On the way, Vienessa asks her brother all about how they´ve been doing. He explains that nothing much changed in their daily lives: Pa is still hunting and bringing food home while Ma is in charge of cooking and… well, basically everything else. The three siblings practice combat every day and periodically come along hunting with their father.

Though Ba doesn´t enjoy fighting as much. He rather prefers gathering, like he was doing before Vienessa gave him the scare of his life. Apart from that, they all missed the Demon and waited for when she would return.

Being told that, a warm feeling spreads within her and she tells Ba that she has missed everyone too. The Goblin asks about what Vienessa was up to, but she shakes her head with a smug expression, explaining that she doesn´t want to spoil anything and will tell everybody at once.

Ba just pouts when he hears that, to which Vienessa laughs and pokes his cheek, forcing some air out by doing so. She gets an angry look in return, yet only thinks of it as ´cute´.

Before long the two of them arrive before the very familiar cave. For a moment, a wave of nostalgia washes over Vienessa, but she quickly shakes it off and enters her home together with Ba. Further into the cave, she sees a bunch of Goblins she knows all too well: Her brother Ro cooks together with Ma and acts as an assistant; passing vegetables, herbs and spices. Pa and her sister Re are training together. Although she is clearly out of breath and drenched in sweat, she doesn´t slack one bit as she goes through each movement diligently.

“I see you are doing as well as Ba told me~”

All heads simultaneously turn to the entrance. Their reactions are quite amusing, just as Vienessa expected: Ma and Ba almost let their cooking utensils fall to the ground, Pa jumps up from his sitting position as if he had seen a ghost and Re stumbles, breaking her concentration.

“Hi guys” Vienessa spreads her arms “I´m back!”

Re is first to rush over and jump onto her sister. Her mother and brother closely follow behind. Ma takes the girl´s hand with watery eyes before hugging her as well. Ro looks up at his sister, surprised to see how much she´s changed. “What? Are you just gonna stare? Come here, Ro”

Their father, seeing his family´s group hug, joins in as well.

After cuddling for a few minutes, the Goblins suddenly separate from the Demon. Vienessa is surprised by the suddenness of it, but the Goblins look at each other, not minding the Demon. Pa gives off a grunt and nods his head. He counts down from 3 on his fingers:

“Wel…come…back” they say in a chorus

“Did you prepare that for me?”

The Goblins nod happily

They hug again

--

The excitement of reunion slightly settled down by now. Vienessa, her siblings and their father sit at the table while their mother finishes the final touches of their meal. Naturally, her family wants to know everything about how she´s been, but little did they know that the Demon would take that literally. And so, she tells them everything. From the start of her departure to her first dungeon, to how she beat up that Human and how the advice Ma and Pa gave her got her into the village. Then about the fight at the adventurer´s guild and how she met Madeleine which also resulted in acquiring her first Human friend and of course everything about the Minotaur´s Den and her ´epic battle´ with an opponent much stronger than her.

It takes a bit until Vienessa´s greatly detailed story comes to an end. Though they had all long finished up their food while she was talking, the Goblins didn´t mind listening for so long. No, they were happy to hear their daughter and sister doing so well.

“Ba, Ro, Re,” Vienessa suddenly faces her three siblings “You were diligently practicing and hunting with Pa, right?”

The three nod simultaneously

“Good. You know, talking about all those fights has me suddenly fired up. What do you say we do a practice match? I want to see how much stronger you´ve become.”

The three blink a few times, then look at each other, not really showing confidence in battling their sister

“Hey, don´t chicken out on me now. You three come at me at once, I don´t mind. What do you say?” she gives off a smug grin.

Their gazes fall on their sister again. Sure, they may not be as strong as her individually, but it slightly irritates them to be underestimated like that. No way she´s getting away with some cheap provocations...

“That´s the spirit!” Vienessa says intrigued “Then let´s settle this outside”

-- -- --

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Outside the cave, the vast forest engulfs everything. No, almost everything: In the deepest parts, there is a place that somehow remains untouched by the huge trees. It almost appears as if nature has not spread there on purpose, or maybe it wasn’t allowed to do so.

Truthfully, we currently stand on grounds that shouldn´t be lost beneath mere plants. An ancient arena in which two holy warriors once fought a grueling battle. The victor would use the loser´s life as a Catalyst for… no, I think that´s enough. Let me stop here before He gets angry.

What´s important now is that Vienessa stands in the middle of this battle place, unknowing of what I just told you and ready to test out how much stronger her siblings have become.

The dew glistens on the green grass beneath her feet and reflects the sun’s rays like a prism. The Demon with her arms crossed silently observes her three opponents: The Goblins respectively stand at the edges of the clearing and would form a perfect triangle if one connected imaginary lines between them. Ro and Re at the front, Ba standing behind them. Their parents sit slightly outside the grounds on a fallen, mossy tree. Their intention is to observe, to act as referees.

