“Are they supposed to be scouting in large groups like this?”

  “No, you can thank your other scouting party for that.”

  This time, Carlos didn’t make a troubled expression since he didn’t feel any malice in my words. It was a fact that the other party caused this to make the goblins wary. I suppose I was part of the blame too, since I killed fifty of them yesterday. I would never admit that I was a part of the problem, though. Since it was basically our job to hunt monsters to survive.

  In any case, the goblins were moving around the area in groups of ten, and I could see at least three groups like that. In the best-case scenario, considering the area, they would have six groups like this, and in the worst-case scenario, they would have nine groups like that. That didn’t change things that much, given the numbers on both sides. However, their numbers would give enough time for the enemies on the fortress to ready themselves.

  “What do you think we should do, Sean?”

  “Silence them before the other groups realize our presence is impossible. We need to charge right straight in and dispose of as many enemies as possible before they can make all of their forces come at us. If they are smart enough, they might try to send their defenses on the fortress, but with mages on our side, I don’t think that they will.”

  Carlos took a moment to consider my suggestion, his expression thoughtful as he weighed the risks and benefits. His eyes then moved toward Maya, who gave a small nod in response. Whether she was agreeing with the plan or simply acknowledging the discussion was hard to tell, but Carlos seemed to take it as a sign of support. He turned back to me, his features firm with resolve, and returned my nod. Without wasting any more time, he decided to retreat to where the rest of the group was waiting, ensuring they were all informed of our strategy. A coordinated attack would be necessary if we wanted to take advantage of the situation.

  Despite our best efforts to remain efficient, there was no denying that charging straight toward the enemy’s fortress, which was still two kilometers away, would drain some of our stamina before the actual battle. Ideally, we would conserve our strength for the fight itself, but allowing the goblins to regroup or warn their forces was a greater risk. Speed was essential, and if we could take down as many enemies as possible before they organized themselves, the battle would be in our favor. However, there was always the possibility that we were underestimating them. If they had ways to signal the fortress faster than anticipated, we could end up running straight into a fully prepared defense.

  “Can you snipe some of them from here? If you give me enough time, I can create an explosion that can blast their defenses?”

  “Why would you want to do that now, of all times?”

  “If they find only two enemies here, they might come at us instead of warning the others. The explosion will knock them down and the others won’t know for sure what has happened.”

  Maya had a point, but I couldn’t help but frown as to why she didn’t follow Carlos and gave this idea when he just left. Did she want to lure me into some kind of trap? For all intentions and purposes, she shouldn’t have much mana and her spells should consume a lot of it if she really could do that much.

  “I will take responsibility for the plan if something happens. In any case, we need to move to the west side of the area. That way, the others won’t be noticed until the last moment.”

  She had a point… she looked like a kid, but she had a good head for this. That also made me wary given that I didn’t hear that she gave such ideas before.

  “All right, let’s do this. Still, I will warn you. If you want to cause trouble to me, you better not miss your attacks. My arrow certainly won’t.”

  Maya nodded and then we began to move toward the west side of the area. She followed my lead and soon we found ourselves between two groups of enemies. One that was one on our left side and another that was on the right side. They were walking from right to left, so we could see the back of one group while the other was heading straight at us.

  “All right, I will start the attack. How much time do you need?”

  “Five seconds.”

  “Okay, blast them away when they are close enough, or we won’t finish them off before the next group approaches… By the way, do all the mages do that too?”

  “No, I have a gem that can allow me to do that, thanks to my master.”

  It seemed that all the guild masters were weirdos who wanted to be called master. In any case, since she received a gem, she was probably the best mage that the guild master had taught in this round. That would explain a lot. Regardless, we didn’t have time to waste anymore and soon I raised from the grass and then got ready to attack the goblins ahead.

  As soon as I felt my aim steady, I unleashed the first arrow, and the projectile pierced the back of the monster with ease. The arrow flew while emitting a red burning light that ignited upon impact like it was covered in oil. With a grunt, the creature fell forward and soon the monsters saw the body. Before they could turn around to see me, I fired another arrow, and another enemy was stuck in the back.

  The monsters found both of us and began to charge while snarling instead of shouting. In the next three seconds, three more of them were hit and fell on the ground, dead. At the same time, I felt the heat around me increasing exponentially. All of a sudden, a fireball passed above me and toward the enemies. It was not bigger than a human head, but when it hit the first enemy, it engulfed the creature in flames and then exploded. It didn’t make any noise, but it engulfed an area of five meters in flames.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I had only expected the goblin directly hit by the fireball to die, but what happened next caught me off guard. While the first one was reduced to charcoal almost instantly, the others caught in the blast flailed on the ground, their bodies engulfed in flames. They writhed for a few seconds, their grunts fading as their movements slowed, and soon they stopped altogether. The fire hadn’t just wounded them, it had burned them to death in mere moments. That kind of power wasn’t normal for a typical mage, at least not one at her level.

