Bab 17: Portents
An air of tension hung in the presence around the Guildmaster as he reclined in his office. In front of him still sat the paperwork from yesterday, but reading it over now was far from his mind. With the country's garrison stationed with the other Nation Alliance armies up north, the bulk of patching the holes of the city's defenses had fallen on to the guild.
The Alliance may be compensating us with a considerable sum of money, he thought, but we don't have enough bodies to help with both the patrols in and around the city. Let alone deal with helping out policing the highway.
With the threat of Dmitri's Privateers gone thanks to Arlan, the casualties among the militia and his own adventurers have dropped considerably. But now news reached him of an orc sty in the southern forests. One terrible group merely replaced with another.
He had already sent out his own scouting group, but the forest was too vast for just one. It stretched many miles south almost reaching the borders of Tonelli and Weiss. If he didn't hear from them today, he'll have to form more to help them. The Guildmaster decided to increase the monetary compensation to give them a bit more motivation to search thoroughly. They haven't had to deal with an orc sty in decades. With more younger adventurers filling the ranks, they don't realize how much devastation an sty could do if left alone long enough.
Should he be a bit more strict when managing the guild? The thought passed his mind. Threats like these never go away. With Arlan's sudden appearance, his motivation to do more has never been stronger. Physically, at least. He would hate to say it, but Arlan might already surpass the majority of the A-Rankers already in strength alone. If he continued their evening training, with his intuition in battle, it wouldn't be a surprise if he claimed the top spot as Haldin's strongest. Before him at least. The Guildmaster was retired but he wasn't ready to pass his titles on to the next generation just yet. The world had shown him in these recent times how far a person can go. He wouldn't let something like age stop him.
There was a sudden knock on his door, "Come in!" he shouts.
The door opened as Vella stepped in. Her face was plastered with concern, "Guildmaster Kurtz," she gave him a polite greeting that was tinged with worry.
"What's wrong, girl? If you're here about the paperwork, I haven't finished it yet."
Her annoyance started to creep in, "You STILL haven't finished it!? I told you yesterday that- wait no! That isn't why I'm here!" She flattened her blouse with her hands as means to recompose herself, "We just got word from a few of our returning parties that there's been several incidents on the southern highway. A couple of caravans have been attacked in speedy succession."
The Guildmaster was incredulous, "What!? What was the patrol doing at the time?"
"According to them, they were consistently being attacked by a small horde of goblins, Guildmaster. They were holed up on one portion of the road by one group while another was raiding travelers on the road."
The Guildmaster sat back in his chair and thinking, "Hmm, they were stalling for time while the rest of their group was coordinating an attack on wagons? Did they steal supplies?"
"That's the thing, Guildmaster. Nothing was stolen. The caravan's weren't looted. But there had been kidnappings."
Kurtz stood on end, "Kidnappings? Explain!"
"All of the caravans had someone taken from them by goblins. Almost all of them children and only a handful of adults. We've counted at least twelve missing so far. There's been no fatalities but we have a few survivors that are critically injured and being rushed to the healers- wha, Guildmaster?"
Vella started to back away. For the first time since she started working as his secretary, the Guildmaster showed a thunderous expression on his face.
"Vella! I need you to go downstairs and tell everyone, as of this moment, they are to stay in the guild on standby along with anyone else that comes through that door! Grab a few people and have them search the streets for others and tell them to return to the guild as well. Send one to the garrison too. We'll need every one of their spare soldiers. Find me any group with tracking skills and have them start searching around the area where the goblins attacked!"
Kurtz shouted his orders at Vella who complied and rushed out the room. Taking a second for a breath, the Guildmaster walks over to his small armory and pulls out an intricate sword from it. It seemed to shimmer with mana at his touch.
"Looks like I'll be joining the fray for this one, personally," he tells himself.
The portents had shown itself. He thought he'd have more time but whoever was leading this sty was rushing everything forward. He hopes by them playing their hand so quickly, they would be reckless and not bother covering their tracks.
