Unbound Deathlord_Obliteration

by Edward Castle

  "Three many times!" He nodded.

  My frown deepened. "Six? Nine?"

  "No! Not six, three! Three many times!" He insisted.

  "Hu... Thirty? Three hundred?"

  "Hundred! Three hundred!" He was excited.

  "Do you even have that much gold?" I asked dubiously.

  "Me has! Me tribe very powerful! Many gold!"

  Quest: Exterminate the Mud People

  B rank

  Kill every living being in the Mud People's tribe for the Purple Goblins.

  Daggers reported.

  I asked her.

 

 

 

  Looking at the map, I saw that Ted hadn't come with Daggers.

  she said dryly. I could imagine that Dagger's training wasn't thrilling.

  I ordered.

  Her voice was full of relief.

  Daggers said.

  I said,

  She didn't answer and I waited for Ted to be in position before moving.

  She said multiple times and I had to divert my path. She had climbed a stalagmite and was monitoring the goblins to make sure I stayed out of sight. Finally, I arrived at the entrance to the mud people's village.

  One of them was there and for the first time, I noticed that none of them nor the goblins appeared to have any weapons. That was weird.

  Two of the mud people were standing guard right next to the gates of the city. Up close, those 'beasts' were even weirder; their body was really made of purple mud and it constantly moved. The holes of their eyes and mouth, however, somehow remained fixed in place. I raised my hands in the universal gesture of peace.

  "Hello, friends," I said. "A goblin just offered me three hundred gold coins to kill you all." There was no reaction whatsoever from them. "I wonder how much would you pay me to kill them."

  Nothing. They didn't move. Frowning, I waved my hands before them, but they still didn't react.

  Something was wrong. Before, I might have tested them by prodding one with my bow or using magic. Now, after being urged to attack them, I slowly retreated.

  Daggers reported.

  I ordered.

 

 

  Bear said.

  I asked.

 

  It made sense.

 

  I sighed. His carefree attitude was quite annoying sometimes. And by 'sometimes' I meant most of the time.

  Daggers reported.

 

 

 

 

  In half an hour, all the zombies were clothed again, including Bear whose stuff I had recovered.

 

I ordered and they obeyed.

  Instead of the rows of tanks, followed by fighters and bowmen from before, they now organized themselves into seven units of five people and one of four people, because of the scout that had been taken from their ranks.

  The lieutenants, however, didn't join them, and were instead held back as a kind of elite troops.

  Bear, Ted, Melkier, and I, stood behind, overseeing them all.

  There was no hiding from the goblins and the two who were standing guard outside shrieked an alarm and entered the village, closing the metal doors. Some of them appeared on the walls carrying heavy stones and one of them yelled at us.

  "What going on?! Us pay you kill mud people! Not us!" It was the same thin voice from the goblin I had met.

  I told my group.

 

  I didn't know what was happening, but if they would rather pray than defend their city, they were either idiots or had a good reason to do so.

 

  Melkier said.

  Bear teased.

  Melkier took the bait.

  Bear agreed and they shook hands.

  I said.

  "Please! Kill us not, great master! Us pay you!" The goblin insisted and we all ignored him. He should've thought about it before he tried to mess with me.

  Angered screams came from inside the village. All the goblins on the walls turned to look at the doors, which opened.

  I ordered.

  The ten groups of zombies were organized in two rows of five groups each. Each group had a single plate-armored guy in the front, which made two loose defensive walls for each row.

  Rocks rained from the walls as the zombies began to move. The first row ran like crazy at the door and the second row kept a steady and slow pace, their bowmen sending arrows at the goblins atop the walls.

  Ted and I also fired arrows at the goblins, and I added firebombs to the fold.

  The destruction of my magic was awesome. More than just burning them, the magic also exploded with a considerable impact, sending goblins flying backwards.

  They were yelling in panic, fear, and anger. One of the goblins on the wall pointed his finger at the thin-voiced goblin, said something, then slapped him hard.

  I didn't fault the slapper; one hour after the thin-voiced goblin had schemed to kill me in some yet-unknown way, I had come for revenge.

  With a loud boom, the doors closed before the first line could secure it.

  It didn't bother me as much; it had been useful as a distraction rather than as a means of entry.

  I asked after a few moments as I looked at her icon on my minimap.

  That was impressive; although the village was small, it wasn't that small, and the goblins had seen her open the doors. Yet, she had managed to avoid capture and succeed in her mission.

