"Ya… can speak our language?" I ask the goblin.

"You are learning ours, Power Hunter," the goblin responds. "Are you truly surprised that a goblin could learn yours?"

"Yeah, ya are all pretty dumb."

The goblin starts laughing as I try to figure out what's going on. Judging by the reactions from Lady Elise and her guards, this goblin is too much for us. Well, this goblin and these odd trolls.

"Max," Lady Elise says, her voice soft. "We can't take them. That goblin is the next-worst thing after a Goblin King. The most we can hope for is escaping it."

So it's not a Goblin King? What is this, then?

"You are an interesting one, Power Hunter," the goblin says. "I'd heard reports of your [Flashbang Bomb] spell, though I was unfortunately unable to properly disable them. My [Fire Bolt]s were meant to destroy them, not set them off. You're quite talented to structure the spells that strongly."

This is the goblin that shot those [Fire Bolt]s? Why didn't he fully protect others, then?

"Defending the few I managed to defend against it," he continues. "Wasn't easy, either. Of course, it was more difficult to direct all remaining goblins, trolls, and boars to attack you, but that doesn't mean it was easy. Your spells create quite the force and I had to sacrifice some of the spell's strength to create a barrier that large."

Barriers cost a lot of Mana, but as with all spells, their cost can be reduced if their strength is reduced. So this goblin is tough enough to take us all on, but it's not so tough as to be able to protect a huge area on its own.

"Fortunately," he says. "I had troll mages to help create additional barriers. I've sent two to each of the other three groups waiting here, to deal with them. Who would have thought I'd get to claim the deaths of all three children of your kingdom's royal family? And the nephew and heir of the son of the head of the most troublesome guild?"

Colt, Lord Benjamin, Lady Elise, and Peter. The goblin knows who all is here.

"Troll mages?" I ask.

This goblin seems okay with just talking right now, which tells me just how confident it is in its own power. Then again, the responses from Lady Elise and her guards have already told me he's too strong for us.

"Trolls born with more intelligence than normal," Lady Elise explains. "The crystals in their foreheads show what elements they have affinities for, and they use them regularly, focusing on spellcasting over brute strength. Max, this is Na'Maerul, a goblin who has killed more hunters than any other including royal guards. He killed Peter's and Nicholas's parents and Trenton's wife."

"Yes, yes," Na'Maerul chuckles. "And I didn't expect in a hundred years that I'd get to take out as many irritants at once as I do. If your father gave Colton more than one bodyguard, you some guards of the quality your elder brother once had, or if Benjamin was still under high protection, then I would never have made my presence known. But none of those are true now. This is quite the glorious day. The gods truly have abandoned you humans."

"The gods ain't abandoned us!" I exclaim. "They-"

"Oh?" Na'Maerul chuckles. "You didn't know, Power Hunter? The gods started interacting with humanity less and less a few thousand years ago. Seven hundred and ninety years ago was the last time the gods blessed humanity with their grace, and they have been silent ever since."

"That's not true!"

"It is," Lady Elise says.

"But you said exceptional and gift people-"

"That was in old times," Lady Elise admits. "But you seem to be more exceptional than normal, so I had a feeling a god blessed you with his presence. You admitted he said he was not a god."

"But what about Blessed Oaths?" I ask. "Wait… Thomas said that the gods usually don't respond to them."

"That is correct," Lady Elise says. "They are known about, but no one believes in them because the gods remain silent."

But a god responds to mine. A god always binds mine – the same one every time. And it's a known god. I'm about to say that when Na'Maerul speaks again.

"The gods abandoned humanity," he says. "And it's been long enough that it is time for us to take down humanity. This war against your people will be our first step, and I will claim your realm for myself. Might I know your name, Power Hunter, before I kill you?"

"Lady Elise?"

"Yes?"

"Go to Peter and assist him," I say. "Ya've already made it clear ya ain't able to take him, even with your guards. But maybe ya can help Peter out. I'll hold him off long enough."

"For what?" Lady Elise asks as I shoot a signal up into the air.

"Just go!"

I doubt Thomas or Lord Benjamin and his team will fall against a pair of single-affinity troll mages. This goblin needed help to stop my attacks and protect as many as it did. All I have to do is hold it off long enough for either Thomas or Lord Benjamin to finish off their troll mages. Lady Elise needs to take her royal bodyguards and protect her boyfriend. Her guards should be able to handle them.

