The elves had already left, so the protective and warning barriers that should have surrounded the fortress had vanished with time. As a result, aside from Lin Yun and the other medium-armored units, everyone else could easily climb the tree. The most agile was naturally the Halfling Ranger. Like a gecko, she scrambled up the side of the stronghold—which was formed from the trunk of a massive tree—with ease, then hid and flashed Lin Yun and the others an OK sign.
Next came the others, though it wasn't quite so easy. The Elf Magician was the second to climb up, thanks to the elves' expertise at tree-climbing.
She stumbled a little, but at least the Elf Magician hadn't embarrassed herself too badly. Well, not too badly.
Next was Lin Yun's Female Mage, but... clearly, she was a girl who had grown up in the city. She'd never had the chance to do something like climb a tree. Besides, she was a Wizard—she had to be graceful.
So... halfway up, she lost her grip and fell straight down, landing right on top of the Goddess Priestess, who was next in line to climb.
Not that anyone was particularly disappointed. The wall was quite high, after all. Since this had once been a fortress, it stood at least ten meters tall.
Fortunately, both girls wore light armor, so their fall didn't make much noise. The Elf Magician had somehow managed to cast Feather Fall with perfect timing, allowing the Female Mage to land safely on the Goddess Priestess. At least neither of them screamed.
...All right, it seemed those novels were right when they described elves as always leaping lightly and gracefully down from trees. It wasn't a matter of skill or race after all. It turned out they were using Feather Fall.
Aha, I think I've just figured something out.
The Halfling Ranger looked down at the thoroughly embarrassed Female Mage and Goddess Priestess, scratched her head, then took a coil of rope from a pouch and tossed it down. After all, they were Steel-rank Adventurers, so they'd come prepared.
The rope made things a lot easier.
That done, everyone except the Female Paladin, Lin Yun, the young warrior, and the centaur climbed up. Their job now was to keep attacking.
The young warrior's heavy crossbow went to the human Priest, while the Bard was on watch and couldn't use a crossbow to attack. Lin Yun and the others were ready to charge in at any moment.
The attack began. It was noon, which was more or less the middle of the night to goblins, so nearly all of them were asleep. Only four goblins were awake.
Looking down from the top of the tree trunk, the Halfling Ranger couldn't help sucking in a breath. She wiped her forehead as she realized there were at least forty goblins on the ground beneath the tree. Even more frightening, there were over three Giant Goblins. And those were only the ones visible from the trunk; there were more farther inside, and possibly even a leader among them.
What saddened the Halfling Ranger was that there were practically no girls left on the ground. If anything, only parts of their bodies or their bones remained. Clearly, the goblins had devoured nearly all the girls.
Well, not quite. One woman had been left as bait, and she was nearly dead. She was probably the missing girl from the village. But with so many goblins around, and Lin Yun's warning in mind, the Halfling Ranger didn't get too worked up this time.
If Goblin Slayer had been there, he might have figured out that there were no shamans or particularly clever goblins here. Goblin shamans and the like were usually fairly intelligent and understood the importance of sustainable growth. Human women had to be kept alive, so they'd usually order the goblins not to ruin their "toys" or kill the women carelessly. But this tribe didn't care at all. They'd followed their own savage instincts and done something unforgivable.
And soon, driven by the need to reproduce, they would launch another large-scale raid on more people.
If the Steel-rank team hadn't come here to die, and Goblin Slayer hadn't dropped from the sky, perhaps...
The two female mages nodded. The Female Mage would take one target, while the Elf Magician would take two. The Goddess Priestess and the Priest would handle one, and the Halfling Ranger would finish off any survivors. If anyone missed, Lin Yun, the Bard, and even the Female Paladin had to be ready to provide support. In short, they couldn't let the goblins wake up too soon.
Since everyone above had to keep their attention on the goblins, Lin Yun and the others had to stay quiet, or they'd wake them. Once the battle started in earnest, their voices might not carry anyway. So command was temporarily handed to the Elf Magician, who was theoretically the oldest... Ahem. She was an elf, after all; in any world, elves were among the longest-lived humanoid races.
At the Elf Magician's signal, the two female mages began casting. Both used Magic Missile, but the Elf Magician was more powerful than the Female Mage. She fired five missiles instead of three, which was why she could take two targets.
The two women held out one hand, and blue magical orbs sprang from their palms, twisting along strange curves. They looked as if they'd missed, but in fact they struck the targets they'd locked onto with their minds. Three goblins were hit. They were holding weapons and shields, yawning and looking half-asleep, but at least they were awake.
The Female Mage's three Magic Missiles hit one goblin. Two struck its head from either side almost simultaneously, before it could react, making it look like a squashed sandwich. The last, rather pitiful missile struck one of its fingers. The pain was so intense the goblin nearly cried out on instinct, but unfortunately for it, it had already lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, the first goblin targeted by the Elf Magician was hit by one Magic Missile in the chest and another in the shoulder. The last missile struck it right in the mouth as it instinctively opened it to shout. It fell over at once. As for the other goblin, one Magic Missile hit its stomach and another its foot, but this time they weren't enough to knock it down.
Just as everyone began to panic, an arrow flew out and struck the goblin in the chest. No one knew if it had pierced the creature's heart, but it fell successfully, allowing everyone to breathe a little easier.
At almost the same time, the two girls, the Goddess Priestess and the Priest, began firing their crossbows. It was... a little bloody.
Who would've thought the seemingly gentle Goddess Priestess could be... Ahem. All right.
As always, the Goddess Priestess closed her eyes at the very moment she pulled the trigger, as if praying for the gods' forgiveness. Then she fired. Her bolt struck the last goblin right in the skull, pinning it to the wall. Nearly half the bolt sank into its head. The Priest's bolt only hit the goblin's hand, causing a little damage.
The first stage of the operation was over for the moment. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. The real action was about to begin.
All the goblins that had still been awake were now unconscious, so the people above could start cutting them down. As an aside, firing from a higher position gave them a +1 situational bonus to hit, so their accuracy was excellent.
The Elf Magician was an elf, after all. Though she hadn't brought a crossbow, she took out a longbow and showed that all those long years hadn't been spent simply becoming the oldest shut-ins around.
Under the Elf Magician's direction—or rather, under the guidance of Lin Yun, who had a severe firepower deficiency phobia—they split into two groups. Each group would focus fire on one target, chosen by the Elf Magician. The Elf Magician, Goddess Priestess, and Female Mage made up the more accurate group; the other consisted of the Ranger and the Priest. As agreed, the Bard kept watch in case anything else happened.
Several rounds passed just like that. Since the goblins on the ground were lying down, they were technically in a prone position, which should have given them an advantage against ranged attacks. After all, modern combatants hit the ground as soon as a battle began for a reason.
That was true when dodging attacks fired on a level trajectory, but not when the attackers were above you. In that case, being prone offered no advantage unless there was something to hide behind. In fact, the goblins were even easier to hit.
As a result, after one round of concentrated fire, most of the goblins who were supposed to die did. Without anyone noticing, at least ten goblins had already been killed.
While they slept. Still, even though everything was going smoothly, not everything in the world went according to plan. The crossbow team above was doing very well, and the arrows lodged in the goblins didn't make them bleed much. At first, the stench of goblin waste and sweat covered the smell, so no one noticed. But as the blood began to spread, much like a girl's "sacred water," the goblins' sense of smell was alerted.
At least three goblins suddenly woke up, dazed, as if they'd gotten up for a late-night piss. They weren't actually there to relieve themselves; they'd smelled something suspicious.
A chorus of goblin cries rang out, and the once-quiet fortress was no longer peaceful.
Before you continue