Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 277 Whirlwind Slash and Blazing Heat Wave

Driven by that inexplicable force, the mountain dwarf "Stonebelly" took a sudden step, instantly making him the target of everyone's anger.

Even if he didn't have such thoughts, he was forced to run wildly toward the altar where the staff was, faced with the two curved blades slashing at him from behind.

Under normal circumstances, if everyone on the field has sufficient intelligence and relevant experience, they can remain absolutely calm, discard the influence of various factors including personal grudges and greed, and objectively analyze the situation on the field.

For Stonebelly and Celie, the best course of action to maximize their chances of surviving the valley with the spoils is to temporarily team up and eliminate Marcus, the strongest and most ruthless captain in the group, before the two of them fight over the staff.

However, they are not machines and cannot possibly consider the situation on the field in the most ideal way.

There wasn't even enough time to think. Those two ignorant brains, which had never received a proper education and couldn't even recognize all the words, had already completed the action under the action of muscle memory and instinct the moment the situation suddenly changed.

—The dwarf charged toward the staff, and the ranger fired an arrow at the dwarf closest to the staff.

Of course, they are all adventurers with rich experience.

The moment the arrow left her hand, the ranger Celie reacted instantly.

As if it were too late, they fired a second arrow at Marcus.

Unfortunately it was too late.

Originally, Stonebelly, who might have been temporarily recruited as a teammate on the same front, had half his head sliced ​​off by Marcus due to his own attack.

Her second arrow was also blocked by the opponent.

Holding a longbow, her tall and slender body was tauter than the bowstring itself.

Celie stared at the pair of fierce and ruthless eyes pierced by hideous scars.

Her well-maintained cheeks appeared even paler against the backdrop of the gleaming curved blade.

However, in the blink of an eye, the situation had already turned against them.

She knew perfectly well that at such close range, without other teammates to restrain her, her chances of winning against Marcus were almost zero.

At this moment, the fear of death had overshadowed the greed in his heart.

Without making a sound, he took another step back, his longbow slightly lowered.

Celine forced a stiff smile onto her face:

"Captain, I'm volunteering to forgo the rewards from this adventure."

"Whether it's that staff in front of you or any other loot in the ruins, it's all yours. I don't want a single copper coin."

“We’ve been working together for several years now. You know me. I don’t usually cause trouble, and I never hold anyone back during missions.”

"Besides, there aren't many suitable wanderers like me out there, wouldn't you agree?"

"..."

The woman said a lot, but the sarcasm and ridicule that she used to utter were now completely silenced.

With only some fear and haste, she haphazardly tried to prove her worth to the fierce man in front of her.

Marcus did not speak.

He just quietly looked at Celie across from him.

Only when the other person's voice grew softer and softer, and cold sweat soaked his forehead, did he slowly open his mouth:

“Oh, Celie, my dear Celie.” He lowered his head slightly, his gaze sweeping over the arrow shaft that he had cleaved in two on the ground. “Don’t you think it’s a little too late to say all this now?”

“No, no… I didn’t…” Celie looked terrified and took two steps back.

"Captain, I can explain."

"Compensation...yes, compensation! After this trip is over and we return to town, I'll give you all the gold coins I've saved up over the years!"

"Besides, didn't you keep asking that dwarf to use his clan connections to have a weapon forged? He told me about it the other day..."

While begging for mercy, Cecilia seemed to remember something and quickly revealed what she knew, while Marcus also showed a concerned expression.

It was at this moment, in the instant that he keenly sensed that the other person's attention had been drawn to his words, that he realized what was happening.

A resolute and ruthless look suddenly appeared on the woman's pale and panicked face.

The wooden longbow, which had been drooping slightly, was suddenly raised, and the right fingertips gripped the bowstring tightly, but there was no arrow on it.

Suddenly, the forearm exerts force!

He pulled hard on the bowstring with his right hand!
"Om..."

That was the noise produced when the bowstring was stretched to its limit and vibrated violently.

call out--

Celie fired the last arrow of her life.

The price was the fine wooden bow that had been with her for many years, which broke down along with it, and the two fingers that were severed by the bowstring.

