Had to cut this chapter into two parts. The second part should be released early tomorrow morning, I just only had time to proof read about 60% of it.
Warning, there's more graphic depictions of gore and torture from Goblin Slayer's past.
Stay hydrated, and stay tuned for the second part lol. Please enjoy this chapter.
Eleven days. Goblin Slayer had gone through eleven days of absolute hell. Having had his fingers, hands, feet, and flesh sawed off repeatedly each time that the dark rune beneath him forced his body to regenerate another appendage, Goblin Slayer's hands and feet were pitch black from all the internal bleeding that he had gone through.
Having forgotten how many times his teeth were ripped out of his mouth by pliers, only to be incorrectly hammered back into his bleeding gums by his tormentor, between that and getting messily disemboweled with a hatchet every twenty minutes, eventually Goblin Slayer began to grow a tolerance for the agonizing pain. By day ten, his nerves had been completely shot and he had become practically numb to all the gruesome-bodily harm that was being inflicted on him.
Death had been his only comforting companion throughout the "final preparation", and it had been one that had stayed by Goblin Slayer's side throughout the entire eleven-day process. Each time that Burglar struck a vital point or delivered a killing blow to him, Goblin Slayer would be comforted by the sight in front of him; no longer would he be seeing his sister's decayed and rotting corpse sitting in front of him, but instead he would find himself staring back at her loving smile that beckoned him to cross over and join her in the afterlife. It was a beautiful dream that lost its appeal more-and-more each time the blood magic beneath him reanimated his body back to life, repairing his mutilated limbs and growing back what it couldn't fix.
On the eleventh day, the final night of the vile ritual, Burglar began to dosse the entire village in enough kerosine oil to ensure everything that Goblin Slayer's parents had built during their lifetimes would go up in smoke. Before leaving Goblin Slayer still seated in the center of the blood rune, Burglar made sure to give his student some wise departing words.
"Every disadvantage in this world is caused by one's own incompetence. This village's demise is proof of that statement. The only question remains is what will burn brighter, dear boy? The fire inside of you? Or the fire that engulfs you?" Burglar asked with an intrigued voice, as he reached into his pocket to pull out a pack of matches.
Hunched over while his arms, legs, and waist were still chained tightly to his blood-stained metal chair, Goblin Slayer's eyes were obscured by his hanging gray hair as he stared down at the crimson markings underneath him. "… I see," was all Goblin Slayer had to say to the maddened rhea's two-cents, and remained still as Burglar struck a single match from his small pocket-sized container.
"If this is what ends up killing you, then truly saving you from those goblins all those years ago was a mistake on my own behalf. You've come too far to fail now; don't disappoint me," Burglar said in a joyless voice; revealing a tone that reflected the faintest bit of worry he had for Goblin Slayer. With nothing else to say, the old rhea flicked the burning match over to the pool of kerosene forming beneath the dripping-wet fourteen year old, who had been the first thing to be showered in flammable oil.
His body soon began to boil and blistered from the unforgiving flames that quickly engulfed his body. Burning alive, all Goblin Slayer could think to do was calmly lift his head up to stare at the burning corpse of his older sister. With his melting blood-filled eyes constantly dripping down his cheeks, the newly developed resentment he held for his older sister fueled the scornful fire raging inside of what was left of his heart. "… How ugly we are," Goblin Slayer uttered bitterly toward the scorched corpse across from him, as the rune drying up underneath him crawled up the chair to begin seeking refuge in his broken soul.
The night Goblin Slayer slept in the basement home of the observatory tower was the single best night of sleep he had ever had. Waking up with Hero in the same bed, Goblin Slayer and her cuddled together while Kaguya rested on top of his chest for a long while, before the three of them finally got out of bed. Even though Goblin Slayer had slept soundly, the nightmare he had of him reliving his wretched past left him feeling distracted, but even so, he did his best to not worry his companions by trying to smile to compensate for his random hallucinations.
Packing up and getting their inventory sorted out, Goblin Slayer was genuinely saddened by the thought of having to leave the accommodating luxuries found within the basement of the technologically advanced tower. If there wasn't any Ancient Wyvern that he needed to pursue, Goblin Slayer would have settled down within the observatory tower; spending his time living in luxury, while uncovering the bountiful secrets that could have been his to discover. But alas, it wasn't meant to be.
Making sure to use the restroom one last time before departing, Goblin Slayer was wearing his newly acquired black cargo pants, black turtleneck long sleeved shirt, and leather boots when he and Hero stepped through the double doors of the tower. Salvaging what he could from his destroyed pieces of armor that he could find in the tall grass outside the observatory tower, Goblin Slayer was able to take his white-fur collar jacket and use the leather straps of his iron armor to create makeshift armor to cover his right shoulder, chest, and left thigh. It wasn't by any means reliable protection, but it was better than nothing, so Goblin Slayer made due with what he had before he and Hero began crossing the grassy field that led up north.
After having encountered the automatrons who had nearly taken their lives, Kaguya had learned what to be on the lookout for. Avoiding any puzzles, or anything with a chakra beacon that led to even more buried ruins, the Rabbit Goddess did her best to steer her party out of trouble, as she continued to track down the trail of powerful energy that was left behind in the Ancient Wyvern's wake. Leading Goblin Slayer and Hero toward an old cobblestone road that cut through the forest, an old path that looked to have practically almost fully reclaimed by the tall grass around it, Kaguya immediately halted them the moment she detected several strange life forces ahead with the woods they were traversing through.
