Chapter 54: Horde

Kaius charged through the broken gate, rushing into the wide street that led into the military section of the dwarven city. Goblins let out guttural hisses from the alleys and roofs, reacting quickly to their presence. Porkchop responded in turn, letting out a roar right next to him that rang Kaius’s ear.

Still sprinting, Kaius led them in the direction of the alley that wrapped around the back of the tallest building by the gates. Three stories tall, he could see an open air staircase on its rear face. The goblin archers at its top scurried to the edge, knocking arrows as they took aim at him. More goblins flooded from the alley, clubs and wicked blades in hand as they rushed to hold back their offence.

The arrows loosed.

Kaius spun to the side, the projectiles shattering as they hit the stone where he had just been standing. Another volley. One archer delayed its attack, fumbling as it knocked its arrow. The mistake was enough that it could correct for Kaius’s evasion. He swiped with his sword, parrying the shot.

Porkchop let out a hiss of fury. Kaius snapped over to check on his friend, finding three shafts sticking out of his back. Shallow, turned aside by the thick leather of his friends barding. All they’d done is piss him off.

They hit the coalescing goblins at the mouth of the alley like a hammer, shattering their ramshackle formation. One skirmisher tried to leap towards him, knives ready to gut him. Kaius booted the short creature in the chest, knocking it out of the air to barrel into its companions. A whole section of the line collapsed. Kaius waded in,A Father’s Giftreaping lives left and right. Caving in skulls and cleaving necks.

**Ding! level 11 Goblin Skirmisher slain**

**Ding! level 13 Goblin Skirmisher slain**

**Ding! level 11 Goblin Bruiser slain**

"Grashak kur’drel, zhak boro uk drash!" Kaius heard a goblin call from behind him. His head snapped back, seeing more of the hoard spilling from the opposing narrow lanes. They had to move.Fast. Or risk getting pinned.

“Porkchop! Rush them! I’ll be right behind!” He screamed, gutting another goblin.

**Ding! level 12 Goblin Scout slain**

Porkchop let out a feral howl of fury, charging into the mass of bodies. The short and lithe goblins were tossed to the side as porkchop forced his way through the crush. Kaius fell in behind him, moving at a swift jog. Cutting tendons and leaving maiming wounds as he forced the goblins back. Stopping them from getting swarmed.

Arrows rained down from above, the goblin arches focusing much of their fire on Porkchop. Most got lodged in leather, or glanced of metal plating. More missed entirely, maiming the archers' allies as crooked shafts buried themselves in wiry green flesh.

Not all, with every second, another arrow found its mark, cutting deep into his friend's flesh. Kaius hissed at the sight, glaring in hatred at the archers above. He would be coming for them soon.

Slashing out with his sword, he forced back the ranks of goblins that had closed around their rear. Now well and truly into the thick of the mob. More were joining them by the second, reinforcements from across the road.

There were more than he’d initially seen. As much as double, he thought with a scowl. Yet they were falling like threshed wheat. He could feel his increased stats. Aiding him as he smashed aside amateur defences. As he cleaved through bone. He was faster, stronger. Better able to keep up with the frenetic pace of the battle.

A goblin screamed, clutching its spurting stump as Kaius punished a rushed attack by hacking through its shoulder. A follow up slash removed its head. Silencing it forever.

**Ding! level 14 Goblin Bruiser slain**

They reached the shelter of the alleys, the volley of arrows stopping. Archers unable to get an angle through the various awnings that covered the narrow slit between buildings. With a final roar Porkchop smashed a goblin bruiser into the side of a building. It impacted with a sickening crunch, studded club slipping from its cooling fingers.

Bursting free of the crush, Porkchop raced ahead. Kaius quick on his tail.

“That way!” Kaius yelled, gesturing to the next turn to their right. “Let me up first when we get to the stairs!”

