Chapter 16: Chapter 16: New Bonding

As dawn broke and the rays of the sun shone through the veil of the night, a group of twenty men stood in front of Roger’s house. Five of those men were from Roy’s group, and another five were from the group of knights; the rest was the group of villagers who wanted to start fighting against the monsters.

Roy scanned the group of volunteers with his eyes, “We will be making three groups. One under me, another under Robb, and the third under Alfonse.”

Roy looked around before his eyes fell on a young blond man; he was the first to respond to Roy’s speech. After choosing the young man, he filled the rest of the spots with a middle-aged man in his late forties, another in his thirties, and a young boy who looked even younger than himself. 

“Let’s start by introducing ourselves.” Roy broke the ice with a smile.

“I’m Godwin,” the forty-year-old man responded. “You know me, I’m a butcherer by trade. Been cutting meat for thirty years now.”

The man that looked to be in his thirties introduced himself after Godwin. “My name is Gerald. I have been a guard, a mercenary, a builder, a servant; whatever needs a bit of muscle and brain, I have done.”

Roy nodded at the middle-aged men’s introduction. “That’s good, I’m sure you both won’t have any trouble then.” He then looked at the young blond man, “What about you, what’s your name?”

“I’m Clark,” the young man responded. He then scratched his cheek and looked away before continuing, “And, I’m a cook.”

Roy raised his eyebrows while Godwin laughed heartily. “Good, isn’t that amazing? Whatever we hunt, I can butcher its meat and you’ll roast it proper. I say we’re a perfect team!” 

“I wonder what goblin meat tastes like?” Gerald looked at Godwin with a slight smirk. “I heard in my travels that human meat is like pork, maybe goblins taste like chicken?”

Godwin looked at Gerald with interested eyes. “Oh, chicken? I guess we can’t know if we don’t try.”

Roy shook his head at the two men’s jokes before looking at the last member of the group. “Young man, what’s your name?”

Godwin and Gerald stopped laughing and joking and looked at the young boy. Seeing that everyone was staring at him, he fidgeted with his hands and his eyes darted around. “I’m peter.”

“What do you do, Peter? You should be of age to work, right?” Gerald asked the young boy with a smile.

“I’m learning at Old Jeff’s workshop.”

Godwin looked at Peter with interest and nodded. “So, a tailor, right? That’s a good job that we need. Only the gods know how these clothes are gonna be in a few days.”

Roy, on the other hand, looked at Peter with worried eyes. He is not the type to hold a blade, is he? For a second, Peter reminded him of how Jaimie looked when he first saw a dead goblin. As the connection between the two young boys was made in his head, he couldn’t help but take a deep long breath.

It’s okay, we have a good group this time and I’m strong, we can take care of him.

Roy pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind and smiled. “Well, I’ll introduce myself now. I’m Roy, and since this apocalypse started, I have been killing goblins with my friends and we have grown strong. Like I said before, I’m going to make sure that you become strong too. So, let’s take care of each other.”

With the introductions over, Roy made his way toward the group of knights. 

“Marth, I want you to come with me. Robb, Alfonse, you guys choose who you want to take with you.”

A few minutes passed as each group slowly formed. In the end, Robb took with him Jack, Hassan and Conrad from the group of knights, and three volunteers. On the other hand, Alfonse chose Fred, Hawk and Alric, and another three volunteers.

“Good, now that everyone is in a group, let’s lay out the plan for the day.” Roy clapped his hands twice to get everyone’s attention before taking center stage. “Our objectives are three things. First, help every one of the volunteers to kill ten monsters and awaken. Second, after everyone has awakened, we will continue to hunt so that our stats can be properly upgraded at the end of the day. Third, clear the area around us of any monsters to establish a relatively safe space.”

Roy cleared his throat and looked at everyone with a serious expression. “One final thing. If any group meets with the Ogre, the awakened need to buy time for the normal people to escape first. After that, do not engage with it and disperse. When you are running away, do not bait it towards the house—make detours. Only when you have lost it do you come back, understood?”

“Understood!” The group shouted back in unison. All of their spirits were high in expectation of the upcoming hunt.

Finally, the three groups separated with each going in a different direction. Robb’s group went east, Alfonse’s went west, and Roy’s went south.