Using her byakugan to see through the thick foliage, Kaguya was genuinely bewildered the moment she zoomed in with her x-ray vision to see what had triggered her Rinne-Sharingan. There, hidden within the overgrowth behind several tall elm trees, thirty meters ahead, were what looked to be a group of giant dandelions that appeared to be two meters in height. Standing on two stubby orange legs that were connected to a short, stout and bulbous body that had a large weed growing on top of it, the plant monsters that had alerted her Rinne-Sharingan didn't seem threatening to them; not at first glance, anyway.
Using her connection to Goblin Slayer's consciousness to show him what she was looking at, Kaguya allowed for her champion to begin planning on how he and Hero were going to engage with the seemingly weak wildlife, while she used her Rinne-Sharingan to get a better read on what the "Deadly Dandelions" were truly capable of. "They appear to be plant-monsters that slowly float above the ground to move; it makes sense, considering how those legs are too small to carry its fat-little body. I'm sensing that they're going to explode upon death, so as to aid its allies… Perhaps we can use its self-destruction failsafe to our advantage?" Kaguya suggested, while pointing out just how closely knitted the twelve monsters were.
Looking around him at how dense the tall grass and wild bushes were within woods, Goblin Slayer considered having Hero use her fire bolt spell to snipe the deadly dandelions from where they were standing, but decided against it once he remembered how quickly the woods back home caught on fire during his battle with the Ancient Wyvern. It was then that Goblin Slayer thought back to all the times Kaguya had shown them the small fraction of what she used to be capable of.
"What? What's going on?" Hero asked, after having not been told yet as to why Goblin Slayer had silently signaled for her to stop in the first place. "I hate that I can't hear what she's saying to you… Makes me feel left out," Hero said while grumbling quietly; still unsure if they were being hunted by an ambushing predator or not.
Grabbing a hold of Kaguya from his shoulder, Goblin Slayer gently lowered her small and fuzzy-white body down to the ground. "There's twelve large plant-monsters about thirty meters ahead of us; we can't go any further without alerting them. I'm going to have Kag- "Rabbit Goddess" snipe them using her "All-Killing Ash Bone" projectiles," Goblin Slayer explained out loud for both females to hear; earning him an unconfident stare from Kaguya.
"You…? You truly think that these "weeds" warrant me using THAT much chakra?" Kaguya asked in a bewildered voice, as she hopped around so she could stare up at Goblin Slayer's scarlet eyes.
"It's better to be safe than sorry, right?" Goblin Slayer argued, while Hero stood up with her arms crossed over her chest, smiling to herself how whimsical it looked to see the young man genuinely discussing tactics with what looked to be a mere rabbit.
"In most cases, yes, I would absolutely agree with that statement. However, we're talking about using a "certain kill" technique on… On what are essentially overgrown flowers with an inflation fetish. Besides, that technique requires a significant amount of chakra to use; something that we don't have an abundance of right now," Kaguya explained with a calm, yet stern, tone in her voice, as she twitched nose at Goblin Slayer. "After the fiasco yesterday, practically every ounce of chakra that I've been saving up since the start of this journey has been dispensed… I'm afraid that I can't be of much help to you that way."
"I see… So what can you do then?" Goblin Slayer asked patiently; regretting having not brought a bow and arrow for what he thought was going to be a fairly straight forward quest.
Needing a moment to think about what she was comfortable with doing, Kaguya's unusual-three eyes scanned her immediate surroundings, before her mind conjured up an idea. "Well… How about I just do this?" Kaguya suggested with a slight amount of smugness in her voice, as she used her affinity over wood to cause the wood within the tallest tree, over where the deadly dandelions were, to suddenly dry out.
There was a loud crack like thunder in the forest; immediately alerting all of the plant monsters to remain still. Using their pheromones and limited senses to try and detect where the loud noise had originated from, none of the deadly dandelions knew what hit them until a forty-foot tall elm tree timbered over and landed on top of them.
The girthy trunk of the dried out tree immediately crushed four of the plant monsters, causing them to explode into a cloud of orange pollen and scattered dandelion pedals that blew into the nearby foliage. The rest of the two-meter tall garden-monstrosities were wounded and caught beneath the branches of the mighty elm tree; unable to wiggle themselves free, all but one of the deadly dandelions chose to self-destruct into clouds of pollen and pedals instead of living the rest of their simple lives beneath a fallen tree.
The last remaining monster remained alive, and was able to float out of the branches only after it had absorbed all of the orange pollen in the air. With its enhanced pheromones coursing through its stem, the "legendary" variant of the plant monster had grown five-meters tall in height, towering over the three opponents who it had detected. Having expected for the self-destruct skill of the plant monster to be more traditional in the sense of its explosion being meant to damage its opponents, Kaguya was cursing at herself for having miscalculated the situation.
"Those accursed weeds! That orange pollen must be some sort of power-boost for them; proceed with caution! The last thing we want is to get sat on by that thing," Kaguya explained, while flattening her ears back as the three of them watched as the giant orange-bulbous body of the deadly dandelion came floating toward them like a menacing hot-air balloon.
