The huge mace was swung downward, aiming at Gogin’s head. It created a *Swoosh!* sound while cutting through the air at a great speed.

“Tsk!”

He dodged sideways and rolled on the ground. The entrails of his fallen men stuck on his tattered clothes as he groaned in disgust.

The mace which had lost its target hit the ground with a bang and a small crater was formed at the place where Gogin was a moment before. But Gugaga didn’t just stop at that, he pulled his mace back and leaped toward Gogin once again.

He jumped high into the air, pulling the mace to the back of his head and holding it with both hands. His bear-sized skinless body made him looked like a meteor that was falling onto the ground. And before he reached Gogin, the mace was swung downward coupled with the pulling force of the gravity.

There was no way that the agile Gogin would fall for a big and obvious move like this. He leaped sideways into the air to escape from the deadly blow. However, when the mace hit the ground, a huge shockwave took place and sent dust and pebbles in all direction.

He grumbled. Dodging this many objects while still in midair was impossible even for him. He activated his skill and let the flying pebbles passed through his body that became like a black mist for a very brief moment.

[Mist transform] is his unique skill that made him different from his men. He was lucky to obtain this skill since his birth. When activated, it turned his body into a mist for a very short duration and made him invulnerable against physical attacks and even some magical attacks.

However, this skill also has its weakness…

Tsk! This is the second time already. Just one more time and I won’t be able to use it for a whole day. Back at the tent, I shouldn’t use this just to dodge that stupid human corpse! Wait, is that Gugaga’s plan from the beginning? Shit! I shouldn’t let my guard down since he looked like just a muscle-brained idiot!

He used this chance while his skill was still activated to take a distance from Gugaga. His bloodshot eyes locked at the skinless face of the traitor. He bared his fangs and pointed his proud scimitar at the lump of meat before him.

“You bastard! How dare you attack me and my men? Don’t you fear the king’s punishment? Fine, if you take a step further, I will chop you into pieces and feed you to worms!”

Under normal circumstances, Gogin was never afraid of Gugaga. He was born much sooner and was prideful as an experienced assassin, unlike Gugaga who was doted on by his king. He knew well how to silently cut someone’s neck before vanishing like a mist. And he never failed to finish his job… not even once.

However, this time, he was almost disarmed. He couldn’t dive into his shadow and his trump card, [Mist transform] skill, could be used only one more time. On top of that, unknown enemies were lurking around here. They were so skilled that even an experienced assassin like him couldn’t detect.

Shit! If there wasn’t someone attacking me from the shadow, it must be much easier to fight this bastard. The one that used [Shadow bullet] must be fucking skilled in its shadow magic, else I should know where it is by now. With this… I can only hope that this idiot will stop this useless fight. Shit! I really hate being cornered like this!

However, his persuasion was for naught. The skinless Gugaga clenched its mace firmly and leaped toward him as if his words never reached Gugaga’s ears.

“I-Impossible!,” Gogin screamed while dodging the heavy blows, “Don’t you fear the king? I know that he takes a strong liking to you, but…”

A thought ran through his mind as the black mist on his blade gushed out and slowly reached the ground.

“Shit! So that’s your aim? You want to get rid of me because I’m more useful than you and that I will take your achievement, don’t you. I never thought that a muscle brain like you will be this vile, but fine!”

He swung the black scimitar in his hand. The mist trailed behind it like an afterimage as he drew it masterfully to show off his sword skills.

“I will make you regret it, you bastard!”

He dashed toward the gory goblin before him together with a scimitar in his hands. The mist oozed out fiercer as it made a black trail behind him.

“Guah!,” he shouted to call Gugaga’s attention.

There were two more steps before he entered the mace’s reach, but Gugaga had already moved his hands to match up with Gogin’s speed. The mace was swung horizontally, aiming to blow all of Gogin’s upper half away.

He smirked upon seeing that. Before the deadly blow reached him, he darted toward Gugaga’s feet and cleanly cut an ankle before his enemy could react in time.

