Runen #5
The need to immediately talk Maya out of it wasn't there. I didn't want to even look at goblins and orcs, but disliking something and finding it hard to kill were two different problems. As I'd said before, our party was stronger than it looked. If we spotted enough of them from a distance, we could just turn tail and run.
“Roa!”
We rushed toward the enemies at full speed. Roa took the lead, followed by Haneul, me, and Maya in that order. Even from afar, Roa used a Guardian's unique intuition to gauge the enemy's numbers.
“Goblins! Twenty of them! And one orc!”
The composition itself wasn't too threatening. But something about it felt strangely familiar. Just in case, I asked,
“It's not an orc warrior, right?”
The thought that Roa might not even know what an orc warrior looked like crossed my mind, but fortunately, she seemed to know at least that much.
“No! It's just a regular orc! No armor, just holding a club!”
Thank goodness. If it had been an orc warrior, I'd have been ready to kidnap Maya and flee in the carriage if necessary. The lesson from the last fight was clear: even if it meant becoming the bad guy, I had to avoid battles I couldn't win. Luckily, the enemies were at a scale we could handle.
As we drew close enough to hear the sounds of battle, I could make out the armed soldiers fighting the monsters. A single knight in full armor stood at the front, supported by four soldiers armed with spears and shields.
Getting nearer, the flow of the fight became clear.
“Kiaaak!”
The goblins were being slaughtered one-sidedly. The knight at the front wore a helmet that completely covered his face, a breastplate made of plate armor, and greaves protecting his entire legs. Considering how difficult it was to obtain metal in this world, his equipment was clearly top-tier.
The knight was like a walking fortress. He mercilessly swung his longsword, severing goblin heads.
“Kaaak!”
A few goblins were armed with daggers, but daggers couldn't even scratch a knight clad in armor. It would take forty goblins, not twenty, to stand any chance. On top of that, four soldiers guarded the knight's rear. Wearing leather helmets and cloth armor, they stood in formation, pushing the goblins back with shields and spears.
The single orc was putting up a threatening fight with its club, blocking the knight's advance, but the goblins kept retreating, gradually surrounding it.
Roa stopped running and pulled out the crossbow slung on her back, aiming at the orc. Her blue eyes flashed gold for an instant.
Thwip!
The Guardian's crossbow fired a bolt. It pierced straight through the orc's right thigh and pelvis.
“Uwooooor!”
No matter how tough an orc's muscles were, standing with a wounded thigh was difficult. As the orc staggered and collapsed, the knight drove into the opening without the slightest hesitation. His sword flashed toward the orc's neck.
But that was the knight underestimating the orc's toughness.
“Uwooooor!”
The orc let out a battle cry like an enraged bear and grabbed the incoming sword with its bare hand. It wasn't wearing any cloth on its hand, and the knight wasn't swinging some toothpick of a sword. The orc had simply blocked the blade with its thick, calloused palm.
This was why I hated orc bastards. They were completely insane.
The disarmed knight panicked and tried to yank his sword free, but the blade trapped in the orc's grip didn't budge. As they say, crisis is opportunity. Still gripping the knight's sword, the orc swung its club down mercilessly at the knight's head.
Thud! Thud!
“That fucking bastard.”
The knight was getting beaten senseless by the orc. If we left him, he'd die for sure. Actually, even if we saved him now, I wasn't sure he'd survive.
“Haneul!”
“Yeah!”
“Go ram into it!”
All I could do was pray the knight hadn't skimped on buying his armor.
While the knight was getting pummeled, our party appeared behind the greenskins.
“Haaah!”
Haneul charged at the front, leading with her shield. Her gear was a gladius and tower shield—an Ironclad's defensive setup focused on protection. Following my order, Haneul charged straight at the orc without checking left or right.
“Kieeeek!”
The goblins, startled by the sudden appearance of an Ironclad, split left and right like the parting of the Red Sea.
[Routing! (Morale)]
[Enemies everywhere. Surrounded. Can't win. Run. If you want to live, run...]
- Ally severely injured
- Ally dead!
- Fleeing!
The only good goblin was a dead goblin. The orc had entrusted its back to the goblins as allies while fighting the knight, but the goblin bastards were nothing more than automatic doors. They had zero stopping power. Thanks to that, Haneul, unhindered, landed a clean surprise attack on the orc's rear.
Haneul's tower shield slammed into the orc's back. The Shield Attack, enhanced by the Ironclad trait, made the orc howl in pain.
“Uwoooork!”
Right behind her, I didn't slow down as I drew the Steel Saw Blade from its back sheath and swung. The jagged saw teeth tore chunks of flesh from the orc's body.
