Six enemy goblins before them, their eyes wandering upon the other human beings. The creatures were small and tiny, with yellowish-green skin and loose, ragged cloth to cover their bodies. With sharp and pointy ears, as well as huge eagle-noses, they were surely not blessed by Adonis.
As for the two human beings hanging behind them…
Now, they had entered their very first fight, and as such,
"Um..."
—Did not have any weapons.
…
They had a flashback to when they grabbed their weapons at the college.
…
Now armed with weapons, they looked at each other and nodded. Taking up a sprinting position, they both kicked off the ground. The dirt blew backwards from their sudden take-off, with strides so far they seemed more as small leaps than running, as they delivered two decisive strikes.
Garfield plunged his dagger into the back of one of the goblin's chest. His body was not all that strong, yet with the incredible speed he kicked off with, the inertia of a 5'9, 140-pound man slamming into it sent the goblin back several feet.
Meanwhile, Jack raised his sword into the air and slashed the goblin's back open, tearing through muscle and bone alike with his greatsword.
With their decisive sneak-attacks, the tide of the battle was set immensely in their favor. The six goblins were lined up in unison, one of them in the background from the force of being knocked back. They raised their spears, and both Hunters acknowledged it.
I can seriously friggin' die here, yo!
Despite his unserious mind, Garfield's heart stirred with that pulsating desire.
I want to kill them, and I want to get stronger! The more the better! I want to kill all of them!!
The distance between the two parties was simple—the goblins had spears, allowing them to attack from further away. However, the distance wasn't so great that Garfield, in all his speed, nor Jack with his own, would not be able to close the gap.
…In other words, there was no one who was truly safe at a distance.
Kill them all!!
Opening his mouth and sticking his tongue out, shaking his head and his chest brimming with a one-sided desire to kill, Garfield was the first to rush ahead.
"Die, die die die—"
The crude spear, composed of a sharpened rock attached to a stick, plunged into Garfield's stomach.
"Ugh, oh shit."
Without any armor, the attack rang true in its proposed lethality.
Then, the goblins cackled, as their new champion pulled the spear out from Garfield's guts. The young Hunter coughed, expecting to see blood, but did not find any.
"Uh oh."
"You alright!?" Jack called out, unable to intervene as several spear-blows came straight at him, forcing him to parry them for a brief moment.
"Ohg, yeah, I'm—"
Then, another goblin stepped forward, thrusting its spear at a bleeding Garfield. Yet, the man was able to dodge, lunging forward and slashing his opponent across the chest, quickly leaping to be able to get out of their immediate vicinity.
Jack parried a blow, knocking it off course. The spearhead dug into the dirt, giving him time to lunge forward. Digging his feet into the dirt to keep his position steady, it was exceedingly fast. With just a small amount of wind-up, Jack aligned the edge of the greatsword to his opponent's neck, delivering a swift cut that decapitated the enemy in one fell swoop.
Its head fell, colliding with the dirt as the spear was dropped to the earth. In the end, the bloody neck shot its contents through the air, splashing Jack's icy-white hair with its death.
He looked down at the corpse for a brief moment—his dull, gray eyes motionless.
He didn't even need to use his Ability.
Then, he readied himself to face the rest.
At the same time, further away, a goblin jabbed its spear at Garfield's chest, the man narrowly lessening the blow, having stepped back as only a small bit of the speartip pierced his chest.
Garfield screamed, the adrenalin narrowly covering the cost of receiving such intensive wounds. He grit his teeth, backing away. Then, he paused.
Ow, ow ow ow, that really hurts, oh shit. How are these goblins so damn strong!? Is it because of their weapons!? I should be much, much faster than them, so how are they still… damn it!
His blood spilled. That wretched, red and viscous liquid slid down his body, reminding him of his mortality.
"A-ah."
The goblins attacked Jack next, managing to land a blow due to the constant threat of several spears ahead of him. It was, thankfully, a glancing blow, causing a slim gash to open on his cheek.
