As the goblins poured out of the camp, most of them didn't even carry torches. Rael, from above, watched them still naked, hidden among the leaves of a tree.
He narrowed his eyes. "Hmm, that actually worked. Guess goblins are still goblins after all." He was surprised at the effectiveness of his stunt, though there was a reasonable explanation for that — he had shown himself as helpless and, most of all, naked. Who knew what those green devils had in their minds.
Turning to face the now empty camp, he saw the two shamans still standing in bewilderment.
Rael turned to the scattered goblins. He'd counted a total of 67. There was no way he'd be able to deal with them quickly enough to face the ranked goblins, so he chose to face the ranked ones first.
Stretching his hands into a hole in the tree, he pulled out his leather armor and weapons.
…..
"What happened?" the goblin prince said as he rushed out of his tent to find the camp empty save for the two shamans.
The shamans, seeing their prince covered in blood and some other fluids, answered him.
"They chased after a human."
"A human? Is it a female?"
"We're not sure. We were not able to question them."
"Hmph. It better be one, or else I'll skin them alive for abandoning the camp."
A shaman with small horns around his neck narrowed his eyes.
"My prince, we are in these lands for reconnaissance — to scout out how far the human borders stretch so we can migrate to a safer area without the attention of humans." Seeing the increasing frown on his prince's already ugly face, he continued in a highly disrespectful tone, "But instead you captured this camp and hoarded all the females, even killing our kin in mass. And you know very well just how few we are. Your ambition grows wild, my prince, and I cannot tolerate it anymore. I'll be placing a complaint to our king."
Silence.
A silence stretched until the goblin prince grunted, then smiled menacingly.
"Well then, I'm sorry if my conduct and my nature — our nature — comes in the way of our goals. But you see, I am royalty in our otherwise weak race, and you are just a puppet to be used by me eventually when I become king." He drew an oversized sword from a pouch hanging by his waist.
"Tch, you'll be a fool to challenge us. You forget you're alone, my prin—" He was cut off as the sound of a blade tearing through flesh resounded from behind.
"What… hav… e you done?" the shaman strained and turned, blood dripping out the corner of his lips, only to see his brother — the other shaman — gripping tight on the blade lodged in his waist.
"Just cleansing of old blood, brother. And you're old. Very old." He drew the blade out, splashing blood across the floor as the shaman fell to his knees in pain, his staff clattering to the floor in front of him close to the feet of the goblin prince, who grinned in glee.
"Ooh, what a show. Never knew goblins had politics."
A voice cut the smile off the ugly face of the goblin prince.
The three goblins turned to see a human in leather armor holding a long blade in his right hand, while his left held an axe, gazing at them with a fascinated expression.
"Kinda made it easier, but I don't mind. Hehe, who doesn't want an easy job?" The voice of the human snapped them out of their shock as the goblin prince panicked, looking around frantically, cursing his luck that they'd been found out by humans. For only two outcomes awaited him — death by humans or flaying by his father.
He turned to the shaman, immediately regretting he'd enacted his plan too early on the only tier-2 shaman he had.
"Fuck, scan the perimeter and call those ugly scums back!"
"Y… yes!" The shaman, clearly panic-stricken as well, raised his staff and started chanting as it glowed deep green.
Rael seeing the short green devils panicking was not what he'd expected. After all the bravado he'd seen earlier while killing the cultist and the little drama that had just happened a minute ago, he'd expected they'd charge at him. Of course, Rael had no idea that though all humanoid races could wield Aether, there was a clear gap among different races. For example, while a human could probably wield 7% of Aether (with Rael as an exception) at their first awakening, a goblin could only wield 3. So basically, the reason for their panic was because the tier-1 goblin shaman was useless — only able to cast one attack spell once.
And as for the prince, he was as much a coward to the strong as he was a tyrant to the weak. But Rael had no idea, and even if he did, he wouldn't care.
He brandished his weapons and dashed forward toward the shaman, who raised his staff, suspecting he was about to cast a powerful spell.
He didn't waste any move or time and immediately swung the blade in a horizontal slash as an arc of blood-red burst forth and split through the shaman with ease, slashing into the tree behind.
"Wait, what the—" Rael was stunned. That felt too easy. No struggle, not even from the goblin prince who just stood there like a statue. He expected at least a parry or for him to defend the shaman.
Regardless, he squinted his eyes, turning to the goblin prince who finally stirred, quickly raising his large sword before tossing it to the ground and turning on his heels, running into the forest.
"What the fuck?" Rael was basically flabbergasted.
'No no no no… how can this be? Why me? Why me?' the goblin prince thought as he ran into the woods, pushing down all his Aether reserves to his feet. He'd never faced a human Aether user. Every human kill or trophy had been mere humans. He had thought facing a human Aether user shouldn't be difficult, but seeing that human immediately split that shaman in two with just a swing of his blade from afar put the fear of the gods in him.
Not just that — beings that could pour Aether out of their bodies, especially warrior-class Aether users, were definitely at the 2nd rank. A rank his father was at, and his father himself would definitely run from a fellow rank-2 human, not to talk of him.