"D-Did he just run away?" Trishaless could not help but stutter as she watched Lloyd's figure slowly melt into the shadows.
While they all knew he was a shadow assassin, they were slightly startled when they saw him suddenly melt away and leave them behind. For some reason, they almost felt betrayed.
"Should we go back?" Peace asked while taking out a rune engraved stone that shone with dim green light before waving it at Osmy.
"Go back? Who do you think we are? That kid is a first-timer, so I didn't expect anything from him. We can deal with these guys all on our own, but after dealing with them, we will have some unfinished business with that k-" Yet before Osmy could finish his speech, a low voice entered their ears with the volume of a hushed whisper, yet continuing to emanate and overwhelming pressure. freewebn(o)vel.com
"Kukukuku..." The laugh rang out in their ears despite its low volume, but it did not seem to lessen the shock and sudden paralyzing fear that everyone except Osmy and Rosepetal felt.
"W-w-what's happening!?" Peace shouted, slowly losing his cool while frantically pointing his bow at everything and anything that moved.
"That is..." Rosepetal blinked, her breathing erratic while her heart beat quickly and unevenly.
One could see several silhouettes stepping out of the shadows of the vegetation around them, ranging from trees to bushes.
The rustling caused all their ears to perk up, and when they finally looked around, they saw several goblins around them looking at them with both disgusting and hungry eyes.
'Goblins are truly the most detestable creatures.' Lloyd thought while his eyes scanned over all the enemies that suddenly popped up. While some were licking their lips, others trembled in excitement while holding their rusted and blunt weapons in their hands, ready to slice anything that stood in their way in the hopes of seeing human blood for the first time in a long time.
However, unfortunately for them, they did not consider the power of the humans before them. Of course, how were they supposed to know that the team of humans before them had an elemental swordsman and a Paladin who was in the initials stages of the first commandment?
After Lloyd finally scanned all the creatures before him from on top of a tree, he quickly dropped from the branch he was standing on and entered his shadow again.
"31 goblins in total. None are in the first commandment, but there is one with high-quality equipment. A sword, to be exact." Lloyd suddenly announced and caused Peace to yelp like a little girl as the shadows near his feet slowly pushed a person out of it. On the other hand, the others pointed their weapons at Lloyd before sighing in relief and looking at their enemy.
"-He is also the strongest one out of the bunch..." Lloyd stated with a neutral voice, yet his next words were cold enough to send a shiver down the spine of even Osmy.
"An his eyes are the most disgusting out of all of them..." Lloyd's cold voice seeped into the ears of the goblins and made them silent for a couple of seconds. Their bodies refused to budge, and they had no idea why. They only knew that the boy with a mask and purple eyes was the reason for this. After all, such a monarchical aura was very hard to hide from the prying eyes of their leader.
*SCREEEECH*
Letting out an ear-piercing screech, their leader, who also happened to have a high-quality sword, lunged forwards and shot toward the man making his soldiers freeze.
His screech was enough to wake them up from their stupor, but he could not allow such a thing to happen again, so his main priority was to kill the boy who did it.
"Oh?" However, when Lloyd's mocking cold voice entered his ears, he could not help but be covered in a cold sweat.
This was the effect of Monarch's Aura, a passive ability that could be toggled on and off and use no mana in the process. This was an ability that made even kings of the same level of power bow to you, and right now, despite the leader of the goblin unit being quite a bit stronger than Lloyd, he still felt a tinge of fear in his heart.
The goblin leader's claws sharpened and elongated while Lloyd's hands simultaneously landed on the handle of his katana, ready to take it out, and slashed his opponent's neck with a single swing.
This goblin was nothing compared to the Alpha Shadow Wolf he fought in the Void Walk; after all, that was a void walk, and this was real life.
That shadow wolf was much more dangerous than any enemy Lloyd had faced before, to the point where a single direct strike could have caused his death, yet due to his use of Aspect of Void, his life was sustained.
However, in Lloyd's mind, he could not help but compare every enemy that he comes across to the Alpha Shadow Wolf, something that made the Goblin leader feel much slower, weaker, and less intelligent in Lloyd's eyes.
However, before Lloyd could land a well-timed slash upon the neck of the abomination that was sprinting towards him, a loud boom resounded in the area while Lloyd's hair fluttered away from his mask.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
They all watched in slightly stunned silence, but after seeing what was happening, Lloyd was the first one to regain his composure and take another look around.
Since Osmy had flung the leader into the distance so they could fight alone, Lloyd knew that the other goblins would attempt to attack when they were weakest, and therefore he quickly shifted his feet and appeared Peace with a sword being swung out in a wide arch.
*Schin*
In an instant, the blade flew through the air and decapitated one of the goblins, and despite them closely resembling human children if it was not for their green skin, pointed noses, and fang-like teeth, Lloyd felt nothing as he took the life of one of them.
To a certain extent, it almost felt like he was a spectator in his own body, his actions feeling detached from his own, yet at the same time feeling as if he would have done the same thing no matter what.
These were monsters with no feeling, willing to do many disgusting acts of evil without remorse. They were nothing but beasts, so why would Lloyd hesitate to eliminate one of them the moment he saw one?
In his mind, he was just ridding the world of another evil, not realizing the irony of his thoughts since those would have been the same excuses the united races would have created in order to kill all void walkers.
Finally regaining their composure, they all steadied their weapons and began to shoot and cleave at their opponents.
