CH 158

The knights are also leaving after they get through the boss room, so after discussing it, they let us go first.

I see the damage from Hikari’s soup is still lingering a bit.

Last night, I shared water and something that’s like stomach medicine with them, and they were thankful for that.

Why do I have that in the first place? Because it’s good to always be prepared.

When we woke up, Hikari was fully ready to go at it again, but this time the knights started praising me like their life depended on it and saying they really wanted my soup, so they avoided the same fate as yesterday.

This strategy of theirs worked very well, because praising me made Hikari happy. I, on the other hand, have mixed feelings about that, because I’m not all that interested in hearing all that from a group of guys.

Hikari still looks a little sad about it, so I tell her we’ll cook together when we go home, and she agrees. Some of the knights look at me with jealousy when she responds with a small but happy smile, but I ignore them.

Why are they even jealous?

I also see that some of them look at me like they’re looking at a ‘hero’. Ah, they’re the ones who had her soup. Some of them look relieved, and bow for some reason. Does her soup really have that much destructive power?

“Anyway, let’s talk strategy.”

We sit down and eat, and talk about how we’re going to take down the goblin king.

“Master, if it’s all right, how about the five of us fight?”

Asks Sera.

“Can I ask why?”

“As a test, I guess. To see how we fight on our own. We can’t really do that if the four of you are fighting too.”

Interjects Rurika, explaining their reasoning in a simple way.

I guess they talked about this while advancing through the dungeon.

I look to Fred and the others to see what they have to say, and they don’t object.

In fact, it looks like they want to stand back and see how they fight too.

Some of the knights try to ride that wave and say they also want to watch, but unfortunately for them, only people registered in the same party can enter the boss room together.

Not to mention that if they really wanted to see them fight, they could’ve just asked that normally instead of making me fight.

Once I point that out, some of the knights grab their heads, and others stare at the ceiling. I guess that didn’t even cross their minds. They were too busy trying to look cool.

You know, your captain is looking at you with an evil smile on his face?

We leave them behind, and walk towards the empty boss room. What would happen if people from different parties entered a boss room together anyway? Well, let’s not do anything potentially dangerous.

Once we’re all inside, the door closes slowly, and not long after, a magic circle rises from the ground.

A group of about thirty goblins appears, along with a goblin king.

The girls are already in place.

Sera is in the center, with Hikari and Rurika to her left and right, and Mia and Chris behind them.

Chris starts chanting, and shoots an area of effect spell called Firestorm.

She’s supposed to be a spirit mage, but I’ve never seen her use spirit magic.

As Firestorm expands, it completely kills the goblins’ enthusiasm, throwing them into disarray.

The ground zero of this attack is right in the middle, so most of the enemies are caught by the fire. The ones in the center lucky enough to escape the flames are quickly brought down by Sera.

Hikari and Rurika make use of their speed, and spread out to both sides and cut down one enemy after the other, targeting their vital areas.

Rurika is skillfully using her twin swords to deliver fatal blows, and Hikari is making her magic energy flow to her weapon, and targeting their necks, where the carotid artery would be in a person. I guess.

Once the flames clear and visibility improves, Chris fires again, this time targeting the goblin king.

And as if responding to this signal, Sera goes around from the right side and also attacks it.

The goblin king moves to evade the Fire Arrow fired at it from its right side, and to back away from Sera, but it’s hit directly on the shoulder by a Holy Arrow.

It loses its balance, and Sera seizes that opportunity and swings her axes. But even though its posture is bad, the goblin king still manages to block Sera’s attack with its sword.

It’s a goblin, but it’s still a superior species with the name king.

It blocks Sera’s heavy attack, although it can’t completely kill its momentum.

Rurika is done with the others, so she rushes the goblin king with her twin swords, but they’re repelled. The king’s skin is too tough for her to damage it, but is that because of her weapons, or her own strength?

Hikari is weaker than Rurika, but she makes her weapon sharper by making magic energy flow to it when she attacks, so she manages to break the monster’s skin. Still, she can’t hurt it with just one slash, she has to attack it multiple times to cause damage.

Of course, this isn’t enough to take it down, but Hikari’s weapon has a special trait that means that’s not a problem.

As we saw when we fought the shadow wolf, Hikari’s weapon has a paralysis effect to it. It doesn’t work right away, but its effect will show itself if the battle continues for a while.

It doesn’t work on some monsters that are resistant to it, but goblin kings are susceptible to paralysis and poison.

It looks like Hikari talked to them about this, because they’re not rushing too much or trying too hard to take it down. Of course, they still strike when they see a chance.

“Kings have hard skin, but they aren’t very fast. Their attack power is a little threatening though.”

“I think Sera’s the only one who is going to do any real damage if they face it head on. They’d have to go for the eyes, inside the mouth, or try to damage its internal organs.”

“Yes. Miss Sera can probably hit it with a fatal attack, but Hikari’s attacks are working too. Even monsters can’t move too well if they start losing blood. Is that what she’s after?”

Fred has a lot on his mind, while he watches the fight. He might be comparing it to how they defeat goblin kings.

This goes on for about ten minutes, until the goblin king’s movements become duller, and Sera ends the battle.

It was a pretty safe fight, and they seem happy with that.

At least on the surface.