Chương 40

I rushed at the goblin scout and watched its eyes go wide in panic as it realized I was attacking it. It raised its arm in a feeble attempt to shield itself, but my dagger had already moved past and sliced its throat. The new dagger passed through the throat so seamlessly and effortlessly, that I had to do a double take to see if it had actually slit its throat or not. Looking away from the bleeding scout, I saw that the others had also been successful.

All around, gasps rose up as one after the other, goblin bodies materialized from thin air for those without high perception. I did what I needed to do with the body of the now dead goblin scout, then moved towards three more goblin bodies. Once I was done, I quickly went towards Lucas, who looked up as I came closer.

"You know what to do, right?" I asked.

"Yes" he confirmed.

"Stop treating me like a child. I'm older than you, remember?" he added, unnecessarily.

"Sure, those extra two months must give you so much wisdom. Teach me how to live, O wise one" I joked back.

"You are too inexperienced, young one. Alas, don't worry, for I shall guide you towards enlightenment!" exclaimed Lucas. We shared a laugh, both knowing how harrowingly serious the upcoming battle would be. I gave him a quick hug, and heard him whisper to be careful. Looking ahead, I spotted Omar giving me his signature wide grin, and Sara a polite nod. Marcus, Ben, and Madelline were in a huddle, discussing something.

I turned and bid farewell to the group, informing them once again of where to go, then walking away into the forest while checking my inventory for the umpteenth time to ensure that I had everything that was needed. Ideally, we would have levelled up more. Rushing to attack the goblin base could be a mistake, but we had no choice.

There was nothing else around that I had seen that would cause the goblins to arm themselves to the teeth, and while I had by no means explored the entire forest, I was certain that we were the ones for whom the goblins were preparing. Having a group of goblin scouts posted 24/7 around our camp kind of gave it away. We had no choice. It was simply the better decision to attack them while they were unaware, than to try and build up a poor semblance of a defense.

However, I was very aware of the fact that we were woefully unprepared. We had no idea what the goblins were actually capable of, how many variants their species had, and more importantly, what the hobgoblins or ogres were capable of. We were also severely outnumbered. However, making the numbers a bit more skewed towards our favour was exactly my part of the plan. And it was a pretty important part. Our success or failure pretty much relied on whether or not I could pull it off.

I reached the river and started hurrying along it, going under concealed presence as soon as I could see the buffaloes in the distance. I circled around them for almost ten minutes before I saw what I had been searching for – a lone buffalo some distance away from the herd. I moved towards it, worried that I was running out of time. I took a deep breath to relax myself, then crept closer to the buffalo. Once I was close enough, I lured it using my ability on a bush like I had done before.

It worked; the buffalo followed the enticing scent of the bush that I had used my ability on. I continued luring it, alternatively using both ability and mana, till it was far enough away that I couldn't see the herd any longer. A couple minutes later, I passed beside the point that had been prepared, and used my ability on the bush right next to the trap to entice the buffalo as much as possible. The buffalo came closer as I watched closely, holding my breath.

The buffalo reached the tipping point, and immediately dropped down into the pit trap we had dug and covered with very thin branches and large leaves. It cried loudly as I watched it drop down about eight feet, the thick wooden spikes in the pit damaging its body badly. Some spikes broke, while others penetrated enough that it was stuck. Much to my chagrin, it was still alive and continued bleating loudly.

Worried that its bleating may be heard by the herd, I stepped over the entrance to the pit trap, and compressed as much mana as I could into a wind bullet before shooting it straight down its open mouth. The wind bullet went inside and I heard a muffled blast sound out, before the buffalo collapsed, leaning sideways. It was still held upright due to the spikes impaled within its body, but it was now clearly dead.

I let out a sigh of relief, and took a few minutes to rest and recover my mana, which had almost bottomed out. A few minutes later, I got to work. I prepared the surroundings, and then started moving towards the direction of the goblin camp, throwing something every few feet. It was a messy job, but speed was much more important to me right now rather than perfection. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Soon, I came across a trail identical to the one I had been making, and knew that the others were hard at work as well. Praying for their success, I turned and headed back towards the buffaloes. Time to do it once again.