"I cannot-"

"I can hold him off!" I say. "Get your guards and protect Peter! Help is coming!"

Lady Elise finally leaves, Na'Maerul watching her go but allowing her to as well.

"You really have faith in the others, don't you?" Na'Maerul asks me. "I know the might of each person here. A pair of single-affinity troll mages is more than enough."

"You said that Lady Elise's guards are lesser," I say. I need to stall for time, to give Thomas or Lord Benjamin and his party enough time to beat their foes and come over here. "Than what Colt would have or what Lord Benjamin once had."

"Yes," Na'Maerul says. "Her stronger guards were reducing the threat levels of monsters, so she asked for a set of weaker royal bodyguards. They are still royal bodyguards, which means they are powerful in their own right. They could handle most threats. They cannot handle me. Nor can they handle a pair of single-affinity troll mages at the Levels of the ones I brought with me. And my three-affinity troll mages here are of even higher Levels than those."

At least he's prone to boasting and talking, that gives me time. I'm still certain that either Thomas or Lord Benjamin and his party are more than enough.

"You really have caused us trouble lately," Na'Maerul says. "The kings will be glad to know you're dead."

That seems to be a signal, because both troll mages cast spells, the one on the left casting a [Fire Spear] at me while the one on the left casts an [Air Spear]. There's also two [Fireballs] and two [Ice Bomb]s thrown.

I start to summon barriers, only for barriers to form in front of me before I can even start. Someone just cast barriers even faster than me, and judging by Na'Maerul's eyes widening, he didn't know there were others here.

I look around and find two men standing behind me, both in the garb of royal bodyguards, but neither of them known to me.

"Focus on offense, Max," the one on the left says. "We'll work on defense, and I'll help with healing."

"And I'll assist with offense," the one on the right says as more spells slam into the barriers. "Judging by the amount of force hitting the barrier, you're strong enough to handle the troll mages. Focus on them first. Once they're down, we'll focus on taking down Na'Maerul."

"Though getting him separated from that staff is a priority, too," the first guard says. "That thing's bonuses definitely contributed to his might."

"Who are ya and how'd ya not be known 'fore now?" I ask.

The barriers they cast seem decent enough, they're not even cracking.

"Thomas is Colton's only visible bodyguard," the first guard informs me. "His Majesty doesn't feel it's enough and has had an additional ten of us watching Colton with [Light Cloak] to conceal ourselves and has been since he first let Colton out to hunt slimes. Colton doesn't know we've been around, though Thomas was made aware of us our presence before we were assigned. He felt something was off and sent the two of us to assist you if you needed it."

I'm more than bothered by the fact that I never noticed invisible guards.

"Oh," I look over to Na'Maerul, who's sending attacks our way as well, though the barriers are still holding. "Are the two of you really enough to kill him? He seems confident he can handle you."

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"Na'Maerul is intelligent," the second guard informs me. "He would have left if he suspected he had a chance of losing against us. Unfortunately for him, we put on different uniforms than we're supposed to wear."

"What's that mean?"

"We're of the highest order of royal guards," the first guard answers. "A higher order than our outfits suggest. This is the uniform worn by those of the grade Elise's guards are. If we were that grade, our barrier would have been destroyed already."

But they're actually stronger than that.

"We're both five-affinity," the second guard informs me. "And Rankers."

Rankers? They've reached Level 100 and completed their Rank-Up Trials? If they really are five-affinity Rankers as they claim, then they are significantly more powerful than I am, even if they're missing the lightning affinity.

"You can take him on your own, can't you?" I ask.

"We can," the first guard answers. "Na'Maerul is powerful, but he's a little bit weaker than we are. You won't be able to hurt him at all, so focus on the trolls. They're strong, but you're strong enough to handle them. The amount of Experience you'll get from killing one – even with it being reduced from our assistance – should net you several Levels. You can bet that Thomas is letting Colt get some Experience from theirs, too. Once the trolls are dead, we'll focus on Na'Maerul and take him down."

I glance at the barriers, which are holding up quite well, then I look back at the guards. We have time, Na'Maerul and his trolls aren't going anywhere.

"How does the order of guard work?"

They both chuckle at my question. Why?

"You must have at least four affinities," the first guard says. "To become a royal guard. You must also be Level 50 or higher, and which order you are depends on how many affinities you are and your Level. At Level 100, all guards become a First Order guard, though there are only three of us. Kedridal only has six Level 100 people in total."

