... Darkness

Hello~

I leave this message before the chapter because I would like to know what you thought of the first part of this chapter.

In my opinion, this chapter has been my favorite so far, but I didn't like the part at the beginning very much.

So leave your opinions~

....

"Good morning, Leo!"

A beautiful woman with cat ears turned around and watched as her husband came down from the second floor.

"Haha, good morning, Mia" Leo tried to smile.

But the weight of what he had to do today did not allow him to do so.

"Why do you have a long face?! Today you are supposed to go protect our village along with the others and return, bringing honor to our family!" Mia hit Leo's forehead.

Leo just blinked at Mia's chatter. He knew better than anyone that she didn't give a damn about her honor and things like that.

"Yes, yes, and I will also bring the heads of many goblins to decorate our living room." Leo smiled evilly.

"Errk... sure, honey, if that would make you happy...." Mia tried to smile, but the twitches in her smile gave away her true emotions.

"Haha, don't worry, I wouldn't like to see goblin heads in the room either…" Leo shuddered at the thought. "Anyway, I already have a head that I can't stop seeing…"

Mia hit Leo on the forehead again. "Haha, I can't understand how a head like yours who is usually so resourceful in battle can be so terrible at flirting!"

"Just shut up and give me my food" Leo pouted and sat in the dining room.

"Of course casanova~"

The two shared a simple breakfast, filled with their hopes that everything would turn out well.

-----

"And... Aren't you going to say goodbye to Elli?" Mia asked as she watched Leo walk through the door.

"Nah, I'll be back soon anyway" Leo smiled confidently.

"Arrogant idiot, you know that I will chase you to hell if you die, right?" Mia grabbed the collar of Leo's shirt and brought her face closer to hers.

"Of course…" Leo brought his lips closer to hers. "It's not like I lack reasons not to want to return."

After a passionate kiss, Leo said goodbye to Mia and walked through the town, seeing how everyone who could fight, whether men or women, left his house with determination.

Yes, I guess it takes quite a bit of determination to do this... Leo calmed the slight tremor in his hands and took one last look at his hometown...

Although he didn't like to brag, he had to admit that his birthplace was an impressive place.

This was one of the few towns that had managed to survive on the border of the two world powers, Kaetelia, the supreme human empire, and Sloffizia, the refuge of all races.

His people were under the protection of Sloffizia, so they had their culture of accepting all races, so there were people from the human race and anima living in the same place.

And while those thoughts passed through his mind, Leo couldn't help but stop to look at the town's abandoned cathedral.

Before it used to be a church full of life... But now it had become a roofless building with only a few walls, which used to be a place of terror for children at night.

"This place used to be quite important a few years ago…" Leo remembered how the Church of Life, believers of Siorr, stopped sending priests. That caused this church to end up in such a state...

After thinking about it a little, Leo prayed for his well-being and left with the rest of the town's fighters. After all, he didn't lose anything by praying to a God, right?

"Hey Leo, come on" A human friend of Leo called him.

Leo nodded towards the cathedral and ran with his friend towards where the villagers with fighting abilities and the adventurers and priests of the Sloffizia kingdom were gathered.

"We, who bear the lives of hundreds of women and children, promise to give our lives in this war against the goblin village…!"

Apparently, they both arrived just in time to hear a moving speech...

I hope everything goes well... Leo could only pray silently.

...

"I-impossible, they weren't that powerful before!"

Some adventurers cried as they watched a two-meter-tall goblin general destroy his formation with ease and flee in the direction of his village.

Some tried to stop him, but the fireballs shot by the goblin shamans stopped them. Ian.

The battlefield, which had once been like a child's play for them, had turned into hell as all the goblins seemed to suddenly gain more power!

"Shit" Leo had no more words to say about the disaster he was suffering.

He remembered how on the journey of more than two miles they had to travel to reach the goblin village, the most experienced adventurers constantly said that everything would be fine, that they had massacred hundreds of goblin villages...

And those same adventurers were now desperately fighting against the three-meter-tall goblin king, barely having the upper hand thanks to the sacrifice of a few…

How the hell did we end up like this?!

"And you!" Suddenly, one of the priests in the group grabbed his shoulder tightly. "You have to return to the village immediately!"

"What, why, do you know what situation we are in now?!" Leo refused to accept fleeing the battlefield like a coward.

"Idiot, you should pay attention when your superiors talk to you!" The priest screamed in rage. "I just received a divine oracle that the town is in danger and that the goblin general is heading there!"

Leo froze at that. The world around him seemed to collapse.

"What, what do you mean he's in danger?! And why does it have to be me?!"

