Hello people and welcome back to Goblin Slayer: The Team Year 2. We left off with Ranger and the Hero's team getting ready to whoop the vampire queen's priceless yet kickable booty, so let's get on with.
Review Response: Considering the fact that Ranger is 4 or 5 years older than Hero, and he's apparently smarter than her, or at least more mature, it's pretty obvious that they'd have a difference in opinion over things. As for Sword Saint? I don't know how old she is, but Storm Mage is a little older than Sword Maiden who's 26 at this point, but either way, let's wait until Storm Mage gives his two cents to the fight's outcome shall we? Because, he's bound to be curious; what person intelligent enough to be a demon hunter wouldn't be?
Probably for the best that Summoner in a solo act now, although...he choose to work with Assassin and Werewolf just like Ranger choose to work with Fighter and company; it's unlikely that things will change too badly, especially since Summoner said himself that he still works with the two lycanthropes. As for Assassin's personality? Yeah, thick chance of her ceasing to be a basket case, even though she's written that way on purpose.
Yeah, casualties should be expected in a series like Goblin Slayer, or war in general, but it does help that they're taking advantage of the vampires' weaknesses. Berserker helping against the zombies and draugr is quite a plus itself.
Over? The vampire queen is just getting started...
On the ground the team watched the top of the queen's castle crumble and some falling debris crushed the houses below. Luckily, no action needed to be take to avoid the debris, but it obviously raised some red flags with them.
"That cannot be good..." Warrior said.
"Should we go inside?" Priestess asked.
"No, we stay, and keep fighting." Abbot said as some more suits of cursed armor show up and Fighter gets on them right away before the others have a chance to react. She dodges each of their attacks, pounds their sides with hammerfist punches as she weaves through them, climbs one and jumps between them while shoving them off-balance with the force of her jumps, and even tricks them into hitting each other, if she doesn't snatch their weapons and uses them against their wielders.
"She picks up other people's weapons an awful lot." Abbot said.
"That's nothing, you should've seen her at the farm a year ago." Warrior said as Fighter kept working the armor suits over...and it was turning laughable; one moment had her knocking down three suits with a single kick for each of them without putting her leg down, ducked an axe swing, then jumped up, kneed it in the "jaw" hard enough to pop off it's head, spin-kicked the head into another while she was still in mid-air, grabbed another suit, spun around several times, still in mid-air, and threw it across the area into a group of approaching reinforcements, and when she finally landed cat-style, some vampires showed up, and even though there's about a dozen of them, and they were flying around...Fighter dodged their dive moves, pounces, and drop-kicks, if she didn't protect herself by stopping their strikes...but striking the limbs they use to attack her in critical places on their bodies which both stops them cold, and staggers them with pain. She also outright struck them when things calmed down enough, and each vampire that got close enough, got hit several times before either dying, or getting sent flying away from here. The most insane thing, was that not only did she not have trouble breathing when the melee was finally over, but had no emotion on her face and stood there like a statue, as if nothing happened. The team meanwhile, watched the whole thing wide-eyed or jaw-dropped, then Fighter looked up to see some elites circling the castle.
"Priestess, Father. Give me the strongest Empower you can." Fighter said calmly and everyone gasped.
"Fighter...you don't really want to go fight the queen do you?" Warrior asked.
"No, but those elites up there-" Fighter stopped talking when the elites overhead shrieked and dived down in the team's direction then Abbot poured some of Priestess' holy water on his staff.
"Hear me good Chief of Justice. Lend this child your divine strength so she may help purge this world. Empower!" Abbot prayed and Fighter started glowing and giving off specks of golden-white light, then she jumped up to the elites with enough force to cause a brief earthquake and when she got to them, she punched one of them hard enough to make it literally explode from the force alone, which drenched the others enough to distract them and they fell instead of flew for a few seconds. When they got their barrings, Fighter free-falled down to one of them, snapped it's neck, and threw it at another one hard enough to launch it in the opposite direction and crash into a wall about a quarter-mile away. She then grabbed a 4th one, rode it to the ground, used it to take a blood drain curse from a 5th one in the process, then jumped off the one she was riding onto the one who tried draining her, but it dashed to the side just in time, then she tried pushing off the air itself to catch it, and somehow, it worked. She then grappled with it in mid-air as they free-fell, and they blocked several punches from each other, then the scrap ended with it trying to bite her, she breaks it's jaw, and then they reached the ground with her on top of it. She then punched it several times to stun it, then gripped it's throat as tightly as she could until it was strangled to death.
