Chapter 20 : The present after the past.

Purple sparks of lightning surrounded Rai. She stabbed her sword into the ground, and continued to shout "Electric shockkkkkk".

The goblins around her were met with this purple electric current, frying them in an instant.

"You know you can use your electric power without shouting "electric shockkkkkk", right?" asked Grey, as a hoard of goblins were approaching him. Grey's eyes glowed purple, as he sprinted toward the hoard of the hobgoblin.

Before the hobgoblins in the frontline of the hoard could react, they were cut down before they could even realize their fate.

Icy mist formed around Grey, this mist condensed to form a throwing knife on Grey's hand. Grey Took aim, before throwing this knife towards a hobgoblin that was rushing towards Aetna.

"Thanks," said Aetna. Aetna stretched both of her palms towards the hobgoblins right in front of her and shouted "Magical Flame thrower." As a burst flames shot out of her, burning the hobgoblin in front of her.

She tried her best to shout, but her nervousness got the best of her and the voice that came out was a sweet and slightly inaudible " Magical flame throwerrrr.".

"That's a great name Aetna, it really looked cool." Said Grey as he gave Aetna a thumbs up. In reality, more than cool he found her attempt to shout a name before the attack as cute.

"Wow, that's some difference in treatment." Said Rai, with a sarcastic tone.

*Boom Boom Boom*

It was a series of blasts that was coming from another side of the forest.

"Ah, he is working hard as usual." Said Grey. The source of the noise was Rudi, he was one of the surviving kids from the village.

Rudi raised his hand and then dropped it, with this hobgoblin felt an invincible wall crashing on them. One after another hobgoblins got squished by this wall. This invincible wall was Rudi's power. This power was to bind down air to form a wall, he can freely control this wall to crush his opponent under it.

"There are more ahead." Said Ulrich as he kept his hands on the ground. He is also one of the people who survived the village attack. His power was to speak with nature and control the vegetation around him.

"Roger." Said Grey, "You guys stay here, Rai follow me.".

He moved through the forest swiftly at an incredible, Grey speed was one of the fastest among the bunch. The reason why he is one of the fastest rather than 'The' fastest is because of the existence of Rai.

Electricity sparkled around Rai as she suddenly disappeared from her place, she followed behind Grey closely and at one point they were moving through the forest at the same speed, side by side.

"This commission was set out because these hobgoblins seemed to have killed many humans and raided many villages for food and we are getting a good amount of money to kill these hobgoblins. So I want to ask you a question...…. Are you doing this for money or to save people?" asked Rai.

"A bit of both, we need money to buy Amrit fruit and also to cover our expenses, as we are barely covering our expenses. But... I am also doing this to stop any more casualties among the hands of the goblins." Said Grey, as they both traveled through the forest.

"We are killing hobgoblin's family too, so what do you feel about that?" asked Rai.

"It is sad, but we can't do anything about that. This species of hobgoblins has evolved as a threat to human, rather than normal goblins who hunt their own food this hobgoblin species tend to kill human and raid their belongings as a means or survival. So in this situation, it's kill or get killed." Said Grey.

Rai didn't ask any further, but this time Grey was the one asking the question "So, why are you asking these questions?".

"Because I like to observe you, I want to know what kind of person you are. All the part of you."

"Is that so? We have been together for three years hasn't this been enough time to know each other?" asked Grey.

"No, I want to know you more and more." Said Rai, But her tone was sarcastic as usual.

"Ah, that's some intense feeling. You can confess your crush on me, I am all ears for you anytime."

Rai stopped in her tracks, so did Grey.

"We are here." Said Rai.

They were near the hobgoblin base.

They slaughtered one after another hobgoblin, the number of hobgoblins kept getting fewer and fewer.

Grey thrust his polearm into one of the hobgoblins that rushed at him, as he walked forward. He was met with four hobgoblins, one of them was a bigger goblin that was protecting two smaller hobgoblins.

Besides these goblins, there was also one bigger goblin, but this goblin was shaking as if it was in fear. This goblin also looked like it was trying to protect those two smaller goblins.

'A hobgoblin family?' thought Grey, Grey already came across many hobgoblin families, with kids included. He slaughtered them all without any hesitation.

(Grey's Pov)

A hobgoblin Family?

The big-looking goblins are most likely the parents of the smaller-looking Goblin, I stepped forward as made the blade of polearm ready. My intention was clear, to kill Hobgoblins in front of me.

This is for the best, I have to kill every Hobgoblin. Even if they are innocent, I can't let any further human casualties more.

The bigger female-looking hobgoblin jumped with a sharp stone in her hand, aiming at me.

*Slash*

Grey swung his polearm in one clean strike and the body of the Female Hobgoblin was cut in half. The green liquid flowed out of the dead goblins which flowed towards the tip of the leg of a small goblin.

One of the small goblins roared at the sight of his dead mother and dashed toward to only get killed.

The thing that was strange was that another bigger Hobgoblin hasn't attacked me yet, this hobgoblin is the species that doesn't let go of a grudge and but yet this hobgoblin didn't even take a step to take revenge on me as I slaughtered his partner and kid, let alone protect them.

Looking at the shaking feet of the bigger Goblin it was apparent, it was afraid.

"Seems like you are an exception, unlike your race you aren't you aren't hot-blooded," I said out loud, I stepped forward to end the life of that goblin.

"Huh," I said out loud, the situation in front of me was a weird one. Not only that this Goblin didn't attack me as I killed his partner and kid, it's currently running away from me. Well, I guess I will leave that hobgoblin, I didn't pursue that goblin any further.

After a while, I was done with taking care of all the goblins here.

"Are you done at your side?" I asked Rai.

"Yes, just got done with it." She replied.

We walked out of base without saying anything as we made sure that all hobgoblins were dead. This silence was maintained between me and Rai for a while until I chose to spoke up "I got your hand dirty today.".

It was true, I did get her hand dirty. It was my plan to take on this commission, no one was ready to take on this commission because of the nature of this commission. The hardest part was killing off Kid Hobgoblins and the faces of this kid will haunt me for a while.

"No, you didn't. it was our joint decision to take this commission and besides like you said if we didn't kill these hobgoblins off there would have been more casualties in the future. This was the case of kill or be killed." Said Raid, as she got closer to me.

I stepped closer to her as we walked together " If you say so." I said, she suddenly grabbed my hand. Our fingers were interlocked we walked holding on to each other's hands.

"We can stop doing this if you ever feel uncomfortable." Said Rai, This was a thing Rai suddenly asked me to do. Whenever she stepped closer to me it was like she was saying to hold her hands.

"I will let you know if I ever feel uncomfortable," I replied.

Ah, about the village incident? It's been three years since then.