Instantly I spent my skill points towards Elementalism, my most effective battle skill, making it reach level 11 and, as expected, I unlocked a new talent.

Advanced options

You add the options of extra intelligence and extra skills to your available pool of elementals' modifications. You can now have up to two modifications. Advanced options cost more than basic.

And then, naturally, I started running towards the forest. Putting all my effort in escaping.

What's that you say? Your resources are full from the level up? There are no goblins you say? Yeah, there's also no Keros, no traps, only 2 minutes remaining on the inscriptions and only 5 minutes for the elementals. I judge I have a whopping 0.05% chance of actually winning.

Looking over my shoulder I noticed a slight problem with my choice. The boss was faster than me, closing the distance by the second.

I jumped to my left, dodging the axe that swiftly swooped downwards. Landing with a tumble, I instantly shot up again in a single, fluid, motion as I slightly changed my direction so as to slowly end towards the devastated clearing.

Since the boss was faster plan A had failed miserably. But with his size and bulging muscles, I doubted that it was more agile. After all, I did usually manage to dodge His attacks when I put my stamina to it. Ergo, his mobility should, in theory, be much worse than me in this place full of holes, fallen trunks, and natural traps.

I jumped on top of one of the fallen trees and turned to look towards the boss. While he was crossing the ruined terrain much easier compared to what his appearance would lead you to believe, he was still slower than me. And more importantly, much slower than the Rad-kuns. Which seemed to cross the upheaved soil like it was a natural part of them, allowing them to keep up with the goblin and even find the time to strike some blows.

As the brute turned towards the Rad-kuns, exposing his back to me, I finally found the opportunity to set plan B into motion.

Thankfully my aim was true as the dart buried itself directly behind the boss's knee. From the total absence of any reaction I could easily tell that it actually didn't do any damage, but at least, part of the armor there broke off in pieces. If I couldn't escape him due to his speed, I would make certain to lower his speed first. Plan B, commence!

It took nine darts, well six that actually hit, to strip the leather armor from his leg, and in the meantime, he had already decimated three out of the four Rad-kuns. But now, with his actual flesh exposed, it was time for the big guns, the three remaining soul-infused ones. I threw the second one even before the first one exploded, and the two consecutive blasts did indeed manage to, finally, do some real damage to him. As the boss turned to start to chase me, I was already running towards the forest. Plan B was proving a success!

The goblin slowly hobbled through the clearing when he let loose a bloodcurdling scream. And then I literally froze. A fear that I had never experienced before rooted me on the ground, just a few meters away from salvation, as the giant monstrosity, with its face twisted in rage, slowly hobbled towards me while dragging his axe behind.

I never signed for a horror game devs! Where's my fantasy genre!

I was already panicking as I was looking over my options, till my eyes stuck on one of them. Praying that it'll work, I enveloped the boss with the same illusionary fires I had used on the wolf before. Goblins don't deserve animal rights after all.

His scream of pain once more echoed loudly in my ears, but it took him only a few seconds before turning his stupid eyes towards his flesh to realize that he wasn't actually being burned. His scream echoed once more as his eyes shone red now, full of rage.

"Ahhhh, now I see! You wanted him to be fully enraged before you gave it your all. To fight him like a true man! Truly admirable!" Avon shouted excited, his voice echoing even above the screaming goblin. Unfortunately, his and the goblin's voices were too loud for my own, quite vile, curse towards Avon to be actually heard.

The boss lowered his shoulders as he started charging towards me now, his leg wound rapidly closing as he was radiating a full red aura by this point. And finally, the fear broke. All too late for me to now actually survive. Splinters erupted from his axe when it landed on the trunk I was standing one second ago, just before I jumped away. And brand new craters started appearing on the loose soil wherever his axe landed as I was now desperately trying to not get hit. The good thing was that, at least, the pain from the flames that were still raging on his body actually made him flail madly with no consideration for actually aiming those attacks properly.

It took everything I had to actually dodge the direct attack, and yet, my actual health kept dropping even from the stray splinters and stone shards that kept spraying from wherever his attacks hit, making me pretty sure that a single attack as enraged as he was at this point, would actually kill me.