"Sheesh, what kind of armor did you give her?" Warrior asked.
"Don't look at me; that armor makes her on-par with a vampire, same as ours. That must've been one serious Empower miracle." Wizard said as Fighter got up and removed her mask and shake her head, which made her free-hanging locks flail about, then dozens of vampire shows up and surrounded the team, and Fight put her mask back on, jumped on the roof of one of the buildings and started clobbering them left and right so quickly she appeared to be a human blur of motion. When she was done, she jumped over to the other side, clobbering even more vampires who showed up and tried to stop her, then she gave the ones on the other side the same treatment. A torn-off limb here, a snapped spine there, a few shattered skulls over there, a torn-out heart there. It was more of a mass execution then an actual fight. She then noticed even more vampires showing up and jumped down, dashed over to meet them, blew several out of the way, kicked the shit out of the ones who weren't caught in the initial burst of power. When she was nearly done...she felt a tugging pain in her chest; she pushed herself too hard and her heart was giving out! A vampire quickly took advantage of this weakness and tried to bite her, only for her to grab it's throat and it threw her back to the others...big mistake; Fighter tore it's throat out as she got launched.
She won the battle...but she wasn't out of the woods; she was breathing rapidly and she was flushed bright red. Priestess rushed to her, healed her right away, and Abbot threw some holy water on her staff to make sure Fighter would survive. Wizard also kept their 2nd to last life potion on stand-by; they'll be damned if they let her baby grow up without her mother. Their hopes weren't for nothing though, as Fighter's breathing and heart rate were brought back down to a normal level after a few seconds of their intense treatment, and everyone sighed deeply.
"Are you alright?" Priestess asked with concern.
"I will be, just give me a moment to catch my breath." Fighter said as she kept breathing deeply despite the frigid climate.
"Do you think you can do that..chakra opening thingie again?" Wizard asked.
"Not two times in a row." Fighter said. "Unless I recover quickly enough, somehow..."
"Great." Wizard groaned. "Heaven forbid we get into another situation where that's required."
"Still...you have completely outdone yourself." Warrior said before kneeling next to Fighter. "I have half a mind to ask you to teach me."
"Regret not getting involved in my craft sooner?" Fighter teased.
"Hey, if I knew that I'd be able to pull stunts like that, I would've gotten involved even if I wasn't paid to do so." Warrior said seriously.
"I didn't even know stunts like that were possible, so...find yourself another excuse." Fighter said as the team watched the two non-siblings' antics.
"Yeah, whatever, next time, I get the spotlight." Warrior said.
"She nearly died of cardiac arrest; all-things-considered, learning to unlock your chakras and pull a stunt like that is the last thing you should be doing." Abbot said seriously.
"Well, it looks like it's clouding up, so... it's probably going to be lightning time." Wizard said as some clouds approach with decent speed.
"Uhhh, that doesn't look promising." Priestess said worried.
The vampire queen was actually blocking strikes from Hero, Ranger, and Sword Saint, and Sage spams Mana Bolt when she gets an opening, and Ranger throws a morphed scythe when he gets a chance. One time, the queen wrestled with Ranger, she won, and punched him into the parapet rimming the top of the tower they were fighting on, then blocked Hero's sword with both arms, then Ranger launched a harpoon-and-chain right into her side, yanking her off-balanced and Sword Saint jammed her own blade through the queen's heart and pulled back to give Hero a chance, and they take turns impaling her until the queen gets fed up with it, discharges a burst of blood, and takes off into the sky with Ranger being pulled along with her hanging on for dear life as she circles the area. He manages to get a look at Fighter crushing the elites and his focus gets stolen by it; he held onto the chain of course, but her display of power was terrifying; he should've taken her with him to fight the queen. Was Army of One this strong?
