A green tide approached.
The revolting color of vegetation. The color of curses, plagues, and death. The color of the utterly horrific orcs and goblins.
Melinda stood before that green tide.
‘H-he, I can do this…….’
Her hands trembled.
She knew it in her head. They were nothing.
They could not stand against this mercenary company. The goblins were also far too small and diminutive.
They were so small that even Melinda, a dwarf, could look down on them. She did not have to look up at the green tide.
‘Ha…….’
She had changed. She was no longer Melinda, the green adventurer, but Melinda, the blacksmith of Luminac.
She had trained endlessly for this day. She had made exercise equipment out of iron to hone herself, and built her strength and courage by striking heavy metal.
She had no intention of repeating that failure. Today, she thought she would finally overcome that memory.
‘Ah.’
However, one very minor problem remained before her.
The passage in this cave sloped slightly upward.
It was not important information. The incline was not very steep.
But if goblins came down from far away all at once, the goblin arriving last would stand at a position slightly higher than Melinda.
Higher.
The green tide stood above her eye level. That stirred her memories. It brought the past back.
‘No.’
Screams rang out. Before she knew it, her companions stood on either side of her.
They were beloved faces. The illusion was far too vivid. But Melinda could not welcome the reunion, cherish the memories, and smile.
Because she knew what came next.
-Aaaaaaagh!
-S-save me. Save me…….
They died. Before her eyes, the glaive of a huge orc split her friend’s body in two.
They were torn apart. The companions who had laughed with her moments ago, the friends full of dreams and hope, were split apart.
They died. They could do nothing but die. She had to survive. She had to run.
Melinda’s vision blurred. She could no longer see goblins.
Instead, orcs filled that place. Their massive muscles, their stench, and death.
“Aaaah…….”
Melinda collapsed to the ground. In the end, she could not overcome the nightmare.
Before her past, fear, dishonor, and shame, she had no choice but to fall to her knees once more.
It was an illusion. The past. Something already gone. Something that had nothing to do with her now. Not a trial she could not overcome.
Nevertheless, Melinda yielded. She fell to her knees. She collapsed.
Everything was meaningless. This was her limit.
A coward who would yield to an orc that did not even exist before her and live with defeat for the rest of her life.
As her mind crumbled, reality pierced her as though mocking her. The goblins ran toward her.
“Ugh, ah, aaaaaaah!!!”
Fear filled her mind. Terrified, Melinda screamed like a child.
Once again, she had failed.
***
‘What the hell is wrong with her?’
Melinda was running toward me. She was fleeing.
My brain froze for a moment at the incomprehensible situation.
‘Why is a dwarf running?’
Dwarves were steadfast. They endured for a long time. They were persistent, tough-bodied, and highly spirited.
Among dwarves, even one who might be described as ‘Cowardly So-and-so’ could endure far longer than an ordinary human.
Unless Iris and I had dropped dead one after another, there was no way she would flee like that while we were still holding firm.
‘A quirk? Claustrophobia? Or goblin phobia? No, then why would someone like that come to kill goblins?’
That seemed a little more plausible.
Just as a fearless, valiant warrior might be helpless before spiders, she might fear only a particular thing.
‘Ah, whatever. I need to do something about that first.’
I could not let the client run away. I had received 200 Gold as an advance, but I still needed to collect the remaining 500 Gold.
If she went outside and got caught and killed by another goblin or bandit, I would lose the money and earn nothing but her daughter’s resentment.
“Iris, Anna! Hold the front for a moment! I’ll be back soon!”
“Yes, Captain!”
First, I put the two armored women forward and hastily blocked off the front line.
“Niv, grab a net instead of your sling! Anna, same for you! Just think about holding out for a few minutes, and throw a net first whenever you see a goblin!”
Even if nets were slightly inefficient weapons against goblins, a net was still a net. There was nothing better for restraining an enemy for a moment.
After giving the orders, I immediately pursued the fleeing Melinda. She seemed to be running for her life, but her legs were so short that she did not get far.
“Melindaaaaa!!!”
There was no time for courtesy toward an elder. For my sake and hers, I had to be rude now.
“Eek!”
I ran in front of her, dropped to one knee to meet her gaze, and gripped her shoulders hard.
“Pull yourself together!”
When I had kicked her in the head with all my strength, Melinda had barely moved. She had stood her ground firmly.
But the shoulders I held now did not feel heavy at all. They felt so light that she might collapse from a tap.
Perhaps she had already collapsed.
“I have to…… run…….”
“I know, I know! You’re scared, right? You want to run, right? But do you know something? If you leave us now, you’ll really die.”
“Uh, eeeeh…….”
