Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

“Alright everyone, it has come to our attention that there are several locations down in the cavern that are teaming with goblins.” Lyra said to the leaders of each group. I was attending this meeting as well since I was the one who delivered the information regarding these locations. “The first location that was discovered was a large camp that contains somewhere between one hundred and two hundred goblins. From the information we have this is most likely a settlement of sorts with farm land and established with a local military and industry.”

Lyra held up one of the chest plates that I took from a dead goblin hunter to the group leaders. The outside was just the standard cheap iron, but the inside had actual pink leather padding separating the skin from the metal. While it wasn’t uncommon in powerful goblin societies, these types of things typically are a sign of trouble for the non spawn of the abyss.

“The other two locations are smaller and far better hidden from everything else, they are what appear to be naturally forming caves with a decent amount of plant life obscuring them from view if you are not specifically looking. Given the advancement of the goblins in terms of weaponry we are almost certain that there is one or more goblin warlords within those hidden caves.” I didn’t know last time just how dangerous goblin warlords were. I had to ask Lyra what that meant and I was both surprised and worried by the answer.

A goblin warlord is a goblin who is not only powerful enough to become a leader but also smart enough to make large changes to the societal structure. Things like farming are typically foreign concepts to goblins who mostly live off things they can hunt, warlords change that by making things change, typically by force. The only good thing about the situation is that the goblins are still just as cowardly as they were with their normal poor leadership.

Thinking about the warlord, the demon, and the situation we are heading towards I could feel my heart start to thump in my chest. I held my hand against my chest just above my heart and I felt it beat rapidly for a moment. ‘Dear gods, I am terrified aren’t I. I just hope that Lyra doesn’t suggest that we target the ‘warlords’ in two separate groups at the same time like last time.’

I continued watching off to the side of the tent as Lyra explained the layout and the rough numbers of goblins at each of the caves. I watched until she started talking about the actual plan of attack and the group composition. “At the moment we are planning to split into two groups for our offensive. The first group will be attacking the first location shown here and the second group will be attacking the second location here. Any questions?”

I could tell that Lyra was trying to get things to move along as fast as possible, but I knew I had to say something. I wasn’t strong enough to kill a demon on my own, but I was knowledgeable enough to know it was there and how I could steer the conversation.

“I have something to comment.” I said, stepping away from the corner. Everyone's eyes immediately turned to me with a mix of surprise and confusion amongst them.

“Uh, of course. Go ahead Arthur, you were the one to give us this information.” Lyra said as she took a step back, while she did just reveal the source of all the information she had, everyone was a bit more focused on what I wanted to say for the moment.

“I suggest that both groups go to the first cave together and then once everything is cleared up there they go to the second.” I looked at the faces of each of those present, while Aelia was hard to read because of her helmet she always wore everyone else was far more expressive, especially my good ‘friend’ Saturio Quintilius.

‘He knows something, someone has told him about the demon down there and wants him to retrieve it before we do. I assume it was the same person who gave him that powerful pill that gave him the physical strength to pull it off.’ I said within my own mind as I studied the reaction of the young asshat who got one of my very first friends killed the last time.

“When attacking the first cave the first group will be directly on the offensive while the second group should be on standby nearby to keep any stragglers from escaping or in case something happens to the first group. These goblin warlords aren’t idiots, they managed to figure out farming, who knows what else they have figured out.”

“Would we be correct in assuming that we would be doing the same thing at the second cave as well?” Aelia asked as she stepped forward and pointed to the second cave on the small map Lyra laid out on the table.

“Yes, that is what I had in mind. Only the second group would be leading the offensive and the first group would be on standby. Does anyone else have anything they want to say?” Looking at the faces I could tell that all of them somewhat liked and agreed with my plan even if they didn’t fully agree, everyone except Saturio Quintilius. I could see that he was smiling and nodding along like he agreed, but he was biting his bottom lip in a small show of his true feelings regarding the plan.

Lyra suddenly walked up next to me and placed her hand on my armored shoulder. “Well if nobody has any objections to this plan that your friend Arthur has come up with then I see no reason why we can’t implement it.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Saturio bit his lip harder and his body tensed up, he wasn’t liking the directions things were heading in.

********

Around a half hour later and everyone aside from myself and Lyra had cleared out of the tent a few seconds prior to tell their subordinates about the plan and what to expect.

“Is there something you wanted to say Arthur?” Lyra asked while sounding a little confused.

“Yes actually, well more of a question but you get the idea.” I replied and Lyra looked at me with even more confusion.

“Did you notice the reaction of that last team leader, the one on the very end of the line everyone was in that was carrying a sword on his hip.”

“No I didn’t, I was paying more attention towards your explanation and plan. Why? Was it something I should be worried about?” While her statement about giving most of her attention to me was nice it wasn’t really what I was hoping for.

“When I was explaining my plan and the fail safe in case something happens to the group that is fighting inside the caves he started to look rather worried, he even started to bite his lip. When you said you saw no reason not to use my plan he bit his lip even harder yet he didn’t say or do anything the entire time, almost like he was worried about something.”