 

 

  I stopped slinging firebombs and switched to healer mode instead. My deathballs targeted some zombies who didn't manage to dodge the rocks and got hurt.

  "Well, this is boring," Bear said with his voice.

  "Not for the guys being stoned," I counter-argued.

  "Yeah, that's why I travel to Valia, so I can cure my boredom by being stoned by goblins. I'll be there in a moment." He yawned.

  "I'm not one to judge,"
I said. "What you do with other people's stones is up to you."

  "I'll tell you what I'll do with your stones, you son of-"

  "Bear!" Ted interrupted. The big zombie stopped speaking, looked at Ted, then huffed impatiently. I winked at him and went back to shooting arrows and deathballs.

  The second line had stopped at some distance and the goblins' numbers were dwindling slowly under the barrage of arrows. This was considered a large battle, so the stamina consumption wasn't an issue for us. Everything looked okay as I waited for Daggers to tell me about what was behind the doors.

  So, obviously, someone did something stupid. It took longer than I expected for one of the zombies to reveal his idiocy and destroy the first line with a single action: he used a skill.

  I didn't know all the skills every zombies had and this one surprised me: the guy, who was one of the few shield-bearers in the first line, jumped. It was the Leap of Faith skill, that could only be used to get closer to an enemy. He shot through the air at high speed and held onto the ten meter high wall, climbing it and starting to attack the goblins above.

  About half the zombies in the front line followed suit, including all the plate wearing tanks except for one. I had seen them jump before but I never realized it was a skill.

  For a full second, they gloriously conquered the walls.

  Daggers then reported.

  And the walls fell outwards.

  The goblins had been waiting for us to all approach the walls before doing that, but half the Battalion had stopped halfway through and they had delayed the action. However, when the zombies surmounted the walls, they had no choice but to act.

  Everyone who had been before the walls was crushed beneath them, while those who'd been atop them suddenly found themselves beset by a sea of goblins. The damn pests had no real weapons but their nails and teeth were sharp, the rocks they carried were heavy, and they were everywhere.

  One zombie fell to the ground and a goblin started pounding his head with a huge stone while another tore at his throat with its nails. He died in seconds.

  Similar scenes played out all around the fallen metal wall. The people underneath hadn't died but were still pinned to the ground with the goblins' weight forcing them down.

  "Easiest ten gold of my life," Bear said before taking his huge greatsword and rushing forward.

  "Shit!" Melkier took his sword and followed.

  I sighed.

  "What about the people under it?" Ted, the last person by my side, asked.

  "They'll have to wait. It's their friends' fault they are there, and there's nothing we can do for them right now," I replied and stopped healing, turning to firebombs instead.

  In a frontal fight, I had no doubt we would eventually win against a weaker and barehanded foe. The big issue was how many would die before that happened.

  One of my firebombs exploded right next to a goblin's head and it became little bits and pieces of flesh. With the pressure of the battle, I only hit what I was aiming at half of the time, But for once, there was no danger to myself whatsoever and I could focus on killing.

  I disagreed with Bear; this was damn entertaining for me!

  Ted's accuracy was much better than mine but her damage was negligible, even against the weak goblins.

  Bear's greatsword seemed to kill a goblin with every swing while maiming others, until eventually a circle devoid of enemies formed around him. It was probably because of the multiple bodies at his feet, many of them split in half. If I Iwas a goblin I would be less than enthusiastic about getting close to the big zombie.

  Melkier did significantly less damage than Bear with his sword, but even so, he still killed plenty.

  And Daggers left a river of blood in her wake. Her blades slit throats galore and arced through the air as she moved. Sometimes she was clearly visible, while other times she used the Shadow Walk skill. It was impressive as hell.

  Eventually, we managed to form a defensive perimeter over the fallen wall and from then on, the goblins couldn't do anything to truly oppose us. Goblins were low-leveled creatures to begin with and not only had the advantage of vastly better equipment, we also had superior tactics.

  It was a carnage.

  Goblin bodies littered the floor, many of them were missing pieces now. Their blood, we'd found, wasn't purple, and the crimson fit the purple around it in a macabre way.

  When there were about fifty goblins left, they tried to surrender.

  "Kill them all except for three for questioning," I gave the order yelling out loud. "They plotted against us, killed some of us, and now they want to live? Never!"

  To tell the truth I was very grateful for the exercise. I had lost men, yes, but only idiots who had broken formation and got themselves killed. The sooner they stopped being a danger to me, the better.

