Private (Recruit), Chlust Balford, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 3, Day 9, Urganschoft, Deutsche Imperial Army

It was a carnage that unfolded, body parts were flying everywhere as the goblins ran through the recruits as they panicked.

It was complete pandemonium to say the least.

And one of the people in the midst of this was...

"SCHWEEEEE!" The goblin shrieked as it ran to Chlust with its club overhead, aiming for a killing blow.

'Remember your training and you will survive!' Lance Corporal Reichel Schwertspinne's words rang out in his mind.

Chlust instinctively grabbed the sand at the ground and threw it at the goblin's eyes, disorienting its vision.

"Uuuuuaaaaaaaaaa!!" Not missing the chance, Chlust thrust his sword at the goblin's throat as it was occupied with wiping its eyes.

He fell down to the ground with the goblin, with his sword still in its throat.

"Kuaaak! Kuaaak!" The goblin thrashed around and gurgled on its own blood, still clinging on to life even though its throat had already been impaled by Chlust's iron sword.

"Shit!" With the goblin's thrashing, some of the blood splashed around and even got into his mouth.

But the taste of the rotten flesh-smelling sludge lodged between his teeth was the least of his worries, as the goblin still tried to reach for the club it let go of.

'Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!' Chlust was panicking, even in it's final moments it still had this much strength.

'Sometimes, even if you stab your weapon at an enemy's vital point they will still struggle around for a few minutes even though they aren't going to live anymore...So in the event that you find yourself stabbing anything at its heart, abdomen, or even head and its still moving, you...' He was reminded with words of Reichel during their basic training.

'--twist your weapon inside!'

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" Chlust grabbed the handle of his sword with both hands and gathered his strength, twisting the iron blade as it tore through even more flesh and bone, splashing more blood around him and his clothes. And finally with the goblin's final weak attempt at a shriek, it was able to leave the cruel world of Hyurasia without any further form of resistance.

He looked at his hands, which were filthy with the goblin's blood.

They felt heavy and they were trembling.

'I...just took a life...' Chlust just realized this, and it felt like a weight was pressing in his chest.

"SCHWEEEEE!" another shriek resounded from behind him, and he looked behind to see a goblin with his sword raised overhead aiming for his own.

'Scheisse...' Chlust sweared yet again as he forgot one of the basics that the Lance Corporal taught him and his squad.

'Do not ever blank out in the middle of a fight!' She made sure to emphasize this so many times. He had been reckless to think that the battlefield would wait for him to collect his thoughts uninterrupted just ike that.

And so with his above-average reaction speed he quickly adapted to the situation at hand.

'Block it!' Chlust raised his sword, hoping to block the incoming blow, until he suddenly realized.

'It's too fast.' Because of his hands that felt so heavy, he was just a second late in intercepting the blow and protecting his body.

His head was going to get sliced open, or in the best case-scenario, his head would only be crush if the goblin's blade was as dull as he thought, because most of the goblin's bladed weapons were so crude that most of them functioned as hammers as they brutally crushed recruits with them without any mercy.

It was then that he saw a silver light, and with it the corpse of a formerly shrieking goblin who was about to kill him, utterly bisected from head to toe with a single graceful stroke.

And then straight after while Chlust was still processing what just happend with the severely limited brain cells that he had, he suddenly felt a sharp and blunt pain on the back of his head as his body was propelled forward.

"You friggin' idiot! Did you learn nothing when I taught all of you mongrels!?" A feminine voice shouted at him from behind, and naturally this female would be...

"Lance Corporal!?" Chlust was surprised, from the part when she told everyone to get a shield she suddenly went missing, honestly Chlust even wondered if she had deserted the army just the moment right after the goblins charged.

And it wouldn't be unreasonable too, since Reichel still had much of a future going on for her. But even then it looked like she had no plan of deserting the army at all, and from the blood on her hair and clothing it looked like she took down a few goblins before deciding to help Chlust.

And thinking about how Reichel managed to kill goblins so easily despite being eight years younger than him shook his pride as a man, as well as managed to take off the load that Chlust was bearing in his chest.

'That's right...we're soldiers...we're only following our orders! This is no time to be caring for others!' Chlust regained his former sense of self, and managed to re-realize his goal, Which is to survive at all costs.

"Ahhhh nevermind! Get the Sergeant to calm down, And after that clump up in this location and support the other recruits."

"Support the other recruits?? You mean you're not going to stay here?" Chlust asked. Even if he suddenly felt all confident, he still felt unnerved without Reichel within the corner of his eye, it was like Reichel just being there motivates him to do the best he can without thinking of the consequences, which was what he was looking for.

And there was also the fact that it was obvious that Reichel could easily one-shot each of the goblins here, and his chance of survival would be much higher if he stuck close to her in the middle of a fight.

Or not actually, since there were also enemies who tended to go for the strong ones first.

Like for example, right now--

"Ah! Lance Corporal! Watch out!"

*Gulp*

Chlust's adam's apple roughly shook during that intense moment.

'Two--Four! Four Goblins!' Because it was night he could barely see them, But thankfully it was a Full Moon tonight and the moon was bright enough to at least illuminate the surroundings in front of him.

'Crap!' Chlust once again readied himself to attack

The four goblins lunged at Reichel, to which Reichel responded by waving her arm.

*Boom*

*Boom*

*Boom*

Three booms that sounded like hammers squarely crushing schools invaded his ear drums, and with it a few litres of blood which soaked him yet again. He didn't know how, But it looked like Reichel unleashed a technique that striked at three different position despite only having to move her arm only once.

