Chapter 115: Fields of Green.

We arrived at a patch of grasslands with a particularly suspicious crop circle without vegetation. A quest we had taken in the nearby town of Trils had taken us here, and we found the level 40 grazlibeast that was to be target. It was a mighty monster, with an almost shovel-like mouth, four large trunk-like legs, and a massive furry body that was as large as a creature of its level could possibly be. The animal cared not for whatever might be happening around it, only focused on uprooting grass and devouring them whole.A vulcature swooped down from above to attack it, and the level 20 bird managed to score some hits, but then had to flee as soon as the larger beast turned and tried to slam its enemy with its sheer bulk. The violent vulture managed to escape successfully, but the grazlibeast still had still proven itself deceptively fast. Slow enough for me to potentially escape using my magic or my wings, but still ridiculous for something that size. I could feel the wind from here when the creature truly .

“You sure you don’t need any help?” Therick asked with a raised brow.

“Yeah. I wanna test myself against a level 40 again. I’ve gotten stronger since I last tried to solo one.”

“It’s not fair though,” Granuel complained. “They’re paying so little to kill a threat that strong!”

“Isn’t it because grazlibeasts are super weak for their level?” Angerly asked.

“No. It’s because they’re less of a threat.” I drew my sword and began thinking of how I wanted to approach this battle. My eyes were exposed and so were my hooves, as Granuel had confirmed for me that there was no one watching.

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“They’re docile,” Moonwash explained. “They typically don’t attack unless provoked. They are considered a nuisance for being bad to the environment, but it’ll regrow anyway.”

“They’ll be a calamity back on Earth,” I chuckled. “But nature does retake faster here.” It required active effort to maintain settlements.

I took a step forward. Hellfire formed above me, ready to enact its punishment. I aimed the malicious projectile towards the giant in the distance, and then I shot it with all of my magical might.

My aim proved true, the monster was hit, and the fire almost gleefully devoured its living flesh for it had retained the properties of infernal magic. Hellfire was more effective against organic creatures, bringing them greater heat, and from that greater heat, ever great

The grazlibeast recoiled, its eyes widened from the sudden agony, and then it and The sound was deep, reverberating, My friends stood rooted behind me, stunned, and then I realized that I was the same way.

This was the roar of a grazlibeast, a part of its Mutations, and mental defenses had been found wanting. It was something that I was supremely confident in, so its failure filled me with shame that was quickly consumed to fuel my anger. The ground rumbled as the massive mass of the monster came barreling towards me, and I bared my own teeth in sheer defiance.

I moved. The stunning effect had long been overcome. I only stood still for as long as did because I was nigh apoplectic with rage. My face had turned into an ugly rictus under my helm, and I did not bother to try and calm myself. With a scream that rivaled that of my foe, I rushed into battle with my aura flaring and my evil eyes deployed.

The grazlibeast did not falter. It just kept coming. My annoyance built further, and I poured it all into one rotting slash towards the monster’s gigantic leg, but I actually found myself almost carried away by the sheer momentum of that single limb!

I still managed to hold on of course, and I left a deep cut on the creature’s flesh, but it was not really that deep if I considered the thing’s size. The grazlibeast ran past me, but my friends were thankfully already falling back, just as we had discussed. I threw another fireball and then a taunt bullet at the monster’s face, before I too made some more distance. I couldn’t let it chase after my party!

“ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAHHH!!!”

The grazlibeast turned back around with another terrible scream, but I was ready for it this time and I did not falter. I threw another fireball at its face, I slashed into its sides, and the burning monster did not come close to goring me this time either.

The monster kept going, it was having a hard time turning around after our clash. Its body was too large, and our following jousts that only played out in the same way proved that the grazlibeast had no hope of ever catching me.

But I did not allow myself to grow complacent. I used no direct magic against the creature on our fifth clash, and on the sixth, the fireball I threw was

The grazlibeast wailed in pain. It absolutely went fucking wild. That was only to be expected because I had found after some extensive testing that I could still create my curseflame, if a fair bit harder than before. In exchange, not only did it keep its precious effects, but even the was carried over, and that was only exacerbated by how hot the flames truly were. Even such a monster, an evolution above me, could not handle the pressure of this attack.

