The environment itself had not changed, but for the young men and women, the battle was just as grueling.
That was because those goblins could change their tactics.
For example, at the very beginning, they had learned their lesson and avoided the traps. Thus, they had not drawn in the first wave of patrolling goblins. But when they were rescuing people, everyone had still failed to remain calm—they had followed their previous experience and watched Kaori's left and right sides, guarding against goblins charging in from the side using the same old trick. Yet this time, the goblins had hidden behind the victim.
When the short sword pierced through the victim's body and stabbed toward Kaori's lower abdomen, Kaori had been completely unable to react at first. Fortunately, her ponytailed friend had reacted in time and grabbed Kaori, pulling her away. Only then had the Priestess Girl been spared the agony of being disemboweled again.
Although the guards had hurriedly dealt with the goblin afterward, that woman had still failed to escape death.
It was a truly awful feeling.
When they arrived at the other side of the tunnel again, they had learned their lesson this time and come up with an entirely different idea.
Since the goblins could use this secret passage to ambush us, then we could use it to ambush them too!
The excited group quickly settled on a plan. Then Ama-no-kawa Kōki led several small-statured melee fighters into the secret passage, while the others continued onward ahead. They agreed that as soon as Ama-no-kawa Kōki ambushed the goblins, they would immediately move out and strike those monsters from both sides.
There definitely wouldn't be a problem this way.
Walking through the narrow secret passage, Ama-no-kawa Kōki held her torch high, brimming with confidence. They had only