The Realization
As Lilith ran through the camp, she soon saw Kass. He was fighting like a one-man army, tearing through goblin after goblin, with occasional pauses when he seemed to cum.
Still, even he was having trouble. The sheer number of goblins seemed to be starting to overwhelm him, and who knew when his [Blood Lust] skill would stop working.
As Lilith sped up, a goblin made to stab him in the back. Lilith would be too far away to warn him, and he didn't seem to notice. His [Unblemished Beauty] would be able to regenerate the injury, given time, but the other goblins wouldn't give him that time.
As she tried to think of some way to help, it turned out she didn't need to. As the goblin attacked, a silvery barrier appeared, blocking the sword and shocking the goblin.
As the clang of metal against magic was always a noticeable one, Kass turned around, kicking the goblin away, knocking down another goblin in the process. Neither got up.
In this time, Lilith had managed to reach Kass.
"Hey, Kass. I got here as soon as I could."
"Looks like it was just in time," he replied. "Thanks for the barrier."
"Oh, that wasn't me. It looked more like a goblin barrier."
"Huh. Then…" thinking on it, Kass soon realized what that meant. "The goblin saved me?" He asked, indicating to the goblin shamaness still tied to his dick.
"Seems likely. What do you say we get rid of these guys and then I can ask her?"
"Sounds like a plan," Kass said, adjusting his grip on his sword before leaping back into combat.
- - -
Meanwhile, Gabriel and the other villagers were making their way back to rejoin the main group, Gabriel still contemplating how to get the information he desired. However, this train of thought was interrupted almost a minute after the group had left the rough wooden perimeter, when an arrow came from the trees, just barely missing the opening in Gabriel's helmet.
"There's goblins in the trees!" As he called out, Gabriel moved to draw his greatsword, before realizing it would do him little good against treebound enemies. As he lamented his decision to not learn the bow like Pender, he heard a loud, slicing noise, like someone had just cut through a tree.
And as it turned out, that was exactly right. A moment after hearing the sound, a tree fell over, a goblin falling with it. Since the goblin hadn't transformed, Gabriel just stomped down on their head with his iron boots, killing the goblin.
Looking up again, Gabriel saw a large, scarred man carrying a massive sword standing befind where the tree was; Milo.
What kind of man can cut a tree down in one swing? What kind of man could lift that sword in the first place?
One with magic, most likely. Despite the connection to the priestess being disproven, it seemed that Gabriel's theory of Milo being a noble could still hold water.
"There's still a few more in the trees," Milo said. "Give me a moment."
True to his word, a few moments later, Milo and the villagers had collectively taken down the goblin ambush and reassured the women that they were safe. After this had happened, Gabriel noticed something strange about the bodies of the goblins.
Picking one up, Gabriel noticed that the goblin's veins were visible, and strangely dark. Gabriel had dealt with goblins before, and they had never looked like this before. Once he realized that, the inconsistencies started to pile up. Goblins typically didn't have bows; they were normally dagger fighters, or even more commonly bare claws. Similarly, goblins weren't predisposed to capture and attack humans; they were typically no worse than the vermin that stole grain from the fields. Inconvenient, sure, but never a serious threat. They had the sense to stay away from humans and never attract too much ire. Gabriel had only had to go clear out goblins when they started to congregate too much in one area, and even then they didn't fight to the death as much as these ones did. They were given to the distasteful habit of cannibalizing their own corpses, but never to the extent that most goblins seen were transformed into hobgoblins.
No, something strange was going on here, and Gabriel was going to get to the bottom of it.
- - -
After Lilith and Kass had cleared out the rest of the goblins attacking them, they had the time to rest and discuss.
"So, any new levels?"
"Not yet," Lilith replied. "But I'm close. And now, I'm going to ask this goblin some questions." Tuning into her [Comprehend Languages] skill, Lilith lowered herself to eye level with the dazed, slightly cum-bloated goblin.
<Can you understand me? I know you're probably blissed-out right now, but I've got some questions to ask you.>
<You can speak Goblin?> as the goblin's eyes focused, however, their expression changed from confusion to a strange sort of grief. <Ah. The dick-woman.>
<Wait, are you the same priestess who I met when I first got captured and brought here? Also, my name is Lilith.>
<Lilith, then. Lilith, I have a request to ask of you.>
<A request? What sort of request?>
<Please, dick-woman Lilith. Slay my kin.>