After hearing about the scout, Will knew they had a day at most, maybe two. So he immediately went through all the preparations he had made. For defenses he realized the best option they had was to use the narrow caves to funnel the Orcs, he didn"t know how many were going to come, but numbers wouldn"t be an issue if they could fight in the tunnels. He also decided to take advantage of the difference in height, he got all the Goblins to help him drive thick and sharp stakes to stick out of the cave walls above Goblin height. That way it would be hard for the Orcs to move around unscathed.Will had also managed to take advantage of the "Adrenaline Mushrooms", he didn"t have any apothecary skills, but he did some experimentation, and inhaling the mushrooms after drying and grinding them to dust made the effect happen almost instantaneously. So he handed small leather pouches to all the Goblins with the mushroom powder in it. Will knew that inhaling this stuff wouldn"t be healthy in the long term so he had to figure a way to consume it in a non-harmful way, but that was a problem for the future.
Luckily because of the spear Will had created, everyone was armed and there was no lack of food, so the Goblins could focus on the preparations. Even though Will wasn"t the leader, the others still listened to him. A lot of the Goblins were afraid, they knew how strong Orcs were, and they knew that they stood very little chance in defeating them, at least one on one. However Will convinced them that if they fought together they could win, but that didn"t stop a handful of Goblins running away in the middle of the night.
On the dawn of the second day, Will and Chief stood outside the cave. They could hear the noise of the nervous Goblins skittering around in the cave behind them. Will seemed like the most confident out of all of them, which lent some courage to the others, Chief was the only one with a hint of doubt in his eyes, but he still stood his ground. Only about ten minutes pa.s.sed after sunrise before something happened. They heard a war horn from within the forest directly in front of them. All the Goblins readied their weapons and some of them even started snarling like wild dogs. Another five minutes pa.s.sed and they started hearing stomping, the enemy was close.
Chief narrowed his eyes for a second, then suddenly grabbed Will"s shoulder. "Will, run… HIDE NOW!" the last words were spat out with genuine fear. With his bulging muscles, Chief threw will inside the cave then turned back around toward the incoming enemies. Will wasn"t sure what happened until he sat up from the ground already inside the cave. He looked out towards Chief, and that"s when he saw the enemy coming out of the forest.
Three towering figure. [That"s all?!] Will incredulously thought to himself. However as they got close, Will got more and more frightened. These Orcs were nothing as he had imagined, in his mind Orc were savage and tribal. They were strong, yes, but not to this extent. The Orcs in front of him were enormous, at least two heads taller than the female Orc in their captivity. They had toned lean muscles, nothing like the meat heads he pictured in his mind. However what struck the most fear into Will, was that the Orc in the front was in a mix of scale and mail armor, and it covered his entire body. He was wielding a ma.s.sive metal hamaxe⁽¹⁾.
Will immediately knew he had made a mistake, he had severely underestimated the technology of the Orcs, maybe even this world. He a.s.sumed just because the Goblins were this primitive, everyone else wouldn"t be too far ahead. [I should have taken them all away, now we"re all going to die.] Will despaired at the thought, but he was too terrified to move.
The armored Orc"s yellow narrow eyes calmly a.s.sessed the situation in front of him. He looked back at the two Orcs who accompanied him and said something Will didn"t understand. The Orc then slowly walked towards the cave entrance completely ignoring Chief. This made Chief furious and he charged the big Orc, however all the Orc did was wave his hamaxe towards where Chief was approaching. The blow barely grazed Chief, as he was able to dodge it ahead of time. However the Orc just let out an annoyed growl, as if using any more effort on this Goblin was just a waste of time. He still swung again though, and this time the blunt end of his weapon hit Chief in an upward swing. Chief was sent flying in an arc and hit the side of the cave entrance, he instantly died. Will, who was close, saw that every bone in Chief"s body was crushed, and so were his organs.
At this moment the despair will had felt earlier only deepened. Will also had another realization, he didn"t really care about the other Goblins. Even his siblings who he had shared a caver with, he had no real connection with them. Only Chief, he was the only one who had any meaning to Will in this world. And that was now gone. Will slowly got up, and this time a.n.a.lyzed the situation, prioritizing his survival instead. He didn"t care about the others anymore, maybe it was because of the fear of death, or maybe it was because the only connection to this place was gone. Will didn"t care, he just wanted to live, he didn"t know if he would be reincarnated again if he died. Will moved in between the Goblins who were holding up in the tunnels ready to fight, and walked towards the inner caves. He didn"t try to run out, because even though he didn"t understand what the Orc leader had told the other two Orcs, but he a.s.sumed it was to kill any Goblins trying to escape.
Will had made up his mind. The slaughter had already begun in the tunnels behind him, but Will was determined to look ahead towards his objective.