Once Goblin Slayer relayed Kaguya's words over to Hero, the young girl simply raised her sword up and scoffed. "Tch! None of you can be serious right now, right? It's just a freakin' plant with a lot of air inside of it; really, you two are making it out to be a much bigger deal than what it actually is," Hero chuckled, as she raised her sword up over her head; chucking it as hard as she could at the monster's orange and bulbous body.
Upon its inflated orange-body getting popped by the intrusive blade of Hero's light sword, the five-meter tall dandelion immediately blew up with enough force to not only send the three of them flying backwards down the cobblestone road, but it's burst had caused for the young girl's trusty weapon to be launched deep into the woods. With all three of the adventurers on the ground and covered in orange pollen, their ears were ringing loudly as they helped one another back onto their feet.
Wincing in pain as she tried nursing her eardrums by sticking a pinky finger into her ear canal, Hero was extremely discomforted as she looked back at Goblin Slayer. "… In hindsight, that was definitely a stupid idea. S-Sorry about that," Hero said, before wiping her face with the clean parts of her forearms that didn't get coated in orange pollen.
'And here I was, hoping that the cleanliness I got from the shower would have lasted longer than it actually did,' Goblin Slayer thought to himself with a sigh, as he reached up with the underside of his turtleneck shirt, to wipe as much pollen off of his face as he could. "I can not hear you," Goblin Slayer said, while still feeling partially deaf from the ringing in his ears.
Unable to hear what the quiet young man said, Hero frowned as she raised a cupped hand up to her ear. "What?! What did you say?!" Hero asked in an obnoxiously loud voice, to which Goblin Slayer was barely able to hear through the dying ringing in his eardrums.
"I said that I couldn't hear you, that was all," Goblin Slayer repeated himself in the loudest voice he could muster, which meant he spoke in the same volume as his usual self. By the time that he had finished his sentence, his bleeding ears had been alleviated by his temporary case of tinnitus, and were perfectly fine by the time Hero stared blankly back at him with a puzzled look in her apricot eyes.
"… HUH?!?" Hero shouted again, this time much louder than before.
Although Kaguya couldn't hear anything herself, given how sensitive her rabbit ears were, she was able to read Hero's lips, and thus understood what that communication issue was. "Her eardrums were damaged from that blast, as were mine, so I would highly suggest that you signal for her to wait there, so that we could search for that weapon of hers. For whatever reason, you seem to be doing just fine; by the time we return, hopefully she'll be doing better," Kaguya speculated, while still wondering as to how Goblin Slayer's hearing had returned so quickly. "Anyway… Even if I can't hear right now, with my vision and your keen sense of hearing, the two of us should be fine to go get her sword for her."
Wiping the trail of blood out of his ears using the back of his hand, Goblin Slayer sighed as he dirtied his cargo pants by rubbing the blood off of his gloved hands, and onto the sides of his pant legs. "That's fine," Goblin Slayer, before raising his hand in front of Hero's bewildered face. "Wait here," Goblin Slayer said, despite her being unable to hear him, as he raised an index finger up before lowering it down to where the young girl was standing.
"Uh…?! Okay?! You… You want me to stand here and… Wait, right? Gonna go get my sword for me?" Hero asked with hopeful eyes, and smiled once she saw Goblin Slayer nodding back at her. "Oh cool; great, okay! Thanks Eren! Just don't get yourself hurt, alright? The sword's replaceable, but you're not," Hero warned, before beginning to try to find something to occupy her time with, as Goblin Slayer used Kaguya's byakugans to locate the light sword.
When the smoky clouds above were raining ash like snow over the land, Burglar returned to ground zero of where he had burned Goblin Slayer's home village down to the ground. Standing at the edge of where the floor-level of Goblin Slayer's childhood home had once been, Burglar smirked proudly as he stared down into the scorched hole within the ground. Sitting down at the deformed metal chair that was covered in black soot was Goblin Slayer; perfectly intact with his graying hair covered in ash, along with his bare naked body, as he remained hunched over.
Upon closer inspection when he hopped down into the ash-filled basement, Burglar noticed that the chains that had bonded his student to the ruined chair had been melted in the fire; leaving behind burn marks on Goblin Slayer's pale skin. With the shadows of the chains marked up on his exposed body, Goblin Slayer stood up once Burglar instructed him to do so. Looking down to stare emotionlessly at his blackened fingers and toes, Goblin Slayer stood perfectly still as Burglar told him about what he needed to do in order to complete the second phase of the "final preparation".
The journey to the nearest goblin cave within the area of where his village once stood didn't take Goblin Slayer and Burglar longer than a single day of traveling on foot to reach. The woods leading up into the small mountains near the massive lake within the frontier were filled with orange falling leaves; all of which were a welcomed sight to the scarlet-eyed teenager. Listening to Burglar's poetry and riddles for the entire trip to pass the time, Goblin Slayer didn't speak unless spoken to. Instead, he silently reflected on the eleven days of hell that ended in him being left to burn alive.
Not once did either of them stop for rest, for food, or for anything else for that matter. And by the time they made their way through the end of the dense forest, Goblin Slayer and Burglar were traversing through the rocky ravine at the bottom of the small mountains; a short trip that took them an hour before they reached their final destination. Standing outside the mouth of the goblin-infested cave, Goblin Slayer turned to stare expectantly at the old rhea, who was looking back down at him with an amused grin.
