Chapter XVIII - Goblin King (part 2)

After having our distances for a while, he finally attacked again. 

He is rushing, much faster than before. But his attacks are more scrambled, since he is attacking with anger now. His slashes and strikes were inconsistent, and they are much more readable than before. 

This is perfect.

As humans, we overcome our problems by using our brain. 

Once we lose it, we are doomed. Once anyone loses its ability to think in a fight, they are destined to lose, no matter how powerful they are.

Intelligence means nothing in the face of emotions, that is what makes us humans different from monsters like him.

I started to read his attacks, and I found a gap in his movements. I thrusted my sword straight to his face, but he was fast. It only cut a little bit of his cheeks, and he was able to move away after that.

Damn... if only my sword were a little bigger. If only I was using my sword instead of this stupidly small rapier…

We both jumped backwards to create a breathable space, and we began to study one another.

He cleaned his blood from his cheek, and his eyes are still blood red. He is growling like the monster he is, while I am simply putting a grin that he can never see behind this mask. 

I'm grinning because… of where I'm standing.

Right now, the battle has moved all the way to the place where the club hit the ground and smashed me from before. Specifically, it's where I dropped my sword.

I walked towards the side of the massive club calmly, and I leaned down to grab my second sword. 

My real sword. Oh, how I've missed you…

I switched hands and now my right hand is holding the main sword, while the left hand is holding the secondary.

Now, I am holding two swords. Against a tanker like Jrake, this technique might not do well.

But, it was rather fortunate that I'm simply fighting an angered swordsgoblin like this guy.

"You are so dead..."

"GRRRR…"

I said to him, fully in taunting mode. And as a result, he is fully taunted.

I have received my second sword, but I know he might also have a trump card. I still have to be ready for that, so I must stay cautious.

But just when I started running, he used his trump card.

ZRRRGG!!!!!

Damn it, why now?

Tens of fireballs were formed in an instant right above his head, and he fired them rapidly towards me. No chants, no words were spoken, and those massive fireballs at the size of basketball were sent flying towards me at high speed.

I jumped away before those fireballs could ever touch me, but just when I landed, more fireballs were already on its way towards me.

He can do magic... Great. But, how the hell can he cast so quickly!?!?

I jumped again when the fireballs nearly touched me, and by the time I landed, even more fireballs were already on their way to where I landed.

And so I jumped again… And again, and again.

I couldn't approach him at all, and he is barraging me with all these fireballs like bullets. Not to mention his accuracy grew overtime, and he got better and better in firing them. On the other hand, I can only move further and further away from him since I don't want to get cooked.

This is bad. I need to form a plan quickly.

I leaped really far this time, and I landed on top of a troll's headless body.

The goblin king stopped attacking. Right now, on top of him, there are 14 fireballs ready to be sent flying to me at high speed. 

On his bloodied face, a wide grin can be seen, and it successfully pissed me off.

But, I can't lose my mind like him. In fact, I need to use my brain to think of a way to beat him.

Jrake has shown me how to deal with magicians, that is to attack them before they can cast their magic. But, how can I attack someone who doesn't even take time to cast their magic attacks? Someone who insta-casts?

Then I was reminded of that spar we did where he used magic. At the end of the battle, Jrake had already casted his magic, and all he had to do was to activate them. And yet, I was able to come out victorious from that.

So… how did I win, that time?

All I did was… push forward.

Hmm… right.

To keep moving forward.

I was challenging myself to clash head on with Jrake's magic. I wasn't afraid of his magic at all, even though his sharp stone spikes could easily stab through me and kill me. But I wasn't afraid, and I charged head on.

It was also then when I realized that I have truly evolved into a monster. I was moving around so quickly that not a single stone spike could touch me, and even Jrake himself didn't get the chance to block my attack properly.

I see… I see now what I needed to do.

I just need to push, head on…

And become a monster again.

I leaned my body forward and prepared for a strong massive leap. The goblin king noticed that I will be moving again, and it quickly readied itself to accept my attack.

FWOOOSSSHHH!!!!!

I leaped forward at high speed, and the goblin king was very ready.

He fired all fourteen of those basketball-sized fireballs at me, and they all flew extremely fast. Certainly rushing head first towards a ball of burning flame sounded like a terrible idea, especially when those flames were moving just as fast as you are.

