Morolo Marauders

I lead Camilla and Eve back to Rose. "Now, what you see may be...a bit shocking." As we step closer, I can see and hear a goblin talking to the verdure. "Rose?"

The goblin momentarily turns to face us, a white rose on her temple...and her meager - but still noticeable - breasts on full display, since the goblin originally only wore a loin cloth. She scowls at us, before crossing her arms and turning her head away in defiance.

"She says they have two camps. One is at a pond north of here, and the other is even further north in a cave."

"I'm sorry," Eve looks between me, Rose, and the other goblin. "This...can't be the same person, right?"

Camilla stares inquisitively. "Only a 'bit' shocking? If that's the same goblin-"

"She is." I interrupt.

She shakes her head. "Then that means some strong magic. Just what happened while you were away, Dusk?"

I shrug. "Not a lot, to be honest. How's she treating you, Rose?"

"...wily, but manageable. She's not as resistant as you, of course, and after Roger, this one was easy." I could swear I hear a chuckle, and I do the same.

"I can imagine. He's pretty stubborn."

Camilla sets a hand on my shoulder. "Are you sure you're not affected?"

I scratch the side of my head. "I...probably? I don't feel like I need to serve her. Plus..." I look at the converted goblin with God's Eye as she and Eve have a conversation in goblish. "I'd have to double-check by possessing one of you or waiting till tonight, but I don't think I have the same Rose Thrall feature."

She sighs. "Can't be too careful with mind control..."

"You're not wrong. Anyway, how many ponds do you know of north of town?"

The captain rests her chin on her hand. "Just the one, I think. I don't usually stray that far, so my only reference is from when you carried me up in the air."

"Just the one..." The mana wellspring? What could they be doing there? "Well, we'd better check it out. Thanks for the help, Rose. We'll take her with us for now as a guide, but...don't let this one stray too far on her own. Monsters aren't very welcome here, yet."

"I can fix that for us."

"No. You're not converting the villagers. In fact, unless it's in self-defense, you don't convert anyone without my okay."

"...only one thrall?"

"Roger's coming tonight or tomorrow, and I'll bet he's gonna bring some of the others with him. Her."

Eve looks up. "This happens to everyone that gets converted?"

I nod. "Yeah. They all get the flower, they all become women, and they all become loyal to Rose. I don't know much on how it feels for them other than a huge headache, but I found out about Rose literally last night."

"...I suppose I can wait, then..."

. . .

I dive down next to the pond that used to be the crater I appeared in this world in. Setting down Eve, Camilla, and Moran (as we learned is the converted goblin's name), I begin looking around. "It doesn't look like anyone's here..."

Eve kneels down, investigating the grass. "They were. Maybe a dozen or so?" Moran says something to Eve and she translates. "Most of the ones in this camp came to Riverbend last night. The others must have gone back to the cave."

I nod. "Cap, any thoughts?"

Camilla shakes her head. "I'm following your and Eve's lead here."

I sigh. "Well, the other camp should be north of here in a cave. Eve, Moran, lead the way."

. . .

"Geez, I never imagined I'd need to hike when I got these wings..." I lean against a tree to stretch my legs.

Eve and Camilla both giggle as the human speaks. "Welcome to the ground, Dusk."

Eve speaks up next. "Sorry, but Moran doesn't think we can see the cave from the air."

We'd been hiking for an hour, and I had long felt the magic of Pure Land leave me as we exited the area. "How much longer do you think we have?"

Morag says something to Eve. "Moran recognizes some of these trees, so not much further."

Camilla suddenly draws her sword and readies herself, searching the trees. "Hold on...something's here..."

Eve looks in confusion, but just as quickly readies her bow and arrow, looking around herself. "She's right..." She then says something to Morag, who takes her stone age hammer and comes closer to us.

I conjure a dark blade, and the four of us make a small circle, back to back. "Any idea where they are?"

"No. I can just hear them nearby." Eve scans the trees.

"And I can just feel the threat." Camilla shuffles her feet. "And now they're gone... Eve, do you hear them?"

"They ran off... How did you notice them before me?"

"A new ability." The captain doesn't sheath her sword, but relaxes her stance. "Thanks to my...'friend'."

I cock my head. "Getting some weird déjà vu... Anyway, let's get going. We've already lost the element of surprise. Let's not give them more time to prepare for us."

