Chương 176: 176

The lands outside of the eastern gate were grassy, flat, and devoid of any interesting features at all. Except for a few craters, of course. Big guns rested on the wall behind Mark, and they had taken pot shots at a few unfriendlies in the last day or so. Not goblins; other monsters. There were lots of things out there that went bump in the grass. Mark touched the side of his helmet where Eliot had installed some buttons, and said, "Metal scan."

Eliot had not been happy about Mark and Isoko going out to kill goblins, but he understood. Sally understood, too. Sally mostly understood Barba's need for revenge, though she didn't say as much. She was glad Mark was helping Barba. That was 20 minutes ago, though, and now Mark was here. Eliot's voice filtered through Mark's earbuds, "Shifting the scan. Quark seems to be picking up the controls I am putting down, but he won't be able to repair things once you're out there…"

He wanted to say something that he didn't know how to say, so instead he said, "Let me know how it looks." Eliot's additions to Mark's helmet showed him pretty much what he expected to see. It was about 10 am, and Mark had a nice heads-up display that had a little radar with heat, and then metal, and then man-made scouting capabilities, all at the touch of a button, or, more realistically, at the verbal request for change.

The man-made scan would fail when Mark got far enough away from the settlement, and Eliot, but the other stuff would work just fine. The metal scan worked well, and though Mark couldn't physically see Baron Herb Sacredcut's spiderbots, they were out there, visible as white dots in the distance, parting the grasses as they went. They were scouting ahead. Mark, Isoko, and Barba stood assembled on the rise leading toward the eastern gate.

Two of Sacredcut's knights stood with them, a guy named Aaron, and another one named Samson; a Speedster and a Shielder. All of them were outfitted for a big monster hunt, though they'd only be about 12 kilometers away from the city. 12 kilometers was still a big distance when it came to certain things, like the distance outside city walls." Screen off," Mark said. The screen turned off, which was its normal readout, giving Mark an unobstructed view of the land ahead.

If the system broke then Mark could either leave the lenses in his adamantium helmet, or take off the helmet and let the lenses drop. The ring of Repair on his left hand should keep the system working well enough… unless there was a techie goblin out there. If there was a techie goblin then Mark would rip out the electronics from his helmet, since he could do that. There had been a quest to kill goblins for the last week, but no one had taken it seriously until yesterday.

That quest had been updated as of 6 hours ago with the full spectrum of the settlement's capabilities. But it was still a soldier-level quest. The settlement hadn't found anything too untoward in the dragonoid canyons, though they had spotted a few goblins that might be problematic. A Stone Shaper goblin was providing cover for the main nest of goblins, located in tunnels in dragonoid territory, so the whole area was now listed as a part of the extermination quest.

If they could save the dragonoids then they were appointed to do that, but killing them if they were infected with goblinspawn was a high priority as well. Mark and his team were going to be the spear. Three other teams were positioned far, far behind the dragonoid canyons, to ensure that green bastards didn't escape during the purge… And those other teams were not Mark's problem. Eliot and some of the other guys in the command center were coordinating all of that. Mark breathed, and said, "Ready check.""

Ready," Isoko said." Ready," Barba said, along with Aaron and Samson. And then a drone hummed as it fell into Mark's view. A hologram of Eliot appeared, standing midair, saying, "Please promise me that you'll run if it turns out to be a real threat. We have the resources to annihilate the goblins from afar, and…" Eliot said nothing else. He was worried, and people were watching.

He was probably still trying to convince Aurora to blow up the countryside, but he didn't want to say that, since people were watching and strength was necessary to both have, and show. Sometimes, showing off strength was even more important than having it. So it was a good thing Mark had both visible and actual strength.

Mark grinned a little, the lower half of his face showing, as he said, "We're going to kill those goblins, clear out the dragonoid habitat, and be back in time for your birthday dinner, Eliot, and no one is going to die… Ah, but I suppose I should be more villainous, right? So… How about this:" Mark solidified his face and said, "Goblins aren't allowed to live in my presence." And then he slipped the lower half of his mask into place and nodded to Aaron.

Aaron was in charge of the hovercart that was parked down below, next to a spiderbot that was under the control of Herb Sacredcut, back at his manor. Aaron would be driving them to the encampment. Aaron looked to Barba, because Aaron was under her authority and not Mark's, and Barba gave Aaron a smaller nod. In a flick of light, Aaron was now sitting in the driver's seat of the hovercraft. He wasn't a speedster like Isoko or David were speedsters.

