Maduka watched as small black teardrops formed on the paintbrush and fell onto the ground. They didn’t damage the root’s surface, which revealed that the ink only caused harm when Tanuki intended it to.

“I didn’t want to reveal [Kurohyou] so early, but these bastards forced me to. Now they know my secret weapon.”

Tanuki slowly stood up, still weak after using the Heifer’s Mask so many times. He turned to Maduka and smiled. Then, bowed.

“Huh?” Maduka recoiled.

“Thank you. You’ve saved my life.”

The little goblin’s face turned red from the compliment. She scraped the back of her head and looked away, fiddling with her hair.

“Maduka is pretty cool, huh?”

“Yes, you are.” Tanuki smiled and handed the black cape to the goblin.

Disrupting their moment came another boulder heading straight towards them. Tanuki immediately raised his brush and readied to bombard the rock with ink.

“What can Maduka do?” The goblin asked, clenching her fists for a fight.

“Not much. Stay behind me, I’ll defend you.”

That just made her blush even harder.

When the boulder was finally ten meters close, Tanuki began to bombard it with ink, flapping his brush left and right in the air. When the large rock was only a few inches away from his face, the ink marks activated with powerful attacks against the rock, which blew it into smithereens.

"Gotcha!" Tanuki rejoiced.

The shattered pieces shot through the air and revealed a goblin behind the former rock. He had a sharp shiv in hand, which he aimed at Tanuki’s throat as he lunged forward.

"H-Huh?"

At that moment, his entire life flashed before his eyes. Neither he nor Maduka could do anything to stop the goblin as it drove the knife towards Tanuki's throat.

But just as it would've pierced his skin...

"Bzzzt!"

A bolt of incredible lightning struck the monster. It fell to the ground, its body shaking uncontrollably. Then, as bubbling saliva broke out its mouth, the monster finally stopped moving.

Light smoke fumed off its eyes.

"So, I guess one of them was dumb enough to try, eh? No wonder, they didn’t know they cannot hurt you if you were invited!”

A smirk voice echoed from above. The goblins stopped growling as they heard her words, and quieted down to let way for their superior.

On the opposite side of the root was a tall goblin woman. She stood a good head above Maduka, then another because of her headdress.

The monster wore the pelt of a blue minotaur with its head still attached and sitting atop the gobbo's head. Besides that, the monster's only attire was two belts strapped around her private parts, which's large surfaces were covered by rugs hanging from the belts.

Her smug smile revealed blue lips, which were the same color as the blue face paint covering the top half of her head.

"Don’t worry, dear. We cannot hurt you. Even if we were to try, you could just summon a portal back to your home anytime you want."

The monster slowly approached Tanuki. His instincts had a bad feeling about the monster, which made him hold his weapon even more vigilantly.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?”

"Oh, silly! I was the one who invited you!"

"Wait, do you mean..."

The monster before Tanuki was no other than the leader of the goblin tribe. Soup, Daughter of the Blue Minotaur.

Maduka covered behind Tanuki as she addressed her boss.

"Did my friend not get hurt by da gobbo because Soup invited him?"

"Oh hi, Maduka!" Soup waved nonchalantly. "Didn't even see you there!"

"If gobboz cannot hurt da boy... Why could da boulders hurt him?"

"That's because they weren't aiming them at me." Tanuki joined in and turned towards Soup. "Let me guess! You sent Maduka down the hole knowing fully well that she would find me and help me get to you.”

Soup shrugged and looked away with a smug smile.

“I have no idea what you’re talking abo~ut.”

“Those boulders weren’t aimed at me, but at Maduka! You used her as a fake target, thus bypassing my system’s defensive shield!”

He wanted to grab the [Heifer’s Mask] and bombard Soup with a barrage of attacks, but as he grabbed it, Maduka placed her hand upon his. At that moment Tanuki realized: these defensive shields work both ways. He couldn’t hurt Soup.

