Chapter 12: Night Battle (Part 2)

“Watch out! Everyone get down.” George issued a warning immediately after his vision went black, and he demonstrated it by doing a deep squat.

“Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—” The sound of breaking air came from overhead, and the turbulent airflow made his scalp tingle. Immediately following that, there were “Thud—thud—bang—” impact sounds from behind.

A feeling told George that the danger came from the right, although he didn’t know the exact position. To be on the safe side, George quickly turned in that direction. Using some techniques from the Six Harmony Great Spear he learned before crossing over, he spun his Longsword in a defense that was impenetrable. “Clang—clang—clang—” Weapons collided three times in a row. Although he didn’t know who he was fighting, the opponent’s strength was certainly not small. Coupled with his originally incorrect sword usage, George felt his wrist become somewhat uncomfortable.

Not wanting to sit and wait for death, George first found a moment to shout: “Watch out for a sneak attack.” Then, while parrying the opponent’s attacks, George judged based on experience that the attacker was using a weapon like a Battle Axe or a machete. Since he knew the weapon, things became easier. George swung his sword to test attacks a few times toward the enemy’s likely position. But the result was not only failing to hurt the opponent, but also failing to force the opponent to defend. He himself was made somewhat flustered by the opponent’s successive attacks.

“Augh——” A scream came from the front of the group; it was Craig’s voice.

“Are you okay, Craig?” George asked worriedly.

“It’s nothing major, just that my calf was hit by something.” Craig’s answer was not reassuring. The calves of George’s three-person group were protected by both iron boots and chainmail, and Craig wouldn’t scream that loudly for a normal injury.

Suddenly, a light from ahead dispelled the surrounding darkness. Hiren’s Longsword was glowing with a slightly blue light. George remembered Hiren mentioning his innate spell-like ability, “Light”. ‘So what affected us just now was Darkness.’ George thought annoyedly: “Damn it, I didn’t realize it was this situation. It seems I still have too little experience.”

After the darkness retreated, George quickly observed his surroundings and found that they had been surrounded by a group of monsters.

These monsters were huge and looked powerful, standing about seven feet tall. Their skin color ranged from light yellow to yellow-brown, covered with thick, rough hair, and the hair color ranged from brown to brick red. Their eyes were like those of wild beasts, with a red pupil in the center of green-white eyeballs, and they also had a pair of shovel-shaped big ears. Their mouths were full of sharp fangs, and their noses, tough skin, and sharp claws were also very bear-like, but their movements didn’t look as clumsy as a bear’s.

These were Bear Goblins, the largest and strongest type of Goblinoid creatures, and their aggression was much stronger than other similar creatures. They survived by hunting any creature weaker than themselves. If Goblins were cannon fodder and laborers among Goblinoid creatures, and Hobgoblins were qualified soldiers, then Bear Goblins were the rulers among Goblinoid creatures. Seeing them, the likely culprit of this incident surfaced. As for Ogres, although they were powerful, their relationship with ordinary Goblin creatures was too distant; although they might form alliances, they were unlikely to be leaders.

Counting carefully, there were as many as seven Bear Goblins besieging George’s group of three, and the closest one was a full twenty yards away from Hiren. ‘Then what attacked me just now?’ Suddenly feeling danger from behind, George turned to block and finally saw the true face of the attacker, and also found a Javelin stuck in the wall next to the door.

George never expected that it was a silver-gray Battle Axe suspended in mid-air fighting him. No wonder he couldn’t hit anyone just now; there was simply no one there. It shouldn’t be an activated weapon; looking at it, these Goblins couldn’t possibly own such a valuable Magic Item. Could it be a special ghost? That wasn’t right either; whether it was a wraith or a ghost, it would give people a gloomy chill. Then it should be a Divine Arts Spirit Weapon created by a Priest. But he hadn’t heard that Spirit Weapons created could be so flexible; that thing should only attack from one direction. Right! It might be an improved Divine Art. Since spells can be improved, why can’t Divine Arts?