"Because you are the strongest man we have who is not busy fighting the goblin king and as for the first question, there is no time to explain!" As the priest spoke, she made some gestures with her hand and a golden light fell on Leo, empowering him.

"Now go, there is no time to waste!" The priest pushed Leo, who finally reacted.

Leo was amazed at the priestess's level of improvement, as he felt that all of his stats were doubled, but the idea of his family and village being in danger made the surprise momentary...

Everyone, I hope you are well!

...

"Guarkk!"

Kayla paled at the roar, but when she saw Elli and Yong, shaking with tears in her eyes; The legless girl who was now foaming at the mouth, a strong determination filled her heart.

It was no time to stay trembling uselessly, she had to get up and fight!

So even though her face was pale, Kayla stood up and approached the goblin general who was a hundred meters away. She did not want to involve the villagers in her fight.

And as she approached, Kayla noticed that the goblin general had a giant sword on her back.

She swore that the sword was the same length as her, 1.56 meters!

Well... it wasn't that giant either, at least when compared to the two-meter swords.

But that wasn't the point!

When the goblin general passed the fifty-meter mark, Kayla decided to throw a knife at him with all her strength. She should be able to do at least a little damage...

Clank!

But as if to break her illusions, her knife only bounced off the goblin general's green skin, without even leaving a scratch.

Shit! How is she supposed to hurt that thing, attacking its eyes?!... Well, it's not a bad idea, but it's complicated as shit!

Although it pained her to admit it, she was a dwarf! She barely reached the goblin general's chest, let alone his eyes!

"Well, though, I guess I have a way…" Seeing that the goblin was only twenty meters away, Kayla stopped her internal chatter and ran towards the goblin general while she pulled out two knives from her clothes.

She couldn't run away, not with the townspeople after her! So she decided to face the goblin general head-on, despite the villagers' screams of fear!

By now, the goblin general was already unsheathing his sword from his back and raised the sword, preparing to deliver a powerful slash.

Kayla watched as the goblin general slowly approached, until he finally launched his attack, wanting to tear Kayla in half!

But Kayla, with her Foresight and great reflexes, dodged the ghost sword by darting to the right by a hair's breadth, thus avoiding the real sword by a large margin!

As the goblin general continued to make the powerful but slow slash at her, Kayla lunged towards the goblin's rear, attempting to sever the goblin general's thighs in the process.

And by bad luck or maybe good luck, she did manage to cut a little flesh, enough for a drop of green blood to come out of the wound...

...which was cured shortly after.

This shit is too unfair!

Kayla wanted to cry, but she doubted that the enemy in front of her would let her do it.

The goblin general had already finished swinging his sword and was trying to turn towards Kayla.

She didn't let him though as he continued running, staying close to his back.

"Haha, you stupid, muscular goblin, let's see how you catch me!" Kayla shouted smugly.

Although the goblin generals did not have the intelligence to understand human words, this particular one seemed to take offense at Kayla's words and turned in the opposite direction to which he was originally going, with his sword horizontally in front of him...

"Shit-!" Kayla barely avoided the ghost of the sword by throwing herself to the ground, and then instinctively rolled on the ground, avoiding a step from the goblin general.

This damn thing is smarter than it looks!

Kayla hurriedly stood up and sighed in relief when the green giant did not continue attacking her.

They both stopped their attacks as they watched each other. Kayla watched the goblin general warily. He had realized that trying to attack the latter in the eyes would be almost impossible. The green monstrosity was too clever to fall for something like that.

While the latter with fun. She thought she had found a pretty fun toy.

And Kayla was able to see in her eyes, that she was just a source of fun for him, something she couldn't hurt him...

...and the worst thing is that that was not incorrect.

How?... How do I kill this damn thing?!

At that moment, the goblin general seemed to get bored of her staring contest and charged at her with her sword.

It was lucky for Kayla that the sword attacks were somewhat slow, allowing her to dodge them each time with just a few jumps or small movements.

But that seemed to enrage the goblin general evenbegan to attack more frantically. To the point that he was panting through his mouth!

That is! I can tire him out until he can't move anymore and even if he can't kill him, that should buy him enough time for reinforcements to come!

Kayla had finally given up on the idea of beating the green giant, so she decided to follow her emergency plan... Wait for help! The missing village warriors should return soon!

If you can't do something, have someone else do it for you!

But as Kayla came to that realization, the goblin general froze, sword ready for a downward slash, and... smiled. Giving Kayla chills.

The goblin general seemed to have thought of an idea...

Ells didn't know what he was planning, but he decided to stick to his plan and play cat and mouse some more.

And as they had been doing until now, the goblin general slashed his sword downwards, stabbing it into the ground. To which Kayla dodged by moving a little to the left...

