20 Fruitful Hunt

"Paci! Fall back and tend to your wound! Kira, take care of the normal Goblins for me! Let's clean this up quickly!"

Alessia's shout mixed with the roars of the monsters as she unsheathed her claymore, the bow in her hands now lying on the ground as she tossed it aside.

Keeping the spear in hand, I stared at the various red skinned monsters for a split second and studied their positions, engraving the battlefield in my mind as I moved to make the first attack, setting the tone of the fight.

With a slight boost in my stats now that I had leveled up, I closed in on the hunting party of Goblins and lanced the spear forwards, stabbing one through the head and shattering its skull before yanking back, blood, bone and brains exploding from the blow and raining down on its comrades, who shrieked in horror and anger at the sudden attack.

Not letting up, I pulled my arm back and stabbed forwards once more, piercing the chest of another Goblin cleanly and using my free hand to cast [Vine Whip], snapping the thick green tangle of thorns at a third Goblin and scoring a deep gash across its face, eliciting another shriek.

A Hobgoblin roared at me and tried to slash with its rusty sword, only to fall forwards as its skull exploded as well, a burst of dazzling golden light fading from where its head used to be, followed quickly by the sound of another body dropping to the earth.

Freeing the spear, I pushed a Goblin's club aside and stabbed its shoulder, flicking my whip at it a moment later and wrapping the green cord around its throat, yanking back and snapping its neck, killing one more of these filthy creatures.

Alessia growled as she cleaved through a Hobgoblin, her claymore separating it into two pieces that thudded to the ground with a wet splash, its organs and blood seeping everywhere.

An arrow thudded into the brow of a Goblin beside me, and I watched as a second arrow pierced the shoulder of a Hobgoblin, allowing Alessia to lop off its head easily as it screeched in pain.

In mere seconds, the hunting party of Goblins had been taken care of, the dozen or so little abhorrent monsters falling swiftly to the three of us as we did the world a favor, though we didn't celebrate as we turned back to Paci and began to administer aid, which was primarily Alessia pressing her hands to the wound and muttering a few words before they shone gold.

I watched as Paci's wounded side slowly began to knit itself back together, the flesh growing at an incredible rate and returning to its previous state while the blood dissipated, leaving little evidence of the wound behind.

"Well... that was interesting. Didn't know those red bastards were going to be that aggressive and active. Though, I guess we should have seen that as a possibility thanks to them breeding so damn much in recent months."

Paci let out a sigh as she stood up, brushing off her cuirass and sighing as she inspected the damage done to her armor, while Alessia said "I didn't think they'd be active this far out either... and its a bit worrying too, since they managed to sneak up on us. Was it just pure luck that they were downwind and quiet enough that we couldn't sense them, or did they position themselves there and keep themselves hidden from us as best they could?"

The gold haired Dogkin let out a sigh as well, before looking around and adding "Well, let's nab their ears, get our prey and head back. No reason to tempt fate now is there? The quicker we're out of Yngrave, the better."

Taking out my knife, I began to swiftly retrieve the ears that I could, noting instantly that a few were rather... damaged, while some were missing altogether thanks to us killing first and not worrying about money... which was bad for me.

Clicking my tongue, I bundled up the ears and sheathed the knife, not complaining since Paci had been injured by one of them, so thinking about monetary gains whilst one of my comrades was wounded would have been greedy and terrible; whilst I might not be the most accepting and open person in the world, I wasn't stupid enough to go for profits whilst a comrade was bleeding out behind me.

Least of all now that I knew Paci was real, and not just some 'bundle of code' for me to find amusement in.

The same way that the Goblins were no longer just 'bundles of code' meant for me to farm for experience and get stronger... they were real and were more than capable of terrible things; things that warranted the deep loathing I - and many others - have for them.

Tying the pouch to my belt, I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the metallic scent of blood in the air, or the acrid tang of burnt flesh coming from the Goblin that stabbed Paci; I tried to ignore the fact that I had truly just taken a life, even if it was a monster's life.

It was so... different from what I was used to, so hard to wrap my head around, and my hands trembled for a moment as I looked down at the deer and rabbits that we had killed.

These too were dead, killed by us; did they deserve to die?

Thankfully, before I could delve down that path, Alessia stood beside me and lifted the two rabbits, nodding and saying "Juicy... these'll taste good tonight~! Don't you think so, Kira?"

I smiled at the Dogkin, nodding my head and hoisting the heavy deer carcass over my shoulders as I replied "They do indeed...", her reminder - if you can call it that - jolting me back to the fact that this was reality, and that if I wanted to eat a healthy, proper diet, then these beautiful creatures needed to die.

Whilst I could likely make do on plants and other non living creatures, it would be stupid to ignore these bounties of protein that were walking around, especially when I knew that I wasn't against meat.

Especially not now; I had no time to be picky and ask all these questions, and I wasn't going to look too hard into a philosophical question that I wanted no part in.

So, I took our prey and accepted the rabbits as well as we began to walk back to the camp, the Goblin's ears, weapons, and the prey secured and ready to be transported back.