Chapter 14 - A Wet, Yet Barren Wasteland
The large goblin swung his axe at Kazuya, who swiftly dodged the attack and countered with his swing of the sword, which only managed to graze the skin of the ferocious beast.
Before Kazuya could look back, the large creature swung his foot at him, kicking him several feet away.
As Kazuya fell to the ground, he noticed he had lost grip on his sword and then looked around to find it as he managed to get up. He widened his eyes as he saw blood pouring out of his mouth like scarlet rain to the ground, forming a thick, red puddle before him.
There was a large igneous rock in front of him, and he tried getting up while using it as support, as that hit from the monster had taken a lot out of him. He briefly wondered why the attack hurt him this much when starting the game could heal his crushed foot just moments earlier.
Then he looked back, widening his eyes further as he saw the large axe spinning in his direction. The goblin had thrown it at him just now, and right on time, he jumped out of the way, leaving the axe to strike the large rock, causing it to crack into pieces.
Kazuya frowned as he observed this, wondering how powerful of an enemy he was dealing with. After looking around once more, he managed to find his sword somewhere close to the burning village. He got up as quickly as he could, ignoring the immense pain from his injured back to get his sword on time.
Thankfully, he got to his sword first before the large goblin could come for him. As it brought down its hands for Kazuya, ready to tear him to pieces upon contact, Kazuya swung his sword at it, giving a minor cut to the giant's palms.
The hurt from the wound caused some hesitation to grab Kazuya, and he took the chance to get out of harm's way before the creature's hands could get a hold of him.
Kazuya looked at the beast, sighing heavily, not knowing what else to do from here. He knew he was lucky to have escaped getting crushed, torn, or pulverized by the creature's grasp, and at this rate, he would be lucky to survive another minute against this monster.
The goblin went to get its axe, wanting to put an end to this once and for all. It found the axe lodged into a large chunk of the now-shattered igneous rock. As he pulled out the weapon from the rock with force, a small piece of it got into one of its eyes, causing it to groan as it tried to clean it off.
This caused Kazuya to wonder: Even though its eyes were blazing with flames, they were still prone to some regular inconveniences, just like other regular creatures.
"That's it!" Kazuya whispered to himself as he got an idea of what to do. He was going to take advantage of that weakness and hopefully take down the monster with it.
But it was going to be a risk—a big one. For this to work, he would have to get close enough to the large goblin—likely less than ten feet from it—without dying. This felt impossible, and by all counts, despite his new abilities, it would be suicide, but at this point, Kazuya felt like he had nothing to lose.
In this world, he had already lost everything and everyone he had. So he felt like there was nothing to live for. Life did not feel precious to him anymore—and besides, once this is over, he will be back in the real world, and none of this will matter anyway.
Meanwhile, the creature had already armed itself with the axe and was ready to lunge at Kazuya.
Knowing what he had to do, the young man swung his sword in all directions around him, getting ready to run at the giant with all the courage he had. As he readied himself, his body got charged up, and he felt a lot more powerful than before. Scarlet flames burst through his body, and his eyes glowed brighter in red.
At this point, he had forgotten that it was all just a game, and if it occurred to him, it wouldn't matter, as avenging his family was all that mattered to him right now, more than anything.
Like David running towards Goliath, he ran towards the beast, which was also running towards him with its axe. It swung the axe at him with a roar, and by an inch, Kazuya dodged the attack, spun around, and countered by throwing his sword at it.
Kazuya's sword spun several times before lodging itself into the creature's eyes, going through its head and bursting through from the other side, causing blood to spill profusely from the back of its head.
Within seconds the large creature was about to fall, so Kazuya swiftly made way for it, and it fell face down to the ground, causing it to tremble upon impact with Kazuya's sword still pinned into its head.
Kazuya took a deep breath, and with mixed emotions, he let out a loud cry, trying to express them all at once in the only way he knew how.
Then, in exhaustion, he fell to the ground, lying flat beside the dead animal as he faced the sky, breathing heavily as the rains became heavier, causing him to close his eyes immediately.
After a few minutes, he got up from the ground, unhinged his sword from the monster's head, and walked with it in hand to see what remained of his wife and child.
When he finally got to the place where they were, he resisted the urge to vomit, barely being able to stand seeing them with their insides exposed.
Vultures had begun to colonize the place like it was their playground, and Kazuya angrily chased them away from there like they were sentient enemies.
The rains had gotten heavier, doing a great job of putting out the fires that consumed the village, turning it from looking like a burning hell to looking like a wet yet barren wasteland.
He took his wife and child's remains to a spot behind his home, and then, grabbing a shovel from the toolbox in the backyard, he started digging. He dug two graves and buried the two of them there.
Under the heavy rain, he mourned for them there after the burial for the rest of the night, until the following daybreak.
- - - - - - - - - -
Eventually, before daybreak, the storm was over; the rain had stopped and the clouds had cleared off. Without the sound of thunderclaps and raindrops clashing against surfaces, the entire village fell silent, with no sound coming from anywhere.
It was a new day. The skies were now turning from dark to violet and from violet to cyan as the sun kept rising in the eastern sky. By geographical standards, it was a beautiful day after a stormy night, but from Kazuya's perspective, it was the exact opposite.
He remained where he was, sitting next to their graves, with regret and guilt plaguing his mind. He was playing out multiple different scenarios in his head of how last night's events would have turned out better if he had made better choices back then.
He had thought of different ways he might have prevented the tragedy of the last night from happening, thereby coming up with different ways to punish himself mentally for not being all-knowing about the situation.
He sat there before the graves, mourning and sighing. His mind was plagued with agony and pain, and his thoughts were going into a dangerous spiral.
Nie, it was not just guilt and regrets that were plaguing his mind, but multiple theories and questions as to why and how last night's events happened...
What were those goblins after?
What motive did they have for coming after a human village?
How could they have been so coordinated to attack the village like that?
He felt like these thoughts and feelings would continue to consume him until he lost his sanity—which he would not mind!
It was at that moment that a young boy's greeting brought his downward spiral to a halt.
"Hello," greeted the little masculine voice.
Kazuya looked around but could not see anybody. He then shrugged himself, starting to believe that he was beginning to hear things due to his several hours of grief.
But the voice came up again with the same greeting.
"Hello," greeted the young masculine voice for the second time, causing him to look around like a paranoid man who was searching for ghosts.
"Who is that?" Who is there? "Show yourself!" Kazuya said out loud like a madman. "Show yourself, I say!" he cried out angrily.
"Alright," the voice replied, "above your head."
Kazuya looked up and gasped when he saw a bright little boy, barely a foot tall, floating right above him like a fairy.
Upon seeing this, he fell to the ground, disoriented, looking around for his sword. When he found it, he pointed the weapon at the dying little creature, stunned and upset.
"Who are you?" asked Kazuya, breathing heavily and barely standing.
"Welcome to Scarlett Online. I am your digital guide for the game. "What would you like to call me?" it said to the disoriented Kazuya, who was so emotionally unstable that he didn't know how to react to this.