Around ten at night, Ladarion came back.
「Takato. How is it?」
「There’s still no movement, but I don’t sense any sleeping. They might start moving around midnight.」
If they attack at night, that would be when their guard is lowest. They also moved around midnight in Lasagna Village.
「I’ll take over.」
「I’m counting on you. Reinser-san, you should try to get some sleep. We can trust Ladarion’s sense of smell.」
I lay down after saying that. Even if I couldn’t sleep, resting would still help.
「I’ll do that.」
Reinser-san lay down too without unnecessary conversation.
I wondered if I could fall asleep. I closed my eyes, and just when I thought I had drifted off, Ladarion shook me.
「Takato. Goblin scent.」
I checked my wristwatch when she said that. It was past one in the morning. I slept way too much.
I should wake up Rondario-san and the others. Or so I thought, but they were already awake and ready for battle. Their experience was on another level. I couldn’t even envy them.
「Takato. The goblins?」
Rondario-san noticed I was awake and asked. He was as reliable as ever.
「They’re heading this way. They’ll arrive by the time we wash our faces and slowly drink some coffee.」
A goblin that eats properly can cover a kilometer in ten minutes. At this pace they would arrive in about twenty minutes.
To wake everyone up, I brewed coffee for all of us. The boys were woken and given some too.
「I sense strong magic power. Looks like Midary is coming along with Hoglus.」
Midary? Another new type? Just how many types of goblins exist?
「There are goblins that use magic?」
「They’re rare, but as an adventurer you run into them two or three times a year.」
That’s actually a pretty high encounter rate.
「What kind of attacks?」
「Mainly magic arrows, but sometimes they shoot fire arrows. The power is decent. If it hits your face, you could die.」
Is it like getting hit in the face by a bottle rocket? If so, a face guard would block it. I didn’t buy one though, so I would have to settle for goggles this time.
「We should take our positions soon.」
I nodded at Rondario-san’s instructions and everyone moved to their assigned spots.
Facing the mountain in front of the improvised fort, Rondario-san and Marit-san took the right side. Mizeng-san and Reinser-san took the left. On top of the raised earth were me, Zora-san, and the three boys. Ladarion had returned to his original form and was crouching.
「……There are a lot of them……」
With his many years as an adventurer, he could sense the goblins through the air itself. High-ranking adventurers were terrifying.
「They’re leaving the mountain. Boys, turn on the lights.」
The boys in charge of lighting answered with nervous voices and switched on the nine-thousand-lumen lights, aiming them at the mountain. This was already an attack.
The sudden burst of light broke their momentum. Some fell, some covered their eyes, and some hid. I fired into the center of them.
The goblin horde scattered to the left and right as if running away.
「Migi, Raz, move the lights to match the goblins.」
The boys moved at Zora-san’s command.
By the way, the boys were named Migis, Razul, and Bobus. They were fourteen and childhood friends.
「Between two hundred and three hundred, I’d say.」
If Rondario-san and the others hadn’t hunted them earlier, there might have been close to five hundred.
「It’s enough to be considered a gathered force. As a contractor, I find myself wishing for even more.」
「True. If I were alone I would be running, but with Zora-san and the others here, I can face them without worry.」
Dozens split left and right and charged at the four of them, but the way they cut down the goblins was almost unfair.
「I should do my part too.」
I blew fire from my palm and burned the goblins that had fallen into the trench. Magic was terrifying.
The goblins were brought down one after another, and in less than twenty minutes, the first wave was annihilated. The expendables really were terrifying.
「Second wave stopping inside the mountain! Hoglus is moving toward Mizeng-san and Reinser-san!」
Maybe they decided the front was a bad idea, because they started circling around to the left.
When the boys aimed the lights at the mountain, a red-skinned Hoglus Goblin burst out.
「So that’s a Hoglus?」
It was twice the size of the red goblin that had attacked the boar-hunting boys, but it looked the same. Was that one its child?
「Will the two of them be all right?」
「No problem. If it’s just a Hoglus, Mize can handle it alone.」
「That’s reassuring.」
If it were me, I would be killed instantly.
I wanted to see how they fought, but a Midary Goblin shot a magic arrow.
Because of the distance or maybe the lack of power, the magic arrows hit low on the raised earth.
「Is that all?」
「Pretty much. But if it hits you in the forest without warning, it’s troublesome.」
From a goblin’s perspective, Zora-san and the others were far more troublesome. Although, the biggest threat was probably us with our guns.
Zora-san fired a long-range magic arrow, and the Midary Goblin’s head exploded. The power was insane.
The four Midary Goblins were killed instantly. He was less a mage and more a gunman.
Neither I nor Ladarion had anything to do. The second wave was wiped out, and the handful of goblins hiding in the mountain, barely even enough to call a third wave, fled.
「If they had held out a bit longer, we would have passed a hundred thousand yen.」
Earning nearly that much just for support was more than enough. And the shares would be divided properly.
The goblins that split left and right were hunted down as well, adding about three hundred sixty thousand yen. That meant there were around two hundred and some.
Not a bad haul.
「You boys keep the mountain lit until morning, taking shifts. I’ll give you a bonus on top of the reward, so don’t fall asleep.」
The boys brightened at Zora-san’s words. A capable man handled those under him well. I should learn from him.
I climbed down from the raised earth and spoke words of thanks to the four who had returned.
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