"Well?! What are you waiting for?! A damn bloody invitation?! Go on, don't be shy now; clear out the damn cave so we can set you up at the adventurer's guild!" Burglar scolded with an impatient tone in his raving voice, as he raised an arm up to point his finger toward the black abyss found within the cavern's wide-hollow entrance.
Emotionlessly, Goblin Slayer remained silent for a few moments while thinking of what to say to the conniving rhea. "… If one fails to prepare, then they are preparing to fail. I have no equipment needed to handle this on my own. Was it not you who taught me to always be-"
"-Enough excuses!" Burglar interrupted with a crazed look on his milky-yellow eyes, as he backhanded Goblin Slayer hard enough to make the young adolescent stumble backwards. "You arrogant little shit! What do you think you've been doing for the past five years?! Playing boy-scouts?!" Burglar shouted in a demeaning voice, as he hopped behind the stone-faced teenager to deliver a roundhouse kick to the back of his head full of graying-black hair.
"Only a FOOL would ever rely on their weapon to protect their life! If you can't slay goblins on your own, then your life has truly been nothing but a waste of my time!" Burglar shouted angrily, as he leapt to the side to deliver a gut-punch to his student, who stood there and took his punishment without ever wincing. "I didn't take you here to kill goblins, you worthless brat! I came here to kill the old you that you've been protecting this whole time! The humane, weak, sniveling little shit who kept crying about his pathetic excuse for a family; that helpless child that's still inside of you needs to die! Right here, right now!"
Snapping the moment he heard Burglar talking ill once again about his deceased family, Goblin Slayer's left eye widened as he cocked his arm back and tried punching the rhea in the face. "… Shut up," Goblin Slayer hissed out with hatred in his voice; making Burglar genuinely happy and proud to see such a defiant act coming from his miserable student.
"Oooo, that's right, boy! Get mad! But know that I speak nothing but the truth!" Burglar taunted, while keeping his ulterior motives hidden behind a facade of cruelty, as he sidestepped from where Goblin Slayer's fist extended out to. "Let's start with your yellow-bellied father! He was a weakling for leaving you and your whore-sister to DIE!!! Too preoccupied with his little inventions to do ANYTHING to protect his family! Just. Like. Yo-"
"-I said shut up," Goblin Slayer repeated himself, with more spitefulness in his voice than before, as he kneed the side of the old rhea's ribs; cracking them and breaking them upon impact, as his left iris began to radiate with crimson.
Cackling as he felt his own centuries of resentment and hatred beginning to force his decrepit-old body to repair itself, Burglar wrapped his arms around the leg that Goblin Slayer used to knee him; twisting it until a loud crack echoed in the woods. "Bet your whore-mother was a good lay for the goblins who shoved their disgusting little cocks inside her! Wasn't she supposed to be an adventurer back in her day?! Bet she let it happen; it probably was the first time she ever felt satisfied in-"
"-Shut the hell up!" Goblin Slayer shouted with rage in his chest, as he leapt up with his other leg; his skin turning paler as black veins began to become prominent beneath his glowing red eye. Letting Burglar's fingers tear through his left leg, Goblin Slayer couldn't feel an ounce of pain as he twisted his body back, before delivering a powerful enough kick to the side of his master's face to break his neck.
Laughing out in slurred groans, the pain that Burglar should have felt when his body cratered into the side of the mountain near the mouth of the cave was absent. Becoming filled with excitement and pride for his student, the bones within Burglar's broken spine repaired themselves, and allowed for him to look down and watch with a wide grin as Goblin Slayer stood before him; his twisted and mutilated leg spinning repeatedly until the flesh and bone had healed itself.
'The metamorphosis was successful… Still human for the most part, with the regenerative and physical abilities of a revenant… He just has to have the anger and bloodlust to trigger his true potential,' Burglar thought excitedly to himself, as the rest of his damaged muscles and bones pulled themselves back together. Hopping out of the rocky crater, the old rhea leapt forward toward where Goblin Slayer was waiting for him.
Exchanging blow-after-blow with his student, Burglar made sure to keep his glowing yellow eyes focused on Goblin Slayer's own unique eye; monitoring it during their battle. "Bet your precious older sister wasn't an exception either! Bet she died like a fucking coward; laid down and accepted her fate, instead of fighting till the bitter end!"
"S-Shut up (Stop it)…! Y-You don't know a damned thing about her (Left me to die)!" Goblin Slayer shouted back defensively; his eye loosening the intensity of its glow, as he thought back to how his sister hid him beneath the floorboards of the basement.
"Ha, again you live in denial! I've been watching your shitty village for a while; even before the goblins raided it! I never came to save you, boy! I came to rob your corpses; the goblins just ended up beating me to it, that was all!" The old rhea confessed, while watching in delight at Goblin Slayer's eye once again shined brighter at Burglar's grand reveal. "Your bitch of a sister couldn't even save herself in the end; so how the hell was she ever planning on saving someone as worthless as you?! That boy I saw laying on the ground, covered in arrows and blood… Was that boy's life really worth hers?!"
