A Meticulous Hunt

“Now, let’s see… what to do, what to do…”

I inwardly mumbled to myself as I squatted down in an empty classroom. I ignored all the mangled furniture and corpses while I racked my mind for a sensible battle plan.

“....”

Like I half expected, I couldn’t come up with anything.

I wasn’t a genius who could think up an intricate battle strategy while screaming, “Just as Planned!” No, rather, I’d say tactics and the like are probably my biggest weakness.

Giving up, I sighed despondently. Since I didn’t really have anything decent after 10 minutes of thinking, and I can’t necessarily keep the girls waiting (I’ve already spent almost 2 hours farming), I decided to just wing it.

Of course, even if I didn’t have a battle plan, I wouldn’t just necessarily run up there willy nilly, with my sword in the air. I’ll take them out one at a time using a familiar strategy often used in mmorpgs.

Kiting.

I’d lure one goblin warrior away from its group, and I’d go solo against it. After I’ve defeated that one, I’ll repeat the process. Of course I can’t assume that this plan will allow me to finish of all 5 of the goblins. No, I’m sure after like the 2nd or 3rd goblin goes missing, the others will notice that something odd is going on.

At that point, I’d have no choice but to attack them head on, but at least by then, there’d be less goblins to fight. And I might be a bit too presumptuous, but I think I can at least handle 3 goblin warriors at once.

“Ok! Let’s do this!” With a restrained yelp, I psyched myself up.

I stood upright and made my way towards the hallway.

It was time to initiate battle strategy; Bad Idea.

****

I moved silently through out the hallway.

I noticed this beforehand, but I was getting really good at those ninja walks where you glide through the floor and avoid making noise. I’m sure one of my stats has something to do with that. It was probably agility or dexterity.

Anyways, I rounded the corner and crouched down besides the wall I had quickly grown familiar with.

Carefully, I popped my head into the hallway and observed the scene with a detail oriented eye.

In front of me were 4 goblin warriors. One of them was near the door to the restroom, while two stood guard besides the fallen corpses. I’m not sure why they bothered though, it’s not like those dead goblin scouts were any useful.

The 4th goblin was very close to me. A mere 10 meters in distance. It was so close that I could see the ugly scowl that masked its ugly face.

While I was observing, I frowned.

Earlier, I’m sure I had counted 5 goblins. But now there were only 4.

I quickly scanned the adjacent rooms besides the hallway. While nothing else seemed off at first, I quickly noted that one of the doors which led to a Chemistry classroom was ajar.

If it was like that, then it would be safe to assume that the other goblin was scouting out the area. It was probably going from classroom to classroom, investigating whatever killed its friends. And that was good news for me.

Since it meant I had found my first prey.

I quietly moved across the perpendicular hallway and quickly entered a nearby classroom.

Many of the rooms next to each other were usually connected by a doorway within the classroom. So it was possible to travel between two rooms without having to go through the open hall. Of course, I couldn’t keep out of the hallway entirely.

There were rooms which didn’t connect with any other room, and in those cases I’d have to enter through the hallway. But still, this system made traveling inconspicuously much easier.

Using the maze of interconnecting classrooms, I quickly made my way to my destination, and in a short time I had arrived in the room next to the Chemistry classroom.

I peered out from one of the windows and quietly looked into the decrepit room. Like I expected, there was a short green goblin warrior inside.

It was nonchalantly looking through various things, and from the expression it made, I’m sure it didn’t understand any of what it was looking at.

I smiled upon seeing the ugly creature.

Right now, it was isolated from the rest of its friends, and there was no better chance to thin their herd than now.

I moved quietly to kneel at the edge of the doorway that connected to the chemistry classroom, as I carefully placed an arrow within the nook of the bow and slowly cocked back the string.

I had tested this weapon earlier within the other classroom, and delightfully found that I was pretty accurate, although I attributed that accuracy with my increased dexterity. As long as my target was within 15 meters, its safe to say I could hit it.

Although the amount of damage I’d be able to do was still questionable, but I brushed that aside for now.

I aimed for the goblin warrior’s throat. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake as last time, I’d make sure the creature couldn’t scream out for help before anything else.

That’s why, instead of immediately shooting, I waited. Although I was accurate from up to 15 meters, the target needed to be closer for me to be able to successfully hit as small a target as a throat. At most, it needed to be at least 5 meters close to me.

I waited for a painfully long amount of time.

The creature was slow going. Although it didn’t understand half of what it was looking at, it still endeavored to inspect everything, which quickly started to annoy me. Eventually though, it got within agreeable distance.

Right now, it had its back turned to me, and its throat wasn’t visible. I wasn’t going to spare any more time waiting for the goblin to turned around so instead I made the first move.

I lightly kicked at the wall.

It caused a dull thud sound to reverberate within the room, which quickly brought the creature to look in my direction.

