Ch.39Goblin Village (4)

After losing one of my weapons to an attack from a mid-level enemy hiding among the Paris cavalry, I lost my balance and crashed to the ground.

—KWAAANG!!!

Despite falling from a height of 11 meters—said to be where humans experience the greatest fear—landing waist-first, I rose immediately without much shock and hurriedly threw myself sideways.

—KWAAAANG!!!

Because immediately after, a mid-level goblin cultist plunged his spear downward like a meteor, striking exactly where I had just been lying.

A sharp, precise thrusting attack. If I had hesitated there even for a moment, my helmet would certainly have been pierced. I quickly adjusted my posture and swung my sword.

—CHAENG! CHAENG! CHAENG!

Somehow, the goblin had already retrieved his spear from the ground and was now parrying my slashes. As we exchanged several blows, each aiming for the other’s flesh…

With eagle-eyed focus, I scanned this goblin, trying to assess his capabilities.

Compared to an ordinary goblin, he was nearly 1.5 times larger, standing at 140 centimeters.

He wore scale armor made of small, densely connected metal plates, and on his head was a helmet resembling a steel snare with bull-like horns and eye holes.

His only weapon was a sharp spear with the spearhead and shaft forged from a single piece of metal, with some sticky, mucus-like substance oozing from the blade.

Despite this unimpressive appearance, this goblin’s combat prowess was more formidable than any being I had encountered so far…

‘What the hell is this creature…?!’

—CHAENG!

Fighting this mid-level cultist goblin, I experienced for the first time being outmatched in a direct contest of skill.

In terms of pure specs, I should be able to completely overwhelm this goblin.

The terrifying combination of “Ogre’s Brute Strength” + “Troll’s Brute Strength,” enhanced by aura reinforcement and residual power increases, plus the “Strong Bone” trait that made my physical robustness comparable to orcs, a naturally warrior race.

In contrast, the goblin before me, though strengthened by aura and sacrificial power beyond a typical mid-level goblin, was still limited by his small 1.4-meter frame—how strong could he really be after enhancing such a tiny body?

Even his spear, while a reasonable 2.5 meters in length for a polearm, was proportionally a pike relative to his stature, which should make it unwieldy for him.

In short, despite both being mid-level, the gap between this goblin and me should be insurmountable…

Yet I was struggling to land an effective hit on this small goblin.

—TEONG!

“…!”

No, it would be more accurate to say the goblin was repeatedly landing effective hits on me.

Every time I thought I had blocked, his spear would somehow strike my armor again. The goblin’s movements were completely out of sync with mine, making his irregular attacks all the more alien.

But if I had to identify the most dangerous pattern in this cultist goblin’s movements, it would have to be the frequency with which his spear attacks came.

The speed of each individual thrust wasn’t particularly difficult to parry, but the problem was how quickly the spear returned for the next attack, at a speed I couldn’t counter.

Normally with polearms like spears, after thrusting forward, one must withdraw the weapon before attacking again…

But judging by the equipment and appearance of this mid-level goblin cultist chief, his spear technique seemed physically impossible… the speed at which he retrieved his spear was more than twice as fast as his thrusting speed.

As I repeatedly took hits from these impossibly quick consecutive thrusts, I began to understand what was happening with the goblin’s hands.

In this world, when someone masters a skill beyond a certain level, mysterious energies like “mysticism” and “mana” become involved, resulting in magical phenomena.

For example, a mid-level sculptor’s creations might seem to move as if alive, or a singer’s melody and lyrics might manifest physically, producing “magical” effects.

This applies to warriors too—through physical training and martial arts, one reaches a certain level and awakens their aura…

And beyond that, skill (martial arts) can manifest as magical phenomena using aura as a medium.

Commonly considered the exclusive domain of high-level beings—and indeed it is—this ability essentially allows the ultimate concept of a martial art to be physically manifested through aura.

A martial art inspired by flames might cause fire to erupt when a weapon is swung; one modeled after beasts might manifest animal forms during combat.

Other examples include drawing techniques where the power of unsheathing a sword is amplified, or attacks that seem to strike “simultaneously” in multiple places—these perfect yet bizarre attacks.

Like aura, this power distinguishes between mid and high levels, but unlike aura, it’s not completely inaccessible to mid-level beings…

As demonstrated by the goblin before me, who was using fragments of this power.

‘…Huff.’

The principle behind this mid-level goblin cultist’s spear technique… the core concept was “consecutive attacks,” specifically “consecutive thrusts.”

If he were to reach high-level, these consecutive attacks would evolve into multiple spear thrusts happening “simultaneously,” but as a mid-level being, he could only barely access fragments of that power.

Thanks to this partial manifestation of magical phenomena, the speed at which he retrieved his spear after thrusting was unnaturally fast.

As a result, the moment I blocked one attack, another would immediately follow—a maddening situation where my mind could react to the speed of these consecutive attacks, but my body couldn’t keep up.

…If there was any consolation, it was that the actual damage accumulating on my body wasn’t particularly severe.

First, the goblin’s strength itself wasn’t exceptional, so his attacks were blocked by my aura-reinforced armor.

Second, even if the spear tip managed to slip through gaps in my armor, I could block it with aura projection based on instinct.

Additionally, my body itself had become quite durable thanks to “Ogre’s Hide” and “Strong Bone,” providing significant defensive capabilities when reinforced with aura.

While the immediate situation wasn’t dire, I certainly couldn’t say the battle was going in my favor.

Even an ogre’s tough skin fails to demonstrate its full defensive capabilities against aura.

Therefore, attacks targeting gaps in my armor had to be blocked with aura projection, but the problem was that the amount of aura consumed in this process was substantial.

If I were just circulating aura within my body for enhancement or coating my weapons, I could maintain it for hours, but projecting it outward traded massive consumption for momentary explosive power.

The aura consumed was terribly disproportionate to the momentary power gained. At this rate, if I focused solely on defense, the battle would end with my defeat within tens of minutes.

Knowing this, I had only one option…

‘I have no choice but to…!!’

In short, during these tens of minutes while my aura could hold out, I needed to somehow reach the same level as that mid-level goblin warrior—to at least dip my toes into “the manifestation of magical phenomena through swordsmanship.”

It might sound absurd just hearing it.

But I truly believed in my talent—in the “Sword Demon” trait that had contributed more than anything else to my growth in combat power.

That’s why I judged it worth betting my life on this gamble. Gritting my teeth, my first countermeasure was—

—KWAAAAAAANG!!

‘Retreat for now!!’

Since the current situation wasn’t favorable anyway, I decided to create distance before determining my next move.