CHAPTER 49: QUIVERS

Heat radiating from the fireplaces inside the goblins’ hideout spread across its entire compartment. But the heat could not reduce the chilly atmosphere present as two humans stood in a standoff with dozens of enraged goblins.

Ragnar and Noah stood calmly, both wearing cold grins on their confident faces. They watched the goblins’ movements with measured patience.

In front of them, the three sturdy stone golems stood tall, their lifeless eyes fixed in the direction of the goblins.

"CHEE"

"CHEE!"

The goblins’ confused chattering could be heard, cutting the awkward silence that hung in the air. They exchanged looks with one another, silently questioning the nature of the giant stone creatures — in a way, they felt scared.

"Activate the golems!"

Ragnar commanded, and 5 MP was immediately deducted.

Instantly, the faint blue veins on the stone golems’ bodies glowed sharply, indicating their activation.

At that moment, a new feeling was born within Ragnar, strange and unique — he felt a strong connection with the stone golems in front of him, a connection that gave him control over them. It was like hearing their silent intent.

The goblins stalled their attacks and remained fixated on the three stone golems. Their hesitation gave Ragnar a slight edge. It gave him a brief planning window.

Noah himself stared at the golems with curiosity, his gaze betrayed interest, not surprise.

Ragnar cleared his throat and gave the first command, "Charge!"

Instantly, the stone golems exploded forward with insane speed.

The goblins’ eyes widened, and they lifted their weapons in defense. Some even charged forward while a few cowered backward.

"Chee!"

The courageous goblin warriors charged the stone golems with confidence, but it was futile.

"Smash them to bits!" Ragnar’s loud voice commanded.

The stone golems, already in the midst of the goblins, clasped their heavy stone hands, lifted them, and brought them down toward the goblins in front of them.

BOOM!

A small explosive sound accompanied by a subtle quake could be heard. Three unfortunate goblins were pounded to meat paste in a single move. Time seemed to slow down as their deaths slowly settled among their comrades.

Their eyes widened in shock and horror. Those close to the golems slowly backed away in fright — but it was futile.

"Continue!" Ragnar barked at his stone golems once more.

Obliging, the golems leapt toward the other goblins and smashed them to bits, their huge, heavy bodies even managing to injure nearby goblins who stood in their path without directly attacking.

"CHEEE!"

Following the second set of death, the goblins let out loud screams and began an onslaught to fight for their lives.

The goblin warriors charged.

The goblin archers readied their arrows.

The low-level goblin spellcasters chanted their spells.

At the same time, Ragnar and Noah gripped their swords and charged forward.

In less than thirty seconds, the goblin hideout turned into a chaotic bloodbath — the golems, sturdy and unstoppable, smashed all their opponents to bits. The two humans, fearless and seeking revenge, slashed and stabbed their enemies to death.

After about three minutes, more than half of the goblin population had met their unplanned end.

"NOAH! SHIELD!" Ragnar’s voice called out to Noah, who was slashing a group of goblin warriors mercilessly.

Heeding Ragnar’s voice, Noah quickly grabbed a goblin warrior corpse lying beside him and held it as a shield toward the goblin spellcasters.

PHEW!

A total of five fireballs were hurled in Noah’s direction.

BOOM!

Thanks to Ragnar’s warning, the fireballs struck the corpse shield and were nullified.

CHEE!

Using the opportunity, two goblin warriors attacked from both flanks of Noah.

Noah’s eyes noticed the two warriors and glinted coldly.

He quickly tossed the corpse away and lunged at the one on his left flank.

CLANG! He blocked its attack.

STAB!! Before the goblin could retaliate, Noah stabbed its chest.

"CHEE!"

The other attacker arrived and cried out in rage as it witnessed its comrade’s death.

Noah instinctively sidestepped to evade the downward slash from the goblin warrior. Then, with a precise move, he kicked the goblin’s legs, sending it falling face-first to the ground. The goblin let out a small grunt of pain — before it could struggle up, Noah killed it.

Meanwhile, the golems continued smashing the goblins to bits.

"Charge! Smash!" Ragnar’s decisive voice rang out command frequently.

|| Your stone golems have slayed X1 goblin, XP +34 ||

|| You’ve leveled up ||

|| Level 8 ----- Level 9 ||

|| Your stone golems have slayed X1 goblin, XP +34 ||

|| You’ve slayed X1 goblin, XP +34 ||

Countless notifications popped up in front of Ragnar every second. The notifications appeared so fast that even if Ragnar focused on them, he would be unable to read them without missing a dozen.

"This is great!" Ragnar rejoiced as he tossed the corpse of a dead goblin warrior away and latched onto another. "The kills of the stone golems even grant me experience points!"

"Just a few XP remaining to enter level 10!" Ragnar muttered to himself.

With a great sense of joy, Ragnar’s battle became even more enjoyable as he zapped amongst the population of goblins, taking down multiple of them every minute.

While the battle rang on, the five mysterious goblin spell casters at the back did not budge.

"Strange." Ragnar commented as he pushed a goblin warrior aside.

"Ever since the fight began, none of those goblins has made a single move, not even a slight movement." Ragnar muttered.

He had been observing the five of them since the beginning.

They were oddly calm for goblins whose comrades are being slaughtered like chickens — except their eyes that followed the humans from time to time, no other movement could be noticed from them.

"They shouldn’t be that much of a trouble. I should test their strength out with the golems," Ragnar murmured.

"Golems..." he called out.

The golems halted their onslaught and turned in his direction. Their blue eyes shone with respect and familiarity.

"Attack those fuckers," he pointed at the five mysterious goblins and commanded.

A subtle movement could be seen from their heads as they agreed. Afterwards, they turned to their new opponent and began charging towards them. They stomped past the unfortunate goblins who stood on their path.

Ragnar watched them.

The eyes of the five goblins moved slightly and were now fixated on the stone golems charging towards them.

’What are they going to do?’ Ragnar wondered.

His thoughts quickly answered as the five goblins lifted their hands at the same time. Ragnar noticed their mouths moving in sync.

’What are they doing?’ he thought.

Just then, the ground of the cave quaked. If Ragnar and Noah’s balance had been weak, they would have fallen like the rest of the goblins.

’It is the handiwork of those five,’ Ragnar’s eyes furrowed and focused on their movement.

The stone golems were a few meters away from them.

Just then, several chains made of sturdy rock shot out from the ground and swiftly attached to the bodies of the golems, restricting their movements.

|| Your stone golems has been trapped. || Onyx notified.

"I can see that already," Ragnar murmured with a frown.

At the moment, the three golems were rendered immobile by the sturdy chains wrapped around their feet. They even tried to move their feet but it was impossible.

Seeing this, Ragnar finally realized why those goblins had been so calm since the beginning.

"They will be troublesome," Ragnar concluded.

He focused on the goblin spell caster in front of him who was chanting a spell. He sent a flying kick to the head of the goblin, causing it to burst open and splatter blood everywhere.

For the next five or so minutes, Ragnar and Noah took down the remainder of the goblins. Of course, except the mysterious five at the back.

Both of them stood in the midst of the heap of corpses and observed the far end of the cave, where the golems could be seen, trapped by sturdy chains just a few meters away from the five mysterious goblins.

"We need to swift to take down those three," Ragnar suggested.

Noah nodded, "It would be even better if we could use long range attacks to pierce them from afar."

’That is a brilliant idea.’

Ragnar’s eyes widened.

"We can use their own weapons against them."

Ragnar looked at the heap of corpses, he spotted several bows and quivers of arrows still intact. He rushed to pick up as much as he could and passed some to his friend. Both of them now held a bow and a quiver containing dozens of arrows.