In the First Village (4)

A few more incidents of the same sort followed after that, but nothing out of the ordinary happened until we reached the heart of the goblin den.

The extraordinary thing happened right in the middle of it.

"...What's that? It looks dangerous."

Among the goblins tearing around at random or sprawled out for a nap, one individual stood out as unmistakably different from the rest. It was a full head taller than the others, and it held a staff set with a gem that radiated an ominous aura.

This was the creature commonly known as a Goblin Shaman.

The ones you always found clutching a staff were a genuine pain, because they attacked with different hexes depending on the type of staff they carried. You couldn't know what a hex actually did until you'd already been hit by it. A player could use their Status to appraise items, but you couldn't appraise anything a hostile opponent was holding.

Even Luon, who barely knew a thing about Goblin Shamans, didn't dare act rashly. He held his breath and asked.

"It's a shaman. A pain-in-the-ass type that attacks from range with hexes."

"A shaman? Won't that make this a lot harder?"

"Not that much. Just a bit of a nuisance. Sophie, think you can snipe it?"

"If we get a little closer, I think I can."

"Good. Then we close in a bit more, Sophie snipes the shaman, and I charge. Luon, Kiven — you two just keep Sophie safe. Those things go crazy for women, so some of them will definitely peel off toward you."

"They go crazy for women? Then what about you, Soira?"

"I won't lose to the likes of goblins, so I'm fine. Well, if I do lose, I'll probably end up in a pretty rough spot myself."

I said it as calmly as if I were discussing the weather — content that amounted, in so many words, to I'll get raped — and the three of them stared at me, stunned. I wished they'd start to understand what it actually meant to fight with your life on the line. You only got to say you were staking your life when you were prepared to lose not just that life, but a great many other things along with it.

Though the truth was, if I ever did end up about to get raped, I'd enjoy it. I could already see myself resisting with everything I had, and then getting insanely turned on by the fact that I was being violated anyway.

"Alright. Enough chatter. Sophie — you ready?"

"Yeah."

Sophie kept her answer short, nerves tightening her voice, but she drew her bowstring with a calm, steady breath. The instant I saw the arrow leave her bow, I took off running.

Kieek? Kieeeek!!

The goblins startled at the sight of me. But it was already too late. I cut down a few unlucky ones standing in the path and charged in a straight line for the shaman.

Sophie's arrow struck it beautifully. She hadn't hit a vital point, but the shaft had punched clean through its right arm, and the creature dropped its staff in shock and pain — which made dealing with it extremely easy. Even a shaman, without the staff that let it cast hexes, was nothing more than a slightly larger goblin. It snatched a chipped sword off a nearby goblin in a desperate bid to resist, but with one arm useless it couldn't last more than a few exchanges before I slashed it down hard.

"Shaman's down! I'll clean up the rest — hold them off!"

I shouted the situation and started cutting down the goblins nearest me. The ones that had finally come to their senses counterattacked, but a handful of goblins with no shaman behind them were never going to be a match for me, no matter how many came. Before long, once the area around me looked more or less cleared, I checked Luon's side to see if they were holding up.

Sophie was picking off the farther goblins one by one with her bow. Beside her, Kiven was dealing with any that tried to rush her. And Luon was...

What the hell. Why is he over there?

Luon, apparently worked up from the fighting, had drifted a bit away from Sophie and Kiven and was hacking down every goblin that charged him. I had clearly told him to protect Sophie. I understood that he had a talent for the sword. I even understood getting drunk on your own improving skill the more you swung. But this was the same guy who'd gotten us stuck with a request we shouldn't have had to take in the first place, and now he couldn't even do the one thing I'd told him to? That did not sit well with me.

"Hey!! Luon! Get back to Sophie's side, you idiot!!"

Only after hearing that did he check his own position, and he scrambled to get back to her. But he was in too much of a hurry, and the same goblins he'd been cutting down so easily a moment ago now tangled up his feet. He couldn't rejoin them.

And then — wait.

In that instant I threw myself aside at the ominous presence I felt behind me. Guess there was still one alive. I can't exactly talk about other people making mistakes now.

A black sphere shot past the spot I'd just vacated. A black sphere? I spun around immediately — it was a hex, cast by a Goblin Shaman through its staff, flying past my side.

I definitely killed it, though?

I checked again. The one I'd cut down was still lying there as a corpse. Which meant...

"There were two of them!"

One must have been awake and the other taking a nap, so I'd missed it. Even so, it was rare for a group this size to have two shamans. Talk about rotten luck.

