Roger turned and ran.
Was this a joke? This goblin was trading blows with several extraordinary warriors. What could he possibly do? Running away was definitely the smartest move.
Seeing this, Stine and Irene immediately lunged forward, trying to intercept the goblin from the flanks.
However, the creature was unreasonably fast. It shoved aside the human soldiers blocking its path, hot on Roger's heels.
Roger quickly channeled his Life Energy into his legs. A warm current surged from his thighs down to his soles, instantly boosting his running speed. The sheer force of his feet pushing off the ground shattered several stone slabs.
Clang—
A harsh screech of clashing metal rang out from behind. Roger glanced back to see Irene already standing between him and the goblin, her blade bracing against the downward slash of the massive broadsword.
Blinding light erupted from the point where their weapons met. Although the soles of Irene's boots dug firmly into the ground, she was still pushed backward by the immense force, sliding across the stone floor.
Seizing the moment while Irene locked blades with the goblin, Roger drew three poison arrows from his quiver, nocking them side by side on his bowstring.
Enveloped in white vortices, the three poison arrows tore through the air, embedding themselves into the goblin's arm, thigh, and flank.
The goblin let out a raspy roar and violently exerted force with its sword arm, sending Irene and her blade flying backward. Its eyes locked back onto Roger, and it took massive strides to resume its pursuit.
Roger simply turned and ran again.
Three poison arrows had now penetrated the goblin's body. Together with the first one, the dosage was more than enough to bring down a massive beast.
All he needed to do now was buy as much time as possible. Once the venom took effect, it would be time to strike back.
But right after, a muffled boom echoed behind him. A gaseous aura erupted from the goblin's entire body as the tattoos covering its upper torso lit up simultaneously, and its speed steadily increased under the propulsion of this energy.
Knight Stine tried to intercept it from the side but was left in the dust.
Crossing the open ground, Roger sprinted toward the breach in the castle wall. He shot arrows over his shoulder as he ran, no longer aiming for vital spots, only seeking to make contact.
Each additional arrow meant another wound for the venom to seep into, increasing his chances of wearing it down to its death.
The goblin swung its sword into an afterimage, deflecting all five arrows shot at it without slowing down in the slightest. Then, it raised the broadsword high above its head and slashed straight down.
Roger instinctively activated 【Iron Wall】. As a faint light enveloped his body, he pushed off with both feet and lunged to the side, desperately trying to get clear of the blade's path.
The blade slammed into the spot where he had stood a split second ago. The stone slabs shattered outward from the impact, sending gravel and dust swirling into the air from the shockwave.
The shockwave gave Roger a push, and he rolled with the momentum. When he stood up, his back was covered in dust, but he was unharmed.
The experience bar for 【Iron Wall】 rose by a chunk.
Panting, the goblin stood up from the rubble and dust. Its breathing had become heavy and irregular, and the skin around its wounds turned a purplish-blue as black blood seeped out.
At the same time, Stine, Irene, and the reinforcements who had joined the fray finally caught up from behind. They fanned out around the goblin, forming a new encirclement with their sword tips pointing at the target in the center from all directions.
The goblin seemed to finally realize something was wrong with its body. It looked down at the arrow wounds oozing black blood, then noticed its hands were trembling.
As a vortex wrapped around its body once more, a shockwave blasted outward from it. The arrows embedded in its flesh were forcibly ejected, dragging out several spurting geysers of black blood.
“Forcing the venom out with Life Energy?” Roger narrowed his eyes.
This move seemed fierce, but in reality, it was merely delaying the inevitable.
If it didn't expel the poison, it would die once the toxin took effect.
But by expelling it, the massive blood loss would kill it just the same.
And the more blood it lost, the more its physical strength would drain.
As long as he could weaken the goblin's combat capability, Roger's goal would be achieved.
The glow on the goblin's body was weaker than before, but it still radiated an ominous aura. It stopped chasing Roger and focused entirely on dealing with the surrounding human warriors.
A red-glowing blade flashed, tearing an arc through the air. Another knight who had charged too far forward couldn't withdraw in time; he was struck by the blade and collapsed into a pool of blood.
However, Roger noticed that after expelling the blood and expending a massive amount of Life Energy, the goblin's speed was much slower than before.
He glanced at the system inventory; only two regular arrows remained. He decided to nock both of them onto his bowstring, aimed at the distant goblin, and channeled his Life Energy into them.
The wooden shafts vibrated slightly, hovering on the absolute limit of bursting.
Flame-like energy flowed along the shafts to the arrowheads. Roger intentionally increased the amount of Life Energy channeled, while keeping it just below the threshold of shattering the arrows.