He was as fast as light, and with about as much punch, meaning none at all. Everyone else walked down to the hovercraft, piling into the open-air vehicle, though Mark positioned himself to hold on with some adamantium clips, onto the front and the rear of the vehicle. He tried not to dig into the metal too much, but adamantium against normal steel was the same as fingers versus somewhat dense sand. Aaron punched the throttle and then they were off. Mark's metal dug in, just a little bit.

- - - - Mark watched and listened to Barba as the hovercraft zoomed over the grassland. With one hand on the cart and another holding up her watch, Barba displayed a map of the dragonoid canyons, as she explained about the place, and what they should expect. It was like the trip to the Hollow Gourd hunting grounds, but the air was a lot more tense, because Barba didn't know much about the goblins. She knew about the dragonoids, though."

It's mostly a canyon area, built up by some great dragon fight however long ago. Someone dated it as 60 years old, but it could be much younger. There's no way to really know. Dragonblood landed all over the place and gave rise to the dragonoids that live there. They're basically mutated animals. All of them are slightly different. All of them look mostly the same. Craggy black skins that are not scales at all, and a bigger body than an animal of the same type. Mostly cat-type monsters.

They climb if they want, but mostly they laze around in their territories. The small ones are almost normal animals; you can mostly ignore them. The larger ones can be dangerous." They're not that strong or smart or anything like that. They are durable." Goblins try to turn them all the time, but normal goblins can't do it. Dragonoids only really die to old age, or to massive changes in their environment.

The place might look like a bunch of can y ons loosely connected to each other— claw swipes and a tail crash and then this area over here where one dragon was pinned on its back, into the ground… But it's a delicate ecosystem. The blood seeped into the plants and the plants grow all kinds of raw mana, and the only things that live there are the dragonoids, because they ate the plants and they survived, and every other animal just dies.

And now the dragonoids that survived produce mana crystals as byproducts of removing mana from their bodies. You might find crystals discarded on the ground, but those are usually absorbed by the plants to grow again, so we harvest from the dragonoids themselves." Every harvest is different. Every crystal needs to be categorized and studied independently. None of it is easy. Most of the really good crystals we've exported come from there."

Aurora doesn't want to blast the place because she'd need to level it to bedrock to get rid of the goblins, and that would destroy the environment. These places pop up and die all the time, and it's probably going to get destroyed in a kaiju attack eventually, but the long-term goal is to subsume it into the city, into a protected space, when the city eventually grows large enough to surround the canyons." We enter through here, in this area next to the lizard-shaped dragonoid. It's…"

Barba took a breath, as she gripped the hovercart hard, her fingers turning white under the pressure. She shook out the hand that held the holographic map on her wrist projector. She was having emotional trouble, but she got it under control. She lifted the map back up and continued, "It's this space over here. That dragonoid is usually rather calm, so it's the usual entry point. It's always hanging out on the sunning rock over there. It wasn't there when we went through the area…

That should have been our clue that something was wrong. But we went in anyway, over to the next area." Our goal was the fourth canyon in, two lefts and then a right, into the pawprint canyon. That's where we were attacked. That's where the major traps ended up being. The goblins live in that canyon, most of all." Goblins harassed us all the way back to the lizard zone, though. Traps… So many traps we did not see." Mark looked at the map, but they were getting closer to the canyons.

Barba fell silent and everyone watched the land ahead, as the flat grasses of the plains gave way to sudden spires of stone, and large walls covered in broken black stuff, and also growing glowing magical plants. Aaron slowed the vehicle down, and soon they were gliding along at a few kilometers an hour, taking in the sight. It was easy to see that multiple kaiju had fought and bled in this place.

The vectors of crawling goblins already tugged at the air, like scrabbling claws, pulling toward the human vehicle and its occupants. Mark felt the vectors of goblins recognizing 'prey', but he'd get to that in a moment. The canyons were still a kilometer away, though there were some strange vectors on the open fields between here and there. Mark said, "They have scouting posts out here. Slow down further."" Fuck," Barba spat.

She looked outward, standing on the cart, trying to see something that was very well hidden.

"Where?!" Aaron spoke up, "Might be illusions in the air, miss." He slowed down, but he wasn't sure where to go now. He looked to Mark.