I lost track of the time, all my attention focused on rolling, jumping, and tumbling, all with my life on the line. And as predicted, the flames died much before the actual rage. And suddenly his attacks were not only vicious but accurate as well. Two of them just glanced me slightly, and just like that sixty of my hp were already gone.

I'm bloody gonna kill you, you ugly mutt. Damn! The more I fought, the more I actually wanted to kill that thing instead of escaping. It made no sense!

Finally, the red aura subsided, and with that, the boss stood still, trying to catch up his ragged breath. Which proved to be the best opportunity for me to actually fish the healing potion from my inventory, drink it, and throw my last soul-infused dart on his leg once more. To my dismay, it seems potions didn't instantly restore your health, just massively enhanced your actual regeneration for a short amount of time. Seeing the much swallower wound this time, with him constantly regenerating, the only solution that could come in my mind was actually having a ranged attacker to slowly wilt him down as I tried to kite him in the clearing like before. But my only ranged elemental was the water one, and I could see no water around.

Or...

I pulled one of the few remaining monster stones I had and pressed it on the blood that was covering almost all of my armor by this point, choosing extra power and extra skills as the options for a water elemental.

-15

I felt even more blood being drained from my chest, bleeding out of my open wounds, as it was added to the growing, huge, blood drop.

"Nintytwopercent-chan GO!" I shouted as I let my own scream join the chorus of a roaring goblin and a cheering dwarf. And as soon as the blood-red water elemental fully formed, I felt a massive amount of energy leaving me. Something even more than the substantial 25 mana cost of it.

You've gained the Soulstone enhancement mastery Talent: Soul infusion

Soul infusion

By adding your own soul to a soul-infusion talent you align it perfectly with your self, making it much more potent, at the cost of the provided soul. Requires your own blood as a catalyst. Costs 20% of level's xp, grants bonuses comparable to the xp provided.

Current xp cost: 1400, Current surplus xp: 1490

What? No! Go away wasteful talent, give me my xp back!

I'm gonna stab you and stab you and stab you till you'll... Crap! Why the stray thoughts again!

Judging from the fact that the goblin was once more running towards me, I calculated that it had about five seconds downtime after his rage ends and started running towards the clearing once more. Each step was harder and harder, not only because fatigue was slowly creeping in, but also my own impulse to just go and duke it out with the boss, or actually do some damage to it, kept increasing. Looking at my character screen while running, trying to find out any debuff or something like that, I suddenly paused and blinked in disbelief. The urges were coming every time my own rage meter ticked up, reaching nearly 90/100 by now. Well, system, thank you! You're so helpful trying to get me killed!

Meanwhile, 92%-chan, which was promptly renamed to Vampy-chan, was throwing blood drops to the goblin. Or, looking closer, the blood drops were actually flying from the goblin towards the elemental, and she absorbed them through her outstretched tiny hand. The boss seemed to keep ignoring her, and frankly speaking, her attacks didn't seem to do much either way. At least I've found an easy way to clean my armor, which was now completely blood free! But seeing as I actually managed to form her from blood, another, potentially equally useless, idea popped into my head.

I run towards the edge of the clearing, close to where Keros had butchered the minions, until my eyes found what I was looking for. And I started dashing through the pits and the holes, picking up the stray rusty daggers that had been left by the dead goblins. But before I even had enough, the boss's roar once more rooted me in fear. Watching my dead once more marching towards me, I was finally pleasantly surprised as Vampy chan stretched her arm and pointed towards him. He screamed in pain as blood started gushing out his open wound, actually falling on the ground as the blood kept pouring out.

With the fear broken, and the boss still on the ground, I finally managed to gather enough daggers to actually try to summon an elemental out of them, not forgetting to use yet another of my monster stones. Thinking briefly, and remembering that death actually resets you to the start of the level, I even dipped the stone into one of my open wounds, knowingly this time activating my new talent. Obviously, once more, I went with extra power and skills, which seemed like the best combat options by far. A lump of shining silvery, almost illuminating, metal, with brown patches of rust animated from the small pile of daggers as it charged towards the boss.

