Chương 46: Chapter 43

Mornings were never slow for Sobelle; every single one of them always had a quick pace where she had to leave early and get started on the routine the Gods had given her so that she finished it as early as she could. This sort of schedule happened after the Goblins lost because she believed that they'd overwhelm her if she did not work hard. It never sat right with her to stand still while they prepared to bring her down.

Now that she knew that she also grew at the same rate, she was no longer as worried compared to before. If anything, she believed that it was the greenskins who needed to worry about her growth. She would be far stronger than whatever army the Nogg prepared if she was allowed to grow at the same rate she currently did!

"Good morning Sobelle, you seem to be in a good mood. Did anything happen?" The chief asked when he saw her step out of the room wearing a giant smile. He raised one eyebrow in amusement when Sobelle didn't answer.

"Are you going to continue with your morning training?"

"I will, but before that, I think that I want to talk to you." Sobelle's good mood died down a little bit and she sat on a chair. She looked Werren in the eyes, "can you teach me about how greenskins move whenever they're in a situation like they are right now? I've pushed them to the deeper parts of the forest and now I'm struggling to find them so I need your help in figuring out how to track their actual camp so I can take the fight to where they are."

Raiding Goblins instead of being raided was like the kind of thing heroes did. She was no longer some helpless peasant who relied on the guards of a village, no, she had become something akin to a predator who hunted down those who dared encroach in her territory. Naturally, Sobelle's confidence was quickly shut down by the chief and the pride she wore at being able to choose to attack a greenskin camp instead of helplessly praying everyone else won for her sake was dashed away.

The chief had a way of dealing with greenskins, and every time, he would say the same words.

"Don't be overconfident. That is how the greenskins get to you, when you start to think that they are weak, you will underestimate them and Goblins should rarely be underestimated. You will always fight them with everything you've got while being cautious, do you understand that?" The chief stopped and waited for her to show some sign that she agreed and understood what he just said. Sobelle nodded.

"Good, that's the right way to think every time you fight those things." He mirrored Sobelle's serious expression as he took the seat in front of her. He reached out and held Sobelle by the hand, as if to say 'I am going to guide you, so heed my words well' but silence was all there was between them until the chief finally spoke again.

"Right now, the Nogg wants nothing more than to recover. He has instructed all the female Goblins how to make traps and has definitely figured out how to sharpen branches into spears. Do you understand what this means?" The chief was being vague so of course Sobelle had to shake her head.

"It means that those female Goblins will mother more greenskins and then teach them how to make traps the same way the Nogg did. They might even know how to make spears now."

"So it's better if I go out there and find them as soon as possible—""Not yet. They are wary and cautious, they want you to find them. Because once you do, they will trap you and beat you." The chief inhaled slowly, then said.

"You do not fight greenskins in their own territory, not unless you know everything they did to improve it. You might even get sick in the middle of battle, and that will only further weaken you, making you more vulnerable."

"People don't get sick easily don't they?" Sobelle felt wrong to choose that one thing to point out but she understood most of the things the chief said anyway and this was the only one that confused her. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"You will, fighting Goblins in their own territory isn't some one and done deal that happens instantly, you need to rest, you will spend ages trying to kill so many greenskins within an area that they've already memorized, and all of that combined means you'll be spending a lot of time fighting. Recovery will be a luxury once you're in the depths of their home." Which made sense, Sobelle supposed.

Of course fighting an army would take a while, she felt that the same thing would have happened during the raid if she hadn't thought of baiting the invading greenskins into jumping at the palisades that she built around the village. Really, she got lucky that she only needed to fight a Pudge instead of an army of nimble Goblins that came at her from every angle conceivable. Not even her [Flow State] would save her from such a wide range of attacks.

"What if I ambushed them like I always did?" Sobelle felt that she had gotten good at doing that, so she was confident she'd be able to win if she took the Goblins by surprise in their own camp.

"You can't ambush Goblins in their own home, they do that to you instead." The chief immediately killed the possibility of that idea coming to fruition. He gently patted Sobelle's head.

"I know it's good that you are confident in killing them but you should never think that you are an impenetrable fortress." Did the chief know what he was implying by saying that?

"You are only human, you will get exhausted, and the large numbers of Goblins will eventually overwhelm you."

"Okay I get that but you haven't really taught me anything about killing Goblins, isn't it important that I know what to do beyond simply not trying to exhaust myself by avoiding fighting them upfront and relying on ambushes?" She forgot to mention that to avoid large groups as well and decided that mentioning it wasn't worth it.

"Yes, you are right. Perhaps I have only warned you about the danger of Goblins and the threat they represent." The chief quickly agreed. He paused, then said, "let me ask you something, when it comes to fighting greenskins, what do you think is the best strategy?"

"Ambushes?" Sobelle had done that so far and she'd succeeded.

"Ambushes work with anyone, not just greenskins. I'm talking about what is the thing you need to do if you want to be effective in killing them." With how the chief worded things, Sobelle thought he was implying Goblins had a major weakness she could exploit. What was that? She wanted to say to rely on using their insatiable lust against them but that felt too obvious and the chief clearly wanted something other than that.

And it wasn't like he'd thought about it before Sobelle suggested it to him, so he definitely dealt with greenskins in a different way than she did.

"I'm not sure." Sobelle gave up. Much like how the chief couldn't think of a way to use a Goblin's lust to his advantage during a fight while Sobelle could, she too was unsure what the chief did when fighting greenskins.

"When fighting Goblins, it is best to remember that they are small and weak, their agility is their biggest strength but it is also their biggest weakness." Was the chief explaining something Sobelle already knew? He continued.

"See, Goblins are fast hunters and they rely on that too much, so you slow down. And you frustrate them." Sobelle remembered when she kept dodging the rocks the Goblins threw at her the first time she encountered the greenskins. Was that what he meant? If so, then she could definitely see some use for making the Goblins angry during a fight. She's always used their emotions against them, even during an ambush. But also, wouldn't dodging the rocks they throw exhaust her?

Sobelle didn't think that was a good idea to do in a prolonged fight.

"How do you frustrate a Goblin?" Sobelle needed other ways that didn't involve exhausting herself.

"You do not react, you slowly back away, and when you show no fear while carefully navigating around them, the Goblins would get irritated as they are used to quick hunts that last only a second. This is when you can move and fight, they will not be as sharp as they normally would be. Making them easy targets."

"Don't react. Got it." Sobelle wasn't sure if she ever did something like this, as her ambushes always lasted for a few seconds because she fought and killed Goblins at equal speed. Which worked better for her.

"I'll keep that in mind." Sobelle stood up and got ready for her daily routine. She kept the chief's words in mind but didn't intend to follow them fully. He said himself back when she and Thetras ran together: Sobelle had her own way of fighting and so did everyone else.

'But maybe I can add his wisdom to how I fight from now on?'