Chapter 14: Victory in the First Battle

The roar of the dying Bear Goblin Priest completely shattered the minds of the remaining three Bear Goblins. Seeing their helpless appearance, George knew his chance had come.

He took the weighted throwing axe that had been recovered many times from his belt and threw it fiercely at the Bear Goblin that was hit by many arrows. At the same time, he pulled out another one and threw it at the one on the left that was attacking him from both sides, and then followed the axe, using “Explosive Dash” to charge at it.

The Goblin George charged at originally thought the throwing axe was just a nuisance, and that the target should be the Bear Goblin companion closer to him. But just as he subconsciously raised his shield, he heard a “Clang!” The throwing axe had already stuck into the shield. Unexpectedly, at the same time, that slippery little fellow had already rushed to his side.

“Explosive Dash” is known as the foundation of all charging-type martial skills. In George’s view, it was just a fast movement that effectively mobilized muscle groups, far inferior to other skills that had various effects or specific targets. However, after using Spiritual Qi to assist, this could also be used as a means to quickly cut in. The most important thing was that this move consumed very little. Although it had the word “explosive” in it, it was, after all, only a primary skill, and the explosion referred more to the sudden increase in speed. Before this, using several abilities in a row had consumed quite a lot of his physical and mental strength, so he had to use it sparingly now.

George wanted to repeat his trick with this assault, aiming at the direction where the Bear Goblin was holding the shield. Unfortunately, the death of its companion made the opponent wary of this. Although its clumsy movements still made it seem full of flaws when attacked by George, it managed to defend itself and did not suffer fatal damage.

“Bastard, it actually took so long.” George cursed. The other two Bear Goblins saw that George could not attack for a long time and hurried over here. One of them delayed for a while to dodge the throwing axe, but the other was close at hand.

“Whoosh—” A cone-shaped arrow stuck into the back of the Bear Goblin George was attacking. This arrow luckily shot through the gap in the Scale Armor. The severe pain caused by it made the Bear Goblin’s movements stiff for a moment. Opportunity knocks but once; George took this chance to use Steel Snake Strike again, aiming straight for the opponent’s lower body.

“Squelch!” George’s attack hit the position between the Bear Goblin’s legs. This position was often unbearable pain for male creatures. The Bear Goblin, suffering this heavy blow, immediately bent down instinctively. Taking this opportunity, George stepped forward, held the sword with both hands, twisted his whole body strength into one force, and swung a right diagonal slash, directly chopping off the Bear Goblin’s head. As the pillar of blood gushed out from the opponent, George hurriedly retreated, avoiding getting covered in blood and pulling away from the other two Bear Goblins.

The remaining two Bear Goblins saw the situation was bad and fled separately. George hurriedly threw another throwing axe at the one closer to him and chased after it. Craig, with an injured leg, could only watch as the Bear Goblin he had tangled with for a long time, covered in arrows, ran towards the small alley they came from.

Suddenly, a sword light flashed, and that arrow-covered Bear Goblin was separated from head to body. Knight Val walked out of the alley relaxedly and said to George: “Hurry up, that guy won’t take you much time.”

As soon as the words fell, with a “Thud”, George’s throwing axe hit right in the center of the Bear Goblin’s back, seemingly hitting the spine. The Bear Goblin slowed down instantly. George used the run-up to jump and used a straight thrust to end its sinful life.

Seeing the last enemy eliminated, Craig sat down on the ground regardless of anything. He held his injured left leg with both hands, his eyes full of tears, looking like a small animal that had been bullied. Fortunately, he did not make sobbing sounds, otherwise, whether it was George or Knight Val, they would have had a huge headache.

“Hah-hoo—Hah-hoo—” After panting twice, George, feeling there was no danger, also found a slightly cleaner place to sit down against the wall. He began to adjust his breathing frequency and shake to relax his whole body muscles. If he weren’t still wearing armor, George would have wanted to start massaging his limbs directly.

