Chapter 51: End Game

That’s right… If I were to be someone capable of controlling others, and being completely undetectable, I would first amass more and more people. Within the confines of this house, the only others I would recruit would be those of impressive strength and skill… therefore…

She scanned the village with a pulse, attempting to locate any signs of Grodd. As surmised, Grodd was nowhere to be found. “Which direction did the adventurer’s group escape to?”

She could, of course, stretch out a pulse far enough to scan the entire premises of the forest, but that would only give the others knowledge of her awareness. With a bratty child that could not be detected, he’d simply disappear from the premises before she arrived.

The butler silently pointed in the direction that the previous group had escaped towards. Lusha smiled and clasped her hands together. “Perfect. In that case, I will be on my way then.”

She tapped Rinn on the shoulder. “You’ll be coming along as well. There’s a matter that you’ll be quite the help in.”

This matter was locating the child. While perhaps Lusha’s detection abilities were by no means impressive, the perceptive skills that Rinn held were on a whole different level. If she could so much as find the emotion instead of the aura, that could prove to nullify all of his advantages.

On the other hand, Lusha could simply utilize a pulse that looked for physical objects, but it would only be a sonar-based radar. It would be incapable of differentiating a tree structure from a body. Nor would it be capable of detecting multiple stacked items. Such as a tree behind a tree. Thus, to utilize it in such a manner was only useful in clear locations.

“Let’s go.” She grabbed Rinn by the hand and scurried off, before taking flight out of one of the giant castle windows overlooking the forests. Just like that, the two had departed. At long last, Lusha was beginning to see an end to this current turmoil of events.

For one reason or another, that child appeared to be the most integral part of this entire operation.

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Nobody dared move. This was quite a peculiar situation. In fact, most of the participants here did not quite know how to move. Grodd could come to the conclusion that the battle was over, so he set aside his blade. The energy based construct around it began to shorten itself. He picked up his helmet and placed it back on before he was to depart.

At that exact moment, Roy launched his offensive at the man. Ragged and beaten as he was, his movements were sloppy. There was more than enough time to notice his offense. Grodd slapped the man away with the side of his blade, sending him lurching back and smacking against a tree.

It would seem this man would have to die before he can leave this place peacefully. He approached Roy who was now on all fours attempting to pick himself off the ground. His blade re-extended, and he immediately swung the sword down on top of him. Interference. A young man stood in front of him with smoldering flames visible from his hands. The fact that he was able to stop the blow was impressive, but by no means a feat worthy of praise. Grodd had not put any effort behind his hit just now. Yet, he could see the man's hands trembling. It was apparent the strength difference here.

With his hands clasped around each face of the blade, as if in prayer, he summoned all of his energy for one quick agile motion. Though lacking in strength, Ire had much more agility and speed than Grodd. Withdrawing his right hand, he quickly exerted an influx of flame in his left and pushed the sword out of trajectory. At the same time, his body crouched low. His left hand traced up the body of the blade and side swiped, meeting with Grodd's chest.

This was a three pronged attack. As the hand met, he also leapt from his crouching, planting two ignited feet firmly on Grodd's chest. These kicks landed, pushing the enemy's body and landing square on his helmet.

These kicks served to do two things. It pushed him back several feet away, uprighting himself right before the giant tree behind him. To his surprise, before he could even look up, he had to act immediately and push himself off of the tree almost as quickly as he had landed. He was mistaken to think he had observed Grodd's full speed earlier. The tree was chopped in half, just narrowly missing him.

He landed softly as the entire tree fell to the ground in a rumble. Grodd's onslaught continued, only momentarily before being interrupted by something. The actions that the man had taken earlier. When he had kicked Grodd, and when his hand made contact with not only the sword, but Grodd's body, there was a smoldering flame-like residue that remained on his being. As Grodd attempted to continue, Ire then detonated the flame's remnants. 3 different explosions took hold.

They seemed to be largely ineffective, aside from the third one. The blow was right underneath the cheek bone and covered a vast area on the right side of Grodd's face, knocking his helmet clean off, and knocking him off balance for the first time.

