent, Goblin Slayer, we would have needed to call in at least one army of our own to deal with this mess.
"Well, that was easy." Dwarf Shaman sighed relief as he holstered his axe into the leather band across his waist.
"Speak for yourself, potbelly. You weren't the one running around in circles with a horde of goblins chasing you." Half-Elf Scout huffed back at him.
"You're right, I wasn't." The Squat conceded as he adopted a devilish grin. "Unlike you, I was smart enough to come down here in a group."
"Why you fat little fu-"
High Elf Archer, much to my surprise and presumably everyone else's surprise, interrupted her kinswoman. "He's got a point you know. There was a reason the kingdoms made a ruling against exploring the area."
"Why are you wasting time arguing with each other when we should be celebrating a glorious victory!" Lizard Priest quickly stepped in, proving my suspicions that he was likely the brains between the odd trio of adventurers despite what his brutish appearance suggested.
As much as I wanted to join in the ongoing banter with the abhumans and xenos or congratulate Priestess on allowing us to pull off a flawless goblin hunt, I couldn't help but to feel as if something wasn't right. I wasn't the only one who felt this way, as a quick glance towards my aide and Goblin Slayer showed that they were holding their weapons just as tightly as I was. Seeing the more paranoid members of my party not yet lowering their guard set me further on edge more than our easy triumph already had, so I immediately trusted my instincts rather than sit around and wait for something to happen.
"Everyone, form up around me!" I shouted, throwing away my stolen club down and trading it for my chainsword and laspistol.
Jurgen was the first one to run to my side, attempting to trade his lasgun for the melta slung across his back before I gestured him to stop. Priestess and Goblin Slayer soon followed suit as the two adventurers were familiar with how trustworthy my orders could be from our past adventures. Sometimes I found myself wondering if they saw me as our party's de facto leader even though we usually let Goblin Slayer take charge, him being the planet's leading expert on all things that had to do with goblins. Ordinarily I would have questioned their willingness to do what they were told with immediate suspicion after my time in the Imperial Guard, but as those two were more than capable and too kindhearted to ever consider stabbing me in the back no matter what I potentially put them through, I never showed my apprehension. That didn't mean I let my guard down whenever Goblin Slayer had one of his legendarily stupid yet effective ideas to deal with a nest of greenskins. As for the rest of the party, they simply looked as if I had lost my frakking mind all of a sudden.
"What in the gods' names do you think you're doing?" High Elf Archer spoke up once the initial confusion wore off.
"I don't think our work is over yet." Was the only answer I could give her, as I felt a cold sweat trickle down my palms, my subconsciousness trying to tell me something I missed.
This instantly caught the abhumans and other xenos' attention, and they all pulled out their weapons and started to cluster around me as well. Even though I could tell they were unsure of whether or not our mission was finished, they must have felt something wasn't right too as they joined up with the rest of us without question. The only exception was, unsurprisingly, High Elf Archer who refused to believe there might be something else down here with us.
"We've already killed most of the goblins in here, and one of these bigger ones had to be their leader, right?" She said in an attempt to persuade me from what she must have thought was a paranoid delusion.
In her defense, I was being paranoid. It was the reason I lived long enough to retire unlike most Commissars or guardsmen. Goblin Slayer soon informed us all of why my paranoia was thoroughly justified, showing that it was more than just me who felt something was off.
"Those 'bigger ones' were Goblin Champions." The armored adventurer calmly stated. "Champions will typically kill each other for control of a nest unless they are obeying another master."
That was the first time I had ever heard such a thing, and given how there were two large goblin corpses that looked about the right size to be Champions, I felt equal parts vindicated and horrified. As strong as the temptation was to belt Goblin Slayer upside his helmet for holding back this information from us until now, I held back since knocking the boy senseless would do none of us any favors once we found out what terror was powerful enough to make two massive goblins submit to its rule.
As it turned out, we didn't have to wait long to discover what kind of creature we were dealing with.
"So, the skull taker's chosen have finally decided to take on a worthy foe? I never thought you bunch would be so cowardly as to attack my underlings in their sleep. I expected better from you warriors." A deep, booming voice echoed down from one of the enormous corridors on the other end of the underground courtyard.
