ALL NOVEL Ch. 52 Hidden Treasures
The three stunned hounds didn’t have time to react as he charged them. The long handled axe was light enough he swung it with one hand, the paper thin blade splitting the closest hounds skull. The kill notification dinged, but Santi was throwing himself backwards to avoid snapping teeth. He brought his feet up and caught the hounds chest with the balls of his feet.
Santi exerted every ounce of his strength and he continued to roll backward while snapping his legs straight. The heavy weight of the hound disappeared as he used its momentum and his strength to lob it across the barn. He continued the roll and popped to his feet.
Only one of the hounds were left, growling and running at him. Santi spun and cut a vicious line across its side. Skin peeled and blood gushed as it crashed to the ground in a heap of limbs, baying in agony. Santi couldn’t finish it off, as the hound he hit with Gust had rejoined the fight.
He skipped back to avoid snapping jaws. The hound dodged as Santi tried to spike it through the neck. The wounded hound was getting to its feet and the one he had thrown were getting close to the fight. Santi threw another Gust at the two hounds picking up dirt and pebbles in a storm, just trying to slow them down for a moment.
He needed further reach and the axe transformed into a long sword. It took only the blink of an eye and the hound couldn’t backpedal fast enough as the tip of the sword cut deep into its shoulder and through the outer edge of its neck. Blood poured out as the hound jumped back, ripping the blade to deepen the wound.
Instincts warned him to spin and fall to his knee as the longsword transformed into the boar spear again. The last healthy hound was in midair and he couldn’t interpose the blade in the way in time. He rolled to the side as he released the spear and started to roll as teeth began to gnash at him. The two wounded hounds were on his ass, biting and snapping, ripping the air inches from his flesh.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Santi cursed as he managed to avoid their teeth and get on his feet. The morph weapon had melted the moment he released it, a thin tendril wrapped around his wrist. The moment he gave the thought the blade turned back into a gladius.
The hound he had slashed across the side took the point through the eye as it continued to chase after him. The short blade erupted out of the back of the hounds skull, killing it immediately. The other two hounds were on him and he let the gladius melt and form into a heavy bulbous club. Teeth went flying as the club cracked across the closest hound's mouth, forcing the hound to the side as Santi spun and dodged the last hound.
The club became a long sword again as he faced the last unwounded hound. He jabbed the point at the hound pushing it back as the other hound lay in a bleeding pile of flesh. The pulsing blood was slowing to a trickle as it bled out. In another minute or so, there’d only be one hound left. Santi pushed, jabbing over and over again to try to push the hound back.
Its hind legs brushed the far wall and it had nowhere else to go. Long sword became a hammer and the skull crunched with a single blow. He stalked back to the wounded hound and finished it off with a single blow.
“That was a workout,” Santi said, panting to himself. The heat was oppressive and the exertion of the fight had been intense. Flexing his willpower a bit he moved Air Current around faster, making the rough simulation of a fan. He’d never done that before, but the loss of air conditioning had been hurting. It was already exciting to push his spells to new limits and make them work in new ways.
He gathered his breath and moved out and toward the third barn. It was just as dim, just as humid, and just as dirty as the last one. No hounds this time. The stench was much worse. Rotting meat and dung. Bones and skin decorated every inch, a charnel house of grotesque proportions. It was all that was left of the animals that had been here, the parts that hadn’t been able to be used.
Santi was glad to leave the barn and head toward the prefabbed house sitting in the middle of the property. He glanced over to the where the group had stationed themselves and saw a horde of red skinned goblins swarming around them. He could see the colored flash of skills being used to keep the horde at bay. The quick glimpse was enough to make him hurry. They were holding, but for how much longer?
The blue front door broke open with a well placed kick, the pre-integration materials failing to slow him down. He formed a short sword as he ran in. There was nothing in the house. Cleared of everything. Just floors and walls and a pile of treasure.
Mana wafted off of them, a mix of small natural treasures and items that the goblins had been stealing from this part of town. Santi took a moment to look over the treasures and knew that he was going to be taking everything not nailed down. First he had to kill whatever was in the metal building and burn this place to the ground.
He searched under the sink and found a small box of garbage bags that hadn’t been thrown out like everything else. It was the work of a few minutes to bag up everything, mentally reviewing what was what as it was dumped into bags and tied up and placed next to the door. It would be quick and easy to grab and run when he finished the other building.
Gravel crunched underfoot as he got closer to the metal building. There were no guards outside but the red vines and black webbing covered every inch of it. The humidity increased to the point Santi couldn’t tell if he was sweating or not. An oppressive aura washed out of the building reeking of bloodlust and hunger. Whatever was inside of that building was not going to be fun to fight.
He had to jog around the perimeter of the building to find an entrance. The main doors were webbed shut and the second door had red vines wrapped around the door with vicious green thorns that dripped a clear liquid. He had no interest in seeing what those vines would do to him, so he kept searching.
There was a second door at the far side of the building that was propped open. Narrow and dim it vanished into the depths of the building. He was tired. The last few days had been impossible for him, a continuous push for survival. The death, destruction, cruelty, all of it was just so goddamn heavy. This wasn’t the end of the line, but rather the end of the beginning. There’d be relative peace and stability around the area if he succeeded.
The two monster nests had cleared out most of the enemies in the region. Eating and stripping the area of everything of worth. There’d be time to grow and adjust. To save lives. But, fuck, he was tired.
He pictured a long handled hammer and entered the hallway. There was a press on him, the atmosphere pushing on him. It was a sense of not belonging, of being a trespasser, of being prey. He had felt worse presences but not with his stats being this low. It was hard to push forward as every instinct told him to run.
He had to reevaluate his opinion on the nest. He had thought it was a lesser nest, but it might be a minor. The same as the hag nest had been. Which meant there could be a monster that was pushing the limits of the Initiate tier and could be on the precipice of becoming an Acolyte.
Goblins were physical fighters, an Acolyte level goblin would be a nightmare to deal with. The hag had cleaned house while being a magic user who couldn’t properly use its magic. He would die, there was little he could do against a monster that strong currently.
He just had to hope that the goblin hadn’t evolved.
The concrete hall was strewn with moldering hay that softened his footsteps. The hall he was in had a line of metal lockers that had been busted open. Broken locks sitting on the ground as a tripping hazard. A faint red glow emanated deeper in the building, pushing against the humid darkness.
Leaving the hallway and into the main part of the building he finally got a look at the heart of the nest. A glowing crimson pod that pulsed every seven seconds. A eight goblin squad in full bronze armor stood around in a half circle around the pod. A hooded figure stood behind them all, a robe of stitched together skins covering it.
Red Hobgoblin lvl. 21
Red Hobgoblin lvl. 21
Red Hobgoblin lvl. 21
Red Hobgoblin lvl. 21
Red Hobgoblin lvl. 21
Red Hobgoblin lvl. 21
Red Hobgoblin lvl. 21
Red Hobgoblin Chief lvl. 23
High Goblin Sorcerer lvl. 25