Chapter 38: Time to Hunt

It took the rest of the day for everyone to complete their evolutions, Rosario himself took the sole watch over the small village they had created. He knew that his nerves wouldn't allow him to sleep that well so he figured everyone else could at least get some good sleep then.

Early in the morning the 12 of them set of at a quick pace. They would have to travel for 5 hours before they reached the outer part of Coopers territory. Rosario was shocked with how close Coopers base was to his, his mind wandered to how he hadn't run into anyone else until now when he had been roaming pretty far from their base.

They arrived after 6 hours, at this point it was noon and they did not want to begin attacking so late in the day. They waited and watched as the goblin patrols would come and go from the run-down village.

After an entire day of watching as dusk began closing in Rosario had them retreat a fair distance form the village. They climbed and tied themselves into the upper branches of some trees to sleep the night away and be up early to begin hunting the goblin patrols .

Everyone woke early in the morning and quietly ate a small cold breakfast along with some water. Rosario paired them off into 2 teams again with Ivana and Bolog leading one team each. One had 5 the other had 6, Rosario would again hunt solo.

Spreading out Rosario had the two teams cover the east and south areas around the village, his goal was to cover the west and north alone.

After splitting up it wasn't hard to find the first patrol, an elephant would make less noise than the patrol was making. Following them silently Rosario observed the 5 goblins for a few minutes, he wanted to be sure there would be no surprises.

After a while Rosario confirmed the area was clear and he could start his killing spree, dropping the tip of his spear to horizontal with the ground Rosario charged at the group of goblins. He rammed into the goblin in the back of the pack and not realizing his new strength completely pierced the goblin through.

When the remaining 4 goblins heard the cry of their partner then all swung around to face whatever threat had come. What they hadn't expected to see was a man dressed in all black metal armor with a blank face shield holding their friend shish-kabobbed in the air.

Rosario had messed up; he couldn't get the stupid goblin off his spear. Dropping the spear and the dying goblin Rosario retrieved his hand and a half sword and charged at the remaining goblins. They did not have any type of weapons training so their swings at Rosario were all deflected or evaded. Rosario too had no weapons training, but he more than made up for it with his speed and power in his blows.

The fight didn't last more than 30 seconds, Rosario killed them as swiftly and efficiently as he knew how. Rosario looted the bodies of the goblins quickly before disposing of them in a nearby thicket off the small trails the goblins had made.

Not but a few seconds later the small battlefield was left silent and still with the only indication that anything happened being the blood spilled all over the ground.

Rosario spent all of daylight hunting different patrols of goblins, in all he had come across 10 patrols total with each having 5 goblins.

When he met up with his subordinates he found out that Bolog's group was able to dispatch 6 patrols with 5 goblins each while Ivana's group only got 4 patrols. Interestingly Ivana's group also found a mine that was guarded by 20 goblins, there were close to 50 humans being made to work in it.

Deciding the mine would be their next target as a group Rosario and the teams retired for the evening unaware of the chaos they had caused in Coopers village.

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Cooper had been sitting in his throne room playing around with one of the village women when a goblin scout burst into the throne room unannounced.

"Sire, sire, sire! I have urgent news!"

Slamming his fists on the arms of the throne Cooper shot up from his relaxed position.

"Damnit can't you see I was in the middle of something, who the f**k are you to decide if something is important enough to interrupt me!"

Motioning at the Hobgoblin guards Cooper continued.

"Guards drag this piece of sh*t outside and make an example out of him."

"But your excellency I do have urgent news!"

The goblin scout began panicking as the hobgoblins grabbed him by his arms and began dragging him out the door.

"Sire we lost 20 patrols today, all of them are missing!"

"Hold."

As the hobgoblins paused in their actions the goblin scout seemed to sigh in relief. Walking down from the throne at the smaller goblin Cooper bent down just a few inches from the hideous face.

"What did you just say."

"20 patrols did not come back today."

Coopers face twisted into an enraged frown.

"What the hell do you mean they didn't come back, did they desert? Do you have anymore information than that you idiot?!"

"N..N.nnno Sire, that was all the information that I was given to convey to you."

Straightening himself Cooper nodded his head, turning back around he began walking back to his throne.

"Skin him alive in the town square, lets remind people that seeing me is a privilege and that bursting in on me is not tolerated."

As the goblins' screams faded away once the doors were closed again Cooper looked at one of the remaining Hobgoblins.

"Begin an investigation into these missing patrols, I want to know everything about what happened and where they went by the morning. If you can't give me more than they are missing you might as well report to the town square in the morning than bothering to come here."

Bowing the hobgoblin hurriedly rushed out of the room to complete his task and avoid the fate that before the goblin scout. He cursed the scout's whole lineage for interrupting their liege and getting both of them possibly punished.