So I exacerbated the problem even further. I flooded my evil eyes not with wrath mana, but with hellfire. It was honestly painful for me too, but that was a fair price to pay for my enemy’s suffering!

The overgrown creature barely even noticed my approach when I went over to chop at a leg that was taller than me. The blade bit deep into a huge gash that I had inflicted before, and the grazlibeast began to limp. It focused back on attacking me upon remembering that I was here, but its already clumsy movements had somehow become even more predictable than before. They were also more wild and chaotic though, so I made some distance again to allow the monster to tire itself out.

I noticed that the black fire was slowly being overwhelmed by the remaining vanilla hellfire. So I decided to continuously slather it in curseflame, until its bulky shape had become hidden by an abyss without light. The beast cried and went after me in a blind rage and plea to make it stop, but sheer desperation alone did not cross the literal gap between us that I made sure to maintain.

Gradually, the grazlibest slowed down. Its voice had grown hoarse, and its occasional screams were no longer effective. The creature panted, in a way that was almost pleading, but no help ever came.

Eventually, the monster crashed heavily into the ground. Its life slowly ebbed away, but I did not intend to wait. I stared into the grazlibeast’s… eyes as I finally ended its suffering.

I walked alongside our wagons with my left arm fully exposed. It was fully caked in make-up of course, and the flowing red lines of blood would camouflage my true skin even if some of the cosmetics were to come off. A hyena had been taunted, and it was drooling all over itself as it gnawed pitifully on my arm.

I bled harder. I felt the pain course through my limb. I focused on the power within my blood, and I commanded it to take vengeance.

My assaulter’s head exploded in a red cloud of rot and dismemberment.

It was a failure.

All I did was manually cast my magic.

What the cursetaceans were able to do was more automatic, and it ignored things such as distance, whereas mana only flowed out of me in an eager wave.

I was still a long way off from being able to replicate their abilities. But it must be possible, for my mana was once consumed by what was once their carapace, and was able to achieve the same effect!

A shambling green thing stumbled into view as I was letting a canipet(dog/bird) gnaw on my shoulder. The approaching creature was bipedal, humanoid, ugly as sin… was a goblin.

Where there was one, there would be more.

Regrettably, I had to kill my new pet to take care of this new nuisance. The canipet’s corpse was snatched by Granuel with a long hooked stick from the wagon as I approached this sorry excuse for a sapient.

The goblin ran with glee and malice upon spotting us, just as I expected. Wicked mana dripped off its body along with a terrible odor as the monster continued to barrel to its death. I very quickly and disarmed her the moment she was in range, and then I grabbed the little monster by the throat.

I squeezed. Life began to ebb away from my enemy, but she still did not let go of her enmity.

That was exactly what I wanted. I held her gaze as I continued to walk in pace with my lazy friends just sitting in their lazy vehicles.

The goblin’s neck snapped and she died.

“I have an idea.”

“I don’t like this,” Therick commented. That got a giggle out of everyone but Moonwash, and not because she didn’t find it funny.

“I was thinking that maybe I could learn a thing or two from these guys.”

“It gets worse!” Angerly laughed.

“Even bandits wouldn’t mess with those,” Granuel warned. “Not that they’re inherently evil, but they’re desperate people,” he quickly amended. “The bandits, I mean.

I laughed and pointed at the massive foreboding ball of wrath that I’d summoned above my head.

“It’s a bit too late for that.”

“Way too late,” Moonwash agreed. “There’s no point in holding back now.”

I cackled harder. Hard enough for the two of us.

We found another lone goblin, whom I killed from afar. A field of grass was set alight because my aim could still use some work.

Our caravan came across another pair, and then more as we continued our travels. I allowed some to approach, even sparring with them a little as they repeatedly and threw themselves at me, in the hopes that I may learn something.

I’m going to be honest, I did not.

I didn’t learn anything.

They sometimes instinctively used their wicked mana to strengthen themselves, but I could do that

They constantly released wicked mana into the air because they didn’t have anything that could properly hold it, and the small amount their bodies could take was full.

They didn’t have anything I didn’t have, except for the element they held, but they didn’t even know how to use it!

