Goblin Hunt

I walked to the front of the room.

I gazed blankly at the stained metal door while I confirmed my equipment.

Right now, I was level twelve. With the added bonuses from [Pioneer] and my newest title, [Psychopath], as well as the equip bonuses I received from my shoes and the short sword I held in my hand, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say my stats were greatly inflated.

Aside from that, I stored several goblin swords behind my back. They were small enough to the point where I could effectively hold 3 of the weapons behind the folds of my uniform without them falling off. Additionally, I also carried two vials of basic health potions within my pants pocket as a precaution.

Of course, I left the rest of the potions (a total of 7) behind, where they were carelessly placed in the corner of the restroom. I didn’t want to carry them with me and worry about the possibility of the vials breaking while I was in mid battle. Besides, in the end, this arrangement all worked out, since I had the fullest intention of returning for the items.

Now, with my equipment all checked and my stats all confirmed, I was ready.

In fact, I felt I was more than ready to commence my own counterattack.

I took a deep breath, and reached for the handle.

At this moment, before I even had the chance to put any force into turning the knob, a rush of thoughts and emotions overwhelmed me.

Fear.

Like the fear I created within the goblins, a primal sense of danger also welt up inside me, as if warning me that the very next thing I do might determine my life and death.

Excitement.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t anticipate the coming fight. This world, no my new world was like a game. And being the person I am, I couldn’t help but wonder how far I could get within this game.

Apprehension.

It might not be clear, but I did have some uneasiness about what I had just done. I mean, it isn’t easy to torture and disfigure something that looks like a kid, let alone, do it several times over. I did regret having to do what I did for Operation:Fear.

But among these spiraling emotions, the one that overpowered all this, was determination.

I was, in short determined. Determined to test to what extent the fruit of my labors would take me. Determined to escape this shitty situation I had found myself in. And determined to save someone’s life.

Swallowing all these thoughts and ideas, I buried this chaotic feeling deep within my heart.

I took a step forward, and turned the handle.

In front of me, stood a group of 10 goblins, each with varying facial expressions. From unease, worry, fear, anger, anticipation, it was as if these goblins were a palat to describe the turmoil inside my own mind.

Near the far back of the group, was the level 20 Goblin Commander. His facial expression was locked into his usual scowl, but his eyes raged with anger.

I stepped forward, making sure to rattle the metal door with my knife on my way out the room.

The noise caused a fair amount of goblins to jolt upright.

I smirked at this scene.

The goblins, as if mesmerized, all just stood and watched, not knowing what to really do. It was comforting to know that the fear was already showing itself even before the battle.

Before I completely left the restroom, I stopped. It would have been pointless to just leave, I mean, what good would all my hard work at desecration be, if I just started a fight out in the hall. I needed the goblins to see exactly what I did to their friends.

Taunting, I raised the knife up to face level, and wiggled the tip.

I then took deliberate steps backwards. I re entered the restroom, this time, I made sure to keep the door wide open. I walked over to the center of the restroom.

Currently, I was standing in the only spot not littered in goblin remains. Next to me, was the gathered swords I scavenged from all the corpses I created. It was a comforting sight really, if I counted there were at least 20 dagger sized short swords.

I then proceeded to wait. I bided my time, fully expecting the 10 Goblins to follow.

After a minute of silence from the outside, an angry roar suddenly reverberated. The Goblin Commander fiercely ordered the pack, snapping them back from their daze while forcing them to enter the den I had claimed.

As the goblins flooded in one by one, they all bore the same mask of atrocious shock as they saw what littered the floor.

Honestly, they were forced to step over their brethren, as they fearfully looked from the floor, to me, then back down.

Their once brandished short swords began falling, as it now limply dangled on shaking limbs.

I smiled. While they looked on with shock at the scene before them, it seems like they have all but forgotten my presence. None of them acknowledged me, as they were too busy gawking at the massacre. Well, that is save for one.

The goblin commander glanced briefly at the room, and scowled before he focused his complete attention on me. Rather, right now, this creature was evaluating me with squinted eyes.

I could have taken advantage of this situation. I could have easily thrown one of my spare swords towards a goblin, but before I initiated attack, I needed to remind him that I was still here. I was very much present and currently, ready to kill.

Taking my knife, I knelt down, and tapped the floor beneath me three times.

While it wasn’t the same as with the metal door, it would still have the same effect. Upon hearing this quiet rattling, the goblins simultaneously turned towards me, their faces were now masked with a mixture of fear and surprise.

The earlier uneasiness from seeing what littered the floor was now gone as the goblins all instinctively took a step back.

I quickly grabbed a short sword that was lying close to me. Once my grip tightened, and the effects of the second weapon began to set in, the final battle started.

