Humanity's Hero Of Despair

TROT! TROT! Trot! Trot.

Our horses slow down from a gallop to a slow trot as we enter the forests on the outskirts of Vexia. On the other side of the forests of Vexa lies the small village named Rustbreach, which reported sightings of goblins in the area.

They were attacked not too long ago by the strange goblins.

I take out my wand from my cloak while still holding onto my horse's reins. Just in case anything decides to appear out of nowhere, I will be prepared. My friends are also being cautious with their wands, ready for any attack. The magical knights draw their swords to be ready for battle.

It seems like everyone made the right move as we start to notice the air get much denser around us. The air is cool and damp with a sense of weight to it. There is definitely something off about this forest.

As the party makes it deeper into the forest, we notice trees that are twisted and scorched. The trees not only looked harmed, but disfigured. There is mana in these forests that doesn't belong here.

"Hey look!" Estes gets my attention and points at a tree.

On this tree were several strange marks carved into the bark. It definitely looked like the work of goblins. Though they had to be smart ones to even make a design this intricate.

If they are smart goblins, they are pretty dangerous.

I signal for the party to halt the trot forward.

I get off my horse, which leads to the others following suit. While I waited for everybody to be on the ground, I quietly ran over to the tree Estes pointed at and ran my fingers over it. Deep. These marks are pretty deep. Goblins shouldn't be able to have the strength to make deep intricate marks.

When I look up, I see Zephyr give a warning signal of caution.

We all are on guard now with our wands, swords, and shields out.

Zephyr has improved his wind magic to the point he can detect abnormalities of mana amounts in the wind and where precisely enemies could be lurking. In simple words, he can locate people and specific objects if they are within range.

We all quietly advance by foot toward the direction Zephyr is going in.

Zephyr crouches behind a few bushes, and we all follow suit. Zephyr peeked over the bushes and looked at me. I knew what he meant before he even looked over the bushes. There are goblins on the other side.

I peek through the bushes myself to get a better look. There appeared to be a goblin scouting group, which contained around ten small goblins. What was strange, though, is that they were armed with enchanted gear and weapons.

Small goblins are not supposed to even be intelligent or strong enough to use enchanted weapons or gear, so it was shocking to see it. Normally we could take them out easily, but I waited before attacking because of this new development.

Zephyr gives the signal and we all attack. I trust his judgement.

I whip out my wand and summon my usual go to spell.

"Blackthorn!"

A ray of dark magic bursts out and hit one of the goblins square in the face, making him fall over and claw at his skin as the purple flames consume him.

Nine left.

The other goblins, now aware of the surprise attack, quickly sprang into action. Their battle axes are full of fire magic and light magic.

Wait. Light magic? That shouldn't be possible.

Our party instantly engages with all the goblins and I hate to admit it, but it took way longer that we thought for us to defeat most of them. The few that survived ran away when they knew it was impossible to defeat us. Even if they had new fancy weapons and gear.

Those small goblins were way stronger than usual, I thought to myself as Matteo taps me on the shoulder to look at the dagger in his hands.

"Look at this, Nico. Look at how this blade feels and what's on it."

Matteo flips the dagger over for me and hands it to me carefully.

The strange dagger is very heavy and has a red leather hilt. All over the steel part of the dagger was some strange, intricate magic symbol on it in the shape of a dragon.

Dragon?

Matteo and I looked at each other like we had the same thought. As soon as we get back to Vexa, we are showing this to the President and also to King Grey. This is urgent. Also, for the goblins, much less small goblins, to be able to use light magic, it means something weird is going on.

We discuss our findings with our friends and then gather the party back together with our horses to gallop further into the forest until we reach the small village of Rustbreach, which was very burnt down from the goblin attacks.

They are obviously getting a bunch of fire magic from the dragons. The dragons' magic, though, shouldn't be enough to enhance the goblins so much. They never worked together before, so why now?

The Emperor of Light is gone, which means all the Eradicators should be gone as well. Which also means light magic shouldn't exist except for my sister and I. Something isn't right here.

I shove my thoughts to the side as my friend, the magical knights, and I help rebuild Rustbreach and get things in working order again. We met with the small time Mayor there briefly and got a letter of approval to hand back to the President.

Before we ride back to Vexa, a small child from the village tugs at my cloak.

"Thanks for helping us rebuild the village, mister, and for slaying the monsters!"

I smiled and ruffled his hair. It was impossible not to smile when you see a kid so happy.

"Anytime. Stay safe kid."

With that, I hopped back onto my horse with the rest of the Tarondar group and set forth back to Vexa.

I wonder what the President and King Grey will think about these new developments and how they will affect the treaty.

Hopefully, the goblins that escaped didn't cause too much trouble, either.