These goblins were a fucking joke.

“Yes!” Therick pumped his fist as he danced around a squad of goblins with Angerly. They killed the green fuckers left and right until their corpses decorated the paved roads with their blood. Our two drivers had left their driving duties to Moonwash and Granuel so that they may have a chance to also fight.

“Let me guess,” I said to my swordsman friend who was staring at thin air. “You reached level 20?”

“Yes! It’s my feet!” He crouched down and fell on his ass as his legs restructured themselves. There was some rippling along the skin, and his bones shifted, like there were crawling worms inside his flesh. Ew. “I’ve just evolved it! My first level 20 Mutation!”

“Great! It’s your first one, right?”

“Yep.” He ran around, did some leg exercises, and then jumped up to return Angerly’s high five. “I want to go try them right now.”

My eyes scanned the horizon, and found a bull in the distance. It was close enough to taunt.

The projectile flew true, and in a moment, a level 20 monster was charging towards me.

I patted Therick on the back. “Have fun.”

“Haell yeah!”

With that parting pun, my friend stabbed and sliced at the monster, until it finally decided to fight instead of continuing to try and go after . Therick ran around the creature, the bull shook its head and tried its hardest to gore him with its horns, but my friend was too nimble to ever be caught. It took a short while, but the animal eventually fell from a thousand cuts without ever landing a single hit on Therick.

I had lunch on the wagon as I watched Berry, Granuel, and Moonwash take on the oncoming goblins upon their request. They came in clumps as we traveled, Granuel and Moonwash would bombard them from afar, and Berry stalled any that managed to survive. It was a fun and easy system. It was only too bad that there was little of value to be looted from the little green monsters, except for whatever roughshod gear they’d managed to steal.

“There’s so many of them,” Granuel sighed, a bit spent and nursing a headache. That was what happened when someone overused magic. I technically experienced it too from time to time, but I was so good at ignoring it that I sometimes forgot it was even there. It was important to keep track of that though, because everyone had limits.

“Yeah,” I agreed as the wagons resumed their movements, and we crested up a hill. “There’s way too many of them. I’m actually worried about what we’ll find in the next village…”

My words were proven right just as they left my lips. We crossed over the mound, and found on the other side sprawling farms of rotting wheat and other things. There were bands of goblins dotted throughout, and then a man screamed in a tone that shook me to my bones.

He was being tortured, as he slowly, ever so slowly, turned green.

“Shit.”

“Oh no.”

“This is horrible.”

Granuel was somehow the first to recover. He pointed at the walls of Karron Village in the middle of the fields. “There are still people there. Most of them must have evacuated.”

I stared at the crenelations. There were people moving atop the walls. There were only a few spikes protecting those walls.

That was normal for villages. They were not like the former city-states that had now been taken over.

Goblins lay dead at my feet. I stood with Moonwash and Granuel as we stared at the man halfway through transforming into a goblin. He did not acknowledge our presence.

“Goblinification is reversible,” Moonwash explained as she traced lines across our patient’s shrunken body. We had read books and came across some goblins over the past few years, so my girlfriend had learned more about the subject. “It would eventually reach an equilibrium if you just stuck a seed unto yourself, otherwise it would be too easy to convert someone. But torture, despair, and other such emotions would hasten the process. Weakening them will reduce their ability to resist. I believe the latter is more important.”

“So, what do we do?” Granuel asked.

Moonwash was silent for a few moments more. She summoned a bed of flowers around the suffering man. She tried to heal him, but… “Nothing. I’m not strong enough to do anything about it. Nature magic should be the best against this as it would ‘bring someone back to their natural state.’ Although that is just a theory I’ve read in Nature Magic and its Intricacies by Horis.”

“So what do we do?” Granuel repeated. He also tried to cast, and so did I. But nothing happened. The change had gone too far now.

I drew my blade.

“W-what are you doing?” Granuel asked. The rest of our friends were making sure that we remained undisturbed. Therick and Angerly focused on that task, while Berry took a good look at the dying man, and then shook herself sadly.

“It’s a mercy,” I said. “It’s the only way.”

“But…”

His protests died, at the same time that the man did.

“There are too many goblins,” Therick said.