Darting forward, I cocked my right hand and threw a sword, hurtling it towards one of the closest goblins.

I caught the goblin off guard, and the dagger sunk deep within his shoulder blade. He screamed out as the blow forced him to back up a couple of steps, causing him to trip over a spare goblin torso near one of the stalls..

If it wasn’t for all his wriggling around, I would have been hard pressed to differentiate between him and the corpses.

Shifting my attention, I glared at another goblin, the one to my far right who was still staring blankly at what just happened. The surprise and fear had all coalesced within him, causing his innately slow reaction to get even slower.

I ran forward, hoping along entrails as I reached down and picked up another sword from the ground.

I felt the boost immediately, as my pace quickened and in no time, I sunk the two daggers in my hands onto his chest. He screamed out, we both fell together onto the stained bathroom floor.

By this point, I noticed through my peripheral vision that the goblins had recovered from their initial fear and had started moving towards me. While they still had a bit of jerkiness to their movement, I knew that once sourounded, I would be hardpressed to survive.

I lifted myself up, while simultaneously yanking the daggers out from the goblin’s chest. Since it was the perfect opportunity, I took the chance to slit the injured goblin’s throat, earning me my first kill in this death battle.

Now, it was 1 down and 9 more to go.

I threw one of my daggers towards an approaching goblin. The blade pierced itself deep within an eye socket, colliding with a sickening wet slush.

It were times like these were my investment in dexterity really shined. Since I wanted to avoid being surrounded, I needed a method to fight while simultaneously keeping my distance.

knife throws were perfect for that, considering I had quite a surplus of bladed weaponry within this restroom.

The goblins’ movement speed were relatively slow, and despite the urging of the Goblin Commander (who chose to angrily command from outside the restroom), the goblins couldn’t help but instinctively try and avoid all that littered the floor.

I moved over to the pile of daggers on the floor, and began to systematically throw my surplus towards the incoming targets.

Generally, I stuck to aiming for their chest, since that was considerably easier to hit, but on the occasion that the goblin did get too close, I’d begin aiming for its legs.

On more than one occasion, a hit to the knee or thigh would cause the goblin to trip over and fall flat on its face. If I was lucky, it would splat down next to one of the decapitated head, warranting a scream of terror to exist its vocal chords.

Once my surplus was back down to just the blade in my hand and the three behind my back, I stopped throwing. By this point, I was quite lucky that my knife throwing had killed two of them, while most were injured.

Honestly, it was more than what I had expected.

Speaking of injured, I quickly moved over next to the one who I had attacked first and attempted to finish him off.

This time, I used my only attacking skill, [dissect], in order to try and directly observe the special status effects it caused, mainly, lacerate and amputation.

Unfortunately, maybe it was since I aimed for its neck, but the creature received quite a fatal blow. I accidentally killed the goblin before I could give it lacerate or amputation.

Oh well, this brought my total kills to 4. Only 6 more to go.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that the Goblin Commander started participating in battle.

It took direct charge, and together with its troops, he made a mad dash towards my direction.

I grimaced.

These tiny midgets were gaining in on me, and in a matter of seconds they would be all over. The only saving grace I had were the disfigured corpses. They caused moving within here to be quite a trial.

“Oh!”

I received a moment of insight, and the next thing I knew, I was kicking a decapitated goblin corpse towards the mob. I sent a headless corpse hurtling towards one of the goblin scouts like it was a soccer ball.

The respective goblin widened its eyes in surprise as it could do nothing but look on as he made impact with the corpse.

The blow hurtled him downwards, giving me the opportunity I needed.

I went and grabbed one of the daggers loosely attached to my back, and once the stat boosts took their effect, I immediately ran forward.

Due to my relative size, jumping and stepping over the corpses was generally easier for me, so my speed wasn’t even comparable to these tiny midgets.

I utilized the space I created within their goblin formation and ran in between them, with my final goal being the hallway up ahead. Right now, battling with these goblins in a tight space would be quite inconvenient.

It was better to attack out in the open, where I at least had a slight advantage.

Before I could reach the door though, a sudden impact pushed me forward. While this impact actually helped me in escaping the restroom, it did cause me to hit my shoulder against the frame of the doorway.

This, coupled with the impact itself, shaved off quite a decent amount of my hp.

I was sent rolling across the hallway, and when I finally came to and got the opportunity to turn around and see what exactly had hit me, I met eyes with a scowling Goblin Commander.

It roared, before it ran straight at me. Unlike the other goblins, the corpses posed no hazard for him as he barrelled through, displaying an abnormal amount of agility and strength for a creature his size.

I guess it wasn’t a commander for nothing.

