Immediately, I distributed my status points just as I had done earlier: my Agility rose to 13 and my Stamina to 12. At that point, I already felt like an Olympic athlete. It had to be this way if I wanted to stay alive fighting against such agile creatures.
Searching the goblin's body, I once again found a bit of dried meat and water in a canteen; no stones this time. I drank the water and ate some of the meat, storing the rest in the pouch I had stolen from the first goblin. I didn't know when I would find food again, so I decided to ration it.
As for the goblins' corpses, I decided to leave them behind. I wouldn't risk eating their meat unless it was cooked or roasted; it could contain many bacteria, and there didn't seem to be a hospital nearby to help me in case of an intestinal infection. I will only eat monsters in an absolute emergency.
I continued walking in the same direction with great caution. Initially, I expected to find another goblin soon, but it didn't happen. I kept walking for hours and found nothing. I was starting to get worried; that field simply had no end, and my only source of supplies was a handful of dried meat and a canteen of water.
After three hours of walking, I spotted a group of goblins, but they weren't as poorly equipped as the first two I killed. This was likely the main scouting party; the two I killed earlier were the vanguard, light on gear to move faster.
There were five goblins. All of them wore leather armor and chainmail: there were two with sword and shield, one with a club, one with a large spear, and one with a bow and arrow.
Damn, in the state I'm in, fighting them would be asking to die.
Intending to remain hidden, I made a detour to the left, taking care to stay well away, as I feared the goblin archer might have some detection skill. My evasion skill doesn't give me enough confidence to face an entire group. The best strategy would be to separate the members of the group and kill them one by one.
I observed them from a distance. They were clearly following the trail of the other two I killed earlier, but after about half an hour of walking, they stopped to rest, and the archers moved away to scout further ahead.
"So I was right about their skill."
To my surprise, after that, they turned back the way I had come and headed east at a slow pace. They performed the same routine and then headed west. Basically, they patrolled an area of about 5 km, going back and forth, and then resting for 10 minutes.
When they stopped to rest, it was the perfect time to attack. They would be unprepared and without their weapons, so it would take them time to fight back. I can run faster than any goblin, but I can't run faster than arrows. So, I had a clear objective: kill the archers before the rest of the group realized I was there.
This would be the first time I would attack at a disadvantage, but there was no other alternative. Soon that handful of dried meat would run out along with the water, and if I wanted to survive, I needed to kill them to level up and loot their bodies.
In less than two hours, they stopped to rest again. The archers began their routine of scanning the horizon while the warriors—exhausted from their heavy equipment—disarmed themselves and ate their rations with water.
This was the moment. I crept stealthily toward the farthest goblin archer; everything depended on me killing him without alerting the others so I could then move on to kill the second one. Without long-range attacks, I could hit them and run; I could do that for hours until they were all dead.
Just as I was almost reaching a safe position for the attack, a cry came from the sky. A gigantic eagle swooped down and snatched one of the shield goblins resting on the plain. The attack was so fast that I barely had time to process what had happened.
The archer I planned to kill suddenly turned in my direction, making me jump, but luckily, his eyes were on the sky. With a hideous grunt, he notched an arrow in his bow.
"It's now or never," I thought.
With sword in hand, I dashed toward him. The startled monster still managed to shift the aim of his bow toward me, but it was already too late. I drove the steel through his chest and fell over him, hoping to remain hidden from the other goblins and those giant eagles.
The creature, even while agonizing with the sword in his chest, still tried to bite my face, but failed; in a few seconds, he stopped moving. No notification came this time, but I didn't notice, as I was more interested in observing the chaotic situation the pack was in.
In the sky, the desperate goblin screamed as he was carried away. The second archer aimed confidently at the animal; as soon as he drew the bow, the arrow traced a parabola in the sky, and on its descent, it hit the eagle in its left wing. It kept flying but was losing altitude. It must have realized this quickly, as it dropped the goblin, who fell screaming. The eagle regained altitude and retreated.
Two other eagles still hovered high above, out of reach of the goblin's arrows, who nonetheless seemed obsessed, aiming and firing almost non-stop. The other two remaining warriors protected themselves as best they could, one wielding his spear and the other his shield.
I didn't just stand there watching the action. I slinked closer to the archer, hoping his arrows would run out soon. But on second thought, he was the only one keeping the eagles away. What chance would I have against those flying monsters?
However, I worried for nothing; the eagles gave up their hunt. Apparently, the goblin's strategy wasn't actually to kill them, but to scare them off.
"Too bad for you that there's someone worse right here by your side."
I attacked him just as he fired his last arrow. He barely noticed my presence; the cut was clean, severing his head, which hit the ground with a dull thud. His limp body followed the same path, and a notification that sounded like music appeared in my vision:
[You have reached Level 3] [The Player has received 5 Status Points]
I felt a surge of energy through my body again, and the pain from my injuries subsided significantly, though my fatigue remained. I invested again in Agility and Stamina; both were now at 15. I would need every bit of energy possible; the battle wasn't over yet.
The other two warriors soon noticed my presence, and now, full of confidence, I decided I wouldn't run. The spear-wielding goblin let out a scream and charged forward, perhaps irritated at being helpless all that time against the eagles.
He unleashed a series of thrusts toward my chest, but now, with more than double the agility I had at the start, his strikes seemed slow to my eyes. With a cry of frustration, he intensified his attacks, but it was a mistake; I found an opening and applied a vertical strike to his right shoulder, slicing down toward his chest.
To my misfortune, the Spearman wore thick chainmail under his leather clothes, so he didn't suffer a fatal wound. However, given the "crack" sound that echoed upon impact, I assume I broke his collarbone; he now held the spear loosely.
I attacked him again, and he barely managed two parries before his spear fell to the ground. I was ready to deliver the killing blow when I saw a blade in my peripheral vision and leapt away. I was hit in the left arm—a deep cut—but thanks to my agility, the wound wasn't to my neck.
I had let myself get carried away by the chance to finish the Spearman and neglected the other goblin, who had waited patiently for an opportunity to kill me. Apparently, some goblins possess remarkable intelligence.
Now the Shield Goblin was protecting the Spearman, while the latter propped his spear over the first one's shoulder. A strategy that would have been perfect if done at the start of the fight, but the Spearman's fury had made things easier for me.
Blood poured down my arm, signaling that I needed to end this fast. The only way would be to kill the Shield Goblin first. A bold idea formed in my mind.
I let out a shout and ran toward the pair, who held their defensive position firmly. Upon reaching their range, the Spearman gave a clumsy thrust, and I parried the attack with such force that the spear was sent flying. The second goblin had a glint of malice in his eyes, as if he had expected that.
He moved the shield aside and struck with his steel sword, ready to catch me in my momentum. He seemed to smile with the anticipation of shattering my bones, but his joy was cut short: the goblin's blade passed through my body without any resistance, as if it had hit a cloud.
'Evasion Skill successfully activated'
Without the protection of the shield and with his guard wide open, I thrust the tip of my sword into his throat. He made a gurgling sound and, without wasting time, I gave him a kick to the chest, freeing my sword and sending both monsters to the ground. He was still thrashing as arterial blood spurted from his trachea; it was a grotesque sight.
"Choke on your own blood, you bastard."
Without a second glance at the agonizing goblin, I went toward the one I had disarmed. He screamed and put his hands in front of his face as if begging for mercy, but he found none there. I drove the tip of my sword into his skull, and the screams stopped.