Chapter 177: Ch-177: Hobgoblins
"Kii kikiki..." The fat goblin with a large bone club laughed, and while pointing at her, shouted some strange words.
"What are these creatures?" Rina muttered with a frown. Being the heir of a Duchy, she had received an extensive education, and recognizing monsters was among the most important subjects heirs like her were required to learn, as monsters were more common in the world than humans. Even with her vast knowledge, she could not identify these creatures.
"Miss Rina, maybe it’s a new type of creature. I have heard that due to the world’s evolution, many new creatures have appeared, and many former ones have evolved," Emily muttered with a frown as she looked at the disgusting creatures.
"These... are Goblins," Amber frowned and muttered.
"Goblins? You know about them?" Rina looked at Amber in surprise and asked.
"Yes, when we were at the Lightning Valley with your sister, we encountered them. Unlike most creatures, they are extremely lustful toward human beauties and would capture them as breeding slaves to produce more Goblins," Amber said grimly, and hearing her words, Emily and Rina’s faces darkened.
"No wonder I felt repulsed by their gaze," Rina said with disgust. She had thought she was imagining things when she felt the lustful looks the Goblins were giving her.
"Not quite," Victor suddenly said, and the girls looked at him.
"They are much worse. They are called Hobgoblins, and they are as dangerous as Undeads."
"Hobgoblins?" Amber asked with a furrowed brow as she looked at the green creatures.
Then, to her utmost surprise, many similar Hobgoblins arrived, and she saw smaller goblins, barely half the size of the Hobgoblins in front of her, emerge from the forest.
These smaller goblins, about a meter tall, also wore loincloths made of tattered rags that barely covered the lower part of their bodies. However, the clearest distinction between them and the larger goblins, apart from their size and potbellies, was their weapons.
While the fat Hobgoblins wielded large white bones, the smaller goblins carried wooden crossbows in their hands and small quivers filled with sharp bone arrows on their backs.
What made everyone’s expressions change was their sheer number. Every Hobgoblin had at least a few thousand smaller goblins behind it.
"The smaller green creatures are Goblins, and the larger ones are Hobgoblins. You can say Hobgoblins are more like the nobles of the Goblin race," Victor explained calmly and continued, "But what makes them dangerous is their ability to multiply."
"Multiply?" Emily asked with a frown.
"Wait, let me show you," Victor muttered as he raised his finger. A single black lightning bullet left his hand and flew toward the Hobgoblin.
"What... is it doing?" Rina’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw the Hobgoblin. Instead of dodging the attack charging toward its head, it wore a manic grin and deliberately moved its head into the bullet’s path, as though it wanted the bullet to destroy it.
Bang!
The bullet instantly caused the green Hobgoblin’s head to explode like a balloon, which puzzled Rina. She was about to ask Victor what he meant, but the next moment her eyes widened in horror.
"Heavens..." Rina’s pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks when she saw the next scene.
The headless body of the Hobgoblin started to regenerate, but not only that, the blood and flesh from the exploded head also began to writhe. The next moment, hundreds of Goblins and one Hobgoblin formed from the scattered remains.
The soldiers who saw this from their Mechs exclaimed:
"Heavens, what kind of insane regeneration is this?"
"Fuck, did new green creatures form from just a few pieces of flesh?"
"What kind of ability is this?"
Gulp.
"How is this possible?" Emily swallowed a mouthful of saliva and looked at the Hobgoblin with wariness and fear.
"Victor, what’s going on?" Amber was also shaken to the core and looked at Victor for an explanation.
Victor used his pupil technique, and the stats of the Hobgoblin appeared on his retina.
[Hobgoblin]
[Tier: 3]
[Level: 320]
"The Hobgoblins have a very special innate racial ability that allows them to split and multiply if they are struck by an enemy and bleed," Victor said, and the women looked at him in disbelief.
