The Lich's Master

Chapter 9: How Not to Clear a Camp

The camp wasn’t too large, but it was crowded enough to make Kyle somewhat nervous. There were three goblins sitting around a campfire. All three of them had makeshift spears near them, and one of them had a shiny, possibly human made sword on its back.

There were two tents, one of them was a bit torn, and Kyle could see through the tears that another goblin slept inside. He couldn’t spy any weapons though, so it would probably be fairly easy to kill.

Atop a large rock on the other side of the campfire, an archer sat. The goblin was probably supposed to be a lookout but looking out was not what it was doing. It was cleaning its brown, dirty fingernails.

“Right,” He repeated to try and calm his racing heart. This was going to be the first camp he ever cleared, and he wanted to do it properly. The levels of the creatures were all 19, with only the archer and the sleeping gobbling being 17. They were within the proper experience gain range.

The only thing that worried him was the tent that wasn’t torn. Since he couldn’t see what was inside, he decided to be wary of that tent. First things first, he needed to kill the sleeping goblin.

He quietly moved through the woods, taking care to stay behind the treeline, and only began approaching the camp once the torn tent was between him and the goblins. The lookout sitting atop a rock on the other side of the camp wasn’t looking this way at all, so Kyle easily reached the tent and slipped through the large torn section of the cloth.

Throughout history, it had always been claimed that killing someone in their sleep was difficult. Treacherous. Evil. Kyle disagreed and drove his blade through the creature’s heart like a stake, while covering its mouth with his hand to prevent any noise.

As soon as the creature died, he quickly left the tent the same way he came in and walked back into the woods. Now, it was the careless lookout’s turn. Stalking the edges of the woods, he circled around the camp and approached the rock from the side the lookout wasn’t looking.

As he left the cover of the woods, he shot a quick glance at the campfire. The goblins there hadn’t noticed his presence yet, as they were too busy trying to cook roughly cut pieces of meat at the end of some crooked, wooden sticks they had probably gathered from the forest floor.

He quietly climbed onto the rock, sneaking up on the lookout from behind. Just like earlier, it was easy to kill an unsuspecting opponent. He slit the goblin’s throat and caught the bow in his hands before it fell on the rock and made noise. He carefully rested the goblin’s back on the rock and hid the blood around his chest with his arms before climbing back down.

“Two out of five.” He muttered with a satisfied expression. His gaze turned to the cloth tent he hadn’t checked yet. The best course of action would be to try and cut the cloth, sneak inside, and assassinate whatever was sleeping inside. But if the creature there proved itself to be too strong for him to kill in one swift strike, then he’d have to deal with four of them at once.

Kyle hesitated for a short while, then decided to not take that chance. The three goblins sitting around the campfire would be the most challenging battle in this camp anyways. He stalked the edges of the camp once more, and circled around it through the woods, towards the torn tent.

He stepped through the torn section of the tent, carefully stepped over the dead goblin, and crouched by the cloth flap facing the campfire. Only one of the goblins was facing him. Both others had their backs partially turned towards him. He watched the goblin facing him, waiting for it to look somewhere else.

He didn’t need to wait long. Goblins were fidgety creatures by nature, and the goblin was quick to direct its attention to the pieces of meat on the stick it was holding. As soon as it looked, Kyle dashed outside, blade in hand.

With only three wide steps, he covered the distance between the tent and the campfire and struck the nearest goblin with his blade. The goblin died immediately as it hadn’t even noticed him. He quickly turned his blade to the second goblin. The third one screamed with a mix of terror and alarm as Kyle kicked the second goblin in the chest before it could get up and slit its throat.

The young man turned to the third goblin and scowled as it reached for the axe laying on the ground. He ran around the campfire as the goblin picked up its weapon and swung his blade as hard as he could. The goblin raised the axe, and just barely blocked his attack.

Kyle didn’t even hesitate as he kicked the creature in the stomach. He had the advantage of being taller, and he intended to use it to the fullest. The creature wheezed as it fell to the ground, and Kyle quickly stabbed it in the heart as well.

“Phew,” he sighed with relief after quickly checking all three of them had really died. This had been much easier than he first thought it would be. Now, all that remained was looting everything and moving onto the next camp. He knelt by the dead goblin and wiped his sword on its small, torn cloak, then paused as he noticed the shadow on the ground.

He narrowed his eyes as his motions came to a halt. A shadow. Being cast over his back.

He threw himself to his left with all the strength he could muster, and the ground shook violently as he fell on his back. He looked at the spot where he had crouched a moment ago, only to see the pointy end of a metal tower shield smash the earth.