Let us talk about two things at once. On the road in the wealthy district earlier, a humanoid creature shorter than a Goblin was squatting beside the corpse of an Ogre. He turned his head and asked the Knight Bart standing behind him: “Kobudo, you struck too ruthlessly. The value of this Ogre was reduced by a full fifth by your sword strike.”

“Alright Thomas, stop complaining. We were in a hurry to join the main group and didn’t have time to worry about that.” Sir Bart replied formally.

The short fellow named Thomas turned and stood up; he was about three feet tall. He had light brown skin, bright golden hair, and eyes like sapphires, paired with a baby face. If it weren’t for the neatly trimmed small beard on his chin, others would think he was a child from some Noble family.

Thomas touched his beard and teased: “Others might not know, but don’t I know you? You brat lover, you clearly wanted to look cool in front of Craig…”

Sir Bart immediately stepped forward, grabbed Thomas, and covered his mouth with his right hand. Then he looked around and sighed in relief after confirming no one heard.

Sir Bart whispered in Thomas’s ear: “Thomas, let’s discuss something.”

Thomas, whose mouth was covered, nodded repeatedly.

After letting go of Thomas, Sir Bart asked: “Okay, tell me what you want to buy your silence.”

“One ounce of top-quality Kured tobacco and two pints of Abe honey.” As soon as he was released, Thomas immediately quoted the price of the deal.

Sir Bart roared: “This is naked blackmail. Apart from your height, you don’t look like a Gnome at all; you’re exactly like a Halfling.”

Thomas jumped back two steps to put some distance between himself and Sir Bart, then said: “What’s wrong? That’s my only hobby now. Otherwise, if I accidentally get drunk one day and let something slip, then…”

“You really are something.” Sir Bart, his face red, had to sigh and say, “But how about a compromise? For Kured tobacco, I’ll find a way to get it for you when we reach Cardala. But for Abe honey, can we delay that a bit?”

“You’re not pretending to be poor, are you? The value lost from this Ogre you killed with one sword strike exceeds those two things. Of course, that’s only possible with my level of collection and processing as an Alchemist.” Thomas finished speaking with his head held high.

“It’s really not just about money; the things you want are just too hard to get.” Sir Bart said with a troubled look, “Let’s talk about Kured tobacco first. Although this thing is just a luxury, its origin is far away in the Southern Ruil Forest area, east of the Dambrath Desert. Plus, the production isn’t very high. If sea trade weren’t flourishing now, I’m afraid it would be hard to find a source in the entire Duchy of Nohan. But I should be able to get it for you within two months in Cardala by finding some connections.”

Pausing for a moment, Sir Bart continued in a negotiating tone: “But Abe honey is different; it’s a specialty of the Abe bee-people. Although the Abe bee-people trade a certain amount every year, the quantity is only slightly more than Kured tobacco. But the key is that Abe honey not only tastes great, but it also has a very good nourishing effect on human internal organs. This is extremely important for people who practice physical training. I don’t have the ability to quickly get this for you while so many people are fighting for it. And you actually want two pints at once. With my ability, excluding the portion for Craig, it would take at least three years to gather that much for you.”

Thomas kept jumping up and waving his hands, shouting: “Abe honey takes three years? Why don’t you go ask Isolde?”

“Asking others would easily expose this matter. Once the secret leaks out, do you think I’ll still need to silence you?” This time it was Sir Bart’s turn to look at Thomas meaningfully.

Thomas also knew it was time to stop while he was ahead: “Fine! Let’s do as you say.”

“Since we’ve agreed, let’s get to work. If we clean up this Ogre’s corpse earlier, we can go do other things earlier.” Sir Bart obviously didn’t want to dwell on this topic.

Thomas sensibly began to process the Ogre’s corpse. First, he used a knife to cut open the eye sockets, carefully took out the Ogre’s two eyeballs, and preserved them in a specially made Carvist Alchemy Box. Next, he used a small steel saw to saw open the skull, took out the brain inside, applied a newly configured potion, wrapped it in an alchemy bubble, and put it into a dimensional bag. Then, for the other complete and usable internal organs except the heart, he used a potion soaking method. As for the heart, because it needed to be tanned with a special technique for muscle fibers, it was buried in a large clay pot with a powder made from several herbs.

