After splitting up with the sisterhood, Xavier and his two companions continued their monster hunt. They wondered the forest, looking for goblins, but the first thing they found was a trail of fresh human blood.
"Should we...follow it?" Maria asked hesitantly, but Xavier didn't answer as he was unsure as well. The trail most likely led to a horde of goblins...a horde of goblin waiting to ambush any unsuspecting humans.
"Let's follow it, but we should stay cautious." Mickey said, offering his wisdom, and both of them agreed. With their next course of action decided, they followed the blood trail, which continued for about ten minutes, making them wonder just how much blood the person had.
The blood trail led to a cave, which had two, slightly taller and more muscular goblins than they have seen so far, standing guard at the entrance. Both of them had spears in their hand and had a neutral expression on their faces. Squinting their eyes, the could see Goblin Warriors E- above their heads.
"Those must be some of the new variants that I heard about yesterday. I heard that they discovered three different goblin variants, the Goblin Warriors E-, Goblin Archer E- and the Goblin Scout F+. We must be really deep in the forest right now." Mickey said, and Xavier squinted his eye at the goblin warriors, before scanning the area around them. Mickey wanted to attack immediately, but Xavier stopped him and pointed towards the trees.
"What?" Mickey asked, as he didn't see anything.
"I saw something reflecting light in the treeline. You said something about an archer right? If I were going to put one anywhere, I would put them in the trees. I'll go check it out." Xavier said, and slowly moved towards the tree where he saw the glint, using the shadows as cover. He soon appeared at the closest set of trees to the cave, and he could see the Goblin Warrior clearly now, and he could tell these guys were trouble. Xavier carefully climbed the one of the trees, searching for an archer.
'Bingo.' He thought with a grin, when he saw a goblin holding a bow, hiding in the trees. Luckily, it's back was turned away from him, but it was on the adjacent tree. Xavier slowly slid down the tree he was on, careful not to make any noise, and climbed the correct tree. He slowly crawled along the branch, careful not to make it vibrate too much.
"Gra-" The goblin archer tried to scream, and Xavier quickly threw the dagger in it's neck, and quickly caught it's body.
"Ziho glak." One of the goblin warriors said as it looked up in the tree and cold sweat started to drip down Xavier's face. The goblin warrior shouted some gibberish again, this time gripping it's spear and pointed it towards the tree. The goblin warrior then threw the spear into the tree, and the sound of something being pierced resounded....and the goblin archers corpse fell to the ground.
The goblin warrior snorted and said something again, before pulling out his spear. The second goblin warrior said something as well, and the first one carved out the monster stone out of the archer, before heading back into the cave. Xavier sighed in relief, as they didn't notice anything amiss. Before the goblin warrior threw it's spear, he had collected his dagger and slid out of the tree.
With only one guard remaining, he took his dagger in hand and threw it into his chest. Not expecting an attack, the dagger stabbed into the guards neck, and before he fell to the ground, Xavier rushed out of the bushes and dragged him into the bush, successfully hiding his body. Xavier quickly grabbed the spear, bow and quiver that were on the ground and rushed back towards where Mickey and Maria were.
"Okay, we probably only have a few minutes before the other goblin warrior come back. Maria, can yoy use a bow." Xavier said
"I-I'm not sure." Maria stuttered, but Xavier pushed the bow in her hand.
"Hopefully, you are a quick study. We are gonna need you to cover us from the back." Xavier said and held the spear in his hand as he made his way towards the cave entrance again. Mickey followed behind and Maria followed at the back, nervously clutching her bow. Before they arrived, the goblin warrior returned with a new goblin archer. Not seeing the other goblin warrior, the guard realized something was wrong, and cautiously looked around.
"Maria, you're up. Try and take out the goblin warrior." Xavier said as the goblin warrier was getting near to the bush where he hid the corpse.
"I-I..." Maria stuttered nervously and Mickey placed his hand on her shoulder.
"We believe in you." He said before leaving with Xavier. The two of them crawled towards the entrance of the cave. The archer had also drawn it's bow, looking around area along with the warrior. Suddenly, as the two of them were closing in, an arrow flew through the air and stabbed into the warrior's thigh, making the monster scream. The archer followed the trajectory of the arrow, and nocked an arrow into it's bow, but before it could fire, a spear stabbed into it's neck. The goblin warrior screamed in it's language, but another arrow struck it in the chest, killing it.
"Not bad for a days work." Xavier said, when they heard footsteps heading towards them from inside the cave.