9 Chapter 10: Goblin Lord
After their 30 minute break, they decided to start heading deeper into the forest
The receptionist had told them that the reason goblins are common is because they have settlements within the forest and those settlements are where they take humans that they've captured, mainly females.
After they walked around for around 15 minutes, John noticed that there were monsters nearby with his magic perception
Ariel, who noticed it herself, turned to John and asked, "What do we do?"
"Let's ambush them." John responded.
They hid themselves using the trees as cover and slowly approached the area where they felt the monster's presence.
After they arrived there, they froze.
A base surrounded by wooden fences and filled with goblins on the inside. It also had goblins keeping watch at the entrance
"W-What is this..." John quietly muttered.
In the middle of it all, stood a giant goblin who appeared to be handing out orders and watching over their work.
"This might be too much for us to handle... Let's head back and report our findings to the guild." Said John.
Ariel nodded in response.
Just as they were about to turn around and head back. John noticed that there were goblins on the path carrying a plank which had a human girl tied to it. The girl didn't look like she was struggling, so she was most likely unconscious, and even if she did try to struggle, her arms and legs had been restricted, so she wouldn't have been able to get away either way.
The girl still had her armour but her sword sheath was empty, John guessed that she was outnumbered and dropped it, from the looks of it, they haven't done anything to her yet.
John stared at the girl, wondering if he should risk it. She had Red hair and looked young, probably around 15 years old,
'Where were her party members? Did the goblins kill them? The goblins probably managed to out number their party and captured her in the process.' John guessed.
What he didn't understand was how 4 goblins managed to survive. They tend to travel in packs of 6, so if the girl had a party, it would have been harder to outnumber them. John wondered what exactly had happened.
'Leaving her here would leave a bad taste in my mouth afterwards, but I couldn't afford to put Ariel's life in danger, at our current level.' John thought.
He thus decided to ask Ariel, who had been looking at him for the past few seconds, if anything was wrong. "What's wrong?"
"I-I think we should save her, don't worry about me.. my wind blade still isn't strong enough to cut through the tree but it should work on goblins." Said Ariel.
"Yeah.. you're right. Let's go save her, but if things go wrong, run away, alright?" John replied.
After hearing his words, Ariel showed a relieved expression.
"You know, I can't do that.." She said with a smile on her face
"Argh.. Fine, but just be careful." John responded.
"Yes!" Ariel said.
"I'll flank them, you cover me with a wind blade." John suggested.
Ariel nodded her head in response, but her arms were shaking.
"Don't overthink things, just focus on attacking. Even if you miss you can always try again, and don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you." John assured.
With a smile on her face Ariel replied, "Yes!"
The goblins are still quite far from the settlement, but one of the goblin scouts had noticed them and went to inform the Giant goblin.
If they were to rush out now, they would most likely get seen by the goblins at the gate before rescuing the girl, and the lord would come out to face them. In that situation, John was not sure whether they could win.
"Let's go." Said John.
They ran out to the path and intercepted the goblins carrying the girl.
"Shrieeek!" cried the goblins.
They let out a loud scream as they saw their figures and the guards that stood in front of the gate readied their weapons. While the others went to tell their lord.
Unlike the previous goblins, these ones held spears. They probably took them from the humans that they've killed.
The goblins which had been standing in front of them decided to put the girl on the ground in order to fight them.
It took 4 of them to carry a teenage girl, so John guessed they weren't that strong.
"Ariel, I'll leave these to you." John said.
"Yes. Ventus!" She said as she nodded
In a flash, the heads of the four goblins were cut off. Perhaps because they were monsters, there was barely any blood, so it didn't look gory at all
Ariel, who was the one that did the finishing blow, looked unsettled but quickly recomposed herself as she realised that she didn't have time to think about those things.
'She really is strong-willed, it's interesting seeing her act.' John thought.
"Well done, Ariel!" He praised.
"Mn" She nodded her head with a satisfied expression
They cut the ropes that were tied onto the girl and placed her on the ground. Having learnt first-aid in his previous life, John checked to see if the girl had any difficulty breathing and checked her pulse.
Luckily, she was just unconscious and was having no difficulties breathing. Just as John was about to pick her up, he felt the presence of the Goblin's lord approaching, so he decided to leave her in the recovery position.
"W-Well then, we managed to rescue her. Let's get out of here before the Giant goblin lo-" John said and was interrupted.
Before he could finish, a loud roar which came from the entrance resonated throughout the forest. Shortly after the giant Goblin started approaching them.
"Ariel, stand back, I'll go deal with that thing." Said John.
"B-But!" Ariel responded.
"If we both go, who will protect that girl? Don't worry, he's just a bigger version of the goblins. It's all the same." John said with a confident manner.
"Mn" Ariel nodded with a saddened look on her face.
John's 'everything is going to be okay' act worked well, but in reality he was shaking. The goblin which was in front of him was at least 3 meters tall. Not to mention his overly buff frame. The size of the club he held was around John's size and just from standing in front of him John felt an overwhelming pressure.
He felt like running away with Ariel, but it was too late to turn back now.
"So you're the goblin's lord, huh.. How about you look the other way? That way I'll spare your settlement at least." John bluffed.
