The goblin village was fairly unremarkable as one would expected from a primitive race. A two meter high wall of entrenched logs marked the perimeter of the establishment with a pair of narrow entrances, opposite sides of one another. Inside the wall were five, round, wooden and thatch structures, they were rather small, with about 2 or 3 squared meters of space judging from size. The small poorly constructed buildings haphazardly circled around a larger, rectangular building, made fully from sturdy wood that sat in the dead center of the village, a hall of sorts?

From what Zeke could see, there were about 100 green goblins present, a good portion were sleeping by the outside of the small rotund shacks, a further 20 or so were fighting each other by the shade of the relatively tall walls. There was one hobgoblin that Zeke could see guarding the entrance on the other side, so far it hadn't noticed the human intruder.

Zeke noted that there were less forces here than he had estimated, there were 100 he could account for outside, maybe 30 more inside the mysterious buildings. Plus the amount of goblins that were by the stream, which was roughly 45, meaning that over a quarter of their man-powered was dedicated to just the hunting parties. Maybe this settlement was just one of many? Zeke shuddered at the thought.

But, to be fair, goblins were individually weaker than a grown child, so perhaps sending nearly a third of the village to hunt wasn't as outlandish as he thought. Also, as an unrelated speculation, he had never considered the goblins to be nocturnal, but the 30 sleeping bodies on the dirt suggested otherwise, after all, it was early afternoon, too early to be sleeping. They could just be lazy too, can't discount that.

Zeke's absentminded survey of the goblin village was broken by the scampering of the closest goblins that noticed him standing by the gate. They shrieked out in shock as they scurried into the nearby circular shacks, trampling over the sleeping figures of other goblins. The alarming sounds drew the attention of the other milling goblins, and then those goblins cried out and alerted more. The domino effect of distress soon had the whole village facing towards the stationary Zeke.

"Well shit" said Zeke nonchalantly

At least only 10 of the sleeping goblins had woken up, the others were to deep in sleep to be roused.

This wasn't the plan.

That hobgoblin guard had enraged Zeke to the point where he was blinded to his environment. Zeke frowned when he remembered how angry he had gotten, it wasn't like him. Well, he was easily provoked, but that didn't explain the abnormal fury that bubbled up from nowhere. He just chalked it up to isolation symptoms, it had been a couple of weeks of nothing but murder, fear and near death encounters, not to mention the excessive creepy crawlies that sought to claim his cave after every day out. That was enough to drive anyone mad, he thought with a tone of despair.

A lone green goblin charged towards Zeke with a stone dagger in both hands, holding it in front of it's chest as it prepared to lunge at Zeke's stomach. The solitary charging goblin evoked a courageous moral in all the other goblins and the shock of Zeke's abrupt intrusion was channeled into a territorial anger.

With a carefree flick of the wrist, Zeke slammed the wooden pommel of his club into the goblin's head as he brushed past.

With that, the first victim of this pillaged village fell to the grass-less dirt with a large dent in it's forehead.

A hushed silence spread across the spectators as Zeke casually walked further into the settlement , swinging his metal club in slow circles, catching the afternoon sun on the weapon's head, making it shine brilliantly.

A quiet, uncertain growl interrupted the dreadful silence of Zeke's imposing advance. Another snarl filled the air from a different location, followed by another and another. Soon each goblin was hyped up into a roaring frenzy and all at once they charged at slowly walking Zeke who was utterly unfazed by the menacing cacophony.

The odds were 100 to 1.

Zeke spotted a single hobgoblin exiting from each of the small wooden shacks, disturbed by the vicious war cries of their lesser brethren. The only silver lining to their arrival was that they weren't armored with bog hide and a sea of weak goblins blocked any direct path to Zeke, but they still carried their powerful metal clubs.

Zeke swatted away at goblins with wide sweeping swings as he skirted the edge of the wave of goblins, sometimes hitting up to three enemies at a time. His better judgement told him not to allow the numerous foes to entrap him and block his movement.

The weak green goblins were so inadequate when compared with Zeke's stats. Even if they managed to land a glancing strike, it would barely cut deeper than the skin, whereas Zeke's longer reach and weapon would often instantly kill all those who were struck. It was like the difference between a mouse and a hawk. In the few seconds that Zeke had been swinging his club, an unnerving number of lifeless green bodies scattered in his wake, and the body count was rising.

+ Bludgeoner has reached level 3

+ 2 Attribute Points

The hobgoblins had noticed Zeke's unstoppable rampage and had started to toss and trample over their allies in order to reach Zeke quicker.

