Chapter 8: Finder Keeper
About a week has passed since Beelzebub and Gollum fought. As they stay up in the only mountain of the forest, which is called the Noman Forest. A lot of things have changed.
From the east, a group of cranes that seems to be three times bigger than a tree. These creatures have red feathers and black talons that seem to be able to slice through a rock easily. They are pecking at the earth for an unknown reason. These cranes are known as Blood Cranes, and they have decided to build a nest here, in the Noman Forest.
From the west, about hundreds of small, green humanoid creatures are moving like a parade silently; they don’t seem to be that strong, and yet all of their eyes are filled with madness and desire. All of them are goblins, and they have come back to their origin. And the leader who is being carried in a carriage is a shaman-goblin. While holding an amulet with a green glow, it looked toward the distance, licking its lip.
From the south, instead of some monsters, there are bands of humans setting up camps, all holding a saber and a gun in their waist. All of them have the same red skull tattoo on their neck. They are the Crimson Mercenary, and they have come for a group chance of hunting creatures.
And finally, from the north, far away, a desolate land that seems to have been burned down into ash. From the ashes, a head burst out, taking a look left and right then into the sky like it was warrying something, but seeing no danger, it fully stepped out of the earth.
From the ashes, a creature with rabbit’s hind legs, wearing bronze armor while holding a golden spear that looks like a gift from God, but the aura it gives off is vile and sinister. If not for the long ears popping out of the helmet, people might recognize it’s for a knight.
“For the God of Invention”
After saying that, it ran with speed equivalent to a horse, marching toward the Noman forest.
*****
Looking at the West, East, and South at the peak of the mountain, Beelzebub is looking at everything by using mana vision.
Mana vision: With one arm, form a circle by using the thumb and the index finger, then put it right in front of your eye; with this, you can see things from miles away.
“Crane from the east, goblin from the west, human from the south.”
“Human?”
“So? Are you scared?"
“N-NO SIR, um, but there maybe a C-rank human there?”
“See rank? Why a demonic creature related to sight”
“….”
“They have a red skull tattoo on their neck; you know anything?
"Oh, then there is nothing to be afraid of, but still killing them may bring trouble to us.”
“How so”
“I will explain along the way, sir.”
“Okay then, let begin the hunt.”
Saying so, I begin to approach Gollum, startling him.
“Y-yes sir”
“Kneel”
“....yes”
As Gollum kneeling in front of me, I look at his sight for a moment, then climb on his back.
“!!!!!”
“Now onward, to the west.”
*****
In a certain spot of the forest, the goblins are hiding themselves by sneaking below the bush. All of them don’t say a single word, and yet all of them act accordingly. Each of them holds a different weapon—a knife, a rock, even the tip of an arrow. The similarity between these weapons is a green smudge on them. They keep sneaking like this until they see their prey. Their leader, the goblin shaman, was standing at the back of the group while using a spell. A spell that was meant to conceal themselves, make them invisible
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But unbeknownst to them, we are looking all of this at the top of a tree.
I don’t remember making those goblins; I look at all of this using mana vision. I then turned my head to see these goblins prey. The humans with red skull tattoos
"You said that these guys are the Crimson Mercenary, right?”
“Yes sir”
“And you also say that there is one person who has the mana capacity equal to you.”
“Yes sir”
"Well, it seems that they are all going to die from the ambush.”
“Excuse me, sir, but I don’t think that’s the case.”
"Oh, what made you say that?” I said with interest.
“It’s because the leader is Crimson Wright; yes, he might be a D-rank, but coming from a noble family like Kane, not only he is skilled, but he probably has some powerful artifact.”
“Interesting”
“….If you take it, the Wright family will probably hunt you down, boss. An artifact is expensive these days.”
“Oh, worry for your own skin, huh?”
“N-no bos-“
“KYAHHHH”
Hearing a scream, we both look forward only to see a bloodbath. The goblins jumped out of the bushes and the trees and charged at those mercenaries.
Some were injured and poisoned; some were already dead. But the goblin casualty is much more since a quarter of them have already been killed.
Yet they didn’t care a little bit as they kept on killing. They won’t even care if they lose an eye or a leg either. Even the corpses weren’t spared due to the goblins stepping on, stabbed, and chewed those corpses. Why are they so aggressive?
They don’t kill the women, but they tie the women up, and 10 goblins, all with lust in their eyes, go to a nearby bush, or they try to.
Suddenly a gunshot louder than others was heard, and all 10 goblins have their brains splattered. All of the heads have a bullet wound right at the temple. This sight stopped all of the goblins nearby for a moment before most of them got stabbed, shot, and punched by the mercenaries.
“Keep going; do not falter here.”
Standing at the forefront of the mercenary is a red-haired man who seems to be 25 years old, wearing a hunting garment but leaving his chest exposed. On his chest is a big burning red skull tattoo that looks more like a devil than a human. He looks at the goblins approaching him. Still keeping a straight face, he raised a shotgun with two demon horns popping out of both sides; it also had 10 barrels but no trigger. Pointing at them, he said
“Fired”
10 bullets fired out, automatically aimed at the goblin’s temple, killing them, but that isn’t enough to stop all of them. More and more of them approaching him all with malicious eyes.
Still undisturbed, he grabbed the arm of the nearest goblin that tried to stab him, then swung it at another and another and another, killing about 5 in the process.
He uses the goblin to block an incoming arrow one more time, then throws it aside. He aims again and
“Fired”
Another ten have died; a goblin tried to sneak up on him but was pierced to the head by a spear from another mercenary.
“I got your back, Crimson.”
“Thanks”
They are not only skilled and armed with great weapons; they also have an amazing chemistry with each other. But they still lacked experience.
After saying that, from behind the goblin horde, a massive acid orb was cast to Crimson. Caught by surprise, he was barely able to dodge it, but the person who just helped him wasn’t able to
Seeing his friend melt down to a pile of bones without uttering a single word, he shouted in sorrow.
“DAVEEEEEEEEEE”
Looking in the shaman direction, instead of fired, says a different word.
“UNITE”
All 10 barrels merged together into one, he then said with a bloodshot eye.
“FIREAD”
BOOM
A blast of energy came out of the barrel; everyone near Crimson and Crimson himself got knocked down just from the recoil of the blast. The shaman cast a protective shield in a hurry, but it was pointless.
The bullet broke through the barrier like glass and
BOOM
The shaman's entire body exploded. The amulet that was on the shaman's hands lost its light and fell down.
All the goblins that are currently fighting like they are in a frenzy stopped simultaneously; they looked at each other, confused. Only when some of them died did they scream and run away.
“We-we won”
"Yes, we did.”
"Honey, wake up.
“NOOOOO”
As cheers resound, so is mourning as almost half of the mercenary was taken out of the ambushed
“We suppose to strike it rich, but to think that my men have died due to incompetence.”
“Don’t say it like that, boss.”
“Ye, we still gained something after all.”
Looking at the pile of flesh that used to be the shaman, a woman came to pick up a strange object.
“See, we still gain something valuable after all.”
"Yes, this is something valuable.”
“Like he-“
Huh, confused, the woman looked at the blond man holding her hand—yes, her hand.
“KYAH-“
“shut up”
I use mana claw to cut her head off, throwing the woman's hand away. I look at the strange object amused. However, I don’t have time to study it when a sharp murderous intent shot passes me.
I turned around and spotted an angry leader with bloodshot eyes. I provoke him.
“Want this?”
"Well, too bad; it’s mine now, finder keeper.”