The moonlight was bright and gentle, like drifting mist, spreading hazily across the plains. The shoulder-high grass swayed in the breeze, shifting in countless subtle ways, faint glimmers flickering within it like flowing water.
Unfortunately, the shrill chittering cries shattered the tranquility.
Goblin lackeys brandished rusted short swords, dim torches, iron-studded clubs that glinted coldly in the firelight, and other crude, mismatched weapons.
From their sallow, toad-like eyes radiated a bloodthirsty red glow. Between their hideous fanged grins, thick strands of green, viscous drool dripped in revolting streams.
Their foul limbs trampled across the vibrant field of life—a desecration of nature itself.
It was like enjoying a pleasant meal on a lively food street, only for the sewer beneath you to burst and dump a reeking mass of filth straight into your bowl.
Disgusting.
At the sight of them, Kiana felt her blood boil. Every cell in her body burned. It was as if molten lava flowed through her chest, stoking roaring flames.
That was the uncontrollable fury rising within her.
The blazing fire meant to symbolize the inheritance of the flame now brimmed with endless killing intent.
Her fists clenched instinctively—crack crack—knuckles grinding.
Any human—any sentient being with even a shred of conscience—would feel rage at this sight.
Whoom—!
At her eyes, patterns of Honkai energy converged, forming a complex cross-ring sigil.
Flames ignited from nothingness. Ribbons of fire bound her long hair high, and a blazing cloak of fire unfurled behind her.
The warehouse temperature surged abruptly, making the adventurers lurking nearby, who had also been watching the goblins in secret, twitch their eyelids.
This young lady was like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
"Killing goblins requires no reason." Goblin Slayer sheathed his freshly honed short sword and rose, axe in hand. He offered no comfort—only repeated the creed he upheld as truth.
He had seen villages ravaged by goblins. He had seen the despair in the eyes of women dragged away. He had seen the numbness on their faces after they were violated...
This time—"They deserve to die!"
Kiana exploded forward in an instant. Her face flushed red with fury, features slightly twisted, blue pupils bloodshot as flames of wrath nearly burst from her eyes.
The Kaslana knightly blood in her veins roared.
Noticing the surging rage in her eyes, Goblin Slayer thought to himself that she was indeed a sheltered noble young lady. This had to be her first encounter with true goblins.
The other adventurers participating in the commission wore anger on their faces as well, but having seen too much, a trace of numbness lingered beneath it.
Not only adventurers—even most of the world's inhabitants, unless they lived behind high castle walls as nobles, had heard of or suffered goblin raids, even deep within human territory.
The only difference lay in severity.
After all, goblins were unlike other monsters. Their appearance followed no pattern. They could emerge at any time in the darkest corners of the world.
"Please calm down. Follow the plan..."
Kiana did not respond to Goblin Slayer again. Flames burst from her palm, and a greatsword of fire materialized instantly in her grasp.
"No need for something so troublesome, Mei!" With a shout, Kiana lunged forward.
"Understood!"
Boom!
A streak of red and a streak of violet light smashed through the ranch warehouse doors.
Left behind were Goblin Slayer, hand half-raised to stop them, and the other adventurers staring at one another in stunned silence.
The troublesome possibility had become reality.
This was precisely why Goblin Slayer had not intended to seek help from these noble ladies at the start.
They looked like pearls raised in the palms of others, daughters who had grown up without want and ventured out to become adventurers on a whim. Such young ladies typically possessed a strong sense of justice.
Sheltered noble daughters, hot-blooded rookie adventurers, righteous at heart... in such circumstances, Goblin Slayer truly feared they would ignore orders.
"Signal them. Switch to the second battle plan. Direct assault. Before the goblin lackeys can form ranks with the higher goblins, split them at the junction points. Rescue the captured women when possible."
The moment Kiana and Raiden Mei charged out, Goblin Slayer hesitated no longer and rushed after them with his axe.
