Syl

Chapter 35: Goblins Versus Humans

"How many?" I asked while following after Garz.

"Four. Two warriors. Archer. Magic." Garz replied, "Already killed ten goblins."

I couldn't believe that many had died already. How powerful and dangerous were humans? When we got to the cave entrance, the group was roughly twenty goblins and myself. That was when I received a notification.

'Yes'

Garz, Zizz, Roz, Kwez, Vulz, Syl.>

Immediately upon joining the party, I could sense the other members of my party like a faint tickle in the back of my mind. Even if they were amongst hundreds of goblins, I could point towards all of them individually.

"How did you do that?" I asked Garz.

"You ask in head for person to join party. Tell in head that you want to leave party." Garz answered me, "Must use word party. Important."

I nodded and looked around at our group, wondering why we weren't sending more or using the bears.

"Yes. Send too many then humans run. Tell other humans. Army comes and kill all." Garz informed, "Chief comes from old tribe killed by humans. They smart. We must also."

Even though I was thankful Garz would share information with me, I wish he spoke as clearly as Krutz or Yuzz. I looked at the other party members; all four had spears, and I recognized the one who survived the bear attack.

Our groups left the cave and spread out into our separate parties, but all headed in the same general direction. I didn't want to stand out amongst the goblins, so I formed a short spear since that seemed to be the generic goblin weapon. I planned to hide amongst the crowd and pull off an assassination.

We were not the first to arrive on the scene as I spotted the four humans already fighting goblins. Of the two warriors, one was a heavily armored blonde woman with a sword and shield, while the other was a red-haired boy wielding two axes and wearing animal pelts. The archer wore blackened leather and a cloak, a belt lined with small knives, and his features obscured. Finally, the caster was an older gentleman who wore a greyish-white robe and had a staff with a golden tip. The goblins were being slaughtered.

"Wow, there's a lot of the bastards." The axe boy commented.

"Focus, Samuel." The armored woman ordered.

"It's Sam. Only my mom calls me Samuel." He retorted while cleaving a goblin into chunks, "It's just goblins. Don't get so worked up."

An arrow struck his shoulder, and he quickly ripped it out. The older gentleman chanted something, and a golden-hued white light enveloped him, causing the wound to close rapidly.

"Healing magic?" I whispered questioningly.

"That's bad," Garz replied, gritting his teeth in a nasty snarl.

"I'm confident in my [Stealth] skill. I can sneak around and take out the healer." I suggested.

Garz nodded and then started communicating with the rest of the team while I disengaged. I made sure to give a wide berth and loop around to approach from a blind spot. Between the two warriors blocking any approach, the archer sniping from the backline, and the healer mending any wounds, it was looking dire for Team Green.

Thankfully for me, they didn't spot me approaching the healer from behind, and I thrust my spear at the back of his skull with all my might. My spear hit a strange barrier, deflecting my blow, while a loud shattering noise erupted. Seeing my spear fail, I released my left-hand grip on the shaft and open-palmed fired [Slime Burst] point blank at the man.

"Wha-!?" He shouted in surprise before being coated in burning acid. Then he started screaming.

"Fuck! Toby, I thought you had [Perception]?" Sam shouted.

"Only level two! The goblin must have a higher [Stealth] skill." Toby, the archer, replied while effortlessly nocking two arrows and firing them at me.

That golden-hued white light enveloped the healer, but I didn't want to risk getting hit. I attempted to dodge, but one of the arrows still met its mark. Surprising everyone present, however, the arrow failed to penetrate my barrier. I leaped at the healer and started stabbing him repeatedly.

The man was flailing and trying to heal himself, but he was progressively looking worse, unable to heal through the accumulating burns and stabs. More arrows rapidly hit me, but they still failed to penetrate my barrier.

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"I can't hurt it, Sam!" Toby screamed.

Sam started to rush towards me, his axes glistening with blood, when two goblins ran to intercept him. As if by instinct, he swung around and bisected one of them.

He was about to swing at the other goblin when two arrows were fired at him, one sinking into his arm. He grunted in annoyance but pushed through the pain to cleave through the spear and the goblin.

"You fucking bitch! I'll kill you!" Screamed Sam as he charged at me, blindly ignoring everything else as two arrows punctured into his back.

I refused to sit and wait for him to reach me and switched to using [Slime Shot], pulling on my vast reserves of already compressed acidic slime. Either he wasn't good at dodging, or my skills were better, as he failed to dodge any of the shots and had taken three acidic globules directly to the chest before finally reaching me.

