The goblins before them were displaying tactics that went far beyond anything expected of their kind—the impact was overwhelming.
It wasn’t just Izar who felt a chill run down his spine. Standing beside him, Emma’s eyes—usually filled with focused curiosity or a hint of haughty pride—were now wide and round, her slender hand instinctively covering her mouth as she revealed an expression of utter disbelief.
Luke was even more exaggerated; his mouth hung wide open as he rubbed his eyes hard. “D-did I see that right? Goblins… actually forming ranks? And they’re using shields and coordinating with archers?”
Even Sarah, always composed and elegant, well-traveled and knowledgeable, showed clear shock for the first time on her delicate face, a grave light flashing in her eyes.
The scene before them utterly overturned her understanding of low-ranked monsters.
At that moment, the old village chief stood trembling just inside the east gate. Bathed in the flickering firelight, he saw the formation outside, and all color drained from his already wrinkled face. His thin, bony fingers gripped his cane tightly as his voice quivered, laced with incomprehension and fear:
“N-no… This isn’t right! Those damned beasts… they were cunning before, sure—they knew how to avoid the army—but whenever they attacked, it was always just a chaotic rush… How long has it even been? After the last time the Imperial Army came to wipe them out… they’ve already learned to arrange troops and form ranks?! H-how is that possible?!”
Izar frowned, quickly picking up on the terrifying implication in the old man’s words. “You mean… these goblins learned human tactics by clashing repeatedly with the noble armies?! They’ve actually been imitating and learning?”
Luke scratched his head, a delayed look of horror dawning on his face. He muttered, “Doesn’t that mean… they’re as smart as humans now? No wonder so many adventurer teams suffered heavy losses lately…”
He quickly glanced at Sarah, whose presence was formidable, and spoke with relief: “Thank goodness! Thank goodness we have Senior Sarah here! If it were just us, just seeing this would have our scalps tingling!”
Their shock was not without reason.
In the monster bestiary commonly used throughout the Aure Empire and among adventurers, goblins were generally classified as [F-E rank] ordinary monsters, not just because of their individual weakness, but most critically due to their overall lack of intelligence.
Their behavior was closer to that of beasts, acting on instinct and simple desires.
They lacked any complex tactical thinking; usually, once driven by bloodlust, they would just swarm their target without strategy, unable to avoid traps, undaunted by magical light or explosions. This chaos and stupidity made it possible for experienced low-level adventurers to win by setting traps, using terrain, and precise strikes—defeating many with few.
A seasoned first-tier mage, using terrain and low-level spells with precision, could usually handle three to five ordinary goblins alone.
A second-tier mage, with stronger area spells or more flexible tactics, could even whittle down groups of dozens over time.
As for a third-tier mage—unless there were [D-C rank] elite goblins involved—even facing hundreds of ordinary goblins, they could crush them using their powerful area magic and reserves of mana.
However, once it was proven that goblins—a race infamous for their fertility and numbers—had developed significant intelligence, could cooperate, use basic tactics, and even employ tools and simple magic, then every previous assessment of their threat level and countermeasures would be utterly invalidated!
Imagine thousands of goblins who knew how to form ranks, make sacrifices for cover, use bows and arrows, and even buff each other with magic… They’d no longer be a rabble, but a terrifying army capable of destroying frontier towns!
Sarah narrowed her eyes, her expression becoming more focused and severe than ever before.
Her sharp gaze swept over the dense, wave-like goblin formation surging forward. After a moment, she spoke in a low, steady voice laced with undeniable gravity: “The situation is worse than we imagined. Each of these goblin squads has at least one individual with [D-C rank] elite monster strength, acting as a vanguard or minor leader. And…”
Her gaze shifted past the front row—those goblins brandishing crude shields and letting out harsh, quacking cries—and locked onto a figure at the very rear, conspicuously different, exuding an ominous aura. “…That one at the very back—wearing human-style armor, possibly even equipped with enchanted gear—its mana fluctuations and chilling presence… it’s extremely dangerous. Even I feel uneasy.”
Following Sarah’s gaze, Izar spotted the unusual figure at the rear of the goblin ranks.
It was nearly twice the size of a normal goblin, clad in a suit of metal armor clearly stripped from a human officer or elite soldier, roughly modified but with its original contours still visible. Faint magical glimmers traced its joints—a sure sign of costly enchanted equipment.
In its hand was a twisted bone staff set with a cloudy, dark red gem. Every so often, it pointed in a different direction, barking out sharp, rapid syllables with a rhythmic pattern Izar could not begin to decipher—clearly giving precise orders to the goblin troops!
