Forgotten But Not Lost

28

Yume waited in the trees with bow and arrow in hand and waiting for the signal once Haru and Ranta were in position to fire on the mud gob they found by a stream. The others were further back, as Moguzo was covered in jingling chainmail that would give him away in an instant and Manato was acting as a guard for Shihoru until they could get into position.

Yume was pretty sure that she could have hit the gob with an arrow while it was unaware, but she had seen the logic in making sure it couldn't escape by letting the others get as close as possible before they were noticed.
Yume took a deep breath, saying a little prayer to Eldritch to help keep them safe and let their hunt go unnoticed by others. She had her bow in hand, an arrow ready, and Kaa-tan drawn, waiting on the ground next to her for is a melee started and she wouldn't be able to fire her arrows without a fear of hitting allies.
While Kaa-tan was a much more natural weapon for Yume to wield, it did have its drawbacks. That is to say that drawing it from her back was a pain. She couldn't have the longer weapon dangling from her waist as it would smack up against things as she tried to move around quietly, but from the position on her back, it was impossible to draw.
Her senpai had instructed her to always draw her weapon before ambush, and if she was taken by surprise, to use the machete at her waist instead of struggling with getting her katana off her back and draw it. He had shown her how to get the scabbard on her shoulder in such a way that she could remove it quicker if necessary without it getting in the way while she moved around. But even so, it took three seconds to draw Kaa-tan, while it took only a half a second to draw her machete.
How many times did senpai make her practice drawing her weapons? It must have been at least a hundred. Hours of doing nothing but practicing pulling out her katana and machete.
Yume wondered what this gob was doing by the stream. It hadn't been gathering water or anything. It had just been kneeling at the edge of the stream, slapping the water with its hands on occasion. It had been there for entire minutes as the party discussed how to approach it and prepare to take it out. What in the world was it doing?
Her eyes went from the gob to Haru and Ranta were moving through the bushes with weapons drawn. If her senpai had seen them, he would have given them a sharp talking to about what sneaking was. Yume supposed that Haru's entire Thief's training had taken place inside of the city, so he wasn't too good with dealing with the awkward terrain and thick brush, and Ranta had never had any stealth training at all.
Yume was surprised that the gob hadn't heard them already, even if they were still a good fifty feet away from the monster. Forget how much they were brushing up against bushes, their breathing was so heavy that it was deafening. They were far more nervous than Yume had been during her first hunt. Perhaps that was because she hadn't been given time to get tense. The entire preparations for that sneak attack had been only thirty seconds or so, where this was much slower.
Would they all freeze up the way Yume once did? It would be more dangerous for them to do that at close range. Yume had been far away from the enemy when she had froze up, and she had been with senpai. Right now, the most experienced person in their party was Yume with two days experience.
If the others froze up, it would be up to Yume to make sure that nothing bad happened because of it. She wasn't the same confused girl she was when she shot that first arrow. She might feel the sting of guilt, but it would not stop her from doing what she had to.
Focus on your form, let it keep you grounded in reality. That's what her senpai told her to do. So that is why Yume would do. Until she received the signal to take her shot, she would repeat the steps her senpai had taught her in her mind and have that be her protection against the fear.
But the signal never came.
Ranta let out what he must have thought was an intimidating war cry as she stood up and started to run as best he could through the bushes towards the gob, who instantly jumped to its feet and started trying to make a break for it.
"Stupid Ranta!" Yume shouted as she quickly drew her arrow and took a shot. However, she wasn't an expert on hitting moving targets. Slow and unaware enemies were easy, but once they started running around on their janky legs, everything became so much harder. Luckily the arrow passed right in front of the gob, startling it into slowing down.
Yume drew another arrow with efficiency born from practice and eight seconds after the first arrow had been shot, she was shooting her second. It wasn't as fast as her senpai, who could fire at an astonishing rate of an arrow every second, but she was assured that she was as good as any average bowman when it came to shot speed. Besides, she could only carry around thirty arrows in her one quiver. Unless she wanted to be like senpai and walk around with enough arrows for half a dozen Hunters, her shot speed wouldn't be that big of a problem.
Yume fired the second arrow, but the gob had spotted her and was ducking and jumping around in an almost random manner, making it difficult to hit. The arrow flew through the air where the gob's chest had been a moment before.
Yume was drawing her third arrow when Ranta caught up to the gob as started to swing wildly at it with his long sword, not bothering to plant his feet carefully and depending on the long reach of his sword to give him an advantage against his smaller and weaker opponent. Yume growled a little. The idiot was in close now, and she couldn't take a shot without risking that the boy might accidently dart in front of it and get hit.
