“Fuck, for goblins to move this systematically……. There must be a Goblin Champion behind them.”
It was certainly strange for monsters, which were usually busy charging blindly the moment they saw humans, to act this systematically.
That meant there had to be a being behind them with the power to command and control the bastards.
A moment later, the hundreds of goblins that had arrived below the Barrier Wall began pounding the wall with sturdy clubs.
Under the impact, the weakened Barrier Wall, which had not undergone repair work, shook as if it might break at any moment.
“Stop them!! I said stop them. Soldiers, everyone gather here!”
The senior soldier hurriedly called the soldiers spread widely across the Barrier Wall, but because of the distance, they could not run over immediately.
Moreover, the Barrier Wall was narrow, so there was a limit to how many people could stand on it, and many soldiers could not fight together at once.
As the soldiers tried to drive their wooden spears down to stop the goblins pounding the Barrier Wall, some goblins stepped on their comrades’ backs, leaped, and climbed onto the top of the wall.
In the blink of an eye, the goblins began occupying the top of the Barrier Wall.
To think the goblins would move this systematically.
He already had many problems to solve, yet now it was one mountain after another.
“Damn it, what the hell is going on?”
The soldiers hurriedly threw away their wooden spears and tried to draw their swords to block them, but it was already too late.
Compared to the flustered soldiers’ response, the goblins’ attacks were far faster, and the soldiers were helplessly struck down by the bastards’ attacks.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Cough!”
“S-Save me!”
Under the goblins’ merciless attacks, the soldiers fell one by one with screams.
The top of the Barrier Wall was being dyed red with blood in an instant.
“This is bad.”
Lawrence quickly racked his mind over what he had to do.
If the Barrier Wall was occupied like this, this fight would be certain defeat.
Moreover, since they did not know when the Barrier Wall might collapse, his heart grew even more urgent.
At that moment, Lawrence ran along the top of the Barrier Wall faster than anyone else.
Because he thought he was the only one who could stop this situation.
“Bastards who deserve to be torn limb from limb.”
Lawrence leaped into the middle of the place where fierce combat was unfolding.
The moment he landed, he swung the sword in his hand.
The sword he swung with all his might at Level 17 was sharp and fast.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Wherever his sword touched, goblins were cut down all at once.
“Keeeeeeek!!”
And at the screams of their own kind, every goblin on top of the Barrier Wall focused its gaze on Lawrence.
“Kyarararara.”
“Grrrrrrrr.”
Like starving beasts, the goblins growled low and quickly surrounded Lawrence.
The pressure and unpleasant energy weighed down on him, as if he were encircled by little demons.
“Kiiiiiiak!”
At that moment, a chilling roar sounded from behind him.
A blade with missing teeth flew toward Lawrence’s back.
A goblin that could no longer hold itself back had charged at Lawrence.
“Careful, Lawrence. Behind you!”
A soldier on top of the Barrier Wall shouted in surprise at the sight.
But making his worry seem needless, Lawrence had already reacted.
With the Sense stat that had increased as his level rose, Lawrence had already detected the goblin behind his back.
The moment the bastard’s killing intent thickened and its movement was sensed, Lawrence turned his body a beat faster than its attack and swung his sword with centrifugal force behind it.
The goblin that was counterattacked like that did not even see the sword.
It merely felt the wind raised by the blade.
A thin line appeared on the bastard’s neck, and blood seeped out along that line.
“Krrk?”
The goblin felt puzzled when the scenery it was looking at suddenly began spinning around.
It saw the sky, then the ground rose up, and soon after, it felt an impact to its head.
The goblin’s neck, which had slid along the line formed in it, had fallen to the ground.
At the sight of their comrade being taken down with absurd ease, the remaining goblins bared their teeth and rushed at Lawrence all at once.
However, with unbelievable reaction speed, judgment, and prediction, Lawrence cut down every goblin that charged at him.
“Wooooaaaah!”
“L-Lawrence.”
“That’s incredible.”
The soldiers who saw Lawrence fight had their mouths fall open.
In truth, they had known Lawrence was skilled, but they had never imagined it would be to this extent.
The skill he had shown just now would not have been strange even from a knight.
