Cecilia couldn't believe what she saw, but then she was pulled out of her daze by a voice.
"Grab my hand!"
This was a voice that she recognized which made her even more surprised, but she listened to this voice and reached her hand out.
There was a small hand that grabbed her hand and pulled her up onto a horse that ran right past the mass of flames that was in front of her.
Cecilia couldn't help looking at the person riding on the horse with a shocked look as she said, "Why are you here?"
The one on the horse who had grabbed her hand and saved her was none other than Zwein.
But that shouldn't be since Zwein should be safe in town.
As they were riding past the mass of flames, before I could even answer her question, there was a large hand that grabbed out at us. Even though it had been hit with a mass of flames, the Goblin General didn't seem that burnt.
It grabbed out at us even though it couldn't see us, it was just grabbing at the sound of the horse passing by it.
But its ears were sharp enough that it was able to accurately find where we were.
I tried pulling on the reins of the horse to make it go to the side, but it was already too late as the Goblin General's hand was coming towards us. This horse wasn't anywhere on the same level as Cecilia's horse, so it didn't have the same agility and ability to dodge.
It was impossible for us to dodge this slap from the Goblin General.
Before the Goblin General's hand could slap us down into a meat pancake, there was another whistling sound that cut through the air.
This whistle was then followed by a ball of flames that slammed into the Goblin General's hand, knocking it back.
Seeing this, I didn't hesitate at all to whip the reins of the horse and dash forward, moving away from the Goblin General.
Only when we were far away did I turn back to look at the mass of flames that was the Goblin General.
I also heard the sound of hooves coming over and turned to see the priest on a horse riding over.
The priest had been the one that had shot the two fireballs in the first place that had distracted the Goblin General long enough for me to save Cecilia. If it wasn't for the priest coming out with me and putting his life in danger as well, we never would have made it this far.
Seeing that I had Cecilia with me, the priest looked at me with an appreciative look before saying, "As expected of the one chosen by the gods themselves. You truly are a hero among heroes."
Ever since he had found out about the Mark of God that I had received, he had been strangely friendly with me. It reached the point where I couldn't help being creeped out by how friendly he was…
But still, there was no denying that he had been the one that had saved us.
After stalling for a second, I shouted, "Let's go! We'll head back to the town and regroup!"
The priest shook his head when he heard this and he turned to look at the mass of flames in front of us.
I turned to follow his gaze and as I looked over, I saw the flames suddenly being shot out in every direction. It was like an explosion of flames, but instead of creating more flames, it just dissipated the flames that were already there.
Once the flames had been scattered, the form of the Goblin General was revealed.
It was standing there as if nothing had happened.
There wasn't even a single burn on its hide even though it had been covered in flames just a second ago.
As soon as we saw this, I couldn't help knitting my brows.
I had thought that the flames would distract the Goblin General long enough that we would be able to escape, but it didn't seem like it had an effect on the Goblin General.
For us to escape, we needed to get past the Goblin General or face the wave of monsters with the Goblin General behind us.
I had thought that it would be possible to run through the wave with the priest providing cover, but now…it seemed very unlikely.
In the end, Cecilia was the one who spoke first, "Leave me here. I'll cover you two while you run back into the…"
Before she could finish, I hit her on the top of her head with my fist.
Cecilia looked at me in a daze as if she couldn't process what happened.
During this, I said, "Don't be a fool. If anyone's staying behind, it's me."
Cecilia then quickly said, "No, I'm the head knight! It's my job to protect everyone!"
The two of us started arguing even though we were in this dangerous situation.
The priest looked at us with a smile, letting us argue for a bit. But in the end, he cut us off when he saw that the Goblin General was about to move.
The priest said one simple word, "Stop."
Both of us were taken aback by the firm tone in his face.
He looked at the two of us with a gentle smile before saying, "It's this old man's job to pave the way for you young people. The two of you should run while you still can."
Before either of us could say a thing, the priest charged forth with two balls of flames in his hands.
He didn't even give us a choice in this matter as he took the role of being bait for the Goblin General.
I couldn't help biting my lip when I saw this.
There was still something else that I could have done, but at this moment, I was still hesitating. By hesitating like this, I had put everyone in danger…
Cecilia was about to jump off the horse to go help the priest, but I grabbed her arm and said, "Wait."
Cecilia looked at me with an anxious look and was about to say something, but I said first, "Let me give you something first and then you can go help him."