Chapter 24: The Witch and the Goblin

Lusha warped out of her world with a satisfied smile. She may have forgotten to ask them who the client was, but she’d of course give them some time in that world before she paused for a break. With Lusha still in her arms, she scoured the terrain. She began scouring through their supplies and items.

Finally, she came across a map. “Ah there we go. So I believe our destination, East Goumei is a couple more days due east. Very well. When we get there I’ll ask them again.”

She sat by the camp and ate the rest of the venison that had been laying by the flames. The only thing more eternal than her, was her ability to eat without needing it. Of course, at this point she just does it as a pastime.

“Hm?” She thought she sensed something just now, but wasn’t quite sure what it was. The moment she had picked up on it, hid itself. Of course, Lusha could search and elaborate on it for a little longer, but for what reason? She could not possibly die, nor did she have to worry of any external dangers. So, she just elected to ignore it.

“I’m in a real good mood right now. So please, don’t even think about it.” She began to grow agitated, as the figure that she had picked up on just now kept lingering around… and not with any specific finesse either. You’d have to be stupid to consider that sneaking. That’s what really got on her nerves.

The being remained within the shadows. She used her skewer and threw it with all her might so that it made a loud TAK noise when it collided with the tree that was behind her to her left. This creature then came out, about the size of Lusha herself. “Oh great… just what I needed, a goblin tribe.”

She looked at the creature and kept her back to it. By that guess, there must be a couple other goblins nearby. They were pack monsters, constantly attacking in bigger groups. When she went back to eating, she had expected the goblin to foolishly attack her. But no such thing occurred. A full minute went by before Lusha looked surprised that it hadn’t done anything.

“Hmm? Is there something the matter?” She turned around to find the goblin groveling before her. It had bowed and showed reverence. She almost dropped her food. That is something that she didn’t believe goblins to be capable of. She turned fully around and motioned the Goblin over.

Upon realizing this, the goblin got up and advanced to the girl. She found this one’s behaviour quite strange. Goblins rarely ever traveled solo, and to find one that is, usually means there was something wrong with it. The young Goblin male was riddled with scars and cuts. Many of them were fresh. From the looks of it, they were most probably goblin tools. “Ah I see… an outcast. Then what do you want? Food?” She looked over to the deer venison she had laying around.

The goblin nodded, averting its gaze and making sure to keep both of its hands down in a non threatening style. It’s clear this one had observed humans many times before. Lusha shrugged, tore off some venison and handed it to the goblin. Yet again, the creature did something weird. It nodded and clasped both of its hands together, to express thanks.

It ravenously began to eat the rest of the leg. Meat, bones, and all. Lusha observed the creature the entire time through. Unique goblins were oftentimes killed off by their entire group. This was due to a reason many many years ago, but it definitely became adapted by the remaining survivors and stuck to their memory.

Out of all the unfortunate creatures that come to live, Goblins were perhaps the most pitiable. Too small to possess any brute force, too dumb to possess any significant knowledge advantage. There was a long time ago, when a Goblin Lord had appeared, but its ultimate death sent the goblin race to an almost extinct state. She found it impressive that they were still very much alive, and huge in population in the current era.

“Stop standing over me while you eat. It’s kind of creepy.” She pointed to the log next to her. The goblin seemed to get her point and sat down next to the woman. She handed the creature another leg.

“I suppose since you’ve done me a favor by showing me something exciting, I can help you out a little bit.”

The goblin looked up and strained its throat trying to find a response. “N.-nough Speak. Good.”

Lusha burst out into laughter. To think that the goblin could even learn speech. This took her back to 300 years ago. She couldn’t help but burst into laughter. The goblin looked confused as if he did something wrong.

“Very well. I could speak your language, but I do hate it a lot. It is an ugly sound. Restoration Magic [Close wound].” The ability was a low level magic ability that healed bruises and cuts over an entire body. She tapped the goblin on the head. It had panicked at first when it saw Lusha performing the technique, but it immediately realized that the move was not harmful.

