From hunter to prey(2)

It had been two days since Mark and Vincent had agreed, but there still didn't seem to be any results, making Mark start to suspect he had misjudged him—at least until that day.

All the guards were ordered to be in the main hall for a special announcement.

Mark could see everyone whispering among themselves, not understanding what was happening. Among the various guards, Mark spotted Vincent in the elevated area, who nodded when he felt Mark's gaze.

'It seems to have gone well.'

After almost an hour of waiting, the hall doors swung open and Narak entered at a steady pace, accompanied by a sleepy Morpheus.

As soon as he appeared, everyone fell silent and immediately cleared the path.

"I see we are all here."

Those were his first words once he stood before the crowd.

"I know you are wondering about the reason for this emergency meeting, but I have received some troubling news."

Narak gestured to Vincent, who looked better than in the previous days.

"A few kilometers from here, me and Mark, the new guard, believe we have found the hideout of the goblins that attacked us."

Immediately, there was a murmur in the background, silenced by a simple gesture from Narak, allowing Vincent to continue speaking.

"Even though I say 'believe,' we are almost certain it is them, based on how they were equipped."

"As he said, this is important information, but I wouldn't have gathered you here just for that. Continue with your theory."

Vincent sighed, resigned to Narak's sarcastic words, and continued.

"We saw the goblins behaving strangely. They were carrying a large number of magic stones inside, and we theorized that they were offering them to the strange hobgoblin that attacked the citadel to heal him."

As soon as he finished speaking, the hall erupted in uncontrollable laughter, finding Vincent's words absurd. In the eyes of the people, monsters were mindless creatures with the sole purpose of killing indiscriminately.

"Huuuaahh... what are you laughing at? It's more than possible."

Morpheus's words left everyone speechless, and even Narak was confused, as he had brought Morpheus only to verify that Vincent was not lying.

"Explain." - Said Narak coldly.

"Although rare... sometimes special monsters called 'mutated' are born... these monsters possess intelligence not inferior to humans... and they can influence other monsters... so his theory is more than possible..." - Morpheus explained in various pauses, seemingly on the verge of falling asleep.

A murmur arose from the crowd at the realization of this possibility.

"I believe it is necessary to eliminate this problem now that it is weakened rather than wait for an uncertain future." - Vincent concluded, seeing that the situation was in his favor.

Narak remained silent as he contemplated. Initially, he had brought Vincent there simply to mock him, but the situation had changed. Narak had no intention of facing that monster again after almost being killed but considering the circumstances, it seemed he had to get rid of it as soon as possible.

"What are the chances it could attack again?" - Narak asked Morpheus.

"I don't know... it could attack, or it might not... but from the way it behaved during the invasion, it seems unlikely."

"Hmm..."

"Boss, think about it. At the moment, the monster is weakened. If we attack now, the chances of success are high."

"That's true. In the coming days, I want a group to thoroughly scout the area and report everything they see." - Narak commanded.

After further discussions, the people who would handle the scouting were decided, and the meeting ended.

When everyone left, Mark approached Vincent, who seemed to have lost years of his life.

"It seems to have gone well."

"Well? I thought I was going to die up there." - He said with a sigh.

"What I don't understand is why he wanted this whole meeting."

"He found my words so foolish that he wanted me to ridicule myself in front of everyone. To be honest, if it hadn't been for Morpheus's intervention, I doubt he would have done anything."

"Seriously?" - Mark said, stunned by Narak's behavior.

"Seriously." - Vincent replied curtly.

With the matter concluded, three days passed during which preparations for the attack on the goblins' lair began. Throughout the citadel, there was an air of tension about who would be chosen to go, as after careful analysis by the scouts, it was confirmed that a large number of people couldn't attack due to the limited spaces.

So, on the day of the attack, a board was posted with the names of the guards who would participate. A total of fifty people, twenty without a blessing, and the other thirty of level 1.

'Hum, it seems I won't have to make up an excuse to participate.'

Mark thought as he looked at his name on the board, but contrary to his relief, Vincent seemed to be having a nervous breakdown.

"Why the hell did he have to choose you?! There are tons of more useless guards!"

"Don't say that, it seems like I'm going to die." - Mark joked.

"Are you kidding? I hope you realize that those without a blessing will be used as simple human shields! What am I supposed to do if you die?!"

"Then hope I don't die." - Mark said, shrugging.

"At least leave me the recipe for the cure!"

Mark openly ignored his pleas, thinking of other things. Unlike him, Vincent had been left out of the mission, which was strange considering he was the second strongest, but someone had to look after the citadel in Narak's absence.

As for Mark, he wasn't too worried. The ring had reached 49% a few days ago, and even though it showed no signs of growth, Mark felt bursting with strength. His goal during this mission was to increase his merits as much as possible to ask for the Selene fragment as a reward, which would solidify after the monster's death. There were, of course, some gaps in his plan, but nothing was perfect.

With the final preparations complete, the troop moved out. Mark could see the terror in some of their eyes, aware that they most likely wouldn't survive, but rather than confront Narak, it was safer to enter a cave full of monsters.