But, I was prepared to accept that kind of speed.

My eyes were opened wide, and my movement felt incredibly light. Magic energy can be felt enhancing my entire body as my movement became even faster, and I began to dodge the fireballs.

Using my slow motion vision, I can tell that dodging all these fireballs is impossible, since every single one of them is covering almost my entire field of view. I can't dodge them, so I thought about how I should clash with them head on.

So I moved my knight's sword and slashed the fireball right in front of me. I successfully sliced the fireball in half and was able to push through, but the heat of the flames melted my blade a little bit.

Fuck… sorry, my dear sword.

But thanks to you, I was able to pierce through his fireballs.

I rushed towards the goblin king, who doesn't seem to be relying on the fire magic anymore. He must've deduced that using anymore of those fireballs when I am already this close to him is very dangerous, so it stopped casting fireballs and began to ready his sword.

Such an act was indeed the right thing to do when your opponent has already gotten close to you. Not even Jrake was able to think like that when I approached him, which caused him to lose that fight as a result.

And now, the goblin king is very ready to accept me. His sword is faced towards me, ready to start clashing like before.

But, I have another idea.

Back at the top of the troll's dead body, I was also observing the battlefield. Due to his fireballs exploding here and there, it causes the ground around him to be messy with craters, holes, and dirt. Another thing that any combatant must always keep an eye on, is the very thing that they are standing on.

Surrounding the goblin king is a bunch of dirt and craters. I see this as an absolute chance.

FTAANGGG!!!!!

I arrived quite close to him, and he slashed his sword forward. I parried it and managed to push him backwards. Once he got quite far away from me, I leaned my body downwards and dropped my left hand's sword. 

With my left hand, I reached the ground and grabbed a bunch of dirt that is piling on the floor. As quickly as I could, I threw it to his face.

SREKK!!!

The dirt managed to successfully annoy his vision, and the goblin king took an unnecessary step backwards. He didn't realize that right behind him, there is a massive crater with the size of our heads. And his left foot stepped on it, causing him to lose balance.

Ah… the dishonor.

You may call this playing 'dirty', but my goal has always been to kill him. If it was Jrake, he would've yelled at me like no tomorrow while preaching this and that about a swordsman's honor.

But, I did not come here to be a white knight. I came here to kill him.

The goblin king fell backwards and landed on his butt, and I immediately grabbed my sword again to rush at this chance. His eyes were still covered in dirt, and he tried to get back up while cleaning his eyes from the dirt quickly. By the time his vision returns, a blade is already swinging towards him.

FTANNGGG!!!!!

Wow… he is really good. 

Even though his eyes were still covered in dirt, he was able to quickly lift his sword at the perfect time to parry my knight's sword away. It was quite powerful too, and I got pushed back slightly from that wonderful parry he just did. 

That move just now was definitely worthy of praise.

But unfortunately for him... I have two swords.

As I was being pushed backwards, I lifted the sword that was on my left hand upwards. My foot stepped on the ground again, and I was able to push myself forward just close enough for my sword to reach him.

With my left hand and the rapier I borrowed, I slashed downwards at him.

ZRRESSHHH!!!!!!!!!!

The second sword went straight from his crown and sliced horizontally all the way to his heart. It was not that deep of a slice, but it was deep enough to slice his face and heart in half.

The cut reached his heart, and blood spurted so much from the cut. Not only that, he also coughed a bunch straight towards my mask, and I can feel the warmth from behind the mask.

The sword got stuck on his stomach, and I pulled out the sword from him. His body slowly fell down backwards, all while revealing the disgusting result of that horizontal cut I just made to his body. 

As he fell, all the goblins present in the lair turned their gazes at him. I noticed the amount of gazes were turned towards me and the goblin king, and I found that every single goblin behind me was all staring at me straight.

So they really are connected. The goblins can feel it when their king is dead. 

After seeing their king die, the goblins started to panic and ran away, leaving behind the adventurers. The adventurers can only watch in confusion as the goblins began to rush towards the side exits that also existed within the lair, and I too can only leave them be.

The other high ranking adventurers will take care of them later once we report them. There is no need to chase them now.

I turned to the dying king and found that the grip to his sword was loosened. I stabbed the rapier that I used to kill the king to the ground, and I leaned my body forward to grab that sword of his.

