Chương 47: Chapter 46: Goblin Shaman

In the crammed cave carved within the mountain cliff of the west, sparks of fire flew and snapped outward as metal clashed against metal. Nero deflected a straight dagger thrust from a particularly taller goblin among the horde, while simultaneously flinging out his left foot to kick away another one trying to come from his flank. The goblin crashed against the hard, protruding walls of the cave, its stone axe flying off its hand. Nero felt the other goblins' footsteps nearing him from deep within the cave.

The tall goblin in front of him lunged, swinging out with its left hand. Nero ducked and moved in through its arm at the same time. Reaching within its arm, he punched out with his right hand. His hand sank into its toned muscles as it shot backward, slamming back-first into the wall behind it. Nero used the moment to pick up the goblin's dagger and hurled it right at the face of the goblin shaman, who was preparing to cast some sort of spell at the far end of the now-close goblin horde.

With a crackling sound of steel cutting through bone, the dagger lodged itself into its skull, making it fall over the backs of its fellow goblins. At the same time, multiple small crossbows fired from their backlines. Nero swayed from left to right, dodging them, while simultaneously kicking down the tall goblin that was trying to get back up. Nearing a few meters from the horde, Nero unsheathed his short sword. The neonic light of the Aura of Decay immediately suffused it, and he swung the blade in a wide arc.

Like a knife through butter, the blade cleanly severed the frontline goblin's torso from its lower body in one fell swoop. Blood squirted from its lower half as Nero advanced further into their lines. They growled with guttural fury, brandishing their weapons rampantly, striking mainly toward Nero's legs, while those with crossbows in the back fired arrows aimed at his eyes. It wasn't surprising to him, they appeared child-like in size only. And while they looked primitive, their battlefield intelligence was sharp.

They fought the way a cat might fight when cornered, except with that same level of desperation and savagery even when not cornered. Nero calmly watched the advance of the goblins coming from their second frontline. They came from all four cardinal directions, wielding long weapons, likely intending to corner him and reduce his range of movement while keeping themselves safe. He ignored their weapons entirely, dodging where he could, until he got close enough to grab one by the neck.

Hoisting it up, he swung it against the wall with such force that he felt its neck crack before it even left his grip. In the same motion, he spun, and using the momentum, brandished his blade in one wide arc, cutting through the other three goblins trying to surround him—weapons and all. Within a few more minutes, he'd killed most of the second frontliners and was closing in on the backline. Protecting the archers were three more tall goblins.

At this point he suspected they were less "taller than average" and more pseudo-hobgoblins. They brandished their large clubs at him simultaneously. Nero didn't duck—he slashed straight forward. With a sharp clang of metal on rock, their three clubs shattered. He followed up by channeling his Cypher Art.

"Cypher Art: [Spectral Touch]!" He jammed his fist into the center goblin's abdomen. The roaring beast immediately went quiet, the liveliness in its pupils vanishing instantly. Nero repeated the attack on the other two. Once he'd knocked them out, he stood over them, calmly observing the aftereffects. Just like Elder Zyran's attack, his own had sent their souls popping back to the other side.

"Hmm, I wanna see how long this'll last before they re-enter their bodies… but before that." He caught the arrow launched at his head. He eyed the beasts at the back, still firing away. His glare made them stumble back several steps, hands shaking.

"I guess you lot are in a hurry to meet god." If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He crushed the arrow and closed the distance to them within a blink. Before they could even react, a wet, squelching sound echoed as all ten of their heads plopped forward, hands still gripping their bows. Behind him, he finally heard the rustle he'd been expecting. The three pseudo-hobgoblins' souls had re-entered their bodies.

And immediately after, they charged at him again with fury. With three kicks to their chins, each imbued with [Spectral Touch], Nero knocked the souls out of their bodies again. But this time he didn't mess around—with a sharp sweep of his blade, he severed their heads.

"Hmm, so their souls can only get back to their bodies fast enough if their strength is nearly equal to their opponent's," he noted mentally.

