"Uoooooooooooh!"
With that war cry, one of the adventurers charged into the Goblin settlement, longsword in hand.
"That idiot. He hasn't even confirmed whether everyone's in position yet."
An adventurer standing a short distance away muttered under his breath, his voice thick with exasperation.
That said, the man was trusted by the Guild for good reason, and his skill proved worthy of that trust. The Goblins in the settlement fell one after another beneath his blade.
Yet an adventurer watching the scene wore a grim expression. The Goblins weren't being merely defeated—they were being utterly devastated by the lone attacker.
"They're not fleeing in this situation, huh?"
Goblins were highly aggressive by nature, but even they would normally scatter the moment they realized they were outmatched. This was their settlement, their home base, and yet the Goblins the adventurer knew should have bolted immediately when faced with such overwhelming force.
The fact that they held their ground meant there had to be a reason.
"Like I thought. There's a High-ranking Species or Rare Species here."
It was a possibility they had predicted before the battle even began. Hundreds—possibly over a thousand—Goblins wouldn't gather in one place without something holding them together. Without a unifying presence, each would act on its own impulses, and the settlement would have collapsed on its own in short order.
Understanding this, the presence of a High-ranking Species or Rare Species had been anticipated.
"Either way... whoever runs into it can deal with it. Nobody here is going to lose to mere Goblins. ...Can't say the same for the Lizardmen, though."
The Lizardmen far outnumbered the adventurers in this battle. And while they were all military-trained, meaning their skill level was reliably solid, the sheer number of them made it entirely possible that a few weaker ones were mixed in.
...Of course, the gap between a Lizardman and a Goblin was literally one of fundamental rank. Short of something extraordinary, a Lizardman losing to a Goblin simply wasn't going to happen.
"Gyagyo-gyo!"
Several Goblins who spotted the spear-wielding adventurer charged at him with clubs and rusted daggers in hand. They had been moving to intercept the first adventurer who charged in, but the moment they laid eyes on this new threat, they completely forgot their original target and focused solely on the man before them.
The adventurer cut them down without breaking stride and surveyed his surroundings.
What stood out immediately were Rei and Set.
Rei was carving through Goblins while wielding two different types of long weapons—Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear. Set, meanwhile, was tearing through them with the full might of his Gryphon capabilities.
That the two of them were dominating the field was hardly surprising. They were the strongest fighters among everyone who had come to annihilate this settlement.
Yet matching them blow for blow was the Water Wolf.
The Water Wolf, which had been slightly smaller than Set, had now swelled to roughly twice his size—a colossal body stretching approximately six meters in length. It was called a Water Wolf, after all, and the adventurer had seen with his own eyes that it had been even larger during last night's battle.
Still, the fact that it could freely reshape its body this far from the lake was astonishing, and its method of attack was nothing short of spectacular. It would spot a Goblin, gulp it down whole, and dissolve it inside its body in the blink of an eye. It even let out pleased cries, as if savoring the taste.
For the Water Wolf, this settlement wasn't an enemy encampment—it was a snack bar.
Had the adventurers here been rookies, or the type obsessed with money, Magic Stones, or materials, they would have been frustrated watching Goblins get digested before they could harvest anything worthwhile. But these were all seasoned hands trusted by the Guild. They didn't care about Goblin materials, and honestly, they found disposing of the corpses to be a hassle. If the Water Wolf was willing to handle that for them, they were grateful.
While Rei, Set, and the Water Wolf drew the most attention, the others were putting on an equally overwhelming display. Gaga in particular was swinging his greatsword with savage abandon—a single sweep bisected several Goblins at once, and a poorly placed hit didn't cut so much as pulverize them into chunks of meat.
The other Lizardmen were cutting down Goblins one after another with their respective weapons.
"...Something's off."
Rei muttered as he shook the blood from Death Scythe.
An assault of this scale should have drawn out a High-ranking Species or Rare Species by now. Yet every Goblin he'd encountered so far had been ordinary. There was no sign whatsoever of whatever was commanding them.
Did they already escape? No—we've got the settlement surrounded. They shouldn't be able to slip away that easily.
A High-ranking Species was naturally smarter than a regular Goblin. Given the current state of the settlement, it wouldn't be strange for one to have decided to cut its losses and run.
Whether it could actually pull off an escape, though, was another matter.
"Anyway, the High-ranking Species and Rare Species matter, but thinning their numbers comes first. ...Set, you can burn them, but don't let it spread to the Treant Forest!"
Set, who had been unleashing Fire Breath on the Goblins, ceased spewing flames at Rei's words. It probably wouldn't spread that easily, but the trees of the Treant Forest were vital construction materials for Gilm—and potential trade goods in the future.
...Though with the Green People's abilities, the trees would regrow quickly anyway.
