Chapter 18 (2/2)

No matter how Loren saw it, the things that were causing this situation were goblins.

At least, they looked like goblins.

Goblins were usually green and small like a child, but these were closer to black and were larger than Ritz, who was quite large himself.

“Loren, Nim is in trouble!”

“Hey old man, what about your magic!”

“I’m completely out! I can’t even use elementary level spells for a while!”

Quartz pointed to one of the goblin like monsters lying on the ground, smoke emitting from its body.

Quartz was able to kill it with a spell, but now he was out of spells to use.

“Loren, you have to help Nim!”

At Lapis’ words, Loren remembered he had things to take care of before assessing the situation. He ran up to the mock-goblin, with an arm that had a knife lodged into, it that was reaching for Nim’s clothes.

Before it could react, Loren kicked it square in the face.

If it were a normal goblin, the kick would’ve broke its neck and sent it flying, but the mock-goblin snapped its head right back and threatened him with a low growl.

Loren ignored it and swung his great sword at the base of its neck.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!?”

The sword that easily cut through numerous goblins got stopped by the mock-goblin’s hard skin and muscle, not even reaching its bones.

Blood dripped from the cut onto Nim, but the mock-goblin showed no signs of caring about the injury, raising its body to reach for Loren.

Loren pushed down with his great sword to keep it from standing up.

Nim, who was pushed down, managed to pull the knife out of the mock-goblin’s arm, and while it was distracted by Loren, she stabbed it in the eye.

The eye wasn’t hard like its skin, and the knife sunk deep into it. The mock-goblin roared and snapped its head back, covering its injured eye with both hands.

Nim used the opportunity to slip out from under it, while Loren pulled out his great sword, and with a fissured yell, swung it at its neck with all his might.

Although the blade got stopped by the skin and muscle earlier, Loren knew what to expect this time.

The blade ripped through its skin and muscle, reaching the bone and crushing it.

Added with the cut he made before, the mock-goblin’s head flew off, blood erupting from its neck.

“You okay Nim!?”

“I’m fine. But Jack and Ritz aren’t.”

Loren turned to Ritz at her words.

He saw Ritz dodge the mock-goblin’s grab, step close into it, and plunge his sword into its flank.

Loren thought that it was over, but with a swift movement that seemed to disregard the blade lodged in it, reached out and grabbed Ritz’s head.

“You bastard! Let go!”

Even regular goblins had quite a bit of strength, but if it was larger than Ritz, Loren had no idea how strong it would be.

He could imagine what would happen if something with so much strength grabbed his head.

Ritz knew it as well, and he twisted his sword to try and get out of its grasp, but the mock-goblin’s grip didn’t waver, and Ritz’s body started creaking as it slowly started to put pressure into its hands.

“D-damn it! My bones!”

Ritz would’ve been crushed by the mock-goblin, but Loren intervened before that could happen.

While it was busy with Ritz, Loren charged at it from behind, and with his momentum and centrifugal force added to the strike, he knocked its head right off its shoulders.

A moment after the head flew off and blood spewed from its neck, it dropped down onto its knees, dropped down, and fell straight into the wall.

“You okay?”

“You saved me. I was about to become a rag doll.”

“Don’t mention it. How’s Jack?”

“I’m alive…”

Although he was still bleeding from his head, he was alive.

When Loren asked what had happened, they gave their explanation.

At first, there were regular goblins, but two of the mock-goblins appeared.

They were able to kill one with Quartz’s magic, but Nim’s arrows had no effect on the second one, and she was pushed down onto the ground. Jack had tried to save her, but another one showed up and smacked him into the wall, and that’s when Ritz entered the fray.

“Sorry Jack. It’s my fault.”

“Hey, stop it, you’re being disgusting. Modesty isn’t your thing, so just tend to my wounds already.”

Jack pointed at his head and Nim, who kept apologizing in a sad manner, with her ears drooping forward.

Nim nodded and started to treat Jack’s injury.

Loren decided to leave them at that, and walked over to Lapis, who was squatted down, next to the two mock-goblins.

“Did you find something?”

“I can guess, but if my speculations are right, it means we’ve wandered into quite an unpleasant kind of ruin.”

“Unpleasant ruin?”

Loren couldn’t believe such words from Lapis, who was happy that she was able to explore these ruins earlier, and raised a quizzical voice, but Lapis didn’t answer him. Instead, she walked up to Ritz and cleared her throat.

“Mister Ritz, I’d like to make sure of something.”

“Do we have to come with you?”

“No, but it should be in line with exploring the ruins. But above all else, if we don’t hurry and shut down these ruins, it’s going to cause lots of trouble.”

Lapis tilted her head slightly to the side, waiting for an answer. Ritz looked at Loren, asking for his opinion, but Loren shrugged, telling him not to ask him.

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