The sun completely sank below the horizon of the Endless Continent, replacing the orange sky with a pitch-black canvas of night. While other Lords cowered in terror inside their freezing shacks, a deadly small group stepped past the boundary of Orion's protective dome.
Lyra took the lead. Her emerald eyes glowed faintly in the darkness, piercing the illusion of night with her Elven vision. She moved without making a single sound, as if her feet never even touched the dry leaves on the forest floor.
Behind her, Kael and Garrick walked side-by-side, flanking Orion. Unlike Lyra, the footsteps of the giant Garrick, clad in full bronze armor, sounded like the beating of war drums. However, Orion didn't care about absolute stealth. With the power they possessed, this wasn't an infiltration mission; it was an extermination operation.
"Two more kilometers, My Lord," Lyra whispered from a tree branch above, dropping down lightly beside Orion. "The wind carries the scent of fresh blood and rotting meat. They haven't moved."
"Good," Orion replied coldly. He gripped the Black Iron Axe in his right hand. "Remember our formation. Garrick, you are the absolute shield. Draw all their attention. Kael, you are the blade that sweeps from the blind spots. Lyra, find the highest vantage point and shoot down anyone attempting to flee or cast magic. Leave their leader—the Hobgoblin—to me."
"As you command!" his three generals answered in unison.
They continued to push through the primeval forest. The closer they got to the location, the more pungent the repulsive stench of the Goblin camp became. The sound of hoarse, grating laughter, the harsh shrieks of monster dialect, and the faint moans of a human began to reach their ears.
Orion gave a hand signal to stop. They took cover behind the giant roots of a black tree, peering into the clearing ahead of them.
There, illuminated by a giant roaring bonfire fueled by wet wood and bones, lay a squalid encampment. Tents made of animal hides and tattered rags were pitched haphazardly. Around fifty Goblins, roughly the size of ten-year-old human children, paced about. Their skin was a sickly pale green, their noses long and crooked, and their hands gripped rusty weapons like dull swords, wooden spears, and stone maces.
However, amidst the crowd of small monsters sat a green giant on a throne crafted from beast skulls.
[Troop Leader: Hobgoblin (Black Iron)] [Level: 5] [Strength: 25 | Agility: 10 | Physique: 22] [Description: The evolution of a normal Goblin. Possesses brutal physical strength and a highly sadistic nature. Wields a solid iron mace as a weapon.]
The Hobgoblin laughed uproariously while gnawing on a bloody animal leg. In front of it, tied to a wooden stake driven into the ground, was a young human man. The young man's clothes were in tatters, covered in shallow cuts. He was sobbing uncontrollably, begging for mercy in a language the monsters couldn't understand.
"P-Please... I'm begging you... let me go! I'll give you all my wood! Don't kill me!" the young man wailed.
Kael tightened his grip on his sword hilt. "My Lord, that human is on the verge of death from blood loss. Do we strike now to save him?"
Orion stared at the miserable young man with an emotionless expression that froze the soul. His analytical brain spun rapidly.
If he saved that human Lord now, what would he gain? A traumatized, terrified burden with zero combat power. Worse yet, Orion needed that young man's Territory Core to upgrade his own. If Orion saved him, and then snatched his Territory Core, it would be equivalent to directly murdering a fellow human. Orion might be ruthless, but he wasn't a psychopath who killed without the excuse of efficiency.
However, if that young man died at the hands of the Goblins... his Territory Core would become ownerless loot in this forest, and Orion could claim it as a legitimate "treasure" without any moral or karmic penalties.
"Wait," Orion ordered in a whisper that brooked no argument. "We are not superheroes arriving to save a fool. We are executioners. Let natural selection do its work."
Kael and Lyra did not question the command. Their loyalty to Orion was absolute, superseding any empathy toward the human race.
In the center of the camp, the Hobgoblin seemed to have grown bored of the young man's crying. It stood up from its throne, picked up its giant iron mace, and lumbered toward the wooden stake. The young man screamed hysterically, struggling with the last ounce of his strength.
The Hobgoblin smirked, flashing a row of rotten yellow teeth, and swung its iron mace with full force directly at the young man's head.
CRUNCH!
The sickening sound of shattering bone rang out. The moaning stopped instantly. The young man's body slumped lifelessly, accompanied by the repulsive cheers of the fifty other Goblins who began swarming the corpse to feast.
[System Notification (Regional): Lord 'Adam Smith' has been killed by a local race. His territory has now become an Ownerless Ruin.]
Orion's eyes flashed with a cold light. "His time is up. But ours has just begun." He raised his hand, then dropped it decisively. "Execute!"
SWOOSH!
A bronze arrow shot out from the dark branches at lightning speed, accompanied by the gleam of emerald mana. The arrow pierced the air silently, and in the next second, embedded itself right between the eyes of a Goblin guard standing near the bonfire.
The Goblin was thrown backward, pinned to the ground by Lyra's arrow.
Before the Goblin horde could even realize where the attack came from, the earth trembled violently.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A two-point-two-meter-tall giant clad in bronze armor leaped out from the bushes, landing right in the middle of the Goblin crowd like a falling meteor.
Garrick slammed the bottom of his giant shield into the ground. An invisible shockwave swept across the entire encampment.
[Active Skill: Provoke] [Passive Skill: Intimidating Aura]
The eyes of the Goblins, initially filled with confusion and fear, suddenly turned red with irrational rage. The Provoke skill forced every low-level enemy in the vicinity to focus their aggro solely on Garrick.
