The days had been blurring together for a while now, but despite how exhausted his mind and body were, Krion retty sure they were getting close to the two-week mark in their journey. It had taken him lohan he had wanted, given how much was on the line, but he felt like he had finally learned enough to not stand out like a sore thumb when he joihe Imperial Academy. Most of the questions Alesin was asking him, on strategy or otherwise, he was starting to get right. Even the brutal training Rolfun was subjeg him too seemed to be getting a little easier. The greatsword, despite its massive heft, was also starting to feel more fortable secured to his ba its harness. He had a suspi that these ges were likely due to improvements in his stats, but he resisted the urge to look at the improvements he had made.

  He turned his attention back to his escorts. For slightly more tha hour, both Alesin and Rolfun had stopped sharing informatiohought he would o know to pass as one of the nobility. If he was ho with himself, Krion was starting to get a bit nervous. After so many days of going over the basic history of the Empire and the ins and outs of bat, the ck of voices was starting to unnerve him. Just before he could ask what was going on, Rolfun raised a hand to halt him. When he and Alesin came to a stop, his half-ogre escort directed them to follow him behind a cluster of nearby trees. Though his eyes were fixed on the ground as they walked, Rolfun spoke quietly to them both.

  “You’ve done well in your training to this point, Krion,” Rolfun aowledged. “But you o experience real bat with that greatsword after being Ied into the System to know what fighting is truly like.” Apparently finding what he was searg for, he poio some slight iions in the loam. “And I think we have found the perfeemy for you to get that experience.”

  Getting down on his knees, Krion looked closely at the ground where Rolfun ointing. While he could see the iions slightly better from up close, he still could not make out exactly what they indicated. “What am I looking at?”

  “These,” Rolfun traced out the deepest curved iion then poio several smaller marks in the ground, “are the tracks of a Forest Goblin.”

  Krion’s mind immediately went back to a campaign he had doh his friends that had featured a goblin they had adopted from a forest. Initially, it had been a violent creature, but through diligent training, they had taught it on and how to move beyond its initial savage nature. By the end of that dozen sessions, the goblin they named Maybe had bee an integral part of their team. While he khose sessions had no bearing iy, Krion still was not sure how he felt about hunting down something that could speak ba.

  “I don’t know if I hunt down a Forest Goblin, Rolfun.”

  Alesin put a f hand on his shoulder, her voice calm yet firm. “Don’t let mispced sympathy get in the way of hunting goblinoids, especially Forest Goblins. They are some of the most vile, twisted creatures that ihe bions and frontiers of all civilized pces in the Multiverse. Their cruelty is well known by those who fight to protect those art of the Empire - pilging, t, ensving. Forest Goblins have done all that and more. Etlements aany worlds freshly Ied into the Empire have been wiped out because of their evil.” She shook her head, eyes unfocused slightly, apparently partially lost in some memories of her own.

  “No. You are not taking i lives.” Rolfun tinued where Alesi off. “You are proteg our people. Your people. Hunting down even a single Forest Goblin will lead to the prevention of more suffering. You will simply be joining in on the efforts of tless soldiers of the Empire who have made it their duty to rid the nd of evils like these creatures.” His eyes focused ba his, and there seemed to be a darkness deep within them. “You are simply killing something that o be killed, and there is no shame in that.”

  “I…” Krion swallowed hard, his hand drifting back to grasp the hilt of the greatsword that Rolfun had given him. He didn’t want to believe Rolfun and Alesin, but something ione of what they said resonated with his own experiences ba Earth. As hard as it had been, iy of Volksturm he had still lived a life rgely free from want. A hard one, sure, and he had never been sure whether his hopes to bee a doctor would pan out, but still a good life. Even then he knew of many who had suffered iy as it tio decay uhe gradually expanding influence of the gangs. Members of some of those gangs from back then sounded a lot like how his escorts, no his friends, were describing the Forest Goblins now. If he truly trusted both of them, he had to trust that they knew what they were talking about now. Krion nodded slowly, the tension easing in his chest. “I will do it.”

  “Good.” Rolfun crouched back down to creep forward betweerees, the way he moved his massive frame tinuing to surprise Krion with how stealthy he was for his size. As Krion came up o him, the half-estured at some deeper impressions. “There, see how the tracks deepen? The goblin slowed down. Likely resting or distracted. With how fresh they are, it should still be close.” He turned fully to Krion, reag out to grab his shoulder. “This is your hunt now. Do the best you . We will be watg.”

