Kai’s eyes were immediately drawn to how gruesome the goblins were. Their ears were pointed upwards in attention and their green skin was dirty.
They wore rags and had small weapons in their hands, from short swords to clubs. He could also see a few with bows in the back.
"Ahhhhh!" One goblin yelled, revealing its sharp, pointy teeth and shot a flaming arrow towards the gate.
The rest of them followed its motion as more flaming arrows hit the village gate and wooden palisade, burning through them.
As they moved closer, Killian and other guards were also able to see the goblins.
There were over two dozen of them attacking the main gateway of Hagmons Keep. In response, arrows and rocks were aimed at the goblins by the villagers on the walls, but their aim was shaky, barely hitting two goblins.
Kai doubted they had experience in battles. The wooden palisade would have kept out the occasional wolves and other monsters, but even the village guards were never prepared for a full-on battle. The less said about ordinary villagers, the better.
This was strange and different.
Another goblin aimed the fired-up arrow in the air. It hit a villager straight in the neck as he fell from the walls. People gasped around him as the goblins stabbed his body before shifting their focus to the other guards.
A few of the villagers jumped out, trying to take the goblins head-on with swords and spears, but they were nothing in front of the hunched monsters.
They were too swift for the villagers and soon, a few of them were dead or mutilated. Looking at that, the others ran left and right, trying to get away from the goblins.
All in all, the battle seemed fairly one-sided. Despite having the terrain advantage, the villagers looked scared while the goblins attacked with fervor as they yelled in whatever language they spoke.
The coldness didn’t help anyone either. It only made the guards and the people weak.
On the other hand, goblins seemed unaffected by the weather.
"Lord Arzan, we should go help them," a guard said from the sides. They were currently standing at a far distance with a perfect view of the ongoing battle.
Kai shook his head. "No, wait!"
He moved forward, squinting his eyes. The smoke from the flames hit his face due to the winds and he coughed before steadying himself.
Looking at the village, his eyes searched for something. He saw corpses of humans, a few who looked like simple villagers, but he didn’t let it get to him as he walked to the side, trying to peek into the other side of the village.
Finally, he saw what he was looking for.
He turned around and waved his hand. The guards led by Killian immediately walked towards him.
"What is it, Lord Arzan?" Killian quickly asked.
"You should all go from the front. Hurry and assist the villagers. The gate won’t stay for long. Killian and I— We will go from the back. The goblin lord is attacking from the other side!"
"Goblin lord?"
"Yes, goblins won’t attack villages like these without someone leading them. I saw the silhouette of the lord on the other side. It was too big for me to miss. We can take it head-on. It’s a Grade 3 monster on the lower spectrum of it."
Killian immediately nodded and looked back at the guards.
"Archers, assist from here and the rest, go help the village guards. Let’s kill some goblins." Killian ordered.
The archers immediately picked up their bows and took out arrows from the back of the carriage. The others also grabbed their weapons and started moving towards the main gate.
A few villagers up on the walls cheered seeing the guards coming up.
"Let’s go," he said to Killian who followed him.
They walked around the wooden fence. Getting closer and closer, Kai saw a few villagers escaping from the back entrance. They were running towards the forest area to hide and seemed to be injured with their arms bleeding.
Both of them moved towards the back door and muffled cries caught Kai’s attention.
They saw a gate torn away and splintered with the walls burnt. The goblins had gotten in and were now terrorizing the villagers.
Earlier, he had seen a dozen trying to break through the main gate, and now, there were dozens here too. It was a small army in total.
His eyes immediately went to a large goblin standing in the middle, speaking gibberish in an unrecognizable language. Kai had once thought of learning monster language, but it seemed like most monsters spoke differently, so he had given up.
Still, he could make out the gibberish as something like "Kill everyone".
The lord goblin’s voice made the goblins halt in their actions. They all looked at their lord in unison and replied using the same language.
In a matter of seconds, they pulled the sharp knives from their backs and started tearing everything apart.
Some goblins attacked the houses, and the rest of them started attacking the people.
A few armed villagers rushed towards the goblins and started fighting back. They held their shields in front as the goblins jumped at them.
Kai took his attention away from them and looked at the towering figure.
The snarling goblin lord was easily over six feet tall, being even taller than Kai. It was wearing a skull hat and a necklace crafted from bones. Some other accessories completed its look and its skin was lightish compared to the other goblins.
Kai immediately saw the axe that was on its back. No blood dripped from it.
It seemed like it didn’t do the work, but it was the one who was commanding the rest of the goblins.
"Lord Arzan, you help the villagers. I will take care of the lord," Killian said, his voice thick with determination.
Kai simply nodded and walked from the sides to help the villagers who were attacking the goblins. He knew Killian could hold his own against the goblin lord. He was no Enforcer, but at least the knight didn’t seem like he missed training and was fairly competent.