"Heavens, there is such a bug-like ability in the world? How are we going to deal with them? If what you said is true, then they could directly multiply and overrun the planet," Emily said with panic and fear in her voice as she looked at the Hobgoblins, which were celebrating the birth of a new Hobgoblin.
"How are we going to deal with them?" Rina said with a pale face, sweat trickling down her forehead.
"Vic, you know how to deal with them, don’t you?" Amber looked at Victor and asked.
"I do. The first way is the same method used against Undeads: directly vaporize them with a powerful attack so that even their blood does not remain. The second, which is much simpler, is to destroy their monster cores with a single precise strike," Victor said calmly.
"You call this simple? Neither of those two methods is simple," Rina’s brows twitched as she said with a frustrated tone.
"Kiiki!"
Everyone’s attention snapped toward the goblins, and like a green tide, they saw the Goblins charging toward them with killing intent. There were also a few Hobgoblins among them who were at Tier 2.
"Attention, everyone! The larger creatures with the ability to regenerate are called Hobgoblins. Make sure you destroy their monster cores with a single precise strike. That is the only way to kill Hobgoblins!" Victor shouted loudly, and the panicked soldiers calmed down.
After seeing this, Victor said in a loud voice, "Charge! Kill them all!"
"Oooh!"
As soon as Victor’s words fell, the soldiers erupted with a loud cry and piloted their Mechs forward toward the incoming enemies.
The Gunmen within the Mechs did not rush forward like the Knights operating the Mechs and simply raised their hands, launching missiles and bullets toward the incoming tide.
In an instant, the sky was covered by a rain of missiles and bullets. Countless mana-infused bullets fell from the sky, killing the goblins before they could even react.
Next came a wave of missiles, which exploded in the middle of the goblin army and destroyed a huge portion of their forces.
Boom! Boom!
Explosions rang out everywhere as the goblins shrieked while being consumed by the flames.
Next were the Knights, who drew their magic-tech swords and cut the goblins into pieces. Whenever they encountered a Hobgoblin, they stabbed its core, instantly shattering it.
"This..." Rina’s heart hammered as she watched the devastation the Mechs could cause. She had never seen such a powerful weapon of war in her entire lifetime. This was completely a one-sided massacre.
"Hey, are the Mechs you sold also this powerful?" Rina could not help but ask Victor stiffly.
"Of course not." Victor rolled his eyes as he looked at her and then continued, "But they could still contend with a dozen Goblins with just one Mech of the same tier."
Victor said calmly, and Emily and Rina, who heard him, had their lips twitch. A normal soldier could usually fight a one-on-one battle with another soldier of the same tier, and some talented ones could take on two at most. Yet now he was telling them that a Mech could allow someone to take on a dozen soldiers.
"But it seems like he is not exaggerating," both women thought as they looked at one of the Mechs killing more than twenty to thirty goblins with ease.
"Hmm?" Victor raised an eyebrow when he sensed something but stopped when he saw Amber raise her hand.
"Ice Wall."
Amber said in a cold tone as a wall made of black ice suddenly appeared in front of them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A large number of bone arrows collided with the ice wall but were unable to penetrate it.
Soon the ice wall dispersed, and in front of Amber and Victor were a few Hobgoblins that seemed to be at Tier 3.
The Hobgoblins did not pay much attention to Victor, as their eyes were locked onto Amber. Their green eyes seemed to be stripping Amber of her clothes and devouring her body with their gaze. Seeing this, Amber’s gaze grew even frostier and more disgusted.
"Kekeke..."
The fat Hobgoblin stepped forward toward Amber and laughed loudly as it looked at her, licking its dry lips with its monstrous tongue.
Although the goblins of fantasy stories were not necessarily the same as the goblins born from mana, at least their lewdness was identical, judging by the lustful eyes the little creatures had when they looked at the beautiful woman standing before them.
On the other hand, Rina and Emily had their eyes fixed on Amber and looked at her in disbelief, as they could not believe their eyes and cried out inwardly ’ Heavens, another mutated bloodline ’
