8 Goblin Stalks Its Prey

The sun attempts to greet the forest below with its brilliantly shining morning smile but is instantly denied by the gloomy clouds looming over head. Without sunlight seeping through the leaves the forest oozes a dreary atmosphere making it feel ten times more dangerous than it does normally.

Completely ignoring the atmosphere Jellal speedily prepares his equipment as soon as his feet landed on solid ground. With throwing knife and saw in hand he sets out looking forward to whatever the day has to throw at him.

At around midday he stops for a lunch break, eating some of the meat he had cooked in advance. Once he'd finished devouring his meal he meandered over to the stream to wash his hands, taking a look across to the other side while he's at it.

He excitedly climbs a nearby tree to get a better vantage point after catching a tiny glimpse of what he believed to be a figure on a faraway hill. Focusing his vision as much as possible he confirms a number of figures hiding behind a hill that's situated close to the road.

With things getting interesting he scraps his plans to roam the forest and hunkers down for long term observation. Naturally he does as much training as the tree allows while simultaneously keeping an eye on the goings on across the stream.

He patiently waits for well over an hour as the subjects of his observation do nothing but hide in a cowardly manner behind a hill without doing anything of note. Naturally when pondering what kind of spineless people would hide behind a hill so conveniently close to road the only logical conclusion one can reach is that they're some sort of bandit or robber.

As his surveillance trudges on a carriage makes its way along the road breaking the monotony in the process. When the carriage approaches the hill the bandits predictably jump out and surround it. He's slightly surprised when another group of bandits reveal themselves from behind a hill situated on the other side of the road bringing the bandits numbers to double digits.

The carriage leisurely comes to a halt as the coachman does his best to keep the horses calm. The owner of the carriage didn't skimp on security seeing as a group of four adventurers hopped out of the back of the carriage. Rather than keeping together the hired guards split up with each posting up on a different side of the carriage.

Two bandits rush at each of the guards to distract them while another bandit tries to sneak their way into the carriage. The moment the concealed bandit touches the carriage a crescent moon of energy shoots out from within leaving the unfortunate fool with a deep gash running from his shoulder all the way down to his waist.

The final bandit who had just been watching till now pulls out his bow to assist his comrades who are being manhandled by the guards. He draws his bow and sets his sights on the adventurer who's posted at the front of the carriage. Before he has a chance to release the arrow he's greeted by an arrow aimed at him that speeds out from within the carriage. He dodges with all his might and just barely avoids a fatal blow, being left with only a severe shoulder injury.

The rest of the bandits aren't fairing much better than their two seriously injured comrades. The pair of bandits at the front of the carriage are the best off of the group with their bodies covered in dozens of small wounds courtesy of the front guard's daggers.

The bandits who were attacking the sides of the carriage suffered from countless attacks focused on their arms and legs making it progressively more difficult for them to fight as the battle dragged on. Meanwhile the bandits who attacked the back of the carriage ended up in the worst state of the bunch. One of them lost an arm to go with numerous other injuries while the other had an arm broken via the guards shield bash leaving him bloody due to the difficulties he faced in defending himself with one arm.

Noticing things aren't going their way the bandit hurriedly turn tail and run away. The guards give them a parting gift in the form of a slash to the back, but don't pursue them as the gutless band of bandits run for their pathetic lives.

Once the bandits are out of sight the adventurers return to the interior of the carriage in a relaxed manner. With all the guards loaded up the carriage sets off as if nothing had happened.

The bandits gather at the point of the attack after the carriage is well out of sight. The group looks pitiful as there isn't a single person among them that's without injury. Dejectedly the bandits begin their slog back to their hideout.

Although the band is beaten and bloodied they maintain their vigilance as they amble over hill after hill. The depressed collection of outlaws gather at the stream and help the more seriously injured members cross. Feeling relieved that they're in their home territory their alertness slowly disappears as they begin heading through the forest at their own individual paces with the most heavily injured being left behind.

The naïve bandits take their time care freely returning while remaining ignorant of the green skinned menace skulking in the shadows behind them. Without having proper attentiveness a large gap is created between the front and back of the pack, a gap that could prove to be fatal.

Noticing the large gap forming, Jellal circles around sneakily slipping into the gap before patiently waiting up in his perch. The four bandits at the back of the pack slowly stumble unwittingly under a tree that on a normal day would be just as harmless to walk under as any other tree except today a green skinned terror is waiting for the ideal moment for his ambush to begin.

[Slime Style: Secret Move – Bouncing Death]

Jellal hangs drops down near the base of the tree. When he has descended over three quarters of the way down and is slightly above the heads of the oblivious bandits he kicks hard off the tree propelling himself to the airspace above their heads.

