There were only ten yards to separate them now. The Goblin had covered the remaining distance very swiftly thanks to its repugnant steed. Helial had gotten the Skill ready while running. He could activated it at any time.

He deactivated Communion with Mana, to avoid nasty surprises in case he couldn’t control the Skill right when attacking. He didn’t know what could happen if he had kept it activated.

The Goblin drew an unpolished scimitar, whose blade was dented in several spots. It didn’t look very sharp, but it was sharp enough to hack Helial to pieces, since he didn’t have any kind of protection.

Helial aimed very carefully; he couldn’t allow himself any mistakes. He swung the Longsword in front of him and stuck it in the ground. He used it to pole vault his way across, jumping as high as the Goblin. He wasn’t left-handed so the result was not exactly what he was hoping for. He planned to leap beyond the Goblin and activate the Skill when he was right on top of him. But now he was in the air, just about at the Goblin’s height.

Shit.

He hold his breath and condensed the Skill. The Goblin was swinging a deadly blow at Helial with its scimitar. Helial couldn’t wait any longer. When he activated the Skill he was barely a yard away from the Goblin. He was traveling through the air and had no way to dodge the blow. Once the Goblin had levelled its blade with him, the momentum would have hacked him in half. His only hope was to make the first move.

He aimed well, at least as well as he could while flying mid-air.

Skill Activated:

Mana Pistol

BOOM!

The Skill missed the Goblin’s head, but hit it straight in the chest.

Mounted Goblin lost 3227 HP!

No notification window about Exp. It wasn’t dead, though it had been pushed to the ground. Helial kicked the horse and fell heavily on the ground with a tumble.

The hideous steed, usually ill-treated by its owner, ran away without looking back.

Mounted Goblin suffered a lung injury and cannot breathe!

It is losing 200 HP per second!

The Goblin’s fate was sealed. There was no way it could get back on its feet. Helial stood up and looked at it with contempt. He didn’t feel guilty for what he was doing. Those monsters wanted to kill his sister and him.

Human and Goblins ad been enemies since the dawn of time. One of the Kings of the continent fell victim to an ambush in the capital of the Goblins on the mountains, while on an expedition to try and rebuild the ties with the Goblins. He had been the first powerful man to attempt to reconcile the two races. Killing Goblin scum could not be but a source of pride, Helial told himself.

But if he didn’t hurry, the Goblin in front of him could have been brought back to life. Humanoid races had an advantage: once reached the First Phase, it was possible to save one’s life even after a deadly wound. When the HP reached 0, the human or the humanoid was bound to collapse to the ground, but with the help of some classes, such as Shamans of Priests, he could come back to life within 24 hours.

It was a privilege only of humanoid races, one what beasts had never enjoyed.

Despite everything, if the body was destroyed, it had no chance to come back to life. Anyway, I assure you it’s not a good feeling to stay dead for twenty four hours.

You killed Mounted Goblin!

Helial didn’t pay attention either to the notifications or the objects on the body. His hand wasn’t looking good. It was completely covered in blood.

He stood still.

Skill Activated:

Communion with Mana

Skill Activated:

Mana Reflowing

There was no time to lose. The other Goblins were only a couple hundred yards away and had witnessed their companion’s death. They were furious and wanted to finish Helial in the worst way possible. They couldn’t let a human get away with killing a brother!

The Mounted Goblin had died a terrible painful death, choking on its own blood, not a warrior’s death. Helial had not even had the decency to finish it, denying it a painless death. Actually, it wasn’t entirely his failt, since he had never know any code of chivalry.

Progress of the Mission!

Fight the Goblin Invasion

Grade: DD

The Goblins waged a counterattack against the Kakos Dynasty. All frontier territories have been hit heavily. No army has been sent to protect the fringes of the Nation.

Fight the Goblins! Your people are suffering the plundering of the army, now it’s time to repay the price in blood!

Goal: kill the Goblins!

Time: until the end of the war

Reward:

2.000 Exp for every Infantry Goblin

3.500 Exp for every Archery Goblin

6.000 Exp for every Mounted Goblin

50.000 Exp for every Goblin Commander

10.000.000 Exp for the Army Leader Goblin

Every 10 Goblins killed you earn 10 Fame Points!