Without his feet to support the massive weight and the momentum from a grand swing, Gugaga slipped and rotated mid-air before falling on the ground. His mace left his bloody hands and fell a dozen steps away.

“See, there is no way a rookie like you can win against me, a full-fledged assassin.”

He was about to retrieve the blade back to its scabbard. But when he gave it another thought, why didn’t he just finish this traitor once and for all? Yes, it would be better that way and he could just tell his king that Gugaga was slain by an enemy.

He approached Gugaga who tried to stand up with only a single foot left. Each time he took a step forward, he felt as if he was becoming an executioner.

He tapped his scimitar on his shoulder. His eyes glanced to Gugaga’s ankle which was cleanly cut and now it was coated by the black mist of degeneration. With this, even if Gugaga was as tough as a cockroach, there was no way that he could heal and stand back ever again.

“You had made me enough troubles already. Now, just think about this as me helping you relieve your pain. I know, being skinless like that hurts you, right? So just die already!”

He readied the scimitar and prepared to execute the traitor before him. However, before he could swing his sword, the edge of his eyes caught the movement of something.

“Huh? What the fuck is that?”

About an inch above the place where Gugaga’s ankle was cut, white tentacles grew out from it and wiggled like a huge maggot. Their chubby head crept toward the severed foot and sank the place that wasn’t coated in the black mist. And in a brief moment later, the tentacles pulled the foot back to its original position.

With his foot returned, Gugaga stood back firmly and glared at Gogin who was dumbfounded with his jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide. The scimitar in his hand shook slightly as he was dumbstruck. To an assassin like him, there was nothing more terrifying than an immortal enemy that his sword couldn’t cut.

“H-How? But, my sword can stop you from healing. Then what the fuck… did you do?”

Gugaga didn’t answer back. He took a short step forward. He raised his hands to cover his skinless face and started to scratch it as if it was severely itchy. White tentacles stretched out from the places where he scratched and grew into mushrooms.

“What the fuck have you become…?”

Gugaga took another step and approached the frozen Gogin. They were only two steps away so one could clearly see the difference in their height. When compared to the bear-sized Gugaga, Gogin was only as tall as his waist.

Gugaga bent downward and showed his face full of wiggling mushrooms toward Gogin. His hands were still covering his face, but his round eyes without eyelids stared at his former friend through the gaps of his fingers.

“Hey!”

The round eyes grew bigger as if they were inflated. And with a *plop!* sound, the eyeballs popped out and dropped to the ground. Inside the place where they had been, a colony of white tentacles was wiggling and squirming like a cluster of fat maggots.

“Aaaaaaah~,” Gugaga groaned, opening his mouth full of white mushroom.

“SHIT!!!”

Unable to endure the scene in front of him that had escalated too quickly, Gogin jumped backward several times. He didn’t know what kind of monster his old friend had turned to be, but he knew that he must run away from it as soon as possible.

However, jumping backward in panic wasn’t a wise choice to choose. He quickly stumbled on an object that lied on the ground and fell on his butt. Fortunate or unfortunate for him, a soft and meaty cushion received him and prevented him from hitting the ground.

“Wait… did I run all the way until this place?”

He looked down at the cushion underneath him. Countless goblin corpses were lied there and piled up into a mountain higher than his head. They were sticky and stinky with blood and gore. The smell of entrails and the body wastes inside entered his nose and made him want to throw up.

But before he could get up and quickly leave this disgusting place, he felt something wiggling and scratching his back.

“Don’t tell me…”

He looked up at the tip of the corpse mountain where it barely blocked the shining sun. Then as if he was hallucinating, the mountain tip swayed left and right like a tree under a strong breeze. Arms and legs of the corpses squirmed around as if they were reaching to find something to take a hold. And one by one, the dead goblins were crawling and rolling down the hill like falling boulders.

Gogin screamed internally while running away from the pursuit of goblin zombies.