Chapter 45: The Invisible Goblin
Wang Yu's sword and axe sliced through the goblin horde, reaping the lives of the green-skinned creatures in relentless succession. The goblins' attacks faltered upon striking his barrier.
At least for the moment, the rate at which his void energy regenerated could keep up with his expenditure. The barrier wouldn't break for the time being.
Curiously enough, Wang Yu was the least efficient fighter among the group. Despite the fact that he was cutting the goblins down quickly, he was still slower than everyone else.
Emmon wielded his giant club like a simple one-handed mace, swinging it effortlessly through the goblins.
Each blow shattered bones and crushed bodies, leaving a layer of thick green paste in his wake.
The elven ranger Vena clutched her bow woven from vines and flowers. She remained stoic as faint green light flowed around her hands and transformed into arrows with a green glow.
Each arrow flew with blinding speed, striking goblins precisely in the head and exploding into thorny vines that ensnared and killed any nearby goblins.
Vena focused on taking down goblins near Wang Yu and Emmon to prevent them from being overwhelmed.
Her arrows, formed by a specialized elven technique known as the words of nature, marked her as a ranger of considerable skill who rivaled even high-ranking human rangers who were at the level of advanced knights.
Meanwhile, Elliot stood atop the carriage in heavy armor, wielding a thick and stout, but clearly expensive, earth-colored staff.
Each swing of his staff summoned enormous earth spikes from the ground, skewering or flinging multiple goblins away.
Although there was a significant interval between each cast, his spells devastated a large group of goblins, making him their most effective attacker. Except for Avia, who hadn't yet made a move, Wang Yu was the least efficient of the lot, constrained by his nature as a knight.
Even so, Wang Yu was clearly effective at taking down the goblins. He slaughtered a few with every swing of his bladed weapons.
Soon, his feet were surrounded by green-skinned corpses, with dark green blood pooling everywhere.
Despite the relentless massacre, the goblins showed no sign of diminishing in number. More and more goblins emerged from the surrounding bushes.
The bodies piled around Wang Yu and his comrades had to number at least a hundred by now, but the goblin horde remained seemingly endless.
As Wang Yu kicked away a goblin who had leapt out from the horde, he hacked off the head of another one that was grabbing onto his calf.
Swinging his axe, he split another goblin in half from head to toe as it tried to throw a broken sword at him.
This was a very straightforward fight. Compared to the mercenaries he had taken down, these goblins barely posed a threat to him. They were numerous but far from dangerous, and they hadn't even managed to drain his shield below half its maximum reserves.
Over on Emmon's side, on the other hand, though his magic shield was much sturdier than Wang Yu's barrier, it wasn't able to regenerate on its own. It was already cracked, but as an orc, Emmon had thick skin that was more than capable of withstanding the goblins' weak blows.
Even sneak attacks with swords barely left a scratch on his body.
In retaliation, Emmon's huge club would come sweeping down, crushing any goblin into a bloody pulp.
For an orc, such minor injuries were trivial—they would heal within half an hour at most.
This was an easy battle, no matter the number of goblins involved. After all, their numbers were constrained: if there were too many of them, they wouldn't have been able to stay hidden in the roadside bushes as before. They would surely be wiped out long before Wang Yu and the others ran out of energy.
Even so, Wang Yu was frowning. His frown had only deepened throughout the fight. There were already more goblins here than a typical raiding party of about a hundred—he estimated that they were facing about four hundred goblins in all.
Such a large force should have been impossible within Aleisterre's borders. A goblin raiding party of this scale would scatter or turn on itself via infighting without a leader, but until now, Wang Yu hadn't seen an intelligent goblin joined the fight.
This anomaly left him deeply uneasy. After slicing through a few more goblins that lunged at him, Wang Yu turned and shouted to the top of the carriage, "Do you see any special goblins?"
His question was directed at Vena, the elven ranger who was undoubtedly the best scout in the group. If she hadn't detected anything, then even Wang Yu's ripples wouldn't be of use.
When Vena shook her head, Wang Yu's frown deepened. The strange situation puzzled him, but he didn't have the time to act on his intuition.
For the time being, the best solution was to hack through the goblins first and adapt to whatever came next later.
Wang Yu resolved himself to continue slashing at the surrounding goblins, leaving no intact goblin corpse in his wake.