A deep sigh left his mouth, as he mustered up power to calmly address Soup once more.

“There’s no challenge here for me, is there?”

“Well, I can always come up with something! Let’s see…” Soup rubbed her chin with a sadistic smile. “I see you took a liking of Maduka! How about we do a little hunting challenge? We give her five minutes to run away, then the first one to catch her, dead or alive, get’s some small bonus for the next wave! What do you think?”

“Huh?!” Maduka’s eyes were filled with fear as she heard Soup’s words.

As the challenge was proposed, an interface message appeared before Tanuki.

[ Challenge Proposed: Hunt down the prey! ]

[ Rewards for Tanuki: (-1) Goblin appears the next Wave ]

[ Rewards for Soup: (+1) Goblin appears the next Wave ]

[ Description: Both participants give five minutes for the prey to run. The first participant to catch the prey wins the challenge. The prey can be both dead or alive for the participant to win the challenge. ]

It was a game of catch. Tanuki was always good at those, mainly because of his fast legs, which were trained by him running away from possible fights. It wasn’t anything respectable, but he didn’t really care so long it saved him from getting hurt.

But did he have what it took to hunt down the same girl that defended him moments ago? If it weren’t for Maduka, he would’ve been killed by his own attacks fueling the mask’s horn!

Yet if he doesn’t do something, he has to go up against a horde of goblins tomorrow, followed by an enemy that oozed nothing but sadistic evil. He knew he didn’t have what it takes to survive that fight without getting hurt.

Hurt. He always feared getting hurt so much, yet at that moment, as his heart weighed the pros and cons of his situation, he wasn’t afraid. Even he was surprised by that.

“Why? What’s different this time?”

As he looked at the goblin covering behind him, Tanuki finally understood.

His fear of getting hurt was insignificant next to his willingness to defend the ones much weaker than himself.

This goblin, though they barely knew each other for more than half an hour, has saved his life and was ready to help him again. All of that while being much weaker than Tanuki. She was a true inspiration for the boy, and as he looked at the fear in the goblin’s eyes, Tanuki knew: she had to be protected at all cost.

For the first time in his life, Tanuki had something to fight for. Something, that truly mattered to him.

“Fuck you.” Tanuki whispered as he refused the challenge.

“Hm?” Soup grinned. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like my generous offer?”

“Screw you and your whole tribe! Now, how do I summon a portal back home? Hey, system! Open sesame, this place sucks!”

Maduka stepped away. She was surprised the boy wouldn’t accept the challenge, and she voiced these thoughts.

“Why? Why didn’t you accept da challenge?”

The same green portal appeared before him as when he accepted Soup’s invitation.

“I’m not the kind of person who makes promises, but rest assured, Maduka. I’ll defeat tomorrow’s wave and free you from this hellhole.”

Before he stepped through the portal, he glanced over to Soup. She still had the same smug smile on her face.

“Do you want to say something, dear?”

If there weren’t any rules for this invitation, and there weren’t any defensive shields, Tanuki would’ve charged the goblin then and there. His hatred towards that woman was unlike any emotions he’s ever experienced before.

“Lay one hand on Maduka and I’ll kill you in the worst possible way.”

“Don’t worry! We won’t lay a finger on her. We won’t. You’ll see…”

As ominous as it was, Soup wasn’t lying. She wouldn’t hurt Maduka, nor any of her underlings. But then what was she talking about?

Tanuki had an idea. As he went through the portal, he took one last glance at Maduka.

She was a person worth fighting for.

.

.

.

As the boy left, Maduka began to shake with fear.

Soup’s smile disappeared. Maduka was sure she’d give her a beating, just like many times before, but instead, she signaled to the other goblins.

“Tie her up! She’s coming with us tomorrow!” She leaned closer to Maduka and whispered into her ear. “You did well today. Great job.”

Maduka didn’t know what she meant by that, but she had no time to ask, as goblins rushed and tied her with ropes.