“Liz, stand back. These Kobolds are quite skilled.”

Liz’s Dad (temporary) held his Saber out in front of him, while the other Werecat warriors slowly took their places, weapons drawn, half-surrounding us…

“Gurua, gauoonn.” (Chief, we’re surrounded.)

“Gaoan? Kuon.” (What are we going to do, big brother?)

Nggghh… Should we do a tactical retreat before these Werecat warriors surround us? Looking at how the situation was turning out, we might have to consider the option of just leaving these Werecats alone and returning to our settlement.

However, those G’s would continue to attack villages indiscriminately as their numbers keep increasing with each raid, and if the threat becomes too great, then the Adventurer’s Guild will host an extermination expedition consisting of numerous parties of adventurers to wipe them out in one swoop.

(It doesn’t mean that the pack will definitely be safe, but if we don’t do anything now…)

Seeing that we were about to leave, Liz stood between us and the Werecat warriors.

“Put down your weapon, dad. And you guys too!”

“Liz, what are you…” 

Obeying Liz’s order, we stopped pointing our blades at our opponents as we lowered them to the ground and relaxed our tense postures. Seeing this, Liz’s Dad (temporary) choked on his words.

“…Everyone put down your weapons. We don’t need to fight them anymore.”

After a few moments of observation, the Werecat warriors determined that we had no intentions to attack and they similarly removed the weapons pointed at us and lowered them to the ground. It seems that Liz’s Dad (temporary) was the one leading them.

“Barrack, you too.”

“… Tsk.”

The Werecat warrior who got a taste of Dagger’s right uppercut was somewhat displeased, but he obeyed and lowered his weapon reluctantly.

After observing that our opponents had relaxed their stance, we sheathed our weapons, except for Lancer who had to carry her Spear. The Werecats also did the same and sheathed their weapons one-by-one.

Seeing that the standoff had ended peacefully, the numerous Werecats behind them also calmed down.

And like this, we were finally in a position to talk things over.

……………

………

…

“Thank you for saving our daughter.”

“Thank you very much.”

Liz’s Father, Wallace, and her mother, Ermina, bowed their heads. Relief was etched all across Liz’s face, as she sat next to them after she confirmed that her worried parents were safe and unharmed. Currently, the riverside had become the gathering point for all the Werecats who had fled, and they sat along the river bank gathered around with their families.

The sun had already gone down, but there was no campfire lit since their kind could see at night as long as there was moonlight. Besides, they may also be trying to avoid having their whereabouts revealed by the smoke. 

Since they could not make a fire, cooking any prey they hunted was out of the question, so the dinner consisted of berries and other fruits foraged from Easteria Forest. Liz, who sat beside me, also held a fruit that was handed to her by Ermina.

Well, it was normal for us Kobolds to eat our food without cooking it through a fire, so the rest of my companions went to procure their dinner on the north side of the forest which was across the river.

I was left alone to mingle with Liz’s family.  And so, using my beloved stencil, I wrote on the ground to decide our next move.

“Where is the leader of your clowder?”

“Dad, is the Village Chief around?”

“No, he probably went to Wyald village to seek aid.”

Considering the time it would take for him to secure any aid and then plan their movements and travel, I could not rely on the reinforcements to arrive in time. Realistically, by the time the earliest reinforcements arrive the Goblins would have long disappeared into the forest.

“Then who leads the Werecat warriors?”

“If it’s the head of the village warriors, then it’s my father.”

I had the feeling that her father was the leader earlier based on the earlier interaction in the forest, and I was right after all…

“Around how many warriors are there?”

“Ahh, if you include my daughter, then there are 19 warriors.”

Hmm, including us, that makes it 23 warriors… I do have my intermediate magic, and considering that most of the Goblins are weak individually, we could take out about 50 of them, so the problem is the 3 Goblin variants and the 8 Werecat women they captured. If we were not careful with this, then they could be used against us as hostages. 

As I considered what to do, I momentarily locked eyes with Wallace, who sat facing me.

“…Well, let me ask you this, you knew the state of the village and the enemy forces when you came here, didn’t you?”

“Wauh.” (Yes.)

“Can you tell us about it?”

“Come to think of it, I haven’t heard of it either, Archer.”

There was no reason to hide it from them, so I wrote on the ground when they prompted me for information.

“Over 50 Goblins are camping inside the village right now, and they have captured about 8 Werecat women.” 

“…It is really unfortunate, but we probably can’t save those people.”

“Can we really not do anything for them, Dear?”

The couple’s faces clouded over as they contemplated the fate of their captive brethren. Liz, who could not stand such a scene, tugged at my fur and asked,

“Hey, is it really impossible for us to rescue the captives?”

Hmm, there was the option of waiting for it to get dark and launching a night raid. In that case, since the number of enemies that could respond to the attack would be quite small, thus we could create a situation where we destroy them one by one.

However, the Goblins would naturally be alert for any night attack, and there was a high possibility that they would use the captured women as hostages. So if we failed in the ambush, then we would be caught in a standoff.

But if we wanted to prioritize rescuing the captives over destroying them, then it would be necessary for us to reach the girls in a flash. In that case, then we have to ambush the Goblins when they are on the move back towards their base and use the break in their ranks to extract their captives. 

At that time, if we destroy the Greatsword-wielding Goblin leading them, then there would be no chances of pursuit by the other party.

“I can’t guarantee that we can successfully secure them, but……”

“Eh, you can do it?”

“Where did those Goblins originally come from?”

“Hmm, they were originally spotted in the east woods.”

I unfolded the map and followed a tributary of the Sherna River that runs near Lucua Village to the east. Even if they are Goblins, as long as they are living beings, then they cannot escape from the curse of needing a water source to survive either, so although I am just using that as a guideline, I already had an idea where their base was.

Moreover, as soon as they depart from Lucua village if we follow their path and make informed guesses, then we would be able to set up an ambush attack.

“Wallace, I have a suggestion.”

If there was a possibility of rescuing their captive brethren and decreasing the threat of Goblins by whittling down their numbers, then this was worth considering as the head warrior of Lucua village…