He had anticipated such a scenario and prepared countermeasures. He simply could not guarantee rescuing every captured woman—but there was no time to consider that now.
If nothing else, he would kill every goblin as revenge for them.
With that thought, he burst from the warehouse—only to halt in the next instant at the sight before him.
Rumble—!
Kiana wielded her blazing greatsword and flashed forward, so fast her figure blurred into a streak of fire, like heavenly flames descending. Dazzling brilliance pierced through the gaps in the goblins' "shield wall," weaving along twisting paths in rapid arcs.
Under the night sky, it was breathtakingly beautiful.
Yet behind that brilliance lay lethal destruction.
Clang—Slash!
In that instant, as though time had slowed a hundredfold, thick crimson liquid sprayed through the air with the sound of flesh being cleaved—only to be vaporized by searing flames before it could even fall.
So swift was her strike that the goblins had no time to react before being decapitated and dismembered. Their grotesque heads still bore feral expressions, never even reaching the stage of fear.
Their stunted bodies continued a few steps before collapsing, engulfed in fire, becoming yet another flickering light in the night.
Boom!
Like a meteor striking earth, flames rolled like molten lava. Wherever fire-serpents lashed, grass withered and cracked. More than a dozen goblins blocking her path were instantly incinerated, leaving a charred trench carved through the emerald field.
One moment Kiana stood beside the goblins' propped-up "shields." The next, she had pierced through their entire formation and stood before the goblin shamans in the rear.
Behind her lay broken corpses, ablaze like felled trees whose roots had been severed.
Yet the shields themselves—entwined by flames—remained eerily unharmed.
"Kiana, I'll leave it to you!" Bronya and Li Sushang leapt out, working together to escort the pitiful captured women toward the ranch's central safe zone.
"Grrk! Grrk-grrk!"
Finally reacting, the goblin shamans shrieked in terror. They staggered backward, hurling nearby goblin lackeys at Kiana while wildly waving their staffs made from human skulls.
Crackle!
They shrieked as they desperately converted their own life force into spell power—lightning, flames, storms—hurling everything at Kiana, who charged like a blazing demon.
"Your turn, trash!" she roared.
What answered them was a wall of fire.
"Blazing Flame—Unsheathe!"
In an instant, lightning, fire—whatever it was—was swallowed whole. The flaming greatsword came down.
Slash—Boom!
With the blade's descent, the foremost goblin shaman exploded into a spray of blood. The next instant, the sparks scattering from the sword abruptly swelled, as though several tons of white phosphorus had been thrown in, erupting outward in a violent expansion.
The explosive blaze multiplied dozens of times over, forming a towering inferno that crushed directly into the goblin horde behind them.
Within the flames, goblin bodies twisted, then completely disintegrated, leaving not a single trace.
The next moment, a sea of fire surged upward like a tidal wave, sweeping straight ahead.
Rumble—!
Exploding clods of earth shot into the air. Dust and fire intertwined and roared together, blooming into an orange-red flower of death in the night—terrifying in its lurid beauty.
The blazing light shone as though a second sun had descended.
The shockwave from the explosion slammed into the adventurers charging forward, flinging them backward four or five meters before they tumbled headfirst into the grass.
"Oof!"
"What the hell?!"
"Incoming! Evade!"
The searing heat continued to radiate outward, igniting the once-lush plains. Thick smoke billowed into the sky, and the beautiful landscape was reduced to utter ruin.
"Uh... that young lady is absurdly strong," the flamboyant spearman muttered as he crawled out from flattened grass, propping himself up with his spear in amazement.
Beside him, the female mage rose with an expression of understanding. She planted her staff at her side and calmly smoothed the slightly singed curls of her hair.
"It seems we were entirely unnecessary..."
Most of the adventurers relaxed, tension easing from their shoulders.
Only Goblin Slayer grew urgent. "Not good—the Goblin Lord is trying to escape!"
Goblins were unlike humans. They felt no hesitation about sacrificing their own kind as shields. Just as they used women as barriers, if not for Kiana's unexpected power, the adventurers would not have dared force an assault.
