บท 8: Confrontation
Chapter 8: Confrontation
Hobgoblin licked its dark lips as it walked out of the woods and growled at everyone.
It held a large wooden club in its hand and let out a roar, causing the small greenish goblins to shout in excitement.
"There are too many of them!" Claude spoke in a shocked tone, took out a fist-sized cracker stone from his leather bag, and threw it into the woods.
The cracker flew forward like a bullet and directly smashed onto a wooden trunk with a whooshing sound, creating a loud explosion.
Then, a bright fireball appeared and lit the nearby dry leaves.
Meanwhile, the nearby goblins shrieked in panic at the sudden appearance of fire and ran in a different direction.
Claude squinted his eyes, took out two more cracker stones, and threw them in the direction where the Hobgoblin and other goblins were standing.
At that moment, even the nearby soldiers also took out a few more stones and tossed them one by one.
Before long, the whole surroundings got ignited and started burning fiercely.
At that moment, everyone saw tens of humanoid figures were appearing from all directions and went pale.
Before they could even shout, the Hobgoblin looked at them with red eyes and roared madly.
The next instant, tens of goblins made another round of exciting noise and ran towards their directions.
Upon seeing such numbers, the only one who stood with some confidence was Claude and the other two veteran soldiers.
'Tsk. I need to reduce the numbers. Otherwise, even half of them won't survive this battle.'
Abium quietly observed the surroundings, took a step forward, and moved towards Claude, who was about to battle against an elite goblin.
When Claude noticed Abium's arrival, he asked in an anxious tone.
"What are you doing here, lad? Get away from here! You are no match against these monsters."
A smile appeared on his face as he heard his worried voice and chuckled.
"Don't worry, Uncle Claude. I am way stronger than you think."
Saying so, he suddenly crouched down a little and made a simple slash at the incoming elite goblin.
His sword moved faster while leaving blurry images and appeared in front of its neck the following instant. Like a bolt of lightning, the sword edge first went deep into the goblin's neck and sliced it.
"H-How?!" Claude was beyond shocked by his sudden action and showed a disbelieving look on his face.
He could tell that a single attack had a hint of mystical sword power hidden in it and knew that this kid had changed somehow.
'Sword Aura!'
Abium also noticed that the other experienced soldiers were staring at him with wide-opened eyes and shook his head.
"Don't get distracted during the battle," He said calmly and took out the potion bottle from his pant pocket. Then, he opened the lid and gave it to Claude.
"Drink it." His voice appeared more like an order.
At that very moment, Claude felt like he was not standing in front of a servant kid but a young noble lord!
Claude caught the potion bottle and poured it into his mouth with slight hesitation.
On the other hand, Abium took a step forward and blocked the other three normal goblins, which were running towards Claude.
His sharp blade moved once again, landed on one of those goblins' necks, and decapitated its head in an instant. But the sword didn't stop there, though. It continued to move towards the other goblin's neck and cleaved its neck into two.
Within two seconds, Abium killed three goblins and returned his gaze towards the soldiers, who had already gathered in a circle to protect Claude and other servants.
'They aren't bad.' He nodded his head and looked at the goblins with a solemn look.
Meanwhile, Claude felt a sharp pain in his head, followed by an explosive bang.
At that moment, he felt that the shackle that blocked him from ranking up to the Tier-3 Warrior had broken!
Simultaneously, he felt a dense darkness element gathered from the surroundings and started accumulating inside his body.
Then, the gathered darkness moved towards his chest region, purified inside his heart, and then reappeared outside in a unique form.
As he clenched his fist, an eerie dark layer of aura appeared around his body and looked more like a defensive later.
'Elemental aura!'
He then gripped his sword tighter and felt a drastic change in his strength.
In mere seconds, he had ranked up and became a Tier-3 Warrior!
"Kid, what kind of mystic potion was that?" He asked in a shocked tone and directly moved towards the goblins.
But Abium stopped him.
"Don't overestimate yourself. You don't have advanced warrior technique now, Uncle. Just form a defensive formation with others and protect everyone." He said calmly and was about to move towards the other goblins but stopped.
At that moment, a servant boy named Harry shouted in panic.
"NO! T-They escaped! C-Carriage is gone!"
