Chapter 11: Stealing From Pesky Goblins

"We got lucky didn't we, Miss Ars?"

"Mhm. Luck did play an important factor in us escaping that calamity." Ars nodded her pretty little head in agreement. "But… I don't think this luck will last us much longer… I propose that we should head back for now."

"Hmm… I guess you're right. Besides, we already gathered the amount needed for the three different kinds of herbs. So yeah, we should go home for now."

Renan didn't refuse her idea, and so, they both headed towards the direction where Elisa town was located. And along their way, while they were passing through many trees and undergrowth, they discovered a pack of wild goblins moving a fairly large sack on the ground.

"Miss Ars, let's hide under those bushes." Renan suggested while pointing towards a dense clump of shrubbery.

She nodded her head in understanding and went over to the shrubbery along with Renan. They ducked their bodies and hid among the foliage as they quietly observed the goblins.

"Renan, isn't that the sack that the trio from earlier was bringing with them while escaping?"

"Yeah, it is. The last guy that escaped must've been ambushed or something by these little punks." Renan slightly chuckled while rubbing his palms eagerly. "Hehe, I bet there's some pretty good stuff packed in there, considering the amount of danger they went through to get whatever's inside that thing."

"Then… Should we steal it from the goblins…?"

"Yes, let's take it away from them. But not yet at least, I think they're dragging that thing towards their hideout."

Renan's eyes flashed with greed momentarily, but he still kept his composure and rational thinking in check and carefully examined the situation first. Nothing good would ever come out if he were to just blindly rush into things. For one thing, his motto was always: "Good fortune awaits those with enough patience." Renan was a person who handled everyday life with such patience, believing that anything and everything would turn out alright eventually.

Now back to the problem at hand—from what he could see, all in all, there were thirteen of them in total—a fairly huge number and hard to deal with. They could possibly take out five or six of them in one fell swoop with their surprise attack, but after that, it would be a two versus seven situation at best. Other than that, he found it strange that these midgets were taking this sack along with them. In other words, they were clearly intending to take it somewhere else and stash it away where no one could find it.

"Let's follow them for now… Who knows a huge surprise might be waiting for us there."

Renan grinned evilly and silently stalked the goblins behind like an experienced hunter. Meanwhile, Ars meticulously followed him wherever he went, afraid that she might be the one to expose their location.

Ten minutes later, the goblins seemed to finally arrive at their destination. It was a relatively tall tree stump about one and a half meters in length, and beside it, there was a hole in the ground that they covered with leaves and whatnot. One of the goblins lifted up the net that was preventing the leaves from falling into the hole and signaled its brothers to go inside. Two of the goblins walked forward and went down the hole first. Next, it beckoned the rest with its free hand while the other was still holding up the net.

"Now's our chance…! Remember, we just kill a few of them, take the bag, and get out. Got it?" Renan turned his eyes to look at her and said.

"Mhm. Got it." Ars nodded her head to show that she understood him.

"Good. I'll round up a bunch of them first and you fire them with that spell of yours."

With that said, he dashed out of the thickets and began his assault. Letting out an evil grin, he raised his claws up high and prepared to activate his skill.

'Fury Swipes!'

Completely caught off guard, one of the goblins was struck by a barrage of skin-deep scratches and gave out an anguished cry. Then, he finished it off with a roundhouse kick to the goblin's wrinkly old face, really sinking his foot in until it fractured its skull.

Seeing their companion fall before them, all the other goblins angrily rushed over with killing intent thick in their eyes, and then they threw some of their spears at him. Renan deftly evaded the incoming spears with ease, before catching the last one and throwing it back at them.

"Take this you pathetic swines!"

Again, one of the goblins got pierced through the head with the spear, rendering it incapable of fighting any longer. And now, only nine of them remained from the initial thirteen, excluding the two that went into the hole of course.

"Wait for it Ars…" Renan said while holding a hand up for her to see. "…Almost there, and… NOW! Do it!"

"O supreme and everlasting fire that dominates all things, bestow upon me the powers of the sun to burn the enemies that lay before me into ashes—Firebolt!"

After those words were uttered, concentrated flames were evoked from her staff and fired forth like a blazing bolt of lightning towards the stunned-faces of the goblins. Renan promptly dodged to the side to avoid the range of the oncoming explosion and hurriedly ran to the sack that the goblins left behind to attack him. It was situated near the hole, so he had to run all the way to the back of the screaming goblins and retrieve it—the good thing is, they were too busy dying and being blown away by the aftermath of the spell that they'd have no time to stop him.

"I got it! Let's get the hell out of here!" Renan said as he hoisted the sack over his back.

But before he could step away, two goblin heads suddenly popped out of the hole and glared at him with glowing yellow eyes fuelled by hostility. They must've overheard the ruckus happening on the surface and quickly came out to help, although they were a little too late already to do exactly that.

"Oi, you two chumps dare look at me with such nasty eyes, ay?!"

Not giving them a moment to react, Renan skilfully executed a sweeping kick aimed at their heads, which knocked them off their balance and caused them to fall down the hole.

"Heh. A couple of little punks think they can scare me."

Renan spat at the hole derisively before turning around to leave the area around the tall tree stump. Without a doubt, reinforcements will soon come pouring out of places from who knew where to surround and gang up on them. So before they could do just that, he and Ars had to quickly vacate this place.

"Come on Miss Ars, let's go."

While Renan was occupied with getting the sack and making sport of those two goblins, Ars managed to take care of the rest by herself. With the battle more or less over, they made a break for it once more. Maybe this time, they could finally leave this forest for good.