Moving in the darkness was by no means easy, but after traveling through the dark tunnel once, Damian was able to pick up the pace the second time.
‘Calm down…’
A ranged attack wasn’t an option so Damian couldn’t make use of stealth. The only option that he had was the element of surprise.
‘Let’s go for a quick entry.’
Rather than rushing in only when the Goblins have already noticed him, Damian was going to go in head first. Of course, the warcry had to be excluded.
‘I can see more clearly.’
Now that he already had a general idea of where each Goblin was, Damian’s was more focused and less blurry. Before a second had passed, he already decided on his target.
Although the sword was the sharpest weapon Damian had, it was too fragile to use on mere Goblins, especially considering the big surprise that awaited him at the end.
Fortunately…
‘Come out!’
This time, Damian had what he needed to make the knife just as sharp!
The platinum shimmer only gathered around the knife a split second before it reached the Goblin’s neck, sending his head flying off.
Things would have been less than ideal if the timing was wrong, but Damian had no choice other than to risk it due to the limited activation time.
[ You have defeated a Goblin. FP +1 ]
The first step was even more of a success this time. However, the platinum aura had already dispersed. A minute had to pass before Damian could use it again.
Before the next Goblin lunged at him, Damian picked up his victim’s poisoned knife and thrust it into its neck all the same.
Instead of just keeping himself to the limited weapon choices that he started with, Damian planned to exchange weapons as fast as he could.
Thanks to this being his second attempt, Damian’s increased spatial awareness allowed him to achieve that.
And to make things better, the second Goblin dropped something more useful!
‘Nice!’
It wasn’t covered with poison and its reach was still lacking, but Damian got his hands on a short sword. Considering that Iris’ sword lost half of its blade, they almost had the same reach.
‘Three more…’
While the actual number of the Goblins was six, one of them was hiding somewhere just like the Hobgoblin.
Since he would get ganged on by the rest if he took his time to search for them, Damian left the task of finding their hiding place to Iris.
If they wanted to join the battle, they had to eventually reveal themselves.
Swish! Swish!
Stepping backward, Damian swung the short sword in the air to deter the Goblins and buy himself some time. If he could hold on just a little bit longer…
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“Greee!”
Naturally, seeing one of their own dead and another paralyzed on the ground, the Goblins reacted in the same way as last time.
Unfortunately for them, even Damian’s crude stalling tactics were sufficient in this case.
[ You have defeated a Goblin. FP +1 ]
With more reach and sharpness, Damian tried to go a little bold. He didn’t dare to pause after cutting off just one head, he went straight for the next Goblin.
“Shit!”
In the end, Damian’s gamble didn’t pay off. After seeing him attack the same area twice, the second Goblin was fast enough to duck and avoid the last-second strike.
The Aura dispersed once more, but this time…
Shik!
Due to the additional momentum that he had to put out for the second strike, Damian’s imbalanced stance almost allowed the free Goblin to plunge its knife into his abdomen.
Although it only ended up being a scratch, the poison it had was still going to act sooner or later. In addition, he also missed his chance to pick up the dead Goblin’s weapon!
[ You have defeated a Goblin. FP +1 ]
‘I need to finish this quickly.’
Ignoring the paralyzed Goblin’s death, Damian tackled the Goblin that managed to avoid his attack. Without the broken longsword or Aura, his only option was consecutive attacks.
At the very least, there was only one more Goblin to be wary of, so some grappling wouldn’t necessarily mean Damian’s end.
“Woooh…”
However, just as he was about to start stabbing, Damian’s body tilted to the right on its own. Damian wondered what was happening at first, but he soon saw the knife that he barely avoided.
{Dami-}
The hidden Goblin had been waiting for the chance to strike, and it missed it just like that!
{Oh, you already avoided it.}
Iris’ voice sounded out too late just like last time, but this was only expected. Every battle she saw was no different from a nightmare or a horror movie. It only made sense that she couldn’t overcome the sense of paralysis that came with them.
Most importantly, Damian had just realized that she gave him a much greater gift in return for all of her incompetence.
[ Combat Instincts (A+): Your body knows its way around the battlefield. ]
Compared to its high rating, the talent’s description was too obscure.
Considering his less comprehensive experience in the game, such talents only gave some numerical boosts in turn-based combat, so Damian didn’t have much hope for it.
However, now that he had personally experienced its effects, Damian was elated.
As a normal person who had never laid his hands on a proper weapon back on Earth, this was just what he needed to keep the number of his retries at a reasonable range!
Just like some of the game’s staples were destroyed by the reality patch, other elements ended up receiving a greater enhancement in return. In real time Auto-reaction was an overpowered ability!
Shik! Shik! Shik!
Seeing the sneaky Goblin staggering into the same awkward position that he was in a few seconds ago, Damian took his chance to turn the tackled Goblin’s neck into minced meat.
[ You have defeated a Goblin. FP +1 ]
‘It’s not perfect, but it’s still cheat-like.’
He didn’t see it coming, yet Damian was also able to turn the free Goblin’s second strike into another scratch. Now that the number of his enemies was reduced by half, Combat Instincts was really showing its hand!
After receiving its scratch attack, Damian elbowed the free Goblin first before bouncing on the sneaky one.
Even if he lost on the speed side, against these small monsters, Damian still held the advantage in size and strength…
‘You aren’t so strong when you are alone, after all.’
Damian could already feel his next Aura charge ready to be used, but by then, the last Goblin was already squirming under his grip.
[ You have defeated a Goblin. FP +1 ]
The battle that felt like it would last forever had finally come to an end… Or so Damian mistakenly believed for a split second.
{Run! He is coming!}
In reality, the true part of the battle had yet to even commence!