Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Gorgon - Chapter Thirty Nine

The roles got reversed.

Usually, the orcs did the fighting, but they spent the last two days constructing carriages. Some worked to pile up our food reserves and used the wyverns to map the area.

Originally drafted into auxiliary roles, the goblins played a vital role in Avalon's plan. Small enough to ride them, they got comprehensive training to handle raptors. With a single beast at our disposal, this happened in turns and the rest were out to observe the nearby villages. That is how their Captain refined his tactics and the timetables for tonight.

"Commence the attack." I gave the order, whispering. My goblins quietly rushed to the village. The plan was simple: go unnoticed in the dead of the night when it was both the darkest and coldest hour. Since the lizardmen and their mounts were reptilians, they became slower and much more clumsy in the cold. Ideally, we'd be out before they got ready to fight.

The campfires limited the guards in the village, they refused to move too far from them, and I hoped their vision could not adjust to the dark either. The goblins had to locate their pack animals quietly and tie them together. The cold made them easier to handle too.

It was the first phase. In the second one, our advantage became a handicap since the raptors couldn't be driven away at night. Here's where the magicians entered the picture, they had to warm the beasts up.

To increase the chances of success, it was paramount that we attacked all three settlements at once. We split into even groups, and I was in charge of the east with twenty goblins and the Fire Witch.

Avalon led the middle group with Chaga, and his shaman got the western one. Ember was the most potent of the three but also the most difficult to handle. She looked excited to jump into action.

"All right, the goblins should be ready, wake the raptors with some heat," I whispered to the cat girl. She answered with a grin. "Don't overdo it, a little warmth, not a firestorm. I don't want collateral damage..."

"Got it Bullhead, don't worry." She turned back, but her expression left me restless. She put her thumbs up before starting her spell.

Her magic generated a warm breeze around her, and her red tunic danced like flames. She shifted her hand to send this wind towards the village where the goblins stood by with the animals. They waited for us, ready to steal them away.

So far no guards seemed to have spotted them, and everything was quiet, but I already knew what came next... The raptors were carnivores and quite short-tempered by nature. Waking them up in the middle of the night and urging them to move ought to fill the air with their high-pitched cries. This is where the plan became a success or a disaster. If we managed to heat them and the goblins got a good handle on the beasts, they'd be out before the rest of the village woke up.

If we miscalculated something, it would quickly become a slaughter.

The orcs were left at the camp since they were deemed too noisy for the initial phase and too slow to withdraw in the last one. If we got caught and it came to fighting, we instantly lost. The goblins were anything but a warrior race. Out here in the dark, we were all defenseless.

The first cries of the raptors echoed in the darkness. They were truly deafening but rushed past us within a few moments. The guards couldn't react in time to see what happened.

"Keep the raptors warm as long as possible, then watch our back," I ordered to the Fire Witch. She still concentrated on her first spell, turning to follow the pack as they left. "I think that was the last of them. Did they take it all? No stragglers?"

I no longer needed to whisper in the night filled with cries and yells. Other noises that the waking lizardmen made reached us soon. They were cold and sluggish but swarmed out of their lairs with weapons in hand. The guards explained the situation to the rest.