Bang! Bang!
Fwoooosh!!!!
The loud noise echoed through the abandoned mine. Black smoke flowed up through the passage, and Jose ran his hand along the ceiling. Rowan copied him for no particular reason. He could reach it with a slight jump.
'It's pitch black. What is it?'
Rowan didn't know what it was, even after seeing it. He thought some kind of toxic gas was rising.
Thud! Thud!
Jose suddenly started digging into the cave wall. The other mercenaries skillfully helped. Just as the goblins used the bumpy cave walls, the mercenaries did the same. Adopting the useful tactics of enemies they'd faced was humanity's specialty.
After squeezing into the alcove and roughly blocking it with dirt, Jose spoke.
"Phew, my throat's parched."
"Ugh, my back. Put too much force into it."
It was break time. Since the dirt crumbled easily, a space was prepared in an instant, making this possible. Rowan also sat down and caught his breath. It was a bit stuffy, but the tension eased, and as the heat started cooling with sweat, he even felt cold.
The underground chill passed through his clothes and touched his skin.
Only then could he relax.
"Captain, what do you think?"
While wetting his throat with water, at the mercenary's words, Jose carefully wiped his bow with an oiled cloth and started tending to the arrows in his quiver. He pulled at the arrow fletching, and if any were split, he took out new ones from his leather pouch and replaced them.
"There are many entrances to the abandoned mines in Black Mountain Village. They're definitely divided among them. The fact that a goblin sentry was alone inside means there aren't many here. So the answer is they're spread out."
"Some groups must've already seen blood."
"Probably."
Rowan kept his mouth shut and listened intently to their conversation while wetting his throat. Water kept entering his mouth. Even while seized by impulse, he forced himself to take exactly five sips, then forcibly tied the leather pouch and hung it on his belt.
'Didn't even move that much, but my throat's burning.'
Thinking that, he checked his weapons. A shortsword, a round shield, and three throwing daggers were all he had. There was also a leather pouch containing emergency medicine and bandages. Since the supplies they'd brought were hidden in the forest brush, there was no other baggage.
"Survive on your own."
Jose said that while busy checking his equipment. The other mercenaries also looked after themselves. One mercenary kissed a goddess pendant on his necklace and prayed.
"O Goddess of Light. Grant me light as I slay monsters."
The prayer's voice turned into a murmur. Rowan kept recalling the layout of the mine they'd seen on the way. He ran simulations of movement, thinking about the spacing and height.
'The mine is narrow.'
It was a passage where seven mercenaries couldn't stand side by side, and only three could swing swords. Rowan would definitely be sent to the back. But Rowan really wanted to experience real combat. When there were reliable mercenaries around, he had to take the opportunity.
Otherwise, he'd have to face it alone later.
He steeled his resolve. He imagined several ways to rush in.
"Let's go."
When Jose spoke, the mercenaries loosened their bodies and followed him outside. The goblin torches were still lighting the mine's passage.
Clang! Clang!
Strange sounds kept coming. No one spoke about it, meaning everyone understood without saying. Because the sound echoed, Rowan couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.
'What are they hammering?'
It was hard to imagine. This was his first time in a place like this, and his first combat with goblins. He planned to watch what happened first and play it by ear. The mercenaries also seemed to have a mentality of doing whatever without any tactics.
They were uneducated swordsmen showing their lack of formal training.
"Sargagar (firepower)! Kemitu Nurm (fire big)!"
About a dozen goblins were at the end of the mine passage. A few goblins were trying to mine ore that wasn't even a big chunk, some were lounging around a campfire, and others were hammering to craft weapons and armor.
Beside them, they kept blowing oxygen into a pit with a separately lit fire to help melt the ore. The rounded, enclosed furnace looked like it easily exceeded a thousand degrees.
Meaning it could at least melt copper, which meant they could possess metal weapons even if made from crude ore.
Jose, who'd counted the numbers, stuck his bow in his belt, spread his hand flat, then opened five fingers again.
'Fifteen.'
A lot. Easily double their number, but the mercenaries didn't waver.
Creak.
Since the goblins were doing all sorts of activities—sleeping, resting, working—no one heard Jose drawing his bow. Jose, who appeared from the curve in the passage, shot an arrow without hesitation.
Swoosh! Thwack!
"Gack! ...Guh... Guegh! Gack!"
Gasping for air, the goblin staggered and hit the wall, then knelt. With trembling hands, it fumbled and touched the arrow in its neck. It tried to breathe but couldn't, because the arrow had precisely plugged the breathing hole in its neck, and blood kept entering its lungs.
It opened its mouth to breathe, but blood just flowed in, drowning it.
At the choking sounds, the goblins made a commotion and alerted everyone that enemies had appeared.
The one who'd been hammering, the ones sleeping or resting, the one boiling food on the campfire, the one adding heat to melt crude ore—without exception, they all jumped up and rushed toward the humans, grabbing whatever weapons they could find.
"Huff! Huff! Fuck!"
A mercenary spat out a thick curse. Rowan frowned at that outburst. He could feel the tremendous fear in the curse beneath the excited appearance. Only then could Rowan understand that mercenary.
The terrible fear of a situation where blood would spurt from his own body.
It was a cry steeped in fear of weapons that would cut through his flesh, unable to think about the opponent. Only those who hadn't experienced sharp combat would think it was just frivolity.
The trauma of killing an opponent couldn't fit into this situation. When you could only live by killing, when the opponent desperately came to kill you, consideration for the opponent and the preciousness of life didn't even matter.
That was the grim reaper that came in peace after combat ended. It couldn't appear in this situation shrouded in death.
"Kiyaaaah!!!"
