Vol.2 – Chapter 7 – Stomach Ache

"Please, spare me!" shouted the green ogre as he kneeled below me. He must have swallowed a lot of his senseless pride, making his huge, bulky body a sight of absurdity, trying to sway me into the side of mercy. Too bad, for me, mercy is about swiftly killing your opponent with a single slash to the neck. A hunt is a hunt; you'll survive if you're strong enough, and the weak will be weeded out. Your life is a sacrifice... no, an obstacle that must be removed for the queen's vision of a new world.

Now, then. Die.

His blood splashed onto my face as it spurted from his neck. In an instant, the ogre died while apologizing to his brother, the red ogre. With his death, the red ogre would be consumed by either hatred or despair, both usable to take advantage of and terminate him in the process.

My work is not over. There are more rubble that must be removed out of the queen's way. After the ogre, the visage shall kill the talking goblin my dearest queen is bragging about. She told me that the creature has the body of a goblin yet the intellect of a human. Being deceived by its appearance can prove fatal. Of course, I didn't believe it at first, but with the existence of an intelligent goblin king, Rethus, it is plausible.

But still, I couldn't believe that the Visage would lose to a mere goblin. That's just preposterous.

"[Viper]"

A summoned snake appeared out of thin air, the white viper. It is five meters high and of an undiscernible length I don't even bother to measure. It had those slit pupils akin to mine. Viper opened its mouth, revealing carved letters on a small wood. It's a wood containing a message from Nana on the 28th floor.

It is a letter telling me that the goblin is found wandering near the city and caused a fatality on the side of homorotabi. A fatality, huh? The way she worded it makes it seem like they are the ones in danger. It's just mere weeks since I received the news that the goblin ascended to the upper floor. I instructed Nana and Axis to find and terminate him, but to think that he will do something reckless and noticeable by the Visage—it's like he is challenging us. He is mocking us. Unforgivable. If that's the case, I shall be the one who will hunt him down.

And so I descended to the 28th floor immediately.

"Snake, welcome back."

Nana greeted me calmly as soon as I got teleported with the viper. We're at the front of the city gates, an area we're not supposed to be in since we are a group of assassins that hide in the shadows. Fortunately, there are no guards or homorotabi anywhere in sight. The snowpack is getting thicker here; the never-ending winter will really soon diminish this floor into destruction.

"Got any news about that goblin?" I asked.

"No, not yet. But look at this thing," Nana pointed at a certain corpse. "I think we are hunting no ordinary goblin if he could do this to the strongest of the Homorotabi. Regul Regulia."

That's Regul!?

Currently, Nana and Axis are investigating a certain corpse of a Homorotabi. Nana, a girl with a bob haircut, pokes the corpse with a stick. She wears a hooded jacket whose one sleeve is cut off, revealing her arms stylized with a tattoo similar to mine and Axis's. Axis, however, is merely watching as Nana does all the job. In fact, he is nearly falling asleep while still standing up. His right eyepiece that makes him look somehow smart is just being wasted on him.

To think that this corpse is Regul's... I even thought that if we try to hunt him down with the three of us, one of us will die before we could cut his head. And for a mere single goblin to do this, I couldn't even begin to imagine what the goblin has done that Regul's face became mushed and unidentifiable. But what's scarier is what Nana said next.

"There's no sign of struggle. He was rendered unconscious with a single attack."

I began to sweat profusely. With just a single attack? Impossible!

It eases me a little that the goblin didn't manage to kill him... wait a minute. Does that mean the goblin is stronger than I anticipated? If I were to fight Regul, I don't believe that I could defeat him without killing him. I need to release all my power to terminate him. To think that the goblin could make him unconscious, it only means that the goblin is not even serious about fighting him!

And so I asked, "And for what purpose did he do it?"

"The goblin didn't enter the city, nor steal his equipment. There's no real motive." Nana's voice felt uneasy as she stated it. "He did it just for fun."

We've been trying to avoid fighting Regul since I knew there would be a casualty on our side, but to think that the goblin would fight him just because he felt like it... Just how confident is this goblin with his ability!?

I come near the unconscious body of Regul and pinch a sample of the dark substance from his face. "This substance... After all the years I've been alive, I never seen something like this." What the hell is this strange dark matter? I put the sample on my fingers near my nose and sniff it. "It smells powerful."

The Viper is curious as well, so I let him sniff the sample on my fingertips. Suddenly, it goes berserk. "Viper! What's wrong?" I called to him, but it kept wreaking havoc in the snow. The dark substance made him like this! Just what the hell is this thing?