Lawrence had not intended it, but thanks to this, the morale of the soldiers that had fallen to the floor rose again.
At that moment, the senior soldier shouted.
“What are you doing! Do you not know we are still in battle? Return to your positions immediately!!”
At the senior soldier’s command, the soldiers rushed back to their positions.
And with the flustered appearance from before nowhere to be seen, the soldiers wore determined expressions as they thrust their wooden spears madly toward the savage goblins below the Barrier Wall.
They thrust so powerfully that the sharpened tips of the wooden spears were crushed in an instant.
The soldiers tried not to show any openings, with another soldier immediately switching in whenever someone grew tired from thrusting his spear.
They, too, were doing their utmost to overcome the crisis.
Even so, there were far too many goblins.
No matter how many they killed, there was no end in sight.
Facing the goblin horde surging in like waves, the soldiers felt endless fear.
Yet ironically, what they felt the greatest threat from was the Barrier Wall.
The Barrier Wall shook each time the goblins attacked, and it could collapse at any moment. The thought that everything would end the instant that happened kept coming to mind.
Another reason they felt threatened was that the goblins, unafraid of death, were attacking the Barrier Wall fiercely without caring even when wooden spears came stabbing down from above.
Madness lay in the bastards’ eyes, as if they would absolutely bring the Barrier Wall down.
THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD!
Along with the vibrations shaking the ground, the soldiers’ faces gradually grew pale.
No matter how brave a soldier was, it was not easy to maintain composure in this kind of situation.
Because of that, the soldiers’ morale dropped sharply, and they needed a breakthrough.
Something that could overturn the current unfavorable battlefield.
Surprisingly, that breakthrough was simple.
Since the problem was the bastards’ organization, the best method was to kill the champion commanding the goblins.
If that happened, the goblins would scatter and attack chaotically as they had before, and unfocused force would be much easier to deal with.
But he could not bring himself to break through this many goblins and approach a Goblin Champion whose location he did not even know.
At that moment, someone shouted urgently.
“There it is. The Goblin Champion is over there!”
A soldier who had discovered the Goblin Champion shouted.
The bastard was in a safe place fairly far from the Barrier Wall, shouting something and giving orders to the goblins.
“Bows, shoot that bastard with bows right now.”
At the senior soldier’s shout, several soldiers shot arrows.
Several arrows drew arcs through the air and flew toward the Goblin Champion.
However, the bastard dodged the arrows with irritating ease.
And as if it had realized that arrows might fly again, it annoyingly hid its body behind a rock.
“Damn it!!”
One soldier grew furious at the disappeared target while trying to shoot his bow again.
If it hid like that, there was no way for them to catch the Goblin Champion from this side.
And if time passed like this, it was clear that they would be the ones to lose.
And if this place, their final stronghold, collapsed…….
That meant the fall of this territory.
It was not simply his own death, but the end of his entire family as well.
Lawrence felt responsibility.
These were precious soldiers of the count’s house, and he had a responsibility to protect not only the soldiers but also the lives and safety of the people of the territory.
“I have to do it.”
Lawrence steeled his wavering heart.
But his feet did not easily move.
Looking at the hundreds of vicious goblins packed below the Barrier Wall, he could not bring himself to break through them.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
At that moment, someone’s scream sounded again.
That meant another soldier had been injured or killed.
At the soldier’s scream, Lawrence hesitated no longer.
He took one deep breath, then kicked off the Barrier Wall and leaped.
“W-What……? Lawrence, where are you going?”
Peter hurriedly called out to Lawrence, but he had already jumped down from the Barrier Wall.
The moment Lawrence’s two feet touched the ground, he swung his sword.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The sword filled with mana mercilessly cut down goblins.
And Lawrence ran.
Straight toward the Goblin Champion.
Lawrence cut down everything that blocked him.
Before long, the gazes of many goblins focused on Lawrence, and another battlefield formed.
Accordingly, the pressure being placed on the soldiers atop the Barrier Wall decreased by far.
The Goblin Champion roared when it saw Lawrence running directly toward it.
“Krararararara.”
Then the pressure of the goblins bearing down on Lawrence became even stronger.
