Chapter 89 - 86 : Final Fight 3; Gratitude

"I can't and I won't die!" Sygrart roared out.

Placing his palms together, a bit off black lightning and black miasma alongside green coloured spooky mana, flowed together and gathered at the space between his palms. Separating the two hands apart, a green coloured rod began to take shape until Sygrart's hands had parted for at least a metre wide. Grabbing the rod by the centre, Sygrart spun it a bit and as he did so, the rod elongated to a length of 2 metres before he stopped.

"Changing your fighting style won't change a thing. [Justice slash]!"

Though surprised at the weird change in fighting style of the boss monster, Griffin still kept his head in the game as he used his signature skill to attack.

"Vile creature, perish." Sygrart stated before taking a stance and receiving Griffin's attack with a strike of his own.

Griffin, who expected this, remained calm as he believed that he had the upper hand in this fight after all, the boss is a mage not a close combat fighter class. But oh, who wrong was he. The two figures clashed with one another and Griffin was surprised to see that Sygrart could still hold him off. Annoyed by this, Griffin followed up on his attack with one slash after another. Sygrart however, was destined to keep surprising him as they both exchanged t least 12 hits with one another but Griffin couldn't force him back nor could he land a clear hit.

"[Drill Shot]"

Frustrated at the fact that his previous shot didn't really do anything to the boss, Dream Tiger utilised the opportunity where Griffin distanced himself away from Sygrart to fire an arrow. The skill he used was the ranger's classic [Drill shot] that increased the [Movement speed] of his arrow by x2 its regular speed with a 140% Attack power. Using this skill in this well timed moment was more than enough to show Dream Tiger's expertise in combat.

Sygrart, who had already gone berserk, used his rod to swathe the arrow away but took a step back. This didn't mean that Dream Tiger's [Strength] was higher than Griffin (who couldn't achieve this), instead it was because Sygrart was taken by surprise and hadn't properly blocked the attack.

Chesces hastily appeared and slashed at Sygrart but he actually smirked and tapped his rod. A thin black bolt shot out from the staff and because he never really expected that, it struck Chesces directly. In less than a second, Chesces' HP had gone below the zero mark indicating his death.

The players froze for a few seconds before a shout broke the silence.

"Captain!" That was a sudden kill and even Kylian wasn't expecting it as before he could respond to Chesces being hit, he was already dead.

"So he still has a few cards hidden." Dream Tiger smiled bitterly.

"If we can't approach him, how do we beat him?" Griffin, who had quickly made a gap between himself and Sygrart after seeing him one-shot Chesces, spoke out. With the death of Chesces, everyone suddenly became a lot more wary of Sygrart but they couldn't keep this passive measure up for long as there was timer. If they couldn't figure out how to beat the boss, all their current achievements would have been for naught.

"Have you noticed? Just like the last time, he doesn't dare to exit the formation. I think it has something to do with the descent of that being." Sato suddenly said.

"I think you're right. So then what do we do?" Yukino stared at this cloaked individual who had so far performed alright without making any errors. Yukino was slightly impressed by that as based on the fact that he hid himself, she suspected that he should be a solo player. A solo player with such skills capable of almost rivalling a 'false king', would be valued anywhere.

"He can't use that attack continuously or else he would have done so before. The System isn't so twisted as to make such an OP boss for players like ourselves. We just have to be more cautious." Sato said.

"MT, coordinate with me. I will make an opportunity for you guys to land a hit. The boss only has 50 HP so two or three hits should do it. Get ready."

"Okay." Griffin replied.

Sato dashed forward with Griffin and while doing so, he said to his neighbor "Grab his attention for awhile let me close up the gap."

Griffin nodded before roaring out loud with the skill [Thunder Roar]. Sygrart pointed his rod at the direction of the roar and released an air-wave that collided with the sound attack, neutralizing it. Of course, Griffin wasn't done a she used the iconic [Taunt] skill and made himself the target of hate for Sygrart. That wasn't enough for him however as Griffin used [justice slash] which was off its cool-down during their period of shock and hesitation after Chesces' death.

A glowing sword was lifted high up and it seemed like the centre of everything. Kylian also decided to participate even more actively as he used the druid's [Nature's Enticement]on Sygrart, stunning him for a very short while. This very short while was however, extremely useful to Sato and co who made their attacks during this period. Fudo and Dream Tiger attacked from the back and Sato and Yukino, who was no longer under the effects of the berserk potion, attacked Sygrart.

As Sato was a lot closer first, his attack reached faster but by then, Sygrart had recovered from the effects of [Nature's Enticement] but due to the effects of [Taunt] he was forced to focus on Griffin who was also close by. With two attacks coming in hot, Sygrart decided to use a barrier to block them but Sato read this as he attacked at a different spot. Why you ask? Because the effects of Griffin's [Justice slash] hadn't been used yet and it would pretty much take a toll on the boss if he tried to block both attacks. In other words, the boss would have to focus the strength of his barrier on one of two points.

This idea was quite effective as Sygrart decided to strengthen the barrier on Griffin's end as he felt that his attack was more deadly. Of course this didn't bother Sato as that was his plan all along.

"Break, Seven Dragon Moves, Dragon Claw."

Sato executed the Seven Dragon Moves' Dragon Claw and because he hadn't truly mastered it, his was far lacking when compared to Old Juro(his grandfather). If both were to be compared side by side, Sato's own would look like a doodle drawing while Old Juro's would look like a masterpiece by a renowned artist or mangaka[1] but it was still suitable to do the job.

