2.22 Ambushed!

The goblins that I had sighted didn’t sit by idly as I suddenly turned and rushed at a nearby tree. However, the goblin behind the tree in question got surprised as he didn’t see me coming. My blade severed his head from his body as I turned to the left after running beyond the tree.

The goblins that hid behind nearby trees started charging at me and I questioned their intelligence once more. I kept them to my left and ran my new weapon through three of them without any effort.

Literally severing torsos from legs turned out to be a gruesome, yet easy feat with this weapon, my speed, and the triple piercing enchant.

I’d created more than an opening. I saw my companions behind me running up to me, chased by a group of about fifteen goblins.

We weren’t sure how many there were in total and whether this was all of them.

And there were still several more on this side. I didn’t stop to think about how many there could be, I simply charged to the next goblin that I saw, one with a bow. His arrows stood no chance against my armor and shields, and I soon was upon him and cleaved him in two by simply running past him and stretching my polearm’s blade out to my side.

Maybe this weapon was a bit too effective.

A few goblins from this side of the encirclement decided to try their luck and directly attack my friends, who were rushing to me to break out of the ambush, but were met with arrows and steel and quickly killed off.

They soon arrived at my position where several goblins lay dismembered in the dirt.

“What’s up with these guys? Why do they fight losing battles?” I asked.

“Who knows?” Velariah replied as she got in a position to fight the incoming goblins.

Several goblin arrows came flying our way. Nira almost got hit by one, but Draco saw the attacking archer and blocked the shot for her. The harpy thanked him as she hid behind a tree.

Seralyn started firing at the approaching group of goblins, mowing down several with a flurry of attacks. At the same time, Velariah stood ready as I looked around to see if any goblins were around me that could possibly attack Nira.

Confident that there were none, I charged at the mass of green, my weapon at my side. I ran as fast as I could and kept up the speed, even as I felt my weapon plow through light armor and goblin flesh. I would have closed my side eyes, but figured I would need them to pay attention to what was going on.

These eyes were an actual blessing in combat, especially when fighting archers, as they allowed me to observe even as my human eyes were obstructed. I still used a shield to block my face, likely a combination of habit and being unsure if these arrows would be able to pierce the chainmail part of the helmet. I doubted it was the case, but didn’t take any risks.

When I turned around and observed the carnage I’d caused, I saw five goblins dead and the remaining goblins start to hesitate. They slowed down and seemed to talk among themselves.

I could have predicted this happening.

An arrow was fired at me which was deflected by the chitin below my waist.

Seralyn’s arrows struck down another two. There were only eight goblins remaining and Velariah started a charge of her own, causing the goblins to panic.

I charged again and circled the group, causing their confusion to intensify as I struck down a goblin to my left and another soon after. Draco remained behind and stayed near Nira. That was probably a smart idea. I wouldn’t need his assistance with a small group like this out in the open.

Velariah reached the goblins as I struck down the last archer; I’d been prioritizing them. I grouped up with her and prepared to use my weapons more directly. I wasn’t going to run around this group with her in the way.

It felt odd to think of her as being in the way…

I quickly shook off the thought and cursed for thinking about her as a liability. She most definitely wasn’t that.

Velariah charged with her blade glowing faintly white and severed a goblin in two as I covered her with the length of my new weapon and struck down a goblin who approached her with a set of daggers. Their numbers were reduced to three and then two as another one of Seralyn’s inherity-empowered arrows hit one right between the eyes.

The two remaining goblins turned around and started running as fast as their small legs could carry them. Unfortunately for them, both Seralyn’s arrows and my long legs were much faster than theirs.

With that, the battle had ended within minutes.

A shockingly overwhelming victory was ours.

“Well,” Velariah said as she wiped the blood off her sword on the loincloth of a fallen goblin, “that was terrifying… for them.”

I looked at the blood on my polearm’s blade. “Yeah, I noticed the fear in their eyes. At least they didn’t suffer.”

I wiped the blood off my blade in the same manner Velariah had.

“Why do you wipe the blood off again? I never knew, even though I’ve seen it happen in movies on Earth all the time.”

“Corrosion,” The elf explained. “The blood makes steel corrode.”

“But I thought your inherity prevented that?”

“Force of habit,” She shrugged. “Besides, I want to keep my scabbard clean.”

“Makes sense, I guess.”

“You girls think this was totally unnecessary?” Seralyn asked as she approached with Draco and Nira. “What do you think? Desperation?” She referred to the goblins’ completely fruitless attack.

“I wouldn’t know,” Velariah answered. “Could be. Could also be that they thought they had a chance when they saw the opportunity to ambush. Maybe they thought they couldn’t escape which is why they kept going until only two were left. In any case, we got rid of a few more of those pests.”