Fifty Goblins screamed in fury. They ignored everything else and sprinted to swarm Garrick from all directions, thrusting their rusty swords and wooden spears at the giant.
Clang! Ting! Crack!
The sounds of blunt weapons striking metal echoed endlessly. However, the scene was almost comical. Garrick's Bronze-tier armor, combined with his 30 points of Physique, reduced the Goblins' attacks to nothing more than mosquito bites. Wooden spears snapped upon hitting his breastplate, and rusty swords bounced off dullly.
"Is this the power of creatures who pride themselves as conquerors?!" Garrick growled from behind his helm.
[Active Skill: Bronze Wall]
An incredibly dense bronze aura enveloped Garrick's body and his shield, creating a layer of absolute defense. A few Goblins who tried to strike his shield with too much force were thrown backward with broken arms, courtesy of the Damage Reflection skill. Garrick swung his long-handled battleaxe in a full, devastating arc.
SRAAAASH!
Over a dozen Goblins were cleaved in two by a single brutal horizontal slash. Green blood sprayed out, soaking the camp's soil.
At the same time, Kael blurred into action from the blind spots. Moving like the shadow of death, the Black Iron steel sword in his hand danced, reaping lives.
[Active Skill: Fatal Slash]
He didn't target groups. He dashed from one edge to another, slitting throats, piercing hearts, and decapitating the Goblins who were too busy trying to break through Garrick's defense. Above them, Lyra continuously loosed arrows with 100% accuracy. Every draw of her bow meant one Goblin's life was extinguished. The Elven sniper's shots ensured not a single Goblin could flee the slaughterhouse.
Seeing its troops being harvested like wheat in autumn, the Hobgoblin roared in fury. It ignored Garrick, its eyes locking directly onto Orion, who had been strolling into the camp at a leisurely pace. The Hobgoblin's beastly instincts knew that the human walking so calmly behind these steel monsters was their Master.
With an ear-splitting roar, the Level 5 Hobgoblin leaped into the air, swinging its heavy iron mace straight down toward Orion's head.
"My Lord!" Kael shouted, preparing to leap in and protect his Master.
But Orion simply stood still. His expression was as calm as the surface of a frozen lake.
Just as the iron mace was about to crush Orion's skull, a massive shadow darted in, blotting out the moonlight.
CLAAANG!
The deafening clash of metal created a shockwave that blew away the dust and surrounding tents. Garrick had tossed his axe aside and thrown himself in front of Orion, raising his bronze shield to block the monster boss's lethal strike.
The 25 Strength of the Hobgoblin clashed against the 30 Physique of Garrick.
The ground beneath Garrick's feet cracked, but his footing didn't shift a single inch. His shield didn't even dent. Instead, the Hobgoblin's thick arm trembled violently from the recoil of its own perfectly blocked attack.
The Hobgoblin's eyes widened in disbelief. This iron monster was impenetrable!
"Now, Lyra!" Orion ordered coldly.
From atop a tree, Lyra had drawn her bowstring to its absolute limit. Emerald mana gathered at the tip of her arrow, swirling to form a terrifying energy drill.
[Active Skill: Armor-Piercing Arrow]
ZAAASH!
The bronze arrow flew faster than the speed of sound. It struck directly at the Hobgoblin's right shoulder joint, piercing through the thick muscle and shattering its collarbone, bursting out the other side.
"GRAAAARRGH!" The Hobgoblin shrieked in agony, its iron mace slipping from the grasp of its now-paralyzed arm.
It tried to retreat, terror finally overtaking its sadistic eyes. However, Orion didn't give it the chance.
Stepping out from behind Garrick's protection, Orion gripped his Black Iron Axe with both hands. Using the momentum from his enemy's shock, Orion leaped and swung his axe with every ounce of strength he possessed, aiming directly at the Hobgoblin's exposed neck.
CRAAAAK!
The black iron axe buried itself deep into the Goblin leader's cervical spine. Thick blood sprayed into the air, staining Orion's face and jacket. The Hobgoblin's massive body stiffened for a moment, staring into Orion's abyss-like eyes, before finally crashing to the ground with a heavy thud, lifeless.
[Ding! You (Orion Vance) delivered the final blow to kill the Camp Leader: Hobgoblin (Level 5 - Black Iron).] [Obtained: 150 EXP. You have leveled up to Level 3!] [All of your attributes have increased by 4 points.] [Loot Obtained: 1x Treasure Chest (Bronze), 1x Bone-Crushing Mace (Black Iron), 5x Basic Magic Crystals.]
Orion panted slightly, releasing the handle of the axe still lodged in the Hobgoblin's corpse. His fatigue was instantly washed away by the warm energy of the level-up surging through his veins. He clenched his fists, feeling that his Strength and Agility as a normal Earth human had just doubled, surpassing the limits of an Olympic athlete.
Around him, silence began to creep back in. All fifty Goblins had been completely wiped out, eradicated without a trace by the deadly combination of Garrick, Kael, and Lyra.
"Gather all materials and Magic Crystals from these Goblin corpses," Orion ordered, wiping a splatter of blood from his cheek.
He didn't immediately open the treasure chest he had just obtained. Instead, he stepped over the piles of monster corpses, walking toward the body of the young human tied to the wooden stake.
In the torn pocket of the young man's pants, Orion could see a small, diamond-shaped crystal emitting a faint glow—a Territory Core that had lost its master. The crystal had transformed its function into a set of coordinates and an access key.
[Ding! Found 'Ruined Territory Key (Level 0)'.] [Do you wish to extract the coordinates?]
Orion's smile widened beneath the light of the blood moon. "The real game has finally begun."