The moment the goblin forced back the knights blocking his line of sight, he released the bowstring.
The two arrows traced nearly overlapping white trajectories through the air. The goblin's pupils contracted sharply as it tried to raise its broadsword to block.
“Pfft.”
The blade was only halfway up when the first arrow drilled into the wound on its chest. The second followed immediately after, piercing its throat and protruding from the back of its neck.
A look of utter bewilderment flickered in its eyes. Its massive body swayed a few times before toppling backward, crashing onto the ground.
“Points +600, Total: 1232.”
“Empowered Shot upgraded to Lv3.”
The system notifications rang out in his mind one after another, but Roger felt no joy. He only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming the goblin wouldn't stand up again.
Irene sheathed her sword and looked at Roger. “Beautifully done!”
“If not for those last two arrows, we probably would have lost a few more men,” Stine agreed, his gaze filled with admiration as he looked at Roger.
“He's still breathing!” just then, a soldier who had run over to check the casualties shouted.
Everyone followed his gaze. The last knight cut down by the goblin lay dying in a pool of blood, which was still seeping from his wound. The person beside him carefully removed his visor, revealing a face as pale as paper and shallow, rapid breathing.
Knight Stine glanced at Roger, who opened his system interface to check the experience bar for 【Heal】.
Stepping forward, Roger placed his right hand, adorned with the Rune Ring, onto the dying man's forehead and cast Heal.
The Rune Ring glowed with a soft green light that seeped into the dying man's body.
The horrific wound on his chest began to close at a visible rate. Although it wasn't completely cured, the bleeding was at least stopped, and the wounded man's breathing gradually stabilized.
“Heal upgraded to Lv4.”
“You know Heal too?” Irene's gaze darted back and forth between Roger and the wounded man, asking the exact same question Stine had asked before.
Clearly, she hadn't noticed the green light that had floated into the main hall earlier.
“I just happened to learn it,” Roger replied flatly with a shrug.
...
After the battle had completely concluded, a pale yellow flag embroidered with a warblade and a black knight rose at the highest point of the castle's main building, declaring that Fort Morris had been officially reclaimed by the allied forces.
Conscripts were dispatched to clean up the battlefield and gather the corpses scattered throughout the castle. The human remains were collected to await the military chaplains' funeral prayers, while the goblin corpses were dragged to the castle's open grounds, piled up, and burned to ash.
The massive broadsword used by the goblin was taken to the noble lords' tents, under the pretext that “such a fine weapon must be discussed before being awarded to the one with the greatest contribution.”
Knowing that noble interactions were always full of schemes and hidden agendas, Roger didn't expect them to give the sword to him anyway.
He wandered around the edge of the battlefield and, when no one was paying attention, picked up two daggers to hand over to the system for recycling.
The craftsmanship of the daggers was outrageously crude, their blades full of nicks and rust; they would likely snap after just two swings.
The system only offered a recycling price of 40 points each.
“Points +80, Balance: 1312.”
“As expected, recycling junk is just too inefficient.”
One thousand three hundred points looked like a lot, but if he actually wanted to spend them, buying a decent skill would almost wipe out his balance.
Unless there was a divine artifact hidden in this pile of junk, but such good fortune probably only existed in novels.
By the time the cleanup was finished, Roger's total points had barely reached 1500. There were no divine artifacts or secret treasures, nor any unexpected pleasant surprises.
“Makes sense. It's not like they're cabbages at a food market; how could I just stumble upon a divine artifact like that?” Roger sighed, turning to head back to the camp.
Still, even without finding a divine artifact, his total points had at least risen to 1500.
The atmosphere in the camp was much quieter than before the siege. Having endured the day's battle, the soldiers sat scattered about with exhausted expressions.
“Lord Roger,” Stine said, walking over from the direction of the tents. His pace was faster than usual, and his face carried a rare look of anxiety. “There are too many wounded in the camp. We need your Heal.”
“Where are the military chaplains?” Roger asked.
He had heard on the march that the allied forces were equipped with several military chaplains specifically tasked with treating the wounded on the battlefield and arranging funerals for the fallen.
Stine shook his head helplessly, a trace of resentment in his voice. “The casualties this time exceeded Count Nigel's expectations. The chaplains are short-handed, and they've all been reassigned to prioritize the wounded from the Count's personal forces. The wounded on our side can't even get in line.”
Roger remained silent for a couple of seconds, then opened his system interface again to glance at the experience bar for 【Heal】.
“Lead the way.”
Rate on N.U.
