My current plan is thus: kill goblins until I find the key, make an escape tunnel via Scolopendra or petra vermis forms, then escort the humans to the surface. In all likelihood, I won’t be able to track Tishina’s scent again, but the goblin village is close enough to my destination, and smelly enough, that I should be able to find my way back here. Having a few digging forms will help avoid combat and get me back quickly as well.

One of the goblins spotted me as soon as I finished transforming, and shouted out an alarm in another language I didn’t know. I waited, withholding my mist while his call attracted more and more of his kind. When they finished their shout, they began to raise an oversized sword — likely stolen from an adventurer — above their head.

I lunged at them faster than they could finish their downswing, raking a claw through their arm and cutting it off. The goblin screamed in agony just as another goblin arrived, shooting an arrow in my direction.

I grabbed the first goblin’s head between my jaws, then ran at the shooter, using its body to block the arrows.

I tackled them, and just before dealing a finishing blow, jumped over a lightning bolt that came from behind.

Dozens of goblins surrounded me by this point, preparing to throw fire, lightning, knives, and every basic bolt spell one could imagine. But they would not be doing it to me.

I released the Ferre Iram’s mist in all directions around me, engulfing them in its gray particles, then darted out one end of the encirclement, batting back a goblin’s shield as they tried to stop me.

Screams echoed behind me as the goblins turned on one another. Only one was able to construct a mind barrier fast and strong enough to stave off the rage, but the rest succumbed to its effects. Why can this one make a mind barrier that strong…

I constructed a mind barrier just in time to counter their own attempts at mental manipulation. The goblin concentrated on its own mental offense and defense. But as an in-built body part, my mist was unconsciously being produced, giving me an advantage in the mental battle. I can’t win that mental battle, of course, but I don’t need to. I have more physical might. I pivoted and ran towards them. The goblin, being mind-aligned, didn’t have any natural physical attacks to fight me with or escape with, making their death a certainty.

I pivoted away, heading back towards the center of the encampment, keeping an eye out for anyone with a key. So far, I haven’t found any. Unfortunately for the goblins, I doubt I can save those people without carving a bloody path through their encampment.

Fret not, little goblins. Your deaths will only be temporary.

The goblins came out of their tents and huts, immediately attacking each other as soon as they caught a whiff. An alarm sounded in the distance, alerting the goblins to my presence en-masse.

I phased out another mana crystal to replenish my mana, giving a far away goblin the perfect opportunity to cast some kind of air-blade projectile in my direction, cutting a gash in my side.

I roared in anguish, and ran towards the direction it came from, spotting a tower in the distance, all the way on the opposite side of the village, with several goblins atop it.

Another air-blade came streaking out, which I narrowly avoided. This one curved, swooping back towards me from behind as another spell was cast. The next spell, rather than a projectile, caused roots from below me to appear, wrapping my feet up in them.

I chomped at the roots, but was unable to avoid the wind-blade in time. Rather than cutting into me, it attached to me, constantly sucking in my mist as I produced it.

Fuck, I groaned, I was hoping to have some more time in this form to cause more chaos… I can’t transform in time to do much else, but maybe I can at least take down that tower.

I ran in its direction, making sure to zig-zag and avoid any attempts at rooting me down. When I reached the tower, I phased out the Oleum Rubeta oil and a torch, and set the tower’s base alight.

The goblins abandon the tower, hanging onto the wind-aligned as they slowly descended down near its side, pelting at me with various bolt-spells.

Not enough power to move yourself horizontally while slowing your fall, eh?

I jumped onto the side of the tower, dodging the few spells, then ran up it, using my claws to dig into its side.

I jumped off the tower straight at the goblin group, and they ran me through with spells one after the other.

But not enough to stop my assault. I grabbed onto one of the goblins, digging my claws into them as they screamed, and used them to hoist myself up towards the air-aligned.

They didn’t have enough time to cast more spells, giving me ample opportunity to rip the air-aligned’s head off. All of us hurtled to the ground, breaking most of our bones with the fall.

I weakly looked up as more and more of the village approached, no longer succumbing to the rage-mist’s affects.

