--AN) Forgot to post the chapter! The second chapter is already in the works and will be up soon.--
Blake and Bret moved alongside the base up the ridge that the base was located under and stood on top of a large boulder that was large enough for the two of them. "No matter how many times I come here, looking out towards the city still makes me think I am watching a live version of an apocalypse movie."
"You will get there...." Blake sighed. Mana was something that could turn anything into something. With so many dead humans lying all over. Those that did not get eaten by monsters would turn into undead. Some of which had intelligence and were very strong.
"Wait, why do I feel a chill rolling down my spine? You don't mean that shit like zombies will start appearing soon, right!?" Bret hugged his body and shivered. "I do not mind if they are in the movies, but if they are real fuck that!"
"Well, you will need to get used to it. They are the main reason I had you build high walls. If you do not cut the head of the dead they have a chance to become undead. Zombies, skeletons. You name it. As long as its head is attached to something, it will come back alive due to mana. The dragonic are not the ones I fear the most right now, it is the undead. Of course, I do not want to fight any dragonic either because I already know I will lose if there is more than one." Thinking about his fight with Darla, if he was lucky he could do the same thing again but that trick might only work once or twice. But now the dragonic has information on him. He really needed to work hard to get his mana pool big enough and evolve once more before becoming a drakani, which should give him a major power boost.
"Fuck me! Should I start making spiked baseball bats now?" Bret asked, which caused Blake to chuckle.
Blake shook his head as he answered: "Nah, that wouldn't even harm an undead. You need to cut the head cleanly off or burn them with magic. They are basically magic based creatures. What you might want to practice more on is slimes, as they will begin appearing in great numbers soon. The mana wave has already begun to settle and once it settles, it will begin to condense in areas and give birth to more monsters. Slimes are a major by product of areas condensed with mana."
"Slimes huh? Those cute little balls of goo?" Bret asked curiously. He, of course, knew about slimes. He was obsessed with fantasy related things, after all.
"Mmm... They look more like a puddle of an ooze than anything else. They have a small mana core in their bodies you need to destroy. But they are pretty ugly. No slime girls for you any time soon unless you like something that looks like it got run over by a truck. Oh yeah.... While they are squished looking like a puddle of water, you need to be careful because those things can jump up on your face, suffocating you and melting your face off." Blake had seen a few people die this way. He had seen a group of people walking through a field and getting pounced on by slimes hiding in the tall grass.
"Shit.... Why is everything so damn messed up!?" Bret sighed. He had always wanted a slime girl! They were on his list of fantasy girls he wanted to bed! But now....
"It's better than to find out while your dick is being melted off at some point due to you trying to fuck them." Blake jabbed as he chuckled at his own words, but Bret's face only turned more sour.
"Anyway, what are we looking for anyway? I know for more signs of more species but what else?" Bret asked.
"I saw dead goblins near the area where I met the cow girls. There are probably many more, which means we should be looking for a goblin settlement. Any goblin settlements around our base are a bad thing because the girls will always be targeted. Young or old, goblins do not care." Blake did not want his people to suffer, so he was trying to see if he could find this goblin settlement.
"Then why are we standing up here looking around?" Bret was confused. He did not understand why they were on top of a rock when they should be running around looking for goblins.
"Because if we can spot some smoke, it is highly likely of a settlement, or if we hear screams, it is also a possibility of goblins near the area. We can use whomever they are after as bait when they are dragged back to the camp." Blake answered. His attitude might sound cruel, but he will not help those if they are already caught. And he needed bait to find where the goblins were hiding. If they have a den in the forest cave somewhere, it would be almost impossible to find them.
Bret frowned slightly, but he understood why Blake would do it. They couldn't use their own as bait, but they could use strangers they do not know. The two looked around for a while but found nothing of interest, which meant they had to go out and search the forest. They traveled around the base parameter a few times before expanding the search area more. When they got about a half mile out, Blake stopped and pointed to the ground. "Look."