Before the giant goblin could even stand up, Rusty-kun was already on his face, having transformed one of his hands into a metal spike and the other into a metal shield. The boss finally stood up and tried to bypass the elemental, but it emitted a shrieking noise, like metal grinding on metal, forcing the brute to turn and face him. Seeing as, finally, the boss allowed me a breather, I reinscribed my dagger and lamented the fact that I had nowhere near enough mana to actually renew the, void now, inscription on my armor as well.

Even though Vampy-chan had plenty of time remaining, she seemed to have slowed down considerably after her last attack. But instead of looking tired, she looked more like... full? In the blink of the eye, she transformed into a big blob of blood that flew right on to me, entering me through my numerous open wounds. I felt the impulse to slay the boss finally managing to win over, as untold strength rushed into my veins and my wounds started closing.

Blood elemental used Transfusion. You heal 70hp over 10 secs. You gained Hobgoblin's blood.

+10 Strength, +10 Constitution, -10 Intelligence, -10 Wisdom, increased damage with heavy weapons, +4 natural armor, unable to use mana, unable to retreat, unable to refuse challenges.

Duration remaining: 8:12

I rushed towards his turned back and plunged the stone dagger right in its middle, making both armor and flesh explode as I activated it. I stabbed and slashed at the exposed flesh, and as he spun around, using the same move as he had used in the previous battle to swipe all enemies around him, I finally got to use my new dagger attack, Retreating strike, which was exactly what the name said. A quick attack with a 10sec cd, that launched me a few meters backwards in a tumble.

Kill, kill, kill, kill

Still, my attacks were enough to draw its attention once more. Watching his pale, from blood loss, face and his pained expression, I activated yet another talent I had never played before with, Resist Pain from Toughness, which would theoretically massively reduce the damage I would suffer, but also deplete half of my, now full, rage bar and it had a full day cooldown. And for the first time since I've seen the boss, I actually started to fight him for real, trading blow for blow, axe swing for dagger stab, blood for blood.

Even with Resist pain, each of his hits still rewarded me with a fancy -15 number popping in front of my eyes. I could tell that Rusty-kun, mercilessly hitting with both his hands as spikes at the unarmored leg was actually hurting him as well, and with my newfound power, I could feel even my own attacks connecting with his flesh, managing to break through his armor relatively easily.

The thrill of the battle, the urge to win, the concentration to give it your all for this single moment, all of them had shut the rest of the world outside. Now, there was only the duel. As soon as Resist pain ended, the only difference was the -15s were replaced with -31s. But for the most part, My mind disregarded that. I could feel his motions before they began, I remembered his patterns as I dodged, and jumped backwards to avoid his strikes, and I could remember where I had hit last, weakening his armor, to aim for the same spot. My field of vision encompassing the terrain slights, to avoid, the elemental's strikes, to provide opportunities, my resources, to maximize my abilities. There was not a single stray thought, my mind completely focused.

It was refreshing. It was exhilarating. It was... nostalgic. A feeling from eras long past, when I was fighting dragons, when I was clearing valleys full of enemies that should have trampled me, when I was... having fun.

I watched his axe falling towards me, and I dodged towards the back, having already seen the slight bump in the soil that I should avoid. But my body didn't move as my brain told it, maybe lacking energy, maybe lacking skill, making lacking something else, or simply due to my luck, my foot scraped the soil, causing me to lose my balance, and stumble for a split second, just enough to see the shiny edge of the axe coming down.

You have died.

The energy that has not yet been incorporated to your soul leaves you. Your xp resets to the start of the level. Skill xp resets to the start of their level. Your bonded equipment takes damage. Your soulbonded equipment takes heavy damage.

When I opened my eyes, instead of the church, I found myself in the same clearing; with a towering dwarf looming over me this time instead of the Hobgoblin.

Every single speck of the elation I felt before had left me. I was feeling like a deflated balloon, simply tired, almost devoid of any emotion, not even rage towards the stupid frowning God in front of me. Scratch that, a single look at his stupid face was all it took to flare up my anger once more.