"Where am I parking?" The plan had been to park on the open dirt about a hundred meters from the entrance to the canyon, where the crater wall had crashed down, revealing the colorful land beyond. But the goblins had set up sentry posts, or something, in the grasslands all the way out here. Barba was a taut string, ready to snap or fire at the enemy, and Mark wondered if she was good to go, or not." Hundred meters more then stop," Mark said, and then he purposefully looked at Barba.

She realized he was looking at her, so she looked up and saw the lower half of his face, if nothing else. Barba focused. She nodded. Mark said, "Soon as you stop, I'll lead the way." Nods all around. Isoko said, "I can almost sense them but not when they're this far away. I'll take up the rear."" I'm on front," Mark said, and then he asked Eliot, "Your Man-made scouter still working? Or are we too far?" Aaron stopped the vehicle over the tall grass.

This place was perfect for ambushing, or at least it would have been perfect. But other things were already in the grasses right now. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Herb's spiderbots crawled fast across the ground, parting the grass as they went, their silver hulls barely appearing above the green. Eliot's drones floated overhead, whirring gently." You're kinda far," Eliot said.

"I'm working on… it." Pause.

"Not gonna work. Let's try this instead: Focus on the area and then blink twice. I'll paint it that way. It's less exact, but it will work… And I think Quark can interface with your lenses so you don't have to input with blinks… Yeah. There we go. Where you focus, it will highlight for everyone. So you just gotta actually look at the targets, Mark." Mark caught sight of a big boulder in the grasses that was an obvious lookout zone, but the vector in that area was to the left of the rock, by about 20 meters.

So a lookout zone and a retreat spot. Mark blinked at the retreat spot. The lenses of Mark's sights flickered under his direction and the retreat zone was painted red. From the jerks of every head in the hovercraft, and every spiderbot on the ground, they all got the same information on their own receivers. Mark said, "I'm taking point." And then he hopped off of the hovercraft, flying forward over the grasses, caltrops ripping up the grasses as he flew, and then he was 10 meters from the target.

The target was already freaking out, but… it was not freaking out. It was horny as fuck. Ugh. Stupid fucking goblins and their stupid fucking… everything! At least goblins were easy to tell apart from people. There was nothing quite like goblin when it came to 'hateful horny' with a side of hunger. Plus, the thing's vector was only the size of a goblin, at less than a meter tall. It was about three meters below the ground, too, so it was very well hidden. It probably was some fucking hive mind goblin.

How else would it connect to the rest of them in the forests of the dragonoid canyon? Could be a techie, but no techies had been kidnapped; only a Marksman. Tech monsters were rare this far away from the main human lands. It probably wasn't a techie goblin. Mark whipped his adamantium weapons into a curved blade a meter long, and then, like he was taking a finger to mud, Mark cut a blazing line through the grasses and the stone underneath, all the way into the hiding hole under the ground.

The stone screamed under Mark's direction, grasses catching sparks and then smoking, and then something else screamed down below Mark's reach. With a finger of adamantium, Mark wrapped around the monster underneath and then dragged him out of the hole, ripping half of a goblin out of the dirt. Green eyes met Mark's covered eyes, and then Mark sliced through the entire thing, spreading goblin parts over the ground.

Mark felt a bit of fear from the other goblins at the treeline, but he also felt the normal goblin response to seeing a power stand before them. They were all fucking horny! Gods! Disgusting. Mark glanced down into the hole he had made in the ground, saying, "Need a light. Need to know if that was a Hive Mind goblin, or if there's tech down there in that hole." Eliot said, "Tap your camera, Mark."" Oh right."

Mark tapped his helmet and the metal scan turned on, but one of Herb's spiderbots was already crawling this way. Mark tried not to freak out at the thing suddenly being there. Like all machines, it did not have a vector. It did have a voice, though. Herb said, "Let me check. Widen the hole?" Mark widened the hole, ripping stone out of the ground with a grip and a tear. The spiderbot descended into the darkness.

Mark didn't see any white outlines on his own metal scan, but an actual check from an actual techie would be useful—" Just a hiding hole!" Herb said, as the spiderbot crawled out of the ground.

"Hive mind goblins. They know you're here." Mark nodded at the confirmation of what he already knew. No tech-based goblins. Just trappers and hive minders, living inside one of the common wonders of Daihoon. Mark gazed out at the start of the dragonoid canyon, which was a big gap in a crater wall. Trees of all sizes and colors grew on the other side of the crater wall, but some of the growth had spilled outward, onto the plains. It didn't spill much further than that.