Sato struck the barrier and as expected, it didn't break with his sword bouncing back but he wasn't disappointed by this but rather pleased. Using the principles of the Dragon Claw move, he used the rebound force that was applied on his sword and redirected it to slash once more at the same spot swiftly. This time however, he used a skill.

"[Horizontal slash]"

With the second strike, not only did the barrier crack but it actually shattered. Sygrart was stunned as he was currently entangled with Griffin who was in front of him. Yukino suddenly appeared into the picture, using the moment Sygrart was stunned, and hacked at him. Sygrart, of course, had learnt from his previous mistakes of being taken by surprise from his barrier breaking and so narrowly dodged the attack. However, that was the worst mistake he made.

*Phew*

An arrow flew by with Yukino as the cover and once Sygrart dodged her attack, he was greeted by the sight of an arrowhead. As he had just dodged and attack and hadn't gotten the chance to balance himself, he couldn't dodge again and was forced to block with his rod. The force from the arrow destabilized hims, almost pushing him to the floor but Sygrart somehow stood back still. Yukino slashed out again and this time, Sygrart could neither block nor dodge.

*Crackle*

Little black lightning bolts swam around the rod and this succeeded in scaring Yukino to a retreat but not Sato who attacked from behind.

"Die." Sato hacked out the first time with [Chop] plus Swift Kill and the second time with [horizontal Slash] ending the life of the monster that had eliminated two of their allies.

As Sygrart fell, unwillingness was written on his face but for some reason, his eyes seemed to be relaxed, as if finally being set free from a bondage.

As the body slowly fell, Sato seemed to have entered another illusion.

A long time ago...

In an unnamed forest in ...there was a small goblin settlement that dwelled there. Numbering between 50-70 goblins, they all knew each other and were extremely close. Unlike the regular wild goblins adventurers usually encountered, these ones seemed to be a bit civilized and cultured. They had houses made out of straws and branches, special wooden pots with a few being metallic. They had metallic weapons and a specific organization and development pattern with jobs being assigned to one another. Of course, the jobs weren't advanced ones like one would see in modern day society but rather hunting, farming, build and the rest.

In this settlement, an event was currently being held. A man in a dark cloak had earlier walked into the settlement in search of someone. According to the village chief, the man was an emissary of their god who had come to look for a young goblin chosen to serve their god.

Right now, the village chief's house was crowded with most of the goblin villagers as they stared in curiosity and wonderment at the cloaked man. Some of them even had expectations and hopes to be the chosen one. After discussing with the village head, he met with a young goblin that was a little bit different from the others. This little goblin had more similarities with human beings than goblins and despite being 'little', he was taller than his peers at his age.

"Little one, come with me and I shall grant you a path to salvation."

The man extended his hand to the little goblin with a smile on his lips.

"You should be lucky, child. You would have a better life following him." The village chief smiled kindly.

While all this took place, the other villagers had stared at the little goblin with envy in their faces. At this same time they were also puzzled and confused as to how a half-blood would receive the favor of their god. Indeed, this little goblin was the half-blood goblin boss, Sygrart.

"...okay." After hesitating a bit, little Sygrart agreed to go with the cloaked man.

Later in the day, the other goblins gathered at the gate to send the duo off and while some were still envious, they had no choice other than to suck it up. A few others even went to little Sygrart and tried to make themselves look good by being nice to him and wishing him well, with the desire of course to be remembered by this chosen lad.

Little Sygrart, on the other hand, was feeling weird about all this friendliness. The people that had previously mocked and taunted him suddenly started smiling and flattering him. Some of them had bullied him and made him run dumb and dangerous errands despite his young age and lack of survival knowledge.

Nonetheless, he smiled back at them absentmindedly and focused only on one person, a little female goblin like himself, who also happened to be a half-blood.They had grown up together almost like siblings and were the only half-bloods left. He cared for her as his little sister and shouldered all the burden and hate of being a half-blood on behalf of her. Despite not being related, their bond was thicker than blood and Sygrart had planned to take her as his once he grew up but now fate had separated them.

Little Sygrart stared at her with eyes that seemed to say 'I promise I will see you again soon' while she nodded back frenziedly while trying to hold back her tears but she apparently wasn't doing a good job at that. With the memory of her in mind and a sharp pain in his heart, little Sygrart left the village alongside the cloaked man and swore to return back stronger to meet the love of his life and give her the best of what she never got. Unbeknownst to him, that was the last time he would have ever seen her as a few years later, news reached him that the goblin settlement was wiped out by human adventurers.

When such news reached him, little Sygrart hated himself for abandoning her and not being by her side and so he separated himself from his emotions and fanatically served 'Him' in hopes of bringing her back to life. But all the years he spent without her was like torture to him such that Sygrart wished it would all come to an end and he would meet her once again. But fate had a different plan for him…until now.

Finally Sato left the illusion and as he did so, a voice sounded in his ears.

"Thank you."

Infinite Facts :

Goblins, like every other monsters, feast on human flesh. However, there are certain cases where they mate with a human female. Normally, due to the difference in species and also since most goblins end up eating the female, the possibility of a successful childbirth is low. In the situation where childbirth is successful, the child born is a half-blood despised by both goblins and humans.

As a half monster and one of a man-eating creature, humans would detest such a creature like an abomination. Since humans are food for goblins, a half-blood is seen as a more exquisite dessert but they are not always eaten and in most cases, are treated as slaves or just slaughtered as a form of entertainment. In more lucky scenarios, especially in a more civilized goblin society, half-bloods are usually banished or treated as the members of the lower rung of society.. Simply put, life for a half-goblin is tough.