His thoughts were interrupted by the queen heading straight for the siege force, then her right wing gets hit by a beam of holy light It must've been the Abbot; he's the only one Ranger knew who could do that, except maybe the Sword Maiden, but her powers weren't well-known. His heart then sank again when the vampire queen threw a blood magic orb at some trebuchets, destroying several and killing the crews of each one.
"Damn you!" Ranger yelled before pulling his gun and waiting for an open shot, and the moment he got one, he fired and pierced the queen's wing bone making her scream and fly more erratically and head for the graveyards as a ballista bolt and a couple of arrows fly by her, and Ranger saw that Goblin Slayer, Lizard Priest, and Dwarf Shaman fired the bolt and High Elf Archer shot the arrows.
"We've got incoming!" Female Knight yelled.
"Step aside people, I've got this." Summoner said proudly and he walked out of the graveyard.
"That's the queen you moron!" Apprentice Cleric yelled.
"Ease up kid; there's a reason these Gold tags are around my neck." Summoner said before every single summon stone on his belt floats around him in a circle and orbits him. "Great face of nature, all-seeing creature of sky. Come down from Heaven to aid one such as I. Lend me your power I call. Let our combined strength be a symbol of change, to be seen by all!" With that, a hulking, tree-sized humanoid was spawned piece by piece. When it was done, it was a basic earth golem, but with streams of water flowing in and out of it's body like they were blood vessels. It also had burning fires where it's eyes should be and leafs blowing around it in a violent yet controlled series of wind gusts.
"What is that?" Rookie Warrior yelled.
"That...is a World Spawn. The most powerful creature one can summon through arcane means alone. The same thing that led me to get these Gold tags." Summoner said dramatically as the World Spawn made a ball of water in it's hand, which turned into a massive spear made of ice that it threw with surprising speed and force at the queen who dodged the first one, but got nicked by the second one and flew away from the massive elemental, only to return, spew several blood orbs at it, and it loses part of it's head, and one of it's arms...only for the lost parts to grow back and it spews fire out of it's eyes at the queen, and Ranger lets go before he could get hit and used his teleport crystal to escape. The World Spawn then punches the queen into the ground over and over and over hard enough to make the ground shake with each punch.
"Holy shit..." Heavy Warrior said with fear in his voice.
"Don't think you can handle a gigantic monster that can use every element known to man?" Female Knight asked as the World Spawn kept pounding the queen.
"What kind of question is that? That thing is miles above our pay grade!" Heavy Warrior exclaimed.
"And I haven't even demonstrated everything it can do..." Summoner said before holding up his hand, the World Spawn stops punching, some energy gets drawn out of it and into Summoner himself.
"You have got to be kidding me..." Rookie Warrior said.
"Yep. I can even draw power from the World Spawn, which is just as insane as it sounds." Summoner said with an "evil snicker".
"I'm alittle afraid to ask, but...why not summon more than one?" Female Knight asked.
"Simple: I'm out of summon stones, and I can't hold enough to summon more than one." Summoner said and the queen bursts out of the ground, knocks the World Spawn to the ground with a single punch that's hard enough to crack it's chest open, then she flew back to the fortress to finish the fight.
"Why isn't she finishing the fight here? Surely, she's tough enough to do so." R.W. said.
"My guess, she's too pissed off to make a solid strategy; she probably took a more serious beating than we expected from the Hero, and her team." Heavy Warrior said.
"Maybe. Although...I kind of wish I could show off my new powers." Summoner said.
"How exactly did you become Gold Ranked?" A.C. asked.
"I sealed a portal to hell and even crushed a demon general, with a World Spawn empowering, and helping me." Summoner said.
"Again...holy shit." H.W. said.
"Yep. Can't wait to see the look on my brother's face when he sees me now." Summoner said.
