- Oliver -

  "Due to their speed, they almost fell upoering the cave. The stones on the ground offered no support; each step seemed to slip and skid.

  Fortunately for both, Isabe was already waiting at their entrahe girl caught the two before they slipped to the ground.

  "All good?" she asked.

  "Yeah, thanks," Oliver replied gratefully.

  "And now?" An asked. "We 't get out before the captains deal with that beast."

  "Let's keep expl. At least we earn points ihe cave," Oliver expined.

  Katherine nodded. Uhe others, she hadn't been so impacted by the Snow Tiger; she had already faced other [Knight]-level monsters, yet she was happy not to have to take risks.

  The fan to advanside the icy cave. trary to their expectations, it wasn't as cold ihe cave as outside.

  An massaged his face, enting, "It's so good not to have that cold wind in my face. I feel like a thawing popsicle."

  The others had to agree; even with winter clothing, it was hard not to feel the region's cold, especially with the strong winds. However, ihe cave, although still cold, it wasn't as biting.

  As they walked through what seemed like a long corridor, Isabe noticed an issue. "Oliver, we're not receiving points."

  "Then someone has already passed through here," he said.

  "Does it make seo tinue?" she asked.

  "Since we have nothing to do up there, let's explore," Oliver replied.

  "If there's any bifurcation, we'll avoid the side that's not points," Katherine ented, worried about not achieving a good score.

  Katherine's suggestion was sooed. The group had to walk just a little further until they found the first split.

  "An, go left, and Isabe, ght. The first to find a sg notification, we'll folloath," Oliver expined.

  "Got it." They replied.

  +1 Point - Terrain discovered ??"Here!" An shouted.

  "On our way," Oliver said.

  The group returo the fork and followed the left path.

  "We're getting a LOT of points. This side certainly hadn't been explored yet," An said happily.

  Isabe was right beside him, searg for anomalies to mark.

  The cave seemed to desd deeper and deeper into the p's soil, being slightly warmer.

  The group tinued walking; however, further along their path, the cave expanded, f a small burrow.

  "What could it be?" An wondered. However, as soon as his voice came out, Isabe was already raising her arm, signaling everyoo stop.

  She slowly walked back to the others and whispered, "I think I saw a group of Goblins up ahead."

  "I'll get closer to see how many there are. If bat isn't viable, we'll leave the cave. Okay?" Oliver expined.

  "Okay," everyone agreed.

  An, Isabe, and Katherireated a few meters bato the corridor while Oliver sneaked forward, taking careful steps until he approached the creatures. The boy stretched to try to see them without giving away his position.

  Just ahead, no more than teers away, a group of Goblins was lying on the ground. The photos and descriptions they had seen in css were very different from seeing one up close. They had twisted, muscur forms, with snow-white skin mottled by icy blue and gray patches.

  Oliver didn't o be reminded of the dahese monsters represeheir eyes made it clear. Unlike anything else he had ever faced, those eyes had a supernatural glow—a malicious gaze born from their savage intelligend hunger for food.

  Although humanoid, they had sharp, cwed fingers extending from arms ed in crudely stitched leather aal bands.

  'Where did they get metal? Could it be from attacks oy?' the boy thought.

  Oliver began to t how many ehere were but didn't o finish. The boy stopped ting when there were at least foblins.

  He walked slowly back to the team. "I don't think we should proceed. There are at least foblins, not to mention there may be many more deeper in the cave."

  "Are you sure? I think the two of us hahem," Katherine suggested.

  "We may, especially with the element of surprise. But they're intelligent; the survivors might flee, and if there are more of them, they'll call others to attack us," Oliver expined.

  She uood the boy's , and since fighting Goblins wouldn't give them points, it was best to turn back.

  "But we should at least mark them," An ented.

  The rest of the team agreed; at least they would earn some points.

  An sneaked closer to the monsters, pointing his gau the group and marking the score.

  +10 Points - Goblins discovered ?? Do not ehe boy didn't he warning; it wasn't his iion. But that's not what happened.

  As An stretched to leave his position, one of his feet slipped on the mixture of stones and ice, causing him to fall to the ground.

  Thump

  The sound was muffled, but soon, they heard the monsters starting to move.

  Raaakk!

  They could hear much more than a dozen Goblins screaming and starting to run toward them. An struggled to get ba his feet quickly.

  "Run!" he shouted as he returo the group.

  The others didn't o be told twice; the three began to run toward the exit.

  "You run ahead!" Oliver anded.

  As they started running, their armors were activated. The viscous liquid was expelled from the gau, quickly attag to their bodies and f each piece without them needing to stop.

  Katherine was in the lead; with her high agility, she had no difficulty accelerating. Followed by Isabe and An, who were careful not to fall again—they would hardly have time to correct a mistake if one was made.

  Finally, Oliver was at the back of the group. He could see the Goblins approag—some running awkwardly on two legs while others used their long limbs to run on all fours.

  "What the hell is that?!" he excimed upon seeing the monsters approag.

  However, he had stayed i position precisely for this. He quickly formed his Energy Pistol in his hands and began to shoot at the closest Goblins.

  The boy could see that, in some cases, he could even gravely ihem with a single shot; however, the number of monsters didn't seem to decrease anyway.

  ‘Good thing we decided not to fight,’ he was grateful for the deade.

  "Speed up; they're getting closer," Oliver warned.

  With each shot, he tried to aim at the target that would cause the most disarray among the creatures.

  Although she was further ahead, Katherine could quickly see the Goblins by looking back. She tried to think of something that could help, but her sword was too short, and if she used her blood to shoot something, she might bee a burden to her teammates.

  An and Isabe were in a simir position; their powers were great in one-on-one bat, but they wouldn't be of much use in a situatiohey had to flee.

  As the four ran, one of the Goblins finally mao get close, jumping and trying to grab one of Oliver's legs.

  He mao blow off the Goblin's cws with a quick shot, but this was already a sign that they were in a dangerous situation.

  'I 't use [Observation] with this number of monsters. 't tell whie will get close,' the boy thought.

  "We're reag the crossroads!" Katherine shouted.

  Oliver could see the small space where the split was. ' I do something with this?' he theorized as he saw the icy walls.

  "Keep running toward the exit; don't stop!" he shouted.

  Instead of aiming at the Goblins, he started aiming ahead of them.

  "What are you thinking?" An asked.

  However, Oliver didn't have time to expin. He began aiming at the walls and ceiling, firing dozens of secutive shots.

  Soon, the ice that had spread along the sides and ceiling of the cave began to fall—initially just a little, but the amount was increasing.

  "Jump through the ice!" was all he could shout. The four ran and passed through to the exit before even rger ks began to fall.

  THUMP

  The passage between the exit and the fork had been closed. Some ice blocks were blog the way.

  Raaakk!

  However, they could still hear the Goblins screeg oher side.

  "They'll probably break through this soo's not stick around to find out," Isabe alerted the others.

  They returo the formation with Katherine in front and started moving through the cave.

  Krrrrrack

  However, the sound caught everyone's attention. With the ice falling, the ground seemed to have cracked. What started as a small fissure expanded and ening.

  "Run—" Oliver shouted before the ground gave way.

  Katherine, An, and Isabe mao leap away. However, Oliver, being the st, didn't reach solid ground intact.

  "OH! Fuck!"

  GCLopes