"Everyone be careful!"
Gauss quickly counted the number.
Although he didn’t understand where the mission intelligence had gone wrong, there was no time to dwell on it now.
Everyone had to deal with the enemies in front of them first.
Eighteen goblins, even if the four farmers who followed could each hold back one,
the remaining fourteen meant each person would have to face at least three at the same time.
It didn’t sound like many, but when a group of small monsters with snarling faces surrounded everyone, their yellow-brown lips and teeth roaring in unison, the wild aura that surged forward sent chills down one’s spine.
The threat from one goblin was completely incomparable to a whole group of them.
The pitch-black forest echoed with beastly roars, sending goosebumps all over Gauss’s body.
In a very short time, the battle began!
The goblins swarmed toward everyone, and the battlefield was divided into several sections.
One goblin wielding a spear charged head-on, its murky gaze fixed greedily on Gauss. Yellowish-brown teeth dripped sticky saliva down from thick lips.
It rushed forward quickly, swinging its arm, a stone spear wrapped with vines thrusting toward Gauss’s jaw from below.
At the critical moment, Gauss’s intelligence score of 7 kicked in again!
At this moment, the world before his eyes seemed to slow down—more accurately, his mind sped up!
Not only the enemy in front, but with his peripheral vision, he also noticed a goblin holding a dagger creeping up behind him without being noticed.
Another goblin nearby had also locked onto him.
For a moment, he was almost completely surrounded by green-skinned little brats.
In this accelerated thinking state, Gauss had time to analyze the current situation.
Faced with the encirclement,
he stomped hard with his foot, using the recoil from his boots pressing against the soil, and dodged toward an open side.
The spear and dagger sliced through the air.
Barely dodging the sneaky attacks, Gauss’s back started to sweat.
His outstanding attribute was intelligence, but his other physical attributes were just at the level of a normal healthy adult male.
Even though his mind reacted quickly, his body felt somewhat sluggish compared to his accelerated thoughts. He had to adjust to the mismatch between his mind and body.
Besides, the goblins were too close.
After briefly losing their target, three goblins snarled and lunged again.
He wanted desperately to seize the opportunity and finish off one with full force first, just like when he killed that goblin scout in a very short time earlier.
But the reality was that he had to keep maneuvering first.
Don’t underestimate the goblins despite their small size; they were muscular, agile, and strong.
Though unwilling to admit it, he was indeed a bit scared.
The threat from three goblins in front of him was completely different from that of the lone goblin who had ambushed earlier.
A painful howl sounded not far away.
Dodging and blocking attacks with his small round shield, Gauss glanced toward the sound with his peripheral vision.
The first casualty of the battle had appeared.
One of the villagers leading the way was now kneeling on the ground, a spear piercing through his abdomen.
Blood was gushing continuously from the wound, and a pool of blood quickly formed beneath him.
A goblin pounced like a hyena, repeatedly stabbing the wound with its dagger.
Like an executioner performing slow slicing torture, or a demon in a slaughter ritual, the goblin on top of the farmer wore an indescribably excited smile.
The villager struggled and wailed, the intense pain from internal injuries driving his brain into despair.
The torch in his hand fell onto the blood pool but still burned stubbornly.
Flesh and blood flew, flames soared, and the firelight cast the shadow of the long-eared body like a terrifying demon.
This bloody scene made Gauss’s mouth dry and his eyelids twitch uncontrollably. He had never felt the shadow of death so close before; these demonic goblins made his scalp tingle.
Gauss’s heart raced wildly, his entire body burning hot. A mix of unease, excitement, and nervousness flowed through his veins.
No, he couldn’t be afraid—he really could die!
He gritted his teeth, and the slight panic in his heart now fell into a strange calm because of the soul-piercing bloody scene.
More precisely, the huge threat of death forced him to abandon cowardice and fight with all he had.
In the darkness, a crisp bowstring twanged.
A pitch-black arrow spun through the air, cutting through the atmosphere with a ripping roar.
After a brief sharp sound came a dull thud of a sharp weapon piercing flesh.
Not far away, Hayley had drawn her bow and fired a precise shot, firmly pinning the goblin still finishing off the farmer in place.
Her chest rose and fell heavily; obviously, she was not calm.
It wasn’t because the goblins’ combat power was so exaggerated, but the direct shock from the primal bloody scene.
Gauss, keeping an eye on his teammates, saw another goblin quietly approaching Hayley while she was recovering strength, her attention still drawn by the bloody scene just now.
He quickly activated Mage Hand.
The invisible ghostly hand swiftly materialized in the air beside Hayley.
Then it violently struck the goblin’s right wrist holding the knife.
Originally, the goblin had leapt high, preparing to slash Hayley’s pale neck from behind with the dagger, but under the interference of this invisible force of about ten pounds, its movement trajectory shifted.
The dagger struck the metal light armor on Hayley’s back, emitting a harsh metallic clang.
Hayley staggered, though the metal armor directly blocked the blade, the recoil impact still had to be absorbed by her body.
She stumbled forward two steps, her throat letting out a muffled groan.
Fortunately, after a brief daze, she quickly recovered.
She grabbed the dagger lying beside her boot and, while the goblin was still unsteady from the recoil, fiercely slashed.
The dagger tore straight through the goblin’s chest to its lower abdomen.
As its intestines spilled out, the goblin fell back unwillingly.
Hayley was shaken but grateful as she looked toward Gauss not far away.
If Gauss hadn’t reached out to help at the critical moment, she would have been the one lying on the ground.
However, perhaps because Gauss was a mage, this stirred some deep-seated gene in the green-skinned brats, and more goblins pounced toward him.
At least six or seven goblins fiercely lunged at him simultaneously.
Seeing more and more goblins surrounding Gauss, Hayley quickly pulled an arrow from her quiver and nocked it on her bowstring.
With the activation of the Precise Aim skill, a surge of power gathered in her arm.
The fully drawn bowstring released the arrow with terrifying force.
A goblin beside Gauss immediately had a bloody hole shot in its chest, swaying in place, barely able to breathe.
Seeing this, Gauss dodged while simultaneously thrusting his spear precisely.
The spear tip pierced the goblin’s wound, blood spurting out!
Gauss’s strike finished the kill.
"Total monster kills: 3"
His gaze met Hayley’s, and she returned the look.
They both understood each other’s intentions.
The battlefield was divided into several sections.
Mia, Bell, and three villagers fought separately.
They had to work together to handle these goblins first, then only could they possibly spare time to help others.
"Don’t use skills too frequently!"
Gauss shouted a reminder.
He knew every time Hayley activated a skill, it consumed a lot of stamina.
After calming down, Gauss also realized his own advantage.
As a human, even with only average scores of 5 in physical strength, stamina, and explosiveness, he still surpassed goblins.
Ordinary humans struggled to fight more than two goblins at once mainly because they couldn’t withstand attacks from multiple directions. Under frequent attacks, they couldn’t react quickly and were easily overwhelmed and killed by the goblins.
But his intelligence of 7 seemed to grant him faster thinking during combat.
Combined with his skillful use of Mage Hand,
he was capable of continuously maneuvering against multiple goblins.