The goblins all charged. When fifteen rushed to fill the passage, Rowan couldn't help but be scared. He just stood there frozen, but the mercenary behind him screamed and yelled, smoothly extending his mace over his ally's shield and moving his body roughly, so being pushed by that, Rowan snapped back to his senses.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
Jose shot arrows in rapid succession. Starting from the goblins' arms to their thighs and necks, arrows hit everywhere he aimed. It was archery with near-perfect accuracy.
"Uwaaaah!!!!"
The mercenaries cheered seeing goblins fall. Jose grabbed three arrows between his fingers and shot them instantly, firing one per second while falling back. In between, he grabbed three more and shot them.
The rushing goblins lost balance as arrows tangled in their arms, staggered, and fell sideways or pitched forward and smashed their noses.
"Gack!"
The arrow's impact was tremendous. Having seen how carefully Jose treasured it, Rowan could tell his bow was expensive.
Seven died in an instant, and the remaining goblins rushed at the shields.
"Kiyak!"
"Grugh!"
The goblin that rushed and clung to the shield staggered but swung its weapon with amazing balance.
"Kill! Kill! Kill them!!!"
The mercenary holding the shield and enduring screamed. The mercenaries behind or beside him swung their weapons without hesitation to cut or strike the hands gripping the shield.
"Passsimoraaaa!!!"
As the mercenaries holding shields staggered, gaps appeared, and a goblin pushed through. The mercenary's knee precisely struck upward at the short goblin's jaw.
"Gack."
The goblin's teeth flew into the air as blood burst out and sprayed in a line. It couldn't even make a loud sound.
Rowan swallowed hard.
It was literally a melee. He didn't even dare throw a dagger. He was scared he'd hit an ally.
"Hagh!"
Meanwhile, a goblin bit into one mercenary's neck with its teeth and climbed onto his upper body, sending him falling straight backward.
'I have to save him!'
That was his only thought. It was the morality and ethics he'd learned while living as a modern person. Ordinary John, who attended kindergarten and school while being taught the idea of saving others, jumped in without thinking.
Rowan's shield crashed right into the goblin's body. He charged in a straight line but hit from the side, so the goblin literally tumbled in a mess and slammed into the wall.
"A-are you okay?"
The mercenary cursed and yelled at Rowan.
"You little shit! You gotta finish it!"
'Oh no!'
Rowan reflexively raised his shield and sent his weight forward while putting strength in his core. Rowan's mastery of martial arts, faithfully learned from Rakson, was literally faster than his brain.
Clang!
A dull sound rang from the shield. He precisely blocked the goblin's crude ore club. Since he even thrust his weight forward, Rowan received no shock at all. The force from Rowan's body moving forward and the force from the goblin's club collided with each other, giving Rowan minimal recoil or damage.
"Haaap!"
Rowan's shortsword, continuing like lightning, cut the goblin's arm. The goblin screamed in pain and fell sideways. Rowan kicked its leg. Its body instantly turned about thirty degrees, and the goblin's head moved closer to Rowan.
"You bastard!"
Rowan, filled with rage that it had attacked him, struck its skull and rushed in to stab his shortsword into its neck.
Though the sword stabbed into its neck, the goblin struggled and tried to grab, tear at, and push Rowan's arms and body.
Crack!
Rowan put his weight into it and literally severed the neck. In seconds, the goblin went limp and died. As he raised his body, Rowan could feel his strangely calm heart.
He was seized by a strange sensation where the situation itself came in clearly.
Swish, swish, swish!
Throwing daggers flew through the air. Even in the midst of the melee, they hit perfectly, stabbing into goblins' necks, arms, and thighs.
"Ugh."
"Ack."
"Gugh!"
As three stiffened, they were immediately cut by mercenaries' weapons or struck by shields. Just that tipped the scales.
The fight didn't even take ten minutes, but the mercenaries were panting like crazy. Because of tremendous excitement and using their bodies intensely, and most of all, struggling desperately to live, they'd exhausted all their strength.
"Who threw the daggers?"
Among the mercenaries, especially those who'd fought two-on-one, looked for the mercenary who'd helped them and pulled out the daggers, but they were ones they'd never seen.
"These aren't ours?"
Their eyes turned to Rowan. When Rowan reached out asking for the daggers, the mercenaries handed them over without a word. Their eyes were complicated.
'What?'
Rowan recalled the strange calmness and tremendous confidence when throwing those daggers. Now it was gone like a mirage.
"Dead guys!"
Meanwhile, Jose shouted.
"None!"
"Injured guys!"
"Me! Fuck!"
They were busy snickering about whether they'd made bets on who'd get hurt, saying your bar tab's done for.
"Phew!"
Only then could Rowan relax. Jose hit Rowan's shoulder. He apparently didn't see Rowan help the mercenary and loudly bragged to him.
"One goblin? Well, well, became quite the bragging point. Puhaha!"
The corpses weren't just abandoned. Goblin clothes weren't useless. Even the really worn ones were stripped of everything except the body, apparently to use as the mercenary group's rags. They also didn't forget to butcher the goblins.
Having never seen goblins treated as monsters before, watching the scene of butchering them for the first time, Rowan frowned heavily. A mercenary glanced at him, giggled, and gestured.
"Can you see properly from that far away? Come here."
It was one of the mercenaries who'd been pulling out Rowan's daggers, looking for their owner.
"Ah, yes."
"Butchering goblins isn't hard. The hide's just a bit thicker than human, and they're low on fat, so if you keep the blade of a cheap dagger well-sharpened, you can cut easily."
The mercenary spoke while cutting straight from below the goblin's throat to the end of its belly with a dagger. Then he grabbed both sides with both hands and ripped. Blood splattered forward at Rowan, who stood there frozen, covering him completely.
"Uwagh! Ptoo!!!"
"Kahahaha!"