Every Commander killed you earn 20 Fame Points!

???

Helial had received a new Mission for having killed a Mounted Goblin. This made him think. Can I get stronger if I make a massacre? It’s to see what I’m capable of.

He retrieved the Longsword in a hurry and put it back in the Inventory.

Helial was thrilled. In front of him there were three Goblins. Despite the hopeless situation, it had been years since he had felt master of his own fate. At last, he could fight with his head held high.

His brother had left a shadow behind that Helial had never managed to escape, not because he wasn’t able to, but because he was almost held hostage. He knew perfectly well that in his village there were people paid to watch him. The only question that was still left unanswered was why his brother didn’t get rid of him straight away.

He couldn’t care less of dying, if it hadn’t been for his sister. After leading that kind of life, he would have never let go of his freedom. It was his chance to fight, no matter in what conditions. He had that one chance and he was not going to squander it.

He could not use one Skill at a time or would not be able to face two Goblins. His Skill had a 30 seconds cooldown, that didn’t leave him time to kill two of them.

It was time to try something new.

The corners of Helial’s mouth curled upwards and his dark blue eyes got misty. Was this freedom? Despite his numbed arm covered in blood, this time he could hold his ground and face his enemy with his head held high. It wasn’t a faraway threat anymore, looming over his head day and night like the sword of Damocles.

He took a deep breath. He began flowing all the Mana he had in both arms. A wrenching pain shoot through his head like the sharpest of swords. He didn’t shout and kept quiet. The casting of two Skills at a time (the time necessary to perform a Skill, including movements or the time required to prepare the Skill) required monstrous concentration. It wasn’t even comparable to using two Skills one after the other. It was ten times painful and troublesome.

You lost 250 HP.

Capillaries started bursting on his arms, covering them in blood. He was laughing, Helial was laughing in the Goblins’ faces. He didn’t care about the pain, overwhelmed as he was by a feeling of power that he had never experienced in all those long years. He was free.

He had activated three Skills at the same time, but he knew it was far from enough to guarantee that the shots would hit the mark. He needed to dare more.

Skill Activated:

Perception

Blood started flowing from every cavity on his face. He looked awful. After a couple of seconds, his arms were covered in blood and his shirt was drenched in the blood that dripped from his face. A face that didn’t even look human anymore. His expression was twisted by pain. His eyes were bloodshot and wide open, his face completely covered in gooey red blood.

You lost 500 HP!

He had never felt so alive. He just kept laughing and laughing. He looked like a demon. He could clearly feel the three Auras of the Goblins approaching. They were only ten yards from him.

Getting a closer look of Helial, the Goblins thought he was seriously injured. They were no experts in Mana, all of them around level 20. One of them stopped a little further away, it was an Archer!

That Goblin started to nock an arrow and he aimed.

Not yet, thought Helial.

The Goblin was about to shoot the arrow. The other two were Infantry Goblins and were both less than ten yards from him.

SHIT, NOT YET.

The arrow left the bow. In an instant, it flew over the other two Goblins, straight towards Helial.

NOW.

The two Infantry Goblins were just a couple of steps from him. Thanks to Perception he had aimed the shots to perfection.

BOOM!

In the moment the two Mana bullets left his hands, the arrow reached him. He had no way to dodge it. The arrow hit him between the shoulder and collarbone, lodging in the shoulder joint. He let out a scream of agony.

You lost 1000 HP!

Helial glanced at his HP bar. He only had one fourth of life left. From a total of 2890 HP, he was down to 1000 HP.

You delivered a Critical Hit! You delivered a Critical Hit! Infantry Goblin lost 5342 HP! Infantry Goblin lost 4989 HP!

Both Goblins who were running towards him suddenly collapsed. Two headless bodies flopped to the ground. Helial could never have achieved such precise hits without Perception, but now he was paying the price. He was exhausted and one of the Goblins was still alive.

Notification windows popped up to show the Exp gained with the killing and the progress in the mission.

You gained 7000 Exp from killing 2 Infantry Goblins in the Mission! You gained 10000 Exp from killing 2 Infantry Goblins! You killed Infantry Goblin! You killed Infantry Goblin! You levelled up! You reached Level 18!