Chapter 32 - An Intriguing Succubus (3)

Outside the house, with the tiny silver key tucked safely inside one of the pockets of my leather pants, I headed toward the source of the noise. The commotion came from the center of town, where a man dressed in hide armor was blowing furiously into a horn, panting to catch his breath after each prolonged effort.

On the many earthen paths in the town, I could see numerous hastily armed men and women of fighting age heading in all four directions. It seemed the invalids, children, and some mothers stayed inside their homes while the rest prepared to fight.

Looking around, I decided to follow the side of town where most of the throngs of armed people were gathering. A short moment later, I arrived at the entrance of the town from which I had entered.

Up on the ramparts of the wooden walls that surrounded the town, I could see many men and women holding bows aimed at whoever—or whatever—was outside the walls. Most wore poorly made leather armor, while a few were dressed in plain clothing, and the rare individual sported steel.

Intrigued by what lay beyond the walls, I climbed up a ramp leading to the rampart situated above the entrance and pushed aside a woman to make space. It was only when she turned to look at me that I realized she was the woman who had led the five men and the woman who had allowed me to enter the town.

A distinct glare formed on her face, and her words came out almost as a growl. “You! What are you doing here?”

“Observing,” I replied calmly.

Before the woman leader could retort, I pointed toward one of the goblins below, silencing her.

“Give us half of your women and all your valuables, and we will let most of you live!” The tall goblin warrior, with yellow fangs jutting from his wide mouth, said this in a rough, guttural voice that clearly struggled with the foreign human language.

Naturally, had the goblin leader demanded these tributes in his own language, I would have perfectly understood him, thanks to my gift with languages as a dragon. It was a very useful ability that would come into play many times in the future, but at that moment, it had not been particularly helpful, as I had yet to encounter many different creatures of various races.

I glanced at the woman beside me and could see the suppressed anger just waiting to be unleashed. “These fucking goblins have been plaguing our town for weeks, and many stragglers and unfortunate souls have already lost their lives!” she shouted to the defenders on the ramparts. “Will we just lie down and give these shit stains what they want? No, I think not!”

Most of the men and women cheered, while some looked forlorn and resigned. Had I been one of the miserable humans, I would have certainly joined them in their despair, as the horde of goblins below far outnumbered the defending humans. There were probably more than five hundred here alone on this side, not counting the other sides of the town where I had seen a few defenders heading.

Were I not interested in this town, I would have simply let the goblins destroy it and observed from a distance. It was unfortunate for the goblins, but my curiosity was tugging at me to find out what the female creature with the tail was. In addition, I wanted my break to go smoothly.

Without asking for the permission of the woman beside me, I pulled out the sword sheathed behind her back and jumped from the ramparts, landing outside the town's entrance.

I had acted so quickly that the woman barely had time to protest before I landed on both feet outside the town. I could feel the eyes of the men and women on the ramparts trained upon me, wondering at my physical ability. Even without glancing back, I sensed their surprise.

I would not use magic, however, as the ability to wield it was even rarer than a human born with unnatural physical prowess; the female adventurers were good attestations to that fact.

Not wasting a moment longer, I dashed forward in a mad sprint toward the goblin leader, covering the distance that even an arrow from a short bow would have struggled to match. A few of the goblins regained their senses once I had crossed more than half the distance and came forward to meet me with their iron-tipped spears.

The goblins formed a curved line to protect their leader, cautiously holding their spears with the points aimed defensively. I took no notice of them and barreled through two goblins, breaking their line of defense by leaping high. With two quick slashes in midair that flowed smoothly from one to another, I severed the heads of two goblins, which went rolling and hit the ground almost simultaneously.

Very little blood sprayed into the air due to the quick, clean cuts I had made, even though the short sword I had borrowed was of inferior quality. I made another short jump upon landing and lunged toward the goblin leader, who was mounted on a huge black wolf, leading my attack with a downward swing of my weapon.

The black wolf lunged at me, its sharp fangs aimed to take a bite out of my feet. At the same time, the goblin leader blocked my weapon with a rounded steel shield that sported numerous nicks from past encounters. At this close range, the goblin had no room to swing his axe and instead opted to headbutt my face with his broad, green forehead.

Perceiving the incoming headbutt, I met his forehead with my own, and a loud smack resounded. The result was satisfying; I did not flinch from the collision and was not the slightest bit hurt, while the goblin howled in pain and appeared dazed. Surprise registered on his face when he realized that my forehead was multiple times harder than his.

With the goblin momentarily distracted, I glanced down and saw the wolf’s fangs trying to penetrate my feet after already piercing my boots, but the teeth were struggling to find purchase.

Using the wolf's mouth as stable ground, I transformed my free left hand into dragon talons with magic and pierced the eye of the wolf, digging deep into its skull.

I felt the wolf's mouth go limp a second later, and its body collapsed along with the goblin riding it. Not wanting to get entangled with the two corpses, I swiftly freed my left hand and kicked away from the wolf, landing a few feet away.

Dashing forward again and ignoring the goblins on the side attempting to reach me, I closed in on the goblin leader, who was trying to extricate himself from the corpse of his wolf. Before the goblin could recover, I delivered a killing blow with a quick, sharp thrust from underneath his chin into his face.

I left the buried short sword inside the goblin’s skull and grabbed the large axe he held in his hand. It seemed to be of much better quality, and I would need it to battle the other goblins. Not wanting to waste the other weapon, I also grabbed his shield and quickly secured it on my left arm.

Then I leapt into a group of spear-wielding goblins numbering in the dozens, all heading toward me. I paid no heed to their guttural shouts of anger at the sudden death of their leader. If they wanted someone to blame, they should only blame their incompetence.

By the time I had killed two dozen or so goblins with swift, powerful bashes from the shield, which caved in their skulls, varied with sharp, lethal chops from the axe, I found myself besieged on all sides by another group of goblins. This time, the group consisted of various ugly green brutes that were taller than the average goblins and nearly my height, but with more weight and muscle. They wielded an assortment of weapons, from spears to swords to axes to daggers.