I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 350: Evil Bloodline

The thunder of spells and the clash of blades played out on the city walls like a symphony.As time wore on, the battlefield had reached a white-hot intensity.

A young soldier had just skewered a gnoll off the wall with his spear, the spearhead not yet withdrawn, when a goblin darted out from the side, swung its short sword, and plunged it into his belly.

Blood pooled and flowed across the wall’s paving stones.

Outside the wall.

A red dragon circled the sky, its aim fixed on the rear of the legion.

The monsters below noticed the shape passing overhead and hastily raised their bows toward the heavens.

What greeted them was a searing, deadly torrent of flame.

"Hephaestus, clear the way with dragonfire!"

The red dragon flew fast, craning its neck and spewing a torrent of molten, lava-like breath.

Judgment-like flames rained down like a falling sword of Damocles, punishing living things.

Monsters were swallowed by flame; even thrashing about could not extinguish the blaze.

Hephaestus flew at tremendous speed.

But the wyvern that had disappeared earlier seemed to have heard some summons; it streaked in from who-knew-where, diving straight at Hephaestus to try to stop it.

"Magic Missile!"

Gauss rose and waved his wand, releasing a dozen or so Magic Missiles that forced the pursuing wyvern to slow.

"Toot! Wooo!"

The horns grew louder.

Outside a beast-skin tent encampment, dozens of burly ogre warriors stood like iron towers in defense, while several shamans wreathed in black mist rhythmically brandished bone staffs.

Riding on Hephaestus’s back, Gauss suddenly felt a heavy pressure slam into the surrounding air.

"Roar!!"

Hephaestus bellowed.

It was as if an invisible formation had been triggered.

That ubiquitous, potent magical force made its body grow heavier and heavier; despite frantic wingbeats, its flight altitude gradually decreased.

"Some kind of anti-air formation?"

Gauss guessed roughly what they were using.

If Hephaestus had already reached adulthood—or if this had been a bona fide red dragon—the anti-air formation might not have been so effective. But this Hephaestus, not yet fully grown, could not resist the binding of the legion’s formation.

Under the formation’s crushing influence, Hephaestus had to make an emergency landing.

Behind Gauss, Eberhard’s griffin fared even worse.

Chen Yizhen barely managed the descent; his creature slammed down and rolled, but as a hardy griffin it got back up, shook its head, and staggered to its feet.

"Cough, cough."

Eberhard looked somewhat disheveled.

He hurried over to join Gauss and the others.

They hadn’t reached their target point before being driven down by the formation; now a black mass of monsters blocked them in front of the enemy’s main tent.

Those beasts seemed to realize Gauss and company’s objective; they opened their crimson eyes wide and stared at the group.

"We’ll have to cut our way through."

Gauss tightened his hold on the White Wand.

The others gripped their weapons as well.

Although things had gone awry, the plan for the mission had to continue.

'Control Water.'

The Godwater granted by the rite slowly split into countless fine tendrils of water that swirled and coalesced around the squad.

Like a rapidly spinning watery shield-sphere, it locked Gauss and the others safely inside.

Aria and the rest were not unfamiliar with this.

Only Eberhard, cooperating with him for the first time, looked on in surprise at the nearly impenetrable network of water filaments.

From within it he sensed a profoundly exalted power.

Is this divine power?

Eberhard had heard of some of Gauss’s exploits before.

At the time he’d taken them with a grain of salt.

Not that he doubted Gauss’s talent or strength—after all, the Adventurers Guild would not promote a worthless newcomer—but tales about the Lake God's Blessing, about walking on water like a saint, he had dismissed as flashy publicity.

Only now, seeing the water tendrils imbued with divine force, did he realize nothing about Gauss had been fabricated.

"Kill!"

Gauss and the others strode forward.

The monsters surged at them like moths to a flame.

But before they reached these humans, the thin, piercing water needles suddenly punctured skulls, eye sockets, throats, chests, and bellies.

The tendrils left countless tiny, hardly noticeable holes in their bodies. They kept running two more steps, then collapsed like marionettes with cut strings. Dark red blood spurted from the many fine wounds, quickly staining the frozen ground crimson.

"Thud, thud, thud!"

Monsters kept falling, and yet more kept throwing themselves forward.

If anyone could escape the anti-air formation and fly up, they would witness a spectacular sight.

Gauss forced a bloody path through the monster horde.

They dashed forward rapidly.

A trail of blood was left behind—chunks of flesh and severed limbs strewn everywhere; red, white, and green ichor flowed into little streams across the ground.

"Boom!"

Not all the monsters were mindless cannon fodder.

The spellcaster units unleashed spells in unison.

Like human spell squads, the monster casters were also trained to coordinate; their spells combined and overlapped, forming formation-like effects.

At this moment, a vast cascade of corrosive venom poured from the sky.

"This is worse!"

Gauss’s water-cut network was not truly impenetrable.

The venom seeped through the outer shell.

"Sizzle!"

Venom splashed to the ground and rose in white steam, leaving cratered pits behind.

Gauss and the others could not completely avoid it.

Fortunately, the venom’s coverage was wide but not overwhelmingly virulent.

