Newly Summoned Demoness: Side Story One (Part Two) (Patreon)

“Goblins,” Harlock declared.

There was an eerie silence as the party stared up at the pile of stones that had been topped with the rotten carcass of a [Ralfot]. Elania held her elbow up to her nose to help hide the smell. “Why waste the meat?”

The old mercenary grunted. “Bait. Warning. Take your pick.” He reached out to the rock and pulled off a piece of sticky webbing that dangled from between the stones.

“The map said there were Hornar nests here,” Yolani said before frowning.

“There might have been. Looks like the goblins moved in recently,” Harlock stated.

Elania took a breath and took hold of her [Power] and forced it into her [Tracking] skill as she squatted down to examine the cavern floor. Behind them, their own footprints flashed into a vivid golden relief against the gray stone. Dozens of other markings appeared in a dull dark red all over the walls and ceilings, and even more orange and red markings were interspersed or buried under the friendly footprints.

“He’s right. The spider activity is older than the goblin? Call it a few weeks old, still on the walls and ceiling. The goblins have been through here, a lot of them, but it’s been a few days,” Elania explained.

Yolani shot her a raised eyebrow. “Tracking again?”

Elania nodded. She had used the skill a few times during the expedition to help avoid nasty critters, but it had surprised everyone that she was able to use the skill the way she did with her [Power] boosting.

“Not sure if we should backtrack or see if the greenskins collected any horns,” Harlock said.

A frown crossed Elania’s face. “Sorry if I’m showing my ignorance, but… can you explain goblins to me?”

Kael looked at her like she was daft. “You don’t know what a…goblin is?”

She gave him a glare. “There are a lot of different ideas about what goblins are from where I’m from.” Elania turned to look at Harlock. “I assume from what you said, we’ll be dealing with the monster-bad murder kind? How smart are they? What weapons do they use? They are dangerous enough to take on Hornar spiders?”

Yolani held up her hand to slow down the questions and offered some answers. “They’re smart tool-users. Short, agile, fight in large groups usually. If you spot one, you’ll know there are ten more behind it. They even have shaman magic casters, but those are rare.”

“Are there any other things to know about?” Elania asked.

Yolani raised an eyebrow. “Like?”

“Well, are there male and females? The males don’t get all…rapey and reproduce using other species, do they?” Elania asked.

The entire party stared at her in shock, like she’d turned into a freak. She was already regretting asking the question.

“N…no,” Yolani started. “Not anymore than any other species, anyway. They have their own females, but they generally don’t have visibly unique traits than the males. Both genders fight and hunt.”

“Individually, a goblin wouldn’t stand a chance against a Hornar, but working together, they certainly can. They are craft and if we move toward their lair, we should expect traps,” Harlock added.

“There’s no chance of diplomacy then?” Elania asked.

Yolani and Harlock shook their heads before responding together. “No.”

Elania’s eyes flickered between them, then settled on Yolani.

The other girl bit her lip. “It isn’t technically… impossible. But goblins generally prefer to eat humans, or flee from them. They also don’t use speech, and communicating is nearly impossible since they use telepathy…that only works between them.”

Oh boy. That was certainly different from what she had expected. A frown crept onto Elania’s face before her gaze settled on Yolani. “I don’t just want to murder things indiscriminately, but I trust you. If you think fighting them isn’t bad, then let’s look for the antlers?”

Yolani nodded, then looked to Harlock. “We are here, so we should check. Plus, pushing them further away from the city would probably make other travelers safer, anyway.”

“Agreed,” Harlock said. He turned to look at Elania. “I think it would be best if you use your [Stealth] and take the lead in. Kael and I will guard Yolani, and she can use her spells to take them down from afar.”

Elania nodded. She hadn’t been in any major fights since…since everything went down in the Magistry, but she hadn’t been idle in testing out her new abilities and much heightened capacity for [Power]. This would be a good chance.

In all honesty, she’d expected them to run into something to fight earlier, considering her first expedition through the depths, but they’d only encountered tracks and evidence of dangerous critters.

Checking her [Vorpal Dagger] Elania made sure it slid freely in its sheath, tightened her belt and moved on ahead. Steeping lightly, she moved down the cavern corridor. Her body blended in with the shadows as she switched to actively powering her [Stealth] skill.

