Chương 25: Chapter 23

Sobelle hefted her axe and stared the boar down. The goblin was close to death so it wouldn't be long until this animal decided that she was its next target. Sobelle patiently waited for the boar to do its thing then got ready to kill once its eyes were on her. She gripped the axe's handle tightly and reminded herself that boars took time to turn whenever they charged. Actually, everyone took time to do this in general so it didn't just apply to boars.

Her heart stopped when the boar charged and since it was fast enough, Sobelle did not have the luxury of using [Flow State] to kill this thing. She had to do it on her own. She managed to do so after she sidestepped the boar. She raised her axe just as the creature changed directions and then brought it down to its next in a swift strike that ended the creature's life. She dropped to the ground, exhausted but alive. And with a bit of extra food to boot.

Sobelle wondered if it was right that she planned on never telling anyone about the boar she killed while she cut the Goblins' ears off. She collected 14 ears in total, all of them were proof of her kills. Knowing that she needed to rest, Sobelle set off to make herself a new alcove. She had plans on making another one near the edge of the forest but that would make things obvious wouldn't it?

Again, she didn't want the villagers to know that she had a boar so she had to make this place somewhere far from their line of sight. Her first thought was hiding it just behind the treeline, but then her eyes went to the boar and Sobelle realized that if she wanted to eat every inch of it, then she'd need to smoke it so that the meat doesn't rot. Doing this near her village would attract attention, especially from the chief.

If she could, then she'd definitely choose a place with water in it just for the convenience of her no longer needing to fetch water from the spring.

'There was that lake in the deep forest.' Sobelle remembered the place where she killed that turtle and considered whether or not it would be a good idea to start a permanent camp there. After a bit of thought, Sobelle decided that it was. It didn't hurt her to make something out of that little forest lake and there were plenty of resources for her to use out there so it might just turn out well. Did she risk an entire boar by doing this? Of course.

But she'd risk the carcass no matter what she did, this choice just felt so much better compared to all the other options she had available. Now the question was: how did she move an entire boar to a faraway place without attracting the attention of goblins or leaving behind a trail that the greenskins would follow? And the answer was that no, she couldn't. That was simply impossible given the current circumstances.

But she had the entire day to prepare and so, Sobelle made the smart move of tying the boar's legs together and letting it hang from a tree to make it bleed out. At some point, all its blood would disappear—or it would just stop bleeding—and that made it easier for her to carry due to the lack of spillage and she wouldn't need to worry about leaving behind a trail of red the greenskins could easily track.

Then there was the part where the scent of blood had the potential to attract more greenskins and the idea was simply perfect. Sobelle made herself a hiding spot where she could watch the boar perfectly while not being so far that the goblins would be able to touch the animal and infect it with diseases. She waited patiently, and hadn't gotten anything close to another group of goblins. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

A rat or two did check out the scent, and snails were slowly making their way to the blood but no greenskins. Not yet at least. It was only a matter of time before they came, Sobelle knew this. Soon, a voice came from the undergrowth, it sounded excited. Out came a goblin moments later, this one had dark brown skin instead of their usual green, it was also smaller compared to all the other goblins Sobelle fought so far. One eye looked bigger than the other and it had an ear that bent sideways.

It sniffed with a nose full of warts, then grinned to reveal a pair of front teeth that had been merged together, the rest of its teeth missing. Sobelle felt pity for how it looked, then remembered it probably wouldn't hesitate to pin her down and do unspeakable things to her given the chance and whatever sadness she felt for the greenskin turned into sadistic joy that celebrated its deformities. Given how weak it was, the goblin ran away before it could get close enough to Sobelle that she'd be able to kill it.

She assumed the little bastard went away to call more goblins so she'd be dealing with a lot of greenskins soon. To prepare, Sobelle removed the boar from its branch and moved it somewhere far. She didn't want it to get caught in the fight. She then moved herself closer to the puddle of blood the carcass left behind and waited. Footsteps echoed around her after just seconds, and a small party of goblins came to check on the boar. It was nowhere to be seen however, so they all beat up the deformed goblin...

Well, all of them were deformed. Really. Smaller than the normal goblins too.

'So they've finally decided to send out their deformed children as scouts instead of fully grown goblins.' These guys, Sobelle knew she could beat easily. She hadn't even needed to be wary of them, though she still chose to as making a mistake here would lead to her capture and that did not sound fun. She'd avoid losing to greenskins as much as possible, and so caution was needed. Sobelle prepared her spear and held her dagger in her left hand.

The greenskins would be swarming her so using her buckler as an offensive option wasn't a good idea, she'd get overwhelmed if she didn't have a proper defense and at the same time, she'd get crushed by the weight of the greenskins if she didn't kill them fast enough. With the dagger, she'd have the best of both worlds. There were around 10 goblins or so in front of her, there might be more. She hadn't counted all of them since they constantly left and entered her line of sight.

And a proper inspection wasn't available given that she was currently hiding. Could she bring down 10 goblins all on her own? If they were larger, no. But these ones? A definitive yes. Sobelle struck the first goblin to go near her and then stabbed the closest greenskins to that one. Five goblins were already dead in the span of a second, the rest came forward to retaliate and intended to kill Sobelle with sheer numbers.

She kept her distance using her spear, and assuming a goblin went past the striking distance of her weapon and entered her weak spot, she'd stab them with her dagger. This went on until three goblins died, and then one of them went past her spear's range and threatened to bash Sobelle's head with a rock. She couldn't use her dagger in time so she had to block it with her buckler. The parry was well executed and the greenskin stumbled from the missed blow.

It let go of the rock, hissing as the pain from the recoil made it impossible to use its wounded hands for a second. Sobelle used that opportunity not to kill the goblin, but to run away and put distance between them. All while she continued thrusting at the rushing horde. When she was far enough, she stabbed the goblin, who still hadn't moved and just kept hissing at its arms. Things ended quickly after that, as Sobelle entered [Flow State] and moved perfectly to counter the horde coming onto her.

Every step she took was perfect and there were no wasted movements, her muscles all moved perfectly and she possessed the kind of agility that made birds weep in jealousy. One by one, the goblins fell until the seventeenth goblin hit the ground. This finally ended the prolonged fight. Sobelle stopped moving and just let herself rest for a moment. [Flow State] turned off and she was left reeling. Certain death would be upon her if another goblin horde came rushing in. That was how bad her fatigue was.

All the exercise she did every morning was nothing compared to what she felt right now; every inch of her body burned and her muscles cried for rest. Sobelle answered them by dropping to the ground butt-first and just resting. Did fighting really burned her out this quickly? Or was it the combination of [Limit Break] and [Flow State] that made it so? Would she just collapse and be easy prey if she didn't have [Inexhaustible Vessel]?