That was true.

“Either way,” Draco spoke. “We should continue. Are you girls alright?”

I nodded, as did Velariah.

Nira walked up to me and pointed at my spider abdomen. I simply nodded as I knew what she meant and she hopped back on after gathering my spear and scabbards from where we had taken a break.

Seralyn collected the arrows that she’d fired.

We then continued through the forest, the vegetation increasing in density once more as we proceeded.

Several hours later, the red glow of evening was upon us. We continued for about an hour before we decided to make camp in a less vegetated area. This would give me enough time to set up a silk fence to make camping safer.

Draco would set up the tents together with Seralyn, while Velariah and Nira kept watch as we worked.

It was then I realized I wouldn’t be able to fit in one of the tents.

I shrugged. I wouldn’t sleep tonight anyway. It made me wonder just how long I could go without sleep in total.

I worked on the webs while the others worked on their things. I made sure to make the net about a meter high. We had picked a lovely spot clear of plant life within a square of four trees. The square was about five by five meters, giving us plenty of space to place the tents and start a campfire without being overly large for me to cover with webs.

I made single lines of threads at different heights in order to conserve as much as I could. Once I was finished and darkness started falling, I connected the six long threads that I’d made together with one line, which I would use to feel if anything got caught in the silk.

I dragged the line to the middle of our camping spot. Three tents were set up around a fire and I connected the thread to the ground near it. I then sat down next to the campfire with Velariah at my side and one of my legs on the thread.

Seralyn had already started cooking the two squirrels that she’d shot down earlier and asked who wanted some. The smell of freshly cooked meat made me salivate but I politely declined, as did Nira. I had Draco hand me an apple and munched on it as I regretted not being able to find any proper prey to hunt before nightfall.

I sighed and took off my helmet. Hopefully, I’d find something tomorrow.

“What’s up?” Velariah asked as she put her hand on one of my pedipalps. She had also taken her helmet off and I saw her eyes dart to the cooking meat every now and then.

“Oh, I was just thinking how I would have liked to find some… bigger game.”

“Heh,” She chuckled. “Yeah, I doubt these squirrels do much to sate your hunger. We’ll find something tomorrow. Don’t worry about it. You’re not hungry, are you?”

She suddenly looked slightly worried.

I tried washing her worries away with a smile. “I’m not. I just don’t want to suddenly feel drained when I use my… abilities, you know?”

She nodded. “I get it. It’s fine.”

“Can’t you like… eat your own silk? I heard spiders do that sometimes,” Seralyn said.

I looked at her facial expression, but couldn’t find any hint of teasing in it. It seemed she was stating a fact.

“They do? What the fuck?”

Velariah nodded. “They do. I’ve seen Minia do it while you were out. I took it as a cue to feed her. She actually started dancing after catching the grasshopper. It was cute.”

The mental image of Minia dancing after catching prey made me smile. Still, though, eating my own silk? I’d never thought about it. The idea did not appeal to me in the slightest either. That stuff came out of my butt!

Nira seemed to giggle at Velariah’s story.

Velariah grinned. “I totally understand you not doing it, though.”

“Yeah… I don’t think I will. I’d have to be truly desperate to do that.”

“I’ll keep my eyes open for any game tomorrow, Miss Elania,” Draco said.

“Thank you, Draco.”

Velariah moved herself in front of me and placed my pedipalps around her waist. I hugged her from behind as we stared at the fire slowly roasting the squirrels. Things went quiet and the sounds of the forest at night started to become the prominent sounds around us.

Crickets and some nocturnal birds were among them. I quietly hoped I wouldn’t attract any spiders. I mean, I didn’t mind the cute spider that was Minia, but I didn’t want… more.

Besides, I knew not all spiders were cute.

Some just came straight out of nightmares.

Seralyn checked whether the meat was cooked before dividing it in three portions, one for the lizardman and one for each elf. They complemented their meal with some dried meat from Draco’s bag.

I heard a wolf howl far away from our position. I knew they’d be no match for us, but I’d rather have this night pass quietly.

“Do we have any idea how much further we need to travel?” I asked.

“I reckon about half a day. If Nira doesn’t mind, it would probably be a good idea for her to observe exactly where we are in the afternoon tomorrow.”

Nira nodded. “That’s fine.”

I did a quick calculation in my head. That meant that the earliest we’d be home would be the day after tomorrow. I hoped I could last that long. If needed, I might have Nira try to take over my watch duty. She could, after all, also feel whether something would get itself stuck in my webs with her wings.

After the meal, Draco chopped up a few logs he had prepared earlier which would serve as firewood for the rest of the night, and put them aside. He then decided to call it a day and went to sleep in one of the tents.

