"Haisek'ruch! Haisek'ruch!" The High Goblin roared. "Sig'nare suka a haisek'ruch! Nakiier a G'nori! Sacrifarr koko Ni-Asifa!"
In response, the archers then did something unthinkable. They launched arrows, much faster and more vigorously than ever before. Disregarding their allies that surrounded me.
"You've gotta be kidding me, I really don't get Goblins at all!. They'd sacrifice their own allies just to kill me!? Worse of all, even the ones being sacrificed aren't batting a single eye. They're still attacking knowing they're gonna die."
I kept killing off as many vanguard Goblins as I could while making sure to defend from the arrows by cutting them each to pieces, other vanguard Goblins were dying on their own from the arrows so that was actually good for me since it meant free Mana Crystals.
10 to 20 minutes later. All the spear Goblins had died, while I remained, standing a fair distance from the archer group.
My clothes were still stainless since I made sure to avoid any and all blood splashes while fighting.
I pointed my water bladed hand to the High Goblin.
"Are you gonna keep hiding behind those little weak friends of yours, or are gonna man up and come face me?" I doubted he understood that though, since I couldn't make heads or tails of his language either. I just said it for the sake of courtesy. Besides, I was sure he gathered enough of what I meant to convey through my body language alone, since after I did that, he raised his sword upward again and uttered:...
"Kasu a sig'nare suka! Nakiier a G'nori!"
The archers then started prepping to launch more arrows.
"'Nakiier a G'nori', it's the second time he's said that, I think the Goblins I fought in the forest said something similar too. Everytime he says that, the archers start shooting their arrows, must be a command of sorts. Does it mean 'attack' maybe? Well whatever. While I do wanna study monster language, now's not the time for that."
The archers fired their arrows. All 260 of them came flying at incredibly speeds straight at me. I ran towards the archers, avoiding some arrows and slashing the rest...
"Wait..."
I stopped.
"Holy crud, why didn't I think of this before!?"
"If I can form blades with my Elemental Magic then can't I form something else entirely as well?"
The theory that suddenly crossed my mind, I knew I had to take it for a test drive. I concentrated, making sure to vividly imagine the next form I wanted my elements to take. The water blade on my left hand turned to a water bow, while the wind blade then turned to a water arrow. I pulled it along the water bow and was ready to shoot but felt it wasn't enough. So I conjured out four more arrows of water on the bow in order to shoot five simultaneously. But still felt it wasn't enough.
"Now that we're done with quantity, time to increase the quality." I gathered more Mana to the arrows and circulated it at high speeds causing the arrows to spin very aggressively like they were drills of some kind.
"Now then." I declared. "Lemme show you what a real archer looks like."
I shot the five water arrows, they moved at a speed faster than sound. Their drill-like properties caused them to exert a force that would tear multiple Goblins to pieces even if they were ten metres away from them, at least. Over 100 archer Goblins died in an instant, the over 200 arrows they had shot themselves once more, all got shattered by my 5, the High Goblin was still standing. I wanted to save the best for last so I made sure the attack didn't get to him.
"That's Marid, now let's see what Tetrax is capable of."
I then turned the water bow to one made of wind, the air it exuded blew a calm, refreshing breeze on my face, I breathed it in and felt an indescribably satisfying sensation run through my body. The purity of the Mana is exerted was no joke.
"It's weird, the air is almost delicious."
It was my first time experiencing air that felt as if it actually had a taste. It wasn't a scent, but pure air.
"Well I'll give you this much Tetrax, you certainly got my hopes up. I'll take down the rest of them with this one last shot."
This time, I conjured ten wind arrows, applied more Mana as they started spinning. Pulled back, aimed and simply...released. The High Goblin jumped high up to avoid the attack. The rest didn't have the luxury to make that choice and all perished, Tetrax didn't mess around. Clever bastard. That High Goblin. If he hadn't done that, he would've surely died. Which would've been bad for me since I wanted to use him to catch my watcher.
"I had completely forgotten about that. I got too excited, way too excited. Thank goodness that High Goblin is at least mildly competent. Now then, time for an Oscar winning performance."
"Ahem. Oh no!!! How oh how did he avoid that attack!?? That was my trump card! My last resort!"
"Damn I'm good."
I fell on my knees, gasping for air.
"My Mana has depleted drastically! I cannot even muster up the strength to retreat!" The High Goblin bought it and saw fit to take advantage. He then charged at me and attacked with a downward slash from his longsword.
"Kah!" I avoided it by jumping sideways.
"No! No please, stay back. Stay back! Stay back you beast! Don't come any closer!" I put out my hands while crawling backwards, Zeke-style.
"Should I quit Warrior-ing and just switch to acting. With these skills, there's no way I wouldn't make it big."
"Bollocks!" I cursed. "Is this truly the end for me!? Am I really going to die like this!? No!! I refuse to except this! If I am to fall here, then I shall take you with me. I will gather all my remaining Mana into my left hand, and finish you off with this one last attack!"
I did just that, well not all of my Mana, that'd be overkill, a small chunk was more than enough. The attack wasn't even that serious, it was more or less a normal punch, the reason I decided to use my left hand is because I wanted to give the High Goblin no choice but to respond with attacking my right side, away from my heart. And he did just that, so predictable. As we clashed, he thrusted his sword into my right lung and it pierced all the way through and out my back. My punch, however, shattered his whole head and he died instantly.
"No!"
I heard a faint scream afterward as I-"Kargh!"-coughed out blood.
I fell onto a tree, coincidentally as my body automatically and unintentionally sat and leaned on it.
Even though I did all of this on purpose and thus had physically and mentally prepared myself. I have to say:...
"This hurts like a biiitch!!!"
I had a huge sword through the right side of my chest, it's honestly a wonder what I expected.
My eyes were closed, I had made sure to deactivate all the Skills I had on at that last second, therefore no Mana flactuations could be picked up, I even regulated my breathing to imitate that of a dying man. The only thing that was still going strong was my senses. Aside from my sight, since my eyes were closed, my hearing, sense of smell, sense of touch along with my sixth sense which was for warning me of danger were all in full gear.
After that previous feint scream I heard, what followed were feint footsteps, they were fast, so the person must've been running. They approached me. A sensation ran across my cheeks, one of small, thin caressing fingers. A single thought crossed my mind as that happened.
"So soft."
"No, no, this can't be happening...I...I was too late. I failed. I'm sorry." They said.
"That voice....a woman? But...it sounds...somewhat..."
I hurriedly opened my eyes and quickly grabbed their hand. "Gotcha." I said confidently.
"...familiar."
"No way...Peyton?"