A goblin leader who knew how to command, was well-equipped, and possibly even capable of wielding magic and magical artifacts?! This was already far beyond what could be considered an ordinary monster!
As everyone reeled from this shocking discovery, the goblin assault surged forward like a black tide.
The shield-bearing goblins at the front let out a unified howl, advancing steadily beneath the sparse and poorly-aimed arrows loosed by villagers atop the watchtower.
In the rear, the goblin archers began a volley, their bone arrows crude but carrying dangerous force as they rained down on the village’s defenses and those behind them.
“We can’t wait any longer!” Sarah decided instantly, displaying the decisiveness of a team leader and a fifth-tier mage.
“The goblin ranks on the left open ground are relatively loose. I’ll use area magic to suppress and clear them. You two handle the right side—goblins using the slope and debris for cover. Protect the villagers and yourselves. Prioritize archers and casters!”
Before she finished speaking, Sarah was already moving.
Her hands came together before her chest, mana surging wildly around her. The very air responded, wind elements gathering like subjects summoned by a monarch, building an oppressive elemental force.
Her golden hair floated on an unfelt breeze, shimmering like sunlight. Her emerald eyes blazed with pure, potent magical power—her entire presence transforming, sharp as a drawn sword.
“Fourth-tier spell—Tempest Gale!”
With her clear, resonant chant, a colossal tornado whirled into being before her, howling as it swept up sand, broken wood, and leaves—an unstoppable serpent of destruction crashing fiercely into the goblin lines on the left!
Where the tornado passed, deep trenches were gouged in the earth. Goblins holding crude shields were shredded and tossed skyward by the crushing winds and spinning debris—their screams drowned out by the storm’s deafening roar.
In the blink of an eye, this fourth-tier magic seemed about to clear the entire left flank of goblins like a reaper’s scythe.
“Amazing!” Luke was so excited he nearly jumped, his face shining with absolute adoration. “Senior Sarah is incredible! With this kind of power, she doesn’t even need us! These small fry aren’t even enough for her to handle alone!”
Emma breathed a small sigh of relief, her grip on her staff relaxing as she nodded in agreement.
Against ordinary goblins, the might of a fourth-tier spell should have been absolute, overwhelming.
Yet what happened next made their hearts seize up once more, pupils shrinking as if they’d just witnessed the most impossible sight.
Just as the raging tornado was about to obliterate the goblin line on the left—
A sharp, commanding screech rang out from the rear of the goblin formation.
In the next instant, three massive goblins, their bodies rippling with muscle like living stone, skin a dark iron-gray, eyes glowing with wild red light, leaped from the ranks!
They roared thunderously, not dodging or fleeing, but charging headlong—like suicide warriors—directly into the heart of the fourth-tier tempest, strong enough to maim or even tear apart C-rank elite monsters!
But even more frightening, as these three [C-rank] elite goblins hurled themselves into the storm, over a dozen goblin shamans behind them raised their bone staves and chanted guttural, twisted incantations.
Sickly, blood-tinged magical light snaked out like warped tentacles, linking them precisely to the three elite goblins!
In an instant, the trio’s skin gleamed with a stone-like hardness, their muscles bulged grotesquely, veins standing out like earthworms. Their auras became even more savage and primal.
They’d been instantly blessed with layers of Stone Skin, Might, and Berserk buffs!
“BOOM——!!!”
The three enhanced elite goblins crashed headlong into the core of the raging tempest!
Magic and brute flesh collided with an earth-shaking blast!
Razor wind blades sliced wildly at their multi-layered magical defenses, sparking blinding flashes and grating, metallic screeches.
Using their own bodies as shields, they clawed, rammed, and bit ferociously. By sheer force of stacked magic and suicidal recklessness, they carved out a brief, unstable pocket within the tornado, drastically weakening and stalling its destructive power!
Though they were instantly covered in bone-deep wounds, their dark green blood spurting like fountains—two even lost an arm or half a shoulder—still, they did not fall like the ordinary goblins, not killed in an instant!
Through grievous injury and near self-destruction, they barely held back the first, fiercest wave of the fourth-tier spell!
The tornado’s power was dispersed. While it still slaughtered many ordinary goblins, it failed to completely rout the left flank as hoped.
Emma and Luke gasped at the same time, eyes wide as bronze bells, faces full of the most intense shock and disbelief—as if their entire worldview had been overturned.
“How… how is that possible?!” Luke’s voice trembled.
Sarah’s brow knitted tightly, the gravity in her gaze nearly becoming tangible.
Things were indeed progressing in the most troublesome and unwanted direction.
These goblins had not only gained intelligence—they’d learned sacrifice and coordination, able to use such brutal tactics to counter overwhelming power!
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