"That lesser oni from before really had been Elder Zyran's equal—in strength, at least." The elder had far surpassed it in technique and skill, so it wasn't surprising it still died so quickly despite its strength. Nero got back to harvesting the goblins' organs and other valuable parts. He would've liked to take a few of them back to the chicken dungeon alive and kill them there so it could absorb their souls, but it wasn't worth the trouble yet.

"The chicken dungeon has enough mana crystals for now anyway." He didn't mind the dungeon core feeding its spawns the necessary amount to live, or even feeding itself, as long as it didn't overconsume. With all the loot stashed in his bag, Nero delved deeper inside, where he found a few older goblins and two human captives—both male, strung up on the walls. He quickly killed the old-timers and went to check the captives' pulses, and just as he'd suspected, they were dead.

Shaking his head, Nero took a piece of their clothing and some hair and put them gently inside a special pocket in his bag. He then entered the boss chamber, ignoring the light of the safe zone that was just beginning to form overhead. Inside, he found two large flames lighting the otherwise dark chamber, with a hulking beast of a hobgoblin at the far back. The boss immediately rose to its feet upon his arrival. …

After a minute of battle with the boss, Nero had swiftly dispatched it using the Aura of Decay and Spectral Touch combo. He harvested its organs and other valuables. He couldn't eat them inside the cave, as the dungeon was already preparing to close, so he bagged them before crossing to the other side of the boss chamber, where he found a hefty sum of gold jewelry and other ornaments. He took those too. Once done, he headed to the next dungeon.

It was south of the goblin dungeon and took him a good twenty minutes to reach. The creatures here were more goblins as well. As he cut his way through the cave one by one, he noticed the lack of any pseudo-hobgoblins. Instead, there were quite a few goblin shamans present. At times, when he failed to deal with the shamans in time, their spells slammed him against the spiky stone walls of the cave, leaving him a bit more injured than before. Still, Nero dealt with them in record time—just two hours.

He also found a good haul of mana crystals in the boss chamber and outside. Mostly mana of the purple variety, which implied space and telekinesis affinities—a non-elemental type.

"These will sell for a good chunk," he said, putting the football-sized spheres in his bag. The goblin shamans had been holding smaller versions of these when casting their spells. Once done with the outer hall, he entered the boss chamber, where a large, human-sized Pseudo Goblin Wizard draped in an ancient wizardry robe greeted him. The reason he branded it "pseudo" instead of a full-fledged goblin wizard was simple.

"It's slow, the thing's just standing there…" he said, picking up a rock and hurling it at its face. Sure enough, a rippling barrier of bloody red manifested, stopping the rock from reaching it.

"Good one, but unfortunately not enough." Nero called on his aspect of decay as neonic green enveloped his otherwise silvery, pristine aura. He closed in rapidly, and once near, he didn't draw his sword—instead, he infused his fists with a heavy dose of the Aura of Decay and punched straight at the barrier. The boss's red pupils glowed beneath its robe, its mouth twisting into a vulgar smile.

"Kekekeke." Nero's otherwise sparkly blue eyes hardened, gleaming with cold focus as his fists slammed into the barrier again, and again, and again. The flurry of enhanced punches rippled across its surface while the pseudo goblin wizard's laughter kept fueling its spell—its cackling growing more intense by the second. Crack With the sound of tearing glass, the goblin's laughter halted.

Nero kept up his barrage, and within another ten seconds or so, the barrier splintered to pieces as his final punch connected with the pseudo goblin wizard's jaw, sending it barreling backward.

"Laugh now," he said to the sprawled-out wizard as he advanced. When its back hit the wall, it launched into one desperate attack. Nero punched downward, his fist connecting with its face, slamming it onto the floor face, muscles buckling as the bones of its skull shattered to pieces. With that done, Nero harvested its parts too, before gathering the rest of the fiends' loot and leaving the dungeon.