She briefly considered firing the arrow anyways. After all, it was just Ranta. But her sensei would be disappointed in her if he ever found out she took a shot while her teammate was in the line of fire. Her senpai would probably scold her for the lack of necessity to take such an action. With six of them and one gob, it was unlikely that they would have problems and therefore it was unnecessary to take risky measures. If there had been five or even six gobs though… Well that would have been a different story.
As the other team members all started to close in on the gob, Yume tossed aside her bow and grabbed Kaa-tan, before moving quickly down the slopes towards the others.
Ranta's lack of footing ended up costing him as the gob gained an opening and slashed him across his thigh. The red headed boy gave a cry of pain and staggered back, the gob attempting to press advantage only to be blocked by Manato, who got it in the chest with his staff, pushing the creature back. While Manato healed Ranta's injury, Moguzo and Haru kept the monster occupied, until a stray [Magic Missile] from Shihoru hit the ground in front of Moguzo, shocking the boy into a short retreat.
"Sorry!" Shihoru apologized. She had been casting magic with her eyes closed again.
The gob was about to try to run through the gap left by Moguzo when Haru managed to score his first hit, a swiping strike aimed for the lower section of the gob's arm. Yume had been told by her senpai that it was often best to aim for the enemy's arms, as they are the most exposed part of the body when the enemy is trying to attack and injuring the arms could eliminate any threat from the monster. Haru's sensei must have told him something similar. Sadly, the injury wasn't in the right spot, hitting more bone than muscle, leaving the gob bleeding but not stopped.
For his efforts, Haru was attacked back and had to use his left arm to shield his body, receiving large cuts on it.
Luckily for Haru, escape was still the chief objective on the gob's mind. Rather than trying to finish off the Thief, it tried to run again, only for Yume to cut it off, using a large sweep of Kaa-tan to dissuade its advance as she planted her own feet and took a chance to catch her breath. Ranta and Moguzo both took up positions around the gob and after Manato healed Haru, the two of them joined in surrounding the monster.
Yume was panting slightly from having just ran fifty meters across rough terrain while holding a katana, but she was quickly catching her breath and her arms were still more or less steady. Even as the gob started to shriek out its defiance, challenging them to attack and promising that it wouldn't go down alone, Yume was not impressed. She had heard plenty of gob's screams while hunting with her senpai, and they lost value after the three or four times. Now, rather than being scary, they just hurt the ears.
Still, the others shifted back, unwillingness and fear clear in their eyes. They had never killed before. They had never looked desperation in the face before. They were panting worse than Yume and most of them were trembling.
Yume felt the urge to strike quickly but held herself back. She needed to regain her breath first. They had the gob surrounded, which meant she didn't need to hurry. If the gob tried to commit to attacking one of the others, she could stop it and cut it down.
What she wasn't expecting was for Ranta to start shouting at all of them. "Now's not the time to be scared, dammit!" The red-head was still trembling, but he made a show of licking his lips and forced a grin on to his face. "It's kill or be killed, so I'm going to kill it and get my Vice!"
Ranta rushed forward, trying to slash of the gob, but his overhand swing missed and he left himself open to a counter attack. Manato was the first to interfere, since he had been standing right beside Ranta.
"Don't be careless!" He shouted, striking the gob in the head with his staff, hard enough to split open the skin, causing blood to splatter out. The gob didn't care in the slightest, it just kept pushing through, this time trying to slash at Manato.
Yume jumped in this time, using Kaa-tan to swat at the gob's knife, stopping it from reaching the Priest. She then went on the offensive, performing a sequence of long thrusts coupled with downward slices in order to push the gob backwards without having to compromise her own footing. She was using the length of Kaa-tan to her advantage in the way that senpai had showed her. She broke off when the gob managed to block one of her strikes, losing her the forward advantage. The attack was taken over by Moguzo who swung at the gob's back side, which only barely missed the creature.
Another magic missile came in, this one hitting its mark and knocking the gob to the ground. "I hit it." Shihoru said, sounding more surprised than celebratory. It was too early to celebrate anyways.
The gob was scrabbling up to its feet within the second and looked around the group before spotting the largest opening. The one that Haru was currently the only one guarding.
Haru saw the gob's look and took up a stance, ready for the gob to lung at him, but rather than the normal attack that Haru was preparing for, the gob chucked its knife right at him.
