Chapter XVIII - Goblin King (part 1)

After leaving the hostages group, I leaped from platform to platform and finally landed right in front of the goblin king.

Upon me landing, the goblin king turned his gaze at me with his sinister eyes. His face is very ugly, but I can see the pressure that he emitted simply by staring menacingly at me.

Aside from how fearsome his gaze is, I can tell from his expression that he seemed anxious. He knows that his army is losing, and I bet he was about to make a move before I arrived.

Speaking of the army, everyone is doing really well. There is one troll that moved towards them, but I couldn't bother myself with that troll since I will need to focus on what is right in front of me.

The two gigantic trolls, and the goblin king himself.

Seeing how a challenger appeared before him, the goblin king finally stood up. His height is around 170 centimeters, which is fairly tall for a goblin as that is around my height. He was wearing this thick leather armor and a silver crown, as if saying that he is the wealthiest goblin here.

Right next to his chair is a longsword. From the scabbard alone, I can already tell that the sword must've been really special.

The scabbard is made of this brown red-ish steel, with tons of golden ornaments all around it. There is a dragon head shape at the mouth of the scabbard made out of gold, and connected to the dragon head is what seemed to be a burning flame, also made out of gold.

I'm taking it. That thing looks so damn good to not be looted.

After standing, the goblin king lifted one of his hands up. I thought he was going to cast a magic attack on me, but instead, he just shouted random gibberish. 

God knows what the fuck he's saying, but I can probably tell what he was saying.

'Kill that good looking person with the mask, you ass trolls!"

At least, that's how I imagined it. 

Because right after he shouted those gibberish, the trolls next to him started moving towards me. What he said was definitely a command for the trolls to attack me, and it seems like I will be dealing with two massive trolls first before dealing with him.

Well... this should be a good warm up.

.

"Watch it, Beard!"

Beard immediately dodged the gigantic stone club by dodging to the left. The stone club destroyed the ground he was standing at, but that didn't stop him.

SRESH!!!

SRESSHH!!!!

Beard immediately ran faster to a leg, and he was able to deal some good cuts in. But the troll's skin was a little too hard, so the cuts weren't that deep. If anything, getting a cut itself was considered lucky.

The troll fell down on its knees, but it can stand back up very quickly. Seeing this, Beard let out a pissed sound.

"Tch!! Sorry! Not a deep cut!"

"That's plenty!"

To Beard, that was not a good enough attack. But for Glasses, that attack was enough to make the troll falter, allowing him, who is a magician, to cast powerful magic in the meantime.

Glasses chanted very long words of magic chants, and a huge chunk of ice was summoned right in front of him.

"Ice Shard, Discharge!!"

The sharp shard of ice moved at the speed of a bullet, straight into the face of the troll. But, the ice just shattered like glass after crashing to the troll's face, and the big guy only got a nosebleed from that.

"It got some… tough skin."

Glasses mumbled, which made Beard a little pissed.

"Idiot! Use fire!"

"Shut up and move!"

The battle began once again, and the troll is on the attack this time. It swung its giant club once more and destroyed the land where they stood before. 

"Fireball!!"

BAARR!!!!

BAAARRR!!!!!!

Glasses summoned six fireballs and shot them towards the troll's body, and the explosion was enough to throw the troll away from his club.

Beard wouldn't waste this chance. He ran towards the club, jumped on it, and ran to the edge where he leaped once more towards the troll.

As he leaped in the air, he lifted his sword and got ready to cut. The troll was moving his hands to capture Beard, but Glasses had already finished enchanting. 

ZRRIIINNGGG!!!!!!

Glasses created fast ice spikes at the troll's body starting from its feet, freezing the troll completely. Unable to move, the troll is now immobilized, looking straight at the big blade that is about to cut his face.

"Horyaaaahh!!!!!!"

ZRESSSHHH!!!!!!

The sword cut through the head vertically and went in smoothly as it sliced through. Blood sprayed from the middle of the head, all while the body was slowly falling down to the ground.

BOOM!!!

The troll's body slams the floor backwards, pummeling a couple of goblins that were previously standing behind it.

After arriving next to Glasses, Beard lifted his hand and gave him a high five.

"Great work, Glasses."

"Can you not call me 'Glasses'? I have a name."

"You were literally calling me 'Beard' just now!"

"Then..."

Glasses moved his hand for a handshake, and Beard stared at it awkwardly.

"Farn."