Ire cursed. If his helmet was still on, he could have repeated the blast continuously. But it seemed that he would probably never get another chance like that. For now, the chest and his arm still remained smoldering. By minimizing the size of these blasts, he could probably spread them out longer and longer to allow for different delays and interruptions.

In the meantime, it would appear Inora had already grabbed Roy and removed him from the premises.

"I'm sorry. I'm not sure what is going on... but it is clear you're pretty sentient." He placed a hand out in front of him, taking a moment to try and diffuse the situation while there was still a pause.

Grodd stopped for a moment, piecing together what exactly the man was trying to say.

"We have no qualms with you, Goblin-"

"Grodd." He introduced his name to the young man in front of him. It didn't seem typical to continuously refer to someone as human. Thus, in their custom, to constantly refer to him as Goblin, must not be a great sign of respect.

The man promptly apologized. "G-Grodd. My apologies." He hesitantly bowed and placed both hands to his side.

At that moment, an impulse suddenly rushed through him to cleave the man in two, but he thought the act shameful. Nonetheless, he was still fairly enraged about the blow to his head. He promptly sheathed his blade and undid his skill.

The mood on his face seemed to brighten once he realized he may not have to engage the behemoth. This was short lived though, because the moment his eyes met Grodd's, an intense vehemence. You could feel nothing but hostility from him.

Ire immediately got on guard and attempted to prepare for the movement. It was useless. Much faster than he could even anticipate, the attack had already landed. He placed his hand in front of the way, steeling his resolve and defense. Flames engulfed most of his arms and the moment Grodd's punch landed, he exploded the flames at close range. Otherwise, this may have proved fatal.

He could feel his bones shatter in his right hand that connected with Grodd's fist. He was swept off his feet like unrelenting turbulent waters, engulfing him entirely in its embrace. As he tumbled around ruthlessly through the ground and flora, he finally managed to get a footing and dig his feet into the ground.

His eyes tried to focus on the world around him, trying to slow the rapid motion sickness he was feeling. At any moment, the opponent could strike again and finish him off. He could only try and spot him before it was too late. The spinning of the world was slowing down more and more, before it finally came to a halt. Pain gripped his arm and all over his body.

To his surprise the Goblin was already leaving. His back was turned to the young man and all his defenses were down. He attempted to shout at the behemoth, but lost his footing and fell over. Grodd stopped and looked back at him.

"We're even."

He walked off and left him panting there. "You mean to tell me that was... payback?" The proportion was entirely off. At the very least, he could relax now.

That's right. He could finally take a breathe-

"What in the world... is happening.?"

In one second, Grodd was on the floor. Despite this, all his wounds had healed up. Several burn marks charred his hands and feet. Grodd roared loudly in anger and pain. His vehemence rising again. But this time, the damage was too great.

“That’s…. Roy’s technique-..” His eyes widened. Before the two of them were Inora and Roy who stood back to back. Their eyes were much different than before. He could tell right away something was off. The fact that the child was with her gave him all he needed to know.

“H-how… I thought he could only use the technique once a day-”

The child laughed and placed a hand over his head. “It seems I’ve outdone myself a bit this time..”

The confused look on Ire’s face was quickly answered. “I reset his internal clock. As far as his body knows, a day did pass.” Various seals began to glow around his body before disappearing.

This left Ire stupefied. This…- could inscription magic even be used this way?

“Kid… what the hell’s your goal? Do you even know what kind of trouble you’re playing with here?” He stalled to test his arm. It would seem that the Exchange of Circumstances ability had even taken his damage from him. Though, he wasn’t going to be mistaken. The group were not on his side. They simply exchanged his damage to the greatest threat. If he weren’t careful, he would end up being a pawn of that child as well.

Now he was seeing the greater picture. This had been a huge puppet show. The entire group had been well- manipulated by a single child. This was the truth of the world of magic. Sometimes, even an old man with a 100 years of experience can be felled by a prodigy.

The Goblin wasn’t quite in any shape to fight anymore. Not only due to exhaustion, but the new injuries he had now sustained, including his broken arm, proved that all his efforts would be futile.