Invisible air currents turbulently through the air.

The "arrow" that was shot out did not have a physical form, but its trajectory could be captured through the spiral-shaped hole that stirred up the thick fog and dust in the air.

Extremely fast!

As if teleported, the intense and piercing scream only erupted after the invisible arrow disappeared from its original spot.

He endured the intense pain in his right hand, not even having time to bandage it.

After firing the most powerful arrow of his life, driven by his will to survive.

Cecilia didn't even glance at whether she had hit the target or not. She decisively turned around and ran towards the church door.

With each stride of her long, powerful legs beneath her tight-fitting outfit, a visible whirlwind of wind swirled around her calves, further boosting her speed.

In the time it takes to breathe, one must pass through the door and rush into the thick fog outside.

At that moment, an extremely strong smell of blood, accompanied by the sound of air being torn apart from behind, entered Celie's nasal cavity with her breath.

As if sensing something, the woman's face showed deep fear, and she twisted her body to forcefully lower herself as she lunged forward.

It's too late.

The next second, a curved blade covered in a thick layer of blood swirled and sliced ​​across her body.

From the outside in, first, there's Celie's long hair, which sways and falls behind her as she moves violently, then her light leather armor that offers no protection whatsoever, followed by her sweat-soaked inner lining, then her skin, muscles, bones, and internal organs, and finally, starting from her abdomen, the process is repeated in the completely opposite order.

Driven by residual bodily signals, the legs took the final step.

The woman's upper body separated from her lower body due to inertia.

Fresh blood gushed out, scalding hot, and intestines spilled all over the ground.

He was cleaved in two by the curved blade, his body falling to the ground in two pieces.

Pain that had exceeded the body's tolerance threshold was subconsciously blocked out.

Celie's upper body rolled several times on the ground before finally falling backward.

Pupils dilate and contract, mind is blank and devoid of thought, consciousness gradually dissipates as perception becomes numb.

She had no dramatic stories, nor any memories worth recalling before she died.

Just like those dozens of adventurers on the continent of Aifara who were also suffering the agony of death at this very moment, they passed away silently. "Thud."

Slightly unsteady footsteps came from inside the church.

Thick, fresh blood slid from his fingertips, slowly flowing down the hilt of the knife, finally sticking to a certain texture at the end of the blade.

Marcus, gripping his other scimitar, slowly approached.

Compared to before, his condition now appeared extremely poor.

Celie's final blow was not in vain.

A deadly strike from a level 2 professional, delivered at the cost of two severed fingers and his own weapon, cannot be easily dodged with a simple defense or dodge.

Like a pancake that has been bitten by a mischievous child, there is a perfectly curved semi-circular notch on his side.

Undoubtedly a serious injury.

Even after drinking a whole bottle of healing potion, it was difficult to cure; he could only barely retain the ability to move his body thanks to his physical specialties and the support of the medicine.

That's already considered lucky.

If I hadn't acted on my fighting instincts and slightly dodged to the side, I would have been in trouble.

His body is now broken in two, and the one lying on the ground is himself.

“Celice, your little bit of cleverness… is still the same as when we first met.”

Marcus muttered to himself, but his scimitar showed no mercy as it plunged straight into the opponent's heart.

They sent their teammate, with whom they had spent many years and who was on the verge of death, to hell.

He then staggered forward a few more steps, picked up the other curved sword that was stuck in the ground, and sheathed it.

Then, a long-lost smile appeared on that hideous face splattered with blood and covered in sweat.

For the vast majority of adventurers in this world, from extraordinary and legendary powerful beings to lowly figures battling green-skinned goblins in the forests and plains.

The cleanup after a battle is always the most enjoyable moment of the entire mission.

The sense of accomplishment after hard work, the anticipation of loot while searching corpses, and even the surprise of unexpected discoveries.

It's an experience that any adventurer who has endured hardships along the way cannot refuse, and finds immensely rewarding.

Marcus is no exception.

Even though he was the only one left in the team that had been painstakingly assembled, and he himself was seriously injured, he would probably have to recuperate in the town for a while.

But compared to what he gained from this trip, it was all worthwhile.