Glasses said, and Beard accepted Glasses's handshake with a grin.

"Jerro."

Finally, they have introduced themselves to one another.

"Captain! I mean, captains?"

"What is it?"

Jerro aka Beard asked the member who suddenly came to them, and the member began explaining quickly.

"We are having problems keeping the goblins in tab. We need your assistance!"

There really is no time to waste. The two immediately separated and helped the army defeat the rest of the goblins.

The fight is not over yet.

At least… for them.

Because for me, it has only just begun.

The first troll threw its giant stone club as a means to attack on range, but I dodged easily without even worrying. 

Oh buddy, throwing your club was a mistake! 

I went for the guy who threw his club. Now that it is weapon-less, it is much easier for me to take it down.

BAARRR!!!!

The troll moved its massive fist to smack me, but I just simply dodged backwards. When it was about to raise its hand, I swung both my sword and dealt some cuts.

SRESHH!!!

BRESSHH!!!

I did multiple cuts to its hand before moving away, and I studied the cuts that I made as I moved backwards.

"Tch… not deep enough?"

Or its skin was just too hard.

The troll held its wounded hand and attacked with its legs. It tried to stomp on me with its massive legs, but I began to continuously slice its legs with my swords, again and again. It didn't take long until its legs were all swollen from fresh blood from the cut wounds. And of course, those cut wounds were rather shallow.

Feeling ashamed of my sword skills, I decided to enhance my hands.

"Haaa!!!!"

BRESSSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!

"HOAAAA!!!!!!--"

Using enhanced strength with my right hand, I sliced its right leg off completely. The troll screamed loudly as it lost its balance and fell to the ground, and I immediately saw an absolute chance I absolutely had to take.

By the time the troll tried to get up, I was already mid air in front of its face. 

JREBB!!!!

With enough enhanced force, I stabbed its head with my sword, and it died after falling to the ground.

I cleared my sword of its blood, and I turned around to look at the second troll.

Now, for the--

…? Huh!?!?

The second troll is now holding two clubs. It picked up the club owned by the dead troll, and now it is dual wielding… stone clubs.

I guess it learned from me that having two weapons is better…? 

Well, don't fucking think it's like that, copy cat! Even though that's valid, how dare you have intelligence!?

I can tell my battle against this second troll is going to be so much harder, so I put on my serious face again and stared at it. The troll is now moving quickly towards me, and it swung one club down at me using its right hand. 

It's moving really fast for its size, but not fast enough for me.

BAAARRRR!!!!!!!!

With its powerful force, it swung its club downwards to the ground where I stood, but I already dodged to the left. 

Using his blind spot, he can't hit me with his left hand if I move to his right. Little did I know that this troll not only copied me, but also copied his friend. 

By the time I knew it, a massive shadow was already looming above me.

What in the--

BAARRR!!!!!!

He threw the club at me.

This fucking copycat threw his massive seven meters long club at me.

It wasn't accurate since it threw the club with its left hand and at a very off angle at that. But, the fact that it landed very close to me alone was more than enough to startle me. 

The explosion caused by the crash threw me backward, and I was able to keep holding to my swords as I got flung backwards.

But by the time I tried to get up, there was already a massive stone club waiting for me right above me.

"Fuc-"

BAAMMMM!!!!!!!!!!

The gigantic stone club was smashed downwards at me, but the impact it caused wasn't as great as it should be. The troll became confused, and it stared at the thing happening below the stone club.

I'm no longer holding my swords, and I managed to drop them before the club smashed me down. As quick as I could, I lifted my hands up before the stone club smacked me in the head, and I was able to place my hand in time.

And now, I have my hands fully holding the club that is continuously trying to crush me.

Still standing right underneath the stone club, I began thinking about how crazy this situation is. I know that I have become so much stronger over the past week, but this is insane. For me to be able to hold back against this much force, there is nothing normal about it.

This is actually very heavy, but not so heavy that it could kill me. Thank god that I have become stronger. Because now, I can survive attacks like this just fine!

The troll was very confused as to how I survived from a smash like that. Even the king stood up suddenly after seeing my raw strength.

Now that I have gathered my thoughts back, I realized now what I needed to do. I moved to the right very quickly, and allowed the massive stone club to hit the ground immediately.

BAARRR!!!!!

The club crashed with the floor and caused a massive amount of dust and dirt to fly in the air.