While Rosepetal's sword swings seemed elegant and graceful, they held an abnormal amount of power within them, as if its momentum would never break even after slicing through hundreds if not thousands of opponents.
As long as her blade didn't clash with the blade of someone of the same or higher strength, she was bound to have a chained cycle of death, her blade turning them into corpses cleanly and efficiently cut in two.
Trishaless, on the other hand, seemed to be the complete opposite. Despite her petite figure, she deserved the barbarian class since her fighting style was simply too brutish.
Her enemies would simply turn into mangled corpses, while the lucky few turned into a dozen pieces due to how much she would cut them with her axe.
If she were to be described in one word, the word would be overkill.
Peace, on the other hand, was very efficient with what he did.
Every arrow he knocked on the string of his bow would fly through the air and make one of the goblin heads explode into a million pieces, while others created fist-sized holes in the middle of the chests, destroying their hearts and killing them in an instant.
It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say that this was a one-sided massacre, yet one person was missing from the equation.
*Sccching*
Lloyd sliced a goblin vertically into two pieces; however, due to it being slightly fatter than the others, the resistance was much higher, making his slice through the goblin more audible and longer than it usually would have been.
"I think that should be the last of them..." Lloyd reached his hand towards the goblin and collected the corpse into a dimensional ring that was given to him by the adventurer's association for them to put the corpses and loot inside until they left.
This was for many reasons, such as the 15% split the association got from every dungeon run someone from their association would go to. However, the main reason people used the dimensional storage was that they had very large storage space, and while they did have to return them after leaving, they were very useful inside dungeons, especially when compared to wristwatches that had limited space.
"We should check on Osmy..." Peace suggested while the others nodded... Everyone except Lloyd, yet it either seemed like no one cared enough to make a fuss about it or that they were too busy with their worries for their leader to realize.
*Clang*
*Clang* fre ewebn ovel
*Clang*
The sound of metal clashing increased and became faster and more rhythmic.
Despite Osmy being a Paladin, he was very agile even while holding a large shield and an enormous hammer-axe in his hands.
However, despite that, the goblin seemed to be landing more hits on Osmy, and while this would have been considered a win for the goblin, not a single scratch could be seen on Osmy's meticulous white armor and he continued to dodge, block, and swing.
Looking at the display of power before him, Lloyd could not help but narrow his eyes and analyze both of them with his cold eyes.
'Osmy's movements are way too obvious and unnecessary. His face changes every time he attacks, while his body language and aura flare, telling an entire story to his opponent right before the attack.
While paladins are tanks to a certain extent, this does not mean he should be so... Weak? I'm pretty sure that even Rosepetal could beat this guy in a one-on-one fight despite not being in the first commandment yet.' Lloyd mused with a mockery seeping into his gaze as he continued to look at the man in front of him who was barely fighting against the goblin.
'Pretty sure I could kill that one too... I think...' before Lloyd could understand what was happening, his hands began to itch for battle while his mind began to imagine how the fight would go.
However, before Lloyd could get his hopes up, he heard both Rosepetal and Trishaless step forwards while brandishing their weapons. Flames quickly engulfed Rosepetal's blade, while a powerful pressure was released from the battle axe that Trishaless held in both hands.
'So much for getting my hopes up.' Lloyd's lips parted, and a breathed out a sigh simultaneous to the explosion that occurred right after.
Looking back at the goblin, he watched as its charred body fell to the ground, releasing the sword from its grip before being snatched by Rosepetal.
"Hey!" Peace cried out while folding his arms.
"Hey what?" Rosepetal let out a victorious smile while looking at him from head to toe with a suffocating aura of smugness.
"We all worked for that!" Peace argued.
"Yet I am the only one who uses a sword." She retorted.
"T-That's not true... Null has a sword, he might want it." Peace tried to argue again, yet his words fell on deaf ears as Trishaless continued.
"Yeah, but he didn't do anything the whole fight." She sighed and tried to take a glance at Lloyd, yet when she looked in the direction she last saw him, he was nowhere to be seen.
"I could have sword he was over there." She muttered under her breath but quickly shrugged after a few moments of pondering on the situation.
Unbeknownst to her, Lloyd was standing atop of a tree, looking down at what looked like a growing civilization of goblins.
However, while there might have been a lot of valuable things here and there, one thing caught his attention and wasn't particularly valuable in the least.
'I see... So they are enslaving humans now huh...' Lloyd mused before closing his eyes and shaking his head.
Anyone seeing the sight below him would have either freaked out, felt an immense amount of rage build within them, or lash out in an enormous tsunami of emotions.
However, Lloyd felt nothing. He didn't feel angry or snap and tried to murder every goblin in the village. His heartbeat remained the same, while his breaths did not change the entire time.
He was completely fine with the scene before him, as if he was watching a boring old movie, completely detached from the characters on the screen yet a little bit curious about what would happen to them.
However, he was not there to fool around and observe. He was there to increase his strength, hoping he wouldn't die in the next void walk because, for all he knew, he might suddenly appear in a completely different location with different beasts, levels of strength, and overall climate.
Without another thought on his mind, he closed his eyes and quickly jumped down before landing gracefully without making a noise.
Despite that, all the goblins seemed to feel his presence, their eyes piercing daggers at him while their younger generation slowly handed out weapons to fight with.
Lloyd opened his eyes, his eyes shining purple more than ever, yet his voice continued to echo within the forest with a tinge of coldness that would have forced most sane men to buckle under their own weight.
"Let the massacre begin..."
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