I did not make the sarcastic remark. We fell back in an orderly manner back towards our wagons, and then killed the remaining goblins as they chased after us. There were still many left along the fields, so I hit some groups with taunts and led them back towards us where we could take them on favorable ground. Granuel and Moonwash had climbed to the roof of the wagons, and they acted as our towers of magical pain.

A few mages helped us from atop the walls of the village. They attacked and lured the goblins back whenever it looked like we had attracted too many and might be overwhelmed.

That wasn’t about to happen, of course. But I appreciated the consideration.

“Who are you!?” Nervous guards shouted from atop the wall as we stood before the locked gates.

“ADVENTURERS!” Therick shouted back. “YOU JUST SAW THAT WE KILLED THOSE GOBLINS!”

Just as he said that, another one of the monsters approached from the side, and Granuel shot it in the head.

“Yeah, they did do that.”

“I don’t think they’re goblins in disguise.”

“That was never the contention, Jaz!”

The guards muttered among themselves from atop the wall, until they finally came to a decision after I and Therick tossed some badges up.

“OKAY! We’re letting you in! The gates will open!” She paused. “Please keep the goblins at bay as much as you can! We’re running out of arrows and are rationing our mana!”

“ALRIGHT!” We gave them a thumbs up.

The gates creaked open upon the guard’s words, and Therick and Granuel waited to drive the wagons through. We had cleared most of the goblins on this side of the village, so I didn’t think there would be a problem, but that was naive.

One goblin realized what was happening and screeched. Another screamed from farther away, then another. Soon, I heard the pitter-patter of small running feet. A whole horde of them had arrived from both sides of the square walls as the gates were only halfway open.

It appeared the goblins might be smarter than I gave them credit for. They sapient after all, if utterly insane. Then again, the cursetaceans were also capable of rushing towards an opening. Did that mean they might be sapient too…?

Those existential thoughts did not distract me from the biblical slaughter I was about to enact.

Hellfire mana flooded out of me, specifically from my head, and more specifically from the gems in my helm. I made it look like the magic was coming from there, I gathered it all into one big ball, and then I shot the burning orb of blood-red fire into the horde on the right. Moonwash did the same on the left, but with regular fire, if hotter than my own.

The massive fireballs exploded among their midst, and many immediately dropped dead. Others yet kept running as they burned alive, but soon fell as their bodies grew too blackened and charred. The ones that suffered from my magic screamed harder, some grew confused and ran into their allies, while others yet could not function at all due to the pain.

This did not break them. It did not stop their charge. Those who had fallen were merely trampled upon, and soon the goblins reached me in ones and twos.

I slashed the first of them to reach me, and the burning goblin died. The next one perished in the same way, and the next ones came in greater numbers. I reaped through their ranks like I was harvesting wheat, while hellfire continuously splashed among the approaching group. The guards were beginning to gape at my prowess, for I never ran out of power, I could keep on using magic all day!

There were level 20s among the goblins, but even they were no match once I further empowered my swings to take them in one shot. Their gear was roughshod, and sometimes nearly coming off due to being the wrong size. Some only had random pieces of wood as weapons, others bare rock, while a few were armed with pilfered steel and chitin. The amount of goblins that reached us was getting larger, but I could still hold this position by myself against these amateurs.

Why did they still fight so slovenly if they were capable of learning?

The other side of the battlefield was covered by Angerly and Moonwash. Angerly’s mace smashed and swept aside crowds, while Moonwash threw the occasional bomb of whatever element she fancied. Granuel sometimes assisted from his wagon for the stronger foes, but it was seldom necessary. Berry mainly took care of the stragglers who came from elsewhere, instead of along the length of the walls. There were only a few of them, so she also came to help me out a few times.

The guards and adventurers upon the walls suddenly unleashed their magic in great quantities, thereby holding back the goblin tide and giving us a good moment of resptite. The gates had opened wide enough to let our wagons through, three centaurs wearing the green of messengers ran out, and our two heavily-armored vehicles drove through the gap one after the other. The rest of us followed, and we defended the gap for a short while longer, until the gates could be fully closed once more.

It was easy. A ready kill zone was only fodder upon my blade, and for my friends.