I grabbed one of my swords near me and I jumped above the club. Realizing that the enemy ant is now on his weapon, the troll releases the club as soon as he sees me on his club, but it was too late.

ZRESSSHHHH!!!!!!

I jumped towards its massive-massive ugly face, and I spared no sense of forgiveness as I swung my enhanced blade.

BAM!!!!!

The headless body fell to the floor while the blood was spilling from its neck. After killing the second troll, I realized now that there is only one enemy left to fight in this dungeon.

I stood back up straight, and I turned my sharp glare at the currently standing goblin king.

He was looking straight at me, and he grabbed the sword that was at the side of his throne along with the scabbard. He began walking down the stairs away from his throne and stood right in front of it. 

ZRIINGG!!!

Without hesitation, he unsheathed his sword and threw the scabbard away, and he pointed the tip of the blade at me. 

Nooo... The cool looking scabbard! Why would he throw that away!?

Well, whatever. I can grab it after this battle.

I turned my gaze back to the goblin king, and I spotted something else that intrigued my interest. 

As expected, the sword owned by the goblin king is actually really good. It's very shiny, as if showing that it was barely used. The color of the blade is a little red brown-ish, the same color as the base material of the scabbard, and it's possibly because of the material that it was made of. The guard of the sword was made of gold, and it was covered in golden ornaments. The handle was made of the same red metal as the blade.

For sure I thought goblins don't really clean up their weapons, but that weapon sure is shiny. It's a long sword, almost as long as mine. Surely, this guy has the best sword I have ever seen since coming to this world.

But in terms of sword skills, however…

That's what I'd like to find out. Because from the pressure alone, this guy is very strong.

The sword I'm using isn't exactly my own. It's the sword I borrowed from the adventurer on the first squad, and it was also a rapier, a much thinner sword that was made mainly for stabbing instead of slashing.

Of course, at the end of the day, a sword is a sword. But this fact alone already worries me, and now I have to use a weapon that I'm not familiar with?

My neck is feeling a little strained, and I can feel the anxiety slowly eating me. This is the first time I am facing such a strong opponent, and this is the first time I will be genuinely fighting to the death.

The goblin king, huh…? The book said that they are good with swords, plus they can use magic. The book also mentioned that some goblin kings also have healing magic, which was even more troublesome, but I hope that just wasn't the case with this goblin king.

I just hope… that I can beat him no matter what abilities he has.

We both looked at each other for a while, waiting for any one of us to start moving. 

Until, the goblin king attacked first.

"Wha--"

SRIIINNGG!!!!

I dodged just in time when the sword was thrusted towards my head very quickly, but it didn't touch me because I moved away.

I kicked the king away and jumped backwards, but he managed to regain his step and jumped at me again with the same speed as before.

His moves are extremely fast… and I let my guard down at the first strike. 

But, not anymore.

FTAAANNNGGGG!!!!!!!!!

I lifted my sword and was able to parry his slash. Seeing that I moved just as fast as he did, the goblin king opened his eyes wide.

It was rather unfortunate that I have no luxury to grin. If I was fighting Jrake, I'd be grinning widely right now since I did surprise him. But he is too dangerous, I will have to fight him with the intent to kill.

FTANG!!!

TAANGG!!!!

FTAANG!!!!

Our swords clashed again and again, and the fight was moving very quickly. His speed matches mine almost perfectly, and to be honest, I am very shocked that a being like him was able to have such good swordsmanship to this extent.

It is not what I expected from a Green ranked monster. Certainly, his rank must've been higher than that.

But sadly, this is still me warming up.

He thrusted his sword at me, but I jumped up quickly and slashed downwards. He was able to read my attack, so he blocked upwards with his sword. 

But I knew he was going to block like that, so from this slashing pose, I turned my hand gesture into a thrust form and thrusted downwards. Using my wonderful acrobatic performance, I was able to change pose mid air.

His sword wasn't ready for that kind of attack, and my blade reached his face very easily.

SREKK!!!

My blade only grazed him… just a little bit.

Despite being taken by surprise by my movement, he was able to dodge his head to the side and avoid getting thrusted right between his eyeballs. And as a result, only a simple long scratch can be seen.

I landed right behind him and formed some distance, and luckily he didn't chase. He only turned around at me, showing the bleeding cheek he had as well as the blood red eyes due to the rage.

Seeing this, a grin finally formed behind my mask.

"Hoo~?"

I let out that sound to taunt him, and successfully changed his expression. 

He is definitely taunted.