Gauss’s Gauss Field wrapped the group like armor.

The mana-laced venom gnawed at that protective field but could not break through in the short term.

As they neared the main tent.

Ogre warriors in heavy iron armor and giant shields, like moving mountains, advanced shoulder to shoulder.

Gauss narrowed his eyes.

From these orderly ogre warriors he felt an even stronger momentum.

An invisible aura shrouded them, their footfalls like sounding war drums.

"Thud!"

They took several steps.

The ground around them began to tremble.

Coupled with the monster forces still closing in from the flanks and rear, Gauss suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of being trapped in sinking mire.

Even if he wanted to kill, the pervasive resistance felt like countless invisible hands constantly dragging at his body.

"You’re finished."

"This place will be your grave."

Whispering voices murmured into Gauss’s ears.

Those invisible, ever-present fears—pain, despair—combined with the drumbeat of ogre shields striking the earth, sliced into the minds of each member of Gauss’s squad like a butchering knife.

Albenia flashed back to childhood scenes—thrown into a pit by tribe elders to fight giant wolves. The wolves opened their fangs and stepped toward her, hot wet breath steaming against her face.

The others also seemed to be falling into a kind of terror.

Gauss was the first to come to his senses.

Almost the instant the most terrifying memory surfaced, he broke free.

He owed this to his strong soul power.

"Hah—"

He quickly shook awake his companions.

Eberhard, perhaps because of higher Professional Level or being prepared, had already recovered without waiting for Gauss to act.

"Stay alert, everyone."

Gauss warned.

They had slaughtered hundreds of monsters on the way here, yet far more still surrounded them.

He dispelled the water net and used Control Water to form a longbow; the previous fighting method could not last much longer—the mana consumption had been enormous.

He quickly loosed several arrows at the ogre warriors.

"Thud!"

Magical arrows punched through the ogres’ front shields; several ogre warriors fell instantly.

Yet the surrounding monsters’ eyes still showed no sign of fear.

"Raaaaar!!!"

With the horns sounding, monsters charged from all directions.

"Kill!"

Back-to-back, they formed a circle.

Albenia inhaled deeply.

She tightened her grip on the great axe and swung, becoming a gale of axe-blow that cleaved at the monsters rushing in.

Alone, she might have felt powerless trapped in this encirclement.

But comrades on the battlefield who could rely on one another gave her the courage to fight.

"Yah!"

A several-meter-long axe wind slashed out like a willow leaf across the field.

Dozens of monsters were hit and cleaved.

"Moonlight Bloom!"

A silver moon quietly rose from the clouds overhead.

Beneath the moonlight, the spell perfectly attuned to Aria released far greater power than usual.

A long, straight beam of light shot from her wooden staff, scorching the monsters in its path.

The red dragon Hephaestus breathed flame; Eberhard became like a phantom in midair, slashing as he passed and shattering the frozen air—monsters running suddenly halted and in the next moment were torn apart into pieces.

Several dark shadows danced among the monster ranks; each barbed spear easily pierced enemy bodies.

But...

There were simply too many monsters.

Even as the front ranks fell, the rear waves kept surging forward.

That was the terror of the monster army: the low-tier monsters were easier to manipulate and bewitch, turning them into suicidal shock troops.

Worse, more monsters were withdrawing from the walls to execute a pincer on the squad deep in enemy lines.

Clearly, this assault squad’s priority had been raised to beyond taking the town.

"!"

Gauss cast a Fireball in the direction of the main tent.

But it was quickly dissipated by an invisible shield.

Gauss narrowed his eyes, feeling a faint twisting pain in his abdomen, and shoved a few magic stones into his mouth, chewing them up before swallowing.

Tonight, up to this point, his total mana expenditure had reached an absurd level.

He could guarantee it exceeded even the total mana a Transcendent-tier spellcaster might wield.

Whether it was repeatedly casting Fireball, using Control Water, or firing barrage-like Magic Missiles, each consumed massive mana.

Besides his naturally abundant mana, he relied on the Special Stomach racial talent to absorb the stones.

But there was a limit to how many of those high-energy mineral stones he could digest in a short time.

Even someone as strong as Gauss felt some discomfort after consecutive consumption.

Although only mild so far, Gauss knew the fight could not be prolonged.

These raging monsters would absolutely grind them to dust if given time.

With the backing of the military might and formations, sheer numbers could do what a swarm of ants does to an elephant.

"Push forward!"

"I’ll clear the way."

Eberhard volunteered for the task.

As a swordsman, his killing ability and Agility were top-notch, and he was the highest visible Professional Level present—the Adventurers Guild chairman of Grayrock Town—so by duty and reason he had to lead the charge.

"I’ll leave it to you, Chairman."

Gauss nodded.

His mana was still recovering, and he needed to conserve some energy.

The burden of the assault had to fall to Eberhard now.

Eberhard inhaled deeply and the restrained aura around him suddenly shifted.

Unlike Albenia’s berserk bloodlust or Gauss’s dazzling magical aura, what wrapped around him was a tempered "momentum" forged through countless trials.