But just when I was about to grab the handle, his finger moved.

"What!?"

Panicking, I lifted my body up again. I stared at the goblin king's sliced-in-half face, wondering whether or not this guy is still alive. 

For sure I thought this guy was dead. But apparently, the goblin king was much stronger than I thought.

"R-Raah… Hu… man…"

He talks. Not just that, he is speaking my language.

Did he just say human?

I leaned closer, and placed my face as close as possible to his mouth. I can smell his blood very closely from here, but I did not mind that at all since I wanted to listen to his last words.

It is only fair for the victor of a duel to listen to the last words of the defeated opponent. So I leaned in, listening to his last grumbling.

"Dra… gons.... A… re… Co… mi…"

"W-What?"

I tried asking, but no more voice was being said. Something inside me felt that he is already gone, but I still am very curious as to what he just said.

"What was that!? What did you say!?"

I shouted at him while shaking his shoulder, but no reaction.

No use... He is already dead.

"Tch..."

That annoyed me, even though I'm not supposed to be. It was probably because I can tell what he was saying too, but he did not say much about it and only muttered a single sentence.

'Dragons are coming'.

That's it. That is far too short for me to interpret anything.

So I ignored what his last words were, and I turned around to walk towards the fancy scabbard.

I picked up the scabbard from the ground and studied it. It has a cool dragon crest made out of gold on the hole, as if making it seem like the dragon is eating the sword.

Hmm… eating the sword?

I placed the goblin king's sword inside the scabbard, and now it looks as if the dragon on the scabbard is firing a golden fire breath, since the scabbard and the sword guard are now connected. 

That… is so cool.

This is easily the coolest item I ever got my hands on. And the best part is, I can claim it for myself!

And so, I stored it on my space ring. When I turned around, the whole battlefield was already empty. The goblins were already long gone inside the dungeon paths, and the hostage squad had joined the assault squad long before the battle ended. And now, the adventurers are moving towards me after seeing that the battle is over.

Well, I'm not here to say hi. So…

Let's bail.

.

"Wait, he's leaving!"

"Wait!! Mister Mask!!!"

The adventurers shouted one by one, but it was too late. 

The masked man has already leaped away from them, and he left through one of the entrances at the far end of the lair close to the king's throne altar. Everyone was too tired to chase after him anyway, so they just let him leave without saying anything. 

They continued to approach the king's altar, and they arrived at the battlefield where the goblin king had died. The goblin king was slashed from the head to its heart. And not far from his corpse, is a sword with a pink handle stabbed to the ground.

"Who owns a sword with a pink handle…??"

"EEP!!!"

Jerro aka Beard said in a condescending tone, and an adventurer from the crowd suddenly shrieked.

"T-That's me!"

A girl suddenly came out from the crowd and grabbed the sword from the ground. She then turned to everyone and began explaining while lifting the sword.

"The masked man came to me and borrowed my sword… I had no choice but to lend him! Also, I… liked this sword."

She explained while slightly holding the embarrassment, and everyone else nodded awkwardly while smiling. Especially Jerro, who is now feeling bad for saying such words about the sword.

"Well... what you did was correct."

Farn aka Glasses compliments the girl for lending her sword. But, who he should be complimenting is the masked man.

"He defeated two trolls and the goblin king. All by himself."

"That guy is surely Blue ranked."

Jerro commented, and everyone nodded. Not even a Green ranked can defeat the goblin king, as well as the tens of hobgoblins from before. Everyone agreed that this Masked Man must've been at least a Blue ranked adventurer.

"He also saved us and the hostages."

"Yeah, I heard. You guys were having a tough time with the goblins up there, huh?"

Jerro tries to taunt Berrily, but Berrily was too tired to be angry.

"Hah… So, what now?"

The adventurers have no idea what to answer, so Farn just shook his head.

"Let's head back."

Everyone walked back to the entrance of the lair. But before they could leave, a group of adventurers entered the lair.

It was Jrake. He came with the other test conductors to check on the situation.

"Wha--!?!"

"Jrake!?"

Everyone suddenly started running all the way to Jrake, and some hugged him while crying. Meanwhile the big bald guy can only look so confused as he asked everyone.

"Wha... What happened!??"

Jrake is very confused, but everyone was still touched by his arrival. In the end, nobody told him anything until they all exitted the lair.