In that moment, every ounce of hatred that Goblin Slayer had for his master became redirected at his past self. So when he swept his leg down to kick underneath Burglar's feet to knock the old rhea off balance, Goblin Slayer no longer saw his proud master as he tackled his opponent to the forest floor; instead, he saw his younger self, back when he had black hair, more color in his scarless skin, and brown eyes instead of scarlet.
Grinning ear-to-ear at his apprentice who had finally shown signs of surpassing him, Burglar looked up at the crazed eyes of Goblin Slayer, as he pinned his master's wrists against the ground above his shoulders. "When the fire inside you burns brighter than the hell you're trapped in, then not even Death can deprive you of what's rightfully yours… That's the privilege that the strong have over the weak," Burglar said from his cold-twisted heart. "Kekekeke! Now eat… Eat, grind your teeth, and swallow up the last bits of your humanity!"
In that moment of severe manic insanity, Goblin Slayer was hallucinating seeing his younger self speaking to him with the sweet-gentle nature reflecting back at him within his brown eyes; the mere sight of seeing something so weak and helpless filled his damaged head with racing thoughts that made him want to scream. "Shut up… SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" Goblin Slayer shrieked out like a feral banshee, before digging his thumbs into the innocent eyes of his hallucinated doppelgänger.
Ripping and tearing pieces of Burglar's flesh from his skull, the psychologically corrupt rhea's gurgled laughs of victory were drowned out by all the sadistic thoughts that were flooding into Goblin Slayer's broken psyche. 'Kill the past (Goodbye Autumn), kill the pain (Teeth gone), kill you (Goblins, goblins die), kill me (Komm, süsser tod), kill them all (Annihilation, genocide)… Take from the ones who take (take, take, take), eye-for-an-eye (stabbed, he stabbed my eyes), eat (Take from fate). Eat (Consume my fate). Eat (My will is my fate), eat (I am fate),' Goblin Slayer thought manically to himself, as he shoved bloodied pieces of his master's flesh into his mouth; consuming his lifeforce, and inheriting Burglar's legacy more-and-more each time he swallowed another mouthful of his aged meat.
With her affinity over wood, Kaguya was able to make traveling through the heavily-dense forest a breeze for Goblin Slayer by making the trees and bushes bend out of their way; parting the bountiful foliage to make a path for her champion. Using Kaguya's x-ray vision, Goblin Slayer made sure to keep his ebony spear held on tightly, as he carefully kept low to the ground as he made his way toward the massive hive-nest where Hero's sword had been plunged into.
Immediately growing wary the moment she saw the first of many foot-tall yellow wasps with massive shells on top of their heads and upper bodies flying around the nest, Kaguya grimaced as she focused in on their massive stingers. "Creepy little insects… They're all poisonous, so it goes without saying, but avoid getting stung by them," Kaguya warned, and tightened her small little muscles as she cringed from seeing the sheer amount of "Helmet Hunters" crawling all over the massive nine-meter tall wasp-nest that was built in the center of an open area within the woods.
Hearing the cacophony of loud buzzing flaps of their beating wings from where he was hidden, Goblin Slayer knew that it would have been suicidal or him to even attempt to attempt to retrieve the light sword with so many helmet hunters patrolling their nest. While hiding behind a bush, Goblin Slayer remained quiet and kept his eyes on one particular helmet hunter, who went to investigate the foreign object that had damaged its nest. Using its pheromones to detect whether or not the intruder was alive or not, the moment the giant insect deemed the magical sword to not be an immediate threat to its hive on its own, it was then that it used its mandibles to pull the weapon out of its precious nest.
Tossing the blade behind its back, the helmet hunter returned to its guard duties, clearing a way for the smaller builder variants of its own kind to crawl out of the slit where the light sword had been. Feeling the skin on her back crawling by the numerous amounts of eight-inch tall wasps crawling out of the hole, Kaguya was already considering the light sword to be a lost cause when Goblin Slayer suddenly spoke up.
"Use your affinity over wood to create a vine, and pull the sword toward us," Goblin Slayer commanded in his usual stoic demeanor. "That way, we don't have to risk getting swarmed by approaching their nest."
While normally Kaguya would have already formulated such a simplistic plan to execute on her own, the thought of retrieving the sword from the aggravated insects, even from their hiding spot, made the rabbit goddess reluctant. "The sword was the object that damaged their hive nest… What if by pulling it towards us, it ends up acting like a lure that attracts more of them? Enticing them to investigate the vine attached to the sword; and alerting them of our presence?!" Kaguya asked in an understandably paranoid voice, as Goblin Slayer himself felt unnerved at the thought of having over three hundred wasps targeting him at once.
"I see… So, you're suggesting that we destroy the nest first? As well as all of the insects that are infesting it?" Goblin Slayer asked quietly, as he pulled his arms out of the straps of his leather backpack, before placing it down infront of where he was kneeling. "That's fine… Here, I think I know the solution to our problem," Goblin Slayer announced, as he began rifling through the contents of his bag.
"We're going to need something that has an "AOE" spell; one capable of piercing through their exoskeleton… Which is why I believe "Acid Rain" is the perfect scroll to use," Goblin Slayer announced quietly to Kaguya, as he pulled out the highly-destructive sealed spell from his backpack.
