Chapter 240

They quieted down after those initial discussions, since while this might not be a stealth mission, it was preferable to approach the search as inconspicuously as possible. She also pulled out Malice to join them. She hadn’t earlier because she had wanted to talk freely, perhaps even about Malice herself—since she was an agent of the dungeon, captured or not. While Natalie didn’t distrust her for that, she did need to acknowledge reality. And they needed to be able to talk about the possibility of Malice being incorrect without offending the girl. Who did, admittedly, seem like she would be easy to offend.

The Duskwood was navigable, as far as forests went. Neither the thickest and most treacherous of woods nor particularly spacious and flat. They trudged through at a decent pace, taking note of distinct features, of which Varten had marked many with great detail on the map he’d provided them.

Before long, they arrived at the subsection of the forest Varten had feared to explore by himself—the dangerous portion, and not just because of the goblins’ presence. The remote, untamed places of Valhaur, or any country, held all manners of creatures and beasts that could be a threat even to combat-classed individuals. Modern age or not, the world was far from conquered.

About two hours into their search, they ran into trouble.

The most shocking part was that it was unannounced—an ambush. Or, an ambush by goblin standards. They weren’t the most subtle of creatures. But one moment their party was walking through the forest, and the next something thumped into Natalie’s upper arm. She faltered on her next step, attention flicking down to see, incredulously, that an arrow was sticking out of her.

Surprising as such a realization was, it took even the battle-hardened group of six a fraction of a second to understand. Natalie stared dumbly at the black-feathered shaft of wood, eyes wandering down to where the arrowhead was invisible inside her flesh. Another projectile whistled past, missing her.

Jordan staggered backward as an arrow hit her square in the skull. The projectile shattered and slammed to the ground, repelled, but Jordan reared back, a hand shooting up to grab at her head. Her HP had saved her, rejecting the attack entirely—since an arrow through the skull would’ve meant death. But where Natalie had an arrow sticking out of her arm, and Jordan only had a trickle of blood seeping between the fingers held to her forehead, the HP cost had been significantly more severe on Jordan. She might even be briefly out of the fight. Certainly, she was dazed.

Natalie snapped out of her shock and confusion just as the screaming of goblins began. The squat, foul creatures streamed out from between the trees, as if from nowhere; she almost didn’t understand where they’d come from, especially so many. Had they been lying in wait?

She pushed her baffled confusion to the side. Ignoring the pain, she pulled the arrow off her arm and tossed it to the side; she couldn’t afford the metal grinding up the muscles in her arm, messing up her attacks. On cue, Liz’s empowering spell, along with a heal, washed through her even as she hefted [Valentine] into the air. Not by intention, she let out her own scream of adrenaline, rushing forward toward the group of goblins to draw as much attention as she could.