Having seen me, it’s eyes widened in initial surprise, but before it could utter anything out, the bow within my hands fired off the long awaited arrow.

It flew across the stale air and successfully lodged itself deep within the goblin’s throat.

At the same time, I could hear the ring that indicated a critical hit. The creature readily lost a third of its hp. Not one to ignore an opening, I rushed at the creature.

I quickly bolted through the doorway and dashed into the room, closing the distance between me and the gurgling beast.

Although it had an arrow lodged in its throat, it wasn’t a pushover. It still had the remnants of life within its eyes as it desperately slashed out against me. I was barely able to dodge by throwing my entire weight to the left.

I choose not to parry, since I feared that the initial impact between swords would produce loud enough sounds that could attract other goblins.

I dodged another slash by rolling across the floor. While I was crouched down, I shot out a ground kick aimed at the creature’s tiny chest.

The kick was successful as it gurgled upon impact and bent over in reflex. Capitalizing this opportunity, in one motion, I stood up, and slashed upwards, aiming directly at the goblin’s exposed neck.

In the next instant, a severed head flew across the room and harmlessly bounced off the wall. A little bit later, a fatal blow status appeared above the decapitated goblin’s body. While I had successfully defeated it, my sword strike managed to break the arrow that was still lodged in the creature’s throat. Now I was down to 5 arrows.

I stood there for a second, before I moved to pick up the weapon it was using.

I identified it, but was disappointed to find that it was the same goblin short sword that I was already using. I had assumed it would have been a different type of weapon, considering it had a different design and was also noticeably larger.

Although, I still chose to equip this weapon, since it was easier to handle, had a larger reach, and actually gave of better stat bonuses than my old sword.

Shortly after, I bent down to check for any monster drops. My earlier despondent expression quickly did a 180 as I saw an inconspicuous vial filled with red liquid nestled near the corpse.

With restrained excitement, I quickly picked it up and set about to identifying it.

[Identify!]

ding!

Basic Health Potion

A vial of red liquid that can be used to heal hp.

Recovers 20 hp.

[Equip] Skill Bonus

When directly applied by the skill owner, additionally recovers 20 hp.

When directly applied and used on the skill owner, recovers additional 40 hp.

I smiled.

If I can find some more of these, then I won’t have to visit the infirmary.

Tucking away the vial securely within my pants pocket, I quickly made my way out the room, and back to my original position behind the wall that overlooked the hallway.

I looked on and smiled once more. The other goblin warriors hadn’t noticed a thing, and they were all still just standing around cluelessly.

I quickly resumed my hunt. This time, I’d go after the one that was closest to me.

Using the same sound tactic, I lightly kicked at the wall, producing a soft thudding sound which was only audible to that one goblin.

I watched it widened its eyes upon hearing the noise. It looked towards my direction, before looking back at its comrades. As if agonizing over something, it looked back and forth, before coming to the decision of inspecting the noise.

As it neared, I hid behind the wall, and waited.

When it got close enough to the point where the wall hid it from its friends, I striked.

I leapt out from the wall, and slashed out towards its throat.

The creature managed a short ugyaa, before it lost its ability to speak.

After that, we ended up in a short sword fight which lasted a minute or two.

I suffered two light scratches on my left arm and right leg, but other than that, I was relatively unharmed. In fact, the only reason I got injured was because I was pretty adamant on not parrying.

I dispatched the creature quickly with a thrust to its eye, and a vertical slash across its chest.

I then collected its sword and looked around for any monster drops. Disappointed, I moved away from the new corpse and prepared to strike at the other three goblins.

It wasn’t possible for me to completely soundlessly assassinate the remaining goblins like I did with the other two. At most, all I could do was quickly dispatch them with as little noise as possible.

I abandoned my earlier kiting tactic and decided on a new plan.

This time around, I planned on blitzkrieging the group. I was going to consecutively slash out towards their throats before they had the chance to strike back. Doing so would get rid of their ability to scream for help.

Luckily, the two goblins which guarded the corpses were well within 15 meters, so I could aim for an early advantage and use my arrows.

I cocked an arrow and waited.

Once I was fully prepared I shot out my first arrow.

It missed.

But I wasn’t one to be discouraged so quickly. Before they could react, I had already fired off three more arrows. All but one missed. Luckily, the one that did landed, had lodged itself deep within a goblin’s throat.

Giving up on my bow and arrow skills, I dropped the remaining arrow and picked up my sword. This time, instead of long ranged, I chose close combat. I dash forward and rocketed out with a surprising amount of speed.

Earlier, through killing the first and second goblin warrior, I had reached level 6. I used my points from then to spam agility, so I was a bit faster than earlier. I reached the pair goblins in a little less than 3 seconds, and with a horizontal slash, I left a huge gash on the unharmed goblin’s throat.