I roared at them, releasing one final blast of rage-mist now that the air-aligned was dead. One of the goblins, however, was already mid-swing, lopping my head off with their greatsword

* * *

Returning to my subspace cleared my head of the voice. Thank the ancients for whatever they’re doing… This strategy would be far too risky to deal with the effects of the voice without them.

Still, my losses aren’t nonexistent. This is the second time I’ve lost a Ferre Iram, and they’re way more useful than most monsters…

Oh well, It’s only a monster. I’ll have plenty of chances to collect as many as I want, not to mention the fact that there’s still a few inside my subspace. What I can’t do is let people die because of my own powerlessness… Never again.

I opened a portal outside the subspace, and saw that the goblins had apparently thrown me in with that giant pile of corpses. Apparently they thought people die when they are killed.

Big mistake. I smiled as I entered the portal, immediately taking D-rank Blue-Rose form.

Sight was lost in this form, granting me only one sense, and two abilities. Blue roses are blood-aligned, letting them detect any and all blood within their radius. Their first ability, gained at E rank, is to move their vines, which drain blood and produce blood fruits at their base. The second ability, gained at D rank, allows a blue-rose to insert their fully ripened fruit into any drained corpses, making them move around to bring blood back to its host, and even share their host’s senses when within range. And they just deposited me in a pile of corpses.

I used my vines to sink myself deeper into the pile, then drained as many corpses as I had ripened fruit, and inserted the blue-blood fruit into them, letting them wreak havoc in my place.

* * *

“Symvoulos!” The hobgoblin king roared, swirling his goblet of bloodberry wine while he reclined in his throne, “What is this nonsense I hear of a monster attack in my domain?”

“Why don’t you come down from your throne and find out for yourself?” Symvoulos asked with his arms crossed, tilting his head out of the way as the hobgoblin king chucked his chalice.

“Bah! Why should I bother? Only a few goblins have died. So few of your kind even get powers and make it to E rank. Nothing I can’t afford to lose.”

Symvoulos clenched his fist, took a deep breath, and continued his report. “It’s not just one monster attacking, though. First was a Ferre Iram, and now we’ve got reports of all sorts of monsters within our borders. We’ll lose more than just a few goblins if this keeps up. At least go and finish off those humans we’re keeping captive. It’s likely their presence that’s attracting the monsters. We’re only keeping them alive so you can be the one to finish them off and gain their neutral mana.”

The hobgoblin king just shrugged. “If you care about the common folk so much, then go save them yourself.”

I should just kill this fool, turn him to power, and be done with it. At least that way he’d be useful.

Symvoulos shook his head, ignoring the thought. He couldn’t be too sure how much of it was his own opinion, and how much was the voice’s influence, so he discarded the idea. Besides, he was discouraged from taking over the goblin village. Master had lost far too many pawns to political struggles for his liking.

“Fine. I’ll do it myself, as always.”

* * *

Symvoulos left the castle grounds, bringing three fighters with him to go deal with the invaders. Fotia the pyromancer, Dexameni the rock, and Epidexios the powerless. His best fighters, Symvoulos begrudgingly admitted. Goblins were the weakest amongst the species the so-called “humanoids” called “monsters”, in that not all of them even had alignments or powers. Of those that did gain powers, all of them were druids, the weakest combat class. And for the most part, they were the unlucky ones. Unpowered goblins could resist the temptation of the voice, but even the E rank voice goblins have usually resulted in their untimely demise, typically at the hands of their hobgoblin overlord.

The first target wasn’t too difficult to find. They simply had to follow the sounds of screaming and fighting.

“Formation A. We’re about to encounter a… wolf. Hmm, I was expecting a monster. How unusual.” Symvoulos stroked his chin.

“Yes boss. I will deal with it most efficiently. Yes indeed.” Epidexios declared.

The four turned the corner, finding the wolf already in battle with another goblin. Epidexios rushed forward, thrusting his rapier into one of the wolf’s arms mid-charge, then kicking it back. The goblin they were saving used the opportunity to chuck their spear at the wolf, piercing deep into its skull. The wolf collapsed, blue blood leaking out through its numerous wounds both old and new.

“Most efficiently. Yes indeed.” Epidexios grinned.

