A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 154: The Signs of Calamity - Part 2

Before he could think to root them out, though, the goblin foot soldiers barrelled into him.

"Oof…" Beam rolled on the ground after being tossed through the air from a sudden impact. His head spun for a moment as he recovered his surroundings. The vicious point of the spear came at him before he could entirely figure out what was going on.

Merely on instinct, he twisted and slashed with his sword. There was a scream and the weapon fell to the floor, along with a pair of severed hands.

Regaining his bearings, Beam saw what was screaming in front of him. It was the green skin of an enemy that he knew well. Just as he had suspected from the noises, it was indeed a goblin. It was the same height as the goblins he knew and of the same build. It was certainly no hobgoblin. And yet it was different all the same.

Whilst the goblins he knew were rather poorly dressed, merely with fur scraps around their waists, this one sported something that more resembled clothes. Fur that had been cut and stitched together into a primitive sort of tunic hung from its shoulders, and there were even fur boots on its feet held together by some sort of cordage.

Beam noted the horn on its head as well. A small horn to be sure, but a horn nonetheless. It reminded him of the evolved hobgoblin, for that was the only other goblin he had ever seen a horn quite like this on.

He was only able to glance at it for a second longer, before the goblin's screams from its severed arms grew tiresome and he dealt with it in a single effective sweep, beheading it cleanly.

He sucked in a deep breath and acknowledged the rest of his surroundings. There were three more horned goblins in front of him, all of them wielding spears, crouched low and warily.

Two arrows sped towards him as well, each from different directions. Beam dodged them, making note of the position of those that had fired them. That made five goblins.

He turned his attention to the goblins in front of him first. As long as he knew where the arrows were coming from, he could deal with them at his leisure.

The goblins hissed warily, holding their position with their spears extended outwards. Beam raised an eyebrow in surprise. It seemed the goblins' intelligence had been improved in all areas. Though a basic tactic, it was a tactic that even the soldiers used, for it was effective. A spear wall like that was difficult to overcome without any sort of advanced manoeuvring.

Already, they posed more trouble than their brethren, holding their position as they did, whilst archers peppered Beam from the sides. He twirled his sword, looking for the opening. He couldn't help feeling his lips curl into a smile of excitement as he finally got the opportunity to properly test that which he had been learning.

He lunged in with a striding step, as though to close the distance between them. But that was a mere feint. As the goblins jabbed their spears towards him, Beam once again skipped out of range, before diving in once more, this time from an angle. It was a display of footwork that his pursuit of misdirection had taught him.

With the goblins off balance, aiming towards where he was before, he was able to set his feet just right and deliver a single overbearing swing, just as his pursuit of might had taught him. He sliced the goblin in front of him with such explosive force, cleaving him from shoulder to hip, that the severed torso flew a short distance towards its comrades, before landing in a splat of blood.

The goblin did not die instantly either. It struggled in dismay, at the feet of its friends, bleeding out and screaming all the while. Its friends howled in outrage. They tightened the grips on their spears, before looking to Beam, whose eyes swam with golden flecks, his sword pointed at them with a smile, provoking a clear challenge.

Their confidence left them in an instant. They had not managed to even wound him, after all. From their point of view, he was far too mighty, especially given the manner in which he had killed their friends.

Fear came to the fore and they took a quivering step back. Their increased intelligence seemed to work against them here.

"Die," Beam commanded. The horned goblins stood stock still upon receiving the command, as though frozen in place. And then, just by the smallest of margins, the points of their weapons tilted ever so slightly towards them.

It was not enough to do anything more than confuse them, but Beam was on them in a second, killing them both with a single precise slash, keeping their corpses in as good a condition as he could, now that he had seized the absolute advantage over them.

As the two goblins fell to the floor, dead, Beam turned his eyes towards the trees, searching for the archers.

He did not find them easily, given how well they had hidden themselves amongst the branches of the pine tree, but as soon as he laid his eyes on theirs, he felt their souls tremble.

He picked up one of the dropped spears and tossed it lightly at one of the goblins. It squealed in dismay, launching itself from the branches in an attempt at dodging. It succeeded, but it was plummeting to the floor a moment later. It tried to roll to reduce the falling force, but Beam's blade found it instead.

He dealt with the other one a moment later and soon the corpses were all gathered at his feet. He took a moment to calm his adrenaline from the battle. He hadn't expected himself to get so excited. Seeing the gorebeasts earlier had made him nervous – nervous for the villagers more than anyone else. In doing battle with these new opponents, that nervousness had been washed away by excitement.