Chapter 88: Chapter 88

Lin Mo didn't consider himself a saint with overflowing sympathy, but he was ultimately a normal person. Witnessing such a scene inevitably moved him deeply.

As an ordinary individual, he might not have possessed the strength to stop so many Goblins, but as a father, he would absolutely never allow these monsters to harm his daughter before drawing his last breath.

Perhaps precisely because his efforts bought enough time, Lin Mo managed to arrive just in time to save the young girl who was about to be assaulted.

However, the current situation was critical. There wasn't much time for emotional reflection or comfort. Lin Mo could only instruct her briefly to run in the direction they came from before hastily leaving to continue searching for the next Goblin.

The sky grew increasingly darker, and the tragedies within Falling Leaves Village continued to multiply.

Although the guild announcement mentioned that Falling Leaves Village had suffered repeated Goblin harassment recently and assessed the village's danger coefficient as very high—thus specially marking it as urgent—such a large-scale assault was still unexpected.

The number of Goblins was simply overwhelming...

So overwhelming that Lin Mo barely needed to search; every short distance he advanced revealed more victimized villagers.

Some he could reach in time to save, but more often he could only deal with the aftermath, leaving behind cold corpses.

"My child, run quickly! Live well!" A farmwife in coarse clothing pushed her weeping young son away, grabbed a firewood knife, and charged toward the Goblins without looking back.

"Grandpa, I'm scared..." A toddler learning to speak clung tightly to the elderly man. Under the flickering oil lamp, the curved blades in the Goblins' hands cast swaying reflections on their faces.

"Darling, close your eyes. It will be over soon... Our lives have been so miserable, perhaps it's time for release." A man who had just returned from a day's farming held his wife tightly, wearing a bitter, resigned smile on his face.

Case after case, everything happening before his eyes made even adventurers accustomed to surviving on death's edge frown deeply.

The adventurers advancing from various directions had successively fought their way to the central area of Falling Leaves Village. However, even so, with only slightly over twenty people, the areas they covered remained quite limited compared to the entire village.

"At a time , our noble lords are holed up in their castles, unwilling to send out those guards!" Parn vented angrily while cutting down Goblins.

"These Goblins are endless! Judging by the scale, there must be several hundred of them!"

"More than that! They're still continuously arriving from outside the village—can't even see the end of them..."

"And they're scattered everywhere, popping up from all directions."

"Our numbers are limited. Fighting isn't sustainable; the efficiency is too low." Marnlo shook his head. Even if these ordinary Goblins posed little threat to them, stamina consumption was an issue. Most importantly, with insufficient personnel, they could kill Goblins but struggled to prevent them from harming villagers.

Continuing to fight , even if they could exterminate all the Goblins, Falling Leaves Village's situation would likely be...

"An assault of this scale must be directed by a highly intelligent Goblin behind the scenes. We need to find a way to locate it!" Amid the crowd, Alden remained calm, pinpointing the crux of the solution.

If they could eliminate the commanding Goblin, if not immediately causing the Goblin army to collapse, at least the Goblins would become disorganized. Once they lost relatively unified coordination, these weak low-level magical creatures would reveal their inherently timid and cowardly nature.

At that point, both combat and defense would become much easier.

"Where's Halek? He's the only professional-level assassin among us. It's time for him to step up." Fresh chapters posted on N0velFire.ɴet

"Alright, I'll go look for him. I'll leave this area to you all."

Halek was precisely the assassin who had briefly encountered Lin Mo earlier. Hearing this, he acknowledged, disengaged, and detoured from another direction toward the Goblins' rear.

"Be careful!" Alden's voice was drowned out by the chaotic battlefield.

Besides them, many of the village's young adults were also resisting the Goblin invasion.

Falling Leaves Village was a medium-sized settlement with a permanent population of about one thousand. However, most were children and elderly; the proportion of young adults wasn't high, numbering less than two hundred.

The remaining youth had left to work in towns or even cities.

Many of these less than two hundred young adults had been injured or killed in the initial surprise attack. Their combat prowess was insufficient, struggling even against two Goblins.

Yet despite this, they didn't retreat, doing their utmost to protect the village and their loved ones behind them.

The other villagers weren't idle either. The village chief began organizing efforts to gather the remaining villagers together, caring for and protecting the wounded.

Some elderly villagers dragged their aged bodies into the fight. Those not severely injured, after receiving emergency treatment, returned to the battlefield...

This would be a protracted battle!

Lin Mo began consciously controlling his stamina expenditure.

Although his stamina had become quite ample after being promoted to Knight, the current battle's duration was unknown. To handle potential unexpected situations, he needed to maintain his stamina above 70% at all times.

At the very least, he couldn't use 【Cross Slash】 too recklessly continuously. He would only unleash it when encountering several Goblins clustered together, allowing him to gain more proficiency.

The sky had completely darkened, with only scattered starlight helping them barely see the enemies before them. Fortunately, Goblins' night vision was also quite average, not much better than humans'.

But they clearly had no intention of retreating. Even though the number of Goblins killed by adventurers and villagers had reached two to three hundred, they still continuously swarmed in from all directions.

The enemies before them seemed undiminished.

While the adventurers' stamina was beginning to strain, the ordinary villagers had long been pushed to their limits.

More people were getting injured due to exhaustion. In the darkness, friendly fire incidents even occurred occasionally. Continuing to fight would only worsen the situation.

The villagers behind them lit oil lamps and torches, but the faint light provided limited assistance.

"Where's Halek? He's been gone almost twenty minutes... Why hasn't he returned yet?" Alden grew restless. Some adventurers' stamina was nearly depleted, their movements becoming increasingly sluggish.

This was precisely the terror of creatures like Goblins. Individually weak, but once they formed large numbers, they became a catastrophe. That's why some people called them "Green-skinned Cockroaches" or "Oversized Locusts."

"Logically, reconnaissance shouldn't take this long. Could something have happened?"

"Can't be... No matter what, he's a professional-level assassin. If he focused on escaping, even an Adult Mutated Goblin might not be able to stop him."

"Then what if it's a Goblin spellcaster?"