The power was inside those craters; it died when it left the craters. That power made trees grow glittering pink, and vibrant orange or red, and some were even blue and gold. Some trees were normal, but those were the outliers, and they probably weren't normal up close; Mark just couldn't see what made them special from this distance. He did see one giant fern sticking out over there, and it might have been growing glowing mushrooms on the edges of its leaves.

The greenery and the land itself was a tumult of height and color, completely at odds with the normal land around here, which was flat as fuck. Stone spires rose here and there, and Mark was pretty sure he saw a big craggy black lizard sunning itself on the tallest spire over there. Though that 'lizard' could have been a part of the rock. It wasn't moving and it had no vector right now. Was it alive? It was hard to tell. A lot of the rock inside of the canyon was blasted black.

Some of that black coloring seemed to drip down through cracks in the crater walls, like oil burbling out of the ground, leaving behind a plethora of green things growing all around the black. There was even a tree on fire, growing next to one of those black streams on the exterior of the crater wall. That tree had a lot of space to itself. Probably because it was on fire. It was all so fantastical that Mark instantly felt the need to preserve it, because this was what he came to Daihoon to see.

The sights, the monsters, the power and the magic." But goblins need killing, first," Mark muttered to himself. And then he turned and said, "Pardon me while I clear the grass." Mark beat his heart with Union, connecting to every single plant in the area, from here to the edge of the canyon, and then he thrummed with decay and renewal; a special form of sustenance/deprivation. The grasses wilted and then they died. Mark beheld a land of withered grasses, with a few still-green additions here and there.

A wind blew and the grasses turned to dust, for Mark had drawn out their water and their everything, giving it to the world instead. The still-green spots lifted out of the decayed grasses. Four of them. Four goblins witnessed the destruction of their hiding areas. Herb's spiderbots clink-clunk'd, opening their hatches, exposing the barrels of their sniper rifles. Four shots rang out, almost in concert. Three goblin heads exploded.

The last goblin had ducked as he ran back toward the canyon— A fifth shot rang out, but not from the bots. Mark looked back at Barba, who was standing on the solid ground and holding a big rifle with a smoking barrel. Her arm shook a little and she breathed hard, but her eyes were focused. That was a good shot. Mark turned back toward the crater-canyon, to figure out the various lookouts looking out at them. An overhang covered in moss held several vectors pointed their way.

Another pair of vectors held at the top of a tall spire of rock. And then, finally, there was one tree to the far side, up and away from the fire tree, where a goblin wasn't in any sort of formation, but they were staring this way. Mark couldn't actually see any of them at all. But he could sense them. Mark blinked and blinked, lighting the targets, saying, "The enemy is there, there, and there. They've dug in. This is a bad infestation." Wordlessly, Barba lifted her gun again.

And then she raised the barrel a little bit more, aiming to the area beyond the fire tree. Mark watched and felt as Barba's vector slipped into her rifle. A moment crystallized as Barba breathed out and gently pressed the trigger. The gun tried to kick, but Barba held strong. The muzzle flashed. It was kinda loud, but not really. It was an enchanted rifle, so it had a lot of tricks to it, but most of what Mark was seeing was all Barba.

Barba's vector traveled with the bullet only a little, and then the payload left her astral body, sent on its way to connect to that lonely, hungry vector in the distance, up the tree next to the fire tree. Mark didn't see the bullet hit the goblin, but he felt the goblin's vector splatter and then vanish, like a thread tucked back into the distorted fabric of reality. The hungry, focused vector vanished. It was a pretty normal way in which things died. But that was still a 400+ meter shot.

Mark smiled as he called out to Barba, "I thought you used a bow!" Barba called back, "Guns have their uses." And then she faltered a little, her body strained just as much as her astral self. Mark was already healing her. She'd be fine in a few more heartbeats. Mark nodded, and then he put his lower mask into place and his voice carried on the coms in his helmet.

"Castle formation. I'm on point. We'll take it slow—"" One moment, please," Eliot spoke, and the whole team listened. Mark waited." Mark, this is just for you," Eliot spoke in Mark's ear, "Aurora wants to say something."" Hello, Mark," Aurora said.

"If you retreat then I'm making the decision to destroy it all. Don't get in over your head. Good luck." Mark solidly said, "Heard and understood." And then he led the way.