After the events of the previous episode, Goblin Slayer (GS) and the rest of the party prepare to return to the sewers. GS makes note of the lack of “rat slaying quests.” He purchases a canary, as a precaution against poison. Canaries are good detectors of poison and with act as a warning if any poison is detected. He explains that the goblins have been educated, most likely by learned from miners. The plan is to avoid the goblins and focus on their leaders, then kill the rest.
The party enter a room and are quickly trapped inside by the goblins. The canary begins to panic as they pump poison into the room. The Goblin Slayer quickly orders the party to wrap cloth an d charcoal around their mouths. Using concert and a spell they seal the vents, preventing more poison from entering. Finally, they move a stone coffin in from of the door to prevent Goblins from entering. The Lizard summons his dragontooth warrior, while the Priestess uses her protection spell.
As the goblin horde break through the door, it is revealed that they’re accompanied by a “goblin champion.” As the goblins advance they slam into the protection force field, breaking their noses as they do. The party are able to take advantage as they shoot arrows and throw rocks at them. The GS steps out of the protection field killing goblins as he keeps count. He reaches seventeen before attacking the goblin champion. However, the goblin champion uses another goblin as a shield and delivers a massive blow to GS. Sending him flying and leaving him spitting up blood.
The Priestess losses her concentration and the protection spell dissipates. The goblins begin to overwhelm the party. The goblin champion sets his sights on the Priestess and grabs her before taking a bit of her shoulder. As she screams, GS has a flashback of his childhood. He gets up and begins straggling the goblin champion with human hair. The Lizard heals the Priestess, as the goblin slayer crushes the eye of the goblin champion. The rest of the goblins flee in fear, the GS collapses beside an apologetic Priestess.
I feel it’s completely unnecessary to pretend that the Goblin Slayer is in danger of dying. The Priestess’s sensitivity keeps the series from becoming too dark, but it also is can cost the party as it did in this battle. The shield she created with her protection spell was very effective during this battle. However, she quickly let’s it drop when GS get’s hurt. She leaves herself and the others in more danger because of it. The Goblin Slayer also shows that his personality has it’s faults and benefits. His single tracked mind allows him to use his logic before battle keeping the party alive and gaining an advantage against the enemies. However, the cost is needlessly risking his life.
Reviews from Goblin Slayer series
Actually, the biggest concern I had with this episode was when Goblin Slayer punched through the goblin champion’s eye: the champion is shown reeling in pain, meaning that he is still alive. Goblin Slayer’s character rather demands that he would have shoved a knife, his short sword, or even just his armored hand into the eye socket and straight into the brain in order to kill said champion. While I realize his injuries, he was just in too much control of the situation to have missed such an opportunity. Methinks that someone–a writer, mayhap–might have dropped the ball on this one. . .
Now that you mention it he also could have killed goblin champion when he was strangling him. I assume for story reasons they want the goblin champion to survive.
I feared for the Elf and Priestess in this episode. On the plus side the canary escaped unscathed.
LOL. I didn’t think the Elf was in much danger, but the Priestess was another matter. I wonder how the canary survived considering it must have inhaled some of the poison and is rather small so it should have died right?