"You mean Storm Mage?" F.K. asked.
"Yep." Summoner said.
"Last I heard, he works for the Sword Maiden now." F.K. said and Summoner let off a whistle.
"Lucky him." Summoner said with a smirk.
"Easy now, I'm not sure he'd be allowed to get frisky with her considering her position." F.K. said seriously.
"Even still, I've seen her in person and she's...hoo boy..." Summoner said. "Although...on the off-chance things go well between them, I'm not sure how she'd react to knowing about his past."
"What? Was he a criminal? If I may ask?" Apprentice Cleric asked.
"Yes...and no. He has done some pretty shady things, including murder, but he's also done things against criminals in return. He was still a greedy asshole, even if he's my brother, although he has cleaned up his act, at least mostly." Summoner said.
"And now he works for the Archbishop...he's on his way to a Gold Rank himself I think." Female Knight said.
"Also...may I ask why you have that marking on your shoulder?" Rookie Warrior asked.
"What this? That's the Mark of the War God. Assassin, Werewolf, my brother, and Ranger have it as well. Although, Ranger is more devoted than all of us combined." Summoner said.
"How so?" F.K. asked.
"First off, Ranger is the only one who uses miracles from the War God. I use my summoning and Werewolf uses his wolf form obviously, and Assassin uses her blade knowledge and skill, plus...out of the three of us, she has the most bloodlust;I dare say she likes killing more than sex..." Summoner said.
"O.k...too much information." R.W. said.
"Sorry..." Summoner said.
Meanwhile, Ranger teleported back to his team, only to find them treating Fighter and his heart sank.
"What happened?" Ranger asked in a panic.
"She pushed herself too far, but she's o.k. now my son." Abbot said and Ranger calmed down but kept looking at Fighter.
"Can you hear me?" Ranger asked her as he knelt beside her.
"Yes...I'm not going to die on you any time soon." Fighter said as she took his hand and smiled at him.
"Fighter..." Ranger whispered before getting ahold of himself. "I saw what you did to those vampires. To think I thought we couldn't surpass the Abbot here. No offense Father."
"None taken my son. I said you would surpass the Hero someday, and it won't be long now. You'll see..." Abbot said before the Hero and company dropped down from the castle, and rushed to see Fighter being treated.
"Yes, she's fine." Wizard said as if annoyed.
"Well, how did this happen?" Hero asked.
"The short version is that she used an untapped spiritual power reserve, blew through several packs of vampires, her heart nearly gave out, and then Priestess treated her, and now she's recovering." Warrior said.
"Lovely..." Sage said sarcastically.
"Where's the queen?" Hero asked.
"She was fighting the biggest elemental I've ever seen last I saw her." Ranger said.
"Elemental? There's only one person we know that can use elementals." Wizard said.
"What did it look like?" Abbot asked.
"It was tree-sized, has burning eyes, streams of water going up and down it's body, and it was made of stone." Ranger said.
"A World Spawn. It wouldn't surprise me if it's summoner was Gold Ranked." Abbot said seriously.
"Summoner as a Gold Rank? Huh...small world..." Warrior said.
"What exactly is a World Spawn?" Wizard asked with interest.
"Only the strongest summoned creature in existence." Sage said seriously. "Only the most powerful summoners in the world can use them, but if you do...you'd be practically unbeatable."
"Can you use them?" Wizard asked.
"Once or twice, but...it was rarely necessary." Sage said.
"Heads up! She's coming back!" Sword Saint said and the team got on edge and Priestess carried/dragged Fighter to safety.
"Wonderful...you're all together. Now, I can feast properly...!" Vampire Queen snarled.
"Oh shut up!" Warrior yelled as he threw his hammer at her only for her to swat it away...then the hammer discharges lightning into her, making her spasm like crazy, then he calls it back to him, threw it again, beans her in the face while she's distracted then Hero leaps into the air and brings down her sword down on her, only for the queen to dodge it and the front gate gets completely wrecked. Sword Saint meanwhile charged up a still-intact part of the wall while Abbot jumped onto the other side and they each charged the queen while she was distracted and stabbed her through the heart...again, while Abbot bashed her on the head...for all the good it did; the queen survived both hits, punched Abbot back to the ground, kicked Sword Saint away, and disappeared in a cloud of red smoke.
