The battle's weight bore down mercilessly on Alex, trapping him in a narrow corridor where survival was no longer a choice, but a brutal test of his resolve and the abilities he had earned. He had to summon every shred of strength, every skill he'd honed, just to stay alive in the face of an almost impossible confrontation.
The Evolved Goblin advanced toward Alex, climbing the staircase with heavy, deliberate steps, as if fully aware of the danger he represented. And when they stood face-to-face, Alex realized this creature was nothing like any goblin he had encountered before. This wasn't merely a goblin—it was a monster. Nearly seven feet tall, its massive, sculpted body was a fortress of hardened muscle. It wielded a spear a full foot longer than itself, forged from some dark, ominous metal.
But the true terror wasn't its size.
It was the killing aura that radiated from it—thick, suffocating, draining the light around its frame, cloaking it in a mantle of living shadow. Its glowing yellow eyes pierced straight through Alex, holding a silent promise of death unlike anything he'd ever faced.
"Well… this might actually be fun,"
Alex joked in a strained tone, masking the tension clawing at his chest.
At that tense moment, while his full attention was fixed on the monster before him, Alex heard noises from behind. The shuffle of feet… the metallic clatter of weapons… and in that instant, his worst fear solidified: he was surrounded. Other goblins were closing off the corridor, trapping him between the hammer of the evolved goblin and the anvil of the rest of the pack. The air thickened. Breathing became difficult. The danger had reached its peak—no room left for mistakes.
"Damn it… of course this would happen now," Alex muttered under his breath.
He had no time to strategize or devise a plan. At that very moment, the evolved goblin moved. With startling speed, it swung its massive spear from what should have been an impossible distance—nearly ten meters away. But the swing wasn't normal. A crescent of compressed air—an invisible blade—burst forth, screaming toward Alex with murderous speed.
There was no time to dodge. The corridor was too cramped.
He had one option: absolute defense.
He unleashed the full power of the octopus, activating his defensive layer and pouring every drop of mana he had into his body at once. At the same time, he drew in mana from the environment in a desperate attempt to replenish what he was burning. Four armored, invisible tentacles erupted forward, forming a living shield in front of him.
The wind blade slammed into them with a thunderous crack—an explosion of force that shook the corridor and blasted dust into the air. The impact hurled Alex back nearly two meters; he nearly lost his footing. He wasn't mortally wounded—the tentacles had absorbed most of the blow—but the shock rattled him deeply. Another attack of this level… he wouldn't withstand many.
His muscles trembled. The octopus power was draining him too fast.
He glanced back. Two ordinary goblins were already charging at him.
Standing still against the evolved goblin would be suicide.
I need to get out… fighting that thing head-on is too dangerous. If I let them trap me again, it's over.
Suddenly, Alex sprinted—using every ounce of speed his reinforced legs could provide. The evolved goblin roared and charged after him, its thunderous steps shaking the corridor. At the same moment, the two normal goblins lunged with their spears, trying to impale him before he could escape.
With lightning-fast reflexes, Alex launched two tentacles backward like hidden spears. One goblin reacted surprisingly well, blocking the tentacle with its own spear—but the sheer force behind Alex's attack sent him crashing into the wall.
The second goblin wasn't as fortunate—Alex's tentacle pierced through its stomach and burst out the other side, killing it instantly.
Using the remaining tentacles to grip the corridor walls, Alex propelled himself forward, soaring past the stunned goblin who had barely recovered from the impact. He gained distance rapidly, but the evolved goblin was still chasing him with terrifying speed.
As Alex flew through the corridor, the stunned goblin tried to regain its stance and thrust its spear—but Alex caught the weapon mid-air, halted it cold, and with a single brutal strike to the head, crushed its jaw and skull. Its body dropped like a stone.
No time to celebrate.
A sudden gust behind him—Alex spun just in time to see two more wind blades slicing toward him.
He summoned his tentacles again, pulling four of them behind his back to form another thick shield. The wind blades collided violently, sending a shockwave that hurled Alex down the corridor like a ragdoll.
And in that same heartbeat, the evolved goblin grabbed a fallen spear and hurled it with monstrous strength toward the airborne Alex.
There was no room to dodge.
No space to brace.
No time to breathe.
He tried anchoring himself to the walls with his tentacles—but that slowed him down, exposing him completely.
The spear was already upon him.
With no choices left, Alex thrust his left hand forward, covering it with a hardened tentacle. The spear punched through his hand as if through paper—but the reinforced tentacle reduced the lethal force enough that it didn't reach his heart.
Pain erupted through his body like a lightning bolt.
A real injury.
A real, searing, paralyzing agony.
For a few eternal seconds, Alex felt as though death itself brushed past him.