“It’s hard, right? You’re exhausted, right? You’re scared, right? You ran with all your strength, and I caught you in a single stride, right? Your condition isn’t normal. You need to rest. Understand?!!!”
I shouted and raised my voice. I made her act by relying on my judgment instead of thinking for herself.
“Ugh, uhh…….”
“Sit here. Watch us hold them off. If we win, stay here and let us escort you. If we lose, run away. See? Easy, right? You’re a ‘customer’ who paid us. Understand?”
“Ah…….”
“Do you understand?!!!”
I shouted into her ear. At a glance, it might have looked as though I was tormenting her, but a life was at stake, so it could not be helped.
“Uh, y-yes, I understand…….”
“Good. That’ll do.”
I left her behind and returned to the mercenaries.
“Dana, stay with Melinda! Song of Calm! You can do that, right?”
“Y-yes!”
“Anna, Iris? Are either of you hurt?”
“We are unhurt!”
“Good. Everyone, take one step back. I’ll hold the front line.”
The dwarf warrior we had trusted had run away. But there was no reason for me to panic.
‘Well, this is enough, isn’t it?’
If she had been my mercenary, I might have been angry. But considering that she was a ‘client,’ this was enough.
‘She did suddenly run away, but…….’
An ‘escort target’ who fought at the front for a while, then ran away on her own when she thought she was in danger, was close to an ideal client.
Clients became a problem when they charged out on their own and broke the front line, caused confusion by failing to find a position and moving forward and back, or gave unsolicited advice without knowing anything and lowered the company’s morale.
“You have held out well so far. Now, we only need to fight and win.”
A fight against goblins had many variables.
We might fall into traps they had dug beforehand, or suddenly be surrounded by enemies leaping at us from every direction.
But because Melinda had gone on a rampage, we had eliminated a considerable number of those variables.
There were no enemy traps, and now that we had occupied this room and secured the passage, there was no chance of being surrounded.
“Hyaaah!”
I swung my sword without rest. The enemies kept pressing forward, but my sword did not slow in the slightest.
Every time I swung it, two goblins were split in half. Every time I thrust, one goblin disappeared.
Goblins were small and nimble, so they were difficult to hit easily in an open space. But this place was different.
Wherever I swung, I hit. Wherever I thrust, I hit.
“Skree! Keh!”
“We many! Human few!”
I had no reason to think about defense against goblins.
They did not use hammers. They did not use axes. Goblins could not injure me from the front.
Among their weapons, only daggers coming in at very devious angles could injure me.
But those daggers could never strike my weak points unless I was surrounded. In the literal sense, offense was the best defense.
As long as I kept swinging my sword and killed the enemies in front of me, they could not surround me.
“You’re doing well! The end is starting to come into view!”
If goblins possessed wise intelligence, they would never have tried to fight in terrain like this.
But their intelligence was specialized not in fields such as ‘how weak do we become when fighting a few enemies in confined terrain,’ but in cowardly fields such as ‘where should I stab that huge human with a dagger to hurt him?’
At some point, the goblins seemed to realize that they could not win this fight. Perhaps because they were foolishly brave, they realized it far too late.
“Skree! Keh! Run, run away!!!”
The goblins fled. They were no longer a threat.
‘As expected, this isn’t difficult.’
Of course, goblins were enemies that a newly established mercenary company like ours could never take lightly. But I possessed a ‘mercenary in perfect armor.’ Myself.
Considering that they were dangerous because of sudden critical dagger strikes, and poison and disease that slowly accumulated injuries in a mercenary company, there was no reason for me to lose.
Now, I had to deal with the remnants.
‘Judging from the shape of the cave, it seems to be a dead end.’
“Ember, you. How is your eye? Are you decent at spotting things?”
The little one-armed mercenary cocked her head.
“Um, I think I’m…… average?”
“That’s enough. You’re moving ahead with me. Do not take part in the fighting, and if there is an enemy I somehow miss, defend yourself only.”
I could deal with ten or a hundred goblins that had lost the will to fight and fled all by myself.
Nevertheless, there were variables on a battlefield. I was taking Ember because I needed someone to report what had happened if there was a trap inside or something went wrong with me.
“The rest of you, wait here. You may rest, but do not take off your armor. Stay ready to fight at any time. The goblins that went scouting may return, or goblins fleeing from inside may appear.”
“Yes!”
After giving each person their orders, I calmly went deeper inside.
“Skree, keh…….”
The goblins hid themselves here and there, but there were not many places to hide in such a shabby cave to begin with.
I went from room to room, searching through the piles of junk and filth that the goblins had stacked up. I dealt with the hidden goblins one by one.
“This seems to be the end…….”
I had dealt with every goblin. There were no more connected paths in this cave.
But I could not find the ingots Melinda had mentioned anywhere.
I had a bad feeling about this.