What she didn't expect was that a ghost, much faster than any attack she had received before, arrived and crashed into her stomach, leaving her gasping for air and almost knocking her out from the pain...

The goblin general had left his sword stuck in the ground and sent a strong punch to Kayla's stomach at speeds he had not shown before!

Kayla tried with all her might to move to the side, throwing herself, crouching... anything to dodge the real attack, but her body did not react, her body had been paralyzed by the pain she felt. ...

All the fatigue that had accumulated in her body until now had manifested itself, leaving her frozen on the spot!

And as expected, the goblin general's blow connected, sending her flying!

"...Kayla!"

As she rolled on the floor, she seemed to hear some screams, but her mind was too focused on the pain to hear.

Although she wasn't a doctor and she couldn't be sure with her mind so confused, she felt like five ribs had been broken with just that blow, in addition to the damage to her internal organs.

Oh shit... now I've really screwed up. Kayla regretted her arrogance. The damned green giant had already shown her that in combat she had surprising wit and she still continued to treat him like an idiotic goblin, only bigger and stronger.

She heard the heavy footsteps approaching, little by little and realized that her life would soon come to an end...

I guess it all ends here... Kayla felt tears running down her eyes. She was still young, and even though her whole life was shit, she hoped that at some point she would get better.

No, not even that, she worked to improve by learning various things at a young age with the hope that one day they would help her and it all ended at the whims of a certain Goddess...

Oh... I swear if I had a second chance, I would kill that bastard no matter what...

Kayla tried to move, she wanted to at least see the eyes of the person who would kill her. But what she saw left her paralyzed.

Elli had separated from the group and was running towards the goblin general with tears in her eyes!

"I won't let you hurt big sister!" The little red-haired girl screamed as she clung to the goblin general's leg, urging him to stop.

"No... Run... Please!" Kayla tried to scream at him, but she couldn't, the pain was too much for her to muster any strength.

The goblin general looked curiously at the little leech that was clinging to his leg and then at Kayla...

...and smiled.

That smile sent shivers down Kayla. She tried with all her might, but the only thing she could do was get into a position where she could better see how the goblin general lifted Elli by the head, little by little...

"No-!" Kayla tried to scream but instead vomited a little blood.

No, please no! Someone, please save her! Or at least give me the power to save her! Of course, Goddess, I will serve you for the rest of my life, but please save her!...

But no matter how much she screamed in her mind, nothing changed. No one came to help her, no God helped her, and no hidden power awakened in her...

She was just a weak girl who could only watch as a two-meter green monster picked up a poor girl who began to scream in fear... to scream for help... HIS HELP.

"H-sister, help me, save me, you are very strong! TRUE?! I don't want to die, I want to continue playing with Yong, with my family, and playing with you-!" Elli felt how the goblin General exerted more force on her hand, crushing her head little by little, making her only able to scream from the pain...

Kayla felt tears streaming down her face as she watched everything in absolute terror...

"No... No please!" She screamed, but she just pathetically vomited blood again....

"Kekeke!"

And the goblin general smiled at that, as he applied more pressure and the girl's screams grew louder, until finally... everything stopped with a small explosion of blood.

Total silence, the place had become totally silent...

Everyone was disturbed by the sight as everyone began to cry or scream, likeho was shouting all kinds of words at the goblin general with tears in his eyes.

"DAUGHTER!!"

A scream broke the silence...

...But everything in Kayla's sight began to break like glass, bringing her hope again...

Could be?! Now I can do something to change, I won't trust myself anymore, I will do better-!

"H-sister, help me, save me, you are very strong! TRUE?! I don't want to die, I want to continue playing with Yong, with my family, and playing with you-!"

Kayla's thoughts stopped.

No... NOT AGAIN!

Kayla began to bleed from all the orifices in her face. The stress she had put on her brain was too much.

But even though she felt like her brain was going to explode, her internal organs and ribs were torn or broken, she stood up by sheer force of will and took a step towards the goblin general.

"Kekeke!"

...To fall face down on the floor.

She wasn't an experienced warrior who had trained her body to move by sheer force of will... She was just a normal student with a body a little better than the rest of her. This was his limit

But despite that, she continued to crawl towards the goblin general, she didn't want to give up and she couldn't either... She wanted to break her damn limits and beat up the being that was laughing at her suffering.

But despite all that, he had only managed to get a little closer, leaving himself in the perfect position to see Elli's head deform more and more in the midst of her screams, until her screams stopped and a rain of blood fell, splattering the land…

And this time, some of the hot red blood fell on Kayla's face...

She began to shake violently. Everything before his sight trembled until everything was swallowed by a painful and lonely darkness...