"Task"
(Time remaining: 714:40:30 hours)
I looked ahead and saw the clearing where we had first been summoned coming into view.
We were running a little late because we had a lot of stuff to carry on our way back, but hey, better late than never.
Our group was as cheery as one could be after slaughtering children. We filled any silence with mindless chatter and fake laughs to repress the bad thoughts. However, due to our antics, we grew even closer during our trek back, enough so for me to declare they were my friends, even Zayn.
We entered the clearing, and eyes filled with dread and despair locked onto us, pausing the conversation about birds we'd been having.
Everyone sat in a group together. Not a single smile was evident. Well, Lucas had the semblance of a smile, but I bet he was just putting on a front for everyone else… However, you could never really tell with nutjobs. He might have actually been happy in this situation.
When Lucas noticed us, his fake(?) smile grew. As he sat atop a tree stump, he waved and motioned for us to come join them. As we got closer to him, I noticed a few cuts that littered his body.
While walking towards him, I tried to gauge how many gathered. Out of the thirty-four sent out for scouting, I only counted twenty-eight present, including my group. Also, the hunting and gathering group hadn't returned yet. And… where was my savior? I didn't see him. Maks was right there, so where was he?
"Where is—" I tried to ask, but…
"It looks like you didn't listen as well." Lucas stood up from his seated position, and the smile vanished from his face. "It seems like you got lucky, unlike the others though." He rubbed his chin for a moment while looking over at our group and everyone else. "It's like my words carried no weight to them, even after you all witnessed that brutality. Insane." The look on everyone else's faces was just as confused as mine; it seemed he had stayed cheery and lied low until we returned.
"Look at my body!" he screamed while showing off his few cuts and bruises. "Yes, I got slightly injured while running away from the goblins, but that's all! I still hold my life! At first, when I lined you all up, I noticed one consistency: none of us were in bad shape at all! No one appeared to even be above age thirty-five, no one seemingly below age sixteen, and none with obvious health conditions. Hell, nobody even has glasses! So why are some people dead?! There's no way they couldn't run from the goblins, I mean, have you looked at them?! How much stamina can they have with that small frame? It only took my group and me running away for a minute at a brisk pace before the goblins collapsed from exhaustion! Seriously! Why are seven of us dead?!"
Wait… seven of us were dead?!
"Bu—" a girl from the group tried to speak up but was promptly shut down by Lucas.
"What do you want?" Lucas responded in a harsh tone. "Don't try to make excuses. A pity party for one? I'm not one for that. Know that if your group followed my single important order, you wouldn't have had to return alone. If someone died today, it was their fault for not listening." That last sentence seemed to sting everyone there as they all grew dejected and quiet.
It was cold and cruel. Normally, a person would have been ostracized and called out for saying something like that, but… he wasn't wrong. While I do see it as somewhat his fault for splitting us up and sending us out so quickly, I can't say it was the wrong choice because if people just listened, there's a good chance nothing bad would've happened… but I'm not one to talk.
Lucas paused and surveyed the dejected faces with an expression that might as well have been saying, if you have any choice words, voice them now. But none spoke.
"We're… back?" Julia Dove, the girl in charge of the hunting group, returned and just stared at us all with a quizzical look, probably trying to make sense of the current situation.
"Welcome back!" Lucas regrew his smile and greeted her. "Gather around and we shall report our findings and what we each went through."
Everyone sat down orderly in their groups and all faced Lucas as if it were some kind of press conference.
Lucas spoke first. "Julia, would you mind sharing with us what you gained and discovered?"
"Ah, yes," she began, "It would have been much easier with a bow or premade traps, but we managed to hunt two boars." I saw the boars they dragged behind them and stared in awe as this was a serious accomplishment to do with limited tools. "We spent most of our time cornering and trapping the boars, so we didn't discover too much. We also found a painstakingly low number of edible plants. Trying to cultivate them would be useless, being here for only thirty days, so berries or plants as a main food source should be eliminated. That's everything."
"And, how about members of your group?" Lucas asked.
"Oh, Carlos twisted his ankle when wrestling one of the boars to the ground, but that's our only injury." She pointed to a man who had a stick fixed with twine to his ankle.