The green-skinned pests might trouble ordinary civilians, but not Wang Yu and the others. Even if he and Avia were alone, they would have been able to escape. The biggest mystery at the moment was where all these goblins had come from.
As time passed, Vena's arrows began to slow. She was out of energy for the natural magic she was using to conjure her arrows.
The thorny vines had been the effect of a spell created by her nature magic, and continuous shooting for a prolonged period of time had drained her of the bulk of her energy.
"These goblins aren't strong, but there are so many of them. Just where could they be coming from…?" Vena wondered.
As a ranger familiar with the forests in the area, she was naturally aware of the rough numbers of goblins there usually were in the vicinity.
She replaced her magical arrows with normal ones from the quiver slung on her back and continued to shoot. With a single arrow, she pinned down a goblin trying to jump on Emmon's back.
Vena had also realized that, despite Wang Yu's limited efficiency, he was self-sufficient and didn't need her help. Emmon, on the other hand, was already covered in numerous wounds.
Despite the fact that she was running out of magic, Vena and her magical arrows that summoned vines and dealt wide-range damage had surely allowed her to kill more goblins than anyone else.
Under the party's relentless onslaught, the goblins' numbers finally began to dwindle. They were no longer pouring out from the roadside in the same endless stream as before.
Wang Yu and Emmon felt the pressure dwindling. They were now able to push toward the direction where the goblins were coming from, and did so in an attempt to protect the horses from harm.
These goblins didn't just attack humans—they also went after domesticated animals. Some of the earlier wave had rushed for the horses.
Though many had been sent flying by the horses' powerful kicks, a few unlucky horses had been surrounded, killed, and eaten.
Their timely counteroffensive had prevented further damage to the horses, much to the relief of Elliot, who had to be heartbroken about the loss of his valuable animals.
Meanwhile, Vena began to search more carefully for any sign of special goblins among the horde. So far, she hadn't noticed anything unusual.
Goblin berserkers and shamans often hid among regular goblins, and many adventurers had fallen prey to them in the past. Even so, Vena couldn't find any trace of them.
The situation was strange enough to be unnerving. As a veteran ranger, she was more uneasy about the absence of a strong foe than the presence of an obvious one.
Her instincts seemed to be on the mark: suddenly, she saw Wang Yu stop mid-slash, spin around, and yell, "Be careful, Elliot! Vena, behind you!" He threw his short axe, sending it hurtling toward the carriage.
"What?!" Elliot's shrill scream rang out shortly after Wang Yu's shout. He spun around quickly, but didn't notice a thing.
Vena also turned around, but she didn't notice anything either. There was no sound and no movement. Everything seemed normal to her eyes.
Even her wind magic could sense no disturbance—and she was a trained, experienced ranger.
Could Wang Yu have been mistaken? Just as that thought crossed her mind, his thrown axe sped past her.
From Wang Yu's position, he had been unable to directly throw the axe where he wanted it to go. Instead, he had angled it up above the carriage.
The axe spun rapidly, ricocheted off an invisible barrier that Wang Yu had summoned, and was sent flying off in another direction.
Wang Yu had used wizardry to create a shield at range to alter the axe's trajectory, sending it toward his intended target.
The axe whirled about, halted briefly in mid-air, then sliced through something. Green blood was smeared on its blade.
Was something there? Vena's senses rung in alarm, but she still couldn't sense anything at that location.
Even so, Wang Yu's axe had struck something where nothing should have been.
She decided not to hesitate. Just because she couldn't see it didn't mean that she couldn't affect it. Using what remained of her magic, she summoned a green glow between herself and Elliot—the spell Thorny Embrace.
Given Wang Yu's warning, Vena knew that the enemy's target had to be Elliot. In that case, the enemy had to be behind Elliot's back.
Indeed, as the green glow exploded into a web of thorny vines, Vena saw the shape of an unknown enemy struggling against it. Its weight on the vines left an impression—perhaps three goblins, grouped together, who were invisible to the eye.
There was no time to think. Vena drew her bow and prepared to shoot. Wang Yu's axe had proven that the invisible goblins weren't intangible.
The next moment, however, the imprints of two goblins vanished instantly, leaving just one caught in the net. That one seemed to be dead after having been struck by Wang Yu's axe.