“I’m sorry, Goblin.” The child spoke. “Though you are an important part of the selection, you’re too dangerous to take out by myself. So… I can’t kill these three yet until I’ve dealt with you.”

There seemed to be a deep sadness in his tone. A somber, regretful sadness. At his signal Inora dashed forward with her shield up around her. It was a small one way barrier that defended things from entering one side, but allowed a full scale offense from the other side. The singular onslaught changed into more than 10 different facsimiles of Inora. Just as this rapid progression of movement reached Grodd, Ire had interrupted and sideswiped the real body. A quick tackle and a throw served to block the onslaught.

While doing this, he also retreated to block a dagger that was thrown in Grodd’s direction. Though the Goblin was in a weaker state than he was, if he was to truly survive this ordeal, there’s a great chance he would need this beast’s help.

“Grodd..-”

Just at the moment that he had said that, Grodd had slapped the man in the back as hard as he could. The wind got knocked out of him. He angrily looked back at the creature. “Grrr!! What the hell was that about! I’m trying to help ya he-!” He stopped and looked at his hands. A decent amount of energy was coursing through him at the moment. He flexed his muscles briefly, shocked by the amount of energy he was feeling.

Grodd had utilized, just like he had once seen done to him, a buff transfer. This was a move he dubbed- [Blessings of Goblin Grodd]- A cheap imitation of a pure energy boost given. This was in proportion to all the energy he had left inside him. But still, this much should do to give the young man a chance.

“Woah-ah…-a..amazing!” He eagerly stood guard. This was a match of 3 vs one after-all. No… that wasn’t quite right. The only person he had to attack was the child above. But at the same time, he would have to defend this goblin.

There was still a way he could win this. The plasma-like flames surrounded his hands and feet once again. This time however, he had enough energy to increase this. It began to embrace his entire body. Unstable as this move was, it was much more defensive. Now it serves to attach to others the moment he gets hit as well. His offense was no longer a requirement.

With his defensive stance, he only had to await their attack and block them. Roy motioned for Inora to stay back.

“I’m sorry, Ire. Did you think this was going to work?”

These words could only mean that the measures he’s taken weren’t enough. He was painfully aware of it now. How had he not realized it before?

His buff…. Was already gone. The one who held it now was Roy, who was no longer in sight with the increase of his speed. Ire’s instinctual reaction was to turn around and defend the obvious target, Grodd. But this proved to be his folly.

The target this time, was not Grodd. A barrage of daggers wizzed at the man, vibrating with a sound reminiscent of a thousand cicadas. It was clear this attack was not going to be blockable, and the speed at which they traveled proved they could not be defended. This attack was coming straight for Roy himself. If he were to dodge, the Goblin would stand no chance.

The blades came flying to him as if in slow motion, before- Roy jumped in front of his own attack. Various blades pierced his body.

“Fuck!”

The blades all fell out of Roy’s body, and the blood that should have been seeping from his arms, chest, stomach and collar, was instead coming out of Ire.

This had also been distributed to Grodd. Various of the impacts had now punctured the Goblinoid as well.

With the both of them down on their knees now defeated, they grimaced and prepared for the worst.

“Hold.”

The child spoke.

Roy stopped and turned back to the kid. He had set him down to launch his self-offense just now, which could have been a risky move. But, it proved fruitful.

“Now. Roy. If you can disable him for good and get me close enough to touch the man. I want the Goblin disposed of first however. He’s much too frightening.”

This was what? The 8th group thusfar… to think that it would turn out this disastrous. There was also that concerning factor of… whatever that was.

His eyes looked back at the giant pillar of flame residue that painted the clouds.

Roy nodded. “Inora. We may need both you and myself to dispose of this one.”

Inora nodded. “Right away brother.”

They amassed a lethal amount of flame magic slowly charging up in front of the duo. This was, however, only intended for grodd. Should it come down to it, he would transfer the damage sustained by Ire, over to Grodd.

The smoldering hot ball of flame continued and continued to expand. The sound of crackling got louder and louder until- it grew to over 20 feet in diameter.

The flame went out towards the duo slowly. Before engulfing them both in its embrace. The sound of crackling heat began to howl through the skies. “Sorry. Don’t take this personally at all.”