Slayer King (Goblin Slayer AU)
Ch 1.
Guild Girl looked before the 4 new rookie adventurers that came this morning to get their first assignment, she tried to suggest they go hunt giant rats beneath the city or something other less dangerous than the quest they chose, but no!
Warrior, Wizard, Fighter and Priestess, the 4 new rookies chose a goblin slaying quest.
Goblins were the most horrifying foe that Guild Girl knew. Alone they were nothing, but they hardly ever attacked alone, but in hordes.
Hordes too big for rookie adventurers.
Missions to kill goblins were so dangerous that rookies were giving and automatic rank up from porcelain if they completed it, but since the ones that paid for these quests were usually farmers, the rewards were not enough, nor was the quests glamorous enough to attract adventurers that were better suited for the job than the ones before her.
Out of every 3 rookies that took one quest, the average was that between one or two of the groups would die before it was complete.
Which also meant depriving their country of future higher ranking adventurers.
Such was the plague of goblins and they said that no man can change that.
"For your quest to kill goblins, please wait until your designated veteran arrives to aide you." Good thing that Guild Girl was no man.
"Veteran?" Wizard asked.
"Yes…...it's a…..new guild policy that when it comes to goblins a new rule has been established, namely that rookies like yourselves will be assigned a veteran of goblin hunts."
Guild Girl said, lying trough her teeth, for despite the fact that it could get her in serious trouble, maybe even fired, she continued on. Guild Girl simply could not let another group of rookies march to their deaths like this, not when there was someone who could help.
"Assigned? What are we babies that need looking after? It's just a measly goblin next!" Fighter's said, her pride wounded by the idea that they needed help for a simple quest.
"Nevertheless…those are….the new rules. If you do not want to follow them then you will have to tell the assigned veteran himself why he is not needed. Might I suggest doing it the moment he arrives? You know how these silver ranking types are." Guild Girl gambled and it paid off.
Fighter's bravado immediately blustered and she quickly became worried at the prospect that she just might make a silver rank adventurer mad, especially since she was a porcelain one that didn't even complete s ingle mission yet.
"S-Silver rank! We get to go with a silver rank on our first adventures allright!" Warrior said as he did a fist bump in the air, excited at the prospect of their first quest.
And immediately afterwards Fighter gave him a good kick in the head out of annoyance at his antics.
"Try to stop acting like a child! You're embarrassing us!"
"Sorry! Sorry!"
Priestess laughed at their antics as Wizard let out a sigh of exasperation at them.
"So, who is our assigned veteran for the goblin slaying quest?"
"Goblin slaying?" A voice said from behind them, the four turned and immediately jumped back in fear.
"Is there a new goblin slaying assignment?"
"Yes, Goblin Slayer-san. These 4 are on a mission quest and I am sure that you want to be part of that."
"Yes." Goblin Slayer said and turned to leave the room after getting the details of the quest.
"Did you forget something?" He stopped in the doorframe and looked a the four.
"N-No." Priestess said and started to follow him, the other 3 hesitated before doing the same.
As the exited the guild, Guild Girl quickly went to her superior to see that the there actually is a law that said that rookies needed to wait for Goblin Slayer for goblin quests.
As the 5 man group made its way down the street Wizard, Warrior, Fighter and Priestess suddenly found themselves being lead not towards the area of the quest, but to the local market.
"What are we doing here?" Warrior asked, impatient to start their mission.
"You all lack equipment for goblin slaying and cave fighting. The sword you carry is too big to be properly used in a cave and goblins are too small for a two handed attacks. You have no ranged abilities and there is already two fighters in this group, three is not needed, and you two lack proper armor and potions, we are here to fix this."
"But we don't have any money for that!" Fighter said before Goblin Slayer pulled out a very fat purse from his pouch and went to the nearest stall.
Wizard was about to open her mouth to protest this expenditure, which on an academical level she found utterly senseless and unnecessary , Warrior and Fighter moved behind her to show support over the idea of going overboard because of mere goblins, when Priestess intervened.
"Everyone, he is a silver rank adventurer, so he knows what he's talking about. We should listen to him." She said in a gentle and sincere manner, hoping to avoid any disunity between her new teammates and their current addition.
And it work.
Several days later the 5 man group found itself before the cave where the goblins were.
