Chapter 85: Bloodwater

Hop Goblins can be considered essentially a different species from the goblins occasionally encountered in nature.

Their size approaches that of an adult male, their skin is very tough, and they have somewhat functioning brains.

Although primitive, they possess metallurgy skills and use metal weapons, and sometimes lay traps to hunt adventurers.

If you accidentally encounter a Hop Goblin hunting party while passing through the complex maze-like paths of the ruins district, even a Silver Badge adventurer party would have to be on high alert, and if they decided to attack in earnest, you’d have to be prepared for death.

That’s the kind of creatures they are.

They’re not opponents that someone like me, who hasn’t even taken the test let alone gotten a Silver Badge, should face.

“Shit!!!”

But I can’t just stand still.

The Saint is single-handedly dealing with 80 percent of the monsters pushing into the central district.

We can’t count on her help. We had to survive on our own, and to create a variable in this crazy melee situation, we had to return the adventurers dominated by Skin Walkers to their original state.

“Kieeeh!!!”

The Hop Goblin in front of me swung its club while screaming.

Its dirty and ugly face showed joy and enthusiasm towards Rosie.

True to their goblin nature, they charged with their erect genitals swinging about without even trying to hide them upon seeing a woman.

“Where do you think you’re going!!”

After deflecting the incoming club with my shield, I immediately swung my axe and cut the charging Hop Goblin’s head in half.

The Hop Goblin collapsed as blood gushed from its head, which was diagonally cut from the temple.

Stepping on its corpse, another Hop Goblin approaches.

“This is crazy!!!”

“Porter!!! Watch your back!”

“Uaah!!!”

A club struck my head.

With a clang, my vision spun for a moment, but I didn’t fall.

Perhaps it’s thanks to the rare metal helmet engraved with shock absorption that the guild master gave me as a gift.

Apart from a slight ringing in my head, I didn’t feel much impact.

It means I can still fight more.

“You bastard!!!”

I switched the axe for a sword.

I needed a weapon with a longer blade that was good for thrusting.

After switching to a short sword that’s good for swinging even at close range due to its shortness, I immediately gouged out the eye of the Hop Goblin bastard who had struck my head.

After stabbing the sword into its right eye, I left it there and drew a new sword to stab its neck.

When the sword got stuck in the bone and couldn’t be pulled out, I had no choice but to just abandon it. Retrieval is for later. Right now, I had to kill the goblin bastards pushing in.

“Shit..!!”

There’s no time to draw weapons again. I started stabbing all kinds of blades into the bodies of approaching enemies, switching them out quickly.

“Be careful!”

Sasaro swung his sword and dealt with a Hop Goblin charging from the side.

I couldn’t cover all directions. Whenever a dangerous attack came, Rosie and Sasaro protected me. Getting injured themselves in the process.

“Thank you.”

“Forget the thanks! The next one’s coming!”

A Hop Goblin collapses with its belly cut open by Sasaro’s sword. After splitting the head of the fallen one, I immediately faced the next Hop Goblin.

I kept pushing back the charging ones and deflecting their weapons with my shield when they swung.

Gradually, I didn’t even have a chance to swing my weapon. There were too many. Just pushing away the ones right in front of me was overwhelming.

‘Damn it.’

How much longer do we have to hold out?

Isn’t the exorcism technique completed yet?

Are the Saint and Raphael still alive?

“Paramel!!! Is it not done yet?”

“I-it’s almost done…!!!”

Just as the sensation in my left arm holding the shield was starting to disappear.

Paramel completed the blessing of insect repellent.

“Die!! You bug bastards!!!”

Paramel shouted as if possessed.

An invisible wave flowed from the stone tablet he was holding.

This isn’t an ordinary blessing of insect repellent.

It was more like a miracle akin to designating a sacred area that could cover a wide range.

So this is why it took so long. He was planning to sweep them all away at once.

“Ugh, uaah….”

“Uweeeeek…”

“T-this.. shit..!!!”

The adventurers started reacting.

The adventurers who had been attacking us while entangled with monsters started complaining of dizziness and nausea, and began vomiting out the main bodies of the Skin Walkers that had crawled into their heads.

Long worms poured out through their ears, mouths, and noses.

Some people died on the spot. These were people whose brains had already been more than half eaten.

“Wh-where is…”

“Uh..!?”

The adventurers who came to their senses among the monsters were in a state of confusion, and seeing the Saint and monsters rampaging together in front of them, they couldn’t figure out what to do.

At that moment, Raphael, who was ripping out the necks of High Orcs, shouted:

“Grasp your weapons and kill the enemy—!”

A roar that made the entire central district reverberate.

The warrior’s battle cry emitted by the pureblood barbarian awakens the adventurers’ minds.

“Shit! Let’s fight for now!!!”

“Uoooh!!!”

The remaining adventurers, except for those who died as the Skin Walkers came out and those who collapsed from too much brain damage, grasped their weapons and attacked the monsters.

The monsters are pushed back by the collective madness.

The adventurers began their struggle for survival.

With a will united solely for survival, not for money or honor, their active resistance caused the monsters pushing into the central district to be subjugated in reverse.

Adventurers and monsters tear each other apart and kill each other.

Adventurers are difficult to operate as soldiers because they have such strong individuality, but their individual combat power is exceptionally high. Moreover, they are people who prioritize individual survival over camaraderie.

That aspect shone even more in this chaotic melee. By swinging their weapons only for self-preservation without caring about the person next to them, they could fight drawing out 100% of their potential.

The moment they changed their attack target from us to the monsters, the tide of battle began to turn.