The scenery seems so peaceful, tranquil even. And yet, the next moment, the three Goblins viciously attack:

Ba drops to one knee and rams his hands into the ground. Thick roots spread through the earth and blast forward to enclose Vienessa like fierce snakes. Simultaneously, Re releases a battle cry. Her body lights up and she dashes at her sister. Ro follows behind her and prepares to strike any openings Vienessa may show.

But the Demon only smiles at their coordinated effort

“Not bad at all!”

She turns around and closes her eyes. In a blur, she cuts through Ba´s approaching magic. With a fell swoop of her hand, the sturdy roots are cut into many tiny pieces that lifelessly fall to the ground. Immediately after, Vienessa jumps in the air. Performing a back flip she lands right behind the two other Goblins that were charging her

About to grab their arms, she is already thinking about her victory. But Re and Ro throw themselves in opposite directions and manage to escape Vienessa´s range before she can lie a hand on them

They tumble to the ground and slide back on their feet before immediately setting their eyes on the Demon again. Or at least that´s what they thought: In this fraction of a second, their sister managed to disappear from their vision. Ro shouts a warning cry to Re who opens her eyes wide as Vienessa suddenly appears from the shadows beneath her

“Hello there,” she says, and receives a fist to the face in return. Or that´s what Re had hoped, but the Demon brushes it off with her right arm

“Wow there, that was–

“Haaa!” Re shouts while using the momentum from her deflected attack to spin and throw a kick at the Demon. But Vienessa lifts her other arm to block the full-force attack. The Goblin´s foot connects with what feels like hard stone. Her face twists in pain, even with her |Physical Reinforcement| she couldn´t inflict any damage on her. She grits her teeth and tries to kick the ground to create some distance, but unexpectedly there is nothing beneath to kick:

Not realizing what happened she finds herself in the middle of the air again. She sees a fist coming her way from the corner of her eye. She mentally prepares for the impact, for the extreme pain that is to come, but the strike never connects. Before Re´s back hits the ground, she lifts her arms and does a back handspring to land on her feet. She looks forward while trying to calm her heavy breathing and sees that it´s thanks to Ro that she got out unscathed. The Demon easily managed to defend against his obvious attack, but it bought Re enough time to recover.

Ro is just about to get a devestating hit on him as two roots appear from beneath Vienessa and chain around her leg. From behind, Ba signals to use this chance he created at all cost. But he doesn´t need to tell those two: They´re already in the midst of their assault, closing in from both sides.

“You guys improved, I´m really proud of you! I think I´ve seen now what you can do, so let´s end this for now”

The roots on her leg snap as if they were nothing more than a weak thread. The next moment, at a speed the three Goblins can´t even see, Vienessa grabs both Re´s and Ro´s arms and flings them into each other before slamming them to the ground. She ignores all obstacles and dashes toward Ba who thought he was far enough to be safe. Before processing what´s happening, Ba feels sharp claws at his throat. A cold gale of fear hits him in the face. His heart loudly thumps as he falls on his behind.

In a mere moment, the fight is over.

-- -- --

Vienessa immediately hurries over to where her two unconscious siblings lie. Her parents, who have watched the fight, are already tending to them. After coming back to his senses, Ba, still slightly shaking, also gets up and follows along to his siblings.

Vienessa crouches down and touches both Ro´s and Re´s shoulders and closes her eyes. “|Heal|,” she whsipers as a white light envelops them. The two slowly open their eyes as a confused sound escapes their mouths. They sit up and look over their bodies, not exactly understanding what just happened.

“Sorry for that, but I had to… Uhm, take you out before you caused me more trouble, you know?”

The Goblins look at each other, then raise an eyebrow

“… Yeah, ok” Vienessa sighs “It´s just that I´m really bad at holding back. You´ll forgive me, right?” she laughs awkwardly and scratches the back of her head.

Her two siblings roll their eyes. Though, they didn´t expect her to even apologize, so they´re more than satisfied with that. It´s a big step from the days she tried to kill them anyways.

“But honestly, you guys were amazing! The difference in our |Stats| is so huge, and you still managed to put up such a good fight. If our |Stats| were even remotely similar, I don´t think I could win,” she rubs their heads, truly proud of her siblings. The three of them smile. However, a slight frustration of being no match for their sister even though they gave it their all is evident on their faces.

“Don´t sulk on me now. I´ve gotten much, much stronger over the time I was away. You know, I could maybe even take Pa on at my current level!” she tries to reassure them. But the only reaction she gets is from her father, who loudly laughs and turns to his daughter.

He then nods and gives her a grin as if saying that they should have a go at it without holding back. Ma steps in with a worried expression, but Pa doesn´t back out. Someone has to avenge his three little Goblins kids.

“Oh? Really? Alright, then let´s go at it!” Vienessa says, her excitement quickly rising

´But before that´

She focuses on her father and appraises him, but to her surprise:

[Appraisal blocked]

“Huh?” she accidentally says out loud

´This is, weird?´

She tries again. But…

[Appraisal blocked]

´Why?!´

[Appraisal blocked: Difference in Level is too high]

´Oh´

She looks up at her still wide-grinning father and gulps while retreating a few steps.

´Maybe, maybe this was a bad idea…´