A pair of radiant red eyes loomed out of the darkness from where the voice had come from, the two luminous orbs of light hanging no less than five meters above the ground. Not wanting to see more of the behemoth that the eyes belonged to, my aide and I fired down the corridor in sync before the rest of our party could do anything, pouring a large number of lasbolts in the general direction of the titanic monster and hoping for the best. Our efforts were soon rewarded by enraged screams of our target.
"My eyes! MY EYES! You honorless bastards!" It roared shortly after the light pouring from its eyes were doused by our lasfire.
"Huh, maybe the xenos was right." Jurgen remarked. "That thing is barely worth our time."
"Brother? Don't tell me a few tainted mortals are more than you can handle on your own." Another sinister voice boomed from behind us.
I slowly turned around in terror to see another pair of sinister orbs, these ones blue as opposed to the first pair's red, leering at us in one of the courtyard entryways to our rear.
"Perhaps it was wise to ignore the Ice Witch's summons if you are so easily wounded." The unseen creature laughed, enjoying the suffering of its compatriot as the pained beast hurled a string of unintelligible curses towards us.
Before I or any other member of my party could suggest what to do next, the second monstrosity to announce its presence charged into the faint light that illuminated our surroundings. All attempts to guard the reputation I had built myself were forgotten the instant I was able to see the true form of our enemy, a horned titan that towered over all of us and was swinging a large metal club as it sprinted towards us at an alarming speed.
Our reaction to the monstrosity's sudden appearance was unanimous, all of us quickly moving out of its way not to avoid being crushed by the impressive weapon it wielded, but to avoid being accidentally trampled underfoot as it rushed into the courtyard. Fortunately, everyone was able to escape unscathed, but that was hardly a consolation after seeing the inhuman beast crash through one of the thick stone pillars holding up the balcony above it, sending the ancient stone it supported crashing down and creating a near impenetrable cloud of dust and debris around it.
For a moment, I thought the giant's overzealous attempt to flatten us got it killed. I was quickly proven wrong once the dust settled and I could see the gray-skinned titan staring at us in confusion. Now that it was no longer concealed in darkness, I could clearly see the numerous scars that covered the majority of its body as well as the modest and uncomfortably tight loin cloth that served as its only armor. The creature looked no less massive or frightening now that I could see it in its entirety, and for a brief moment, I considered whether my odds of survival would be better if I were to abandon my party and run away rather than trying to stay and fight.
"Brother?" The titan called out to the other monster we had injured. "I thought you said we were expecting warriors, not a bunch of vermin."
"Vermin? No mere vermin is capable of blinding me!" The other titanic beast roared as it joined its brother.
The second giant was slightly smaller than the first one, but looked no less intimidating. Even more worrying, its eyes had regenerated and I could not see a single scar or flesh wound from where our lasbolts had previously struck it. Whatever meager hopes I had of winning a fight against one of these horned abominations, let alone two of them, were quickly dashed. The way they spoke to each other as if we weren't even there, or perhaps unable to pose a threat to them, left me almost in hysterics.
"Wha- WHAT!?" The first behemoth stuttered in rage. "Adventurers? You DARE trespass into my domain!?"
"OUR domain, brother." The second one calmly corrected as its icy blue eyes fell upon each member of my party. "But it matters not. These might not be the berserkers we were expecting, but they will die all the same."
The blue eyed monster's boasting, while unimaginative, had its intended effect on most of my party. Even though I didn't know what kind of monster we were dealing with, its height alone told me that it was way beyond our league. Hearing High Elf Archer's terror when she spoke the twin beasts name further dampened my motivation to stand and fight.
"Ogre!" She exclaimed as panic threatened to overtake her.
"HA HA! Yes, bask in the majesty of your destroyers!" The red eyed ogre boasted.
Most of my party looked almost as terrified as myself, even Jurgen couldn't hide his terror as he failed to keep the meltagun in his hands steady. The only exception was Goblin Slayer. For a moment I thought the boy might have had a plan in store or was going to try and rally us together with a display of bravado that even I knew wouldn't be worth trying. Instead, he acted just as oblivious as ever.
