Chapter 60: Assault on the Slave Market

After Lexi explained her plan to her comrades, all of whom agreed wholeheartedly that it should work, the girls sprang into unified and coordinated motion. While Danica picked her way gingery out onto a high outcropping of rock which would give her the most clear and direct view of the entire valley, the other three girls descended down the mountainside using a pair of ropes they had brought along for just such an occasion. Gretel clung to Samantha’s broad muscular back as the trio made their way to the bottom.

“I seriously hope this works,” she muttered to Lexi. “There’re way too many swinging goblin dicks down there for this to go wrong.”

“Fret not,” Samantha said, the ghost of a smile on her bronzed face. “So long as we adhere to the plan, it will be the greenskins who will face the very thing you fear.”

“I’m not scared of cocks,” the mage grumbled. “I’m just sick to fucking death of getting railed during just about every fight we get into. That’s all.”

“Regardless,” Lexi shot in, as her and Samantha’s feet touched down. “The plan will work. Now, you two head off and wait for my signal, OK?”

“Got it,” Gretel said, straightening her broad brimmed hat over her mass of pinned-up bubblegum pink hair.

Samantha simply nodded in assent, as Gretel placed her hand on the monk’s muscly arm and spoke the words of an incantation.

“Invisibility!”

The two adventurers shimmered for a moment, and then appeared to wink out of existence, the only trace being the soft footsteps that Lexi could hear circling off around the left side of the slave market. As quietly as possible, Lexi split off to the right-hand side of the small grove which ringed the valley on all sides. As the paladin passed by the pillories, she had to intentionally shut her mind down, temporarily making herself immune to the utter desperation that the three girls locked into bondage must be feeling, as a fresh crop of goblins came in to replace those who had just finished depositing hot loads of cum into the “free samples” so benevolently provided by the slavers.

Just a little longer, girls. I promise. With just a little bit of luck, this will all work out — for you and for my team.

At length, Lexi reached the edge of the grove nearest to the spot between the two wooden pens, where the trio of hobgoblins and their orc overseer stood. The paladin watched as another goblin walked up to one of the hobgoblins, handing him a pouch of coins and gesturing over to the female pens, indicating a small statured elf girl who stood near the cage’s corner, arms wrapped around her naked breasts, bedraggled blonde hair covering her tear-streaked face. Lexi did not need the system’s subtitles to understand what words were being passed between the two greenskins. The lewd expression on the goblin’s face said it all.

Here goes nothing.

Lexi then cupped her hands around her mouth, and made a hooting sound — her best owl impersonation — signaling both Danica as well as Gretel and Samantha that it was time to move. Danica replied with a matching hoot from her perch atop the mountainside, as did Gretel from the far side of the marketplace near the males’ pen. With that confirmation that the three pieces of her team were in position, Lexi got the ball rolling, drawing her enormous broadsword and subvocally intoning the command word for one of her new spells.

Blink!

In the blink of an eye, Lexi disappeared from the position she had been holding along the wood line just outside the valley, and reappeared directly in front of the trio of hobgoblins standing haughtily at the back of the market. The stunned hobgoblins — as well as a significant number of milling goblins nearby — gaped at the gleaming paladin who suddenly materialized in their midst. Taking full advantage of this slack-jawed stupor, Lexi let out a cry as she slit open the belly of the nearest hobgoblin with a powerful one-handed backhand slash from her blade. The stunned creature simply stood there staring at the paladin, while a steaming pile of guts spilled out of the deep wound across his gut onto the ground between his feet.

At the exact instant Lexi appeared in front of the trio of hobgoblins, Danica launched a volley of arrows at the orc overseer presiding over the market. One, two, three — her lightning fast arrows thudded into the orc’s chest, one after the other. The elf’s aim was so good and the grouping of her shots to tight that, even after the third arrow had struck, Lexi had difficulty distinguishing between the feathered shafts, being so closely positioned as to give the appearance of a single massive arrow sticking out of the center of the green beast’s chest, just above the breastbone. A gurgle of blood was the only thing to escape the orc’s lips as he sank to his knees, dumbfounded as he looked down at the feathered shafts protruding from his body. He looked up to see Lexi eviscerate the first of his hobgoblin scouts just in time to catch a final elf-made arrow directly in the eye — the iron tip shredding his brain and exiting out the back of his skull with a resounding crack, followed by a thump as his large corpse hit the ground.

Absolute chaos broke out around Lexi, as a wave of realization broke out among the greenskins that they were under attack, and that she was the one responsible. Because, although Danica had in truth sniped the orc from afar, the immediacy of a paladin appearing from nowhere right within their midst served to give a myopic focus to the greenskins’ attention — which was precisely what Lexi had been expecting.

“Die!” she yelled out, whipping her sword up with both hands just in time to parry a spear thrust, stomping down hard atop the offending hobgoblin’s instep with her heavy boot at the same time. Lexi felt a satisfying crunch beneath her foot as the creature’s face bunched up in pain.

“Gruahhh!” the hobgoblin shouted.