CHAPTER 53: FOUR VS ONE IS A BIT CRAZY, NO?

The four hobgoblins were slowly walking towards Lanz.

You could hear the soft crunch of leaves under boot and the creak of old armor scraping against itself with each sluggish step.

Above them came the heavier buzz of their lovely pets — four giant f*cking beetles, each one easily the size of a car.

And yet, despite the very really obvious danger of the situation, Lanz was just... standing there... menacingly.

He didn’t do any of that — even though he wanted to — he was just there, casually caressing the Aged Blade Fragment with his freaky hands.

"You guys are seriously gonna aura farm on my ass? in broad daylight, as well you know, " he called out. "That’s kinda cringe, honestly."

They didn’t respond with words, duh. But they sure as hell understood that his mocking them, the vibe gave it away.

The long-spear wielder twitched his jaw sideways, signaling something.

The bow-guy called for his beetle to come down. Once down, he slapped the side of his beetle and climbed up.

Meanwhile, the two axe carriers flanked out wide.

"Right. Cool. We’re doing this sh*t," Lanz muttered under his breath, loosening his shoulders as the spear hobgoblin surged forward.

Lanz didn’t even try to block.

But he did disappear though.

[Phantom Stride – Activated.]

In one burst, he was gone, his body splitting through the air. Leaves whipped backwards in the wake of his movement, the afterimage of his figure trailing a ghost-like smear of motion before snapping back into place beside the spear wielder’s left side.

His sword was already coming down in a vicious diagonal slash, aiming to cleave through the goblin’s armor and start to get this whole mess over with early.

Unfortunately, that goblin must’ve done his homework on this sh*t.

Because it spun to his left mid-charge, planting his spear into the ground and blocking the strike with the shaft.

The impact cracked the ground.

"Ow," Lanz muttered with a wince, stepping back just as a tree exploded behind him.

The first axe-wielder had caught up, jumping to air.

He hadn’t aimed at Lanz, that would’ve been too easy to block or dodge.

Instead, he’d aimed at the branch above him, sending splinters and debris raining down.

Lanz evaded some of the debris just in time to hear the second axe guy swing in from the right.

"This is why you guys don’t get invited to parties," Lanz snapped, ducking to avoid the swing. He held that position to kick himself to a nearby tree and flipping into a tree limb. "You f*ckers literally don’t give no personal space. Just axe, long-ass-spears, and more axe."

One of the hobgoblins made an expression that basically said "you literally messed with us first." Which was... correct...

The hobgoblin with the long spear gestured the beetles to attack. The beetles descend from the air and were now on the move — slow on the ground, but heavy.

One of them lumbered forward and tried to body slam the base of the tree Lanz was perched on, shaking the whole trunk.

Lanz jumped off just in time, catching a hanging vine and Tarzan-ing across the clearing with a half-laugh, and maybe half-scream...?

But the joy didn’t last.

An arrow zipped past his ear.

He glanced up, and yep — there it was. The archer, riding on the back of his flying beetle, drawing and firing with terrifying speed.

It fires five arrows consecutively, but Lanz easily deflects them.

"F*ck! There’s a Legolas wannabe in this b*tch," Lanz grunted, twisting mid-air to land on a mossy rock.

He immediately dashed behind a thick boulder as an arrow embedded itself an inch away from his face, damaging the stone.

Another arrow hit a tree and knocked a lizard off its branch.

The lizard glared at Lanz on the way down like this was somehow his fault, which was half-correct.

"Don’t look at me like that!" he yelled quietly in a whisper.

Then one of the beetles decided to help again.

It barreled toward the boulder Lanz was hiding behind and tried to shove it aside.

The boulder didn’t budge. The beetle did.

It stumbled with an offended hiss, and Lanz immediately seized the opportunity, springing out from cover, and jumping onto the beetle’s back.

"Oh, this is happening now," he grunted, clinging to the shell as the beetle tried to shake him off.

The second axe goblin let out a throaty roar and charged at them, blade raised high like he thought he was about to make a bold heroic stand or something, only for Lanz to silently drop off the beetle’s back, land cleanly in front of the goblin, and—

[Crimson Slash – Activated.]

The blade came alive.

A surge of red light exploded across the steel, racing down the edge like fire chasing oil. With one clean downward swing, the sword painted a burning crimson crescent through the air, and it cleaved through the hobgoblin like butter, from shoulder to hip, splitting him open in a single devastating arc.

[EXP +20]

Lanz didn’t linger. His eyes were already flicking back to the beetle.