“You two little fellows, why did you just sit down like that.” Knight Val teased with a mischievous expression, “Don’t you care about Hiren’s situation? Maybe he is now seriously injured and buried under some rubble pile waiting for you to rescue him?”

“Hee-hoo—Hee-hoo—Isn’t Uncle Val here?” Craig twitched his nose and looked at Knight Val with wide eyes.

“You can’t say that. I mentioned this is a trial!” Knight Val raised his index finger and shook it, “I only guarantee that you won’t suffer irreversible harm. If Hiren has to lie in bed for another month or two, don’t you think that would be a very interesting thing?”

With that big gorilla’s temper, how could he obediently lie in bed for so long? I’m afraid that within five to ten days, he would definitely keep shouting to get up. He might even listen to that guy Ultrad’s bad ideas like last time, and then it would definitely cause chaos again. Thinking of the scene in case this happened, even with George’s self-restraint, he couldn’t help but have black lines all over his head. And hearing this, Craig recalled the events half a year ago and shivered several times in a row.

But George knew after thinking about it that this situation could not happen, or rather, Knight Val would not let it happen. After all, Hiren was still in a period of rapid growth in strength. If he suddenly had to stay in bed for one or two months due to injury, it would still have a relatively large impact. Because not only would his strength not increase during the bed rest, there was even a possibility of it decreasing. Just the recovery training after recovery would take about half the time of the bed rest period. This was unacceptable for the Knight class at this stage.

Although Divine Arts are very convenient, if the internal organ damage is very serious, they often only play a supporting role. Last year at the Northern Fortress, Hiren didn’t know what bad luck he had, but he was actually hit by a Stone Shot thrown by a weighted catapult in the melee, and then fell directly from the city wall. Fortunately, he fell on our own side, otherwise we wouldn’t see him now. Fortunately, he had very powerful spell buffs on him at the time, and the subsequent treatment was quite timely and in place. But he still lay in bed for a full two months.

Hiren was treated in the fortress for half a month. After his condition stabilized, he was sent back by Knight Val lying in a carriage all the way. That was on the battlefield, amidst chaotic soldiers, and encountering this kind of lottery-like attack. Otherwise, with Knight Val’s strength, how could he let Hiren suffer such heavy injuries? And today’s enemies were just a piece of cake for him. Even for Hiren’s growth, Knight Val wouldn’t let Hiren waste that much time again.

Of course, this couldn’t be said so bluntly to others. George tried to organize his words: “Hiren should have won the battle just now. The sound that the Bear Goblins heard earlier that significantly weakened their fighting will should be the roar of the Bear Goblin Priest before death. And Mr. Val, aren’t you going to test Hiren’s Word Spirit progress level in two months? You wouldn’t let him get seriously injured at a time like this.”

Knight Val showed a regretful expression: “You’re smart, but my boy is indeed buried under the rubble pile. That last strike from the Bear Goblin Priest was heavy enough for him; he won’t be able to climb out by himself for a while.”

“Damn, at this point you still have the mood to amuse us here. I’m really speechless.” George thought in his heart while staring at Knight Val with wide eyes. Seeing this situation, Craig did the same.

“Alright, alright! You rest for a while. Later we will go dig Hiren out together.” Knight Val, unable to withstand George’s staring, quickly put away his disrespectful elder act.

“Crackle!” In the night, the firelight from the surrounding houses swayed in the autumn wind with a chill, making the shadows of George and the others flicker long and short, now bright and now dark. Whether it was the damp weather or the building materials or some other reason, although the fire spread quickly, each house was not burning vigorously. Most of the destroyed houses collapsed after burning through the beams, pillars, or floors.

Holding the wall with his hand, George slowly stood up. He walked to the side of the few Bear Goblins he killed before and began to recover the weighted throwing axes he had thrown. The one that hit the target and the one stuck in the ground were fine, but the one that hit the shield would need major repairs. As for the Loot, George searched while recovering the weapons and found that the really valuable things were the armor, weapons, and shields on those Bear Goblins.