Nira and Seralyn each went to sleep in separate tents as well.

Velariah stayed with me. She said she’d help keep watch, but I already knew she was going to end up sleeping on the job, anyway. Especially, when she was in my arms and the others were not there to keep her awake.

“Isn’t this romantic?” She said softly after about half an hour.

I was certain the others were already asleep.

“Alone in the woods at night, next to a cozy fire,” The elf continued.

I smiled and kissed her cheek from behind. “It sure is. Although, we’re not exactly alone, are we?”

“Close enough,” She grinned.

“It is pretty cozy, though, I have to admit. If only we weren't out in a forest where death could be hiding behind every tree.”

“No need to be that scared, El. We have your eyes and webs protecting us.”

“I suppose that’s true. Anyway, you should get some sleep, Vel. I may need you to keep watch instead of me tomorrow.”

“Alright, then,” She said as she turned her head and pursed her lips, inviting mine.

I accepted the good night kiss and held my mouth on hers for a while, getting lost in the feeling.

“Good night,” Velariah said as she leaned back against me as I continued hugging her from behind.

“Good night,” I said one last time as I kissed her hair.

She closed her eyes and I felt her heartbeat slow down over the next few minutes until she was soundly asleep and smiling.

This is where the long night started.

I had barely started my watch and I was already bored to tears.

The sounds of the forest continued without end. Because of all the sounds, I had to use quite a bit of energy to focus on any that could mean danger.

I was blessed with this new pair of eyes, though. They were extremely effective at spotting movement. As time went on, I started relying on my sight, rather than my hearing, which allowed me to relax more.

Minutes turned into hours. Once half the night had passed, I did wonder for a moment if I should wake someone to keep watch with me.

I shook my head and decided I’d let them sleep. There wasn’t much they could do to help me that I couldn’t do on my own.

As I had expected, I did not tire at all.

It was a surprise to me at this point that I generally had no trouble falling asleep at home. There was no excess of energy that kept me up at night.

It was odd, but not entirely unwelcome.

I would have no idea what I’d do if I had to stay awake a night before being allowed to sleep.

A swift movement caught my attention to my right, but I quickly relaxed again as I noticed it was just one of the squirrels with two cone tails running up a tree. I imagined Seralyn would have been happy to see it. Shame she was asleep.

Throughout the night, I added some more wood to the fire to keep it going. Before long, the first rays of sunlight started breaking through the trees.

I was happy to see the sun coming up. It meant this dreadful waiting was at an end at last.

It took about an hour or so for the area to be completely illuminated. I heard stirring in one of the tents, and before long, Draco exited his.

“Good morning, Miss Elania,” He said politely as he eyed me, and then the elf that was still sleeping soundly in my arms. “Do you mind taking some webs down?”

I thought for a second on why I would have to do that before my mind clicked.

Yeah, I imagine it would be hard to go to the toilet when trapped.

I very carefully tried to stand up and lay the elf down, but she stirred and opened her eyes as I did so.

Oh well, I guess she'd have to get up eventually.

“Morning, El, Draco,” She said as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

“Good morning, Lady Velariah,” Draco replied.

“Morning sleepyhead,” I smiled at her as I turned to take a section of the web down.

My pedipalps had no problem breaking the threads. It appeared I could use the claws at the end as some kind of knife if I wanted to.

Draco thanked me and kept looking around as he walked off to a distant tree.

At the same time, Nira walked out of her tent and grabbed some water from Draco’s bag. Seralyn joined us not much later.

When Draco returned we started a simple breakfast.

“Anything happen last night?” Seralyn asked.

“Besides a squirrel, there was no movement whatsoever.”

“Damn,” She said softly.

I knew it.

“Yeah,” I said with a smile. “It’s a shame, but I still have hopes of running into something large today. Who knows we might even run into a Bunbear. If we find a Unibelea, I guess I’ll have you guys get some meat from it first before I ruin it.”

“That’s nice of you,” Velariah said, as she sat in front of me again, watching the fire that we were slowly letting burn itself out.

Once it did, Draco was the first to stand up. He went to work on taking down the tents and folding the canvasses, before placing the tent materials back in my saddlebag. The elves and Nira helped him while I took down my webs and pressed the silk together in balls which I placed in my saddlebags. If anything, I could use those as toys for Gray when we got home.

Even if I wasn’t going to eat my silk, I should still recycle it in some way.

They finished packing and loading everything as I made sure that this campfire was completely dead before leaving it. I could only imagine how many forest fires were accidentally started because people did not let them burn out completely.

Once I was satisfied, and the others were ready, we continued our journey. We still had a quest to complete, after all.