Hurriedly standing up in response to Iris’ cry, Damian finally started to experience the effect of the two scratches that he received.

‘I need to focus…’

The enemy that took his life the last time appeared in front of him, but Damian almost saw two of him as his eyelids started to feel heavy.

Although Inspect Element only mentioned paralysis, Damian was sure the poison on the knives had some sort of secondary sedative effect!

‘Or is it that I’m just too tired.’

Unlike last time, Damian had thankfully managed to finish his scramble with the Goblins before their big boss appeared.

However, on the downside, the adrenaline pumping in his veins was starting to subside.

“Huff… Haa…”

Most importantly, Iris’ lacking stamina left Damian heavily breathing after this intense workout. Though any Stat above 10 points was supposed to be above average, 11 points in Constitution could barely support the first part of this raid.

“Why are you only coming out this late?”

Trying to keep himself awake, Damian engaged in conversation with the variant Goblin. The other ones were barely a meter tall, but this Hobgoblin was almost as tall as Iris. Its muscles were also bulging like some sort of bodybuilder!

“Greeeeennn!”

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like this green gym bro appreciated the small talk. Its eyes oozed with anger as it observed its subordinates sprawled on the ground.

Although it had heard the noise earlier, the Hobgoblin had an unbreakable rule as the master of this den. No one was to disturb it while it was eating!

Breaking that rule meant destroying its prestige, so the Hobgoblin ate faster as his rage accumulated. It had to kill one of these daring guys today to make an example!

Yet, when it came out, this… Pale creature dared to kill them all in its place? The Hobgoblin swore to kill this ugly beast even if it was the last thing that it would do!

‘Use it.’

Staring at the metal bat being dragged through the ground, Damian felt shivers in his spine as his hand automatically rose to make sure his head was still in its place.

The Hobgoblin’s weapon wasn’t just some flimsy bat from Earth, it was heavy, bulky, and had spiky points, an honest-to-design Goblin Bat!

‘Use the fear!’

However, instead of just accepting his fate and letting the fatigue wash over him, Damian tried to stimulate his body to squeeze out even more adrenaline… And it somehow worked out.

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“Graah!”

The Hobgoblin swung its bat in quick and precise motion, but Damian was able to duck and roll away. The tattered armor clunked as it threatened to fall off, though that was the least of Damian’s worries.

‘Is this also the effect of Combat Instincts?’

Forcing his body to listen to him was just as much of a cheat as Auto-reaction. Still, Damian felt that there was more to it.

Perhaps Combat Instincts was just a manifestation of Iris’ potential. Irrelevant to her poor weapon skills, she might just have been meant to brawl on the battlefield.

“Greeenaaah!”

‘Not now.’

With only a short wick added to his stamina bar, Damian couldn’t afford to be distracted. Regardless of whether he could best the Hobgoblin this time or not, he had to properly analyze his enemy!

The first thing to note was that this Hobgoblin was much slower than its deceased friends. At the very least, his heavy bat slowed him down by a certain degree.

Secondly, it was very apparent to Damian that it was also incredibly pissed, which made its attack pattern very simple, albeit more lethal.

“Grahh!”

“Easy there.”

Just the sound of the bat passing above his head almost made Damian deaf, he couldn’t imagine the force that the Hobgoblin had put into every strike. One hit and it would be game over!

That being said, Damian didn’t just completely focus on avoiding. He relied on Combat Instincts to take the extra step while he switched to analyzing the terrain.

“Oh, so this is where you came from?”

Taking more than a few glances at the area where the Hobgoblin first appeared, Damian could see a small discoloration on a part of the rock wall. It was as if someone had moved it!

This den was only about as large as the beginner cave. So, unless it was as small as the sneaky Goblin, a big monster like a Hobgoblin couldn’t have been hiding under some rock without Damian or Iris noticing.

‘There is likely a path or a hollowed part behind that.’

Now that Damian had collected all of the information that he could, there was only one thing left to do.

Trying to win this battle against all odds!

‘Let’s see if you are as tough as you look!’

Keeping his thoughts to himself, Damian did the unexpected by rushing at the hobgoblin instead of running away.

“Greeah!”

The annoying pest had finally entered its reach, but the Hobgoblin couldn’t react quickly. To make matters worse, a broken blade even appeared in the pest’s hands!

“Let’s see how thick your skin is!”

Enhancing his sharpened weapon with Aura, Damian couldn’t help feeling a bit confident in his attack. Would it be possible to take off the Hobgoblin’s head in one strike?

“Greeen!”

The Hobgoblin didn’t manage to react to the attack either… Or so it seemed at first.

Instead of tilting its head away to avoid it, the crazy monster actually tackled the sword using its neck!

Shik!

With its current level of sharpness, the sword wasn’t knocked over but sliced into the neck. However, let alone a thorough beheading, the broken blade didn’t manage to go beyond a quarter of the Hobgoblin’s neck…

“Shit!”

As part of the Goblin species, a Hobgoblin’s weakness was still supposed to be its neck. Yet, this specific Hobgoblin was able to strangle the sword using its neck muscles!

Since the monster seemed to have no plans of letting it leave its neck, Damian wanted to give up on the sword, but amid his surprise, he was a little slow in doing so. The result was…

[ You have died. ]