CHAPTER 100: D-RANK DUNGEON: PART IV

The goblin chief chewed on a raw, bloody, thick hunk of meat. Its eyes, small, flicked toward them, irritation spreading like a wildfire across its face.

A faint tremor occurred on the ground as the goblin chief shifted its massive body. Eight feet of pure, lethargic power uncoiled all at once.

Elesch took a step forward, but her knees felt like they were going to give out, tendons feeling like strings about to snap. "I... I’m fine," she muttered, more to herself than to the other two.

The black aura that had surrounded her rapier was glitching out, as the accumulated toll of using too much mana hit all at once, her vision blurred, her world went around and around, sweat dripping from her forehead, her breath hollow, as she collapsed on the ground.

"Elesch!" Adam lunged, dropping to his knees beside her in an instant. He scooped her head from the ground and cradled her against his chest. "Stay with me now. You pushed yourself too hard, again. You have to accept that you aren’t him."

He glanced at Nova, but only for a second, before swifting back, and placing her head on his lap, adjusting carefully, one arm around her shoulders, as the other brushed her hair from her face.

Elesch’s eyes opened slightly, dizzy but locking onto his. The situation, the closeness, hit them both hard. Both of them blushed, Elesch more than him. Her blush first crept on her neck, then spread across her cheeks. Then, she shifted slightly, trying to hide her blush from Adam.

"A-Adam, I’m okay. I just overdid it, is all." She stuttered slightly, her voice low and soft, almost a whisper, shy across her body. The vulnerability she felt in that very moment was something eye-opening for her, since she only got this vulnerable in front of Nova or Freya.

Adam’s face also had a blush. His free arm hovered awkwardly before settling on her arm, not knowing what to do. He looked away for a moment, as his hormones acted up and rose a part of the body that he didn’t want either of them to see.

After a second of controlling, breathing in and out, he looked back, complimenting her. "You’re tough, I know that. But even you have limits that you can only gradually cross. So, don’t scare me like that."

He swallowed, his grin lopsided, trying to sound wise and cool. The blush deepened on his cheeks, some of it spreading off to his neck, as a deafening silence emerged. For a moment, as the two made a strong eye contact, everything faded: the pain, the village, the chief, Nova; it was just them in their own little fantasy, trying to carve it out as fast and slow as possible.

Nova spared them a quick, cold glance, his expression hardening by the second. He was now gravitationally attracted to the chief fatass, and now, all he had to do was defeat the chief to activate the checkpoint.

His ego surfaced, surging forth abruptly, but controlled enough for him to act precisely, not wildly like before, where he had none of his senses to help him. He couldn’t be reckless anymore.

The chief stirred again, rising grotesquely, the throne crunching under the sudden shift of weight. If the throne were a living creature, it would be thanking Nova for coming and getting the boss of it.

It was two feet taller than Nova, its belly hugging a belt of bones scarred just above its waist. It unsheathed its club, like a broken samurai warrior. Then, suddenly, it roared, which exploded outward in a tumultuous, strident snarl.

The shockwave alone flattened the nearby, thick stalk of grass. But Nova didn’t flinch; he scribbled the dirt from his ears before making a disappointed face, which didn’t sit well with the chief.

He planted his feet, as the chief charged, his club swinging in a wide, mountain-shattering arc. Nova sidestepped effortlessly, the club slamming the ground, creating a crater and sending up a platter of white blood and mud.

Nova didn’t waste a second; he sliced through the goblin’s open side, pinpointing all of his destruction into a single point, rather than a wild gash, to inflict even more pain, peeling into more layers, rather than just one or two.

The goblin chief moved wildly, faster than Nova had anticipated. Nova escaped from the area, but not without getting a cut on his left shoulder. His ego felt hurt, since he didn’t think that the goblin was going to land even a single blow, so he channeled his aggression further, carving out the chief’s forearm in a million pieces.

The chief, desperate now, slammed its good fist into the ground, summoning a burst of spikes that erupted in a circle around Nova, meant to impale and trap. Then, the vines that Elena and Marcus spoke about came from the shadows of the thick grass, slashing at his legs.

Nova leapt up, and the vines followed, but it was better for him now that he had a better visual and target. He slashed downward, destroying the vines and some of the pillars, which were just annoying.

The chief capitalized, hurling his club overhead for an overhead smash. The weapon was thrust towards Nova, who sidestepped and then closed the gap between him and the chief, as the club shattered the nearby ground.

He carved at the chief even more, but the chief was relentless. It didn’t want to die so easily. The chief lunged one last time, meeting Nova head-on, a mistake he would regret making, since Nova’s ego was fueling his power and making him schizophrenic, his mind whispering profusely as each second passed.

Nova finished slicing the chief, as they met head-on, his expression as cold as ever, as not even an ounce of emotion was displayed. This was worse than going towards absolute zero and freezing; his expression defied logic, unlocking something so innate that no mortal had ever discovered it.

The chief’s bones, flesh, white blood, every fiber of the chief’s being fell to the ground, sliced into infinitesimal pieces that the naked eye couldn’t even examine.