Once they sensed danger, they would abandon their kin without hesitation. Not only lackeys—even goblin shamans, large goblins, goblin heroes—none were irreplaceable.
After encountering such overwhelming resistance and realizing they had kicked an iron plate, the Goblin Lord was highly likely to flee, leaving his subordinates to scatter and create confusion.
There was nothing sentimental about it. As long as he lived, as long as he could capture a female mammal in the wild, it would not take long to breed another swarm.
Yes—any viviparous mammal could serve as a fertilized host for goblins. As for why they so often targeted human women... perhaps it was simply preference.
"Move!" he called to his companions—the human Priestess, the High Elf Archer, the Dwarf Shaman, and the Lizard Priest.
"No need. Durandal and Rita will handle it. Rest assured—not a single goblin will escape."
Standing upon the rooftop, Fu Hua clasped her hands behind her back, gray hair drifting in the wind.
Her voice was gentle and calm, as though she felt nothing toward the disgusting race of goblins. But those who knew her understood—she was furious.
Following her gaze, Senti was on the opposite side of the ranch, slaughtering goblins with visible disgust. She would not even use her fists—let alone weapons. Instead, she unleashed blast after blast of compressed air, crushing goblins into pulp.
"Understood." Goblin Slayer halted his long strides and nodded, preparing to return to the ranch warehouse.
"Wait, Goblin Slayer. I have a question I hope you can answer."
"Please." He raised his head quietly.
Fu Hua descended lightly from the rooftop. Without speaking at first, she glanced toward the women nearby—nearly naked, their bodies covered in scabbed scars, wrapped only in blankets.
"Kill them... kill them all... kill all the gob..."
Their eyes had long since lost their light. They merely repeated the words in weak, hate-filled murmurs.
"The harm goblins cause is immense. It can only be called an insult. Why does the authority do nothing? Where is the army? Aside from bullying untrained civilians, these creatures are weak," Fu Hua asked, withdrawing her gaze.
Logically speaking, even if this medieval world lacked the centralized authority of past empires, when local lords received reports of their subjects being raided by foreign monsters, should they not dispatch troops to exterminate them?
"Because it is not worth it."
The reason was simple. The ruling nobles did not consider goblins a significant threat. Everyone knew a single goblin was weak. Even goblin heroes or shamans—higher variants—were unimpressive in the eyes of those in power.
More importantly, goblins did not affect their lives. To them, goblins were no different from low-level monsters.
Even if towns were attacked, the victims would be farmers living on the outskirts and adventurers.
How the lower classes lived was their own affair. According to those so-called nobles, how could they deploy the army for the sake of lowly peasants?
From their perspective, the army existed to wage wars or confront Demon Lord forces—not to eliminate insignificant goblin trash.
After all, those who held power lived in heavily guarded castles. Goblins would never reach them.
Though there were the occasional overconfident fools, without exception they were eliminated by elite castle guards long before reaching the gates.
Rulers like the Sword Maiden—powerful in her own right yet rendered helpless against goblins due to past trauma—were rare exceptions.
Goblins were foolish, but not entirely stupid. After being beaten back, they learned which places were untouchable.
As for most adventurers, goblin subjugation was an old and tiresome issue. The pay was low, the difficulty disproportionate. Many newcomers died attempting it. Veterans ignored it because the risk-to-reward ratio was poor. Thus, goblin extermination commissions occupied an awkward position.
"Not worth it... so simple. No wonder," Fu Hua murmured, shaking her head with quiet sorrow. "I believe I understand Esdeath's trial now."
"Is it merely the extermination of goblins as a species? No... she intends for us to use our own strength to reform this world. Whether through political upheaval, rebellion, slaughter—whatever it takes—to change the structure at the top..."
And with the cold arrogance and cruelty of those decayed nobles... to negotiate peacefully without bloodshed?
Heh...
Difficult.