The goblin exasperatedly looked at his hands and the cuts on his body. Yet again, he clasped his hands together and smiled. “Mhm. By the way, what’s your name?”

“Grodd R’uruk Fiiiralg Himra”

She was not even going to attempt to say or remember that. The ugly gutteral sound of goblin vocal cords irked her. “Grodd huh. Very well, Grodd. We can’t communicate much due to this language barrier, but I do ha-”

She stopped. And immediately coughed as if that was what had disturbed her. The goblin understood as well. It had a short sword right next to it in which its hand reached for. That’s when the attack began. Several knives came flying towards the group. Lusha was simply going to tank the offense, but Grodd had risen to action immediately, battering away all of the blades 14 of the blades that came their way.

One man appeared from the shadows first and foremost, heading straight for Rinn. Ah of course. One swift movement of her hand sent the man's skull splattering. The goblin was in awe, and clearly, by the lack of movement, so too was everyone else.

Grodd snapped up and skirted off. There was a little bit of silence, before the sound of blades clashing began to unravel. Lusha watched, actually kind of captivated. The goblin was dispatching various amounts of the men and women that had attacked. But there was one thing that she was really being impressed by- that was the Goblin's ability in combat. Grodd was utilizing Magic Arts.

In fact, he was utilizing them quite efficiently. But he only managed to take down 7 of the assailants. At the moment, there were about 36 attackers. “Hmm… Grodd. I’m expecting one specific individual to come out as well. I can sense his aura. If it is alright, I’d like you to dispose of the rest of them. I’ll lend you some of my power.

What an unlikely duo: a goblin and a witch. She smacked the goblin on the back. Hard enough to send the beast lurching forward. It turned around and grimaced before lurching forward. “Manipulation Magic [Blessings of the One Being].” This was the same ability she had used on Nuon. However, she put significantly less power into it. One can only imagine how terribly that would go if someone received that kind of power without knowing how to use it.

With one quick leap the goblin seemed like a blur. It lurched forward towards one of the assailants hidden in the tree. Quickly, it disposed of the man by throwing his sword right through the man’s head. Swinging off the branch there before the man could fall, the goblin did a full revolution around the branch, grabbing his sword on the way out.

They were at a disadvantage here. The thing is, when the Goblin retreated to those trees and the darkness of the forest, they could no longer see it during this night time sky. On the other hand, Goblins had the ability to see in the dark. Grodd had been utilizing his strategy perfectly. It was hard for Lusha to imagine him being a goblin with that level of intelligence.

Grodd stood completely surprised by the recent surge of power she had just received. In fact, Grodd was delighted with the new capabilities he was able to use. He extended the sword he had utilizing a low level Spirit of the Former technique. The energy was kind of wavy and out of form. But that was to be expected with one that was not as proficient in magic as the rest of the world.

Now, act completely engaged and distracted by the Goblins performance. She watched Grodd continuously dispatch the men before them, lowering her guard completely down. That’s when the arrival of the man she was expecting had finally come to fruition. Melding out of the ground, was the druid from earlier. Same exact tactic, distract with a huge force, then steal the child during the confusion.

As he reached out for the child, he found his hands colliding against something nonexistant, a barrier. Lusha smiled and made eye contact with the man. That moment seemed like an hour. The fear that reflected in his eyes, and the vehemence that reflected in hers transgressed the bounds of time.

Just before she could move, another man appeared from his shadow. Shadow arts huh? At the very least, they could not dissipate the barrier. Even should they steal the girl. But, something just doesn’t sit right with me about failing to kill someone twice. Lusha began to sink from her own shadow.

Shadow arts were a special style of magic ability stemming from the spatial arts branch of arcanery. It allowed one to utilize shadows and all shadows in the vicinity to transport between two worlds. One was their very own spatial pocket, and back out through the nearest shadow in the vicinity.

Unfortunately, for those who know how to utilize spatial art, it rendered the technique ineffective. While there exist many rare abilities, the difference between rare skills and special skills is that special skills are singular. Only one person could ever have them. Rare abilities on the other hand, are just too hard for the majority to learn.

