The Barracks

After finishing his short rest, Robin descended the tower the tedious way, floor by floor. Several sets of stairs later, Robin was level with the roof of the building which sectioned off the training ground. Another set of stairs led into the building, so he continued down. Entering the building's top floor, he found a bunk house, big enough to house maybe sixty people and separated between men and women; several goblins and gremlins littered the room, some bouncing on beds, some rifling through the belongings of whoever called the place home, a deck of cards was tossed into the air sending them every which way, and surprisingly a few beds were filled and in use.

Robin used [Mirage], making quick work of them, all while they were confused. The loud and obnoxious room fell silent as the final goblinoid was tagged. The room, now empty, looked like it had been ransacked; nothing seemed worth taking any notice of, except for one thing. A wooden door at the very far end of the top floor on the women’s side. After trying the handle and then shoulder-checking the door, he decided that it was likely more trouble than it was worth. The room could have contained a secret but wasting his time on a possible ten points wasn’t something Robin was willing to do so he headed back to the staircase.

Descending the spiral staircase of the tower slowly and quietly, he came to a room roughly half the length of the entire building. The room was cut in two by a weapon rack and a set of benches that ran down the middle, and the walls of the room held wooden lockers and chests.

Like many locker rooms Robin had been in, the room would have felt cramped even while empty; however, goblinoids littered the room. Gremlins had climbed the weapon racks or ran up and down the benches. Some goblins were playing with the wooden swords and spears, while a majority of them had managed to squeeze themselves into the armour they had pulled out of the lockers.

Unfortunately for the goblins, the armour wasn’t made for them and they had all managed to get stuck and currently flailed around causing a cacophony of grunts, yells, bangs and clattering metal.

Entering the room, he was immediately crowded, though lucky for him there didn’t seem to be any hostility, even after one goblin had fallen and landed at his feet, and another goblin had prodded him with the end of a sheathed sword.

As he shifted focus, Robin had to think fast seeing a hobgoblin aim and fire at him with a crossbow. In a split second, he was able to focus his energy and a bright swirling orb appeared in front of him; Robin could feel the **** of the orb pushing him away and it shifted the trajectory of the bolt in order to miss him.

The room's silence felt almost deafening after the bolt thudded and embedded itself into the wooden wall next to Robin. All eyes had shifted to him in an almost horror-movie fashion. The silence was cut through by the clicking of the crossbow as the hobgoblin began to reload.

One of the goblins laughed and yelled which caused the room to erupt with noise once more, and the other goblinoids went back to their previous distractions. Robin began slowly pushing between goblins who flailed in an attempt at escaping the armour they’d **** themselves into and others played with training weapons.

Robin's immediate problem was the hobgoblin with the crossbow, but instead of running into the fray, he took a step back, tagging two goblins to give himself a little room to think.

’The room is too crowded to just jump in and start swinging; right now I only have the hobgoblins to worry about, but if I started fighting and tagging every goblin in here, they’d all turn on me, which probably wouldn’t be a problem if not for the hobgoblins,’ Robin thought, pausing his train of thought to use [White Singularity] causing the white orb to reappear and let him avoid another bolt as well as a dagger which had been hurled at him.

’Using [Mirage] is not going to work here, I’m too far away and if they have any level of intelligence they’ll see me moving closer to them because I’ll have to push the goblins away. Tagging every goblin is out of the question right away so I definitely have to deal with the hobgoblins first.’ Robin let out a deep breath.

’I’m too far away from them so my only option is going to be to close the distance,’ he thought as he looked around the room. ’The ceiling is too low for me to try using [Gravity Step], and even if it wasn’t, I’d be an easy target.’

His only option was to go through the goblins and obstacles. It was a slow and laborious journey, and as he pushed through, he couldn’t help but gag at the smell coming from the creatures, rotting meat and waste emanated from them. Several goblins had fallen to the ground, and between dodging crossbow bolts, one goblin managed to fall from the bench it had climbed onto and into him, making him push it away and onto the ground behind him. Another fell against his chest and looking down the neck hole of the armour it struggled with; the creature's breath assaulted his senses making his eyes water.

“How did you all manage this?” he said to none of them in particular, continuing his push through a trio of armour-trapped goblins. “You’da thought that when one of you got stuck trying to get into the armour, you’d have the sense to not copy them.”

A bolt whistled as it passed his ear and, as he looked towards the quartet of hobgoblins, he saw the other three begin to pick up smaller weapons. Robin couldn’t hear them but they were laughing and talking to each other before they began throwing things in his direction, forcing him to use his magic to evade the onslaught. The other hobgoblins didn’t bother with bows or crossbows; he assumed that it was because they didn’t know how to use them, not that it stopped them from throwing things at him. A knife here, an axe there, and even one or two gremlins were thrown at him forcing him to dodge and evade.

