Chapter 105: Didn’t see it coming part 2

Night had fallen over the dense forest. The fading sunlight clung only to the highest crowns of the towering trees, casting long, menacing shadows across the ground. It looked and felt like deep midnight.

?Surrounding a crackling bonfire they had started, the girls,Smith and Sarafina—were chatting happily, acting as if everything was completely fine. But the reality was far from peaceful. If you looked closer, you would notice they were all covered in blood. Even while talking and laughing, they still wore their armor, which was stained and darkened with dried blood. They gripped their weapons tightly, remaining on high alert for any sudden danger.

?All around them lay the scattered corpses of goblins. Blood pooled across the ground, mixing with severed body parts and spilled intestines. The gruesome sight proved they had just survived an intense and brutal battle. Yet, the girls did not even bother to clear the battlefield as if they didn’t existed.

?Suddenly, a blaring sound echoed through the night. Horns reverberated across the dark forest. Because the evening air was so quiet, the notes sounded sharp and carried clearly, signaling orders from the black-robed mastermind. Based on the distribution of the sound, the horns were blowing from every possible direction. It was obvious the girls were completely surrounded once again.

?Judging by the situation, they had barely caught their breath from the previous clash when a fresh ambush arrived. Yet, the girls did not change their expressions. It was as if they had grown entirely used to this relentless routine.

?Velvet sighed softly and said, "Okay girls, let’s get back to work."

?Reluctantly, the girls stood up and immediately shifted into a defensive formation. Smith and Sarafina took positions securely in the center, where the others could protect them. Astra also stayed near the middle, while the rest of the girls formed a solid outer ring.

?Beyond the warm illumination of the bonfire, horns continued to sound from the darkness. Soon, they heard rustling sounds closing in from every direction. After a few moments, goblins began to emerge from the dense foliage. However, they did not cross the boundary of the bonfire’s light; they stopped at the edge, making no immediate move to attack.

?More and more goblins arrived, swelling the horde until it completely encircled the camp. The girls simply stood their ground, watching silently. As time passed, even though the outer darkness hid most of the goblins, their extraordinary senses told them there were countless more shadows lurking behind the front ranks.

?Suddenly, as the horn blasts began to fade into silence, the surrounding goblins launched their assault, charging fiercely toward them.

?The girls refrained from making any reckless outward charges, strictly maintaining their defensive positions. As the goblins entered the range of the firelight, the girls’ casual expressions vanished, replaced by deadly seriousness. They activated their respective title boosts. Even those with special titles changed to defense and attack. The battle officially began.

?As the goblins rushed forward, they did not charge all at once in a disorganized mob. Instead, they attacked in rolling waves. Because the camp’s radius was small, the number of crowding goblins remained massive, and the girls immediately fell into a frantic rhythm of combat.

?Corpses piled up quickly around them. Ironically, the heaps of dead goblins actually helped block the enemy’s advance, preventing them from rushing them all at once. This gave the girls vital breathing room to handle manageable groups of attackers without being completely swarmed.

?Using various combat skills, Astra began releasing a steady stream of arrows. This dark environment suited her perfectly. Whenever she loosed an arrow, the enemy had no time to react, often dropping dead before they even realized what was happening. For Astra, this was simply routine.

?Holding the line was much harder for Velvet and Valeria. While they successfully held their ground, the fighting demanded enormous physical and mental effort. Still, their movements showed they had thoroughly adapted to this grueling style of warfare. In truth, this was far from their first time facing such relentless pressure.

?They were thoroughly exhausted by this strategy. More than a week had passed since they initiated their grand plan to hunt down the black-robed goblin leader. At first, the plan had gone smoothly. During the initial two days, they successfully exterminated more than five ordinary goblin settlements, and their mission objectives seemed well within reach.

?Then, everything changed drastically on the third day.

?Vesper warned them that they were being watched once again by a pair of mysterious eyes. From that moment onward, the enemy altered tactics completely. Instead of using bait to lure them out like before, the mastermind directly assaulted them deep in the forest using relentless ambushes.

