Chapter 258: May I ask, is this Gray Valley Village?

The sharp and manic, eerie cry that seemed like the materialization of desire, was like the cold wind that slipped into the collar in winter.

Causing Tom and Mike to stop their conversation instantly.

Their bodies stiffened, their pupils vibrated as they turned their heads abruptly, pressing their heads deeper onto the grass mound while their nervous gazes were cast toward the darkness in the distance.

The forest in the middle of the night was like a giant beast crouching, breathing heavily and slowly, the heavy air sucked into the lungs was the cold, damp breath mixed with soil and trees.

The cries of night owls and the sounds of unknown insects still echoed in the depths of the night, clearly no different from usual, but at this moment, they became abnormally clear and sensitive in the ears of the two.

The wheat that had not been planted for long had already sprouted, swaying gently in the evening breeze.

If it were in the past, Tom might have sighed to Uncle Mike beside him that the crop growth this year was good and perhaps they could welcome a harvest.

But right now, with his head lowered unconsciously and his breathing slowed, what he was focusing all his attention on and watching tightly was the towering forest outside the wheat field, like a deep water shadow, standing quietly at the end of his line of sight.

The heart beating more and more violently, and the deep unease lingering for no reason, made him feel as if he could detect that in that deep shadow, some ominous thing was quietly brewing.

At first, what Tom heard was only the whimpering of the night wind blowing through the treetops and the light sound of branches and leaves colliding and rubbing.

But as his attention concentrated, those more subtle and fragmented sounds, like countless insects crawling under fallen leaves, also entered his ears.

Whew—

Above the firmament, the dark clouds covering the silver moon leaked a gap, allowing the cold and bright moonlight to clear for an instant, spilling gloomily into the deep and dark forest.

It was like the light of a flashlight suddenly shining on a cockroach nest in a corner of a room you had never paid attention to.

Pairs of small, turbid eyes filled with the fierce light of beasts and undisguised greed, set against gaunt and small ugly bodies, suddenly burst out from his line of sight.

Twenty? Thirty?

No!

That was at least forty Goblins!

Boom—

His brain was blank, Tom only felt the hot blood that had been brewing in the center of his chest for a whole night suddenly rush to the top of his skull, bringing his thoughts and consciousness to be washed away and scattered.

"Doo!!!"

A high-pitched and bright horn sound suddenly sounded from beside him.

Causing Tom's body to shudder violently, his dazed spirit unconsciously concentrating again.

Turning his head to look, he saw Uncle Mike had already picked up the bone horn used to warn the villagers at some point.

The veins on his neck and forehead bulged, his cheeks puffed and turned red, as if he were pouring all his strength into it.

Behind him, accompanying the suspicious shouts and increasingly dense footsteps, was the firelight gradually rising in the corner of his eye.

Subconsciously gripping the pitchfork, he could clearly feel the sweat in his palms.

Knowing that the villagers were rushing here, Tom did not look behind him even once.

Instead, he continued to watch the dense forest in front nervously.

The sound of the horn was two-way.

While providing a warning for the villagers, it also reminded those despicable and fierce monsters in the forest that they had already discovered their existence.

But strangely, the Goblins who should have rushed out of the forest at the same time as the horn sound had unexpectedly suppressed their instinctive ferocity at this moment.

After only a burst of faint commotion, they fell silent again in the depths of the darkness.

Why?

Tom thought subconsciously, but his gaze could not help but cast into the deeper and darker distance.

Immediately, he captured the figure that was clearly more robust and sturdy than ordinary Goblins...

"Hobgoblin, it's a Hobgoblin!"

With unspeakable fear, Tom whispered with a trembling voice.

That was it, only this kind of elite individual among Goblins, whose intelligence was not inferior to ordinary intelligent creatures, had the ability to control these individuals filled with cruel and chaotic souls like an army.

"What do you mean, Hobgoblin?"

"What about the Goblins, how many came?"

Turning his body behind him, he saw the men in the village rushing over one after another holding torches, some even hadn't put on their clothes, just draped a thin shirt randomly and rushed over.

There were also many who were sleepy-eyed.

But the same thing was that, more or less, they all held things like pitchforks, hoes, or even iron pots temporarily used as shields in their hands.

The one asking was an old man at the very front of the crowd, about fifty or sixty years old, but his body still looked sturdy.

"Village Chief, I just took a glance, this time I'm afraid there are at least forty Goblins!"

Mike jumped off the grass mound and reported to the Village Chief nervously.

"Forty, my god, wasn't it said that there were at most seven or eight, how could there be so many!?"

"That shouldn't be, I haven't found any traces of large-scale Goblin activity in the forest recently, where did these come from?"

"It's over, it's over, more than forty Goblins, and there's a Hobgoblin commanding behind, with just us few people, how can we defend!"

As soon as Mike finished speaking, the crowd in front of him suddenly became panicked.

Clearly, the residents of Gray Valley Village knew that they might need to resist a Goblin attack, but they didn't expect the number of Goblins to be so large, far exceeding the range they could deal with.

Tom didn't care about that much.

The moment he captured the Hobgoblin's figure, his mental state had already changed.

A few minutes ago, the instructions from Uncle Mike echoed in his heart like some kind of hallucination.

"More than thirty... take your wife and children and run directly, don't look back... they can't take away that many..."

As a husband, as a father, Tom wished he could rush home now and take his family to the rear to take refuge.

And just before the desire to protect his loved ones drove his legs to take the first step.

He saw those faces in the crowd.

Uncle Harold—he had been young when his father passed away and would be exhausted just from plowing the fields; it was precisely with the other man's help that he had managed to survive that most difficult stage.

Big Brother Yabo, knowing that his family was not well-off, previously when Janis was pregnant, he specially sent over a few large pieces of cured venison, heard that he was scolded by his sister-in-law for several days afterward;

Leon, this kid... damn, why is this kid not hiding honestly in the back, what is he doing coming to the front!?

Tom stared, grabbed his collar, and almost forcibly dragged the half-grown teenager out of the crowd.

"Who told you to come?"

"If something happens, what will your sister do in the future?"

He growled at the teenager in front of him, his spit spraying onto the other party's face.

As the only younger brother of his wife Janis, and the only remaining relative in the world, Tom had always treated him as his own younger brother.

Seeing him follow the crowd here without a sound, the anger in his heart suddenly rose.

"Listen, I want you to go home now, immediately, right now!"

"Stay with your sister."

"You've always been clever, if the situation doesn't look right, take Lily and Leo, and run directly to the northeast with your sister, don't wait for me."

"Do you understand!"

Tom gripped the pitchfork tightly in his hand, the retreat that had originally been in his heart had long been replaced by some kind of more firm and deep emotion.

He would not retreat. ===== CHAPTER 259 =====