Once the hobgoblins reached within spitting distance, Zeke stopped fighting and backpedaled his way to the wall of logs to gain some breathing room, he then raised a hand at a pair of hobgoblins that were trudging side by side.

Zeke mana still wasn't full, only at 50 of 65, but he sure as shit wasn't going to fight multiple hobgoblins at melee range. His last tussle with the two hobgoblins had taught him not to underestimate their strength and endurance. Zeke shot forth a medium-sized orb of blinding blue flames at the unsuspecting hobgoblins. They were easy to hit, seeing how they were almost twice the size of their green counterparts, all they could do was raise their hands to protect their faces from the magical attack, which worked, but their arms and torso combusted in an unyielding blue splendor.

As always, the unexpected use of magic left the witnesses in a state of bewildered stupor, Zeke drew one of his two remaining javelins and hurled it at another close-by hobgoblin. He didn't bother with Aim-lock as it would take too long, but the javelin did hit the mark, hitting a hobgoblin in the ribs, causing it to reel backwards in pain.

Dealing as much damage to the hobgoblins before they made it to melee range would be the key to winning this fight, he thought.

Zeke decided to draw the last spear and throw it at the same hobgoblin while it was still trying to pull out the previous one. The little green goblins were slicing up his armor and vulnerable thighs while he aimed, a pain which Zeke was able to ignore with a clenched jaw and adrenaline fueled focus. The last javelin pierced through the hobgoblin's neck, just above the collar bone causing pale blood to freely spurt from the 3cm diameter hole. Unsurprisingly, it was still able to charge towards Zeke while pushing it's free hand into the fatal wound to mostly stop the bleeding. A new fire of fury burned deeply in the hobgoblin's maddened and fearful eyes.

With a huge grunt Zeke pushed his way out of the swarm of goblin knifes and swords, the countless small cuts and nicks painting his legs in dark red blood. Zeke drew a dagger in one hand to slice and stab the goblins that were grappling his legs in attempt to immobilize him, his other hand was swinging wildly to dissuade the others from trying something similar.

With great effort Zeke was able to kick his legs free from the living shackles, just in time as an untouched hobgoblin barreled into the front line of the fight. It's metal club whizzed past empty air and hit the ground, leaving a club-shaped indentation in the bleak dirt, it sneered at Zeke's fleeting footwork as it ripped the club from the ground.

Another hobgoblin lumbered to Zeke's warpath, this was one of the earlier fireball victims, identified by the charred arms and chest and the few blue embers that still burned weakly. It didn't bother to use a weapon, it simply attempted to ram it's blackened shoulder into Zeke's escaping figure.

A series of quick steps, followed by a half-spin brought his metal dagger into the burned hobgoblin's shoulder, leaving a deep gash down to it's lower back. Following up the attack, Zeke horizontally kicked the hobgoblin's legs, sending it sprawling to the ground where it's severe burns softened the landing, making it howl in agony. The other goblins then used the fallen hobgob as a doormat, digging in their feet into the profusely bleeding gash on it's back, preventing it from rising.

One hobgoblin had been removed from the fight, but there was no time to celebrate as another was approaching fast.

Not only were the hobgoblins slowly closing in, a few of the regular goblins had equipped themselves with bows and were desperately peppering the area around the fight. Thankfully, they were doing more harm than good, but an arrow was still harder to dodge than a tiny little dagger. Especially when you consider the dagger not even being able to reach up to Zeke's head, unlike the arrows.

Zeke managed to sweep down a further eight or nine goblins before another hobgoblin rampaged to the fray. This hobgoblin was bleeding from it's neck and chest, it the one he had spear'd earlier, it was struggling to stand upright due to blood loss. It's skin had gone many shades lighter, almost a cream colour, not the usual murky yellow. Zeke concluded that it wouldn't pose a huge immediate threat and danced away, but the berserk rage in it's eyes still shone bright.

For the most part, Zeke ignored it's staggering pursuit, instead focusing on killing the endless tide of green goblins. Sure enough, the hobgoblin only made a few more unsteady steps before it succumbed to the cold embrace death and fell in slow motion on the couple of unlucky goblins in front of it.

Two down and from what Zeke could tell, only three more to go.

Speaking of three more to go... the remaining two healthy and the one heavily burnt hobgoblins were charging together in unison like a high speed wall of muscle, mowing down the green goblins in their path as if hobgoblins were an actual lawnmower cutting grass.