…Their good fortune did not end there. Finally, one of the goblins—the one that Jack had landed his sneak-attack on, bled out. And, likewise, Garfield's first hit brought the other on the brink of death as well.
Four goblins were left. One of them lunged at Garfield, recognizing his clearly panicked state. It thrust its spear forward, which he narrowly evaded, rushing forward and stabbing them in the chest.
"Hk!" He exclaimed, putting his entire weight and force behind that strike, burrowing the blade deep inside. Ripping it out, he dodged another spear attack that came from the side, hiding behind the goblin.
Forcibly wrapping his arm around the back of the goblin's neck, he pulled them in. With a violent streak of spilled blood upon the dirt, Garfield impaled the goblin's thin, small stomach, the tip of his dagger sticking out on the other end.
"...I'm scared," he whispered, grabbing them by the neck and shoving its body away, onto the ground.
More blood continued to spill from his body. Weaker, he felt unbearably weak.
…Three more.
With a petrified expression, ancestral dread was seeped into every fiber of his being.
The fear of death, and the Call of the Hunter. The avoidance of pain, and the craving of its fruit.
Stepping back, swaying as though drunk, the young man once more felt as though he was on the brink of vomiting.
Three goblins left, one of them charged at Garfield, whilst the other two faced Jack. One of them wound their arm back, hurling it at the young man. Of course, it mattered little—he sidestepped and closed the gap, slashing it across the chest.
It howled in pain, and he silenced it with yet another slash, severing its vocal chords. Faint gargling fell to the earth, drowning in blood.
The second goblin stabbed forward from a distance, managing to land the hit. Blood seeping down his stomach, Jack removed the spear and stepped back, his face tensing from the pain of an unexpected blow.
And, across the battlefield, the lone goblin began to walk forward.
I don't want to die. I don't want to die.
His lifeforce was fading away. As he lost more and more blood, the weaker and weaker he felt. And Jack was simply too far away to help, busy dealing with a goblin of his own.
I don't…
As the goblin drew closer, slowly approaching, his heart overflowed with fear.
"I don't want to die!"
Rushing forward, he tried a last-ditch effort to kill his opponent before they killed him. Enthralled and under the spell of fear, his body lost all the control it previously had. Skill and timing escaped him, and he blindly stabbed forward.
"DIE!"
—His stab rang false.
Impaled through the chest on his enemy's spear, Garfield was brought to the absolute brink of death.
He stopped dead in his tracks, his face paling and growing coldly numb. Above all else, he looked surprised.
"Kekeke!"
The goblin cruelly laughed at him. Wishing to further its attack, it stepped forward even closer, running the long handle deeper and deeper into his chest, until it was so close that he could feel its warm, disgusting breath on his skin.
Garfield stared into its eyes, that mocking glee running through his mind.
At the same time, Jack himself was dispatching the final goblin. Though not unscathed, his wounds were not as aggregious as Garfield's. And so, still retaining his composure, he reached his opponent before it could reach him, and delivered a horizontal slash to its stomach, splitting it in two.
Then, he looked over at Garfield, his eyes widening in shock.
Impaled on a spear, on the absolute cusp of death, Garfield's pale face began to lose its light.
I'm scared. I'm… scared.
I don't… want to die.
The goblin continued to smile in the face of its victim. And so, Garfield stared helplessly into his soon-to-be killer's eyes.
…And stabbed it through the temple with a reverse gripped dagger, ending its life instantly.
From there, its corpse turned into the form of a crystal shard, wielding mighty mana. Garfield collapsed to his knees, the spear sliding out of him from the sheer size of the hole its tip had produced.
Blood. It was a heaping mass of blood. However, despite its warmth, he had never felt so unbearably cold.
—Yet, as if coming to his aid, a warm sensation that he recognized as leveling up and gaining a new stat into his skill came flooding his body.
Alongside a new, unknown addition.
…
Just as he was going to die, Ms. Thiena rushed over, healing him before he did, fixing up the two Hunter's bodies before allowing them to return to the battlefield.
