Chapter 1. The first contact.

The smell of smoke and fire was strong, one could hear screams growing, it was the kind of screaming born not out of a fire… but a raid. The screams of hopelessness asking for a savior, asking for someone to do something, anything. And from the west traveling to the east a bolt from a ballista was flying through the air, cutting everything in its path before the giant bolt pierced the chest of the goblin pushing it against another goblin, the pair impaling itself against a wall.

"Hit, next target is six degrees to the right." "On it!" The heir had stopped their wagon and had brought out her spyglass. Missy had the discipline of the army and her aim with the ballista on the wagon was unparallel. "The figures are… green? And small… have we met something similar before?" Cassie spoke with her own spyglass. "Not on my notes nor of the ancestor, no… this is new. But in the end, they bleed and die just the same as anything else you all fought… Missy, left."

A woman closed her eyes in fear, only to see a projectile pierce a goblin chest pushing him against a wall killing it in the moment. She turned to her right and saw a wagon moving forward. A dark-skinned woman was shooting from a trinket she couldn't quite put together, as a giant crossbow… but she had more worrisome things to solve than a weapon. She had to run; the goblin raid was still going on.

The raid had started well for the goblins, setting fire and forcing the humans to run towards a single point. It was all part of the plan of their boss. But the lord was seeing the battle from afar confused at the sudden appearance of the wagon that was killing the initial wave. "Keh?!"

This was not in his plans, he had seen the village from afar and judged it a perfect target, not too big, not too small, the perfect point for plundering. But now suddenly humans appeared… adventurers? But how? They were far away from one of those cities with adventurers on them… whatever, he had more forces to bring out.

"Missy, you stay with me." The heir charged a rifle with gun powder and had it ready to fire. "Yes heir." "Cassie, Bigby, go forward, move carefully. We do not know how many forces the enemy have with them, Sarmenti." The jester knew what his role was, mayhem.

The goblins that set the fire had been few, but they had chosen their spots to set it perfectly and the heir noticed it from her vantage point on the wagon. The other three who were running into the town also noticed there had been to few… it was a scouting force. It was just like the raid with Vvulf…

"More will come, this was a show to distract them… put everyone in a single place…" Cassie spoke bringing out a knife at the ready. Before either the graverobber or the jester could react, the one who carried the beast inside used the chain of the manacles and hit one of the green creatures, the snap of the chain breaking its neck. "They are fragile… not even well protected." He approached it with carefulness before looking around and sniffing the air. "… humans, fire… and these things…"

A war horn came to sound and the heir looked at the direction from where the sound came from. "Ah… smart fellow. It send scouts and now that they are not back the frontal assault will begin." The heir looked with her spyglass at the distance, over a hill the land shifted revealing hidden holes, they had dug in the hill and most likely the enemy had its base inside. "Missy, prepare the explosive bolt." "Mam? Isnt that too much?" "Not in this case, I have my suspicions of how deep their hiding place is. We are collapsing it before our friends get overwhelmed…" The heir brough out from her coat a flare, setting it and firing it forward, its red light pointing a simple message to her group.

Enemy reinforcements.

The goblin horde came out from the burrow on the hill at the sound of the war horn, they would use their numbers to take the town. It was a simple plan.

Force people into the middle of the town, then overwhelm them from the front with sheer numbers. Simple, clean… but too prone to failures. But that was no fault of the enemy itself. It simply had never fought against someone who was used to studying tactics and managed to provide a group of four the means to fight big numbers.

The explosive bolt did its job. The burrow had no way to avoid collapsing from the explosion, so the reinforcements were trapped under the collapse of their hideout, yes, a group composed of forty goblins and a champion. Big numbers, but nothing compared to what it would have been if they did not collapse the burrow.

"Think you can take the big guy?" The champion goblin roared rushing forward. Sarmenti did not fear the green giant, they had a beast of their own in their side. "I can…" letting his coat fall behind him the man roared, transforming and bringing out the abomination from within. The graverobber whistled seeing him rush forward to clash against the green giant, pushing him away and killing a group of unfortunate goblins who were behind the giant.

"Oh… such an unfortunate end, such a shame, shall we?" The jester nodded, scythes in hand, a dance of death was about to start.

People had started to peek at the battle, seeing from their hiding spots, they saw a woman with a hat throwing knifes, dashing, sliding, rolling and tumbling all around, weaving perfectly between the goblins always getting her knifes back before throwing them again. One goblin thought he got lucky when she went for a knife but he was met with a small pickaxe to his skull killing it instantly. "I am not to be touched, thank you." the graverobber got her knife back and the kicked the corpse from her pickaxe.

The jester could only laugh, scaring friend and foe alike with his dance of death, his scythes cutting without shame or care, if the goblins were unlucky enough to dodge the cut to their heads they would lose a limb. The enemies were many, but they were weak and for both the graverobber and jester, small foes like those were nothing to really worry about.

On the other side, the champion roared with anger at the beast who threw it to the ground, but before it could give into rage to bring damage into its foe, it felt the despair of being lifted. He who was a champion, lifted. And thrown around. The roar of the abomination was stronger, its prey on the ground disoriented could never be ready for the mighty slash from the strong arm of the beast that lived inside the man of science. The champion head rolled and from its vantage point the goblin lord was terrified, three adventurers alone defeated him… he had to run, so long as he survived, he could make it through and…

The rest of his thoughts died with the resounding sound of the heir rifle and the bullet that pierced its head.

"Enemy leader has fallen… let us loot." The heir spoke with a smirk as the arbalest nodded. Victory had been achieved and it was time to claim the spoils…

People celebrated when the massacre was done. The graverobber helping her friend to put on his coat as he turned back. "Good job dealing with that thing…" "You too… what were they?" the jester spoke. "they call them goblins…" he had been hearing the people cheers. It was obvious that they would soon come to them to ask who they were… they were good at fighting, social acts were not so much their liking. The jester liked doing shows for the people in the hamlet, but that was because he had come to trust them… memories of old times were still deep in his heart and stopped his strings from sounding outside of the hamlet.

A whistling sound came to bring the world to a stand still as the heir got out of the wagon. "So, who is in charge here?"