Sophia's POV
Fear
The most primal, soul-shaking fear that made my legs tremble. That's all I could feel right now, nothing but sheer terror.
I could barely stand, a warm liquid running down my legs to the ground. My breaths grew shallower and quicker.
I wanted to scream, but Josephine was covering my mouth with one hand while clutching her own with the other.
"Alright! Time for the first wave!"
The noble lady, who called herself Elizabeth, declared in a cheerful voice.
"They're just goblins! Try not to make unnecessary movements and conserve energy!"
The leader Roman tried to calm the knights, an effort that proved futile, as no one seemed to hear him.
"Light Magic: Illumination!"
After one of the knights illuminated the surrounding area, the sight of their opponents became visible.
Several hunched creatures, no taller than a meter, emerged from the darkness with moss-green skin adorned with warts. A prominent nose stood out on their faces, flanked by pointed ears and piercing yellow eyes with vertical pupils. Sharp, irregular teeth completed the mischievous expression. Unkempt hair in dark shades covered their heads, while ill-fitting leather or fur rags clothed their thin bodies.
Goblins were among the weakest monsters; even a child could defeat one if they had a weapon. However, this number was absurd… there were so many that it was impossible to count. But there were enough to destroy an ordinary infantry platoon.
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The battle began.
Even disturbed by the presence of Elizabeth and Ragnael, the knights took the lives of the goblins with extreme ease.
As one goblin swung its club towards a knight, another knight cut off its head from behind.
Goblins wielding bows fired arrows with precise aim, but the temple knights repelled the arrows.
The clearing was already permeated with the strong smell of blood, but no knight had spilled a single drop.
"Stronger than expected, congratulations!"
Elizabeth congratulated them while clapping her hands; the knights were now motivated for the second wave of monsters.
"Time for the Second Wave!"
With her words, a tremendous wave of magical power erupted from her body and filled our vision with palpable darkness.
After 5 minutes, the darkness dispersed, only to reveal the second wave:
Suspended in the air as if gravity were non-existent, spectres that seemed to be made from the smoke of a fire floated with their expressionless faces. Zombies made from the bodies of the defeated goblins rose on their command.
Beside them, women of opposite colours, white as snow, also floated, Banshees, showing their fangs in their misshapen mouths dagger-like claws extended from their hands.
Large, long lizards peered with half their bodies out of the earth, the height of a horse, 15 meters long and several legs as thick as a tree trunk. The heavy Behirs exhaled a faint blue glow from their mouths.
A serpentine form moved among all these monsters, its body so long that its head peered at us from above the canopy of the trees. A body made of bones as white as marble, a rare Bone Naga was the strongest monster of the second wave.
"From F-rank monsters in the first to A-rank monsters in the second, the difference between one wave and another is huge!"
Josephine expressed her surprise beside me, and she was right.
In fact, the monsters in this world are classified according to their strength and difficulty to subdue, being organized into ranks G, F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, and EX.
Each rank above is an order of magnitude more powerful, with EX being exclusive to the Demon King.
That said, a rank-A Bone Naga already has the power to single-handedly destroy a small country, accompanied by an army of C-rank Banshees and Spectres and F-rank Zombie Goblins, even a medium-sized nation would be doomed.