  Standing up from his squat, Rolfun moved to let him take the lead. When he shifted his stance, Krion gnced behind him, only to see that her the half-ogre nor the sun elf were anywhere in sight. Where a few weeks ago he would have frozen in fear at the apparent abando in a strange forest far from home, the training he had been going through uheir care had instilled a bit more fiden him. Rather than fear, all Krio was determination as he began following the tracks. They had put so much time and effort into teag him what he would o survive at the Imperial Academy.

  He didn’t want to let them down.

  Krion followed the tracks for what he guessed to be about another hundred feet deeper into the trees. Only the slight rustling of leaves underfoot apanied him as he moved. The terrain sloped downwards to a small creek, the water trig by softly over smoothed rocks.

  It would have been a peaceful se except for the goblin gnawing away at what looked to be a piece of raw meat. Its ugly, twisted features were bent over its hands as it greedily tore away at its meal with bed fangs. Oblivious to his approach, the Forest Goblin was a bit smaller than Krion expected, but its wiry build and sharp cws were still a clear enough threat that he would not make the mistake of taking the creature lightly.

  This is it. Don’t overthink it. Stay e, move fast, strike faster. If you miss, it won’t hesitate to kill you first. His previously calm heart began to pound in his chest, though he was surprised to find it was a mix of fear aement rather than just pure terror at the prospect of violence. He really had ged. Before he could sed guess himself, Krio from standing still to a full sprint down the slope to the creek. Three strides in and the Forest Goblin hadn’t moved.

  But then he slipped.

  Books skidding along the grass, he caught himself with a muffled curse. The Forest Goblin’s long ears twitched in his dire, but Krion only increased his pace. Eager hands reached for the quick release on his greatsword just as the Forest Goblin began to turweeride and the , his thumb found purchase, and then the hilt was ing free in his hands. Flinging his other arm up, he grabbed the hilt to pull the bde free, turning the draw into a plunging blow just as the Forest Goblin made eye tact with him. Its eyes were deep red and roiling with rage.

  Krion smmed his bde downwards.

  But he was too eager. Or the Forest Goblin was too lucky.

  His greatsword easily parted the left arm from shoulder, but Krio would not be enough as the Forest Goblin igo grisly wound to lunch towards his throat, fangs gapping and other cwed haended. A whistling shriek erupted from the monster as it lu him.

  Krion’s first block was clumsy, but he did halt the Forest Goblin’s frantige. His sed was better, and the third was nigh perfect from what Rolfun had shown him fhting an unarmed oppo. Seeing a brief opening, Krion leao the side and brought his bde whipping around with a grunt of exertion.

  And just like that, it was over.

  The Forest Goblin’s head bounced into the zy stream. Green blood painted his sword and his side when the rest of the corpse fell into him. Kig it away, Krion took a deep breath, the out. Again surprised, he found that the knowledge that he had just killed another being rolled over him easier than he had expected. Perhaps it was what Alesin and Rolfun had said.

  Then he saw what the Forest Goblin had beeing.

  The corpse had e to rest o the remains of the Forest Goblin’s meal. At first it just looked like a haunch of flesh, but as Krion looked closer, it was clear that some of the remaining nubs had been fingers on an arm that looked slightly too small for an adult man.

  Krion immediately threw up all over his feet. Still handing his greatsword, he jabbed the tip of his bde into the ground, in the moment not remembering how Rolfun had told him o do that. He wiped the back of his free hand across his mouth to remove the remains of the vomit. Wha—No, who the hell had the Forest Goblin beeing?!

  Krion stood there, panting heavily, before he heard Alesin and Rolfun cry out in unison from back up the ine.

  “Duck!”

  Trusting them implicitly, Krion gripped the hilt of his greatsword with both hands, and dove forward across the ground. Turning his dive into an awkward roll, as he didn’t want to actally cut himself with his bde, Krion came back to his feet staring at a massive Forest Goblin that had appeared just behind where he had been standing, two wicked-looking daggers extended in a blow. Krion was horrified to see how closely the creature had e to stabbing him in the back.

  The Forest Goblin gave him a wicked grin, red blood staining its lips, and vanished into bck smoke just as a bst of fme came r through where it had been standing. The csh of bde against bde and a roar from Rolfun came down to him then.