Confused, Kaguya couldn't help but to voice her concerns out to the young man. "… I thought the point of us not using fire-based spells in the first place was to not have a repeat of last time… Seems a bit excessive, doesn't it? Besides, wouldn't the acid destroy the habitat FAR worse than what fire would have done? Oh, and wouldn't the acid from the rain end up damaging the light sword anyway?" Kaguya critiqued, and watched as Goblin Slayer frowned slightly at her.
'Did she want those damned bugs dead, or not? Her attitude reminds me of High Elf Archer, and not in a good way… What is it with older women and wanting to protect the environment?' Goblin Slayer thought to himself, and collected his thoughts before sighing. "… You'd be correct," Goblin Slayer said with a disappointed voice, as he slid the scroll back into his backpack, in favor of one that would be less destructive.
"… How about this one?" Goblin Slayer asked with a slight bit of sass in his voice, as he pulled out his second contender. "This contains a potent sleep spell. It'll put the entire nest to sleep, and give us a chance to kill as many of their kind as we can," Goblin Slayer explained, which once again made Kaguya question his methods.
"… If they're all going to be asleep, then I don't think there's a need for us to waste all that time and effort killing something that's probably actually beneficial to this habitat's ecosystem," Kaguya argued back with a calm voice, which only further aggravated the already distressed young man. "I believe you're still trying to implement your previous goblin-strategies onto those who, uh… How do I put this…? Oh. Who CLEARLY are NOT goblins," Kaguya retorted sassily, after no longer being able to contain herself.
"But I thought you wanted those bugs to die?" Goblin Slayer inquired, while starting to feel even more frustrated with the mixed signals Kaguya was giving him.
Shaking her small head at him, Kaguya clarified herself by saying "I never wanted them to die in the first place; I simply didn't want to get stung to death by them! If you can avoid killing a vital keystone species of insects, then I would HIGHLY suggest that you do so!" Kaguya said, while scolding Goblin Slayer in a patronizing tone.
Taking in a deep breath and holding it in for a few moments, Goblin Slayer was able to practice the necessary means of meditation to ensure that he didn't say anything that he would have regretted later during the heat of the moment. "… Okay," was all Goblin Slayer had left in him to say, before casting the sleeping spell sealed within the scroll in his outstretched hands.
Seeping out of the unrolled parchment paper was a cloud of oblique pink mist that slowly expanded outward toward the nest of unsuspecting helmet hunters. The spell crawled inside every orifice of the nest, along with coating the surface of the beige-colored nest within its pink cloud. Soon, the buzzing flaps of the insects' wings slowly came to a halt, while the remaining helmet hunters outside of the nest rolled down the side of the nine-meter tall mound; all of them passed out, and unresponsive, even as they piled on top of one another.
Reminding her of docile insects that she used to admire, such as the elegant butterflies and playful roly-polys that she and Aino would observe outside of the palace, the foot-tall sleeping helmet hunters didn't seem all that scary to Kaguya, who was slowly finding them all to be oddly cute. That was, of course, before every single of their heads exploded into chunks of yellow exoskeleton and blood that rained down on the grass and trees; coating the nest with insect brains and gore, all of which was creepily crawling out of the hexagon-shaped orifices of the nest itself.
Stunned and at a loss for words, Kaguya had her small rabbit jaw hung wide open while Goblin Slayer slowly moved away from outside the radius of the spell. "I… I-I thought you said that… That you were going to simply use a sleeping spell on them…?" Kaguya uttered out quietly, as she was still shocked at what had just happened before her very eyes.
"… As did I," Goblin Slayer replied back quietly, as he looked down to reread what the scroll in his hands had actually said. Having purchased the scroll from Arc Mage, Goblin Slayer searched every inch of the parchment paper, before locating the fine print written at the very bottom. '"Warning! This spell is MIND BLOWING (Please don't use this to put your children or small pets to sleep) - Arc Mage",' Goblin Slayer read to himself, rolling his eyes as he shoved the empty scroll back into his backpack. "… Apparently, this spell had an undisclosed side effect," Goblin Slayer muttered, as he got up on his feet.
Making his way over to the opening in the forest, Goblin Slayer knelt down with Kaguya on his shoulder to pick the magically-endowed weapon. However, just before Goblin Slayer could stand up straight, it was then that shimmering and glittering sparkles from the bloodied remains of the helmet hunters' splattered brains caught his attention. "… I've never heard of wasps having items drop from their remains," Goblin Slayer commented to Kaguya, as he moved closer to the gorey mess to sort through the crimson viscus that covered the tall wild grass.
"Neither have I… How… Grizzly," Kaguya replied back with a sickened look in her eyes, as she watched Goblin Slayer use his leather-gloved hands to pick up a handful of small crystals; all of which were gently radiating different colors. "While it grosses me out to say it, I… I believe those gems could be useful for trading; granted, they need to be cleaned beforehand, obliviously…. It would be wise for us to seal them away in that scroll you just used— no point in getting our leather bag dirtier than it already is," Kaguya said in a slightly playful voice, while watching Goblin Slayer carefully set his leather bag down on a clean patch of grass near them.
