Chapter 100
Among the party charging straight for the Goblin’s leader, Gougo Guuma, there were six others alongside Dran. These included Aldeath who was the rear guard; a heavily panting yet pumped up Chrono Maze; Xanxan, an apostle of Xanadu, the god who could cause countless deaths with a simple curse; Celestel, an angel of the God of Desire Zenobia; and Lenia who followed the Dragon of Thought.
Amias halted at the gate, ready to assist Dran.
The looming army of Gougo rounded up the destroyed troops in the vicinity, forming a reassembled force of the Guuma clan that was seven hundred strong. Along with the remaining Goblins who had been left to fend for the rear, there were only a thousand Goblins left.
Golaon, who was unaware of Dran’s true nature, frantically gathered his men. Then, they rushed over to assist Dran and his party at the sight of Dran and his six companions facing up against seven hundred troops.
Selina and Myrmal were already in the lead with their magic spells, whereas the Black Roses had their sickles raised like snakes. They, too, were ready to offer support at any time.
「Hehehehe. I’ll applaud you for showing your filthy head before your father. Here’s a reward for you. I’ll kill you painlessly. In the end, your deaths will just be amusement for the Gods. All you have to do is suffer. Heh heh heh. You deserve it anyway.」
With a cruel smile, Lenia swung her dragon arm. Her upper body had already morphed into the Dragon of Thought by now, and she easily crushed the heavily clad personal guards standing before Gougo. Despite being equipped with large shields and halberds, their upper bodies were scattered like sandcastles blown to dust.
Countless pieces of internal organs and armor were flung apart in the air. A widely grinning Aldeath, Chrono Maze with her sacred sword gripped tightly, and Dran galloped straight at Gougo and his troops.
Xanxan and Celestal started to put a distance between themselves and Dran’s party as they provided direct magic support for the respective powers and camouflages in use.
The fearsome Goblins roared angrily. With their weapons raised, they were about to hammer down on Dran and Aldeath when they tumbled to the ground due to Xanxan’s attack. As their shoulders, swinging these large mallets, dislocated and they lost their balance, Aldeath took the chance to pierce his spear through their hearts.
「Now that we’ve benefitted from Xanadu’s help, those powers sure are pretty formidable.」
Aldeath muttered cavalierly, without any sense of urgency despite being surrounded by Goblin guards. In response to this comment, Dran shared his thoughts.
「This is to be expected when his powers are used on the battlefield. Since I’ve never made any mistakes in writing, I know little about Xanadu’s curses. So, they can be used like this too.」
「The thought of dislocating my shoulder while thrusting my spear doesn’t seem fun at all. Hahahaha.」
Chrono Maze’s face turned sullen upon hearing Dran and Aldeath praising Xanxan and his chief god Xanadu. She had already done enough worthy of Dran’s praise. However, she was too obsessed with her desire to contribute, clearly more so than anyone else on the battlefield.
Dran already acknowledged that Chrono Maze was doing her best even as she was caught between her obsession and the constraints on her to avoid standing out too much outside the village.
However, Chrono Maze was hung up on such thoughts perhaps entirely due to Dran’s vehement acts against the evil gods during his days as Dragon.
Chrono Maze, who had sprinted ahead of Aldeath and Dran, attacked all the Goblins in her sight. Their heartbeats accelerated a thousand times faster, and they collapsed one after another due to the sudden incompatibility with their bodies that were running a normal time axis.
A scene like this would no doubt cause any onlookers to assume that these Goblins had been killed by a curse.
「Goodness, Chrono Maze seems to be in a frenzy. I’d better offer her an exaggerated praise.」
Dran muttered without much thought as he noted the dead bodies piling up due to Chrono Maze. Lenia, who was shielding his back, popped a question in reply.
「Seems like she’s trying to win against you, and that’s driving her on so passionately. By the way, Father, what about the guy who’s supposed to be the general? I doubt you’ll need to dirty your hands for him.」
Lenia had caught sight of Gougo raising his precious sword, Shadowteeth, with her Divine Beast Eyes. After hearing Lenia’s suggestion, Dran responded with his habitual utterance.
