Fantasy World Online II: Second Chance

Day 86-93: Propheus

Propheus presented himself at the north gate , satchel in hand and uniform on. He checked in and received his unit number before being told to fall get in rank.
He found his colon and joined his fellow soldiers, standing tall, straight and silent, ready to depart at any notice. When every soldier was in place the commending officer gave the order and the military unit constituted of ten NPC pikemen, six NPC and four player foot-soldiers including himself and ten archers half AI and user walked out of the city under the rising sun light.

At first the commender was walking full north, but as they left the vicinity of the fields he started going north east towards the rocky hills. His pace quickened and so did the entire unit. From a walk it became a jog and from a jog it was a run.
For three hours the soldiers ran behind their commender while carrying their gear and luggage. Propheus thanks to his high stamina and endurance could keep up with ease but those who had not trained daily were suickly exausted by the high pace.
Taking pity on them the commender went back to a jog when they reached the bottom of the rocky ledge that was their destination and he last part of their travel. They walked on an old path in four men wide ranks.

They met their first opponent by mid afternoon as they were nearing the old mine. It was a lone goblin. Once it saw them it tried to flee and warn its companions but a voley of ten arrows stopped it in its track. It did not last amore than ten seconds.
After that more goblins were killed as the company neared the mines. lone ones or groups of three to four. They didn't have a chance against the military unit.

When the entrance to the caves appeared the commander gave a ten minutes break before ordering the men to enter. The foot soldiers were deployed in the front line, sword at the ready. They would be the ones to take the brunt of the attack. The pikemen were right behind them with their pikes, spears and halberd pointed forward. Their role was to support the foot-soldiers. Ten paces behind were the archers, bow and arrow drawn.
The lines went the caves entire width, stopping any goblins from attacking the archers that would be thinning the enemies from afar.

The first battle happened in a large cave where goblins in leather cloths and wielding wooden clubs were training and sparring. As soon as they saw the soldiers the goblins bellowed and charged at them.

"First line, Block!"

Propheus and his fellow foot-soldiers blocked and parried as best as they could but still a few of them received hits and groans of pains were heard over the growls and shrieks of the goblins.

"Second line, attack!"

The pikes plunged their pikes and halberds into the bellies of the green creatures.

"Again!"
"Again!"

Thrice they did so while Propheus and the rest of his line held the mobs in place.

"First line, Attack!"

At the instruction the foot-soldiers passed to the offensive. Their swords that had only met wood up to now cut through the flesh and blood was drawn. They repeated their attack until their commander issued the next command.

"First line, defensive positions. Second Line, attack!"

Once again the foot-soldiers parried and blocked the wooden club with their swords as the pikemen pierced and striked the goblins.

The battle had been going on for a few minutes, the dead bodies of goblins starting to pile of when from the inside of the mines more goblins came.

"Archers, ready... Fire!"

By the time the reinforcements arrived to the soldiers they had been riddled by arrows. It only prolongued the battle for a dozen minutes or so.
When the fighting was over, more than fifty goblins layed dead at their feet.

"Bandage the injured, take a sip and breath deeply. You did good. Moving in five."

The commanders words stirred Propheus who checked himself out. a large gash on his arm was bleeding. he took out a bandage and wrapped it up.
A message told him that the bleeding had stopped.
He also drank a bit of water and sat down to rest. When the five minutes were done he stood back up and the soldiers reformed the ranks.
They moved forward the the mines.

For several hours the events of the first battle were repeated. Form ranks, advance, fight, rest and form ranks again.

Although they could not see the sky in the caves they knew full that night had already fallen. They set camp in a dead end cavern and half of the troops went to sleep. The other half were on guard.
Propheus made sure to be in the first shift. when his turn was over he disconnected and reconnected at dawn to find his fellow soldiers readying themselves to depart.

For the next five days Propheus and the soldiers followed the orders of the commander, fighting camping and advancing through the mines. They went through all four corridor, all ten caverns and slaughtered all the goblins they saw. They did so several times. It was a tiring and enduring pace as somehow, every time they came back, more better armed goblins awaited them.
Often he would get hurt and have to wait until the end of the battle to bandage himself which brought him several times near death. Considering that as a soldier he had to wear the Guards Uniform he knew he had only the option of using a shield to heighten his defense. Deciding to ask for one as soon as he went back to the training grounds he observed the Pikemen as they held their shields and how they blocked the attacks by turning the defensive tool's center towards the weapon.

Propheus remembered that a map of a goblin cave with a secret passageway had been sold recently to mercenaries and adventurers. He assumed this was the place and that the goblins they were now fighting were those from bellow.

On the seventh morning, the commander told them to pack. It was time to return to Last City. Just like on the way to the cave they started the way back by a sustained jog, when they reached the bottom of the rocky mountain they ran, jogged and ran again. All the way to Last City's crop fields. There, they had to slow down because of the frequent passage from the villagers and field workers.
Once they had crossed the north gates the commander ordered a stop and distributed an envelop to each soldier before allowing them to breack ranks. The envelop contained the soldiers pay and evaluation during the expedition.

[Expedition's Evaluation
Foot-Soldier Propheus has produced good work durring the expedition to the Northern Goblin Cave.!As such he shall be rewarded with a extra 3 Silver Coins.
Signed Commander BullHorn]

With his note he went to the training ground commander and retrieved his bonus. he then went to see his mentor and told him of the expedition and his thoughts.

"You want to use a shield... very well, all pikemen do anyway. Come back tomorrow and i will begin your training."

Propheus went to the river, took off his uniform and clothes and bathed for the first time in a weak. It was heaven. He also cleaned his uniforms, mail-chain and sword of the grime dirt and sweat. When he put the uniforms back he felt much better.
After that he went to the baracks and disconnected as Propheus' player had many hours of sleep to catch up on.