The necromancer froze, unsure of what to do next. If his main ability, the manipulation of corpses, was made void, he could only rely on his physical prowess.

Am I strong enough to defeat her? The necromancer wondered.

Shaking his head, he put that thought out of his mind. A toothy grin stretched ear to ear on his face, regardless of if he could, it would certainly be an interesting battle!

The battle that commenced was rather anticlimactic, it inevitably ended with the retreat of the necromancer. Due to the fact that not much but flat land stretched for acres, he instead sunk into the ground to escape.

Agnes sighed heavily as she retrieved the goblin. Clutching the goblin under her arm, she returned to the hotel room.

Inside the hotel room, Agnes saw both Edith and Abigail sitting on the bed. After releasing the goblin, she joined them.

“I see you couldn’t keep an eye on the goblin,” Abigail remarked.

“Does it matter? I returned the thing in the end, and it’s not likely that anybody saw it anyway,” Agnes retorted.

“That doesn’t matter.” Edith sighed. “It was the fact that you allowed it to escape in the first place, it could’ve caused major issues.”

“You know what else could’ve caused major issues?” Abigail smiled. “Your death at the hands of a witch hunter.”

Those words immediately caught the attention of Agnes.

“You fought a witch hunter? Alone?!”

“Not necessarily, Abigail helped me at the end.”

“You idiot. Do you know the situation that could’ve put us in? If you died, then I would’ve had to-“ Agnes paused for a moment before continuing. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter, just please be more careful in the future.”

Without any more banter, the three returned to their usual silence.

Since it was still quite early in the morning, Agnes decided to get a bit of rest. Edith did the same while Abigail remained awake. She fiddled with the silver eye that she collected from the witch hunter, her smile growing even wider than usual.

Close to noon, when Agnes got up, the three planned their next move. Basically, their plan was to march into the woods and exterminate the goblins, similarly to what they did last time. Once that was done, they would decide on where to go next. Since the goblins were such a new creation, the three felt that with enough time, they could eradicate the whole population that had somehow spread fairly far from their original location. After that, they could go after Evelynn.

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The trio, along with the goblin, got into the vehicle that Abigail had made previously and drove outside of the town. After reaching the outskirts, they drove off the main cobblestone road and onto a path that led into the nearby woods.

The woods that they were in was where Abigail lived, so she knew it well enough to traverse it easily. Parking near a small off-white house, they all got out.

Without any words needing to be said, both Edith and Agnes knew that this house was Abigail’s.

“Shall we commence the hunt,” Abigail suggested.

With a nod, Edith signaled for the goblin to track down the others of its kind. The goblin staggered a bit before sniffing the air and leading in a direction.

My power still hasn’t fully returned, it’s a tad unstable at the moment, Edith thought silently as she followed the small creature.

Over a somewhat short period of time, they were able to find a few groups of goblins here and there, which Agnes killed using her knitting needles’ yarn manipulation ability. None of the goblins they killed were particularly remarkable, and only had small variations between them, similar to what they saw before.

As they fought the goblins, they noticed that they all seemed to flee in the same direction. Curious, they all began to travel in that same direction. As they did, the frequency of the goblins increased, signaling to them that they were getting close to where the bulk of them stayed.

Not too much time passed until they were upon what they assumed was the place that the goblins inhabited.

In front of them was a church with a tall steeple. It had solid white walls with many rounded windows that were broken and a blackish roof. Vines had managed to creep up the sides and it was clear that it had been abandoned for many many years.

“How come you didn’t tell us about this?” Edith asked.

“I didn’t know this was here, I haven’t explored this far into the woods before,” Abigail replied honestly.

With not many other choices, they decided to enter the rundown church.

The inside wasn’t much better than the outside, debris along with broken glass lay scattered throughout on the floor. The pews were pretty much intact, but they were slowly withering away.

Around some of the pews, the group was able to find a few more groups of goblins that they quickly slaughtered. Even when the remaining ones attempted to gang up on them, they were still no match for the knitting needles.

Even though the extermination was going well, the three couldn’t help but have a strange feeling. Something about how the goblins were arranged wasn’t quite right. It was as if they were made to be easy to find on purpose.

Odd, goblins aren’t smart, but they certainly aren’t the dumbest. They wouldn’t lead an enemy back to their camp unless told to do so. They must have a leader, and an intelligent one at that, Agnes thought to herself while continuing to command her knitting needle to kill the goblins.

Even though Agnes and likely Edith and Abigail knew that it was a trap, they still remained unworried. Their combined might would be more than enough to take out even the toughest of enemies.

Without warning, the church began to shake violently, as if an earthquake was happening. Suddenly, a loud boom rang out across the church and woods.

“Brace yourselves,” Agnes said as her muscles tensed.