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"Ahhhhh!" One goblin yelled, revealing its sharp, pointy teeth and shot a flaming arrow towards the gate.

The rest of them followed its motion as more flaming arrows hit the village gate and wooden palisade, burning through them.

As they moved closer, Killian and other guards were also able to see the goblins.

There were over two dozen of them attacking the main gateway of Hagmons Keep. In response, arrows and rocks were aimed at the goblins by the villagers on the walls, but their aim was shaky, barely hitting two goblins.

Kai doubted they had experience in battles. The wooden palisade would have kept out the occasional wolves and other monsters, but even the village guards were never prepared for a full-on battle. The less said about ordinary villagers, the better.

This was strange and different.

Another goblin aimed the fired-up arrow in the air. It hit a villager straight in the neck as he fell from the walls. People gasped around him as the goblins stabbed his body before shifting their focus to the other guards.

A few of the villagers jumped out, trying to take the goblins head-on with swords and spears, but they were nothing in front of the hunched monsters.

They were too swift for the villagers and soon, a few of them were dead or mutilated. Looking at that, the others ran left and right, trying to get away from the goblins.

All in all, the battle seemed fairly one-sided. Despite having the terrain advantage, the villagers looked scared while the goblins attacked with fervor as they yelled in whatever language they spoke.

The coldness didn’t help anyone either. It only made the guards and the people weak.

On the other hand, goblins seemed unaffected by the weather.

"Lord Arzan, we should go help them," a guard said from the sides. They were currently standing at a far distance with a perfect view of the ongoing battle.

Kai shook his head. "No, wait!"

He moved forward, squinting his eyes. The smoke from the flames hit his face due to the winds and he coughed before steadying himself.

Looking at the village, his eyes searched for something. He saw corpses of humans, a few who looked like simple villagers, but he didn’t let it get to him as he walked to the side, trying to peek into the other side of the village.

Finally, he saw what he was looking for.

He turned around and waved his hand. The guards led by Killian immediately walked towards him.

"What is it, Lord Arzan?" Killian quickly asked.

"You should all go from the front. Hurry and assist the villagers. The gate won’t stay for long. Killian and I— We will go from the back. The goblin lord is attacking from the other side!"

"Goblin lord?"

"Yes, goblins won’t attack villages like these without someone leading them. I saw the silhouette of the lord on the other side. It was too big for me to miss. We can take it head-on. It’s a Grade 3 monster on the lower spectrum of it."

Killian immediately nodded and looked back at the guards.

"Archers, assist from here and the rest, go help the village guards. Let’s kill some goblins." Killian ordered.

The archers immediately picked up their bows and took out arrows from the back of the carriage. The others also grabbed their weapons and started moving towards the main gate.

A few villagers up on the walls cheered seeing the guards coming up.

"Let’s go," he said to Killian who followed him.

They walked around the wooden fence. Getting closer and closer, Kai saw a few villagers escaping from the back entrance. They were running towards the forest area to hide and seemed to be injured with their arms bleeding.

Both of them moved towards the back door and muffled cries caught Kai’s attention.

They saw a gate torn away and splintered with the walls burnt. The goblins had gotten in and were now terrorizing the villagers.

Earlier, he had seen a dozen trying to break through the main gate, and now, there were dozens here too. It was a small army in total.

His eyes immediately went to a large goblin standing in the middle, speaking gibberish in an unrecognizable language. Kai had once thought of learning monster language, but it seemed like most monsters spoke differently, so he had given up.

Still, he could make out the gibberish as something like "Kill everyone".

The lord goblin’s voice made the goblins halt in their actions. They all looked at their lord in unison and replied using the same language.

In a matter of seconds, they pulled the sharp knives from their backs and started tearing everything apart.

Some goblins attacked the houses, and the rest of them started attacking the people.

A few armed villagers rushed towards the goblins and started fighting back. They held their shields in front as the goblins jumped at them.

Kai took his attention away from them and looked at the towering figure.

The snarling goblin lord was easily over six feet tall, being even taller than Kai. It was wearing a skull hat and a necklace crafted from bones. Some other accessories completed its look and its skin was lightish compared to the other goblins.

Kai immediately saw the axe that was on its back. No blood dripped from it.

It seemed like it didn’t do the work, but it was the one who was commanding the rest of the goblins.

"Lord Arzan, you help the villagers. I will take care of the lord," Killian said, his voice thick with determination.

Kai simply nodded and walked from the sides to help the villagers who were attacking the goblins. He knew Killian could hold his own against the goblin lord. He was no Enforcer, but at least the knight didn’t seem like he missed training and was fairly competent.

Even if the goblin lord overpowered him, Kai could simply rush back to his aid.

Getting off the horse, he entered the village through the torn gate and immediately lifted his hand as he saw a bunch of goblins fighting villagers.