Strange, I'm feeling something inside my chest. It's the first time I felt something like this since I became infected... I am... scared?

"You there! Stop! Don't touch the boss!"

"Another enemy!?"

Two guards came running towards us with mechanical spears in hand. We've been discovered, but there's no need to terminate these witnesses. Homorotabi, in general, are not battle-oriented species; they won't be a threat for us. Regul is just a special case among all of them.

When I look at them, to the two guards, suddenly their faces become pale, and their movements become stiff. They lose balance and come tumbling to the ground. Well, I understand; I must have reeked of blood, and my appearance is quite despicable. The blood from the ogre is still patched on my face and clothes. But even without the blood adorning my clothing, every time someone looks at me, they somehow become stiff like stone.

I look down on them as they kneel. The other man stutters, "I... I knew that mark on their arms. They are the Visage!"

"Eh... So we're this popular around this floor, huh?" Nana highlights the fact. So there's no need to conceal ourselves in the first place when they already knew about us.

"We should tell the king..." the other homorotabi states, however, he can't stand up. His legs, his arms, they are shaking. "But... I can't move."

I come near one of them, the one who's about to piss his pants in fright. "Where are all the homorotabi?" I ask, lifting his face for me to see. His breathing becomes hastened as he sees me in the eye.

"They... evacuated." I tilt my head slightly, and the homorotabi immediately clarifies, "They evacuated from the threat of the green creature!"

That goblin! He again... His mere presence, even if he didn't enter the city, causes everyone to evacuate like their lives depend on it. Just how frightening is this goblin could be!?

"So this is why our queen warned us not to underestimate the goblin..." I remark, reminding my subordinates to keep their guards up. "Nana, Axis. We're going to hunt down the goblin today. Strengthen your resolve; we might die from our battle. We, the predators, might be this time become the prey."

...

...

...

So, I was washing myself in the river after that accidental fart pooping. Lucky for me that nobody chased me after. Somehow, my stomach still felt boiling inside, but I could manage now.

Ah... damn, even with my mana circulation on, I still feel the chill on my spine after that pooping. Wait a minute... why am I washing my ass on where I drink!?

What the hell is that?

I see some snow getting scattered into clouds of bombarded white... As I scrub my eyes and look at it closer, I saw what I don't want to see... Shit... another snake monster!? And this time, larger. Immediately, I pull up my pants and try to leave. I ran away, but I knew with that kind of speed, the snake will soon catch up to me no matter what I do. I need to pick up my sword!

It's here!

The gigantic snake opens its mouth, but I evade to the right. I come rolling in the snow, then when the momentum stops, somebody jumps from the snake's head! A man in dark clothes holding two red curvy daggers! He tries to stab me at landing, but I spin around and avoid it, then he crosses both his arms and tries slashing me on the neck only to be evaded once more.

But then, some projectile hits me on the arm. That's why I jump backward for a timeout; I need to figure out what's going on! My mind can't keep up to it! However, they didn't give me enough time. A human girl equipped with a rapier comes running from my back. Shit! I couldn't do any evading in mid-air, so when she thrusts her sword, I catch the blade with my palms. The blade penetrates through the bones in my hands, but I manage to quickly pull my arms out before she could do more damage.

She then slashes her sword repeatedly, and it's completely unpredictable with her bendy weapon. It's like she's just drawing in the air, and the edgy point of her rapier contains a lot of mana that it's making a trail of light. I need to get away from her; her sword style is just too dangerous, especially when a single slash from her could actually make multiple cutting trails.

I pull out the projectile stuck in my arm, a fucking metal arrow, and it's heavy. It's slowing me down while tearing my wounds open. I evade another one aimed at my head, and tracking where it came from, I find a man with an eyepiece holding a crossbow.

I really need to pick up my sword, but then the ground grumbles. I know this feeling. I need to run! I push my legs to the limit and run away, and then the behemoth snake pops out and tries eating me whole from below the snow. Because I already knew what will happen since I already fought a similar species before, I manage to escape just in the nick of time. The ground explodes with the snow that scatters in mid-air, blocking my sight.

Damn them; I sustained a lot of damage from their attacks. They are not giving me enough time to turn the tables.

The first man who attacked me comes out of the white fog from the snow. "As expected of the goblin our queen kept bragging about," he says. I can only see his eyes that are slit like a snake; the rest of his face is covered by clothes, and he has vertical wound marks down both his eyes.

