Goblin General (Level 12)

  Goblins are a race considered to be the scourge of any planet. Basic goblins are aggressive and not intelligent. They only care about killing, looting, and breeding. This specific goblin variant is a General type. The Generals are the most powerful and most intelligent goblins in an army. They excel in combat and tactics, and usually command massive forces. They are not to be underestimated.

  So that's a General, eh? Looks tough. The real question is, do I take this opportunity to escape, or try to kill a General? Alex quickly thought, trying to decide what to do.

  He chose to wait and see what the General did, which would make his decision easier. There weren’t any goblins nearby. They had stopped trying to attack him and backed farther away after the horn blasted through the camp.

  Once the General entered the camp, it kept walking directly towards Alex. It didn’t make any threatening moves or even draw its axes. It was also surrounded by 4 commanders, so it probably felt quite safe.

  The goblin stopped walking about thirty yards away from Alex, and they just stared at each other.

  The General waved off the commanders and took a step forward, before speaking in a broken speech, guttural and deep., “You come diee?”

  “Huh, you can talk? Interesting. But uhh, no. I came to kill all goblins.” Alex said back with a big smile, motioning towards all the dead creatures around him

  It snarled, the sound echoing more than usual through the helmet it wore.

  “You die now. Me. You. Show goblin might!” It replied, pointing to them both and then drawing the two axes from its waist.

  Unsure what it fully meant, Alex looked around. All the other goblins, even the commanders, had all backed farther away.

  Does he want to fight me One-vs-One? That would be ideal, I definitely can’t fight him with help. But if he's solo? I have a good chance of taking out one of the five generals. I worry about what will happen after I win… but.. that's a problem for future Alex.

  “Well, come on, ugly, let's fight,” he said, twirling his sword around and getting into a ready stance.

  He was still grinning like a fool who's about to have some fun. I feel like I’m turning into a damn battle maniac. This is stupid to stay here and fight him, but for some reason, I don’t care. The sad thing is… I don’t know if this is just the real me or being a Progenitor.

  Now that they were standing close, Alex could truly admire this goblin general. It had the goblin's typical green skin, which stood out starkly against the bright red armor it wore from head to toe. It was decently tall. The armor and weapons all looked much better quality than anything else he had seen from any goblin, even commanders. The creature's limbs were thick with muscle.

  Good thing the General was slow coming to me. It gave me time to recover a little more mana. Too bad it's not full, though.

  The General seemed to take offense to it being called ugly, because it charged Alex after that. Sprinting towards him, axes drawn, it didn’t take him long to close the distance.

  The goblin wasn’t holding back either. Once in melee range, both axes glowed with skill use. The general raised both weapons high and swung them down.

  Alex pumped mana into his wind enhancement, increasing his speed, and channeling fire mana into his sword. Using his boosted speed, he dodged the first strike and brought his sword up, attempting to deflect the second axe.

  The axe skimmed across his sword, sending sparks of fire shooting off the blade, and a loud scraping sound of metal on metal. The axe pushed against him fiercely. Spinning around with the momentum, Alex followed up with his own [Power Strike] skill in a backhand slash.

  But right before impact, the general raised both axes in front of the blade and redirected it up and away from him. Immediately after, the goblin was hit with three wind blades in the back. Alex had summoned them without his opponent knowing. The wind blades drew only a little blood, causing minor damage.

  After the brief clash, they both stepped back, disengaging and reevaluating their opponent.

  Alex hadn’t been expecting the General to be so skilled in melee, and his reactions were almost as quick as Alex's, even while enhanced with wind magic.

  The General was surprised Alex was able to survive his initial assault, and then was even more surprised Alex had drawn first blood in their engagement. He wasn’t happy about that fact either; his army was watching, and he couldn’t show any weakness.

  This might be more challenging than I thought. He’s tough. I sensed his speed and strength in that exchange.

  Fire still enveloping Alex's blade, he slashed out, sending two fire rifts towards his opponent. The General, unwilling to show more weakness, resolved himself to take the attacks head-on and power through them.

  When the first fire rift entered the goblins' range, he lashed out with both axes, intending to cut it in half. But he completely underestimated the rift, and when his axes hit it, they stopped cold and didn't cut through.

  The General’s eyes went wide, realizing he had made a mistake. He had underestimated their strength. Refusing to back down and hurt his pride, he kept pushing with all his power to get through the rift.

