With a push of his legs, John propelled himself forward, swinging his sword fiercely. The hissing sound of the wind accompanied the strike.
Ding!
The goblin leader raised its halberd to block, but in a fluid motion, John twisted the sword for another strike. It left a deep mark on the left side of the armor, but the runes flared again, repairing the damage to the armor while healing the goblin’s wounds.
He clashed with the goblin leader again and again, delivering devastating attacks. The creature twisted its body with an eerie posture, avoiding a strike and countering with a brutal kick. The impact sent John staggering backward, his grip on the hilt of his sword faltering.
John stumbled, his feet faltering for a heartbeat, but he managed to steady himself. The goblin leader surged forward, its halberd a blur of deadly arcs. John barely managed to dodge, the wind from the swing stinging his cheek as the blade cleaved the air with intense force.
His feet skidded against the dirt, every muscle in his body screaming in protest as he fought to regain balance. He retaliated with a desperate slash, his sword connecting with the goblin’s chest. Sparks erupted on impact, but hope flickered and died as the runes on its armor flared once more.
“Damn it!” John’s voice was hoarse, his frustration boiling over. His chest heaved as he took another swing, aiming for the exposed gaps between the armor plates. Swinging his sword in a wide arc, he struck the goblin leader’s leg, carving a shallow gash that began healing almost instantly.
The goblin leader roared, its crimson eyes locking onto him. It lunged again, the halberd coming down in a crushing vertical strike. John rolled to the side, the blade slamming into the ground where he had stood a moment before, sending shards of rock and dirt flying.
Elemental energy started to gather around its left hand before it thrust forward, sending a firebomb in his direction.
The world around John slowed down for a moment. A searing heat brushed past him as he leaped to the side, rolling over to evade the deadly bomb. An explosion erupted behind him, shaking the ground and filling the air with the smell of scorched earth. He lunged himself off the ground, only to see the tip of the halberd in his face.
His pupils constricted, and fear and horror outlined his face as his boots pounded against the ground to distance himself.
“Aghaaa!”
A part of John’s rib cage was visible through a wound. He managed to evade the strike to his face, but the goblin leader swung the halberd downward in the last second, creating a deep gash on his chest.
In his haste to dodge the ruthless strike, he didn’t realize another sharp pain radiated from his side where a piece of shrapnel had lodged itself deep. The pain was a brutal, fiery dagger, stabbing with each labored breath. His mind screamed for him to keep moving, to push through the tormenting pain. Even with heightened vitality, his wounds were taking their toll.
The fight continued with no pause, no respite for him to look around. John felt panic clawing at his composure. His chest heaved, his heart pounding loud enough to be heard up close. This was the second time he had felt this desperate. The first was when he didn’t know he had these talents and faced the Wild-Fury. The situation now was even worse.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
Minutes passed with relentless, merciless attacks slicing through the air from both sides. Not a single opportunity to deliver a lethal blow was missed. But John's situation was worsening. The goblin leader healed, but John couldn’t—not with the same speed as the runes granted the goblin.
‘If only I had a better weapon, I could have dismembered this motherflipper!’ John’s vision blurred as sweat and blood dripped into his eyes. His Insanity-Check effect was nearing its limit. He could feel the fleeting power coursing through his veins, but it wasn’t enough. Each passing second brought him closer to collapse.
The goblin leader advanced again, its footsteps reverberating through the ground like a war drum. John could see the malice in its crimson eyes, the cruel intelligence that made it different from the mindless horde. The goblin swung its halberd in a horizontal sweep that John barely managed to duck under. The force of the swing sent a gust of wind past him, the pressure rattling his teeth.
“Five minutes,” John muttered to himself, his voice trembling. “Five minutes before Insanity-Check ends.”
His Insanity-Check effect two was about to expire, and with no arrows and a sword half brittle—almost broken—he still couldn't find a way to defeat the monster in front of him.
He sustained heavy injuries, his back and front filled with wounds of different sizes. His clothes were tattered and soaked in blood. He was barely hanging on to his life. His body screamed for relief, but the battle raged on, indifferent to his desperate condition.
There was nothing but destruction around him—no more walls, barely any houses still standing. Only the continuous rampaging of the small, mindless goblins filled the background. The distant, sharp cracks of gunfire grew sporadic, and the once-thunderous barrage of tank cannons had faded into ominous silence.
John had no idea how many agents or soldiers were still alive, and he was not in a condition to care. His left arm, already severely damaged, was now a mess of mangled flesh. The situation was teetering on the brink of hopelessness, and the relentless blood loss was sapping his strength.
He knew once Insanity-Check effect two stopped working, he would probably die here. The only positive thing he could think of was that there were no more monsters emerging from the dungeon gate—for now. It didn't matter, however, as there were enough goblins to kill him a hundred times over. He had less than five minutes before the effect ended. He had to find a way to escape and fast.
But he was entangled in a fight with the goblin leader, and the worst decision to make was to turn his back on it. If John had a better sword, he might have been able to slice the monster up until its healing became useless and end this fight. Alas, he only had a normal sword, on the brink of breaking, that was barely doing any damage. Even when it struck the armor and managed to slice through, the force was lost, preventing any significant damage.
He should’ve taken the energy guy and run instead of fighting. The energy shields could’ve protected them from behind. But there was no "what if" anymore.
The fight dragged on against John’s will. Leaning backward to dodge another swipe, he counterattacked with a spinning kick. His foot connected but failed to stagger the goblin leader. Gritting his teeth, he followed with a desperate swing, only for the blade to clang uselessly against the impenetrable armor. The goblin leader rotated its hand with an eerie calmness, conjuring a glowing ball of elemental energy and hurling it toward John's face.
John instinctively leaned back, narrowly avoiding the searing projectile. As he straightened himself, the goblin's halberd sliced through the air with brutal speed. Gasping, John jumped backward, the wind from the swing grazing his skin like a warning.
The explosion from the energy ball’s impact sent a barrage of sharp stones flying, several lodging painfully into his back. His body screamed in protest as he staggered to regain his footing.
John drew a sharp breath, clenching his teeth as he fought to stay upright. From the edge of his vision, his smart lenses flickered with notifications—something about a loss of connection and a foundation agent accelerating toward them. But he had no time to process it. Every ounce of focus was on survival, scanning for any possible way out while dodging another relentless attack.