Chapter 30: The Scholar's Gambit

*Date: 33,480 First Quarter - Iron Confederacy*

The goblin in scholar's robes stepped forward with eerie composure, its copper circlet catching the dawn light like a crown of false authority. And then like a knife twisting into the fabric of sanity itself it spoke in clear, unbroken human tongue. The gathered fighters froze in disbelief, their weapons suddenly feeling heavier in their hands.

"I am Kazzak, voice of Chief Grothmar," the creature announced, its words carrying the educated cadence of a university lecturer. "You see before you not raiders, but a people awakening to their destiny. We expand not by chaos but by purpose. This outpost is but the first stone in a wall of progress that will span continents. We trade peacefully with the dwarves, exchange ore for tools, tools for bread and prosperity. We are a society now, not beasts driven by base instinct. And we seek only recognition of our rightful place in this world."

Demir felt bile rise in his throat like acid. The creature's reasonable tone made its words somehow more obscene than any snarl or roar.

"Bullshit!" His voice cut the air, sharp and raw with fury. "You enslave anyone you can catch. Look behind you! Those are not workers they're my friends!"

Kazzak's eyes gleamed coldly, like chips of black ice. "The world of Aethyros is too dangerous for lone wanderers and pitiful bands of survivors. Under our protection, they find food, purpose, safety from the countless predators that stalk these lands. Look -" He gestured with one long-fingered hand toward the massive troll. "Our guardian ensures their well-being."

The troll shifted its massive bulk, chains rattling like thunder as it hefted the boulder that could crush dozens of people with a single release. The slope behind it led straight to the row of shackled slaves, their faces pale with terror as they understood their position as human shields.

Thalia's face darkened like a storm cloud. "Enough. We don't parley with goblins. You have no bargaining power we cannot take from you by force."

The hulking goblin boss Chief Grothmar bellowed a war cry that seemed to shake the very mountains, drawing a slab-like blade from its back. The weapon was longer than Demir was tall, its black iron edges chipped from countless battles but no less deadly for wear. The goblin horde roared in unison, their voices creating a wall of sound that made the air itself vibrate with menace.

Demir leaned close to his companions, his voice low but fierce with determination.

"Cover me. I've got the troll. That boulder is death waiting to happen to everyone we came here to save."

He strapped on his dented shield, feeling the familiar weight settle against his forearm, and drew the F-grade sword he'd claimed just yesterday. The steel felt tested in his hands, showing enough promise to risk everything on.

He jabbed a finger toward the cave's right corner. "Marco, when the chaos starts, blast there. Don't hold back use every scrap of mana or whatever they use in this game. I don't care if you collapse from exhaustion afterward."

Marco swallowed hard, already flexing his hands like a nervous conjurer preparing for the performance of his life. Blue light began to gather around his fingertips.

"Sin, Timmy you're my cover. Hold their lines for as long as you can. Give me the opening I need, and I'll shove that rock away from the slaves. After that..." He met each of their eyes in turn. "We fight as long as breath's in our bodies."

Sin grinned wolfishly, his cleaver catching the morning light. Timmy just tightened his grip on his spear, determination written in every line of his young face.

The signal was given.

The field erupted into chaos.

Marco's hands flared with orange light, his teeth gritted against the strain of channeling more power than he'd ever attempted. The fireball he conjured was raw, unstable, crackling with barely contained energy. It streaked across the air with a shriek that hurt to hear, slamming into the far corner of the cave mouth. The blast shattered stone and spewed smoke into the ranks of goblins, scattering their front line into screaming chaos.

"Go!" Demir barked.

Sin and Timmy charged first, their blonde heads lowered like battering rams, cleavers flashing in the morning light. They hit the goblins like wild dogs unleashed, cutting down the first snarling pair before the creatures could even raise their jagged swords. Timmy kicked one in the gut with brutal efficiency, driving it into Sin's swing, and the boy's cleaver split its skull with a wet crack.

Demir ran behind them, shield braced, the boulder and troll dead ahead. The troll's yellow eyes rolled in confusion and fury, caught between its chains and its instincts. The goblins tugged at its bindings with desperate urgency, urging it forward, urging it to release the massive stone.

"No," Demir growled, sprinting harder than he ever had in his life.

He met the troll head-on, shield-first. The impact rattled his bones and sent shockwaves through his entire body. The sheer size of the monster dwarfed him, making him feel like a child attacking a giant. But he shoved with every ounce of strength his buffed muscles could provide. The troll staggered back a step, the boulder shifting precariously on its massive shoulders. Chains clanged like bells, goblins shrieked in alarm, but Demir pushed harder, planting his boots in the mud and driving forward with everything he had.

"Not... today!"

With a scream of effort that tore his throat raw, he wrenched his shield under the rock's edge and heaved with strength that seemed to come from somewhere beyond his body. The massive stone tipped just enough to roll away from the slope leading to the slaves, crashing harmlessly against the mountainside and gouging the earth. The slaves gasped in relief, spared from crushing death for now.

