The roots intervened with each other to form a natural staircase. They seemingly belonged to the same plant, which’s size Tanuki had a hard time imagining.

The goblin tribe resided somewhere in this floral hell. They built their base high so in times of heavy rain it wouldn’t get flooded.

That was one of the many breadsticks of knowledge Tanuki has learned from his overly excited company. He has also learned how goblins mostly live off of animal stock, sheep more specifically, which were overseen by Maduka, the tribe's shepherd.

What surprised Tanuki the most was the incredible way goblin's reproduced.

"Da boyz are more common than da ladiez!"

"Why is that?"

"Gobbo ladiez are much smarter than da boyz. They lead the tribez and can use more stuff. But while only one lady gobbo might be born, da boyz come more in da numbaz!"

"I see. In goblin tribes, the male monsters are the workers and fighters, while the female monsters are the leaders of the tribe. It’s a matriarchy, where male monsters are expendable."

"Something like dat! You'z a smart boy! Oh, also, gobbo ladiez don't come from da boyoz!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"If da gobbo boyz and ladiez kiss, dat only makes gobbo boyz!"

"By kissing, do you mean..."

"Yeah, like smooch and hug! All da lovey-dovey stuff! They do dat with other races! Gobboz ladiez come from dat!"

"So goblin women are born from crossing with other species? Oh my god, that's incredible! Do they inherit traits from the male's race? Like, do the goblin woman and her kids become stronger or faster? My god, how did mother nature allow goblins to evolve the way they did?!"

"Dunno man, Maduka's too cool for da nature."

The sheep below disappeared as they climbed to such heights where roots obstructed the view from all sides. The wind began to build up at this height and the air got much colder.

Maduka hurled the black cape around her body to defend herself from the wind. Tanuki had nothing to cover himself with, and his shorts were too short to cover more than his thighs. His teeth clattered as he trembled from the cold.

"Is ya alright?" Maduka asked.

"Y-Y-Yes s-s-sir!"

Maduka took pity on the boy. With one steady move, she took off her black cape and revealed the dirty rugs that covered her below.

"W-W-What are y-y-you..."

"Huss!" She put the black cape around Tanuki. It was too short for him to wear, but still long enough to provide some cover.

Tanuki held the cape tight around his head. It was still warm from its previous user. He wanted to ask Maduka how she could handle the cold so easily when he noticed something terrible.

Under the long black hair and childish smile was a morbid painting of scars and wounds. Maduka’s skinny body was a disaster, full of red and purple spots left by gruesome attacks.

What’s worse, these scars seemed to have come from nonother than her kind. Goblin teeth-marks surrounded her sides, some so deep that it made Tanuki cringe from the painful thought.

It was brutal, especially below such a joyful smile.

“Maduka…”

Tanuki wanted to help the little gobbo, when the deepest, the most earth-trembling sound echoed from above. Tanuki looked up and saw a male goblin with a war horn in hand. Next to him were three others that were pushing a large boulder with all their might.

“Huh? Boyz?” Maduka looked up with confusion.

Tanuki grabbed her by the wrist and rushed back towards where they came from.

“Boyo? What is ya…“

“My instincts were right! This was a trap!”

“A trap?”

“We need to get out of here before––“

Crash!

The ground before them disappeared as the root was broken apart by a large boulder falling from above. When the pair looked up, they saw another group of goblins furiously growl back at them.

“Shit!” Tanuki searched for an escape.

“I dunno what’s going on! Why is da boyoz attacking us?”

Tanuki turned to face Maduka and saw a huge boulder heading right towards them. It was rolling down the root with an incredibly destructive speed.

“Huh?” Maduka recoiled in fear as she saw the rolling stone. “What are we gonna’ do?”

Tanuki pushed her aside and put on the [Heifer’s Mask].

“Horn of Rage, attack!”

A large red horn manifested beside his head. It was light red and sharp, and it flew towards the boulder with the speed of a raging cattle.

Bang!

A dirt cloud grew. The attack wasn’t strong enough to destroy the boulder, but it was enough to smash its face and stop it from crushing them.

The boulder slowly rolled to the side and fell off into the abyss, breaking roots into halves as it fell.

“My girlz!” Maduka looked down, searching for her flock.

Tanuki panted loudly. His eyes were red from the broken blood vessels. His heart pounded strongly.

“This is bad.” He gazed at the other boulder rolling towards them. “I don’t have a conductor, so the mask is using me as one. Shit… It’s draining my energy.”

As the other large stone rolled towards them, Tanuki stepped forward, pointed his finger towards the rock, and shouted the name of his attack.

“Horn of Rage!”

This time the red horn was larger than before. Magic sparkled around it in the form of crimson lightning.

Bang!

This attack broke the boulder into many large pieces, that all fell below.

“No! Stop dat! You’re hurting Maduka’s girlz!”

“Shut up! Do you want to die here?”