Warrior was now sporting a Normand helmet with a nose guard, along with a thick gambeson under his armor, one that covered him from head to toe with thick fabric. He also sported a great pavise shield that protected him from shoulder to knees, along with the addition of a knife, a buckler, a short sword and a dagger.
Wizard and Priestess had chainmail under their uniforms. They also both sported daggers in their belt and a few extra torches along with leather bags filled with potions and antidotes.
Fighter had a thick turban with armor plates on her head, along with a dagger, 10 throwing darts, and two tonfas, along with a few goodies on her belt. Also on her ankles and wrists there were small sharpened charka bracelets on them.
"Remember that your equipment is made to act in formation, if you find yourself isolated throw away your greatshield and go for the buckler, Priestess and Wizard you are to stay in the middle, Warrior you are up front with me, Fighter you hold the rear."
Goblin Slayer said.
This was after they spent a whole previous day and night stalking the cave entrance to gouge their numbers, after the goblin horde returned they moved once there was only one sentry outside.
Goblin Slayer quickly jumped and threw his sword at the Goblin, it died just as it registered the sound of it flying through the air.
Once it was dead Goblin slayer took out a dagger and started bleeding the blood in a cloth.
"Goblins have a very good sense of smell, they can detect the scent of steel and leather. We have to mask ourselves." GS said to the disgusted heroes, who non-chalantly pushed priestess to be first.
"We should listen to him, isn't that what you said?" Warrior said to her and she muttered a prayer under he breath as the blood was pressed over her.
Priestess then hid a laugh as she looked at her friends go through the same process as her.
They entered the cave Goblin Slayer was first, with Warrior behind him, followed by Priestess, the Wizard and then Fighter.
"What is that?" Warrior asked as they passed a Goblin sign.
"It means entrance to a side cave. Be on alert, from here on end they'll be attacking our rear using side tunnels in the darkness." Goblin slayer replied as they continued on their way inside the cave.
A rustling sound was heard from in front of them.
"Here they come!" Warrior said and was ready to charge them.
"Hold fast and keep formation!" Goblin Slayer said as he stood next to him.
The Goblins came and charged them, Warrior's great shield kept their left frontal side free of goblins, as he stabbed from behind his shield, or use it's lower edge to smash their heads in.
"Five, six, eight, 11!"
"He was right! This cave is too narrow for me to properly swing anything bigger than this short sword, also if I did then I could not fight with another on my side!" Warrior thought as he looked to right, were the more mobile Goblin Slayer was keeping the flank secure.
A sudden pain in his lower leg made him see that a goblin had tried to stab him there, but the gambeson had not been penetrated by the dagger the goblin wielded, it still hurt from the impact, but he was not hurt badly.
Warrior quickly bashed the goblin dead with his great pavise shield.
Meanwhile in the rear Fighter was busy bashing goblins to death wither her tonfas, she sensed an opponent coming and turned to give him a kick, only to have her leg be caught by a great big hobgoblin.
One who immediately let go and screeched in pain, since he just cut his hand on her ankle chakrams.
Responding to the new threat quickly, she took two of the darts on her person and threw them at the hobgoblin's head, one of them hitting an eye.
With the beast's attention now focused squarely on her Wizard was free to cast a great fireball and blew the hobgoblin's chest, killing the monster.
As she did so, she failed to notice a goblin sneaking up on her, one that quickly stabbed her in the stomach.
But the chainmail beneath her clothes protected her from being gutted or poisoned.
She quickly reached for the dagger on her person and stabbed the goblin to death.
Priestess sensed movement from the left and saw how another goblin tried to jump down from above and land on Wizard.
Her staff was not suited for this, so she used the torch she had to swat the goblin in midd air and straight into the cave wall.
"13, 14." Goblin Slayer said after they killed the last of this ambush batch.
It was all over, and It lasted only a few minutes, but the 4 porcelain rank felt like they had been fighting against the demon king itself.
"T-this is supposed to be a starter quest?" Warrior said, surprised at just how intense the fight had been.
"Goblins are the worst creatures in the world. There is no monster greater than Goblins."
"It is a good thing we listened to you!" Priestess said, as fighter gave nod of the head and showed of her ankle bracelet with a high kick that saved her.
"It is. What is your next step leader?" Wizard said with a nod of acknowledgment towards someone with more experience and knowledge than her.
"We slay goblins." Goblin Slayer said and they continued on with their quest.