[Bzzzt! ] The familiar interference flashed across his vision, but Demir had no time to process what it meant. It must be shield-related, he thought dimly. But right now, he had to focus on counting his charged strikes. Nineteen remaining, he told himself.

The troll roared and swung a chained fist the size of a barrel, catching Demir across his shield. The force nearly broke his arm and sent him reeling, but he held his ground through sheer stubborn will.

Meanwhile, the battle surged all around them like a living thing.

Thalia's shielded men formed an unbreakable line at the cave's mouth, locking their tower-shields together in perfect formation. Goblins swarmed against them like waves against a breakwater, hacking and clawing with desperate fury, but the wall held. Behind the shields, archers loosed arrow after arrow into the horde, shafts thudding into green flesh with wet sounds. Thalia herself stood tall like a pillar of fire, staff blazing with contained power. She hurled bolts of flame into the mob, each explosion lighting corpses like torches and filling the air with the smell of burned flesh.

The assassin slipped in and out of sight like a ghost, his twin daggers leaving streaks of red as he gutted goblins along the flanks. Every time one of the creatures thought him vulnerable, he vanished into shadow, only to reappear behind them with steel sliding between ribs.

Marco, drained from his massive fireball, stumbled back toward the rocks, gulping for air like a drowning man. But he lifted his shaking hands again, conjuring sparks, bolts, anything to scatter the goblins pressing too close to their thin defensive line. Timmy guarded his flank with fierce determination, his cleaver biting deep into anything that breached their circle.

Sin fought like a storm given human form, laughter wild on his lips despite the desperate situation. His blade rose and fell in deadly rhythm, his boots kicking dirt into goblin eyes, his strikes fueled by the raw high of survival against impossible odds. "Come on!" he roared, his voice cutting through the clash of steel. "Is this all you've got?"

"Twelve," Demir muttered to himself as he counted another for a charged strike on the troll. His fight with the massive creature grew more desperate with each passing moment. The beast swung its chains like whips, each strike shattering ground and stone where Demir had stood a heartbeat before. He dodged, ducked, slammed his shield into its legs, hacking upward with his sword whenever he saw an opening. The steel bit into flesh, shallow cuts compared to the monster's bulk, but it was enough to bleed it, enough to weaken it slowly. "Eight left."

A goblin darted toward the slaves with a knife raised, murder in its red eyes. But Demir broke free from the troll long enough to slam his shield into its skull, crushing bone and brain before it could strike down the defenseless prisoners.

The tide pressed tighter around them all.

The goblin boss finally moved, and when it did, the earth shook. Its massive blade cleaved through Thalia's shield wall in a single stroke, sending one of her men flying backward with his chest caved in. The boss gurgled a war cry that made the mountains echo, every step shaking the dirt beneath their feet.

One of the remaining soldiers shouted, "What the hell is that thing's level?"

"Shut up and stand strong, you idiots!" Thalia countered, flames swirling around her like a living tornado. She unleashed her power in the giant's path, fire washing over its armor in waves. But the brute kept coming, smoldering but undeterred, its red eyes fixed on her with murderous intent.

The assassin darted in like a striking snake, scoring deep cuts along the giant's side with his twin daggers, then leaping away before the monster's backhand could smash him flat against the rocks.

And through it all, Kazzak the politician goblin stood behind the horde, untouched by the violence, watching and recording. His lips moved silently, already plotting the next move in whatever grand strategy his twisted mind was weaving.

"Two left," Demir gasped, his shield arm throbbing with pain, his sword arm burning with exhaustion. "One left." The troll's blows were slower now, its wounds dripping dark blood that pooled in the dirt.

He was feeling the charge building now, power flowing through his muscles like liquid lightning. He ducked a massive swing and rammed his shield into the creature's gut, then slashed upward with his charged strike into its throat. The steel bit deep, power exploding through flesh and bone. The troll gurgled and fell, dragging chains and broken stone with it as it crashed to the earth.

Demir stood panting over the corpse, exhausted but victorious.

The slaves flinched as the massive body crashed near them but they were alive. Demir had bought them that much, and maybe that would be enough.

By the time the troll hit the ground with a sound like thunder, the battlefield was a ruin of corpses, fire, and blood. The goblin tide was broken, most cut down by human steel and magical fire. Only the leaders remained standing among the carnage.

Demir staggered into the center of the killing field, shield cracked, sword dripping with troll blood, still trying to catch his breath. Around him, only a few figures still stood in the smoke and ruin.

The goblin boss Grothmar, massive blade in hand, its armor scorched but intact.

Thalia, her staff blazing with barely contained power.

The assassin, daggers slick with gore, moving like death itself.

Thalia's armored commander, dented but unbroken, his shield raised.

And Demir himself, armor battered, breath ragged, but still standing.

The rest was silence broken only by the crackle of dying fires and the moans of the wounded.

The final confrontation was about to begin.