High Elf Archer

"Ignorance is bliss, for learning is the highest joy."

- High Elf Archer

High Elf Archer is an adventurer who is a member of Goblin Slayer's party. She is a 2,000 year old elf, which is considered young by elven standards.

Appearance
High Elf Archer is a slender and tall elf with green hair that is long in the back and short in front, with two braids at the side. She has long ears that confirm her status as a High Elf. She wears a green sleeveless archer corset, shorts, a pair of uneven black gloves, knee high boots, and a hood. On adventures, she wears an additional black sleeve over her left arm, the arm guard for her bow arm. She is described as stunningly beautiful, even among elves. On several occasions, she is shown to take the immediate attention of males. She has a small bust, which she is sensitive over.

Personality
Despite her great age, High Elf Archer is still quite innocent to the darker aspects of the world and has her own ideas about what an adventure involves. Her first quest with Goblin Slayer has her witness the brutal and severely-overlooked cruelty of goblins for the first time, followed by the joyless killing of them with a knife. Still, by the end of that affair, High Elf Archer promised herself to take Goblin Slayer on an adventure suited to her own standards.

One of High Elf Archer's defining traits is her hot-tempered personality. Prone to outbursts, she lashes out at Goblin Slayer on more than one occasion and frequently argues with Dwarf Shaman during various adventures. This trait is usually amplified whenever she drinks alcohol, which she has a low tolerance to.

Background
High Elf Archer lived with others of her kind. When she was young, High Elf Archer would practice singing. Her sister taught her everything she knew, such as about fruits and herbs, while their cousin taught her archery and how to cross a field in a hurry. She, at some point, developed a curiosity about the world, which led to her becoming an adventurer. While her sister was opposed to this, their cousin gave his support. Sometime after, High Elf Archer was chosen by her people to represent them.

Goblin Slayer Volume 1
High Elf Archer, along with Dwarf Shaman and Lizard Priest went to the frontier to find Goblin Slayer and request his aid. Upon meeting him at the guild, she became outraged at Goblin Slayer's refusal to confront demons in favor of goblins, but was reminded of their true objective; they wanted Goblin Slayer's help in destroying a large goblin nest near elven territory, as there were not enough people to deal with goblins due to an increase in demons and monsters. High Elf Archer added that the elf army could not mobilize to attack the goblins, as it would create suspicion and panic if they were focusing only on killing the weakest monsters.

When they arrived at the goblins' base, High Elf Archer was appalled at the state of a captured elven woman and felt extreme hatred for the goblins. She later helped in massacring a large group of goblins who were put to sleep using the group's magic, before fighting the Ogre that led them. As the adventurers went back to town, High Elf Archer promised herself to take Goblin Slayer on a real adventure instead of just slaying goblins.

When Goblin Slayer requested every adventurer at the guild to help fight back against a horde of at least a hundred goblins led by a Goblin Lord, High Elf Archer was one of the initial adventurers who volunteered to join him. After the battle, a drunk High Elf Archer was surprised to see Goblin Slayer without his helmet on.

Goblin Slayer Volume 2
High Elf Archer and her party members took Goblin Slayer on a adventure to slay the goblins beneath Water Town. During their second visit to the catacombs, the party was locked in by goblins anticipating their arrival. High Elf Archer and the adventurers attempted to repel the wave of goblins, but they were overwhelmed; High Elf Archer being held down and forcibly stripped. Luckily, when Goblin Slayer began strangling the goblin champion, Dwarf Shaman found the opportunity to rescue High Elf Archer by slaying the goblins around her. She reluctantly thanked him for rescuing her, before the adventurers managed to repel the goblins.

Once Goblin Slayer and Priestess recovered, High Elf Archer and the rest of the party encountered and killed a monster guarding a mirror. The party deduced that the mirror functioned as the gateway allowing goblins to enter the sewers. While Lizard Priest began removing the mirror, High Elf Archer helped to defend against the goblins' second attack before escaping with the rest of the party. Above the rubble that crushed the goblins, High Elf Archer kicked Goblin Slayer once he stated their method didn't involve fire, water or an explosion.

Goblin Slayer Volume 3
During the festival, Goblin Slayer informed her and his other party members that goblins were approaching the town on two fronts. With the party deciding to split up, High Elf Archer and Priestess made quick work of the goblins on one side, with the help of traps Goblin Slayer had previously set up.

She and Priestess later regrouped with the rest of the party to deal with an advance of goblins, led by Dark Elf. High Elf Archer fired an arrow that would have went through his forehead, but to her horror, it was deflected by the empowered elf right before it landed. Despite realizing Dark Elf wielded the power of an ancient giant which was impervious to arrows, High Elf Archer continued to fire shot after shot; after Goblin Slayer poisoned Dark Elf, High Elf Archer shot an arrow through Dark Elf's neck to prevent him from finishing an incantation.

Goblin Slayer Volume 7
At the tavern, High Elf Archer announced that her older sister was going to get married to their cousin and invited the party, Guild Girl and Cow Girl to the event. She later went with the party to kill goblins infesting a church, where they rescued the survivors and recovered several clay tablets. On a trip to deliver the tablets to the Temple of Law in Water Town, High Elf Archer took the girls gift shopping around town. Once the tablets were delivered, the group set sail the next day on a raft toward the elves' home. Sensing something coming for them, High Elf Archer and the others readied their weapons to fend off the goblin riders attacking them from the banks, long enough for Priestess to clear the way of debris and Lizard Priest to frighten them off. After the party set up shelter in the forest, High Elf Archer and the girls played in the river, before eating together with the entire group and telling them about her sister and the groom.

High Elf Archer and the party woke up to be confronted by her older cousin, prompting her to tell him that the group were her friends. After being escorted the elves' forest, High Elf Archer proudly welcomed her friends to her home. Soon after, as High Elf Archer played with rope Goblin Slayer was preparing, the two adventurers encountered her sister Forest Princess who scolded her for her immature behavior. She then witnessed Goblin Slayer approach and tell an elf attendant that he killed her tormentors. When she and her sister were alone, Forest Princess asked her to consider quitting adventuring with her friends. As High Elf Archer explained her reasons for doing so, they were alerted by a thunderous noise. She, along with Goblin Slayer went to investigate, and encountered the beast Mokele Mubenbe. High Elf Archer worked together with her party to knock the beast unconscious and kill its goblin riders.

After she and her sister excused themselves from a meeting, the two continued their earlier conversation. In response to her sister, High Elf Archer acknowledged that human lives were short, but stated her intention to stay with Goblin Slayer regardless. When her sister brought up the fact that she would inevitably part with him, High Elf Archer told her that she thought otherwise and quoted Dwarf Shaman: "the hangover is part of the fun of drinking".

High Elf Archer and the party later made their way to and snuck into the goblin hideout situated near her home. After discovering an adventurer's body crushed under a press, they learned that the goblins were polluting the river with excrement and blood. As the party took a brief rest after burying a mutilated adventurer, High Elf Archer rebuked Goblin Slayer for suggesting their burial and what the goblins did were the same. To her surprise, Goblin Slayer apologized for bringing that up and in response, High Elf Archer stated that she wasn't fond of goblin slaying, but didn't want her sister to marry while goblins were nearby. During the subsequent battle against the goblins and their goblin shaman leader, she landed an arrow in the Shaman's shoulder. However, she and the others were rendered unconscious when the shaman cast Sleep Cloud. Fortunately, thanks to Priestess' Purify injuring the shaman, High Elf Archer and the others woke up and retreated before water flooded the castle and killed the goblins.

During the wedding, Goblin Slayer asked High Elf Archer if she wanted to stay with the elves. She responded that from the elves' point of view, she had only been away from home for a few days. She became happy when Goblin Slayer was able to congratulate her sister's marriage, as she hadn't expected him to say anything like that. After Priestess offered a prayer to the elves, High Elf Archer took Cow Girl and Guild Girl to the front to catch her sister's crown of flowers. Three days later, she and the group returned to the frontier town.

Abilities

 * Archery: High Elf Archer fires arrows with tremendous accuracy. She has demonstrated the ability to fire arrows in curved paths and can fire multiple arrows at the same time. However, she admits she's not as experienced as her older sister, as she can't fire arrows while dodging attacks.
 * Trap Detection: She is skilled enough to detect and disarm simple traps.
 * Agility: She is remarkably acrobatic, able to dodge ranged attacks by jumping and flipping, as well as scaling tall objects such as trees effortlessly.
 * Hearing: Her long ears grant her a large sense of hearing, which she can utilize for reconnaissance during adventures. She has also used it to eavesdrop from a distance, as shown during Goblin Slayer's date with Cow Girl and when she listened in on Dark Elf and Rhea Scout.
 * Multi-lingual: High Elf Archer can speak elven and common.

Equipment

 * Great bow: A long carved wooden bow, this appears to be her main weapon. Its thread is woven from spider silk.
 * Shortbow: After a few adventures with Goblin Slayer, she has taken up using a secondary shortbow for confined spaces such as sewers or to conserve the durability of her great bow.
 * Quiver and arrows: Worn at waist height, her arrows can be used with either of her bows. She has taken to retrieving her unbroken arrows from dead enemies in an effort to conserve arrows much like Goblin Slayer would do with weapons, though she denies copying him, only wishing not to use crude goblin-made arrows.
 * Knives: Two knives used for multiple tasks. She may have some attachment to them, as when they became unusable due to being covered in goblin blood and fat, she stowed them away before salvaging a dagger from the battlefield, copying the tactics of Goblin Slayer.

Trivia

 * High Elf Archer doesn't wear underwear as she doesn't understand the point of it.
 * On the textboard version of the series, High Elf Archer's placeholder design was that of Shino Asada from the Sword Art Online franchise.