The five goblins on the left charged simultaneously — axes, daggers, and arrows flying.
The humans barely had time to react before the right side exploded into motion.
The bulky goblin's club smashed into a soldier's shield with enough force to crack the wood. The two spear-wielders thrust in perfect tandem — one punching through a gap in armor while the other forced a soldier to stumble backward.
"Ambush! Both sides!" a soldier screamed.
The first mage raised his staff —
CRACK!
Satou's stone shard smashed into his hand, breaking fingers. The staff clattered to the ground, the spell dissolving into nothing.
The second mage began chanting, voice rising fast. "Flame Bur—"
An arrow sprouted from his throat. His eyes went wide. He collapsed, the spell dying with him.
"Mages down! Mages down!" a soldier shouted, panic bleeding into his voice.
The remaining six soldiers tried to form a defensive circle, shields raised — but the goblins didn't give them a breath of space.
The lean goblin with twin daggers darted in low, slashing at exposed legs and forcing guards to drop. When they did, Gob's axe came crashing down from above.
The shaman in the right tunnel drove his staff into the ground. "Earth Bind!"
The stone beneath two soldiers shifted and softened, their boots sinking into sudden mud. They flailed, off-balance.
The spear-wielders didn't waste it. Both spears thrust forward and found gaps in armor. Both soldiers went down.
"What the hell?!" one of the remaining soldiers screamed. "These are just goblins! They're supposed to be weak! Stupid!"
"Does this look stupid to you?!" another soldier roared back, desperately blocking an axe strike.
"Fall back! Regroup!" the last man with any authority shouted.
The goblins had anticipated this.
As the humans tried to retreat toward the main tunnel, three goblin scouts dropped from positions above, landing directly in their path. Arrows flew at point-blank range.
One soldier took an arrow to the eye and dropped instantly. Another caught one in the throat and staggered, blood pouring down his chest.
The last two soldiers broke formation and ran in opposite directions.
Gob tackled one from behind, his weight bringing the human crashing down. His axe rose and fell once.
The final soldier made it three steps before the bulky goblin's club caught him across the back of the skull. He collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
Silence fell over the junction.
Eight soldiers and two mages dead. Not a single goblin lost.
For a moment nobody moved. Then Gob straightened, breathing hard, staring at the carnage around him.
"That... actually worked," he said, sounding genuinely surprised.
Satou dropped down from his ledge. His legs trembled slightly on landing — the mana he'd spent on that one shot had scraped the last of his reserves dry. He steadied himself against the tunnel wall for a second before pushing off it. "Told you. Tactics beat charging in screaming."
One of the goblin warriors kicked a dead soldier's boot. "They didn't even see it coming."
"Because they thought we were stupid," Satou said. He walked over to the first mage's body and crouched down. He needed more skills — and his mana wasn't going to rebuild itself sitting still. One way to speed things along.
He tore off a piece of flesh and forced it down quickly, ignoring the bile rising in his throat.
DING!
[Skill Acquired: Minor Mana Sense][Skill Acquired: Flame Spark]
He moved to the second mage.
DING!
[Skill Acquired: Basic Swordsmanship][Skill Acquired: Shield Deflection]
Satou stood, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. Four new skills. And he could already feel the faint warmth of absorbed energy nudging his mana reserves upward — not much, but something. Better than nothing.
Gob watched the whole process with an expression caught between disgust and fascination. "You're really committed to this eating-the-enemy thing."
"Gets results," Satou said. He looked at the scattered bodies. "Grab their weapons. Every sword, every dagger, the shield, the staffs — all of it. We need every advantage we can get."
The goblins moved quickly through the bodies, stripping weapons and anything useful.
As they worked, one of the scouts looked up. "You think the rest of them heard the fight?"
"Definitely," Satou said. "Which means more are coming. We move now." He let his eyes sweep across the group — thirty fighters, still standing, still breathing, none of them dead. Something he hadn't been sure of going in. "But they know something now that they didn't know before they came down here."
Gob snorted. "One ambush doesn't make us an army."
"No," Satou agreed. "But it makes them cautious. And cautious enemies make mistakes."
He turned back toward the main cave. Jessica, Kelvin, Goblin 1, and Goblin 2 were still waiting with the non-combatants near the wall — he needed to get back to them and get the whole group moving toward the crack before the humans regrouped.
'One problem at a time.'
=======
Deeper in the cave, a group of human soldiers had pulled back to a widened chamber being used as a command post. Supplies were stacked along the walls. Wounded were being tended near the entrance. A lieutenant paced the center of the room, his face tight with frustration.
"Report!" he barked as a scout stumbled inside.
The scout's armor was scratched and dented. He was breathing hard. "Sir... Delta Squad. They're gone."
The lieutenant stopped pacing. "Gone. What does that mean?"
"Dead, sir. All ten of them. We found them at the junction — eight soldiers, both mages."
"Impossible," a second officer said, stepping forward. "Ten trained soldiers. Against goblins."
"It was coordinated, sir." The scout swallowed. "They hit Delta Squad from both sides at the same time. Took the mages out first, then isolated and overwhelmed the rest. It was... tactical."
Silence settled over the chamber.
"Tactical," the lieutenant repeated slowly. "Goblins."
"That's what I saw, sir. They had positions set before we entered the junction. Covering fire from above. One of them interrupted our mage's casting with a ranged attack — small stone projectile, accurate enough to break his casting hand."
One of the soldiers let out a short, nervous laugh. "Come on. Goblins? They breed fast and die faster. That's all they do."
"Then explain ten dead soldiers," the scout said, looking directly at him.
The laughter stopped.
The lieutenant's jaw tightened. "Goblins don't fight like this. They don't think like this."
"Maybe they've got someone organizing them," the second officer said. "A leader."
"A goblin leader capable of outmaneuvering trained soldiers and a mage pair?" The lieutenant shook his head slowly. "That's unprecedented."
"Sir — there's one more thing," the scout added, hesitating. "Before Delta Squad was wiped, one of the survivors managed to signal back. He said the goblins were making sounds before the attack. Not their usual noise. Short, deliberate. Like a signal."
The lieutenant's eyes narrowed. "A signal. You mean they were communicating."
"Coordinated communication, sir. They moved like a unit, not a mob. Whatever is leading them down there — it isn't behaving like any goblin we've encountered before."
The room stayed quiet for a long moment.
The lieutenant turned to the second officer. "Pull Epsilon and Zeta squads back from the inner tunnels. Reform at the main junction. I want a mage on every team going forward — no squad enters a tunnel without one." He looked back at the scout. "And find out what is organizing those goblins. Whatever it is — it's the target."