"Who's this guy again?" EeDeChi asked curiously as she knocked down the green meat mountain, then jumped back to her teammates.
The old and irritable goblin roared and cursed on the other side, while Barrett patiently explained to EeDeChi, "That's a Goblin Shaman, quite rare, a type of advanced goblin with certain magical abilities. If nothing goes wrong, it's likely the leader of this goblin settlement."
"Hmm, very interesting." EeDeChi nodded as she touched where nonexistent beard would be on her smooth chin."
"Human! Adventurer! DIE!" The Goblin Shaman's withered throat roared, its long pointed ears adorned with iron rings jingling.
Mumbling indistinct spells in its mouth, the shaman's staff slammed down, and a green vortex of light quickly formed into a sphere. A circle of crimson incantations surrounded the emerald sphere, which rapidly spun and grew larger.
Barrett shook his head; this was one of the signs of goblin limited brain capacity. So what if it could use magic? If it were a human mage, it would have known the situation was bad and made a quick escape, not run like a fool towards death.
The sphere had expanded to the size of Griffin's head. With a "bang," it left the staff and flew towards the four adventurers.
EeDeChi leaped out and took the hit head-on. Green smoke dispersed, and EeDeChi patted her clothes, looking expressionless at the Goblin Shaman.
"You... you... you..." The anger in the Goblin Shaman's crimson eyes had turned into fear.
"Since you used magic, I'll use a newly learned spell to deal with you," EeDeChi said, extending her right hand with palm upright, fingers together.
Layers of magical halos lit up around her palm, intricate runes slowly rotating, and magic power flowing. Blue, green, and red mottled magical light illuminated the not-so-large stone hall.
EeDeChi uttered the spell's name:
"5th Tier Magic, Earthquake..."
Barrett lunged forward, grabbing EeDeChi's outstretched right hand, interrupting her magic chant!
Shaking her vigorously, he urged, "Captain, you can't use it! Not here! If you cast this 5th Tier magic, the entire cave will collapse. Except for you, none of us can escape!"
"Oh! That seems to be the case," EeDeChi lowered her right hand, tilting her head in recollection. "In 'The Mystery of Magic,' it suggests this spell should be cast in a spacious outdoor area."
With a clang, the bone staff in the Goblin Shaman's hand fell to the ground. It snapped out of its stupor, eyes shifting from fear to dread.
Since the magical halo lit up around EeDeChi's hand, its legs began to wobble. Finally realizing the terror it faced, the Goblin Shaman dragged its aged body and stumbled towards a cave entrance in the stone hall.
A magically enchanted steel arrow "whooshed" through its neck, taking the Goblin Shaman's life.
Sean put down his longbow and breathed a sigh of relief—the goblin shaman was dead, so the captain wouldn't cast any magic that could bury them alive with the dead.
If the goblin shaman had insisted on counterattacking, these ordinary enchanted arrows wouldn't have been able to kill it at all. However, it was too scared and just kept fleeing, leading to its demise at the hands of platinum-level adventurer Sean.
With the Goblin leader fallen, the battle seemed completely over.
Following the direction of earlier crying from a human woman, "The Last Defender of the Way" adventurer team began searching all around. Soon, they found three girls in the stone hall, along with a male human corpse that was mutilated beyond recognition.
Identified by their attire, the corpse seemed to have been an adventurer in life. As for the three girls, one was a cleric in the same profession as Stella, another a female martial artist, and the third a female mage — all adventurers.
Barrett picked up their insignias. Two were silver-level, one copper-level. This was a team of relatively weak strength, apparently falling victim to the goblins due to underestimation.
Except for the cleric, the other two girls were in bad shape.
The female martial artist had a broken kneecap in her left leg, her combat clothes torn apart, exposing her fair, slender legs and shapely buttocks to the air, indicating the goblins were about to assault her.
The female mage had a piercing wound in her abdomen, bleeding profusely. Her mage robe had also been torn open, revealing her snow-white chest under the black pointed mage hat, with long hair flowing. Even injured women weren't spared by the goblins.
While the blonde cleric shrunk into the corner, trembling, her staff dropped to the ground, and her pristine white cleric uniform was covered in cave dust. Her eyes were lifeless, tears streaming, clearly deeply affected by the gruesome death of her companions before her eyes.
Stella, Barrett, and Sean understood that their captain couldn't bear such scenes of female nudity. They quickly retrieved spare clothes from the spatial ring and covered the female mage and martial artist.
The female martial artist had a leg broken and seemed to have internal fractures in her right hand. The female mage's abdominal wound was deep, still bleeding profusely, with blood trickling from the corners of her mouth. Stella urgently applied first aid to stop the bleeding.
Due to casting too many spells in previous battles, Stella's magical and mental energies were completely spent. Despite this, her face pale, gripping her staff tightly, she insisted on casting healing magic.
"Take a break. Let me handle this. It's been a while since I used healing magic," the adventurer captain pushed Stella aside, standing boldly by the side of the female martial artist and mage.
EeDeChi raised her giant sword with one hand, chanting—or rather, shouting out: "Great Gaia, lend me your power. If Gods Deny Salvation's Hand, With Sacred Blade I'll Reprimand!"
As her words fell, the entire stone hall shimmered with a golden glow, warm currents flowing around. This was the high-tier area healing magic Stella had "taught" EeDeChi.
