I'm not a Witcher anymore.

The wilderness was unusually quiet at night.

Apart from the occasional crackling of the campfire and the even breathing of my companions...

The surroundings seemed to be shrouded in an invisible silence.

Even the strange beast cries that were heard during the day have disappeared.

There were no wolf howls, no bird songs, and no insect chirps.

There was only deathly silence.

This excessive quiet actually made people feel more uneasy.

It's like the calm before the storm...

The night deepened.

The moon silently climbed to its zenith, casting a pale, white light.

The wilderness looked particularly eerie under the moonlight.

The shadows of the grass stretched long, the boulders looked like crouching monsters, and the distant horizon was blurred.

The campfire was still burning, but the flames had shrunk considerably.

Finn sat in a corner of the wooden fence, holding a long spear, his eyes scanning his surroundings warily.

Ravenna sat on the other side, staring in another direction without blinking.

The two men at the weapons shop were snoring softly, fast asleep.

Joel, on the other hand, tossed and turned, clearly not sleeping soundly.

Zig had his eyes closed and was breathing evenly, looking as if he were asleep.

But in reality, he was perfectly conscious.

I don't know how much time passed...

Zig suddenly opened his eyes.

The sky remained as black as ink, with only the cold moonlight shining on the earth.

The others were still sound asleep, emitting soft snores and breathing sounds.

Logically speaking, it should still be far from dawn.

Zig glanced at the sky.

Judging from the moon's position, it's around midnight.

There was still about an hour before his shift ended in the second half of the night.

But a strange, inexplicable sense of unease jolted him awake from his sleep.

The atmosphere in the air is off.

It's too quiet.

It was unusually quiet.

Zig quietly sat up from his sleeping bag.

His movements were very light, making almost no sound.

But this subtle movement immediately caught the attention of Ravenna and Finn, who were on night watch.

Ravenna turned her head and glanced at him. When she saw it was Zieg, she didn't say anything and looked back into the distance.

Finn, however, lowered his voice and asked:

"Why did you wake up so early?"

Zieg was about to answer.

Suddenly, his expression changed.

His gaze was fixed on a certain direction outside the camp.

Zig also lowered his voice.

"Did you hear that? What was that sound?"

Finn immediately followed Zig's gaze and looked into the distance, while simultaneously straining his ears to listen carefully.

At first, he heard nothing.

The only sounds were the rustling of the wind through the grass and the crackling of the campfire.

But soon, he heard it.

It was a dense and continuous frictional sound.

It looked like countless things crawling through the grass, pushing and crushing the blades.

The sound was very soft, but it covered a wide area.

And... it's getting closer.

Finn's expression changed instantly.

He jumped onto the carriage, gripped his spear tightly, and stared intently in the direction from which the sound came.

By the bright moonlight, he quickly noticed something was amiss.

In the grass about 300 meters from the camp.

A large area of ​​grass appeared to be in a distinctly unnatural state.

Under normal circumstances, weeds should grow upright.

Even if it is blown by the wind, it will quickly return to its original shape.

but now……

The grass in that area had largely fallen in the same direction, leaving distinct marks.

It was as if a large group of creatures were moving through it, pressing down the originally upright weeds.

What's even more chilling is that these indentations are slowly but steadily extending in their direction.

Under the moonlight, the fallen grass looked like a slowly moving shadow.

It was as if a large, unseen group was crawling forward through the grass.

and……

There are a lot of them.

Much.

Finn's face turned deathly pale instantly.

He took a deep breath, turned around abruptly, and unleashed a deafening roar:

"Enemy attack!"

The shout was like a thunderclap, instantly waking everyone from their sleep.

Ravenna reacted the fastest; she took a few steps and came to Finn's side, her sharp eyes scanning the bushes in the distance.

Ingram followed closely behind.

He jumped out of his sleeping bag with astonishing speed.

He swiftly grabbed the one-handed warhammer and kite shield that were placed beside him.

The heavy iron boots thudded on the ground as he strode to the wooden fence.

The shield slammed heavily onto the ground.

Joel was startled by the roar.

He already had trouble sleeping, constantly struggling between sleep and wakefulness.

Hearing Finn's shout, he cried out in surprise and scrambled out of his sleeping bag, nearly tripping over his own legs.

His face was deathly pale, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

In contrast, his two companions were sleeping like logs.

They huddled in their sleeping bags, and even with Finn's roar so loud, they only rolled over, mumbled a few incoherent words in their sleep, and then went back to sleep.

There was no sign of him waking up at all.

Joel was so anxious when he saw this that he stomped his feet.

He rushed over and kicked one of the guys' sleeping bags.

But the guy just grunted twice, turned over, and went back to sleep.

Clearly, the two were exhausted from traveling all day and were fast asleep.

On the other side, Finn stood on the carriage, his eyes fixed on the bushes in the distance.

Under the moonlight, he could clearly see small figures slowly moving among the fallen grass.

Their outlines were exceptionally clear in the moonlight.

Goblin.

and……

There are a lot of them.

Finn took a deep breath and said in a low voice:

"34 goblin minions, no big goblins, and no shamans."

As he spoke, he jumped down from the carriage and stood behind the wooden fence, ready to meet the enemy.

Ingram frowned slightly when he heard the number, but his expression remained calm.

He raised his kite shield and stood shoulder to shoulder with Finn:

"Thirty-four...that's quite a lot."

He turned to Sieg and Ravenna: "Sieg, Ravenna, please provide us with long-range cover."

……

Zig jumped into a carriage.

Standing on higher ground, his view was much broader.

The moonlight is very bright tonight.

The goblins' figures were clearly visible in the grass.

Countless specks of light coalesced into a yew wood longbow, which landed in Sieg's palm.

He nocked an arrow, squinted, and estimated the distance.

It is about two hundred meters.

For an ordinary archer, this distance is far beyond the effective range of a precise shot.

At this distance, archers can basically only launch projectiles.

A squad of archers fired together, creating a barrage of arrows that hit the target by sheer numbers.

Want to accurately hit a single target?

almost impossible.

Ravenna, standing beside him, held a short bow, glanced at the goblins in the distance, and then silently put the bow down.

She did not make a move.

That is precisely the reason.

At that distance, her shortbow's range was simply insufficient.