  “Krion, three behind you!” Alesin called out as she stepped into view, hands juggling what looked to be spheres e fire. She threw them oer the other at the dagger-wielding Forets Goblin as it appeared in another burst of smoke iree above her head.

  Pivoting, Krion again put all his strength into wiping his greatsword around in a full-body parry, not knowing how close his foes were but hoping he was fast enough to block their first blows.

  It was a good thing he did.

  His bde came whipping around, right into the path of three Forest Goblins lunging forward with rusty swords. They were smaller, closer in size to the one he had already killed. But that didn’t matter, as they all worked together to put him on his heels. In short order he had two light sshes down his leading leg and a small k of flesh missing from his forearm from where one of his foes had darted in for a quick bite. Bringing in his bde close across his body, he blocked several more lunges, but it was not going to be enough if he had to keep fighting them by himself. Grimag in pain, Krion began to feel the first stirring of panic deep in his chest.

  What if this was it?

  The question echoed in his thoughts, but before despair could sink its talons into him, a cold, almost malevolent anger burst into being within the deepest part of him. Time seemed to slow, and the viciously gleeful faces of the Forest Goblins in front of him slowly morphed into fusion, then terror as Krion’s eyes sharpened and mouth opened.

  He roared.

  Speed returned as Krion took advantage of their terror to put everything he had into a lunging ssh that caused his greatsword to whistle through the air. Terror turo horror in three faces as the bde caught the first in the chest and, barely slowing, cut the other two in half at the waist.

  Krion stumbled slightly, exhaustion suddenly hitting him. He began to slump to the ground when suddenly strong, grey arms were there holding him up.

  “Easy there, easy. I got you.” Rolfun’s voice came from above his shoulder. The massive half-ently lowered him to the ground, lifting the greatsword from his grip as he sat. “Just take it easy for a moment. First, real fights are always hard.”

  Krion was tired, so tired, but he khat something was off. “Where is Alesin? Is she alright?”

  “Yeah, don’t worry your head,” Rolfun reassured him. The fact that the giant Berserker was pletely calm gave his words more weight. “She is off hunting down some stragglers. Nothing she ’t handle. Should be ba a few minutes. Now, if you don’t mind, could you tell me what happened with that roar you made?”

  “My yell?”

  “No, young lord,” Rolfun snorted. “If that was a yell, eveeacher’s at schooing to want to avoid making you mad.”

  “Was it loud?”

  “‘Was it loud?’ he says,” Rolfun said, this time with a real ugh. He poi the corpses o him then jabbed a thumb into his ow. “The sound you made not only caused those three to freeze ht, but I even staggered a half step from the force of it. I don’t know where it came from, Krion. But whatever you just did has all the hallmarks of being some skill that you will unloce you get a css.”

  Before Krion could ask any of the questions that Rolfun’s ents brought to mind, Alesin burst from the trees in a cloak of fme. Arms outthrust, she smmed into the ground the remains of the Forest Goblin that almost had killed him earlier.

  “Is he alright?”

  “Absolutely fine,” Rolfun said before Krion could respond. “Did better than we expected, holy. Though I’m still not sure where that roar came from. Best guess is a skill leaking through iress of bat.”

  “You mean almost dying.”

  Rolfun shook his head. “Krioe what it seemed like, you were never in any real dahough a few stronger Forest Goblins surprised us, I was still a heartbeat away from crushing those three with my fists before they could get another blow in. I didn’t even have to draw my own on.” Rolfun patted his shoulder, the force almost pushing him back down into the dirt. “No matter what, the only oute possible for this fight was the ohat happened.”

  Krion nodded in response, somewhat mollified. Admittedly, what Rolfun was saying made sense. Even though he hadn’t seerue strength of either of his friends yet, he could well guess that House Bcksword would not send escorts that could not hahe monsters of the forest they were traveling through.

  “So?” Alesin asked.

  “So what?”

  The sun elf shook her head in exacerbation, dismissing the cloak of fme that surrounded her body. “So, have you looked at your Character Sheet? How many levels did you gain? I’m guessing at least three, given you killed four lower-level Forest Goblins and ily tributed against a few more.”

  “ht.” Since he hadn’t checked in days now, Krion had almost fotten that he essentially lived in a game world now. Steeling himself, he mentally opened his character sheet. What he saw caused him to freeze in shock.