Apparently they hadn't learnt their lesson from the first time they grouped up, Zeke thought with a victorious smirk.

Zeke freed up his hands by tossing his club and dagger at the nearest goblin and clasped his hands together. A huge ball of flames popped into existence between Zeke's opening palms, the biggest one yet, consuming all his remaining 39 mana. The distance between Zeke and the phalanx of hobgoblins was closing rapidly, but he abstained from launching the deadly magic, choosing to instead pour every last digit of power into this final spell.

Without the hobgoblin's presence, the village would be helpless and Zeke wasn't going to waste the opportunity to eradicate all the hobgoblins at once.

"FIREBALL" Zeke shouted as the humongous spell departed from his fingertips.

+ Magus has reached level 2, New skill awarded

+1 Attribute Point

+ Skill Earned: Mana Sense

The flames were heated to such a degree that that had taken on a pure white appearance. Any unfortunate creatures who were withing a 2 meter range of the traveling fireball were scorched by the hellish temperature. The goblins further away who witnessed the magic were temporarily blinded by the whiter than white flames of death. Zeke's hand were not exempt from the spell, remnants of the fireball coated his fingers in a teal fire as he was working quickly absorb the magic back into his body,but not fast enough to avoid leaving his hands smoking and in extreme pain. However, by far the ones most affected by the awesome yet destructive magical attack were the hobgoblins. Because of their momentum they were unable to move away or dodge and met the magic head on... literally.

Instead of catching ablaze, they were completely incinerated.

The only evidence of their existence was the bubbling puddle of melted hobgob 'stuff' that seared the ground beneath it.

The spell kept on traveling after it hit the hobgoblins and dropped to the floor about 2 meters behind the initial impact. When it hit the ground a tsunami of infernal white death flooded across the blinded goblins. As the fire seeped outwards and touched the villagers, they were reduced to ashes in the matter of a second. This continued for 5 seconds until the white flames then suddenly dissipated into nothing. That was the compensation for the extreme heat, Zeke had crippled the length of time the fire burned. It seemed to pay off, as that single fireball had killed over 30 goblins.

+ Title Earned: Goblin Slayer

Zeke drew his sword as he lurched around the battlefield in a drunken manner, his vision was completely white from the light. He wasn't able to see, but he could feel the resistance of flesh as he slashed randomly around in a circle. The time he spent in the white void felt endless, at least 20 seconds had past before he was able to make out the basic shapes that constituted the stumbling goblin army, which made killing them a lot easier.

A further minute and his vision had returned, mostly to normal, save for a white blemish that appeared where ever he looked. What he was able to see was an expanse of scorched earth and a mountain of dead where some barely alive victims of the battle weakly crawled in pain to the exits of the village. Of course Zeke spare no mercy as he swaggered to the fleeing foes, ending them one by one.

When the last goblin had taken their last breathe, Zeke too joined the many corpses on the ground. His mind slipping unconscious before his head even touched the ground.

It was dead of night when Zeke awoke among the hundreds of dead. This marked the second time Zeke had ever peered into the starry sky, he noted that much like the first time, it was when he had awoken, surrounded by the decomposing corpses from a life or death fight. Zeke's only company in this moment was the ambiance of millions of insects and the ever-present cooling wind that permeated every stretch of the forest.

The lack of trees and tall structures in the village also offered a perfect, unobstructed view of the night's canvas. Each star was like a tiny, shiny jewel and the cosmos of impossibly distant galaxies swirled in wondrous pools of green and blue, but the most dominate feature was the gargantuan moon. The surface seemed to not hold a single crater or other such imperfection, it was just a smooth spherical spotlight, the biggest jewel in the sky. Tonight was a full moon too, and the forest was illuminated by the Luna light, coaxing a magical undertone to all it graced. Zeke made a promise to himself to gaze into the night again sometime.

With a worn out groan Zeke went about using avarice on each corpse while he inspected the newest addition to his titles.

Title: Goblin Slayer

One who has killed a great many goblins. The Goblin Slayer strikes fear with his presence alone, their life is to seek out and eradicate all goblin-kind.

+8 Strength (61)

+4 Agility (37)

+5 Endurance (41)

+2 Affinity (36)

+3 Intelligence (49)

+ Rogue has reached level 3, New skill awarded

+3 Attribute Points

+ Swordsman has reached level 2, New skill awarded

+1 Attribute Point

+ Skill Earned: Poison

+ Skill Earned: Riposte