"You're not a goblin?" He asked, having the audacity to sound disappointed like a child who got a different present for Sanguinala than the one he asked for!
If I wasn't frozen in fear, I would have smacked him for saying something so stupid. Instead, I slowly backed up beside Priestess and my aide as I considered my odds of survival if I ditched the abhumans, xenos, and idiot to their fates.
"Goblins? You think we are GOBLINS!?" The red eyed ogre shouted, smacking his metal club into the ground and gouging a crater around it.
"Quiet, brother. You can't fault vermin for their ignorance." The other one chided.
"But this disrespect cannot be allowed to go unpunished!" The enraged ogre yelled.
"And it won't." The blue eyed titan assured its partner. "Since you're so insistent on showing these pests who their superiors are before they die, why not kill them with a power they can never hope to wield?"
Both Ogres adopted a sinister smile as they looked down on us, the massive fangs resting in their mouths gleaming in the light as they prepared to slaughter similarly to how we massacred their goblins mere moments earlier.
"Carbunculus…" They chanted in unison, both monsters raising a palm out in our direction as an enormous orb of fire spontaneously sparked into life in front of them.
It didn't take a savant to figure out what would happen next, and thinking fast while the rest of my team either panicked or remained frozen in terror, I looked to Priestess and Jurgen who would be our only hope of surviving the next few seconds.
"Priestess, cast Protection as many times as you can right now." I ordered as calmly as I could.
"W-w-what?" She stammered, looking at me with teary eyes as she contemplated her imminent death like the rest of us.
"RIGHT NOW!" I barked at her with the most authoritative voice I could muster given the circumstances.
My shouting had the intended effect on the girl, as while it did little to alleviate her fears, it reminded her that we weren't quite dead yet. So long as we still drew breath, then there was at least something we could still do. Even if all we could do was delay the inevitable for a few brief moments, at least it would be something.
"O… O Earth Moth…" She stuttered, tripping over her tongue as she tried to find her courage.
"Crescunt…" The ogres chanted, the massive ball of fire growing to a ridiculous size as they uttered the next word of their spell in unison.
This time, Priestess didn't need any encouragement from me to start chanting her own spell. The sight of unavoidable infernal destruction was all the motivation she needed to start moving into action.
"O Earth Mother, abounding in mercy, by the power of the land grant safety to we who are weak! O Earth Mother, abounding in mercy, by the power of the land grant safety to we who are weak!" She squeaked out, repeating herself for good measure without my prompting.
Two large barriers of light appeared before us, one directly in front of the other, offering us the only protection that could possibly save us from utter annihilation. At least, all the protection that the rest of my party knew about, I thought to myself as I looked at my aide.
"Jurgen, move as close to Priestess' barrier as you can and line up a shot on one of those ogres with your melta." I ordered, barely loud enough for the others to hear me as I struggled to maintain an even tone while speaking. "The rest of you, stay close to Priestess and be ready to counter attack as soon as Jurgen fires."
"Any preference between the two?" My aide inquired, gesturing to the two targets he had to choose from.
"The red eyed one if you can. He seems to be tougher and less weary of us than the other one." I told my aide, doing my best to look confident as he offered up a salute and obeyed by command with his usual doggedness.
While my aide was confirming the orders I had given him, the rest of our party did as instructed and huddled around Priestess and I as they thought I had a brilliant plan that was guaranteed to save all of our lives. Little did they know that everything I had told them to do was based entirely on a few hunches and a lot of speculation which I had no confidence in whatsoever.
I had little faith in the barriers Priestess had summoned, and not because some heretic deity likely provided them. I trusted my aide, or rather, his natural ability to neutralize sorcery with his very presence. I had first noticed that Jurgen had an effect on the magic of goblins during my first encounter with goblins on this planet, similarly to how I noticed his talents had no effect on what the people of this world referred to as miracles and a few magics that required catalysts to function. I don't know how or why Jurgen's abilities as a blank weren't universal nor did I ever intend to seek answers from anyone who was qualified as finding them would likely be the death of me. I wasn't entirely confident if the spell the two ogres were charging could be countered by his presence, but lacking any better ideas and with two extra layers of insurance defending us, it was better than standing around and kissing our arses goodbye.
