Supreme Magus novel Chapter 176

Yurial’s words struck everyone, making them freeze for a split second, even Lith.

He immediately understood why he had been forbidden to take part in the test as a regular student. For him it would have been a stroll in the park.

With their skinny limbs and bloated bellies, the goblins almost resembled the pictures of starving kids that humanitarian associations back on Earth would use in their fundraisers.

They were short, between one and 1.2 meters (3’3" and 3’11") high, and their disproportionately large eyes emphasized their childish appearance. Their bloodlust and their hungry, lustful gazes, though, revealed their true nature.

If was the first time for the whole group seeing humanoid monsters. They usually lived in the wilderness, far away from populated areas. Unless of course, the humans had been so stupid to chase or hunt away the magical beasts.

Humanoid monsters travelled in small tribes, needing time to settle up and grow their numbers before becoming a real threat. Magical beasts were the natural predators of such creatures that disrupted the natural flow of things.

They would hunt, cut down trees and destroy their surroundings recklessly since once humanoid monsters exhausted the natural resources, they would simply move to a new region and start over.

Magical beasts would react to their presence, slaughtering them before the cycle of destruction, r*pe and murder could begin. In the new world as long as the balance between humans, monsters and beasts stood, no race was allowed to grow unchecked.

When the goblin with the club entered her range, Phloria did not hesitate. She slashed down with her estoc aiming for the neck. Thanks to its instinct, the creature managed somehow to react, blocking with its stone weapon.

The estoc crushed the club, but in the process it was deflected, cutting off the goblin’s left arm instead. The creature’s scream was human like, its blood spattered on the cave’s walls staining them red.

Phloria had never wounded someone intentionally, so her first instinct was to stop and provide first aid. The goblin perceived her weakness and exploited it using its now sharp stick to stab her throat.

Phloria inwardly cursed at her stupidity, while all her training kicked in, allowing her to deflect the stick with the shield and to cut the goblin’s head off for good. In the time she needed to do so, however, two goblins managed to slip past her.

What she had never thought about, is that after decapitation the heart would keep pumping for a few seconds, generating a fountain of blood that blinded her long enough for even more goblins to pass, while the others surrounded her from all sides.

One goblin was enough to throw Quylla on the ground, pinning her down with its weight while trying to rip off her uniform and slash her with a knife at the same time. She hadn’t expected Phloria to fail, so she was still chanting a tier three spell when it happened.

She started to yell and cry at the same time, helplessly attempting to get it off her. What the creature lacked in strength, it compensated in fury and hunger. The uniform protected Quylla from the poisoned knife, but she could still feel the hits.

Another girlish scream quickly followed. Yurial had fallen as well for the sudden attack. Unlike Quylla, armed or not a single goblin wasn’t enough to bring down someone of his height and build.

Once a second and a third one joined the fray, though, he fell to the ground, his vision blurred by the blood coming from multiple hits to the head.

The scene almost paralysed Friya too, but Quylla screams woke her up immediately. Her new rapier made short work of the goblins that got close to her, blood and guts spattered everywhere, releasing a disgusting smell of sh*t and bile.

Friya repressed the urge to puke, moving forward to help Yurial, the closest one to her. Her weapon was too long, though. With so little space and the mass of piled bodies, she had no way to be sure not to stab him in the process too.

"Why didn’t I bring a short weapon too?" She cried in desperation, hitting the back of the enemies with her shield, to force them to retreat.

Lith remained in the back, flabbergasted by their incompetence.

- "Why do Quylla and Yurial hesitate to aim for the vitals? They are healers too. Why tier three magic instead of first magic? In such an enclosed space speed is more important that raw damage, not to mention these things are so small and weak."–

Since their appearance, Lith had thought about dozens of ways to effortlessly wipe out the goblins. By crushing them with spirit magic, slicing them down with a hail of ice shards, or simply cutting them apart with air magic.

They wore no protections, it wasn’t a matter of if they could kill them, just how to do it and how much made them suffer.

Lith didn’t like that situation one bit. To hold himself from intervening, he grabbed his staff strong enough to turn his hands white.

- "They are mine! How dare these monsters put their hands on them?" His mind was burning with rage.

"But everything is still under control and no one is really injured. If I help them now, they’ll learn nothing, becoming even more reliant on me. I would only cripple their growth. Is this what Linjos meant when he told me I would benefit from the test too?

Is he trying to teach me restraint?" -

In the front line, Phloria had quickly recovered, cutting down her enemies like grass. The goblins surrounded her more than once from multiple angles but they died all the same way.

With a single thrust of her estoc.

"Wish for it to get shorter!" She screamed to Friya. Orion’s gifts weren’t simple blades, they were a forgemastering treasure, able to contract and expand at will, making them suitable for every combat scenario.

Friya followed her advice, and her rapier turned into a short sword that she used to safely free Yurial.

"Use first magic, you idiot!" Lith screamed, incapable of standing idle anymore.

His voice shook Quylla from her terror. She released a jolt of electricity that stunned and paralysed the goblin. Her magic couldn’t harm her, so she ignored the current flowing through their bodies and unsheathed her knife.

Quylla stabbed the creature over and over, screaming in frenzy. Only after reducing it to a bloody mess she managed to stop.