Chapter 172 - Heaven's Guards

"Activate ability: Fire Control"

"Heaven's Hero"

Using his ability, Yuki engulfed himself with flames as he forced them to take shape and solidify into a full body suit of armour which he would use to battle the now much stronger goblins which he was facing. As it would take too long for him to take back his treasured transparent blue blade from the ground, Yuki opted to construct a long sword using his ability. This also allowed him to have more control and freedom over his blade as it could be manipulated since it was created with his ability. 

Now that Yuki had a set of armour protecting him, he could attack relentlessly, and relentlessly he attacked. Yuki quickly charged towards the goblin which had turned its back on him and stabbed him in the back before the monster could even look back. It was a fatal mistake to turn your back on an enemy which wasn't dead yet. 

"How does that feel? You think I enjoyed it while you were toying with me? NO! I'm going to saviour this moment!" Yuki yelled out as blood dripped out of his head from being tossed around by the goblins. 

Before Yuki could try to attack the remaining goblins, a brave monster quickly charged at Yuki and grabbed hold of his arms before bringing him down to the ground as he crushed Yuki's arms. 

"Get off of me!" Yuki yelled out as he enhanced the flame potency on his armour which caused the front of the goblin which had held him to burn and eventually let go. 

"You got what you deserved. Now, I'm going to enjoy this," Yuki said as he leaped into the air with his flame blade. The goblins assumed that he would need to land on the ground before being able to attack them, as such, they spread out of the area which Yuki would eventually land at and got into a circular formation so they could ambush him before he could attack them. 

"A good idea, however, you forgot to account for one tiny thing," said Yuki as he revealed why his flame sword was the best blade he could've carried in that moment. 

Using his ability, Yuki increased the length of his blade and used it as a whip instead of a blade which allowed him to strike all the goblins at once by spinning it in the air before swinging it in a sideways motion which caused the flame whip to wrap around the group of goblins which stood in a circular formation. Once Yuki landed on the ground, he raised the whip which still had hold over the goblins and began to whack it on the stage before raising it in the air once more and repeating the endless process.

Seeing that their people were in danger, the remaining goblins began to charge at Yuki in hopes of at least distracting him for a while so their comrades could escape and attack him together.

"Oh no you don't," said Yuki. 

"Activate ability: Fire Control"

"Heaven's Guards"

Using his ability, Yuki constructed 5 giants all out of his flames and instructed them to hold off the goblins while he had his fun torturing the small group of goblins which he still had wrapped around his flame whip. 

Each of the 5 giants looked to be able to hold up for a while but not forever as the goblins quickly learned that the giants' weakness was their slow speed. Not being able to keep up with them, each of the goblins quickly slashed at the giants before moving back to allow other goblins to do the same. Since Yuki was distracted, he couldn't pump more flames into the giants and as such, they would eventually be defeated. 

In what little time Yuki had to enjoy himself, he continued to whack his whip around as he slowly tortured the goblins which his hand wrapped around his extended blade. While he hadn't realized it himself, his emotions began to extensify. Whether it was on purpose or by accident, there was no denying that something was amplifying Yuki's emotions in that moment so he could feel more hatred and as such cause more damage. There was only one thing or person capable of doing that, that thing being One. There had been many instances where One had influenced Yuki throughout his days in the new world. All of his sudden changes in mood which allowed him to persevere through hopeless situations or caused him to go ballistic and overkill were caused by the one and only One. 

There was a slight problem with that though. It was unknown if One was influencing Yuki consciously or subconsciously. If it was done on purpose, it would make Yuki question who's side One was really on. On the other hand, if it was done subconsciously, it would pose the question of if One would be a potential threat to Yuki without even knowing it. Although all these questions remained, Yuki couldn't help but only fixate on torturing the goblins alone. For some odd reason, Yuki continued to derive pleasure from the pain of others. Whether it was because they had harmed him previously or just out of pure insanity, none of that mattered as long as he felt joy. 

Once Yuki was done whacking the goblins around, he let go of the bloodied and exhausted bodies of the goblins and let them rest for a while. However, the moment they thought they had caught a break from Yuki's beatdown, they would be surprised. 

"Activate ability: Fire Control"

Using his ability, Yuki created multiple portal looking circles above the heads of the goblins and placed said portals near the cleaning of the stage. Seeing as the goblins were too exhausted to move out of place, Yuki would take advantage of this by creating spears which came out of the many portals above the goblins and stab them on every single part of their body. 

"Rain," said Yuki as each of the spears fell on the goblins. While the first spear had killed each of the goblins, Yuki allowed plenty more to fall on the goblins' bodies to allow for the final finishing attack. Once the fire constructed spears had stacked up on the goblins, Yuki snapped his fingers which allowed the spears to combust and completely erase the dead bodies of his victims. 

"How beautiful was that!" Yuki said with a smile on his face. 

However, Yuki's joy would be short-lived as he realized that his 5 giant guards had died. Even with armour all over his body, Yuki could help but feel fear in his heart due to the presence behind him. All Yuki could feel was the bloodlust oozing out of the monster behind him. For the first time in a while, Yuki would experience how it felt to be the prey. 

Before anything drastic could take place, Yuki attempted to end the fight before it happened by quickly pivoting his foot to turn around and slice the head of the goblin behind him with his bare left palm. That unfortunately didn't work as the moment before Yuki's palm made contact with the goblin's neck, Yuki saw in slow motion as the goblin's red eyes looked down at Yuki before changing to look at his palm and grabbing hold of it. Before Yuki could back away, the goblin landed a clean punch to the top right of Yuki's skull and sent him flying to a nearby tree. 

After Yuki landed on the tree, he quickly got up as he didn't want to take another hit from the goblin. While he would've previously sat down and taken a break to catch his breath, Yuki had learned from all the countless times in the dungeon stages that resting wasn't an option until the stage was cleared. 

"There's no way I can defeat him. I didn't realize how much of a boost bloodlust gave to the goblins. Or it could just be this one because the other goblins still look relatively normal," Yuki said to himself as he thought of a plan to help him get out of the situation with a win and also make it back to the kingdom in time as he realized that he had been in the dungeon for a while. 

[Open inventory]

Yuki took out a speed boost potion and quickly drank it before breaking the capsule and running around in a random pattern. To the goblins, it just looked like he was scared and was planning to run for eternity which made them laugh at him. However, after running for a while, Yuki returned to the same tree he had been knocked into and sat down which made the goblins assume that he was tired and ready to die. With an arrogant laugh, the bloodlusted goblin approached Yuki and raised his fist to kill Yuki with a single punch. 

"You were too arrogant to realize what had been happening around you. Maybe it really was your fate to die this way," said Yuki as he allowed the many long strings made of concentrated fire he had attached to all of the goblins appear by making them shine. 

"You lost"