As Roy’s group marched along the streets, Peter, the youngest of the group, walked alone while looking down at his feet and nibbling on the tips of his fingers.

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“Are you alright, young boy?” The middle-aged man, Godwin, patted Peter on the shoulder and looked at him with concern.

“Yeah, yeah I’m good.” Peter’s voice was low and hesitant.

“In times like these you have to get out of your own head,” Godwin advised. He then laughed before continuing, “And what is there to be afraid of? It’s like beheading a chicken. Have you ever beheaded a chicken before?”

“Yeah,” Peter replied in confusion. “When one of our chickens grew old, my dad had me butcher it.”

“Well then, isn’t that good for you? You should be used to blood by now.”

The young boy stayed silent for a few seconds before curiously asking Godwin. “What about you, mister? You said it’s like beheading a chicken. Have you ever killed one of them before? Those goblins I mean.”

“Yeah, I did,” the middle-aged man replied with a reminiscing look. “I killed two, in fact. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you right now.”

Peter raised his head and looked up at the sky. After a long pause, he finally muttered in a barely audible voice, “I want to kill one too. At least, just one.”

Godwin did not ask the young boy for a reason. Everyone who had survived the apocalypse had one or two sad stories to tell. If the boy did not want to share out of his own will, it was not Godwin’s right to probe him.

“Killing the first one is the hardest part. After that, it’s easy. You just need to remember the reason why you want to kill them, and that reason needs to be a good one.” Godwin looked at Peter fondly before asking, “So, is your reason a good one?”

The young boy nodded his head, “I think it is.”

“Attention everyone, we found a pack.” Marth’s voice snapped everyone out of their daze and they focused on the road ahead. At the end of it was a pack of five goblins: one tall variant, and four small ones.

“Nice, five is a good size for our first hunt,” Roy said nonchalantly. He then looked at each member of the volunteer group before continuing, “Listen well, here is the plan. I will be going in with Marth first; we will disarm the goblins and give them a proper wound. After that, you just have to come and properly finish them off, understood?”

“Understood!”

The group showed an almost military-like discipline as they stood properly in front of Roy and Marth.

“Good.” Roy then looked at the knight captain next to him and teased, “So what do you say? You think you can handle your part?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Marth chuckled. “I may not be the best around, but I can still hold my weight.”

The two walked down the street while the group of four followed closely behind them. The pack of goblins, on the other hand, was rummaging around the street looking for corpses to scavenge. When they noticed Roy’s group approaching, the monsters’ attention immediately shifted toward them. For the goblins, it was as if a gourmet meal was delivered right to their doorsteps when they were scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for food.

Two small goblins rushed towards Roy with daggers in hand. The latter quickly sidestepped the attacks of the blood-crazed monsters and slashed their back open. Behind him, Clark and Gerald did not waste any time and finished off the two goblins. 

Looking at this scene, the tall goblin was enraged. It charged towards Roy with killing intent while the two other small goblins faced Marth, thinking he was an easier target.

Roy calmly blocked the tall goblin’s attack before overwhelming it with his superior strength. The monster could only look in shock as Roy swiped its sword away from its grip. He then stabbed it deeply in the shoulder, pushing it to its knees from the pain

Marth, on the other hand, methodically disarmed the two small and stabbed their tighs so as to incapacitate them. Godwin and Peter easily killed the two monsters that crawled on the ground, trying to escape. The young boy’s hand was hesitant at first, but he was able to steel his resolve and finish the job. 

As for the tall goblin, it was Clark who stepped forward and slashed its neck open. His strike was fluid and did not have any trace of hesitation behind it. His resolve was firm, and it showed clearly in his movements.

With the battle finished, Roy clapped his hands and congratulated his team for their first hunt. “Good job everyone. You did well.”

While their prowess couldn’t be compared to that of his friends, Roy was still pleasantly surprised that they were able to finish their first hunt without any trouble. Moreover, the fact that Clark showed both initiative and resolve showed that he had good potential. Godwin and Peter also showed great synergy which Roy greatly appreciated. Even Gerald, who at first didn’t show any particular quality, was also a solid man who accomplished his duties without any hesitation.

Looking at the group of four, Roy couldn’t be any happier. He saw in them strong comrades; ones that showed proper character and potential to grow.

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