“Miss, please wake up, it’s not safe to sleep here right now.” Sherry said, trying her best to shake a plump dwarven woman awake from the piles of food she used as pillows in a corner booth.

“No good?” Kassa asked, holding a dull spear in hand.

“No, no matter how hard I try, she just won’t seem to wake up.” Sherry responded, “It’s like she’s in a deep unmovable slumber or something.” Leaving the corner booth, and picking up the dull sword she lay standing next to the booth.

“Yeah Boss, we really can’t move or lift her even a little bit, she’s impossibly heavy!” A waiter shouted to Rayna, giving up trying to move the sleeping woman—along with the other workers.

“Okay, just leave her for now then!” Rayna shouted to them, peeking through the window, “And everyone get ready, they’re coming this way!”

Already having moved most of the tables and chairs to block the windows, the people and workers still inside the Sleeping Forest readied themselves with different types of weapons and magic: from waiters and waitresses, to bartenders and cooks, even a handful of regular townspeople, and some Players too scared to go outside. Then breaking through the double doors of the building, 5 wolves and their goblin riders came rushing in, and following right behind were a few dozen other types of goblins.

“Attack!” Rayna shouted, as all the range attackers shot their arrows and crossbow bolts at the goblins, and flung their magics too. Their attacks did kill a few goblins, but more goblins just came rushing in, and before they knew it the inn was filled with them.

Somehow going unnoticed and sneaking past all the fighting, a goblin spearman grinned widely at the sleeping dwarven woman; tightly gripping his spear, he quietly stabbed it right into the woman’s neck, but the moment it struck, a faint purple magic aura surrounded and protected her entire body.

“Ehehe...don’t do that, that tickles.” The sleeping woman said, casually brushing the spear tip away from her neck, with the attack only leaving a small indent in the woman’s thick skin.

“Kekh?” The goblin questioned, checking if the spear tip was sharp before attacking again, but just like before the woman stayed asleep giggling to herself; with the attack only leaving another small indent on her skin. “Kekh?” Having the same results; the goblin got more and more frustrated and angry as he continued to stab the woman, and even more so when he saw that the woman was not even being bothered by any of the attacks. Too angry to keep himself hidden anymore, the goblin jumped on top of the table, yelling out “Keehk kehk!” Holding his spear high into the air and stabbing it straight down on the woman’s skull.

Noticing the goblin, but being too busy dealing with a different one, Kassa yelled out “Hey, the woman!” Though no one seemed to have heard it in all the commotion. Kassa tried to get to the woman, but she was blocked by a few goblins and people, and she could only watch as the goblin brought the spear down hard. But suddenly sitting straight up from the table, the dwarven woman just barely got out of the way. “Oh thank the Goddesses.” Kassa said, trying to yell to the woman “Hey! Get out of there, run—” Kassa then realized the woman still had her eyes completely shut, and her body was swaying around, “Is she still asleep!?”

The goblin was now struggling to pull out his spear that he lodged into the table, but the woman was still swaying in sleep. Though as the goblin continued to struggle, the woman raised her hand towards the goblin—making him stop for a moment—and then simply grabbing a piece of the food on the table, she began eating it. The goblin tilted his head in complete confusion of the strange dwarf, but letting his guard down, his ankle was surprisingly grabbed, and he was quickly dragged towards the woman.

Unable to break free of the strangely strong grip of the dwarf, all the goblin could do was watch as the sleeping woman mercilessly took a huge bite out of his leg, causing him to let out such a loud painful cry for help, that the whole space was forced to look over for a moment; and what they saw was a horrific bloody scene of a creature being slowly eaten alive, trying its best to desperately escape—its claws and bites doing nothing—and the plump still sleeping dwarven woman eating all the food in her reach. Then when everything on the table was eaten, the still sleeping dwarf began walking towards the other goblins.

***

Waking from the sound of screams from below, and the constant ringing of bells, a boy with dark skin and white hair, and a blonde elven girl both got up and looked outside of their own room’s window, and saw that the town square was filled with people running away or fighting against a large horde of goblins, but most importantly they saw an opportunity to Level Up. The horde itself mainly only consisting of: goblin riders, wolves, archers, mages, hobgoblins, and one extra tall and muscular hobgoblin.

Unknowingly in sync, they geared themselves up, ran out of their rooms on opposite sides of the inn, ran down the mirrored staircases, ignored the mostly dealt with goblins inside, and headed straight outside. The both of them only focused on the taller hobgoblin they saw, its name showing as Hobgoblin Spearman, and it was wearing a decent looking set of hide and metal armour. Heading straight towards it, they watched as it killed two more people with the surprisingly long reach of its spear.

Trying to get its attention, the boy shouted “Fire Bolt!” Sending a bolt of fire right at the hobgoblin’s face.

At the same time, the girl yelled out “Decaying Bolt!” Also sending a black bolt of energy to the hobgoblin’s face.