"Hmmm... weird humanoid footprints.... Goblins?" Bret asked. He was unsure, but it seemed to fit if they were the small guys.
"Should be. If we follow them we might be able to find their hideout." Blake cleared the underbrush away to get a better look at the footprints.
The two followed the trail up to a small stream about a mile and a half from the base. "No tracks on the other side, which means they walked the stream. See any indents in the mud?"
The stream was not deep, and the boom could be seen clearly, so anyone walking through it recently would have made track marks. While not as prominent as the ones on land, it was still something to go by.
"They went upstream. Look." Bret pointed to some spots that looked slightly like footprints. Blake nodded, and the two headed upstream but not by water as they had to be more discrete now.
"Keep an eye out for scouts or guards." Blake reminded Bret. Bret nodded and began stepping as lightly as possible. After thirty minutes, they finally stopped by a huge tree and looked out over to a three story building that sat at the edge of the stream. The stream itself was probably new, something created after the mana wave. But it seemed as if they had entered a town center at some point.
"They are using that building as a den, it seems. Probably has a basement inside, making it perfect for a decent den. They will also dig out from those areas creating paths under the other buildings with more exits. So this is a perfect dwelling for them." Blake frowned. From what he could estimate, the building had at least a few hundred goblins. If they were to rush in, they would most likely be killed.
"Let's backtrack and mark the trail. We will need to come up with a plan. Rushing in there like this is just asking to get ourselves killed. We have a decent stockpile of mortars and grenades, right? I think I brought back quite a bit." Blake knew this might bring some attention to them, but it was better than running into a huge group of goblins at once and having someone die in the process.
"What if we set up traps around the entire goblin den? We got land mines and trip lines. We can attack the main den with a missile if we throw one into the air after arming it and let it come down. It should make the ones in the basement scurry out. Once they rush out the other entrances, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel." Bret suggested. They had such a huge stick pile of weapons that they might as well use them while they could.
"Alright, we will do as you suggest. You are more of an expert at this shit than I am." Blake chuckled. "Let's hurry back and prepare. Bring some of your men with us. It will be easier if we have more soldiers to quickly set things up."
"We should do it at night. We have night vision which will allow us to move around freely. Goblins sleep, right?" Bret asked.
"Yeah. That would be better. Let's go back and do a mission briefing. You have any idea where this place is on a map?" Blake had no idea where they currently were, so he hoped, with Bret's experience, they could at least map the area out.
"If I am not wrong, this should be Holden Center. Mmmm, it is. See over there." Bret pointed to a sign that was barely visible. It only showed two letters, 'FE'. "That is Holden Coffee House. Their specialty brew was pretty damn good. I came here a few times when I was traveling back and forth."
"Alright then, let's get the show on the road then." Blake nodded, and the two quickly made their way back to the base but made sure to cover their tracks. When they arrived, Blake called an emergency meeting with Mike, the girls, and Bret, along with the men he selected for the mission.
"Blake, what's going on?" Lillia asked as she sat down next to him. Tina sat on his right while Noa sat on Lillia's left. The girls, Sam and Erica, were on the other side of Tina.
"We found a goblin den close to the base, which we will be exterminating tonight. Mike, I will be bringing Bret and a few others out, along with some missiles, landmines, and trip lines. And a shit town of grenades." Blake explained. He wanted to make sure there was enough firepower to wipe out the entire den quickly.
"If there are goblins, wouldn't that mean there will be females inside, some of which were captured?" Mike asked. As always, he was trying to save who he could.
"Even if there are. It is better for them to die." Lillia was the first to speak up. "Mike, I know you wish to save who you can, but those girls once defiled by goblins, it is better to kill them. They will wish for death."
"Ah...." Mike frowned, but this was just how things were. "Then I will let people know to stay in tonight. This way, if something happens, everyone will be in the base."
Blake nodded and said: "Good idea."