"Good idea," Goblin Slayer said agreeingly, while carefully pulling off his dirty gloves, so as to not dirty the scroll he had set down near the pile of loot he was complying beside his bag. Not wanting to further dirty Hero's prized weapon, Goblin Slayer put his gloved back on before using his damaged ebony spear to tear open the hive nest instead of with her sword; making a tall enough slit for him to crawl into, but only after the wave of gore from all the dead insects inside bled out of his newly created entrance.
Hearing Kaguya quietly muttering obscenities about how disgusted she remained on top of his shoulder, Goblin Slayer used her byakugans to navigate through the cave-like interior of the nest, constantly going in-and-out of the insect-made structure. With each mysterious and colorfully-tiny gem that he found buried deep in the pools of gore underneath his boots, Goblin Slayer filled his pockets up to the brim; only stepping back outside once he couldn't carry anymore bloodied loot.
While stepping back into the nest, it was then that Goblin Slayer began coming across fully-intact glass bottles of black pepper, and as well as vials of clear liquid that Kaguya was able to identify as an all-encompassing antidote for almost all forms of poison. Goblin Slayer and his small little companion were both enthralled and bewildered at how strange it was that they were finding such oddly placed loot within the cleared-out nest, and were discussing their own theories to one another as they began to make another pile for their bizarre findings.
Once he had his fill of blood for the time being, Goblin Slayer sat up straight on top of his barely alive master. Using the back of his forearm to wipe away the rhea's aged blood from his lips and chin, Goblin Slayer finally stood up from Burglar's mutilated body before turning his attention toward the mouth of the gaping cave entrance.
Unarmed and with only the clothes on his back, Goblin Slayer couldn't fathom what his master had been expecting out of him, nor did he care to ask Burglar while he was in the grizzly state he was in. Completely at the disadvantage against a vile species of monsters that had the ability to see in a pitch-black environment, Goblin Slayer knew better from experience than to try and sneak past a goblin controlled area. 'When you can't hide in the shadows, one must hide in the light,' Goblin Slayer thought to himself, as he reached up his left shoulder to tear his own sleeve off of his arm.
Scavenging near the entrance of the cave, all while keeping his ears open for any possible goblins that might have wandered over to the cave entrance to investigate, Goblin Slayer was able to create a makeshift torch out of his torn shirt and a bundled up collected of dried sticks, and ignited it by clashing a stone and a piece of flint together near its tip. Making sure to use his other ripped sleeve to prepare another torch, Goblin Slayer gathered the bundled up raw materials that he tucked between his belt and trousers. Soon, Goblin Slayer was able to find a jagged rock within the area outside of the cave's entrance; a shawshank weapon that would have to do for the time being.
Armed with just a sharp stone and a poorly made torch, Goblin Slayer sprinted down into the cave; catching the two goblin guards by surprise when he threw the blinding light emitting from the blazing torch toward them. Tackling the first goblin against the cave wall, Goblin Slayer ripped its throat out with the jagged rock, leaving it to drown in its own blood as he took its spear from its cold hands.
'… That's one,' Goblin Slayer counted to himself, as he turned around to roll sideways in order to dodge the second guard's swung sword. Goblin Slayer then leapt up and parried the second attack with the iron spear, before spinning around to deliver a roundhouse kick to the goblin's dominant hand. Disarming the screaming second guard, Goblin Slayer forever silenced the goblin's vile cries by immediately piercing the iron head of the spear straight into its bald forehead.
'… That's two,' Goblin Slayer continued to count to himself, as he lifted his leg up to kick the goblin's corpse away as he yanked the spear out of its forehead. Quickly picking up the short sword in his left hand, Goblin Slayer took cover behind the wooden barricade that the guards had been standing in front of; kicking the still-burning torch over to where the small squadron of goblins were coming to investigate the cries of their fallen comrades.
Blinding the twelve goblins with the torch, Goblin Slayer used the spear in his right hand as a javelin, and he threw it straight into the head of the closest goblin. 'That's three,' Goblin Slayer thought to himself, as he ran out from his cover to engage with the other eleven goblins; parrying their attacks and easily evading their weapons. Cutting them down one-by-one until his short sword broke in the process, Goblin Slayer was smiling as he felt their warm blood trickle and splatter onto his skin.
'That's nine,' Goblin Slayer continued to count, as he reached down into his belt to pull out the second torch from his side. Using the dying embers of his first torch to ignite his second one, Goblin Slayer bashed the tenth goblin's face in with the burning bundle of sticks, before using what remained of his broken sword to slice its throat clean open.
'Ten… Ten down, and so many more to go,' Goblin Slayer thought bitterly to himself, as all he could see while picking up a spiked mace from the ground was the mental image of his rotting sister tied up in front of him; his masters taunting words about how much of a failure he was playing in his head like a mantra.
'In this world, the strong devour the weak… So, who are the ones that are strong?' Goblin Slayer asked himself, as he grabbed a hold of his next opponent by their small shoulders. Sinking his teeth into the neck of the screaming eleventh goblin, Goblin Slayer's left eye was beginning to glow red as he tore the monster's throat out.
'I AM!!! I AM THE FUCKING "STRONG"!!!' Goblin Slayer thought violently to himself, while the stunned twelfth goblin watched in horror as the young adolescent swallowed the bloodied chunk of its kin's flesh down his gullet. Raising its poisoned spear up, the goblin let out a panicked cry the moment it saw Goblin Slayer's arm shooting forward to wrap his bloodied fingers around the handle of its poled weapon.