Goblin Slayer, either having trusted me wholeheartedly like the fool he is or having the confidence in our defenses that I sorely lacked, started coordinating a counter attack with the rest of our party. I couldn't quite hear what he was telling the two Eldar and scaled abhuman, but the xenos quickly gave him a nod and nocked an arrow into their bows while the large lizard-like mutant conjured both a sword and a skeleton from the bones he removed from one of his pouches. I was tempted to crack off a shot at both the undead abomination and its summoner, but seeing as how they were both on our side and we could use all the help we could get, I withheld from acting rashly.
Besides, Scaly was starting to grow on me. It wasn't often I found a boisterous fighter that wasn't a complete pain to be around or prone to endangering my life like so many officers I had come to know during my long and illustrious career.
"IACTA!" The two monstrosities cried out once their almost comically large fireball reached what they thought was a satisfying size, almost filling up half of the courtyard with its enormous bulk, and sent it hurtling towards us.
Not knowing whether or not my plan would work or if I would be delivered before the Golden Throne well-done in the next few seconds, I roared "The Emperor Protects!" in an attempt to raise the morale of our party despite knowing only one other person aside from myself knew what the frak I was going on about. Shouting that pointless platitude might have been more for my sake than anyone else's, but I was happy to note that not a single member of our party turned and ran from the fiery orb of death that crashed into the transparent walls acting as our saving grace or the torrent of heat that soon followed.
For a moment, I thought my plan had failed and the initial uncomfortable heatwave that was comparable to the average sunny day on a desert planet was only the start of our torturous demise. You can only imagine how surprised I was when the nigh unbearable warmth soon faded to reveal that we were all still very much alive, even if some of us like myself were regretting the decision to stare our deaths in the face instead of shutting our eyes tight to avoid some momentary blindness.
I risked looking away from the two ogres and let the dancing lights in my eyes fade away to see how the rest of my party was faring. The xenos were keeping their heads down to avoid being blinded by the miniature sun intent on incinerating us as they maintained their aim and the abhumans were both holding their arms in front of their eyes, the Squat muttering a few curses underneath his breath while referring to the questionable parentage of our enemies unlike his more stoic partner who remained silent. Goblin Slayer kept himself low to the ground, ready to dash forward once the coast was clear whereas Priestess was visibly struggling to maintain her miracles.
I bit down a shriek of terror that almost escaped my throat and turned towards my aide to see how he was fairing, careful to protect my eyes from the still painful glare of the fireball Priestess' miracles were holding back. It was then that I noticed just how much work the girl was actually doing. It was almost comical, watching my aide stand perfectly still as the majority of the flames bent around the section of the Protection miracle he was standing beside. It almost looked as if his very stench was enough to dissuade the flames from drawing any closer to him, but thankfully the effect he had was only noticeable if you knew what to look for. Or at least, I assume that's why no one else commented on why there was a veil of flame thin enough to see the silhouettes of our opponents through them while anything outside a three meter radius around Jurgen on the other side of the wall was a raging inferno.
It appeared my quick thinking and faith I placed in my aide had once again saved our lives, but the battle was not over yet. The flames soon faded after what felt like a minute had passed, the barriers partially responsible for saving our lives disappearing not long after. The two ogres only had a moment to look baffled that their attack had failed before my aide let out a warning for the rest of us.
"FIRING!" He shouted as he pulled the trigger on his meltagun.
Not wanting my aide to accidentally blind the members of our party who didn't know what his momentary warning meant, I threw the tail of my great coat in front of the xenos and abhumans to save them from being blinded, earning an indignant shout of rage and two arrow sized holes through the tail of my greatcoat for my troubles. The Eldar's complaints were soon silenced as an unnatural warmth and brilliant light courtesy of my aide washed over us which was soon followed by one of the loudest screams I have ever heard.
