Gogin, the leader of the black goblin squad, walked over a pile of vines that were scattered on the ground. In his mind, he was grumbling over the utter failure of his muscle-brained friend who had pushed him to clear all this mess.

Tsk! That bastard Gugaga, to think that he failed to do his job and let our precious soldiers die like insects. if he is still alive, I will cut his useless dick into pieces and report his failure to the king! But yeah, that gruesome death also serves him right.

He glanced at the mountain of goblin corpses where the skinless body of Gugaga lied on the ground and smirked. To him, Gugaga was the biggest thorn that had snatched all of his achievements and rewards.

To his king, a warrior with a big build and big muscles was worth several times more than a tricky killer like him and his squad. Right when Gogin had gained his king’s trust as a reliable assassin and obtained a handful of men as his squad, Gugaga received an army of soldiers by just complaining like a child.

But with the big idiot gone, I will become the only one who gains my king’s trust! Yes, he might even promote me into his right hand if I can turn the tide of this event into my favor.

He kicked a skull rolling on the ground like a ball and made a grinning smile. He didn’t know what were these vine monsters, but they seemed strong. When they were united, even the herculean Gugaga was mercilessly skinned alive.

But these monsters were no match for his [Scimitar of degeneration], a magical weapon bestowed on him and his men after a hard labor of building up his trust. This scimitar was very sharp and had the ability to cover the cut wounds with a cursed mist, preventing his enemy from regeneration. It was a perfect weapon for an assassin like him.

Even though the vine monsters that he had beheaded were good at their healing ability, with a single swing of his sword, they became nothing more than a motionless skull. On top of that, he and his men had prioritized in getting rid of the ones that seem to be stronger than the others.

Gogin feared that one with a deer skull the most since he saw it fight toe to toe against Gugaga who had a herculean strength bestowed by the king. But through his sheer luck, he managed to finish it before it could even notice him. It was lucky of him that the vine deer couldn’t notice him hiding inside its shadow.

“Boss, these skulls, alive,” one of his men told him while holding onto a squirrel skull.

In the hollow eyes of the skull, a pair of green flames were still flickering inside, indicating its strong life force.

“Yeah, they must be alive as long as they still have their skull. Collect the skulls! We will take them back to the king!”

The origin of these vine monsters was mysterious. He didn’t know if they would be useful for his king. But if they couldn’t be of any use, at least they would be worthy as a food for the core.

He searched inside the scattered vines and found the core that looked like a crystal ball buried there. It was a precious treasure that his king had ordered Gugaga to keep it safe. If he could bring this back to his king safely, he was sure that his king would be pleased.

Then he turned toward the direction where two girls were shaking in fear while hugging each other like a pair of scared rabbits. On the edge of their eyes, a small drop of tear was forming and running down their cheek.

Nice, these two will be another gift for the king and that will assure my promotion into the king’s close aide. They will be put into good use… in several ways. Especially the one with big tits, I believe she will become the king’s favorite toy.

He ordered his men to capture and tie the girls. The goblins in his squad then approached the girls with a long rope in their hands.

““No, don’t come any closer!””

Feeling fear from going to be tortured like their beloved friend, the two girls screamed while slowly crawled away from the black goblins. The girl with red hair, Cheri, raised her hand and mumbled a chant with her shaking voice. A spark of fire ignited in the air and quickly vanished… together with her weak consciousness.

“If-If only I have my staff and mana left…”

“Cheri!,” her friend, Mina, received her limp body and panicked.

Mina held her senseless friend tightly. Her teary eyes stared at the goblins that approached her with a smirking smile. Her heart raced wilder and louder until she could hear her noisy heartbeat. She bit her shaking lips and forced her eyes close, emerging into her imaginary dark and deafened world.

*WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!*

Then a long high-pitched voice rang out from inside her pitch black world and shattered her hopelessness into pieces. No…, actually the high-pitched voice came from somewhere further in front of her.

She opened her eyes in confusion, totally forgetting about her hopeless situation. And she found out that the goblins that had approached her also looked back at the direction of the sound.

Everyone in that place except for Cheri who had lost her sense looked at the direction where the mysterious sound came. Warm sunlight revealed the edge of the forest where trees provided a shade to the ground. But there was nothing other than that.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!*

*OOOOOOOOOOMPH!!!*

*WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!*

Woodwind-like sounds echoed from every edge of the forest. Their voice ranged from the lowest possible key to a high-pitched one which could hurt anyone’s ears. When they were separated, they might sound like a musical note. But when every note was played altogether, they became the most obnoxious noise in the world.

