Chapter 88: Chieftain

"What? There’s just an arm?!" Gopugiga exclaimed, staring at the severed limb in disbelief.

"Wait a minute... Where’s the rest of him?" Gopuro stared at it for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, his expression twisted in horror.

"Oh no! He got eaten!"

...

For a moment, I was just as confused as they were.

But after thinking about it for a little longer, I realized something. And honestly, it was a huge relief.

"Hey, you three! Get out of the spider’s aura range first!" I hurriedly instructed them.

Only after making sure they’d retreated to a safe distance did I continue.

"And no, silly. He wasn’t eaten. If anything, this probably means he’s still alive!"

"Oh!"

Gopuro’s expression immediately brightened as he understood what I meant.

The others caught on a moment later, their faces lighting up with relief. They exchanged smiles, clearly happy at the possibility that the chieftain was still alive.

Yeah...

The chieftain was probably still alive!

He’d lost an arm during the battle, but if the rest of his body wasn’t lying beneath that spider, then there was a decent chance he’d managed to escape.

Which meant we still had a chance to find him.

"Puro," I called out.

"Yes, Big Boss?"

"Can you still detect the chieftain’s scent? He’s injured and missing an arm, so he should be bleeding pretty badly. Follow the scent of his blood. It might lead us straight to him."

"Got it! I’ll give it a try!"

Gopuro immediately closed his eyes and concentrated, relying on his keen sense of smell.

For a few moments, he remained completely still.

Then his nose suddenly twitched, and his eyes snapped open again.

"This way!" he announced, pointing deeper into the forest.

"I can smell it now! It’s very faint, though. Really faint."

I followed his gaze.

But then...

"Oh! That direction!" Gopuberry suddenly exclaimed.

Her expression darkened.

And soon, for some reason, the other goblins started reacting similarly, their earlier relief quickly fading.

"Shit..."

"Seriously? Of all places..."

One after another, my citizens began looking increasingly uneasy.

Apparently, there was something dangerous in that direction. Something they recognized, and something they really didn’t want to run into.

Unfortunately, from my perspective, all I could see was more forest.

Huh? What’s going on?

"What’s wrong?" I asked. "Where does that direction lead?"

Gopuran turned toward me, her expression serious.

"Big Boss, that’s the territory of the Horned Gray Wolves!"

Oh?

The moment she said that name, my brief sense of relief vanished, replaced by a familiar feeling of uneasiness.

Wait. The Horned Gray Wolves? The same kind of beasts that almost killed my Puro and Puran???

Before I could ask anything else...

"Quick! We need to hurry!" Gopuro shouted. "We have to save the chieftain!"

"Yeah! Let’s go!" Gopuran nodded.

Without wasting another second, the six goblins took off running, rushing deeper into the forest and toward the territory of the Horned Gray Wolves.

*****

Meanwhile...

Deep within the territory of the Horned Gray Wolves, at the foot of a rocky hill, a terrifying battle was still underway.

On one side stood a group of roughly twenty goblins.

And standing in front of them, shielding the smaller goblins behind his massive frame, was a single, gigantic goblin with a bright red nose.

The chieftain of the Bright Red Nose Tribe.

To put it simply, this guy was an absolute monster.

Standing over four meters tall, he was built like a mountain of muscle. He looked less like a goblin and more like a giant orc, with a physique that wouldn’t even have looked out of place on a professional bodybuilder who’d somehow injected himself with a hundred times the usual dose of steroids.

In comparison, the largest goblin standing behind him was barely half his height.

In his right hand, the chieftain gripped an enormous greatsword made from wood and bones, over three meters long. Its jagged blade looked almost like a giant saw, and the entire weapon was soaked in blood.

However, his left arm was gone.

In its place was a gruesome stump, fresh blood dripping steadily onto the ground.

His body was also covered in many other wounds. Deep slashes ran across his chest and shoulders, while vicious bite marks covered his arms and legs. Some of the injuries were still bleeding heavily, and his breathing had become rough and labored.

Honestly, he looked like he might collapse at any moment.

Yet even in that terrible condition, the gigantic goblin refused to back down. He stood his ground, his remaining hand gripping the bloodstained greatsword as he glared at the creatures surrounding him.

More than thirty Horned Gray Wolves had encircled the goblins, herding them toward the rocky foothill and cutting off any chance of escape.

Their gray fur bristled as they prowled across the uneven ground, their hungry eyes fixed on the exhausted goblins. Saliva dripped from their open jaws, revealing rows of sharp fangs, while low growls rumbled from their throats.

They were ready to pounce at any moment.

And yet, despite being so hopelessly outnumbered, the goblin chieftain showed no sign of retreating.

At his feet already lay the corpses of more than six Horned Gray Wolves.

Some had been cut open by his enormous greatsword. Others had been torn apart so brutally that their bodies were barely recognizable.

One of them had even been sliced cleanly in half.

The sheer brutality of the scene said enough about just how terrifying this giant goblin could be when he fought.

And it was all thanks to him that the twenty or so goblins behind him had survived this long.

They’d managed to escape the Dark Giant Spiders, but their troubles hadn’t ended there. During their desperate flight, they’d accidentally wandered into the territory of the Horned Gray Wolves.

And now, instead of those terrifying spiders, an entire pack of hungry monsters stood between them and survival.

The chieftain tightened his grip on his greatsword.

He could barely keep standing, much less fight another prolonged battle. But he didn’t move.

He remained in front of his people, refusing to give the wolves even an inch.

Because as long as he was still alive, he wouldn’t allow those monsters to lay a single claw on the goblins behind him.