At first, Maduka recoiled from being yelled at, then she realized something was off about Tanuki. His eyes were full of viciousness and drool dripped down the side of his mouth.

This person was different than the one who helped her off the ground.

“Horn of Rage, destroy them!”

More and more goblins showed up above. They were either pushing boulders or throwing rocks at them.

“I can’t allow those filthy bastards to hurt me!”

Horns flew left and right as Tanuki destroyed every single projectile aimed at his way. His attacks were growing larger in size, surrounded by more crimson lightning magic.

The tempo of his heartbeats grew at an unnatural pace.

“Is that all you got?” In a rage-induced outburst, Tanuki threw aside the black cape covering his head.

That’s when Maduka realized something much more dangerous than the tons of boulders heading their way. The horn on Tanuki’s mask grew with every attack, not just in size, but in length too.

Horns come in many shapes and sizes. Some are small and point towards the sky, while others grew horizontally, reaching out left and right.

And there are some very unique ones. Some are long, thick, and curl around the head. Rams have horns like that, which they use to bash into their enemies while charging at high speed.

While these horns sound like the most useful, they bear a great risk. If they curl too much, these horns can grow long enough to point towards the skull, which they can easily pierce if they grow long enough, thus killing the creature.

This is what Maduka realized at that moment when she realized the mask’s horn had grown around Tanuki’s head. It reached below his jaw and pointed up towards his brain.

“Shitty… goblins!”

With every use, the horn grew larger and death became more imminent.

“Boyo! Take off da mask!”

“The fuck did you just say?!” Tanuki turned towards her. “Who do you think you are, giving me orders?”

“Da horn is gonna’ kill ya!”

“You think you’re better than me? Is that what this is about?”

“What?”

A rock landed on Tanuki’s head. As he was hit, a goblin laughed above, whom Tanuki immediately turned to face and attacked with the mask. Suddenly, a large horn flew towards the monster, who had no time to react before the root was cut under him and he fell into the abyss.

“That’s right, you little shit! Scream as you die!”

Suddenly, Maduka jumped on his head and tightly held onto the horn of the mask. She tried to take it off, but Tanuki didn’t allow him.

“What are you doing?!”

“Maduka’s gonna save ya!”

“You’re with them, right? You betrayed me, just like everyone else!”

They danced around as Tanuki was blinded by the gobbo. He summoned horns to try and shot her off, but couldn’t, as it would’ve required him to directly aim at himself.

Not every horn was wasted though. Those unlucky enough were caught in the barrage of attacks and were blown to shreds by the large horns.

“Come on, man!” Maduka mustered up all her power and pulled the mask.

“You look down on me, right? You think I’m trash, huh? You think I’m…”

As the mask came off, Tanuki immediately collapsed. The ‘Rage’ skills stacked with every attack suddenly deactivated and his body lost all its power. His body trembled on the ground and his mind swung between consciousness and passing out.

“Jeez, man. Is ya alright?”

The goblins howled above. They saw that one of their enemies had fallen, which tremendously boosted their morale. A wind of energy rushed through their body.

The monsters climbed the roots and grouped on one side of the hole. Two extra-large boulders revealed themselves as the goblins joined together and pushed the large stones off towards the enemy.

“Man? Is ya in there?” Maduka waved her hand before Tanuki’s eyes. He followed them from one side to another, then his eyes widened, as loud rumbling echoed through the hole.

Maduka raised her head and turned to see a boulder, twice the size of the previous ones, roll straight towards them.

“H-Huh?” Her body froze in the face of death.

Something black flew beside her head. It looked like spilled out Cola. The black liquid flew towards the boulder and drew a short black line on it. Then suddenly…

Slash!

The ink disappeared and a large cut was left on the boulder. It slowed down for a second, then rolled towards Maduka with the same speed as before.

More ink appeared beside her head and flew onto the boulder.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Every black line cut deep into the stone. Its wounds appeared to be by a sword, but there weren’t any swords in this realm.

As the boulder came closer, more black ink was thrown at it, until most of its surface was covered in black paint. Just as it was about to hit Maduka and she could feel it touch her nose…

Bang!

An incredible explosion burst the boulder into pieces as the ink marks detonated. Small rocks were launched into the sky, hitting the goblins high above. Maduka didn’t understand what happened and her body refused to move, as it had to process the miracle that saved her life.

It was only after Tanuki spoke, that she could finally begin to move again. The boy behind her was still on the ground, pushing himself up with one hand while holding something in the other.

“It’s shameful, truly shameful, that I had to reveal it.”

Sitting in his hand was a sharp paintbrush, coated in black ink.

“This weapon is an extension of my soul. A gift from the Common Orb of Weapon Creation. I named Kurohyou.”

[ Kurohyou ]

[ Quality: Common ]

[ Level: 1 ]

[ Magic Type: Creation ]

[ The paintbrush allows its user to draw with a special black ink that inflicts damage upon the chosen canvas. The nature and power of attacks vary when certain conditions are met. ]