Free Web NovelChapter 7: Chapter 7.Hobgoblins
Aiden heard the screech.
"Something is here," he thought.
He narrowed his eyes. For as far as he could see, the creature was not in his range of sight. The screeching chaotic beast was obviously far from his location.
"I need to climb higher so that I can observe this forest better. If my range of sight is advantageous on the tree, I could also use the opportunity to observe the screeching creature and see how powerful it is. Then maybe, I could decide whether or not I should attack," Aiden thought.
The sounds of his crimson knives piercing through the tree reverberated across the place.
The screeching sound of the creature he could not see would resound across the place from time to time.
Aiden moved with swift grace. Eventually, he arrived at the top of the tree.
He sighed deeply.
Aiden stood on one of the thick branches of the tree.
He narrowed his eyes.
Several distances far from where he grew closer due to his heightened sight.
"Mountains are beyond this forest. The screeching creature is actually laying eggs?"
Aiden finally saw the creature.
It was a large ostrich. It lay beneath a large tree in an open area in the forest. However, the large ostrich had scales all across its body. Its wings seemed metallic.
Several eggs were around it. Occasionally, an egg would hatch, and the ostrich would screech.
The hatched egg would reveal baby ostriches with slimy bodies.
They would squeal and rub themselves against the ostrich.
"The baby ostriches are radiating a similar aura to the beginner rank 1 warrior who was tailing me. They are definitely beginner rank 1 chaotic beasts. As for the mother ostrich, she’s most likely an advanced rank 1 chaotic beast and the overlord of this area. Perhaps, because she’s laying eggs, she has sacked all the creatures here away. I can kill the baby ostriches, but it won’t be possible to kill the mother ostrich with current strength. But, I could divert its attention to somewhere else and use that as an opportunity to kill her."
Suddenly, Aiden’s train of thought was interrupted by a group of humanoid looking creatures.
They were tall, had blue skin, bulgy bellies and held clubs in their hands. They wore some loin clothes.
"I think I read about these creatures. Hobgoblins," Aiden thought.
The creatures were cautious.
They did not approach the place where the mother ostrich was laying her eggs.
They were beginner rank 1 creatures.
About four of them. They circled another distance and moved through the trees of the forest, headed towards another direction.
However, one of them, the one Aiden, presumed was their supposed leader, raised his hand, motioning for the others to stop.
He sniffed, as if he had smelled something.
Then from the ground, he stared at Aiden.
"Shit, I was careless. I’ve been discovered. But, they look like they are from a larger community of Hobgoblins. I need to kill them. That look... they think I’m some delicacy. If they send me back to their community, I will be roasted like barbecue and enjoyed by their whole village."
The creatures sneered and made some sounds Aiden was not familiar with, grins plastered on their hideous faces.
With their mighty clubs and wiggling bellies, the leader motioned for the others to halt, an indication that it could take care of the prey alone.
Aiden did not see any reason to hide anymore.
He leaped off the tree.
A glint flashed through his eyes as he led the hobgoblin leader away from the rest.
He wanted to create some distance between them, and kill the leader first, then he would take care of the others.
It was a way of avoiding several barrages of attacks from the rest of them at the same time.
The other hobgoblins tried to follow their leader. But, he gestured for them with some sounds for them to stay back.
With its mighty club, it leapt through the air, lightning flickering and manifesting around its lifted club.
The lifted club came down on Aiden.
Aiden’s small crimson knives were held firmly in his hand, his eyes crimson, brown hair billowing.
His figure flashed towards the approaching club.
For someone who had been forcefully drilled, from childhood, with one combat instructor in the Vhorn Estate after another, the basics of combat had been ingrained into him. He was not exceptional, but he was not bad either.
Aiden narrowly evaded the club flickering with lightning.
The hobgoblin leader was surprised.
Aiden’s right hand moved swiftly, as he leapt into the air. The crimson knife in his right hand came down on the large right eye of the goblin leader.
It sliced through the creature’s right eye, causing blood to splinter across the place. The creature wailed in pain, swinging its club here and there.
Aiden did not disengage. He kept slicing the right eye of the creature with the knife over and over again. His whole face was even covered in blood, eyes calm. The crimson knife in his left hand shot out of his left hand. It arced through the air, slicing through the creature’s left eye during its moment of pain and disorientation, over and over again.
Aiden disengaged, leaping a couple of distances away from the leader of the hobgoblins.
He had achieved his objective.
The creature was blind now. With its vision compromised, victory was assured.
The other three realised their boss would die if they did not do something.
They had to attack together.
However, Aiden was faster.
The two crimson knives transformed into a blood arrow, then shot towards the neck of the hobgoblin leader.
The crimson arrow penetrated his neck, then appeared at the other end of his neck. Then, the crimson arrow turned into blobs of blood and returned into Aiden.
Blood fell from the mouth of the Hobgoblin leader. The club the hobgoblin leader held fell.
Then, the hobgoblin leader fell on its face in its pool of blood.
Dead.
For a moment, Aiden closed his eyes slightly.
The blood essence within the dead body of the hobgoblin leader loosened.
Aiden reached for the blood essence with awareness.
The blood essence responded.
The blood essence flowed into him.
He felt a surge. His crimson eyes opened.
He stared at the three approaching hobgoblins.