A side effect of the skill was that her senses heightened slightly. She could hear the faint scuffle of Kael, Harlock, and Yolani moving to follow behind her at a more sedate pace. As she ventured further into the winding snake-like cavern, signs of goblin activity increased.

There were crudely drawn markings etched onto the cave walls, marked, and painted with a browning paint that was probably dried blood. A sour smell hung in the air, a pungent mix of filth and rot that made her grimace.

Turning a corner around a large boulder, she nearly bumped into a lone goblin. It was short and wiry with grayish-green skin that seemed to blend in with the darkness and stone around it. It was facing away from her and seemed to be fiddling with something in its hands, completely oblivious to her presence.

Elania acted swiftly, drawing her [Power] and lunging forward to plunge her dagger deep into the back of its skull. The blade penetrated easily thanks to her added force. The goblin died instantly, and she caught it and the spear that it had been playing with before they clattered to the ground.

She wiped her blade clean before dragging the corpse behind a rock and continuing forward.

The next area opened up into a large, open, oval-shaped cavern illuminated by yellow moss and fungi that gave off a hue that she hadn’t really seen much of before. Dozens of goblins were scattered around the area, but most were congregated in a small area nestled against one of the cavern walls. Some were sleeping huddled together while others sat in clusters, gnawing at meat or working on crude tools.

There were visible pairs of guards wielding bows and spears, idly standing or walking around as well.

Elania moved up a slope to a small alcove that was partially hidden and began to study them carefully. Her rough count quickly ticked upwards. Her best estimate was about fifty to sixty of them, and she decided it would be best to withdraw and relay what she’d seen back to Harlock and Yolani.

Halfway down the ramp, the sound of dozens of footfalls pricked her ears. Elania quickly hugged the shadows of the cavern wall beside her as she pushed more [Power] into her [Stealth] skill.

The goblins had begun to grab their weapons and stream out of the cavern, straight down the direction she had come—towards the rest of her party!

Elania’s heart pounded in her chest as she moved into action, sprinting alongside the cavern wall, dashing back along the route she had taken.

There was a silent clink as arrows smashed into the stone behind her, the goblins having taken silent aim to fire at her. Two jumped in her way to stop her, but she clawed the ground and tossed a spray of stone shards in their faces before vaulting over them.

She dealt with several other goblins along the way, either with a [Power] infused strike or a vicious slice with her [Vorpal Dagger]. When she rounded the last corner, she skidded to a halt.

Harlock, Kael, and Yolani had taken up defensive positions on top of a small stone plateau with a single ramp up to its top. It was a tactical position, forcing the goblins into a bottleneck as they tried to reach them.

Harlock wielded his spear and shield with a stoic determination, stabbing and slashing at any goblin attempting to rush up the ramp. His strength and experience were clear as he repelled multiple waves of attackers charging up at him.

Kael ran along the outcropping’s edge, using his sword to slash any of the dozen goblins, attempting to scale the nearly vertical surface. Several of them tumbled back down into their comrades below.

Elania’s eyes searched and found Yolani in the center, her wand raised high. Bolts of lightning crackled in controlled bursts, striking down goblins from afar, thinning them out before they joined the ones assaulting the other two.

A wave of arrows flashed forward, fired in a volley, and the girl raised a second wand in her other hand. A blue field flashed into existence from the floor of the outcropping just in front of Kael and Harlock to the ceiling—a protective barrier that caused the incoming arrows to clatter to a stop mid-flight and fall to the ground.

They were holding their own, but Elania bit her lip and scanned the attackers who had lost track of her. Wasting no more time, she drew her [Vorpal Dagger] and pushed a surge of [Power] into her legs, catapulting herself in a high arc off a ledge.

She landed squarely among the group of archers that were preparing for another volley with a heavy thud.

The two nearest began to turn toward the sound she had made, but she moved like a whirlwind. Her dagger sliced through the air with deadly precision, decapitating one and then the other. The blood spray was enough for the system to offer her two familiar messages.

[You have slain Tribe Archer - Goblin - Lvl 77 and Tribe Fighter - Goblin - Lvl 56]

[Absorb the lingering Power from Tribe Archer - Goblin - Lvl 77 and Tribe Fighter - Goblin - Lvl 56?]

