Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Encountering Monsters, a Goblin Horde
Fina watched Ryan practice his shooting.
Time passed quickly, and just like that, the entire morning was gone.
Because she still had to practice magic with Kaya in the afternoon, Fina returned to the Orphanage early.
Ryan, meanwhile, continued practicing his marksmanship.
Now that he knew bullets could pierce a Mage’s defenses, his motivation to train had grown even stronger.
And little by little, Ryan was no longer satisfied with fixed targets.
It would be nice if he had moving targets.
But the forest was full of monsters, and it was still somewhat dangerous for him to enter it alone.
So Ryan put the idea of going into the forest to hunt monsters out of his mind.
Although marksmanship practice was dull, Ryan could clearly feel his strength improving, and his shooting accuracy had risen even more. That made him extremely happy.
In this world, what could be more satisfying than seeing your own strength improve?
At sunset, after packing everything up, Ryan prepared to return to the Orphanage.
“Ryan!”
Ryan looked up into the distance.
Fina was smiling and waving at him from afar as she ran toward him.
Ryan knew that after finishing her lessons, Fina had come specifically to pick him up.
There were also many townspeople beside her.
Ryan waved back at Fina and quickened his pace.
However, in the very next moment—
“Ahhh!!!!”
The people beside Fina looked in Ryan’s direction and screamed.
Immediately afterward, they turned and fled without looking back.
Ryan noticed that Fina’s expression had become anxious as well.
Sensing that something was wrong, he quickly turned his head to look.
Only then did he understand why those people were panicking.
A group of monsters had rushed out from the distant forest.
They were short, with green skin and hideous faces.
“This is... Goblins?”
Ryan recognized them at a glance.
These were monsters unique to another world—Goblins.
Individually, they were not very strong, and they usually acted in groups.
They reproduced at an astonishing rate. Because their race had no females of its own, they often abducted females of other races to breed offspring.
That was why the people of this world had only one attitude toward Goblins: exterminate them all.
No matter how small or young a Goblin was, if it was a Goblin, then it had to be killed.
Otherwise, in less than a month, they would multiply into a massive horde.
Of course, their low individual combat power was only true for the strong.
For ordinary people, Goblins were already the stuff of nightmares.
The group that appeared before Ryan numbered around twenty.
They were dressed in tattered rags and carried all kinds of weapons in their hands—knives, swords, shields, and more.
The moment the Goblins saw so many people before them, especially so many women, they immediately charged forward like mad.
At that moment, Fina also reached Ryan’s side.
“Ryan, be careful!”
Fina warned him.
“Mhm. You be careful too, Fina. Don’t go too far from me.”
Ryan nodded.
“Guga! Guga!”
The leading Goblin shouted, and the Goblins behind it sped up again.
Ryan could not understand Goblin speech, but he did not need to think hard to know it was nothing good.
Ryan and Fina ran toward the town and quickly passed many of the other people.
There was an old saying: when a group of people faced a wild beast, you did not need to outrun the beast—you only needed to outrun your companions.
That was exactly the situation now.
There were still quite a few people behind Ryan and Fina.
Then, as one girl was running at full speed, she accidentally fell.
Even worse, it seemed she had struck her head and fainted on the spot.
Ryan had originally had no intention of helping her.
But when Fina turned back and saw the girl’s condition, she immediately ran back toward her.
She knew what would happen to a woman who fell into Goblin hands. It would be a fate worse than death.
She did not want to see that girl suffer such a thing, so she rushed back.
But with that delay, the Goblins had already caught up.
The instant Ryan saw Fina turn around, he understood what she was thinking.
He shook his head and chased after her.
He did not particularly care about that girl, but Fina was his childhood sweetheart. He absolutely could not let her fall into Goblin hands.
“Ice Magic—Ice Blades!”
Fina cast ice magic.
In the next moment,
several blades formed of ice appeared before her.
“Go!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
“Gah! Gah! Gah!!”
The oncoming Goblins were struck directly by Fina’s ice blades and died on the spot.
However, although Fina’s ice blades were powerful, there were too few of them.
After she killed four Goblins, the ones behind them charged forward as well.
And those Goblins had already noticed the gap between Fina’s spell casts and wanted to take advantage of it.
“Ice Magic—Ice Shield!”
Fina had no choice but to give up on attack magic and switch to defensive magic to block the Goblins’ assault.
Crack!
The Goblins’ weapons slammed into the ice shield, but they failed to break through it.
Just as the Goblins were about to surround Fina, Ryan made his move.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
“Gah!”
One Goblin was shot in the forehead and collapsed dead.
Ryan’s marksmanship had already reached the level where he never missed within fifty meters, much less now, when the distance between him and the Goblins was less than ten meters. Killing the Goblins in front was effortless for him.
Ryan did not give the Goblins any chance to catch their breath. After taking aim, he pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshots rang out without end.
Accompanying them were the Goblins’ shrill screams.
These low-intelligence monsters had no idea what a gun was.
They only knew that every time they heard that thunderous sound, one of their companions died.
