No Step On Slime

Chapter 3: Whites of their Eyes

We had built a perimeter fence made of sharpened logs and rope. It was located right at the mouth of the village, most likely where they'd try to attack. Judging from their numbers they wouldn't try to go through the forest, as that would slow them down immensely.

Or, that was the hope. If they actually pulled off a flanking maneuver we would be fucked. We'd be fighting with our backs against the fence we built.

They had been howling for the past few hours, into nightfall. It seemed they were trying to intimidate us. It only irritated me further.

Fuckers probably had balls the size of walnuts, judging from how long it was taking for them to actually come down.

Finally, the howling grew closer. I could hear the pattering of feet in the distance, and the pack of them popped up over the hill. They were some massive wolves, bigger than even the ones we had at home.

I wasn't a historian by any means, but the Goblin elder mentioned that these were Dire Wolves of some sort. Those were extinct on Earth, right? If this was how they looked, I'm damn happy I never met one in my past life.

I raised my hand as several of the Goblins began to notch arrows.

"Don't shoot 'till you see the whites of their eyes."

"Uh— can you please tell us what you mean?" the Goblin elder asked.

"It means don't fire your arrows 'till the bastards are right on top of us."

The armed Goblins around me gave a few confused grunts.

"It's better to land your shot late than not at all. Take your time to aim, as long as you're able to shoot at all, then hit 'em where it hurts. We ain't got a lot of arrows or time to use those arrows, so make them all count."

Several of the wolves charged. The bulk of their force remained behind to watch; their confidence was expected, seeing as we only had time to erect an arguably flimsy fence as a front line of defense.

They weren't slowing down. That was good, the wolves didn't see the steel thread that Rimuru had laid out.

So close... three, two...

"Fire!"

The Goblins unleashed their first barrage of arrows at near point-blank range. Most of the charging wolves were hit, as made obvious when they flopped over.

They didn't stop there. The injured wolves, carried forward by their velocity, careened into the steel thread trap. The arrows landed their marks on many of their vital parts, hitting their legs and eyes. I was impressed; these Goblins were surprisingly well-practiced.

"Don't let your guards down. Spears, up to the barricade! Use the length of your weapon to your advantage, poke holes in 'em while keeping distance between you and the enemy!"

The Goblins proceeded to stab their spears and long-reach weapons through the fence, to get any wolves that were still trying to attack in their failed show-of-force.

The lead wolf of the pack, which I think is the largest one, tried to leap at Rimuru. I was about to yell at the slime to watch out, but it seems my concerns weren't needed. The wolf recoiled as it was immediately entangled upon the wire.

Looking closer, it wasn't the steel thread wire that Rimuru had placed initially, otherwise the bastard would've been in multiple pieces on the ground already.

I don't think it made much of a difference in the end, as Rimuru fired up some shot that managed to cut said wolf's head off.

"Listen up, wolves!" Rimuru exclaimed, hopping towards the corpse. "Your pack leader has been killed! You have two choices: Submit, or die!"