This sword momentum partly countered the oppressive force pressing in on them.

His longsword emitted a clear, sustained ring, the blade flowing with silver-white sword qi.

"Stick close to me."

At the words, Eberhard blurred into motion.

"Sword Technique, Breaking Army!"

If he was going to cut into the enemy center, he had confidence in his own strength.

A Level 9 swordsman, on the cusp of Level 10 and the peak of Master stage, his killing power was terrifying.

Having conserved energy while Gauss did most of the work earlier, it was time for his blade to speak.

His body seemed to meld into the wind; his steps carried a strange rhythm, each footfall precisely avoiding corpses and pools of blood, yet he moved so fast he left faint afterimages.

He became a straight, silver lightning bolt slashing forward.

"Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!"

A rapid staccato of impacts like raindrops.

The ogre shield wall, gnolls, and a diving wyvern all burst with sprays of blood.

"Amazing!"

Gauss and the others trailed him, clearing side enemies and could not help but marvel.

His sword seemed to cut through everything; his figure was unbelievably swift.

No weapon, no monster, could stand against a single strike—a peak display of slashing prowess.

There were many who trained in swordcraft, but that did not mean swordsmen were mediocre; on the contrary, it was a steady, overwhelming profession.

With Eberhard rampaging ahead, Gauss and company smashed forward and finally reached the main tent.

Their clothes were soaked in filthy blood; no one could keep up appearances.

"Rrrr!"

The commander inside the tent seemed to realize they had come so close.

He threw back the flap.

A peculiarly featured ogre stepped out, flanked by two towering ogre champions.

They radiated an aura far stronger than that of elite monsters—especially the ogre leader, who differed from the clumsier, bulkier kind.

It wore tattered black robes; its skin was a distinct pale blue, sharp horns jutted from its head, and pale hair drifted from under its hood.

Now it looked at Gauss and the others, slightly parting its mouth to reveal rows of shark-like teeth; its black, razor claws flexed, producing a nerve-grating sound.

Evil—utterly evil—was Gauss’s first impression.

It took the pitch-black cleaver handed up by an ogre warrior beside it.

In the next instant, its legs thickened, and it launched forward like a cannonball.

While airborne, its body grew in size, and the cleaver in its hands expanded along with it.

"Bang!!"

Eberhard leaped forward with his sword.

The two collided in midair.

A nearly ten-meter cleaver met a little over one-meter longsword with an explosive clang.

Sparks flew, illuminating Eberhard’s stoic face and the ogre leader’s cruel, brutal eyes.

"Clang!"

After a brief lock, Eberhard was thrown backward.

At the level of raw strength, as a human he was at a clear disadvantage against that enlarged, giant-like ogre leader.

Gauss helped steady him.

"Cough, cough."

Eberhard’s face was a little pale.

After the test, however, he breathed easier.

"Not Transcendent level."

That was probably good news.

But not entirely.

This ogre was clearly a rare-blooded specimen among ogres, wielding a broader range of abilities.

Gauss even felt a faint sense of familiarity.

Moreover, placed at the center of the monster army, it served as the core of their momentum and seemed significantly amplified.

Otherwise, Eberhard’s strength wouldn’t have been so overwhelmed after only their first clash.

"Waahhhh!"

Monsters that had kept their distance for fear of collateral strikes roared thunderously.

The leader’s dominance drove their momentum to a peak.

"Let me handle this."

Gauss signaled the others to take care of the remaining monsters, leaving the ogre leader to him.

Eberhard shot him a worried glance.

Unspoken—but implied—was the question: can you do it?

Eberhard had planned to use his speed to harass the enemy and avoid getting drawn into the leader’s wrath.

Now the ogre leader was at full tilt and needed to be avoided.

He knew that when the main monster force withdrew to consolidate power, Sir Belock and the city garrison would sally forth to support them.

When the human army attacked from multiple sides, with them inside and the army outside, it would disperse the towering momentum at the center and create the best chance to surround and kill the ogre leader.

Gauss nodded, telling Eberhard to trust him.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to hold back—he judged they couldn’t afford more delay.

His body could barely muster one more burst. If he engaged in a prolonged fight now, he would have little energy left for a decisive fight later.

Better to try now; even if he could not kill the ogre leader, he could at least wound it severely. With Eberhard still standing, the worst outcome would be that the others would still be protected.

His gaze met the ogre leader’s icy stare.

He finally understood where the familiarity came from.

A similar current of ancient power flowed in the ogre as flowed faintly in him. Compared to Gauss’s, the ogre’s was clearly thinner,

But that ancient force granted this ogre leader its transforming ability.

"You say so, huh, Ghost Form."

Gauss licked his lips.

The ogre leader made the same motion at the same time.

A fierce desire rose in both of them.

Kill it!

The ancient bloodline flowing in their veins seemed to urge both toward slaughter.

It was like breeding a murderous parasite—when two parasites met, bloodshed followed until a perfect, supreme parasite-king was born.

"Truly an evil bloodline."

Gauss shook his head, his understanding of the Ghost Form racial talent deepening.

In level, Gauss was at a disadvantage, but his Ghost Form bloodline was purer.