I could only assume that Jurgen and the xenos had managed to hit the same target without killing it. I wasn't expecting us to outright kill the behemoth considering it had already survived a barrage of lasbolts largely unscathed, being the first creature I had encountered on this planet capable of such a feat, but judging by the ear splitting wails it was letting out, whatever damage we had done to the red eyed ogre this time wasn't superficial.
"Brother!" The blue eyed ogre shouted as I risked a look to see whether or not we had taken at least one of our enemies out of the fight.
To my amazement, one of the ogres was lying with its back against the wall of the courtyard with a hole in the center of its chest large enough for me to crawl through. I also couldn't help but to notice the two arrows planted in each of the abomination's eyes, or the murderous scowl the unscathed ogre wore as its kin writhed in pain.
"Enough games! You will suffer for what you have done to my brother!" The blue eyed ogrehowled as it picked up its brother's club and beat it together with its own weapon, creating a visible shockwave from the collision. "I will devour your men, use your women to regrow my army, and raze the very kingdoms you call home for your insolence!"
As far as intimidating speeches went, I heard scarier from the instructors of the Schola Progenium trying to discourage late night 'visits' between the Commissar cadets and the Sororitas trainees on the floor above us. The enraged ogre's threats were given as much thought as those from my childhood, because not a single member of my party backed down despite facing overwhelming odds.
I could already see the hole in the other ogre's chest starting to shrink and I knew we only had a small window of opportunity to take down at least one ogre before we had to deal with the two of them at once. Knowing that they were capable of both powerful sorcery and wielded terrifying natural strength, we would surely be crushed if the two titans had the chance to work together once more.
The blue eyed ogre was the first to act, spurred on by the injury of its brother. The monstrosity tried to crush my aide underneath the massive bulk of its weapons while he reloaded, but before I could shout out a warning the skeleton Lizard Priest summoned lifted him off of his feet and carried him to safety, holding Jurgen like a mother would a newborn as it ran away. The ogre bellowed out a curse in some infernal tongue as it pulled its weapon free from the floor, allowing the rest of us to make our own move.
The Eldar were the first ones to strike him thanks to the surprisingly accurate arrows they fired. Unfortunately, the ogre's skin was too thick for their weak wooden arrows to penetrate and this ogre had learned to close its eyes to avoid being blinded like its brother. Lizard Priest, Goblin Slayer, and I took full advantage of this opening and charged in to slice at the giant's legs as we were unable to strike any higher on the abomination.
Goblin Slayer's sword shattered as it struck the ogre's ankle, his tendency to use the cheapest weapons available finally coming around to bite him. Unlike our leader, Lizard Priest was able to slice through the tough muscle that served as the beast's natural armor. The cut he left behind was shallow, his weapon incredibly sharp but far too thin to risk gouging a wound any deeper unless he wanted to risk breaking his conjured weapon the same way Goblin Slayer's had, and I swear I could see the wound starting to seal shut as soon as the abhuman made it. My strike, however, left behind more than a mere flesh wound.
There are few things in the galaxy that the gnashing adamantium teeth of a chainsword can't cut through, and much to my delight, the ogre flesh was not one such material. I didn't end up cutting through the giant's leg so much as I ended up tearing a bloody rent through it as my weapon did most of the work for me. It only took a couple of seconds, but I managed to slice through both flesh and bone leaving half of the giant's left leg to stand on while its other remained untouched.
It should come as little surprise that my enemy did not appreciate the injury I gave it, and the blue eyed ogre made one hell of an attempt to make me regret engaging it in close quarters. I narrowly evaded the clubs it swung at me in an attempt to swat me like an annoying flea by diving under its attack. Rather than press the attack and risk dying a martyr as it was all too clear I possessed one of the two weapons that could meaningly harm our foes, I let the xenos archers create another distraction for me as I closed in for the kill.
Our unspoken plan was obvious, but not one the ogre could do anything about unless it wanted to be blinded like its brother. The enormous humanoid monster made a valiant effort in trying to crush me before I could cut it down, swinging around its clubs knowing full well that this would be its last stand, but thanks to the continued harassment from our archers and Jurgen who wisely swapped to his lasgun, there was only so much the abomination could do before I was close enough to remove the remainder of its leg.
