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Thick Miasma
The first ones to make a move were the Black Caps.
The first one of the Black Caps that had spawned ran towards us with breakneck speed, and the 9 behind him also began to run and followed after him.
The strongest of their species, but they were still goblins. Even though they were all same species, they had no coordination between them, and were all rushing at us. Seeing them like this, I felt a bit relieved.
They were certainly abnormally fast and agile but………in the end, the thing that would have made me afraid the most would have been if they had begun to coordinate and fight together as a group.
Normally the weaker goblins show better coordination because they have the self-awareness that they are weak and low on the food chain and that they need to work together to survive and beat their stronger opponents, but these Black Caps were confident in their individual strength. And thus, didn’t deem it necessary to fight as a group.
Of course they were still scary opponents but, now that they were lacking their biggest threat, I felt no fear even with 10 of them as our opponents.
I quickly gave a signal to Snow, and we took point behind Ralf, as if hiding behind him.
The Black Cap that ran across us, had its focus taken by my and Snow’s movement———-got attacked by Esta’s magic while its attention was diverted.
“[Freeze Trap]”
It was not a direct attack, but like she had said in advance, it was an Ice spell designed to restrict their movements.
The Black Cap that had rushed ahead first realized the abnormality and tried to stop itself from moving into it but………
The Black Caps behind it ended up knocking and pushing into it from behind because they too were running at breakneck speeds, and thus ended up falling into the [Freeze Trap] much easier than I expected.
Of course, the Black Caps that were at the rear had no idea what was happening, and all of them ended up getting caught in it. Looking closely, I could see ice covering all of them upto their knees, as they all came to halt as if they had just hit a wall.
Now, all I have to do is use the {Sticky String] and [Hardening] combo to kill them one-sidedly.
As the Black Caps struggled to free themselves from the ice, I began aiming for their heads and started firing hardened strings at them.
Judging by their speed and agility, I’m sure they would have made for extremely tough opponents but, thanks to Esta, I was able to instantly kill them without getting a single scratch.
Of course, part of it was thanks to the fact that they blindly rushed at us but, if this is the level of monsters that are going to show up, we can explore to our hearts content———and the moment I thought that……….
“Oi, Chris! Look that way! Something huge is spawning over there!”
“Wh-what could that be? Such a huge shadow……….”
When I looked towards the direction that Ralf and Esta were focused on, I also saw something bigger than even an Ogre being birthed from the ground.
Because of the thick miasma, I wasn’t able to confirm its identity but, even from here I could tell that this was by far the biggest humanoid monster we had faced.
“That’s definitely a dangerous one, I can tell at least that much. With that kind of size, I don’t think our previous combo that we used on the Black Caps would work Esta, and I don’t think my hardened strings could even pierce through that anyway.”
“Man, there really is no downtime here huh! I want to punch the me from a few seconds ago who really thought that this might be easy!!”
Not just Ralf, I had the same thought and I’m sure even the usually cool headed Esta must have thought something similar.
…………but, now’s not the time to be thinking of such things. I need to figure out how to deal with this giant monster.
I should start the battle as normal, and then try poisoning it through [Effect Spread].
But before that, I want to see if Esta’s magic is effective or not.
“Esta, start blasting it with magic from here.”
“Understood. I’ll randomly fire a bunch of attack magic spells then.”
“Ralf, you’re on standby in case more monsters spawn near us. Make sure to not let anything get close to Esta.”
“Got it! Just kill that thing asap okay!!”
Giving orders to them both, I waited for Esta’s magic bombardment to land alongside Snow.
And once the magic made the impact, I was planning to rush in to engage it in close combat.
Since normal attacks won’t go through, I needed to use all the strength boosting skills, and was planning to deliver one swift and strong strike.
Seeing Esta’s [Aero Flame] launched at it, I gave a signal to Snow and rushed straight in towards the giant shadow.
Perhaps because it had only just spawned, it didn’t even put up some kind of guard, and the [Aero Flame] made a direct impact with its giant body, and it seemed like it staggered for a moment.
I can’t tell how much damage it did but, at least it has some  effect.
I told Esta to continue firing her magic as I ran, and made my way directly towards it.
As I got closer, finally its true appearance began getting clearer.
A similarly green-ish skin like goblins, and a fat round belly.
If only this was the size of a goblin, you’d have laughed at it appearance but………the reality was that it was a giant towering at over 5m tall in terms of height.
In its hands was a iron club, again, in a size that I had never seen. And seeing it all in full, now I finally recalled hearing about this one from Bors-san as well.
Well, in truth this one was much bigger than the one I heard about but there’s no doubt, this monster was in fact—–a Troll.