“Got it!”Porkchop called. An unlucky skirmisher rounded the corner, going down as Porkchop snapped his jaws around the depths-born’s face. Without breaking stride he shook, snapping the creature's neck with a crack.

The stairs were right ahead. Porkchop slowed. Kaius passed him, planting his feet to run up three stairs at a time. It was a precarious thing, just barely wide enough for Porkchop to run up. Without a bannister, it would be hellish for a force to take the roof. Exactly what they needed.

"Krel’tok rashk, bulg nah drov!" A goblin archer screamed, coming to the edge of the building. Its allies flocked to it, raining arrows down on them. He couldn't dodge. Far too many to parry, especially at such a close distance. He covered his head with his armoured arms, trusting it would be enough to stop a lucky arrow from taking him in the dome.

Projectiles plinked off his armour, leaving stinging welts in their wake. A few glanced off his unarmoured forearms, leaving weeping gashes. Only a few more long-strides and he would make it.

**Ding! Adamant Body has reached level 13!**

Kaius burst onto the roof in a fury. The archers screeched in panicked fury, training their bows on him. He got to work, trusting in Porkchop to hold the stairs.

Cutting the first arrow out of the air, Kaius advanced. The closest of the rangers dropped their bows, drawing long knives from behind their backs. Hurling hateful words at him. They ran in, knives blurring in clumsy slashes. He parried the first, cutting through its throat with his riposte. A hiss perished on its lips, dark green blood gushing from the rent in its neck.

It died gasping.

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**Ding! level 11 Goblin Archer slain**

The others were driven back, cleaving strikes exposing bone and lacerating organs. It wasn’t enough to stop them, their depths-driven conditioning forcing them to fight until the point of death.

One of the remaining archers still tried to fire at him. Kaius danced to the side, snatching up a goblin that attempted to stab him despite ropes of intestines hanging from its split belly. He hauled, sending the light creature sailing through the air to crash into the ranger.

A flash of his blade slew the last archer that had resorted to engaging him in melee. He cleaved deep into its clavicle. Cutting through its heart withWarforgedbacked steel.

Reduced to three, the remainders fell quickly. Too slow, isolated, and weak to put up a fight.

**Ding! level 13 Goblin Archer slain**

**Ding! level 11 Goblin Archer slain**

Porkchop was still roaring from the top of the stairs, embroiled in a meat grinder of feral goblins packed chest to chest. Every few seconds, a goblin screamed, knocked free of the ledge to hit the stone below with a crunch.

Kaius slammed his sword into his sheath, grabbing one of the archers' bows and a quiver full of arrows. It wasbarelya short bow in his hands. Closer to something one would give a child than a true weapon. It would be enough.

Running to the edge of the roof, Kaius knocked an arrow, training his aim on the thick flood of bobbing heads. He narrowed his eyes at a particularly large bruiser, at least for a goblin. Release. The projectile landed home, haft quivering as it sprouted from the goblins eye.

**Ding! level 14 Goblin Bruiser slain**

Kaius smiled. He still had it. Archery might have been the lastSkillhe had trained forWarforged, but it was a skill he had been honing since he was a child. It might not have been his preferred weapon, but it was a necessity for someone who relied on the hunt to eat. Shame that he had to limit its use, he didn’t want undue influence on his class after all.

Firing into the mess of bodies as fast as he could, goblin after goblin dropped under his onslaught, lowering the pressure on Porkchop who stood sentinel at the stairs peak. He usedIdentifyas often as he could, an onslaught of ding’s sounding in his mind as the skill levels and kill notifications rolled in.

**Ding! level 11 Goblin Skirmisher slain**

**Ding! Identify has reached level 18!**

**Ding! level 12 Goblin Bruiser slain**

**Ding! Identify has reached level 20!**

**Ding! level 14 Goblin Scout slain**

Eventually the flood of goblins slowed to a trickle, Kaius dropping the last straggler with an arrow to its head as it clambered over the corpses that littered the stairs. Dropping his bow he stared at the devastation. Green blood had slickened the stone footholds, a trickling river of green that seeped out from dozens of corpses. Not all were from his arrows. Some of the goblins that Porkchop had knocked off the building had tried to clamber back up with shattered limbs and gushing wounds.