The lucky thing here was that at least the 5 other goblins were still within the restroom, although, I garner to think it might have been easier to fight the five than deal with this one.

Hastily, I got up while simultaneously throwing one of my daggers.

The blade sunk into his forearm, but was shaken off quite easily as the beast continued running with no signs of stopping.

Bracing myself, I recieved his tackle with the hilt of my sword. I minimized some of the damage by leaping back in correlation with his timing, but that’s not say I came back safe.

In fact, the impact alone brought my total hp down to less than 40%.

Once I regained myself, I scowled while reprimanding my past self for not investing in any vitality. If I continued receiving hits like this, then I’d be dead in no time.

The Goblin Commander once again charged at me, although this time, I was a bit more composed.

I bided my time while I quickly observed his trajectory.

Once he got within 2 feet of me, I immediately jumped to the side. I desperately slashed outward at the same time, activating [dissect] in the process.

As the creature reared back, a brief notification alert blinked above him, telling me that the Goblin Commander now suffered under the effects of [laceration] which gave him a status similar to [bleeding], only a lot more severe.

For now this was good, but in the long run, it wouldn’t help all that much. While laceration slowly sucked away his life, with the amount of hp he still had left, I was more likely to die first then this monster losing even a 10th of his hit points.

What I needed was to inflict an [amputate] effect on the creature, but I was a bit reluctant since using dissect consumed my precious stamina. I had to pick the right time and not just haphazardly slash out with [dissect].

The Goblin commander looked briefly at his new injury before he scowled. He turned around and came at me once more, this time instead of charging, he sent a flurry of kicks and punches my way.

I desperately dodged, all the while I attempted to counterattack in the process.

I landed a few good hits, a slash to its forearm, a thrust at his side, but in the end, the Goblin Commander was immensely superior.

Its abnormal strength and agility coupled with his small size made him a hard target to hit, while at the same time, made him a heavy hitter.

Before long, my hp was brought down to under 10%.

I leapt back, and tried to reassess my situation.

I quickly downed a health potion while I desperately avoided the Goblin Commander.

My health was back up 40% but my mind was in complete disarray.

I now saw the Goblin through the tinted haze of fear.

The possibility of dying flashed before my eyes numerous times, and it only made me even more anxious. My movements became limited, as I began to instinctually reel back and prioritize aversion rather than attacking.

At this rate, there was no chance of me making a comeback.

I leapt back a bit more, creating some distance between us, although the Goblin commander was making short work of this distance.

Looking at the scene before me, I tried to reel in my beating heart as I grimaced and bit down on my lip.

While this action caused a sliver of my own hp to dwindle, the pain and metallic taste of blood snapped me out of my stupor.

I stopped running around, and kicked out at the goblin as it entered my range. My leg rocketed out and it followed through with the motions for a simple back kick.

Not expecting such an attack, the blow landed solidly on the Goblin’s chest, sending him back a good meter or two.

This was one of the problems my agitated mind had caused.

It made me too reliant on my weaponry, and as a result, I disregarded my physical superiority.

While the thing may have beens stronger and faster, my body was a lot larger. I had more mobility while at the same time, I held more range.

With this new found mindset, I began my counterattack. I ran up to him and sent a flurry of kicks, which was avoided mostly due to the goblin’s surprisingly dexterous footwork, but a lucky blow would land every now and then.

Like this, I diminished his hp by about 15%.

Although I didn’t exactly get to celebrate this occasion, since the 5 other goblins which I had almost forgotten about began to spill out of the restroom.

Wait… no, scratch that, there’s six of them now.

“Damn…” I grimaced.

It seems like an extra goblin spawned during my fight with the boss.

As I was lost in thought, a stray punch hit solidly on my solar plexus, crumbling me to the ground in an instant.

My hp was back down to 15% while the Goblin Commander loomed over me with obvious arrogance written all over its smirking face.

Tch!

His uncanny human like expression pissed me off, so I slashed out desperately at his right leg, activating [Dissection] at the same time.

Maybe it was due to his arrogance or new found confidence, but surprisingly the attack landed.

[Amputation!]

A gift from above came in the form of a convenient notification alert that flashed over the goblin’s surprised face.

Slowly, it began to fall to the ground as its right leg lost the power to support itself.

Utilizing this second opportunity, I recovered from my recent impact and swallowed the pain with a grunt, and, while my back was pressed to the floor, I shot my legs straight outward, aiming for the small target directly above the creatures neck and below his face; his throat.

The blow connected with a satisfying snap and sent him back flying a good meter or so while a critical hit notification flashed above his soaring head.

It sent him past his subordinates, who all froze mid sprint from the sudden blow back to their commander.

I got up and spat out a little bit of the blood that began to collect within my mouth.