'No wait...three?' Chlust was wondering where was the third.

"To think that you took my lessons to heart that quickly, Looks like I've embedded a new habit into you." Reichel said as she looked apathetically at Chlust.

'Habit?' It was then that he realized that he was holding the handle of his sword while its blade was embedded in the chest of a goblin that was on the ground, the wound it suffered on its chest was twisted, clearly after being stabbed the blade was moved around even more to inflict more damage.

"Haha...I did it!" Chlust took upon himself a new kind of confidence at being able to react to such a speed, even if it was only a reaction during the heat of a moment.

"Mhmm, That's a good reaction, now go to your comrades." Reichel nodded as she wiped off the blood from her face which was devoid of any kind of expression. But Chlust was happy with whatever praise he could get at the moment.

It appeared that he had already gotten through the trauma of taking a life very easily in such a short moment.

It truly was horrifying how people how people can change so much in such a short amount of time...If you ignore the long term effects that is...

"I'll be heading to the front, I still have something else to do." Reichel said as she brushed the foul-smelling goblin blood from her silver rapier, immediately giving it back its former beautiful silver shine.

Seeing the resolve in her eyes, Chlust couldn't throw in a 'Can't be helped then.' towards his line of thoughts.

"Understood, but what exactly are you going to do Lance Corporal?" Chlust was about to help his squad, each one who was struggling to take down a goblin themselves within the chaotic scene of carnage.

"I'm going to rescue a fucking idiotic noble." Reichel said as her face contorted in disgust, which after she immediately head for the opposite direction that Chlust was going for.

The center of the battlefield.

Lance Corporal (2nd Adjutant), Reichel Schwertspinne, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 3, Day 9, Urganschoft, Deutsche Imperial Army

*SCHWING*

Reichel's sword felt like she was trying to parry multiple arrows with only one stroke.

"Lt. Colonel von Radnitzer, I am here to assist you." Reichel said while putting herself in between the Lt. Colonel and the tall hobgoblin.

"Lance Coporal Schwertspinne! I am thankful for your assistance, Together we can defeat this fellow." Lt. Colonel stood up as he he brushed off the dust off of his uniform.

'Wait what? Together? Nonononononono...' Reichel couldn't afford to fight and protect somebody at the same time. But more importantly than that--

"That can't happen sir!"

--Reichel wasn't a person who would share her merits whenever possible. All achievements that could be completed by her and her alone should only be accredited to her and her alone.

"...excuse me?" Maurius was doubting what he had just heard.

"You need to go now sir, I will handle this monster, Find my unit and you will see that they are very capable. God has still imparted upon you the duty of commanding the recruits against these evil invaders!" Reichel couldn't believe the total BS she that was leaving her mouth.

In all honesty it made her almost barf, It was hard trying to act nice, But having a good relationship with a higher officer that you put out of harm's way is sure to earn her a recommendation at least from said higher officer for a sky-rising promotion!

"You...No, forget it, I understand! I will never forget your honourable sacrifice!" Maurius said as he reluctantly bolted off back to the rear lines with an unreadable emotion plastered on his face.

Reichel then turned around to face her enemy, eyeing him with eyes filled with caution.

'He's...quite tall for a hobgoblin...' Reichel had to admit.

The hobgoblin stood at over 180 centimetres at least, and in his hand was a green longsword that was almost as long as Reichel herself. His green skin which was covered by the red of human blood contrasted against the light of the evening sky, the same contrast that was provided against Reichel's pale skin and the green-red blood of his goblin comrades.

Both of them eyed each other, gauging each other's value and capabilities.

It was a standoff of sorts, but even with the violent screaming of human soldiers who were fighting under the darkness, and the shrieking of goblins who acted no more different than wild beasts--

There was only an awkward silence.

"As expected from the Black-Haired Stalker, Since you deflected my [Dust Devil] it seems like I cannot use my ordinary tactics to bring you down." He was the first to finally break the silence. And although his voice was calm Reichel could tell from the burning rage in his eyes that he was doing everything he can just to keep himself from charging straight at her.

'[Dust Devil]? The technique from earlier?' Reichel started to think, she already knew from the attack earlier that the hobgoblin didn't possess any sort of talent for magic at all, and all is techniques relied mostly on martial skill.

Rather than the goblin himself, the sword that he was holding seemed to be the thing that made him dangerous.

Martial prowess permitted you to dish out not only ten but even a hundred attacks all at one swing of a blade. But as petty as it is, You can not use martial prowess to make shotgun shells out of thin air.

It was most likely that the hobgoblin himself was only all bark and no bite, as everybody that opposed him was turned to honeycombs with a single swing of his longsword.

'Yes...All I need to do is just watch out for the sword, and everything else will come naturally.'

"I will give you a slow and agonizing death, To avenge everybody that you have murdered in cold blood!" He said as he took his stance.

'Once he charges in, I'm going to split his head with a single stroke, and naturally all the merit will go to me as I was the one single-handedly who killed him.' Reichel almost giggled thinking about of how much food she'll be able to buy once she gets her money from the reward ceremony which was sure to come.

"Enough talk, I'm going to--"

And it was then, when she suddenly found a sword that was in full swinging motion was heading for her throat within less than a second, that Reichel realized...

'Ahhhh scheisse...'

That she was in much deeper shit than she thought originally.