As he shoots through the air he flips over forwards so he is upside down and facing sideways as he passes over the heads of the bandits. As he spins through the air he slashes out with the saw in his right hand slashing the throat of an unfortunate bandit.

His momentum carries him to the trunk of another tree which he hits feet first before propelling himself at the startled bandits once more. Surging forward while descending below chest height he hacks away at the unprotected waist of another bandit, nearly sawing him in half.

After the second attack he no longer has the momentum to continue ricocheting off trees so he can only begrudgingly come crashing down to the ground. Upon landing he rolls forwards while spinning his body allowing him to be facing his enemies as his feet slide across the ground slowing his momentum.

While sliding away from the remaining two targets he turns his body slightly throwing the knife in his left hand at a bandit who has yet to fully grasp the situation. The bandit lifts his sword to defend but is a hair to slow as the knife embeds itself in his throat.

He pulls a pair of throwing knives out of his belt pouch as he finally slides to a stop. The last bandit draws his sword while trembling slightly, the shock and fear showing visibly on his face. Unsure of how his comrades died he can only take a defensive stance in hopes of avoiding the same fate.

Jellal starts by walking towards his enemy before abruptly lunging forward. As he closes in he throws one of the throwing knives in his left hand forcing the bandit to use his sword to block it. Drifting slightly to the right he slips around his foes area of defense before hacking down with his saw. The bandit desperately tries to dodge but the teeth of the saw catch his flesh pulling him abruptly towards Jellal. Due to the sudden change in direction the bandit is unable to defend himself as a knife is jabbed forcefully into his throat.

Jellal breathes heavily as he tries to calm down his racing heart. Such a high speed ambush could have resulted in being at a four on one disadvantage if he made a single mistake or if his enemy was a little more wary. The pressure and excitement gave him an adrenaline boost that made him feel like the blood in his veins was flowing at quadruple speed, such a high takes a while to come down from.

Knowing he won't calm down even if he sits around he begins stripping the bodies. The clothes they're wearing are in tatters but at least it could be used as potential material for a future project. The shoes they're wearing are in good condition and could also be recycled so he snatches them as well.

As for personal belongings they didn't have much on them. Each of them carried a poorly maintained sword along with a pouch to hold their money. If these grunts were raking in the cash they wouldn't still be acting as bandits so the money they had on hand was pitifully menial with a combined total of one silver and sixty five copper which was naturally all in copper (165 copper pieces).

Jellal retrieves his backpack from its hiding place in the tree and puts his spoils away, keeping only the money in a pouch on his belt. Having finished things up quickly he gives the corpses a disdainful look before hurrying to catch up with their comrades.

It doesn't take long for him to catch up to the next set of bandits. The pair that attacked the back of the carriage are sitting groggily at the base of a tree while doing their best to keep from losing consciousness due to the blood loss.

Thinking they're safe they close their eyes trying to maintain as much strength as they can. Naturally that feeling of safety caused them to be unaware of the goblin sneaking around behind them. He silently approaches until he is standing behind the tree they're sitting under.

With a throwing knife in each hand he cautiously circles around in front of them. Seeing them remain unmoved by his movements he silently throws both knives at once. The bandits notice something off and open their eyes just in time to see the one who killed them.

Satisfied with his quick kill he strips the bandits the same way he did the first group. Thanks to the pair his collection of cloth and shoes has ballooned to one and a half times its original size while his savings has increased to a whopping two silver and twenty seven copper.

After tidying up his spoils he once again sets off to track the remaining bandits. With only four bandits left he had anticipated it taking a decent amount of time to catch up, but was pleasantly surprised when he caught sight of two more bandits.

Looking at the new bandits he shows even more caution than he did with the other bandits. From the way things looked the thief who tried to sneak into the carriage and the archer who didn't join the battle at the start were likely the leaders of the group. Although his confidence has been boosted greatly after easily taking out the bandits he's faced up till now he knows the reason they were killed so easily was because they didn't remain cautious and let their guards down.

As he begins to creep closer he notices that the pair look like they're being careless and are full of openings, but after carefully observing they're both extremely vigilant. Despite being seriously injured they still have an air of danger about them that the others did not.

With their level of vigilance the chances of successfully sneaking up on them is slim to none so he'll have to resort to cunning to tilt the scales more in his favor. A plan begins forming in his head as he silently takes off his backpack, cape, and belt. Without his hand made equipment he looks like a regular young goblin with a hide tied around his waist.

He silently circles around to the side in order to avoid drawing suspicion after all it would be pretty difficult for a normal goblin to slip between the gaps in between the bandits. After getting into position he stops being stealthy and acts as much like a normal goblin as he can. He loudly stomps around without caring about the surroundings as he coincidentally wanders right towards the bandits without the slightest bit of vigilance.