Reaching the halfway point Robin estimated that he was probably within range, and used [Mass Alteration] on the crossbow. The smile on the ranged hobgoblin's face faltered as it struggled to keep the weapon lifted until the crossbow was **** out of its hands.

He could barely hear a quiet yell of frustration over the crowd before seeing the hobgoblin turn to the weapon rack, pulling yet another crossbow. Robin smiled, allowing the creature to load and take aim. He watched the hobgoblin’s grip tighten on the crossbow and used [Mass Alteration] again; this time the crossbow lifted into the air a little and the bolt released into the ceiling.

As he moved the other hobgoblins were getting into his range too, so as they reached for weapons he’d make them too heavy to handle, which seemed to frustrate them more.

Soon enough, their laughs had vanished and they all struggled in vain to try to get new weapons or shoot at him, with no luck between them.

The one with the crossbow had moved to the back trying to gain distance in hopes that it would be able to fire at him. Robin had gotten close enough that even the large wooden door at the back of the room was in his range.

The closest hobgoblin moved towards him, trying to pull weapons from the racks as they shoved other goblinoids out of the way. It was seemingly getting more frustrated and continued grabbing at weapons until Robin was close to it, at which point a smile crossed its face, thinking it had tricked Robin, turning and launching its balled hand towards him.

He coughed and grunted as the hobgoblin attempted to pull back from his gut. Robin wasn’t used to fighting so having the wind knocked out of him was an unpleasant experience, one that he **** himself through.

His hand clamped around the creature’s wrist, something that the hobgoblin wasn’t expecting. In one smooth motion, he twisted the creature's arm, forcing it behind its back before clipping its ear with a tag.

The disappearance of the hobgoblin didn’t seem to phase the goblins around him, but looking at the three hobgoblins, stared at him with a look of shock and fear, which quickly twisted into anger once again.

The next hobgoblin was on the other side of the dividing weapon rack, which it climbed and then proceeded to jump at him. Robin smirked and caused the creature to become lighter as its feet left the bench; the hobgoblin hadn’t expected to be so light and ended up colliding with the ceiling before crashing to the floor. The creature pulled its feet under itself to stand but the dazed look on its face told Robin that it couldn’t even see straight, making it an easy target. The hobgoblin barely lifted its arm as Robin pulled the trigger on the tagging gun.

The third had stood back and watched, learning from the mistakes of the last two hobgoblins and tried to distract Robin by pushing other goblins at him. The flailing creatures crashed into him, but Robin kept his eyes on the attacker, who attempted to pull yet another weapon from the racks, this time a javelin, but once again it became too heavy to handle and the hobgoblin was **** to drop it.

Robin rushed the hobgoblin, pushing it into the weapon rack and causing them both to tumble onto the floor. The clattering of weapons and the thud of the two caused the surrounding creatures to look over for a moment; however, being trapped in armour or preoccupied with playing with whatever weapon or tool they had found meant none of the other goblinoids wanted to intervene.

Robin had landed on top of the hobgoblin, giving him an edge as he used his size and weight to his advantage. The hobgoblin yelled and grunted as it tried to fight back, but for Robin, it was like wrestling against a kid. He pinned the creature’s arms before struggling to tag the thing's ear, causing it to disappear when he did.

“Okay, only one to go, these things are a pain in the ass,” he said, standing up and pushing his way to the back of the room, where the crossbow hobgoblin continued trying to fire and miss him.

Only a short distance between them and no weapon racks near it, Robin helped rid the hobgoblin of its ranged weapon, before pinning it against the door that sat at the centre of the wall. The hobgoblin opened its mouth but its cry was cut short as the tag pierced its ear.

With the main threats gone, Robin breathed a sigh of relief. The other goblinoids had seemingly not even noticed the disappearance of their four larger kin, either that or they didn’t care. Robin leaned against the door to take a quick break, after which he proceeded to help the goblins out of the armour and tagged them one by one. The room reminded him of the bunkhouse upstairs, completely trashed but now silent.

His ears rang a little but it passed quickly. He let out a sigh and walked back to the door he’d pinned the last hobgoblin against. Opening it brought him to the tunnel that led from the courtyard to the training yard. Not having any business for either of those, he entered the door which sat in the centre of the tunnel opposite the door he’d just exited from.

The room was an office or a processing room, meant for prisoners, and there was a staircase leading down into what he assumed was probably a dungeon. To Robin's dismay, there were a lot fewer goblins in this room, and no hobgoblins at all, the room was emptied out in a matter of minutes, and the room would have been quiet, but the sound of laughing and goblins came from the staircase causing Robin to smile as he took a few steps down.

After only a couple of steps, Robin paused due to the reverberating sound of a warcry coming from further down. He looked down the dark stairwell and smiled. “Sounds like more points to me!” he laughed and continued to descend the wooden steps.

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