Vol 1 Chapter 52 (1/2)
Chapter 52
Chapter 52 – Goblin Den
The party kept watch by the fountain in the avian village for the entire night.
“I hope they arrive soon,” said Oort with a sigh, “so that we can enjoy another night of Laura’s hospitality.”
Having decided to start exploring the area once the sun rose the next day, they rested throughout the night with two people on guard. Once the goblins found out that they had returned to the avian village, they could attack at any moment. Despite that threat, they were happy to find that they hadn’t been attacked at all. When the sun rose, they quickly ate breakfast, and then immediately started to explore the village’s surroundings. They easily found several narrow pathways that appeared to have been used by the goblins. Formed into a single file, they started to explore them carefully. Oort and Paul were in the front, Louis and Eliza in the back, and Wynn and Leti in the middle. It didn’t seem like avians ever made their own paths All they found were traces of animals or goblins. Nothing they discovered appeared to be man-made. By the time they found what they had been looking for since dawn, the sun was already high in the sky.
“Oh, there they are.”
Oort, who was leading the line, suddenly stopped walking. He had spotted the goblin den in the caves on the cliffside.
“Goblins? Where?”
While Eliza shushed Wynn, who had tried to get to the front to see, Paul drew his sword, and Louis tightened his grip on his spear.
“They haven’t noticed us yet. But I can’t see their leader anywhere.”
They could only see three goblins standing guard in front of the cave. One of them held an axe-like weapon while the other two wielded clubs.
“Eliza, attack the axe goblin first with magic. Louis and I will take the other two. Paul will watch out for any goblins coming out of the cave.”
“Got it.”
“Wynn, Leti,” continued Oort having turned to the two children. “For now, you two will hide here and watch us fight. You should study the way we work together.”
The two of them nodded.
“Good. Let’s go!”
As soon as Oort, Louis, and Paul charged out from the bushes, Eliza started to chant a spell concentrating deeply.
“O Fire, bend to my will and create a fireball!” (TL note: I changed the template for chants. Used to be something like “I, who understands the way of fire…”)
A small flame the size of a candle fire appeared in the middle
of Eliza’s palm. It soon grew to the size of a pumpkin, formed into a sphere, and then slowly rose from her hand until it stopped above her head.
“Strike true, Fireball!”
Eliza pointed her hand at the axe-wielding goblin, and the fireball flew at it with amazing speed. Feeling the approaching heat, the goblin turned towards the incoming spell. It hit him squarely on the chest and exploded.
“GYAAAAA!”
The goblin let out a hair-raising shriek and was sent flying by the blast. It then rolled on the ground to put out the flames burning its body. The other two flinched from the heat and the explosion. Oort and Louis took that opportunity to close the distance. Oort’s axe cleaved into one goblin’s head while Louis’ spear stabbed the other through the chest.
“Whoa…”
Paul was amazed by the way the party of experienced adventurers fought. He had no chance to do anything after Oort and Louis dashed out of the thickets.
“Don’t let your guard down! More are coming!”
Oort’s shout brought Paul to his senses. Ten more goblins came running out of the cave. Only two of them held metal weapons the rest wielded the familiar thick wooden clubs. Despite their numbers, they weren’t a match for the battle-ready adventurers. Soon, Oort took care of four of them, Louis killed three, and Paul defeated two. Not wanting to get her comrades caught in friendly fire, Eliza watched them fight with the two kids. But when one of the goblins tried to flee, she slew it with a fireball.
“Hey, was there a Lord there?”
“No, didn’t see one.”
“How strange. There shouldn’t be only this much… ”
Oort let the blade of his axe fall to the ground, and rubbed his chin in thought. There was less opposition than he had expected. Unlike Paul, who was winded from defeating two goblins, Oort and Louis quickly regained their breath. To them, the number of goblins that had appeared was nothing special. But Oort could feel the presence of stronger monsters. There was no way the avian village could have been ruined by just twelve goblins.
“Sheesh, are they hiding in the cave? How ‘bout we bury them in the cave with Eliza’s magic?” asked Louis.
“It’s no use if there are other exits,” responded Oort.
“Do we enter the cave then? It stinks in there. I don’t wanna go inside.”
“Don’t complain. It’s our job.”
“They are so relaxed,” sighed Eliza, witnessing Oort and Louis’s banter.
They probably didn’t want to look bad in front of the fledgling
fledgling adventurers. Eliza looked towards Wynn and Leti, who should have been watching the battle. She noticed something strange.
“What’s wrong, Leti?”
Leti had stiffened, clinging to Wynn’s left arm.
Could watching her first battle have been too much for her? wondered Eliza, It did seem to be a bit soon for her to become an adventurer.
“It’s fine, Paul and my party members are strong. They’ll take care the goblins in the blink of an eye.”
Eliza crouched down to meet the frightened Leti’s eyes and spoke in a kind voice
“Onii-chan…”
Leti’s voice was shaky. Eliza looked at Wynn. He was looking at Leti’s face with a worry in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
Eliza frowned, perplexed by Leti’s strange behavior. Leti suddenly turned her gaze from Wynn towards the cave. At that moment, Eliza finally realized that a faint trace of magic power could be felt around them. And just as she started looking for the source—
“Oort, above us!”
“s.h.i.+t—!”
Hearing Eliza’s warning, Oort immediately raised his metal s.h.i.+eld. Just in the nick of time, he was able to move it into position to block the bludgeon wielded by a shadow falling down from above. He stumbled back a few steps. The enemy, with its dog head, looked exactly like a kobold. However, it wasn’t the size of a normal kobold, which tended to be no bigger than a human. The kobold in front of them was about three meters tall. It wielded a club bigger than a grown man, one probably better described as a log. The bulging muscles that allowed it to wield such a weapon were clearly visible under its dark brown fur. Nothing about this kobold was normal.
“Hey, hey, is a kobold supposed to be this big?”
Oort’s left arm was numb from the force of the blow, amplified by the force from the kobold jumping off the cliff. He glared at the giant monster.
“It’s as big as an ogre, innit? I’ve never heard of anything like this, but would this be a Kobold Lord?”
“Paul, circle around to its back. We’ll surround it.”