On the way to the gates, there were also various citizens watching them leave, with Narak at the head. Among the crowd, Mark saw Agatha with the children, who waved at him worriedly, which Mark responded to with a small smile to reassure them, even though he wasn't sure it worked.

Once outside, the troop of guards headed toward the target. To save time, they took several carriages pulled by horses much more robust than those he knew.

The entire journey was uncomfortable and bumpy due to the poor state of the ground they were moving on, but on the bright side, they were never attacked by monsters, probably scared by the size of the group.

After a few hours, when the sun was at its highest point, the group stopped a little before the destination, proceeding on foot to limit the chance of being detected. They all moved silently, surrounding the cave entrance guarded by a dozen armed goblins.

At Narak's signal, some guards drew their bows, and after the whistle of arrows cutting through the air, what remained of the goblins were porcupine-like corpses.

"Let's not waste time, get into the positions we planned and enter."

At his command, no one could say anything. Three people would enter side by side. The vanguard was composed of all normal people, the central body of level 1s, and finally, Narak would stay at the back.

'What a joke.' - Mark thought, mentally ridiculing Narak.

Once inside, Mark could see that the tunnel of the cave was spacious enough to move with some freedom, making the others sigh in relief as well.

They proceeded slowly, finally encountering the first group of goblins, leading to the first battle.

The vanguard charged together at the unprepared goblins, killing them as quickly as possible to avoid attracting more.

That first fight ended quickly without anyone being seriously injured, boosting the guards' morale. They continued to advance, occasionally having to choose a branch in the path, but their pace was steady and losses minimal.

/Graaaa!/

/Stab!/

Mark plunged the dagger into the goblin's throat and twisted the blade, creating a huge hole that finally killed the monster.

Looking around, he saw that the others had also finished, but there had been more casualties due to the number of monsters. Of the twenty without a blessing, ten remained, showing signs of fatigue but not low morale.

Everyone expected it to be a bloody battle once inside the cave, but things were going better than expected, and they had already explored many branches of the cave, which was precisely what was bothering Mark.

'Maybe I'm paranoid, but don't you think it's too easy?'

[I won't deny that your expectations were correct, but nothing is certain. The only advice I can give is not to let your guard down. That monster is not like the others.]

'I know—'

"HHAAHRG!"

"H-HOBGOBLIN"

Three hobgoblins emerged from a hidden tunnel and began massacring the vanguard. The central group immediately attacked, but Mark had other things on his mind.

'Why are you coming here?!'

One of the hobgoblins targeted him and began approaching dangerously. Now Mark wasn't so worried about the monster itself since, with his increased strength, he could handle it easily. No, what worried him was the heavy gaze he felt from Narak, who had kept his eyes fixed on him.

'Screw everything!'

Mark drew out his claymore and attacked the monster as if he was desperate. With every strike he made, he had to hold back part of his strength and speed to appear as natural as possible. He also used the pretense of desperation to move erratically and "accidentally" dodge the monster's attacks.

'Now!'

When the monster seemed ready to deliver a heavy blow with its sword, Mark used his claymore to block but simultaneously lifted his feet slightly off the ground.

Without proper footing, his body was thrown back as if he couldn't handle the monster's strength, crashing into the tunnel walls before falling to the ground, inert.

Of course, Mark had barely felt any impact, as he had controlled his body before hitting the wall. All he needed to do was seem gravely injured in Narak's eyes, and his plan seemed to work.

Narak had been watching Mark the whole time. Although Morpheus had assured him that Mark had no blessing, he couldn't shake off this strange feeling. But after watching him perform all that time, he could confirm that, besides having good survival skills, Mark had nothing else.

Finally, the last hobgoblin was killed. The number of the vanguard had dropped to three, including Mark, who pretended to struggle to stand up.

"Let's move on."

At Narak's words, no one protested, and they continued. Fortunately, during the next part of the journey, they didn't encounter more hobgoblins, and the number of goblins they faced gradually decreased, giving them hope that the nightmare in that cave was almost over.

The group proceeded slowly until they reached a wide space and quickly hid. There were several goblins and a few hobgoblins, but the real target was the monster in front of a pile of magic stones.

/CRUNCH! CRUNCH!/

The grotesque sound of the monster chewing the stones could be heard, and the more it ate, the redder its skin became, with black veins becoming more prominent.

The group was contemplating how to approach when a slight creak caused by one of the guards echoed in the space, where the only sound had been the monster's chewing, which immediately stopped.

It stood up, revealing its imposing physique, but something made everyone turn pale. Its arm had already regenerated.

/GRUAAAAAAHH!/

The monster's furious roar alerted the other monsters, who began attacking the group's hiding spot. They tried to escape from the way they had come, but the mutated hobgoblin leaped in front of them and, with a swing of its cleaver, easily split the body of a level 1 guard.

With that monster in front of them and various goblins and hobgoblins behind, they were trapped on both sides.