"What the-? Where'd she go now?" Hero asked.
"She's behind you!" Abbot yelled from the ground struggling to move from the pounding he took...then Hero got an arm wrapped around her neck by the vampire queen...then Ranger shot the queen in the elbow, freeing Hero and making her arm useless. Hero reacted by yelling as she stabbed the queen through the chest for the umpteenth time and drove her into the ground below, then the queen swatted Hero off of her.
"Firestorm!" Wizard yelled as she pelted the queen with one fireball after another, while Warrior channeled lightning through the clouds with his hammer as the queen jumped out of the firestorm, only to be knocked back into it by a lightning strike from the clouds.
"How much abuse can that lady take?" Fighter asked in astonishment when the noise settled.
"The only reason we survived our last encounter with the queen is due to Storm Mage stunning her and allowing us to retreat..." Sage said.
"Priestess...give me as strong a healing and empowerment miracle as you can..." Fighter said.
"Not a chance. You almost died once; I'm not letting you take another risk like that again." Priestess said firmly.
"But-" Priestess cuts her off.
"That's final. Now lay back down and rest." She snapped and Fighter relaxed.
"Is she dead now?" Warrior asked as the queen laid there motionless.
"I think so..." Wizard said while using Life/Dead Sight. "Wait...I can't believe it! She's coming back to life!"
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Warrior exclaimed and the queen shrieked as she got up, flew into the sky, and when she got high enough she spread her wings and shrieked again as the earth shook, some ice rose from the places it was covering and fountains of blood erupted out of the ground and waved around like tentacles.
"Look! Out there!" Sword Saint yelled as even the mountains ringing the area were effected.
"I fear all hope is lost..." Abbot said with a lowered voice.
Meanwhile, back at the Temple of Law, Sword Maiden was praying before a large alter with dozens of acolytes on their hands and knees facing the floor behind her and Storm Mage behind her holding her staff up on her behalf without his armor or sword-whip on-hand.
"Great Supreme God. Chief of Justice, Lord of the Scale. I, your Archbishop who carries your will throughout this land, ask your favor on behalf of a troop of your servants who face the vampire queen. Let the world she plagues know how strong your presence is, and the great adventurers who resist her be rewarded for their valor. I relinquish the power you gave me for as long as you deem necessary to see this miracle performed. In your name, I order this request to be made reality!" Sword Maiden prayed and the entire temple started radiating holy power and a massive beam fires into the sky.
"Earthquake!" Rookie Warrior yelled as the ground started to break apart, the ice in the area grew, shifted, and flew around.
"Let's get out of here!" Heavy Warrior yelled as the team ran back to what was left of the siege force and the World Spawn smashed every abnormal outcropping in sight but was eventually trapped, overwhelmed and destroyed by the environment that seemed to have antipathy for it.
"My World Spawn!" Summoner yelled.
"If we don't move, we will be next!" H.W. yelled as they kept running.
"That can't be good..." Spearman said with concern as some more siege equipment was trashed by an earth spike from the ground and everyone jumped back.
"The whole place is falling apart!" High Elf Archer yelled as more ice and earth shifts around them and even blocks their escape routes.
"What do we do? What the hell do we do now!?" Spearman yelled.
"Pray to whatever gods we can think of..." Lizard Priest said somberly before light shines through the clouds from nowhere, the environment gets repaired and returned to how it was, the vampires in the area all drop dead and burn to ash slowly and everyone gets their wounds, energy and even equipment restored. The people the goblins butchered even return to life.
"What the-?" H.E. Archer said as she looked around.
"Son of a bitch...the Sword Maiden really is involved in this." Spearman said with a smile.
