Chương 27: Chapter 25

More Goblins died by her hand after she came back to the forest for the second time. 13 of them to be exact. Now, the number of her kills went over the theoretical number of births the greenskins were capable of per day and that was good. Incredibly so. The more goblins she killed, the less of them the village needed to deal with when the raid happened. [Goblins Killed: 37] To Sobelle's lack of surprise, the Gods had chosen to keep a tally of her kills.

This was far more accurate than anything she could ever do herself and so she would rely on using this to count her total of slain goblins from now on. 37 Goblins was definitely a lot, everyone knew this. Goblins included. They had a Nogg and the village chief predicted that with their recent losses, that particular goblin would force the tribe to be more cautious. And while that was anathema to a Goblins' existence, Noggs could apparently force their fellow greenskins to follow orders without question.

"No one knows how they do it, maybe they use logic and talk to other goblins!" Was the chief's explanation, he even joked that Goblins could somehow become reasonable when faced with a Nogg. Though he then followed it up with a clarification that no one truly knew how the Noggs controlled their fellow greenskins, and that mages in the past have tried. And failed. To Sobelle, it all sounded like some fantasy some old man cooked up.

And yet the coordination of the greenskins was proof that what the chief said had some truth to them. The man was also wise when it came to the ways of the greenskins, and a wife who hunted them specifically told a story of him being used to killing these things. If the chief told her that the goblins would start their raid tomorrow, she'd believe him and start to prepare. That was how much she trusted his words when it came to fighting greenskins.

Whether or not the rest of the village felt the same way has yet to be seen. Right outside her door was chaos. The streets were filled with the sounds of fighting and panic, but since no one came to her and asked to fight, Sobelle assumed that the problem was minor. The chief determined that the rest of the village was more than enough to deal with whatever the goblins were doing now so it was probably safe. Sobelle spent a few more minutes resting, she did not want to go out right now.

Yesterday exhausted her so much that she did not feel the need to rise so early in the morning to do her physical routine. The goblins attacking this time of the day was a blessing in disguise, as it gave her a reason to not train herself. Yet Sobelle knew that she eventually needed to get up and after a few more minutes of rotting in bed, she hopped down and started her day with a few stretches. Her bones popped from the effort and it felt outright cathartic.

After a full night's rest while physically exhausted, loosening her tense joints was like eating after a famine. Sobelle checked her wounds while she changed bandages. Scabs had grown over the exposed flesh and they were on their way to healing, they wouldn't have the risk of being infected before long. She still threw on a fresh set of bandages of course, as they kept the wounds from being exposed to whatever the goblins threw at her.

She also wore long sleeves on top of the bandages to protect herself even further. Her leather gloves were then used to close off her entire arm. Then came her pants and leather boots. Sobelle walked out to see what the commotion was about after she finished changing. Foul smelling feces were all over the place. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. This was the issue that plagued the village. Quite literally.

"Protect yourselves! Be sure to raise the sails!" Someone shouted just as a ball of brown hit a girl a few feet away from Sobelle. She inhaled in frustration and then regretted it in the same instant.

"Come on! We need to raise them high enough to block the projectiles! — AGH!" Sobelle did not want to know why the guy suddenly started choking. And this was not her fight to win. Sobelle walked back inside her house and decided that she'd wait this one out. She did so much for the village already that she felt that she'd be a slave if she also risked herself getting splashed by goblin feces.

And she knew there was no avoiding anything, should they miss, then the waste would explode outward and tiny pieces of it would hit Sobelle regardless. The thought alone disgusted her. Waiting for the crisis to finish in its entirety does make Sobelle feel guilty but her desire to not mess with feces overpowered her guilt and that is enough to get her to stay behind closed doors. Sobelle practiced how to equip her chainmail while she waited.

She did not know how to do it alone, and her efforts at trying had opened her eyes to the sheer difficulty of doing so. Seriously, how could people live with something like this? Nah, it was actually easy. It was just like a shirt, the only difference is that her hair could sometimes get caught between the chains and that hurt. A lot. After such a useful realization, Sobelle went ahead and practiced with her spearmanship: she grabbed a broom and did stabbing motions with it.

The wooden object was lighter than the spear and it did not have the same weight further down the front due to a lack of a bladed head but the motions helped her arm get used to thrusting. The door opened at some point and in came the chief, he barely commented on Sobelle's sweaty state and just calmly asked her to go out and kill things.

"Goblins are waiting outside our walls, a small army of them. They know that we wouldn't be able to live with the smell of their feces and that the potential diseases we'd get from staying here would only weaken us over time."

"So we have no choice but to kill the army waiting outside?" Sobelle figured something like this would happen. The chief did say the greenskins were cunning, and Noggs were even more so.

"How many are there?"

"I'm not sure, but there's a lot. Can you kill them all?"

"I'd struggle if it's an open field." Sobelle put some thought into the fight and a few ideas on how she'd be able to win appeared.

"But I can win, you won't mind if I request some of the women to go out, right?"

"... What do you have in mind?" The chief looked concerned but also curious.

"In the past, I used a dirty way to deal with one particular goblin who wanted to run away." Sobelle tied her buckler around her wrist. She patted the trusty thing to reassure herself that she'd be fine.

"Right now, those things should be eager. Excited. Right?"

"Yes, or course they would be. They know we're about to either leave or become weak." The chief still hadn't caught on? Sobelle thought he'd be privy to this type of strategy against goblins given that she herself figured it out in the middle of a fight. Someone who's been fighting goblins for years should know of it right?

"Then they're not thinking straight." Sobelle walked out the door.

"Which will make it easier for them to come to us and forget about anything dangerous."

"I don't quite get this."

"Make the village's women stand behind the Palisades, and get a few people to protect them." Sobelle turned back to the chief.

"We're using the goblins' lust against them."

"... I see." His eyes widened in realization and then he nodded.

"It's worth a shot. And once the army has fallen, you'd be able to better take care of the Nogg and the Pudge that he's riding." What? A Pudge came to the village? Sobelle didn't dare voice her concerns and did her best to calm her beating heart. She wasn't sure if she could beat a goblin meant to take damage while also being capable of killing a person in one blow but what else was she supposed to say? That she didn't want to fight?

Everyone gathered right outside the gates, the women who stood behind the Palisades wept heavily, and their husbands and fathers all glared at Sobelle. She did her best to ignore their stare and instead focused on the goblin that would be her enemy. Behind the army of waiting, antsy goblins was a greenskin that towered all the others. It had a massive gut, arms the size of Sobelle's legs, and a body full of warts. It had a face that could only be described as ugly and a mouth that never stopped drooling.

On its back was a smaller goblin that wore a metal helmet and leather armor. It met Sobelle's eyes and she shuddered from the lust in its gaze. She rubbed her arms in discomfort and issued a single command to the crying women.

"Lift your shirts."