The fog had slowly dispersed and the sun could finally be seen as hundreds of goblins’ bodies were visible on the ground. They were trampled to death, having their crimson flesh and guts scattered over their green skin.

A running big bull was looking at a place among the mountain of corpses where his master was there facing a huge green monster.

That monster looked dangerous. He knew it. The feeling deep inside his heart told him as such when he looked at that huge green lump. When he first saw it, anger and fear which he shouldn’t feel as a half-undead appeared. He knew that he couldn’t defeat it, let alone being of use to his master.

However, if it is his master, it must be possible, he thought while speeding up his feet to quickly wipe the goblins out.

.

.

.

Lunus and the goblin boss, Gugaga, had been glaring at each other for a while.

In Gugaga’s hands was a huge mace made out of a metal rod and a stone head. It looked extremely heavy, but he casually tapped it on his palm times and times again like it was a mere stick.

He slowly sidestepped, walking in a big circle around Lunus while looking for an opening.

As for Lunus, having four limbs made him difficult to sidestep and follow the monster’s direction. He needed to slowly walked back while rearranging his position toward Gugaga.

Seeing that, Gugaga’s lip curled into a smirk.

This thing is no different than a mere beast!, he was sure.

Without any further thought, he leaped toward Lunus with the huge mace in his hands.

“Guahhhh!!!,” he roared.

Lunus dodged with the help of his vines just before Gugaga reached his previous location; however, the green monster suddenly followed after him as he swung his heavy mace upward at Lunus’ flank.

Lunus was sent flying into the air as several bones inside were creaking. Even though he could run fast in this form, dodging attacks aiming at his flank is so difficult as his bone structure didn’t support the movement.

“Tsk!”

Without letting Lunus have a chance to make a countermeasure, Gugaga barraged his mace and punch toward Lunus’ flank.

As the result, Lunus was forced to avoid every single attack which could easily break his bones.

I can’t gain an advantage if I continue dodging like this, he pondered.

The mace was swung downward aiming at Lunus’ unprotected flank, but this time he leaped toward Gugaga instead of taking a distance. The mace missed its target and hit the soft ground with a dull sound while Lunus finally approached under Gugaga’s arms.

He unleashed his vines and swung them like whips aiming at Gugaga’s face, trying to push him away from his mace and knock him dizzy. The vines gouged out the green skin on the goblin’s face and blood dripped down along the chin, but Gugaga didn’t move an inch from his spot.

Seeing that his plan came out in a failure, Lunus quickly jumped away from under Gugaga’s arms, but it was too late as the thick arms had already embraced his neck. A chill of terror ran down his meatless spine.

“I finally got you!”

With a herculean strength, Gugaga kicked Lunus’ chest down as he pulled Lunus’ neck away from his body. A cracking sound echoed as the deer’s head and vines were sent flying in the air and left a pile of bones on the ground.

“What!? Are you some sort of undead?,” Gugaga got surprised.

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Not letting the chance escaped, Lunus jumped into the air and whacked his vines on the goblin’s body, gouging Gugaga’s skin once again.

Lunus didn’t care much about losing his body. His goal was fixated in the annihilation of the goblin horde, so as long as he could buy this monster here until his men finished routing the enemies, then he could get the reinforcement.

And it didn’t mean that he couldn’t fight when there was only his head and vines left. Because, in exchange for a higher running speed and a stronger physical body, he had gained a greater agility as he could freely move in all direction, not being limited by his bone joints.

Lunus then had changed his plan to buy more time enough for his men to finish their job. He kicked the ground whenever his body fell and sent whips whacking on Gugaga body who had tried to use the nearby goblin corpses as a shield.

“Damn you monster, flying here and there like a wisp!,” Gugaga cursed.

His body was now full of bruises and cutting wounds. Blood dripped down his green skin and dyed it with a red hue. Still, not a single wound was severe enough to endanger his life or hinder his movement.

He lifted the body of a fallen goblin up as another wave of whips came down from above, cutting the corpse’s abdomen open and scattering the guts around.

Being pissed off, Gugaga then used his free hand to catch the vines before Lunus could fly away.

“Now, I caught you again!,” he smirked.

Using the vines as a rope, he swung Lunas around and hit him on the ground and boulders several times. If this crazy attack continued, Lunus’ horns would be broken for sure.

I must quickly deal with this!, Lunus thought as he cut the vines that were grasped and flew away with the centrifugal force.

However, being high in the air with nothing to hold onto meant being an easy target.

Not letting the prey that he had finally caught escaped, Gugaga grabbed a nearby water-filled barrel and threw it toward Lunus at a greater speed. The projectile precisely hit the mark as the barrel exploded in the air scattering the water content everywhere and sent Lunus flying further away.

After spending his time in the air, Lunus landed onto the only tent around there, crushing it to the ground.

“GRRRRRRAAAAHHHHHHH!”

Gugaga felt proudful for his precise hit and made a victorious roar as his face and hands raised high in the air, trying to encourage his fleeing men and engrave fear into his enemies’ heart.

However, he felt that the usual cheering voices that he had trained his stupid men to do was too silent. So he turned his gaze downward only to meet mountains of green corpses everywhere.

“What the… How could it be like this in a short mome-, Gah!”

A sharp pain came from his back as he felt something big hit him with a great impact. When he looked back, he saw a bull with red dirt all over its body trying hard to penetrate him with its curved horns. But strange enough, the sharp-looking horns didn’t pierce as deep as one would expect.

“It’s futile!”

Gugaga quickly turned back. His big hands grasped onto the twin horns as he expressed his inhuman strength on them.

And with a cracking sound, one of the horns broke.

“Hmph, this is what truly deserve you, undead beasts! There is no way you lots could penetrate my invincible body strengthened by [Steel muscle]!”

With the unbroken horn in his hand, Gugaga spun his body and used his momentum to send the bull flying toward the collapsed tent where Lunus was sent to.

Gugaga was not a normal goblin. True, his huge build came from a rare mutation, but that alone didn’t make a muscle head like him differ much from other goblins.

Gugaga’s invincibility came from the skill bestowed from his king, [Steel muscle] which made his body as strong as steel and granted him a super herculean strength.

His king had gone through a lot of trouble to prepare this for him, but this could also prove just how important he had been given expectation as a warrior and a commander. Though the later position was granted just because Gugaga complained that he wanted to have subordinates.

That was why he didn’t care much if half of them were killed. But when all of them were annihilated, it meant he had also lost his servants.

“Just wait and I’ll crush every bone in your hollow body!,” he shouted while looking for the other enemies.

Even so, none of them were on his sight.

Where did they go?, we thought.

Then his gaze turned toward the collapsed tent where a big cluster of vines was wiggling there as if thousands of snakes were entangled together.

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Skill encyclopedia: [Steel muscle]

Type: passive skill

[Steel muscle] grants the skill holder a strong body with strengthened muscles. The skill holder’s body turns harder as steel weapon can hardly penetrate through the muscle layer.

[Steel muscle] is also a racial skill of strong creatures like dragons and giants. It’s said that this skill can also be acquired from continuously strengthening one’s body through pain and wounds, but the truth is still uncertain.