Chapter 13: The Art of the Shank

Gartook was perched above a building, looking down on a pack of wolves below him. Ever since their alpha was killed the wolves had scattered around the city, making them far easier targets. What gave the wolves their strength was the alpha’s ability to call them all together and lead them as a pack of hundreds, but without their leader they reverted back to their primal nature, initiating more conflicts but with smaller packs.

Gartook, being the self-proclaimed genius he knew he was, realised that coming at them from the building above gave him an opportunity to launch a surprise attack without them catching his scent. The group below him only numbered three wolves, a number he knew from experience he could barely handle, generally sustaining some wounds. But two he could handle.

He jumped from the roof, stabbing the short sword he had in his hand down onto his unsuspecting opponent. Shanked him real good, he thought, and he did indeed shank the wolf with perfection. If there was a skill dedicated to shanking, he would likely be at max level. Unfortunately, Gartook’s [Sword Mastery] was only Rank 1 Level 2, but this was still enough to get the job done. The short sword penetrated the neck of the first Level 3 - Son of Fenrir, instantly killing the beast. Before the other wolves could react, he ripped his sword out of its body and let out a scream at the remaining opponents to intimidate them further.

While the wolves did cringe away from the goblin, this likely had less to do with the war cry and instead more to do with the copious amount of saliva the goblin ejected over its foes. If only it was poisonous, then the wolves would not have stood a chance.

Giving their own howls in response, the remaining pair jumped at the goblin in front of them. Gartook took a step to the side and swung his blade at one of the beasts. Unfortunately, as wonderful as it was, the shank could not be used in all circumstances, and sometimes a slash is needed. Gartook’s swing accompanied by his 8 strength did the job in cutting deep into the body of the wolf. While pulling the blade from its still moving body, the other took the opportunity to correct its leap and jump towards the goblin. Gartook his left hand off his short sword, which he was previously wielding with both hands due to his short stature, and quite literally socked the beast. Connecting solidly with the cheek of the wolf. This worked strangely well, and it was thrown to the side.

Gartook pulled his blade from the other opponent and, adjusting his grip, utilised his ultimate technique. He lunged forward and shanked it deep. Then, drawing the blade out much quicker than before with a flourish to add extra style points, he turned to the last enemy. The slightly battered foe took one look at the bloodthirsty green figure in front of it and ran. As there was no alpha to inspire confidence in the beast to defend its turf, and as it could tell the goblin was at a higher level than it with its oppressive figure and strength, it had the intelligence to flee the scene.

[Sword Mastery] Rank 1 Level 2 -> Level 3

Now Gartook was a very patient and intelligent goblin, you could say one of the most intelligent with his new stats, and one of the most patient having dealt with Mango, but even he had limits to his patience. Having felt he had done far too much reading lately, Gartook Bobrin Mincer Ug the 3rd did what any self-respecting goblin of one wisdom would do and completely ignored the text that popped up in his vision, continuing his hunt.

He did not sustain any injuries from the fight, and so in good condition he decided to look for more prey. He was currently near the human areas, which had started to fill with more and more wolves as the half-giant pushed the pack north into the area. He himself began to move northward, back towards his own base while searching for prey during the journey. He did manage to see several humans slinking about, but after one had made his head hurt so bad before he did not he did not want to take the risk of experiencing that again.

Most humans just ran away from him as soon as they saw him, so it was no trouble for him. That was until he had finally found a larger pack of wolves to hunt, but the humans had found them as well. Or, far more likely, the wolves had found the humans. A pack of around 10 of the beasts had somehow formed and were harassing an equal amount of the humans on the side. The humans, who seemed to be around the same level if not lower than the wolves, did not appear to be on the winning side of the fight. Although the humans were smarter than their opponents, they lacked not just the ferocity and desire to kill that the wolves had, but were also too scared to take any injuries. Such passive fighting allowed the wolves to wear down their enemies, dealing light wounds until the humans could barely stand.

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The humans also lacked proper weapons to deal with the wolves, with the majority using knives, shovels, or anything bladed. Lacking effective weapons such as a sword, while they could do some superficial damage, they were unable to kill any of the beasts. So, when Gartook arrived, he saw 20 opponents looking nice and worn down, all injured and clearly starting to tire after the long fight despite the lack of casualties, and practically being served up on a platter to him.

And being the most intelligent goblin, he hatched out a master plan.

“AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

A goblin war cry burst from his mouth, comprised of 50% passion and 50% saliva, and causing both parties to momentarily pause in their battle. As the first of the wolves turned towards him, he had closed the distance between himself and the pack. Stabbing his short sword to devastating effect, he once again managed to demonstrate the art of shanking to perfection with another instant kill.

While the wolves wanted to deal with the opponent in their midst, the humans had taken the opportunity to rally and charge forth into the slog. The battle rapidly turned chaotic, the humans and wolves no longer fighting in their previously careful manner but instead causing far more injuries in their effort to be done quickly so they could either flee or finish off their new threat. Taking this opportunity, Gartook leapt into the melee and began to indiscriminately swing his blade around him. His 14 vitality and endurance meant he was far tougher than any of the lower levelled beasts around him, and his eight strength meant he was strong enough to kill the wolves with one strong shank. The wolves, as tired and injured as they were and facing threats from two fronts were unable to dodge out of the way from his attack.

He had put down 4 wolves before cutting his way through into the human pack. There, he managed to kill 5 of the meatbags, with the chaos finally settling. As he turned to look back on the group, there were only 2 wolves remaining finishing off the remaining human. He jumped in, supporting the human as he sliced at one of the beasts who was too injured to dodge effectively. Taking off a limb, he then finished it off with another slash at the wolf. The last human and wolf were barely standing at this point, both weighed down by exhaustion and fear as the bloody goblin reaped both their allies. In a tacit agreement, they both gave one last effort with a brief attack at the green skinned menace, but with a sidestep and a several stabs, he finished both off quickly.

He totalled around twelve kills from the battle, slaying over half the field himself. Sure they may have been injured already, and sure Gartook was maybe 3 levels above them all, but they did still manage to injure him. Bleeding primarily from both his arms with various claw marks, and his torso from stabs, along with some heavy bruising in too many areas to mention, Gartook was not in the best shape.

But his master plan had worked perfectly. Gartook was surely the smartest goblin.

You have levelled up.

After concentrating on the words to understand what they meant, Gartook finally realized he had the opportunity to spend more of those precious stat points. “Status”, he said out loud.

Status:

Name: Gartook Bobrin Mincer Ug the 3rd

Race: Goblin

Class: Warrior

Level: 5 -> 6

Strength: 8 -> 9

Agility: 10 -> 11

Wisdom: 1

Intelligence: 7

Vitality: 14 -> 15

Endurance: 14 -> 15

Charisma: 1

Unused Stat Points: 1

“More strength.”

Gartook had originally intended to increase his intelligence a bit further, but he was practically salivating at the thought of destroying Mango. Each level seemed to give him one point to his strength, agility, vitality, and endurance, and with the extra additional free point added to strength he could feel himself catching up already.

The blood covered goblin stood there, staring into the air, bleeding from most of his body, and with a huge smile on his face. While not the prettiest of smiles, the joy Gartook felt at this moment was greater than he had ever felt before. He was already the smartest goblin, and he vowed that he would soon become the strongest goblin too.

Or his name wasn’t Gartook Bobrin Mincer Ug the 3rd.