The two bolts flew out of their hands simultaneously, twirling and intertwining with each other in the air, and accurately hitting the hobgoblin directly in the face—leaving part of it singed, and another partially decaying—and momentarily stunning the hobgoblin with pain.

They both looked at each other in surprise, with the boy saying first “Uhh, I don’t know who you are, but this one’s mine, you should try attacking another one.”

“Excuse me?” The girl said, sounding offended, then asking “And how is it yours, you’re not one of the ones who was fighting it earlier?”

“No, but those guys are all dead.” Pointing to the dead people ahead, “So it’s first to attack who's next, and that was me.”

“Nooo, if it’s first to attack, then it would be me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t you see? My spell hit him first!”

“Get your eyes checked, mine definitely landed first!”

“Nope, you're wrong.” The girl said, refusing to agree; then speaking into her robe, she said “Neeeon, wake uuup.” Less than a second later, a pink light flashed inside her robe, and a small black and pink cat-like creature came jumping out onto the ground.

“You called, Mistress?” The creature said to the girl.

“Neon, can you kill that hobgoblin over there for me, please?” Pointing to the Hobgoblin Spearman that looked to have realized who attacked it, “I wanna see what you can really do in your Incarnate Form.” The boy quietly observed, intrigued by the strange small black and pink creature that appeared out of the girl’s robe, and how she was somehow communicating with it.

“As you wish, Mistress.” The creature replied, standing itself up on its hind legs, with its eyes becoming a solid pink colour, and the inside of its mouth glowing the same. Then rapidly changing, the creature’s body quickly grew some toned muscles, its tails and horns lengthening and thickening, and its hands and feet turning into black razor sharp claws. Standing slightly hunched at 3ft tall, the creature wickedly grinned—showing off its jagged black maw—as it charged straight towards the Hobgoblin Spearman—who was also charging towards them.

Then spotting two Goblin Archers nearby, the girl quickly ran up behind them, grabbed the back of their necks, and said to them “I don't like this Skill, but using it on you goblins doesn’t feel so bad. Dominate.” Instantly dropping them to their knees, the goblins screamed out in pain as a pink magical chain collar appeared around each of their necks, and embedded itself into the neck of the goblins—causing their eyes to glow pink. A few seconds later the pain stopped and they turned to face the girl, kneeling down and looking up at her. Smiling, she ordered them to “Help Neon kill that hobgoblin over there.” As they both nodded and started to shoot arrows.

Watching what just happened, Faust smirkingly asked “Are those your Tamer Skills, Dream?” Figuring out who she was.

“No...maybe, what’s it to you? And how do you know my name?” Dream questioned.

Laughing at the coincidence, Faust said “First one to kill the Hobgoblin has to admit the other one is better.” Casting Mage Armour and Haste on himself; a set of blue magical armour appeared on him, as he ran with hasted movement towards the fight.

Running on two feet and then going onto all four, Faust began to transform; his hair lengthened, white fur rapidly grew all over his body, and the physical structure of his body started to shift that of a bear. And with it the magic armour began to adjust to his new form, and completely changed into armour fit for a bear. Roaring in front of the hobgoblin, he attacked with a flurry of fast bear swipes, the hobgoblin was caught off guard by the bear's quick movement.

Confused for a second and then understanding, Dream laughed, and shouted at the bear “Okay, you're on!” Casting Healing Bolt to Neon, who got hit by an attack.

Only taking less than 1 minute, their attacks completely overwhelmed the hobgoblin, with a magically armoured bear to the right, and an aggressive clawed creature on the left. As well as 2 goblins shooting arrows at a distance, and Dream supporting in the back. And as another minute passed, the Hobgoblin Spearman could do nothing but fall to the barrage of attacks.

Shifting back to human form, Faust shouted “I got the last hit, I win!”

“No way, Neon did!” Dream argued. They both stared at each other, neither backing down, but Dream thought of an idea. “How bout this, it’s 1-1, whoever kills the most goblins wins?”

Smiling, Faust agreed “Deal." Casting Lighting Bolt, and sending a bolt of electricity straight at Dream, killing a weaker goblin sneaking up behind her. “That’s 2-1.” Looking for more goblins to kill.

“Wait, that's not fair!” Dream said, not being ready “Neon go crazy, kill as many goblins as you can before you revert, and tell me the number when you get back.” Then ordering the two dominated goblins to follow her.

“It shall be my pleasure, Mistress.” Neon replied, looking for some prey.

Seeing Dream’s small army, Faust said to himself “Looks like I can’t hold back, it’s basically 1vs4.” Casting Fireball into a huge group of goblins that just entered the square.

***

Overlooking the town square on a rooftop nearby, a hooded woman carefully took in the whole scene: the state of the different buildings, the many already dead or injured, the groups of people and monsters gleefully hunting and killing, the wolves running all around, the slightly diverse types of goblins, and the colourful and chaotic battles still happening.