George inevitably thought with some pride, “Fortunately, this Young Master is a beheading style, at least most of the equipment is saved from major repairs. If I take them back, not to mention saving the food and lodging expenses for this trip, I should also be able to make a small profit.”

George couldn’t help but worry and suggested: “Mr. Val, can you arrange for someone to receive the Loot as soon as possible? I’m worried that because of this reason, we might have conflicts with some misbehaving Adventurers or Mercenaries.”

Knight Val pulled out a short stick from his belt and whispered something to it. Then he turned his head and smiled at the two: “It’s arranged. Now let’s go see how Hiren is doing.”

“What an unscrupulous father, I don’t know how he got the nickname of Noble Young Master back then.” George was really speechless about the strongest person in the Territory. ‘Fortunately, his performance in other aspects is excellent. Is this to blame on Hiren looking nothing like him?’

George walked in front of Craig, extended his right hand with the palm up, and asked softly: “Craig, can you walk?”

Craig first tried to exert strength in his legs to stand up, but unfortunately, his left leg went soft again after bearing weight. He had to shake his head with tears in his eyes.

“Never mind, let me carry you.” Saying that, George grabbed Craig’s right hand, pulled him up, then turned around and bounced him to stabilize him on his back. During this, the “clank clank clank” collision sound of the Breastplate rang non-stop.

Craig used his arms to hang on George’s shoulders to make himself more stable.

After holding Craig’s legs steady, George said to Knight Val: “Okay, Mr. Val, let’s go.”

Walking east along the alley and passing a corner, they found a huge corpse not far away. Looking closely, one could find that this corpse was the previous Bear Goblin Priest. To the left of the corpse was an old house with a collapsed wall. That newly appeared rubble pile was Hiren’s temporary shelter.

Finding a relatively clean ground nearby to put Craig down, George went straight to the side of the rubble pile. Should one say Hiren’s size was too big, or the collapsed part of the wall was too small? In short, the main part of the rubble pile was Hiren’s body. Those stones and dirt were scattered on him and around him, simply unable to cover him up. Seeing this situation, George felt there was no need to clear the surrounding garbage. As long as Hiren was woken up, he could get up by himself, provided he could be woken up.

George looked carefully at Hiren. So far, apart from his face looking a bit pale covered in dust, he didn’t find any other obvious injuries. Then he reached out to check his nose and found his breathing was orderly and steady.

“It looks like nothing serious! No wonder Mr. Val acted so relaxed, he must have known the specific situation early on. Let’s try to see if we can wake him up first.” George made a decision in his heart.

Looking back at Knight Val, George found he still looked indifferent. He touched his chin and looked here with interest, as if he felt something interesting would happen. Forget it, ignore him for now; George really couldn’t understand Knight Val’s thoughts on this kind of thing.

“Hiren, Hiren, wake up, Hiren.” George gently patted the face of the big fellow lying on the ground.

But for a good while, Hiren didn’t react at all, making George wonder if he should use the legendary waking technique from before crossing over—pinching the philtrum.

“Meh! Meh! Meh! Stop it, you’ve been tossing for almost a whole night and still won’t let me sleep a bit more.” Hiren popped out such a sentence without even opening his eyes. Immediately after, he turned over, and the stones and dirt originally pressing on him fell down clattering, raising a cloud of white dust.

How could George not understand that he was being played, but he didn’t dare to lose his temper with Knight Val. He had to grab Hiren’s neck guard, lift him up, shake him vigorously, and shout loudly: “You hurry up and get up for me. If you want to sleep, go back to the camp to sleep. Aren’t you afraid of being carried off by wolves here?”

To be honest, although in this town attacked by Goblins, there might really be wolves. But just those few Worgs or stronger Feral Wolves could not pose any threat to Hiren at all. Of course, sleeping so openly in the rubble pile like this, if he was sneak-attacked by a wolf pack, it would be unavoidable to be in a sorry state.