"Good. Did you run into any goblins?"
"Thankfully, no."
"I see. Thank you for your report. Now relax while we interrogate these fools."
"Fools? Interrogate?" Julia tilted her head and asked, still probably confused at the group's somber mood.
"Let's start with you guys," Lucas pointed at us, his gaze once again serious. "Because I'm curious how the hell you managed to get that bag."
I felt immense pressure on my shoulders, but I stepped forward, seeing as I'd been designated as leader of my group.
"I apologize. We disobeyed your orders and fought goblins," I lowered my head and answered him.
"I can tell that already dumbass or you wouldn't have eleven extra weapons with you," he responded coyly while heaving a sigh.
"D-does that mean—" someone voiced from the crowd.
"They killed eleven goblins?!" another voice joined them.
"Quiet," Lucas ordered. "They shouldn't be praised for being ignorant. What I want to know is not how they got the weapons, but where they got the bags. Start with the direction your group went."
"Umm…" I audibly gulped and raised my head to meet Lucas's eyes. "We went east. We found a big wooden wall of sorts that was some sort of goblin enclosure. We got it from inside there. B-but we just wanted to observe it, but they noticed us and charged at us so—"
"Shut it. I don't feel like hearing any more excuses," Lucas said while pinning us down with his gaze. "My group as well witnessed one of those structures. As I guessed, it was some sort of goblin stronghold. Continue…"
"Yes, sorry," I tried my best to calm down, but some anxiety stained my voice. "We took care of the goblins that came out and noticed that no more combatants were inside."
"Combatants? Were there non-combatant goblins?" he asked while keeping his eyes trained on my group.
"..." I wanted to lie to act like we hadn't committed that deed, but I'd rather not push this man any further. "There were children, goblin children."
"What of them?" Lucas tilted his head.
"We slaughtered them," I averted my gaze in shame.
"Why do you look so ashamed?" Lucas questioned with a confused look. "If you're going to disobey my orders, not showing mercy to the enemy is the least you can do." At his words, a small rage bubbled inside me, but I bit the bullet and let it go.
"So, what's inside?" he asked, pointing to the sacks that didn't have weapons.
"Its provisions: Food, canteens filled with water, we left everything else back at the camp because it was too big to carry. There were crude tents, more weapons, and more food as well as some blankets."
"Hmmm… and how far away was this place? Also, how spacious was it inside?" Lucas questioned.
"It's about twenty minutes east and is about three-fourths the size of an official basketball court inside," I remarked with what I had mentally prepared in advance using a metric I hoped most people understood.
"Alright," Lucas patted his legs and sat down on the tree stump. "It seems like that might be a good place to camp for the night to gather our bearings. I'll have you guys lead us there when the time comes. Can I have your names?"
"Axel, Axel Hart," I responded first. Soon, the rest followed.
"C-Claire."
"Ryon!"
"Connor Manney."
"...Zayn."
"Now that I'm done with the successful idiots, it's time to explain yourself, unsuccessful idiot." He glared at the girl who sat in a fetal position and whose eyes were seeped in despair. "Why are you the only one to return from your team?"
"W-we didn't try to fight. There were just too many," she talked slowly.
"Are you lying to me?" Lucas asked.
"N-no, there really were so many."
"I'll believe that, but not that they didn't try to fight. Whatever… What I want to know is, why are they dead and you alive."
"Because I ran," the girl admitted while hiding her head.
Lucas studied the girl and then responded, "When did you run? Before, while, or after they fought."
"Are you accusing me of abandoning them?!" She stood up and screamed at Lucas, who wasn't fazed at all.
"If you want to take it that way then do so. Not that it truly matters anyways, I was just trying to gauge whether they might still be alive."
"I… I ran during. B-but it was already doomed. Two of them had died and the other two were knocking on death's door."
"I don't care for excuses," Lucas stated.
"I'm s-sorry," cried the girl.
"I don't care for apologies either. You survived, that's enough." Words came out that I didn't expect to come from the man who had been speaking with such a cold demeanor. "That was what I intended with my order: to run. Leaving idiots who ignored my warning behind is not something I'll scold you for."
