「Are there still more of them?!」
Another higher specie appeared, one that shot fireballs from its mouth.
The power easily crossed an eighty-meter distance. Didn’t your parents teach you never to use fire in the mountains?! Damn it!
The only saving grace was that it couldn’t fire repeatedly. After shooting, it needed an interval of one or two minutes. It took about three seconds for a fireball to form in its mouth, and another three seconds before it flew over, so I could somehow dodge it.
Huh? Thinking about it calmly, isn’t it actually not that much of a threat?
That higher variant locks onto me with its eyes, then creates and fires a fireball once it stops moving. It’s tough to deal with while also handling the goblins climbing the cliff, but that can be disrupted with flash attacks.
The moment the higher variant looks this way, I hit it with a high-powered light for a flash attack. When it turns its eyes away, I feed it some bullets and that’s the end. Don’t underestimate humans! Though honestly, it helps if you do. I’m still an amateur, after all.
I feel like I’ve already killed a hundred of them, yet the goblins show no sign of running out.
「Even brand-new gear can’t handle nonstop firing forever」
I’ve already fired about three hundred rounds without a break, and smoke is rising from the barrel. Seriously, I’m not running a durability test here!
After tossing three stun grenades, I entered Home.
「Miriel, we’ve engaged the king’s force. No casualties so far」
While saying that, I grabbed the MINIMI with a box magazine already set and another box magazine, then immediately went back out.
Even though I was inside for less than fifteen seconds, they had already climbed halfway up the cliff.
I gunned them down, ran dry, swapped magazines, and gunned them down again.
After firing around four hundred rounds, the number of goblins finally started to thin, and those who felt fear began to retreat little by little. When I shifted my awareness toward Gorg, the goblins there were also pulling back. Maybe fear finally outweighed whoever was controlling them?
「The guild master is… yeah, he’s fighting something big」
I want to go help, but someone who can’t coordinate properly would just get in the way. In that case, wiping out the surrounding goblins would be far better support.
I entered Home again, switched to the VHS-2 that Miriel had lightly cleaned, and went back outside.
Sliding down the cliff, I started eliminating the goblins hiding around the area.
「The survivors of the second wave are heading this way」
The second wave was practically shattered, but there were still over a hundred of them. Since they hadn’t felt fear yet, they were actually more troublesome than the king’s force.
But in this situation, I had a trick I could use.
I summoned cans of tuna, stabbed them with a knife, and scattered them around.
Goblins are always searching for food. If they haven’t eaten properly for a day or two, they should be starving. The smell from the cans should draw them in.
Scattering twenty cans should be enough to drive them wild with the scent. Now then, come gather around.
I left the spot and hid behind a tree.
Is Gorg still firing? The guild master is still fighting the king. Kainzel-san and the others are still holding the defensive line.
I can’t hear any whistle signals. Within my detection range, there’s no sign of a separate unit moving either. If there were other monsters mixed in, I wouldn’t know, but I don’t think the one who set this up is that clever. I suspect they’re interfering around the margrave’s territory for some reason.
There’s no proof. It’s just my own assumption. Still, the method feels half-hearted. If they can gather and control goblins, they could have sent them straight into Margrave Koraus territory. The fact that they didn’t means either they lack the will, they have a different objective, or they simply don’t have the ability. Either way, control has already broken down.
「In the end, goblins are still goblins. Looks like they failed trying to manage them, just like that useless goddess」
I’m the one sent in to clean up the failure, so I can’t exactly laugh it off. But the enemy’s mistake is my chance. The feast is at its height, so kindly die for my sake.
I burst out from behind the tree and opened fire.
Spray after spray of bullets, nonstop. I gunned down nearly a hundred of them.
「Seriously, no matter how many guns I have, it’s never enough」
I threw away the VHS-2, which was jamming badly, pulled out my Glock, and finished off the rest.
Using what magazines I had left, I barely managed to enter Home, removed all my equipment, and changed into my shotgun loadout.
「Miriel. Has Ladarion come back?」
「Yes. She came back once. She said an upper-ranked species appeared, so they abandoned the base」
So they showed up over there too. Seriously. How many of them are there?
「Just a little more. Hang in there」
「Yes. Please be careful」
「Yeah. I won’t let my guard down until the end. Goblin extermination isn’t over until you get home」
There might be a mastermind behind this. I’ll act on the assumption that they’ll show themselves at the very end.
When I went outside and searched for the presences of Kainzel-san’s group and the goblins, it felt like they were heading this way. Are they trying to regroup?
It would be nice if we could use radios, but signals don’t travel well in the mountains, and there’s too much noise. Is that because this is another world?
「The goblins chasing Kainzel-san’s group are starting to gather into one mass」
If that’s the case, I’ll wipe them out in one go.
I returned to the cliff, climbed it with all my strength, bought some rope, tied it to a tree, and let it hang down.
「If they’re going to use fire, then we’ll use fire too」
The rainy season isn’t over yet. Then I have no reason to hesitate about using fire.
I tore open packs of flour and scattered them around. When Kainzel-san’s group got to about a hundred meters away, I opened the valve on a ten-kilo gas cylinder and threw it down the cliff.
By the time I threw the third one, Kainzel-san’s group appeared.
「Climb up here!」
Noticing the rope, Mebi, Bisha, Ladarion, and finally Kainzel-san climbed up.
「A trap?」
「Yes. I don’t know if it’ll work, though」
I blasted the goblins that appeared with buckshot, as if to say come this way.
As more and more goblins gathered, the flour filled the air, turning the view white. I threw more packs of flour, whitening the surroundings even further.
Ah, wait, what about the fire? Just as I thought that, I sensed upper-ranked species that fired fireballs from their mouths. Two of them. Luck is on my side.
「Hide behind the trees」
I stood where the upper-ranked species could see me as their target, and the moment they formed fireballs in their mouths, the surroundings were engulfed in an explosion.
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