The orc hurriedly dropped its club and turned its head toward me. Its blazing red eyes were incredibly menacing. The orc reached out for me, trying to snatch my weapon like before. At that moment, Haneul cleverly shoved her tower shield into the orc's hand.
“Hup!”
She put her full weight into it and began a tug-of-war with the orc.
Now the orc was nothing more than a fixed target ready to be carved up. While Haneul and the orc played tug-of-war with the tower shield, I pressed my saw blade against the orc's upper arm and pushed with all my strength.
Shunk!
Like pressing a knife into a sponge, the saw blade sank in with a soft give, disappearing into the orc's arm. I pulled it back smoothly and moved the blade again.
[Orc (Adult)]
[Severe injury sustained!]
[Crippled!]
[Right Arm 0%, Completely Severed!!]
The orc's arm fell off with a thud. Ironically, the severed arm was still clutching Haneul's tower shield and wouldn't let go. Thanks to that, the tower shield now had an orc forearm dangling from it.
Haneul quickly swung her gladius and slashed the back of the orc's knee. As the orc lost its balance and fell, I swung the saw blade and sent its head flying.
[Critical Hit!]
[Head 0%, Completely Severed!!]
The severed head rolled across the ground.
“Kieeeek!”
The goblins, having lost their will to fight, let out bizarre screams and scattered in all directions. They had no intention of fighting. This was what they called a total morale collapse.
I spat on the ground and watched the fleeing goblins. There was no point chasing them all down to finish them off. Roa shot two goblins in the head with her crossbow, and Maya, who had nothing else to do, threw an evaporation potion and froze one goblin solid.
Maya killed the fleeing goblins like a kid throwing rocks at frogs by a stream. It wasn't particularly meaningful. Honestly, it was a waste of potions. But if the alchemist wanted to do it, I just let her. They could always make more potions anyway.
The orc was dead and the goblins had fled. While Roa went to retrieve her bolts and Haneul went with her, the helmeted knight collapsed to the ground.
“Sir Knight!”
We hurried over to check on the knight's condition. When we removed his helmet, the inside was soaked with sweat and blood. His left eye socket was completely smashed, blood streaming down. He looked like a fighter who'd taken too many glove shots during a round.
Without a word to us, Maya removed the knight's helmet and pulled a bottle from her bag. It was the potion that symbolized alchemists and the foundation of fantasy games—the healing potion.
“I'll collect the treatment fee later!”
While the soldiers fidgeted anxiously nearby, Maya poured the healing potion over the knight. He still hadn't regained consciousness, but the bleeding had definitely stopped.
The soldiers murmured among themselves.
“Whoa...”
“W-what is that?”
The healing potion recipe was top secret even among alchemists and only distributed through the Alchemist Guild, so ordinary soldiers never had a chance to see one.
Maya calmly introduced herself.
“I'm Maya, an alchemist affiliated with the Oricil branch of the Elixir Alchemical Artisan Union.”
“Elixir... what?”
Of course, civilians wouldn't understand. But even if they didn't catch the rest, they understood the last two words.
Alchemist. Maya.
One soldier nudged another and whispered,
“That's an alchemist, sir!”
One soldier who looked like a sergeant stepped forward to maintain discipline.
“Thank you for your help. We're the Jerad village vigilante corps. If it weren't for you explorers, we would've been in serious trouble.”
Ah, the village vigilante corps. When playing Dungeon Overseer, you'd occasionally get requests to stop monsters attacking a village. It wasn't common, but it appeared as an occasional event quest. The vigilantes were there to buy time and add village atmosphere. In short, they were meat shields. Most Overseers didn't care whether the vigilantes lived or died.
“What are the vigilantes doing out here?”
I asked out of curiosity. Goblins had been causing trouble lately, so maybe Jerad village was in the middle of a goblin extermination operation.
“We heard goblins were roaming nearby... and the knight offered to help, so we came out on patrol.”
They'd been in the middle of turning goblins into good goblins.
“Why don't you rest at our village? It wouldn't be proper to just send you off after you helped us like this.”
It was an offer that would tempt any ordinary traveler. Since Maya decided our party's destination, I quietly waited for her decision.
“Jerad is the village we were planning to stop by anyway.”
Fortunately, it was on our route. We wouldn't need to detour. It was a good sign.
“We have a carriage. We'll take him to the village.”
The soldiers loaded the unconscious knight into our carriage. The remaining soldiers walked alongside as escorts while I sat in the driver's seat. Once the rest of the party was ready, the carriage departed.
Our destination was Jerad village.