"Thank you, Sword Maiden..." Abbot whispered as he looked at the sky, then Cherub poofed in and surprised a few people.
"Cherub, please cut that out." Ranger said firmly.
"You have a cherub with you?" Hero asked.
"Pipe down, all of you. I'm here to tell you that your luck turned in more ways than one." Cherub said.
"How so?" Priestess asked.
"Well, your sweet little Sword Maiden just asked my liege to help your army, and they were helped alright: they're healed, their stuff is repaired, the dead are alive again, you name it. Not only that, but the vampire queen's pact with the Supreme is broken." Cherub said.
"What pact?" Sword Saint asked.
"First off, Storm Mage told the truth earlier; the vampire queen was the Supreme's champion centuries ago, and her blessing was never removed, but now that she's threatening several of the Supreme's greatest servants, her pact is broken." Cherub said.
"She can be killed?" Ranger asked.
"Yes. Which means your holy sword is no longer useless, although...she's still incredibly tough." Cherub said.
"About time; I'm sick of hauling this thing about with it being only half of what it should be." Hero said with a huff.
"Well, I'll you get back to it. See you later." Cherub said before poofing away.
"Team, take this portal and return to the others. Explain what happened..." Ranger said before taking out his crystal but Priestess stopped him.
"We're not letting you fight alone." She said.
"This is between her, me, and Hero. The rest of you aren't strong enough." Ranger said.
"Um, not to burst your bubble boss but...I'm pretty sure Abbot and Fighter are tougher than you, especially since we all got boosted ourselves thanks to that light over our heads." Wizard said.
"That's about to change..." Ranger said before putting his hands together. "War God. I, your servant and soldier ask of you. Guide my body, mind and soul, and help me unleash your fury upon those who taint this land. Help me become, an Army of One!" With that, a vermilion fire engulfs Ranger, he gives off an intense amount of force that either pushes back or staggers those directly around him, and cracks the castle grounds apart somewhat, with him letting off a yell that echoes throughout the entire valley that turns into a strained scream. When it was over...he was giving off a less intense fire complete with dark red smoke coming out of him and his eyes had red sclera. He turned to Priestess and even though the whole team was shaking from the display he payed it no mind.
"Now...go tell the others what happened." Ranger said and his voice was deeper, clearer, and calmer. Priestess took a few moments to get a grip as she helped Fighter go through the portal with the others following suit.
"We'll...go with them." Sword Saint said and Sage followed her through the portal and when it closed, even Hero looked at Ranger funny, then the vampire queen descended from the sky to meet them.
"Say your prayers Your Majesty. It's all over for you..." Ranger said simply as he and Hero prepared for round 3.
"O.k. now that's just a load of bullshit." Spearman said after being filled in by Priestess and the team.
"You really think we'd make this up?" Wizard said in awe.
"No but, still. Ranger given god powers? I get that the light from the sky is nothing to sneeze at, but come on! Two acts of divine intervention is just unfair." Spearman said.
"You said it was temporary, yes?" Witch asked.
"It should only last an hour but...Heaven knows we spent more than that facing the queen." Sage said.
"Yeah. At this point, it's either the queen goes down...or they do." Sword Saint said as Priestess put her staff on the ground and prayed with Abbot doing the same on his feet holding his staff...then a faint boom echoed throughout the valley and the mountain in the far distance had a large poof.
Hero and Ranger were smashing the queen through a mountain in every sense of the word. Ranger bashed her into the mountain, Hero carved into the mountain, they both sliced up the inside of the mountain and the queen could barely react to them, especially Ranger. Army of One made him a living nightmare! His attacks were too hard to block, but his movements were too fast to keep track of. If it wasn't for the queen's healing factor and the immense power she was constantly drawing from the land she had dominion over...she would've died a thousand times over from just one hit, nevermind dozens.
