The receptionist had told us that the reason goblins are common is because they have settlements within the forest and those settlements are where they take humans that they've captured, mainly females.

After we walked around for around 15 minutes, i noticed there were monsters nearby with my magic perception

Ariel who noticed it herself, turned to me and asked "What do we do?"

"Let's ambush them" I responded

We hid ourselves using the trees as cover and slowly approached the area where we felt the monsters presence

After we arrived, we froze.

A base surrounded by wooden fences and filled with goblins on the inside. had goblins keeping watch at the entrance

"W-What is this.." I quietly muttered

In the middle of it all stood a giant goblin who appeared to be handing out orders and watching over their work.

"This might be to much for us to handle.. Let's head back and report our findings to the guild"

She nodded in response

Just as we were about to turn around and head back. I noticed that there were goblins on the path carrying a plank which had a human girl tied to it.. The girl didn't look like she was struggling so she was most likely unconscious and even if she did try to struggle ,arms and legs had been restricted, so she wouldn't have been able to get away either way.

The girl still had her armour but her sword sheathe was empty, i'm guessing that she was outnumbered and dropped it, from the looks of it, they haven't done anything to her yet.

I stared at girl wondering if i should risk it. She had Red hair and looked young, around 15 years old, even i could tell from where i stood that she was a beauty.

Where were her party members? Did the goblins kill them? The goblins probably managed to out number their party and captured her in the process.

What i didn't understand was how 4 goblins managed to survive. They tend to travel in packs of 6 so if the girl had a party, it would have been harder to outnumber them.. What exactly happened?

Tsk. Leaving her here would leave a bad taste in my mouth afterwards but i couldn't afford to put Ariel's life in danger..

I decided to ask Ariel who had been looking at me for the past few seconds if anything was wrong. "What's wrong?"

"I-i think we should save her, don't worry about me.. my wind blade still isn't strong enough to cut through the tree but it should work on goblins."

"Yeah.. you're right. Let's go save her, but if things go wrong, run away, alright?"

After hearing my words she showed a relieved expression.

"You know, i can't do that.." She said with a smile on her face

"Argh.. Fine, but just be careful."

"Yes!" She said

"I'll flank them, you cover me with wind blade."

She nodded her head in response but her arms were shaking.

"Don't overthink things, just focus on attacking. even if you miss you can always try again, and don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you."

With a smile on her face she replied "Yes!"

The goblins are still quite far from the settlement, but one of the goblin scouts had noticed them and went to inform the Giant goblin.

If we were to rush out now, we would most likely get seen by the goblins at the gate before rescuing the girl, and the lord would come out to face us.. In that situation, i'm not sure we could win.

"Let's go."

We ran out to the path and intercepted the goblins carrying the girl.

"Shrieeek!"

They let out a loud scream as they saw our figures and the guards that stood in front of the gate, readied their weapons. While the others went to tell their lord.

Unlike the previous goblins these ones held spears. They probably took them from the humans that they've killed. Seeing this makes me feel strangely annoyed.

The goblins which had been standing in front of us. decided to put the girl on the ground in order to fight us.

It took 4 of them to carry a teenage girl so i'm guessing they weren't that strong.

"Ariel, I'll leave these to you.."

"Yes. Ventus!" She said as she nodded

In a flash, the heads of the four goblins were cut off. Perhaps because they were monsters, their was barely any blood, so it didn't look gory at all

Ariel who was the one that did the finis.h.i.+ng blow, looked unsettled but quickly recomposed herself as she realised that she didn't have time to think about those things.

She really is strong-willed, i can never get tired of watching her. N-not that i watch her or anything..

"Well done, Ariel!"

"Mn" She nodded her head with a satisfied expression

We cut the ropes that were tied onto the girl and placed her on the ground. Having learnt first-aid in my previous life, i checked to see if the girl had any difficulty breathing and checked her pulse.

Luckily, she was just unconscious and was having no difficulties breathing. Just as i was about to pick her up, I felt the presence of the orc's lord approaching, so i decided to leave her in the recovery position.

Now that i got a closer look, i realised that she was very beautiful.. and her chest looked pretty big.. her armour aside, her clothes were concealing but you could still tell that it was big. Argh.. What am i thinking in such an important moment

Ariel who looked like she had read my mind, gave me a saddened look

S-Sorry, I'll act more serious from now on.. so please don't stare at me like that..

"W-Well then, We managed to rescue her. Let's get out of here before the Giant Orc co-"

Before i could finish, a loud roar which came from the entrance resonated throughout the forest. Shortly after the giant Goblin started approaching us.

"Ariel stand back, i'll go deal with that thing."

"B-But!"

"If we both go, who will protect that girl? Don't worry, he's just a bigger version of the goblins. It's all the same." I said with a confident manner

"Mn" She nodded with a saddened look on her face

My 'everything is going to be okay' act worked well, but in reality i'm shaking. The goblin which was in front of me was at least be 3 meters tall. Not to mention how buff he looked. The size of the club he held was around my size and just from standing in front of him i felt overwhelming pressure.

I felt like running away with Ariel but it was too late to turn back now.

"So you're the goblin's lord huh.. How about you look the other way? That way i'll spare your settlement at least." i bluffed

"Hu..man.. Hu..Man! HUMANS KILL!" he said

After he said that, he lifted up the club on his hand and Swung it towards me.

