Tania flipped her hair arrogantly, then with a running leap, started her dash. The silk barely moved as she landed more than twenty feet out and kept going. Tania could already hear movement from the other side as Rommel started running behind her. Even with her speed and coordination it took her a full ten seconds to cross the cavern. Her smaller size and stride had nearly doubled her time, but it made balancing on the silk rope a little easier.
The moment they were both on the rope, goblins revealed themselves. Clattering as they aimed arrows.
Rommel cursed as he was left behind, Waters of the Sea, he'd never been running with feather fall boots active before. It would take at least another thirty seconds to reach the other side.
Tania ran on all fours for the last forty feet, then launched herself into the opening claws extending the moment she pounced. She landed on the front most goblin with a bow. Tania retracted her claws just enough to not get stuck in the sap, immediately she leapt at the next goblin as she slashed the first's neck.
Tania did a quick head count, thirty goblins, and three of them already chanting spells. "Damnit!" Tania roared as she bypassed the small fry to kill the mages! Fire? On their own kind?! With this many, they might collapse the whole tunnel!!!
"Echo Rommel, Tania! What's going on?! Twenty seconds!" Rommel Hollard hearing the battle as he crossed the halfway point.
"Echo Tania, goblin mages trying to blow us to hell together!" Tania cursed as she tried to leap over the twenty goblins in her way, but even with her smaller size, there just wasn't enough room. Tania landed, using the still active feather fall to lightly kick off the head of a goblin while her back claws gouged out half his skull. "When you land, grab the burning bodies and toss them into the cavern!" Tania ordered knowing she wouldn't make it in time to stop all three.
Rommel cursed as he tried to float run faster as he pulled out his shield, "Understood, don't die in there."
Tania dodged the first fire arrow that pierced two goblins through the head since they'd been aiming up at her. The second and third fire arrows hit six of the goblins as Tania hit the deck hard, then swiped up decapitating the first goblin mage. At the same time two spears, a sword, and a rusty dagger all came stabbing down at her.
Tania shoved the body of the dead goblin forward as she started reaching for the second mage. Her leather armor deflected the two spears, while the sword and dagger stabbed into the ground. Before the second mage could finish his second spell she ripped off his leg and just kept going. As long as he couldn't chant a spell that was enough.
Rommel leapt down and started charging into the cave. Rommel used his shield to just bash the goblins aside to snatch the leg of the first goblin that was on fire by the leg. Without pause he spun to gain momentum tossing it as far as he could out of the tunnel. The momentum kept him spinning until he snatched up two more flaming goblins, but this time he had to charge the exit.
Just as Rommel charged out with two of the goblin bodies, Tania was able to decapitate the third mage, but not before he fired off one more arrow directly at Rommel's back.
"Rommel! Dive!" Tania roared as she charged back to the entrance. Tania didn't care about the regular goblins, she went straight for the second mage who was rolling around holding his severed leg. Tania crushed his head as she leapt forward, snatching up one of the bodies still on fire and tossing it over the heads of the other goblins. That left the last two, she dodged between the spears and blades to grab the bodies. She had to get them out into the cavern.
Rommel tossed the two goblins a good hundred feet, picking up the first goblin he'd tossed, it had landed just a few feet past the first dead body. Rommel didn't think about the mostly melted body and bones being crushed underfoot, or the blood and viscera he had to move to pick up the goblin. He just grabbed and threw it as far as he could. When he turned around Tania was spinning in place, then tossed two bodies out as well. They went in wildly different directions but were away from the walls.
Rommel charged past her to grab the last body just inside the cave entrance. Tania took a moment to orient herself as she rushed in to start killing off the remaining goblins. Tania leapt up decapitated a goblin trying to put the flames out on the dead goblin. Then she drew a short sword to start hacking as they approached.
Rommel snatched up the leg throwing it. The force ripped the leg out of the socket, but that wasn't what nearly had Rommel pissing his pants as he dove for cover, "DUCK!" Rommel barely remembered to warn Tania as the midair goblin exploded.
Tania dove into the tunnel for cover, unlike the Adar armor, hers was not meant to take a fireball to the chest. The goblins also hit the deck as the tunnel shook. Debris started to fall. One goblin that was only a few inches from her stabbed at her while they covered their heads. Tania grabbed the sword blade, then shoved her own blade into his mouth. "Bastards…" She cursed drawing her sword out.