The painful expression on the female martial artist's face immediately eased, her misaligned arm returning to its proper position. The abdominal wound of the female mage rapidly healed, the horrific puncture wound fading away, returning her skin to its pristine fair.
Although Barrett, Sean, and Stella had seen EeDeChi cast this healing magic for the second time, they still marveled at the captain's powerful magic. They were also intoxicated by the soothing warmth flowing slowly throughout their bodies from the healing magic.
A disturbance sounded behind the four adventurers. They turned around to see the goblin giant that had fallen to the ground slowly rising, its massive bulk trembling.
Next to the giant, the goblin shaman also sat up, a steel arrow still lodged in its neck from Sean's shot.
They were revived.
"Hmm?" EeDeChi scratched her head, somewhat puzzled.
"Captain, your area healing magic is like a 5th Tier resurrection spell! And it doesn't discriminate between friend or foe! It's true area magic!" Barrett couldn't help but comment in shock.
Sean reacted first, drawing his bow and shooting another arrow into the goblin shaman's head, sending this unlucky resurrected goblin straight back to hell.
EeDeChi shook her head helplessly and approached the recently revived but confused goblin giant. She raised her giant word and tapped its head, causing the green-skinned behemoth to collapse once more.
However, the male human corpse in the stone hall did not revive. Faced with this exception, the four discussed and concluded that EeDeChi's healing/resurrection magic could only repair damaged organs and infuse life force.
Like the goblin giant resurrected from death, it might just be that its head was smashed into a pulp by EeDeChi, but through healing magic, it was restored to its original state, thus able to come back to life.
Whereas the human corpse has been beaten to a pulp, not even retaining its complete body form, naturally beyond hope of recovery.
Under the effect of the healing magic, the blonde cleric, who was initially in the best condition, finally recovered. She cried as she thanked "The Last Defender of the Way" adventurer team. Stella, also a cleric, carefully comforted her.
The two clerics were of similar age but contrasting styles. Stella had chestnut hair, wore a great helm, and was clad in dense, heavy chainmail. The crying blonde cleric had golden hair, dressed in a beautiful white and gold cleric skirt uniform, and wore white leather boots.
EeDeChi patted Stella's back proudly, saying, "Look at our cleric's outfit, so proper, so hardcore."
She glanced at the blonde cleric's uniform, and the form-fitting clothes of the female mage and martial artist, furrowing her brow. "Look at you, showing off your arms and legs. Dressed like this, are you going to battle or compensated dating?"
Stella, seen as a battlefield model, chuckled awkwardly while holding her staff. EeDeChi's hearty back pat made her sway.
With this battle full of twists finally over, and the three mentally unstable low-level adventurers settled, Barrett and Sean moved on to their favorite adventurer activity—looting the spoils.
This stone hall seemed to be the main gathering place of the goblin tribe, with plenty of goods scattered around, mostly worn-out and worthless, except for a few items that goblins had snatched from humans.
Barrett approached the goblin shaman with two arrows sticking out of its body, rummaging through, hoping to find something valuable to sell. Sean had shot the goblin shaman twice, and whatever loot they found would be split between them later.
Curiously, EeDeChi looked around the cave's stone hall, while Stella sat on a rock, meditating to restore her magical power and spirits.
Suddenly, from behind the four adventurers, came a strange sound echoing through the cave...
"Thump, thump, thump," firm footsteps echoed, the sound of iron armor shifting abruptly reverberating through the cave.
The light from a cluster of torches suddenly brightened, shining in the darkness, igniting a fervent hope.
But brighter than the torchlight were the sharp red eyes beneath the masked helmet, these intense crimson eyes seemed to pierce through all obstacles in their darkness.
The four adventurers turned their heads simultaneously, looking towards where the torches burned in the dark cave.
Surprised, EeDeChi exclaimed, "Who's making such a grand entrance?"
A tall figure of a warrior appeared in the cave.
The warrior was clad in full iron armor, with a closed helmet, a cotton fur collar around the neck, a small round steel shield on the left arm bearing cross-shaped scars, a short sword gripped in the right hand, agile and explosive, clearly an elite warrior.
EeDeChi frowned and asked, "Who are you?"
"Goblin Slayer."
The warrior answered in a deep, magnetic voice.
EeDeChi turned to Barrett and whispered, "What's a 'Goblin Slayer'?"
"Probably the title of an adventurer who specializes in killing goblins," Barrett guessed.
The elite warrior glanced around the cave, seeing the bodies of the goblin giant and goblin shaman, "Are all these goblins... dead? Do you need my help?"
"Yeah, they're all taken care of. It's not your concern anymore."
"Oh, alright." The warrior in full armor rubbed his hands awkwardly, feeling uneasy, "If there's nothing else for me, I'll be on my way."
After saying that, the warrior turned and walked towards the direction he came from.
"Hey, wait a moment, young man," EeDeChi called after him, "come here."
EeDeChi pointed to the blonde female cleric, the female martial artist, and the female mage sitting against the wall, "Take these three adventurers down the mountain. We still need to rescue the villagers who might have been kidnapped. We don't have time to babysit them."
"Oh, okay." The warrior responded, sounding somewhat dejected, though his expression beneath the masked helmet remained hidden.
He hung his short sword and shield on his waist, helped the female mage and female martial artist to their feet, with the blonde female cleric following behind him. The four of them slowly made their way out of the cave.