Hero wasn't as fast, but without her immunity to holy arts, the queen was no better off, especially since Hero can slice and even blow things apart without needing to physically hit them. Eventually...after smacking the queen around for the better part of a minute, Ranger punched her hard enough to launch her out of the mountain, then jumped up to catch her, then slammed her into the ground hard enough to shatter the ground, then dragged her along the ground as he sprinted across the valley, then threw her through a wall, into the castle courtyard. Hero actually lost track of them, and when she followed the upturned earth to find Ranger, he pointed her in the direction of the castle while he stopped to catch his breath, then she leaped into the sky, charged up her sword and delivered a sword swing strong enough to cause a burst of holy energy that made her entire castle collapse on top of itself.
"Hey! We were promised what was in there!" Spearman said.
"Oh relax, I'm sure the people in this region will give us something for our trouble." Heavy Warrior said.
"They damn well better..." Spearman said.
When Ranger and Hero caught up with the queen, she was in the middle of the open space behind the castle and Ranger walked up to her as she changed back to normal and her healing factor was no longer working as she was cut up, bruised, had gashes up and down her body and even had some teeth broken. This did nothing to deter Ranger as he walked up to her slowly.
"You...have...done it...I've faced...countless adversaries...but none of them...hold a candle...to you..." Vampire Queen said and Ranger still gave no damns as he picked her up with one hand and put a sword at her throat.
"Like I said, flattery will get you nowhere." Ranger snarled.
"I do not flatter, not before...not now. You are much easier to look at then the Jarl you served days ago." Vampire Queen said.
"All the more reason for me to be the last person you see..." Ranger said as he severed the queen's head and held it up as a trophy while letting the body drop like a sack of potatoes. "Quest...complete."
"You know what this means right? You might become Platinum Ranked yourself now." Hero said as she reached out a hand for him to shake. "If you do, welcome aboard." Ranger couldn't help but smile and shake her hand.
"I couldn't have done this without you and your team, or my own for that matter." Ranger said before putting the queen's severed head in a bag.
"What are you going to do with it?" Hero asked.
"Not only is this head proof of my- I mean, our victory; my kill, our victory...anyway, not only does the head prove we won, but it's also a nice trophy, if you can even call it that." Ranger said.
"That's kind of crude don't you think?" Hero asked.
"I said "if you can call it that". As in: I don't have a better way to say it."Ranger said.
"Alright, point taken. But...what about this Army of One state you're in right now?" Hero asked.
"Well...it's supposed to last about an hour and...I think it took a bit more than half that during our last round, and I don't know how to turn it off so...I'm just going to have to wait." Ranger said as he looked around and saw the endless space beyond the castle. "Do you recall hearing something about this place being suspicious?"
"No...but it's pretty eerie being in a place so open; it's like...we're the only two people in the world, although of course we're not." Hero said.
"I agree, let's just get back to the others-" Ranger stopped talking the moment he felt a rush of energy from a focal point to the side and it felt quite unsettling. Eventually, a hellshroud appeared and several crimson portals opened and gurgling snarls were heard. "What the-?!" Next thing he knew...creatures that looked like goblins, only, larger, deformed, even...demonic came through the portals.
"What are those?!" Hero exclaimed.
"They look like goblins but...there's something strange about them." Ranger said as the goblins shouted and charged them.
Great, out with the vampire queen and in with...corrupted goblins, as if they weren't horrid enough eh? Anyway, I don't know if Ranger qualifies for a Platinum Rank or not, but he and his team are definitely getting Gold Ranks for this, but...I doubt you need me to tell you that. Plus that Army of One miracle which was hyped up for eons has finally been used...and boy, I'm sure people would make DBZ references if that kind of shit was pulled in the anime... Also, this wasn't just a chance for glory on Ranger's part, it was revenge; getting between Ranger and a girl who looks like Fighter is a death sentence, getting between him and the real Fighter? That's when the gates of hell open, but eh...that's how love works, partially. Anyway, what's up with these new goblins? Why are they here? What will they do? How will Goblin Slayer react to them? Find out next time, so as always...please, Rate, Review, Share...spread the word, and let me know what's up so I can avoid or fix the problems or upgrade this story. If you can't do that then at least...as always, stay tuned.