The demon bolted into a wild run through the forest, still bound by manacles at his wrists, unable to free himself from the grip that prevented him from shaking his hands.
The trees on either side whizzed by like lightning bolts.
The demon's chest heaved as the surrounding air mixed with the heavy panting emanating from his mouth.
The demon kept glancing back, seeing that the pounding of the horses did not hesitate to subside.
The horses' hooves continued to hit the ground, advancing nimbly along the forest path.
There were more than one, and at a gallop, there were several knights who fixed their eyes straight on the demon.
"He must not escape!" The knight shouted with all the breath in his body.
Without even catching his breath, the demon continued to run, dispersing himself in various forest paths, it didn't matter which avenue he had taken, the only priority was to escape.
With the manacles bound at his wrists, he had no way to counterattack these miserable knights. His scarlet eyes gleamed with hope, because above, he saw a figure in his own image that was soaring.
He recognized it immediately for its outspread wings and protruding tip.
It was an air demon.
The demon bent his legs and pushed himself up, jumping onto the top of a tree, he made gestures, roared, trying to catch his attention.
He had to in some way make himself heard, only then would he escape his fatal destiny. The knights had already surrounded the trunk of the tree, drew their swords and gripped the blade on the trunk, trying to climb it and reach the demon. They overlapped one after the other, trying to reach the protrusion.
The demon furrowed his brow, a sign of irritation, raised his gaze upwards and tried to call the follower.
After a moment, the air demon looked down and recognized that individual. He fully understood his intentions and muttered some words, casting a spell. Suddenly, a vortex opened. In an instant, the knights were swept away by a gust of wind that threw them far away.
The demon, with manacles at his wrists, drooled so abundantly that, from the peak, he jumped forward, plunging into the abyss with a cry of satisfaction.
"I'm about to return... to my kingdom!"
The vortex closed behind him, leaving only the silence of the forest to testify to his passage. With eyes sparkling with amazement, the demon hurled himself into the abyss, until he disappeared completely, sucked in by his kingdom.
***
The daylight fully embraced the kingdom of Heden, every village was sprinkled with vast plantations and medium-high structures, composed of marble and well-implemented stones.
Everything seemed to highlight the liveliness of the kingdom, with the numerous inhabitants crowding the cobbled streets. The coming and going of merchants and stalls attracted and sold a wide range of goods to passersby.
A girl stationed next to a well had repeated the same task several times. From the bucket, the water overflowed from the edges, and as soon as her slender fingers intertwined on the handle, she tried to lift it.
The weight due to the container did not allow the girl to move the bucket from the ground, her face suddenly became red from the effort. She rested the bucket, trying to catch her breath.
Behind her, she heard the moan of a laugh.
"Look at the strong girl we have here!" laughed the farmer. "Do you intend to lift the bucket or just make it spin in your head? It might work better as a hair accessory!"
The girl turned and looked at the farmer with a nervous expression, with a rebellious tuft hanging over her forehead.
"Yeah, laugh it up! But at least I'm working, not like someone who's playing in the shade!"
"Sure, it doesn't take much to make you angry!"
The girl got moving again and tried to lift the bucket of water again.
Despite her skinny appearance, she maintained her splendor thanks to her long blonde hair.
The farmer wiped a spot of sweat from his forehead and sighed. The plantations had to be taken care of, and today as well, he would have to get to work to cultivate the land.
The kingdom of Heden presented villages with the same characteristics, a paradisiacal land with vast fertile plantations, buildings built in marble that had nothing to envy from Greek temples.
As the farmer scrutinized the horizon, in his eyes, a slight confusion appeared. The pupils began to move in jerks, he didn't blink an eye, when on the mountain clearly visible, something was falling, a series of scattered points were descending, like an avalanche, until they reached the village.
The murmur of the villages began to spread as the farmer, with wide-open eyes, clearly saw the threat: an imminent assault. The goblins, with heavy steps, had just ventured down from the mountain, trampling without mercy the precious plantations.
