After only two hours of travelling with his temporary employer, Dominic learned just why the wage was so high for a simple trip down the road. He had been using his newly minted skills to repair blunted weapons and poor attempts at sharpening when the cries of warning had sounded out from the back of the Caravan.
"Goblins in the woods! Send the Guards back, they're almost on us." The driver of the last transport wagon in line was shouting.
"More Goblins coming from the flank." The guard beside Dominic's carriage yelled.
He was halfway down the convoy, the most protected spot during most ambushes, and equal distance to both ends to distribute the spare ammunition and weapons.
All of the guards climbed down from their position by the drivers, while the team members who were skilled with ranged weapons moved to the roof of the armoured cargo boxes.
There weren't nearly enough of them, only three archers, one mage and a gunner to cover eighteen wagons, but the goblins were closing fast.
Travelling through the woods, it made sense that they hired more melee fighters, but there were also guns in the blacksmith's carriage for times when they could react before the enemy arrived.
Those with no combat skills or even those with a melee skill set could use the shotguns while relying on their own hand eye coordination, which was a blessing for the merchant caravans, but against monsters with higher defence, the shotguns became much less effective as the monster hides got tougher.
The Gunslingers, Rangers and a few other specialties could use skills or spells to enhance the weapons and keep them effective against more powerful enemies.
For the first part of the battle, Dominic only had to toss weapons to anyone who lost or broke theirs, but this group was pretty professional and the chances that someone had a lost or broken weapon they forgot to mention was pretty slim.
"Spears!" The caravan leader shouted, and the guards took out what looked like fence panels made of poles, linked with one metal rod and topped with brutal barbed spearheads.
It helped make up for their low numbers, and the first few goblins didn't even have an opportunity to stop before they skidded into the spear lines and were crushed by those behind them.
The guards didn't hold on to them, once the momentum of the goblin charge was stalled, they switched to their usual weapons.
Steel meet goblin flesh and copper while Dominic picked his first target. He was about to unleash an Arcane Blast on the goblins when a sharp whistle caught his attention.
The driver was motioning for him to wait and not draw attention to himself. Everyone on the team could and would fight, but they only had one blacksmith, and the carriages were almost guaranteed to take damage during the fight.
As the number of Goblins increased, the drivers took shotguns from their storage items or from under the seats and prepared to defend their livelihood.
Smoke filled the air as the guns began to fire, and the closest goblins fell one after another. The defenders were still greatly outnumbered, and Dominic sighed at the lost chance for mana cores and loot, but his carriage was well defended, and his driver had taken a staff out of his inventory instead of a gun.
Dominic hadn't noticed before, but the driver of his carriage was a cleric, the caravan's healer. It explained the number of defenders that collected around them, and the way that everyone in the ranged team kept track of what was happening around their carriage.
One goblin made it past the guards, and Dominic took it out with an Arcane Blast, dropping it instantly. One kill was better than sitting and doing nothing, and at the rate the guards were eliminating the goblins, he wouldn't get many more.
It all looked like it was going smoothly until there was a loud clang and a hissing noise. A Goblin had managed to hide from the guards and attack a carriage, puncturing the steam chamber to immobilize it and buy time for more of its kinsfolk to get there.
"Blacksmith to position seven." The driver yelled, marking the location of the damaged vehicle.
"On it!" Dominic yelled back as he grabbed some spare metal plates, then the torch and a handful of brazing rods. It would be a quick and dirty repair, but it would be better than letting the water completely drain.
He ran across the top of the carriages and up the line to the damaged vehicle, where the driver was dragging the goblins body out from underneath.
"He got the return valve with a club." The driver called as he heard the blacksmith land on the roof of the cargo box.
"No problem, I've got it."
The driver knew his vehicle, and he'd released the pressure after he killed the goblin, saving most of the water and making it possible for Dominic to work as soon as he arrived.
The valve wasn't completely knocked off, so Dominic used a block and hammer to knock it straight again, and then sealed the crack with a seam of new brass.
"Good to go. Give it a moment to cool and you can pressure it back up." He informed the driver, then spotted another goblin headed toward them, crawling through the grass.
He fired another Arcane Blast while he searched the ground for bodies that weren't actually dead.
Everywhere that he saw one still twitching, Dominic attacked, keeping the area around the wagons clear until the fight was over.
"Everyone back on board. Let's get gone before their friends arrive." The boss shouted, and Dominic ran back to his ride.
The smithy wagon's driver was busy healing the guards, but he looked up when Dominic returned to the mobile forge.
"Might as well get that heated now. We've got lots to fix. How bad off is the carriage?" The cleric asked.
"Damaged valve, I've got it fixed already. No worse than a broken tool handle." He replied.
"That's a relief. Those delaying tactics are the worst, it's like every monster in the forest knows when you're broken down." He muttered as he prepared the carriage to get moving again.
"Do these attacks happen a lot?" Dominic asked, fearing the worst.
"Come to think of it, they've gotten a lot worse these last few months. At first, I thought it was our bad luck, but we've been attacked more than once every trip, and everyone else is complaining about Goblins as well.
We're not in the mountains where you expect dangerous sorts of monsters, so this many attacks is unusual."