Even if the goblin lord overpowered him, Kai could simply rush back to his aid.
Getting off the horse, he entered the village through the torn gate and immediately lifted his hand as he saw a bunch of goblins fighting villagers.
A spell structure formed as he visualized it in his mind. For any spell, visualization was a key step, and although spell structures formed the basis of a spell, visualization, and chanting helped to push forth the intent of the caster, helping control the spell.
Soon, Killian managed to stab its heart.
The monster fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Kai panted, feeling the energy draining from his body as he looked at the dead monster on the ground.
He had almost exhausted his mana reserves with the dozens of fire bolts and other spells. He would need some time to regenerate his mana.
If it wasn’t for Killian, he would have died.
I am not in my old body. I need to be better at mana preservation in my current state.
He sighed and Killian’s footsteps came from up ahead as he looked down at Kai.
He was bleeding from his upper arm. Kai’s eyes lingered around the cut for a moment.
"The axe was sharp, eh?" he asked and huffed.
Killian nodded before his eyes shifted around him. Finally, he spoke. "Lord Arzan, your powers are even better than the Mages at the towers back in the capital...." He said while looking at Kai. "I haven’t seen anyone cast spells so fast and efficiently."
Kai simply nodded. The praise seemed genuine, but he wasn’t good with them.
"Your father will be proud when he sees you."
Kai ignored that comment and stood back up.
"I don’t hear any noises. I think they managed to deal with the goblins at the main gate. Let’s go check."
***
They moved towards the main gate and saw a large crowd gathered around a dozen bodies of dead goblins. The corpses were being carried away by the guards.
Kai looked all around the village, taking in the sight. It seemed to be a small settlement with a population of over a hundred.
He could see injured men and women all around. A few of them had burnt marks, others were simply stabbed by the goblins.
All of his men seemed to have survived the ordeal despite a few of them having injuries.
As he walked towards the villagers, he could hear whispers about him. It seemed like the guards had told everyone about him.
Kai ordered them to help the villagers extinguish the flames and help out the injured villagers before he called upon the village chief.
As it turned out, it was a fairly young man who seemed to be in his mid-20s with blonde hair and a dirty beard. Kai recalled seeing him trying to hit the goblins with arrows.
An arrow had hit his arm and after it was bandaged, he walked up to Kai to talk to him.
"Thank you so much for saving us," the chief said. "I didn’t expect Lord Arzan to come to our aid. Without your help, Hagmons Keep would have fallen to the goblins."
The young man bowed towards him.
"What is your name? You are young," Kai asked.
"I’m Alden, my Lord. I took over the village after my father, the previous chief, passed away," he said through a whimper.
Kai nodded, looking around the village. His gaze lingered on the house, the people, then back to the palisade before he noticed Alden’s leg.
It was bandaged, the same as his arm, but it looked old.
"Alden, there’s been more than just goblins that have been the problem, right?" He asked. "Some people have marks on their arms that don’t seem to have come from the goblins. You seem to be injured in your leg. And the gate on the other side, the goblin lord wouldn’t have been able to break through it if it wasn’t already damaged."
Alden’s eyebrows knitted together as he looked at him with sorrow in his eyes. He sighed. "Yes, my lord. There had been countless attacks like this for a week. From wolves... to other monsters like ash bears." His eyes lowered to look at his leg. "We’ve lost quite a few people. Me and a few others barely survived. We don’t know why it is happening," he said and frowned.
"It started a week ago?" He tilted his head.
"Yes, I was about to send an envoy to the city to get help, when all of this happened and you got here," Alden said through muffled pain. He clutched the side of his ribs where he seemed to have gotten injured, but stood straight, staring at Kai.
"That’s weird," he remarked.
It was strange for monsters to attack civilizations. They would never venture so far away from their homes and forests unless there was a reason for it.
Maybe, some monster would attack a village from time to time, looking for human meat.
But this was unnatural.
"Is there something unusual you noticed around the village? Maybe in the forest?" Kai asked.
The question made his eyes pop up and Arden nodded vigorously.
"Actually, there had been reports from the hunters that they had noticed strange activities in the western part of the forest. We also have had people disappearing around that area."
"Western part of the forest," Kai muttered, connecting the dots to the notions that Palman mentioned before.
Mana fiends.
Kai looked back and saw Palman helping a woman get to her feet. Her one hand was bleeding, and she had wrapped her unharmed hand around Palman’s neck. As soon as she was on her feet, a few women walked forward, taking her from Palman’s support.
"Palman!" Kai called him.
Palman immediately came running.
"Have you been to the west as well when you saw the Thornbuck?"
Palman thought for a second before nodding.
"Yes, my lord."
Kai frowned. It seemed like they were on the right track to find the mana fiends.