  Watching the aftermath, I could only assume that Maya had specialized entirely in raw magic power. Most mages would balance their stats to use magic as often as possible, but she seemed to have gone all in on sheer destructive force. It explained why her fireball had such devastating effects, despite its small size. If she had other spells of similar intensity, then she was far more dangerous than I initially thought. She probably didn’t.

  “The others are coming.”

  Maya almost choked me while pulling my cloak while I was lost in thought. Soon I turned around and confirmed that the next group of goblins was getting in range… it seemed that they didn’t see the effects of the fireball yet.

  I didn’t know how many of those she could use, so I had to be more steady when it comes to attacking. It would be a good idea to let her use her magic on the goblin boss, but that would make the challenge too easy, not a real challenge to me. Once again, I killed five of them before Maya had the chance to use her concentrated fireball, but the goblins were smart enough to jump away. Not a single one of them was hit by the attack, but three of them were engulfed by the flames. I finished off the two others that escaped with arrows, while the other three burned to death.

  I checked the area to confirm the results of the plan, and I could see Carlos and the others moving in our direction, but after I confirmed that the other groups still hadn’t realized anything, I pointed to the gate of the fortress, the closest one. Carlos understood the message and soon made the group jog toward the gate.

  “Let’s approach the next group of scouts. How many more spells can you use?”

  “Three of the same level.”

  “Save them for when you truly need it.”

  I wanted to tell Maya to join the main group, but I decided to keep her around in case of an emergency. I felt a bit pathetic for thinking like that, but I also wanted to be sure that she shouldn’t die so soon and would be able to use her magic freely under the best conditions to kill as many enemies as possible and I knew that I could make sure of that.

  We advanced faster than the main group, but as soon as we engaged the next group of scouts, the sound of metal echoing coming from the goblin fortress began to echo in the area. I didn’t have time to check how far away the main group was, but I sure hoped that they were less than five hundred meters away from the fortress.

  Once more, the goblins fell by my arrows and seven of them were killed. Only when the final three were in the air and jumping toward us was when Maya unleashed her explosive fireball… I wished that she had saved such an attack for a more difficult situation, but if she deemed that she was in danger, then it was her call.

  “Let’s join the main group.”

  Maya nodded in agreement, and without wasting any more time, we rushed to join the main group. I found our allies about three hundred meters from the fortress, advancing steadily. They had made good progress, but now the real battle was about to begin. At the same time, the goblins started pouring out of their stronghold, forming a defensive line in the open field. These goblins were moving in an organized manner, shields raised, their formation tight. Most of them carried crude wooden shields, clearly aware of our ranged attacks, and they weren’t recklessly charging toward us.

  It seemed they had quickly grasped the situation. This wasn’t just a skirmish; the entire human force had come for them, at least the ones that came recently. Even though they still outnumbered us five to one, they chose a more cautious approach instead of blindly throwing their numbers at us. Their decision made sense; if they rushed in and failed, they would expose their fortress to fireballs, and they weren’t willing to take that risk. Instead, they positioned themselves defensively, preparing for a battle of attrition rather than an all-out assault.

  ‘The shields seem a bit off… did they put something on them against fireballs?’

  All the wooden shields were dark… like it had been coated by some anti-flame materials. I couldn’t help but squint my eyes when I saw that. At the same time, we finally reached the others, and I had to endure the gazes of a lot of people that wanted to blame me for the sudden surprise.

  “Sean…”

  “It was my idea to attack the groups of scouts.”

  It looked like Carlos was about to complain, but Maya readily declared that. It was hard to tell what she was thinking with that expression of hers, but at least it looked like she was willing to keep her word. Thanks to that, the atmosphere changed and the harsh expressions softened.

  “We will talk about that later. Draw your bows and get ready to attack!”

  Pretty much everyone had bows with them, but the speed that they got ready to knock the arrows and aim was varied. I had no intention of complaining about that. They probably didn’t have time to train with those weapons. Still, I was baffled when some people actually fired the arrows without receiving the order.

  “Wait for my order to shoot!”

  Carlos raised his voice, but he was still keeping his cool as ever. Right now it wasn’t the time to make anyone feel like a screw up, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the guy would ever get angry or if he even felt allowed to do that.

  “Fire!”

  We were one hundred meters away from the enemies… and we couldn’t allow them to finish their formations. Some arrows actually landed on the enemies, but most of the shields blocked them. Only around five of them were hit, while half of the arrows didn’t even reach the enemies.

  “Get ready for the second volley!”

  After fifteen more seconds, the second volley was fired, and the results improved a bit, but I couldn’t see any goblins remaining on the ground. I wanted to fire arrows as well, but at this distance, my aim was still rough and I couldn’t afford to waste mine when I didn’t have time to recover any of those that I had used.

  “They are moving! Fire at will! Use this, Sean. I don’t have confidence in my aim.”

  Carlos handed me a quiver, and then he readied his sword and shield when the monsters began to charge.