The Call of the Hunter rang deeply in their chest, pushing them to continue the fight, as they wandered towards other groups of goblins in this fairly large village, deep in the forest.
Focusing, Garfield checked that new additional notification from the system.
Titles:
Survivor. (+5 Endurance).
Titles were something that everyone could receive after completing a peculiar or noteworthy task. And now, it seemed Garfield had received his own.
He activated it, feeling a boost in his lifeforce. And so, when he checked his Endurance stat, he found it had a (+5) around it.
Huh. That's a pretty cool title, feels… nice.
Clearing his throat, Garfield looked over his blood-stained clothes with a frown.
"Maaan, they totally ruined my outfit! That's it! We must kill all of them!"
Jack seemed hesitant. Of course, the Call of the Hunter was within him. And so, he would never turn away from an opportunity without good reason.
"Let's set up our stats, and then we can look for more. There were a lot of them, so I'm sure we won't end up empty-handed."
Garfield nodded his head, sitting on a log. Lost in thought, he closed his eyes, reflecting on his still-trembling spirit.
I nearly died. That was close… way too damn close for comfort.
Yet, I survived. I lived through it, didn't I?
I was on the brink of death, and yet I persevered. I survived.
He gulped.
Was it the will of the gods? I mean, I received the Call of the Hunter, and almost immediately, I was not able to die when I should have.
So, being Garfield, he came to the obvious conclusion.
That must mean I'm immortal!
"Hahaha!" He childishly roared, paying no mind to the confused stares of the exhausted students, whilst he looked up at the clouds with an eager grin.
"There is no situation I cannot overcome, no enemy fated to end my life. As long as I desire to live, my life is guaranteed. I am Survivor—the Failed Grasp of Death, and the Man Born From Bloody Earth."
Giving himself two new titles, it seemed, Garfield went back with Jack to kill more goblins.
…
At the end of the day, they killed twenty in total. Some battles were easier, some were harder, but in the end, they managed to wipe out a significant portion of the monster's population.
And yet, as the two returned to the rest of the club, they found the Water Swordsman cleaning his family's blade, wiping the blood off of it with a dull expression.
That's strange. I didn't hear or feel a single instance of Water Magic being used. Especially not on the level he showed this morning.
Calmly observing the powerful Hunter, Jack crossed his arms. Considering the fact that his blade bore the insignia of the Water Dragon family, it was easily deductible what kind of Ability he had.
Did he not use any magic, then? I suppose it would make sense. Just earlier today, his slashes were incredibly fast… Even I couldn't keep up with them.
It was so. Most likely, the man was not a powerful force just because of his Ability or his Magic, but because he was also incredibly physically-honed… a true mix of magic and steel.
"Woah, that dude killed thirty goblins on his own! We only killed twenty!" Garfield exclaimed, pointing at the man. "He's friggin' strong, man!"
Jack put his hands in his pockets, agreeing with a nod of his head. "That's right. He's part of a Water Dragon family, so it's not entirely unexpected. We share a lot of classes with him, so who knows? He could make for an interesting ally in the future."
…Or an unfortunate enemy.
"Pfft, but I'm the strongest, so I'm not interested in a chump like him. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna embarrass him!"
And so, Garfield used his own Ability: Disguise.
Transforming into the Water Swordsman, a descendent of the Water Dragon, Garfield walked up to Ms. Thiena.
"Heyheyhey, what's cookin', good-lookin'?"
Nonchalantly leaning on a tree, he winked at the professor. Now that he wasn't himself, he really did have a lot of liquid courage. Or perhaps fleshly courage, considering he literally shapeshifted into their appearance to the exact detail—even clothes, weirdly enough.
Ms. Thiena turned to him, frowning with a face of utter displeasure.
"Garfield, what the hell are you doing? Knock it off or I'll call your mom."
The Water-Swordman's face… goodness knew he should've sued for defamation… went pale, as he quickly shrieked. Then, Garfield returned to his usual appearance, beginning to cry.
"Wait, no, don't call my mom! I'm sorry!"
He ran off, crying like a little bitch.