Two of whom are right here. Why does Colt have such high-ranking guards? Shouldn't they be protecting the king?

"Shall we begin?" The second guard asks. "We can talk more after it ends."

"Alright," I look at the troll mages. "So, uh… how am I supposed to do this? They won't stop attacking, so there's no real break."

There's always at least two of them attacking, with the three of them taking turns resting for a few moments. Once they start running lower on Mana, they're probably going to have longer breaks while casting slower. They are, however, trying to burn out our barriers, so they're not going to let up. If we do release the barriers, we'll then have to deal with their spells.

"Don't worry about that," the second guard tells me. "Our aim is precise enough to shoot their spells down."

"You'll just trigger their bomb spells early," I say.

"We have some degree of feedback from our barriers," the first guard informs me. "We've already figured out how to counter them. Every spell has an opposite that can neutralize it, though it varies slightly from person to person. We already knew the base counter, so it wasn't difficult to figure out the counters for their variations. Their bomb spells are no longer an issue."

"As an example," the second guard points forward, and an orb of water shoots forward.

The barriers open up to allow it to pass, and it meets a [Fireball] that just sizzles out of existence in response. The water orb was destroyed as well.

"Oh," I say. "Well, I'm not confident enough I can do this."

"Yet you sent Elise and her guards to go rescue Peter?" The first guard asks.

"I was confident I could hold up a barrier until someone arrived."

"Na'Maerul would have destroyed it in seconds," he tells me. "You don't mind not getting Levels from this?"

"I can get Levels," I say. "I'm just not confident I can do this while all three of them are around. Maybe if we can get the assault of attacks to stop for a couple of seconds I can do something, but definitely not while there's a big assault going on."

Even if I'm a little less fearful right now, that doesn't extend to battles against obviously superior opponents. The two guards protecting me might do their best, or they might not. Even still, all it takes is one spell from Na'Maerul getting missed, and I'll end up dead. At least, if they're right about how strong the goblin is.

"For a couple of seconds?" The first guard asks. "We can arrange that. Do you want to give it a try before deciding if you're done?"

"Sure," I answer. "But I'll probably be done after my initial strike. Do you think you can get all three of them to stop for three seconds at the maximum?"

I've recovered almost all of the Mana that I used during the fight thanks to this discussion. Having people this powerful protecting me is amazing. If it weren't for them, I definitely wouldn't have tried even this.

No, I'd have just died.

"Three seconds might be a stretch," he says. "But we can do it."

"Okay," I say. "Once I make my strike, though, you'll need to keep Na'Maerul off my back."

This is the part that I'm iffy about. There's no guarantee that they'll try.

"Okay," the first guard says. "Would you like to make Blessed Oaths with us to be more certain we'll do our best to protect you?"

If they're offering this, then they must be serious. The gods bind my Blessed Oaths, and if they've been watching Colt like they said, then they've learned that a god always binds my Blessed Oaths. I don't need the Blessed Oaths to know they're going to try their best.

They're willing to prove to me that they will by making an oath that the gods themselves will bind them into doing.

"No," I answer. "But your souls will be damned for eternity if you don't."

"Alright," he chuckles. "We'll be lowering the barriers and sending in our stopper. Depending on how fast they recover, you'll have four or five seconds, not just three."

"Okay," I say.

"Lowering in five…" he begins a countdown, and I prepare myself as well.

The moment he reaches one, the barriers fall and two shimmering, green-tinted orbs of compressed air shoot forward. Additional spells do as well, but those are the ones which catch my attention. They're a little bit slower than the other spells, which take out all of the spells still in-flight from our enemies.

Na'Maerul extends his left hand as if to blast the spells, but the pair of orbs explode on their own. Rather than creating a blast in all directions, the blast only goes forward. And they're [Flashbang Bomb]s. The guards summoned a [Shadow Barrier] right in time to stop us from being blinded, and the boom doesn't seem to blow backwards as it doesn't deafen me and cause my ears to ring.

Right before the bombs went off, the troll mages and Na'Maerul began to conjure barriers. That was interrupted by a perfectly-timed and very localized quake that knocked them off balance. Because of that, they were unable to defend against the blasts, which were more focused and didn't send up debris everywhere, just backwards.

"Now!" The guards call out.