"You think I'd let you slip away?"
Spotting an opening while Rei called out to Set, several Goblins burst out from under the corpses of their fallen comrades and tried to flee. Rei's Death Scythe caught them mid-stride, severing their bodies in a single arc.
Rei and the others continued cutting down Goblins one after another until—
"You bastard!"
A voice rang out suddenly. No—a shout, better described as a roar, dripping with killing intent and fury.
Rei wondered if something had gone wrong. He left Set in charge of this area and headed toward the source of the outcry.
When he arrived, what he saw made him understand the rage.
Two adventurers were glaring at the Goblins, their eyes burning with killing intent and anger. But they were frozen, unable to attack—and the reason was what the Goblins were holding.
Wooden boards. That was the only way to describe them from an objective standpoint. But these weren't ordinary boards. Naked women had been pinned to them.
The youngest looked to be in their teens, the oldest around thirty. Stripped bare—and bearing traces that made it sickeningly clear what had been done to them.
Some had already shattered. Even with their hands and feet pierced by wooden stakes and nailed to the boards, they did nothing but laugh. Those who still clung to sanity screamed and wept, their limbs skewered through.
One look at the shields those women had been turned into, and their hesitation made all too much sense to Rei.
He understood. But understanding how to respond was another matter entirely.
Under normal circumstances, they should have attacked without hesitation, meat shields or not. But the adventurers had faltered—and in doing so, they had taught the Goblins that these shields worked.
Well... it's not like anyone wouldn't be shaken seeing something like this. Even with such a shield suddenly thrust before them, those who could shift straight into attacking were the exception, not the rule.
But ordinary Goblins would never think to use captured women as shields. Which means... they're here. A High-ranking Species or Rare Species.
Rei was certain of it. The problem was that he had no idea where.
Behind those shields?
About thirty Goblins were clustered together, using the meat shields as cover while huddled behind them. As long as they were grouped up like that, the possibility that a High-ranking Species or Rare Species was hiding among them couldn't be dismissed.
"Either way, I need to get inside those shields to save the women. ...I'll go."
"Can you pull it off?" one of the adventurers muttered.
Fortunately, while the Goblins had the meat shields, they lacked the strength to actually carry them, so they showed no sign of pressing the attack themselves. If they'd had bows or a mage among them, the story might have been different, but only ordinary Goblins were holed up behind the shields. Thanks to that, there was at least enough time for a brief exchange.
"I can."
Rei's answer carried absolute certainty, and the adventurer who asked believed him without question. Had it been anyone else, trust wouldn't have come so easily. But everyone present knew exactly how powerful Rei the Alias-Bearer was.
That was why the adventurer simply murmured a single word: "Please."
Rei stepped away from the group. What he was about to do wouldn't work if the Goblins were watching.
He put some distance between himself and the cluster of Goblins hiding behind their shields. Then he broke into a sprint, drove his foot into the earth, and launched himself skyward.
His extraordinary physical prowess carried him to a considerable height. He activated his Sleipnir boots, kicked off the empty air, and rose even higher. Several more strides through the sky sent him climbing further—and before long, he was hovering directly above the cluster of Goblins and their meat shields.
Here goes.
Rei estimated the distance and cut the Sleipnir boots' effect. His body dropped, plunging toward the earth.
He landed in the dead center of the Goblin formation.
The Goblins had been clinging to their shields, secure in the illusion of safety, when Rei crashed down on them from above. At first, they didn't even register who had dropped in—their response was pure, confused panic. In the next instant, a horizontal sweep of the Twilight Spear sent the entire cluster flying outward.
"Now!"
The adventurers reacted instantly. They had been waiting for exactly this moment, trusting Rei to break the stalemate.
The Goblins blown away by the impact left the women pinned to the boards tumbling to the ground. The jostling of the stakes piercing their limbs drew fresh screams. The woman who had already lost her mind simply laughed, even as she fell.
The Twilight Spear's strike had blasted the Goblin formation apart from within, tearing open a massive gap. Rei didn't let it go to waste. He moved through the fallen Goblins, driving the Twilight Spear through their skulls one after another.
But he wasn't just killing—he was checking. Scanning each fallen body for any sign of a High-ranking Species or Rare Species among them. In his experience, they often bore appearances distinct from the base species—enough to recognize at a glance, even from behind.
He checked every body he passed.
They're not here.
Only ordinary Goblins. Irritation flared in Rei's chest.
If ordinary Goblins wouldn't think to use meat shields like this, then a High-ranking Species or Rare Species had to exist in this settlement. There was no question about it.
So why couldn't he find it?
He pushed the question aside for now. The priority was reducing the Goblins' numbers. He left the women who had been used as shields to the adventurers and moved on.