"I- I see..."
"However, I do hope you have something useful to share. What direction did your group go and what did you discover?" Lucas asked the girl.
"We went North-west… the goblins we came into contact with had crude spears and one had a shield. We also found an enclosure which I surmise is just like the one Axel's group, Yet I think ours may have been bigger."
"I see. Thank you for the information. Name?"
"Amaya." After the girl spoke, she dipped her head into her knees and sobbed. Lucas turned to address the next group, but I kept my eyes trained on the girl for a little longer.
Why did I feel like she wasn't being entirely truthful? Whatever, lie or truth, it made no difference that she was here alone and her group, dead.
Lucas continued berating each remaining scouting group for not properly following instructions, then he went on to question what they had learned from the directions they went. To sum things up, the more northern groups had encountered the strongest goblins while the southern groups encountered weaker, less-armed goblins. One group led by a guy named Paul had found a stream that seemed to provide clean water, and another group had also successfully hunted some goblins led by a guy named Mikhail, increasing our total weapon count. But, out of the seven scouting groups, three had casualties, with two groups missing one member, and the girl who'd lost her entire group.
After hearing everyone's ordeals, Lucas made the decision that we would rest for thirty minutes then travel and seek asylum in the goblin enclosure we had taken over.
While I waited…
"Is he really dead?" I questioned Maks, who sat against a tree, resting while hanging his head.
"Yes," he answered curtly.
"What of his body then?" I asked.
"I told everyone already, a goblin came by and took it. Instead of fighting to save the man who was probably going to die anyway, I ran like ordered," Maks looked me dead in the eyes. "What? Are you going to berate me for running?"
"No, I don't blame you. It's just a shame," I said as I hung my head like him.
"Yes, it is a shame." Maks, probably not wanting to talk more about this, got up and walked away without even giving me a proper farewell.
I wasn't mad at him, even though he had abandoned my savior. It was a savior's destiny to die after all. That's the beauty of a savior; they're only ever a memory. My memory of him and how he saved me should be prominent enough to last until another one comes around. I let a wry smile creep onto my face and sat down where Maks once had. Although it seemed odd that the place where my savior was didn't show a blood trail or splatter. It wasn't good for the mind to overthink in these situations. I needed to relax.
I closed my eyes, but my peace was immediately interrupted by the sound of a girl's voice.
"Hey, hey! How did you guys do it!?"
To my surprise, when I reopened my eyes, it was not just a single girl in front of me but over ten people. Before I could even ask them to leave me alone, Ryon came to my rescue and diverted their attention.
"Yo'! you guys wish you would have seen it," Ryon began to adopt a happy, storytelling tone. "Those two guys are goblin killing machines…" Ryon began to tell them how we took over the camp.
I thought it was good for Ryon to speak because I thought he would glorify himself, but it seemed like I was wrong. He was less selfish than I thought. Jeez, now I felt like I had to apologize to him when I hadn't even done anything. I disliked him putting me in the spotlight, but his attention-seeking was allowing me to rest. I just feel bad that he's repressed his feelings to this extent—he's obviously not comfortable talking about it.
When Ryon finished his story, I looked at the now twenty people who had gathered before us, looking at Zayn and me in awe. Thankfully, Ryon didn't go into detail about the child goblins. For now, they didn't need to know the true extent of our brutality. But it seemed like we would have to deal with high expectations from then on.
Zayn didn't seem interested in any of the looks people gave him. He was occupied with gazing at his tattoo and, surprisingly, at me. Apparently, I had been added to his list of things to stare at because he cycled from looking at his tattoo to looking at me, then back at the tattoo. Oddly, his gaze then fell on Amaya. He walked over to talk to Amaya, who'd been sitting still, staring at the ground. I got a slight irk from seeing them together. I didn't know why.
Why would someone as anti-social as he approach a person? I pondered that while dodging questions from the curious crowd that formed around me. Did he pity her? From what I had seen, she ignored any who tried to console her.
I gave up caring in favor of resting, and, after a total of thirty minutes had passed, we began our march toward the claimed goblin camp.