During that moment a grin formed on my face, without moving a single step i muttered. "Ventus"

In an instant, the hand of the Goblin lord which held the club was cleanly cut in half. He screamed in pain as he grabbed on to his severed arm. Blood gushed out of the wound as he tried to cover it.

Shortly after, the wound closed up and blood stopped spilling out.

"Heh.. That's a monster for you. Either way, Ariel could easily take you down. Well i suppose i'll be able to practice my new spells on you"

Realising that i was mocking it, the goblin lord in a fit of anger, tried to grab me with his remaining left hand, but.. missed or more precisely, i dodged.

Right before he managed to grab on to me i jumped on top of his hand. Ran up it and pierced his left eye with my dagger.

The reason why i was able to do all of this with my weak physique, is because i was using magic strengthening.

Magic strengthening is when a person covers their whole body in their mana in an attempt to boost their physical attributes. Naturally, i decided to try it during the break and it fell amazing. My reaction time senses, reaction speed increased, and i felt lighter, faster and stronger.

I didn't get to teach it to Ariel because she was focused on mastering her wind blade. Which i named, ventus.

After losing it's left eye, the goblin lord screamed in pain and tried to grab me while was about to stab his other eye, but i retreated before he could.

"Come on goblin lord, you're stronger than this aren't you? At this rate you'll end up dying.." I said in a mocking tone

After hearing what i said the Goblin Lord realised that he wouldn't be able to win, so he let out a Loud roar which was a signal for back-up.

"Finally." I said

It's what i was waiting for. Now i'll be able to deal with all of the goblins along with the lord at once.

Shortly after the signal, goblins started coming out of the settlement with weapons.

"Ho... That's quite a lot of goblins."

Around 30 goblins came out of the settlement. Seeing as i was outnumbered. The Orc Lord gave me a grin.

"Hu..Man. DIE!"

"Well.. This is a problem... for you."

With a confused expression, the goblin lord, let out a loud roar which seemed to be a signal for the other goblins to attack. But before the roar was completed, his head had been cut off.

"Ventus." I muttered quietly.

Seeing their leader die. the goblins froze in their tracks.

"What's wrong? Weren't you all going to attack me?"

They trembled in fear as i approached them.

"Now, now, don't think of running, the only reason i let your lord live for that long is because i wanted to gather you all up."

There was no need to collect all of those ears. The four from the ones Ariel killed plus the original 6 along with the Goblin lords head, should be enough. I don't really want to show Ariel a gory scene which would appear if i slashed them all with Ventus.

After finally making a decision. I stretched out my hands in the air and casted "Glacies". This time I Poured A lot more magic power into it than usual and it grew bigger and bigger.

Shortly after, i had created a giant Version of the Ice Spike. It was most likely big enough to freeze all of the goblins in range.

"Hm, it probably isn't but let's find out"

With my left hand, i picked up the goblins head while the goblins stood there frozen in fear and with a flick of the wrist, The giant ice spike propelled itself at speeds unexpected of its size at the horde of goblins.

On impact, they froze up. Every single goblin was frozen, with the expression of fear on their faces. The surrounding trees in the area had also been frozen but it wasn't that many.

Having let out such a huge version of glacies, i finally felt all my energy gone and could barely walk. I also didn't have any more magic power to keep magic strengthening active.

With my remaining strength, i slowly walked towards Ariel, struggling to keep balance. Then after arriving i lifted up my hand as i shouted out "WE WON!!!"

Ariel who was surprised out my sudden shout decided to join in with an excited expression her face. "W-WON!!!!"

Seeing her force herself to shout was adorable.

Now that the fight was over. Me and Ariel took the time to cut the ears of the 4 Goblins who had managed to capture the girl and put it inside the bag alongside the Goblin Lords Head.

We were slightly covered in blood so we cleaned ourselves using water made from my magic. I also dried us up the method i had used in the shower.

On our way back, with the red haired girl still unconscious on my back, i thought it'd be a good time to ask. "Ariel, is everything okay?"

"Mn? Ah, yes.. Everything's fine, why?" She asked with a confused expression

"Ah.. It's just that you were a bit quiet, and i thought you were still bothered by what happened." I replied

"They're monsters, so it doesn't bother me too much. They've taken lives of countless others. It's just that i feel like taking a life is still a bad thing to do." She said

"In my opinion, what we did was part of nature. Monsters attack humans, so humans fight back. That's the way of life. It was also self defence so it definitely wasn't a bad thing! And besides, you did it to save a life, so i think you should be happy and proud about that.."

"I saved a life..?" She asked as she placed her hands on her chest

"Yeah, you saved a life" I replied

With a smile and tears on her eyes, she gave me a hug as she said "Mn! I've saved a life.. I've proved the people who called me useless wrong and i was finally able to help you!"

"What're you saying? You've always been of help to me, idiot. And stop thanking me all the time, we're partners aren't we? It's only natural we help each other. So.. you can open up to me more.." I replied

"Par-tners.. Partners... Mn! It's only natural, right?" She said with an excited expression

She looks completely different to when we first met. Back then she looked dead and lifeless but now she looks full of energy

"Right. Now let's go report this to the guild!"

"Yes!"