After finally having well rested for one day. It was time fore a subjugation quest. This kind of job has been delayed for long that I thought my body would get soft from the lack of fight. I donned all of my equipment and I immediately felt the weight come down on me. It's been a while since I last wore my gear. Even though I can wear this heavy equipment with ease, it always had that sense of burden that always came with it.
"Owner weird....."
I turn around and saw Iris blankly staring at me. Oh right, this stuff was usually in the corner of the room and I usually never wore it. This might be the first time she saw me like this.
"Ahh that's right, I always wear this before. This must be your first time seeing me like this."
She only nods and we both head to the northern forest. Walking towards there I had doubts of whether I should even consider bringing Iris along. She's just a girl and I'm dragging along to fight monsters. I could decide on what to do and before I knew it, we were already at the edge of the forest.
Even after arriving here I still haven't made up my mind. I looked at Iris and she looked back at me. I suppose we could try and see where this, if worse comes to worse I'm here. Making up my mind, we both enter the forest to look for goblins.
Treading through the forest, we walked leisurely between the trees. Light passes through the leaves that illuminated our way. We were quiet most of time with the occasional divert of attention to a sudden noise. After what seemed to be hours there was suddenly a constant rustling nearby, we readied for battle with Iris behind me.
The sound never disappeared as we were on constant alert, then something came out behind the tree. It was goblins carrying clubs, and there were two of them.
"Iris get ready!"
I didn't know what Iris was doing since I couldn't take my eyes off of the enemy. The two goblins separated ways to both sides, probably trying to pin us. It's tight in the forest for me to use my lance, I unsheathe my spare sword and pointed it to the goblin on my right, whilst the tower shield guarded my left. Two against two isn't a problem, but two against one with a handicap is. Trying to focus on the goblins at both sides, I can feel Iris hiding behind me. Damn.... I can't move freely like this. I'm confident that I can take on two at the same time, three might get me slightly injured. With Iris here, I'm gonna have a hard time defeating even one of them. Idiot! Why did I take her with me?! I should've left her at the tavern. I don't have the time to think about it.
"Iris.... if things go bad, I want you to run back to the city."
"Owner.... Owner stay Iris stay."
"Iris! Don't be stubborn! I can't fight these goblins and protect you at the same time! I want you to run if one them tries to kill you!"
While I was arguing with her, something came out of the bushes and leaped at her back. Shit! There was a third one hiding! I forcefully shoved her out of the way and blocked the surprise attack with the spare sword, this gave way to the goblin on my right and didn't miss the chance. Unable to recover I took the full brunt of the strike to head. My head slightly ringed from the shock of my helm. As a counter, I fully swung my tower shield to the goblin on my right, it received the full force and was sent flying towards a tree. The goblin on my unguarded left took a swing to my body to which I received it. I felt the blunt of it but not enough to stagger me. Ignore such damage, I focused my attention on the surprise goblin which was wielding a crude knife. I quickly stabbed it on the leg with the spare sword.
"Gyobaaa!!"
I ignore such scream and drove my fist to its head. Blood splattered to my gauntlets as my fist dug to its head. Staggered by the sudden death of it's ally, the left goblin ran towards Iris who was laying on the ground from being forcefully pushed. I immediately took notice of it and threw my tower shield with all my might to the goblin.
Like a giant steel door being thrown at it, the goblin was hit by the tower shield and was flattened towards against a tree. Blood splattered everywhere and the tower shield was momentarily glued to the tree, after a brief moment the tower shield fell down and one could see blood and innards smothered across it.
I walked towards Iris with my head filled with worries.
"Are you alright?"
"Owner...."
She only looked down and not even stared at me. Sigh.... great.... now what? Not even waiting for her to finish what she's about to say. I lift her back up and dust of any dirt on her clothes. I grabbed my spare sword and started cutting goblin ears off, fortunately the one splattered had its ears intact.
"Iris let's go back."
She quickly walked next to me and not said a word. I picked up my tower shield and cleared of the blood from it at a river along the way. Needless to say, I was an idiot to bring her along.
I'm gonna need to talk to her about this.
... Or a disadvantageuos head to head battle