?The strategy was always the same: first, signal horns would blow; next, they would be completely surrounded; then, an overwhelming siege would begin. Because Smith and Sarafina were present, the girls could never launch a counterattack. They were forced to maintain a tight, unyielding formation to protect the center at all costs.

?The black-robed mastermind clearly understood this weakness. He never gave them an opening to evacuate Smith and Sarafina to safety, trapping the girls in a passive, defensive posture from the very start.

?Even during intense fights, the mastermind would suddenly signal a retreat. Just as the girls thought they had won a window to rest, they soon realized the enemy was merely pulling back to replenish their numbers and reorganize for an another assault. From that day on, the attacks struck three to four times daily in entirely irregular patterns. Sometimes an assault would hit while they were eating, and other times right as they tried to sleep. The constant harassment was utterly exhausting.

?Because they were perpetually on guard, their sleep quality had plummeted. At this stage, they were severely fatigued, both physically and mentally. During several previous ambushes, their defensive lines had nearly broken, and Smith had almost been killed multiple times. Only thanks to the pendant of immunity which saved them repeatedly, stabilizing the formation at the last second.

?However, maintaining these defenses cost them dearly. Over the course of these ongoing battles, they had lost several summoned pawns just to hold the line. The girls had to admit that this was their first time encountering such sophisticated tactical warfare, resulting in such heavy losses.

?Although their summoned pawns could eventually recover but regeneration took time, and the mastermind always struck during their most vulnerable moments. Those mysterious eyes were constantly watching, the girls still had no idea what kind of creature was actually observing them.

?As the battle raged on, a sudden jolt disrupted Velvet’s focus. She momentarily lost her connection to one of her summoned pawns. Checking her inner spiritual space, she saw an orb of light that had completely dimmed, bearing a jagged crack across its surface.

?This damage signaled that the pawn had been killed. Though losing pawns had happened more than once during this campaign, it remained a severe disadvantage, pushing their already strained forces closer to a critical breaking point.

?Then, something shifted on the battlefield.

?At the very edge of the illumination of the bonfire, past the front ranks, a solitary black-robed figure suddenly stepped out of the shadows to observe them.

?After a brief glance, Velvet instantly recognized him. This was none other than their primary target.

?Thinking quickly, she shouted to her companions, "Hey girls! The mastermind finally showed himself today!"

?Hearing this, even though they were locked in desperate combat, the girls managed to divert a fraction of their concentration toward the spot Velvet was pointing. Seeing the black-robed goblin standing openly in the distance shocked them deeply. In past days, they had never even caught a glimpse of his shadow. Now that he was visible, they knew this was an extremely rare opportunity.

?Velvet continued urgently, "We must seize this chance to take down his head, and everything will be over!"

?To reach him across the sea of monsters, they needed a bold plan. The girls immediately shifted their focus and ordered their pawns to heavily assaulting the sector facing the black-robed goblin. They traded blows and accepting injuries simply to carve out a path through the enemy ranks.

?After a few moments of desperate fighting, a narrow gap finally opened in the goblin horde. Velvet wasted no time, diving straight into the opening. To keep the gap from closing, one of their remaining pawns threw itself forward, getting butchered instantly so the rest of the line could hold the surrounding goblins back and buy Velvet precious time.

?Within seconds, Velvet was only meters away from the black-robed goblin. She could clearly make out his dark silhouette. Just as she braced herself to launch a lightning-fast decapitation strike, everything changed.

?The ground directly in front of her suddenly ruptured. a special goblin burst upward from beneath the earth, completely unarmed.

?The sudden emergence startled Velvet, momentarily halting her forward momentum. Realizing the creature carried no weapons, she quickly adjusted her stance and slashed downward, killing the special goblin instantly.

?However, before she could press forward, several more earth-burrowing goblins popped up right in front of her path. They ignored her attacks entirely. Instead, they lunged forward, wrapping their arms tightly around her limbs and binding her body with crushing force, temporarily rendering her unable to move.

?As Velvet struggled fiercely to break free, she suddenly sensed a terrifying presence approaching from the darkness. It was fast, lethal, and aimed with absolute precision. Before she could react, a hidden dagger materialized out of nowhere, slicing through the night air directly toward the exposed back of her neck.