Chapter 35: That was Close
35 35 - That was Close
With that in mind, the second ball of fire that Noah was controlling was launched directly at the warrior goblin in front of him. He knew very well that the blowgun goblin that would be left was smart enough to escape to camp after seeing his two companions suffering on the ground, and that was exactly what the group wanted.
Just as they predicted, when the second warrior goblin fell to the ground howling in pain, the blowgun goblin ran back to the camp probably looking for safety, or if everything went as planned, looking for help.
Just as the alerted goblins brought reinforcements to fight the Blessed with endless hordes when Noah found the Blessed, now their party wanted just that. They planned to have some of the frantic goblins bring other groups of goblins out of the camp and gradually kill the groups and take them away from the camp.
Unfortunately, Noah could not completely burn the corpses of these goblins, as they would need to leave a trail for reinforcements to follow. So as soon as he extinguished the flame that had now burned the two goblins dead, a big man wearing mail armor took the corpse of the last goblin that Noah hit, and with a knife, cut the belly of the little green monster before running off with the little monster on his stomach.
The Blessed Ones came out of their hiding place and ran after the man who carried the goblin's corpse with an open belly, leaving a stinky trail of blood on the ground all the way they passed.
It didn't take long for the first group of goblins to reach them. When they realized that the human was carrying their companion with a cut through the belly, the anger they felt at that moment was overwhelming. Without thinking twice, the goblin holding a bow quickly pulled the string before shooting an arrow at the neck of the man who was holding the corpse with the open stomach.
The man was facing away from the goblin, so he couldn't see the arrow coming, but he was not off guard. Before the arrow could reach his neck, a strong current of air hit the arrow in a transverse direction, deflecting the projectile from its trajectory, causing it to pass by the man less than 4 centimeters from his neck.
When the arrow missed the man, the goblin archer didn't even have time to pull another arrow from the strange quiver he was carrying before a weird shiny sphere hit his face perfectly.
Once again Noah landed another fireball on one of the goblins, causing that monster's cry as he felt the skin on his face melt before the fire started to burn his eyes to become so loud that goblins hundreds of meters away in a flash could hear and feel part of the despair he was feeling.
It was precisely because of this cry that the group had decided that Noah would need to hit at least one fireball on one goblin from each group that came to attack them. This was in order to make them cry out in pain and attract as many goblins as possible to get them out of the camp, while of course, gradually decreasing their numbers.
Because of everyone's great teamwork together, in an hour their party had already run a long way, leaving a trail of blood that they tried to make as confusing as possible. That way, whenever a group of goblins left their camp, it took longer for them to reach the humans.
When the blood of the first goblin started to dry, the group took another corpse from a group that had reached them, and with one more cut in the belly, the big man would carry that next monster as he let the blood drain on the ground. Unlike the first battle they had when they entered the Fortress where they stood and tried to deal with the goblins they saw in in front of them, now they were using a well-known strategy called "kiting" where they would kill a small group and retreat, kill another small group and retreat again, repeating the process so that never more than one group could reach them simultaneously.
The man who carried the corpses was already soaked with blood. It was likely that even if they stopped draining the goblin corpses of their blood, the other goblins would still locate the Blessed party by the smell the man had on him, since, as Noah had said previously, the smell of the goblins' blood was so strong that it could be sensed over great distances.
"Okay guys, now is the time for the second part of the plan. Get ready, as we are almost at camp," Jasper said in a serious tone as he looked at the direction Erick was pointing at and guided the group there.
Erick, because of the sharp vision he had received from his Blessing, was able to see without any problems among the trees which direction the goblin camp was in. They had already circled around the camp while making the blood trail.
If before they were on the west side of the camp, now they had gone around behind the camp to the east side. If the goblins were exiting at the same frequency that they left when they killed the first group, one could suppose that at least 30 groups were following the blood trail they left behind - totaling at least 100 goblins.
Considering that according to the information they obtained on the internet, the goblins normally divided into half which would go on patrol, while the other half protected the camp. This meant there were probably another 100 goblins on patrol outside the camp, leaving their small Fortress that had only one exit now practically unprotected.
So without wasting time, when the Blessed party managed to see the entrance to the goblin camp with only two small goblins standing on guard with a worried look because of the amount of goblins that left, the archers of their group wasted no time, and with two arrows, the two goblins fell to the ground before they could notice anything wrong.
Abigail's arrow hit the goblin's head perfectly since her Blessing slightly increased the control she had over the arrow, practically making it a guided missile.
The other arrow, shot by a middle-aged man who was the other archer in the group, hit only the chest of the other little green monster.
As the two guards at the gate were dead and there were hardly any goblins inside the Fortress, Jasper ran inside alone using his own Blessing to ensure that no goblin would run to the entrance and close the wooden gate.
Noah ran with the rest of the group, always on the alert so that no unexpected enemies would attack the mages and archers in the group and take their lives by surprise, since that was the position he had been assigned to keep.
When the last Blessed One entered the camp, Jasper quickly used the crude mechanism to close the wooden gate and prevent the goblins who had left the camp from easily entering again.
When the gate closed, Noah, who was on high alert, noticed some strange movement coming from the left. With both hands raised, he conjured a fireball in each one and prepared to shoot at whatever might approach.
Turning a corner inside the camp, three small green goblins came running desperately towards the entrance to the camp, probably because they heard the cries of help from the other goblins outside when they had been tortured by Noah's flame.
But before Noah could throw the fireballs at the monsters, he quickly dismissed the idea, and just as easily as he conjured the fireballs, he made them disappear by closing his hands while reaching for the knife in the small satchel he had strapped to his right leg. He realized at the last second that if he set one of these goblins on fire, their scream would draw the attention of the goblins outside the camp, which would draw the attention of the goblins who were on patrol too and in the end would waste all their previous efforts they spent getting inside unnoticed.
Looking to either side, Noah saw that no one had noticed him either - that is, no one would have tried to stop him from setting those monsters on fire if he had.
'That was close.' Noah thought as he let out a sigh, pleased to note this detail before it was too late.
When the three clumsy goblins noticed the fifteen humans at the entrance to their camp, the three started running even more fiercely towards them. Since this was a fifteen to three battle, the result was quite obvious. The three little goblins didn't even have a chance to scream before they died.
But before they died, Noah was happy to be able to stab one of them, since after the death of the little green monster, two notifications appeared in a black floating window in front of him.
[You received 1 exp for killing a Goblin. 100/100 exp]
[Congratulations! You have moved up to level 02.]
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