The Guildmaster was worried about those kidnapped kids and adults. He was even more worried about what was going to happen to them. This Sowmother that brought the orcs together, he thought, had a peculiar taste in flesh if they wanted to capture so many children...
Kurtz hopes deep in his heart that they won't be too late.
***
I spend the rest of my day wandering around in the forest but I finally managed to find a bunch of little footprints in the dirt. These must be the goblins if they're this small. My luck seemed to be coming around now. The kids in the village haven't entered the forest in a while so it couldn't have been them.
I followed them westward until the sun started to set in the sky. There was overcast forming and daylight was severely diminish. I had to find them fast but I couldn't risk letting them detect me. This body isn't suited for stalking unfortunately. I even asked Oracle if I had some kind of stealth mode but she said no. I guess having a light deflecting function wasn't an option.
I continued on, monitoring Oracle's threat detection until I made it to a clearing. And my goblins. They were all on the ground dead with the majority of the bodies smashed in and pulverized. Huh, that's odd. Did some adventuring party happen to come across these guys and defeat them? Taking a close look, I noticed their ears weren't cut off or their bodies dismantled for materials. Whoever did this just straight killed them. Maybe someone with a strange vendetta against them, I wonder. But this was a lot of carnage. Like they were all smashed in with a giant club.
A club like those orcs had from yesterday. They were strong enough to do something like this to them. When they struck down on my body or when I stopped their clubs with my arms, it was like trying to dead lift five hundred pounds of weight. Their full force swing was deadly.
But why kill these goblins? Guildmaster Kurtz said the sty would start taking goblins in for slave labor. A handful of orcs shouldn't have problems dealing with a dozen goblins like these. Maybe they refused to be taken prisoner and wanted to go out fighting? But if orcs are stalking the forest, maybe it's best if I return back to the village. The heavy clouds were starting to cover the sky now. I'll have to stay the night at the village and search for the orcs in the morning. I hope the sty we're searching for isn't this close to them.
The sun seemed to follow a similar path across the sky like Earth so I used that to get my bearings and traveled north out of the forest. It wasn't long until I hit the wagon trail again and followed it heading east. To tell you the truth, I was a bit worried about everyone at the village and hurried along with my step. If an orc raiding party were to attack, those guys wouldn't stand a chance. No surprlus garrison means no regular patrols for the farmlands. The Region Lord is putting way to much on the guild to keep things in order.
It was twilight when I finally saw the village on the horizon in front of me. Unfortunately, my fears started to come alight when I heard screaming echoing in the distance. No, please I hope I'm not too late! I put myself into high gear as I sprint at high speed towards it. If this was any other time, I would be marveling at how quickly I ran. Getting around in a tireless body like mine would be a snap. This use, however, would be put to good use to get me over to the villagers as fast as possible.
As I got closer, I started noticing the damage the houses received. It was like a bulldozer had run amok. Some houses had even collapsed. Were they trying to loot the place?
[Warning! Multiple Enemies detected!]
Oracle blasted her sirens in my head as red pips illuminated my screen. They're all over the village! By the time I reached the square there were two orcs leisurely swatting away any of the villagers attempting to protect their homes.
"Hey!! Everyone get away from here!!" I made my presence known as the villagers started to scatter and give me space to fight the orcs. Were these the only ones? The rest of me goblins then. I'll have to take care of these two first before I hunted down the rest.
I pulled out my sword and got into a stance. The orcs didn't seem to concerned with my presence. They were just as armored as the orcs from the other day too, wielding those same large wooden clubs. These ones had crude metal spikes embedded around their ends however.
"Bibbiibibibib!" Both of them shouted what seemed like a challenge towards me. In any case, I was ready for them. I stood my ground, waiting for them to attack me.
The attack never came though. They just stood there watching me. Fine. I'll bring the fight to them. I closed the distance between one of the orcs and swung towards it's exposed legs. It simply dodged and stood back again.