Just as they disappeared, Vena lost track of her targets once again. She hesitated, not knowing where to shoot.
Then, three things happened almost at once.
Wang Yu shouted again, "Avia, cast a stormwind barrier at the top of the carriage!"
As he spoke, a powerful wind began to gather above the carriage.
The gusts had barely begun when two invisible blades pierced Elliot's armor as if it were nothing more than paper.
Two holes appeared in the back of his chest plate, and blood began to leak out.
With a pained scream, Elliot turned to see Vena's arrow strike an invisible goblin, pinning it to the ground. It had given away its position during the attack.
Even so, Vena only managed to get one arrow off. The last of the unseen attackers had already gone for another strike—this time, one aimed at Elliot's neck.
Two small holes perforated the thin armor by Elliot's throat.
The chest wound Elliot had sustained was serious; this blow by his throat might well be fatal.
However, the stormwind barrier that Avia had summoned burst into life just in time. An intense upward draft across the top of the carriage threw Vena off-balance and nearly lifted her into the air.
Only Elliot, weighed down by heavy armor, remained unmoved.
The strong winds had also sent the invisible enemy off-course. The wound by Elliot's neck stopped expanding.
Terrified, Elliot shrieked in horror at the unseen enemy whose attacks he could feel but whose blade he could not see.
A longsword spun through the air, pausing as it struck something unseen, and pinned it to the ground.
Wang Yu, still in a throwing stance, narrowed his eyes at the spot where the sword had fallen. He still couldn't see the invisible goblins with his naked eyes, but his inner eye could sense three bizarre goblins.
While he was fighting the ordinary goblins, his ripple ability had detected three sneaky goblins with daggers climbing onto the carriage.
However, Vena, Elliot, and Emmon were all completely oblivious to their presence. When he turned around, he couldn't see them with his eyes, either.
Realizing the danger, he immediately yelled out to Vena and their target, Elliot, while throwing his axe to intercept their attacks. It had cleanly cut the closest goblin in half, and Vena's net then ensnared the other two goblins.
Just as Wang Yu was about to relax, however, the remaining goblins suddenly opened their mouths wide. They seemed to have yelled something. Though he couldn't hear it, his ripples had detected the vibration of the sound waves.
With their daggers, they bypassed Vena's web of thorns and shot toward Elliot.
The situation had been critical. Thinking about the weight of Elliot's armor, Wang Yu immediately called out to Avia to summon a stormwind barrier. Thankfully, she had been prepared and quick enough to cast it in an instant. If she had been even a little slower, Elliot might already have been killed…
"Just what are these things?!" Elliot shrieked. The somewhat timid gnome was badly frightened by the unknown assailants.
Looking back, Wang Yu saw the goblins behind them start to scream and flee. What could they be scared of?
Regardless, that was a good thing. Wang Yu wasn't interested in dealing with them at the moment. He needed to figure out exactly what those invisible goblins were.
He ran to the side of the carriage and jumped up. Elliot was still screaming, but didn't seem to be badly injured. Wang Yu rushed toward where the invisible enemies had been killed. There, Vena was looking down at the ground.
Wang Yu looked down and found that the two goblins, despite being impaled by arrows and a sword, were still invisible and undetectable to the naked eye.
However, the lower half of a goblin, severed at the waist, had fallen onto the top of the carriage. Green blood had splattered everywhere.
Wang Yu looked at the still-invisible upper half of the goblin. Through his inner eye, he could see that the goblin still seemed to be alive.
It was holding a dagger and seemed to be chanting rapidly. Its vitality was quickly being drained, and the rapid movement of its mouth slowed.
Finally, the faint outline of the goblin's upper body revealed itself to Wang Yu and Vena.
As the goblin's chants slowed, its body turned translucent, then opaque, as it appeared atop the carriage.
It had an ugly, grotesque face, and a gleaming steel spike driven into the top of its skull.
The goblin's ugly face was twisted into a strange grimace. Foam sprayed from its mouth as it continued to chant, despite the fact that it was rapidly dying. It was repeating a few words frantically.
As it came into sight, so too could its frenzied muttering finally be heard.
"Great Lord of the Night, Mother of Darkness, I praise your name. I wish to merge with the night. I seek to become one with the endless darkness that does not exist in this world. I am your follower. I beg for your attention. I long to hear your voice…"
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