Without much of its bone remaining to slow my chainsword down I cut down the daemonic looking creature with ease. With only a single leg to support both its massive weight and that of its weapons, the blue eyed ogre toppled forward in an undignified tangle of limbs as it failed to remain balanced. Lying there on the ground, it was defenseless against what came next.
Roaring what I could only assume was a miracle in his people's native tongue, Lizard Priest's arms visibly bulged with muscle that hadn't been there earlier as he dug his claws into the downed ogre's exposed neck. The abhuman then started to pull, his victim's cries of pain growing higher pitched as we all watched the monstrosity's neck stretch until its cries were finally silenced as its head was wrenched free from its body. The scaled abhuman let out a triumphant roar that reminded me more of an Ork Warboss than a human, and it was then that I decided I would do everything in my power to endear myself to that particular member of our party, lest I suffer a similar fate.
I let out a sigh of relief knowing that one of the two ogres were dealt with, as I'm sure the rest of my party did as well, but our momentary victory was cut short as the red eyed ogre stood up at its full height, the hole in its chest mostly healed and the newly regenerated bone still barely visible as muscle grew over top of it, screamed in a feral rage as it charged its brother's body. The monstrosity barely took more than a few steps before my aide decided to put an end to its irritating howls for vengeance.
"I got him." He calmly announced, hefting melta at the ogre's waist and pulling the trigger just as the other members of our party were preparing to make a heroic last stand against it.
Fortunately, Lizard Priest and I were a safe distance away from my aide when he fired his melta, unlike the several other members of my party who did not have the foresight to shut their eyes before he delivered a torrent of superheated death to our last remaining adversary. Although the brilliant blast of light obstructed most of my view, I still had a decent enough angle to watch the top half of the ogre fall away forwards, tumbling away from its legs as the meltagun's beam bisected it. The giant creature didn't even have time to cry out in pain before its severed torso collapsed to the floor, instead looking at the remainder of my party in confusion as to why they were now able to stare it straight in the eye.
"Wha-ACK!?" It gasped before coughing up blood as its ruined organs started to slough out of what was left of its lower body.
The rest of my party seemed to be no less amazed by the ogre's sudden defeat than the beast, save for the usual two unflappable members of our group. Jurgen simply wandered over to the others who were too stunned to notice him until his ever present musk assaulted them from behind. I had to stop myself from breaking out into laughter as the Squat nearly pulled an axe on my aide and the embarrassing apology that followed.
Instead, I was much more focused on Goblin Slayer who I could see making his way over to the still breathing ogre half with a steady stride. I left Lizard Priest alone with the severed head of the other ogre, doing my best to not think why he hadn't thrown it away or what he might end up doing with it later, as I ran up to Goblin Slayer to make sure he didn't do anything that might endanger our lives. The fight seemed like it was mostly over, but so long as that giant, mortally wounded as it was, still drew breath then there was always a chance something might happen.
I only just reached him as he placed his foot on the upper chest of the dying abomination, noticing the Astartes style execution grip he held onto his sword as he held it above the ogre's throat.
"You are nowhere near as frightening as the goblin's I've faced." He taunted, before driving the blade of his sword against the throat of his victim.
The only reason he was gloating was because he hardly had to do any work to survive our encounter with the two behemoths, but I decided to swallow that particular comment to let the boy have his moment and enjoy this victory. Considering how horribly wrong this quest might have gone if Jurgen and I hadn't been here to give him some aid, letting the armored idiot savor his ignorance was the least I could do for him after everything we had been through together.
The simple steel sword he wielded lacked the ability to pierce the ogre's throat, instead forcing him to crush it underneath the tip of his blade. The monster made a short few choking sounds, almost finding enough strength in its now pale arms to lift them off the ground and keep itself alive a little while longer, but ultimately failed as the final dregs of life faded from its crimson eyes.
"Nice to see you're enjoying yourself for a change." I playfully called out to the boy who hadn't noticed my presence until then.