So in this case, Lusha was quickly able to enter his shadow world as well. The moment he had casted the technique, she joined in because the gateways were still open. The duo met with the witch within the technique.

“Y-you… you’re a shadow user as well?”

Lusha only smiled. “You’re a new face, who might you be?”

“Reies. Reies Vainglory.”

“Lusha Viscirilis.” She flashed a soft smile. “If it’s any courtesy, would you mind handing to me that girl there? She is highly important for the mission I am doing.”

“Unfortunately, I cannot.”

“Okay… then you may all very well just die here.”

“What happened to the group you were traveling with before?”

“Ah that. I’ve killed them all.”

The duo was taken aback. “I see you survived the stone from earlier..” The druid had his shoulder wrapped with gauze and tightly held his hand arm together next to his chest. “It was quite the technique. The stones you threw did a lot of damage for sure. I’m not certain if I can even use this arm anymore.”

“Are you truly unwavering in getting on my way?”

Reies nodded. “You will meet your end here.”

“Neither of you two interest me. So forgive me, but I will be finishing this rather quickly.” Her energy flared up tremendously. The entire spatial room began to quake. “If necessary, I can suffocate all of you right here and right now.”

The aura began to spike higher and higher to the point where they could feel the pressure beginning to crush their body. The ringing in their heads was getting greater and greater.

“Do you know the nature of the mission you are taking?”

“Grahhh… rnnh n-no. We- were simply told to recover her!”

“Sigh… you’re lucky I’m in a good mood. Just take the sole warning you have received from me.” She walked past the duo, still clutching their heads as the pressure increased on them. She casually picked up the child and dismissed herself from their void. She ascended out of the same shadow she had been submerged in.

Surprisingly enough, everyone in the vicinity was dead. Grodd remained seated by the camp, casually eating the rest of the deer. She waved casually. “Yoh. Seems you’re enjoying yourself quite well.”

Their greeting was cut short by the interference of two others. Rising from the shadows, the same duo emerged. “Tch. Fools.” Lusha turned around and tossed Rinn over to the goblin who immediately caught her and took up a defensive position. He should still have the blessing over him for a minute or two more.

“I hope you know, this means certain death. You guys refused my warning, so do not blame me for the next bit of events.”

“Wait!” They held their hands up to her, signifying that they were not here to fight or take the girl for their own. “I just had to know…. W-who are you…?”

“You risked your lives for a simple question like that? What if I had attacked you right away?”

“We’re alright with death under those circumstances.” Reies responded. “It is very rare that I ever find an opponent with such an overwhelming difference in power. You aren’t just a being that was born with that kind of power. Lusha Viscirilis… who are you really?”

Lusha laughed. “Lusha Viscirilis is all that I call myself. To find anything else about me, you will all have to do some research. Search the history books and the legends. I’m sure you will not have to dig too far to find it.” She shrugged. “Now get out of my sight before you waste anymore of my time.”

The duo promptly left.

Grodd seemed perplexed. “Lusha….Veescii… W-witch..”

Lusha turned around completely mystified by what she was hearing… What in the world did this goblin just say? Was there such a thing as goblins reading? No… it had to be something else entirely. There was no way that humans long forgotten the tales of The Wretched Witch, but goblins still remembered.

“Grodd… I want you to make yourself scarce by the morning. I have a lot of tasks that I need to do at the moment. As I’m sure you do as well.” She recalled the cuts all over herself. It was clear the battle was not complete yet. “Who knows, I may call upon you again at some point… when I truly wish to gain a better understanding of everything that had occurred with you goblins.”

Grodd nodded. And remained awake the entire night, as if watching guard over the duo. It seemed the goblin held quite a bit of reverence for the witch, but also had a lot to be thankful for from her. Whatever she ordered, Grodd was certain to follow. This much was clear.

When Lusha fell to a deep sleep, the goblin refused to even move, always remaining alert and watching for any intrusion.