「Fumu. Yeah. I want to show off before Selina too. I want to make them pay for threatening my village with my own hands.」
「In that case, I will eliminate everything else around me.」
「What’s the matter, Dran? Are you going to take down the enemy’s general? I was thinking of claiming him with my hands, but this is your battle as a human after all. I’ll let you have the honor.」
Dran looked a little troubled at Aldeath’s lackadaisical utterance. He felt as though he had stolen the pleasure of battle from Aldeath, who was having the time of his life in this clash with the Goblins.
「Apologies. Take it as a favor to me and forgive me.」
「It doesn’t matter. Don’t think you owe me one. Well, I’ll follow your daughter’s lead and have a fight with those around me.」
Perhaps Dran’s intentions were conveyed to Amias through Aldeath, but the arrow fired by Amias turned to the Goblins obstructing the path to Gougo, the enemy general.
Beside Gougo, Gim and his Goblin mages focused their attacks on Dran who had clearly set his sights on Gougo. A total of eleven staffs were pointed in Dran’s direction.
「Aiming for Gougo’s head? Like we’ll let you do that! Our God of Darkness, Degis!」
The other ten Goblin mages under Gim’s command prayed to their creator, the God of Darkness for a miracle. After that, nothing happened.
These mages had chosen the most murderous magic attack of the God of Darkness. However, it was impossible for Gim and his troops to know that this very god was afraid of being hostile to Dran and had refused to cooperate.
Despite this situation, it was not as if Gim and his men could have chosen spirit magic anyway.
First of all, Dran was acquainted with the God of Spirits, the greatest existence of all spirits. Recently, he had even summoned one of the three great spirits and assisted Yggdrasil who was closely related to the spirits. Even the lowly spirits with little sense of self knew that they should not make an enemy of Dran.
Hence, spirit magic was largely ineffective against Dran even when it was invoked. On the contrary, the greater the spirit, the weaker the effect due to their recognition of Dran’s soul.
Gim and his mages had attempted to summon the enzymes produced by the God of Darkness, Degis, to destroy their enemy’s cells. However, before Gim and his troops could figure out that their conjuring had failed, Dran had already swung his Dragonclaw Sword. Rainbow Rain fell subsequently and penetrated the heads of Gim and his mages, killing them instantly.
As Goblin mages, these troops possessed a supreme level of magic defense in the Guuma army. However, as expected, their abilities were nothing in the face of Dran.
Gim and his troops fell like puppets with snapped strings. Gougo, too, realized that his lifelong confidante had been lost. Moreover, the thought that these meager humans before him had cornered them so ferociously overwhelmed Gougo’s mind.
Perhaps Gougo’s anger and sense of loss had spurred such whirling thoughts. However, the very fact that this was happening was equally terrifying.
「Damned humans. I am Gougo, the son of Geema, the Arms of Terror who binds the Guuma clan. I am the future King of Goblins, the one who will rule over you!」
The blade of Shadowteeth overflowed with magical powers reminiscent of an abysmal shadow, causing Dran to recognize this weapon as a fairly powerful sword. However, Dran possessed knowledge of the world’s most powerful magical sword, Dragon Slayer. All other magical swords and demonic blades were no different from ordinary swords in his eyes.
In the first place, Dragon Slayer was not so much a sword as a weapon shaped like a sword.
「I am Dran from Bern village. You attacked the Bern villagers out of your needless greed. If you seek my life, are you prepared to risk your own in the endeavor?」
「Such nonsense. Do you really think I’ll lose to a human like you?」
「Leading an army requires absolute confidence in victory, but we’ve already reached this point. I reckon you ought to surrender and retreat at once.」
Even if Gougo exacted revenge on Dran, there was no guarantee that Bern village would fall. However, Gougo was convinced that defeating Dran meant victory.
Presently, Gougo was too caught up with his state of being cornered by his enemy, and all thoughts of cooling his head had left him.
「First, I’ll chop off your head and as condolences for Gim and the rest.」
Wielding a great sword swathed in dark magic, Gougo strode forward. Every step he took, the earth that had been seeped with blood cracked, proving the might of Gougo’s legs.