I recovered my stance and locked onto the second one. Unlike the first, this one was completely unharmed. Shamans were smarter than ordinary goblins, so after noticing the ambush it must have hidden and assessed the situation while the others died. Of course that still wouldn't be enough to beat me — but I had already made a huge mistake by letting my guard down once. Repeating a mistake was just being an idiot. I faced the second shaman calmly, without letting my guard down again.

Unlike the first one, whose arm Sophie's sniping had taken out of commission and who'd even dropped its weapon, I approached this one carefully. A shaman in perfect condition was strong for a goblin — strong enough to beat an armed ordinary person in a straight fight. Of course it still wasn't a match for me. I could beat an armed bandit with my bare hands. The reason I still had to be careful was that I didn't know what effect the hex cast through that staff would have. Hex effects varied wildly, and if you were unlucky you could be rendered combat-incapable in a single hit. Effects that dramatic were extremely rare, but even without going that far, there were plenty of annoying ones.

So I watched the staff's movements and steadily pressed in. The black spheres that hexed you on contact either shot in a straight line from the tip of the staff or flew along the arc of a swing. Either way, they never appeared without a tell, so as long as you paid enough attention, dodging them was easy.

From a distance the staff couldn't yet reach, the shaman thrust it toward me. Even if I didn't dodge, it wouldn't hit from this range. The moment I was watching carefully, a black aura gathered on the staff and flowed to one end. The tell of a hex attack. But if it was a thrusting strike, the hex it fired would be easy to dodge too. Another black sphere launched from the tip of the staff — but I was already gone from that spot.

I closed in fast, exploiting the opening left by the shaman's complete miss. It quickly retracted the staff and swung to keep me at bay, but the distance had already closed enough. I lightly parried the incoming staff with the shield on my left arm. It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wasn't tracing some hard-to-read trajectory, and it didn't have strength I couldn't handle. If anything, the staff bounced hard off the shield I'd swung.

Kieeek!!

The shaman let out a tearing shriek, perhaps trying to intimidate me after its desperate attack came to nothing and left it wide open — but that scream became its last words and its dying cry.

Whew.

I wiped a bead of sweat running down my cheek. The fight itself hadn't been that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hard, but taking an unexpected ambush and fighting in a state of excessive tension had left me drained. Right — what happened with Luon and Sophie? It's quiet, so the fighting must be over. As for that Kiven guy, he can take care of himself. I can worry about him later.

Or so I thought.

"Kiven! Are you okay?!"

Kiven was down on one knee, with Luon and Sophie hovering around him, not knowing what to do.

"What? What happened?"

Judging by his condition it didn't look like he was badly hurt, so I walked over slowly and asked.

"Ki-Kiven... instead of me... he..."

"Kiven got hurt instead of Sophie? There wasn't an enemy here that should've been able to hurt him."

"I-I don't really know either. Something suddenly came flying..."

I couldn't tell what had happened from Sophie's explanation. I looked at Luon with a you explain expression, and though he hemmed and hawed, he managed to get the words ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out properly.

"We'd taken out almost all the goblins here, but then something like a black orb came flying at Sophie. I tried to stop it, but I was too far away... Kiven noticed later than I did, but he covered Sophie and took the hit instead."

Hmm. So Luon spotted it first but was too far away to protect her, and Kiven, who was close, noticed too late to block it and instead covered Sophie and took it himself?

Thud!

"Ow!"

I kicked him in the shin for a reason even dumber than I'd expected.

"Not seeing it, fine — that happens. But if you hadn't wandered off from Sophie's side, you could've blocked it. What did I tell you? Protect Sophie, right? Is fighting with your life on the line a game to you?"

"Th-that's not—"

"What's not? I saw you over there swinging away, all excited. Whatever. I'll kick your ass later. First, let's check on Kiven."

Kiven himself didn't seem to know what state he was in, so I started with an explanation.

"I told you shamans use hexes, right? That black orb you got hit by is a hex. Get hit by one and you get hexed."

"Then... what... happens?"

Kiven asked, his face pained but still curious. Apparently it wasn't a hex that would kill him on the spot.

"I don't know either. These guys' hexes are completely random, which is why they're such a headache — you can't know until you get hit. There's another way, though. Ah. There is one."

Luon at least ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠seemed to know he'd screwed up, because he was staying quiet. I sent him to pick up the staff the second shaman had dropped. If I pulled up the Status on this...