A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 43: Battle With The Goblins - Part 9

'Find the right path,' Beam thought to himself. 'No… Find a path. It doesn't need to be the right one. It just needs to work.' He repeated those words to himself over and over like a mantra, as he gradually restored some of the thinking function of his brain.

Now that he was calming down somewhat, he reviewed his initial plan: to use his speed to his advantage and attempt to take care of each Goblin individually before they could group up and get behind him. Again, it made his heart beat faster as he imagined it. It was a reckless strategy, for sure, and he could envision many things with it going wrong.

For instance, he could be underestimating their speed and overrating his own. After all, even though they had the strength of children, they were said to be just as fast as adults, which would likely make for a highly confusing combination, given their size.

If Beam leapt in and attempted to take care of one of them, it was possible that they could dodge and he'd find himself outnumbered 5 to 1 with nowhere to escape to.

"Escape to?" Beam said aloud, as he considered the only flaw he could perceive in his plan. If something went wrong, there was no need for him to stand and fight. Assuming he could even stay slightly ahead of the Goblins, it was possible he could run to somewhere where it was relatively safe and where at least he had the advantage.

Dominus raised an eyebrow as he watched the cogs turning.

Beam was looking around, getting a lay of the land, trying to think of somewhere where he could best a Goblin. He thought about it and thought about it, before his eyes lit up and he thought he might have come up with an answer.

"Master, you said you weren't going to help me with this quest, right?" Beam asked.

"That I did," Dominus confirmed.

"But I can still ask you questions as normal, right? About the abilities of Goblins?" Beam checked.

Dominus tilted his head and thought for a moment. "Mm… I suppose I'll allow it," he decided, wanting to see what his apprentice would come up with.

"Can Goblins swim?" Beam asked.

Dominus' eyes widened in surprise as he heard the question. "Ahh…" he smiled in understanding. "No. Not regular Goblins like this anyway."

Beam nodded twice, putting the plan together in his head. From where they were, judging by the lay of the land, if he raced further north he would likely find himself at the mountain river they often trained at. Of course, he would be further upstream than they ever had been before, but he didn't doubt that he'd be able to make something work as long as he found it.

He'd brave it all on this one attack, he decided. And then if things went wrong, he'd sprint for the mountain river and he'd use the fact that the Goblins couldn't swim to his advantage.

He kept nodding to himself, as in his mind, the plan began to click together as something that might work. Of course, it was only a bare-bones strategy and it was reckless for sure. There was still a lot that could go wrong. He might end up at a dead end as he rushed towards the river, or he might have miscalculated entirely and end up somewhere where it was impossible to cross, even with his meagre swimming skills.

But for him, it was more than enough. That was all he needed. The slightest glimmer of possibility and he could set his fear aside and bet on it.

"Let's go," Beam said to his master, moving forward once more in pursuit of the Goblins' footprints, moving far more quickly than he had earlier. He wanted to find them now. He wanted to ensure he killed at least one of them before he staged his retreat. That was his goal. He gripped his knife tightly as he thought of it.

Before, where he was seeing a single set of Goblin footprints, he started to see more. The footprints crossed over and obscured each other, making it difficult to tell just how many there were. Beam guessed that the creatures must have been hunting a distance apart, but now they were grouping up closer together again. Possibly to take on a more sizable game.

Beam continued forward at a jog, keeping his ears primed for any signs of movement. He was lucky that his master didn't make a single sound as he followed along behind him – there was nothing to obscure the sounds of the forest save for the beat of Beam's own footprints.

It was not long after that he first heard tell of them.

An awful, blood-curdling scream. When his parents told him stories of Gods and demons when he was a child, this was the sound that Beam had always associated with demons. His adrenaline spiked upon hearing it and his fear returned two fold. He froze up for an instant to calm himself.

A few deep breaths, a reassurance of his plan. A few moments like that and Beam managed to settle himself, in time to hear the next squeal, one that sounded like a reply to the first.

Beam's hearing wasn't the best, it was merely average for a boy his age. But despite lacking an abundance of skill in that department, he still fought to make his senses work and pull more information from the noise. He guessed that the second sound had come from his left, about fifty paces away. Whilst the first had come from his right, about the same distance.

Here again, just as he had along the run, Beam arrived at a fork in the road. A choice between the Goblin on the left, or the Goblin on the right. He had no idea what waited for him on either side, and there was too little information to stage a real educated guess.

In the end, he settled on the Goblin to left, merely because it would be quicker to get to the mountain river from it if anything went wrong. He had no idea about the true number of Goblins that awaited him there, but he plunged forward nonetheless, forcing his feet to move quickly, as soundlessly as they possibly could.