"Whoosh!"
The Goblin Archer released its bowstring, and an arrow flew.
Caelan, who had reflexively crouched, heard a scream.
He turned his head and saw a disheveled girl not far to his side with an arrow lodged in her chest.
Beside her was a petrified girl in a dress.
"That arrow wasn't aimed at me!"
Caelan snapped back to reality, grabbed the girl in the dress beside him with his right hand, and ran towards the forest.
He still remembered that the first person, before dying, had pointed towards a populated area in the distance.
The direction he pointed was precisely the direction Caelan was now fleeing.
The people who escaped afterwards clearly also thought of this and all chose the same escape route as Caelan.
However, these Goblins had already regarded this group of weak humans as food and tools for reproduction, so how could they let them escape?
Three Goblins chased out from the church ruins, joining the two Goblins by the Goblin Archer, brandishing their weapons and Charging towards Caelan and the others.
There were eight people following Caelan: three men and five women!
But behind them were five brutal Goblins and a Goblin Archer who continuously drew its bow and nocked arrows.
Although the Goblin Archer's accuracy was not high against moving targets, it still put immense pressure on everyone.
The arrows flying intermittently greatly slowed down their escape speed, and coupled with the lack of stamina of several girls, they were caught by the Goblins before running fifty meters.
The nine people stopped, looking in terror at the Goblins blocking their path ahead!
"Hee hee hee…"
Seeing the humans like lambs to the slaughter, the Goblins raised their weapons and danced in place.
"Ah, I'm hit, I'm hit!"
A man wearing an earring suddenly clutched his shoulder and screamed.
Just now, the Goblin Archer from behind had fired another arrow at them.
Its targets were primarily males.
In the eyes of Goblins, human males were merely their food; if encountered, they just needed to be killed.
Human females could be used to propagate offspring and strengthen the tribe, so they should be captured alive if possible.
This encounter with humans could not only solve the tribe's food problem for many days but also expand the tribe's population.
The five girls saw the Goblins approaching, their faces drained of all color from fright.
They had all witnessed the tragic fate of the girl who was dragged away by the other two Goblins earlier.
If their end was to be violated by these ugly and cruel monsters, they would rather die!
Caelan felt the girl in the dress beside him tremble incessantly, desperately shrinking behind him, and sighed repeatedly in his heart.
Their front was blocked, and there was a Goblin Archer in the direction of the church behind them.
Although he had the Spirit Offering talent, offering the soul of a monster would allow him to Summon a monster to assist in battle.
But he would still need to kill a Goblin to obtain a monster soul!
In this situation, how could he kill a Goblin?
Barring any surprises, he would likely be stabbed to death by these Goblins and then eaten.
"Everyone, we can only fight to the death!"
A scrawny man said to Caelan and the others, "I don't know how many more of these monsters there are in other directions; retreating to the church is just waiting for death.
There are nine of us in total, and only five short ones on the other side.
Four men will each take on one, and the five women will take on one.
I'll count to three, and everyone Charge together!"
Hearing the scrawny man's words, the man with the arrow in his shoulder stopped wailing, and the women looked terrified.
Caelan and another bald youth stared wide-eyed at the scrawny man.
Although Goblins were only about one to one point three meters tall, the four men present did not look like they could fight at all.
In a one-on-one fight with a weapon-wielding Goblin, they would surely die.
But seeing the scrawny man's determined expression, Caelan and the other two men understood.
This… this was their last resort!
Not fighting meant waiting for death!
If everyone fought together, perhaps some might still escape.
What if the one who escaped was himself?
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three! Charge!"
With the scrawny man's shout, Caelan and the others all yelled to bolster their courage and Charged towards the Goblins.
But before he had run two steps, Caelan's heart sank.
Aside from him, the bald youth, the man with the arrow in his shoulder, and a woman in a bikini, no one else Charged forward!
The other four women remained rooted in place, completely bewildered, with no intention of moving forward.
The scrawny man, after shouting 'three,' did not Charge with them; instead, he ran towards the church.
There, currently, there was only one Goblin Archer!
"Damn it!"
By this point, Caelan fully understood that he had been tricked.
The scrawny man clearly intended for them to stall for time while he retreated to the church and escaped in another direction.
But even if he understood, what good was it? The Goblins had already Charged.
Turning back to flee now was impossible.
The man with the arrow in his shoulder was already injured and not agile.
The moment he made contact with a Goblin, the latter stabbed him in the thigh with a knife, and blood gushed out as if it were free, staining his pants red.
"You damn dog, even if I die and become a ghost, I won't let you off!"
Enduring the pain, he pointed at the scrawny man, who had dodged an arrow, and cursed him loudly.
They had all woken up in the same strange place, so there was naturally a sense of familiarity.
Who knew the scrawny man would be so vicious?
Deceiving everyone to create an opportunity for his own escape!
At the same time, Caelan also found himself in danger.
Four people Charged forward, but they had to face five Goblins.
Perhaps the Goblins felt that the bald youth was uninjured and therefore 'higher' in danger, so two Goblins went after him.
Although Caelan only had to face one Goblin wielding a dagger, an arrow was still stuck in his left arm.
Even with continuous rolling and dodging, Caelan still sustained several cuts from the dagger on his body.
Blood stained a large part of his white short-sleeved shirt underneath.
"I'm no match for it at all!" Caelan scrambled up from the ground, looking at his bloody left hand, his mouth twitching in pain.
Three meters away was the Goblin, constantly switching the dagger between its left and right hands, its mouth covered in fresh blood.
In its mouth, a severed finger could still be seen.
It was Caelan's finger!
During their earlier exchange, Caelan found an opportunity to grab the Goblin's wrist with his right hand, the one holding the weapon.
He had intended to wrestle with it, to see if he could snatch the dagger.
He hadn't expected the Goblin to be incredibly strong.
Caelan couldn't pull it, and instead, its other hand gripped his.
Seeing the Goblin open its mouth to bite him, Caelan, in a hurry, used his left hand to push the Goblin's head away.
The result was that Caelan's left hand was bitten to a bloody mess, and even his thumb was bitten off.
Although he kicked the Goblin away and quickly created distance,
Now, due to excessive blood loss, Caelan felt his vision blurring.
When he saw the Goblin Charge again, Caelan quickly ran towards the forest.
Seeing this, the Goblin's short legs propelled it forward, and it quickly caught up.
Just as the Goblin was almost able to attack Caelan, Caelan suddenly turned around.
He smoothly took off his trench coat with his right hand and threw it over the pursuing Goblin's head.
The Goblin was momentarily stunned by this sudden change.
But it quickly reacted.
It pulled the clothing wrapped around its head downwards with its hands while retreating.
Caelan naturally wouldn't miss this fleeting opportunity.
He forcefully kicked the Goblin, sending it sprawling to the ground, then took out a sharp, triangular stone from his trench coat pocket with his right hand, and with all his might, stabbed it into the Goblin's head.
The Goblin, having just struggled free from the clothes, was immediately struck in the head by the sharp stone.
The sharp stone penetrated at least three centimeters!
The Goblin's eyes rolled back, its two short legs thrashed wildly, resisting fiercely.
Caelan quickly straddled the Goblin, smashing the stone into its head again and again.
Caelan only stopped his attack when the Goblin ceased to move.
Seeing the dagger that had fallen not far away, Caelan prepared to get up and retrieve it.
Just then, a white, transparent substance suddenly rose from the dead Goblin's body and entered Caelan's body.
"Received Goblin soul × 1"