A hint of menace lingered, and his murky eyes gazed towards the innermost part of the church ahead, bathed in the light streaming down from the dome. There stood a staff, its top inlaid with an orange-red gem, shimmering with a strange luster like embers.

Marcus's excitement became increasingly evident.

How much can it sell for?

He was lost in thought.

"5000 gold? 8000 gold?"

"Even five figures?"

At this moment, he had already made a wonderful plan: once he got the gold coins, would he buy a manor in the countryside and live the life of those so-called "noble lords," or would he stay in the big city and enjoy its conveniences?

Suddenly, from the depths of the fog behind them, a sound of footsteps, no longer concealed, rang out abruptly.

Marcus became alert and turned around abruptly, instinctively placing his hands on the hilts of his sword at his waist.

Then he saw the dark figure that was faintly visible in the depths of the thick fog, and behind it, a huge, twisted, ferocious creature with mane swaying with the turbulent air currents.

The intense sense of danger that surged within him, along with the deadly aura that stung his scalp, made him instinctively reach for the hilts of his swords, about to pull out his two curved blades.

Next second,
hold head high--

The long howl of wolves emanating from the depths of the thick fog was like a bronze bell ringing in my mind, freezing and clearing away all my thoughts and ideas in an instant.

Only a deep, unknown fear remained, growing like wild grass in his heart, filling it up in an instant.

Severely injured, his already fragile and exhausted spirit was instantly overwhelmed by the intense battles he had fought in a short period of time and the intense pain from his physical wounds.

Tinnitus, dizziness.

When Marcus's consciousness returned to his brain, all he could glimpse was a fleeting, sharp sword light that left a metallic gray afterimage in his vision.

And a headless mutilated body, frozen in place, with blood gushing from its neck.

They were unaware of what had happened.

Immediately, the intense dizziness caused by the rapidly rotating viewpoint, along with an inexplicable weakness, filled his mind.

Darkness surged like a tide, engulfing Marcus's consciousness.

"boom."

The swirling head and the mangled corpse landed together.

Xia Nan casually flicked his sword, shaking off the blood droplets on the surface of the decapitation sword.

He glanced at the corpses on the ground, his face showing no obvious emotional fluctuation.

Yet, a strange sense of emotion welled up within me.

Although he possesses combat power far exceeding his class level due to his physical attributes far surpassing those of other professionals of the same level, as well as his high-quality combat skills, he is still capable of fighting.

But if he were to actually face off against this four-person adventurer team, even if he won, it certainly wouldn't be an easy victory. He might have to reveal some of his trump cards or suffer some minor injuries.

But now, with all four enemies dead, he hadn't even broken a sweat. The thing that had taken the most of his energy was finding a good place to hide the steel flail from the fat knight.

Of the two people he had fought, the green-skinned orc was already on the verge of death, and he had only finished him off with a casual blow; the man who looked like the leader and used dual swords seemed to be in slightly better condition than the former, but only slightly better, with less than one-tenth of his strength remaining.

[Fang Hunt] + [Whirlwind Slash], the opponent, intimidated by the wolf's howl and gripped by fear, has no ability to resist and is instantly beheaded.

Xia Nan was surprised by how easily he did it, and even thought that he might be able to further improve his stealth skills in the future.

Although I am more used to a more expansive and swift fighting style, having to go through something like this when necessary is a unique experience.

Without sheathing his sword, Xia Nan's gaze swept over the corpses of the man, the ranger, and the dwarf on the ground, confirming that they were all completely dead.

Only then did he turn his gaze to the staff on the altar ahead.

He took two steps forward, then suddenly stopped.

His brows furrowed, and his eyes darted around, landing on the desiccated corpse, dressed in a tattered priest's robe, which had been pinned to the ground by a ranger's arrow at the very beginning of the battle.

There's no need to get close and perceive it carefully.

The intense heat emanating from the wooden sword [Green Pine] behind me, almost igniting the air, surged through the back of my neck like a wave of heat.

Unprecedented, even when carried on one's back, the intense flames could be glimpsed out of the corner of one's eye.

This already reveals the threat that the mummified corpse had not previously shown.

(End of this chapter)