Dozens of Silver Badge level adventurers struggled to survive, and in the confusion they caused, the monsters were swept away in reverse, turning the central district into a crucible of madness.

We had a chance to breathe. Taking advantage of the adventurers and monsters killing each other, we moved little by little to regroup with the Saint.

“Haa.. haa..”

“Saint!!!”

Seen up close, the Saint was not in a normal state.

Her pristine white priest’s robe was stained with blood, and her platinum blonde hair was also soaked wet with red blood.

Moreover, Gold Badge adventurers lay half-torn and dead in front of the Saint.

She had been handling 7 Gold Badge adventurers alone. I hadn’t noticed from afar.

‘Damn. It’s not just Gold Badges… The Saint handled all the variants too.’

No wonder variants like High Orc Sluggers or Warlocks didn’t come our way.

She had been drawing all the aggro and dealing with them.

Seeing the mountain of corpses piled up around the Saint, I could clearly understand why the religious order doesn’t abandon her.

If the Saint hadn’t been here… we would have been annihilated.

She’s a madwoman who only knows slaughter in her madness, but without her, we couldn’t have handled this quantity.

“The situation seems to have resolved roughly. Damn heretics.”

The Saint’s arm is in tatters.

Even though it was on the verge of being torn off, the Saint smiled faintly.

Does she have an ability that makes it not hurt when she smiles?

How can she smile in such a state?

“Let’s deal with the remaining ones.”

The Saint cast healing on herself.

In an instant, her tattered arm returned to its original state, and all the wounds remaining on her body were healed.

Her clothes were still in a torn state, but the Saint didn’t care whether her skin was showing or not. To begin with, she was so soaked in blood that no skin color was visible anyway.

‘Now we might survive.’

When Raphael joined too, it really became more manageable.

The inquisitors erased enemies while keeping me and Paramel in the middle, and thanks to that, I could rest for a moment.

My left arm is still tingling. It seems the muscles were quite strained.

“It looks like no more are coming.”

“Phew….”

Soon the monster wave stopped.

The central district was filled with the stench of blood from the corpses of dead adventurers and monsters.

“Even in this situation, there’s not a single heretic corpse.”

“Those damn bastards.”

Sasaro and Raphael gritted their teeth.

The Saint, looking drained, sat on the corpse of a High Orc Slugger with a blank expression and drooling, her head lowered, while Paramel and Rosie rallied the surviving adventurers.

‘The central district base camp is completely destroyed… The supplies I brought must have all been taken by the heretics.’

The base camp that had been set up when I came down with the conquest team was in a miserable state of destruction, and all the supplies had been stolen by the heretics.

“I’ll quickly clear away the corpses first.”

To use the central district as a base camp again, it seems we need to clear away the piled-up corpses first.

We can’t do anything in a field of corpses. It looks like we can quickly put the corpses in my inventory to deal with them, and clean up the blood soaking the floor using the labyrinth vine beans Raphanel gave me.

“Is there anything we can help with?”

“No. Not particularly. Ah, here are torches. Could you light them up?”

“Alright.”

I took out all the torches from my inventory and handed them over to Rosie and Paramel.

It’s time to fill the central district with light again. Since Holy Light consumes holy power, it would be better for the inquisitors to rest if we illuminate with torches.

‘It’s enormous.’

There were an incredible number of monsters that had died.

How much could we earn if we sold all of these?

The religious order and the guild will divide the money, and some will be invested in healthcare projects for adventurers killed by heretics.

‘A huge number of adventurers died too.’

Just the corpses of Gold Badge level adventurers alone exceeded ten. It was more than the seven I saw earlier. About a dozen died at the hands of the Saint, and the number of adventurers who died fighting monsters was also enormous.

‘These people…’

I could see the faces of people who had come down to the labyrinth with me during the conquest.

If there’s any consolation, it’s that they weren’t used as sacrifices, so they can be revived if we take them back up.

With the skills to enter the underground city, they should be able to pay off their debts by working for the religious order for about 4 years without necessarily falling into slavery.

“Hey. Porter.”

“Yes, Saint.”

As I was busily collecting corpses, the Saint, who had finished recovering, spoke to me.

“You were right. The blessing of insect repellent. I’m sorry I couldn’t use it.”

“No, it’s alright, Saint.”

It was an unreasonable request to make to someone fighting desperately against Gold Badge level monsters.

The Saint had handled all the Gold Badges alone, and while killing variant monsters, she was even using the blessing of arrow protection to shield us from ranged attacks.

It’s understandable that she might have had a momentary lapse in judgment due to mental overload when asked to use the blessing of insect repellent on top of everything else she was already doing.

I understand. Unreasonable requests in combat situations can lead to impaired judgment.

Above all, I knew from what I had heard that she was a person obsessed with slaughter to begin with.

I also know that complaining to her would only worsen the atmosphere.

The Saint is essentially the leader of the heretic hunting party.

When a party member harbors dissatisfaction towards the leader, it only causes anxiety and confusion in the team.

Moreover, the fact that she apologized first means she’s still maintaining her sanity.

There’s no need for me to say unnecessary things and push the leader.

The Saint was already carrying a log by herself. If she hadn’t been there, we would have been annihilated, so I think it’s right to respect her.

“Please take good care of things.”

“Yes. Rest, Saint. Ah, I’ll prepare water for you once I finish collecting the corpses. We need to wash off the blood.”

“Oh.. Spatial pockets are quite convenient indeed.”

The Saint returned to her spot.

I wanted to wash up too.

My whole body was damp with bloodwater.