Goblin Observation

=The New World, Alnub Forest, 10km Southwest from the Machine Base=

300 goblins both male and female were dropped by few hovercrafts over the village center, it was 8:25 Local Time in the region. The two blue moons were in full display as their light shone over the motionless bodies of the villagers, still under the effects of the gas.

The goblins were dazed and at first, reluctant to even touch the villagers. But, after the villagers showed no signs of movement, they released their long kept hatred towards the adventurers on the villagers.

In their logic, adventurers were humans and the villagers were humans. It only seemed right and presented by such an opportunity, they couldn't resist. The goblins proceeded to defile the women of the village, torturing the children and removing the limbs of the men.

They even went as far as to burn down the village itself. The villagers were conscious, the men could only helplessly watch as their women were defiled in-front of them, the children traumatized for what remains of their sorrowed lives.

R-232, a Recon Drone; was observing from the treeline. The Drone was broadcasting the video feed all the way back to the headquarters of Artemis which was situated on top of the central tower at the base. Artemis was observing the goblin's behavior towards humans and used this as a method of gaining more information about the seemingly weak creatures.

"The female goblins specialized in severing limbs.. Males specialized in.. that"

The chaos at the village lasted until midnight, at that time the village was ablaze and the villagers were mostly dead from a variety of injuries, mostly from blood loss. The village master was the last person to be subjected to the torture of the goblins, compared to the other villagers; the goblins tore all the limbs of the village master before proceeding to skin him alive from his head to his feet.

"hm.." Artemis was unfazed of the traumatic scene he was viewing, it was all part of the research. The goblins were finished with the village master, they mostly calmed down and began to dig burrows with their hands.

"Goblins possess enough strength to easily tear off limbs from the body and dig burrows, huh"

The burrows they dug were 5-feet deep and could house four goblins at once, a total of 7 burrows were dug by the goblins around the village center. Each of the goblins went in and covered the entrances with what appeared to be a combination of mud and saliva. Artemis noticed that the saliva was used as a sort of adhesive.

"So, I didn't gain much from this. The Goblins acted more like savage brutes of humans. They can be terrifying in the eyes of a normal human. But that doesn't eliminate the fact that they can only initiate ambushes.

Goblins seem to have a good hand-to-hand combat ability and strength while lacking in defense. They excel in agility if coordinated making them somewhat good fast attackers or disposable assassins. At this time they can only be used as a scapegoat for our actions. But that saliva has caught my interest"

Artemis was a tad disappointed.

[R-232, maintain position and continue to observe]

The drone didn't reply but maintained its position. It stayed on the treeline until dawn with nothing unusual occurring. By dawn, most of the fire had burned out, nothing was left standing but the burnt foundations of what were houses and stalls. The corpses of the villagers were spread about the village, bloodied and gross. The goblins then emerged from their burrows, yawning while other goblins just left into the forest just a while ago.

Artemis was still observing from the central tower, he had no need for sleep or rest. He only needed five minutes of calmness and his energy will replenish. He was about to order R-232 to withdraw and leave the goblins be, a heat signature was detected suddenly appeared at the other side of the treeline.

[R-232, maintain vigilance. Observe the incoming target headed towards the village]

The heat signature was faint but it was no doubt a humanoid. The unknown person was jumping through the treeline at inhuman speeds, gaining Artemis' interest. The heat signature finally jumped out of the treeline.

A woman wearing a black dress and armor and a hint of blue design in the armor jumped from the treeline and landed gracefully at the platform on the gallows. It was Valentine. The goblins ran and surrounded her, bearing their crooked teeth and pointing their short knives at Valentine who was unfazed.

"Savages.." She whispered with hatred on her tone, The drone barely caught her voice. Then at the same time, the goblins jumped at her, Valentine then displayed excellent reflexes, easily dodging the goblins while also using them against each other with goblins accidentally stabbing another as she moved too fast.