A spell structure formed as he visualized it in his mind. For any spell, visualization was a key step, and although spell structures formed the basis of a spell, visualization, and chanting helped to push forth the intent of the caster, helping control the spell.

"[Fire Bolt]."

As he pushed his mana, a bolt of fire immediately headed towards the goblins.

It pierced one of them in the chest, instantly smoldering it as the goblin cried. The rest of the goblins turned around from the villagers and looked at him

A few of them rushed at him and with flicks of his wrists, he cast small bolts of fire.

It was a 1st circle spell, but was incredibly handy with the mana intake being fairly low, letting him cast a few of them at the same time.

To stronger enemies, the bolts would hardly do any damage, but goblins were Grade 1 monsters that newbie Mages killed for practice.

The bolts of fire hit the goblins. One of them dodged, but the others were incinerated on the spot.

The one goblin that survived snarled at Kai before rushing at him with a knife. He waited until it was close enough before casting the spell again.

He slid back as the knife barely missed his legs before the bolt of fire pierced through the goblin’s head.

Blood spurted out and he frowned, looking at his robes which were now soiled.

Still, it was no time to worry about these things as he turned his attention towards the villagers who stood, watching him with awe.

"Don’t just stand there. Kill the remaining goblins!" he yelled at them and they nodded.

Immediately, he started going after the rest of the goblins. All of them focused on him, knowing that he was their biggest threat.

They snarled and rushed towards him, fighting like the mobs they were.

His bolts of fire pierced through their chest with precision and those who survived were met with the spears and swords of the villagers who ran right after the spell and slit each goblin in their throats.

The monsters weren’t able to fight back as the villagers were aided by Kai.

Their numbers dwindled with each passing second and finally, there was none of them left.

"Go help the guards and other villagers at the main gate," he said once the last goblin had died.

The villagers looked at him with awe and fear. One of them, with a stubble, hesitated before speaking, "Shouldn’t we move to safety?"

"There’s no safety in the village until the goblins are all dead," he said and looked at Killian with the corner of his eye. "Go unless you want to help deal with the goblin lord."

They were quick to run towards the main gate once he said that. With that done, he turned back.

Killian was busy fighting the goblin lord right in front of the splintered gate. His attacks weren’t landing well, but traces of determination were on his face as he tried to stab the goblin lord with his sword.

It didn’t work out as the goblin lord waved his axe in a diagonal line.

Killian swiftly avoided the attack and rolled down on the ground. With his shield, he blocked the axe away from himself, but the goblin lord twisted up the shield with his axe threw the shield across the air, and attacked Killian again.

Its axe slashed downwards and Killian slid back, barely dodging the attack, but the goblin lord came down again. With no shield to protect him, he could only scamper away from the axe of the goblin lord.

Knowing that he needed to interfere, Kai pushed mana into another spell structure.

The goblin lord’s yellow teeth gritted together, while it swung its weapon at Killian who jumped to the side. It clanked its axe against the metallic bar that held a part of the gate.

It hit it once again, loudly, showing its anger as the gate fell.

It was then that Killian noticed Kai who gestured to him to walk to the left, away from the range of his spell.

As soon as he was at a safe distance, Kai put his mana into the already-prepared spell structure.

"[Cinder Circle]."

He muttered and the next second, a flaming vortex rose from the ground, circling the goblin lord who cried as it felt the heat heading towards it.

It tried to push them away with its axe, but they burned its hand.

Although the goblins had tough skins to survive the cold, they weren’t much better against the heat. It could even be taken as a major weakness.

[Cinder Circle] was not easy to cast, being a spell of the 2nd circle and it was a hard hit on his reserves, but it would help contain the goblin lord to one place and if it tried to get out, its whole body would be scorched.

"Now, it’s time to kill you," he muttered, conjuring up a few fire bolts around himself and aiming them at the goblin lord who screamed as the flames burned its rough skin.

The bolts hit it right in its large body. Two of them were stopped by the large axe, but the other two hit him right in the chest, scorching it as the goblin screamed in agony.

It fell on one knee and glared at Kai who prepared more bolts, using the last bit of his reserves to put an end to the goblin lord, but then suddenly the eyes of the monster flashed as it let out a visceral roar before its body shone with a green sheen. The muscles bulged and it suddenly looked even taller.

Then, it rushed towards Kai, ignoring the flames burning his arms and legs, and swung his axe.

Kai let out a yelp of surprise and jumped back, barely dodging the attack as it made a crack on the surface.

He immediately attacked with one of the bolts, but the goblin lord blocked it with its axe.

Kai dodged, but barely. He cursed his body which wasn’t made for combat and tried to hit it with his bolts. If he was right, it was a temporary state of power and the goblin lord would soon exhaust itself.

Until then, he needed to survive.

One of the bolts hit the goblin lord in the neck, and it screeched in pain. Taking the opportunity, Kai kicked it, but his kick had no power and he felt pain in his legs.

