A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

She looked surprised to see a trio rushing her so suddenly, but that surprise did not dull her blade. In rapid succession, her sword lunged out. One thrust, two, then three. The goblins that would usually have been spread so far out made for a surprisingly easy target when they clustered together like that, and Blackthorn's blade made short work of them.

"Hell yeah!" Karesh shouted as he saw it. He raised his sword up as he bellowed, provoking the goblins. From the looks of them, they could sense victory now. They'd already dealt with a good amount of the goblins number.

Jorah dropped back, and circled behind Kaya, watching as Karesh slashed wildly in front of him. A whole pack of goblins cautiously sat just out of range of Karesh's sword. His strikes were just a smidge too slow to catch them by surprise, at least until they made the first mistake. But that didn't mean that they were useless. He was doing a remarkably good job at drawing attention.

Creatures like goblins fed on aggression. They were anger incarnate, full of vicious desires. When that same emotion was cast back at them, it startled them into a fervour, and made them even more reckless for it.

They seemed stunned by Karesh, nearly eight of them hung just outside of his range, shrieking with each swing that he gave. They watched with intelligent yellow eyes, tracking, timing, and then shifting their feet for a better point of attack.
Stay updated via empire

It only took them a few moments to secure that. Two goblins around the back, they came looking.

Kaya's spear point found the first one. Oliver could see the hesitation in his weapon. His arms were still stiff, and his body was still ruled by fear. But that didn't make the point of his spear any less sharp. His timing was good, despite that quiver in his hand, and he ran the first of the creatures straight through.

Jorah was there for the second. Just a few moments before, he had been circling the creatures off to the left, but now he repositioned himself, and was on the furthest right of their group, just in front of Blackthorn.

It made a complicated formation. It was not a straight line, not a single spear wall. It was something more chaotic, but somehow more manageable. What Oliver saw in their battle was the same thing that he felt in his own battles. The control of space, and the initiative, and the worth of momentum.

Jorah seemed to be a natural at reading that. It shocked Oliver to realize that this complicated battlefield was his creation. This formation was cultivated upon his orders, in response to the chaos that the goblins presented.

Yet, it wasn't enough to win the battle. Not by itself. There were still half as many goblins to go. They'd achieved a steady positional deadlock, borne through the better placement of their troubles, and intelligent usage of space management, but it lacked that nail in the coffin.

That was where Blackthorn came in. Even though Oliver had been teaching her how to utilise her sword beyond merely attacking, it was still her most practised art form. Given an exposed enemy flank, or an enemy locked into place like these goblins were, her family's style proved to be the most effective.

Oliver sat watching, urging her to take the opportunity. His own fingers tingled as he noted it. What they had created was closer to a true battlefield. And what was important on a true battlefield was the intuition necessary to place yourself exactly where you would be most effective, even if you hadn't received the order yet.

She ducked and launched herself so quickly into the fray that her hair was cast up behind her, along with the hem of her thick woollen skirt. She hit the first two goblins from the side. They were slightly turned away from her, but not fully. She was still well within their vision.

That was likely why they'd been comfortably standing as they were, confident that they were including the whole of the enemy forces within their vision.

But for someone as fast as Blackthorn, one needed to give her their full attention. She lunged with her blade, piercing one straight through the heart. Her sword was out again in a flash, leaving but the smallest of fatal holes. She was losing her hesitation to kill rapidly. She was done with the second goblin before it could even bring its head fully around. A quick slash to the neck saw to that.

She continued to push through, like a strong-spear thrust to the midsection, she pierced straight through the group of herded goblins. As a result of the formation that Jorah had created, they were rendered no better than sheep. By herself, in the span of just a few short moments, Blackthorn had killed a further three, and was chasing down the sixth.

That was around when the last of the order that the goblins had created broke. But Kaya had already been sent towards the right to encircle them, and Jorah was sprinting along from the left, keeping them in place, all whilst Karesh was running up the middle, delighted that the goblins were finally pinned firmly enough for his sword to find its way home.

Kaya scored himself another one, then Karesh grabbed himself two stragglers in a single swing, whilst Blackthorn snatched the last one for herself, with a single elegant slash across the back of its neck.

They left a whole pool of blood in their wake.

The Minister of Blades spoke up, before anyone could even think of congratulating them. "Oliver Patrick. I assign you an added rule, for your future expeditions. Your party will, in future, be limited to killing twenty monsters per species per visit," he said. "For your own good – before the Gamemasters start refusing you entry."

"That seems wise," Oliver said. "Thank you for your counsel, Minister," he said, dipping his head. Verdant dipped his head with him.