  After a few seconds, he succeeded, but he didn’t get through unscathed. He had burns all over his body, and his armor was smoking, though most of the damage was superficial.

  The second rift, he took no chances. He activated a skill, empowering an axe, and then put all his might behind the blow. His attack dissipated the rift. Alex saw relief flash across the general’s face.

  Alex chuckled aloud. Those were just normal fire rifts. I didn’t try to enhance them in any way. If I had.. I don’t think he would have gotten through them.

  He switched his sword enhancement to wind and then dashed forward before the general could fully recover. While he was closing the distance, he summoned several fireballs too and launched them at the goblin.

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  The six fireballs bombarded him, not causing much damage, but they did distract and obscure his vision.

  Ash covered the ground from all the fires Alex had created, exterminating goblins. His feet stomped across its surface, throwing more up into the air, as his steps ate up the distance between him and the General. When he could reach, he brought his wind-covered blade in an upwards slash, trying to catch the goblin unaware.

  Clearly experienced in melee combat, the General reacted in time. He moved his head backwards slightly to dodge most of the strike. Alex’s blade cut a bit into his chin and scraped along his helmet. The screeching of the sword on metal rang out.

  In retaliation, the goblin had raised both his axes to defend from any additional strike. Quickly after, he moved his right arm out wide and swung it towards Alex.

  Alex couldn’t block the incoming axe all the way. Unable to stop it, he stepped forward reflexively, getting inside the goblins' strike. This caused the axe blow to skim his side and mostly strike his back instead of his stomach.

  While in too close, he couldn't swing his sword, so instead he bashed his sword's pommel into the goblin's nose. It didn’t do much since he wore a helmet, but it definitely dazed him. Alex also channeled some wind magic into his left palm. Quickly, he focused on it and molded it, drawing on the pressure and adrenaline of the fight. He didn’t think. It was pure instinct and feeling.

  The wind mana that converged into his palm took the shape of a small dagger or sharp object. He condensed it and increased the wind mana's oscillation, sharpening it into a drill to increase its penetration. He then pushed it forward into the General’s stomach, up under the breastplate, before the general could recover from the pommel strike.

  Both injured and bleeding, they disengaged again. Alex could feel blood running down his back from the axe wound, and he could see the goblin bleeding from his stomach.

  Staring at each other for a moment, the General started to smile. It spat some blood to the ground and then said, “Fun finished. Now die.”

  “Yes, yes. I get it. You're evil and have to say some evil one-liners about killing me.” Alex said, waving him on to hurry up. “More fighting. Let’s go.”

  The goblin then started to glow, a red aura infusing its body. Its muscles bulged, eyes glowed blood red, and its axes glowed too.

  Shit. What the hell’s this? Whatever it is... I’m kinda excited… Damn, my new brain is broken. A grin spread across his face.

  The general kicked off the ground, coming towards Alex much faster than before.

  He instantly appeared in front of Alex, forcing him to block with his sword on instinct. But he only fully blocked one axe; the second one skittered across his sword and bit into his shoulder. The strike had been slowed, thanks to his partial block and armor, but it still got through.

  Holy turkey balls, he's way faster and stronger. Alex kicked out with his knee, bringing it into the goblin's stomach wound. The General just shrugged off the pain like it was nothing.

  Damnit, he’s a berserker type. Faster, stronger, shrugs off pain. Hopefully, he doesn’t get stronger the lower his health gets, too.

  The General kept raining blows down on Alex. They were coming quicker and quicker. Left, right, high, low, the attacks were coming from every angle. Boosting his wind enhancement as much as he could, Alex was barely able to keep dodging and blocking. He couldn’t find the time to counter-attack.

  Relying on his magic instead, he sent a barrage of magic at the goblin, while they kept dancing around the area. Fireballs assaulted the creature, wind blades, earth spikes, anything he could think of. Alex kept dodging, and the General kept attacking.

  Each second that passed, he took more damage from the goblin's assault. None of the strikes got him too deep, but the wounds were adding up. It was slowly becoming a death by a thousand cuts. He bled from all over his body. Arms, legs, sides, shoulders, neck, cuts where everywhere.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck. The attacks are too fast and unrelenting. He’s whittling me down, and he’s not even slowing his barrage.

  Alex’s magic attacks weren’t doing enough. He saw burns and cuts all over it, but they weren’t severe enough to slow it down.