I push forward with my back foot, sending me soaring forward. Because I knew it was coming, I was able to do the enhancement right at the moment they called for me to go.

Even though I'm boosted with 100 Mana per second, Na'Maerul still manages to move out of my way a little. My [Stone Knife] cuts through his right arm, slicing it clean off as I pass by, his arm and staff slamming into my chest and moving with me.

Just because, I grab the staff before taking another step and shooting further past them. Then I stop the enhancement, turn around, and send a pair of [Flame Spear]s at the troll mages from behind. They react to the damaging impacts from behind by turning around as Na'Maerul roars in pain.

Turning around to face me turns out to be a major mistake, as both troll mages are incinerated by the guards right after that.

+147% Experience! +158% Experience! You have gained 4 Levels!

That much Experience just for hitting them once with [Flame Spear]s?

Na'Maerul conjures barriers to defend against the guards as they begin their assault, putting pressure on him. His barrier is a half-dome, only covering him from in front and the sides, but not behind. I guess that's one way to save on Mana.

Did he forget that I was back here?

I take a few moments to collect myself and sneak forward a little… then I carefully set his staff down before enhancing myself again.

Immediately after I enhance myself, I charge forward, driving my stone knife into Na'Maerul's back. The sheer speed of my enhanced movement ensures that my [Stone Knife] penetrates all the way in, while the force of my impact sends both of us flying forward. We actually move faster than his barriers disappear, sending us crashing into the barrier for a moment.

Then we crash into the ground as the spells that were flying this way suddenly redirect themselves.

"I think I broke my arm," I mutter as I stand, then test my arms, wincing as I test my left one. "Yeah, broken. Kind of understandable."

Even if my Constitution was enhanced, I still impacted a tough thing with a lot of force. A normal person would break their arm, too.

"Whoa!" I exclaim when I see the Experience notification. "That's a lot of Experience!"

+938% Experience! You have gained 9 Levels!

"You dealt a severe blow and a lethal blow," the first guard tells me. "To a monster many Levels above you, Max. Not only that, but a powerful monster whose might matches that of a five-affinity at Level 122, meaning its might was significantly higher than yours as well. I wouldn't be surprised if you gained around ten Levels from that kill."

"A little more than nine and a third."

"Well, good job," he chuckles. "I take it Na'Maerul only shielded his front?"

"Yeah," I nod. "That's why I got the idea for it. I also made sure I was only thirty feet away before lunging forward, I wanted to make sure I had the Mana for it and to possibly escape if needed after my attempt. Or take whatever attack he hit me with after."

"You're an insane little dude," the second guard tells me. "Not many adults would have dared to take that risk."

"Growing up on the streets of the slums," I say. "You learn to take any opportunity to stab a superior enemy in the back."

"You've mentioned before that you've killed people," the first guard says. "Have you actually killed a person before?"

"Yeah, a few times," I answer. "I might be skinny – well, not as skinny anymore, I'm putting meat on these bones – but that doesn't mean I couldn't stab someone in the back. Or cut off their balls and shove them down their throat. I never got any Experience, though."

"You won't gain Experience from killing a person," he tells me. "Outside of certain types of situations. What did you do with their bodies?"

"Left 'em in the street."

"And the guy you cut off the balls of?"

"I think someone else killed him," I say. "That, or he bled out through where his balls had once been attached to his body."

"Stop playing with your broken arm," he tells me. "You're going to make it worse."

"I'm trying to put it back into position."

"If you stop," he says. "I'll heal you."

I stop trying to put my arm back into place, and the guard starts using healing magic on me. His healing is even faster than Evan's is, my arm mended in only three seconds. That includes his magic putting the bone back into place, too.

"That's awesome."

"Let's see who needs help," he says before sending up a signal for 'all clear'.

A couple of seconds after that goes up, two more signals go up. Both of them are "help needed". One is with Lady Elise and Peter, the other is with Colt and Thomas.

"Our duty is protecting Colton," the first guard tells me. "So we have to prioritize him."

I want to help Colt, too, and they'll probably want me to. But if I go and help Colt with them, will Lady Elise be killed by the troll mages? Would I get blamed for not helping?

"That's fine," I say. "I'm kind of low on Mana due to those bursts, but I can probably help the Lady Elise and them with their troll mages. Well, not that low. I could probably even take one out by surprise."

"Okay," he says. "Good luck, Max. We'll meet up with you here after."