You don't get to see it for long

Her face is a twisted mixture of rage and a slight amount of intrigue. However, just as she begins walking towards you, the great wall of ice you created starts to crack. You both slowly look towards it, cautious as to what may happen next. After a few moments the cracks seem to stabilize, and the elf returns her gaze to you.

It is right at this moment that the carriage erupts into a gigantic spike of white ice, catching the elf and anything that had managed to survive your first attack. After reaching an absurd height for the energy you put in the attack, the whole structure of ice explodes into pure white snowflakes that drift before painting the sand white.

After getting a moment to look around and confirm that there were no further threats, you let yourself relax. A good mental note for the future: Apparently focusing on the attack did make it worse, as there was no way that attack should not have hurt at least as bad as it did.

While recovering from your mental adrenaline, a series of pup-ups appeared.

Level 2 goblin slain (X5): +300 Experience
Level 5 goblin slain: +90 Experience
Ceril Wilden defeated: +190 Experience, +15 Fame
Sameria Doman defeated: +190 Experience, +15 Fame
Merchant Caravan destroyed: +150 Experience, +25 Fame

Well, that was one way of getting fame you suppose. You feel yet another rush as you level up once again. You cannot begin to describe the pleasure of gaining strength for the first time in such a long time. As you rejoice in your victory, you hear walking on the sands around you.

Looking back around again, you notice that quite a few goblins are surrounding you, though almost none of them seem to have weapons. Most are covering, all below the level of 3. As your gaze sweeps around, any of them with weapons immediately drop them when your face is towards them.

They mutter to each other awhile, watching you fearfully and seemingly waiting to see what you will do. Thinking to yourself, you realize that if they all charged you, you would most likely lose without your new abilities. Needless to say, you were pretty sure you would die if you used them again without getting rest anyway.

As you try to shift your stance to be as imposing as possible, you hear a few louder voices from one part of the crowd. You see the goblins begin to part like a great sea, and at the far side you see two figures that are very similar to goblins with one key difference. They were tall enough to stand with their eyes above your hip.

As the crowd at last fully parts, you see the two hobgoblins march in front of you. One seems to be slightly more in charge, a female who's ripped cloth clothing is decorated with shiny pieces of metals. The other is a brutishly muscled male who has a surprising lack of a bulge in his loincloth for the tiny size of it. They seem to try and size you up, but you can feel that they are not as confident as they are putting on. It is a refreshing feeling to be feared.

At last the male speaks, "Who dare attack we goblins? You who is just bonzez? How dare bonzez attack the gobbos!" He puffed his chest out to seem bigger, but it did little when you had to look down to the point your neck and jaw formed at most a 45-degree angle.

He stands prideful for a few moments before you outstretch your hand towards him. As you do so, the entire crowd of goblins behind him parts to make way for what they believe to be an impending torrent of flames or ice, and he himself cowers. Instead of just killing him like that, you instead grab the top of his head and dig your claws lightly into it.

As he begins to cry in pain, the other hobgoblin speaks up in a much more coherent voice. "Stop! Please!" You cease applying excess pressure and leave his head gripped in your claws as you turn your head to face her. She swallows hard before speaking again, "What is it you seek, lizarfolk of bones?"

You actually have to think for a minute what you would want from them. You know they wouldn't just let you kill them for xp, but you can't imagine they have anything valuable. After thinking it over for a few minutes and deciding because you were afraid of taking to long, you point to the remnants of the caravan.

She looks over to it before turning back to you somewhat confused, "You... want what the elves had?" You give a nod, seeing that as a fitting thing to ask for. "Then... why would you use flames on us?" Thinking for a second, you try and express yourself through any way you can.

You make a mark on the ground, pointing to yourself. You then make a second mark, pointing to the remnants of the elven carriage. Lastly, you make a circle between them and gesture to the goblins, before making a large ditch from your mark to the caravan's through it.

She looks as the display in a somewhat depressed look before responding, "We were just... in the way..." You teeter your head before nodding, that being somewhat the excuse you tried to use. She seemed heavily disheartened by this, staring at the markings with an empty expression for a few moments.

You look at her for a few moments before pushing the other hobgoblin's head away as you released him. You begin to walk towards the caravan, the goblins parting themselves for you. As you survey the wreckage you caused, you are somewhat happy to find the base is still fully connected, all wheels attached to the bottom of the carriage.

You begin to do your best to patch it up a bit when you hear the crowd of goblins moving around again. You look over your shoulder while trying to get some boards in place over a hole, seeing that the two hobgoblins have approached you again.

You watch them carefully as they stop a few feet away from you. There is a long pause before the chieftess elbows the other hobgoblin and says some words in a language you don't understand. He begrudgingly begins to approach with a few other of the small goblins, causing you to get slightly on alert.

She seems to notice this, and speaks to you. "We no want battle, oh lizardfolk of bone."

You tilt your head, wordlessly asking, "Then what are you doing?"

She lets out a sigh before speaking again, "We are goblins, we are weak. The elves come through here as a place to stop as they think our camp be safer than the open dunes." You give a solemn nod, as far as you knew that was actually true thanks to some of the monsters that could randomly spawn out there.

That still didn't answer your implied question, so you inclined your head for her to continue. She looked down a bit before obliging, "You are strong, defeat the elves with a single attack. We can only hope you do not decide we are better to you as loot."

You consider what she is saying, her words stirring up some of the old rage from within you. The many years you had spent within that cave, at the mercy of whatever stronger things came by. It struck a chord to say the least.

You give her a nod before turning back around and seeing what more you can repair on the carriage. Using some of the former wall and roof, you end up being able to turn it into a cart of sorts, funneling plenty of the spilled out loot back into it. The goblins did their best to help, carrying some items for you until you needed them.

As a thank you for their efforts and assurance that you had no intent on killing them, you let them have a good amount of the loot as well. You gave a respectful nod as you began to get the cart moving again, it seemingly enchanted as it never had horses in the first place.

The goblins watch you leave, some giving nervous waves and others rude gestures. You can understand, you did just kill a lot of them after all. The two hobgoblins seem to have very different reactions. The male seems to be attempting to preserve his dignity by acting tough and yelling you off. Meanwhile, the chieftess watches you calmly with a look that has a mixture of sadness and hope.

You wonder to yourself what may happen to these goblins in the near future. Will the adventurers come back and slaughter them for having some of their loot? Will they somehow persevere and become a new **** to be reckoned with? Only time could tell you suppose.

You let thoughts of the future fill your mind as you begin your travel back to your cave. After a while of driving the goblins were long behind you, leaving only the empty dunes as you tried to retrace your paths and get back home. Unfortunately, your boney feet had left no observable tracks to follow, though you settle on this being a good thing as no one could track your home down in your absence.

One main question comes forth in your mind as you continue your somewhat long ride home.