“Kaius.”Porkchop said, tearing his eyes away from the gruesome scene.“Get these fucking arrows out.”

“Right!” Kaius said, rushing over. His friend had started to look a bit like a hedgehog, crude feather shafts standing tall from his barding. Most hadn’t penetrated, but a few lucky strikes had sunk half a handspan into his friend's flesh, blood weeping from the wounds as hisHealthwas unable to remove the obstructions.

Porkchop growled with every arrow he yanked out, snapping at the air. A few moments later and it was done, the punctures sealing quickly as his friend's health went to work.

“You said a few dozen.”Porkchop said accusatory.

“No.” Kaius replied, a cheeky grin on his face. “I said Isawa dozen. There’s a difference.”

“Though.” He continued, looking over the impressive pile of bodies. “I will admit that there were more of them than I expected.”

“You’re lucky they went down easy.”Porkchop huffed, pushing past him to step onto the roof proper.

Kaius gave his friend a reassuring pat on the hip. “We handled them fine. Now, this building looks to be one of the tallest in this area, I’m going to see If I can spot the Champion. If I remember correctly he should be somewhere that way.” Kaius gestured in the rough direction of the next set of city walls.

They rose higher than even the external battlements at the edge of the city. Built like a stacked cake, the entrance to the next district was via a truly massive set of stairs that cut their way up the next wall. Even withoutEagle Eyeramped up to full power, he could make them out from here.

Kaius walked to the far edge of the roof. Pulling on his skill, his eyes sharpened. Rows of squat and austere barracks and manufactoriums spilled out across the flat ground of the first district. They were blocky things, split by a warren of tight alleys and long and straight roads that all converged on the distant stairs. Every handful or so of blocks, Kaius easily made out milling groups of archers hanging out of the rooftops.

Ignoring the growing ache in his mind, Kaius focused on drilling the location of the archers into his mind.

**Ding! Eagle Eye has reached level 16!**

He had no doubt that below them they would find more goblins. Thankfully, they were distant enough that whatever compulsion the Depths had laid on the creatures prevented them from reacting to his presence. That was good. With how dense the alleys were, they would be able to advance on the buildings under cover. Their current tactic had worked well, and he saw no reason not to repeat it.

Using the main thoroughfares would certainly be much faster and less confusing, but they would have no cover, and would quickly get overwhelmed by goblins without a choke point to manage their numbers. Thankfully betweenExplorer’s ToolkitandMental Visualisation, he was confident he would be able to plan and remember a route through the confusing mess.

Turning his attention back to the open pavilion at the base of the entrance to the next district, Kaius ratchetedEagle Eyeup further, his headache growing into a splitting migraine. It looked to be some sort of mustering ground. Mounds of dwarven corpses littered the area, the high quality steel of their armour glistening in the false sunlight from above.

He spotted it. Their target. It couldn’t be a goblin. Too muscular. Too…large. And yet, the shared features and common similarities meant it must have been. Easily as tall as he was, the shirtless Champion was absolutely strapped with muscle. Ritual scarification turning its chest into a swirling pattern of ropey raised flesh. It prowled the courtyard with curt stops, pacing back and forth, dragging a two handed axe that looked like it could cleave through even a troll's thick neck, a string of skulls clacked against its waist with every step.

**Ding! Eagle Eye has reached level 17!**

Kaius grinned, ignoring the hot spikes of pain that drilled into the back of his eyes. He used Identify on their target, trying to clean what he could.

Bloodtotem Hobgoblin Lieutenant - Level 26:

Champion, Depths-born, Berserker, Low Race

“Found you.” Kaius said in a singsong voice.

The bastard looked tough. He couldn’t wait.