Chapter 10: End of trial.

"Don't falter! We have no choice but to fight it!" Joan screamed his lungs out to snap everyone back to reality. "It's either we die or he dies! The more we waste our time doing nothing, the more lives he's going to take and the lower the chance of us winning!" he pointed out as he ran toward the goblin leader.

Aaron realized Joan was telling the facts and harsh truth about their situation. He knew it wasn't the time to think but to act, and he immediately collected his courage and held his spear tightly.

"Archers! Shoot your goddamn arrows at that thing!" Aaron shouted as he looked at his team. "We will distract it and keep aiming for his head!" he added and started to follow Joan from behind.

Seeing Aaron and Joan charged at the goblin leader bravely, the other players immediately joined in. The goblin leader looked at the players running and immediately he lifted his sword and pointed his elbow and forearm toward Joan and Aaron.

"You go right!" Joan shouted without looking back at Aaron.

Joan went left and Aaron went left, confusing the goblin leader as to which one he should take care of first. When he was about to swing his massive sword down at Joan, an arrow hit his face, and almost hit his eyes. He was furious and looked at where the arrow was coming from, and so he threw his sword at the group of archers.

The archers dodged the sword easily and it gave Joan, Aaron, and the other players the opportunity to get close to the goblin leader. But, Joan got close to him, the goblin leader swung his right foot at Joan. Joan barely dodged it when he rolled over to the side, and that gave Aaron an opening, and immediately stabbed his spear at the goblin leader's foot.

The goblin leader roared and immediately threw a punch down at Aaron, but Aaron immediately pulled the spear and moved away. The other players who were behind the goblin leader slashed and stabbed the swords and axes at his heel, trying to cut his tendon muscle.

Their attacks were effective and it was a huge mistake that they admired their own action when the goblin leader's right foot hit them with his heel and killed some of them. Those who survived were severely injured because of the broken bones in their bodies. The goblin leader then stomped his foot on those who were injured and crushed them.

From 37 players that reached the second half of the trial had gone down to 26 players because of that. The loss wasn't worth the amount of damage they did to the goblin leader. The archers kept shooting their arrows while the melee players tried to avoid the attacks that the goblin leaders threw at them.

The battle was so fierce and things were easier because the goblin leader had lost his sword. All the players tried their best to prevent him from getting his sword back while at the same time trying to immobilize his movement by cutting the muscles on his legs.

Although they managed to immobilize the goblin leader and cut the muscles on his heels, it was only 30% of the problem they had solved. The upper body of the goblin leader was more dangerous than his feet because his muscular arms were enough to kill them if they got hit by them. That also became a major problem because they couldn't do anything about it and trying to get too close to him would only mean death. They only had one option and that was to put him down to the ground and aim at his head.

"Only 14 of us left, do you think we can do it?" Aaron asked Joan for an opinion.

"Nobody knows unless we risk it and climb his body. We can cut his neck and let him bleed out, but that scenario is quite unrealistic, but it's not impossible," Joan answered as he watched the goblin leader roar and throw a lump of dirt at the archers to stop attacking him.

"I'll do it," Aaron said without hesitation. "I think I can climb on his back if you can distract him," he looked at Joan.

Joan nodded with understanding and told the other players about the plan.

Joan with 6 melee players charged at the goblin leader while the 6 archers distracted him. Aaron moved to the side and made sure he didn't get noticed by the goblin leader. When he managed to get behind the goblin leader, he waited until the goblin leader used both hands to attack Joan and the others.

Aaron ran as fast as he could while staring at the goblin leaders on his knees. When he got close enough, he jumped as high as he could and then managed to stab his spear at the goblin leader's lower spine. He grabbed his sword and immediately stabbed it above him and pulled himself up.

The goblin leader realized it, but there was nothing he could do other than move his body around. Aaron held at the sword like his life depended on it, and Joan didn't let Aaron die, so he stabbed the goblin leader's thigh to attract his attention. He kept stabbing his sword and dodged the punches and smashes.

When Aaron managed to reach the nape, he saw a hand coming down toward him, and he knew he couldn't risk it and jumped off. While he was in the air, the goblin leader turned around and smacked him down to the ground flattened his body with the ground. It was a shame, but Joan didn't let the opportunity go and started climbing while ordering the others to keep distracting the goblin leader.

The goblin leader was enraged and forced himself to use his feet to stand up. He started walking and stomped on the ground, killing the remaining players below him. He then started running toward the archers and jumped at them, sacrificing his feet because he could no longer use them.

The archers couldn't dodge and died from getting smashed to the ground. The goblin leader grabbed his sword and started killing the remaining players. It was only Joan and the goblin leader left, and because of the sacrifice the others made, he managed to reach the goblin leader's neck and cut it open with all the strength he had left, slitting the neck from the right side, down, and all the way to the left side of the neck.

The goblin leader tried to scratch his neck and Joan had no choice but to jump down because he had achieved his goal. He just made the same mistake as Aaron because when he was about to land on the ground, the goblin leader slammed him to the ground. Fortunately, he survived even though he broke his left leg, right shoulder, and arm.

Joan tried his best to walk away from the goblin leader who was gushing out green blood from his neck. The goblin leader was crawling to catch up to him and wanted him to die with him. When the goblin leader slammed his right hand at Joan, he rolled over and barely dodged it. He thought he was about to die if the goblin leader attacked him once more because he couldn't move anymore, but to his luck, the goblin leader died of blood loss.

[Congratulation! You have completed the trial! Please walk toward the door and your wounds will be healed and you're eligible to enter the first floor of the tower!]

[Remaining Players: 2]

Joan looked at the notification and he chuckled in disbelief that he had managed to clear the trial. But then he noticed the remaining players that were still alive. He thought he was the only one that survived, so he stood up and looked at his surroundings, but nobody was alive.

"Who's still alive?" Joan furrowed his eyebrows. "Is someone still alive in the for-" Before Joan could finish his sentence, an arrow hit his neck.

Joan coughed blood and collapsed to the ground, wondering who had done it to him. When he looked in the distance, he saw Rigel with a bow in his hand, staring at him with a cold expression. He was shocked and started to see all the things that happened in the forest were Rigel's doing.

"No hard feelings," Rigel looked down at Joan as he pulled an arrow from a quiver and aimed it at him. "Goodbye," he shot an arrow right into Joan's forehead and killed him instantly.