With that, Eve and Moran begin leading the way again with some urgency in their step. Less than a minute later, Moran points to what looks like a large foxhole at the base of a tree. "Moran says she can't take us further. She doesn't want to see what happens next."

I purse my lips, resting a hand on the shorter goblin's shoulder. "Understandable. Stay out here, and we'll grab you on our way out." With that, I step forward, only to have Camilla cut me off.

"Me first, Private. Besides, you're probably going to need to shrink yourself down if you want to get inside." She sheaths her sword and gets down on all fours, beginning to crawl through and revealing her point. It's barely big enough for her to crawl through, even lying nearly flat on her stomach.

Seeing that, I polymorph to a child-like form, now eye-level with the former elf. "Eve, take the rear." I follow closely behind the captain, trying not to perv on her ass flexing a few feet in front of me. We crawl deeper into the earth, and it quickly opens up into a larger cavern. Roots drip down from the ceiling and wrapping the corridor, signifying that we're not too far under the surface. Camilla had already drawn her sword by the time I crawled out and reverted to my nephilic form. As Eve comes up behind us, I ready a light blade to give us a bit of light to better view the corridor with. "See anything?"

"Not yet." The captain steps forward, her own weapon beginning to glow with light. "It's pretty dark down here..."

I shrug. "A little, yeah."

Eve stands up, redrawing her bow. "Something...feels off here. Be careful..."

I share a concerned look with Camilla. I don't...feel anything wrong... "We will. Cap? I'm assuming you want to lead the way?"

She sighs. "Yeah, 'I' do..." The captain steps forward.

With Eve between us, we all travel deeper into the cave. It continues downward, and we find several...rooms branching off from this 'hallway', each sized for smaller-than-human individuals. With Camilla at the lead, we clear each of these chambers, but none of them have any goblins inside. Some of them have food stores, some of them seem to have pseudo-bedrolls, and one even has crude weapons made of sticks, stones, and bones.

Camilla raises her shield arm to us, and we stop. Eve turns around and quickly fires behind me, and by the time I turn around to look, a goblin has already fallen flat onto the floor.

I look to Camilla. "Didn't we clear everywhere behind us?"

She nods. "We did."

How...is there another exit, and they decided to flank us? Unless they just spawned in behind us... "Eve, are you still feeling uneasy?"

The goblin nods. "I can't shake that someone - something, is watching us..."

"Alright... We'll probably have more goblins show up behind us. Just keep going, and we'll find the boss."

Camilla nods and moves into the next room. We continue for another few minutes before entering a much larger chamber. As we cautiously approach the center, Eve collapses to her knees, dropping her bow and arrow and clutching her head. "Aaaaaahhh!"

"What's wrong?" I kneel down and rest my hand on her back as Camilla scans the room, sword at the ready.

"It's- it's- He's in my head!" She keeps screaming in pain.

"Who's in your head?!" I attempt to heal her head, but there's no damage to target with the spell.

"Him!"

"Private! We're not al-ogh!" Camilla's knocked back across the room, back to the entrance.

I look to where she was, finding nothing there. "Cap, I don't see anything!" Suddenly, I catch the briefest glimpse of something big hitting my chest, and I'm knocked to the side of the room. As I recover, I see a shimmering in front of Eve, in the shape of a person. It slowly dissipates, revealing a hulking red human-like figure as he picks up Eve by the throat, raising her to eye-level. As he begins saying something to her that I can't understand, I launch a light bolt, hitting him square in the side...but it doesn't look like it did much other than agitate him.

He turns to me and drops Eve, letting her cough and squirm on the floor. As the horned figure approaches, I stand and ready my blade. He's not quite as tall as me, maybe around six feet tall without his horns, and his long black hair is a complete mess, obscuring half his face. He swings with his meaty, clawed hand, and I block with my light blade. His hand pushes against my sword, and I need to take a step back to change my stance as he continues to clash with me.

His bone-chilling voice rings in my ears. "...down with the nephilim..."

I'm taken aback, but I can't properly register what he said before his other hand comes around and whacks against my head, knocking me a few dozen feet away. My neck definitely should have been broken from that... I stretch my neck around as I hear footsteps and Eve screaming, "somebody help me!"

As the red beast approaches, Camilla is quick to put herself between him and myself. "I need information, Private!"

"On it!" I use God's Eye as I begin sidestepping toward Eve. An Oni, huh? A higher rank of Tyrant Goblin. Is he trying to order Eve around? That'd explain her reaction.