"AHHHHH! Congratulations! That finale was worth your early embarrassing attempts to flee. You were disappointing you know. I wonder how a spineless chicken like you managed to grab my attention previously... But as I said, that grand finale was like someone else was fighting. Those moves, those strikes back and forth, a true battle! A real thriller! Maybe if you had fought like that from the beginning you would have been the one to land the final blow, the Hobgoblin didn't have much left in him when he killed you either way."

"You! You giant midget! I'm going to fucking kill you!"

Unexpectantly, the dwarf removed his helmet and looked me straight in the eyes. His smile fading as he looked over me.

"Hmm? I would have ended it there. A bad miscalculation of my poor judgment. Not enough to warrant any punishment, since you did fight in the end, but not nearly worthy of any reward either. But..."

And he suddenly burst out into thunderous laughter.

"BUT I WAS RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING! You challenge me, the God of War to a duel to the death?! As expected of the one I noticed! Truly worthy!"

Eh? What was the fatass talking about?

"I ACCEPT! Obviously, not now, since you are getting run over by a hobgoblin and all, but come again when you're like a hundred or some more levels and I'll duel you anytime! Don't chicken out when you're ready. I don't accept people running away from issued duels!"

Event Completed. Completion 30%.

You managed to satisfy Avon's battlethirst but failed to win the battle.

Rewards: 500xp, Reputation gain with Avon

"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU IDIOT!!!" I shouted towards nothing, as he had already disappeared, leaving only his laughter echoing in the clearing.

You've gained the Hatred control Talent: Deep hatred

Deep hatred

You have something that you truly hate. By focusing on it and summoning his image in your mind, you can draw up your anger at will. Gain 100rage. Cooldown 10minutes.

With nothing to focus my rage on, I quickly snatched the bright, fist sized, stone of the boss that laid close to where Avon stood previously, its body neatly cut in half, and then started searching the woods for where the crystals of the minion goblins were. Even with tracking and eight Dirt-kuns assisting, we only managed to find fifty-two monster stones even after searching for nearly half an hour. And at that point, I actually got a message from Keros.

"Do not worry friend. I'm almost done marshaling the troops over here. I assume you did the same with the people on the human lands as well, right?"

"Err... what?"

"We need to take the new warlord down before he summons more goblins or everything will be for naught!"

"Naught? Really now? Couldn't you use a different word? Also, Warlord's dead. No need."

"What??? You managed to kill him by yourself? You're awesome!"

"...I died. Avon killed him."

"Ah! As expected from the War god. Swift justice!"

"What the fuck are you talking about??? Justice? HE SUMMONED HIM!"

"We probably can't see the bigger picture. A God wouldn't move for nothing. There is always a reason."

"Preeeeetty sure he was just bored. Anyways, gathering stuff here and will come find you at the elven village if you're still there to give you your share."

"What share? Oh! The goblin stones. I totally forgot about those. Thanks dude!" Heh, it seems his excitement forced him to drop the persona.

The main problem was actually the daggers, which seemed to be the only thing of monetary value that those goblins had left behind. Even with those I destroyed to make Rusty-kun, there were still over forty daggers left, and with each of them actually taking an inventory space, it was impossible to stick them there. Hoping that the elven blacksmith would at least buy the raw rusted iron, I replaced my eight Dirt-kuns with four Rusty-kuns with what I would call the exploration mode, which obviously was hour long and 50% power boost. That took care of about half of the daggers. For the rest, I just removed my shirt and made a very crude bag and dropped them in, obviously destroying the poor shirt in the process. But if they sold at the same price as Grinea, that would still be a massive profit even with that cost.

With the gathering done, there was only one thing left to do on my way to the elves. That was to take revenge and my blood back from all the filthy goblins that I would encounter. This time, feeling the need to physically inflict harm on the critters, and to actually train myself more, I didn't even use any consumables. Raw force (always paired with inscriptions cause I was actually weak) and the trusty Rusty-kuns, who unfortunately only had that spike hand and not the shield one or the taunt, was all that was needed to dispatch the green menaces, at least the four packs that I've found on my two hour trip towards the elves.