"Don't," Goblin Slayer said in a dark and sinister voice, as he broke the handle of the goblin's spear with just one hand. Raising the broken top of the poisoned spear over the screaming goblin's head, Goblin Slayer plunged its sharp tip straight down into the top of the goblin's bald skull. 'Twelve… Twelve down,' Goblin Slayer thought to himself, as he picked up a butcher knife from the bloodied cave floor, as well as his second burning torch.
'Death; there's a profoundness to suffering. How can one ever truly know they're alive if they can no longer feel pain?' The words of Burglar played within Goblin Slayer's head, as he chunked the torch into the center of the cave's spacious nest; blinding the hundreds of goblins that inhabited the cave's bowels. 'Thirteen… Thirty… Fifty-six… No matter how many that come at me, I will never stop-'
"-Fighting," Goblin Slayer spoke out in an emotionless voice, as he heard his bloodied weapon drop on the rocky cave ground; right beside where his severed right arm had landed. Standing behind him was a three-meter tall hobgoblin, who had snuck up on the deranged adolescent. Raising its massive cleaver up from where it swung it down, the hobgoblin grinned as it heard its lesser kin cheering it on.
Stumbling for only a brief second, Goblin Slayer remained unphased as he knelt down to pick his severed limb back up off the floor. Awestruck and horrified at what they were looking at, the hordes of goblins who were planning on ambushing Goblin Slayer all at once immediately felt shaken to their core as his left eye burned even brighter. No longer wanting to go anywhere near whatever the young teenager had become, all yellow eyes fell on the hobgoblin, who was just as bewildered as the rest of his underlings.
With his accursed blood crawling out of his massive wound, like crimson tendrils that expanded out of his muscles and bone-shrapnel to begin bridging the gap between his ravaged shoulder, and his arm. Stone-faced, Goblin Slayer heard the cave-full of gasps and panicked whimpers as every monster around him watched as his body pulled itself back together before their very eyes.
"… Do you think after everything I've been through, that something like that would hurt me?" Goblin Slayer asked in a deep and menacing tone that made even the hobgoblin take a step back away from him out of fear. Smiling softly to himself, while thinking back to how his weaker self had been slain by his psychotic master, Goblin Slayer let out a quiet and throaty chuckle.
Radiating with hatred and blood thirst, Goblin Slayer's skin felt so much colder than it ever had before; his eyes focusing on the row of archers who were trembling as they aimed their arrows at him. "So?! This is the end now (Autumn, Autumn you scolded meeeeee)?! ISN'T IT (That's the fence, the fenceeeee)?!?" Goblin Slayer screamed out in an inhumane voice that caused some of the goblins to immediately abandon their posts.
With the arrows bouncing off of his hardening skin, as though he were wearing a full suit of armor, Goblin Slayer's movements were faster than what their goblin eyes could keep track of. Practically warping behind the row of frozen goblin archers, Goblin Slayer reached down with his bare hands to grab the first of his many victims by its head and shoulder; pulling its decapitated head clean off. Bathing in its blood, Goblin Slayer cackled sadistically as he immediately reached for the next closest goblin; pulling it apart from the waist down, before throwing the bisected body down at its screaming kin.
Even without a weapon to use, the ravenous young man ripped apart every goblin who tried to flee from him, or fight him; their projectiles and shawnty weapons breaking the moment they tried using them against him. "Three… Nine… Six… Eighteen… F-Fifteen," Goblin Slayer muttered ferally under his echoing voice, as he grabbed the last screaming goblin, shoving his fist clean through its small abdomen, before pulling out its guts and throwing them on the ground.
Turning his attention to the hobgoblin who had been frozen in fear at what it had just witnessed, Goblin Slayer licked his fingers clean of blood while staring at the nine-foot monster who was absolutely terrified of him. "So long as your kind exists (kill), I… I will NEVER die (death)," Goblin Slayer said with a wicked smile forming on his lips, as he knelt down like a hungry predator that was preparing itself to pounce on its prey.
Speaking in its own language, the hobgoblin spat out about how crazy it thought Goblin Slayer was, saying that he wasn't human; demanding to know what unholy monster he truly was. Even if Goblin Slayer could somehow understand the words that were coming out of the hobgoblin's mouth, it wouldn't have mattered. 'In order to kill a monster, one must become one,' Goblin Slayer remembered Burglar telling him, as his menacing eye radiated with a level of eternal hatred that transcended the gods who had turned their backs on him.
"I will never die… Let's see if the same can be said about YOU," Goblin Slayer spat out in an eerily stoic voice, before immediately sprinting toward the trembling monster at mach speed. Dodging the hobgoblin's last resort attempt at defending itself with ease, Goblin Slayer rolled to the side before leaping up to grab a hold of the green-skinned monster's girthy wrist. Ripping its hand off from its wrist, Goblin Slayer ignored the hobgoblin's agonized cries as he caught the two-handed cleaver that it dropped.
"Since you chopped my arm off… You wouldn't be opposed to me cutting your limbs off, would you?" Goblin Slayer asked in a vengeful and scornful voice, before proceeding to raise the heavy iron-clad weapon over his slender frame; chopping down with enough force to cut clean through the bone and muscle of the screaming hobgoblin's massive arm.