Golden motes of light flashed off the two disintegrating corpses as she accepted. The [Power]she had been spending was nearly replaced. Reaching down, she snagged four crude arrows from the quiver of one of the dead goblins.

Charging each projectile with the newly stolen [Power] and amplifying her Rank S [Throwing], she released them with deadly accuracy. The death of six of their archers didn’t go unnoticed, and dozens of the goblins scaling the rock outcropping halted and turned to attack her.

A sense of satisfaction filled her as goblin after goblin fell around her. Yolani’s barrage of bolts fell on the attackers like artillery.

Any that got close enough for Elania’s dagger to reach was dispatched swiftly. A few tried to shoot her with arrows, but she batted them away.

The fight was entirely one sided.

Eventually, their numbers dwindled until finally, the goblins broke and fled all at once, back toward the tunnels to their camp. Magic bolts chased after them and Elania put her throwing skill to use again to turn palm sized stones into deadly missiles.

None of the goblins made it out of sight alive.

Panting heavily and covered in grime and gore, Elania waved up at her friends on their elevated perch. Yolani winced as she waved back.

She moved to join them as they checked their gear and equipment for damage from the fight. “Nice work,” Harlock grunted, nodding to her.

“The mission was to go scout, not pull the entire tribe on us before we knew what we were in for,” Yolani said, crossing her arms.

“What? They didn’t see me? They all just started toward you, without warning.” Elania said, slightly confused.

Yolani frowned. “One of them must have spotted us then, and then called the rest with telepathy.”

Harlock nodded. “Wouldn’t have been hard for one to be skulking about and we didn’t see it. That’s the danger with them.”

“Uhm,” Kael said, capturing everyone’s attention. “What are we going to do with all these…corpses?”

Yolani chuckled, “That won’t be a problem.” She searched in her pouch and pulled out a dim mana shard and offered it to Elania. “Elania can convert them to mana shard charges.”

“Their equipment isn’t likely worth rummaging through. Surprised they managed to run off the Hornar, actually,” Harlock commented.

Elania accepted the shard and tested it with her [Mana Manipulation]. It wasn’t a massive one. Those were still rare in the city because of the previous shortage, but it was decently sized and there were enough dead goblins around that she’d be able to recharge herself to full and probably fill the shard halfway.

That took a good thirty minutes to accomplish, simply because of how many goblins had been killed.

The others took the time to mend their equipment, wash off via Yolani’s cleaning wand, and keep watch for any more dangers. When Elania returned with the nearly full mana shard, she returned it to the artificer.

Yolani offered her a smile, then a clean-up with the artificer wand. It really was convenient, and Elania had no complaints.

“Everyone ready?” Harlock asked.

Kael and Yolani nodded.

“Let’s move on,” Elania said, pointing towards where she’d located the goblin camp. “I didn’t get a good look, but I thought I saw some antler-like things in their camp.”

The party followed her lead quietly, picking their way around the remnants of the goblin’s gear. The ‘settlement’ was everything she remembered, except the smell was worse as they got closer. Rotten food and filth felt like a punch to her gut and not for the first time, Elania was cursing the [Darkwalker] trait that gave her an extra-sensitive nose.

There were signs of hurried abandonment everywhere—discarded tools, strewn belongings—and in one corner of the cavern a pile of damaged Hornar antlers.

Yolani’s hopeful expression turned into disappointment as she examined them. “Damn. They are too damaged to be of any use.”

“Looks like they were using them for the arrows,” Harlock muttered.

Elania’s gaze swept over the crafting area. The half-constructed arrows laid in a pile. What a waste. She sighed. “At least we know there are Hornar in the area, right? If they could hunt them, we should be able to find some.”

She turned her [Tracking] up and focused on looking for clues. Sure enough, she spotted the signs where the spiders had fled from the cavern. Elania pointed further down the chamber to where a large tunnel branched off. “Looks like some escaped from the battle and fled that way.”

Harlock grunted, a grim look crossing his face. “Well, it looks like we’re going deeper then,” he said gruffly.

Kael groaned at that and looked to Yolani. She was the expedition leader, so the decision was ultimately up to her.

Green eyes locked onto Elania’s before the young woman made a small nod. “We’ll keep going. I don’t think there are any waystations in that direction, so we’ll need to keep that in mind.”

Elania nodded and led the way, senses alert for ambush.