Next was the most important part: stripping the skin from the Ogre’s palm to the forearm completely. To ensure no mistakes, the time spent on this item alone exceeded the sum of the previous items. After that, he peeled off the remaining skin on the Ogre and classified it according to different uses. After simply tanning these skins, Thomas turned his gaze to the magical muscles on the Ogre. After some work, the entire Ogre was left with only a skeleton and other filth.

“Phew—phew——” Thomas, sweating from all the work, panted and said, “Later, have someone clean these bones and carry them onto the cart.”

Seeing this, Sir Bart immediately came up: “I say Thomas, since there are so many materials, can you see if you can make something?”

“If you sell the unused materials on this and add some money to buy other materials. I am confident I can make a pair of Ogre gauntlets.” Thomas thought for a moment and gave an answer.

“Hiss——” Sir Bart gasped, “It actually costs that much.”

Thomas said angrily: “You’re talking nonsense. On the market, a pair of Ogre gauntlets costs at least three thousand five hundred Gold Coins.”

Sir Bart gritted his teeth: “Let’s consider it buying Craig’s coming-of-age gift in advance. But Thomas, those things you asked for earlier will probably be a bit later.”

Hearing this, Thomas’s face quickly darkened, his eyebrows knitted together, and wrinkles appeared on his forehead. After a long while, Thomas took a deep breath and said: “Forget it, for Craig’s sake, my things will be postponed.”

After getting a positive answer, Sir Bart rushed forward, hugged Thomas, and threw him into the air.

“Help, are you crazy?” Thomas couldn’t help but shout.

“Sorry, sorry, I was too excited for a moment.” Sir Bart scratched his head after putting Thomas down.

While this pair of older jokers was fooling around, George had to face the first major challenge of his life.

The equipment of these Bear Goblins was not something the previous Goblins and Hobgoblins could compare with. They wore custom-made Scale Armor, and their weapons were mostly a combination of large steel shields and large Flails, although some also used great axes.

“Damn it, these guys are definitely sponsored by someone. The overly uniform equipment of the Hobgoblins earlier was already suspicious, but that could be seen as looting the same batch of weapons from a Caravan. But the equipment of these Bear Goblins is obviously tailor-made; otherwise, where would you find armor and weapons that are so big and fit so well?” George thought resentfully, “If I know which bastards did this, I’ll make them pay. But now, I’d better think about how to solve these guys.”

The situation was temporarily at a stalemate. After the magic weapon disappeared, George carefully observed these enemies. Suddenly, he found that a Bear Goblin in the back row wore a wooden badge with a skull and a crescent moon, and the crescent moon was painted blood red.

“That guy is a Priest, but the distance is a bit far. Although I can’t reach him, it doesn’t mean others can’t. With Hiren’s strength, he should be able to charge through.” Thinking of a plan, George immediately shouted to Hiren: “Hiren, you handle that Priest in the back.”

As soon as the words fell, Hiren charged up and swung his legs, his whole body rushing toward the Bear Goblin with the badge like an arrow leaving the bow. On the way, a Bear Goblin saw this, raised both hands, roared, and ran over with big steps to intercept. But how could it know that Hiren had activated the Knight Technique Iron Dragon Charge this time.

The so-called Iron Dragon refers to a giant Dragon whose scale armor has the color of refined iron. The person who improved this charging skill probably wanted to show its bravery. The intercepting Bear Goblin had its balance destroyed by Hiren’s forward-leaning body colliding with its lower body, and it immediately fell flat on its back. Hiren continued to attack the Priest Bear Goblin behind.

At the same time, George went straight forward, grabbed Craig, and pulled him back until his back was against the wall. As companions who had been together for many years, when George did this, Craig understood his intention. Among the three, his strength was originally the weakest, and now his leg was injured and his movement was inconvenient. If they were attacked from both front and back by two Bear Goblins, it would be bad. With his back against the stone wall, he only had to face three directions, which greatly reduced the difficulty.