"Harry, what are you blabbering?" Another soldier glared at him while battling.
"Sir Johnathan and the household members have abandoned us! B-But why did they leave me? I served that household since I was a child." He asked others in a mixture of confusion and panic.
Soon, panic appeared on everyone's face.
Just when everyone was about to panic, Claude suddenly took a step forward, slashed at the upcoming elite goblin at an incredible speed, and cleaved it into two.
"Guard Formation!" He spoke in a cold tone.
If it were before, he would've shown hesitation and backed away.
But after his sudden rank up, he gained some hope.
Next instant, all those soldiers surrounded those four servants in a triangle shape and protected them.
But Abium didn't enter that formation, though.
Instead, he stealthily crept towards the goblin group, attacking the formation in large numbers.
Basic sword aura emerged around his sword as he held it in his hand and slashed at nearby two goblins. The blade made a sharp sound as it fell on the nape of both goblins and killed them one by one.
Two heads rolled on the ground the next second. Then, scarlet blood splattered all over Abium's face and covered his iron sword.
Without minding the blood, he bounced towards another goblin that looked much stronger than the small ones and thrust his sword at its heart.
It was another elite goblin!
When that elite goblin noticed a sword was coming towards its head, it tried to dodge it.
But Abium's mastery in sword skill overwhelmed the goblin's last futile attempt. Before it could even move away, his sword pierced that goblin's heart and reappeared on the other side.
It shrieked at the top of its lungs as he pulled the sword back!
But Abium didn't even glance at that falling figure and analyzed that goblin's strength with an understanding nod.
'Its strength should be around Tier-2 Warrior.'
He knew it would be impossible to kill this monster if not for the basic sword aura. He slashed his sword to remove the scarlet blood stains and moved further.
At that moment, he saw another elite goblin was running towards him with a wooden club in its hand and frowned.
He then made a battle stance, gripped the sword with both hands, and dashed forward.
It got startled by his reckless move, took a step backward, and stumbled a little.
'An opening!' A cold glint appeared in Abium's eyes.
Without hesitation, he suddenly leaped towards the goblin and thrust the sword at the goblin's throat.
Guahh!
Another pitiful cry echoed on the battlefield.
But Abium didn't dare to waste any more seconds and went towards the next enemy.
Soon there were only seven elite goblins were still standing on the battlefield.
In just two minutes, Abium had killed a total of five elites and nearly fifteen normal goblins.
Alas, there was no happiness in his heart.
Because he knew that the real enemy was not these goblins, whose strength was under tier 1 Warriors, but the Hobgoblin.
At that moment, Hobgoblin also noticed Abium's plan, hurriedly moved towards him, and blocked his path.
At first, it didn't react.
But after Abium killed so many of its kins, it grew alert and chose to confront him.
Abium also noticed its arrival and curled his lips upward.
At the same time, he glanced at Claude and others and soon noticed that they were doing well.
Although it would be a fierce battle for soldiers, they would be fine if they used some of the war tactics they learned during the military to fight.
'Worry about yourself, Abi. Here it comes.' Abium said to himself and watched the monster cautiously.
Hobgoblin let out an angry growl and smashed the monstrous club on the ground.
Then, it bellowed from the top of its lung and dashed towards him while holding a massive club in its hand.
At that moment, Abium held the iron sword tighter and greeted the Hobgoblin's club skillfully.
As his sword collided with that club, he felt a strong force crushing his arms. He ducked his head and evaded the club while retracting his sword. He then crouched down a little, lunged at that Hobgoblin's abdomen, and stabbed his sword faster.
But this time, a sunshine aura appeared around his sword, which gave a wound on its abdomen.
Still, his blade wasn't sharp enough to pierce through its flesh because of its tough skin.
A frown appeared on Abium's forehead.
At that moment, he suddenly saw that Hobgoblin swung its club once again towards his head.
Without any other choice, he backed away and evaded the club attack.
Hobgoblin's eyes went red as it saw this and swung its monstrous club madly.
Abium barely held up against those violent attacks and only used his sword to defend himself.
Pant! Pant!
In a few moments, his breath grew heavier, and he felt exhausted a little.
On the other hand, the Hobgoblin also believed he was out of breath and further pushed him harder with its club attacks.
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