Chapter 11 - Pain

Moved by Ishikawa's silent plea, Kaito acts without thinking.

With ruthless determination and surprising speed, he leaps toward the head of the leading goblin, swinging the tip of his pickaxe in a ferocious blow.

Time seems to slow down while he is in the air. Kaito can feel his own heart pulsing with adrenaline, driven by the desire to prevent Maya from becoming another victim of the Alpha. Still, a selfish thought pops into his head.

'What the hell am I doing? My class is Villain, I should be running away now, not trying to save someone!'

But it is too late to turn back.

The top goblin, with red tattoos in circular patterns on his chest, is completely taken aback by the sudden attack and tries to react, but it is too late. The tip of Kaito's pickaxe hits its target hard, striking the enemy's head with devastating force. A loud crack echoes through the scene as the leading goblin's head is pierced by Kaito's weapon. Dark red blood spurts from the wound and the Alpha's body crumples to the ground.

The thud of the Alpha's massive body echoes through the scene. The ground shakes and cracks form around the point of impact.

Thanks to the adrenaline, Kaito quickly notices the advance of the other two superior goblins. He quickly spins his pickaxe and tries to attack, but the first one of them hits him easily, throwing him back several meters until he collides with a series of pointing rocks. At that moment, Kaito felt his entire body shake from the pain and impact, but he refuses to give up. He stands up, clenching his teeth in pain and his legs shaking.

'I can't beat them... Of course, you can't... One more blow like that, and I will really die.' Kaito thinks and stands upright with the help of the pickaxe.

To make matters worse, the Alpha started to get up again at that moment. The blow with the pickaxe was powerful and certainly effective, but not enough to kill such a high-level Transcendent. Kaito feels the throbbing pain spreading through all his limbs and his mind threatens to black out, but he resists. Now that he is thinking more logically, his focus is solely on the mission at hand: to survive.

Against all odds, Kaito knows that there is no way out of this fight, so if he wants to survive, he must fight.

So he pushes himself forward, swinging the pickaxe once more. Now that he is weakened, he must defeat the Alpha Goblin in order to have any chance of emerging victorious.

Immediately, the other two upper goblins stand in front of him, forming a wall of protection for their leader. Breaking through such a barrier would be easily comparable to the difficulty of climbing the highest mountain in the world with one's bare hands, something humanly impossible. But Kaito is no longer human.

He holds the pickaxe firmly in his right hand and waits until the last second to decide what to do, hoping to react to the goblins' movement faster than they can hurt him.

One of the goblins sees Kaito approaching and moves toward him with closed fists. This is the same one that hit Kaito before, so he is confident that he can kill it this time.

Kaito watches as the goblin bends his torso forward, his eyes narrowing as he tries to think of a way to get past this monster. If he had the skills he had in Mortal Tower, this would be like taking candy from a child, but he doesn't even have 100 bronze coins to purchase the Skill Usage Guide, so all he has for a weapon is his pickaxe.

As the upper goblin strikes in his direction, Kaito ducks as he runs, almost losing his balance, but he narrowly slips under the monster's left fist, which immediately attempts a right jab that Kaito miraculously dodges.

However, as he moves to the right, Kaito finds himself facing the second superior goblin, who tries to grab him with his powerful hands. The top goblin's palms close in one swift motion, attempting to crush Kaito as if he were an insignificant insect.

Kaito does not want to be caught so easily. With impressive dexterity, he slides between the legs of the second top goblin and slips out of its grasp.

He quickly stands up after the slide and assesses the situation. He is now behind the two upper goblins, and his eyes glow with grim determination when he sees that their Alpha is still on his knees. He lunges at him, taking advantage of the surprise caused by his skillful dodge. His pickaxe moves in a smooth motion, and he concentrates on using as much power as he has. Veins appear all over Kaito's right arm, and the pickaxe in his hand draws an arc in the air, aiming directly at the skull of the leading upper goblin. With a quick and precise movement, the tip of the pickaxe finds its target, or so Kaito sees. The expected image of the enemy's blood gushing once more is clear in the boy's mind, but it does not come true.

Fate plays a cruel trick on Kaito. Before the pickaxe reaches its target, the goblin leader acts with astonishing speed. With overwhelming strength and speed, he grabs Kaito's right arm, preventing the pickaxe from reaching him.

A shock of pain shoots through Kaito's body. The Alpha closes the large hand around the boy's right arm and pulls as hard as he can, ripping off Kaito's arm with indescribable force.

Kaito lets out an anguished cry as his member is torn from his body.

"ARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The leader of the upper goblins, enraged, holds Kaito's arm in his powerful hand as he gasps for breath. A sadistic smile forms on his face as he takes advantage of Kaito's agony and desperation.

"Huf... Huf... Etuud ita." The monster mutters.

There is no blood gushing from Kaito's wound and even though he is in unbearable pain for any living being, his instincts drive him to resist. He uses some of his remaining strength to leap to the side and free himself from the enemy's grip.

The pain is intense, but Kaito keeps his mind sharp.

On the other hand, the Alpha, frustrated by Kaito's brief moment of escape, moves forward with even more ferocity than before, only the monster runs incoherently, slowly, like a stunned animal.

'SOMETHING! I really hope that since I became a vampire, this thing will regenerate!' Kaito thinks as he feels the pain of a torn limb quickly fade away. 'But instead of thinking about that, I have to think about how I'm going to survive this...'

Kaito looks over his shoulder and sees that the other two upper goblins are also running toward him.