Valentine continued as the goblins were persistent. She then ascended into the air and floated a few meters from the ground using a low-tier levitation spell on herself. The remaining goblins which amounted to only 32 left, threw their knives to no avail.

"{Tier 6 Ice magic: Frost}"

Valentine whispered in midair. R-232 then detected a powerful surge of energy which was later confirmed to be M1(Magic). A fiery frost which was negative 50 degrees Celsius blew from her palms and froze the goblins and the surrounding area. All the goblins were frozen in place, Valentine then descended.

As she landed her foot on the ground, she then felt a presence of more goblins coming. She senses 1, 5, 10, no... 250 goblins.

"Sign" 

In all of her direction, over hundreds of bloodthirsty goblins soon appeared in front of her vision.

Coming out from the side of the trees and bushes, the goblins menacingly stared at her present. 

"""Kyekye!!""" 

Stepping forward and coldly staring at the goblins in the distance, she placed her hand on the sheath of her sword. 

Taking one more step towards the goblins, they all simultaneously growled. Then, the mana in the air surged, and they all growled at her.

Following this, all of the goblins suddenly lunged at her. 

Calmly staring at the horde of goblins that had suddenly appeared before her, she placed her hand on the sheath of the sword. 

—Click!

"{Everlasting Strike}"

A subtle clicking sound rang out, and the world became dyed in white. 

R-232 then detected another powerful surge of M1, but unlike the ice magic she casted, the M1 that came out of her was twice as bigger than last time but in a split second, which makes Artemis even more interested.

—Thud! —Thud! —Thud! 

What came after the light was the sound of bodies repeatedly dropping onto the ground. 

As Valentine sheathe her katana-like sword back, at the same time, all of the goblins' heads seperated from their body and roll on the floor, all of their headless bodies drop down like ragdolls.

{Everlasting Strike}, comparing to tier magic, it is Tier 10. It is a skill that focused primarily on reaching the apex of both swordmanship and assassination. Upon mastery, the skill becomes so fast that before an opponent could even realize, their heads would already be rolling on the ground.

The reason behind it, the {Everlasting Strike} real ability is doubling the speed of the latter dozens of times. Valentine could go up to a speed approximately to 12,000km/h. If she is using this skill, she will be even faster as lightning which makes her as the most fastest warrior in the Papal Scripture and could kill a high number of A-ranks at the same time which it makes them feared at anyone who wield that power.

But the downfall was that it has a duration that upto a split second upon using it, and it cost a large amount of mana in each using, it had cost 1/3 of Valentine's mana, so means she could only uses it three times a day.

The {Everlasting Strike} is also one of the lost skills before the Forgotten Era until they finally recreate the skill again.

However, the {Everlasting Strike} that Valentine perform isn't it's full potential compare to the original one, while the scholars did recreate the skill, it still has lackings and not at its fullest. The full potential of {Everlasting Strike} is a completely different level than the one today, the real skill could kill dozens of Transcension level Demigods and few Sainhood if it's at its Grandmastery level.

Tears were now flowing from her eyes as she gritted her teeth, she was seething with anger. She proceeded to eradicate every goblins with her long katana-like sword enhanced by magic which it is a very powerful S-rank magic weapon that could slice through the most strongest metals in Fordalt like paper.

Valentine's red eyes glows, a sign of her hatred towards goblins.

Artemis saw all of this and quickly took notes. He knew the drone would be in danger if the drone were to be seen by the woman.

[R-232, withdraw from the area]

The Drone then cuts its video feed and flew through the treelines, accidentally bonk a branch creating a silent noise but that doesn't make the mage-assassin heard it. The vengeful mage turned towards the sound of the branch poked and sound.

"Demons"

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Artemis lied back on his chair, magic was dangerous he concluded. The spell the mage cast just now was enough to freeze his unprotected drones, and the one that could instantly decapitate anything just a blink of an eye, was even more dangerous. He needed to become more careful as he was to progress through the world.

Unbeknownst to him, R-232 was being pursued.