I didn’t bother following up just yet. I turned around and continued sprinting towards the goblin that guarded the doorway. It had just now noticed the commotion and was frantically unsheathing its bladed weapon.

One thing, I noticed while fighting these things, were that goblins had slow reaction time, which made this sort of tactic easier for me.

I got in range and slashed out. Unfortunately, the goblin readily blocked it and parried. I gritted my teeth, and let go of my sword. Not expecting such an action, the goblin’s sword soared past and he lost balance as a result.

I gripped at the short sword (which was more of a dagger) I hid earlier behind my back, and slashed out again. The goblin who had lost its balance couldn’t react fast enough, and its throat was successfully cut open.

Of course these blows were too superficial, and while all three goblins did lose their ability to scream, they still retained onto their life with a majority of their hp intact.

I quickly kicked out at the goblin closest to me, since I had noticed it was desperately trying to enter the restroom to call for its friends.

It flew a few meters before it slid across the tiled floor.

It hastily got on its feet, and looked at me with seething anger.

The goblin gripped its throat with one hand to stop the bleeding and proceeded to charge. Meanwhile, the other two creatures had regained their senses and were also charging while gripping both their throats and swords.

I threw the expandable short sword at the lead goblin, which harmlessly bounced off its shoulder.

I grimaced and picked up the sword I had dropped earlier and prepared to fight.

Right now, I was entering a 3 vs 1, and I was severely disadvantaged.

Once the lead goblin reached me, I made a preemptive strike and kicked it back again. My leg was longer than its arm and sword combined so it helplessly flew back a few meters out into the hallway.

I dealt with the two goblins while the first one was recovering.

With a diagonal slash, I managed to land a good blow on the goblin to my right while I dodged a sword thrust from the goblin to my left.

I hastily pulled out my sword, and slid back a few inches, narrowly dodging the right goblin’s retaliation.

While its blade was extended outward, I used this chance, and performed a vertical slash downwards.

It made a satisfying, yet disgusting sound as the blade of my sword cut through tendon and bone and lodged itself within its shoulder.

With a yank, I brought the sword and goblin closer to me, before I dislodged my blade with a kick to the goblin’s face.

It rolled back, giving me an opportunity to solo the left goblin.

This goblin was by no means simply idling about as I was attacking its comrade. No, infact, it had been desperately slashing out at me the whole time.

As a result, I suffered one or two superficial cuts on my leg and torso.

Now that I was alone with it though, I could successfully exchanged blows with the creature. Our swords made several clanking noises as we desperately lashed out attacks one after another. Eventually, I saw an opening when it reflexively raised its arms to steady its blade.

The hand that was constantly gripping the bleeding throat had left, and I monopolized on this, slashing out at the exposed wound.

A moment later, a fatal blow status dinged above the creature’s head as it toppled to the floor lifeless.

Before I could sigh out a relieved sigh, I turned my attention towards the remaining two, who were now quickly closing their distance.

I picked up the sword from the newest dead goblin and chucked it out towards the closest incoming danger. Unlike last time, the sword successfully hit, and lodged itself into the monster’s thigh, causing it to stumble and trip.

Given this opportunity, I dashed past the fallen goblin and thrusted my sword towards the farthest monster.

Surprised at my sudden charge, it was unprepared for the blade which smoothly slid into its eye socket. I would have aimed for its stomach, but it was a bit too short.

It wanted to scream out in pain, but could only manage a gurgling noise. Like I had done twice now, I kicked out at it again while it was trying to scream. The goblin slid back another 3 meters, giving me time to handle the goblin on the floor.

I bitterly smiled as I looked down on the goblin writhing on the ground.

With its wounded leg and desperate look in its eyes, it reminded me of the me who first fought of the goblin scout. The me who was unprepared and disadvantaged.

I quickly killed of this goblin, not giving it the opportunity to retaliate.

Once it died, I noticed another red vial had dropped. I snatched it up as I moved over to the still remaining goblin.

Luckily it was still writhing out in pain. It had dropped its sword and was now desperately griping at its eye and throat. It only took me three seconds to kill this one.

Seeing the job complete. I let loose a relieved sigh, as I turned to pick up the goblin’s sword.

I didn’t exactly get to successfully do this though, as I heard a creaking noise from behind me.

Turning around slowly, I made eye contact with the writhe, and lean figure of another goblin. It wore a perpetual scowl as it stood imposingly at me from the restroom entrance.

This one was weaponless, but its status which harmlessly floated above him was enough to grip my heart in fear

It was the Goblin Commander.

***

Author's Note:

If any of you have suggestions on a new name or anything else about the story, please tell me, I'm open to anything. And if you like the story so far, comment, favorite, follow, rate, etc. This is new, so it needs a little boost right now. Thanks.