David had already seen goblins in his first life, although from very far away, and he could recognize their mana signature. So once he walked into the woods, he focused his mind, quickly locking on some not too far from them.
But something troubled him. There were only three or four there.
And they seemed to circle the same zone repeatedly. As they started walking toward that area, David whispered to the others.
"There are four of them up ahead. Three of them seem to be looking for something, and the last one is in a tree, acting as a lookout. We will need to take them out rapidly, lest they cry out and call back up. This will allow us to thin their numbers before we reach their camp."
Jack pulled out a cylindrical object from a pocket on his tactical vest. When he started screwing it on the tip of his rifle, David understood what it was.
"Point me where the lookout is. I will take him out when you go for the others."
David nodded, pointing in the approximate direction of the goblin lookout. His mana sense wasn't very refined, as he had a very low affinity for it, so it wasn't as precise as he wanted.
But when Jack propped the underside of his rifle on a nearby tree stump, he rapidly scanned the tree line and found his target.
"Found him. When you go after the others, just whistle sharply. I'll hear you and he'll be out before he can open his mouth."
David agreed with this move. A Goblin in trees would be hard to pin down, but a marksman might not have that problem.
Turning to face Kary and Alex, he motioned to each one to go in different directions.
"Take a slow approach. They don't have the best eyesight in the daylight, but their hearing is very keen. Make sure you don't step on branches. And Kary, once we are all in position, I want you to walk out where they can see you. Act scared. That will allow me and Alex to have the drop on the others."
Alex gritted his teeth. In an angry whisper, he responded to David.
"No! She will not act as bait. Are you out of your mind?"
David rolled his eyes at Alex.
"Oh stop it, Lancelot. Your girlfriend isn't a defenceless damsel. She could probably scorch this forest to the ground. She is the best bait we have, so suck it up."
Alex wanted to take the swords David had given him, and cut him to pieces. But seeing Kary nod in agreement, he restrained himself.
Turning to her, he frowned.
"Why are you accepting? This could put you in incredible danger."
Kary put her hand on his shoulder.
"I really like that you want to protect me, but I'll be ok. I will not let goblins capture me, I promise. In the worst case, I'll do what he said, and burn this forest to the ground."
Guo was worried about all this pyromaniac talk.
"Please, let's not do that. Starting a fire of this size would not only pin down the airplane but also be hard to explain to local authorities."
Jack was still locked on to his target, so he ignored their talking, but some movement in leaves not too far made him turn his scope.
When he spotted the movement, he found another little green creature moving around in the trees. And this one was coming straight in their direction.
"I don't think we have time to discuss this plan anymore," Jack said.
Seeing him flip his safety off, David was about to ask him what he was doing. But before he could, Jack had already pressed the trigger.
*Ftu*
A silent air-depression noise echoed around them in the forest's silence. It was soon followed by something thumping on the ground further away, and strident screams echoing in the forest.
But David didn't get to complain, because the screams soon started coming from multiple directions around them. They sounded further than the three goblins they had been targeting.
But as the screams kept happening, he could judge they were coming closer. Alex hadn't waited for David's assessment, and was already spreading his mana senses in every direction, trying to assess the trouble they were in.
As his senses spread out from him, reaching almost a kilometre away, his face paled.
"Oh boy. There aren't just three goblins left."
"Why do you think I fired, young man?" Jack replied, already focusing his scope on the next target, opening fire again.
The three goblins that had been closest were already almost upon them, and David cursed his luck.
"Fuck! Well, no more overt plans. We just kill everything that comes at us!"
Alexander had reopened his eyes, confident he had caught everything coming their way in his senses.
"I counted another twenty coming for us. But further away, I detected another mass of them clustered together. There should be another fifty to the west."
David cursed in his mind.
"This isn't just a Goblin camp. It's the start of a colony. We need to clean these up fast, and run there. If any of them escape, we're fucked."
"Then get to killing, Mr. Magnus!" Jack said, pulling his trigger again.
As he said that, the three goblins that had been prowling around a spot ahead of them jumped at Kary, who was turned around, looking at Alex. Her instincts alerted her to the danger, but it was too late for her to react.
But nothing happened to her, as an eagle skeleton dropped from the sky, pinning one to the ground, already pecking at its eyes, and a bear and wolf skeleton jumped on the two others.
Turning her head to David, to thank him, his response made her swallow her gratitude.
"What are you doing? Do you want to die? Stay focused!"
She grit her teeth, mentally speaking a mantra to herself that she had recently been thinking a lot, every time she talked to him.
'Don't incinerate him. Don't incinerate him. Breathe in, breathe out.'
Centering herself again, and pushing the urge to light David on fire, she pivoted toward where she heard screaming the closest. Lifting the wand he had given her, she instead purged her anger on the poor Goblin rushing at her with a mad grin.
As a ball of fire the size of its head blazed in his direction, the Goblin didn't even have time to register the pain, as his body turned to ashes.
'Whew. That was therapeutic,' Kary thought, smiling lightly.
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