Having arranged Craig, George had no more worries. While running toward the nearest Bear Goblin, he silently recited in his heart, “Heaven and Earth are mysterious, ten thousand breaths are the root. Widely cultivate through calamities, prove my divine powers…” When he approached the Bear Goblin, his whole body glowed with faint golden light.

At the same time, the Priest Bear Goblin took advantage of Hiren slowing down from knocking down the interceptor. It narrowed its eyes, quickly took a pellet from its waist bag, swung it twice with a sling, and threw it fiercely at Hiren who was still charging straight. To avoid slowing down further, Hiren turned his body sideways during the advance, held the sword in his right hand, pressed the sword body with his left hand, and blocked diagonally.

With a “Dang——” long ring, the pellet changed its trajectory after touching the sword body and flew diagonally backward. Hiren only felt his two arms go numb, his wrists stung slightly, and his figure paused. He subconsciously scanned the sword body with his peripheral vision; the pellet had left a not-so-shallow dent in the steel sword body. “Such strong force!” This surprised Hiren, and at the same time, he accelerated toward the Priest to not give him a second chance to attack.

Another Bear Goblin facing the approaching George relied on his longer weapon and swung that Long Axe toward George. However, George pushed off with his right leg, used his left leg as a pivot to tilt his body more than thirty degrees to the right. While avoiding this attack, he entered his own attack range. Then he immediately rushed forward and swung his sword for a diagonal upward right cut. Unfortunately, the opponent looked clumsy but his skills were decent; he turned his body slightly to the right and blocked George’s Longsword with a large steel shield.

Having missed the hit, George simply took steps to move to the left around this Bear Goblin, and the disadvantage of large monsters being inconvenient to turn was revealed. The Bear Goblin that had just turned right couldn’t overcome inertia to turn left for a moment. To protect its left side, that guy had to wave the shield in his left hand to hit George.

It seemed it didn’t often use this shield bash attack method; it used too much force and the arm swung too widely. Seeing such an obvious opening, how could George not take advantage of it. He slightly crouched, mobilized his whole body’s strength, twisted it into a rope, and combined with his own Spirit Light to deliver a Steel Snake Strike. Accompanied by a “Bang——” sound, that Bear Goblin’s left leg snapped at the knee joint.

Taking advantage of the gap when the opponent fell toward him with a broken leg, George took a step back, raised his weapon above his head, and chopped down at the opponent’s head with great force. “Splat,” the Bear Goblin’s head split in two. Although he avoided it in time, quite a bit of brain matter and blood splattered onto George.

The other Bear Goblins obviously didn’t expect this one to be finished so quickly and couldn’t support in time. Of course, they might also think that one of their companions was enough to deal with a small guy like George. Taking advantage of the moment those Bear Goblins were stunned, George turned his target to the one Hiren had just knocked down. The force of Hiren’s collision earlier was quite great; that Bear Goblin couldn’t even stand steady when it got up.

George first took a few breaths to calm down the consumption just now, then used the Spirit Light in his body to harmonize with the golden light outside. In a flash, he turned into a ball of light and rushed at extremely high speed toward that Bear Goblin that hadn’t yet found its footing. This was the Knight Technique Dazzling Charge that George had modified himself. Originally, this move had two uses: one was for a user with Paladin abilities to activate using their own Holy Light; the second was to use a special mount, the Sunlight Warhorse, while fighting on horseback. George took a different approach, using his own Spirit Light and Golden Light Spell as a substitute, and for now, the effect was surprisingly good.

The three Bear Goblins that had been staring at George were instantly blinded. Craig seized this opportunity to draw his bow and shoot, directly hitting a Bear Goblin’s lower abdomen. Unfortunately, with the protection of Scale Armor, that guy seemed only slightly injured, but hitting with a bow and arrow in such poor visibility at night was already good. However, the Bear Goblin that George hit with a Dazzling Charge wasn’t so lucky; penetrated by a large amount of light energy during the collision, it was instantly killed.

Losing two fighters right at the start of the battle forced the Bear Goblins to take the enemies more seriously. Except for a particularly large one going back to support the Priest, and the one hit by the arrow going to deal with the injured Craig; the remaining two roared and began to pincer George from both sides.