Having a clear picture in her head, the hooded woman picked out a nice huge rooftop wall, took out an ordinary looking paintbrush out of her Inventory, and began happily painting everything she saw on the empty plain wall. Though after a few minutes of painting, she stopped and waited to see how the picture in the square would change, and started painting again when she saw that it did.

***

Looking at her copper bracelet, the number changed from 0 to 10 as Lavie hid, hearing the man shout out for her “Laaavie! Where are you? I promise I won’t touch you again!”

Lavie thought to herself, “Thank god this is over, I knew the request was too good to be true. 'The mayor wants a female adventurer to help him train to be stronger' What shit, and if he wasn’t the mayor I would’ve taught him a lesson.”

After a minute of hiding, Lavie stepped out of her hiding spot, and thought “Why am I hiding? I finished the request, I can just leave now.”

Confidently walking down the corridor, Lavie reached the large foyer where she entered from, and saw a hooded dwarf hunched over the fully chained up body of the mayor; his head being the only thing unchained—seemingly knocked out—and with a few strangely separate long chains coming from the dwarf leading outside.

Calmly approaching, Lavie asked “Hey, what are you planning to do with him?”

Surprised, the dwarf jumped back and immediately drew his short sword and dagger. “What bad information.” He said, “They said no one was here but the 2 guards outside tonight.” asking “Are you another guard?”

“Look, I’m just here completing a request he put up in the Adventurer’s Guild, now that I’m done...” Stopping to think over her morality, “Uhh, my conscience is telling me I should probably stop whatever you're going to that pig.” Taking out her rapier and dagger.

“You think you can? I’ll have you know I’m a trained assassin.” The dwarf spoke confidently, circling around Lavie “What if I told you I wasn’t gonna do a thing to the mayor? And that I'll be gone in 10 seconds?”

“What do you—” The entrance door slammed wide open, with two guards smashed right through it. Looking back quickly, Lavie saw the dwarf coming at her, parrying his attack just in time and backing off.

At a standstill, they both acknowledged each other's skills, as an enormous armoured goblin stepped through the broken doors—with 20 or so hobgoblins behind him. Lavie quickly noticed that the chains she saw earlier were attached to each of the goblin’s ankles, and realized that the dwarf led them there, but before she could question him, the dwarf was already gone from sight, and that all the chains were now attached to the passed out mayor.

Roaring loudly, the huge armoured goblin led the hobgoblins charging towards the passed out mayor, but readying her weapons and standing in their way, Lavie said to herself smiling “Looks like accepting his request wasn’t so bad after all, this’ll be fun.” Staring the blacked coloured name of the huge armoured goblin, Goblin Chieftain.

***

Standing on top of the western wall was a woman in a full set of shiny plate armour; on her waist was a red waist cloth that hung in the front and from the back, and on top of her face covered helmet was a matching red cloth plume. Drawing her greatsword from her back, she swung it fiercely downwards along the wall—sending waves of ranged sword strikes down at the goblins who were trying to make goblin ladders to make it over the wall.

Then seeing some goblin warriors bringing a log battering ram to break the seared and brittle gate, she jumped from the wall, striking down at the nearest goblin warrior—digging the sword deep into its body and causing one side holding the battering ram to fall. Pulling the greatsword out of the dying body, she leaped off and used Charge; her body moving unstoppably, ramming through a line of goblins reaching some mana spent mages. The goblins quickly surrounded her, but all she did was smile inside her helmet and use Whirlwind. With one magically empowered swing around her, she killed every goblin in reach and more.

Continuing to fight the goblin horde alone, the woman used Whirlwind as much as possible—to cleave down all the goblins near her—and when she spotted some goblin mages casting spells, she immediately used Charge to close the distance and target them first. Though even keeping on her toes, the woman still missed some arrows that hit the gaps in her armour; even still she killed 150, then 200, then 250 goblins single handedly, and was only growing..

“There’s just too many.” She thought to herself, distracted by the goblins now climbing over the wall, and finally breaking and rushing through the western gate. And in that moment of distraction, she was struck in the back by 4 fireballs—sending her tumbling and knocking her down. Stunned from the blast, she struggled to get back up, and still dazed she saw that she was now completely surrounded by goblins all readying to execute her.

Still having the will to fight, she picked up her sword and was ready to keep fighting until the end, but in that moment, she noticed a single bright green arrow flying high above her in the sky. She watched as it flew directly above her, and in an instant it suddenly began to rain down arrows from the sky. Reacting quickly, she used her greatsword as an umbrella trying to block the arrows, but to her surprise, not a single arrow came near to striking her. Instead she was surrounded by the screams of dying goblins, as the hundreds of powerful magic arrows littered the battlefield.

Relaxing a little, the woman dug her greatsword into the ground as it continued to rain thousands of arrows for a whole minute—watching all the remaining goblins outside the walls die around her; and in the distance, past the field of goblin bodies, a hooded figure—wearing all black and holding a large blackened bow—was walking towards her.