"Hu..man.. Hu..Man! HUMANS KILL!" Goblin lord said
After he said that, he lifted up the club in his hand and swung it towards John.
During that moment a grin formed on John's face. Without moving a single step he muttered. "Ventus"
In an instant, the hand of the Goblin lord which held the club was cleanly cut in half. He screamed in pain as he grabbed on to his severed arm. Blood gushed out of the wound as he tried to cover it.
Shortly after, the wound closed up and blood stopped spilling out.
"Heh.. That's a monster for you. Entertain me, will you?" Taunted John.
Realising that John was mocking it, the goblin lord in a fit of anger tried to grab him with his remaining left hand, but missed or more precisely, John dodged.
Right before he managed to grab on to John, he jumped on top of his hand. Ran up it and pierced his left eye with his dagger.
The reason why he was able to do all of this with his weak physique is because he was using magic strengthening.
Magic strengthening is when a person covers their whole body in their mana in an attempt to boost their physical attributes. Naturally, John decided to try it during the break and it felt amazing. His reaction time senses, reaction speed increased, and he felt lighter, faster and stronger.
John didn't get to teach it to Ariel because she was focused on mastering her wind blade. Which he named, Ventus.
After losing its left eye, the goblin lord screamed in pain and tried to grab John, who was about to stab his other eye, but then John retreated before he could.
"Come on goblin lord, you're stronger than this, aren't you? At this rate you'll end up dying.." John said in a mocking tone.
After hearing what John said the Goblin Lord realised that he wouldn't be able to win, so he let out a Loud roar which was a signal for back-up.
"Finally." John said.
It's what he was waiting for.
'Now I'll be able to deal with all of the goblins along with the lord at once.' John thought.
Shortly after the signal, goblins started coming out of the settlement with weapons.
"Ho... That's quite a lot of goblins." John muttered.
Around 30 goblins came out of the settlement. Seeing as he was outnumbered, the Goblin Lord gave him a grin.
"Hu..Man. DIE!" He shouted.
"Well.. This is a problem... for you." John said.
With a confused expression, the goblin lord let out a loud roar which seemed to be a signal for the other goblins to attack. But before the roar was completed, his head had been cut off.
"Ventus." John muttered quietly.
Seeing their leader die. the goblins froze in their tracks.
"What's wrong? Weren't you all going to attack me?" John taunted.
They trembled in fear as he approached them.
"Now, now, don't think of running, I'm not too into massacres, but I have no choice. And I'm feeling strangely pissed off right now." Said John.
There was no need to collect all of those ears. The four from the ones Ariel killed plus the original 6 along with the Goblin lord's head should be enough. John didn't really want to show Ariel a gory scene which would appear if he slashed them all with Ventus.
After finally making a decision. John stretched out his hands in the air and casted, "Glacies". This time he poured a lot more magic power into it than usual, and it grew bigger and bigger.
Shortly after, John had created a giant version of the Ice Spike. It was most likely big enough to freeze all of the goblins in range.
"Hm, it probably isn't but let's find out," Said John.
With his left hand, John picked up the goblin's head while the goblins stood there frozen in fear and with a flick of the wrist, The giant ice spike propelled itself at speeds unexpected of its size at the horde of goblins.
On impact, they froze up. Every single goblin was frozen, with the expression of fear on their faces. The surrounding trees in the area had also been frozen, but it wasn't that many.
Having let out such a huge version of glacies, John felt my energy start to seep away. He also didn't have any more magic power to keep magic strengthening active.
With my remaining strength, John staggered towards Ariel, struggling to keep balance. Then after he arrived, he showed her a thumbs up.
Ariel who saw this smiled as she also showed a thumbs up.
Now that the fight was over. John and Ariel took the time to cut the ears of the 4 Goblins who had managed to capture the girl and put it inside the bag alongside the Goblin Lord's Head.
They were slightly covered in blood, so they cleaned ourselves using water made from John's magic. He also dried them up using the method he had used in the shower.
On their way back, with the red-haired girl still unconscious on his back, John thought it'd be a good time to ask. "Ariel, is everything okay?"
"Mn? Ah, yes.. Everything's fine, why?" She asked with a confused expression
"Ah.. It's just that you were a bit quiet, and I thought you were still bothered by what happened." John replied.
"They're monsters, so it doesn't bother me too much. They've taken the lives of countless others. It's just that I feel like taking a life is still a bad thing to do." Ariel said.
"In my opinion, what we did was part of nature. Monsters attack humans, so humans fight back. That's the way of life. It was also self defence, so it definitely wasn't a bad thing. And besides, you did it to save a life, so I think you should be happy and proud about that." John explained.
"I saved a life..?" Ariel asked as she pointed at herself.
"Yeah, you saved a life." John replied.
As tears began to form in her eyes and slowly dripped on to the ground, Ariel hung her head and clenched her hand.
"So I'm not completely useless..." Ariel muttered.
Without saying anything, John just watched.
'Recently I've been talking more, I wonder why... Ever since coming to this world, the introvert in me has disappeared. But was that all? I feel like I'm not me…' John wondered.
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[… let me out...]
