Necessary Villain

4 - Leader

I was wrong to classify this as a fight. It looks more like a random blond dude committing war crimes against some small green thing. I didn't see what happened before, but it seems like it was brutal. While my attention was focused on my savior, I did listen to the carnage that was happening not even twenty feet from me, the sound of a goblin screaming and flesh being repeatedly struck.

Oddly, the blond man defeated the goblin alone, without help, and people even now seem scared of him.

Green blood oozes from the goblin's head and covers the blond man who pays it no mind while he continues to bash the goblin's skull even though it's long been dead. The man stops punching for a second to catch his breath. He looks around but pays the weird looks he's being given no mind. Soon he begins his relentless assault again, punching until the goblin's brains are leaking out through its skull.

Over and over he continues to punch until the front of the poor goblin's skull is completely shattered. If I hadn't just gone through such a gruesome experience myself I would have shrunk at the sight, but I have no reservations about that now. I only marvel at the blond man's strength.

How strong are his damned fists to crush a skull?

The blond man stands up drenched in the green blood of the goblin and slicks back his long hair. He begins to walk away from the goblin only to retrieve its sword which he runs through the goblin's chest and then uses to decapitate it.

After that display, nobody there dares to speak a word. Those who have been screaming this entire time stop. Some piss their pants and fall. Others begin violently vomiting. Most attention that had fallen on my savior, though some still tend to him, had now been utterly directed at this blond maniac.

The blond man holds up the decapitated head and smiles. "I killed it!" He pauses for a moment while looking around, probably assessing what everyone has been doing. After his scan, he cocks his head to the side in a sort of confusion then after a couple of seconds begins to speak again.

"Listen, all! If we are going to survive this ordeal, we must become united!" He shouts, still parading the severed head.

Is this his goal? Is he intending to claim the role of leader? Well, even if he may be a psycho, it seems he may be the only one here capable of organizing complete strangers right now. Even if it is through the method of fear.

"We have no idea what will happen to us if we fail this trial, but I assure you, it won't be desirable. My name is Lucas Hajek. I want this name to serve as a beacon of hope in our unknown situation. Follow my lead, and we'll all make it out alive." With this, he raises the goblin's head higher and it seems like he expects people to start cheering. When nobody moves he just continues, unphased.

"Everyone, line up!" Green goblin blood drips from his mouth as he speaks.

Only a few immediately listen and line up, but I'm not one of them.

"Line up!" He screams cheerfully as if he just got asked out by his crush causing everyone else, most likely out of fear of this man, to line up except for myself and another, a man named Maks, who continues to monitor my savior.

Lucas makes eye contact with me for a brief second and exclaims, "You two can tend to him, but listen closely." Thankfully it seems he won't be making us leave my savior's side. He turns his gaze back towards the line.

"1 2 3 4 5... 50," Lucas mutters softly then goes back to shouting, "It seems fifty of us were summoned! For now, I think we should designate this area as a base while we figure out our plan of operation." Lucas raises the short sword for a moment. He speaks in complete seriousness, "We were given no weapons to slay this so-called goblin king. Our immediate goal should be to arm ourselves. However, having a weapon will mean nothing if we're all crawling, unable to use it due to dehydration and starvation. We must first scout the land and obtain rations. For tonight, scouting the land will take higher priority as blindly looking for food is just blatantly relying on luck to survive. I plan to divide us into many groups, allowing us to scout as much of the area as possible. Finding a water source, food source, and enemy locations will be the priority. Keep in mind, finding not gathering" He deftly begins to pace back and forth while eyeing all who've lined up, only glancing at Maks, my savior, and me periodically, "You, nor the person next to you can be replaced. If you encounter an enemy do not engage with them and do whatever you can to avoid them. If it comes down to it, run with all your heart. I do not care how much of an advantage you may find yourself in, run." He stops pacing when exactly in the middle of the line, "While it's not the main focus, it would be a great boon to us if we got to eat tonight, so I will dedicate a group in charge of obtaining food—in other words, a group focused on gathering. This group may come back with nothing, but with enough luck and skill, we might even eat meat tonight. With that said, Those who are adept at hunting or foraging, step forward."

For an entire half a minute everyone stands stock still causing an unbearable silence. Lucas continues to wait until a young girl who looks no older than eighteen raises her hand. "Eh.. ehm... My grandpa took me hunting sometimes."

"What's your name?" Lucas questions with a smile.

"J... Julia, Julia Dove," She replies with her full name.

"Good. Julia is in charge of hunting and foraging for food. I will entrust you with this." He holds out the sword. At first, she seems confused, but growing impatient, Lucas shoves the sword into her hand. "You, you, you... you... and you, help her," Lucas barks orders while pointing at different people. "Everyone else, I will assign you to scouting groups." He calmly adds while looking at the rest of us.

I don't know how everyone else feels about this, but currently, I don't think anything good will happen if we raise a fuss. Besides, despite his irrational behavior before, he seems competent.

After that, he goes and divides the remaining thirty-four of us into groups. He decides to place himself in one of the scouting groups as well. In total, we have five groups of five dedicated to scouting, two groups only having four due to my savior being injured and another man, Maks, who has been tasked with protecting my savior.

It's unfortunate but it seems Lucas has deliberately split me and my savior up for whatever reason. He seems like a good leader so challenging him would be foolish. I don't know why he pulled me away from my savior or if it was even on purpose, but now I leave it to the hands of fate—I'll entrust my savior to Maks.

And well... if my savior does die, he'll just prove himself to be just like the rest, but at least he'll be able to distract my mind for a little bit so I don't go insane.

As for what each group is to do, they are to go in different directions and scout the land, and are to reconvene in the clearing by a certain time.

Lucas happily shouts, "You've been given your directions. Don't forget, unless tasked to, only scout, do not gather. Any extra gathering can be done once we know the lay of the land. Do your best not to engage in combat—It should be beyond just a last resort to fight. Know that if you fight and win you will not be commemorated upon your return but heavily scolded. Now disperse into your assigned groups and get to know each other and strategize, then, after thirty minutes we'll set off." With that, we split into our groups.

It still feels weird being ordered around by a stranger, but it seems the others don't mind it too much, and it seems like my savior will be fine... I just wish I had a shirt right now.