Chương 18: Humans (Part 2)

"Young Master!" The two guards, seeing their master struck down by a goblin, grew desperate. They unsheathed their longswords and lunged forward. Li Qinwu had no intention of a fair duel. He took a sharp step back and bellowed, "Fire!!" Behind him, the nine Hobgoblins—who had been training their sights on the trio the whole time—pulled their triggers. The guards cried out as several bolts slammed into them.

However, they were wearing chainmail over "gambesons" (thick, quilted cotton tunics), providing decent protection. While the bolts pierced their armor and bit into their flesh, the wounds were relatively shallow—light injuries at best. Gob-Bow, however, was a second slower than the rest. He had been taking his time to aim. Seeing that his comrades' volleys hadn't dropped the targets, his small brain whirred; he adjusted his aim toward a guard's unprotected face and squeezed the trigger. Whiz!

The bolt buried itself in the guard's face, dropping him instantly. Taking advantage of the remaining guard's shock and pain, Li Qinwu charged. He slammed his shoulder into the man's chest with the force of a battering ram, sending him sprawling. Before the guard could regain his footing, Li Qinwu pinned him to the ground, ripped off his helmet, and brought the hatchet down. Crunch. [12 XP Gained]. The commotion of the soldiers' deaths was loud enough to alert the nearby farmers.

They looked toward the forest, only to see goblins stripping the armor off the fallen guards. With terrified shrieks, they abandoned their hoes and bolted for the castle. On the watchtower, the two archers realized something was horribly wrong. They immediately struck the alarm bell. Clang! Clang! Clang! The metallic warning echoed throughout the valley. Inside the castle, in a relatively tidy wooden house, a young woman was meticulously handling glass apparatus, mixing a potion.

She occasionally consulted an open tome on her desk to verify her formulas. Hearing the alarm, she knit her brows. Another monster raid? The Magic Forest was teeming with beasts that frequently strayed near the walls, hindering their attempts to expand the farmland. She assumed the guards would handle it and reached for another vial—but a frantic pounding at her door stopped her.

"Miss Hana! Something's happened! There's an enemy in the woods!" Hana sighed, set down her work, and strapped a longsword to her waist. She grabbed a wooden staff and opened the door.

"What is it?"

"The sentries on the wall report a group of goblins at the forest edge! The Young Master ran right into them while hunting... we don't know if he's alive or dead!" Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"What?!" Hana's face paled. she sprinted toward the walls and scrambled up the stairs. By now, every able-bodied man in the castle had gathered on the ramparts. However, a quick scan revealed the grim reality: they had barely fifty men. Fewer than ten were professional soldiers in armor; the rest were just peasants in tunics clutching pitchforks and scythes. Hana hurried toward an elderly man in robes and a tall man in full Western-style plate armor.

"Steward Monde, Knight Leo! What's the situation?" Monde, the steward, was trembling.

"The farmers saw goblins at the forest fringe. Lord Lance ran into them while hunting with his escort. Two guards were killed—their bodies are right there at the tree line—and the Young Master is missing." Hana's voice sharpened with panic.

"Then why are you still standing here? Send the troops out to bring him back!" Knight Leo's brow was furrowed deeply.

"These aren't normal goblins, Hana. They dropped two armored guards in an instant. The farmers say they are massive—Hobgoblins—and they're carrying what looks like... crossbows." Leo sighed heavily.

"Miss Hana, I don't need to explain what crossbows mean. They are forbidden weapons, punishable by death for commoners. Only the Royal Army is permitted to carry them." Before Lord Lance's father failed in his coup, the Baron's guard had an allotment of fifty crossbows. Now, exiled to the fringes of the Magic Forest to clear land, they didn't have a single one. It was a pathetic downfall. Hana flared with anger.

"You're going to stay here and watch the Young Master get taken because they have crossbows? He is in mortal danger! You are his vassals—how can you just stand by?" Shame flickered across the men's faces, but it wasn't enough to move them. Since their exile, the luxury of the capital was gone, along with their honor and ambition. They were the walking dead, living one numb day at a time. Steward Monde spoke softly.

"Please, Miss Hana, be calm. Goblins are bloodthirsty monsters. If the Young Master fell into their hands, he is likely already... gone."

"He's right," Leo added.

"I know goblins better than anyone. Those bastards eat anything; the boy is probably dinner by now. Besides, Hana, you know their nature. They have no females of their own. They rely on... others for reproduction." He let his gaze wander over Hana's shapely figure, his eyes filled with a grim, meaningful look.

"That goblin group is of unknown size and has powerful ranged weapons. We have fewer than ten regulars and a bunch of farmers. If we march out and lose... well, for us men, it's just death. But if you were captured, Hana..." He left the sentence unfinished, but Hana's face turned white as a sheet. As a Magic Academy apprentice, she knew the lore. Goblins were a species cursed by the Goddess of Life; they produced no females.

But the Goblin God, in his final spite before death, used his remaining divinity to bless his race with a lack of reproductive isolation—a "god-tier" mockery of life and a revenge upon the world. She knew exactly what happened to human women in goblin camps. But to leave their lord to such a fate? Meanwhile, on the other side of the clearing, Li Qinwu remained crouched in the shadows. He hadn't left; he was waiting to see if a rescue party would emerge.

If a small group came out, he'd wipe them out to bleed the castle's strength. But after waiting for hours, the gates remained shut tight. Li Qinwu glanced at the "Sleeping Beauty"—the young noble. This kid's status must be lower than I thought if no one's coming for him, he mused, unaware that the boy was actually the highest-ranking person in the settlement. Since they were already exposed, there was no more need for stealth. Li Qinwu turned to Gob-Spear.

"Go bring everyone up. It's time for a proper show."