"Why didn’t you try to learn a thing or two about keeping your body in shape, Arzan? Why were you so stupid?"

He said in frustration and the goblin lord swung its axe. Too close to dodge, Kai tried to conjure up a spell, but a shield blocked the attack.

He saw Killian right in front of him as he pushed back the goblin lord.

"Let me deal with this creature, Lord Arzan!" He said and stabbed his sword at the goblin lord.

Kai nodded, putting distance to get away from the goblin lord and sit down as Killian clashed against it. As he had thought before, the goblin lord got slower and slower as Killian fought it, injuries straining its body.

Soon, Killian managed to stab its heart.

The monster fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Kai panted, feeling the energy draining from his body as he looked at the dead monster on the ground.

He had almost exhausted his mana reserves with the dozens of fire bolts and other spells. He would need some time to regenerate his mana.

If it wasn’t for Killian, he would have died.

I am not in my old body. I need to be better at mana preservation in my current state.

He sighed and Killian’s footsteps came from up ahead as he looked down at Kai.

He was bleeding from his upper arm. Kai’s eyes lingered around the cut for a moment.

"The axe was sharp, eh?" he asked and huffed.

Killian nodded before his eyes shifted around him. Finally, he spoke. "Lord Arzan, your powers are even better than the Mages at the towers back in the capital…." He said while looking at Kai. "I haven’t seen anyone cast spells so fast and efficiently."

Kai simply nodded. The praise seemed genuine, but he wasn’t good with them.

"Your father will be proud when he sees you."

Kai ignored that comment and stood back up.

"I don’t hear any noises. I think they managed to deal with the goblins at the main gate. Let’s go check."

***

They moved towards the main gate and saw a large crowd gathered around a dozen bodies of dead goblins. The corpses were being carried away by the guards.

Kai looked all around the village, taking in the sight. It seemed to be a small settlement with a population of over a hundred.

He could see injured men and women all around. A few of them had burnt marks, others were simply stabbed by the goblins.

All of his men seemed to have survived the ordeal despite a few of them having injuries.

As he walked towards the villagers, he could hear whispers about him. It seemed like the guards had told everyone about him.

Kai ordered them to help the villagers extinguish the flames and help out the injured villagers before he called upon the village chief.

As it turned out, it was a fairly young man who seemed to be in his mid-20s with blonde hair and a dirty beard. Kai recalled seeing him trying to hit the goblins with arrows.

An arrow had hit his arm and after it was bandaged, he walked up to Kai to talk to him.

"Thank you so much for saving us," the chief said. "I didn’t expect Lord Arzan to come to our aid. Without your help, Hagmons Keep would have fallen to the goblins."

The young man bowed towards him.

"What is your name? You are young," Kai asked.

"I’m Alden, my Lord. I took over the village after my father, the previous chief, passed away," he said through a whimper.

Kai nodded, looking around the village. His gaze lingered on the house, the people, then back to the palisade before he noticed Alden’s leg.

It was bandaged, the same as his arm, but it looked old.

"Alden, there’s been more than just goblins that have been the problem, right?" He asked. "Some people have marks on their arms that don’t seem to have come from the goblins. You seem to be injured in your leg. And the gate on the other side, the goblin lord wouldn’t have been able to break through it if it wasn’t already damaged."

Alden’s eyebrows knitted together as he looked at him with sorrow in his eyes. He sighed. "Yes, my lord. There had been countless attacks like this for a week. From wolves… to other monsters like ash bears." His eyes lowered to look at his leg. "We’ve lost quite a few people. Me and a few others barely survived. We don’t know why it is happening," he said and frowned.

"It started a week ago?" He tilted his head.

"Yes, I was about to send an envoy to the city to get help, when all of this happened and you got here," Alden said through muffled pain. He clutched the side of his ribs where he seemed to have gotten injured, but stood straight, staring at Kai.

"That’s weird," he remarked.

It was strange for monsters to attack civilizations. They would never venture so far away from their homes and forests unless there was a reason for it.

Maybe, some monster would attack a village from time to time, looking for human meat.

But this was unnatural.

"Is there something unusual you noticed around the village? Maybe in the forest?" Kai asked.

The question made his eyes pop up and Arden nodded vigorously.

"Actually, there had been reports from the hunters that they had noticed strange activities in the western part of the forest. We also have had people disappearing around that area."

"Western part of the forest," Kai muttered, connecting the dots to the notions that Palman mentioned before.

Mana fiends.

Kai looked back and saw Palman helping a woman get to her feet. Her one hand was bleeding, and she had wrapped her unharmed hand around Palman’s neck. As soon as she was on her feet, a few women walked forward, taking her from Palman’s support.

"Palman!" Kai called him.

Palman immediately came running.

"Have you been to the west as well when you saw the Thornbuck?"

Palman thought for a second before nodding.

"Yes, my lord."

Kai frowned. It seemed like they were on the right track to find the mana fiends.