The duo quickly spots the lone goblin wandering about but pay it no mind. They were planning on continuing on without bothering with it but it kept plodding in the direction they were headed. The archer pulled out his bow and knocked his arrow while silently mocking how foolish the goblin was to insist on marching to its death.

Just as he's about to release his arrow the goblin sporadically changes direction and his line of sight is blocked by a tree. It doesn't take long for the goblin to amble out sporadically shifting directions every now and then as it draws closer and closer.

The archer is dumbfounded as the goblin seems to always luck its way behind cover before he had a chance to shoot. He predicts where the goblin will move to next when the goblin suddenly stops in its tracks throwing his prediction off the mark.

Suddenly the goblin begins sprinting in their direction moving on a predictable path. Just as the archer is about to draw his bow a horned rabbit jumps through the bush in front of the goblin dodging the goblins wild flailing that seems to be an attempt at an attack.

The goblin continues to dart about chasing the horned rabbit while swinging the bone it's using as a weapon. Eventually the horned rabbit darts to the side and the goblin falls to the ground after missing with the giant swing it was trying to use to kill its prey.

By what seemed like a miracle the goblin closed the distance between itself and the bandits while chasing the horned rabbit. Naturally when the horned rabbit started escaping in a direction away from the bandits the goblin took a huge swing that came up empty, falling flat on its face in the process.

Seeing how close the bumbling idiot of a goblin had gotten to them the bandits patience finally wore thin. The second bandit concealed himself and quietly closed in on the unsuspecting goblin. He snuck around next to the goblin while silently admiring how it had managed to luck its way into survival up until this point.

'Wait! What if it wasn't luck? If that's the case, then … oh ****!'

The thought struck him like lightning but it was already too late. Without having a chance to dodge the saw Jellal was holding in his right hand was embedded deep into the skull of the unprepared bandit.

The archer was overcome with shock as he watched his colleague sneak up on the goblin only to be ambushed by the careless looking goblin. It only took an instant for his life to be taken by the jaw bone the goblin was using as a weapon.

Jellal ripped his saw out of the bandits head as the corpse fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Wasting no time he charged at the archer at full speed quickly shrinking the distance between them. The archer fired arrow after arrow but they were easily deflect as the goblin had merely a few short feet left before they would be face to face.

The archer tried to pull out his secondary weapon but was too late to block the incoming saw. He desperately tried to avoid the blow but was ultimately struck hard in the shoulder. With the downward momentum of the saw stopped Jellal pulled it violently towards his body tearing away at flesh and bone as it ripped its way out of the bandit.

The teeth of the saw caught onto the bandit as it was ripped out jolting him forward. Severely injured and knocked off balance there was nothing he could do but watch as the sawblade was swung in a backhanded motion straight toward his exposed neck.

A fountain of blood sprayed into the air as the archers head was separated from his body. The body and head tumbled to the ground with a thud leaving Jellal standing alone covered in the blood of his enemy.

Not keen on staying covered in blood he quickly stripped the archer of his possessions before using the cloth to wipe the blood off his body. With his body as clean as it can get under the circumstances he returns to the other bandit's corpse to strip away his belongings before retrieving his backpack.

After collecting his backpack he quickly put on his belt and cape before organizing the spoils he just collected. His cloth and shoe collection naturally increased as did the amount of money he collected which increased his savings to four silver and seventy two copper. To go along with his money and cloth he collected six swords, two daggers, and a bow with twenty arrows accompanying it.

Although he was quite happy collecting all the equipment he can he started to encounter trouble with how to carry all of it. He considered just dumping the swords but didn't because it would be too much of a waste if he needed them for something in the future.

With his stuffed backpack slung over his shoulder he continued to track the last two remaining bandits. Naturally he wasn't planning to kill them immediately after finding them, after all who would lead him to the bandit's hideout if they were all dead. Of course he could try to find it by searching in the direction they're heading but that would be way too inefficient so that idea was immediately scrapped.

After catching up to the last two bandits he stealthily followed them back to their hideout. The hideout was a cave that was well hidden by thick brush making it difficult to discover for anyone who was unaware of its location.

By the time they'd reached the hideout the sun had already gone down and night was quickly approaching. The last living bandits from the carriage ambush told the bandits standing guard that the others would take a bit longer to return before going inside to rest.

Perched in a tree a short distance from the cave Jellal was watching the cave carefully while enjoying a chunk of meat as a late dinner. He silently mocked the bandits as he tried to calm his heart which was beating wildly in anticipation of what was about to come. His eyes glowed with a violent light as waited impatiently for night to descend and mark the start of his operation.

'Kekeke, don't worry you'll be seeing your friends soon … though it'll be in the afterlife.'