CHAPTER 66: THE GOBLIN RAID [PART 2]

The number of Goblins didn’t seem to dwindle even as the two of them carved through them with blazing speed and devastating power.

Adrian hung back, watching Lucien with mounting amazement.

’He’s so fluid... so smooth... Like he’s everywhere all at once.’

If there was one thing Lucien had mastered while hunting in the forest, it was how to move with deadly precision. He had poured most of his attribute points into Speed, boosting Strength as well, but he’d dramatically increased his speed-to-strength ratio, with the scale heavily favoring speed.

Lucien understood perfectly how crucial strength was—he wasn’t undermining it. However, he believed in personalization.

There’s how a person wants to move, and how they want to control their body. For this reason, he had even taken the grueling decision to hit the gym. It had always been torture, and Lucien knew how heavy his hands were.

But the beauty of it was that the pain didn’t follow him into the game. For the next few days, or perhaps just a couple of hours, he didn’t need to worry about his leaden arms.

The results were practically instantaneous—simple movement drills gave him a superior grasp of his mobility.

The improvement wasn’t immediately obvious, but to Lucien, it was crystal clear, and he suspected that had to do with his deep passion for Analytical Mechanics.

From General Relativity to Lagrangian and Hamiltonian motion, to Quantum Field Theory, Symplectic Geometry, and Noether’s Theorem.

Each of these topics had their specific approach to motion, but a comprehensive theoretical knowledge of all of them served as a rich repository for Lucien to experiment with countless techniques.

Especially since he was currently in a world where the line between reality and illusion was utterly blurred.

Anything was possible in Evolution Online, and this was barely the beginning of his exploits.

He shot forward wielding both swords, more Goblins swarming around him, savagely trying to bring him down, but Lucien was lightning-fast, and his body was iron-strong.

When they grabbed his legs, it didn’t stop him from moving exactly as he wanted. He simply dragged them along, and his sword would crash down on their heads.

More of Adrian’s verdant arrows flew from behind, striking several Goblins and giving Lucien unexpected moments of reprieve—the handsome young attendant had definitely proven more useful than anticipated.

He gripped one short sword in reverse and hacked forward with the other, driving the blade deep into the Red Goblin’s shoulder while the second sword arced up from below, wreathed in flames, and slashed across the Red Goblin’s hands.

The monster unleashed a bone-chilling screech. It was ablaze but lunged toward Lucien in a frenzy—however, its head flew into the air as an invisible cut passed through.

Lucien watched the creature crumple before him for a moment.

He grinned.

’God, I’m so good.’

He rolled powerfully and slashed across the torso of a goblin already airborne, descending toward him.

Lucien’s eyes delivered everything sight-related on a golden platter, and his brain worked in perfect synchronization to process that information.

Plus [Predator’s Instinct] was constantly warning him. Whenever he received a warning, he knew exactly where the killing intent originated, and with his eyes perpetually scanning in nanoseconds, Lucien already had it all figured out.

Of course, granted they were small and easily defeatable goblins like these.

Perception is one thing; fighting them is another. The fact that he could see them coming didn’t guarantee he’d always defeat them.

Lucien had encountered some truly formidable monsters he’d been forced to flee from because he didn’t want to die. And there was one situation with a level 100 monster where running wasn’t possible—Gaya had to kill it herself.

He was hoping this wouldn’t be a situation like that. He despised having his kills stolen. That level 100 would have catapulted him to a new level, no doubt.

He moved and swirled again, driving his sword into the right flank of another goblin.

Another one lunged and smashed its shield against Lucien’s head. His head snapped back.

[You have received 1 damage]

Head strikes used to be a problem until he’d consumed that damn bone.

He slowly turned toward the goblin, his eyes blazing fiercely within the mask. He drove his sword forward and severed the other goblin in two, then stepped closer to the shield-bearer and plunged his sword into its leg to prevent it from fleeing.

Lucien threw his head back and smashed it into the goblin—blood erupted forth and its skull split instantly. Blood leaked from its eyes, nose, and ears before it collapsed in agony.

Another arrow streaked from behind and buried itself in the eye of a goblin already lunging at Lucien, but Lucien had already spun around.

Just as the arrow pierced the eye, his sword plunged into the throat and ripped it out—the goblin crumpled.

Now, the crowds of goblins weren’t as dense as before. All of them had formed a circle around him, leaping at him while trying to reach the mage archer too.

But Adrian could do more than just shoot arrows. The ground sprouted thorned vines that ensnared and shredded goblins that dared venture close enough to him.

Lucien raised his swords—one resting on his shoulder while the other stayed ready, waiting for the next candidate to die.

The green goblins were easy to dispatch; the red ones didn’t have any special abilities, but Lucien had noticed they were more tenacious and often had an element of surprise.

So he couldn’t just strike them and turn away—it would cost him dearly.

So he stayed extra vigilant with them.

However, something still felt off.

’Is this all?’

Or was it just him?

Was this all it took to destroy the villagers? All the Adventurers were fleeing from? It made no sense.

Something was very wrong.

Or maybe he was overthinking it?

Either way, Lucien continued to engage and fight. With Adrian’s exceptional support, everything was flowing amazingly smooth.

The circle was shrinking, and Lucien was moving closer to the cave entrance they had all poured out from.