The moment it twitched, he knew what it was thinking. It tried to flap its wings, fumbling into the air in an awkward hover, but it was already too late.

Lanz blurred forward, motion snapping into a clean streak—

[Phantom Stride – Activated.]

He appeared beneath the massive creature, low to the ground and poised like a shadow with a plan. And in just under two seconds, all six of the beetle’s grotesque legs hit the forest floor in wet, twitching thuds.

The beast let out a bone-jarring screech, the sound sharp and metallic like metal grinding against itself.

SHRIIEKKKKKK!!!

It buckled, shrieking in agony, body struggling to stay aloft. Lanz didn’t even flinch. He just stood there calmly, like he was waiting. Like he had scheduled this beetle’s death a full minute ago and was just being polite about it.

The hobgoblin archer noticed the mess, and instinctively let loose six consecutive arrows in a panic.

Lanz didn’t even turn.

He smirked. "Just in time," he muttered, and then he vanished again.

[Phantom Stride – Activated.]

The arrows zipped past where he’d been — and every single one slammed into the beetle’s side. The first two dented the exoskeleton.

The next four? Cracked it wide open, tearing a ragged, oozing wound along its flank.

Purple ichor spilled out in disgusting globs.

Lanz didn’t wait for it to fully process the pain. He surged forward, diving straight into the wound like a blade diving into flesh.

P

And then—

[Crimson Slash – Activated.]

[Crimson Slash – Activated.]

[Crimson Slash – Activated.]

[Crimson Slash – Activated.]

Each strike was a flash of light and a spray of blood.

Inside that ruined cavity of armor and muscle, it looked less like a fight and more like a ritual — the sword howling in arcs of pure crimson energy, carving deeper, higher, and crueler.

The blade lit up the beetle’s insides with every swing.

The final slash tore upward through its thorax and out the top of its shell in an explosion of blood and flesh.

The beetle collapsed. Dead, smoking, and f*cking delicious. Legs twitching in that ugly, final spasm.

Lanz crawled out of its ruined chest cavity with blood dripping off his helmet, gloves, boots, and bblad.

[EXP +15]

Lanz exhaled, steam rising off the blade like it was pissed.

"Now that’s what I call pest control," he muttered, spinning the sword with a cocky grin — only for a spear to come flying straight at his neck from behind.

He ducked just in time, felt the wind of it graze past, then twisted around to see the spear hobgoblin launching through the air, mid-vault off the back of another beetle like he was competing in the goblin Olympics.

The hob dropped down right where the spear had landed, snatched it back up mid-motion, and lunged straight at him.

"Bro— personal space!" Lanz shouted, parrying just as the spear came crashing down.

Sparks exploded from the clash. He skidded backward, boots tearing into the jungle dirt, teeth clenched.

He wasn’t overwhelmed.

But he was definitely getting real sick of this sh*t.

Everywhere he moved, something was slashing at him, crashing into him, or trying to beetle-body-slam him from all directions. It was relentless.

Leaves kept slapping his face like nature was throwing hands, and the hobgoblin up above still hadn’t run out of arrows.

The axe-user was circling in from the left, about to swing wide like he’s ready to chop down a tree with Lanz’s face.

And the long-spear freak? He was just standing there now, weapon lowered slightly, eyes locked onto Lanz like he was waiting for the perfect opening — or maybe just soaking in the moment before the final clash.

But that’s the thing, despite being annoyed, this misogynistic freak was still smiling.

"Let’s finish this sh*t," Lanz said, readying his stance, smiling.

End of Chapter 53.

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ALT SYSTEM — USER PROFILE: ZERO

Level: 14

EXP: 109 / 140

Next Reward: Special Loot Box

Global System Tracking: DISABLED

World Rank Association: UNLINKED

Stats:

STR: 20 | AGI: 10 (Affinity) | VIT: 5 | DEX: 5 | INT: 14 | WIS: 5

[Available Stat Points: 0]

[Derived Stat — MANA: 41 / 70]

Skills:

[Crimson Slash Lv. 1]

[Phantom Stride Lv. 2]

[Instinctive Blade Lv.1]

[Predictive Guard Lv.1]

[Skill Fusion Menu: Active]

[Dev Tree: Tier 0 Access Granted]

[Developer Node – Fusion Core Anchor: Active]

[Skill Slot Available — Unassigned]

Equipment:

Aged Blade Fragment (??? Rarity) (Bound)

Training Ring (+1 VIT)

Bag :)