Chasing the goblin turned out to take longer than I anticipated.

The little shit was nimbler than I expected, and despite my best efforts to end his miserable existence, he dodged my axe swings like a shady merchant avoiding the tax office.

My pursuit ended as suddenly as it began.

By pure coincidence, the little pest stumbled upon his comrades.

Now, standing there panting heavily, I found myself facing three goblins. One with a club, one with a spear whom I immediately marked as the greatest threat since the spear negated my range advantage, and one with a knife.

A suspiciously high quality knife.

Not that it changed my situation.

I was screwed.

I glanced at the goblin with the club, the one I’d been chasing.

Was that a smug grin on my would-be victim's face? Oh no, that’s too much. Even if it costs me dearly, I’ll wipe that grin off his ugly mug.

Fueled by righteous anger, I charged at him.

As I expected, my just vengeance for the unforgivable sin of this vermin’s existence was thwarted by the spearman's attack which I barely dodged, which of course was the moment when the knife-wielding goblin seized the opportunity to close the distance immediately.

Axes, especially two-handed ones are deadly weapons, but to wield them effectively, you need to maintain the right distance. Too far, and your opponent dodges the blow. Too close, and you can't fully utilize its potential.

That doesn’t mean you can’t surprise your enemy.

And surprise was precisely what befell our short admirer of other people's knives.

The steel head of my axe smashed into the goblin’s nose cushing it and temporarily taking him out of the fight. The spearman responded to this unexpected turn of events with a thrust.

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I won't lie, I fully expected the spear to pierce my leather armor and fill my insides with generous amounts of iron. But contrary to my expectations, I managed to grab the spear with my left hand.

Now it was my turn to wear the unpleasant grin of a sadist welcoming their latest victim.

The spearman didn't let go of its weapon in time, so I pulled it forward, causing him to lose his balance. I immediately capitalized on this, delivering a heavy kick aimed at his solar plexus.

The goblin was literally swept off its feet and, with a sound pleasant to my ears, crashed to the ground.

Unfortunately, the last goblin took advantage of the moment to strike me with his club. I had to take the hit on my shoulder.

It hurt.

But not as much as the retaliatory blow from my axe, which buried itself deep in the goblin's collarbone. In the blink of an eye, with the crunch of bone and the spray of blood, life drained from his body.

I braced my foot against him and yanked my bloodied axe from the corpse.

And just in time, as Mr. Bloody Nose was preparing to attack. I turned, swinging with just my right hand. The blow wasn’t particularly strong, but that wasn’t the point. At that moment, surprise, speed, and range were what mattered. Because my target was the abdomen.

Yeah.

It’s hard to fight when your opponent disembowels you. One could even argue you don’t fight at all.

That was precisely the fate of our knife-lovin wielder. Though he reacted, it wasn’t fast enough. This time, it seemed the power of friendship didn’t help my foes.

All that remained was to finish it off, because after all, I’m not some monster delighting in the suffering of others, even such vile creatures, but just a simple peace-loving traveler.

Speaking of peace.

Eternal peace.

I must admit, the knife was of excellent quality. Slitting the last goblin's throat posed no difficulty; I might even say it went rather smoothly.

Yes, it was truly a fine piece of steel.

A brief search of the bodies revealed a leather sheath for the knife, complete with a belt, and a handful of coins in a pouch. These items were clearly not of goblin origin, as they were too well-made.

Undoubtedly, they were looted.

The pouch contained silver and copper coins in two sizes, large and small. But what worried me more was that most of them were silver. I would have expected the proportions to be reversed since silver is obviously more valuable than copper. Unless these were taken from wealthy individuals for whom silver coins were mere pocket change.

I had a bad feeling.

The question was—did the robbed people were still alive?

And if so should I do something about it?

The time has come to make a choice.