The Two Leaders

Maybe it made them reckless, but with their armor reinforced, the goblins advanced as one. Perhaps it might be called a foolish move, but then one could also say it was a brave step forward to quickly end what could be a long battle.

That was what would have happened — if the barghest had not expected them to do this.

If a barghest could change its facial features as easily as a human, it would have smiled to itself.

The chains on its body made the sounds of a snake. Then, the chains binding the barghest suddenly came to life.

The thick and crude shackles began spinning with tremendous force.

The special ability ‘Chain Cyclone’ would severely wound the goblins, if not kill them outright.

The barghest was giving this its all. This was a big move that could only be used once a day, and after the chains were used it would be unable to use them as armor for at least ten seconds. The risk was high.

The unexpected attack threw off the goblins’ dodge by a second. This was a fatal mistake.

However―

“Get down!”

A thunderous order cut through the air before the chains could.

The barghest that had bet everything on this attack looked to the other human, who had shouted, and its eyes widened.

The goblins who should have been too late to evade it had nimbly dropped to the ground, as though the voice had injected them with a fresh dose of vitality.

The barghest stared at the commander who stood behind the magic caster.

And then, the barghest’s forelegs and one rear leg were severed from its body. It howled in pain. It tried to recover its chains, bare its fangs, threaten them, but the goblins were having none of that.

“Ani-san, no need for the magic support. For safety’s sake, just put up an alarm around this place.

The barghest, which knew it had already lost, was desperately trying to get away.

Its normally limber body was now cumbersome and slow. That was only natural considering that three of its four legs were now stumps. Even so, the barghest wanted to flee with all its might.

But the goblins thought otherwise.

Sticky blood coated the grass all around and the stench of iron drowned out the odor of the plants.

The goblins looked to the goblin child from where they were standing, bloodstained machetes in hand, knee-deep in the gore and viscera spilling from the corpse of the barghest.

The kid had been hurt badly and had lost the strength to flee, but he still forced his body upright against a tree.

“Hey, who are you guys? Which tribe are you from?”

The goblins looked at each other, wondering how to respond to the questions of a kid who was half frightened and half suspicious.

In each other's’ eyes, they wordlessly discussed the strategy for what kind of attitude would yield the most benefits and what kind of information they should reveal, but Enri felt that there were more pressing matters than that.

“We need to take care of his wounds first. What can we do, Enfi?”

The kid was hurt very badly and he had already lost a lot of blood. Left alone, he would definitely die. Although Enri had no idea how to help him, she was hoping that her childhood friend would know what to do.

“The most normal herbs can do is stop the bleeding, it won’t help against blood loss. However…”

Nfirea began rummaging through his pouch.

“There’s the newly-created healing potion. I wanted to hand it to Gown-san, but… could you show me your wounds?”

Nfirea walked forward, withdrawing the potion vial from his robe.

“W-wait, what’s this dangerous-looking liquid? Is it poison?”

Hostility flashed across the kid’s frightened face as he saw the purple potion. From Enri’s point of view — perhaps even Nfirea’s point of view — this was a natural reaction. The potion looked too much like poison for him to not be on his guard. However, the goblins were very upset by the child’s words, and they immediately stalked over to him.

“―Oi, punk. Ane-san’s the one who decided to save you, along with Ani-san. You’d better watch your words to the people who rescued you. That’s for your own good too, got it?”

The kid turned to look at the blades brandished before him. Although he was only a child, he still knew that it would be a bad idea to anger the goblins in front of him. He sagged visibly, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Enri felt that it would be better if they didn’t have to intimidate the kid, but she knew the goblins had their own rules which they followed. It wouldn’t be a good idea for her to butt in with her human sensibilities.

“I-I’m very sorry.”

“Ah, it’s all right. Don’t worry.”

As he answered, Nfirea was smearing the potion on the kid’s body. The wounds were visibly closing up.

“Uuuoooh! What’s this? The color’s so gross but it’s so amazing!”

The kid felt the stares of the surrounding goblins on him and trembled.

“Ah… no, I, ah, th-thank y-you very m-much...”

“Oh, looks like the punk has some manners after all.”

“Very good. This way, I can tell Gown-san that the experiment was completed without a hitch.”