"I need something, Dusk!" Camilla parries an unarmed strike as sparks fly between her and the oni.

"I can only read so fast!" I skim the text as I reposition back toward the entrance. "He's an oni. High strength, and he can turn invisible."

"We figured that out already!" The captain ripostes another strike.

"He's...resistant to most magic! We need to stick with physical attacks!" I begin sidestepping toward Eve.

"Any weaknesses?!" Camilla's shield takes the brunt of a serious attack, knocking the captain back a few feet.

"It's not like those are all conveniently placed, Cap!" I keep reading through the oni's features as I approach Eve and pick her up, not finding any that are inherently detrimental. "There's nothing there!"

Camilla gets shoved back again, and immediately grips her stomach with her shield arm, a slight glow shining from behind the carapace. The muscular goblinoid turns to face me. "...nephilim..."

I step back. What is this guy's deal? I look to Eve, who seems to be completely out of it. "Cap, Eve's out of it!" I shift the goblin onto my back, between my wings with her arms dangling over my shoulders.

However, by the time I finish, my throat is in the oni's grip, and I'm lifted off the ground. "...nephilim..."

Struggling to breathe, I attempt to stab down into the oni's eye. To my surprise, it actually works, and he stumbles back, holding his eye. Meanwhile, I cough and sputter on my knees, my light blade dispelling on its own. Looking up to the red monster, his remaining eye glows before his entire body shimmers, turning to mist, and then completely invisible in the low light of the cave.

"Cap!" I glance to Camilla just in time to get gut-punched across the room again. I attempt a backflip so I don't land on Eve, but I'm not quite acrobatic enough, and there's not quite enough room, so my feet hit the wall and I land on my stomach. Objective completed, I guess... I cough again, and as I push myself up, I feel a kick in my side, knocking me down again.

"...weak..." Another kick, and I'm pretty sure I feel a few ribs crack. Camilla rushes towards where the oni just was, swinging hard but striking nothing; no sound made beyond the swish of her blade. Suddenly, she drops her sword and clutches at her neck, getting lifted off the ground like someone who upset Darth Vader. After a moment, I'm lifted up by the throat too, Eve falling prone onto the ground beneath me. "...nephilim..."

"Hands off my dick!" Suddenly, Eve's voice rings in my ears. I look down, seeing Eve holding a bloody bone dagger. Both Camilla and I are dropped as Eve climbs the invisible oni, incessantly stabbing and scraping as she seemingly flies away from us. This is when I really notice: one of her eyes is red, and a shadowy black wing is attached to her back. The oni shimmers back into existence as he desperately tries and fails to grab the scurrying goblin.

Taking the opportunity, I conjure an earth blade, since it seems to be more physical than my other options, and whack the back of his knee. He may be stronger than me, but just as I expect, his knee buckles and he falls onto it. Camilla's quick to recover as well, grabbing her sword from the ground and stabbing it into the oni's chest. He roars in pain, but as he attempts to retaliate by swinging his fist at the captain, another shadowy black wing sprouts from her back, blocking the blow. His ugly mug turns into a scowl, and blue fire begins to float around all of us. "nephilim!" The room erupts in flames, and I've **** but to step back, beginning to conjure water bolts in a meager attempt to put some of it out.

Eve latches herself around the oni's head, pulling back on one of his long, pointed horns and using the other to slice his throat with her bone dagger. The oni collapses into the dirt, seemingly dead. The blue flames die down, but some of the viney roots inside the cave have begun to catch fire. Luckily for us though, it's damp and wet down here, so they're not spreading.

"Everyone okay?" I sit back down on the rough floor.

"Doi...fi..." Eve's black wing disperses, and she collapses.

Camilla clutches her head. "Oh, now you want to be silent?" She sighs. "Yeah, I'm fine."

I check on Eve with God's Eye. "Any idea what Eve's wing was about?"

"No, but I have a feeling someone does... God's Eye giving you anything?"

Her 'class selection available' is gone... "She's a...Nephilic...Courtesan... What?" I share a look with Camilla, who's just as confused.

"Hold on, what about me? I've had that wing a few times now, too...I think..." She looks like she's trying to remember something.

"For you...Nephilic Guardian... Wasn't that Acolyte before?"

"I think so..." She purses her lips. "Call it a hunch, but I think Eve's going to have a new 'friend' in her head, like me..."