I was forced to down another hp potion, while I assessed the scene before me. Amputation was successfully activated on the Goblin Commander. In theory (and in actuality), this should have greatly limited the monster’s movement speed, and at the same time, I could use this opportunity to take out the small fry.

With that in mind, I made a dash towards the nearest goblin. This one was a goblin scout with only 30% of its hp remaining. A good blow would end its life quite easily.

Without even stopping, I threw a dagger directly at its head. The goblin promptly dropped to the ground while I continued to run past its dead body.

I was now down to my last remaining blade, but that didn’t stop me.

With precise movements, I ran in between two more goblins. I slit one of their throats while I used the momentum from the slash to spin around mid air and lash out at the other goblin’s face.

The one with its throat slit instantly died due to a fatal blow, while the other one howled in agony as its life was brought below 5%.

I landed down on the ground, and my body smoothly flowed into a crouching position.

I quickly finished the below 5% goblin with an upwards strike. I then pocketed the the dropped swords from the new corpses while I looked at the remaining adversaries before me.

The Goblin Commander howled in anger as it attempted to rise, but unfortunately, it would always topple over due to its new lack of balance.

I smiled at this scene. Amputating an enemy was as I expected, very effective.

This way, I was quite satisfied at acquiring [Dissection]. It’s allowed for a better success rate of severing an enemy's limbs with a slash. Not just now, but I could see [Dissection] being a major arsenal in the future.

Satisfied that the goblin commander currently lacked the strength and balance in order to properly fight, I shifted my attention towards the remaining goblins.

There were three left. two goblin warriors and a goblin scout. I stared at them blankly for a moment, watching their little exchange as their gazes shifted from each other, to me, and to their commander.

After a while, I could hear the simultaneous gulps as the creatures, having seemingly made peace with their lives, dashed forward, a hint of mad desperation written on their ugly faces.

I met these creatures readily.

Using the one dagger, I made short work of them. I avoided utilizing [dissect] again since I didn’t want to feel the uncomfortable fatigue that came with low stamina.

In less than a minute, the three desperate goblins died in vein.

Afterwards, whilst wiping the goblin blood away from my blade, I turned to look back at the Goblin Commander.

To my surprise, the remaining goblin was desperately crawling away. For a high ranking official, it sure showed such a shameful behavior. What had happened to all its previous anger and desperation?

Maybe with out anymore of its subordinates to hide behind, it finally realized its situation?

“...”

I looked at it blankly, wondering what exactly it was trying to do. Did it really think I was going to let it escape?

Is it stupid?

Maybe goblins are just inherently stupid.

As I slowly walked over to the creature, the fatigue from the fight began to catch up to me as my adrenaline raddled mind was slowly replaced by an unnervingly cool rationality.

I continued to look at the goblin.

It would, at times, look back at me. There was something I saw within its eyes that I recognized on its subordinates, but never really saw within this particular Goblin’s eyes.

It was fear.

For the first time, this 8 level higher than me monster was afraid. Well, maybe it always was afraid, but truthfully, this was the first time I caught its fear with my own eyes.

I didn’t smirk or jeer at this thought. After all, it was natural to be afraid. If I was in its situation, I would be afraid. It’s just a bit unfortunate for the goblin, but the situation was reversed. I was the one with the sword. It was the one currently running away. Right now, the creature was justified for fear.

Since after all, it was about to die.

Not taking any risks, I haphazardly collected all the littered swords on the floor and began lobbing them towards the Goblin. This method of execution was probably one of the most painful, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to risk getting surprise attacked. If I got anywhere near its range, the possibility of my death would always persist.

After I had wasted almost all of the daggers, the Goblin Commander’s hp was down to less than 1%.

I now only had one bladed weapon left, and with that, I stepped forward, now a mere 2 feet away from its bleeding corpse.

I stood there for a minute, taking in what just happened. I lamented over my growth, and I also lamented over how close I had come to dying on several occasions.

I almost thought to give a sort of parting speech. After all, this creature did cause me a lot of trouble, while at the same time, it gave me valuable hp. I thought it over but in the end, only one thing escaped my mouth.

“Haaa~”

With one final sigh of relief, I threw my last dagger directly at its head.

From this proximity, the dagger managed to lodge itself deep within its skull, completely ending the monster’s reign.

Like that, I killed the level 20 Goblin Commander.

****

Author's notes: This chapter was a bit longer than the rest since , well, it ended up that way. I debated over cutting the chapter in half, but ultimately decided to just go for it. I mean, the battle would lose all its tension if it got interrupted mid way, right?

Anyways, rate,follow, favorite, etc. to show support. This fic is still new, so it needs all the help it can get. I'd greatly appreciate it.