  The next time he got a second to breathe after a dodge, he stepped backwards and swung his blade in the air between them both. The cut opened a wind rift and sent it straight out, towards the General at point-blank range.

  The goblin, never seeing a wind rift before, treated it the same as he had the fire rifts. He tried to cut through it directly.

  But the wind rifts were different from the fire. They were quicker and much sharper. These were made specifically for cutting through things, unlike the counterparts, who specialized in fire, heat, and explosions. They were designed more for area damage or burning things; this aspect made them much more unstable and easier to cut through.

  When the wind rift hit the goblins' axes, he instantly felt the difference and knew he made a mistake. It was too late to dodge it, though, so he had to fight through it or die.

  It bit deep into both axes, cutting into the metal. The rift was large, so the bottom part of it also cut deeply into his thigh. But through sheer strength and a lack of feeling the pain, he pushed the rift off with a mighty bellow.

  Breathing heavily from the effort, he let out a bestial roar again, threw down his broken one-handed axes, and withdrew the massive two-handed one from his back. Following up, the general used his [Charge] skill and came back at Alex.

  This time, he decided to mix it up and channeled his old faithful [Earth Magic] skill. When the General swung down at Alex with its large axe, he turned his body to the side, letting the axe go by him a hair's breadth from his body, and brought up a large earth spike behind the goblin. The spike was obviously condensed and hardened with more mana, and then he drove it into the back of the General.

  Unflinching, it looked down at the spike sticking out of its upper chest, grinned, and then looked at Alex in the eyes. It reached out and grabbed him with its other hand, holding him nearby, and lifted the large axe to stab it into him.

  “Let go of me, you ugly asshole.” Alex said, driving his sword into the goblin's stomach. He couldn't reach any higher with his current angle.

  The general grunted and spat blood onto Alex’s face, then headbutted him with its helmet. Still not letting go, it pressed its axe into Alex, trying to get it to cut deeper into him. The large axe’s head was being pushed into his neck, slowly cutting deeper into the skin. Blood trickled down from the wound. Neither had the leverage to swing their weapon, being so close.

  Getting desperate and unable to get free from the goblin's iron grip, he reached for his [Space Magic]. It felt natural to do, and he didn’t even realize he was doing it until he touched it. He didn’t know if he could do anything with it, but he had no other options, so he went with it.

  Unsure what to do with the spatial mana he felt, he did what felt natural by now… he pushed it into his sword. The sword ate it up, like someone who just had their first taste of its favorite food. It sank into the blade, seeping deep into the metal, turning it a deep, pitch-black. He could only barely see the sword from his angle, but he could see the tip and its color.

  He didn’t know what it would do, but he definitely didn't expect what happened next. The General started to scream, shocking Alex, since the goblin hadn't reacted to any pain before.

  It screamed at the top of its lungs, louder than he thought possible. Risking Alex’s eardrums from the close proximity. Not understanding what had happened, he looked down at where his sword penetrated the General.

  What Alex saw surprised him almost as much as the integration itself. The area of the goblin around his sword was gone. Nothing was left. No blood, armor, flesh. All gone. When his sword touched something, it caused a spatial compression or a distortion, similar to how a singularity would work. He knew this because he could feel and understand how the space magic was working, what it was accomplishing.

  The drain on his mana was unlike anything he had ever felt, and it felt even more than that. Sustaining the space magic in his sword was draining something else from him; he could feel it, something he wasn’t ready for. It was taking all his effort to remain conscious. He barely had the awareness to deactivate the spatial mana flow.

  By this point, the General was catatonic. The inside of his entire torso had been eaten away by the black hole effect. The goblin died seconds later, still standing and leaning against him. Alex stuffed him into his storage space, along with his axe.

  He looks like a god damn goblin donut. He laughed out loud, a bit delirious from the blood loss and the strain of using that space magic.

  He glanced around the camp. All the goblins stared at him in fear. He knew he probably looked like hell. The blood from himself and the General was splattered all over him. It didn't help how he killed that General; it probably didn’t look pretty, and he bet his eyes were glowing, too.

  He turned and walked away slowly, keeping an eye on his surroundings with his [Eyes of the Cosmos] ability. Once he entered the forest, he jogged the best he could with his wind enhancement. He was low on mana and health, but he didn’t want to risk staying in this forest if the goblins decided to come after him.