Now they threw themselves at him with no regard for their own lives.
“Ugh.”
No matter how much Lawrence had grown compared to before, he could not block every goblin attack.
In particular, goblins that disregarded defense and charged like dogs with rabies were even harder to deal with.
“Malgeum.”
Lawrence urgently called the water spirit, and the water spirit, receiving Lawrence’s will, froze the ground in an instant.
STAGGER!
CRASH, BANG, THUD!!
The goblins slipped on the ice created beneath their feet, and chaos erupted.
Some flailed their arms while trying not to fall and struck the bastards beside them, while other goblins grabbed nearby comrades in an attempt to keep from falling and toppled over together.
As Lawrence’s level rose and his mana increased, the water spirit had also grown that much.
Malgeum, who had been a lowest-grade spirit, had now evolved into a lower-grade spirit.
Of course, its connection with Lawrence had also become stronger.
Lawrence cut down the fallen goblins as if sweeping dust with a broom.
The goblins’ hot blood splattered across the ice and dyed it bright red.
The stench of blood rushed sharply into his nose, and Lawrence slightly furrowed his brow at that intense smell.
He had thought he had adapted to everything through constant battle, but the smell of blood was not something he could adapt to easily.
As the ice melted from the hot blood the goblins shed while dying, fewer goblins slipped and fell on the ice, so Lawrence quickly swung his sword at the goblin in front of him.
With a time difference so small it could be called simultaneous, he lifted his right foot and kicked the abdomen of another goblin charging from the side.
The body of the goblin kicked by Lawrence seemed to float in the air for a moment, then tangled with a goblin charging from behind and fell.
Lawrence swiftly drove his sword into the neck of the fallen goblin, and he was advancing little by little, drawing closer to the Goblin Champion.
“Kwoooooong.”
The Goblin Champion roared once again at Lawrence as he approached.
But this felt a little different from the roar just before.
To Lawrence, it seemed as though irritation and a slight fear were mixed into the roar.
Pressed by the bastard’s roar, goblins charged at him, but Lawrence, joined with the water spirit, displayed tremendous power.
The goblins were cut away by his sword like leaves in an autumn gale, and behind Lawrence, a straight path formed, with a small ditch made from goblin blood.
At the sight of Lawrence like that, the Goblin Champion felt fear for an instant.
It was only a brief moment, but its control over the goblins faltered slightly, and a narrow but definite path toward the Goblin Champion opened before Lawrence.
And in order not to miss that opportunity, Lawrence ran.
Toward that narrow path, to kill the Goblin Champion.
He cut down every goblin that got in his way.
From the goblins’ bones and flesh crushed beneath his steps, sticky liquid splashed up.
Because of the long battle, his face was stained with blood, and his eyes, covered in blood, emitted a cold light.
Except for his two eyes, which shone with a deep blue light, his whole body was dark red, making him look like a man of blood.
At last, he succeeded in reaching the Goblin Champion.
The Goblin Champion’s reddened eyes glared terrifyingly at Lawrence.
It felt as though he were surrounded by dozens of blades.
He had not realized it when seeing it from a distance, but the Goblin Champion was at least a head taller than an ordinary goblin.
Its build was also incomparably larger.
The longsword it held also looked sturdy and sharp, unlike the crude blades he had seen until now.
He had known it would be strong, but the bastard he faced directly before his eyes was an even greater monster.
The sword hilt grew damp with Lawrence’s sweat.
“Kyaaaaaak.”
The champion goblin roared at Lawrence.
Spittle flew from between the bastard’s huge yellow teeth and touched Lawrence’s face.
“Kieeeeeek.”
Along with that, every goblin on the battlefield shouted as if answering.
Then even the goblins that had been attacking the Barrier Wall turned their backs and looked this way, and soon every goblin rushed toward Lawrence.
THUD THUD THUD—
He felt tremendous pressure from behind.
The pressure alone was enough to make his heart feel numb.
It was killing intent intense enough to make every hair on his body stand on end.
He gripped the sweat-soaked sword hilt even tighter.
There was no time.
He had to kill the Goblin Champion as quickly as possible and break the goblins’ unified coordination.