With each gunshot, the number of Goblins rapidly decreased.
While firing, Ryan moved to Fina’s side, then stepped in front of her.
“Ryan, thank you for coming to save me.”
“Don’t talk. Watch the surroundings and protect that girl.”
Ryan spoke in a low voice.
He did not look at Fina as he spoke.
They were in the middle of a battle now.
No matter how weak Goblins might be,
it was still very difficult for Ryan to deal with more than a dozen of them by himself.
“I-I understand. Don’t worry, I’ll protect her.”
Fina carefully watched the surroundings to guard against a sneak attack.
Although Ryan and Fina had already killed several Goblins, there were still more than a dozen left.
Ryan could only calculate everything carefully.
Because he only had ten rounds left in the gun in his hand, which was not enough to kill every Goblin in front of him.
He had plenty of bullets, but replacing them required time.
During that process, he could not be disturbed by the Goblins.
Before Ryan had time to think further, the remaining Goblins had already charged in.
To them, watching their companions die before their eyes only stirred their ferocity further.
The Goblins roared as they charged at Ryan.
Ryan, of course, showed no mercy to these monsters and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
As expected, the Goblin charging the fastest died the fastest.
After all, Goblins were still a kind of monster.
If he did not hit them in the head, then he could not kill them in a single shot.
Fortunately, after all this time spent practicing, Ryan’s marksmanship had become exceptionally good.
Against moving targets like Goblins, he had not missed once so far. Every shot hit its mark.
The Goblins still had the advantage in numbers.
That made them continue charging fearlessly.
Drool streamed from their mouths as they rushed toward Fina.
While attacking, Ryan prioritized the Goblins closest to them.
Right after those came the Goblins in the rear carrying bows. Threats with ranged attacks had to be eliminated first.
Very soon, Ryan emptied his gun.
He had already wiped out most of the Goblins, leaving only five.
But now, if Ryan wanted to keep attacking, he had to reload first.
He needed Fina to buy him time while he reloaded.
“Fina.”
Ryan turned his head and called to her in a low voice.
“Ryan, what is it?”
“I’m out of bullets. I need time to reload. Help me buy some time. Protect yourself. Just stall them for a little while.”
Ryan explained briefly.
After hearing that, Fina nodded forcefully, then stepped in front of Ryan and began chanting a spell.
“Ice Magic—Ice Blades!!”
Fina was only ten years old, and the amount of magic power in her body was still limited. This was the second time she had cast ice magic.
Compared to the first time, this cast produced even fewer ice blades—only two.
Ryan did not look at Fina. He only seized the time to reload his bullets.
Fina was very smart as well.
She could only condense two ice blades, while there were five Goblins, so even if she killed two of them, it would not solve the situation.
So instead of firing them, she simply kept the two ice blades suspended before her.
That way, the Goblins would become wary and naturally slow their advance.
Her task was not to kill the Goblins, but to buy time. That was enough.
And indeed,
the Goblins’ charge came to a halt.
Even after so many of their companions had died, they still had not stopped.
That was because they had no idea what a gun was. They were not afraid of it.
But the two ice blades in front of Fina were something they knew all too well.
That was the magic that had killed several of their companions in a single exchange.
They understood the power of magic very clearly, so their steps slowed.
Seeing that,
Fina’s expression relaxed a little.
Ryan moved quickly.
From the corner of his eye, he had seen what Fina did.
Inwardly, he admired how clever she was.
But his hands never stopped moving, as he rapidly reloaded his bullets.
In the next moment,
the reloading was finished.
“It’s ready, Fina. You can fire the ice blades now.”
Ryan patted Fina on the shoulder.
“Okay.”
Fina nodded.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The two ice blades sliced through the air and instantly cut across the necks of two Goblins, killing them on the spot.
Ryan followed up immediately, aiming at the remaining three Goblins.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The last three Goblins dropped to the ground at once.
“Hah... It’s finally over!”
Ryan let out a long breath and slowly sat down on the ground.
“R-Ryan, you’re amazing. So many Goblins, and they were completely no match for you.”
Fina praised him.
Ryan could see that Fina’s body was trembling slightly. She was obviously still terrified, only forcing the fear down instead of showing it.
“It was thanks to your cover, Fina. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to kill that many Goblins. You were amazing too.”
Ryan stroked Fina’s head and comforted her with a smile.
“Mm... Ryan...”
Fina immediately threw herself into Ryan’s arms and began to sob softly.
At the time, she had only turned back in a moment of impulse.
But when she truly faced the Goblins, she had been terrified.
If Ryan had not come to save her, she truly did not dare imagine what would have happened to her.
Ryan froze for a moment, then wrapped his arms tightly around Fina.
Not long afterward, the people who had fled earlier returned with the town guards.
But when they saw that all the Goblins were already dead, their eyes widened in shock.
They could not believe that so many Goblins had actually been killed by two ten-year-old children.
After that, everyone began dealing with the Goblin corpses.
And so, the Goblin incident came to an end.
Only the image of those two children tightly embracing each other was deeply etched into everyone’s minds.