Lyra went silent as I explained what I saw, when I was done she still remained silent while she was in deep thought. Eventually she spoke up once again. “Saturio has been a rather troublesome individual, I assumed that his deployment here where we requested reinforcements upon discovering the vast size of the city was due to being nobility. But given what you just pointed out makes him a little suspicious.”

I almost smiled at that statement, I knew he would betray us at the first opportunity he would get but that was only because I already experienced it first hand. “Do you think he was sent here to sabotage you and your mercenaries?” I asked, trying to find a more realistic scenario for Lyra to decide upon rather than stealing a powerful demon warlock.

“That is certainly possible, but he might be here to undermine my credibility and take charge of the expedition himself while making me look like an incompetent fool. Just some standard political play that might even have the backing of my extended adopted family”

‘Family problems, I never heard anything about that last time. Must be because I’ve changed a good portion of the expedition and have shown myself as a far more valuable ally far earlier than before. Regardless this is a good turn of events, the more Lyra thinks this is a large political scheme to humiliate her the more careful and cautious she will be.’

“That is definitely a worst case scenario, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Is there anything you can do to mitigate what he can do, like having someone keep an eye on him?”

“Yes, I can have someone keep an eye on Saturio. Though I will need to speak with them personally and soon. I may even need to get someone to search his tent when we leave to attack the two goblin warlords within the caves.” Lyra sighed deeply and leaned back in her chair. “Honestly I just hope that we are both wrong about him, who knows what kind of political fallout will happen if he actually is involved with something.”

*********

While seated by the fire and thinking back to my conversation with Lyra reminded me of something I once heard while walking the poorest parts of the southern district in Antium. “It's only illegal if you get caught.” I was tempted to say the same thing to Lyra when she spoke of searching Saturio’s tent while everyone was away but I decided against it.

‘Not worth messing with her mind and feelings when we have something so serious just around the corner. I expect her to do the right thing, and even if she doesn’t search the tent I don’t think Saturio can keep himself from getting into trouble.’

It wasn’t hard to imagine Saturio trying to steal the phylacterium at night when everyone was sleeping. Telling Lyra to keep it somewhere safe and secure would be a top priority both for keeping it safe and proving that Saturio was trying something. But that unfortunately would need to wait as right now we were in the middle of a debriefing with everyone involved.

The normal guards that were keeping an eye upon the food and the wagons were the only ones to stay behind while everyone else was sorted into two groups of roughly equal power. Citro was leading the first group this time along with Aelia, her subordinates, and the other mercenaries. Everyone else including myself were assigned to the second group which was being led by Lyra. ‘Looks like I may get an opportunity yet to see Lyra using her full power. That demon warlock won't even know what is coming when it tries to trap us inside its cave.’

“One last thing before we head out today.” Lyra suddenly said when I figured she was done talking. “Both Citro and myself will have a small crystal that upon being crushed will crush the other through powerful magic. These crystals will be used to signal that something has happened to those carrying the other, if for whatever reason something happens and either myself or Citro are incapable of using the crystal ourselves then someone else will need to.”

Lyra showed a small dim gemstone that looked very similar to the mana stones that I needed to try my hand at golemancy. The only difference was that its color was a bit off with a slight tinge of purple and if it was enchanted like I thought it was I wasn’t certain how what is basically crystalized mana would react to the inscriptions that it would require.

I tried standing up to get a better look but I was quickly interrupted by everyone else who all did the same only to collect their things for the offensive strike against the goblins. I tried to look above everyone but even then Lyra quickly pocketed the crystal hiding it from my sight.

*********

The walk down to the cavern was slow and nerve racking, my thoughts flipped from what has already happened to what might happen in both good and bad aspects. The only thing that kept me steady was the possibility of Saturio failing in stealing the demon soul and having to keep his mouth shut as he loses the opportunity forever.

When we finally reached the hole in the wall we entered in a single file line and took up position on the actual ground where the fungus was growing on the dirt ground. About a third of those were carrying lit torches or conjured light within the cavern as everyone sorted into their assigned groups, I quickly found a spot close to Lyra in the group I was in. I wanted to be close enough to see her magic in action when we started to fight.

Soon we started our march towards the first cave divided into our two groups, group one led by Citro would take the left side of the cave while we in group two would take the right side. After what felt like an hour of walking we eventually arrived upon our target.

Outside the cave we saw several of the glowing crystals that were within the dwarven city in the stone wall illuminating the outside of the cave, we were able to see all of the goblins that were standing on guard that looked rather bored and unhappy with their position.

Following our orders from both Citro and Lyra each group took its own side and circled around while cutting their own light sources to stay hidden. Everyone with a ranged weapon or magic prepared their own long range attack while those with only melee weapons readied themselves to run the moment they were allowed to.

When the order was finally given everyone attacked immediately and like a barrage of arrows all the projectiles hit quickly and were very impactful. Around half of the goblins that were standing outside the cave were either killed or too severely wounded to continue fighting. Those that were still mostly healthy or untouched by the attack had their own weapons on hand to try and counter the attack.