"Commissar Cain." He said, bowing to me ever so slightly as was apparently customary on this planet before getting down to business as usual, "That should be the last of the goblins."
"You're probably right." I agreed.
After that initial spell, I doubt any cowardly greenskin would have stuck around to watch the ensuing battle. If there had been, then one of them would have popped out and tried to shank us while our guard was down believing it somehow had a better chance of killing us than both of the titans leading it had. I would have found such overconfidence hilarious if it didn't remind me of the tactics employed by a disappointingly large number of generals within the Imperial Guard.
"We should leave before whoever these things were expecting to show up arrives." He decided, coming to the same conclusion I had.
I don't know what kind of intruders these monsters had been expecting, but according to the ogres, we definitely weren't them. I wasn't sure if any of our other party members picked up on that detail when the giants were busy inflating their own egos, but I had no intention of finding out. After a day's travel in a cramped Ork vehicle, another spent delving into a goblin infested ruin only to end up battling two Warboss sized abominations, and another long day of riding in our Trukk ahead of us, all I wanted was to go back to my room in the Frontier Town Adventurers' Guild and have a nice long rest in the room I was tempted to call home after having spent so many nights there. As far as I was concerned, we had accomplished our mission and the clean up could be someone else's problem.
Thankfully, aside from Goblin Slayer and High Elf Archer's expected protests against our mode of transportation, there were no arguments about what needed to be done next. With the most obvious threat in the area taken care of, we headed back to Frontier Town with our extra member to make our report, all of us enjoying the frantic screams of Half-Elf Scout as she grew accustomed to my aide's ability to push a vehicle to its limits without somehow crashing it after flying over hills or with every harrowing turn he made.
If only I knew just how closely we escaped utter annihilation, I wouldn't have let Jurgen stop at Frontier Town and forced him to keep on driving until we ran out of fuel.
Special thanks to Tireless Traveler & Doc43Souls for beta reading this chapter!
Author's Corner:
I was tempted to split this chapter into two parts like I had with so many others, but figured I could squeak out as climactic battle as I could given how absurdly overpowered Cain and Jurgen's weapons are. Just another friendly little reminder that, despite the circumstances that brought them to Goblin Slayer's world, they are a lot better off there than they would have been at their intended destination given what is happening elsewhere in the galaxy…
Also, I would like to take a moment thank my new beta reader for accepting my request to help maintain the standard of quality I like for my stories. Commenting corrections that need to be made to a chapter might earn the ire of some writers on this site, but for me that'll earn you an opportunity to help out.
Comments:
Kamigawa Nagamaki: did the elf say "Mon-keigh"? oh boy
Yes, but I think there's something else about her that Cain is more worried about…
Jctherebel: The use of the phrase mon'keigh has me worried, very good chapter
As it should, loyal citizen. Never forget, xenos are but one of the many enemies of mankind.
Anonymous1684: It's always been a personal opinion that part of the reason why people found Jurgens smell so offensive was that it was a justification for being repelled by Jurgens Blank nature. It's why I'm confused by Padfoot Waitress being attracted fo Jurgen, sure she can't smell but she would still be effected by the disgust and such that a Boank would make her feel towards him
The official verdict is… inconclusive, but an argument can be made for either the Blank aura manifesting as his near inhuman stench or a natural result of a simple-minded, yet decidedly NOT stupid, man believing the hygiene standards of an Ice World are acceptable elsewhere in the galaxy. Considering Jurgen has also happened to 'forget' a sandwich in one of his many pouches for MONTHS and still believed it was good enough to serve to Cain despite looking more like a high school science experiment than anything a reasonable person would call edible, I have come to my own conclusion on the matter. His filthy appearance and revolting table manners only strengthens my feelings on the matter.
Dark Fusion: (On the joys of seeing a person's experience reading on of your stories for the first time)
I will always be writing for myself, first and foremost. If I don't like what I write, then I sure as shit won't be posting it. With that said, it's comments and comment strings like these that make my day sometimes. Cheers mate!
Alright, there you have it folks. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all again in the future. Happy holidays.