The queen, huh? So they must be the Visage of the Frost.

"You must be thinking, why are we hunting you when our queen vouched for your skills. Too bad, we only care about her safety and you are a threat that must be extinguished." The snake eyes point his dagger at me. "We're going to obliterate you before you could find her. Prepare yourself." The man prepares his fighting stance.

So it's really true that the queen couldn't completely control her own spawn. While they are definitely trying to protect their queen, they have the free will to decide how they will do it... I guess?

I knew that this day will come, that the visage will attack me. And of course, I knew several ways to counteract them. I've been thinking a lot since I came here and prepared myself for the worst, so I placed some traps here and there and others that are set up naturally. One of these traps is just near here so here's the plan...

Run!

"Snake, he's running away!"

"Don't chase him. It's a trap."

Shit, they knew? Okay fine, I'll keep running away until they can't reach me anymore.

"..."

"..."

They are really just waiting for me to get away. Heh... what an idiot. Not chasing me until I escaped and chasing me until you fall into my trap, both works fine with me. What will you do now, Snake eyes?

"Snake..." the girl looks confused for a second as she looks at the man's face. The snake-eyes dude clenches his fist when he realizes that I'm actually running away without a care.

"Damn you! With all your power, you're just going to run away!?"

Here he is, he's preparing to dash towards me but with the large distance between each other, I don't think he would make it. I'm fast and agile, you know.

Then the man stomped...

_Swoosh!_

The snow behind him gets obliterated as he runs with all the speed he's got. He was ridiculously fast! Just what the hell is that man made of! He's going to catch up to me! I'm going to die...! Just kidding, of course, I already planned it ahead of time.

When he finally comes close, I...

"Kugu..."

"Kugu?"

I pretended to be a goblin. Just an ordinary goblin and with the confusion, the snake-eyed man stops and jumps backward.

"Kuku gaga, guku gaki."

"What are you talking about? I don't speak that language!"

Get a hint! This is how goblins normally speak! Of course, their only way of knowing if I'm the right target or not is if I could speak in human tongue proving my human intellect which the queen is well aware of, but the rest of my attributes are hardly distinct to an ordinary goblin. They wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

And of course, the enemies won't buy this easily. The Snake guy still holds an offensive stance ready to cut me down.

"Gagaga, guku guku," I speak calmly, trying to converse with him in this nonsensical language. And when he rushes towards me to attack, I scream "KAAAA!!" like a crazy drunken old man, making him stop.

"We're wrong? He's not the talking goblin our queen is talking about?"

"You're saying that we're chasing the wrong goblin all this time!?" said the girl who finally managed to catch up along with the crossbow dude. "We should still kill him, just in case if he's only pretending," the girl suggests, making the Snake dude prepare his dagger for a kill.

"KuGAA! GAGAGA! GAGGAGAGA!" I maniacally act like a wild savage beast while I make my mouth bubble as he steps forward.

"!"

Now, he steps backward.

"Arurugrug! Kuuu! Gragh!"

It seems like Snake, in particular, is scared of my act. That's kind of surprising, actually. However, the girl is the problem...

"Fine, I'll kill it." She pulls out her rapier and points it towards me. Slowly, wind swirls at the point of her weapon as it accumulates mana. But the Snake dude warns her with a desperate tone.

"Be careful, Nana! He might have rabies!"

"What? Are you scared?"

"You don't know what you're talking about. Me, the Snake, have nothing to fear. But... " He looks at me with wide eyes and his snake pupils are creeping me out, "That thing is just..."

"ARP! ARP! ARP!" and so I act like a dog with rabies, crawling with my arms and legs like a dog and pretending to run towards him. And he jumps! He was trying to avoid me at all cost! I do this repeatedly, and every time, he and the other dude try to evade; it was funny.

As I expected, they are slowly dropping their guards...

However, one of them remains on guard. Nana tries piercing me with her sword, but fortunately, she underestimates me. I jump to evade her thrust, and while she's confused, I scoop her left eyeball with my fingers and pull it out of her skull. Green blood started splattering everywhere, painting the white snow with such disgusting color. I don't have any choice anymore, at least, I took out one of them temporarily.

However, before I could land on the snow, Snake immediately grabs me by the neck.

"You fooled us," he says, but he's wrong. He must have forgotten why I ran in the first place.

"Keke, you're underestimating me, idiot." While his hand tightens the grip on my neck, I grin at him haughtily, knowing that I had won. "You've fallen for my trap."