Chapter 35: Goblins Versus Humans

Chapter 35: Goblins Versus Humans

"How many?" I asked while following after Garz.

"Four. Two warriors. Archer. Magic." Garz replied, "Already killed ten goblins."

I couldn't believe that many had died already. How powerful and dangerous were humans? When we got to the cave entrance, the group was roughly twenty goblins and myself. That was when I received a notification.

'Yes'

Garz, Zizz, Roz, Kwez, Vulz, Syl.>

Immediately upon joining the party, I could sense the other members of my party like a faint tickle in the back of my mind. Even if they were amongst hundreds of goblins, I could point towards all of them individually.

"How did you do that?" I asked Garz.

"You ask in head for person to join party. Tell in head that you want to leave party." Garz answered me, "Must use word party. Important."

I nodded and looked around at our group, wondering why we weren't sending more or using the bears.

"Are only us going?" I asked.

"Yes. Send too many then humans run. Tell other humans. Army comes and kill all." Garz informed, "Chief comes from old tribe killed by humans. They smart. We must also."

Even though I was thankful Garz would share information with me, I wish he spoke as clearly as Krutz or Yuzz. I looked at the other party members; all four had spears, and I recognized the one who survived the bear attack.

Our groups left the cave and spread out into our separate parties, but all headed in the same general direction. I didn't want to stand out amongst the goblins, so I formed a short spear since that seemed to be the generic goblin weapon. I planned to hide amongst the crowd and pull off an assassination.

We were not the first to arrive on the scene as I spotted the four humans already fighting goblins. Of the two warriors, one was a heavily armored blonde woman with a sword and shield, while the other was a red-haired boy wielding two axes and wearing animal pelts. The archer wore blackened leather and a cloak, a belt lined with small knives, and his features obscured. Finally, the caster was an older gentleman who wore a greyish-white robe and had a staff with a golden tip. The goblins were being slaughtered.

"Wow, there's a lot of the bastards." The axe boy commented.

"Focus, Samuel." The armored woman ordered.

"It's Sam. Only my mom calls me Samuel." He retorted while cleaving a goblin into chunks, "It's just goblins. Don't get so worked up."

An arrow struck his shoulder, and he quickly ripped it out. The older gentleman chanted something, and a golden-hued white light enveloped him, causing the wound to close rapidly.

"Healing magic?" I whispered questioningly.

"That's bad," Garz replied, gritting his teeth in a nasty snarl.

"I'm confident in my [Stealth] skill. I can sneak around and take out the healer." I suggested.

"What spell was that?" Kathryn asked in shock.

"No idea, but it missed," Toby replied.

Instead of running, he started drawing on his bow, the tension on the frame and string so tight that you could hear the wood creaking. It looked bad, but I had no choice but to approach him. I tried firing a few bullets of slime as I charged, but he sidestepped them. Then he released his bowstring. I couldn't even see the arrow's trajectory as it suddenly ruptured through the entirety of my left torso.

"Ha! Bullseye! Can't deflect [Power Shot], you bitch!" He celebrated prematurely.

'I'm so glad I'm not stupid enough to keep my core in my chest region.' I thought to myself, but not before putting some extra effort into reinforcing my pelvic region, where my core actually was.

I faked a death stagger and fired a transparent-white [Slime Shot] aimed at his ankle from one of my fingers. It struck without him noticing, causing him to curse in pain and nearly topple over. When my chest cavity stitched back together and I continued my charge, he shrieked.

"Kathryn, help! This thing is a monster! It regenerated even its heart!" He screamed.

"Toby! I'm stuck! It's like trying to walk through a swamp!" She shouted in response.

I looked towards her and noticed she was advancing at a snail's pace, each step glacially slow, as she had to yank her foot from the ground sludge. I glanced at the axe guy and saw he was actually collapsed on the ground and riddled with arrows, like a human-sized porcupine. Garz had been busy.

Toby had started to panic and tried to retreat despite Kathryn screaming at him, but as soon as he turned his back on me, I started firing [Slime Shot] again. When I got within range, he hastily flung daggers at me. But, like his arrows, they couldn't get through my barrier. As his last stand, he pulled a short sword from his waist, ready to fight.

'What? How?' I was startled at the notification.

"Fuck! Sam! Shit!" Toby screamed in rage and thrust his blade into my chest.

I erupted two tendrils from each arm and engulfed his head. He started to thrash and stab repeatedly as I tried to force the acid down his throat. The flailing slowed down until he collapsed.

I engulfed the entire body and deposited his equipment as he was rapidly absorbed. Despite his size, he gave a surprising amount of slime, once again making me question the conversion ratio. I'd regain all my spent slime with just one, maybe two more of the humans.

Kathryn was near the edge of the sticky slime trap I had created, glaring at me with tears in her eyes.

"How could you? You monster!" She screamed at me, pointing her sword, "Those were my friends!"

"Did you expect us to roll over and die for you?" I interjected.

"What!?" She shouted, flabbergasted.

"You attacked us, and we defended. You killed four of my party." I replied with a shrug and gestured to all the dead goblins, "Not to mention all the others."

She seemed to hesitate for only a moment before she spat out, "Fuck you, monster! Even if I die, the guild will know and kill you all!" She screamed, swinging her blade.

I sighed and started to swell in size, withdrawing my outfit as I abandoned my goblin form - with Garz as the only survivor, there was no need for disguises. She continued to hack away at an endlessly growing mass of slime. But her screams of rage were soon replaced with screams of terror. Large and thick slime tendrils burst out of my form to grab her limbs, restraining her. She continued to scream until I silenced her, covering her entire body in slime. She struggled till the very end, even trying to swim through the slime mass to the edge, but it was over.