This time, I couldn't find a lone buffalo. However, I didn't need just one any longer, so I was busy luring three of them to the spot that I had killed the buffalo with the trap. In fact, the more buffaloes that saw it, the better. Soon, we had neared the earlier spot, and I lured one of them to the same bush that I had lured the dead one towards. This buffalo moved closer, much like the one before. Unlike the one earlier though, this one stopped, as it could quite clearly see the wide hole.

It was immediately alerted, and ignored the enticing bush while creeping closer to the hole, its nostrils flared widely as it continuously sniffed the air. It continued moving closer, till finally it could see the dead body inside. It immediately cried out in alarm, shocking the other two buffaloes behind it. They both came towards it in a hurry, their protective instincts clear to see. The other two saw the body as well, and the cries of alarm and sorrow repeated.

All three of them then turned around and fled back towards the herd, still crying loudly. Hoping that the plan would work, I climbed a tree close to the pit as high as I could, and settled in to wait, undoing concealed presence to regenerate mana. I didn't have to wait too long, as I soon felt the tree trunk shaking. I immediately activated concealed presence, as a rumbling sound was then heard, coming closer at speed.

The sounds of something large, barreling through the underbrush and knocking around the smaller trees in its path sounded out. I examined the tree I was on in alarm, relieved to find that it had quite a thick trunk and seemed to be quite sturdy. In a shower of twigs, leaves, and bushes, the alpha buffalo arrived, followed two steps behind by the entire herd. It had an aura that screamed authority and absolute strength. There was a weight to its presence, like everything around was bending to its rule.

The alpha slowed down near the hole, and then looked down in silence. A sea of black followed, slowing down and surrounding everything behind the alpha. The alpha bent down and sniffed the hole, then looked up. A few feet away, it saw something, and went closer to sniff at the severed head of the goblin scout I had placed there. It then looked up, at the severed goblin arm two feet away, then at a goblin leg a few feet further away, conveniently placed so each body part revealed two more.

The cooks had discovered that entire monster bodies couldn't be stored inside inventories, but cut up body parts could. Thus, we had spent some time doing the frankly disgusting job of butchering these things, all for this plan. The attack of the buffaloes that killed eleven of us earlier had highlighted something to me – that these buffaloes care about each other, a lot! And I was counting on this behaviour of theirs for my plan. Please let it work! The alpha snorted angrily, and I saw its eyes turned red.

The air around it grew even heavier, and a reddish tint surrounded its body. It started moving towards the direction where the trail of dead goblin body parts led, the herd following behind its angered leader. I started following them through the tree tops, my agility and dexterity allowing me to keep pace. Soon, the alpha started thundering ahead, and the herd responded. I was having difficulty moving due to all the trees shaking, and the falling leaves didn't help matters either, affecting visibility.

Still, I continued onwards. Soon, the trail of dead goblin bodies ended, but neither the alpha nor the herd slowed down. Yes! They continued moving, leaving me scrambling behind to try and keep up. I saw up ahead as a pitifully small arrow struck the alpha, splintering into small pieces without so much as leaving a scratch on the alpha's body. The alpha slowed down and paused, looking around in visible confusion.

It seemed like it was trying to figure out whether it was actually attacked or if it was just a falling twig, as both of them would have done the same damage to its impressive body. A stupid goblin archer mercifully answered its confusion. I saw with barely suppressed glee as a second arrow flew from a treetop, and splintered harmlessly on the alpha's head. The alpha snorted angrily, then charged straight at the tree the arrow had come down from.

It tore through the tree trunk like it was made of paper, and the unfortunate goblin archer was then trampled under the feet of numerous buffaloes. Arrows then started raining down on the herd as the surrounding goblins started screeching loudly; but the trees continued to be toppled. The goblins were behaving exactly like I had hoped they would, leading the herd straight towards their base. Cries of alarm and panic sounded out from the goblins as the herd tore through the trees, not slowing down in the slightest.

The alpha was leading by example, not letting anything stand in its way. I excitedly followed along, taking the time to slash the throat of a cowering goblin archer who had wisely decided to stay hidden instead of firing at the buffaloes. Soon, the goblin base came into view. A few straggling goblins were mercilessly crushed under the herd, with the alpha ignoring everything else and continuing in a straight line.

The walls of the goblin base, which had once looked impenetrable to me, were smashed through with ease by the alpha. I saw it stop in the middle of a crowd of confused goblins. It then raised its head and let out a defiant roar of anger as a challenge. I didn't know buffaloes could roar…