"It's an attack!" the farmer shouted hoarsely, trying to warn the others.
The figures became clear: the green-skinned goblins with hunched shoulders advanced towards the village. The inhabitants took refuge behind armored doors or fled in panic. The goblins wielded clubs and tattered clothes as they emerged from their lairs. Their white eyes, clouded with fury and bloodlust, stared at the ground as they repeatedly struck, unleashing terror. Saliva dripped from their teeth, a sign of their relentless aggression.
The inhabitants had scattered in various zones, but this was not enough, they could not distance themselves from the goblins' range of vision who with their pumped arms dragged them back and sank their jagged teeth into their flesh, pressing on it until they completely tore it off.
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The girl, next to the well, found herself trapped, desperately looking for a way to escape. The farmer lay on the ground, his body violated by a goblin who had devoured his entrails. With trembling hands, the girl covered her mouth, trying to hold her breath while terror gripped her chest. The goblin slowly got up, the moisture of his tongue licked his lips, approaching cautiously to the girl, who instinctively retreated while tears streamed down her face like rivers of fear.
The goblin lunged at her with a lightning-fast gesture, grabbing her hands and preventing her from moving. The girl screamed desperately, trying in vain to free herself, but the goblin's relentless grip forced her to stillness. With razor-sharp claws, the goblin tore her clothes, leaving her vulnerable and defenseless.
"D...don't do it!" the girl begged, in the grip of the goblin. It took little for his large arms to push the girl to the ground, in a supine position.
The goblin wanted to give vent to all those instinctive impulses that ran through his thoughts, but as soon as he approached the girl, a sharp point went to pierce his chest. The goblin, in addition to spitting a liter of blood, began to no longer stand on one leg, then collapsed to the ground.
The girl was still alive, but shaken, but as soon as that sharp blade was extracted from the goblin's body, she noticed that it was a spear, of a pure steel that reflected in the sunlight.
Whoever was wielding it at that moment, had to be a valiant knight who fights for justice.
A young man with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail dominates the scene, with his bright orange eyes. A silver armor on various parts of the body. The hand held the spear firmly with a strip of blood on the protrusion.
"Are you okay?"
The girl was still shaken, but grabbed the knight's hand and squeezed it before rising to her feet.
In the background, the knights of Heden were trying with all their might to repel the goblin attack, but there were too many, one troop would not have been enough.
The knight tightly held the spear and agilely rotated it passing it between his fingers.
"Now, you will see the strength of one of Heden's strongest heroes, Viliam, hero of the spear."
Viliam sprang into an accentuated step, and holding the spear firmly between his hands, he threw it aiming at a series of goblins, and each one was pierced with such precision to perforate them one after the other. After that, the spear returned to Viliam's hands.
A protruding and cocky smile crossed Viliam, feeling powerful in that situation, he knew that the inhabitants and his comrades needed a hero like him, what would have become of the kingdom, if there hadn't been any valiant fighters like Viliam, ready to defend it?
He continued for a long time, to massacre those goblins one after the other, for as much as they hurled themselves against him, with their cracked claws and their corpulent form, they were easily knocked down in one fell swoop.
As always, the spear returned to the hero who positioned it next to his bust.
Traces of goblins everywhere, lying on the ground, with their mouths still open from which saliva dripped. Viliam walked in that cemetery that he himself had created.
"If it weren't for me, by now, that girl would be dead."
Without even turning around, in front of him, a figure suspended in mid-air landed on the ground until it splattered. Viliam furrowed his brow, approached and with the tip of the spear, tasted the content that had fallen to the ground.
It was a severed head, the spear went to unroll on long blonde hair.
"Tsk... it's her!"
Viliam turned and saw a large goblin trying to stuff the entire body of the girl into his mouth, he chewed her with his teeth and swallowed her whole.