Birds around this place flew away in all directions for unable to endure this sound pollution.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!!!,” Gogin yelled while crouching on the ground and closing his pointed ears in pain.

Even Mina couldn’t bear this noise as she tried her best to close her and Cheri’s ears, but her two hands couldn’t do two jobs at the same time.

Lucky enough for all of them, the painful noises slowly died down. But they still heard the ringing sounds echoed in her ears and their directional senses distorted, throwing their head into a chaos.

Mina felt like her vision became blurry and unstable when she saw the trees on the edge of the forest swayed like a wave… But when she concentrated her eyes, it didn’t look like she was hallucinating or anything.

And in the next moment, small objects were shot out from the trees and covered the sky in black rain. They hit hard on everyone presented, including Mina. One of them hit on her shoulder with a watery sound and dropped on the ground.

“Ouch! What is this… a berry!?” she surprised.

Fruits and berries flew from the trees and rained down upon them. They might be small and lightweight, but when a rain of them poured down at a great speed, the goblins couldn’t help but close their face to protect their eyes from the small berries

“SHIT! What’s happening here? Why are fruits rained down from the sky!?” Gogin turned furious as he tried to dive into the ground and seek shelter inside his shadow.

“GUAH!!!”

But the moment that he activated his skill, black bullets shot out from inside his shadow and sent him flying into the air. His clothes were ripped apart due to the impact and a few bones in his rib cage cracked.

But only this much pain couldn’t knock a devoted assassin out. Gogin swiftly rotated midair and softly landed on the floor like nothing happened to him. His eyes that turned furious glanced toward his men who were protecting their faces from the storm of berries.

“Come, you fools!” he ordered, “Protect me!”

The black goblins splinted toward him and became his meat shield. They joined their arms in a circle and made him a dome to stay inside.

Fruits and berries that continued to barrage onto them became fiercer like they were focused only on this goblin group. Each time a hard fruit hit the goblins, they groaned in pain as their nasty saliva splattered on Gogin’s face.

What the fuck is this?, he grumbled, I’ve never heard about anything like this before. Even I got attacked by [Shadow bullets] when I used [Shadow dive] a moment ago... Someone must be behind all of this mess!

Through the gaps between his men’s limbs, his gaze swept left and right to find the culprit of this mysterious phenomenon.

Then he saw a pair of thick legs slowly approached him as if their owner felt no pain under this rain of fruits. The legs were skinless that the red muscles could be clearly seen along with white tendons underneath thm. A few bits of yellow fat layers spread here and there while dark red blood oozed and splattered on the ground each time the legs took a step.

Gogin was surprised. And at the same time, he felt disgusted toward the one that approached him.

Tsk! Why aren’t you dead already, Gugaga? Even when those monsters skinned you alive, you still don’t die? Cockroach! You are a cockroach!

The skinless goblin finally stopped when it was close enough to the black goblins, but it didn’t do anything more than that. Seeing that, Gogin went into a full furious mode.

“GUGAGA, what are you doing, you idiot! Quickly find the one behind all of this mess and kill it! Why are you wasting your time standing still?”

But Gugaga didn’t answer back. In its hand, a huge mace was clenched firmly. The wet sound of bare muscles rubbing on the metal handle could be heard even under this chaotic event. Blood that dripped down onto the mace head splashed on the ground as he swung the mace diagonally upwaed.

“WHAT!?”

*BOOM!!!*

The stone head of the mace swept the group of black goblins and sent their body into the sky. The ones that got directly hit from the mace had their abdomen and chest burst open. Their guts flew into the air and scattered on the ground just like the vines around them.

There were only a few of them that were lucky enough to survive the blow, but most of them had their limbs bent into an unnatural direction. None of them had survived that blow without a scratch… except for only one goblin.

Gogin stared upward at Gugaga’s skinless face. His face which was already black turned deeper black from anger together with his bloodshot eyes. He bared his fangs toward the traitor and pointed his black scimitar clad in a black mist toward him.

“YOU! Doing this! Are you prepared to die?”

Gugaga didn’t answer back. His expressionless and skinless face turned toward his former companion. His round eyes that had no eyelid to cover looked down on the black goblin. And the mace in his hand was readied again.