The other orc saw a chance and swung down hard with it's hammer. I jumped back and avoided it's attack. It paired up again with it's partner, waiting for another of my attacks.
What the hell? These orcs were barely as aggressive as the orcs from the other day! They're just standing there and waiting for me. Were they just smarter or do they know about me? I was sure there was only three orcs then. Oracle didn't detect any more on the radar.
Radar? Wait... there's only two red pips now on my screen. The orcs in front of me. Where did the rest of the hostiles go?
Something's wrong. Something's definitely wrong. The orcs aren't attacking. No...they're just stalling me!
I have to finish this now! If they're just waiting for me to attack then...
A tan magic circle appeared above my fist. I slammed it hard into the ground.
"[Tremor]!"
From my fist's impact shot out two cracks that snaked it's way towards the orcs. Small fissures erupted and cracked from beneath their feet, knocking their huge bodies off balanced. Taking this opportunity I rushed over and sliced off the leg of one of the orcs, following it up with a stab to it's face as my blade rushed to meet it stumbling down. My Rocket Fist shot out at the other orc at high speed, hitting it in it's pump jugular. I grabbed hold of the orc as my body launched itself towards it using the retraction of my fist's cord and smashed it's face in with my right hand.
The training with the Guildmaster was paying off. Following up my attacks was a bit easier now. Once I hunt down the rest of this group, I'll have to go spar again with him. But why were the orcs biding their time? Did they have some kind of plan to take me out? For now, I should heal whoever I can. The villagers started to gather up the wounded and taking a head count.
"Is everyone alright!?" I shouted to get their attention. I have some training in mass casualty situations. Doing triage would be effective here before I start doing what I can with healing, "Anyone who's ambulatory and lightly wounded, I need you to come to-"
"The children! The children are gone!!"
A woman came running into the square, screaming in terror. The kids are missing? Wait, I don't see Niklas or Lily around...
I ran over to the woman, "Where were they? Where did you keep them!?"
She takes a second before realizing who I was. She was the basket weaver from this morning, "Y-You're the adventurer from before, right!? Please, you have to help the Chief! He was with the children and he's been gravely injured!!"
Pointing over towards her home, I rushed over and found the door barely hanging on. Whatever did this wanted to get in here quickly. I found the Chief slumped beside the wall with his gut slashed open. His intestines were trying to escape.
He looked up warily at me, "Arlan... you're.. back..."
I moved quickly and knelt down beside him. There's too much blood. I don't think I can heal this... "Chief, don't speak! You're hurt badly!"
"Don't.. worry about... me. Those... goblins broke in... took all... the kids... ran off. Gave...me this... when I tried..."
Niklas and Lily..! "Hey! Someone else come in here! Get me a blanket for his wounds!!" We need to keep those organs in his body and cover up his wounds. I can't use my healing spell if his guts won't stay inside.
"No It's.. too late... you... save those... kids." His pained breathing stopped. The old man's eyes glossed over as life left his body.
The villagers came in and took at look at the scene. The sounds of sobs and cries filled the air. I stood up and addressed them. "Who's the least injured?" a hand shot up. A young man with a few bruises on his face, "I need to you run back to the city. Tell the garrison captain and the Guildmaster what happened here and have them send help. When they get here, tell them I'll send up a [Fireball] in the air. That's my signal saying I've found the Sty."
The young man nods at me when one of the older gentleman shouts, "Shaun, take of the horses and run it down there! Run it to exhaustion if you have to!" he looks back at me, "You're going to look for the kids, right!? Let us come with you!"
"No! I know you're worried about the children but coming with me is a death wish! Where I'm headed is going to be full of orcs and goblins. Do you think you can take them all on with shoddy weapons and pitchforks!?"
The group grimaces. I don't blame them. I'd rush out there too if my kids were on the line. But I need to hurry and find them. For the village and the Chief's sake.
Their tracks weren't too hard to find. So many tiny feet heading deep into the forest. I need to hurry.
A clap of thunder roared as lighting flashed in the sky. A storm was starting.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone