17 Chapter 17 - A Fateful Encounter
Within the same forest where Kazuya was trying to track down a supposed goblin hideout, nearby, a goblin and a young girl clashed swords, with the goblin having the upper hand with every hit, causing the young girl to take a step back with every block.
She was armed with a standard adventurer's sword and a small shield, and given the enemy she was facing, it was less than enough to keep her alive for very long.
After a few more hits from the goblin, she lost grip of her sword, having it spin away several feet out of her hand because she tried to block the last hit with it. Now, she was left with only her shield to defend herself, and things weren't looking good for her.
Yet she looked determined, unfazed by the fact that the odds were stacked against her. Instead of running off, she stood her ground, holding out her shield like it was an offensive weapon.
The goblin kept slamming its sword against her shield while she continuously blocked it, then the creature brought down its sword, swinging it from above, aiming to chop down her head vertically.
She noticed this in time and blocked the attack by raising the shield above her head with both hands before the sword could reach her. She groaned as the sword clashed against her shield. The force from the blocked hit was so heavy that she could feel her bones and muscles scream out painfully from within her body.
While trying to take in the pain, she realized her body was now fully exposed to an attack, and the goblin took advantage of that by kicking her belly, causing her to fly off by several feet before falling to the ground.
She tried to get up but felt a sharp pain coming from her gut. She placed a hand there but found no sign of an injury, but as she tried to get up, blood poured out of her mouth as she fell back to the ground.
It was then that she realized her armor had saved her from getting impaled by the goblin's foot, but the hit was so great that it might have caused some internal bleeding, which explained why her gut was hurting so badly without any visible injury.
The goblin did not give her the chance to get up as it ran toward the young woman to finish her off. Thankfully, she had her shield in hand and was promptly able to block the goblin's hit as she lay on the ground, now trying to find a chance to get up.
The goblin kept hitting over and over again, and with every hit from the green creature, she could feel her last line of defense crumble before her. The hits were so persistent that she did not have the chance to regain her footing.
She slowly began to notice cracks forming within the covering of the shield, which expanded greatly with every hit, and she knew that at this rate, she would be dead within moments.
The shield she was using to defend herself wasn't a large one, and she was mainly blocking her head from taking damage, making her entire lower body vulnerable to attack.
But the goblin did not take this chance to cut off her legs or stab her through the gut, even though it was something it could do easily with a swing of its weapon. It instead kept striking against the shield over and over again, as its life depended on doing so.
At this point, it was clear that the creature was fighting for sport, sadistically beating her down until her last line of defense would give out. Given the way the fight had played out so far, it would have been safe to assume that the goblin wouldn't kill her after breaking the shield but would resort to pointless torture instead.
It was at that point that Kazuya was getting fed up and frustrated with the unreliability of the map he had. He had been going in circles for a while now, and the useless Gaichu could not give him an answer on why it was so—or maybe it was hiding the truth from him as he suspected, but who knew?
While he was sulking and swearing over how annoying the system was, he heard a groan coming from a distance. It was the sound of a woman, accompanied by the clashing of weapons. "Was this a battleground?" he thought at first, until he got the wrong idea that he had found the goblin's hideout and that the location of the supposed fight would be where it was.
Kazuya looked around, curious as to what was going on, and far across the distance, deep in the forests, he saw something, and it was quite underwhelming. To his disappointment, it was only a young woman fighting against a goblin who was almost twice her size. There was no hint of any other creature nearby, not even a fly.
The goblin was having the upper hand in the fight and seemed to be taking sadistic pleasure in suffering the weaker opponent instead of going straight for the kill.
But on the positive side, he would get to kill a goblin, and for now, that might be good enough for him until he figures out how the stupid map works.
Having an intense hatred for goblins, Kazuya brought forth his sword—not because he wanted to rescue a damsel in distress, but rather because he could not bear seeing a goblin remain alive while his family remained dead.
So he ran forward with his sword, grabbing the attention of the goblin, which looked beside itself to see a human running at it with a large scarlet sword in hand. The goblin immediately blocked the stranger's attack with its sword, and Kazuya kept landing continuous attacks at a fast pace, which the goblin could not keep up with.
Eventually, Kazuya was able to find an easy opening within the goblin's defense and took advantage of it by cutting off the dominant hand of the goblin, which was welding the sword, now rendering the goblin vulnerable to attack.
Without hesitation, he decapitated the creature, sending its head spiraling several feet in the air before falling to the ground like a mere rock.
The young woman watched in awe and wonder as the now headless goblin fell to the ground, dead.
She was stunned by the ease with which the goblin was defeated by the strange traveler standing before her.
Kazuya swings off the residual blood from his sword before putting it in its place, hanging it in a large sheath on his back strap.
Then he looked at the young girl behind him, and from mere looks, it was safe to say that she was slightly younger than him but had bodily features that suggested she was not an average juvenile.
He wondered how she got into a fight with a goblin, but felt it was unnecessary to get into conversation with someone when he had an informant and a map with him.
So, without saying a word to the damsel he saved, he turned away, resuming his seemingly endless search for the goblin's hideout.
But the girl wouldn't let him get away that easily; she might have felt she had to thank him somehow.
"Sir?" she said from behind him, causing him to stop moving. This gave the impression that he was listening, even though he did not turn back.
"Thank you," she said, "I owe you my life."
She paused for about a second before making an offer.
"It seems you are a traveler." "As a token of my gratitude, can I treat you to a meal?" she asked.
Kazuya, still not looking back, replied, "That will not be necessary—I didn't do it for you." "I just have a personal vendetta against those green scumbags; I wouldn't have intervened if it was a regular person trying to kill you," he said coldly.
"Alright. But let me guess," she said, "you are also searching for the rumored "camp of the goblins," aren't you?" "Is the supposed "hideout" speculated to be here, in the woods?" she asked.
Now she had Kazuya's full attention. He turned back to face her with his arms folded.
"Keep talking," he said.
"Only if you let me treat you to a meal..." she said to him with a smile, unfazed by his coldness, "then we can talk."
Kazuya sighed, thinking he had no time for this. He found it hard to believe this was the same girl who was just a moment away from dying. She seemed too casual to be a fighter, too free-spirited to be brave—or was she just a naive child?
Knowing this might be the only way he might get the information he needed, he agreed to go with her.
"You better not be wasting my time," he said to her in a warning tone.
She only gave him a slight smile before walking forward to pick up her sword. Then she looked at her damaged shield, which now had cracks all over it.
"It was already pretty useless anyway," she said before throwing it on the ground and putting her sword in the sheath strapped to her waist.
"Alright, sir," she said to him, "let's get going." She began moving forward, heading for the downward slopes leading down to the busy town in the lowlands.
Without giving a reply, Kazuya followed her.
"By the way, what should I call you?" she asked him.
Kazuya sighed, not thinking it was unnecessary to introduce himself to someone he wasn't planning on spending much time with. Besides, he hated small talk, especially at a time like this.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell me your name," she said to him. "My name is Orihime, in case you were wondering."
The young man sighed. "Kazuya," he said in a low tone.
She turned to him with a slight smile. "It's nice to meet you too, Kazuya," she replied.
Author's Note: I know Kazuya is currently being an idiot, and some of you should already be fed up with his behavior by now.
But please try to be patient with him. He is a work in progress, recovering from the loss of his family and struggling to come to terms with the fact that they weren't real in the first place.
Trust me, he won't always remain this way. But healing takes time, learning, and experience.
I want his change to feel organic, not forced.
So please try to stay for the entire first volume (Sentients Against Us) if you wish to witness his transformation into the protagonist you would always root for.
Read about his gradual transformation from a selfish man obsessed with revenge to a selfless hero who sacrifices everything.
Oops! Spoiler alert!
But it's true, the chapters are already out now, and they won't be locked by premium. So please try to be patient with our protagonist; I'm sure by the time you are done with the first volume, you will find it very rewarding at its conclusion.
Thank you so much for reading this far. I love you all.
Have Fun!"