"Acid magic or something!" Sam bellowed while swinging at me, but I dodged the blow.

"So Old Tom was right," Toby muttered, his focus now on shooting at the goblins he could kill.

"We have to warn the guild." The lady responded as she blocked an arrow.

I was glad the rest of the goblins were keeping the others busy so I could focus on axe boy. I fired another explosion of slime from my left hand while trying to stab with my spear, but he endured the burst despite the burning and swung his axe through my right arm. He grinned triumphantly as my arm and spear fell to the ground. The shock and horror on his face, when in mere moments it regrew, was priceless.

"Regeneration!?" He shouted before receiving two exploding bursts of acid directly to his face.

He screamed and started flailing wildly. I grinned as I ran towards the archer, easily dodging his blind axe swings.

"Sam? Shit! Kathryn, I need help." Toby shouted, but not before knocking and firing two arrows that killed the goblins distracting her.

Not good. I did not want to deal with her right now. I raised an arm and fired my greatest [Slime Burst] to date, drawing deep on my reserves and combining it with [Adhesive Slime] and opting out [Acid Slime]. I hoped the sticky terrain would delay her until I dealt with the archer.

"What spell was that?" Kathryn asked in shock.

"No idea, but it missed," Toby replied.

Instead of running, he started drawing on his bow, the tension on the frame and string so tight that you could hear the wood creaking. It looked bad, but I had no choice but to approach him. I tried firing a few bullets of slime as I charged, but he sidestepped them. Then he released his bowstring. I couldn't even see the arrow's trajectory as it suddenly ruptured through the entirety of my left torso.

"Ha! Bullseye! Can't deflect [Power Shot], you bitch!" He celebrated prematurely.

'I'm so glad I'm not stupid enough to keep my core in my chest region.' I thought to myself, but not before putting some extra effort into reinforcing my pelvic region, where my core actually was.

I faked a death stagger and fired a transparent-white [Slime Shot] aimed at his ankle from one of my fingers. It struck without him noticing, causing him to curse in pain and nearly topple over. When my chest cavity stitched back together and I continued my charge, he shrieked.

"Kathryn, help! This thing is a monster! It regenerated even its heart!" He screamed.

"Toby! I'm stuck! It's like trying to walk through a swamp!" She shouted in response.

I looked towards her and noticed she was advancing at a snail's pace, each step glacially slow, as she had to yank her foot from the ground sludge. I glanced at the axe guy and saw he was actually collapsed on the ground and riddled with arrows, like a human-sized porcupine. Garz had been busy.

Toby had started to panic and tried to retreat despite Kathryn screaming at him, but as soon as he turned his back on me, I started firing [Slime Shot] again. When I got within range, he hastily flung daggers at me. But, like his arrows, they couldn't get through my barrier. As his last stand, he pulled a short sword from his waist, ready to fight.

'What? How?' I was startled at the notification.

"Fuck! Sam! Shit!" Toby screamed in rage and thrust his blade into my chest.

I erupted two tendrils from each arm and engulfed his head. He started to thrash and stab repeatedly as I tried to force the acid down his throat. The flailing slowed down until he collapsed.

I engulfed the entire body and deposited his equipment as he was rapidly absorbed. Despite his size, he gave a surprising amount of slime, once again making me question the conversion ratio. I'd regain all my spent slime with just one, maybe two more of the humans.

Kathryn was near the edge of the sticky slime trap I had created, glaring at me with tears in her eyes.

"How could you? You monster!" She screamed at me, pointing her sword, "Those were my friends!"

"Did you expect us to roll over and die for you?" I interjected.

"What!?" She shouted, flabbergasted.

"You attacked us, and we defended. You killed four of my party." I replied with a shrug and gestured to all the dead goblins, "Not to mention all the others."

She seemed to hesitate for only a moment before she spat out, "Fuck you, monster! Even if I die, the guild will know and kill you all!" She screamed, swinging her blade.

I sighed and started to swell in size, withdrawing my outfit as I abandoned my goblin form - with Garz as the only survivor, there was no need for disguises. She continued to hack away at an endlessly growing mass of slime. But her screams of rage were soon replaced with screams of terror. Large and thick slime tendrils burst out of my form to grab her limbs, restraining her. She continued to scream until I silenced her, covering her entire body in slime. She struggled till the very end, even trying to swim through the slime mass to the edge, but it was over.