Different from the others, the imposing goblin rose like a keep among the enemy ranks. His size comparable to that of a house, revealed a power that went beyond that of his fellow goblins, suggesting the role of leader. Despite this, Viliam was not intimidated, holding his spear firmly while his ardent gaze announced an irreducible challenge.
With determination, the young knight launched himself towards the big goblin, but the latter moved with surprising speed, hitting Viliam with a single blow of his arm that sent him to the ground, overwhelmed by the enemy's strength.
"Damn!" Viliam gritted his teeth as he knelt down, picking up the spear and getting back up, the spear served as a support, and his tired eyes fixed on the goblin approaching, he was running, he looked like a football player coming to get the ball back.
Viliam rotated the spear again and muttered words to the wind:
"Legendary spear's fatal blow!"
All at once, the spear began to vibrate with a celestial aura, and expanded to form a ray that went to direct itself towards the goblin.
The goblin only needed a jump to avoid that blow.
The hero's glory seemed to have ended, the goblin was about to squash him under his fist, Viliam only had to curse himself for his weakness.
He closed his eyes and letting the spear fall, awaited the moment of his defeat.
In that instant, a fleeting shadow penetrated their field of action,
Viliam raised his eyelids and saw the figure soar in the air followed by somersaults, he quickly drew his shining sword.
"AVAN STRASH!"
One word, a blow of energy with immense power, a wave of light that went to tear the air and reach the enemy.
The energy blow hit the mark, the impact caused an explosion. Viliam covered his ears as it had been so powerful. The smoke wafted, it had filled the surrounding area, even the inhabitants had trouble breathing. With a wave of energy emanating from Viliam's spear, it swept away the wind.
The big goblin lay on the ground, nothing was left of him but a almost charred body.
After that blow he had launched, the figure rested his boots on the ground and put the sword back in its sheath.
Geronimo's gaze always assumed a sullen air, as if he were tired of the usual adversaries he faced.
"Pff!" He snorted. "A simple level 17, it took me only one shot to finish him off."
Geronimo turned his gaze towards the spearman, who was still trembling on the ground. The goblins turned their gaze towards Geronimo, all at the same time, with eyes gleaming with anger, now that their boss had been defeated, they could not afford to let him escape. The goblins sprang into an intrepid rage, and surrounded the hero.
Geronimo drew his sword again, and with a tight grip, started in an incredible chase followed by a glorious scream.
"Die!"
The hero launched himself in a semi-circular run, slashing the goblins one after the other with his sword with such speed that it seemed as if he was mowing the grass. The goblins were disemboweled, while with intrepid courage their limbs were separated from their bodies.
Geronimo accumulated more and more experience points. The goblins wanted to escape, but Geronimo did not let them escape. "Where do you think you're going?"
The spearman Viliam was amazed, while the other knights found themselves in difficulty due to the numerical disparity of the goblins. Geronimo managed to defeat them all with a single blow, including the goblin boss, the most powerful of all. It took only one attack to end his life.
A knight, seriously wounded, commented on that scenario.
"The goblins are running away, but why?!"
"They are afraid of the hero of Heden." The spearman replied.
Silence enveloped the village, sprinkled with a massacre of the goblin corpses, Geronimo advanced in that total cemetery, while the inhabitants watched him return.
Viliam ran after him, grabbing his elbow. "Why did you save me? I was fighting against the boss, you shouldn't have intervened-"
Geronimo interrupted him with a shoulder bump that made Lancer fall to the ground.
"Save you? Don't you ever dare speak to me like that again. Is that clear?" he said firmly. "A failure like you shouldn't even allow yourself to look at me."
Lancer looked at him with a gaze full of resignation, then slowly got up.
Advancing with ease and turning his back on him, Geronimo let the inhabitants exult in his name as a hero.
The trail of exultation of the inhabitants and of the knights who followed him, waiting for an order from him, accompanied Geronimo as he advanced with a sullen air. He couldn't hide his boredom. "How boring, they're all so weak here!" he said yawning.