Symvoulos wasn’t convinced it should be this easy, and paid close attention to the off-colored blood. He pumped mana into his eyes, activating his specialization. A second sight overlaid with the present appeared, showing the wolf getting up while Expedios’s back was turned.

“Dexameni, the wolf!” Symvoulos shouted.

“What about it?” Dexameni replied, looking at the still wolf, then back to Symvoulos.

“Capture it, you buffoon!”

“But it’s already dead?” Dexameni said, not even looking at the corpse as it rose.

“I got it!” Fotia said, casting a firebolt spell.

“No, we need it alive!” But it was too late. Fotia cast the spell, and burned the wolf corpse. A blue blob oozed out of it, making a high-pitched screeching noise as it burned.

“Quickly, put it out! Throw some dirt on it or something.” Symvoulos yelled at Dexameni, who responded by throwing a heap of dirt on it large enough to squish the blood-fruit.

“There.” Dexameni said. “I put it out of its misery.”

I am surrounded by idiots. Symvoulos palmed himself in the face and sighed before he found the strength to speak. “It was a blue-rose’s blood-fruit. We had to keep it alive so we could trace it back to the actual monster. But it’s okay, we can do better next time!” Symvoulos twitched an eyebrow as he faked a smile. “Now, let’s go find a blood-filled corpse to use as bait.” Symvoulos thought for a minute, then added “but first, let’s establish our forces a bit more. We’ll need at least a couple dozen if it really is a D rank blue rose.”

* * *

An hour had passed since I started my newest assault, and my forces were doing rather well, all things considered. Every few minutes one of my blood-fruit filled creatures would return, bearing goblin corpses to consume. Occasionally, a goblin would come by to investigate the area. But goblins are generally dull, weak creatures, careless enough to personally investigate the corpse pile, rather than rely on safety in numbers. It generally didn’t take much effort to grab and drain them when they approached.

Then again, they might have just mistaken the beasts’ deposits as one of their monster tamer’s contributions. It’s hard to get any real grasp on what they’re doing when all I can detect (when my fruit isn't occupying a nearby corpse) is blood. I should keep the next blood-fruit that returns around specifically for that purpose. Ah, here it comes now.

A blood fruit inside of a wolf corpse crossed into my range, sharing its vision with me. There wasn’t much to its vision, since it was staring right at the corpse pile, so I had it jump atop the pile and turn away from the wall — towards the open space in front of it — to give myself a better view… At roughly the same time an army of goblins entered my blood-sensing range.

What are they doing here? Do they know where I am?

They answered my question by quickly going into a defensive formation. Several goblins bearing shields, and one covered in rocks manned the frontlines while the others drew their bows and manifested spells above them.

I panicked, lashing out with a single pointed vine towards the center of their ranks. Just before the vine reached their center, one of the goblins shouted out a word, and almost every one of the goblins dropped their weapons and spells, and jumped inches out of the way. I couldn’t pull the vine back in time before they grabbed onto it. We wrestled back and forth, but my form’s D rank strength couldn’t overcome their sheer numbers, and they started pulling me out of the corpse pile.

I shot out another vine, but a firebolt instantly burned it away the moment it was exposed. Another vine, and this one was grabbed and crushed by stones from below. One after the other, my attacks were dodged, blocked, and countered with the same impossible reflexes.

Without more blood-fruit, this would be an impossible battle. If only I had a way to call my ripened blood-fruit to return to me… Perhaps they don’t necessarily need to be mine?

The goblins all heaved at once, interrupting my thoughts and exposing a small portion of the blue-rose’s main body. One of the goblins snapped their fingers, and my body began to wither. The unripened, blood-red blood-fruits shriveled, rotted, and fell off in an instant.

That’s no E rank spell. Who is this goblin?

I didn’t have time to find out in this life. Sacrifices must be made to find out in the next.

I let go of the corpse pile, letting them heave the rest of my main body out. With one of my freed vines, I sweeped across the goblin army, which they casually jumped and ducked out of the way of. But the point of that vine was as a distraction. With my other freed vines, I phased out dozens of blue blood-fruit from the other blue-roses I’d apparently killed, and inserted them into the corpses behind me.

They did not rise in time to assist in my fight, but they’ll at least cause a little havoc in my place.

The goblin snapped his fingers again, and within seconds, my body withered, aged, and died.