  I wouldn't let the chance to blame the goblins go though. As far as I was concerned, shifting the blame for any disaster was an incredibly useful skill of great leaders, and I quote my father on that.

  When the remaining goblins heard me, something weird happened. I'd expected them to intensify the fight against us but while they did intensify their fighting spirit, it was against themselves!

  One goblin turned against the other to increase their chances of being the three left alive.

  Damn, that was so... Human!

  Daggers noted.

  I said.

  Ropes appeared from bags and backpacks and eleven zombies were quickly detained. We had agreed to use the tactic after a suggestion from Daggers. The rope was part of the 'adventurer's kit' she had ordered us all to get.

  Each one had two shovels, two pickaxes, two saws, two fishing kits, a hundred meters of rope, five hooks for the ropes, lots of dried food and water, two flints, some ore, two mirrors, fifty meters of extra thin fishing line, two knives, and five needles.

  She had also insisted in first-aid stuff, but we found nothing that could be effective: there were no potions in the game and status effects like Open Wounds couldn't be taken care by bandages. They could, however, be sewn shut, and the needles would take care of that. Or a fire would be lit and hot metal would be used to cauterize it.

  Another requirement or hers were pans or cans, to cook food. But I had no need to eat and the zombies preferred their food raw.

  All items were in enchanted purses that they had all acquired. They took a lot of space in the purses and I had no doubt that all the items would be thrown away the moment we found other valuable stuff, but for now we accepted Daggers' suggestion.

  While the zombies were roped, the goblins continued killing themselves until only five remained.

  "That's enough," I said. "Now, on your knees."

  Clearly relieved, while still afraid, they obeyed and touched their foreheads to the ground as they bowed low.

  "Us much thanks to great master," one of them said. While his voice wasn't as annoying as the voice from goblin I had spoken to previously, it was also thin and ugly.

  "This is what we're going to do," I said as I put my bow on my back and unsheathed my sword. "I'll ask a question and you'll answer. If you lie or hide anything from me, you lose an arm and get a second chance. If you keep lying or hiding things, you die. Do you understand?"

  "Us understand, great master." They were still bowing.

  "Jack, that's horrible!" Ted complained. She hadn't said anything before because they were monsters and she didn't much care for those. But the moment they had started killing each other, her mouth opened in a perfect 'O' as she was stunned by the barbaric display. Only now was she coming back to her senses.

  I ignored her. "Let's start from the beginning. Who the hell are you?"

  "Us be Heroic Goblins, great master. Us take care o
f Blue Life."

  From where I stood, they didn't look that heroic to me. "Blue Life?"

  He pointed at the lake and waterfall. "Blue Life."

  "You take care of it?"

  "Yes, great master. Blue Life give water and much fishes. Us eat and live. Purple animals kill when we eat them."

  I had to think for a moment to understand what he was saying. "The purple animals are poisonous?"

  "Yes, great master."

  I looked at Melkier and all the other zombies eating the goblins' corpses. I had also seen them eat some of the purple animals. The goblins could be lying to me, but I also knew that the zombies' stomachs were unique and virtually invulnerable to any sort of poison they ate.

  Damn freaks.

  "Who are the mud people?" I asked.

  "Great master, they be us enemies."

  "Why?"

  "They rob us, food and water." He explained.

  I frowned. Before, I had thought they were stealing terrestrial game from the goblins, which would make sense. But there was clearly enough fish and water for tribes many times their size.

  My sword rose and fell, cutting off the goblin's arm in a single strike. The goblin screamed in pain.

  "Why? Me not lie! Ahhh!" He kept yelling and screaming. The other goblins didn't dare move.

  "Jack!" Ted actually ran to the goblin and began to hug him as if he was a little wounded animal.

  "I'm not stupid," I said to the goblin. "There's enough water and food for everyone. What's the real reason you want to kill the mud people?"

  "I not lie! Mud people eat lots! Much lots!" He insisted.

  My frown deepened as Ted glared angrily at me. For some reason, that pained me deeply.

  I sighed. I said. I sent some lifeballs at the goblin, restoring his severed arm. "Next time, your arm won't come back. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, great master. Thanks for goodness!" He slipped out of Ted's embrace and went back to bowing low on the ground.

  "Poor thing! He still thanked you!" The specter's heart seemed to be splitting apart and tears appeared in her eyes.

  I said.

  She meant 'AIs.' She replied.