Rommel didn't think about how many times he was going to have to wash his hair to get the blood and viscera out… ugh. The smell… in the heat of the moment he'd forgotten he'd had to rummage through the dead bodies to pick up the first goblin… Before Rommel could lift his head, several more explosions rocked the cavern. Small rocks and clumps of dirt fell, but the worst was having to wait just a few feet from all those dead bodies. The foul liquid soaking through his armor.
Tania just crawled along the floor to stab the goblins who were cowering. By the time the final explosion finished, and the tunnel stopped rocking, she'd killed another nine goblins. Leaving only two left, glancing at the wall near the entrance, when Rommel bashed his way through, he turned one goblin into a patty.
Rommel held onto the wall as he walked back into the tunnel, the smell was making him nauseous, the vision wasn't much better in or out of the tunnel.
Tania quickly finished off the last two goblins as she turned back to Rommel… "That's… unfortunate…" Tania remarked glancing at the bloody blackish chunks in Rommel's hair. The blood was also haphazardly in his hair, shoulders, all the way to his midthigh… Tania shuddered.
Rommel sighed, forcing himself not to brush his hair back… and to just not touch himself. How long until Lucera could give him a quick rinse??? "Let's get the rest down here, the feather fall boots don't have much longer."
Tania nodded as she flicked her blade to remove the blood then waved to the far side. "Clear for now!" She called, soon they were all walking and running down. Tania glanced at the how exploded bodies… if they fell… it wouldn't hurt but they might never recover.
They all regrouped as Noelle rolled up the silk rope and Lucera used a quick water spell to wash the worst off of Rommel, the smell though… oof. Lord Rahm was sitting daintily away from all the mess as he waited for them.
Zane walked over to Noelle who had become the defacto leader of their expedition, "What is the plan? There's no way we can carry any injured captives across this then go back up the slide." Zane reminded glancing to Rahm hopefully.
Noelle finished wrapped the silk rope then faced Zane, "Our plans will change depending on how many we find, and if we find another exit. If we absolutely must, Rowena, Tania and I can dig through stone. The three of us can return after we make an opening and bring more mages to get everyone else out."
Zane nodded, if they were careful, they could dig out near the center, maybe even find the mechanism to keep it open. "We should keep an eye open for other exits, but that is a good last resort." Zane agreed as half the guards were using mana stones to recharge the boots. As they continued the rest would take turns in the middle of their formation to charge their boots.
After another twenty minutes, Noelle took the lead to start down the tunnel. The goblin bodies had been thrown out into the mass grave… or whatever it was while three priests had taken samples from two of each kind of body. From each Kobold, goblin, human, and beasts a bone, blood, and flesh sample were collected.
Noelle started down the tunnel with Lord Rahm quickly overtaking her. She didn't show her relief as she remembered that if Lord Rahm stopped, she needed to as well. Noelle wasn't sure if Lord Rahm was deliberately finding paths without goblins, but for the next half hour, through forks, over bridges, through fake walls, they didn't meet a single goblin.
Noelle was growing concerned, there had been so many forks and turns she wasn't sure she'd be able to remember the way out. They hadn't dared leave markers because they could hear goblins chatter echo around them…
Tania sped up to keep pace with Noelle, "Elly, we've gone at least three miles, and most of it all downhill." She reminded as she kept jogging. How were they supposed to get anyone out of here? Would Lord Rahm's shrink spell also extend to the captives? If not… it could take two of them to carry one captive…
"We've been zigzagging, we should be close to a wall. I can also smell water, if we have to, we can track back to the bridge and take the river out." Noelle had been tracking, they were moving between the north and west side of the mountain, a little over quarter a mile between each switchback.
Tania shuddered, that water had been foul… not as bad as the cavern but still. No doubt they would all need holy water baths after this… suddenly she ran into Noelle's extended arm, "Huh?"
Noelle stopped and glanced around, Lord Rahm had stopped at a fork in the path, "My lord?" Lord Rahm didn't look lost or confused as he turned his head to smile at her. There were echoes from both paths, was this another hint?
Rahm changed to his human form then pointed down the left path, "That way leads to the headquarters of the goblin army, roughly 200 still alive, to the right leads to the breeding chambers were there are less than 20 on guard."
Noelle stared up at Lord Rahm, of course it would be safer to kill all the goblins first… but their task was to rescue the captives, "Is there an exit close by?" If there was no exit, being chased with captives was a death sentence.
"Ah ah! Princess, I've given you the information, the choice is yours." Rahm changed back as he sat down. Now he would just watch.