Shadowteeth came crashing down from high above, and Dran’s Dragonclaw Sword parried the blow easily. The collision of both blades was great enough to send a couple of houses flying. However, Dran swayed lightly, like a willow in the wind.
「Roooooooar！」
Gougo could not hide his astonishment at the sight before him. The blow of his sword, one which that taken out ogres and trolls, had been deflected by a puny human hand. Despite Gougo’s shock, he continued to press on with Shadowteeth as he slashed at Dran fiercely from all angles.
The sight of Dran effortlessly parrying blows from the young High Goblin befuddled Balan, Dran’s father Golaon, and Dran’s brother Dylan. All three pairs of eyes widened in disbelief as they caught up to Dran.
Dran noticed the attention his battle with the Goblin general had drawn. His father, as well as the Goblins around him, had fixed their eyes on the vengeful fight of this Goblin general. Dran looked up and met the blazing gaze of Gougo towering above him.
In Dran’s life as Dragon, he had seen countless youngsters burning with aspiration as they tread their own paths. Gougo was one of these young ones.
The success of such aspiring youngsters often depended on their talents and encounters. However, luck was also a major factor. Gougo just happened to have terrible luck.
Gougo was born as a Goblin, a species which was limited in and of itself; Before he could grow and maximize his potential through competing with his fellow Goblins, he was made to wage war with other races; His opponent just happened to be Dran.
All these were misfortunes and nothing more.
「Young Goblin, I don’t hate your soaring ambition. However, your luck is horrible. Since you’re born as a Goblin, you won’t have a second chance through reincarnation either. At the very least, depart without suffering. That’s my parting gift for you.」
The moment Gougo caught a glimpse of the rainbow glow in Dran’s eyes, his vision was split into two. The Dragonclaw Sword pushed back Shadowteeth with ease. The tip of the sword danced like a swallow, and the blade sliced through Gougo from the top of his head to his crotch.
Gougo’s body was cut into two, exposing a bright crosssection of flesh. The Iron Shadow Armor covering him, his thick muscles and fat, and his robust skeletal frame had all been rendered useless.
As Gougo’s body fell apart slowly to each side, his eyes remained fixed on the man with the rainbow eyes—Dran. Surging resentment swelled within Gougo. This man was the bitter enemy who had destroyed Gougo’s ambition. Even if Gougo was reincarnated a million times, he would never forgive this man. Yet, Gougo failed to understand the pitiful look in Dran’s eyes as Dran regarded him.
In the end, this was the single puzzle that lingered in Gougo’s mind.
Gougo would not even be reincarnated once, let alone a million times. Moreover, he was clueless about his fate at the hands of the Creator who had abandoned the Goblins. These were the two reasons for Dran’s pitiful gaze, though there was no way for Gougo to ever grasp Dran’s thoughts.
With the surviving Goblins intently focused on Dran’s fight, it was natural that they lost their fighting spirit and goal. After all, the ambitious Gougo Guuma and his trusted aides, Gim and Jada, had been slayed by Dran.
As for the Goblins who had fled at top speed, they were faced with the Bern village cavalry led by Dramina and Christina. Behind these Goblins, the Bern infantry closed in, with Dran, Aldeath, and Lenia in the mix. Sandwiched between both parties, the fate of the Goblins was set in stone. They were utterly wiped out.
The battle between the Goblins and Bern village had begun around noon and ended before dusk, with zero survivors of the Guuma clan and zero casualties for the Bern villagers. However, this figure of zero casualties excluded scratches, cuts, bruises, and fractured fingers sustained during evacuation and interception.
These injuries were treated immediately with magic medicine and healing miracles.
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
Goodbye Dragon Life, Hello Human Life
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 70 hours
An expected outcome. In all honesty, Dran fighting with an army behind him is just overkill probably meant to give his friends and family and other allies their time to shine. After all, Dran could have probably single-handedly obliterated the whole 5000 goblins from the start in a minute at most if he chose to do so.