But if he slept until broad daylight like this, and if someone who knew his identity saw him. Within half a month, the whole Duchy would be circulating the gossip that the “Natural Noble Young Master” Isolde Wayne Val’s Heir was sleeping in a rubble pile. As for whether it would evolve into sleeping in a toilet or a pigsty later, that was unknown. However, seeing the two parties involved didn’t care at all, George really didn’t know what to say.

Under the violent shaking, Hiren couldn’t sleep even if he wanted to. When he opened his eyes, he startled George. George loosened his hands, and Hiren’s head wearing the helmet had another intimate contact with the ground.

“It hurts, George, why did you suddenly let go.” Hiren reached out to touch his somewhat painful head, but his hand just dangled on the helmet.

George ignored Hiren’s complaint. He hurriedly untied the strap and took off Hiren’s helmet. There was a head of silver-gray hair, while Hiren’s hair should have been light yellow. Plus the pupils that changed from amber to gold, it could be determined that Hiren, like Knight Val, had awakened his own bloodline, and the whole person began to turn into a Celestial Creature.

George straightened his face and said seriously: “Congratulations, Hiren, your bloodline has awakened. Go back and wash up. You’re so dusty now, I don’t know if you’ve become handsome or not.”

“Really? Then I have to get up quickly.” As he spoke, he turned over, supported the ground with both hands, and climbed up.

George’s sentence really scratched Hiren’s itch. Hiren had always been very dissatisfied with his appearance. Anyone who had a handsome-to-the-extreme father but had an uncle-like face himself would feel uncomfortable.

Letting Hiren off, George this time pointed the spearhead at Knight Val: “Mr. Val, you knew this was the situation early on, didn’t you?”

“How should I say? I knew it as soon as Hiren’s bloodline awakened. This phenomenon should be called bloodline resonance. It often happens between immediate family members with special bloodlines. Other Knights without special bloodlines also have similar phenomena, but not so obvious.” Knight Val spread his hands and explained, “And last night Hiren was indeed seriously injured. If he hadn’t awakened his bloodline at the right time, even with Divine Arts treatment, he would have had to lie in a carriage for the next two days.”

Hearing this, Craig whispered: “If he only lies for two days, Hiren should be able to stand it, not like last time causing a pile of trouble. And Ultrad isn’t here either.”

“He must be doing it on purpose, pretending that no one present could hear that voice.” George gave a verdict on Craig’s behavior in his heart, “This kid really has to mention the wrong thing. No wonder someone said before crossing over that every natural airhead is black inside.”

Hiren stretched his waist, patted the dust on his body, and yawned again: “Ah—seriously, that last hit from the Priest before death was really strong. I don’t know what happened after I was knocked away. As for how I fell asleep later, I can’t say even more. Anyway, I didn’t feel any danger, so I might have just slept until dawn.”

This guy was wearing a suit of iron and could still sleep so soundly, and didn’t feel uncomfortable.

“Can we go back now? My foot hurts so much.” Craig complained.

“Wait a bit, I think there will be good things on this Bear Goblin Priest.” Hiren expressed his opinion, “At least that thing he took that looks like a Staff should be quite valuable.”

George complained: “What are you still doing, hurry up and search the corpse. Even like this, you still have the mind to sleep. Wait until tomorrow morning, maybe nothing will be left.”

With the efforts of George and Craig, the corpse of that Bear Goblin was stripped into a naked pig.

The relatively exquisite leather armor on it originally had no possibility of complete repair under Hiren’s sword. Let’s see if it can be patched up and sold at a discount. Besides that, two bags of metal powder and a combination pack of unknown materials were found. According to Hiren, a lightweight wooden rod wrapped in snakeskin counterclockwise might be very valuable. A wooden Holy Symbol, and weapons like a Flail and a large steel shield. As for other scattered things that were difficult to distinguish the value for a while, there was also a small linen bag. But coins were very few, only a small pile of Silver Coins.