Haru was too surprised. He hadn't expected it and didn't know how to counter. The knife was flipping through the air towards him. But before it hit, an arrow came out of nowhere and knocked the knife off course, causing it to miss Haru entirely. Haru's eyes followed the knife, unable to understand what had just happened.
The gob didn't stop though. It lunged itself over at Haru, knocking him to the ground and wrapping his hands around Haru's throat. Haru gasped, struggling for breath as the gob leaned over him. Haru brought up his knife and stabbed the gob in the throat. The gob let go of Haru's neck and straightened upwards as Yume slashed at its back and Ranta stabbed it straight through the chest.
The gob was still moving about, trying to scream around the dagger that was still in its throat. It didn't stop until Moguzo dropped his massive sword down on its head, denting in its helmet. After that, the gob slouched forward onto Haru as the Thief stared up at the sky with wide eyes, his face covered in the gob's blood. He looked like he was on the verge of throwing up.
Haruhiro was finding it very difficult to breath, even though the goblin was no longer strangling him. The stench of the blackish red blood was making him feel like that lunch that Shirou-senpai had been so kind as to give them was about to make a return appearance.
"Haruhiro, are you okay?" Manato asked as he pushed the gob's body off Haruhiro. Haruhiro couldn't answer, breathing was so hard. "It's nails got your throat bad. Stay still." Manato made his prayer and formed the six-pointed star in the air. "[Cure]."
Haruhiro waited for his breathing to become easier, but it didn't. Whatever Manato fixed, it hadn't been the real problem. Beside them, Ranta was shouting angrily about Moguzo getting the killing blow and how he wouldn't get his Vice, though the shouting sounded like it was happening a far distance away.
"He's fine. He's just in shock." A familiar, slightly detached voice said, cutting through Haruhiro's foggy mind. Haruhiro turned his head to see Shirou-senpai walking towards them. Or, he thought it was Shirou-senpai. The older boy was dressed in red scaled hide armor and had more weaponry strapped to his body that Haruhiro's entire party combined. He looked as if he had come prepared to kill every single goblin in the entire forest. "You should probably help him get away from the blood. Its smell is filling his lungs right now."
"Yes, senpai." Yume said, quickly making to help Haruhiro up.
"You… you were following us?" Manato said, as surprised as Haruhiro was to see Shirou-senpai there.
"Yes. I followed you all yesterday as well." Shirou-senpai said. "Bad things tend to happen to Trainees on their first weeks. Just wanted to make sure you would all be fine."
"I suppose I should thank you. Your timely interference probably said Haruhiro's life." Manato said, bowing to show his thanks.
"No. The knife would had missed his vitals and only punctured an artery. He would have lived, but he would likely have gone unconscious from blood loss by the time you had healed him." Shirou-senpai explained. "By the way, a word of advice, don't stand around talking by a goblin corpse unless you know for sure it is dead."
"FUCK!" Ranta screamed as the goblin had pulled Haruhiro's knife out of its own neck and stabbed him in the leg with it. The Dread Knight responded by slamming his sword directly into the goblin's grinning face before letting go of his long sword to collapse to the ground grabbing his injured leg. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" He said as Manato and Moguzo ran over to help him, the Warrior carefully removed the knife as Manato cast his [Cure] spell for a fourth time. "The Vice is mine!" Ranta said through gritted teeth, and huge smile on his face, even as his body paled and he started to shake again.
"You shouldn't spend too long around a battle ground after you are finished. The noise will attract others, and if one of the goblins' scouts spots you and tells a few of their roaming parties how to find you, then you might find yourselves being the ones hunted." Shirou-senpai said. "You did pretty well for you first hunt, but just so you know, your party is heading for disaster if you continue like this. Changes will need to be made."
"What… what do you mean by that?" Shihoru asked, as she hugged her staff close.
"A conversation for another place. Grab your things and we will head back to town." Shirou-senpai said, turning and walking away, making it very clear that he wouldn't be talking to them there.
"So what, is these all we are getting from today?" Ranta grumbled as he pulled up a necklace from the goblin's neck. On it was a single piece of damaged silver and a black fang of some kind.
"I'll cook you another meal to make it up to you!" Shirou-senpai shouted back at them from across the clearing.
Manato chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "I think I can live with that." He said before moving to follow the man. For some reason, Haruhiro thought that Manato looked relieved, though he couldn't understand why. Going back so early meant they'd be making so little money.
Perhaps it was just his imagination.