Chapter 8 (1/2)

“Guess I’m not getting out of this easily!”

There was nowhere to run, being pincered in by the two groups.

As Loren decided that the only way out was to cut through them, he heard Oxy finish chanting her spell.

“Scatter the sands, bring upon slumber! ”

Based on Oxy’s movements and line of sight, Loren saw that she was using on the goblins in front and was irritated at her decision.

He knew that she was trying to help Sarfe and Naron, but if they were to successfully retreat, it was better to use it on the goblins behind them.

But Oxy was too focused on them and didn’t seem like she noticed the goblins behind them.

Loren changed his mind and thought that they still had a chance if they could at least get through the goblins in front, and waited for Oxy’s spell to take effect. But he narrowed his eyes, seeing a strange light coming from the goblin mage’s necklace.

At the same time for an unknown reason, Lapis, who Loren was still holding her by the collar, became limp.

As her knees buckled, Loren immediately let go of her and before her knees could hit the floor, he managed to catch her and lend her his shoulder.

“Hey! What’s wrong?”

“This is…”

He didn’t have time to check what was wrong with Lapis, who looked dumbfounded, because he heard Oxy’s panicked voice.

“What? How!?”

Loren soon found out why.

Although the spell had been used, there was no sign of any of the goblins going to sleep. The goblins then rushed at Sarfe and Naron at once.

“You bastards! Get away from me!”

“S…stop! Let go of me!”

There was no way Sarfe could get up and fight with an injured shoulder and leg.

Naron, who injured her flank, was unable to go against them either and they pushed her to the ground.

“Hey! Get away from her!”

The goblins showed no mercy, bringing their weapons down on Sarfe.

As dull swords chipped away at his flesh and the clubs struck bone after bone, Sarfe screamed in pain.

Naron shrieked as the goblins started to rip her clothes off.

Oxy became pale at the sight and before she could do anything, the goblins tackled her from behind and covered her, not even letting her scream.

Loren knew that he couldn’t save them.

He then started to take steps forward.

For a second,the thought of leaving Lapis here crossed his mind.

Lapis couldn’t move her limbs, much less grab onto Loren’s shoulder, and was getting carried by Loren. To him, she was dead weight.

If he left her, he would be able to move around quicker and the goblins would be focused on new prey, letting him run away with little to no problems.

The only problem was dealing with the guilt later, but considering the pros, he thought it wasn’t a bad choice.

Lapis looked up at Loren, who was still trying to decide, and gave out a small sigh.

“It can’t be helped, just leave me.”

It was a completely different tone than until now.

Loren was more surprised that she told him to leave her here than the change in the way she talked.

“I’m in the way, correct? They won’t kill a woman that easily, but they will kill you for sure. Don’t mind me and just go.”

He sensed a feeling of defeat in her voice.

But what struck his heart was that she was saying all this just for him.

So what Loren did was silently grip the sword in his left hand tighter and put Lapis under his right arm.

“Hey?”

“Shut up, you might bite your tongue.”

After getting a better grip on her, he gritted his teeth and took a step forward, then suddenly started dashing toward the exit.

All the screaming from behind him and weird moaning sounds coming from Lapis didn’t reach his ears anymore.

He swung his left arm in a wide arc right at the base of a goblin’s neck.

The goblin’s body tore into two pieces and Loren kicked them away, then bashed the forehead of another goblin who jumped at him.

The blade lodged into its head and broke off.

Loren, as soon as he felt it break, hurled the rest of the sword at another goblin, then picked up a club and continued to speed up.

He rushed past Sarfe, who was getting hacked to pieces in a pool of blood, and Naron, who was stripped naked and held down on the ground, and went straight toward the archers.

A few arrows were fired at close range.

No matter how bad they were at using bows, Loren was close enough that it was almost impossible to miss.

But to the goblins’ surprise, not even one of them managed to hit Loren, and before they could even act confused, they got a knee to the face and flew away.