The group started heading into the forest towards the area where the Hobgoblin was last seen, John walked in the front leading the group, once in while he would take a small map out of his pocket checking the route.
Dreue and Hazel stayed in the middle, Dreue's job was to tell the group about any nearby monsters and to warn them if any monster tried to approach them from any side. Hazel the mage was the weakest one in terms of close combat so even though it is better for her to stay at the back, she stayed at the middle.
Gallien the archer walked at the back, he had some experience in close combat acting as a rearguard, it was unheard of for an archer to take the role of rearguard, but they don't have any other melee worrier.
"The plan is navigating through the forest towards the target, while avoiding any unnecessary fights, so Dreue please guide us in between the monsters, we want to save or strength to take down the Hobgoblin"
"don't worry everyone, remember we are already strong enough to take the Hobgoblin, it's just that we want to do it perfectly without suffering any lose" John encouraged the team and boosted their confidence.
"There are some low-level monsters on the right, three to be specific, around fifty feet behind the bushes, I think they are two fire foxes and a one-horned rabbit"
"Roger, we will avoid them, lets deviate to left then we return to our original route" John drew a mark on the map to keep track of the way.
"Stop! there is one-horned rabbit in front of us, around thirty feet" after walking for a while Dreue said again.
"Roger, it's not worth changing our direction for it, Gallien go take down as saliently as possible, make sure it does not run away, we don't want to alert other monsters"
Gallien nocked an arrow, pulling the pulling the bow string to the maximum, he walked slowing ready to shoot the arrow at any moment.
*THUD*
As soon Gallien spotted the rabbit, he let go of string, the arrow shoot through the air toward the rabbit pinning him dead on the ground.
"Impressive marksmanship " Dreue couldn't help but praise, without even using a slight bit of aura, just depending on his strength and skills, he was able to one-shot kill the rabbit.
"Gallien, I thought you would you use aura to improve your accuracy and power, but you didn't need to! You did it with pure skill! That means you could spend all day hunting low level monsters without using aura at all, indeed material artists surpass mages in some aspects".
"A mage will not able to hunt a lot of monsters due to his limited capacity of mana, and when he runs out of mana, he will not be able to catch even a small rabbit" Dreue said while looking at Hazel, repeatedly nodding his head.
"Hey Dreue, why are you looking at me like that?!? Did you forget you are a mage too ?!?" Hazel was annoyed by Dreue looks.
"I don't consider myself a mage anymore I am just a monster detector, a human monster detector" Dreue said proudly.
…..
"Be careful everyone, now we entered the target area, Dreue watch carefully for any monsters gathering together, the Hobgoblin will most likely be accompanied by two or three goblins"
"Also don't not forget to check all around us, especially at the back as there is a good chance the Hobgoblin will try to take us by surprise"
"I will draw the attention of the Hobgoblin toward me, keeping him occupied while you take care of the small goblins, then after you finish you will join me in taking the Hobgoblin dawn, that's the plan"
John arranged the roles of everyone in the team, making a good plan.
The group continued advancing but as a pace slower than before.
…..
"Leader, I can sense a group of monsters in east side, they are four monsters, three of them are low level ones, the last one level is high, I can't tell which level exactly but it higher than all the monsters I saw during all of our hunts" Dreue said slowly as he was focusing his eyes to the east.
"It must be the Hobgoblin with three Goblins"
"Dreue are you sure there is three Goblins?" Gallien asked, three Goblins was more than excepted, beside the leader they only have two people capable of fighting, so how would they deal with the third one?
"Yes! There are three of them" Dreue conformed.
"don't loss your cool, we still have an advantage we found them before they find us, all we need to is lunch a surprise attack taking one Goblin directly, they we will continue acting according to the plan"
"Dreue search the area and tell us if there are other monsters nearby"
Dreue focused his attention, using the Eye of Perception to the limit, when it comes to his and his teammates personal safety, he can't hold back.
"None, leader I assure you there are no other monsters nearby, not here nor around the target"
"Good everyone prepare yourself"
The group advanced slowly towards the goblins, they saw the goblins gathering around a two dead people, it seems they were killed by them.
The Hobgoblin was carrying a great axe, he was larger than an adult man, two of the goblins carried wooden clubs while the last one was unarmed.
Dreue singed for them to stop with his hand as getting any closer would increase the risk of getting themselves discovered by the goblins.
Gallien nocked a black arrow, it was made of stronger material sharp to the point it can penetrate even rocks, he had only two, but it was not the time for saving, their first arrack would determine everything.
Hazel started casting a large fireball, and just before she was ready to lunch it, the goblins looked in their direction.
*WOOSH*
The arrow flew through the air at a high-speed hitting one of the goblins who had just turned his chest, causing the goblins to panic and lose their attention for a second.
*BOOM*
The fireball hit the same Goblin directly dropping him dead on the ground.
"Attack!!!!" John shouted at the top of his lungs drawing the attention of the goblins.
Gallien follow behind leaving some distance between them, while Dreue and Hazel stayed in their place.
*CLASH*
John ran directly facing the Hobgoblin, their weapons clashing against each other.
Before the two other goblins were able to reach John, they were his by a barrage of arrows, Gallien's aura covered his body, he was shooting arrows with high power and precision without wasting time drawing the bow string to the fullest, he was instead depending on his aura to fire arrows, the arrows didn't do much damage as their main role was to draw the attention of the goblins.
*BOOM*
Gallien attack enabled Hazel to have time casting another large fireball, directly hitting the goblins as they didn't have the chance to dodge it because they were distracted by the arrows.
One of the goblins dropped dead taking most of the fireball.
*SLICE*
Gallien stabbed his short sword in the chest of the other Goblin killing him.
Gallien and Hazel then focused their attacks on the Hobgoblin.
John suffered some injuries while holding back the Hobgoblin, if not buying time for his teammates to help him then would definitely run away as the monster was clearly stronger than what he could take alone.
With Gallien's arrows and Hazel's fireballs, the Hobgoblin was pushed back suffering serious injuries.
*AHHHHH*
Taking the chance, John activated his aura beheading the Hobgoblin in one strike.
The team breathed sigh of relief and relaxed.
"Success! Good job everyone!" Hazel cheered.
"Good teamwork, thanks to everyone effort, we were able to win"
"As expected of Hazel, your fireballs are a killing card! And you Gallien your barrage of arrows could hold even the strongest enemy in its place unable to take a step forward"
"Thank you captain you are overpraising us, it was all thanks to you, as you were holding the Hobgoblin giving us enough time to act" said Hazel while Gallien nodded in agreement.
"We will not forget about our human monster detector! hey Dreue! Why are you silent? I thought you would say it was all thanks to you and your ability!" the three of them laughed loudly, but Dreue stayed silent.
"Hey! Dreue say something! It is wrong to ignore your friends" Gallien said in annoyed tone.
Yet, Dreue paid them no attention, his expression was serious saliently gazing into a certain direction.